RV Travels With Huggy

Our neighbors D & B suggested last week that we plan a getaway for a couple of days with our RVs to Fort Casey State Park at Coupville on Whidbey Island. The park has a campground for RVs and is right next to the Keystone ferry, operated by the Washington State Ferry System, that makes daily runs to the Olympic Peninsula town of Port Townsend. That sounded like fun to us so we laid plans to head there after Pat's volunteer job at the hospital this past Tuesday. D & B left ahead of us but we got there about 14:30 and settled into our camp site which was right on the shore looking out at the ferry dock.


This first photo shows our rig setup with Pat walking nearby. There are no hookups at this park so you are totally boondocking, although there is a dump site and water available to drive to. Generators are permitted to be run between 08:00 and 21:00 hours. State parks are known for wide open spaces and uncrowded camp sites. We were right next to D & B but there is enough space that they barely heard our genset when it was operating.


Here is a good example of the distance between the sites & shows both of our rigs as well as the ferry slip in the background. We will be a lot better off after our visit next week to AM Solar in Eugene, OR to have our solar battery charging system and much larger batteries installed in the rig. Right now I worry about running the small 12volt battery that is supplied with most rigs down with just daily living.


For this photo I have basically turned around from where I was when taking the first one. This is the ferry slip, without a boat. We were catching the next one to go to Pt. Townsend so I was taking photos before we walked over there to catch the boat. They were running late all day because of a lot of fog in the morning so our trip scheduled for noon didn't leave until almost 13:00.


Washington is known as the Evergreen State so it isn't surprising that there are a lot of evergreen plants around here. This is a closeup view of some of the needles and cones on one that was right beside our RV.


A view showing most of the campground, taken from on board the ferry. The first RV that is partially visible near the right side of the photo is ours, with D & B's to the left of it in the photo. This probably gives a better idea of how much space is available here although all of the campsites are not occupied.


There are large bumpers made up of many pilings driven into the bottom that help guide and hold the ferry in place in it's slip. The top of these are popular sites for sea birds to perch on and even build their nests. One of these on the other side of the boat had a nest that was used to hatch babies earlier in the year and I guess they were a very popular thing for the passengers to see.


The name of our boat was the "Klickitat" as you can tell from this photo taken from the passenger deck and looking up toward the superstructure on the top of the boat. These are diesel powered and really don't need those large smokestacks but they all seem to still have them.


Our two RVs in their campsites as seen from the ferry while we were leaving the slip.


This photo is a bit out of order as it was taken when we returned home that night. It was a very eventful return but I'll go more into that later in another post. Suffice it to say that you really can't see the fog in this view! It does show the size of the ferry and this is one of the older & smaller ones in the fleet. I have heard that Washington State operates the largest fleet of ferry boats in the country. They are considered as a part of the highway system as they extend the roads.

I have other photos taken in Pt. Townsend but will save them for another post soon. This pretty much shows the campground and that was my first intent. Check back for the next installment that will cover over there. There are also some photos that I took on this same trip last October when I met RV friends G & J in Pt. Townsend to spend a day with them.

Wow, I discovered that I mislabeled one of the photos I had wanted to put into this set so will now edit the post and add it, a few hours after writing most of the post. It is a photo of my favorite lady about to enter our motorhome.


This does give a bit closer view of the rig and shows the front jacks down to level the rig. Because of that we are using the portable folding extra step on the ground outside. It also shows the leatherette cover over the cab windows. There is an inside curtain that hangs on Velcro that came with it but with that one the heat from the sun comes inside, heating up the curtain thus adding more heat to the rig. We don't need that in hot weather. Plus this one being white reflects a lot of the heat. The door of this rig has that opener at the top which also limits where the door can go. Our Sea Breeze door folded 180 degrees, then hooked in place. I kind of like that better as it is more out of the way but will probably get used to this one.

Labels: Boating, Friends, Pat and I, Photos, RVing