Darrington Reunion 2011

Every other year, my Dad and his cousins have a reunion in Darrington, Washington over the Labor Day weekend.    Some years, relatives from as far away as Alaska, Colorado and Massachusetts come.  Most years attendees are from Washington, Oregon and a few diehards from California!

In 2009 we rented a Class C motorhome to use for the long weekend as we were beginning our love affair with the idea of owning a motorhome!   Others had motorhomes there too – my Dad, my Uncle Tom, my Aunt Sue and my cousin Sarah.

This year of course, we were in our own rig, ready for some serious boondocking!  We were going to be at the ol’ homestead for 5 days and 4 nights, Thursday through Monday.  We had the Gold Wing in tow, plenty of food and lot’s of change for 4-5-6!

All of the RVs at the reunion

We arrived late in the afternoon Thursday.  We unhooked the trailer and backed it off to the side using a special trailer dolly we scored at Evergreen RV Supply.  Then we placed the 12”x12”x4” pieces of wood we recently got beneath the jacks and leveled the motorhome.  We were set up in the middle of a hay field ready for some serious partying!

I was able to give grandkids and 2^nd cousins (and a daughter–in-law) rides on the Gold Wing.  Some couldn’t wait to go again!  Cheryl and I even went for a ride in to Darrington for a couple of garage sales where we found some things for the RV!

Doug and Ashton

Doug and Megan

Cheryl loves cooking breakfast (for me and others!).  That, with a never ending supply of coffee made us a popular morning destination!   In fact one morning, we had Cheryl’s son Greg and his whole family (6 people in all), my grandson Taylor, my brother Dan and his girlfriend Michelle AND my brother Greg and his wife Gwen all in the motorhome with us at one time.    We were honored and felt blessed to have family with us like that.

Part of the crowd in the motorhome one morning

Taylor spent two nights with us, coming to bed AFTER we were in bed.  What!?  When did it happen that I don’t stay up later than the grandkids!?  He had a great time hanging with the other guys at the reunion and particularly enjoyed my Uncle Tim’s star gazing app on his tablet.   It warms a grandpa’s heart to have grandkids spending the night.

Our fresh water lasted just fine and our waste water tanks contained all we gave them!   Even had our daughter-in-law taking a shower in our home on wheels!  It was not warm enough during the day or cold enough at night to use the A/C or heat.  Still, we found ourselves starting up the generator in the morning just to run the coffee maker!   So we have now purchased a French press and can make coffee on the gas stove without needing the generator.   (But do NOT tell Megan...)

So, the weekend had to come to an end.  We were getting ready to leave Monday afternoon only to find out we didn’t have lights on the trailer.  My Uncle Tom, Uncle Ken and Dad all came to offer some troubleshooting assistance.  Tom had his voltmeter while Ken played with the wire harness.  We learned how to lift the dashboard cover – there’s actually a strap with a snap that holds it down.  Under the dash are a number of fuses, including the flasher.   We played with these and ultimately discovered that the emergency flasher button had to be down (on?) for the trailer lights to work.  Or was it the wiggling of the wires that Ken was doing at the same time that did it?   Who knows, we had lights, and that’s what we needed!   In the process of troubleshooting things, we discovered there are MORE fuses under the hood too!   This makes THREE places where there are fuses!  Here, Tom’s voltmeter found a dead fuse that controls the step switch.   Ahhhhh…   Now our steps open and close WHEN we want them too!!   Haha

Pictures (lots of them) can be seen on SmugMug.

It was a great weekend, made even better by having the motorhome there.  We were not only able to be there “for it all” but able to have visitors in our home away from home.  

This is our kind of camping!