Washington: A place to start and finish.

26th July – 26th Aug 2023

We have travelled tens of thousands of miles in Big Dave and the vast majority of those have been outside of Washington, the state where he is registered. When you travel outside of your ‘home’ state licence plates announce to everyone where you are ‘from’ and thus people make conscious or subconscious judgements on the sort of peple you might be. When we have been far flung from Washington a common conversation opener has been “You Folks are a long way from home!” The reality that our home has either been in New Zealand or the UK has changed the course of these conversations somewhat. But now, as we cruised into Washington, we were back with our own and our plates no longer defined us as ‘not being from around here’. Big Dave and Tin Can had come home again.

Home, specifically, is the home of our good friend, Lori. The whole Tin Can Travelling adventure had relied on us having a US home address for our vehicle registrations, insurance and bank account and Lori has been kind enough to provide us with that. She is also incredibly generous with her time, administrative skills, hostessing and being a base for us. It had been 18 months since we had spent Christmas with her in Southern California, so we were excited to be catching up again. Initially we had arranged to be with her for about 5-7 days, but as things turned out we stayed for ten days.

As you know, we had decided that this would be our last trip travelling with Big Dave and Tin Can and had listed them for sale on a well known RV sales site at the end of June. We were in Wyoming and headed back to East Wenatchee, Lori’s home town. Our hope was that we could sell them privately towards the end of this trip – our flights back to the UK are booked for 6th Sept – but we knew that anyone looking to buy a rig was likely to want to get some use out of it this summer. So we were prepared mentally, if not logistically, for the possibility that they might sell quickly and hoping like crazy that we weren’t going to have to try and sell them on consignment with a dealer at the end of the season having left the country. We cast our advert into the wonder-web-world and waited. There wasn’t a mad rush of takers but after about 2 weeks we had an email query from a person in Washington asking when we were expecting to be back there as they would like to check out the set up. End of July, we said. Fine, call when you get here, they said. Where are you based, we asked. East Wenatchee, they replied. Oh. That would be quite handy, we thought, but as they had not asked any other questions or requested any more photos we had no idea how interested they were. So we continued our travels and waited to see if we had any more interest. There were only four other contacts: a lowball offer on the camper that we rejected, a tentative expression of interest from a US friend, a serious chat with the couple who took us out for the day in their jeep in Wyoming and then a scammer, who unsuccessfully tried their luck. So as we rolled back into Washington we contacted our East Wenatchee interested party and arranged for them to come and take a look.

It was great to catch up with Lori and her partner, Paul, but our relaxation was short lived as we only had one day to get Big Dave and Tin Can cleared out and cleaned before the viewing. We started early to try and avoid the worst of the heat, but it was a bit academic really as it took us all day anyway. First the emptying. I knew that we had aquired a lot of stuff in the 6 years of doing these trips, but wow, a monumental amount of clobber came out of that thing! Clothes, coats, shoes, books, bedding, towels, DVDs, pantry items, maps, toys, tools, lotions and potions, electronica and leads, cool bags, a printer, art, memorabilia, coolbags, travel bags, rucksacks, bikes, helmets….and more. It was endless and sweaty work. Finally it was empty (save for the kitchen stuff) and we could clean inside and out. By the end of the day we were tired and hot and had taken over Lori’s garage and basement area with our magnificent collection of detritus. This would all need sorting too. We spent the evening properly catching up with our gracious hosts, Lori and Paul, and Lori’s folks, Rocky and Casey who live just down the road.

Over the course of the past day or two we had made a decision. If our prospective Wenatchee buyers didn’t work out we were going to put the rig up for sale on consignment here and now, and not continue our trip in it. The logistics were just too complicated and uncertain to try and accomplish a private sale whilst on the road. We also didn’t want the stress of trying to sort everything out as our leaving date got closer. So whatever happened with our viewing, we really had already had our last night in the Tin Can. The melancholia could wait. We had a rig to sell! Big Dave and Tin Can were looking spick and span and they were ready for their viewing.

Our prospective buyers arrived later the next day and the guided tour was given. Facilities were demonstrated, storage compartments were opened, the bonnet was lifted, the engine started, nooks and crannies inspected. We liked them and they seemed to like BD & TC. They had been searching for the right rig for two years. This was just the sort of set up they had been looking for. There was just one issue. The rig had to be able to fit into their shed for winter storage. The door of the shed was 12ft tall. Exactly the height to which we had measured BD & TC in the past. Them not fitting was an unspoken deal-breaker. They left promising to call when they had discussed things. The next day they got in touch, said they were keen, and arranged to come back in two days time for a test drive up to their house for a ‘shed-fitting’. We went with them, riding in the back seats which felt very weird. Big Dave performed admirably, effortlessly sailing up the hill to their place. Then it was the moment of truth. As they approached the open doorway of the very splendid, massive shed that they had recently built for their business, it looked like they wouldn’t fit. My heart was sinking but I climbed up onto the roof of Tin Can to get a better view of the air conditioning unit, the highest thing, to watch closely as it inched towards the lintel. It cleared under it with 1 inch/2cm to spare and suddenly, with them safely inside, there was a deal to be done. After some minimal negotiations a price was agreed, hands were shaken and -pending a bank transfer – Big Dave and Tin Can had new owners. We pondered the kismet of connecting with these lovely,drama-free buyers who for two years had been looking for exactly what we had to sell and finding them 5 miles from Lori’s house. The sale had worked out pretty much according to our ‘best case scenario’ and we were very thankful for that.

We spent some time doing a full walk through of all the systems with them and then headed back to Lori’s place. It took a few days for the money to come through and in that time we both spent some quality time with Lori and Paul and also busied ourselves with the task of reducing ‘detritus mountain’ back to the amount of stuff that we could fly home with. This involved creating 7 catagories of things.

1. The rubbish – Easy. This included a lot of stuff that had just worn out or was on its last legs and this was just picked up from the gate by the bin lorry.
2. The stuff to thrift/give to charity – Moderately easy, but did involve quite a lot of laundering of all the bedding and some clothes. Lori gave us a lift to the Goodwill drop off centre that had a very efficient ‘drive thru’ system.
3. The stuff to sell – The bikes. Suprisingly easy. Having done us splendid service and having been hauled backwards and forwards across a continent five times, our bikes were no longer in tip-top condition but had plenty of life left in them. We sold them within 24 hrs of posting them on Facebook Marketplace, did a cash deal in a car park near Lori’s place then walked home.
4. The stuff that was included in the sale – Easy. We left tons of useful stuff in the rig, including our beloved breakfast sandwich maker. It had been a ‘rig warming present’ from Lori & Dean when we set off on our first trip and the ritual of creating and eating breakfast sandwiches on our travels became synonymous with Tin Can Travelling.
5. The stuff to send home – A suitcase of treasures. This was a bit involved. Rather than having to wrangle and pay for a third bag on our flight home we decided to send it ahead. Lori had an old suitcase that she gave us (Thank you Lori!) and we filled it with stuff that we had collected over the years and the extra things and clothes that we knew we wouldn’t need for the next month. I used a company called ‘Send My Bag’ that would collect it from the house here and deliver it to our UK address for $190, which I thought was very reasonable for large case that weighed 28kg/621b. There was just the thorny issue of the paperwork. To be fair, the website made it quite easy, but I had to itemise every item in the bag and assign it a value for the purposes of importation and customs. There were some very strict instructions on how to prepare the bag, what labels to attach to what and where, it was collected two days after I did the online booking and was in the UK within 3 days. It got tied up in customs for another week until they agreed that I didn’t owe any tax on the contents, but ‘Send My Bag’ were great with their customer support and sending snarky emails to get it released. It has now been safely delivered to my parents place and is cluttering up their conservatory.( Thank you Dad & Tina!)
6. The stuff to keep for the rest of our trip but that won’t be flying with us – Easy. We just packed this loosely in shopping bags. It will be jettisoned at the end.
7. The stuff to fly with – Easy. If it doesn’t fit in our usual travel bags it joins catagory 6.

After a few days the money was in our bank account and Big Dave and Tin Can were collected to continue their adventures with their new family. As they pulled away I was suddenly very emotional and won’t be afraid to admit that I shed a few tears. It was the end of an era. Buying them and embarking on these years of Tin Can Travelling had been both the catalyst for, and the fabric of, another whole different way of life for us. They had been our ticket to exploring this amazing country and having a million fantastic moments and experiences along the way. We had learned to live together in a confined space in a state of contented isolation and to appretiate life at a slower, less time-tabled tempo. In short, we had been pandemic ready several years earlier than the rest of the world.

What next?

Well. Tin Can Travels will live on. But on the other side of the pond. Our plans are to get back to the UK in Sept and we will (hopefully) take delivery of our new home on wheels and head to Europe.

Until then we have a USA trip to finish. I am not going to write in detail about these last few weeks as I want to take a bit of a break from writing, and from feeling guilty for not writing, the blog! In summary, we had another few days with Lori and Paul before continuing our travels. We cannot really fully express our immense gratitude to Lori for her seemingly limitless hospitality and generosity. Tin Can Travels would not have been as easy, or maybe not even possible without her help. I also want to acknowledge the equal contribution of Dean, who lives nearer Seattle, in facilitating our existence in the USA. When we started our adventures they were still together and although they are now travelling their seperate roads, our roads have always led us back to them both, their friendship, their wisdom and their homes. (Thank you Both!)

So we rented a car, a Subaru Outback – the chosen vehicle of the Pacific NorthWest and spent just under 2 weeks and another 1000 miles exploring the wilds of the Olympic Peninsula. We stayed in Air BnBs and motels and enjoyed the freedom of having a car whilst adjusting to now not being ‘RV travellers’ -a real in shift our sense of identity. Unusually for this part of the world it was hot and we had some amazing beach walks, explored some ‘Twilight’ locations, hiked a hill or two, saw a whale in the shallows, watched a meteor shower, went to a blueberry festival, saw a civil war re-enactment, kayaked, listened to live dub funk, went to a aircraft museum, ate a burger or two and had a beer or three.

After that we flew to Alaska. Why not? We had some time in hand and a few extra dollars in the bank.

Here live our friends Ryan and Sarah who we last saw at their wedding 10 years ago. It was during this trip that we rented a motor home and fell in love with life on the road. So our life choices are partly their fault. Since our last visit they have created two humans and live in a rural hillside idyll overlooking Anchorage in a melange of cats and dogs. They calmly report frequent sightings of moose, lynx and bears in their garden and no walk in the nearby woods happens without a firearm. Summer is tolerated and winter is celebrated. Snow blowers and snowmobiles adorn the driveway, waiting to be pressed back into action. They have an amazing guest ‘wing’ and we made full use of it by staying considerably longer than is polite when you are not family. Ten years of separation dissolved instantly as we reconnected with these marvellous people.

We did take a little side trip to a fishing town called Homer. It is funny how human nature always wants to take you to ‘the end’. A transcontinental road trip ending in Washington state had us wanting to go ‘just a bit further’ to Alaska. When in Anchorage, our side trip took us to the end of the road of the nearby Kenai Peninsula, to Homer, and even then we had to go further and stay at the end of the ‘spit’. Then a boat daytrip took us beyond that to a town called Seldovia that is only accessible by sea or air. Next stop Russia??

We had a delightful 3 nights in an appartment with views of the marina and the mountains beyond. There can’t be too many places in the world where you can stay with a modern kitchen and bathroom, get a good wifi signal, be able to pop out for a beer and fish and chips and see five glaciers from your lounge window. I presume.

As I write this we are still houseguests in Alaska for another 4 days. As is often the case here, summer has ended abruptly and autumn has arrived with a vengence. The wind is blowing and torrential rain comes and goes. In a month there will be snow on the ground. Our hosts are ready for summer to be over. It instills a form of mania as the long days and brief spell of warmer temperatures enforce a compulsion to ‘make the most of it’. They are tired and we are too. It is time for our trip to wind up and for us to head back to the UK. From here we fly back to Seattle and will spend a week with Dean and his partner Jill before we fly on 6th Sept. Whatever jolly things happen with them will have to go unreported as this is where I sign off.

Thank you for reading my blurblings and I look forward to sharing our new adventures with you starting in a month or two.