Mim and the boys

This folks is the highlight of the trip. Starting left you all know Jaq, known to her grandsons as Mim. Next comes Matthew (Mash) 8, Michael 13, and Connor, 2. These are Jesseca and Ben`s  boys living in Spokane Valley, Washington.

Along the U.S. roads

In the state of Oregon drivers remain in the car at the pumps. State law bans the driver from using the pumps, an attendant will fuel the car and accept payment.This is also the case in just one other state, New Jersey. 
It seems in the UK that SHELL are introducing attendants at some of their petrol stations. A list can be found HERE. Anyone back home seen/used one?

This WW11 B17 bomber is being restored to an as new condition. The nose section has been completed and is on show under cover. When all the parts have been restored the plane will be re-assembled and put on display in a protected environment. Link HERE

The Yellow one is a 1958 Chevrolet Impala and is for sale at $25,500 (£17,000). On the right a 1951 Mercury Sedan at $18,500 (£12,300). Some more HERE

We are at this moment in Lake Forest Park in north Seattle staying with a friend, Adelina, and our next journey will be a flight to Spokane where it appears snow has been falling. Hopefully it will be light or better still gone by our arrival as we have a hire car waiting and even Jaq my Alaskan born bride is not keen on driving without her usual studded tyres. That`s tires to our U.S. readers.

Portland to Tacoma

I am writing this post as we travel on the Amtrak Cascades train from Portland, Oregon to Tacoma,Washington. The overhead sat nav screen is similar to the one on the plane and tells me we arrive at Centralia in 38 mins and the time is 1.41pm, 8 hours behind the UK.
Looking out of the window as we travel at a sedate 79 mph. lakes and rivers dominate the landscape with plenty of houseboats. They each have a speedboat moored along side but no sign of a car or road. Also seen as the train hugs the waters edge was a Bald Eagle swooping low over the water and snatching a very large fish......Wow!!!!
We are travelling up the Puget Sound between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade mountain range in what I can only describe as the most luxurious leather reclining seats I have ever seen on a train. The amount of room far exceeds the plane and on longer trips headphones can be used to watch movies on the overhead screens--and this is just basic coach seating not 1st class!
The Bistro car is beautifully fitted out with seating down one side and bar stools at the coach length bar. Food is expensive, what`s new I hear Brits say, but this is good food.
Another thing to mention is when we arrived at Union Station in Portland, which was built in 1890, we were able to check as many bags as needed as you do at the airport.

No platform just a step

checking in luggage at Union Station

Luxury reclining leather seats

Wedding Bliss and English Delight

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

   We made it, after staying awake for twenty one plus hours, enduring nine hours on the first plane, a lay over in Seattle, and a commuter flight thirty minutes to Portland, Oregon. I've nearly recovered now from my near psychotic break with reality (I was so tired I wanted to snap the head off the commuter stewardess who would not shut up, and who kept opening and closing the metal clasps on cupboards right behind me while I sat in a grumpy coma). 
   Tuesday was spent in the company of Sparky, Kelli, and Mary; my favorite oldest daughter Jesse and my son in law Ben came over from Spokane. Jesse applied her expertise in baking to help bake and frost wedding cupcakes. Les learned about the local recycling program and set forth to blog about it.

How many Americans does it take to explain community recycling?

Les using Sparky's little pink computer to write a blog post about Oregon bottle recycling

  Sleep, hot showers, sleep, HUGE cups of coffee and tea, good food, big hugs, lots of laughter, and more sleep restored me to my usual silly self.
 

Now that is a cup of coffee!

   Wednesday morning we visited Untangled--a superb hair salon where Shiery gets her do done: cut, colored and, for the wedding, a lot of sparkling bling was glued into her raging fuchsia and purple do. We were served coffee and Mimosas while we waited. Even the men found it interesting!

Son in law Ben and Les enjoying coffee and Mimosas while we wait

Cindy--hair stylist supreme and Oregon Ducks fan!

Bling is applied to Shiery's wedding do

Jesse and Les watching a video of 2 year old Connor in his jingle bell hat

Jesse and Ben: Love is in the air!

Les and I cooking up something in the kitchen while Jesse frosts cupcakes

   Later Sparky and Kelli took us for a Dutch Brothers coffee and we pulled in to the drive through window. A cute young thing waited there for our order. Her eyes lit up when she saw Sparky's bright, glittering hair. Enthusiastically she cried, "Oh my god your hair is fantastic!"
   Spark ordered first for her an Kelli, then I gave my coffee order and then Les spoke up. Coffeegirl's eyes grew wide with surprise as she exclaimed, "That's awesome! Oh my god I love your accent. Keep talking!"

   After a short wait she returned with our order and a fellow employee who took a look at Sparky's wedding hair and said "Dude that's wicked!" Coffeegirl spluttered, "Wait--it gets even better--" she turned to Les and ordered, "Talk!" Coffeedude was blown away and replied, "Wow! That's totally awesome." As we pulled away laughing I knew we had scored as "coolest customers of the day."
   That evening the wedding ceremony went off without a hitch. Les escorted both brides to the altar. When asked, "With whom do you come and whose blessings accompany you?" Les replied,  "They come with me, their dad, and are accompanied by all our blessings."

Mother and daughter

Les waits to escort the brides: Kelli left, and Shiery, right.

Kelli and Shiery's hands with their hand fasting cord

With this ring, I thee wed...

The kiss!

Kelli and Shiery Carnes

Getting ready to jump the broom

   The energy of all those assembled wove a circle of love and support for Shiery and Kelli as they declared their love for one another publicly to family and friends. The brides were radiant and our family expanded to embrace them both. We welcome Kelli into our hearts as she establishes her place in our family.

   This morning Jesse and Ben stopped at Panera's on the way over, introducing Les to his first bagel. Delighted, his eyes sparkled as he looked at me and queried, "Do you think we can find these back home?"
   It is strange indeed to be back in America. It is a lot like running into one's ex...familiar and yet...different; love and disaffection in interesting measures; nostalgia and exasperation with each heartbeat.
   This trip was definitely not a home coming. It is a family reunion but physically, home is back across the Atlantic on a smallish island, and an even smaller boat. Spiritually, and emotionally home is where my heart is, and that is wherever Dear Sir lays his head. Happy am I, to lay mine next to his.

A good re-cycling scheme

On the left a bottle of soft drink common to countries around the globe. The difference with this one is label shown on the right. A deposit of  5cents(3.5p) has been charged. This applies in several states as listed but in Michigan it is 10cents and CA California is a cash refund.

The bottle of Aluminium can is fed into the machine and the bar code is read. The item will pass into the machine and be crushed. Here in Portland Oregon the refund is by way of a ticket from the re-cycling machine that can in this case be cashed in Safeway or used to purchase goods. On the left my receipt for my re-cycled soda pop bottle.
Maybe this deposit  might encourage more re-cycling in the UK. A lot of deposits are collected by homeless people who gather up discarded items thus cleaning the city streets.

Arrived tired but all ok

Arrived here in Portland late Monday. Our body clocks were set to 4am UK so it had been a long day.
Late leaving Heathrow for reasons not quite sure but they put it down to a terminal problem but I know for a fact the terminal was there all the time and did not arrive late.

So up we go a feat that never ceases to amaze me with up to 900,000lbs. being lifted into the skies. Four hundred passengers in three classes,ours was cattle class all crammed in, first class would be nice as i`m sure they get extra straw and a tad more hoof leg room.

After a few of the 9.5 hours this ordeal will last we have been fed and watered and read a few pages of a book. Trouble is  it`s not the same as stretching out on the boat and consuming a few chapters so before long you have to get up and stretch your legs and ease the cramped muscles. Back in the pen seat I gaze out and looking forward one of four Rolls Royce engines is working away in -56C/-68F and you get to think you have no control of the situation your in. Firstly you need the men/women who behind a locked flight deck are flying this, for want of a better description, extra long narrow boat with wings and alternatively placed bow thrusters. But that`s fine I`m thinking but what about the men who built those engines or the man who checked it out and said `yes it is fit for purpose`. I remember near to where I once lived Leavesden Aerodrome was the home to Rolls Royce but now the site is used for film making with James Bond and Harry Potter being two to have used the site. So wherever the engines are made  I`m thankful that someone cared to do a great job because we can`t just pull over and call the AA(AAA in U.S).

So the seat back TV monitor is showing our progress and giving some flight figures. 36,000 feet  at 533mph. 4 hours and 55 minutes of this 9.5 hour journey is the time left to cover the remaining 2,200 miles against a 24mph head wind.

This is the view out of the window as we approach Hudson Bay. We have flown over Wales and Ireland. Following  this we passed to the south of Iceland and flew over the cloud covered southern tip of Greenland.

The last part of this 1st stage is the arriving at Seattle and flying over Pugent Sound  just as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean.

On our way

By the time this post publishes Jaq and I will be flying over the Atlantic heading for Seattle. We will be crossing Washington State by trains, planes, and automobiles.
The boat is in the capable hands of our friends Andy and Tina, thanks guys.

The first stage will be centered around Portland, Oregon where I will escort Jaq`s youngest daughter Shiery aka Sparky during the wedding ritual and civil ceremony of her Wiccan hand fast with her partner Kelli.

After a few days we make a couple of train trips up the Pacific North West Coast visiting and staying with dear friends, making our way from Portland, north to Tacoma  and eventually Edmonds, Wa.

Then we fly east to Spokane to spend time with Jesseca, Ben, Jaq`s three grandchildren and more friends in this part of the state. Having  picked up a hire car at the airport we will drive to Pullman, home of Washington State University where Jaq works albeit on line from the boat in the UK. Here we will stay with yet more dear friends and visit with others.

The last part of our U.S. trip will be in Idaho where we will stay at the Turnbow family ranch for Thanksgiving. A drive and internal flight back across the state will bring us to Seattle and a direct flight to the UK.

All being well there will be blog posts from across the pond.

Maffi and some bridges

 Maffi and k9 Mollie stopped by for a chat Friday. His timing is perfect as like back in October 2011 he arrived in time for lunch, not a problem Maffi. Always nice to see you  and enjoy your cruise.

Bridge 80 on the north Oxford canal has at last been given a lot of TLC. I dug out an old picture taken 2+ years ago and I think it`s been the quality of the canal builders that this bridge remained standing for so long damaged as it was.

Bridge 79 also has been given the treatment. I wonder if the reason is the nearby Onley marina development.

Both bridges have been under pinned.

 

 

Now those who remember British Waterways and were wondering where they are all is revealed in the picture. It seems they are handling enquires and emergencies for the Canal and River Trust. 

Is your chimney a messy killer?

Burning wood that is not properly seasoned will cause a tar like substance to form and run down the inside of the chimney and leak at the point it sits on the roof collar.(picture right) The picture below shows the collar with the pipe coming up from the stove. The dark substance around the edge is high temp. sealant plus some of the tar like substance that has run down the roof chimney.

   This tar will form as creosote inside the chimney like a honeycomb and will block the chimney. Where do the fumes go?....correct, have you  smoke and CO2 alarms in your boat? There is a good article to read here. The chimney blocks because the pipe from the stove is hot but as the gasses exit through the roof into the outside chimney they cool and condense. If as was the case on Nb valerie many years ago you only have a single skin outer chimney the cooled gasses in the form of creosote run down the inside of the chimney and leak where it fits on the collar.
The answer is a double skinned chimney available at chandlers for loads of money. The inner skin must be a good fit or the problem of tar will persist. The gasses remain hot inside the inner skin and have very little cold surface to condense on. I will go on to show my own version that is cheap and seals perfectly BUT be warned the tar can still become a honeycomb blockage whatever method you choose, less likely but possible so keep an eye on your chimney, push a chimney brush down it to keep it clear. So if you have a mess on the roof check the inside of the chimney, I care about my blog readers.

On the left is the old home made inner chimney I have just removed. At the top a hole has appeared (3yrs.old) and it was here the gasses were escaping and condensing on the cold outer chimney.
The Blue next to the chimney is the off cut from my home made version. It was in a past life a printers lithographic plate 25" x 29" aluminium in composition. Find a printers and ask them for an old plate or buy a sheet from perhaps a diy store. On the right the new inner is in place. I rolled the sheet into a tube pushed it down into the stove pipe in the collar. Let it open itself for a tight fit, put tape around to keep the shape when you remove it. Now just drill holes and use pop rivets to hold it all together and what you now have is a fairly strong tube. Insert tube and outer chimney and mark the inner so you can remove excess length.

I have left mine a bit high (marking error) and will reduce it later. It needs to be slightly higher to make sure the hot gasses don`t easily come into contact with the cold outer chimney.                                                                                  If you look carefully you can see the the tar stain on the roof to the right of the  roof collar although I have just noticed my closer picture at the top and i have no intention of changing this post layout. So after 24hrs i can wipe my hand all around the bottom of the chimney without a trace of tar to be seen.   Boaters who continuously cruise have no space to store wood long enough for it to season so the tar problem is common when we burn wood with to much moisture. So even if you have the tar problem and choose to ignore it PLEASE at least make sure the chimney is not becoming a honeycomb killer.       

 

Onley marina 50% approved

Approval for the Onley Pools marina was given by Daventry council. As the marina also comes within the boundry of Rugby  further approval by Rugby council will be needed when they meet next week.