Port Angeles to Chehalis – 1 March 2022

We left the KOA in Port Angeles and made our way to our first Harvest Host stop – the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis. It had been raining a lot there and the grounds in the surrounding areas were like ponds. When we arrived at the museum the parking lot was completely deserted so we pulled in and got all set up.  Derek went over to the museum to check in and ended up chatting with one of the volunteers – a war vet, and taking a quick look at the museum.

After lunch, we took Jax for a soggy walk around the neighbourhood and threw the ball on the field to tire him out. There was an old railway station that was deserted. The museum was right in the middle of a mixture of industrial and residential area.

After settling Jax down we decided to take a closer look at the museum. I was fascinated by all the history, especially an enormous quilt that a woman had sewn with badges from the second world war. Having just typed up my father’s diary from world war 2, everything I saw had so much significance. It really saddened me to see the collection of rifles, bayonets and other instruments used to kill people. There were photos and stories of the lives of many soldiers. Not only did they cover American war memorabilia but also Japanese, British and  German. There was even a P52 mustang fighter suspended from the ceiling.

In the evening we decided to go downtown for supper. A small little town with a number of historic buildings. Our first restaurant choice was ridicuously expensive with steaks around US$60-$70 – not thanks.  We headed for the Japanese restaurant and had some really good sushi with miso soup, edamane and some teriyaki beef.

This was our first night off the hook and around 3am we were awoken by a screetching sound from the low voltage alarm on our battery monitor. Derek had to start the generator before the batteries were completly flat. We needed to continue using the furnace because the temperatures were heading towards zero. Besides the alarm, Jax had been struggling with a runny stomach the past few days – probably from all the travelling and needed to go out for a poo every couple of hours. On top of that there was a lot of traffic noise from the nearby highway.  Needless to say, we didnt sleep very much that first night.