Day Five to Chehalis, WA

Since we knew we would be driving through some rain yesterday, we tried to get an earlier start. We made it on the road by 8:30 for our 250 mile trip to Chehalis, WA., where we will stay at the Thousand Trails Preserve for three nights. It did rain a good portion of the drive and the weather did impact our views of the beautiful Columbia River Gorge area that we followed for over 150 miles:

 We did stop at a rest area along the way and were surprised at the neatness and nice views at this particular stop:

I took this shot of our rig  at the rest stop and there is an A frame home, barely visible above our truck, that has a total glass front and spectacular views of the Columbia River and was sitting right on the edge of the cliff:

The closer we got to Portland, the more it rained until we were driving through rain the whole rest of the way.

We arrived at the TT Preserve at around 1:30 and took a lot of time getting set up as a result of the slope of the site, trying to get a satellite signal, and fighting the rain. We finally made it by 3:30 and were ready to rest awhile. The site is a nice one and will do for us for the next three days:

The campground is full of trees, so it was a challenge to locate a site with a clear view of the southern sky. It doesn't really matter much with all the stormy weather since it affects the satellite signal anyway.

We contacted Kristine and told her we would see her today as we wanted to shop first for some gifts for the kids before we come to her home. We went into town and picked up gifts and we are ready to roll. Kristine lives in Spanaway which is 40 miles from Chehalis. This is the closest Thousand Trails Preserve to Spanaway, so it was kind of a no-choice situation for convenience. We are looking forward to visiting them, so we hope to see a lot of them over the next several days...