THE LAST LEG OF OUR JOURNEY - Entering WashingtonThe

After driving for three days over very familiar highways and through about every type of weather, we crossed into the last state before we are back in the Vancouver area and most of our family.

The bridge over the Columbia River.  The border between Oregon and Washington states

 We are coming back more than a month before we were scheduled to but we feel we need to be there to support our youngest son.  We are always parents first.

I chose this RV park from the Passport America site because it was half way there.  The reviews in RV Reviews were particularly bad.  Goes to show.  This is a great park.  Beautiful view of the surrounding area because it is on the side of a hill.  The park is clean and well organized.  When we arrived there was no one in the office but there were details of where to park and how to pay.  A young woman came out and welcomed us from their rig.

This is Mount St. Helens RV park.  Try it.  And remember some reviews are skewed.

Our site

Shortly after we arrived Doug went to the Mount St. Helen's Interpretive Center.  This volcano erupts on May 18, 1980.  Doug and I both lived in southern British Columbia at the time. We remember the news reports.
Fifty-seven people were killed during the eruption^. Had the eruption occurred one day later, when loggers would have been at work, rather than on a Sunday, the death toll would almost certainly have been much higher.




83-year-old Harry R. Truman, who had lived near the mountain for 54 years, became famous when he decided not to evacuate before the impending eruption, despite repeated pleas by local authorities. His body was never found after the eruption.

Another victim of the 1980 eruption was 30-year-old volcanologist David A. Johnston, who was stationed on the nearby Coldwater Ridge. Moments before his position was hit by the hot ash cloud, Johnston radioed his famous last words: "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!"Johnston's body was never found.

The mountain today

Mr. Johnston's video has haunted me since then.  He walked until he died.