Tuesday, March 21 to Friday, March 24, 2023 (Our trip back to BC - PART 2)

Tuesday (Mar. 21) morning, after a rather noisy night, we got cleaned up and headed over to the casino for breakfast. The 'Six Two Eight' restaurant is open for breakfast at 7:00 and we arrived shortly after they opened. We enjoyed plenty of coffee and a good breakfast...and when she brought the bill over, I was mortified to find my credit card missing from my wallet! I then realized that the waiter from last night hadn't returned my card when he brought the bill (yes, most restaurants and bars still need to take your credit card away and come back with the bill to add tip and sign). The first thing I do is put my card away before I take care of the bill but I don't remember doing that. I guess it was that gigantic stein of beer I had, LOL! I explained this to the waitress and she called Security who had my card...whew! Thank goodness! I quickly went to retrieve it!

Back at the rig, I took a picture...the motorhome that was on the other side of us has already left. When we got up this morning the parking lot around us was packed with semi trucks. We are still ahead of the heavy rains that are forecast to reach this area later in the morning...

After fueling up at the Travel Center, we were back on the road at 9:35.  A beautiful drive...even if it was mainly cloudy. That is Mt. Shasta in the distance...

With all the heavy rains and snow this winter Shasta Lake has come up 115 feet and is expected to fill to 100 %...

As a comparison, this is a picture from the opposite side of the bridge last October on our way down...

A wildfire went thru the area a couple of years ago...

The Sacramento River down there...

Up into the snowline now...

Approaching Mt. Shasta...

Black Butte...

Picture of Mt. Shasta from the Weed Rest Area...

Beautiful vistas as we continue on...

Klamath River...

Not sure but we think these rotating funnels capture fish...

Into Oregon!

We've reached the highest elevation on the I-5!

And then down, down, down we go!

Emigrant Lake as we approach Ashland, OR...

More military helicopters...

We arrived at Seven Feathers Casino just before 3:00. Good thing it wasn't busy yet as it took us a couple of tries before we found a spot relatively level.

We relaxed for a bit in the bedroom catching up on our devices...and then we walked over to the casino for a drink. 

We had a beer at Stix Sports Bar and then decided to go back to the trailer...neither one of us were hungry for dinner, we'll just have snacks instead...

It was pretty darned chilly in the trailer Wednesday (Mar. 22) morning! No idea what the temperature was but we stayed hunkered down under the covers until we figured we'd better get moving. 

We walked up to the casino and had breakfast at the Cow Creek Restaurant. After lots of coffee and breakfast, we were back at the rig and getting ready to hit the road again. It was about 9:00 when we were back on I-5 north after fueling up at the Travel Center.

More beautiful scenery...

South Umpqua River...

Portland...

Crossing the Columbia River...

Into Washington State...

And our destination for today...Ilani Casino...

This is the first time we have stopped here. Steve wanted a few short travel days and driving through Portland was enough...Seattle would wait until tomorrow! The parking lots are huge plus they have a large parkade...pictured left. The hotel on the right is still under construction and almost ready for opening...

The casino is huge and has a great variety of restaurants, fast food eateries and bars. We had a beer at the bar and then shared a burger for dinner before returning to the rig.

A light rain has finally caught up with us but not a bad sunset!

Thursday (Mar. 23) morning was another chilly one! We had showers this morning which wasn't pleasant when you can't just turn on the hot water and stand under getting warm...needless to say it was a quick one! We had also showered Tuesday but I didn't wash my hair because going outside on a cold morning with wet hair isn't pleasant, but I suffered through it today and we walked over to the casino for breakfast. There weren't any restaurants open for breakfast (something that they will have to change when the hotel opens next month) but luckily a Starbucks is open 24 hours in the casino so we had coffee and a pastry.

We were back on the road at 8:30...

It was raining lightly at the start of our day but didn't last long. At least the majority of our travel days home have been dry because we put in that 10 hour travel day...

The drive through the greater Seattle area was as unpleasant as usual. We took the 405 by-pass which was busy but the traffic kept moving for the most part.  

Getting close to Marysville, WA...and Tulalip Casino Resort.

We had about a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive today, so we arrived early afternoon. Our favourite spot at the end of the lot was already taken so we pulled in beside another motorhome (it turned out to be folks that we met at the parking lot at Seven Feathers Casino). You have to have a Player's Card and register with Security to park overnight and since we didn't have our cards (they are safely put away in the trailer...somewhere) we headed over to the casino to get new ones that include $10 of free play each. With the parking permit taken care of, we decided to walk across to Cabela's for a little exercise.

Nothing was purchased and we returned to the trailer to relax with our devices for a couple of hours before it was time to go back to the casino for dinner. We enjoyed a couple of beer first then returned the $10 of free play to the slot machines plus the little bit of US cash we had left.

Friday (Mar. 24) morning we had breakfast in Cedar Cafe and were back on the I-5 at about 9:15 for the final (short) leg of our trip home.

It's a very rainy day and we were surprised when we ran into some slushy snow falling near Lake Samish as we neared Bellingham. The area has a higher elevation...just glad it wasn't heavy snow!

Instead of taking the Pacific (truck) Border Crossing, we decided to cross into Canada at the Peace Arch Crossing...

The wait at the border was short with only a few vehicles in front of us...and after a few questions, we were back in Beautiful British Columbia!

About 10 minutes later, we were pulling into Peace Arch RV Park...from where we left last October. We spent the summer there last year but this time we are only here for a week. We are ending one era of travel for us and starting a new one when we move over to a long-term RV site in Courtenay on Vancouver Island. This week, though, we have family to see and a final service on the truck before we start actively advertising it for sale.