Washington State USA

Washington State

We decided to just pass through Washington State to get to Canada for the summer.
First stop, Casino Ilani, boondocked overnight in their car park, and had a very grown up (no french fries) 13th birthday dinner at the Casino for Laura.
Our next stop was Mt St Helens Volcano, it was a cloudy day so we couldn’t see the crater, but we had a beautiful walk around a wet area created by it.
We visited the Visitors Center where the lovely ranger told us all about the morning of May 18th 1980, when a magnitude 5.1 earthquake triggered the collapse of the summit and north flank of Mount St. Helens and formed the largest landslide in recorded history. In less than three minutes, 230 square miles of forest was flattened.

She told us that Spirit Lake a camping and recreation area at the base of the mountain received the full impact of the lateral blast from the volcano and was swallowed up along with Harry R Truman, 83, apparently had refused to vacate his home near Mount St. Helens despite being warned to leave by officials, he is not to be confused with Harry S. Truman the 33rd president of the USA. This volcano was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States.
57 people were killed, 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, 185 miles of highway were destroyed.
Since then the mountain has shown more signs of life.

Washington State road stops. -

Overnight parking allowed, donation coffee, dump and water fill. WOW liking Washington State. Finding a place to park for the night is so easy.

Second Casino Tulalip resort

To park at most casinos you have to register with the casino and with security, this casinos card registration came with a $15.00 balance to get you started. You can play the money on the card and any winnings are yours. When we were $40.00 up on the pokies we decided it was time to collect our cash.
Across the road from the car park was Boom City fireworks. We hadn’t taken much notice until our neighbour told us that there would be fireworks from 10am to midnight every night, and this would go on until the 4th of July. Fortunately I love fireworks. Wholesalers were showing off their goods and buyers were able to set theirs off, something to do with being on a Native reservation and they make up their own rules, so it was legal to set fireworks and noise makers off for half the day and night. Poor Lucy, we locked her in the camper and closed all the windows, which calmed her down. Derek and I went over to the stalls to have a closer look, Derek got talking to one of the stall holders who gave him some free fireworks to get him started, setting off fireworks in the dark with a bunch of other people all in the same area, what could go wrong? Turned out to be a fun night.