My 2015 Vacation, Part 2 of 7

Drugs

I started staging everything for my trip a couple of days early. I figured out most of my clothing needs and shaving kit needs and packed what I could. One thing I had to take care of was getting all of my prescriptions in advance so that I had enough to last the 2 weeks.

I get my medical prescriptions through Walgreens. I contacted them about how to fill some prescriptions in advance and they told me to contact my insurance company who told me to contact my pharmacy. I love how things are getting simpler in life. My local Walgreens at 83rd Avenue and Lower Buckeye in Phoenix (yeah, a bit of a plug there) took care of everything, and even figured out a way to get me an advance on a prescription the insurance company wouldn’t allow. They were great and I appreciated their help. On the other hand, I hate taking the medications so if it hadn’t worked out I would likely have been just as happy!

 

Reservations

I had made my motel reservations for Port Angeles. In fact, I made them twice. I didn’t have the flyer from my friend Judi and the reunion committee so wasn’t aware they’d made arrangements with a motel for the reunion visitors. I looked online and decided I didn’t want to pay the almost $200 per night the Red Lion was charging so I looked around.

I ended up booking a motel room through Expedia which I’d never used. I let my friend Judi know about it and she reminded what motel that place was and how awful it is (Holiday Lodge, Port Angeles). She let me know of another inexpensive motel that another class mate uses repeatedly so I called them. They had a room available so I decided to take that and cancel the Expedia purchase. This was all on the same day (July 3rd) and Expedia charged me $40 or so to cancel the room. I won’t use them again. Yes, they did have warnings but they also had a notice that cancellations were free. Turns out they were $40 worth of "freeness".

Royal Victorian Motel, Port Angeles

I called the second place back to make my reservation, at the Royal Victorian. The woman at the desk was a very pleasant oriental gal and she was happy to chat for a bit. We made an initial arrangement and then she hesitatingly mentioned they had a cheaper room available. The catch was that it was smaller and didn’t have an air conditioner. I used to live in Port Angeles and had experience with their heat waves. I currently live in Phoenix, Arizona and have experience with the heat there. I asked her what the weather typically is like in Port Angeles and she said it gets into the 70s during the day and the 50s at night. I thought I’d be able to handle that without an air conditioner. She laughed and we changed my room to the one without the air conditioner.

The campgrounds on the Pacific coast of Washington did not take reservations. I called Bogachiel State Park and the ranger said they do fill up but they’re first come first serve.



Beachside State Park, Oregon

I also called a private campground I was interested in staying at in La Push, Washington, the Quileute Oceanside Resort. It had been many years since I’d been to La Push, over 40 years for sure. It looked like they had a great beach to take some pictures of at sunset and the gal at the resort said I didn’t need a reservation for the campsites. I decided I could take my chances because it’s only about 60 miles from that area to Port Angeles and I was sure that if nothing else I could just go to Port Angeles and get a motel room.


I made reservations at Beachside State Park and Cape Lookout State Park in Oregon, both of which offered showers and camping near the beach. The reservations were about $29 per night. I was set for most of my accommodations.



Cape Lookout State Park, Oregon

The only other night I needed to address was the first night on the coast but I wasn’t sure where that would be so I decided I would play it by ear, getting a motel room somewhere if necessary. As it turned out, I stayed in a motel, but more on that later.

 

Batteries

I also charged up all of my devices to have them ready to go. That included my Kindle, my RAVPower RP-WD01, my 4 camera batteries, my 4 Eneloop flash batteries, and my MP3 player. I ensured I had my power inverter and charger unit with me. I ensured all of my SD cards were formatted.

Final Packing

My Exploder Camping Quarters

I packed my new self inflating air mattress from REI, my sleeping bag, a blanket, and a pillow. I didn’t plan to cook while camping but took a cooler to store a few things in, a bin with a box of crackers, some Vanilla Wafers and breakfast bars and sugar free hard candy.

On Sunday, August 2nd, I had all of my stuff ready and eventually packed in the Exploder. I laid my one sport coat I was taking, a dress shirt, and slacks on top of everything and I was ready to go!

I said goodbye to my wife, my dogs, and I was off on my adventure!


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