BP Church And Wicked Weather

We had about a 30 minute commute to church this morning. That was up I-5 from our Walmart campsite to the Olympia Bible Presbyterian Church. We managed to keep Miss Travelaire on the road, but just barely, with the wind howling at her and trying to run her into the ditch. Plus, it was pouring rain so you could hardly see. We knew the pastor Tito Lyro, and a few other people in this church, and it was a good fellowship. We stayed for lunch; it was prepared by everyone in the church but it was a Mexican theme, and was really good! It is a really thriving church with many many young people and kids, all of whom were really really loud the whole time except during the worship service. They have the problem that the church building is too small for the congregation, but they can't afford a new one. And, I'm so mad at myself because I forgot to take a picture of the church!

 

Now, about the weather: we've had nothing but rain, wind, and cold ever since we left our campsite several days ago just south of Reno, Nevada! And today was no exception. After church, we started out for the short trip up to Port Angeles, in order to catch the ferry for tomorrow morning. But the weather was still blustery, and keeping Miss Travelaire going down the road was a chore. We came up US101, as we usually do. There is another way, over through Tacoma and up, which is the way the GPS lady would like to go, but there is far more (high speed) traffic that way. US101 is a winding road, but easier (we thought) for today, because the speed limits are low, and it is somewhat sheltered from the wind by the high hills on one side.

 

Everything was going just fine until about half way to Port Angeles. We came around a curve, and there across the road was a tree that had fallen over all the power lines along side the road. We must have been pretty much the first to come across it, because there were no other vehicles there. It was a tricky situation because I was afraid more cars would come around the corner and run into us. I quickly backed up and into a driveway of a house that was right there. The lady in the house was quite comical; she gave the impression that this happened about every second day! She had called in the situation to the authorities already.

 

It wasn't long before many more cars came along, plus a police car. I stood on the side of the road and waved at the cars as they came around the corner until there was no longer any danger. The cars were managing to go under the tree, but larger vehicles like Miss Travelaire were stuck there, and soon there was a long line of traffic stopped both ways. It was probably only an hour, though, before a fire truck and a lineman came along and cleared it all away without any mishaps. Some other people were not so fortunate. A little further up the road, we came across another place where a tree had fallen over the road. But this time it fell on a car. They were just loading the car onto a tow truck as we went by.

 

So now we are (where else) at Walmart (N48 06 34.3, W123 21 43.0) in Port Angeles. When we arrived we went first straight to the Coho ferry terminal to see what the situation with the ferries is for tomorrow. They say they should not be full, so we should be able to get on the 8:20am ferry. And looking at the weather reports, the wind is supposed to die down overnight. In fact, it seems to have died down pretty much already, and the rain has stopped. We are bringing sunny weather back up from California to Victoria folks!