26SEP07 - Discovery Bay, WA

Today did not start off too great! To get out of the Bishop’s driveway it is necessary for someone to go up to main road and stop traffic. This is needed because of the steepness of the driveway you are coming out blind driving anything bigger than a pickup. Coming up the driveway the driver (who will go unnamed) was paying close attention to the trees to insure they didn’t bite the RV. Unfortunately, a low lying stump got the passenger side cargo hatches! Fortunately, no real damage done, but someone was definitely in the dog house!

We then drove our RV onto a car ferry for the first time ever. The Washington State Ferry system is the largest in the country, but chronically under funded (or so they say). We experienced the funding issues on the Keystone (Whidbey Island) to Port Townsend (Olympic Peninsula) run. This is a very short run serviced by the smallest and oldest ferries in the system. The class of boats on this run are called the Steel Electrics, and consist of four boats built in the 1920/30s! They were supposed to be retired five years ago. Since the legislature is still fighting over building new ferries, they are still in service. Three have already been pulled from the run because of cracks in their hulls. If the last one cracks, the run will be closed. So it was with great trepidation that we drove onto the KLICKITAT. You can tell the ferry was never intended for large vehicles like semis or RVs, because we ended up taking up two lanes. Because of this, several cars were left behind, and are probably now confirmed RV haters.

Once on the Olympic Peninsula we headed to our RV reservation at Diamond Point on Discovery Bay. This was a membership park that we paid a minimal fee to visit on a trial basis. Very nice park with resident deer wandering about. One item of concern was when we went to the Rec Room and saw signs warning of cougar sightings in the park!

While signing in at the RV office, Corrie saw an advertisement for Bandy’s Troll Haven. So we were off to the small beach community of Gardiner to check it out. Turns out Bandy invented something called the Bandy Hinge, which apparently is on every airplane door in the world (ie he got rich). Once he was set for life he decided to pursue his passion for trolls? Starting in 1977 he built a purple and pink castle surrounded by gardens and orchards. In the gardens and orchards he commissioned giant carvings of trolls and other enchanted creatures. Even the cedar fence posts, which are one foot in diameter, are individually carved with mystical creatures. Bandy allowed open access to his property so that all could enjoy. Unfortunately the present owner(s) have no trespassing signs everywhere.

http://www.trollhaven.org/

Although we couldn’t get onto the property we still enjoyed it from the road. We even walked down the road to the beach. Even some of the residents have picked up on Bandy’s theme, and have carved fence posts and/or smaller trolls. It was also nice to go by a farm that had a box of pears and wally mart bags, with sign that said help yourself.