Hood Park in Burbank, Washington July 15 – 26 2024

Monday, July 15, 2024 we took our time packing up and tearing down so that we didn’t leave Charbonneau Park until just before the noon check-out time. Then we had a long, arduous drive of 11 miles to our next stop at Hood Park in Burbank, Washington. Hood Park is very strict about their 2 pm check-in time, so we parked in their day use parking lot, opened up the kitchen slide-out, and had lunch while waiting to be able to check-in.

We had already been to the park the previous week to take a look at the site we had reserved. This is something we don’t usually get to do since our next stops are typically a couple of hundred miles away. But since we were so close we decided to scope things out.

And we were glad we did.

The site we had reserved was a pull-through, but it did not look like the photo we saw when we reserved it. It was much too narrow for a trailer with two slide-outs AND was too short for our length. Plus they had placed a dumpster at the edge of the site entrance making maneuverability into the spot a real concern for us. We drove around looking at some other sites and found a back-in spot that was open for the entire length of our stay, so Cindy went online and changed our reservation right there in Voyager. It was worth the $10 change fee.

Hood Park

Hood Park is located on the bank of the Snake River, not far from the confluence of that river and the Columbia River. Across the river are numerous grain storage silos that are used when grain is brought up the river by barge. The park was nice for the most part. The site we ended up in was large, fairly level and had some trees for shade. Much better than the original site we had reserved.

The only snafu was one day when the maintenance guy turned on the sprinklers and didn’t aim them away from our trailer. We had to scramble to close the windows on that side when water started shooting through them.

We didn’t need the bathrooms/showers but I check them out just in case we do and for review purposes. The showers were the kind where you had to leave your clothes/belongings on a community bench outside the shower room. This means that someone could easily grab your stuff while you’re naked and soaped up, unable to give chase or perhaps even know about it until you step out and find your things gone. We’ve seen this kind of set-up before and never use those kinds of shower rooms.

RV Repairs and a Cut-Loose Kitty

We were able to find an Amazon locker facility in nearby Kennewick to get some things Cindy needed, new walking shoes for me, and some items to make repairs or enhancements to Nomad. These trailers are not always “quality made” and this is an ultra lite model so they use lighter materials for the walls and then cover them in a very thin kind of cheap wallpaper. Being able to order from Amazon gave me the opportunity to take care of some peeling on our bathroom wall edges by sanding away the peeled portions and adding a nice trim all around. You can see the before and after shots in the photo album.

On Saturday morning, July 20th, we were taking Bella for her walk around the campground when we came across a dark gray cat at an empty site. At first I thought it was a feral cat but then I spotted the leash attached to the collar around its neck. While I held Bella back on the opposite side of the road Cindy approached the free-running feline. It let her pet it so she picked it up and went on a quest to find the capering cat’s owner. Meanwhile, the cat purred in pleasure as Cindy cuddled it.

She stopped at the camp host’s site and they thought it might belong to some people tent-camping near the empty site. However when we went there we could see two tents but no vehicle and thought no one was there. Then Cindy saw ANOTHER cat tied by leash to the first tent and called out to see if anyone was inside. There was no response so she stepped closer to tie the cat she had next to the other cat and suddenly the air was filled with the sound of a huge dog barking and lunging from inside the second tent. Poor Cindy almost dropped the cat in fright. Then a just-awakened man emerged from the first tent. Still sleeping at 9:30 in the morning. I truly envied him. He said the cat was his, took it, and that was that. All’s well that ends well, even for inattentive, ungrateful cat owners.

Bella Scare

Tuesday morning, July 23rd, Cindy woke me up crying because Bella was acting strange.

When I came into the living room, Bella was curled up with her head to the right and would not move much from that position. Her eyes looked like she was not quite with us, but she did yip a little in pain when I touched the left side of her neck. I thought at first she might have had a stroke but the pain made me think maybe she had just pulled a muscle during the night.

We got dressed and I carefully picked her up and put her into her spot in Voyager. She was quiet but semi-alert as we drove. We took her to an emergency vet in Kennewick. Because they are a critical care vet, the first thing they asked us as they took her to the back for a quick assessment when we arrived was “Do you want us to resuscitate her if she passes?” Cindy just started bawling and I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. We weren’t ready to lose her.

They very quickly brought her back out and put us all three in an exam room. The vet technician came in to take some further information and Bella did something she has NEVER done, even when she was a puppy. She just started urinating while sitting at my feet. And it was like she didn’t even KNOW she was doing it. That, of course, upset us even more because the behavior was so unlike her.

Her blood work came back normal, so no stroke. But she did have a severe UTI. The vet felt she had pulled a muscle in her neck (hence the pain when touched) but that the UTI was also causing her to be confused and lethargic.

We told the vet she was diagnosed with Stage 3 kidney failure back in March and she asked us if we wanted to run the blood panels again to see if there had been any change. It was expensive, but we DID want to know if there had been any further progression of the disease in the past 5 months.

The good news was that Bella had NOT progressed to Stage 4 yet, so we were relieved to know we still had some more time with our sweet girl. Whereas the vet in Texas told us she would probably not last more than a couple to a few months, this vet said she might remain at Stage 3 for a few more months. But once she progresses to Stage 4 it will be downhill very quickly from there.

So, very good news for Bella and us. She was not in severe pain and may continue to be with us for a while longer. We left with antibiotics, pain killers and muscle relaxers. The vet said she expected Bella to show great improvement by Friday when we leave this part of the state.

Tire Trouble…Again

And in the “When it rains, it pours” department; as I was backing into a parking spot when we arrived at the vet’s a huge piece of glass punctured our rear passenger tire on Voyager. While Cindy was in the exam room with Bella I waited in the parking lot for AAA to arrive and stayed there while the flat was changed out with my spare. The glass puncture was too big to patch, so I ordered a new tire from a tire store in nearby Pasco, Washington and had it installed the following morning.

So, another stay with unexpected expenses. But what are you gonna do? We intend to do everything we can to make sure Bella is as well and pain free as she can be before her expected passing.

And we have to have good tires on Voyager.

At least THIS time it wasn’t for a tire on Nomad, lol!

Thursday night, our last night, there was a loud domestic dispute a couple of sites away from ours that involved a dog constantly barking, the park host, sheriff’s deputies and paramedics. Then Cindy was awakened around 11:30 pm by people at that site screaming, followed by them pulling their trailer out in the middle of the night. Good times.

By Friday morning, Bella indeed seemed to be feeling much better. She was moving her head and neck more normally. Her eyes had that sweet sparkle back in them. I cannot adequately tell you how much seeing the pain and lethargy in her eyes on Tuesday saddened us. We were SO happy that she was feeling better.

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