Kanaskat-Palmer State Park in Ravensdale, Washington July 9 – 16, 2025

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Wednesday, July 9, 2025 we left Tolt-MacDonald at the noon check-out time for a one-hour drive south to Kanaskat-Palmer State Park in Ravensdale, Washington for a seven-night stay. We arrived well before their normal 2 pm check-in time, but the lady at the booth was kind enough to let us go to our site early.

Kanaskat-Palmer State Park

This is our fourth year in a row staying at Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, but this year we reserved a new spot. We chose a back-in site across the road from the pull-through site we had last year. It turned out to be much easier to get into than the pull-through (because the pull-through is short and at a severe arc, making it difficult to line up Nomad and Voyager in the site) and we had more than enough room to put up Cindy’s screen room.

The site was fairly level and was electric-only, but we had a tankful of onboard water that would be used for flushing the toilet, washing a few dishes and brushing our teeth. We would use the park’s shower house to take showers.

After we got everything set up, we showered and drove back to Redmond to pick up Maxwell for his week of spoiling.

Generator and Bullwinkle

Thursday morning we had breakfast and were out the door around 9:15 am so we could get to a nearby small-engine repair shop by the time they opened at 10 am. Why did we need a small-engine repair shop? You may recall that back in April, when we were in Tennessee, I could not get our generator to crank after we lost power at the campground due to storms. I replaced the spark plug, which is about the extent of my knowledge of dealing with an engine problem, and it was still a no-go. We have a stay coming up later where we will need a generator, so I knew we needed to find a place to have it looked at it so we could determine if it needed to be repaired or replaced.

I was able to find this small-engine repair shop not terribly far from our campground, so we were dropping off the generator to get it looked at before taking Maxwell to the Bullwinkle Family Fun Center.

We had a great time at the fun center with Maxwell and I driving bumper cars and playing miniature golf (we even had Grandma slip in and play a round) before grabbing lunch. The repairman called and told me it looked like to him that something was wrong with either the propane tank or the regulator. So I left Cindy and Maxwell to go see about finding a place that could check out the tank and/or regulator for me.

To make a long story short, I tried three different places with no luck, so I picked up Cindy and Maxwell from the fun center. Something Cindy said suddenly reminded me that I just so happened to have an exact replacement for the regulator in my propane supply bin in the back of Voyager. I got into the back of the truck, rooted around, found my propane bin and sure enough, we had the exact same regulator.

If only I had realized that about 90 minutes earlier, lol.

I returned to the repair shop where we attached it to the generator and “boom!” It started right up. Added a load to it by plugging in a hand tool and it continued working like a charm.

All that pulling and tugging on the pull-start cord (until my arm felt like it would fall off) and it turned out to be a faulty regulator. But at least it cost me nothing but time, a good amount of aggravation and the $20 I gave to the repairman.

Maxwell, by the way, worked hard playing the pinball and video games at the fun center to win some superhero cards for his old granddad while I was gone trying to solve the generator issue. Thanks Maxwell!

Superman Movie

Friday morning after breakfast we drove to Redmond to pick up Jade who was going to share in a little of Maxwell’s spoiling by going to the new Superman movie with us.

Cindy had her Superman shirt on from our Metropolis visit and Jade had a Supergirl top on, so at least half of us looked like we were excited for the movie. I could not find my Superman shirt and we assume it somehow got put into our bin of extra clothes in the back of Voyager. And by that I mean ALL THE WAY IN THE BACK so I did not have time to go digging around in the truck bed looking for it before the movie.

We had a good time at the movie and I wrote a review of it over on my personal website.

Redmond Derby Days

After lunch at the kids’ (and maybe ours too) favorite pizza place, MOD Pizza, we went back to Jeremy and Wendy’s so we could all attend the Redmond Derby Days Celebration in Redmond. The kids had fun playing games and going on rides, then we took a shuttle bus provided by Microsoft (sponsor of Derby Days) to see the art show at the Town Center before returning to the Derby Days parking lot.

By the way, Jade drove us from her house to Derby Days and back again, and she is doing wonderful as a driver. We all teased her a little, but I never felt anything but comfortable while she was behind the wheel.

Weekend Visits

Saturday morning Jeremy, Wendy, and Jade drove down to our campsite at Kanaskat-Palmer to spend the day with us. Jeremy graciously agreed to grill the chicken for us and it was delicious. We had s’mores for dessert and Cindy got her marshmallows torched the way she likes them. They left to return home around 5:30 pm and then Cindy, Maxwell, and I walked Bella and we all took showers at the shower house.

On Sunday Jeremy and Wendy drove back down to Kanaskat-Palmer for the day. Jade was unable to come because she was at rehearsals for an upcoming stage production. I made grilled cheese sandwiches on the grill, Cindy made a salad, and we all enjoyed some sweet watermelon for dessert.

We loved getting the additional time to visit with them so much.

Boehm’s Chocolate Factory Tour

Monday morning I was up at 6 am to shower. have breakfast and then take Voyager into town for an oil change as soon as they opened at 8 am. I was glad I got an early start because I was second in line when I got there a few minutes before 8 and when I left there were 5 vehicles behind me waiting for service. The early truck gets the oil; that’s the saying, right?

After lunch Cindy, Maxwell and I drove to Redmond to pick up Jade and then the four of us drove over to Issaquah for a 2 pm guided tour of Boehm’s Chocolate Factory.

Boehm’s was started in 1942 by Julius Boehm who was born in Vienna, Austria. His father was Austrian and his mother Swiss. It is one of the few remaining privately-owned chocolate factories around. We enjoyed the interesting and educational tour of the factory where we learned how they make their delicious chocolate creations…not to mention the delicious samples we consumed during the tour 🙂

We also got to tour Mr. Boehm’s home, which occupied the upper floors of the chocolate factory and the rustic Swiss chapel he had built on the property as well.

At the conclusion of the tour we went to the store and bought an ungodly amount of chocolate candy; some for us, some for the grandkids and some for Jeremy and Wendy. I don’t know about them, but we finished ours about 4 days after buying them. They were SO good!

Saying Goodbye

Afterward we returned to Redmond and Jeremy and Wendy took us out to a final dinner with them for this visit (Thanks, guys!) and then Cindy and I treated everyone to dessert at our favorite ice cream place in Redmond, Molly Moon’s. And we were fortunate; our timing was such that we avoided the usual long lines and walked right in!

Following dessert, we went back to Jeremy and Wendy’s for final goodbyes and some photos. You can see some of them in the photo album. We had a lot of fun posing for them. It was a great visit, as they always are.

Packing Up

Tuesday we were up again at 6 am so we could do laundry, get some groceries and get back to the campsite to put Voyager back together for traveling. When we visit the family (in Washington and in Florida) we take out everything we normally have in the backseat with Bella so that we have room to transport people (grandkids, usually) around wherever we’re going. So, when the visit is over we need to repack the backseat.

And while the grandkids were visiting we kept the dining room table down in its “bed” position, so that gets reassembled after visits. Plus the usual of taking down Cindy’s screen room and cleaning up the Blackstone griddle for storage.

We also had several extra things to do to get ready for the next part of our trip, which involves several one-night, two-night, and three-night stays in succession. It will be fast and exhausting and for some of the nights we won’t be putting out the slide-out, so we have to get whatever food and other supplies might be in the cabinets that are blocked by the slide-out into another area for access.

It’s a lot of fun, lol!

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