Getting Fried While Trying To Get Cool
(Note: You might notice that there is about a week's worth of entries missing. They are currently just notes and I hope to finish them soon)
It was another hot night, with a week of hot days and nights forecast, so we glad to be heading to the coast. Our destination was Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island. Harry and Sally had been here on their last trip out this way and it was described as beautiful...and the forecast was for temperatures in the 70s rather than the 90s.
It was a pleasant drive back west along the North Cascades Highway with the rising sun behind us lighting up the mountains and fields in front of us as we slalomed through the curves...ahh, for a motorcycle.
Our first stop was in Sedro-Wooley to do laundry. The Sparkle Cleaners and Laundry was open on Labor Day. With a good week's worth of hot weather, we had an overflowing laundry bag. The laundromat was clean and the machines efficient and we were soon on our way.
The next planned stop was the Fred Meyers supermarket just up the road, but on the way out I spotted a gas station with a propane fill. It had been awhile since we'd filled the tank and I had run the generator to charge the batteries while doing the laundry. Out campsite in the North Cascades was shaded and the batteries had been drawn down to about 75% with no solar charging in the shade.
This was not such a great stop. As I held up the cover over our propane tank the attendant screwed on the tank fill hose with its RV tank adapter. When he opened the hose valve, liquid propane came shooting out the side of the connection. Just as he turned it off, the propane burst into a ball of flame. We don't know how it happened, but one possibility is that the gas hit the hot exhaust pipe or catalytic converter under the van which set it off. Either the connection wasn't on all the way or the adapter was faulty.
Fortunately, he had turned the valve off and there was only the single flare-up rather than a flaming torch burning up Speedy. Unfortunately, both the attendant an I were hit by the flames and got pretty well singed. I was a bit closer holding up the cover and had all the hair burned off the inside of my left arm from thumb to elbow as well as getting my eyebrows and beard roughly trimmed. I was pretty lucky to have had my glasses on. Needless to say, we didn't get a propane fill there.
I ended up with a large burn on my arm. There was a local hospital, PeaceHealth United General, just up the road, so we stopped at their emergemcy room to have it looked at. Thankfully, it is only a first degree burn, about the same as a bad sunburn. The doctor said to just use Aloe Vera and cold packs on it. My face was only mildly burned so I'm using the Aloe on that as well.
With only about an hour's delay, much of it due to paperwork rather than treatment, we were back on our way. I was seen fairly quickly and the ER was not crowded.
We were then off to Fred Meyers for groceries with Aloe Vera and agel pack addded to the list.
After groceries, it was off to the state park, about 20 miles away. There was quite a bit of traffic, with most of it coming the other way., but it was very crowded getting into the park, while the campground had mostly emptied out as people headed home, the beach area was packed. We are not that far from Seattle; it was Labor Day; and it was in the 90s in the city. Just like going to the Cape.
We manged to get a pair of adjacent sites with a partial view of the ocean, or at least of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with a view of the setting sun through the trees. There seems to be quite a bit of bird life here, so Ellen and Sally will be happy. The weather is predicted to be in the low 70s for the next few days and we will probably stay until Thursday when we will take the ferry to Port Townsend to go to the Wooden Boat Show on Friday.
After a tasty dinner of grilled pizza, we walked down to the beach to watch a very red sunset. There is a bit of smoke in the air from wildfires in eastern Washington, which only enhances the sunset. On the way back to our campsite, we identified a California Gull, a life bird. The sunset and the gull were a good antidote to getting fried.
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