Come Sunday morning, it's up and at 'em for a trip to Washington State and to see the two significant aspects of Most Deadly Passage – the Klickitat and Seattle FD Station 10.

So after a quick run down to the border on Highway 99, it was jump off the freeway over to the truck crossing (less traffic), and hopefully a crabby U.S. Customs guy will "open the door to let me in". He keys in my plate number as I wait to get through, but first we have to be acquainted with each other. The usual dialogue:

"Citizenship?"
  "Canadian"
"Where do you live?"
  "Burnaby"
"Where are you going?"
  "Seattle"
"How long"
  "Day."
"Are you taking anything that will be left in the United States?"
  "Nope."
He smiles and thumbs me out.

It's on to Interstate 5 light traffic but this is the time of day when Canadians head across the line to Seattle, so there are quite a few Canadians on the road. There's a quite a few Tripe E's, and other 40-foot RV's and fifth wheel trailers as they too are on the road by this time of day. Switch from CKNW Radio in Vancouver to KOMO News Talk 1000 out of Seattle. There's a garden program on and on the hour one hears the ABC tune before the news. Not much there, mostly talking about George "dubyah" Bush and the Republican meeting in Philadelphia. I wonder if George W. could survive the tough environment of B.C. politics. Few have. He could make it.

Pass through Bellingham WA and through the local hills past a large casino.

At Burlington WA, it's off the freeway and into McDonald's for their “breakfast". They are proud sponsors of the U.S. Olympic team I read on just about everything. Hmmph. Our McDonald's sponsors the Canadian Olympic team.

So, it's then off towards Anacortes, and then south towards Whidbey Island, the home of a large U.S. Navy Air Force base. They had a sign at the entrance from the Highway that says "The Sound of Freedom", and had unit patches painted on it, but the sign was gone.

Oak Harbor. Sleepy little town at this early in the morning, but some rube got pulled over by a county sheriff. So, it's onto Keystone where the ferry is. See one in the distance, and pull into the state park to see her put in. It's the Klickitat. She’s quite a different ship now, no round faced wheelhouses, but the hull sail white on green Klickitat. Take some video and then I figured well I wouldn’t get this sailing, so I'll wait for the next one.

Having arrived at Keystone WA (there's nothing there except a Restaurant, the State park, and the ferry slip) and watched and taped the MV Klickitat leave the terminal, there was about an hour for her to return (hopefully the next one would be the Klickitat as the other ferry the Quinault probably is leaving Port Townsend). So, it was a short trip up to a restored military fort that was perched on some highland nearby. This was Fort Clatsop, which was established in WW2 to protect Admiralty Inlet from enemy ships. The feature here is to see large guns that used 10" shells. One wouldn’t want to be an enemy ship in these waters in the early 1940's. Four of these guns were here, and another set was on the other side of the inlet. A third set of guns was two miles away so a triangular section of these waters were well protected at the time. This place is nicely kept and there are small signs all over the place telling you what you see and what these things were there for.  Nice place for an overnighter.

You can see the magnificent Olympic Mountains, northwest towards Vancouver Island, south towards the top end of Puget Sound. Lots of vessel traffic. The military post on the other side was used as the location for "An Officer and a Gentleman".

So like a curious eagle watching the surrounding area, one gets mesmerized by the scenery from the cliff overlooking the waters, the ships, and surrounding territory. Then a white shape began to move eastward. It was the Klickitat. Time to move out.

Waiting for her to arrive, I walked around and amongst the line of cars and large RV's. Spied some military equipment aboard a Kenworth, and behind the Kenworth were four zodiacs with "Navy" written on the frame that held the radar and radio masts. This would be kind of neat to see some U.S. naval equipment, so I walked over. The truck was green. This is odd I thought and strangely familiar. Upon closer inspection, and reading the license plates on the front end of the trucks was a bit of a disappointment. They read "Canada" green on white. DND Plates.  A quick thought came a conclusion they have to be from CFB Esquimalt. Probably heading back too through Port Townsend and then Port Angeles. Well at least I've seen what my taxes bought the boys. They need more.

After a bit, the Klickitat returns. Getting aboard onto the car deck, one thinks of John n' Roy getting smoked out on the deck, and the crusty old engineer played by Ted Gehering. Climbing the stairs topside, one looks around to a single deck lounge area complete with galley.  There are pictures of the history of the Klickitat including a few taken of her refit in the early 1980's. She has a long history, and what makes her different now than when she was used in Emergency, is most noticeably her wheelhouses. The old ones were wood and unmistakably well rounded on the forward end. The replacements are steel and quite boxy. She had a wooden lounge deck, so that was taken out and a new lounge area completely rebuilt. The original port and starboard deck sides on the car deck are still there complete with round portholes. She had been re-engine at the time of her refit. Because the long deck was taken out, her forward and aft profile would be quite different than her original look.

She is a trim little vessel, and cruises at about 18 knots. The sail is about 25 minutes and it was a magnificent day out on the water. Very light chop on the water. Abeam on the starboard side was the Victoria Clipper making her way to Seattle at about 50 knots. Not much to look at except for her unmistakable Union Jack paint scheme.

Curious as there's no pictures from Most Deadly Passage aboard the Klickitat. Too bad, as she had starred in a TV movie and few, if any people knew it.

She doesn't chug along but one hears the hiss of the diesels as she makes way to Port Townsend. She had been obviously been repainted not long ago as the green trim shimmered in the sunlight.

Soon it was off the Klickitat and on to Seattle.

The Klickitat glided into the slip at Port Townsend on a sunny and very warm afternoon. Climbing down the stairs, I wondered if there were any scars left from using the Jet Ax. But probably not as the steel workers
can do a good job of hiding welds. The Klickitat wore more than one coat of paint since her refit and that would hide any hint.  No peeks into the engine room as I was parked too far forward. The lanes on the Klickitat are very narrow so it is a bit of a squeeze to get to the car.

After lunch tasting the local cuisine at the Port Townsend McDonalds, it was up the hill and down to Bremerton. Not wanting to take Highway 101 to the highway that connects to the Hood Canal Bridge, I opted for another highway to the location. Highway 19 (as indicted by black and white George Washington signs with a number painted on his face) goes through "fahmin’ country" and is lightly traveled despite going past Port Ludlow and other resorts.

Soon it was onto the Hood Canal floating Bridge. This is a real feat of engineering as the bridge has a very long section that floats on pontoons (there are two others like it in Seattle). The highway leads towards Bremerton.

Bremerton is a Navy town with the Puget Sound Navy Yard as the economic base. Nearby as one passes it before you get to Bremerton is Bangor where the nuclear subs are kept. Two words describe that facility. No visitors.

The MV Chelan arrives to sail to Seattle. Pretty cool trip through the local inlets and out into Puget Sound and into Elliott Bay. Except by cruise ship, there's nothing like it in Vancouver although there used to be from Vancouver Island. The tall buildings and the unmistakable Space Needle pierce the mid afternoon sky. I'm looking for landmark based on what one sees at the beginning of MDP. Find it and once off the ferry work my way towards it.

And…there it is!

Thankfully, there's an empty parking space across from Station 10. I got out to have a look. Thankfully the apparatus doors are open. No one is around, but take a chance and peek inside. No Kenworth Tiller but a Spartan looking ladder truck. A battalion Chief's GMC Suburban is in there as is a Ford F300 Medic One van, and another unit built on a Peterbilt low cab over. The large Seattle Fire Station No. 10 sign that one sees in MDP is still there, as is the brass bell on the wall opposite the Medic 1 van. There wasn't much seen of Station 10 in MDP other than the apparatus bay and the meeting room.  I then had a thought I looked at the station, and then down the street to a pile of rubble that once was the Kingdome. I thought, "Gee that wasn't a long run" when thinking of the run John n' Roy go on when they get to the station.  Thinking of John n' Roy, and the production crew of Emergency (especially Hannah Shearer) when having a good look at the station.

I take pictures from the entrance to the apparatus room, the building and the local area. Luck too as someone started to close the apparatus bay doors from an automatic switch. So finished here, I thought maybe a shot or two of the outside of Harbour View. Of course no peeking inside the hospital.

Outside once I got there was Engine 6 from the Seattle Fire Department. She is a Spartan made by Emergency One equipment. Two Medics One vans are on the street must be on a check out as it's about 3 PM.  There's also an AMR unit there too. Heard of them, but never personally seen one as the government, not private interests, runs paramedic services in BC.

After that it was a ride up I-5 (and out of the humungous traffic volumes in Seattle's section of I-5) back to the border, back to Canada and high taxes. A stop in Blaine WA to load up on cheap gas and grab a gallon or two of cheap milk ends the trip in the U.S. A short wait to get across the border (with he usual conversations with a Canada Customs guy) and a short trip home ends the trip.

Log book for the day complete.

Burnaby Clear KMG 941.

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