Flirting with Disaster on our Weekend Trip to the Birch Bay Half Marathon

Twas a dark and stormy night and the heavy wind was blowing the rain onto the windshield of my RV. Then, just as we were merging into heavy traffic, my driver's side windshield wiper broke. What was I to do? With my wiper blade flapping around and useless, I quietly thought "AAAAAH!" 

I could sense my wife's tension sitting next to me in the cab as she exclaimed "You need to get off the highway!" But where was I to go? I could barely see, there was no shoulder to pull off on, cars were zipping all around us, and I needed to merge my 50+ feet of RV and tow vehicle into heavy traffic. To make matters worse, my lane was ending.  

After a few moments of holding steady in my diminishing lane, my visibility was almost gone and my wife and I thought to ourselves "Oh God, we're about to crash!"

While this may sound like the start to a gripping story of disaster, it was actually the true tale of how we began our latest RV outing.

The plan was to take the RV up to Birch Bay, Washington for the weekend. Birch Bay lies just shy of the Canadian border and bustles with activity during the summer months. During the winter months the water park shuts down and Birch Bay is a cool, comfy and quiet place. For one weekend in February though, Birch Bay is the setting of the annual Birch Bay Half Marathon. Over six hundred runners head into town at this time to run along the beautiful shoreline for 13.1 miles (half marathon) or for 26.2 miles (full marathon). This was our reason for being there.

Sunset over Birch Bay

We had signed up for the Birch Bay Half Marathon a month ago and were not surprised to find out that all of the hotels in the area were completely booked for the weekend. Of course, I didn't worry about it much because we had plan B parked next to the house. I'll just take the RV up and find somewhere to stay. It would be fun.

By Thursday night, the RV was loaded and ready to roll. All we had to do Friday night was to head out of town. I had planned to drive to the Swinomish Northern Lights Casino in Anacortes on the first night. Without traffic, it would be just under a 3 hour drive. In order to get there, however, we had to drive through both Tacoma and Seattle. We would leave at night after the evening traffic had cleared. That usually works out well. But not this time.

When my windshield wiper failed, I was right in the middle of a busy merge onto I-5 in Tacoma. "Why so much traffic at 8PM?" I didn't know.

Did we crash?

So you're wondering what happened next in the story....did we crash? Thankfully, the answer is no. We survived. At the last minute, I made a split second decision to pull the RV over just short of this guard rail. I brought the RV to a screeching halt just before a tiny bit of shoulder came to an end. With cars zipping by at 60 miles an hour just inches from the driver's side, I decided to go out the side door to try and fix my wiper blade. My worse fear was that someone would rear-end my car and RV with me standing in front of it. End of blog...that would be a crappy ending to this story. At one point, while fuddling with the wiper blade for what seemed like forever in the rain, a giant semi truck went hauling by at 60mph just about a foot from me. This got my attention big time and I peed my pants a little wrapped up my repair, and jumped back into the RV. The wiper was semi operational so the challenge now would be to try and get back in traffic.

I had no lane or shoulder to pick up speed and merge because a guard rail was blocking me in front. So I pointed my wheels into traffic, spotted a gap closed my eyes and floored it. Of course, flooring it in an RV while towing is not the same as doing so in BMW. We made it out OK though and were on our way with a heavy holy shit that was a close call sigh of relief.

I turned to my wife at that point and said "So...what were we talking about?"

Anacortes
We spent that night at the Swinomish Casino in their RV park in the rear of the complex. With players card discount, the night cost me a whopping $22.50. We were tired and it was raining sideways outside so we opted to stay inside. I needed a cocktail to take the edge off of the drive up. After a couple hours of stimulating conversation we head to bed. The next morning we slept in then hit up the casino restaurant for a nice breakfast. We love to spend time in Anacortes, but we couldn't stay. At noon, we checked out, fueled up and continued on to Birch Bay.

Birch Bay by way of the Outlet Mall
We made our way North towards Birch Bay, but not before visiting the Nike factory outlet we spotted on the way in. Any money we would have lost at the Casino, was spent on a new running jacket. Win win. While my wife continued shopping at other stores, I ventured back to the RV to make a couple phone calls. I must say that it is really nice having your RV parked at the shopping mall while your wife shops...really nice. Had we been there any longer, I may have cracked open a beer and popped in a movie.

Parked at the Outlet Mall in Burlington, WA

After shopping, we checked into the Cedars RV Resort in Ferndale, WA. Less than ten miles from Birch Bay, this would be our home for the night. We got settled in our pull through spot, unhooked the car and drove into Birch Bay to get our race stuff and check out the course.

Race Day
We really lucked out on weather. Having been hit with heavy rain and wind for two days prior to Sunday, the wind died down and the rain stopped. Perfect! A light wind lingered along the water and it was around 40 degrees. This was perfect weather for a half marathon.

Wife and I after finishing the Birch Bay Half Marathon. Birch bay in the background.

With over 600 other runners, we ran along the shore of Birch Bay and Drayton Harbor. It was one of the most scenic runs we've done. The sun actually peeked through the clouds at one point. We both finished strong with new personal best times. This had not been the plan, but it happened so my wife and I did a high five and chest bump....Heeeyah! (Runner's do that you know)

One more day...just one more day
One more day would have been ideal. After heading back to the RV, showering, and eating, I was ready for a nap. So I tried to lay down for about 20 minutes before starting the four hour drive back home. The ride home was perfectly uneventful. We arrived home in good time and hungry. We parked the RV and went out to dinner.

Despite the excitement of the broken windshield wiper scare, it was an awesome weekend getaway. I can't wait to do it again.