August 29, 2001
As I'm writing this, we're sitting at Triple A RV in Medford, OR, getting some work done on the trailer.
Barb is keeping busy with another "project," and it's too early for my nap, so I'll alternate between harassing the technician and writing this. Nice place, friendly people, and the labor rate is $65 per hour-- rather than the $95 per hour we could have paid at La Mesa RV in Davis, CA, which was a lot closer to us and we could have had the work done while we ran errands for mom. And from the looks of the fiberglass all over the parking lot, I'm really glad I resisted the temptation to work on this myself. Both the fresh water and gray (waste) water tanks leak when they're anything over 3/4 full. Barb thinks we should have bought the extended warrantee, and I couldn't agree more. But I'm afraid today is a bad day to ask for it.
One evening I took my bird-watching Barby with me when I went fishing, and the wild turkeys came down for a drink and paid no attention to us at all. Later when they went to roost, we nearly fell out of the boat laughing. They aren't at their best in the air or finding the "right" spot to spend the night. They let the whole forest know where they were, just by their frantic-looking flapping and crashing around going from one limb to another to get settled. I'd had a bad case of hitch-itch for several days, and we decided to go sight-seeing "near" our park. "Near" can mean anything within 100 miles if it's good enough. Since we both love waterfalls, it was decided we'd go to Feather Falls. I was looking forward to doing anything that sounded like fun and involved the truck and camera. As it turned out, it was a lot more "fun" than I'd bargained for, and way more excitement than Barb on a good day would volunteer for. The "road" for most the trip was this dirt single-track affair with huge ruts cut by the running water. We found the route on Microsoft's "Streets and Trips" software. Kind of interesting results when I asked it to take me from where we were to "Feather Falls." It was 32 miles in distance taking and hour and a half. Should have been a warning, but we ignored it. At points both mirrors were whacking tree limbs, and when I backed up a few feet so Barb could take this picture, she got real nervous because the front tire was knocking dirt over the cliff.
Great views of the lake formed by the Oroville Dam, in spite of the kinks in the road. Water seems to be low in CA just like it was in FL. Is anyplace in the country "normal"? It seems as if it's either flooding or drought everywhere.
At one point we found a little lake that looked like it was full of fish, but we didn't bring the boat and there's no way I'll subject either myself or the truck to this road again. The spillway to this little lake was stark evidence of the lack of water. Looks like sometime in the past it had handled a lot of water, but not this year.
The picture on the left was taken from the same place on the little dam where I shot the spillway above. We couldn't believe there were such big homes here in the middle of nowhere. Wouldn't take much imagination to figure out that any kind of a forest fire would wipe the homes right out. And on the right you can see just how close we got to the falls. 4.5 mile hike each way. Nuts! After punishing ourselves and the truck on that road for about 30 of the 38 miles and over two hours, we popped out on pavement again (and nearly jumped out of the truck to kiss it!), and following the little green line on the screen that the GPS was showing for us, we drove another few miles and came to the end of pavement......and the fire station. The two guys on duty got a kick out of the fact that we'd come up the way we had (the "Ponderosa Road" way), and explained that by going back and turning here and there, we'd find the going home trip much easier. And they were right. Took less than an hour to get back home. Looked like it would have been a nice hike if we'd been prepared for it, but that's just something that will have to wait for another time.
Barb's pointing to where we wish we'd been able to get to, and on the way back home I took a closer shot of the lake backed up by the Oroville Dam. Pavement is nice, even if it is full of potholes and patches.
On the left is a canal of some sort that we shot from the bridge. Interesting looking affair, and we both wondered where it came from and where it was going to. And on the right is a shot of one of the strangest sights I'd ever seen. This forked horn whitetailed buck was hanging out with a doe and her two spotted fawns. He still has velvet on his antlers, and it's way too early for the rut, and the fawns treated him like he'd been around quite a bit. At one point, he and one of the fawns were nose-to-nose, but of course my camera was "processing" and I couldn't take the picture. Grrrrr.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...... granddaughter Holly played a concert for mom and her neighbors. One fellow up front wouldn't quit talking to the woman sitting next to him, much to the consternation of others around him. When he finally left, several applauded his leaving right in the middle of whatever Holly was playing at the time. She didn't even notice, and Barb and I were almost as proud of her as her mother and great-grandmother were. Holly and her mom, Kerry, were visiting after attending a violin camp (my terminology) at Stanford for a week. They left for home (St. Louis) the Sunday before we left for here.
Four days before we were scheduled to pack up and leave Lake Of The Springs, the water to the section we were parked in quit. Seems a component of the pump for the section had died. We were given the option of staying or moving to any other space in the park. There were plenty of spaces, and we found one with plenty of shade. And of course it took us three trips to get moved, what with the mini-bikes being out, the boat we'd just hauled up from the lake but not folded yet, the bicycles were off their rack so we could wash the roof, etc. And when I made the last trip, I noticed the water had come back on and the next day the section was open again. Oh, well. At least we had a chance to meet some of the other campers and enjoyed them so much it was well worth the hassle of moving. Ed and Lynn had the Starband system, where the satellite for the TV, the cellphone, and the internet access are all done with a satellite. Sure got my attention. Seems that the "certified" technician sets it up at the home location, and then that's it. No mobility because of the requirement of having a "certified" technician set the azimuth, elevation, and yaw. Ed is in the process of taking the test to become "certified," and I'm looking forward to finding out how he likes the system once it's done. Mostly because of the advantage of having fast up and down loads for the internet, as well as the phone. We're pretty happy with the satellite TV system we have already. More gadgets! YaHoo!!!
Just got back from talking to the tech working on the trailer. Seems we really should have bought the extended warrantee. He's afraid he's going to have to pull the axles to get to the fresh water tank. I'm hoping and praying the fancy mirror set-up he built will do the trick.
9/1/01
Turned out the leak was coming from the black water tank. YUK! The pipe from the toilet to the tank was replaced, the slide out for the living room was easily fixed -- we just need to stay someplace long enough to get the part ordered and installed, and the same for the awning. We'll be here in the Pacific Northwest until the weather drives us crazy and we head to AZ for the winter, so we'll get it taken care of while we're here. Spent one night at Stalick International and two at Triple A R.V., so that was another 3 nights of free parking, and now we're in a membership ("free") park for the next two weeks. "Free" works pretty well for us. Particularly since we're balancing checkbooks today and I have another 13 months to go before I can get Social Security income. Our budget got all out of whack, but all's still well with us in that regard because we knew we didn't know what this lifestyle would really cost. I'm going to put together a budget page so you'll be able to gauge for yourself whether you can afford to live like this or not. Or, more to the truth, can you afford NOT to live like this!!