Friday, July 22, 2016

The good, the bad, the ugly!


A synopsis of or trip so far.

The Good!

Spending time with Mark: Matt & Dawn & Samantha; Michael & Lizzie & Mathias. Our day trip to Bremerton for Mathias’s dedication.

Three days camping at Rest-A-While RV Park on the Hood Canal.

Spending 6 days with Dick and Barbara on the Oregon Coast. Especially tasting wine at the Youngbird winery and B & B on the deck overlooking the vineyards from on high. Awesome!

Clam chowder at Mo’s on the Newport Harbor waterfront and fried fresh small clams which Barbara prepared. Super!


Long talks by the fire late in the afternoon with good friends. Wonderful!

Then on to Roseburg and a day with Gary, my Navy buddy and wife Judy, Clyda’s friend from grade school. Beating the ladies 5-2 at sequence. Perfect!


The Bad!

Loosing the water heater cover the first day out (second time since April). The slide creeping out slowly each day and doing it again after I put it back each time.

A rock through our kitchen window from the lawn mower while camped in the RV park south of Lynden.

Replacing the black water dump valve.

The city water check valve getting stuck and filling the water tank so it came out the overflow vent (twice). We are using on-board water the remainder of our trip home.

The Ugly!

Blowing one of my Goodyear Marathon tires on I-5 south of Olympia, WA.

Trying to service the hydraulic pump by adding a cleaner to the reservoir. Not a good choice. The slide quit working in Newport when I tried to run it in so the Les Schwab mobile service guy could remount the tire in place of my spare. He had to do it with the slide out.

Called a Mobile Mechanic to help with the slide. Four and a half hours later, we rounded up six guys in the campground and pushed the slide in manually. It is now locked in place with 2 2x4’s on top of the slide to keep it from going out. Same for the front slide.

We are going home on a wing and a prayer.

 Sunset at Winchester Bay, OR

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

We are in Hoodsport, WA.

We are camped at Rest-A-While RV Park just north of Hoodsport on the Hood Canal. It has been several years since we last camped here and it looks like there has been a change of ownership which appears to be for the good. What did surprise me is the lack of campers during the week. Usually getting a reservation here was iffy in the summer months but not this time. Almost empty park.

Sunday was a very long day for us. We got up at 4:45 AM to drive to BIL Mark’s house and then out to niece Dawn’s house so we could take her car down to Bremerton for the day. It was awful early to get Dawn’s 9 month old daughter Samantha up but our goal was to catch the 8:50 AM ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. From the ferry we drove to nephew Michael and wife Lizzie’s house and had about a half hour before driving to the Calvary Chapel in Silverlake for the 11AM service at which their son Mathias was dedicated.
Edmonds ferry

Prior to the sermon the pastor called Michael, Lizzie, and Mathias to the front and holding Mathias, he dedicated him to God. During all this Mathias was perfect, no crying, just taking it all in. Outstanding for a 6 month old.
Mathias and the pastor.
Michael and Lizzie.

Attending the service also were Lizzie’s parents and Grand Parents. Quite a family representation for the little guy.

After the service we went back to Michael’s house for a BBQ and a birthday celebration for Michael.

About 3 PM we collected everything and everybody and headed for the ferry again. This time we elected to catch the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle as the Kingston ferry likely would require us to wait at least 2 ferries before we could board because of the Sunday traffic. Thank goodness for Smart phones as we could check ferry traffic before we left the house and also check freeway traffic in Seattle. All went according to plan and we made the 4:20 ferry for the 1 hour trip.
Seattle skyline from the Bremerton ferry.

Clyda, Dawn, Samantha, and Mark waiting to leave the ferry.

Eventually Clyda and I arrived back at the RV about 8:20 PM tired but glad for being with family all day. Samantha? She was awesome! Not a peep out of her until the last 15 or 20 minutes of the trip home but once she saw her daddy, she was fine, What a trouper!
Are we home? I'm tired.

Monday morning was again another early day as we had to have the RV at the glass shop in Lynden by 8 Am to have the broken window over the sink replaced. As soon as I pulled up the guy came out of the shop with the glass to check the size. Wonderful! He knocked out the old glass which I had taped on both sides, vacuumed up the pieces, cleaned the old caulking off, recaulked and put in the new glass. All done in 25 minutes. Oh, the new glass is darkened like the old glass and matches perfectly.


We left Lynden and drove to Coupeville at Anacortes to catch the ferry to Port Townsend. We had a 2 PM reservation but actually got on the 11AM ferry. Cost $86 but saves going through Seattle. I will pay that anytime to avoid driving through Seattle with the RV.

Close quarters on the Port Townsend ferry.

We arrived at Hoodsport about 1 AM and have a great view of the Hood Canal which is right in front of us. The drawback is that Hwy 101 is right behind us with a lot of daytime traffic however, it gets quite at night.We have no plans for our few days here.


Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Two blog posts in one week, my my!


This will be a somewhat technical post so if that doesn’t float your boat, just check back later.

I have heard it said that “taking your RV down the road is like having an earthquake at your house every day."

I do think that is true, for instance, the first day of our trip Clyda said, “Don’t look now but you lost the cover to the water heater again." That is the second time this year that we have lost the cover. Not only is it a pain, it also cost between $65 -$75 to replace it. Mine happens to be a 10 gallon water heater which means it always comes with the frame around it which I do not need. I throw it away as it is of no use to me.

I bought a new door today and added a clip so that the door if it should come open can’t get loose from the RV. Problem solved, I hope.

We have had a problem with our slide creeping out as we drive. It only moves out a small amount but in a rain storm it would be significant. I usually stop occasionally and run it back in but it soon comes out again.

Talking to local RV repair persons gets me not much sympathy as they really don’t want to work on it. There is a multitude of possible problem areas, so where do you start? They and I think it might be in the pump valve area which is leaking back into the reservoir when the rooms are in. The cheapest possible fix is to remove some of the hydraulic fluid from the reservoir and replace it with Sea Foam Transmission Fluid which may clean up the valve. It is worth a try. It is also the simplest fix. We shall see.
Hydraulic pump on left and reservoir on right.

Seafoam
Today, the park started mowing the lawns around the few RV’s remaining after the holiday. I went out and put up our steps and moved the truck so the kid could do a better job around our RV. As I stepped out of the truck I heard a loud ping as the mower threw a rock. Clyda yelled at me to come see what had happened to the window over the sink. The rock actually came through the window and shattered all the glass. I talked to the kid who had just started this job and was very sorry for the rock. It was just an accident. I let the park know.

So, I called a local glass company and they came out this afternoon and measured for a new glass. I need to take the RV to them on Friday morning so they can install the new window. I think I will ask them to wait until Monday as we leave on Monday and can take it by on our way out of town. That way I don’t need to move the RV twice.

I also need an oil change in the truck so will have that done tomorrow. I take it to an Express Oil Change place here which also has the oil I use, DELO 400. It is the first time I haven’t had to go to NAPA or someplace like it to buy my own oil to have it changed. In fact there are two oil change places in Lynden which have DELO 400. Small world.

We have a full week of things to do with our few remaining days here in Lynden.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Happy 4th of July!


We arrived in Lynden last Thursday morning after spending the night at the Expo Center Fairgrounds in Monroe, WA. Not my best choice of places to stay but it was on our route. We always bypass Seattle if we can by driving on 2 lane roads through small towns to the East of the city. This is much slower but less frantic than big city driving especially as we can’t keep up with the speed of traffic that most folks want to drive at.

Our first order of business was to pick up a Fed Ex package from our brother-in-laws house. It contained escrow papers for the sale of property in Las Vegas and the purchase of another Las Vegas property. We knew this was in the works but had hoped to complete the sales while at home where all pertinent info is available. However, as I said to someone, “it seems that most of our real estate sales have been done while we are traveling” so this one is no different.

After filling out all the sections required of us we went to the bank to have several sections notarized. Eventually after a few phone calls for clarification of some fine points we mailed the package back to the sender.

The weather here has been variable. It started out nice with big fluffy clouds mixed with sun but has deteriorated to overcast mixed with light rain showers. Not a good recipe for the 4th of July.

Our BIL Mark has been a most gracious host. He has BBQ’ed the last two nights for us and his daughter Dawn and husband Mat. Last night was excellent smoked salmon, his specialty.

We have been spending most days at Mark’s house as Dawn and her 9 month old daughter Samantha spend the days there also. Samantha is a joy to be around. She is curious as only 9 month old’s can be. Of course, everything goes in her mouth first so it keeps us on our toes to keep everything picked up that she shouldn’t have. 
Dawn & Samantha

Samantha with the 4th of July outfit Clyda bought for her. 
 Look at that red hair!
Saturday Mark and I worked on his garage door project which involves sanding down the door panels which are varnished wood with raised panels. We have one more to do which we hope to get done next Saturday.

If the weather improves we will drive to the coast a Blaine, WA for the fireworks display. If not, we may watch it on TV or see it here from our campground as some folks living near here fire off some really big fireworks each year.