Fire in the Hole!

After we returned from Hood Canal, I removed Sadie's furnace and began inspections. I cleaned up the fan, which wasn't that dirty. Then I checked the sail switch and found that it works fine.

At that point I was stumped. Then I got on the RV.net Forum, which is the source of 95% of my RV knowledge. (The other 5% is trial and error...oh, yeah...lots of error.) Someone sent me a link to a service manual for my furnace. Included was a diagnostic routine for a furnace that has a working blower but no flame.

My time has been somewhat monopolized recently, helping Pat and Katie get their new house cleaned and painted, plumbing up to date, locks changed, and sundry projects completed. They are moving in today. The point of all of this is that I hadn't a chance to work on the furnace until Tuesday, when I ran the diagnostics and found that the limit switch was bad.

Yesterday, I picked up a new switch, and today I installed it. That was the ticket. I reinstalled the furnace and turned on the thermostat, and voila, fire in the hole. It is kind of like having one of your children suddenly get well from an ailment, to have your coach "whole" again.

Now, Jill, where is the calendar. We gotta get campin' again.

The saddest tale we have to tell...

Click the photo for a slide show, including Tom polishing Sadie, and a lot of shots Jill took as compensation for the fact that we had to leave Potlatch today.


Today, our Hood Canal vacation came to an end, which is not to say that we didn't consider staying a few more days. I think the deciding factors were, 1) we get to see Pat and Katie's new house tomorrow, and 2) Saturday night temps in Hoodsport are forecast to be below freezing, and 3) the furnace is still not working. I think it is going to need to be removed and completely disassembled for cleaning.

So, we bit the bullet, packed up the coach, hooked up Daisy Mae and hit the road for home. It was a good day for traveling. The traffic was bearable; the weather was beautiful; and we have good things to anticipate after arriving at home. We stopped on the Skokomish reservation for gas, which is about 20 cents a gallon cheaper there than it is "on the economy." Sadie purred along and took all the hills in stride without a strain.

We stopped at Maytown rest area for lunch. Jill had made some ham and cheese sandwiches on rosemary/olive oil bread. Mmm, mm, mmm, mmm, mmmmm! Pogo got a short walk, so we were all happy. We hit the road again and arrived home about 3:30 pm. We will definitely return to Potlatch at the first opportunity. On the way home, the biggest question on our minds was, "Where can we go for our next trip?" When we got to the exit that leads to the Columbia Riverfront RV Resort, we talked about the idea of stopping there for another week. We were only half serious, but talking about it made us both think twice.

So, it is back to real life for the near term. Sadie needs her furnace fixed, and we need to do some maintenance around the homestead. So, look for further travels with Sadie...but not this week.

Trouble in paradise...but not very much...

Today began with a bit of a disappointment. I got up and turned on the furnace, which heated up the coach nicely. When it turned off and then cycled on again, no heat came out! This was, as Yogi Berra might say, de ja vu all over again. We had a similar problem two years ago this month. That time I disassembled the furnace and found about a cup of bees and other flying things in the combustion chamber. When they were removed, the furnace fired right up and has been working fine ever since.

This time the combustion chamber was clean, and the exhaust was clear, but still it wouldn't fire. I spent some time online looking for a solution. So far, I have not fixed the furnace, but I have gleaned enough information to conclude that there is a strong likelihood that the fan and/or the sail switch (a microswitch that is operated by adequate airflow produced by the fan, allowing the gas valve to open) may be dirty or defective. Tomorrow, I will look into the possibility of cleaning them.

The difference between today's mishap and that of two years ago is that, this time, we have a portable electric heater aboard. Last time, we got so cold we went home early. We also have an electric blanket on the bed, so we can stay warm one way or another. When the sun came up, the coach warmed up to the point that we had to open the windows to cool it off. So, our day was not spoiled in the least.

After we spent some really great time in our Bible study, we relaxed and then went to Hoodsport for some grocery items. We found more fresh oysters in the IGA store, so guess what we are having for dinner. We also took a drive up the west side of the Canal, but alas we forgot the camera. It was an absolutely beautiful day with clear blue skies, and autumn leaves reflected in glassy water. The wind was still, and the smells of saltwater and forest combined to complete a veritable feast for our senses.

Our day came to a close with a pink extravaganza reflected in the water.

A hike in the woods and oysters on the reservation...

View Larger Map

For those of you who may be geographers in the audience, I have included a map above showing the location of Hood Canal to Seattle and the Puget Sound. The route that is highlighted represents the trip we took today from Potlatch to Twanoh State Park. Twanoh is a beautiful park nestled in a gorge that comes down from the rain forest to the Canal. We hiked a couple of miles in the woods, which made Pogo very happy. Click the photo below for a slide show of the day's activities.


After our hike at Twanoh, we drove about 6 miles to Belfair, a town of some 3 or 4 thousand people, I imagine. There are a number of sizeable stores there, and our purpose was to find some new sun glasses for me, because, as usual, I had left mine home. On the way back, we stopped in Union (see map) and Jill took some outstanding pictures of the Olympic Mountains, which are behind us at our campsite and not very photographable from our vantage point.

We left Union and made a stop at a little farmer's market located on the Skokomish Indian Reservation. We got some sweet corn and fresh oysters in the shell. You will note in the slide show, that I opened the oysters and we will have them for dinner, shortly after I put this post to bed. Enjoy the post. I am going to cook some oysters.

Moon Over Bald Point

I just had to make one more post of the beautiful moonrise. Our site in the park looks directly across the water to Bald Point. As the moon came up tonight, it was awe inspiring; and though I recognize that photos can never capture the full beauty, they can give you a little idea of how blessed we are to be here at this time.

Winsome weather, walking wife, and new neighbors

Today dawned crystal clear, except for a slight layer of mist over parts of the canal. As the day progressed, the weather became more beautiful, if that is possible. It definitely felt like fall; nevertheless, it was warm enough that no jacket was required, which would not have been the case if the wind had been blowing.

As you can see in Jill's photos, the water was as smooth as glass. In my water-skiing days, I would have given anything for a day like today. Alas, I have neither a boat, nor water skis, nor the death wish that would be necessary to get me back on them. It is sometimes nice to relive the memories and appreciate God's creation just for the sheer beauty and not for the practical applications for which one might use it.

After we spent about an hour doing our current Bible study, we made a trip to Hoodsport, about 3 or 4 miles up Hwy 101, and "did the shops." There is a row of half a dozen or so touristy boutiques, although not all of them were open today. The used book store that we so enjoyed a year ago is now a tattoo parlor. Things change, and we like to see what small (I mean really small) town America is up to from time to time.

After lunch, I nodded off and then crawled into our bed for a "short" nap. I awakened about two hours later. Jill called to me, when she saw I was up, and said I needed to meet the new neighbors. They are from Tillamook, and they are Christians. We enjoyed chatting with them about many things, including the times we live in and how they fit in with Bible prophecies.

I learned that, while I was in the arms of Morpheus, Jill hiked around the RV park several laps to get her exercise. She said that the neighbors teased her some, but bless her heart, she walked for a half hour. I was not that motivated today.

On The Waterfront

Click on the photo for a slide show.


Once again we are on the waterfront with our Sadie. We decided to do one last RV vacation before we put the old girl away for the winter. Since we canceled our trip to Hood Canal in August, because Jill was in San Diego looking after our daughter, Laura, before our new grandson, Judah, was born, we decided we had to make it up.

We arose this morning in Clackamas to rain and heavy cloud cover and a temperature of about 49 degrees. We were a little concerned, but we pressed on with our plan. We headed off to church, and then came home and finished the packing of the coach. We hooked up Daisy Mae behind Sadie, loaded Pogo into her crate, and took off.

The first fly in our ointment was that there was a car that appeared to have slid off the road between our house and our favorite gas station. The police were in attendance, but the street was partially blocked, so we decided to just head for the highway.

The further north we traveled, the better the weather became. We finally stopped to top off the gas tank in Kelso, WA, about 50 miles north of Clackamas. The traffic was not awful today, which it can be on the stretch of I-5 that we traveled. Nevertheless, we stopped at the Scatter Creek rest stop for lunch. We discovered that the rest stop has been refurbished and now has room for many more trucks and RVs. They have even installed 6 (count 'em, 6) RV dump stations! Now, that is significant.

From Scatter Creek we continued on to Olympia, where we headed west to join US Hwy 101. The drive is beautiful at any time, but with the clear blue skies and sunshine today, it was spectacular. We arrived at Potlatch and our RV park, The Waterfront at Potlatch, just at 3:00 PM, as early as we could check in. For those few of you who don't know where Potlatch is, it is located between Skokomish and Hoodsport, on Hood Canal. Now that we have cleared that up, I will close by saying this has been a marvelous day, and as you can see from the photos, the scenery couldn't be more beautiful.