A new home for Sadie

Our new driveway is rather massive!

Sadie all tucked into her new home.

Well, after 4 months and 6 days at the Ash Creek RV Park in Independence, OR, we moved Sadie into her new home. We have been living aboard, while we build a new home in Dallas, OR. Yesterday, we were able to put Sadie in the new RV garage! The house is not finished, but the RV garage is, and we got in just in time to avoid the first big storm of the season.

So, we are currently living in our accustomed luxury aboard Sadie, but under cover! It was so quiet last night. We had no idea whether it was raining or windy. The only downside to this whole situation is that we can't use the automatic satellite dish on the roof of the coach. I set out the portable dish, but was unable to find satellite 119W, so we have three channels: PBS, ION, and an all Spanish channel! The good news is that our Cricket internet still works great.

We expect to be moving into the house within a week or so. Then Sadie can have a good, thorough cleaning, such as we are unable to give her while we are living aboard. Once we are living in a stationary home again, I am sure, we will soon want to take a trip in Sadie. Now that she will be at home and under cover, I can do all the maintenance quickly and easily, so she is ready to go at the drop of a hat. And with an insulated garage, I won't even need to worry about winterizing!

Hello! Anybody home?

It has been a while since I posted. That is because we haven't been traveling with Sadie. We have been living aboard full time... in one place... while we are building a new home. We have been living in the Ash Creek II RV park in Independence, OR since June. It is a whole different experience living in one place in an RV vs. going "camping."

For one thing, we have been able to meet some of the neighbors and share in their lives, rather than just say "hello." Most of the people in this park are either full time residents or they are summering in Independence and will head south when winter sets in. Soon, there will be students at the nearby Western Oregon University moving in for the new school year.

Our tenure here is due to end on October 17th, when our rent comes due. Our able contractor tells us the house will either be move in ready by then, or close enough that we can park Sadie in her new garage and live there until move in day.

So, travels with Sadie? Yes, there will be some coming up. We have been accepted to the SOWERs ministry. So, we will be able to go on the road in service to our Lord. Our first trip will probably be in the spring, after we are settled in our new home.

How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm...

We replanted the herb garden in a larger planter that we can put outside. I added a connection to the automatic watering system, and we are now farmers!

Double, double, toil and trouble...

Here's an update on our star-crossed vacation. On July 22nd, we got Sadie ready for the return trip (150 miles) to Portland, where we planned to spend the night at Mom's house and meet the next day with Julie from Russellville Park retirement community.

My brother, Charlie, delivered Mom to the RV park while I was busy airing up tires and doing final checks for the road trip. Jill was walking Pogo. Charlie's daughter Laura needed to use the bathroom at the park, but we had a little trouble with the code for the lock on the door. And of course there was a little concern about getting 94 year-old Mom aboard, given Sadie's tall entry steps. Finally, we got underway a little after 1 PM.

We stopped at the Scatter Creek rest area, about 10 miles north of Centralia, WA. While we were having our lunch, it occurred to me that I had never seen anyone load Mom's luggage aboard the coach. Indeed, it was not present. Nor was it in Daisy Mae.

I tried to call Charlie, but he wasn't answering his cell phone. I was able to reach his wife, Bev, and we decided that if we couldn't get hold of Charlie, who had the luggage in the trunk of his car, we would go on home and Bev would mail Mom's stuff to her. Finally, Charlie called and confirmed the plan.

Just as we pulled out onto the interstate, Charlie called again and said, "Turn around. I will meet you at the rest stop and bring the gear." There is no place to "turn around" between the rest area and Centralia, so we agreed to meet in Centralia at the outlet mall.

It took Charlie about an hour and ten minutes to catch up to us. The transfer was made, and we continued on home, arriving about 7:15 PM. I called Bev to let her know we were home, and she said Charlie hadn't returned yet. He probably was caught in rush-hour traffic in Olympia.

This was one vacation that left us happy to be home.

On the road again!

Yesterday, we arose after spending the night at the Super 8 Motel in Shelton, WA and had a leisurely continental breakfast in the motel. We updated our emails and then headed over to Vander Wal's Garage to see what progress had been made on repairing Sadie's brakes.

Marlo, who holds down the fort in the office, told us that Don Vander Wal had stayed until 8:00 PM working on the problem of why the break pedal would not firm up after bleeding the system. He finally discovered that the new master cylinder that was supplied by the auto parts house was defective. Somehow, Don managed to get another master cylinder, and then he came in before opening to install the new one; this on a day when he had to travel on business!

Marlo told us that everything was done except bleeding the system again and that we should be on the road by 2:00 o'clock. We decided to drive out to Hood Canal to the cabin where my brother and his family are vacationing. Shortly after we arrived there (about 12:30 PM, as I recall), Marlo called to say that Sadie was ready.

We went back and paid the tab, thanked all our new friends at Vander Wal's, hooked up Daisy Mae and headed for The Waterfront at Potlatch RV park. Upon arrival we were assigned space #11 and we settled in to enjoy what we came here for in the first place. The weather was glorious, the view spectacular, the fact of having the brake nightmare behind us priceless.

We enjoyed the venue until about 5:00 and then headed over to my brother's place, where we had a sumptuous feast including smoked salmon, filet mignon and pork chops, which had thawed while Sadie's refrigerator was without power. In addition, we had fresh steamer clams and sauteed oysters, shrimp pasta and cole slaw. A little vino completed the repast, which was better than any I have ever had in a restaurant, because it included so many family members and dining al fresco beside the still waters of Hood Canal.

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

Are you sure this was our vacation plan?

OK. This is not the blog post I had intended to be making, and this is not the date on which I had intended to make it. We left Independence on Sunday, July 18th, for four glorious days on Hood Canal in Washington state. On the way, we picked up Mom in order to deliver her to my brother and his family, who are staying in a cabin a few miles away from The Waterfront at Potlatch RV park.

We made it to within about 15 miles of our destination when Sadie's brake pedal went to the floor, and the brake warning light came on and stayed lit. Fortunately, we were able to stop before anything awful happened. I limped in to Sundance RV and Auto in the outskirts of Shelton. Sundance doesn't have a service department for mechanical problems, but they were very gracious in allowing us to stay on their lot for the night (remember this was Sunday.)

I called Good Sam Emergency Road Service, and they couldn't have been nicer. The first thing Antonio wanted to know was whether we were safe. I assured him we were and proceeded to tell him my tale of woe. He took my phone number and said that, since it was Sunday, he would do some research and see how best to help us. Then, he promised, we would get a call back.

After about half an hour, Veronica called me and said that they had located two possible places that could repair Sadie's brakes, but of course she wouldn't know for sure until morning. She suggested that we be towed to one of them for safe keeping. I assured her we were in a safe place and asked if it might not be better to wait until we found out for sure who could do the repairs. She agreed and promised to call in the morning.

When we woke up on Monday, the coach was cold inside.
We had no AC power for the electric heater, and I didn't want to run
the battery flat by using the propane furnace, which has
a 12V fan. Pogo wrapped up in a blanket to keep warm.

On Monday, which happened to be my birthday, Veronica called a little after 9:00 AM and said that she had located Vander Wal's Garage a mere five miles from us, and she said a tow truck would come to us in two to two and a half hours. About 45 minutes later, Mike from Nisqually Towing showed up. He was very professional, very courteous and very competent. In a matter of minutes he had Sadie hitched up to his tow vehicle. He took us to Vander Wal's, where we were met by Don Vander Wal.

Sadie's link to the Nisqually Towing truck.

Just about ready to tow.

Here's Mike, whom Jill dubbed our "angel of mercy."

Don, too, has been very accommodating, professional and competent. He took Sadie in right away and began working on her. About an hour and a half later, he reported that the master cylinder had failed. He also suggested replacing the flexible brake hoses, which were showing their age. He told us that it was unlikely that Sadie would be ready that same day, but he said we could stay aboard her in the garage yard, behind a locked gate. He even gave us the key to the gate, so we could go to my brother's cabin for a birthday celebration.

Vander Wal's Garage, highly touted among the locals in Shelton.

Don Vander Wal could not be more accommodating.

In spite of everything, we slept like tops, and in the morning we went to McDonald's for breakfast and WiFi. We checked back after a couple of hours and learned that there was a little hiccup in the works. There is a valve in the system that is designed to provide SOME braking, even when the system fails. When it is activated in a failure situation, the valve piston moves so that brakes on at least two wheels give some braking. Thank God for modern technology, even the kind that dates back to 1988.

Poor Sadie jacked up for repairs.

It turns out that when the piston is activated, it has to be deactivated, in order for the brakes to be restored to proper working order. In the case of Sadie, that meant uninstalling and reinstalling it. Once that was done, bleeding the brake system could commence. Unfortunately, that process commenced late in the day and didn't go well. At last, Don told us that we would not be able to leave today.

So, we are currently housed at the Super 8 Motel. We could have stayed in Sadie, but we really wanted to have a long hot shower and TV, which were not options with Sadie in her current state of being propped up on jacks, without electricity. We are hopeful that we will be back on the road tomorrow.

Summing things up: 1) We are incredibly grateful to our Creator that we were saved from disaster when the master brake cylinder failed; 2) we are very grateful to Good Sam Emergency Road Service for prompt and thoughtful service; 3) we are so thankful for Mike and Nisqually Towing... our angel of mercy, as Jill called him; 4) we are very grateful for Don Vander Wal and his crew for their prompt service and professionalism in taking on a difficult and unexpected repair job with no notice and for being so very gracious in giving us a place to stay.

I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the kindness of The Waterfront at Potlatch RV Park in forgiving us for not keeping our reservation. They usually require full payment if there is a cancellation less than a week before the expected arrival in the summer. They forgave the whole thing and told us whenever our coach is fixed, they will find a place for us.

We did get the chance to go to Potlatch State Park
and see what we came to see, if only briefly.

Here's the birthday boy. Not the birthday I would have
planned, but we had fun in spite of our troubles.

Pogo likes to walk on the beach.

This is not the vacation we planned, but it has been so full of blessings, that we would be ungrateful indeed, if we were to pout about the situation. It is great to be alive. We serve an awesome God!!

The Wet Carpet Blues

The Wet Carpet Blues
(Tune up your guitar and strum a blues beat.)

I woke up this morning;
Got outta my bed.
Took me a shower,
And washed my bald head.

I covered my kisser,
With lots of thick suds,
Shaved off my whiskers
And put on my duds.

I went to the bathroom,
To use the fixed throne.
I suddenly noticed the socks on my feet were as dry as an ol' hound dog's bone.

Chorus:
I lost those wet carpet blues;
I lost those wet carpet blues;
I lost those wet carpet blues,
And I no longer have soggy shoes.

I fought the john and the john...LOST! (I think.)

Day two of the battle against pot. Today, I got kind of mad at this whole leaking toilet situation. I got online and did some research about this plumbing, which I found is called "The Gray Menace." It turns out to be Poly-Butylene (PB), which was very popular in the era in which Sadie was built. Later, not so much. There were apparently a number of class action lawsuits about the stuff, primarily regarding its usage in home construction. Seems that prolonged exposure to heat and pressure had a tendency to rupture PB pipes. Thank goodness I always use a pressure regulator at the park faucet.

That being said, PB is what I have and I had to work with it. I removed the pot again and went to True Value with a piece of the pipe. My plan was to install a shut-off valve in the system, so we could at least use the rest of the plumbing, in the event the toilet needed to be removed.

I purchased a 1/2" X 3/8" compression shut-off valve, brought it home and installed it on the PB pipe stub. Jill turned on the pump. Hello; it leaked. I tightened the fitting another 1/4 turn and went about my business. Fifteen minutes later, I checked the fitting again...it was leaking. Tighten a quarter turn...wait 15...check...tighten a quarter turn...wait...well, we decided to go to Dallas and check on the house. When we returned, I checked again...it leaked.

OK. Now I was taking no prisoners. I turned off the water, removed the valve and...well, I had a problem. The brass compression ring that is part of the valve wouldn't come off the pipe. I got out my frameless hacksaw, and with a mighty 1/4 inch stroke, I sawed through the ring far enough that I could break it with the twist of a screwdriver.

Having removed the valve completely, I returned to True Value. Now, when you live in a small town and you go to a hardware store with 6 employees, they get to know you pretty fast. Amidst some good natured ribbing, I picked out my next array of parts for my aresenal. These comprised a PEX press-on Street elbow and a straight lavatory supply valve.

I went back to Sadie and installed said items. Then I turned on the water pressure and checked for leaks. No leak! Just to be safe, I left the system under pressure for about 45 minutes and never found a leak. At last, I felt comfortable reinstalling the toilet...until, that is, I remembered the broken sink sprayer that is attached to the toilet for the purpose of cleaning the bowl.

Alas, I was faced with a decision either to leave the broken sprayer, thus dooming myself to the possibility that I might have to remove and replace the toilet yet another time to replace it, or to endure the ribbing of the True Value guys. It was off to TV for me.

With some mild expletives and a couple more skinned knuckles, I finally conquered the john! Of course, the proof of the pudding will be in checking the bathroom carpet tomorrow morning. Will it be wet, or will it be dry?

Tune in next time to see if success is really success or if it is only defeat in success' clothing.

The Battle Against Pot

A few days ago, after Jill left for a visit with daughter Tara in Denver, I noticed the carpet in the bathroom was wet. Let me back up a moment. Prior to this discovery, I had foolishly let the gray water tank get too full. After my shower, I noticed the water was not draining out of the shower pan, a sure sign that it is time to dump.

I did the dumping and thought no more about the situation, until I went in the bathroom later in the day and noticed the wet carpet. Once before I had allowed the gray tank to over fill. In that case, the carpet immediately outside the shower had become wet. In this new incident, I attributed the wet carpet to the overfilled gray tank and the coach, perhaps, sitting at a slightly different angle, causing the water to "settle" in a different area.

Ever the optimist, I tried drying the carpet with towels and a heater with a fan on it. I thought I was making progress, until I got up in the night, used the toilet, and discovered my PJs were wet, where they had lain on the floor during my "business." That was the night before last.

Yesterday, I had to leave early for the drive to the Portland airport to pick up Jill. When we returned home, I found the carpet even wetter. Some investigation showed a little dampness around the place where the supply pipe emerges from the floor behind the toilet. With a heavy heart, I concluded that I needed to remove the toilet and investigate further. (The heavy heart was the result of having removed this toilet once before for a different problem.)

I read the installation/removal instructions in the manual and went to True Value to buy the "right" tools, because I remembered how difficult it was to remove the toilet with the tools I had on hand. I have to admit that the thought of having a "legitimate" reason to purchase some new tools mitigated my heavy heartedness a bit.

Upon arriving back home, and with all due alacrity and dispatch, I attacked the toilet. After some struggling with access to the bolts and more than one skinned knuckle, I had the beast out. I determined that the fitting joining the water supply line to the toilet was leaking. Upon further inspection, it appeared that the compression fitting was slightly deformed, probably as the result of 22 years of having been compressed. I also discovered a hose loose under the toilet and replaced it on its nipple, adding a hose clamp, which was in absentia.

I reattached the compression fitting and had Jill turn on the water pump. Oops! It was leaking worse than before. "Turn it off; turn it off," I cried. I disconnected and reconnected the compression fitting. "Turn it on!" Jill complied. No leak. "Turn it off." I began reseating the toilet and reinstalling washers and nuts on the virtually inaccessible flange bolts. Good, good; that one is on. OK, I think I have... Oh! No!! One of the nuts dropped into an inaccessible recess in the plastic casting that is the base of the toilet.

I removed the one nut I had been able to get on to the bolt, disconnected the compression fitting and removed the toilet again so I could shake the missing nut out of its hiding place. On the next attempt, I got the compression fitting tight and installed the washers and nuts. At last, the toilet was back in its proper place. I picked up my tools, congratulated myself for a job well-done and sat down to relax for the evening.

This morning. I got out of bed and went in to use the bathroom. Funny! The carpet seems wetter than when I went to bed. I reluctantly felt the compression fitting, and Yes! it was drip, drip, dripping on the carpet.

Tune in next time to see if our hero can stop the leak and re-install the pot without using any curse words.

And the adventure begins.

We are currently residing at the Ash Creek RV park in Independence, OR. The sale of our home will be complete tomorrow, and the construction of our new home is underway in Dallas, OR, about 15 minutes from the RV park.

We moved all our worldly possessions out of our stix and brix into P.O.D.S. (Portable On Demand Storage units), which left us effectively homeless, while we are having a new home built, complete with RV garage for Sadie!! We moved aboard Sadie in our driveway and stayed there a couple of days while we cleaned up the house before turning it over to the new owners.

Ash Creek RV park is nestled in the middle of Independence such that you might never see it, if you didn't make an effort. Our son, Patrick, works a block away and had no idea it was here. It is not fancy, but the facilities are nicely kept. Many of the residents are either full time in the park or are snow birds and stay here in the summer and somewhere further south in the winter. We are quite comfortable, and we believe we will be able to remain here comfortably for the 4 - 5 months it will take for our new home to be ready.

The one problem we have is that just about the time we moved into the coach, the fresh water pump stopped working, along with the overhead light in the bedroom and the overhead light in the kitchen. Since we are connected to city water and have other lights these problems have not been stressful, but they are in need of repair, whenever I can find the time to fix them.

Today is Fathers' Day, so we will be spending the day with Patrick and his wife, Katie. I'm sure the electrical problems will still be here tomorrow!

Final preparation for full time RVing (short term)

This is a late entry. I took Sadie, shortly after the installation of the new satellite antenna, to visit our favorite mechanic. In addition to lube, oil and filter change, I asked John to investigate why, when Sadie sits for a while, it takes a lot of cranking to start the engine.

Well, true to form, John and his colleagues investigated and found that a) it is not a fuel pump problem; b) it is not a fuel pump relay problem, as had been suggested by fellow RVers on an internet forum, because the fuel pump is mechanical, not electrical; c) the 22 year old carburetor had a tiny leak, so the fuel was leaking out of the float chamber. Hence, Sadie would start fine, if she had only sat for a day or two, and she would require extensive cranking if she had sat longer.

After I recovered from the shock of what it costs these days for a carburetor rebuild, I told John to go ahead and fix it. The idea of fuel leaking on the top of Sadie's engine, was not appealing to me. It took 24 hours, but the job is now done, and I look forward to more reliable starting. That is a good thing, because we will be living aboard for about 4 months, while our new home is under construction. So, starting the engine will not happen frequently, as it often does on a road trip.

We are now ready to move aboard, scheduled for June 15th. In the meantime, all we have to do is pack up all our worldly possessions for storage and move them into P.O.D.S. (Portable Onsite Delivery System) so they can be hauled away to a warehouse for safekeeping until our new home is ready.

Stay tuned.

A new crown for our venerable lady

Sadie got a new crown today. The weather was fair. We brought the old girl home yesterday. So, I got up on the roof and removed the old, non-functional satellite dish and replaced it with a newer, better one.

This one is a Dish 1000 model. When it is activated, it automatically searches the sky until it finds a satellite. When it has identified the satellite, it computes the relative position of EchoStar 119W and locks on it. Then it computes the positions of EchoStar 110 and EchoStar 129 and adjusts itself so that it is locked on all three satellites. It took about 5 minutes to accomplish all of this on the first try!

Since we will be living aboard for about 4 to 5 months while our new house is under construction, we thought it a good idea to have TV available. The new installation was not especially difficult. In fact, the hardest part was removing the caulking material that was on and around the old unit. Once that was accomplished, it was a matter of setting the new unit in place, marking the screw holes, applying some caulk to the base of the unit and screwing it down...with self tapping screws: no pilot holes necessary (or advised!).

Since this was a replacement operation, I didn't have to spot and drill a new hole in the roof for the cables. I simply removed the cover plate, removed the old cables, inserted the new ones, applied more caulk to the new cover plate, and screwed it in place.

The lower end of the installation was simply a matter of placing some F fittings on the ends of the coax cables and plugging everything in. There was one other task. It was placing the control unit through the side of the box on which the TV is mounted and which contains the power supply. By situating the new control unit through the side of the cabinet, I obviated the need to open the cabinet and fiddle with the controls when setting up or stowing the dish.

So, Sadie now has a first class satellite TV antenna. I'm jazzed. Tomorrow, I will install the new memory foam mattress. Then it is off to the mechanic for some mechanical tweaking.

And now for something completely different...(with apologies to Monty Python)

I'm missing Sadie tonight. It has been some time since we have been able to get out and use the old girl. There is a reason for that. We have sold our sticks and bricks...no, we are not going full time in Sadie. We are going to build a new home in a different city that is closer to our son Patrick and his wife, Katie.

The upshot of this change is that we will be living aboard Sadie for the duration of the build time. That is likely to be about four months. There are very few RV parks near where we will be building, but we found one about ten miles away that looks suitable. That park will be within a half mile of our kids' house, so it will be fun to be able to see them without an hour and a half of driving involved. They are both school teachers, so they have a lot of time in the summer.

Before we move aboard Sadie, there are a few things we need to do to her. Jill has recently had back pain while sleeping in the RV bed. We have ordered a memory foam mattress, which we hope will alleviate that problem. In addition, our satellite antenna has failed. It is so old that it doesn't recognize all the satellites in the sky and gets so confused that it just gives up. I will be replacing it later this week, I hope, weather permitting.

I also want to have the fuel pump relay checked/replaced and the transmission checked and serviced. Once those things are done, the hard work begins: deciding what we need to live and what stuff is optional. So, there are big doin's afoot for Sadie. We are excited, to say the least. We get to have a taste of full-timing in Sadie, and we get to build our dream home. Did I mention that our new home will have a garage/shop for Sadie?

We are blessed beyond measure (with apologies to Guyanne Valentine).

A walk on the wild side

Click the photo for a slide show

The weather was beautiful this morning, while we had our breakfast, but we could see that it was deteriorating. When the dishes were done, we donned our fleece and hit the trail. By contrast with the developed part of the park, which we explored yesterday, the area we saw today is almost totally wild. I say almost, simply because there are some obviously maintained trails.

In fact, there is a labyrinth of trails in this part of the park. We followed some of them and eventually wound up in someone's backyard! Well, not really, but we came upon a housing development and a beautiful new school. We headed back toward the park, investigating many of the trails we found. We saw more homes, an abandoned mill of some kind, an abandoned "ghost train" comprising a diesel locomotive stripped of almost everything, including the metal skin that once covered its framework.

As we arrived back at the park we began to notice some moisture in the air. We relaxed for a while in the coach. After lunch, we took Daisy Mae for a drive. We found some beautiful homes, which we could have coveted, had we let ourselves go. Several had RV garages and shop buildings...just what I would want in another home, if I ever get the chance to have another one.

After the tour of the "street of dreams," we headed north on the highway that runs by our RV park. It led us eventually to Scio, a town I have always wanted to visit, simply because I have passed the sign on I-5 for the Scio exit a million times. Scio is a LITTLE town, about six blocks long. There are some beautiful homes there, and there are some shacks there. We saw a number of churches, including a huge Baptist church. Judging by the size, the Baptists must have Scio wrapped up!

On the way back to Lebanon we took a little detour...of about 17 miles! We had seen an ad on the internet for the Mallard Creek RV Park and golf resort, so when we saw the sign, we had to see what it was all about. The RV park is quite lovely, with lots of level concrete pads. The golf course is very nice for a rural course, but is not by any means a world class course. That judgment, however, is the result of driving by a couple of the fairways and greens. It may be better than it appeared to me.

The thought that kept going through my mind was that someone had gone way out on a limb to build this wonderful facility in such a remote area. There were four or five RVs in the park, and we did see some golfers, but there is absolutely nothing else to do here but play golf. I wonder if there are enough golfing RVers to make this place pay. This is March. Perhaps, the place fills up in the summer. I hope so.

Pastoral beauty and stark reality

Click the photo for a slide show.

We are in Lebanon, OR at Gill's Landing RV Park. The park itself is quite lovely, nestled on the shore of the South Santiam River. There are 21 RV sites, with full hookups, level concrete pads, 50 Amp electric service and restrooms that are cleaned three times a day. Currently there is one other RV in the park, not counting the park hosts, who have been serving here for over a year!

A railroad bridge and an auto bridge span the river at the north end of the park. It is very quiet here, although this morning I heard a distant train whistle. Nevertheless, we have seen only one train, consisting of locomotive and one flat car cross the railroad bridge. Later a truck on railroad running gear came across the river and slowly worked its way along the track. Otherwise, there has been no rail traffic.

We drove into Lebanon proper in Daisy Mae this morning. After a stop at Wally World (WalMart to those of you who are not RVers), we toured the city's residential areas, found the airport, and strolled downtown proper. This is a lovely little town, which has obviously fallen on very hard times. I would say that at least 1/3 of the store fronts on Main Street are vacant. There are several thrift shops still in business. The movie theater still operates, too, but given that the median income of Lebanon is considerably below the median for the state of Oregon, one wonders how long it will remain open.

I don't know what the primary industries are here, but it is obvious that the residents could use more industry to support the population. Gill's Landing is quite a beautiful park and is operated by the city, so some things are flourishing, but it made me a little heartsick to see the downtown businesses struggling so much.

The weather has been quite nice. It got up to 63 degrees today, and the sun has been shining through a high, very thin overcast. Tomorrow we intend to investigate the other side of the river and the rest of the city park, which is on the other side of the railroad and the highway. There is a path that runs under them from the RV park to the day use park. We are told there are a number of nice trails for hiking. Pogo will like that.

Lebanon or Bust!

It was just after 9:00 AM when we parked in front of the Portland RV Storage warehouse, where Sadie lives, when we are not aboard. Lucien had her all ready to go. I hopped in and brought the old girl home so we can prepare for a jaunt down the Willamette (say "Will Am Ette") Valley to Lebanon.

Jill went shopping for a few last minute items. Apparently, the shopping was good today. She was gone for a good, long time. She did well, though, and we have added some new accessories, including a wall mounted paper towel dispenser, an over-the-door hook on which to hang a dish towel, a combination salt/pepper shaker, a double 12V outlet (so we can run the GPS and the Tire Pressure Monitor System simultaneously), and a clear plastic angle extension for the sewer hose, so we can monitor the progress of flushing the holding tanks.

But the most exciting new addition is our brand new, berry-colored Travasak. This amounts to a fancy sleeping bag. It is the size of a queen bed and has high thread-count sheets that are attached inside with Velcro. One side (top) has double the insulation of the other, so by turning the "bag" over, you can change from winter to summer configuration. I assembled ours with a standard double electric blanket between the upper (winter) side and the upper sheet. We usually don't leave the furnace on at night, so having an electric blanket in winter keeps us oh-so-toasty.

The reason for getting the Travasak is that Sadie, while she has a queen bed that is supposedly a "walk around," leaves us very little room for getting around the bed for purposes of making it up. With the Travasak, we will be able simply to zip up the sides and smooth out the bed. We can't wait to sleep in it tomorrow night in Lebanon.

Small town America and a world class air museum.

Main Street U.S.A. Well, actually it is 3rd Street, McMinville, OR.

We are unexpectedly living aboard Sadie again for a couple of days. Patrick's varsity boys' basketball team (Perrydale H.S.) is in the league playoffs. They had a game last night, but it was in McMinnville, OR, about 50 miles from home. Yesterday morning, I said to Jill, "Here's a crazy idea. Let's repack the coach and go to McMinnville for Pat's game." After hesitating for a little while, she said, "OK. Let's go!"

So,we left home about 2:00 PM and arrived in McMinnville at the Olde Stone Village RV park a little before 4:00. If that seems a little slow to you for a trip of 50 miles, I hasten to point out that it was Friday afternoon on a sunny weekend in February, and the road to McMinnville is also the road to the beach! On top of that, you may not know about Dundee.

Dundee is a small town along highway U.S. 99. It isn't big, but it has a stop light and the highway is a narrow two lanes. A few years ago, wine making became a big new industry in the Willamette Valley. Consequently, Dundee has grown in popularity. There are a number of wine tasting rooms in the vicinity. Bottom line: traffic is always stop and go in Dundee, and when it goes, it goes at the speed of a teenager sent out to mow the lawn.

Olde Stone Village RV park is very nice, and the price is very reasonable. We got all set up and drove on in to McMinville H.S. in time for the game. Things went pretty well for about a quarter and a half, but then St. Paul's Buckeroos, who average about a head taller than the Perrydale Pirates, pulled away. At halftime, they led by nine. Perrydale made a run at the end of the third quarter and got back within seven points, after dropping behind by as many as 16. They made another run late in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late. Pat was proud of his team. They played hard and their sportsmanship made St. Paul look a little shabby by comparison.

Today got off to a sunny start and actually got to be quite warm by midday. We decided to visit the Evergreen Air Museum, which is right next door to the Olde Stone Village. What an amazing collection of aviation history. The central attraction is Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose. This wooden, amphibious, cargo plane is enormous, boasting the longest wingspread of any aircraft in history. It is truly spectacular with its 8 (count 'em) 8 3,000 horsepower engines. It only flew once, and that for about 30 seconds. By that time, technology had passed it by, WWII ended and the old bird was relegated to the ranks of an aviation curiosity. Still it is a marvelous achievement.

Photo courtesy of Google Photos
Here is a photo of the Spruce Goose
And another. Note the size of the other planes in comparison!
Here is the tail section.
This is a Lockheed F80 shooting star from immediately
post WWII, which was used for a trainer for a couple of decades.
And what appears to be a WWII era Navy bird.
The museum has lots of military hardware, including some tanks.

Of course, the museum contains much more than the Spruce Goose. It is, in fact, the best air museum I have seen (I have not been to the Smithsonian). There are planes spanning the history of flight from a model of the Wright Flier to jet fighters used in Iraq and everything in between. I was thrilled by the number of WWII warbirds on display, and today there were several WWII veteran pilots available to answer questions. We spoke to one gentleman who flew the same model torpedoe plane as George H. W. Bush. He was about as modest as anyone I have ever met. He said, "We were just a bunch of kids. We thought it was fun!" In my estimation, this is a world class air museum (and we didn't even go in the space museum section!) and would make a good vacation destination, especially when they have added the planned water park, complete with a water tube that will pass through the fuselage of a Boeing 747!

Following our visit to the museum, we returned to Sadie and took Pogo out to take care of her business. Then we decided to go out to lunch, something we rarely do when we are RVing. We chose the Golden Valley Brewery and Restaurant. The restaurant section is quite reminiscent of the kellers I visited in Bavaria a couple of decades back. The food, was not, although it was quite good. I don't remember seeing quesadillas on the menu in Munich! Jill had a bock lager with her lunch, and I chose a porter. Both were quite respectable.

After lunch we had a nice stroll along the main drag and looked in shop windows. We had an encounter with a street magician, and finally found ourselves in an ice cream shop, where we succumbed to temptation.

Jill had an encounter with Ben Franklin!

I texted Patrick and we agreed to meet for the next game in the playoffs this evening. Jill and I met Pat and Katie at the gym and were treated to a very exciting contest between St. Paul and the undefeated league leader, Country Christian H.S. St. Paul came out on top, which was a mixed blessing for Pat. On the one hand, he would have liked to see St. Paul go down after they beat him last evening, and on the other he is glad to know that Country Christian H.S. is NOT invincible.

A glorious Pacific Northwest day.

It was with great sadness that we departed Potlatch today. The weather was perfect again today. Well, there was a bit of a breeze, but the sky was cloudless and the sun was warm.

We had a relaxed morning, lounging over breakfast and coffee. Watching a little of the Winter Olympic Games and enjoying the view out of Sadie's picture windows.

At last it was time to get ready to go. Thanks to my Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), checking tire pressures is a matter of turning on the monitor and reading the reports. I did add some air to one of the suspension airbags. Otherwise, air was not an issue. I checked the oil and coolant levels, too.

Jill has become the master of preparing the inside of the coach for travel. She stows everything that is loose, checks the cabinet doors and drawers, turns off the furnace, water heater and ice maker, locks the refrigerator door and usually has a cold soda stationed by my driver seat.

I finished up my duties by draining the holding tanks and stowing the hoses and electrical cords. After a final walk around to make sure nothing was unlocked or still deployed on the exterior of the coach, I declared Sadie road-ready. Jill fetched Daisy Mae, and we hitched her up to Sadie's tow bar. Then, off we went.

We stopped on the Indian Reservation for gas, which is cheaper there than on the economy. It turns out that we got the best mileage we have ever achieved while towing Daisy Mae! I won't mention the actual MPG, lest I offend some "greenie" who might happen to be reading this post. Suffice it to say that MPG is going in the right direction.

We had a lovely drive home in brilliant sunshine. There were two stops, other than the fuel stop. First we stopped at the Toutle River Rest Area, where we used the facilities. We watered Pogo and then had a little lunch. Back on the road again, things went well most of the way home. We both heard a noise along the way, and wondered what it was. We stopped at another rest area, and I inspected the tires, towbar, Daisy Mae and the underside of Sadie. Nothing seemed to be awry. Later, I heard the plastic wine glasses that hang over the dinette table clink together and thought, "That is a familiar sound...kind of like what I heard before we stopped."

The end of the story is that we arrived home safely and in one piece. We unloaded Sadie. Jill began doing laundry and baked an apple cake for our Bible study group, which is due to arrive at 7:00 PM. I tidied up the things we had brought in from the coach, and now we are ready to entertain.

It was a wonderful trip, and although we hated to leave Potlatch, we have a pretty wonderful life at home, too. So, being home is also a great blessing!

Lazy daze

No photos today. The weather was beautiful, with a cloudless sky, after the morning fog on the Canal burned off. On the other hand, it was a bit breezy, which made it a little uncomfortable to be outside just sitting.

I spent a good part of the morning working on my lesson for our Bible study group tomorrow evening. We are studying the book of Galatians, and I drew chapter one, so I will be laying the groundwork for the rest of the study.

We talked about going out for an adventure, but the view from Sadie's picture windows was so enchanting, that we decided to just relax indoors. We watched "Singin' in the Rain" on DVD, one of our collection of movies that now numbers about 115. That is just the collection we carry on board. At home, we have a few more. We do enjoy movies, but most of those in our collection are from the 1930s, '40s and '50s.

I went out to grill a couple of steaks for dinner, and found the sky filled with stars. Just outside our door is Orion. Off our starboard bow is mars, and the sky is even dark enough that I was able to see the Pleiades off the starboard quarter.

Jill has remarked several times today that she doesn't want to go home tomorrow, and if we had a clear choice in the matter, I would stay. The weather has been beautiful, and the canal view is spectacular from our front windows. Nevertheless, duty calls. We will head home tomorrow and entertain our Bible study group tomorrow evening. This will give Jill a chance to play a hymn for the group to sing.

So, tomorrow we will head for home, but the bottom line is that the RVing season has begun. As soon as we get our SOWER membership taken care of, we will be able to plan our outings for the year. We are so excited about doing an RV mission trip. In the meantime, we can always take Sadie out for a little exercise now and then!

A day in Port Ludlow

Click on the photo for a slide show of today's adventure. We had lunch at the Port Ludlow Inn. While we were eating, the Kenmore Air seaplane in the final photo arrived with a couple as passengers. They were the only other guests in the restaurant, and apparently they were celebrating the woman's birthday.


Today, we were expecting the poorest weather of our trip. So, rather than be confined to Sadie's interior, as much as we love her, we decided to make a drive to Port Ludlow, some 60 miles further up Highway 101. The further north we went, the worse the weather became. At times, we were driving in a deluge. Nevertheless, we pressed on.

We were rewarded for our efforts by finding Port Ludlow to be a very inviting, upscale community. I had been there in 1981 by boat, but what I saw today was anything but the dilapidated, light industrial community I remembered. The whole area appears to be a resort town built between my previous visit and our experience today.

In the slide show, you will see the Port Ludlow Inn, whose architect has successfully evoked the 1930s with the design of the inn. I pictured myself chatting with Scott and Zelda in the card room overlooking the bay.

The food was delightful. We both ordered the seafood sandwich du jour, which was a grilled shrimp panini with Gruyere cheese, served with real french fries and a wonderful mixed green salad with a light vinaigrette dressing. I had a Black Butte Porter and Jill had the house Pinot Gris to complete a wonderful repast.

Our trip home was unremarkable, except for the fact that we moved from heavy rain showers in the Port Ludlow area to clear skies and sunshine in Potlatch. It was a lovely visit, but we are happy to be back "home" enjoying our Sadie.

We're baaa...aaacck!

IMG_1752
Originally uploaded by punomatic

We just can't keep ourselves away from Hood Canal. Today we drove to The Waterfront at Potlatch RV resort and parked in our favorite spot (#7). The weather for the drive up was pretty nice, with intermittent sun and no rain all the way!

I guess direct marketing works. The resort sent us an email saying that we could get one night free if we paid for a night's lodging. Well, that was too much for me to resist. So, we made a reservation and here we are for the first Travel with Sadie of 2010.

It was fun "de-winterizing" Sadie. We brought her home on Friday. My first task was to check all the tires and the air suspension. I got them all aired up to the proper inflation, and then I installed the senders on all the tires for my new Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS).

The TPMS I chose is from Truck Systems Technologies. It includes radio frequency sending units that screw on to the tire valve stems, and a monitor that sits on Sadie's dash board. As we drive along, I get updates of the air pressure and temperature of each tire, every few seconds. The system not only monitors Sadie's tires but Daisy Mae's (our towed vehicle) as well! That is very comforting, since we had a blowout on Daisy Mae last spring that we didn't know about, until we heard the bare rim rolling on the pavement. Ouch!!

We had some problems with TV once we got settled. First I tried to find the satellites with our roof top "automatic" satellite dish. According to the system, we found satellite #119, but we could not get any programming to come in. Next I tried our "back up" dish. I was able to find both satellite #119 and #110, which are the two satellites for Dish Network. But I couldn't get a good enough signal from 119.

So, next we tried the free cable TV. We were only able to find 12 channels on our main TV, but our cheapo "Curtis" (I bet you never heard of that brand!) picked them all up. Unfortunately, the reception was pretty awful. We asked at the office whether anyone had had similar problems. The owner came over and tried very hard to make it work. At last I realized that the problem was in our wiring. I made a couple of changes, and now we have a clear picture, but still only 12 channels on the Vizio. How we do suffer.

We are considering taking Daisy Mae, tomorrow, and heading for Port Townsend, a lovely Victorian town up the road about 65 miles. As an alternate, we might go to Port Ludlow, about the same distance in a different direction. Or... we could just have a lazy day in the coach, with books and movies and games and lounging around.

It's the choices in life that wear one down; know what I'm sayin' here??

How long is the RV off season, anyway?

It has been about five weeks since I have seen Sadie. She is, I hope, comfortably nestled in her covered storage area. Jill and I are getting itchy to do some RVing. We received an invitation to stay at The Waterfront at Potlatch for half price in January, February or March. Well, here it is February, and we haven't made a reservation. Jill is going to Denver the end of the month, and we are both headed for San Diego in April. Looks like it will be March before we go, although there is a fair amount of February left yet.

There has been an exciting development in our RV life. We learned recently about an RVers' ministry called SOWERs, which is an acronym for Servants On Wheels Ever Ready. This group provides labor for upkeep, remodeling and construction projects for Christian organizations such as churches, orphanages, camps and so on. Their M. O. is to send RVers to a project for 4 weeks at a time. The men are required to provide 72 hours of work during the first three weeks, and the fourth week is free time for exploring the area around the project site. In return, the host organization, for whom the work is being done, provides the team with RV sites, including water, electric and sewer hook ups.

We haven't decided yet, whether we will apply for membership, but we are seriously considering it. Earlier, we had been contemplating an extended trip, similar to the one we did last spring. Now, we are thinking and praying about what that trip might look like, if we were SOWERs. Stay tuned.