Don't Ask, Don't Tell

We are parked on the Oregon Coast with this view:

Don't ask what it cost us to stay at this primo space at the Pacific Shores RV Resort, and whatever you do, don't tell Jill! But the view is so spectacular, make that breathtaking, that I am just biting the bullet and enjoying every minute of it. 

This park was originally built by a company that marketed the sites to RV owners (make that RICH RV owners, among whom, alas, I do not number myself).  Eventually, the company went broke and failed to supply the advertised amenities, so the RICH RV owners sued, and finally were awarded ownership of the whole park. Now the sites are for sale at a fraction of their original price. 

We had no idea that we would have to pay what we are paying to stay in this beautiful spot.  There are other spaces available for about half the price, but they have no view.  But we are delighted, and since this trip is a bit of a make up for the vacation interruptus that we experienced when Sadie was longer at the Car Doctor than we expected, we are not complaining.

This park is near Newport, OR, one of our favorite coast towns and only 68 miles from home. Will we return? If we are feeling flush.  Are we enjoying ourselves?  Stay tuned and find out!

Kickin' back

We decided that, today, we will just take it easy, veg out, relax, kick back, be lazy...well, you get the picture. The day began with a walk along the river bank with the fur girls. They both love being on sand, and Lulu is definitely into water. To wit:

 As for Tom and Jill, we just love the scenery, and the beautiful weather and the feeling that, at least for today, the world is our oyster.

Papa couldn't resist the opportunity for some "artsy" photography, too.

And, when we returned to Sadie to relax, Lulu found her place in the sun.

Yep! It promises to be a great day.

A picture perfect day!

Today's post is all photos. I won't bore you with another tedious narrative.

 Pogo and Lulu ready for a romp on the shore of the Columbia River

 My girls, enjoying a morning walk on the river bank.

 Who knew a Mauxie would be a water lover?

 Columbia River looking south toward St. Helens, OR.

 Columbia Riverfront RV Park from the river bank.

 My lovely bride adorning Yale Lake, WA.

 Yale Lake looking SW. 

 The Old Blogger messing up an otherwise beautiful photo of Yale Lake. 

 The drive back to Woodland was not all bad.

 Cedar Creek grist mill, est. c. 1876

 Cedar Creek covered bridge.

 A little of God's handiwork. 

 And He did it again!

 Cedar Creek above the grist mill.

 Cedar Creek. Notice the flume for the mill on the left, near center.

 Cedar Creek covered bridge.

The "new" maiden voyage of the Sadie.

Today is Sunday.  If you read my last post, we just got Sadie back Friday from the shop, where she had her engine overhauled. We hurried home from church and put the final necessities aboard Sadie, hooked up Daisy Mae (our towed vehicle) and hit the road.  We traveled a whopping 93 miles to the Columbia Riverfront RV Park in Woodland, WA.  This is one of our favorite resorts, and it is rated among the top 100 RV parks in the nation.

The attraction is this:

...we are parked about 75 yards from the banks of the Columbia river, with an unobstructed view.  There is a nice sandy shore, where we can walk the dogs.  As a matter of fact, we did just that.  The first thing 4 month old Lulu (our Mauxie with moxie) did was to jump in the river and have a swim... not once, but twice! She is a 100 lb. dog in a 6 lb. body!

Of course, I didn't have the camera with me at the time, but there will be other opportunities. We are here for three days, and the weather is forecast to be spectacular the entire time.  I will keep you posted, dear reader, so don't go far away.

Here's Lulu looking out the window.               

And you hearing tic, tic, tic...

...everybody looking, tic, tic, tic...see them all a-searching, tic, tic, tic...that's all they hear-a but they couldn't find out where the noise was hiding.  With apologies to the Kingston Trio, that is the story of Sadie's recent woes.

We did make a trip to Pacific City in July, but the tic, tic, tic that has been plaguing me since last year at this time was driving me crazy.  Here's the whole story:

In September of last year, we went on a wonderful vacation over the Cascade mountains to Sisters, OR; south to Crater Lake; west to Brookings; north to Florence, and Newport and home again.  Along the way, Sadie began to make an unfamiliar and unwelcome noise.  I posted on the RV Forum about the noise, and virtually every reply said, "Sounds like the typical Chevy 454 exhaust manifold leak," or words to that effect.

I took Sadie to one mechanic, whom I trust, and he said, "It might be an exhaust leak, but I'm not sure, and I don't really have the space to work on her." Several weeks went by, and I was walking the dog with my lovely bride.  We stopped to chat with a neighbor who was washing his RV.  During the conversation, I trotted out our tale of woe.  He said that I should take her to the Car Doctor, here in Dallas.

Well, it happens that, in addition to the tic, tic, tic sound, Sadie had developed an oil leak at the rear of the engine.  So, I took her to the Car Doctor and asked him to diagnose the oil leak and see if he thought the tic, tic, tic was an exhaust leak. He correctly diagnosed the oil leak as a bad rear main-bearing seal. And he did find an exhaust leak, which he repaired. When I picked her up, he said, "There is a tic, tic, tic sound coming from the engine.  It might be a lifter. I'd try some Sea Foam and see if it will loosen up."

Well, the short story is that the oil treatment didn't help, and I couldn't stand not knowing what the tic, tic, tic was. So, in August, I took Sadie back and told him, "I have to know what is making that noise."  Rick did some diagnostics and said the sound seemed to be coming from the left valve cover area. "It's probably a lifter. I need to take the valve cover off to investigate further."  So, I told him to proceed.  The result was inconclusive, so we took the intake manifold off and tested the lifters...everything was good, except the tic, tic, tic was still there.

Rick said the noise must be in the bottom end of the engine and asked what I wanted to do.  Well, Sadie is probably worth something like $6-7K on the open market...with a good engine. Without a good engine, she would probably bring about $2K, unless I wanted to part her out. On the other hand, Jill and I love Sadie and are not ready to give up RVing. We can't afford a new coach and anything we could get in our price range would undoubtedly NOT  be as good as Sadie. Sadie's engine was partially torn apart already.

So, Sadie is now sporting a completely rebuilt engine.  We pulled the engine and sent it to the machine shop, where they determined that the number 3 piston had a bad wrist pin that was causing the tic, tic, tic. The cylinder was scored, but it was able to be bored out. Now we have new pistons, connecting rods, crank, cam, lifters, reground valves...in other words a virtually new engine.

I picked her up yesterday, and she just purrs. I thought she ran sweet before the tic, tic, tic ruined everything, but she really purrs now.

Tomorrow, we are going to leave for a three day outing to Columbia Riverfront RV park in Woodland, WA. That is all that is left of the two weeks we set aside for vacation, but Sadie could take us to Timbuktu now, I think. So, we are excited to have her back and to be able to plan trips without worrying that tic, tic, tic will turn into clunk, clunk, crunch, with a piston hanging out the side of the block.

Watch out now, gentle reader. There may be a lot more posts on "Travels with Sadie!"