We're baaa...aaacck!

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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.

Walking in a winter wonderland...

Click the photo to see a slide show of the beauty of Champoeg State Park in December!

Although it is probably past "camping" season, well, I guess it is never really past RVing season. Jill and I decided we needed one more outing before Christmas, so last Sunday, we packed up our stuff and the dog and headed for Champoeg (pronounced "sham-poo-ee") State Park, one of our favorites.

The park is only about 35 miles from home, so the outing was not a strain from the driving perspective. The amazing thing is that, just like last year, the weather was completely cooperative. We had mostly sunny dry weather for the three days we stayed, but now, two days after our homecoming, we are expecting temperatures to drop into the 20s.

We got the coach set up and planned to settle in for the evening on Sunday. I tried to get the automatic satellite dish to find our satellite signals, but it failed. Fortunately, I carry a spare dish for those occasions when the one on the roof is blocked by trees or whatever. Unfortunately, it requires a technician who pays attention to get this dish aligned.

I "fussadoodled" with the dish for about an hour and failed to find a signal. I moved it to various locations, I tipped it this way and that...nothing. At dusk, I gave up. Jill, meanwhile, had prepared supper. We dined on turkey dinner leftovers from Thanksgiving and found ourselves quite satisfied. After dinner, we had a lovely conversation that went on and on. So, this is what people did before the boob tube took over the world!

On Monday morning we decided to take a walk, although the weather was overcast. There are so many places to walk at Champoeg, but our favorite is a paved path along the south bank of the Willamette (say "will-AM-ette") River. As you will see in the slide show, even in December on a cloudy day, the Oregon rain forest can be breathtakingly beautiful. Among the photos are a close up of some fern in full regalia, and a tree trunk full of woodpecker holes. The "mansion" is situated across the river from the park and is only one of several large (and presumably) posh homes along this stretch of the river. How these homeowners must suffer.

Tuesday morning we spent a couple of hours working on our Bible study, and then we took a walk on another path in the park. Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera along. Pogo enjoyed her walk, as always, and Jill and I welcomed the exercise. The weather was sunny, but a chill wind came up and made things a bit brisk.

When we returned to the coach, I decided to have one more stab at finding a satellite signal. I installed the signal meter in line with the cable from the dish to the coach, just as I had before. That's when I realized my mistake from the previous attempt. I had installed the meter backwards! That is to say, the terminal that was supposed to be connected to the dish I connected to the receiver, and vice versa. I reversed the connections and had a signal in about five minutes. You may be able to fool some of the people all of the time, and you may be able to fool mother nature, but you can't fool my satellite signal meter. It knows when it is in backwards!

We watched a little TV after dinner. Just before retiring for the night, I took Pogo out for her late evening "hurry up" duty. The sky was absolutely cloudless; the moon was full, and the stars that oversprinkle all the heavens seemed to twinkle with a crystalline delight. (Sorry, Mr. Poe. I got carried away!) In my inimitable pragmatism, I realized we were in for a cold night. Fortunately, the electric blanket was reliable as ever.

Wednesday morning, the sky remained clear. The sun shone, and the wind howled. We opted not to walk. We lounged in the coach over coffee and conversation. At 11:30, I went out and took care of dumping the holding tanks. We had lunch with Perry Mason, and as soon as we learned whodunit, I disconnected the power cord and the cable, put away the dish, and we headed for home.

The fun did not end in the driveway. Jill unloaded our gear, while I winterized the coach, which mainly amounts to draining the plumbing to prevent freeze damage. It was sad to think we will not be camping for a while, although we plan to bring Sadie home to serve as a guest cottage, when all the kids and grandkids are here for Christmas. Thursday we put her back in storage, just in time to miss the first frost of the season.

L. L. "Stub" Stewart State Park

Is it the last trip of the season? We hope not, but it is getting colder outside. We had to make one more trip, just to try out the furnace, you know. Well, it works just fine.

We headed out Friday with a little concern for the weather. Nevertheless, it was dry most of the way to "Stub" Stewart, one of our favorites among Oregon State Parks. It is also the newest park in the system. It is set up to cater to RVers who do not like a lot of inconvenience. Every RV site has 50 Amp electric service, water and sewer (full hook-up), and according to the OSP web site, this park has wi-fi. Apparently, it wasn't working this weekend, at least in the part of to park where we stayed.

The park is located about 35 miles west of Portland on Hwy 47, in the general vicinity of Vernonia. This area is in the Oregon Coast Range mountains, which, though not the tallest mountains in the state, are among the most beautiful. Covered with trees, laced with rivers and streams, the Coast Range is a little bit of heaven.

We arrived at the park, found our reserved site, parked Sadie and hooked up all systems. Anticipating both college football games and World Series action on Saturday, I started a search with our "automatic" satellite dish. Alas, as is usually the case of late, it did not find any satellites. As best I have been able to discover in my research of the problem, this failure is due to the fact that a new satellite has been put into orbit since our system was built, and its presence "confuses" the software, which is not expecting to find a satellite at that location.

Whatever the case, I got out my trusty DishPro 500 satellite dish and my trusty support, homemade from PVC pipe, and in a few minutes, we had TV. Having put that task to rest, we got on to the more pressing task of relaxing. The weather began to spit a bit so we holed up inside and just enjoyed each other's company.

Friday night, the wind howled, causing something to go clunk, clunk, clunk against the coach. I'd have got up to see what was going on, had it not been for the driving rain and the fact that the clunking sounded fairly innocuous. I later discovered that the cap for the sewer pipe, which had been removed in favor of the sewer drain hose, was hanging from its rubber tether and clunk, clunk, clunking against the sewer pipe.

Saturday dawned with lots of fog, but the wind had abated. As the day wore on, the fog gave way to rain...I mean serious rain at times. We were able to get out for a stroll around the campground, but later we were grateful to be inside enjoying football. The highlight of the day, of course, was watching the Oregon Ducks demolish the Trojans of USC 47-20. My Phillies didn't do as well against the Yankees in the World Series.

Sunday, the day we had to leave, arrived all sunny and blue-skyed. I am not sure why it is so often the case that the best weather happens, when we have to leave. Pogo got another walk, and I managed to get a picture of the campground and our dear Sadie.
The drive home was spectacular, punctuated by fall-colored leaves, sunshine, unseasonably warm temperatures, and the realization that the RVing season may not, after all, be over. Jill and I often remark about the fact that we are blessed with a wonderful home to return to. This final photo is of our vine maple tree in the back yard. The others Jill took along our way home.

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.