The Dust is Settling, I Think

Last week I made arrangements with the local body shop to have the repairs made to the truck - new driver's side mirror, tow mirror, and repair of the 'ding' made by the mirror flying off. Mr. Jolly Rancher came through for me, and authorized the body shop to send him the bill. I am very grateful for his honesty and willingness to 'do the right thing'. The paint job looks great! And the body shop was so helpful - they even agreed to repair and paint another 'ding' located near the one they were already repairing, and not charge extra for it! More gratitude!

On Friday I called the trailer repair folks and they towed the trailer to Mt. Vernon, about eight miles west of John Day to check it out. Today I picked it up and towed it back and parked it - all by myself - in the Forest Service parking lot. They packed the wheel bearings and did a full check - and found nothing wrong with it! I dunno - it looked kinda bad, with those tires tucked ever-so-slightly under - I'd call that an under-tow!!! Anyway, if it happens again I think I know what to do now. I was told that the wheel bearings were okay, but getting ready for service anyway. So, another $432 for that service - and everything is fine. I hope I'm at the end of breakdowns, flat tires, etc!

On my way to Mt. Vernon I stopped at the Clyde Holliday State Park to see what it is like. I'd thought about parking the rig there while I was here when I first signed up for the PIT program. I spoke with the park hosts who were very friendly and who gave me a lot of information about getting on as a state park volunteer and getting my parking space free. We also exchanged some war stories about our respective trips up here - theirs was much more expensive...

While I was picking up the trailer Liz called from Tucson to say that the judge would notify her in four months about the outcome of today's hearing. Boo - ooo. When I spoke with her last night she mentioned that a previous blog from before we left Tucson had upset some of her family. I try not to be too personal here as any issues that might arise between us as we travel we try to take care of and there is no reason to discuss them here. I do want to say, however, that over time there may be other things that might upset any of my readers. If it is something that you feel I should be aware of, please email me separately, but not as a comment on the blog. I'll be happy to speak with you about it. Also, this is my blog, for my expression of what is happening in my life, whether it includes others or not. And I will definitely have feelings and opinions about things that I may want to communicate here. As you can see already, I try to keep things anonymous, but those who 'know' who they are might feel a little uncomfortable reading about something that everyone else is reading - well, they DON'T know who YOU are! And finally, sometimes the truth just plain hurts, and that is an invitation to look at reality.

Catching Up

Today is Tuesday, July 22, and I'm posting for the last few days. Although nothing much happens in John Day, Oregon, a lot of things are going on!

July 20
Just Another Day at the Office - er, Pit

When Liz learned that another PIT project was taking place simultaneously with ours, and it involved an archaeological dig, she just HAD to participate. Our boss and another Forest Service staff member working on his master’s degree in anthropology were heading up the dig project. The group was meeting at Big Creek Camp in the Malheur Forest at Logan Valley, about 35 miles from John Day.

When Liz told our boss of her desire to go, but that she had some physical issues and had never camped before, he tried to talk her out of it. But she countered every argument he gave against going with her determination to prove she could do it, and it was decided that she would go. He would lend her his tent and sleeping pad.

While I thought that seeing a dig, and maybe participating might be interesting, I wasn’t desiring to sleep on the ground, be cold and dirty, and work in the heat for a week. I loaned Liz the camping supplies I had, helped her plan what to take for clothing, bedding and food, and agreed to drive her up to the site and back. Those two days – Monday and Friday – I would participate for the day only.

By the end of the week Liz was a veteran camper and archaeological assistant, proficient in using the screens for filtering the dirt, looking for flakes of obsidian (used for tools and projectile points) and charcoal (evidence of human use of fire with stone hopper mortars). She found a tool point the very first day in the first layer taken from the pit.

Over the week other Forest Service staff came to the area to see how things were going. Our boss – the forest archaeologist – has been heading up these digs for over a decade, with many of the same folks who were in attendance this time. The Forest Superintendent showed up one day too, and teased Liz that cougars like small women – she was now ‘cougar bait’!

The digging and screening was intense, in the wide-open spaces of Logan Valley (designated as a National Historic Place), with the Strawberry Mountains within view. The valley has been the site of other digs to gain knowledge and understanding of the people who lived there thousands of years ago. Liz came home with every muscle aching - she said not one place on her body didn't hurt. and she described her experience as "volunteering to go to jail and work on the chain gang!"

Pie for Breakfast

One thing about being a grown-up…we can eat dessert for breakfast if we want to! And this morning a blueberry pie, fresh-baked by Liz last night on the grill, because the oven in our “new” old stove doesn’t work. The stove is a replacement for the one that was here when we arrived – it was dying by the day – only two burners worked – then one – then none.

Last Tuesday before 7:30 a.m., and before I’d awakened, the “maintenance” guy showed up with our replacement stove. An hour later he checked the burners and supposedly, the oven, announcing that all the elements had heat.

We had bought some beautiful blueberries in the local grocery and were looking forward to a fresh pie. When Liz put it in the oven to bake – no heat – now what? Improvise! So outside it went, into the covered propane grill, with juices running over as it “baked”.

Well, it was yummy! And we had pie for breakfast this morning, with cream.

We’re still grumbling about the stove, however. The two-burner to one-burner to no-burner was supposed to be replaced by a brand new stove that currently resides in the Forest Superintendent’s house, for his use while he builds a new house. At this point, because we now have a “working” four-burner it’s looking doubtful that we’ll ever see that new stove.

So Liz has added a new skill to her resume – “Pie Chef a la Grille”!

John Day, John Night

Liz and I seem to have started something new – revitalizing the tradition, and pleasure, of sitting on the front porch and saying “hi” to the neighbors. The only thing is, no one else is sitting on their porch, or even noticing that we are sitting on ours.

We’re on one of the two main streets that intersect in John Day, and we’re only one long city block to the light at that intersection. All day long the street is full of pickup trucks with dogs in the back, logging trucks hauling logs from the forest to the mill in Prairie City, bicycles, motorcycles for singles and duos, trailers with horses, RVs, ATVs, boats, and heavy construction equipment. The Les Schwab Tire piggyback truck rolls through town about twice a week. Oh, and many pickups are loaded with cut logs – we wonder if they’re expecting a really cold winter!

Nary – or almost nary – anyone sees that we are here watching. They are all focused on “getting there.” Some are even on cell phones, as the only reception is in town.

So as we watch we also see the John Day police go up and down the street – and until this past Friday night we’d conjectured that there were only two police on the force – one for the day and one for the night – the day cop I named John Day, and the night cop I named John Night. However, Friday night as we were eating dinner, we met John Weekend. He came to the door friendly-like, and wanted to know if we knew who owned the green pickup across the street. It seems that a local rancher had taken off the pickup’s driver-side mirror as he passed through town. I confessed ownership.

Omigosh! “Malheur” is a French word that means “bad times”…when is it going to end? The tow mirror was lying 15’ down the street from the truck, with broken mirror glass scattered all over. It seems that Mr. Jolly Rancher had called the police to “turn himself in”, so they came over to let me know.

John Weekend indicated that Mr. Jolly Rancher was a good guy who was on his way down to the small “town” of Seneca to cut hay. Apparently he had a wide load vehicle for that. He felt that the rancher would do the right thing to get the mirror repaired. John Weekend took my information and later called to ask if he could give my number to Mr. Jolly Rancher. I said yes, but for him to call the next day, as we were tired. It was the end of the week for the dig and we’d worked in the heat and dust, broken camp, and were finishing up, and just plain dog tired. He gave me his card and told me to call him if things didn’t work out with Mr. Jolly Rancher.

Sure enough, Mr. Jolly Rancher called at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday morning to offer to pay for the repairs. So, with the auto repair shop being closed for the weekend, I set aside the task until Monday. BUT – I did take the truck off the street and managed to squeeze it into the very narrow driveway behind the house.

Still no news about the trailer repairs…

Making Things Fit

Not having a TV available – and there’s probably not much from here (probably from Portland) we are being creative about our “spare” time. We bought a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle and over the span of about a week we managed to complete it – well…almost. I mean, it’s now complete, but on the back of one piece are the words “lost piece”.

You see, the pieces I was working on would stick to my arms (from leaning on the table) and then they’d fall on the floor. I thought I’d kept up with them all. But when we’d put all the pieces into the puzzle there was a little space left – hardly noticeable because it was the color of the table surface - the piece was missing. In jest, I traced the outline of the piece, to make a ‘filler’.

Liz was feeling upset and incomplete having that space and just kept doggin’ me about it. So… on Saturday I thought to look down the heat register under the dining room window with my flashlight. There it was! The run-away piece. With a straightened coat hanger and a dab of Super Glue I nabbed it and pulled it up. Mission and puzzle complete. And Liz is now off my back about it!

Now, we’ve moved on to puzzle #2. Not willing to do something a little simpler, we bought another challenging puzzle. This one is only 1,500 pieces – and about 1/3 of them are some shade of purple. What were we thinkin’? These puzzles are crazy-makers! Sometimes we just want to ‘get a bigger hammer’ and make them go in the spot they’re ‘supposed’ to go in!!

By the way, this time I taped a paper bag over the register.

The Latest
We’re sitting at Subway having a breakfast sub and coffee. Yesterday morning the coffee maker decided it couldn't pump any more. We told the boss about the oven and the coffee maker. Mr. Fixit came to help with the oven - if only we'd pushed the button that said 'manual' for the oven, the grill wouldn't be such a mess with baked-on blueberry pie filling! He also looked at the faucet handles in the bathtub - if you turn the cold one 'just right' you can get cold water. Turns out that the handles that are on don't fit the stems in the wall - duh! He's going to try to fix that for us too.

Yesterday morning I took the truck to the body shop to get an estimate on the repairs - a new driver side mirror, tow mirror (they come in pairs, possibly), repair of the 'ding' where the tow mirror hit the truck fender as it flew off down the street. Total cost $630 and change. I called Mr. Jolly Rancher and left a message on his cell phone. I told him that he could look at the estimate at the shop, and I need to go to Boise on Saturday (to take Liz to the airport) and would like to have the repairs done by then. I haven't heard from him yet.

Short story

The independent insurance agent came out from Boise this morning to look at the trailer. Short story, he doesn't think the insurance will pay for the repairs, and I should have the trailer repair guys who showed up for the second flat tire take a look at it. He's not sure what the problem is, but offered a few suggestions to check out.

Creve! Again!

Liz and I finally got settled into the house; Dee left on Friday morning, so I moved my things from the upstairs room to the other bedroom on the first floor. We spent the day quietly, taking a ride into Mt. Vernon, a little town about nine miles west of John Day. We went looking for a farmer's market we saw a flyer for, but all we saw was a small flea market. Being the adventurous women we are we decided to take a ride on the road leading south through town. It took us to the forest and a much higher elevation. When we ran out of road we headed back on the road we'd passed and coasted down the mountain, to the main highway, somewhere between Mt. Vernon and John Day. Later in the afternoon we grilled bison burgers and watched the sun go down. No big crowds or fireworks this holiday.

On Saturday and Sunday we planned and implemented some of our ideas about the landscape and interior changes for the house. Liz pulled the Heatolator out of the fireplace - all by herself. It's now sitting in the living room waiting for someone to help her get it out of the house. On Sunday we both put our hands to pruning the shrubs and making a landscape plan for the house. I took photos and drew a site plan noting proposed changes.

Today we offered our written report and the photos to our boss, Don. It being a Monday after a holiday, he was preoccupied by other activities and didn't get a chance to look at our progress report before we left the office to take care of some personal things.

Most immediate to me was ANOTHER flat tire on the truck, this time the right rear. I called the road service who sent someone out to put the spare on. Then I took the truck down to Les Schwab again for repairs. Another stem valve that failed. I got it! Replace all the others, too!!! So that's what I did - another $50 for three (including labor for removing the tires, and putting them back.)

It turns out that the people who came on the service call to repair the tire thought they were repairing a tire on the trailer. I contacted the road service to advise them to correct their records to show it was the truck. BUT - it turns out that the people they sent do 95% of the RV repairs in this area. They'd been to the trailer and offered that the tire didn't look so good...DUH!! But they suggested that I might need new wheel bearings. I told them that I would get back to them after I heard from the insurance agent, and I'm still waiting to hear from him/her.

Liz is making plans for a flight back to Tucson for a Social Security hearing on her application for disability. She's been hoping that the government would make a settlement, but no such luck. It looks like I'll be driving her to either Boise, ID or Portland, OR to catch her flight at the end of the month.

Two Days Later

Today is Wednesday. We've been in John Day less than 48 hours. Lots has continued to happen.

On the night of our arrival, after unhitching the trailer, initially we emptied the trailer refrigerator and packed our large cooler with the frozen things; plastic bags for the other things. We took those to the house that is being provided by the Forest Service. Another volunteer, Dee, who will be leaving on Friday, greeted us. She said she had planned to take us to dinner, but it was too late for that now. We looked around to decide on our rooms. Liz took the second downstairs room because of her arthritis and inability to climb the stairs to the second level. I took the room upstairs that had the most windows. Then we went to dinner.

After a nice dinner of pizza and beer we went back to the trailer to get some of the clothes and other things we would need in the house. When we came back with our things we found that the bed-making angel had made our beds! We were so grateful to Dee. We finally put ourselves in bed, to begin learning about our projects the next morning, 9:30 a.m.

Tuesday, July 1, we met our boss Don Hann at the Forest Service office. He got us started on the paper work for badges, and then we learned about the projects available to us. We decided to concentrate on making a plan for the historic landmark house we are staying in. It is in need of some TLC and upgrades, and we will make an assessment and write a plan for this. In addition we will be participating in an archaeological dig in a couple of weeks. We will also be making monitoring stops at selected sites throughout the forest. I will report more details later.

We finished our first day at about 4:30 p.m. I had managed to contact my auto/trailer insurance company to make a claim on the trailer. We were invited to dinner by Don and his wife Ann, and along with Dee we had a marvelous steak dinner at the Snafflebit Restaurant - hello to Su and Liz, and farewell to Dee.

This morning we prepared to go to work on our house project, but I wasn't sure we were to show up to the office. I placed a call to Don and left a message. I went out to truck to clean it up a bit and get some paper work. That's when I noticed that I had a flat tire on the truck - the front passenger side. So I called my road service to request assistance. They sent a fellow from Les Schwab Tires on the west side of town. I needed a new stem valve. Off with the tire, on with the spare, after some hassle getting it from underneath the truck. I followed the service man to the garage and after waiting a few minutes I could leave, only paying the $7 for the stem. I am grateful for the road service - at $110 a year it's a bargain. Today's service call would have been $42.50 in addition to the stem.

Now I'm waiting for the insurance agent to contact me for assessing the trailer on site. I'm also grateful that they decided to look at the damage before denying the claim as a mechanical failure that is not covered by the insurance.

I thought Mercury retrograde had passed, but I understand that it's shadow will continue until July 6. I can't wait!!!

This afternoon here we sit at a Subway wi-fi hotspot where we had some lunch and tried to do some online work. Luckily we aren't tied to a set schedule and we can work from the house and do some of our own field work. This will be a fun project!

The Good News...

But first the bad news…

The day started out well with a good breakfast made from leftover pilaf and scrambled eggs, put together like fried rice. We began getting things unhooked and stowed. First though, I needed to put together the fittings to a new 10’ sewer hose. The hose was just barely long enough to reach the sewer pipe and I asked Liz to hold the hose down so it didn’t pop out of the hole. I attached it to the black tank outlet and opened the tank. Oo-o-o-ze. That’s all. No flow, just slow-moving waste. I decided that it was so slow moving because the tank wasn’t full, so it had no pressure to push it out. So I asked Liz to put water into the tank using the valve on the toilet. To make it easy on herself, she sat down on the toilet and pulled the lever. Soon, water began to flow onto the floor, and I thought – oh, no! Did something happen to the valve? No – it was operator error. She hadn’t pulled it enough for the water to go into the tank. Instead it was going just into the toilet and it had reached the top of the bowl and overflowed. So together we watched the water fill the tank. When it was full, I went out to open the valve to empty the tank.

Yes, there was enough water pressure, but it was still slow moving. Before leaving Tucson I had emptied the tank and put a strong chemical in the toilet to clean out some of the residue that had accumulated over the last four years. With only a little water initially to start the process, it had apparently done its job well, so there was a lot of sludge to move out. The water drained slowly so I rocked the trailer a little to see if anything would dislodge – no. Liz thought that if we shake the hose a little the stuff might move on down to the sewer dump. That action caused the hose and clamp at the tank end to come off, and waste began to flow onto the ground. Quickly I held the hose to the connection and then closed the valve. I put the hose back together and tried again. Eventually the tank stopped flowing – I don’t know what’s in there still, but I put more chemical and a couple of gallons of water in there to keep the process going.

Then it was unhooking the hoses after rinsing all the mess from emptying the tanks – the galley and gray water tanks, too. The water pressure at the pipe was so strong that within a second there was water spewing out and difficult to control. We made a big mess, and had to put away dirty hoses from them lying on the wet ground. Not to mention that we were also dirty and hot and I was getting very cranky!

Finally we got everything put away and rolled out of the “site from hell.”

The man in the office had shown me on the map how to get onto I-84 from the park. Following the directions I found myself not anywhere near where he said I’d be. I drove through a residential area and finally came to a main drag, where I stopped at a gas station to get some directions. After reviewing the map further I saw that I had made a left turn out of the park, when I should have made a right turn…The directions at the gas station were great, and we were actually in a good place to get onto the highway.

At this point we were leaving Boise, heading to Ontario, OR where we would make our connection to RT 26 into John Day. The sign on the highway said “to Ontario” – take a left where the road split. At the same time another sign said “this way to Ontario”. I was headed toward the first sign, when Liz said I should take the other, which I did – it was not the right way, so I had to find a ramp where I could turn around and go in the opposite direction. That solved, we were on our way to Ontario.

Liz was the ‘navigator’ so she advised that we needed to find the route out of Ontario that went to Vail. I was looking for a gas station, and the route was secondary to my interest at the time. I passed all the exits to Ontario thinking that there would be more than one exit with a gas station – NOT!! So I backtracked to the Ontario exit where I saw the gas signs. Liz said that there were gas stations on the exit she wanted me to take, but I didn’t see any. I pulled into a Shell station and was venting about all the hassles of the morning, when I saw a woman at my window. Now that I was in Oregon, she was there to fill my tank and wash my windshield. What a surprise!

After filling up, I parked the trailer and we walked to the nearby Denny’s for some lunch, before heading toward RT 26 and John Day. Instead of going back onto the Interstate and exiting at the ramp, we followed – mostly – the directions given by the station attendant. I missed a left turn because I thought it would have been marked with the route number, but it wasn’t. We meandered briefly, and came out on the correct highway out of town to John Day.

Pretty quickly we were on a very rural, agricultural highway – speed limit 55 – very reasonable for the trailer. We just kept following the route and signs, and enjoying the views. I had phoned our contact with the Forest Service to let him know we were leaving Boise. He said it would take us probably four hours. We finally got out of Boise around 11:00 a.m., so we would be expected about 3:00 p.m.

Again, as we were in the mountains the climbs were sometimes long and steep. I’d been advised that there were no gas stations between Ontario and John Day, so I filled up in Ontario and hoped for the best. Part of the highway into John Day is marked as a Scenic Highway, and it truly is. The trip was very pleasant, but it took longer than expected. After coming through most of the mountains, on the western side the wind was very strong. I became concerned about the trailer in that much wind. I found a pullout by a pond. Both Liz and I also needed a bathroom stop, so this was an opportune moment. There were also thunderclouds and we could hear the thunder from a recent passing threat of rain.

I’m so glad we stopped at this spot to wait. There, before us was a ‘medicine garden’. The plants were wild, not planted there. But there was mullein, great plant for the lungs; sweet sage, the kind the Indians prefer for their cleansing ceremonies. There was willow, chokecherry, and other plants. I said some prayers to the plants and asked if I could have some for myself, taking only a little from each.

After about 20 – 30 minutes I decided to continue, but going a little more slowly. Auspiciously, the posted speeds were the ones I planned to do. A little more climbing, passing through quaint Prairie City, and being inspired by Strawberry Peak, and we came into John Day. It was about 6:00 p.m. and the sky felt dark because of the recent storm. We followed the directions given us, and pulled into the parking area.

I had been told to park the trailer on the eastern parking lot and Liz was getting me into position when it happened. I put the truck in reverse, and eased back…CRUNCH! I put the truck into drive and eased forward…CRUNCH! The wheels on the left side of the trailer were locked and I was pulling the trailer, but the wheels weren’t going around. One of the tires was actually at a slight angle. I stopped, called our ‘boss’, Don, and luckily he was in the office. He came to us and saw we had a problem. I unhitched the trailer and stabilized it.

Then we went to dinner…We had arrived, and safely! And that is very good news!!!

On to Boise

Day Four, from Ogden, UT to Boise, ID was pretty uneventful. We drove all day on the Interstate, stopping as needed for breaks, food, and gas. We arrived in Boise around 3:30 p.m. We were looking for the Flying-J that was purported to be down a certain ramp, about ¾ mile. It wasn’t there. After driving through part of downtown Boise we found a Chevron station and pulled in for a fill-up. Again, asking the cashier about any nearby RV parks, she told us of one near the fairgrounds.

We found the park, and its setting was very nice, along the Boise River greenway. It had grass and fairly large trees. There was no one in the office, and as it was a weekend I thought it was possible that the office wasn’t staffed. There were flyers about the park and how to find a spot, and envelopes at the front door. So we went ahead and pulled into a spot – another pull-through with a small tree.

A little later we noticed that someone was in the office, so I went over to confirm the site selection and pay. The man behind the counter seemed abrasive to me – perhaps it was me, as I was hot and tired, and didn’t want any hassle about getting the rig situated well. He said if I turned the rig to face the other way the distance to the services would be the same – or I could unhitch the trailer. I said I wasn’t going to unhitch for one night’s stay! At any rate, the way the site was situated none of my ‘leads’ would be quite long enough to the electric or the water. Luckily Doc had bought a 30-amp extension cord that I now got to use for the first or second time in its history. I also had to put two hoses together to reach the water, as the main one was about three feet short of reaching the water.

When I paid for the site I said I wanted water and electricity – didn’t need the sewer hookup. He said, oh, that’s a full hook-up site - $30 please, and you can have a 10% discount for cash – we don’t discount for club memberships (Escapees, Good Sam, etc.). With the discount it was $29 and change, after he added tax and other fees. I paid it because I didn’t want to have to move – but I wasn’t happy.

The door to the trailer was facing the western sun, and it was expanding to the point that it wouldn’t close properly – Doc and I had had a similar situation in Pahrump where the door would expand while closed so that you couldn’t get it open without a lot of tugging. It would be about four more hours of sunlight before the sun would be low enough to end the heat.

Liz and I had decided that we would grill the steaks we’d brought, and use our new grill. She was in charge of getting it lit and doing the cooking. After a couple of false starts we had it going. She cooked some rice pilaf as well, and we had some sliced fresh tomatoes. Yum!!! After the sun set and we sat outside a while, we watched another movie we’d purchased at a Flying-J stop – “A Soldiers’ Story.” I began to relax more, and began to sleep a little through some of the movie. So when Liz wanted to pause for a smoke, I went back to what I’d missed.

After movie, bedtime, and a good night’s sleep.

Into Utah

The beginning of Day Three arrived very early in the morning with Liz shivering from the drop in temperature through the night. We’d forgotten about the cool nights – she was trying to keep warm with a little fleece blanket and her lightweight robe. I found a big, warm blanket for her and then went back to bed for a little while. Later, after warming up a bit we got dressed and went for breakfast – a nice buffet. We especially liked the sausage gravy over biscuits. Liz had a hypoglycemic attack as she hadn’t eaten anything for dinner the night before, so she wasn’t feeling well at first. After getting something in her stomach she recovered and felt much better.

After breakfast we disconnected the water and electric and headed out for our trip up I-15. But before we could get there we had to take a little trip west on a secondary road, which turned out to be rugged and slow climbing, and beautiful. Finally on the Interstate we began traveling a little faster.

While the Interstate is faster, it is also a little boring regarding the scenery. I found myself sort of zoning out every once in awhile. Liz took a mini-nap. We had an agreement that I would stop about every two hours so she could smoke a cigarette. As the two hours coincided with the need for a fill-up, that worked well.

Through Utah there are many Flying-J truck stops, and as I had a Flying-J card I stopped there to make my gas purchases. This day we also ate a nice lunch at one of their bigger centers – a lunch buffet this time (two buffets in one day – oh, my!!!).

As the miles passed by and the day wore on, we began to look for a place to stay for the night. There was some construction near where we needed to transition from I-15 to I-84, in Ogden, UT. Following the signs we thought would take us to I-84 we took an exit that actually put us on RT 89, which parallels the Interstate. Again, it was time for another fill-up and when I stopped I asked the cashier how to get onto I-84, and whether he knew if there was an RV park nearby. He said we could pick up the Interstate about four miles down the road, and he thought there was an RV park in the next little town.

We managed to get onto the Interstate, and shortly afterward we saw a big RV Park sign looming next to the road. We took the next exit ramp and made our way to the park, which was just down the street. It actually backed up to the Interstate. It was a beautiful park with big old trees, grass, and flowers. They said they had space available – a pull-through – and that was fine for us. In the evening we watched the DVD of the movie “Chocolat!” on the computer. I love that movie! And it brought me some much-needed relaxation.

When Things Get Tough, The Tough Go Shopping

Our journey toward Flagstaff and Page became a challenge as the day progressed. As we approached Flagstaff, making the transition to Route 89 N I noticed that the truck brakes seemed to be doing the work to stop the trailer, and the brake controller was not showing the right light configuration. Something was definitely wrong.

I pulled into a pullout space seemingly made just for me to get off the road to assess the situation and decide the next step. As I looked around I saw that within only a short distance there was an RV service center! So I made my way there. It was located at the end of a shopping mall area, with very little maneuvering space. I pulled in and went inside.

The man at the desk said that it would probably be two hours before they could look at the trailer. I called the mobile RV service I’d been using to get my repairs done, and asked their opinion of what the problem might be – the trailer brakes or the brake controller. The consensus was that it was the brake controller. The technician had checked over the brakes in March when repairs were made, and he reported that they were fine. The trailer hadn’t been out but once for the driving course I took.

I told the man at the desk to make a ticket to check things out and do what was necessary. He said he would call me. It was almost 10:00 a.m. by the time we completed the paperwork. Liz and I headed over to the mall on foot to bide our time.

We found ourselves in Penney’s and noticed that there was quite a nice sale in progress. So for a while we perused the wares and eventually I found some dresses that appealed to me. Did I need a dress? No. But could I use a dress? Definitely! I found a ‘designer’ dress that I just couldn’t live without and it was over 50% off, for a sale price of just $30 – couldn’t pass it up. And it looked great on! I also found some jeans on sale – and I did need some new ones.

Liz found a couple of shirts and a pair of pants. So we headed to the cash register.

After making our purchases we decided it was almost lunchtime. So we went to the food court and ordered a Subway ‘foot-long’ sub to share. As we were sitting down to eat, I got the call that the trailer was ready. They had put a new brake controller in – cost $210. So after eating our food we headed back over to the service center.

I paid the bill with my charge card, and I asked the technician there to show me how to adjust the controller. He showed me how he had set it to the recommended settings. He said that the same company that made my old controller also made the new one, but the old one had had many problems (the driving course instructor had told me the same thing). He said that he’d had the new controller on his truck/trailer for over a year and a half and had only had to reset it three times. I thanked him for his help, and we drove away.

We were finally on our way again, to Page. This was a very arduous journey through steep climbs and a really BAD road. The road was ‘wavy’ so it felt like riding in a boat on a choppy sea. We were bounced and bounced. Because of all the climbing I didn’t run my air conditioner. So in addition to the bouncing, we had the ‘blowing’ of the wind through the windows. And it was HOT!!!

I was concerned that the last fill-up at the gas station would not get us to Page, and I made a comment about coasting into Page on fumes. Because of the climbing, the truck used a lot of gas, and I couldn’t count on the 100 miles per half tank that I’d been getting. So I became very concerned when the indicator dropped below ¾ and we had many more miles to go. As it turned out, the last few miles into Page are mostly down hill, so I did use coasting to help me get there. Luckily, I had about 1/8 tank when I arrived at the gas station. I filled it up and we headed into Utah.

We figured that we could make it to Zion National Park in time to settle for the night. We approached the park as the sun was dropping. Again, gas was a concern, but I felt we would be fine. When we got to the park entrance the ranger told us that all the camping sites were full, but if we wanted to drive through the park it would be $25, plus another $15 for taking the RV through the tunnel. He said there was an RV park at the junction where we had turned on the road to the park – I guess I didn’t see it – but he couldn’t tell me whether there were any spaces, as it wasn’t the park’s responsibility to keep up with that information. He was blunt and humorless.

I turned the rig around and headed back the 11 miles we’d come. We found the RV park near the corner of the intersection. There was a gas station there where I decided to fill up and inquire about the RV park. It turned out that the young man and woman who were running the station also ran the park. We could stay there for $16 – pull-throughs, water, electric. We had our pick of sites as there was no one else there.

As Liz needed a smoke break she walked over to the park that was old, and could be easily missed as an RV park – it looked like a vacant lot. She walked around to select the right site for us – one that had a working electrical box and water pump. I’d never been to a park where the water was turned on by pumping it first.

After filling up I drove over to the site Liz had selected and pulled in, hooked up, and set up for the night. It had been a long, hard day – still hot. I was glad to be able to turn on the AC in the trailer for a while before we went to bed. Then I opened the windows and turned on the fan. We noticed that there was a restaurant across the road that served breakfast, and we decided that we would eat there in the morning.