May 1, 2005

May 1, 2005

Creston, B.C.

DAY 318

 

Today was sunny and very warm.

The day started with a minor crisis that caused us to decide to stay put for today. At 7:00 A.M. I received a phone call from Allen Bindle, the Park Ranger at West Hawk Lake. He was phoning with final details about our Campground Host job at West Hawk Lake this summer. He forgot that we are 2 time zones away from Manitoba. I decided to stay up after the phone call. I went to the kitchen to begin preparing myself a cup of coffee. Our kitchen sink had a one lever faucet. I hate those ! When I pushed the faucet lever back to turn on the water, it snapped right off, and a fountain began spraying up. If we had been on our own internal water tank, I could have just reached over and flipped the main water pump switch off. But, we were on the campground's outside water connection. By the time I dashed outside, around the trailer, and turned off the water, there was a bit of a mess in the trailer. Water had sprayed up onto the underside of the kitchen cupboard, and the under cupboard fluorescent light fixture, all over the wall and window, all over the counter, and was running over the edge of the counter into the stove, the lower cupboards, and onto the floor ! < sigh > I woke Joanne up to come and help me with the clean up. By the time we were finished cleaning up the mess, and I removed the broken faucet assembly, it was close to 9:00 A.M., so I figured the stores would be open soon. I got directions at the campground office to the one ( of three in town ) hardware stores that was open on Sunday, and set off to buy either replacement parts or a whole new faucet assembly. The hardware store didn't have the necessary repair parts I needed, so I bought a new faucet. Neither of us likes single lever faucets, so I bought an old fashioned, two handle, low tech., regular faucet. I was back home, and had it installed by 11:00 A.M.. Allen Bindle said it was snowing at West Hawk, and that was another reason why we decided we should stay here today and slow down our travel eastward. The news on TV yesterday showed pretty cold temperatures in Calgary. We're about 2 days from Alberta. Might as well stay here where it's warm in the Kootenay region.

We spent the day doing some work that we've been procrastinating doing. Since we had Wi-Fi here, we did a whole lot of online research, mostly about West Hawk Lake, and Newfoundland. I think we might head to Newfoundland after our summer assignment is over in early September.

We also did a large job, draining the bathroom grey water and black water holding tanks, then filling them full with clean water, and a chemical that's supposed to clean the level gauge sensors. There is a system monitor panel in the kitchen that indicates the level in each holding tank, battery charge level, etc.. In most RV's, the level gauge sensors for the waste holding tanks get stuck permanently showing full tanks, because the level sensors in the tanks get dirty. Common thinking in the RV world is that one must just learn to live with that, because these sensors are pretty much impossible to clean. However, products are made to clean the level sensors, and I wanted to give it a try. It would be nice if the sensors actually worked accurately. Wish me luck.

I took a nap in the afternoon. We walked Bo on a training session. He did exceptionally well. Some days he's so "on". I guess that makes up for how unfocussed he was yesterday. Joanne did some laundry. We barbecued an elaborate supper, since we had lots of time, and felt well rested. I retrieved a bunch of investment data, and updated my investment files. We both prepared a bunch of e-mails and sent them. We channel surfed through 55 TV channels.

DSK