Sunday ; Lumby to Mabel Lake
This morning we prepared for departure, dumped our shower and kitchen grey holding tanks at the Lumby Lions Campground sani-dump, refilled our fresh water holding tank at a large social / service club building nearby … Joanne noticed that the building had an external water spigot … and left Lumby heading north towards Mabel Lake. The road to Mabel Lake is narrow and twisting, and gravel for the last few miles. EEEUUUWWW … because of yesterday’s rain, the gravel section was wet, making the truck and trailer filthy ! I think they’ll probably have to remain that dirty until we’re at SKP Park of the Sierras in central California in about three weeks.
When we arrived at Mabel Lake Provincial Park there was one other rig in the campground, a large Class A motorhome. It left late in the afternoon, leaving us all alone in the campground. After getting set up in a site … well, setting up entailed nothing more than extending the slides … they’re unserviced sites … we went for a walk to explore the campground. We decided that since the campground was empty we could allow Bo to be off leash. It’s been quite awhile since he’s had some off leash time. Well, he went berserk, running at full speed back and forth, around and around, in and out through the forest. As we got near the lake, he zoomed by us from behind and ran down to the beach. And … oh, nooooo … BO ! ! ! Zoom … flip … there he was, doing an upside down “happy dance”, feet thrashing in the air, rolling on a dead salmon. < sigh > What a stench ! It took a lot of Natural Chemistry Waterless Bath to get the stink off his back. The lake shoreline is littered with a lot of dead salmon, so … no more off leash time for Bo ! As fascinating as the salmons’ astounding reproduction odyssey is … the end result is still a lot of dead salmon lying around rotting !
We had lunch, I read and snoozed with Sully and Bo, Joanne baked cookies. MMMMM ! Late in the afternoon we went for another long, leisurely walk. I hooked up the generator to the trailer, started it up, and ran it for half an hour as a bit of a test. It’s the first time since we bought the generator almost a year ago that we have an “unserviced campsite” opportunity to try out the generator. Everything seemed to work fine. The only real requirement we have for a generator is for it to power the trailer’s internal converter to keep the internal battery charger working, to keep the trailer’s “house” battery fully charged. Boondocking in cold weather, with the furnace running frequently, is a big drain on the “house” battery.
Tuesday ; Mabel Lake to Keremeos
Well, today was a long, hard day. This morning we prepared for departure from Mabel Lake Provincial Park, climbed into the truck, turned the key, and … CLICK ! Well, **** ! ! ! Dead batteries ! Either the two truck batteries were dead because they’re 5½ years old, or … the trailer drained the truck’s batteries. I would have thought there would be an isolator in the truck’s factory installed trailer tow package to prevent that, but maybe not ? ! ? For the two days that we spent at Mabel Lake without services, I had not disconnected the trailer’s electrical umbilical cord from the truck. Maybe the trailer’s power was coming from the trailer “house” battery … AND the truck’s two batteries ? ? ?
< sigh > I started up the generator, plugged in my battery charger, and connected it to the truck’s primary battery. I was hoping that a couple of hours on a battery charger would charge the batteries enough to start the truck. We took Bo for a walk. A small car came into the campground. I flagged it down and asked the driver to give me a battery boost. Well, small car, small battery … not enough “juice” to start a two battery diesel engine. The young man in the little car had just driven into the campground to take a quick look. He was a sightseeing tourist in a rental car. I was uncertain whether it was a better idea to catch a ride with him to somewhere / anywhere civilized, and phone my Emergency Roadside Service … or … just wait for the battery charger plugged into the generator to charge up the truck’s batteries. < sigh > I chose the latter.
About 15 minutes later, a black Dodge one ton diesel dually arrived in the campground. HA HA HA … how ironic … a truck identical to Lanoire, except one year older ! Shortly after leaving the campground the driver of the little car saw the big truck, stopped it, and asked the driver of the big truck to come to the campground to help me out. Well … thank you very much ! It was no problem getting Lanoire started with a boost from her “twin”.
We noticed that the monitor panel inside the trailer was showing that the trailer battery was not being charged by the running truck engine / alternator as it should have been, and … as we left the campground I noticed that Lanoire’s “check engine” light was on. I suspected that both problems were related to the dead batteries and boost start, but … ? ? ? I was afraid to turn off the truck for fear that it wouldn’t start again, so … we drove non-stop to the Dodge dealer in Kelowna. I left the truck running while I went inside to ask where should I position the truck and trailer before turning it off, in light of the possibility that it might not start again. The dealer was unco-operative and unhelpful. Fine … **** you … we left ! ! ! We drove to the Wal-Mart in WestBank, where there was a Canadian Tire across the street. I felt confident that with the resources of Wal-Mart and / or Canadian Tire I would be able to resolve the problem … or at the very least, phone my Emergency Roadside Service.
I turned off the truck, held my breath, turned the key to start it again, and VROOOOOM ! ! ! No problem ! AND … after I turned the truck off and restarted it about half a dozen times, the “check engine” light went off. The trailer battery was still not being charged, but that was a problem that I could deal with at home later. The important thing was that everything was okay with the truck. I was really glad that the Kelowna Dodge dealer had not ended up with any of my money !
We shopped at Wal-Mart in WestBank, drove to Penticton, refilled with diesel, refilled a water jug, drove to Keremeos, and home to Riverside RV Park, arriving after dark. It’s our travel policy to not arrive at campgrounds / RV parks after dark, but we made an exception for our own lot, knowing that we could back in and position the trailer on our own lot in the dark without much difficulty.
Wednesday ; We gave Bo a bath, which wouldn’t have been necessary if he hadn’t rolled on a dead, rotting salmon. I repaired the problem with the truck not charging the trailer house battery as we travel / when the truck engine is running. So truck and trailer ( and dog ) are once again in “travel ready” condition.
DSK
Dan: apparently Bo didn't eat any of the dead salmon. There's a fluke salmon carry that dogs can get if they eat any of it and it's deadly. We've had several dogs get it, one died, the others got some that had been partially cooked in a burning barrel and though they got really, really sick with bloody diarrhea and vomiting, they lived. Tell Bo "no more salmon, buddy" Marty Stephens and Sunny
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