Sunday ; Today was chilly, with intermittent drizzle that slowed down our work preparing for departure Tuesday.
I did some further testing on the furnace / thermostat problem. I'm fairly convinced that the problem is the thermostat ... probably ... maybe. I searched through my bag of spare parts and found a 12 volt switch. I installed it on the "shoemaker repair" thermostat bypass wiring so now we can make the furnace turn on and off with a switch instead of twisting wires together and pulling them apart. I wonder if I'm going to have to explain to a Customs & Border Patrol agent on Tuesday why there is wiring coming out of a wall vent leading up to a switch attached to the side of the fridge with duct tape ?
Monday ; OW ... bad day in the stock market ! Hope it turns out to be just a dead cat bounce.
This morning I phoned Camping World in Burlington, Washington to find out if they have in stock the Dometic thermostat I want. They do. I've decided to change the thermostat ... even though today's testing indicated that the thermostat may not be the problem after all. I don't really like the thermostat that I installed 13 months ago and I want to change back to the factory original model. I did some further work and testing on the furnace / thermostat problem today. I was unable to establish electrical continuity in the wiring between the thermostat and the furnace. Maybe a wire melted ? Or was chewed by rodents ? All the wiring is in the walls and ceiling, and is impossible to trace ... or replace within the walls and ceiling. If a new thermostat does not solve the problem, then I'm faced with having to replace wiring ... and having to route it "outside" the walls and ceiling, probably along the top of the walls where they meet the ceiling.
We went into Keremeos today and did our final shopping before departure. Back at home we completed all the departure preparations that could be done today. We're all ready to go. We're all eager to go !
After supper today, as I was getting myself some dessert, Bo was at my feet begging for his nightly Greenie. Since I was putting whipped cream on my dessert, and he loooooves whipped cream, I topped his Greenie with whipped cream. HA HA HA ! I handed it to him, he took it in his mouth, tilted his head back ... and swallowed ! OMG ... BO ! ! ! Too late ! Down his throat it went ! How the hell could he have swallowed an entire Greenie without chewing it ? ! ? I certainly feel guilty about that ! I hope it doesn't cause an intestinal blockage or some other problem. Bad Daniel !
Tuesday ; Keremeos. B.C. to Burlington, Washington
Homeland Security / Customs & Border Patrol ; keeping America safe one bag of rice at a time !
You ***ing pissant morons !
We departed Riverside RV Park Resort this morning and headed west on Hwy. 3. Not our usual winter departure route, we usually head east to cross into the U.S. at Osoyoos. Bo seemed to be feeling ill this morning, no doubt from swallowing the whole Greenie yesterday. As we travelled west on Hwy. 3 the elevation rose until Manning Park, then began a slow descent towards the Fraser Valley. By the time we reached the summit at Allison Pass in Manning Park there was a dusting of snow on the road sides and the temperature was below freezing, despite it being a sunny day. We stopped at a roadside rest area at Hope for lunch. The furnace would not light, even though the thermostat is bypassed. < sigh > It's really dead now < sigh > !
Not surprising, Bo was constipated this morning and when we stopped for lunch. After lunch, before leaving the roadside rest area, he was able to empty himself, and that seemed to ease / eliminate his discomfort / feeling ill. We breathed a sigh of relief.
As we continued driving after lunch I hatched an "outside the box" idea to solving our furnace problem. Maybe ... we should scrap the "gas fired forced air" furnace and convert to catalytic heaters ? ! We gave that a lot of thought throughout the day, and the idea is gaining favour !
At Abbotsford we turned south towards the border crossing at Sumas. Where we spent < fume > two hours ! ! ! The initial agent at the booth decided that we should be pulled over for a "7A check". Apparently this moron was of the opinion that we might be abandoning our home in Canada to sneak into the United States to remain forever. He and the other morons we had to deal with all acted as if we were the first Canadians they had ever encountered who were crossing into the United States with an RV for the entire winter. Once inside the building we had to wait for about half an hour while ***hole no. 2 made life miserable for another old Canadian Snowbird couple travelling in an RV, she in a wheelchair. When he was finished with them, and it was our turn, he asked stupid questions for ten minutes, then abruptly announced that his shift was over, he was going home, and somebody else would deal with us < FUME > ! Ten minutes later ***hole no. 3 started over. Same stupid questions ! Then he wanted to inspect the truck and trailer.
I was required to put Bo outside in a wire crate, and I brought Sully into the building with me. Joanne was not allowed to go outside the building to assist me with getting Bo and Sully. ***hole no. 4, who was assisting ***hole no. 3 with the inspection of the truck and trailer ( I think ***hole no. 4 was from Agriculture ) confiscated the contents of a small plastic container in the kitchen cupboard labelled "rice". The container contained ... rice ! But the "country of origin" wasn't listed, so in the garbage it went. Now don't all you Americans feel a whole lot safer knowing that our rice of mystery origin never made it into your country thanks to the tireless efforts of these outstanding public servants ? ? ?
God Bless America ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! And I say that will all the sincerity that an atheist can muster !
I should stop ranting now, and stop taking it personally ! It was incredibly painfully obvious that these morons were playing political / bureaucratic games to justify their existence and budgets to their superiors, who attempt to justify it to their superiors, who attempt to justify it to their superiors, and on and upwards it goes. "Look at the great work we do stopping these damn, old, rich Canadians from coming into our country and never leaving ... AND ... bringing mystery origin rice in with them. BUT ... of course, we need more staff and more money. It takes over an hour to process each one of those threats".
First and last time we cross at Sumas. The crossing at Osoyoos, where we normally cross, at this time of the year is almost non-stop RV's heading south, so the agents there do not seem to be inclined to play those kinds of stupid games, delaying every RV'er for one to two hours !
After finally leaving the border crossing, we drove for about an hour or so south to Camping World at Burlington, Washington. The furnace would not work ... at all !
Wednesday ; Burlington to Maytown rest area at Interstate 5 mile marker 93, Washington
With the furnace not working overnight we were pretty cold ! Especially Sully.
Today was another day that went pretty poorly, the second in a row.
We were up early this morning in order to be ready for our 8 AM service appointment at Camping World. The service writer noticed as he walked around the trailer with me that one wheel was missing the plastic hub cap and the bearing dust cap underneath. Well, gee whiz ... they were there yesterday when we left home ! The work I wanted done on the trailer should have taken about two hours so we were expecting to be out of there between 10 and 11 AM. It was not to be !
I had difficulty getting the work done that I wanted done, the way I wanted it done. A succession of heated discussions took place between me and the shop foreman, and eventually the service manager. The process was much more painful and difficult than it needed to be, for all of us. What part of "this is what I want done, this is how I want it done" do you not understand ? ! ? We finally left Camping World about 2:30 PM, way behind schedule.
We continued south on I-5, stopping about 20 miles south of Burlington at Angel Of The Winds Casino to refill with diesel and refill the generator gas can. It was there that I discovered that the empty generator gas can had blown out of the back of the truck
< gritting teeth > ! The delay at Camping World brought us to the northern edge of Seattle at about 4 PM, just in time for rush hour. The freeway rush hour traffic was bumper to bumper, stop and go, all the way through Seattle and Tacoma. We finally got through Tacoma about 6 PM after 2 hours of fighting freeway rush hour traffic. By then it was dark, it had begun to rain heavily, and fog was rolling in. It was obvious that we were not going to reach our planned destination for today ; Portland, Oregon. We drove for another half hour and stopped for the night at a roadside rest area.
This morning the furnace decided, quite on its own, to resume working. Nevertheless, this morning at Camping World we took a look at catalytic radiant heating systems. And ... lo and behold ... they are on sale this week at Camping World at a very good price. We made the decision that the dying / dead furnace is a good opportunity to convert from gas fired forced air heating to catalytic radiant heating. We had Camping World in Burlington, Washington phone Camping World in Portland, Oregon to ensure that the Portland store has what we want in stock. No sales tax in Oregon ! The Portland store has stock and put it aside for us to pick up tomorrow. I'm going to install a small catalytic radiant heater in the bedroom and a medium sized one in the living area. Unlike our current furnace which uses a great deal of 12 volt power to run the fan, and a great deal of propane to inefficiently create heat, the catalytic heaters use no power and much less propane. Conversion to catalytic radiant heating systems is the choice for serious boondockers. Which we're not, but I'm getting tired of using over $30 a week worth of propane during months like October and November. And I'm tired of how quickly our furnace can drain the trailer's house battery when we're boondocked overnight on cold nights when travelling in the fall and spring ... like last night and tonight ! So we're going to have to suffer for the next couple of weeks with no furnace or an intermittent furnace, but we're going to be happier in the long run after we install catalytic radiant heaters once we get to Yuma.
Thursday ; Maytown rest area at Interstate 5 mile marker 93, Washington to Seven Feathers Casino RV rest area, Canyonville, Oregon
Today was cold with intermittent rain. We have been travelling south for three days and the weather has not improved yet !
We left the I-5 mm 93 rest area this morning and continued southbound. We stopped at another rest area to use their trailer sani-dump station to dump our shower waste holding tank and refill our freshwater holding tank. We crossed from Washington to Oregon over the Columbia River. We stopped at Camping World on the south side of Portland and bought the two catalytic radiant heaters that we had requested be held for us. And we bought quite a bit of other stuff at Camping World. Today and tomorrow we will be shopping a lot, to take advantage of no sales tax in Oregon. We stopped for lunch at yet another rest area.
At Salem we stopped to refill with diesel and buy groceries, both at Fred Meyer. At Roseburg I saw from the Interstate that Home Depot and Lowe's were side by side, so I took the next exit and went back to shop for a couple of hardware items. Home Depot had one item that I needed and Lowe's had the other. We stopped for the night at Seven Feathers Casino near Canyonville. Whew ... lots of miles today !
In addition to the casino Seven Feathers has a large travel center with fuel and vehicle repair services, a very large full service RV park, and an extremely nice "RV rest area", a free overnight parking boondock area with a large restroom building, picnic shelter, fenced dog park, and security guard. Very nice ! Thank you, Seven Feathers / Umpqua Tribe !
Friday ; Canyonville, Oregon to rest area near Red Bluff, California
Today was a very long day, with a lot of miles driven, and a lot of shopping and errands completed.
This morning before departing Seven Feathers Casino RV rest area we drove over to the Travel Center where there was a commercial truck tire service shop. I asked if they could install two metal screw in valve stems on the trailer. I bought them recently in Penticton and was going to have them installed at Camping World in Burlington, Washington while the wheels and tires were off the trailer while the wheel bearings were being repacked. BUT ... < sputter > ... Camping World wanted to charge their minimum service charge of $59 to change two valve stems. I don't think so ! ! ! The tire service shop at Seven Feathers charged me twelve dollars ! And that included removing and reinstalling the tires on the trailer.
We left Seven Feathers and continued southbound on Interstate 5. In Grants Pass we found a Bank of America. I transferred the money to pay for lot 52 at Kofa Ko-op in Yuma into our Bank of America account. That was the final step of a somewhat convoluted process I have devised to get money into our Bank of America account without incurring any service fees. First I had our broker sell some U.S.$ investments and deposit the proceeds into our Bank of Montreal U.S.$ account. Then online I transferred the funds to our U.S.$ MasterCard account, essentially "overpaying" MasterCard and creating a "credit". Now that we're in the U.S. I went to the Bank of America, took out as a "cash advance" all the funds "overpaid" to MasterCard, and deposited that to the Bank of America account. MasterCard doesn't charge daily interest on the cash advance because my account was already overpaid by that amount. Voilà ... money in our bank account in the U.S. to pay for lot 52, no fees incurred ! Well done, Daniel ! Still in Grants Pass we refilled with diesel and did a lot of shopping at Wal-Mart. We had compiled a lengthy "buy in Oregon" shopping list.
We had a late lunch in the trailer in the Wal-Mart parking lot then headed back to I-5 and continued south. We stopped at a state recreation area to dump all our waste holding tanks and refill with fresh water. Three dollars please ! HMPH ! That costs nothing in Washington !
We stopped in Medford, the last city in Oregon southbound on I-5 to complete our shopping and errands. In Medford I went into Walgreens and completed our Oregon shopping while Joanne walked to a nearby grocery store with an empty five gallon water jug and refilled it.
Continuing southbound on I-5 we crossed from Oregon into California. I was hoping we could drive as far as Redding tonight, even though that would mean a couple of hours of driving in the dark. We found our way to the Wal-Mart south of Redding at Anderson. We have stayed there before, at least twice. Tonight we found the Wal-Mart parking lot posted "no overnight parking". Darn !
I was exhausted, we were hungry, but we had to continue driving. We drove another 10 miles or so to a roadside rest area. It was also posted "no overnight parking". Too bad ! I'm tired ! We're staying overnight ! I was influenced by the half dozen or so other RV's and half dozen or so commercial trucks already settled in for the night.
Saturday ; Red Bluff to Coarsegold, California
It's 9:00 PM. Joanne has just left to make the long, cold walk across the very large parking lot ( we're at the far end with the other boondocking RV's ) to Chukchansi Casino to check out their schedule of activities / events / entertainment for the upcoming week. I'm working on the computer, trying to overcome the sensation of feeling overwhelmed and a teensy bit defeated by a trailer that requires maintenance faster then I can provide it. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm feeling this way mostly because of fatigue, but ... tonight when we arrived here after a very long, hard day of driving, there was yet another problem with the trailer.
We left the rest area near Red Bluff this morning and continued southbound on Interstate 5. We stopped at another rest area to once again empty our shower waste holding tank and refill the freshwater tank. And a third rest area to have lunch. Soon after lunch we were in Sacramento. Well ... the freeway traffic through Sacramento on a Saturday afternoon was a bit more "civilized" than we've encountered in the past when driving through Sacramento. And there was less smog than before. I guess we've always driven across Sacramento on weekdays.
I was too tired last night to do our credit card accounting in the computer. I asked Joanne to drive for awhile today so that I could have a rest break from driving and work on the computer. She drove from the south side of Sacramento to Modesto, including crossing from Interstate 5 to Hwy. 99 through Stockton. Afterwards she said "it was the worst 45 minutes of my life". HA HA HA HA HA ... thank you very much, my dear. You did an excellent job of driving a 50 foot long truck and trailer combination on congested California freeways today.
We stopped in Modesto to shop at PetsMart. WOO-HOO ... Bo loooooves shopping at PetsMart. With the $3 birthday gift certificate Sully recently received by e-mail from PetsMart we bought Bo a package of new treats.
Realizing that Daylight Savings Time ends overnight tonight, and that SKP Park of the Sierras office is open only until noon on Sundays, we decided to drive further today than initially planned. So ... we drove all the way to SKP Park of the Sierras and a mile or two beyond to Chukchansi Casino. It was too late / too dark to attempt the rather difficult turn off the highway to SKP Park of the Sierras, and the office was already closed, so we would have just ended up boondocking there anyway. Might as well go to the casino ! Easier to get to off the highway in the dark, and an easier to enter and better lit place to boondock / park overnight.
After arriving at the casino and getting comfortably parked at the far end of the parking lot, we went inside the trailer to prepare a late supper, when I discovered ... < sigh > ... the lights in the living room / dinette slide ceiling would not work. There was no burnt fuse problem, so ... < bigger sigh > ... likely another wiring problem of some sort.
DSK
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