Day One!

On Tuesday we arrived at my cousin's house in Colbert, WA which is just out of Spokane. They have a beautiful home on 60 acres complete with three charming and very talented children. As you can see, we had plenty of room to park both our rigs and the view out our windows was serene. It was hard to leave such a beautiful place!  

I love this garden with it's organized raised beds!

And I'm jealous of the greenhouse too!!

Now this is a playhouse!

This is the dog's area - it's huge....and look where the dog's are!

How would you like a miniture horse as a pet? Isn't he cute?

Family, Repairs & Relief

Saturday, May 22, 2010

I met my parents in Washington at my brother & sister-in-law's house where we'll park for the next three nights. They have a great place to relax and Cooper loves the grassy park and walking trails behind their house. Even the weather has cooperated and it's been pleasant during the day, cool at night.

I picked the motorhome up from the shop in Oregon of Friday night and I finally have my new wing caps! The only thing left are a few decals and I'll do that when I return in September. Here are the before and after pictures:

This is the before picture. Notice the yellowed caps on the back left, right and center. They ship in three separate pieces from the factory in Indiana and they were on back order since January. When the last piece finally came in they were all installed at the original factory, and then the motorhome went to another location for painting, then back for trim and caulking. After curing for about 12 hours I was able to come and pick it up.

This is the after picture! All I have left are the decals along the bottom and top but I must say it's an improvement and makes the motorhome look a little newer and cleaner!!



The night that I arrived here I had another situation come up with the motorhome. The refrigerator stopped working. I also have a solar panel on the roof and a control panel inside that reads the DC voltage and it wasn't registering any longer. The two situations seemed to be tied together somehow but since I don't know anything about it I was in panic mode - again. I got the name of a RV repair technician that will make house calls and I called him on the weekend but of course they were closed so I left a brief message describing what little I knew of my current problem. He was nice enough to call me first thing this morning. When I explained in a little more detail, he said that he's seen this kind of problem before. When they install an after-factory solar panel they often connect it through the refrigerator instead of separately. He said that more than likely it was a fuse that was bad and once I replaced the fuse the refrigerator and solar control panel should work. Of course my dad was kind enough, once again, to help me out and he pulled fuse after fuse and tested them and all were good except for the last fuse tested, which was bad. He happened to have a fuse on him and when he plugged it in the refrigerator and control panel worked perfectly! I was jumping up and down like some happy deranged lunatic. All night long I was envisioning more money being spent on motorhome repairs and so a simple fuse was a much welcome relief.

After that I went to the local Walmart and picked up a package of different fuses so that I would have them on hand in case my dad wasn't around to bail me out! I really do hope that after this trip I won't agonize over ever little thing that goes wrong with the motorhome. I know things are bound to go wrong but at this "newbie" stage I'm in, every little thing becomes major (in my mind anyway). Once I learn more about my particular motorhome and motorhomes in general, I'll be more at ease, knowing that whatever comes along I be able to handle it!

 Here is a picture of where I'm currently parked at my brother's house. Tomorrow we head north to Spokane.

Skunk Cabbage Trail

September 23, 2009

Today Mindi, Dena and I took a hike on the Skunk Cabbage portion of the Coastal Trail in the Redwood National Forest. We didn't start out until 1:30pm when the fog was finally beginning to lift and therefore we didn't make it the 5 miles to the ocean. The hike was lush and pretty and the weather was perfect for hiking - a cool breeze, the sun peaking out among the trees. We ended up turning around about 1-1/2 hours into the trip and it wasn't until we go back to the trailhead that we looked at the map and saw that we were almost to the overlook, which has a wonderful view of the ocean. The trail then continues along the bluff where the trees are replaced by grass and wildflowers. I was so dissappointed that we didn't make it that far. I guess it's a good reason to hike this trail again in the future only this time starting earlier in the day and bringing more water for us and the dogs. I think a good idea, if you don't want to make the 10 mile round trip, would be to park a car at the trailhead and another at the beach.

After leaving the trail we were all hungry and so we stopped in Orick at the Hawg Wild bar, which is a local Harley hangout. I've been there before so I knew what a great bar it was with a vast array of ecclectic odds and ends decorating the place....the bathroom alone is worth the visit by the artwork on the walls. We each had a IPA and a buffalo burger with fries. The trek through the woods made us all hungry and we ate every bite! The bartender was selling little plastic Harley Ducks to benefit "Relay for Life" so Dena bought us all one! Mine has a red bandana around his head and a black leather jacket!

Another great day in Northern California!