Fires

There is a forest fire just down the road. (when I started writing this).   I’d thought I’d lead with that, as it’s the most exciting thing that has occurred in the last couple of months.   I guess I ought to be thankful for that considering the state of the world right now.   It took them four or five days to put it out. There were still a number of crews on site when we left the area. We were nearing the end of our two weeks stay between Cody, WY and Yellowstone National Park.  We’ve made several forays into the park.  Early on, it was quite empty.  Toward the end, traffic picked up, but by no means was it every like we’ve experienced in the past.  Only a few people wearing masks outside the stores and too many not wearing them inside the stores.  We saw Bison, pronghorn, elk, a coyote (close up), a grizzly and her cub as well as two other bears.  The only traffic jams were construction and Bison/Elk/Bear jams.  Camping inside the park was closed except for one first come first serve campground.  We didn’t want to drag the RVs all the way in there just to find out it was full up.

Oh, the fire – about 5 miles west of us.  It had us worried a bit, but looking at the terrain in between us and it, we felt there was enough to stop it.  There was quite a response from a diverse collection of government agencies, local firefighters, USFS, BLM (Bureau of Land Management that is), and HOTSHOT firefighters groups.  A handful of firefighting aircraft were tackling the fire as well.  We were never in any real danger, but with all the dry wind out here, it is important to pay attention.

I’ve been repairing and enhancing as usual.  I finished, hopefully, the construction of the table for the left arm of the couch.  I built it some time ago, but it needed tweaking.  Now that I’m done, it also still needs staining.  Our towing electrical connector (truck side) went bad.  I just replaced both ends while I was at it.

I replaced the XM Radio antenna.  When we replaced the CB antenna and coax, I noticed the ground plane/mount for the CB had crushed the XM radio coax as installed at the factory.  It still worked, so I just left it.  Besides, I didn’t have a replacement and didn’t want to wait on putting the CB back together till I had one.  Over the next month, the XM radio reception went downhill to the point it wasn’t tolerable.  We had another task that lined up with this one.  Some time ago, we bought a second video monitor that came with four cameras.  We used one of them to provide a good rear view for driving.  Then we had the idea to put two of the cameras on the sides like the big diesel rigs have. (We haven’t done that yet.)  And the fourth camera – “Let’s put it on the roof to look forward for clearance!”  So, I mounted the camera on the front air conditioner cover, looking forward – it shows both front corners for “branch clearance” and the camera is mounted even with the top of the cover, to check for vertical clearance as well.  Well the camera works – haven’t had a need  to check branches for clearance yet, but it does provide a unique point of view when traveling under bridges.

Just a note about running antenna cables on a Class A.  The antenna is mounted on the roof, on fiberglass, just above the driver.  In order to run (or re-run) the cable, I have to take apart the back of the cabinet over the driver, then loosen part of the side window trim, then remove the plastic covering the left corner column between the windshield and side window.   Then pull the cable down and tie-strip it to existing wiring – then make a hole out into the engine compartment, then make a hole back through the firewall to the space under the dash, then run the cable up over the steering column, break, etc., then connect it to the radio.  Oh, I forgot – the antenna on the roof is connected to a metal plate that covers the hole in the fiberglass which must be sealed with self-leveling sealant.  It takes about three hours to complete.  The XM radio follows the same path as does our coax cable for the video camera. My daughter’s Maybach was even worse – the flat part of the dash had to be removed to make room to take the side piece out.  Her Class A didn’t have a radio and we wanted to be able to talk while caravanning.  Then we had issues with their radio (was free), so we finally thing we have it all ironed out but will see on the next long trip.

Dash – I’ve had way too much Tiffin Dash.  Whenever it was cold, the driver would complain and complain about being cold (ok, justifiably 8^} ).  There was always cold air coming out from under the dash.  There was also a pile of small dead bugs on top the dash by the windshield after every driving session.  AND the dash isn’t flat, so when the shade comes down, it wrinkles because the it doesn’t lay flat.  I found a number of small holes in the area where pedals are mounted and even in the floor – but plugging them didn’t stop the cold air.  I then realized that the cold air was coming in between the horizontal-front part of the dash and the firewall.  But no amount of caulking seemed to fix it.  After the next drive, the caulk would be cracked, and air was still coming in.  I looked it all over again and discovered one of the four screws by the windshield wasn’t screwed into the fiberglass body.  I fixed that by reinstalling the screw.  We had realized that when driving – the dash “inflates” due to the air pressure from below.  That lift broke any caulk and let air in.  I dug out the old layers of caulk and weighted down the dash to press it against the firewall bracket.  I then drilled holes in the bracket at the top of the firewall and then very carefully ran screws through the bracket into the plywood that is the basis for the dash.  I had to be careful – I needed the screws to grab into the plywood, but not stick up into the vinyl cloth that is on top of the dash plywood.  I now have 8 screws that hopefully will keep the air pressure from lifting the dash and letting air underneath.  Finally, I reran a bead of caulk.  During drove to Idaho the driver gladly reports, no cold air. And it is cold out.

The state park in Wyoming has from 10% full to nearly 100% (weekends).  We’ve seen our share of Covid Campers, in every park.  Covid campers as I call them, typically have a showroom clean RV, temporary plates or are driving a rental RV.  I realize that not everyone that fits that description is a new camper, but watching some of them set up, they clearly are.  Especially the ones you see get their dump hose fresh out of a box.  I expect and secretly hope, it’s just a fad. The last thing us full-time and near full-time people need is a bunch of ill-prepared, badly acting novices spreading Covid-19 and filling up campgrounds. Too many states already don’t allow campgrounds to be open and too many “campers” are gathering in large groups, especially around July 4rth.  We will continue to use all our available resources to find out-of-the-way campsites or boondocking spots where we can sit still for a couple of weeks or more at a time.  And yes, we wear our masks in public!  That being said, we also bought into Thousand Trails so we have alternatives when the out of the way places aren’t open or not accessible.  We don’t “like” camping this way, but when you are stuck on the road, all resources must be used.  Our hope is to spend half our time boondocking or at least dry camping and half at parks.

Once we got to Idaho – it began snowing. Not just a bit, but heavy, wet spring snow.

We almost had plans to drive north then west into Washington, but that would have been right into the heart of a late spring, high altitude snowstorm, so we sat there for a few days, hoping for better weather and time to create a better plan for where we go from here.  We sat here for nearly a week, with some nicer sunny weather, long wildlife drives and even a quick trip to the Tetons.

After Idaho, came Oregon and a county park, then up to Washington to our first Thousand Trails

campsite over the Fourth of July.  Most of the amenities, are, of course, closed.  It’s an older park, in need of some TLC; more than it is getting.  There are at least a couple of dozen sites closed for various reasons (utility problems?).  But it served us, fairly well, for nearly three weeks of the summer.  Repairs and modifications continue at a slow pace and we’ve spent several days on short and long day-trips, trying to view the mountains of Washington in between the clouds; only being somewhat successful.  We eventually did get to see Mt Rainier in its full glory.  Mt St Helens never quite cleared of clouds, except on days we couldn’t go see it.

 

We never planned to join Thousand Trails, but with issues finding RV park spots and the fact that our daughter was a TT member so we could both park for less (or nothing) at system parks – it made some sense.  We hope.  Camping under the Covid Cloud is different.  There was a sense of freedom we experienced when we traveled in years past.  Sure, there were always issues with finding places to park, but the virus adds a level of foreboding to everything.  This country is acting so stupid and selfish in many ways.  The daily death count seems to simply be accepted by so many.  We mask up whenever we will be near other people, indoor or out.  And despite a steadily rising death count, and a falling average age of infection, AND dwindling hospital beds in so many cities, there is still no shortage of idiots telling us that it’s all a hoax – that it will all magically disappear after the election.  That masks will kill you.  Too many of them are friends and family.  We should be pulling together as family but are letting stupid politicians drive wedges between us. How many hundreds of thousands have to die before it becomes real to everyone?  Or maybe it’s just that one person, they know, that has to die before it becomes real.

But those are meaningless fires.  We were heading from Leavenworth, toward the area north, of Seattle on Highway 2. We were coming down the backside which was 6 and 7% grade for a long way – like ten miles.  We were towing our vehicles and got a little too aggressive on the downhill. We had been on 7% downhills before without issue, but this one was much longer.   We started smelling hot brakes – pulled into a pull-off and we could see the brakes smoking. I grabbed a temp gun and hit the right front rotor – and it went off scale.  Then I realized I could see a small flame through the hole in the wheel.  I keep one of those “no residue” fire extinguishers in the kitchen – which I grabbed and put the fire out.  In the end, I think it was just that waxy gunk they put on the brake rotors to keep them from rusting before they are installed.  No question though, they were way too hot – we used too much brake on the way down and engine braking wasn’t enough.  We were only going 40-45, but that clearly was picking up energy too fast.  Our front brakes have a cooling scoop but hidden up behind all the front fiberglass – it doesn’t do a lot of good.  Our daughter’s RV didn’t even have an air scoop.  So, we waited nearly half an hour till everything was below 300F, disconnected the towed vehicles, flipped on the four-way flashers and took our time going down the rest of the way. We stopped after a mile or so and temps were down around 200.   Now we need to see if some shop time is required because we overheated everything.

Speaking of heat – did you know Washington has a desert in it?  Drive east from the shore and you hit a point where instead of everything being green and literally dripping with water, everything is brown and dried up.  Except along the rivers, where they irrigate like crazy and grow apples, peaches, pears, grapes and more.  It is also 20 degree or more warmer there, so we only stayed a day before running away from the soon to be 100+ degree weather into cooler temps farther north.  We want to do some serious boondocking, but not in 100-degree weather.

So we will be in Washington, well north of Seattle, for the next few weeks, isolating as much as possible, enjoying nature as much as possible.