Monthly Archives: July 2014

Traffic Cop

We ran the air conditioners yesterday for the first time in over a week. The temperature topped out near 90 degrees.

Donna went for a bike ride for a couple of hours and put in 30 miles. I sat in the shade and read a book. I made a run to Costco for bottled water. Nothing too exciting.

I’m going to try to track my spending this month. I set up a budget last year, but I’ve been pretty loose with it. I want track my expenditures and see if I need to make any adjustments.

A big rig pulled into the RV park in the late afternoon. It was a 45-foot Country Coach Affinity pulling a car hauler trailer. He had to make a tight 90-degree turn at the end of the park road. When I say tight, I mean tight. There’s an eight-foot privacy fence on the outside of the turn and a wooden rail fence on the inside.

I jogged down to the corner. I knew what he was up against. There were a few people sitting outside their trailers in lawn chairs just watching. I stood where the driver could see me at the fence post on the inside of the turn. He had to swing wide enough for his trailer to clear this post, but his swing was limited by the privacy fence on the outside of the turn.

He moved slowly with the right side of his coach an inch or two away from the privacy fence. I watched his trailer draw closer and closer to the post I was standing next to. I started waving him forward like a traffic cop. His trailer was within an inch of the post when the rear axle of the trailer passed it. Once the rear axle passed, he was in the clear. I gave him a thumbs up and he accelerated down the side road.

He made a complete circuit around the park and turned into a pull-through site on the other side of the laundry room/rest rooms building from us. He had the same issue of turning wide enough to clear his trailer while being limited by trees. There was a post with the site number and night lamp at the corner of his site. I pulled up on the post and it came out of the ground easily.  His trailer wouldn’t have cleared the post and he would have scraped the side of the trailer.

He jockeyed back a forth a couple of times and positioned the coach where he wanted it. He opened his window and asked me if his trailer was hanging out too far. I told him it was fine. He thanked me for the assistance. He told me his overall length with the 45-foot coach and car hauler was about 73 feet!

Tight quarters

Tight quarters

73 feet overall length!

73 feet overall length!

Most of the RVs in the park are fifth-wheel or travel trailers. I don’t think these people realize the challenge of driving a big rig pulling a trailer. A fifth wheel has its pin pivoting over the rear axle of the truck pulling it, making it fairly easy to maneuver. My rig has the trailer pivoting on a ball 11 feet behind the rear axle. This makes maneuvering the trailer more difficult, especially in reverse.

Later, I walked down to site with the Country Coach. The driver thanked me again and introduced himself. His name was Larry. He’s from Moses Lake, Washington where he ran a successful construction business. It was licensed in three states – Washington, California and Montana. He told me he did a lot of contract work in the oil fields.

Larry recently sold the business and is semi-retired. He’s only 33 years old and isn’t ready to quit working yet. He and his family are taking an extended vacation in their RV. They plan to see the sights in the western states, eventually going down to Texas. Larry is looking at an investment opportunity there.

While we were talking, he told me his generator wouldn’t run for more than a few minutes. As he described the symptoms, I told him it sounded like a fuel delivery problem. He told me the fuel filter had just been changed that morning. I thought the fittings on the filter might have a leak, allowing air to be drawn into the fuel line.

Right about then, a truck pulled in front of his coach. A man and a boy got out. Larry introduced me to Aaron. Aaron runs a repair business in Moses Lake, repairing autos, trucks and farm equipment. He made the 130-mile drive from Moses Lake to check out Larry’s generator. Aaron and his 11-year-old son went to work.

Aaron suspected a fuel pump problem and brought a new pump with him. After checking fault codes, he was sure the pump was bad. Getting to the fuel pump wasn’t easy. Getting the sheet metal cover off an Onan generator while it’s mounted to the coach is difficult. I was impressed by the way he and his son worked together. For an 11-year-old boy, he had some mechanical skills. He crawled underneath the coach and told his dad he needed a thin, 11mm open-end wrench and a pair of channel locks to get the fuel line off. Aaron didn’t have channel locks with him or a thin enough wrench. I went to my trailer and brought back a thin wrench and channel locks. About an hour later, they had the new pump on and the generator was running fine. I told the kid that it was great to have mechanical skills, but that he should be sure to get an education, too!

I grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignons while Donna made twice-baked potatoes and asparagus. She sauteed mushrooms and onions to put on the grilled filets. Yummy!

Bacon wrapped filet mignon with mushrooms and onions, twice baked potato and asparagus

Bacon wrapped filet mignon with mushrooms and onions, twice-baked potato and asparagus

Today will be another air conditioner day. The forecast calls for a high of 93 and it’s already warm this morning. Donna and I plan to ride the scooter down to the lake.

 

 

 

Heart of an Awl

The weather guessers got it right. Yesterday was a beautiful day with mostly sunny skies, little wind and the temperature topping out at 75 degrees. The Ironman would have been a different race if we had that weather on Sunday.

I went for a bike ride and rode the Prairie Trail down to City Park.  The Ironman vendors were breaking down displays and tents there. The beach was full of people enjoying the lake and sunshine again.

Coeur d’Alene is a resort town and relies on tourism. It has the usual tourist attractions. I rode my bike out on the dock by the park and saw a couple of examples. On the end of the dock, Brooks Seaplane offers airplane tours of the area. A 40-mile, 20-minute flight around the lake, over the Bitterroot Mountains and the Washington Palouse area, costs $60 per adult, $30 per child under 12. They had a de Havilland Beaver at the dock, waiting for takers.

de Havilland Beaver seaplane

de Havilland Beaver seaplane

I’ve been a passenger in one of these iconic planes several times in Alaska. We would be transported in one of these from Sitka to a floating resort on the Chatham Strait to fish for salmon.

Another interesting item on the dock was the Pirates of Coeur d’Alene cruise ship. This boat goes out on two 90-minute tours daily, from June 14th to August 24th. Departure times are 11:30am and 2pm. It costs $32.75 for adults and $22.75 for children three to 12 years old. Children two years old and younger are free. This is a family entertainment cruise with a pirate theme. On Saturdays, a two-hour adult cruise departs a 7pm. For $25, you cruise the lake with a DJ on board and complimentary pirate punch (rum).

Pirates of the Coeur d'Alene

Pirates of the Coeur d’Alene

The city of Coeur d’Alene sits about 30 miles east of downtown Spokane, Washington. Coeur d’Alene has a population of about 46,000 people. This isn’t a large city by most standards, but it’s the largest in the north Idaho panhandle. There are more than 30 hotels and resorts in Coeur d’Alene.

Donna and I were curious about the name of the town. I looked it up. The name was coined by French fur trappers early in the 19th century. It was the name they gave to the Native American tribe that lived along the lake. Literally translated, it means “Heart of an Awl.” It’s thought that the expression came from the tribe’s sharp-hearted or shrewd trading acumen.

Later in the afternoon, I saw Angela in the RV park. We talked about Sunday’s race. She told me it was rough right from the start. Swimming into the chop on the lake was very difficult. She was behind her expected time by 15 minutes when she left the water. The bicycle race through the mountains was worse, due to the winds in excess of 20mph. Swimming and bicycling are her strong points. She knew she was in trouble from the start of the run. She told herself over and over, “You don’t have to run fast, you just have to run” to keep herself from walking or stopping altogether.

We invited Allen Hutchinson and family to join us for dinner. I grilled chicken kabobs and we sat outside and talked for a few hours. Allen’s take on the race was much like Angela’s. He was philosophical about it though and said he learned a lot out on the course. He will race in another Ironman in August in Louisville, Kentucky. It’s likely to be hot and humid there.

The Hutchinson family and Donna at our picnic table

The Hutchinson family and Donna at our picnic table

Today, the predicted summer weather has arrived. They’re calling for a high of 90 degrees today and 93 tomorrow. The following week will be in the mid-80s. Donna wants to ride this morning. I’ll probably get out later.