Yesterday was a day that I had hoped to tour, a little. A Dam had been removed on the White Salmon River, and I wanted to look the area over, and see the effect on the water level upstream where a lot of summer homes were located. There are a few wineries in the area, and Anne-Marie wanted to visit a certain one for a special flavor to take to Nevada. None of this happened. I got involved in a plumbing leak repair, and got tied up for most of the afternoon.
The leak that I found the day before was needing to be addressed and I disassembled the drain pipes right where the leak was located, and with the leaky parts in hand, I went to the local hardware store. The hardware store that I went to was one that I had visited many times before, and I knew where my needed plumbing parts were located. The front of the store had an Excuse Our Dust sign, explaining that they were in the process of a remodel. I had the same luck of finding my items, as if I had entered a store that I had never seen before, everything had been moved to a different part of the store.
I found not only new drain pipe, but new gaskets for all connections, I have the best luck with these projects when I put all new stuff in. I got back to the trailer with the silly idea that this would be quick, and Anne-Marie and I could go to White Salmon and explore for the rest of the afternoon. As I was fitting the the parts together, and trying to make sense of what I had brought home, I found that one section of pipe was for a different application, and would not work here. Frustration hit me hard, but I tried the new gaskets on the old pipe, and they fit and seemed to work well, except for now another leak was there. While twisting and cinching the fittings down, I found the sink strainer basket, was not tight and I could turn it inside the sink. I had Anne-Marie help to hold the strainer in place, while I used a big wrench under the sink, in a failed attempt to stop the newly found leak.
Depression, and a nap to recharge my energy levels, and then another trip to the Hardware Store, and I bought a new sink strainer and basket, plumbers putty, and some Teflon tape.
This shows the plumbers putty that has gushed out and onto the old gasket and threads of the old basket, and the shiny new one. Cleaning the old parts up, and getting the underside big ring nut to tighten easily, was more than I wanted to deal with, so in the trash they go, and the new parts assembled easily.
The finished sink drain, and no leaks underneath. Plumbing issues are best resolved, for me, by removing all that I can reach with a wrench, throwing it in the trash, and buying all new from the hardware store.
Yesterday afternoon I worked on a wiring project, between the bathroom and the water heater under the kitchen sink, and got side tracked by the discovery of a water leak in the drain pipe under the kitchen sink.
Yesterday afternoon I got under the kitchen sink for something, and I found a small amount of dampness. I removed everything close to the drain pipe, and found the source of the leak. If you enlarge the picture, a brown crust has formed on this fitting, where the leak has been. I tried to tighten it up, and I found that the threads are stripped, and it needs to be replaced. The cause of this is that sometimes something is pressing against the pipe during travel, and bumps, and hard breaking push things against it hard, or vibrates against it. This is just something that happens, and today I will go to the hardware store, and buy the replacement part.
Across the hall from the kitchen I was looking for a path to run another power wire to the kitchen sink area. I want to put the hot water tank, the one that supplies the whole trailer with hot water, and the little instant hot water heater located at the kitchen sink, on the same power circuit. When I installed the instant hot water heater, I wired it to the only source of power that was there, the kitchen circuit, and as we have been living in the trailer for three years now, we have been using more electric appliances, and the circuit is over worked.
The bathroom cabinet is home of the big water heater, it holds five gallons at a time, and is hidden in the corner to the left of the sink. These pictures are from 2009 when I rebuilt the cabinet face and enlarged the drawers. I remember the power wires crossing under the sink, and if I can find the path under the floor to the kitchen cabinets, I can fish another wire.
These are old pictures, from the cabinet remodel, that I found this morning. The first picture is the old cabinet face before being removed, and the second picture is showing the hot water heater, and the maze of water pipes, the rerouted drain pipe, and the wires and cables resting on top of the wheel well and passing on through behind the shower. The power wire crosses under the hallway floor beyond the shower, near the fridge.
I disassembled the bathroom cabinet to the level as shown in the old picture on the right, and I found that if I can get the power wire to here, it’s a workable solution. What I did discover, is that all of the cabinet stuff didn’t need to be removed yesterday, but I didn’t know how the power wires were run until I looked here. It was during this project that the leaky pipe was found in the kitchen. I reassembled the bathroom cabinet, before troubleshooting the kitchen leak.
When our son Andrew and I were in the Rogue Public House in Astoria, on Thursday last week, Andrew asked the bartender about a new beer that was available, and all that I paid attention to, was just the answer and not the name of the beer, her answer was that it goes out the door as fast as it comes in. Very popular, she said, and the reviews are a bit mixed, some love it and some can’t stand it. I didn’t pay attention to the name of the beer, only that there wasn’t any available that day, as I was paying attention to the available flavors.
The day after our Son Andrew and I visited the Rogue Public House, a Airstream friend of ours, Mona, shared a picture on Facebook that she took in the Portland area, of a display of the Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale bottles. The comments that she had were a little mixed, but all liked the bottle.
Here in Hood River Oregon right here in the local Safeway Store, I found in the beer section, Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale, and there were a lot of them, two rows on the shelf, clear back to the wall, and two of them stashed on the top shelf, because of lack of room in the Rouge section. Yesterday morning, I walked across the street to the Safeway Store, with the thought of buying just one, (I wanted to take it to Tucson to share with friends, it might not be available down there.) and I found that the store was almost out of that beer. I took my camera with the thought of showing how many pink bottles were on the shelf, but all but two were gone. At this point all that I knew about the beer is that it had a neat bottle, and a funny name. Not wanting to miss out completely, and with a little bit of panic, I bought both bottles.
Last night Anne-Marie got a kick out of my reactions to the comments that I was reading on line about this beer, and the videos were fun too. Some of the beer rating sites were really good about describing the aroma and taste, right down to the complex and layered flavors, and how surprising and different two people rate this beer. Some of the comments were so laugh-out-loud funny, that I was nearly in hysterics and unable to read them to her. The bottles are stashed in the van, and packed well for the trip south.
Laundry day yesterday, and this is one of the two cleanest, neatest Laundromats we have been to. The owner even has a snack bar, that is open on busier days.
When we got home from the laundry, we had about 30 quail running about the shrubbery, they are always fun to watch.
A 1958 Pontiac Chieftain was in the parking lot here at the Motel/RV Park. This car looked to be in new condition, and original condition except for the side exhaust pipes. The license was from Alaska, but it must have been shipped down, because the front of it looked new and really clean.
Anne-Marie and I have gone a long time since our last haircut, I believe that its been since the last time we were in Hood River in May. Anne-Marie called Rita in Parkdale, and asked if there was time today or tomorrow for us to drop in, and our choices were Thursday or Friday at 2:30, and we chose the Thursday time. The present time was just barely noon, so we went to lunch at our favorite restaurant in town, The Crazy Pepper Cantina Restaurant, before heading south to Parkdale.
When we arrived at Rita’s in Parkdale, she was waiting in a empty shop, one customer got done early, and one had cancelled, and we had her to ourselves. We hadn’t been through town for nearly six months, and we spent the first 45 minutes visiting and catching up on the local news around the neighborhood. We spent about an hour and half in her shop, all three of us sitting and visiting as if it was her front room. We enjoyed the small community life when we lived there, but we have also enjoyed the traveling life, and exploring all of the other parts of the US, it’s nice to catch-up on the local news.
We were driving back to the trailer, after leaving Rita’s, and I decided to drive down the road where our old neighbor Larry, now lives, and he was out in front of the house. I hadn't visited with Larry since we got on the road, so we stopped in. Larry and Louisa had been long time neighbors, and our daughter Sara is still friends with Louisa’s daughter Anna-Maria. The two girls have been visiting in the New York city area. Anne-Marie and Louisa went to the living room, and Larry and I at the kitchen table, and we all visited and caught up with where we have been and what we have seen during our travels. It seems that the haircut took the entire afternoon, till six in the evening, when we got home to the trailer.
The storage unit that we have for our stuff is in Odell Oregon, and the cost of the unit will sometime in the future, exceed the value of our stuff. This is true for any storage unit that holds stuff, there is the day that if you had just gave it away, a breakeven point would be reached, and from thereafter, a savings would be had. In a few years, we will need to make a decision on the unit, move the stuff, or dispose of it. The easiest solution for us would be if one of our Sons, Matthew or Andrew, would have a shop to use the tools, but neither one has a shop yet, I didn’t have a shop for 25 years at our old house either. For now we will keep our stuff where it is, and visit it once or twice a year.
The primary reason for visiting Hood River in October is that my annual physical checkup is due, and yesterday I drove up to the clinic to give a blood sample, so they could measure how well I am doing.
During the afternoon I decided to do something about the van needing servicing, and I know that I have neglected it for a few months, and parked next to a Oil Can Henrys here in town, prompted me to get it done now. Once the van was directed into the garage by the service guy Keith, he started checking all of the fluids that I haven’t paid any attention to at all, and the service guy down in the pit was draining and checking stuff. The two of them were shouting mumbly stuff rapidly back and forth between them, and each of them repeated the rapid mumble that the other had just said. I think that it made sense to each of them, but from inside of the van, I could only catch a word here and there. It seems that the oil was old and black, and the engine needed to have a cleaner put in the loosen the gunk. The van has nearly 100,000 miles and it needs a more special oil now. Keith enthusiastically showed me the different colored oils and goo’s that were in the vans various reservoirs, and how a couple were happy, and a couple really needed attention. The transfer case got its oil changed, and the rear differential actually got washed out and the oil changed. It seems that pulling the trailer is hard on several systems in the van, and the colors of the oils really are a strong indicator as to how hard something is working. The Oil Can Henrys experience cost was $256.64 yesterday, and after comparing service experiences with other RV owners, this seems to be in line for a one ton truck.
Our Son, Matthew came by yesterday evening, and we all went out for dinner at the Big Horse Pub-Horsefeathers downtown in Hood River. Their old building was built on a steep hillside, and it must be four stories tall, and the restaurant is on the top floor, and the dining area has a super view of the downtown area, and the Columbia river beyond. Matthew, Anne-Marie and I sampled a few of their brews, during dinner, and we each have our favorites, mine being a coffee infused oatmeal stout.
During our travels across the States, we visit many attractions. and quite often when visiting with the guide, owner, waiter, employee, or other tourists, we become the attraction, when the discussion turns to us with the question “Where do you live?”. People all over the US are interested in doing what we are doing, when they become retired. There is so much to see and do in any town, most every community has at least a weeks of exploring, and most have many weeks worth of exploring around them. The problems that Anne-Marie and I have are remembering what State an attraction was in, and what month or year we were there, it seems to all run together.
We are parked in Hood River Oregon, and the weather has been nice to us, no clouds and 70s during the day.
This is our house parked in Hood River, with Mt. Adams in southern Washington showing in the distance. This was taken at sunset with the new camera. As I have a problem learning anything new, I would like one of our friends in Tucson to buy a camera just like this, and show me how to use some of the neat features.
I finally got the brakes done on the van. I parked in the back lot of the parts house, and as fast as I could get one off, the machinist started to work on it and was done by the time I had the second one off. He was faster at surfacing the rotors than I at dealing with tools. The brakes should be good for another three years. I seem to do my mechanical work in parking lots, and RV Parks now that I don’t have a shop anymore.
Full Sail Brewing in this wide picture.
Back in the day, when I was still working, I used to take care of the phone system in their plant. The whole operation has doubled in size since then, and I have seen their beer as far East as South Carolina.
Anne-Marie and I haven’t any firm plans for the rest of the week, and I have my annual physical on Monday, and we hit the road on Tuesday.
This was our parting view of Nehalem Bay in the distance. We left the Bay on Friday and pulled the trailer to Portland Oregon. Anne-Marie had several errand's to take care of, and Yesterday we moved the trailer to Hood River Oregon, and we plan to be here for a week.
Sunday afternoon, Anne-Marie had the Ikea Store on her list, and we had lunch in their cafeteria, to build our energy levels up, before wandering through the maze.
The next stop was the Best Buy store, and this again was for Anne-Marie, she needed some items for her tablet. I went straight to the camera section, and was looking at Sony cameras for an upgrade from the one that I have. The camera that I have been using since we were in Arizona, has a large on/off button, and it gets turned on several times a day, and most of the time while in my pocket. The old camera has a finite life because of this design flaw, and I have been looking for a replacement all summer.
The Best Buy store had a camera that was an immediate upgrade from the one that I was using. I was interested in buying it, and Anne-Marie granted permission. The sales guy listened to my humble requirements, of not being too complex, and easy to reset, and he said “We don’t have that one in stock, and I checked the other stores in town, and they don’t either.” “But I have a open box return of one of these” he said pointing to a higher priced model. The cost was the same as the simpler camera, and the more advanced camera, had a 16x optical zoom. After a short amount of training I was buying a much better camera.
The new camera is a little bit larger than the old one.
The cameras lined up show the difference in the size of the lens tubes. The new camera has a onboard user guide, and is easy to sort out.
The sad news is, I brought the new camera home, and charged the battery, and turned the camera on. The lens extended out, and the screen display showed the normal startup stuff, then the lens retracted and the display said “turn the camera off and back on again”. This happened several times, then began normal operation. Yesterday morning, I started to take pictures, just to get a feel for how it worked, and the camera would lockup, and display the “turn off and on again” message. It seems that the camera locking up, is why it was returned. The Geek Squad overlooked this intermittent problem, and gave it a attractive discounted price, and sold it again. Monday morning I was confronted with a broken camera that needed to be returned, and it was a travel day for us. The Best Buy store opened at 10:00AM, and I was there shortly after to return the camera, and I got a unopened one, after paying the difference between the discounted bad camera and the new one.
After the new camera had its battery charged, I took several pictures in and around the trailer, and I am impressed with how well this one works compared to the bad one that I returned.
Last night Anne-Marie and I had dinner with friends Bill and Judy, James and Tina, at Sheri’s in Hood River, and next week we will meet at the Chinese Restaurant Down Town.
Today I get to work on the front brakes on the van, I found a machine shop to turn the rotors, but I have to remove them from the van again.
