Arriving back to Hondo

Friday - A modest travel through Texas. It’s not as hot as it has been the last couple of days but at 94°F, it’s still hot. The generator will, again, be running most of the day. Besides he A/C, it is also powering both refrigerators and the converter to charge the AGM battery. Even though the A/C will run off of the batteries, the refrigerator will need to be switched to propane. We prefer to have the propane shut off while traveling just for safety. 

The Garmin always tries to route us through San Antonio so we have Google Maps running as well. Eventually, the Garmin will start matching Google but not until we turn south at Kerrville. The San Antonio route is longer but maybe Garmin doesn’t like secondary roads. 

Wichita Falls, TX

Thursday - A long travel day from Kansas to Texas. About 470 miles and over eight hours. We arrived with the temperature at 100°F. The roof A/C was running all day long with the generator except for gas stops. But we finally made it into Texas. 

The RV park is fine though the showers seemed old. The pool closed at 8 pm, which I didn’t learn until 7:55 pm. Oh well.

Our next travel day is about 100 miles shorter and ends in Hondo. I’m not sure of the state of the class A as the Internet stopped working a while back so I haven’t been able to log into HomeAssistant. This is the second time the AT&T hotspot has quit in the middle of the summer.

Minneapolis, KS

Wednesday - It’s a hot one today. A 428 mile travel day to Minneapolis, KS. A small town that doesn’t seem to resemble the more well known version. But it’s nice enough for an overnight stop. Power for the A/C  is all we really need. And it is only $15 at this city campground. 

Tomorrow is another long-ish travel day to Wichita Falls, TX. It’s just across the border with Oklahoma. We had a head wind for most of today’s drive which drove up gas consumption. The class C did fine. I checked the oil level this morning and it was still full after about 2,300 miles. I can’t complain about that. The generator was run since about noon to run the roof A/C on high. The dash A/C sort of worked but it seemed to have difficulty with the triple digit temperatures. But when it was running good, the outlet air temperature was 49°F. 

Dinner is pulled pork! Thank you Annie and Kevin.

Sioux Falls, SD

Friday - We saw a couple of bighorn sheep, or that’s what I think they are, just across the street from where we were parked last night.

Another travel day today. Around 300 miles to a state park north of Sioux Falls, SD. Also by the way, we stopped at a welcome center/restaurant area. There was a fabulous statue called Dignity with the Missouri River in the background. 

We are staying at the Big Sioux Recreation Area in an electric only campsite. Water and a dump station are available. We needed to purchase the annual state park pass for South Dakota to stay here. The sites are large and, so far, very quiet. 

Most of our stay in Sioux Falls was spent looking at condos. 

Monday - Wednesday drove an hour west to Mitchell, SD, to see the corn palace. The murals decorating the building are made from ears of corn and the current murals are commemorating the 250th anniversary.

This is just one of many murals. They are redone every year and are different. I remember stopping here in the past but don’t remember when. Maybe back in the 90s. 

Wall, SD

Thursday - A long-ish travel day from Billings, MT, to what’s known as Nomads View about 6 miles south of Wall, SD. At 92°F, it’s pretty hot so the generator got used today. At around 7:30, we turned off the generator and changed the A/C to fan only to circulate air. 

We had stayed at this location last year so we knew how to get here. It’s a pretty scenic and popular location but the high temperatures probably discouraged some. 

Tomorrow is a shorter day to a state park near Sioux Falls, SD. Around 300 miles according to Google. 

Helena, MT to Billings, MT

Tuesday - We arrived in Helena, MT, on Sunday. We stopped at the lunch destination of the Montana BMW club in Phillipsburg. We then continued on to our friend’s home in Helena. They have an RV parking spot next to their shop. 

I set up the JPC-12 antenna to get ready for Winlink Wednesday and got my weekly check-in message sent on 40m. 

Wednesday - We headed east today towards our overnight stop at a HH in Billings, MT. It is the Beartooth HD dealer. They have a nice, large parking lot on the west side of the building. And, 50amp power! I picked up a 40oz insulated cup with the Royal Enfield logo (on sale!) as HH encourages you to give some business to the host.

They are also a dealer for these Jeep looking UTVs made in India. They have a turbo diesel engine and are physically about the same size as the early Jeeps. 

Very utilitarian but ridiculously expensive at $22k for what you get. They are flat towable at a max speed of 55mph. Their top speed is 51mph but they are geared very low. Final drive is 5.38:1 and has a two speed transfer case. 

Missoula, MT

Saturday - We went to Travelers Rest State Park just a short way southeast of Missoula. It was one of the stops along the Lewis and Clark trail through the area. The small visitors center had quite a few displays and a lot of artwork depicting bear encounters. This is near the southern extent of the grizzly bear so there seemed to be a lot of fascination with them. 

We are touristing with Kevin and Charla and her parents, whom we are also staying at the rv park. It has been a very quiet and relaxing week at Jim and Mary’s RV Park. Very nicely kept and immaculately clean. 

After a lunch stop at a Lolo microbrewery, we went to the Lolo Pass visitor center. It was a very nice visitor center and when I commented on the Christmas decorations, they told us that the local forest was selected to provide the National Christmas tree in Washington DC as well as 100 additional trees for offices. The forest service employee was selected to accompany the tree for the first week of the three week trip. She was pretty enthusiastic about the opportunity. 

Missoula, MT

Tuesday - It is definitely warmer than it has been the last couple of weeks. Today’s forecast is for a high of 85°F. This morning, we went to REI and Costco. We are looking for appropriate clothing for an upcoming trip. 

The Costco stop was to replace several food items that we weren’t allowed to bring into the U.S. from Canada. 

I also set up the JPC-12 antenna to check my Winlink email. I need to use a “form” with the check-in email that I will send out this evening. The form is just a method of delivering data in a pre-defined format. 

Wednesday - The Winlink email was sent last night about ten minutes after midnight Eastern Time using the RMS in eastern Oregon. After it was sent, I tried the Las Vegas RMS and easily established a connection. I'm amazed at how well 40m works at night, not well at all during the day.

I participated in the morning test session. The only Starlink issue is the number of WiFi access points. This is not unusual at most RV parks since just about every RV has an AP of some sort these days. Whether it Starlink or a cellular hotspot. Plus, the park itself has quite a few APs scattered around on poles. 

Today was another relaxing day visiting with friends without ridiculous temperatures or humidity. 

Thursday - I participated in the morning test session from behind the RV. It was a cool 66°F at 10am. The forecast for this afternoon is for 91°F. 

This morning after the test, I broke out the tools to tighten all the bolts on the tow bar. They aren’t torqued but just have locknuts so I just made sure that they were not loose. 

The sink drain is still leaking. Very little water but you can feel moisture above the trap. I think the P-trap may need replacing as the hand-tight coupler to the sink may be cracked from repeated tightening. It’s always something if you have an RV.

This afternoon, we went to the visitor center for the Missoula Smokejumpers. There was a nice, small museum but the tours were already done for the day.

Shelby, MT

Friday - A short travel day to just across the border. The border crossing at Coutts was really slow. The line of cars was long and only one lane (of three) was open for non-trucks. It was probably around 45 minutes. We are at a first-come first-serve campground in Shelby, MT, with 30amp electricity, scattered water spigots, and a dump station on the way out. It has been raining for most of the day but the forecast is for warmer temperatures this weekend. 

We will be here for a couple of days before heading south and west to Missoula. On the way, we filled the onboard propane tank with 32 liters which comes out to 8.5 gallons. I believe the maximum for the 12 gallon tank is about 9 gallons so we were almost empty. The needle on the built-in gauge was way below “E”. I think the last time we filled the tank was on our way out of Corvallis. 

Saturday - A quiet, non-travel day. We were originally planning to head east to a Harvest Host but decided to just stay here a second night. After all, we would be going through here again tomorrow on our way to Missoula. I had to adjust the air mix on the water heater last night as it wouldn’t stay lit. I’ve needed to adjust both the water heater and the generator several times on this trip. We are at 3300’ now and it was last adjusted when we were near sea level. I don’t think it should be that touchy.

We went into Shelby for a few groceries and lumbers putty. The sink drain is leaking so I am planning to just remove and reinstall it. I had messed with it a couple of days ago when trying to figure out why the sink wasn’t draining. 

Mossleigh, AB

Tuesday - We are here at Aspen Crossing RV Park near Mossleigh, AB, for one more night and will head south tomorrow for Montana. I've been going through the refrigerator and pantry to try and identify what needs to be tossed before crossing the border. There is a surprisingly long list of items that are restricted.

There is a lot of rain in the forecast for the rest of the week. I packed up the clam after drying it out. At the suggestion of friends, I inverted the clam to dry out the bottom parts. It worked pretty well. 

Wednesday - We decided to stay here for a couple more days since heavy rain is forcasted for most of today and tomorrow. The next place was a first-come, first-served campground, so no reservations. It's convenient to stay here for a couple more days.

The refrigerator/freezer/pantry clean out continues. Trying to use up what we have instead of getting more groceries and trying to find places to put them. Space is much more limited in the class C.

Last night at 10:01pm MDT, I sent my Winlink check-in on 40m using the RMS in Las Vegas, NV. The connection was pretty noisy but the message still sent. I initially tried the RMS in eastern Oregon but there was a lot of intermittent noise. Possibly from the storms.

Thursday - It dropped into the high 40s (°F) last night. Time to start heading south. 

I signed up for the morning test session but the potential candidate didn’t finish the paperwork nor pay the fee so no test. 

I packed the HF radio and antenna yesterday so I just used the telnet interface to check for a confirmation email. Very quick and easy but not really in the spirit of radio-email. 

We have been right at the edge of all the rain for most of the morning. And with the cooler temperatures, we have been going through the propane. We are under ¼ tank for the first time on the trip. I think that the Petro Canada station in Vulcan sells propane and that will be on our way south tomorrow morning. 

Mossleigh, AB

Saturday - The music festival and the crowds it brought are noisy. The group next to us in the rv park were going at it until after midnight. I think it’s a group of five or six RVs. I could hear the music from the festival stage from our site. It was loud enough to turn into noise for me. But that’s just me I’m sure it was just fine. 

We went to the tavern with friends for pizza. It was decent. The crust wasn’t too thick. 

Monday - The weekend had several RV repairs needing done. We thought the kitchen sink had a clog since the water wasn’t draining. It turned out that I had forgotten to open the gate valve for the grey tank. I had already disassembled parts of the kitchen so I need a larger channel lock style pliers to tighten the plumbing. 

The plastic flange the toilet mounts to broke. It turned out to be an easy temporary fix as the flange had two more mounts 90° away. So loosen the broken flange, turn 90° and screw into place. Permanent fix is a metal, two-piece flange. Readily available on Amazon.

We got more rain this evening. At least there wasn’t any hail! We had hail a few nights ago. Friends, who are leaving tomorrow, wanted to fill their truck with diesel, so we went to Vulcan. While we were there, we stopped at a hardware store to pick up the larger channel lock pliers. The plumbing drain pipes are now tightened. 

Mossleigh, AB

Wednesday - This morning, I needed a few things from the grocery store that I probably should have picked up in Cranbrook, BC, as there was both a Safeway and a Walmart in that town. I drove 20 minutes south to the small town of Vulcan (as in Star Trek). It was a decent small-town market, much larger than a Dollar General. We are meeting up with friends this afternoon, and I am making some potato salad for the potluck.

Thursday - A couple of minor repair projects completed today. I moved the door latch up around ⅛” (with a file!), which allowed the latch to catch without needing to slam the door. We’ll see how long this fix lasts. The windshield cover had a cut in the middle. I remembered that I had some clear Gorilla tape in a storage bin. Hopefully this fix lasts for a while. 

I also dug out all six of the DeWalt batteries and charged them. The inflator gets used frequently to air up the tires when the temperature goes from hot to cool, which has happened often on this trip.

Friday - It looks like the Winlink Wednesday email worked as I showed up on the participant map at around the correct location. 

It is relatively cool for this time of year. I wasn’t sure how much wind we would have, so I didn’t initially set up the clam shelter. But it needed to dry out, so I set it up. It’s a good thing that I set it up, as the floor was also damp. It's a nice place to do the testing from as long as it isn't too hot. At 2:15, it's 74°F, which is borderline too warm.

There is a music festival scheduled to start this evening and run all day tomorrow. I hope it isn't too loud, but it does mean that the RV park may fill up.

Cranbrook, BC

Monday - We crossed the border into Canada today. It was a longer wait than “usual” but we were only asked a couple of questions. The road had a lot of twists and turns and tomorrow we cross the Canadian Rockies. Our destination is Aspen Crossing RV Park east of Calgary, AB. 

We are at a small RV park in Cranbrook and had dinner at an Indian restaurant near the park. It was pretty tasty food and a nice change. 

Coeur d’Alene

Sunday - Today was a travel day with some uncertainty due to fires in Oregon and Washington. We saw smoke but no flames. We went through Spokane around 12:30 and it wasn’t too crowded. Maybe because it is Sunday. 

We are at the fairgrounds RV park which has full hookups. When I fill the fresh water tank, I’ll measure it to see how much we used. The RV gauge panel says 1/3 fresh and a full black tank (it said only 1/3 yesterday). The grey tank sensors stopped working last Summer. 

The breaker for the 30amp outlet blew yesterday evening when I turned the converter back on. The converter charges the original AGM coach battery. It is powered through the inverter so it gets power through shore power, generator, or the lithium batteries. Anyway, I turned down the max shore power from 30amps to 25amps and reset the breaker. It tripped again. I turned it down to 22amps and it tripped. A bad breaker. Probably from being repeatedly overloaded. I then plugged the RV into the 50amp outlet using an adapter. No problem even after turning the max shore power back to 30amps.

Tomorrow, we have a modest travel day into southern British Columbia. 

Rufus Landing

Saturday - Today is a windy day and there are a lot of people here taking advantage of it. 

When we arrived here, there were maybe ten RVs here with no one really around us. Not the case now. It is pretty entertaining watching all the activity on the river. 

The gusts are supposedly over 40mph. There are a wide variety of floating toys out here from kayaks to these wind powered boards with underwater foils. All are very fast.

The batteries were at 65% this morning and I really don’t want to run the generator with all the people around. I turned off most thing except for the 12V chest fridge/freezer to recharge the batteries. 

By evening, we were at 89%. Enough to get through the night. A couple of videos showing some of the river activities. The last is a launch and landing. 

Rufus Landing, OR

Wednesday - Another Winlink Wednesday, though I usually send the message on Tuesday evening (0010EDT) as required by the "rules". The "rules" are only if you want to be counted and posted on their web page and map. We are still at the TT, but I'll start packing things up today and tomorrow. Friday is a travel day into the town of Hood River and then east on I-84 to Rufus Landing.

Friday - Today was a short travel day to Rufus Landing, a free camping location right on the banks of the Columbia River. This is the view from the RV. I suspect it may be kind of crowded tomorrow as it is a popular windsurfing location. I should get some good pictures tomorrow.

We will be here for a couple of days. It's more challenging to find places to stay on Friday and Saturday nights, especially if you are near populated areas such as Portland. We do have the generator running as it is 92°F here mid-afternoon. There is no one parked around us right now so it seemed to be an opportune time to run the generator.

By 5pm, the smoke started to come in. It’s still hot and it looks pretty grim.

By 8pm, it started to look better. Less smoky. And it started to cool off!

Timberline Lodge

Tuesday - After the morning test session, we drove to Zig Zag Falls trailhead. It was a short hike to the falls from the parking lot. 

We then drove up to almost 6000’ to the Timberline Lodge. It was a WPA project in the late 1930s. 

We had lunch at the restaurant, and probably had the best table in the whole place. This was the view from our table. 

It’s hard to believe that the lodge took less than 18 months to build. Including all of the carvings, artwork, and furniture. It was dedicated by Franklin Roosevelt.

Still the Same Place…

Saturday - Two test sessions today, including an early morning one. There was a small farmers market at the RV park, and they had the normal stuff. Overpriced veggies and artsy items. We picked up a couple of squash. We then had lunch at the little deli/restaurant next to the office. The Italian sub was good, though I would’ve expected some sort of salami or spicy deli meat. 

This place got a lot more crowded on the weekend. I’m not even going to bother checking out the hot tub today. 

Sunday - This afternoon, we drove about 12 miles east as Bridget wanted to see proof that Mt. Hood still existed. Being Sunday, there were a lot of cars on the road. There are a lot fewer RVs in the campground compared to yesterday. 

Monday - Yesterday, we saw smoke, which prompted a search for fires. There are quite a few, with the closest one being Hood Meadows. 

StarLink is still useful here even with all of the trees. Here are the obstructions as seen by the antenna. It is looking through a hole in the canopy. It still works fine for streaming due to buffering within the app. But I’m not offering to lead as real-time apps such as Zoom or voice would have random outages. 

We drove back to the town of Sandy to pick up some groceries. We had to be a little careful as we will be heading into Canada in about a week. So no raw poultry, eggs, citrus fruit, or some vegetables. I'll look up more specifics later on in the week. Unfortunately, the restricted items seem to change depending on who is asking.

Welches, OR -TT

Thursday - I set up the clam for the first time on this trip. It’s not windy but there is some in the forecast. I still need to add guy lines. I also set up the JPC-12 and checked my radio email. Propagation is pretty poor but I could still reach the RMS in northeastern Oregon. An indication of the poor propagation is the speed of 18bps. 

Quite the temperature change from yesterday but no complaints from me. 

Not quite the same as the Blackstone but a whole lot lighter. The results are similar. I still prefer the Blackstone. This is sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips, and green beans. With some balsamic vinegar. It came out decent, though the sweet potatoes could have been cooked longer.

Friday - A morning test session followed by warmer daytime temperatures. The A/C got turned on mid-afternoon while watching the Starship launch on YouTube. It’s still an hour away but it’s  entertaining enough. 

Welches, OR - TT

Wednesday - We are back on the road again. The class C had the oil changed this morning and now has a full tank of propane. We still had 3/8 of a tank but the gas station had propane. So it was convenient. 

We are at a newly listed TT park near Mt. Hood. The elevation is only 1100’ so it’s still hot and it is kind of smoky from all of the fires around Oregon. The site is large Ang backs up to the woods. It’s pretty nice.

And, the hot tub and pool are open! Not that you needed it with todays 90° (°F) temperatures. But I felt a need to try it out anyway.