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| Closing the door to pull out of Baker City. |
Friday, May 11:
Time to
finally get the new trailer out on the road and figure everything out. We are tired of reading the manual! It seems to be filled with Warning Signs - two to three per page in places! Propane here, electrical warning there. I can’t imagine that many things going
wrong. Better hope not! Our destination is short – Phillips Lake and
Union Creek Campground. When Rick was
taking a hike last week, he discovered trailers in the campground, so we know
it is now open. And it won’t kill us at
$18 a night to get electricity and water – which we need to test all those
systems out!
So….after a
couple hours of packing upon my arrival home from my BMCC class (final session
for spring term!) we take off around 12:45.
I was hoping for a Fed Ex package to arrive before we left, so I could
get Mom’s Mother’s Day present into the mail, but no such luck. It was suppose to arrive on Thursday!!! Rick had spent the morning packing a few
things and doing a test on the furnace, etc.
It is a
beautiful day. Absolutely clear and
sunny, but the air is still brisk!
Should warm up into the 70’s by Saturday and Sunday, but it will be near
freezing at night. Yeah! We have a furnace!
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| C-5 Campsite at Union Creek. |
Half hour
drive to Union Creek and we pull through Loops B and C looking for a good
spot. We have plenty to choose from –
maybe 8 other sites are occupied. We
finally decide on C-5 and get backed in.
We successfully use our new leveling jacks to correct the mild tilt to
one side, and then finish the leveling front and back with tongue and hitch
jack. Rick gets us hooked up to the
water and plugged in, so the refrigerator can automatically switch off the
propane and to electric. However, a few
moments later, we realize the microwave doesn’t work, plus a few other
things. Power is weak. We then realize there is a switch on the
power pole you have to engage to actually get the power into the trailer! Like a circuit breaker switch! Once we did that – everything worked great! We
make up the back bed – are basically just stacking the mattresses up at the
rear of the front bed, and using the flat area as extended counter space! You can move the table out of the way by
placing it on top of the mattresses. We forgot to bring the small TV tables as intended,
so we end up setting up the big table later for dinner (The wind was cold
outside!). The main table is big, but
necessary to have along if we are ever going to sleep on the dinette bed.
We are so
glad we didn’t go with the Casita. The
opportunity to have someone else with us in this trailer is great – be it the
kids, grandkids (????) or whatever! Plus
we just have such a bigger “feel” inside with the pull-outs. We sacrificed a closet, but ended up with
more shelf space. The bathroom is MUCH
nicer in this rig.
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| One of two pans of shrimp! |
A lazy
afternoon. Rick went in and read/napped,
while I set up my chair in the sunshine and read/napped! Eventually we both were chasing the sun beams
around the campsite in late afternoon, visiting and talking.
Time to
fire up the stove and try it out! I
could have used all three burners tonight, but I didn’t have that many pots or
pans! Menu is sautéed shrimp, fresh
green beans, and stuffing!! A pound and
a half of raw shrimp, so we have plenty, but learn that you have to peel the
“skin” off when you buy it that way!
Very messy, but it tasted good. I
burned the beans, but they still tasted good (not used to cooking them in water
rather than steam) The stove ignites very easily…once we figured it out! And the water was VERY hot when I went to do
the dishes afterwards. I put a towel out
(the cover to the griddle since we don’t have a hand towel!) on top of the
stove cover to dry the dishes. Worked
just fine! We’ll use paper plates a lot,
so dishes are mostly cooking and silverware.
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| Rick enjoys our first dinner in the new trailer! Shrimp! |
I have
begun my list of things we forgot….or didn’t have in the “cooking bucket” for
the tent trailer….cups, etc. that can go in the microwave, a corkscrew for the
wine bottles (fortunately Tim Smith’s parents in the site next to us loaned us one!),
a mini broom, the hand towels missing from the bucket, etc. etc. etc. That’s what a shakedown trip is for!! And to help me figure out where and how I
want to store everything in the kitchen area.
With the microwave possibility, I might just end up purchasing some
dishes, etc. that will stay here in this trailer, and keep the bucket armed and
ready to go for tent trailer camping.
After
dinner we took a walk down through A Loop – trying to find where we celebrated
the Silver Bullet’s 50th birthday, and then through the tent sites
and all along the lake past the picnic area and back to C Loop. A beautiful evening out, although still a
little windy. Back to make a campfire
and enjoy the warmth and mesmerizing effect of the flames for a couple hours
before tucking ourselves in for the night.
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| Sunset on the lake Friday night. |
Important
note – finally tested the new potty right before bed. Such fun and it flushes so quickly and
easily! The queen bed is definitely a
bigger “feel” than the mini double of the tent trailer….we can manage this size
bed! Rick has his super sleeping bag and
I my lightweight one (don’t have a super), but I also brought my frog quilt
from Margaret and a couple of fleece blankets, so I should be good. (And I am!)
Rick sets the thermostat for around 50 and we hear the furnace kicking
on several times during the night
Just after we turn off the lights
we hear a chorus of coyotes howling across the lake, up in the hills. Rick said he heard them again in the
night. .
Saturday, May 12
No clock by
the bed, so I just keep turning over and going back to sleep until finally I
have to use the bathroom. It is
7am! A good night’s sleep for me! The sun is out, the air is definitely
cool. I wrap up in the frog quilt, turn
the coffee maker on (I had it all ready to go!) and do my Bible study and a
couple of drawings from yesterday. Then
it is time to catch up here and NOW IT IS TIME FOR BREAKFAST! More later!!!
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| Elkhorn Range from Bridge Creek. |
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| Lots of green and inlets of the lake. |
Breakfast
is fruit plus pancake roll-ups for Rick with peanut butter and I have a little
yogurt and cereal. Then some more lazy
reading and working of puzzles…. By 11:45 we decide to grab a light lunch
before we take off on the bikes to ride past Social Security Point and Mowich
Loop and out to the end of Hudspeth Lane.
About 4.5 miles, the last part on the road, the first part on the
Shoreline Trail. Route includes a good
uphill stretch out on the highway…which I managed to do without stopping and in
third gear the whole time!! Mostly we
stopped often to check out various birds – mallards, geese, and osprey, plus
swifts woodpecker, and red winged blackbirds. Saw just a few wildflowers – some dandelion
types and more grass widows. In a couple
of weeks the wild iris will be in full splendor! But the grass is so green right now that the
fields were beautiful. Biggest obstacle
was dodging all the pinecones in the trail.
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| My bike is holding up the camera! Out on Hudspeth Lane with Elkhorns in background. |
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| The osprey flew through just as I clicked the picture! |
Back to the
trailer around 2:30 to try out the awning and then test the shower
facility!! The awning took us about
three tries to figure all the kicks out, including…shut the main door
first! They don’t tell you that in the
instructions, but it gets in the way!
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| Success at putting up the awning! |
While
waiting for Rick to finish in the shower, I found a tick on my neck! Aghh!!
Hate those things! Rick declared
me “clean “ after a thorough check!
Shower works great, the air conditioner works fine also. (We were hot when we got done with the awning
and our ride! It didn’t stay on long,
however.)
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| Grass widows everywhere! |
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| Red faced Rick ponders the fire. |
Afternoon lazing
around reading, etc. and enjoying the sunshine.
We thought about calling some of
our Sumpter friends to join us for campfire, but then remembered they would
have to pay to come in and we weren’t sure how long we would last tonight to
stay up! So around 4:30, Rick made our
campfire so we would have some good coals for the turkey kielbasa dogs we have
to cook up. (Complete with sourdough
pancake “roll-ups” for the buns), plus dilly beans, baked beans, and cut raw veggies
with dip Rick also tried to mix some
of the green tomatillo salsa I made for him with regular salsa, but it was stil
WAY too vinegary. That batch of
tomatillo was a disaster – won’t use that recipe again!
We took a
walk again around the area after dinner – the campfire was in status quo mode
enough to leave it for a bit safely. A
beautiful evening. Back to enjoy the
campfire a bit longer and then head into the trailer at 8:20 to play some
games!!! Yeah, Rick! A round of Quiddler and then 4 rounds of
Rummy. I won Quiddler and Rick won
rummy, so we both could go to bed happy!
J
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| Do you see the eye in the fire? |
It is
warmer tonight and we decide not to run the furnace at all. Cozy into our bed and read until probably 10p
and lights out!
Sunday morning, May 13 – It’s Mother’s Day!
And THIS mother is hoping her
youngest son is safe as he climbs to the summit of Mt. Jefferson this
morning. Hoping the snow froze up enough
to make it an easy and safe climb.
Hoping we get a call by noon at the latest saying all went well! Hoping and praying!
I woke up earlier today and got up
at 6:20a. I will need to keep my watch
on the light stand, so I at least know what time it is when I arise. I don’t want to have to climb over Rick
often….that’s the only downside to the sleeping arrangements. There isn’t as much space for me to climb
over or hold onto to step over him and then down. I waited last night until I heard him get up
and then went to the bathroom at the same time!
Anyway, I
curled up in the couch area with my blankets and a hot cup of coffee and did my
Bible Study. Then ‘went to church’ by
reading the bulk of the Revelant Magazine that had arrived last week. An entry in this log, and breakfast to
follow!
All we have
left to try out is using the dump station!
That shall be our adventure for the day.
We have found we will have to be careful with the grey water levels -
after our showers yesterday we were already 2/3 full, and we really haven’t run
the water THAT much. But…it’s a small
trailer, which means smaller tanks!
Read and enjoyed the sunshine today
until about 9:30 when we started getting things ready to leave. I rode the bike up the exit hill (a different
route) to locate an alternate dump station, but just the one which we shall
have to pull into from the opposite direction to get our hose to reach the
drain. We manage fine and can cross that
off our “first time” list. Did learn
that rubber gloves would be handy to have – we just liberally applied sanitizer
when done!
Total trip about 40 miles round
trip – we are NOT getting great mileage with the trailer, but we knew that
would be the case. Still could hope for
an improvement! Home in time to quickly
empty trailer so we can back it across the street into Ryan’s driveway, unhook
and be ready to drive out to the nursery in Keating for my annual Mother’s Day
flower purchases!
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| Not Union Creek, but the Wallowas were gorgeous driving to Keating! |
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