Full Timing - it’s Real Life not Vacation

Tuesday June 8, 2014
Bear Paw Campground
Itasca State Park
Park Rapids Minnesota

 

It’s catch up day.  I’m going to whiz through three days and be up to date. Well whiz may be a bit of a stretch but there are only 22 pictures.   HA!

 

Sunday

 

On Sunday,  David works on the Magnadyne radio which we love since it has AM/FM, Cassette, CD AND a weather band radio.  All in one place, we can have it on the road or just in the house.   But, it has developed a mind of its own over the past few months.  First the CD player refused to load,  then it started turning itself on at night.  Recently it just won’t do anything. 

After researching a replacement and not being able to find anything we liked as well David decided to try cleaning the circuit boards since this worked for his computer.  Not being sirius radio users or bluetooth, we don’t want flashy new technology.  We do actually still have cassettes and listen to them.  I know OLD foggies.   Anyway,  cleaning it made the AM/FM work again so he thought hey, if I clean the entire thing maybe…………   so he did but when he put it back in, nothing worked again.  Oh well……. you don’t know if you don’t try.  He says he may have left some wire off or put some wire back on wrong.  But that will have to wait for another day.  The man has the patience of Job – at least with things like this.

 

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, I went to my two favorite stores in any town, the independent book store and the local ice cream shop.   In this case it is the darling Apostle Islands Independent Bookshop.  It’s my last day here and I really did have to go in.  What a fabulous little bookstore.  I did do my part to support Independent booksellers since they are my favorites.  No way do the big stores have these unique books or this wonderful atmosphere.  Even the ceiling is gorgeous.  Just look at it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon we went back to what is clearly THE ice cream shop in town judging by the constant lines out the door and sometimes around the block.  Not too bad today.  We were only 4 people out the door. 

David got some mocha thing or other and I got malted chocolate with caramel ripple and chocolate covered peanuts.  Very different from my usual fare of something with coconut and/or peanut butter .  They even make their own waffle cones right there so of course everyone has one.

The girl behind the counter asked me twice what I flavor I wanted and as I discovered when I was gone from the shop, did not give me what I asked for but rather gave me plain chocolate.   David said go back and make them change it.  Not so easy.  I could either make a scene or wait in line to complain with the wrong flavor dripping down my arm so I just ate the chocolate which was fine.  But I went away disappointed.  Granted it was late on a Sunday and I’m sure with the number of cones they dip she was tired and just made a mistake but I paid my money and didn’t get my choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But one of us was happy

 

 

 

Monday

 

Monday was one of THOSE DAYS.   If you read regularly then you know we’ve been having a coolant leak problem.  David thought he’d fixed it when we got to Bayfield by tightening a heater hose clamp in the area where the leak was coming from.  He also refilled the coolant reservoir but we found out otherwise as we got about 2 miles away from the campground this morning on our early departure for a 218 mile trip.

We were all set to load the car on the dolly when David noticed the engine was getting hot again.

Ok so what now?  There are no RV repair places anywhere within 100 miles.  There isn’t even a repair shop in Bayfield.  But 10 miles down the road is something called Ron’s Repair.   Oh great!   Who’s Ron?   What choice do we have?

I drive down to Ron’s and they tell me they haven’t even started on the appointment they had two hours ago.  They are so far behind.  I’m nearly in tears.  What will we do I ask.  We live in it.  We can’t drive it, it will over heat.   Andy calls another shop further down the road but they aren’t biting.   So he says if we can get it down here and are willing to wait, he’ll try to take a look at it. 

 

After the engine cooled back down again, David drove it to Ron’s.  Andy came out to look at what David had described was happening.  Then in a little while another mechanic came out with a radiator pressure tester.  After taking off the radiator cap he found the coolant was not visible.  After, they added all the Dex coolant that he had and we had, the coolant level was still not visible in the radiator. 

So we waited for another gallon to be delivered from a nearby NAPA dealer.  It only took another quart to fill it up at which point they could put the pressure tester on the radiator to apply pressure and find where the coolant was leaking.  Turned out to be the heater valve which was connected to the hose David had thought was leaking.  It wasn’t the hose, it was the valve which David had replaced in 2010.  So do those things only last 4 years?

Obviously the low coolant was why Winnona was over heating.  Where did all the coolant David was putting in the coolant reservoir go if it wasn’t getting sucked down into the radiator?  We have a second problem.

 

So rather than wait for NAPA to make another delivery David went to get the heater valve and a new radiator cap .  Of course they didn’t have that valve so David bought a radiator cap and hose coupler to bypass the heater valve for now. 

This means the hot water is going through the heater core all the time.  The problem with that is on a hot day you don’t want heat from your heater so we had to run the AC in order to keep from getting too hot as we drove.   BUT the engine didn’t over heat and the coolant level in the overflow reservoir rose and fell as it should. 

 

 

On a happier note, I must say I have never seen an auto shop with beautiful flowers like this.  Hanging pots and planters everywhere.  To keep myself from worrying about “what now”, I weeded all 9 of the giant flower pots you see in these pictures.   If you are ever near Bayfield having car trouble or even RV trouble, Ron’s is the place to go IF you can get in. 

We are so grateful to them for going out of their way to help us and for an amazingly reasonable charge.

 

 

 

We are on our way at 1 pm instead of our original 8 am but we drive the 218 miles anyway.  Theresa from Trails RV Park in Walker, Minnesota greets us with a hug.  We had called her yesterday about a Passport America site for the night and said we’d be there mid afternoon.   So we had to call her back this morning and say “we’re not sure” and then later and to say “we’ll be really late”. 

The site was perfect, a LONG pull through with full hook ups although the sewer was one of those raised above the ground things that only someone who has never ever dumped an RV would put in.  Our cost was $23.50 and it was well worth that although the full price, at double that rate,  I think is too high. 

They have about a dozen long easy to get to pull throughs in one area of a nice park of summer seasonal rigs.  After such a long day this was just what we needed

 

See what I mean about a LONG site?  They are clearly prepared for 50’+ RVs  BUT the utilities are at the back end of the site so I’m not sure why they are sooo  long.

 

 

 

Tuesday

 

We were only about 40 miles from Itasca.  Yes I know Paul 250+ miles is hardly a half day drive for you, but it is further than I’m willing to drive in one day especially a day like yesterday.  More important was the decision to stage ourselves as close as I could get since I could get no reservation at our destination Itasca State Park. 

Luckily Minnesota parks set aside a nice number of walk in sites and if you come during the week your chances are good.   So we want to be there early in the day.

 

Looking on line, it appeared that there were quite a few walk ins available on this Tuesday but as in other places, the website is not up to date with the park.  When we arrive, we don’t have many choices but all it takes is one and we find it.  SCORE!!   In Bear Paw the smaller campground by the lake.  SCORE!!   It doesn’t have the seclusion of some of the sites in the larger Pine Ridge campground but it has THE LAKE.  Or should I say it has one of 100 lakes in this park.  Really??  100 lakes?  That’s what they say and 100 out of the state’s 10,000 lakes isn’t much actually.

The site has 30 amp electric for $28 a night PLUS the park pass fee.  This seems to be a mid-west thing and may be coming to state parks near you.  The daily entry pass of $5+ per vehicle OR the annual pass of $25 to $70.  Ruby’s window is going to be covered with them.   Minnesota’s yearly pass is $25 and you only have to buy it for your car so it is much less expensive than Michigan or Wisconsin.  In both of those states, you have to buy one for each vehicle, not just your towed and both are more expensive.

That takes the cost for this site without water or sewer up to $31 a night for a week stay.  Of course state parks have no weekly or monthly rates.  State parks are having a terrible funding crisis as many states have totally or nearly cut out funding them.   So before you assume your state taxes are paying for your state parks, you’d better check.

After we get set up, I work on the Pow Wow blog while David arranges to have his medication shipped here and to get his monthly blood tests in Park Rapids about 20 miles away.  He calls a local auto parts store in Park Rapids and they can order the heater valve so he can put it on before we leave here.   No more hot flashes for Winnona.

But this is not the exact valve that Winnebago supplies, it’s the same  after market he put on in 2010 so perhaps that’s why it lasted only 4 years. We want to call Lichtsinn Motors and have them send the exact part so we ask at the campground check in about having mail delivered.  No one has ever heard of that although thankfully they have heard of medicine being delivered.   Tomorrow we’ll go over to the Park Headquarters and ask about mail delivery.

Of course we make a short trip to the Visitor’s Center for information about all the trails, biking and kayaking opportunities.  We see that they have a very informative interactive center and hope to return on a rainy day to see it.  Dinner time now though.

After all and after everything, we are finally here,  awning, chairs, mats, flag out and bikes secured and covered.  We plan to stay a week to hike some of their 18 trails ranging in length from 200 feet to 9.4 miles, walk in the head waters of the Mighty Mississippi, bike the paved trail, and kayak the lake(s).  Actually it may take more than a week.  We have no reservations until Rocky Mountain National Park on the 10th of August so who knows.   I feel rather gutsy winging it during the height of summer vacation.

You’ll have to keep checking on us to find out how this works for us.   And if you have any North Dakota suggestions especially for campgrounds near I 94 on our 464 mile trip to Theodore Roosevelt National park from here, please let me know.