News Flash!

I am back again! We had such an eventful day that I had to get on the computer and tell you all about it!

As we were unhooking from Aunt Anita’s Dave came rushing in to the RV asking for towels! Huh? “A pipe burst!” he says. Oh, my! Frantically wiping up the kitchen and bathroom, we try to stem the flow. It is 7:00 a.m. and we are not ready for this on this frosty morning!

We finally pulled out of Riggins at 8:00 a.m. amidst a gentle drizzle which soon turned to snow flurries. For most of our drive the temperature hovered between 27 and 29 degrees. Brrrr! A cup of coffee at the gas stop in McCall hit the spot! By the way, I failed to mention the little coffee and sandwich shop we ate lunch at there in McCall the other day. It is called the Fogg Lifter Café and we had the best $6.50 sandwich we have had since we left California. Mmm, mmmm! But back to the snow… we had never driven the RV in anything but rain and sun so this was a new experience, for Dave, anyway, since I have not driven it at all (YET!). He did great and God was good! I have not seen snow on the trees like this since I lived in Colorado except for a brief vacation at Mammoth a couple of years ago. I kept taking pictures out the window all the way up and down the passes. I have no idea how they came out but perhaps I can paint a few memories of them when I get a chance.

Driving HWY 55 down to Boise, the Garmin led us to downtown instead of to I84 so we got to see the State Capitol building which is closed for renovation. Driving through, I remarked that there are so many drive-through coffee places not only here in Idaho but also in Oregon and Washington. (We have seen far more independent coffee places than Starbuck’s, by the way.) Is it because of the weather or are people just that coffee crazy? Maybe they are lazy… Hmmm.

As we neared Mountain Home Air Force Base where we were to camp, we missed our turn-off. As we pulled a u-turn Dave looked back and one of our awning poles was full-on out and the awning itself was flapping around in the 40 mph wind! Ouch! A kind man saw it and as we stopped he did also and asked if we needed help so he held it (in the freezing, blowing wind!) while Dave tried to find the correct sized tool to tighten it back up. He had no tool that size but we had stopped right in front of a Napa store (mind you, this is out in the middle of nowhere) and after borrowing the correct tool, Dave and the nice man had it temporarily fixed in a jiffy! We drove the mile and a half to the Base entrance and to the campsite. After hooking up, I picked up the book I’ve been reading and Dave went out to take pictures of the awning damage per the request of the shop where we will get a new one. As he was on the roof, he noticed the man next to us had fallen down. They were all ready to get on the road to Las Vegas and apparently he had forgotten to set his brake or put it into park and had gone back to his attached vehicle to undo its parking brake. As he did so, the whole assembly started to move and it knocked him down and the car tire ran over his foot. Dave quickly climbed down to go to his aid. He was limping and said his back and knee hurt. Dave went into his motor home with him to find his wife in the driver’s seat. She does not drive and had finally figured out how to jump from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat to put the brake on. The man is 84 and his wife is a few years younger. After Dave could not get the phone at the FamCamp to work to call an ambulance, he realized that I need to learn to drive our own rig! Well, it’s about time, I say! At least I know how to drive!

As if this were not enough to fill our day, we went to the Commissary and the BX to stock up on foodstuffs. As I was preparing dinner, I remarked to Dave that I thought the lights were a little dim… kinda’ like fixing food by candlelight. We sat down to eat, not thinking too much about it but as we ate and pondered some more Dave realized that we were totally on battery! Oops! Trying to start up the generator, it growled that it had no more juice. The AC works but the DC doesn’t. Why? The AC is not converting to DC. Did the converter get wet this morning? Is there a switch that tripped? Dave has to wait until morning to take everything out of the under storage area to get behind the panel where all of that stuff is. I ask Dave if anything will short out and catch fire. He tells me that if it were going to do that it would have already done it! Okay… what is wrong, then? By the way, Dave says this is more work than the Lompoc house!

As I write this I am in the “garage” with a bright light plugged in here at the computer while Dave keeps coming back with manuals, trying to problem solve. The candlelight I have set up is not enough to figure out all those diagrams! But it sure smells good!

Tomorrow is a new day and a new adventure! Can’t wait to see what’s in store! Onward, forward!

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