The next morning, I head on south to Walla Walla where my kids are living. I usually stay at the Four Seasons RV Resort while I’m there for it’s convenience to the kids, shopping, and because it’s nice and quiet. My RV is old and grungy with 156,000 miles on it but though I could be turned away from many RV parks, simply because it’s over 10 years old, this park has never asked. ( I just checked reviews of this park and one of them said they won’t let you stay if your RV is over 10 years old. I’ve stayed there 3 times and like I said, they’ve never asked. And I’ve always parked right outside the office when I drive in). I paid $192 bucks for a week. They let me move my RV up closer to the office when I had trouble getting a good Internet WiFi connection.

On the road in Washington...

There’s the good old Snake river outside of Pasco, Washington. The surrounding area is dry here this time of year (Sept.)

Took the kids out for dinner...Mexican place, great food.

James always keeps his eyes closed, just in case someone is throwing something at him. Mush reminds him it doesn’t happen that often.

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It was a pleasure to be back in the US with it’s majority of good roads, even better freeways, and no worries about my CC or DC being frozen at the capricious whim of the fraud company that chooses to do so on my cards as though they don’t even think about it, like they’re using some stupid software algorithm and then never using their brains to connect the dots as I travel. This time I’d called my CU a couple days before we left Alaska and also sent an email. But I still felt relieved that I hadn’t been cut off, since they’d done it before, even with those preemptive warnings. But it seems they always have shut off my cards when I’m either in or very near a large city. Where I can get on-line and/or use a phone to get in touch with them. Anyway, enough about those idiots for now. No, I don’t want to change banks because they have such great & inexpensive policies about everything else. Like 5 free overdrafts per month, no CC charges for zero balance and the like.

So, where were we? Right across the US border in Oroville, Washington. As we passed through customs the evening before, they had all sorts of questions for me, like how long had I known Kenny, why was my drivers license from Oregon but the plates on my RV from Alaska? (That’s because when I checked getting new tags from Oregon a couple months before, it would have cost $362 for two years, and I hadn’t driven it for 9 months. No resetting of the clock, so I’d have lost 9 months. In Alaska, it was $125 for two years, would start at the date I bought the tags, and there is a one time senior discount of $100. So plates in Alaska only cost me $25). Did we bring any contraband (why would we tell them if we did?)? And of course since Kenny and I weren’t related, why were we traveling together. Once I explained his Dad was dying of cancer and we were rushing back so Kenny could spend some quality time with him, they seemed to back off and not be so confrontational, or nosy. They did inspect the RV inside,  and had a dog sniff outside, but didn’t ask me to open any of the compartments and only did a cursory inside inspection. I figured that they would have completely emptied my RV, inside and out,  because of our circumstances, but I guess they understood.

That lake in Oroville...Osoyoos.

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After fueling and getting money in Whitehorse, we headed due East to catch Highway 37 South to Prince George. On the way, around 11:30AM, we stopped for brunch at a little RV park at Johnson’s Crossing. The gal that ran the place is an accomplished baker, and a damn good cook too. I’d originally thought we’d be spending the 2nd night here but we had made such good time that it was just too early in the day to stay there the night. But we had a delicious brunch and grabbed a few of her excellent, fresh, local fruit, turnovers. Next trip up I’m going to try to spend the night there. Since Kenny was sharing the driving chores, we felt that driving 12 hours per day wasn’t going to be that tiring. And Kenny was in a hurry to get back to visit his dad before it was too late.

Just a random road shot in Yukon Territory. Approaching Whitehorse.

Outside of Whitehorse heading East.

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It’s now Sept. 2011 (in blog time, Dec. ‘11 in real time) and I took a couple weeks off to get ready to get back on the road and head for the lower 48  (The Outside as they call it up here). I’d been advertising on Craig’s List for 3-4 weeks by this time for a co-driver that wanted to avoid flying back Outside and had 2-3 nibbles but no bites. It was a bitch because I didn’t have WiFi where I was parked so I’d have to drag my laptop down to the Big I tavern 2-3 times a week to check my emails, communicate with FB friends, and do my banking. My laptop is so slow I didn’t even try to work on the blog.

Got some comments from the Ice Alaska office manager when she’d spot my car down there at 10AM. But I don’t drink that early in the day so I was always innocent.  All things in moderation I always say (except love).

Anyway, 2 weeks before I left, one of my bar friends mentioned he might need a ride to Spokane. His dad had been diagnosed with end stage cancer and he wanted to get back home. Problem was he had a freaky cat that had saved his life when it woke him after a fire started in his apartment and he was fearful that the plane ride would really do the cat harm. Then he had all his belongings that would need to be shipped. Not inexpensive from Fairbanks, Alaska to Spokane, Washington. Since I was passing right by Spokane, and had room for his stuff (after he trimmed it a bit), and don’t mind cats, we struck a deal. Got everything arranged to leave by Sept. 16th.

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It was time to get some of the other buildings from the old site to the new site and I ran over there to get some pictures of the setup planning/execution. This first picture is of the new road the Rail Road was building to facilitate the moving of the one 2-story section of our building. They were really taking their time. Perhaps they had to rush off on an emergency call somewhere…they never told us…because they just stopped working on it. After a couple weeks of waiting, our mover finally gave up on them and this road and choose his own route to move the building.

The new road.

These were the only sections of the building left on this property. They housed the main offices for Ice Alaska and upstairs had a couple of apartments. The CEO & his wife used one of them occasionally, and during the ice carving events, continuously in order to be close to the action. With so much to do, and thousands of decisions needing to be made, it made sense for them to be right there on the property.

Waiting...

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First building to make it to the new site...

You can see my RV way off in the distance there to the left of that water truck. Shows you how big this property is. I wasn’t working in that building in the foreground but at the house in the woods behind where I took this shot. It’s was around Aug. 19th or so and they were gutting out the house for remodeling. They already had some of the new ceiling sheet rock installed before they bothered to ask me to help with the wiring. I wandered over to check it out and had them stop the installation so I could get to the wiring. Kind of disorganized. They originally planned on building on an extension to the house then after I got started on the electrical job changed their minds (too much money). But by that time I’d gotten to far along with the wiring and the panel was dropped down into the basement and mounted to a frame built onto the basement stairs. The stairs were suppose to go away in the original plan.

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I was settled in at the new Ice Alaska property and Allison decided to come visit my new camping spot. You’ll see from the photos that I had a very nice cement pad to park on, with room for the RV and my Subaru as well. It’s Aug. 4th, 2011 and you’ll note that coats are needed. We didn’t really have much of a summer up in Fairbanks this year. Only got to use my recently repaired car A/C three or four times.

Allison enjoying a beverage.

Relaxing after a hard days work.

Sunset is creeping up on us.

Off to the Southwest. You can't see Russia from here.

All the trucks around along with the tarp covered piles, are building materials we’re bringing to this new site from the leased park we’re vacating. Took weeks to get it all over here. I had been parked at a different pad closer to a building with electric but they had me move since they changed plans and decided to build a huge, and I mean huge, garage/shop building. I helped wire that and I also did a bunch of electrical remodeling in one of the houses on the property. I’ll have some pictures of that soon.

As many of you know, I spent several months in Alaska without having my beloved WiFi connection. This made updating my blog, especially if I’d wanted to post pictures, mind-numbingly difficult. So I slacked off. This post will try to rectify my laziness.

Back in June (‘11), Ice Alaska was offered some land. It has two ponds and 60 acres to work with. We bought it, which meant that we had to vacate the land we were on that the railroad seemed to want back so badly. So we began to tear down the existing buildings, electrical infrastructure, and load all the office paraphernalia. The  Conex shown below is one of nine we arranged around the grounds that eventually were filled. Even that fence in the background was dismantled and taken. Quite the job.

Conex ready for office equipment.

All the buildings on the leased property needed to be dismantled and moved to the new site.

Shop building roof removal.

A couple more of the Conex's ready for loading.

Walls coming down.

Dick running the whole show with his clipboard.

As for me, I was in charge of getting the Conex’s set up in their places, getting the web cam room ready, removing a bunch of wiring associated with the computers and general crew bossing. Pretty boring work. And no pay other then a free place to stay and free meals. Came out to around $2/hour in compensation.

But, it’s mostly a labor of love. Love the people up here, the ice carving event, the cool summer weather, etc. so it was worth doing.

with a leaking differential. I left Walla Walla and headed West towards Richland, Washington. Around an hours drive away. I’d planned on just heading straight over there to hole up in a RV park just 3.5 miles from the venue where my daughter would be having her and her bands CD Release Party. Place called Dax’s.

I was a day early trip wise and on the way there, it was around noonish, I decided to just drop in on that little RV park next to the Walla Walla river I’d passed hundreds of times and never stopped at. Pierce’s Green Valley R.V. Park and Campground is located between Wallula & Walla Walla. I always just pass by because their sign doesn’t say anything about WiFi, and I really like to have it.

Well, it’s a pretty nice park, 60 spaces, with older owners who happen to be running a farm. The RV park is mature and kind of has a ‘60ish look.  They host lots of bikers that pass through the area. The owner was right there as I pulled in and knows nothing about WiFi, or so she said, what it is, why people might want it, nothing. Kind of out of the loop. I explained as best I could but she didn’t seem much interested in ever having it.

But it’s a nice park. Mature trees, pull through sites, long and wide, 30Amp power, water at the site, hiking, playground for kids, badminton net, benches to sit on while enjoying the river, fishing. But it doesn’t have a laundry room, sewer at the sites or dump station. You can get a pump out if you’re staying long.  I enjoyed my afternoon, evening & night there. I’d asked her about the water and she mentioned they’d just had it checked and it passed with flying colors but sometimes had a slight sulfurous odor. Sure enough, the next morning, when I filled my coffee pot, it did have a slight odor. I just ran it a few seconds and it cleared up. Sulfur isn’t that bad for you anyway. All in all, I think I’ll stay there again. And it’s only $20/nite. I did try to talk her into getting WiFi someday since they have phone service to their farmhouse…DSL should be inexpensive these days in that area, so would a WiFi installation. Nice line of sight setup.

Next morning, Friday, I got back on the road and headed towards Wright’s Desert Gold RV in Richland. They do have sewer, water, & WiFi, but they’re also $30/nite, even with a GoodSam discount. Pull through sites on blacktop. Before I arrived I got some fuel, did some shopping, visited Columbia Park. Then I thought, hell, it’s still so early in the day, why not visit the Bridgeview tavern? Where my dad had been bartender 62 years before. Might be a free beer in it. Well, no, it no longer exists. Disappointed, I just headed out to Wright’s. They have a hill, so I had to put my front jack down so I wouldn’t end up in a serious situation if it rolled away (remember the burned out parking brake?).

Saturday evening I took a cab over to Dax’s, had a nice burger for dinner, and waited for the daughter. She showed up at 7ish and tells me she found my camera…it was in the glove compartment of my son’s truck…but she’d forgotten to bring it. They played very well, she sang beautifully, had a nice, appreciative crowd, and sold a bunch of CD’s. I got mine free! Even danced with a cutie. Got to meet and talk to another gorgeous woman. Found a friend of my daughters that gave me a ride home. All in all a great night.

I stayed for three nights at Wright’s so I could watch the Seahawks game on Sunday (they lost!). Unfortunately, the damn Fox station on cable kept dropping out all during the game. It would just go to a black screen every 10 or so minutes, and stay black for 1-2 minutes.  I switched to the local on-air Fox station, but that was dropping out too. Anyway, since I’d paid for the spot, wasn’t worth it to leave.

After the game, I used my creeper to shimmy under the RV and check out the differential leak. It was still just weeping so I poured in around 12oz. of 80W90 gear oil to top it off, then cleaned up the upper plug & breather. The breather did seem to allow me to blow a little air though it (or it got opened when I cleaned it). A differential has zero pressure so the oil shouldn’t be pumped out too fast with an open breather, I hoped.

Next morning, I headed off to visit my friend TJ in Arlington, Oregon. Her bf is a steel worker and works installing wind generators. He’s done hundreds of them here in the Columbia River Basin. She’s staying in their newer toy hauler in a filled up RV park, so my choice was one a few blocks away. It’s just over an hours drive from Richland to Arlington and I stopped on the way in Umatilla, Oregon to grocery shop. After finding some real nice specials on real breakfast sausages, steak,  veggies, etc., I was wheeling back to the RV and spotted a small puddle of oil underneath. Damn, the differential ’seep’ had turned into a ‘drip’. Since I’d just topped it the day before, I just crossed my fingers and continued on to Arlington. Taking it easy on the fine roads in that area.

Arriving in Arlington, I ask around and find a mobile tech/mechanic. Last few days, we’ve both been trying to come up with a solution to my differential dilemma. I’ve found them for $1400 used, shipping would probably be $400 or so. Then if it’s bad, shipping back. A new hub to hub axle assembly is $5900, before shipping. This style differential uses a ’sweated’ on axle tube and it’s leaking around that, so it’s not really repairable. Or there is a crack in the differential case. Don’t know yet. Anyway, the mechanic is willing to do the job if I decide to replace the assembly, but doesn’t want to help if I just clean it and slather on RTV (liability). Which is what I think I should do. We’ll see after I clean and inspect it.

Oct. 12 Update: My daughter did finally ship the camera so I should have it tomorrow or the next day. Then yesterday I crawled under the rig and using a putty knife cleaned off the leaking section of the axle. All that caked on crud came off easily, then I scrubbed it with a brass wire brush. Checked for cracks but didn’t find any. Liberally sprayed it with brake cleaner and it all looked great. No dripping gear oil to contend with. Not sure if that means I’m almost out of gear oil in the differential, or that I cleaned up the wrong place (don’t think that’s possible, because I could see the seep pattern on the road grime in that area), or if the temperature is playing a role in sealing it up for me! If it’s just a case of barometric pressure and temperature keeping it from dripping, I lucked out, because I didn’t have to contend with oil during the clean up. This morning, I ran a bead of RTV Red all around the seam and will give it another two coats today. Tube says it only takes an hour to skin over and I’ve given it two…allowing for the lower temperature outside this morning…60°F. Now it’s 67°F so I’m off to give it another coat of RTV. Fingers crossed that this will work.

OK, 2nd coat of RTV is on. 1st coat wasn’t has tacky as I’d hoped, so I’m going to forgo the 3rd coat until it’s cured, 24 hours according to the instructions.

Update: (Oct. 18th, 2011) I didn’t see much need to add a third coat of RTV Red and today I took it out on the road for a quick test. Checked it first and found the RTV nice and dry and no evidence of any seeping oil. Topped off the gear oil and rechecked it for any leaks before getting on the road. Drove around 20 odd miles and after getting back to the RV park and checking it again for any leaks, found nothing. Looks like it’s going to work! Wasn’t looking forward to pouring another $4,000 into this rig…which I plan on selling next year.

Well, I finally left Fairbanks and am back on the road. It was a hassle being at the new Ice Alaska site with only electric, no water, sewer or WiFi. I had to run down to my favorite bar 2-3 times a week to check my em’s, do my banking, and the like. Since my laptop is so slow, I never attempted to update my blog. Sorry about that.

Anyway, a friend and I left FB on Sept. 16th, 2011. He had planned on flying down to Spokane, had a cat he wanted to take (it saved his life by waking him in his smoke filled bedroom a few months before) and since the cat is skittish he feared for it in the hold of a jet plane. Kenny also had a medical emergency at home as his father is having problems so although I had to push my departure date up a couple weeks, the $400 he paid me for the ride made it an easy choice for me. Plus I saved him over $600 for the move since he would have had to pay for his & the cats trip & to ship his belongings back home.  Then, although he doesn’t have a current drivers license, he also didn’t have a DUI on his record either or any accidents so I let him drive quite a bit. This made the trip 3 days from FB to Oroville, Washington whereas it took me 5 days to get to FB from there the last time I did the trip alone.

Being the passenger allowed me to take a bunch of pictures and after dropping Kenny off in Spokane, and after a two night stay at Fish Trap Lake RV park to reminisce about my friend Maria (who lost her life to brain cancer a few years back), I arrived in Walla Walla on Sept. 22nd early in the afternoon. That evening I took my kids out for dinner and a few drinks. But I forgot my camera in a karaoke bar late and on the way home decided that the bar would hold it for me. I didn’t know the name of the bar so couldn’t look up their phone number. Checking with them the next day turned up nothing. I’m hoping one of my daughters friends picked it up and saved it for me. If not, I’ll have to go camera hunting soon.

I’ve seldom lost anything of import over the years and I do need a new camera anyway so I’m not to torn up about it, except the 100 or so pictures that were on the memory chip. Bummer.

The road in Canada was as brutal as usual and just after we crossed the border, I smelled smoke in the drivers seat. Couldn’t find anything and it would come and go. A few miles later I noticed that the ‘Park’ light on the dash was lit. You can’t really see it well while you’re driving because the top of the steering wheel blocks the idiot lights. The smell was burning brake pads and the smell was suctioned up to the front of the RV. Anyway, after noticing that, and discovering I could get it to disengage if I downshifted on hills, the brake pads burnt out enough that it wasn’t impeding travel so we pressed on with the idiot light on all the time. We were miles and miles from any services when it happened, and Canada is so expensive I just ignored it while on the trip. Kenny’s brother looked the rig over for me in Spokane and found that the parking brake pads were indeed totally gone and gave me some advice on what caused it & required repairs, but until I can get it fixed, I have to drop one of my landing pads (hydraulic, so it’s easy) whenever I try to park so the rig won’t roll.

Then while he was under the rig checking that out, he noticed that the passenger side axle coming out of the differential was leaking oil past the seal. He thought I could get another 3,000 miles out of it, which means I could get it down to Mexico to one of the great mechanicos down there. Probably cost me $300 whereas it would cost $1600 or so in the good ol’ USA. I had some 80W90 gear oil with me since I’d spotted a wet spot there myself a few days before. This time I topped it off while I was under there checking. It took 16oz out of the 24oz bottle but I hope that the beating the rig took in Canada made most of that leak out and the better roads down here will let me get a few thousand more miles. I’ll be checking it often until I can do something about it.

I officially retire Feb. 5th, 2012 and my SS will kick in, plus I can dip into my 401k without that huge tax (30%). Then I can relax a bit and really do some adventurous travel. I expect to buy a newer rig in April or May…I’m not rich so I’ll have to look for a real bargain. But I will be able to afford payments. Just finding the right rig will take some time tho.  I plan on making a trip over to the east coast, maybe all the way to Florida too. Should take me a year, dodging hot or bad weather. This winter, I think I have just enough money to make it down to the SW. Then if I can find a caravan, down into Mexico. I don’t think I’ll try that trip (like I’ve done numerous times in the past) without being in a caravan. Too dangerous to travel alone down there. Mazatlan is one of my favorite places. And it’s only a 1 & 1/2 day drive down from the border. There I can get the rig all spruced up and repaired prior to selling it in 2012. Got my fingers and toes crossed that all goes well and I don’t have any breakdowns before I get there. If my finances won’t allow that, I’ll probably spend the winter at my brothers place in Rosamond, California…if he’ll allow it. Unfortunely, he lives on a steep hill…and I don’t have a working parking brake now. But I’ve parked it a block away for a couple months at a time before without neighbors complaining so I might be able to do that again. That would take the financial pressure off. Fuel is so expensive these days that I have to be careful about all my expenses. If all goes well, I should get to Feb. with nothing more then a depleted savings account and a large VISA card balance.

Anyway, right now, Sept. 26th, (oh, it’s my friend Annie’s birthday today! Happy B’day Annie! I left you a surprise B’day present at the Big I. Ask Brenna.), I’m at an RV park in Walla Walla enjoying the sunshine and visits with relatives. Got to visit with the sister and BIL yesterday as well as watch the Seahawks win their game, then watch the season openers of my favorite cartoons on Fox too. Life is good.

Talk to you all soon. I hope to have pictures for the next post.