During a Driving Cycle on Oct. 3rd, I stopped at Multnomah Falls just to get a little hiking done up to the second pool. This allowed my engine to cool down so I could do another driving cycle on the way home. Here’s a shot of the weather on the drive into the gorge. If you don’t know what a Driving Cycle is, you didn’t read my last post…here: Drive around…
Multnomah Falls.
Working on the issues with the Saturn occurred throughout Aug, Sept, and into Oct. But mostly that was just an hour here, and hour there, then leave it alone for several days. The rest of the time I had fun visiting with friends and getting my colonoscopy over and done with. It was clear and they suggested I don’t need another one.
The issues with the car were recurrent trouble lights, with them coming on and going off, too randomly to get a handle on a cause. And then, at the beginning of October I noticed that my tags would expire in January. I needed tags for the car, needed to get them before I left town, and since my address is in Multnomah county near Portland, and because the state thinks I live here, I have to have a smog test done.
I expected to be in Mexico when the tags expired, so it was imperative any testing and repairs be done now before I left town. And it would be much more convenient to get my tags early here, so I’d not have to get the testing done in another state (Oregon allows that) or do it by mail (receiving mail as I’m traveling can be problematic). In Oregon, a DEQ test, necessary to obtain new tags, is good for 6 months so getting it done early is pretty common for travelers.
Initially, I only had the SES (Service Engine Soon) light on, and word was that’s not the end of the world and didn’t need to pull the car into a shop immediately. After receiving some advice about the car’s symptoms from the experts at SaturnFans Forum, I ended up buying a ECTS (Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor) and a thermostat. The ECTS is shown in the next pic covered by a rachet deep socket. I jacked up the car on the driver’s side, removed the antifreeze overflow tanks cap to relieve pressure, so only lost a couple tablespoons of antifreeze when I removed the ECTS.
While staying in Fairview, had the pleasure of going to a late lunch with Jackie and Madeline at Bumpers. It’s a pretty nice place and has these huge fish tanks that separate the dining area from the bar. Food is good, I really liked their fish and the very interesting fish sauce on the side they provide. Delish!
Anywho, here’s some pics from inside the place. Used my old iPhone for these shots. Admittedly, they’re not very good, but, they’re free so no complaining.
The following weekend, after enjoying the Blues Festival in the gorge, I went to the Gresham Saturday Market (GSM) at Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) in Gresham. The GSM is a summertime event and has been around for years. And it’s where my friends and former neighbors make much of their yearly income, because they operate a booth where Kathy sells homemade dipping sauces from her grandmother’s recipes. The venue is very pretty there on the NW parking lot of the college. Lots of tall pines give welcome shade.
My ex wife and I both attended MHCC back in the ’70’s, she to get an office management type degree, me to get my ABA (Associate in Business Administration). To go along with my AAS (Associate in Applied Science – Electronics) degree. It was great fun going there. It was interesting going to college with my wife, and because we averaged 10 years older than most of the the student body, we got respect. I took 200 series Physics and Chemistry because I fully intended to get my electronics engineering degree someday. Along with any other science, computer programming, or technology course I could squeeze into my schedule. Had to work pretty hard. Lots of studying and homework. That damn required accounting though…two years of accounting classes and all I learned was that it’s so dry and boring. I got A’s and B’s but I’ll be damned if a year after I graduated I could have told you much of anything about that class.
But, I did learn some stuff that helped years later when I started my own Electrical, electronic design, and computer consulting business.
So, I have some friends that set up a booth up at the GSM and they collect my mail for me so I went up to visit and pick it up. While there, I wandered around campus and took some pictures.
And there the GSM is, across the street from where I parked. Lots of trees all around the venue.
This is a look back down Kane. When we first went to MHCC, the right side was an empty field with trees. The owner tried to sell the property for a fast food franchise on the corner of Kane and Stark but for some reason, many students opposed it. They occupied the property to prevent clearing the land. Huh? I never did understand their objections about that so I sort of stayed out of it. Yeah, there were some big beautiful pine trees, and open meadow that students took their lunch on, but really, the purposed fast food joint would have been handy. Though I loved our cafeteria, sometimes change can be fun and interesting. The owner was a good sport about the protests, maybe it was MHCC that owned it and they’re sensitive about community perceptions of their behavior? Anyway, the owner shelved the idea for a couple years until that particular group of students had moved on, and objections to development had faded, then they developed the land. Now it has a large theater, a bar and grill, a huge parking lot, and a Jack-in-the-Box on that parcel.
On the left side of the street in this picture is the MHCC campus.
Just finished and posted another new article in the blog’s Winnebago section.
This one is about adding a fan to the Norcold refer to keep the cooling fins frost free.
Just posted a plumbing post for those that follow my RV Repair section. Here’s the link: Installing an under sink water filter…
The weekend after Margie and I went roaming around the west end of the Columbia River Gorge, there was going to be the Gorge Blues Festival. So I bought us a couple tickets. The weather was dicey every day all the way up until the Saturday of the event. But we crossed the Bridge of the Gods, and for luck our fingers, then headed over to the venue in Stevenson, Washington around 1 pm. Turned out that we saw many fluffy white clouds scudding across the sky, but never worried about rain during the trip or at the festival. Did have to contend with a brisk wind most of the day though.
Just after crossing the BoftheGs we take a left on WA-14 heading towards the west, all the while being alongside the Columbia, and took a few pics of the countryside…
Asked Margie to drive for me so I could take pictures.
Some of you follow the RV section of my blog and this is a note to let you know I’ve posted a nearly complete write up of what I did to get ready for towing a car, the mods necessary to the car, the costs, and equipment. Check it out here: Towing
On Edit:
One Blog feature has been (re)activated. For a few years there was no way to allow ‘Comments’ on Pages, like in the RV Repair section. Commenting was only allowed in posts. This had been an error it seems by WordPress but it persisted for years over many upgrades. The way I had structured my blog meant if a reader wanted to comment on a RV repair or info post, there wasn’t a convenient way to do it. But the comment feature on regular posts was unaffected. Just recently, WordPress reactivated that feature for pages and now, once again, readers can comment, even on older pages where the feature had disappeared in the past. I have to remember to turn on the feature now (previously, allowing comments was the default even on pages) and doubtless I’ll forget on occasion. But…a reader can comment anywhere they find the comment box and I’ll see it.
TL;DR: You can once again comment on individual pages in the RV repair sections, and others.
My Saturn affords the kind of freedom I’ve been hoping for. I had only thought about not having a car periodically the last 10 years or so because I had the RV and got pretty good at finding ways of getting to whatever venue I was interested in visiting. There’s nearly always public transport, for instance. Taxis, shuttles, buses, trolleys, etc. I’m a big fan of public transportation. And I almost always carried a bike so that helped. There were some constraints of course and I’d try to find RV parks that would allow easy bike access or have easy access and parking so I could drive my RV shopping. This necessitated that I plan my trips and I fell into a routine of keeping a list of things I needed, and needed to do, so when I did go shopping once every two weeks or so, I’d get enough, get the right stuff, and take care of things like getting a fill up or stop at a RV dealer for things I couldn’t find online or to check for items that are hard to describe.
But now, as the owner of a nice Saturn, I was suddenly finding out how much I’d missed the freedom of just grabbing the keys and driving wherever. So the first couple days I owned it, I made a few sorties around the local neighborhood.
Here was my first trip the day after I bought the car. Downtown Gresham. I use to hang out here a lot when I was running my own consulting business 12 years and more ago. I’d go stir crazy if I stayed in my office (at my house) too many hours so I’d often just drive to downtown Gresham from my home off Orient drive (just east of Gresham city center maybe 4 miles). Often strolling the streets, visiting a store or two, having a Mocha coffee or ice cream cone. It was nice. And I’d often walk down into the Gresham Main Street public park just to relax. Back 12 years ago, the Tsuru Island Japanese Garden had fallen on hard times and was a little worse for wear, so I was pleasantly surprised my visit in June 2016 to find it had been refurbished and was looking good again. And here’s my photo essay of that stroll.
These are the real colors. It’s soothing to walk through this garden… 
Settled in here at Portland/Fairview RV Park and soon had a regular bike route around the area to enjoy. I like being able to bike to the nearby Veteran’s Clinic, post office, Target, Stomping Grounds coffee shop, etc.
One of the places I found:
It doesn’t open until 11 AM the day I biked past but I’ll keep it on my list of places to try for later.
