Resting Easy in Spokane

At Willow Bay Campground, Nine Mile Falls, north of Spokane

I am happy to report that, for the moment, all of our significant RV troubles are fixed.

For the moment.

What troubles, you ask? First of all, our chassis batteries weren't holding a charge. Mark wasn't sure whether there was some electrical problem putting a drain on them or if they were simply old and needed to be replaced. Then, on our way back to Minnesota to have our leveling jack repaired, our generator started acting up, particularly when we attempted to run the AC. As a result, we decided not to run the AC on the generator, which meant no dry-camping, which meant we needed to overnight in an RV park on our way to South Dakota, an expense we hadn't planned on. On top of that, after leaving Minnesota, we began to have overheating problems. We'd been through that before on our first coach and saw the dollar signs beginning to pile up.

In a happy coincidence, Dale and Susan Prichard (some of our Alfa Roadrunner friends) were work-camping at a campground in Custer, SD--right in the neighborhood of where we were going, and Dale offered to help Mark with our Alfa ailments. So we booked a couple days at Custer Mountain Campground in hopes of figuring out the most economical way of solving our problems.

Our site at Custer Mountain Campground

You'll find these painted bison all over the place in South Dakota. 

 Getting over those "hills" to the campground took us a little while, because the overheating had gotten to the point where we were pulling off the road to cool down about every couple miles. We arrived late afternoon on Sunday, and settled in. Susan came by and invited us to join them and a group of friends for some yummy appetizers. It was as though a huge burden was lifted. Here we were among friends. We knew God had brought us there to be helped, refreshed, and encouraged. And we sure needed it!

Dale and Mark discussing the engine problems

Getting some advice on the awning problem (that I didn't talk about)

The next day, Dale and Mark got to work trouble-shooting the problems. They were able to get the generator back in working order and some of the problems with the radiator sorted out and fixed. And Dale's opinion about the batteries was that they were simply worn out and should be replaced. Tuesday morning we headed out to our original campground destination-- Hart Ranch, located a little south of Rapid City.

Hart Ranch - spacious and beautiful

Hart Ranch is a beautiful RPI park, well-kept and worthy to be called a "resort." It had a nice big heated pool and hot tub, good paved roads, level cement slabs, spacious sites, mowed grass, a store, a gas station, and even a golf course (if you care about golfing - we don't). As an RPI member, we can only get a week at a time there, but it is definitely on our "return" list.

We left Hart Ranch that Friday and stopped at Interstate Battery in Rapid City to buy new chassis batteries, and then we were on our way west to Spokane.

In no time at all, the engine started overheating again. We got on the phone and started looking for a Freightliner service center on our route, and found Floyd's Truck Center in Gillette, WY.  It was Friday afternoon, their closing time was 5:00, and they would be closed for the weekend. But after Mark explained his dilemma, they offered to stay open late if necessary to help us out. God bless them! We pulled in and they took care of us right away. The mechanic told us we had only about a quarter cooling capacity because the radiator was full of gunk. They cleaned it out and we were out of there by 5:30 and headed to a Walmart to spend the night.

In all, what we worried might cost us thousands of dollars, ended up costing only a few hundred. That, we can handle.

Our trip to Glacier National Park has been put on hold until next year. Mark is having increased vision problems in one eye because of a cataract, and we've decided to have his surgery done in California where we will be able to stay in campgrounds for longer than a week at a time (thanks to our Thousand Trails membership). We also scrapped our plans to volunteer at the "Balloon Festival" in Albuquerque for the same reason. Instead, we will arrive in California about a month earlier than originally planned so Mark can see again. This is important because I do not want to ever have to drive this beast of an RV. Silly, I know. But I is what I is.

This week we are in Willow Bay RV Park, about 20 miles north of Spokane on Long Lake. We're parked right on the beautiful lake. The view is amazing. The park, not so much. There's no phone service, no internet and no amenities of any kind. We were able to get a 50 amp site with water, but we have no sewer (again!), which we didn't count on and so didn't prepare for, and so came with  half-full waste water tanks. They not only have no sewer at the sites, but they have no dump station. Consequently, we've been radically conserving water usage. So far, so good.

View from the windows at Willow Bay

Lesson:  Always ask about sewer, not just power and water.  Eventually we hope to actually learn that lesson.

On Monday we move to Cheney where we stayed last year-- Ponderosa Falls Campground, which is also an RPI park.

Then I can catch up on my laundry.

Until next time, safe travels to all!

All About Family

Camping with Joe & Bev at Dakota Meadows

Sometimes we forget how valuable family is-- for fellowship and camaraderie, for emotional support, for a helping hand when needs arise. I raise my glass in a toast to family.

Don't misunderstand. Families aren't perfect by any stretch. But the thing about family is we are connected by more than a chance meeting, by more than shared experiences, by more than casual acquaintance. We are connected by blood-- by the very will of God, who put us all together for his good purpose.

This year our Minnesota stay has been all about family. We have been richly blessed this past month by the helping hands and good company of our family--on Mark's side and mine.

At the end of June we were able to spend some time with Mark's older brother, Joe and his wife Bev. They are lovely people. Not having been in the Finnesgard family much more than ten years, I have not had a great deal of time to get acquainted with his extended family--brothers and sisters and cousins and nieces and nephews, and distant relatives yet to be discovered. So every time we get together is another opportunity to learn a little more about them. I doubt I'll live long enough to meet them all ( ... and I thought I had a big family!)

Mark & Joe

Joe & Bev camped next to us in their lovely Airstream. We had breakfast together, sipped wine together, enjoyed a delicious Mystic Lake Casino buffet dinner together, and conversed about all manner of things. We had a wonderful visit and look forward to another, God willing, next year.

Last post, you may recall, I talked about our bad leveling jack and how Brian and Maegan were gracious enough to have it repaired for us at their shop. No sooner did we have it installed but its neighbor on the other side failed as well, leaking fluid all over the pad at our Dakota Meadows campsite. Fortunately for us, we knew just where to go to get it fixed. So we headed back to APT where our grandson, Arick, removed the jack. It took the poor boy over three hours of labor to get the obstinate thing off, but he finally succeeded, and then plugged up the hole so we could at least use our back jacks to level, if need be. It would take at least a week to get this one repaired, so we decided to go on to Sioux Falls for our scheduled two week stop, and then return to Kasota to have it reinstalled before heading west. It was a backtrack, of course, but a necessary one.

A three hour project to get that jack out!

Leveling jack repair at APT

This visit to Sioux Falls, we stayed at Tower Campground, right in the city. It was nice enough, but felt more like a mobile home park than a campground. For what it had to offer (not much), we thought it was overpriced. But, the roads were good and the site was fairly level.

Tower Campground

We had a very productive stay in Sioux Falls. We got our driver's licenses the first week. It was the easiest process I think I've ever experienced for getting a driver's license. We knew that as full-time RVers we would need some additional paperwork, so we had that with us:  Proof of address, which we got from our mail forwarding service provider, YBA (Your Best Address); a receipt from Tower Campground showing we stayed at least one night in an RV park; and our current Texas driver's licenses.  Our wait was only fifteen or twenty minutes. Then we filled in a few forms, got our pictures taken, paid the fee, and received our license card on the spot.

Another task we had yet to do was to update our RV and auto insurance to South Dakota. We contacted our existing insurance provider (National General) and they made all the changes for us, but to our shock, the cost soared upwards by $2,000 per year! While we were lamenting how that any savings we might have made in taxes by moving our residency to South Dakota was completed cancelled out by the increase in insurance, it occurred to us... perhaps we should shop around.

And so we did. We made an inquiry at YBA (our mail provider), and the gentleman there referred us to the company that handles his personal insurance-- Clark Insurance, in Brandon. We made the call and met the lovely Jillian, who quoted us a policy that had more coverage for less money than what we were paying in Texas. God is good! We are now covered by Nationwide, and we have a policy that gives us "agreed value," which is calculated as the amount we paid (per the purchase agreement) plus the cost of any upgrades or repairs we have made to it (supported by documentation). And, we'll be able to continue to increase our agreed value over time as we continue to put money into it, with a corresponding increase in premium, no doubt.

If you are insuring your RV, I highly recommend that you either insure for replacement value or for an agreed value that will provide adequately in case you are unfortunate enough to lose your coach in a wreck and have to replace it. We learned this the hard way. Unless specified, insurance companies will only give you "market value" for your lost RV-- and don't forget, RVs are like cars, they lose their value over time. 

Our new "home town," Sioux Falls, is not an especially beautiful city for the most part, but it does have some beautiful areas. Downtown is quite nice, and of course the Falls are breathtaking. Most of the city resembles the urban sprawl you find most everywhere. But the city has all the important things:  a Costco, a Hobby Lobby, and a JoAnn Fabrics. Mark's list might look more like this:  A Harbor Freight, a Lowe's, and a Texas Roadhouse. We took a few drives around town while there, trying to get the lay of the land. And we made another visit to Falls Park. Last time we were there, it was chilly and damp and empty of sightseers. This time it was warm and sunny and filled with people.

Falls Park, Sioux Falls SD

This morning we left Sioux Falls and heading back to Minnesota. We arrived early afternoon and our grandsons, Arick and Riley, reinstalled the jack for us.

Arick & Riley Mayo, installing our jack

Mark supervised.

Tomorrow we head west again to Rapid City, where we'll camp for a few days. While there, Mark has one more problem to resolve - an issue with the chassis batteries. He has an appointment with Freightliner in Rapid City to diagnose the problem. In the meantime, he has a workaround to keep us going until we can fix whatever's wrong.

Safe & Happy Travels to All!