Productive Weekend

April 28-29, 2012
We got a lot of chores done over the weekend. Jeremiah finally screwed together the back driver's side corner of the fitty that's been messed up after our first trip to Colorado. We obviously hit something on that trip, because when we arrived we discovered the back trim was ripped up and messed up. So now it's been roughly patched up. He and I also took care of the windshield on the pickup. There's been an issue with the sealant pretty much since we got the truck. It leaks when it rains. So I cleaned the truck off really good, and Jeremiah took care of applying the sealant. I hope it cures okay with the cold overnight temps.
The other thing we did was get more firewood. I tried out my new handsaw. The handsaw is what I thought Missy was going to be purchasing on her first trip to Lowes. But Jeremiah talked her out of that and into the chainsaw. When we went to Lowes for the second time, I bought the hand saw. Jeremiah scorned me…actually scorn. He didn't think I'd be able to saw through anything. But it works great! I told him I didn't mind the exercise, and so it might take longer than the chainsaw, but it works fine. I sawed some smaller downed trees around the ski parking lot. Missy and Jeremiah loaded the genny into the pickup and got some bigger specimens. We got it all loaded onto the truck and went back to camp to cut logs. One older gentleman came over during our chainsaw session and said didn't we need a permit to cut wood. Missy assured him that it said on the website that you can help yourself to anything that was down. After the guy left, she turned to me and said "you looked that up, right?". Um….not really. I do know that this is the case for the National Forest we were in in Colorado. So the question is, is this a national policy? Or a forest by forest policy? Hopefully we're not breaking the law. There is soooooooo much downed around here, I can't believe anyone would object to our cleaning some of it up.
We had one bit of scary drama on Sunday. Early morning, Missy and I were on a scouting mission to see where the best collection of firewood-potential trees were. Cassie and Buddy were with us in a small woods next to the parking lot. All of a sudden, a huge dog shot past us and attacked Cassie! It was terrifying…Cassie was yelping and Missy and I were yelling and kicking at the dog. It was a massive white Malamute. There was no sign of an owner, and we were trying to yell for someone to come call the dog off. Finally the dog released Cassie, and I chased it into the parking lot. The area around the ski hill is a loop with 3 parking areas. I didn't know where this dog's owner was, so I followed the dog. Missy said Cassie was limping, favoring a back leg. I was determined to find the bully's owner to make sure they took responsibility. Finally, a woman came walking over to where we were. I told her what happened, and she seemed shocked that her dog attacked mine. I think she wanted to make it Cassie's fault. She kept saying "I didn't see what happened". She said her dog never attacked before. She went to put her dogs in the car. We examined Cassie carefully, and thankfully she seemed ok. I put pressure on her whole leg, and she didn't react at all. So we let the woman know there didn't appear to be any injuries and she left. This was such a surreal experience. The way that dog just bee-lined for Cassie and attacked. There was none of the typical lead-up, where aggressive dogs circle each other and growl and then attack. Poor Cassie.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

April 27, 2012
Man…did you know it can get quite cold at the top of a mountain? Overnight, we had rain that changed into sleet/snow as the temps dropped. In the morning, it was in the low 30s. With the overcast skies denying us the usual quick sunrise warmup, we decided to stay in the rig all morning. We huddled under our comforters, reading. I also tried out the sodoku puzzle app that I'd loaded onto my phone. I wanted to have something to challenge my mind that I could do around the campfire. It took me a bit of struggle to get the hang of it (only about 6 or 7 do-overs). But I've got the hang of it, and I find it enjoyable. Missy said that I look like an old lady. :-(
It was windy and cold all day. We did get peeks of sun, but since there's still a strong wind, it never warmed up. Whose bright idea was it to come here anyway? I miss the warm TN days. I miss being able to wear shorts and t-shirts. Maybe we should think seriously about moving back down the mountain and into Santa Fe. On the one hand, it's nice and hot and sunny there. But on the other hand, there's no pine trees and forest splendor. Decisions, decisions. I'll stop writing about that now, because I'm sure that I'm making you, the reader, on the verge of tears on our behalf.
Missy took Cassie on a hike on the up-hill trail. She said she had the same difficulties I'd had with moving slooooooooooow going up. Such a strange feeling. She said Cassie looked disappointed when she turned to go home. That dog could hike for hours if allowed.
Nothing else to report for today.

Day Trip to Civilization

April 26, 2012
With the truck fixed, we finally got to take a trip down the mountain into Santa Fe. We got a pretty early start, leaving around 8:30. First we went to the library to see how the wifi was. The speed was incredibly fast! Very impressive! It was probably 5 times as fast as the expensive cable internet I had at home. Yay for public libraries! Since the library didn't actually open until 10, we decided to get some shopping done.
Driving in Santa Fe is frustratingly slow. Even the GPS seems to know that you'll never make 2 stoplights in a row; predicting that a 2 mile drive will take you 15 minutes. It was hard for Missy and I to keep Jeremiah in a zen state of mind about the slow going. We went to Best Buy to get a new computer. Got a sweet deal on a discontinued model that suits our minimal needs. Only $350 (plus 10%! Tax). The salesguy really didn't want to let Missy get something so last season. It's funny, because she knows exactly what she wants, and she tells the guy. But he still wants to ask questions, I guess so he can make his "expert" recommendations for the best computer. I think that when he asked "what do you want to use your computer for?" that she should have answered "mainly just wordpad". Tee-hee.
After Best Buy, we went to Petsmart. We looked at dog ramps and stairs. Buddy is really having trouble with his arthritic hind legs getting into the rig. Nothing really seemed like it would solve the problem. So we're going to have to jury-rig something suitable at each new campsite. With a front door, a back door, and the garage ramp, hopefully we'll be able to make at least 1 entrance senior citizen friendly. After Petsmart, we went to Target and then Lowes. At Lowes, Missy looked at getting a longer extension cord to go with the electric chainsaw. I guess she wants to park the pickup on the side of the road and be able to go longer distances into the woods to cut trees. (Plugging into the genny in the pickup bed). Holy Moly! The contractor grade cords were just as expensive as the chainsaw! We also tried to get a replacement saw blade (anticipating a time when the original will wear out). But after a frustrating 20 minutes with a couple of useless workers, it turned out they didn't stock the replacements for our model chainsaw. They offered to order one, but it would be 14 days. So that's no good. (Note for RV records, we swapped LP tanks. We got 1 week's usage from one tank. Not too bad from the normal cooking and hot water coupled with the new experience of nightly furnace usage).
We made our way back to the library. We had to pay to park in the library lot, because the streets of Santa Fe are not geared for parking a truck as large as ours. $1 for 2 hours, so not bad at all. We were at the library for about 3 hours. We got a ton of shows loaded. I got all the back blog entries updated. I was going to go back into the other ones and put pictures into each post, but that felt like too much of a task. So I cheated and did a coupla picture only posts. After reading some of my blog reader for about 45 minutes, Missy and I tried to research other places to go in NM. We thought we might be able to get a run in on the Rio Grande (moving to Taos), but the level was below runnable. I might have talked my siblings into to the run anyway, if only it had been described as a beautiful float at low levels. Instead, the description stated that at this level, all the pool drops became tight and technical with nasty consequences for missed lines. Sigh. We looked about 40 minutes for other national or state forest boondocking sites. The trouble we kept running into was that almost all weren't open until memorial day. So we are going to stay put. Jeremiah has a plane ticket home for May 5^th. We'll be driving him to Albuquerque (used spellcheck on that bad boy), and so we'll probably find a new place then.
It was getting kinda late (5ish) so we got on our way (needed to get back to the dogs). We stopped at the grocery store, and then went back up the mountain. On the way up the mountain, they have a NM state park in the middle of the National Forest. Luckily, this park as an RV dump for $5. So we don't have to worry about finding a place all the way back in Santa Fe once we need to dump. We had a great day back in civilization! (Weatherwise, it was a good day to be away from camp. Winds were 20-30, with gusts into 40mph!)

New Mexico Pictures

TN Pictures

Small Truck

April 24-25, 2012
Well, it's done. We are the new owners of a regular-height truck. For a bit there, it looked like we were going to have to declare the truck stolen. We didn't get it back on Tuesday, and after waiting most of Wednesday, FINALLY the guy showed up with the truck. I guess there was a bit of drama with the wrong part being sent multiple times. Also, the job turned out more difficult than was anticipated. We were quoted a price of $980, and ended up paying $1300. But, Jeremiah said we still got a good deal, since the guy worked 15 hours but only charged us for 4. I'm not used to the new look of the truck yet, it seems so small. Hopefully it will work better pulling the fitty. That will be put to the test in the next coupla days maybe.
I don't think there's much more to report from these days. Our days pretty much consist of a morning fire, reading time in the hammocks and hikes with the dogs. It's been really lovely here, but I'm kinda looking forward to finding another campsite a little lower in elevation. We've been trapped here for a whole week (whilst the truck was in the shop) and I don't feel like I've taken one decent deep breath the whole time. Tomorrow, we'll be heading down the mountain for some shopping and internets time. I'll finally get a chance to post to the blog. Have you missed me? :-)

More Days in Santa Fe National Forest

April 22-23
We're still having great weather during the days. Sunny and breezy with temps getting to maybe the lower 70s by mid-afternoon. (Our mornings are still quite chilly…mid to upper 30s). When we do get passing clouds, it REALLY messes with you. Whereas with the full sun treatment one can be under a sun umbrella and be in a lightweight shirt, with the clouds and wind, you need a hat and fleece. I've seriously had times where I've been putting on and taking off layers 5-10 times an hour. Not that I'm complaining! Just trying to be an accurate reporter…
Missy and I worked on our firewood stockpile. She got everything cut to size with the electric chainsaw. I went off on a search party for smaller stuff…using clippers and just gathering from downed trees. When I got back, Missy said the chain came off the chainsaw. However…she was able to get it back on herself! Yay Missy! We're not sure if how much longer we're staying here. We might move to a different boondocking site at a lower elevation. Either way, we're all set for firewood for a good bit.


(Sorry for all the extra hard returns. I don't know if I mentioned this, but the laptop screen got busted in our last move. There are about 3 coinsized inkblots in the screen, so I need to hard return sometimes to get the cursor to where I can see what I'm typing).
Jeremiah drove the truck into Santa Fe bright and early on Monday Mmorning. He got a ride back to our campsite from one of the bodyshop workers. That was nice! On the way back, they passed a crew filming "Breaking Bad"! How exciting! The sherrif was stopping cars to ask what they were doing going up the mountain. Also, the worker pointed out Gene Hackman's house. Jeremiah said it's a mansion on the hill.
I had thought it was supposed to be a 4-5 hour job. But 5 pm rolled around, and still no sign of the worker. Jeremiah didn't seem concerned. I hope nothing surprising came up during the repairs. It's a little worrisome being out of the loop and not having a vehicle. Luckily, we do have the scootie if we really need to get to town to see what's up.
I finally got to take my long hike with Cassie. (I didn't go on the weekend because there was a lot of people here, many with dogs). We had the whole trail to ourselves on Monday afternoon. It was a beautiful trail through the forest and mostly next to a rushing creek. I tried to go to the end of the trail, because I bet there is a great overlook of Santa Fe. But, alas, it was too far. On the way back, it was mostly uphill. I couldn't manage more than a slow crawl before I'd be wheezing like an asthmatic. Cassie, on the other hand, didn't seem fazed at all. Do dogs even get affected by altitude changes?
Hopefully tomorrow we'll get the truck back and then we'll make some decisions on what we'll do next. It's still a little stressful not having firm plans…still getting used to this new retired lifestyle.

Mountain Camping

April 20-21, 2012
I am loving it here! I don't want to leave. It's so peaceful being among these majestic pine trees and mountain views. Plus, there's nothing better than camping somewhere you can let the dogs roam free, and there are endless choices of hiking trails. Also, it's much nicer when the weather is warmer! We've had sunny and upper 60s during the day. It's been a bit of a learning curve with the high altitude and the sun. Although it seems wrong, you actually DO need sunscreen even though you are wearing fleece. :-)
Each morning, we have a campfire. Missy and Jeremiah went into town on Fri to get groceries and some other stuff. We are supposed to be on a budget, and are supposedly following a rule whereby any big purchase is considered for 30 days. But, she was bad, and bought an electric chainsaw. She's super excited about it, so I guess I can't get too mad. For some reason, Missy is really into campfires, and being able to cut her own wood is, she swears, fun for her. We've been going around with the truck picking up huge logs and bringing them back to camp for cutting. I was getting some bigguns with Jeremiah and we were huffing and puffing (so strange how even the littlest burst of activity can leave you breathless at this altitude). Jeremiah said "remember how Dad always said that firewood warms you three times". I had never heard that! The saying goes: Firewood warms you 3 tims: once when you gather it; once when you split it; and once when you burn it" Good one Dad!
This forest is a popular destination for hikers. It's fun to watch the serious hikers show up and get ready in the mornings. I've been surprised by how long it takes them to get ready. Seriously, like over 30 minutes. They check each piece of equipment, and get hooked up with snowshoes and other gear. In kayaking, we have our top 5 that every person should double check before leaving (helmet, paddle, kayak, vest & skirt). Hikers appear to have a top 100 that they have to double check. :-) On Sat morning, there were about 10 cars of people who actually hiked up the ski hill to get a run in. Seems like waaaaaaay too much effort to me. It was fun to explore the closed ski resort with the dogs. Lots more chipmonk homes amongst the piles of rubble and railroad ties.

Pretty, but Cold

April 19, 2012
Oofda! The overnight lows are in the 30s. Missy and I got up and went around gathering wood. There is a lot of good stuff still close to our campsite (unlike our last place). Still impressed by the gorgeous scenery. However, the strong wind gusts and cool temps made for a chilly day. I enjoyed the fire, but by early afternoon, I'd had enough of the variable temps and escaped inside. Missy stayed outside for a bit to guard the fire. We had made our own firepit in the field next to us, so there was concern that an errant spark might be carried by the wind and start a forest fire. It snowed a couple of times during the day. One bout was tiny balls, like miniature bean bag filler. Another bout was huge wet flakes. I looked outside at one point and chuckled to see Missy using the sun shade on the camp chair to act as a snow umbrella.
We all came inside around 3, and we tried to start the furnace. Broken….again. Goddamn it. We've gone through about 50 theories on why the furnace quits working, and what we think makes it work again. We did some massive testing…various settings with the battery hooked up, with it disconnected, with the genny, without the genny. We looked at all the fuses. So annoying, and sooooooooo cold. Something finally worked, and we got some blessed heat.


At some point today, a park ranger pulled up right to our truck and sat there, literally 15 yards from where we sat enjoying our fire. He didn't say a word to us…I thought we were being busted. For all we know, this is no longer a public campsite. I couldn't take the tension anymore, so I walked into the woods with the dogs. After about 5 minutes, he finally left. What was that about? My best guess was that he was jotting down our deets so he could keep track if we tried to stay longer than the 14 days max allowed in the national forest. But why didn't he say "howdy", or something?
Jeremiah drove down 2 minutes to the stunning overlook, where you can see into Santa Fe. There's phone reception there, so he was able to leave and receive voicemails with the repair shop. We are scheduled to have the lifts removed on Monday.

Errands Day

April 18, 2012
We spent the morning making use of having cell/internet reception to try to find places to get some repairs done. We have decided to take the lifts off of the pickup. While I've enjoyed feeling like a badass, and enjoy the view from up high, it's really not ideal for pulling an RV. With the lifts out, the rig will be more level when hooked up. This will allow us to run the fridge when we travel. Also, with the lifts gone, Missy and I can reach the pickup bed on our own without a ladder or climbing from the passenger doors. Jeremiah called a lot of places before finally finding one that said they could help us. I also was pro-active and called an RV repair place. I wanted to get estimates on a new awning, getting the extra battery, repairing our collision damage, etc. I made arrangements to bring it to a place for an estimate later that afternoon.
We filled the freshwater tanks and left the KOA. We got to the automotive place and waited for well over an hour for the estimate. The guy had put some calls in to see about getting some used parts and was waiting for a call back. Finally, we just said to give us a call when he knew the estimate. So then we made our way to the RV repair shop. We had a bit of trouble with the older version of Karen. She directed us to a bridge over a ravine. But that bridge was gone, and the replacement was several blocks earlier. After we got the big rig turned around, we were directed down narrow dirt roads into a residential area. We didn't see any RV sign, so we were nervous about getting down a road and not being able to turn around. Luckily, the place was there. It had a huge yard to pull into. The repair guy was out on a call, so we waited for him. He showed up after 30-40 minutes. I went through our checklist with him. Jeremiah seemed to think he didn't know what he was talking about with regards to the battery. I asked him to email me an estimate for the stuff we discussed. I also bought from him several tubes of caulk (got some bad seams on the roof) and a roof sealant. Not sure if we'll use this guy, or wait until we're back in MN. The main thing we wanted fixed was the electrical, but I'm not sure if there's a problem and if this guy can fix it.
We left the RV place and headed for our intended campsite. This was a boondocking site Jeremiah had found on the internet. We had some issues with directions (I guess this guy had posted written directions to the site, but then mistakenly put in the visual map for another site. Jeremiah was following the visual). We got squared away, and had some sketchy moments driving through historic Santa Fe. Narrow roads with low overhanging electrical wires. I was getting nervous, because we were supposedly 15 miles away and the scenery was still only desert ad scrubs. Finally, we climbed into the mountains, and there was the glorious scenery I was hoping for. Tall, dark green aspens as far as the eye could see. We climbed higher and higher (going slower and slower with the RV), inching into the 2 mile range. We got to the end of the road, which happened to be a National Forest Ski area. The ski place was closed (although there is still snow here at 10,000 feet). There wasn't any signage for a camping area. There was a nice outhouse, and maps for the trails. Also, at the edges of the parking area, there's a beautiful wooded area with a sparkling stream. There are picnic tables and fire rings, but still nothing official as far as camping. Missy wasn't happy, she wanted an actual campground. She went with Jeremiah on the scooter to see if we possibly missed a turn-off. I thought this place was perfect! A huge paved area for the rig. Gorgeous trees, and a spot to set up a campfire. And absolute solitude. They came back and said this must be it. So we set up camp. I hiked with the dogs on a trail down the mountain next to a stunning cascading creek. I was stupid, though, I wasn't acclimated to the altitude, and didn't bring water. The hike back up was brutal. I'll do it again after a couple of days.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Happy Birthday to my younger nephew, Calvin! 1 year old today.

I'm several days behind, and hopefully I'll get motivated to recap those days. But for now, just a quick update. Jeremiah drove an heroic cross-county trip, battling 30mph cross winds and a blazing hot sun burning just his left side. He did all but 2 hours of the whole drive. Thanks Jeremiah!

We left TN at 10 am on Monday morning, and we got to Santa Fe at 7 pm yesterday (Tuesday). We decided to stay at a KOA campground for the night and then make firm plans on where to go after a good nights sleep. We have our eye on a coupla of boondocking campsites in the mountains, but we need to make some calls for appointments for repairs on the truck and fitty. So depending on what appointments we can get, our plans might change.

Sorry for the skimpy post. I'll try to do better this week. :-)

Travel to New Mexico

April 16-17, 2012
We got up and started packing up the rig for travel. Pack-up went smoothly until I got out the tire gauge. The "problem" tire was at 45psi out of a max 85. We got out the green machine and started inflating. The green machine is a great piece of portable equipment, it's a spare battery, a jump starter, a flashlight and an inflator. The only problem is that it takes forever to use the inflator. Like 15 minutes to gain 5 psi. Missy started complaining that I hadn't let her bring our big air compressor. I replied that this massive underinflation should be an anomaly. Plus, we're retired, so we've got time to wait for the slow inflate. 2 other tires were slightly low, but Missy and Jeremiah were too impatient to use the green machine and decided to take care of that at a gas station.
The rest of the trip will be bullet points and might not be sequential, since I'm typing this 5 days later.

• Tennessee is fricking looooooooooong. It takes like 100 hours to get all across it
• We stopped for Missy to get a DQ, and Jeremiah was getting gas. He heard that frickin ominous "hissssssssssss". There was a massive screw in the problem tire. Goddamnit! Jeremiah changed it (correctly this time).
• Going thru one urban area (I thought it was Little Rock; Jeremiah thought it was in TX) we saw a swat team surrounding and advancing on a house (kinda a depressed neighborhood). Not even 30 seconds later down the road, we saw 2 young men dash dangerously across the freeway. One almost got hit by a semi. Missy thinks they must have been the targets of the swat team.
• TX is flat and boring. It is also incredibly windy. Jeremiah was apparently aware of this fact, as he had been battling for 3 hours to keep the truck/rig straight. Missy and I were shocked when we stopped for gas and got out and almost got blown away.
• -Jeremiah did all of the driving, and at the end asked one of us to take over. Missy and I got into a fight over who had to drive. Luckily, Jeremiah did us a solid and got in the driver's seat again.
• We left TN at 10 am on Mon morning and we got to Santa Fe at 87 pm on Tuesday. We pulled into the KOA and crashed for the night.

Second Ocooee Weekend

April 14-15
On Saturday, we left for the rover at 10. Missy and I planned on doing some internets until noonish, and then we'd have lunch and get to paddling. It was another warm & sunny day. The run itself was without incident. Unless you count my swim as an incident. Sigh. There was a convergence of unlucky things that happened all at once and caused me to swim yet again. There's a fun wave train section about 2/3 of the way into the run. These are a series of 4-5 big rollers, starting with a HUGE one that is a real face-smacker. It's not a big deal, as long as you stay on line. It's really fun if you do it right. However, what happened to me was that just at the entrance to the rapid, I got a random splash in just one eye. I blinked, but couldn't clear the vision in that eye. I had a millisecond to decide if I should ignore it, or remove my hand from my padded and wipe my face. So of course I chose to wipe. Just as my hand was moving back down my face, I hit a small bump, which jostled my hand onto my noseplugs and caused them to be yanked free. Now I was panicking. I know that if I tip over without noseplugs, I probably won't be able to get my roll. This knowledge makes me anxious, of course, so I waste a few precious seconds wondering if I can take the time to put them back on. Of course, there was no time. And by the time I accepted my nosepluglessness state of being, I had lost track of the rapid. Instead of skirting the huge face-smacker, I had allowed the current to bring me right down the middle. So I'm climbing this monster, praying I don't tip over…and I tip over. NOSE ENEMA. That dreaded enemy of every kayaker. I hung out a bit upside down in the tuck position, trying to wait out the rapid to the calm spot to try my roll. But then I got slammed into a rock, and my hand got pinned between the rock and my paddle. I lost my paddle, and had to pull. My hand really took a beating. Deep scrapes, and instant puffed-up swelling on the pointer and middle fingers. Luckily, after 15 minutes and 4 advil, I felt well enough to continue. Sigh. Such a stupid set of circumstances leading to the swim. I've really got to practice rolling without my plugs.
If anything else noteworthy happened on Sat, I can no longer recall it as of the writing of this entry. There was nothing about a baby snake and me screaming again.
On Sunday, we left for the river after lunch. It was much busier this day. More rafts and more kayakers. Jeremiah had himself a little run in with one raft that stopped to try and surf in the only current (lots of rocks). Other than that, it was a fun run. I took the VillianS this time so I could relax through most of the drops. After the run, we stopped at a motel parking lot to do some research on where to go next. I tried looking at most of the nearby states on AW, but couldn't find any with rivers at the runnable level. Missy and I decided to give up on finding whitewater, so then I looked for campgrounds near the Smoky Mountains. This proved difficult. We couldn't go to the boondocking sites in the National Park, because no dogs are allowed. And the only options just outside the park where all commercial. The kind where you end up parked 6 inches from your neighbor. Not our idea of fun atoll. I was getting frustrated. Then, Jeremiah tried to talk us into going to New Mexico. His theory was that since we were already planning on heading to CO for the spring runs at the end of May, we could head that way now and pass the time in NM. I hadn't realized that Santa Fe was only 5 hours from the rivers we run in CO. I was still hesitant though, because I assumed NM was all desert and scrub bushes. But he pulled up pictures from the Santa Fe National Forest (in the mountains), and it was gorgeous. So, we made an impulsive decision to head to NM. (Blech at the idea of another looooooooong road trip).

Passing Time until the Next Ocooee Release

April 12-13, 2012

Thursday was cold and windy all day. Missy kept a fire going. She claims that her favorite camp items are her fireproof gloves and the square red plastic plate we got at Target, which apparently has the perfect qualities for a fire-fan. I took Cassie on a hike up the nearby trail. I wanted to get to the top of the mountain, where I hoped there were magnificent vistas. Sadly, there were not. Just a lot of trees. Oh well. Cassie and I enjoyed the hike, at least. Thursday got so cold and dreary that Missy and I decided to pack up and leave the next day and head for higher and more reception-laden pastures.

Friday dawned cold. It was frustrating because we had set the furnace, but it was not working. With a bunch of on & off and sliding the temp bar, you could get it to blow cold air for a minute. Very frustrating, since the furnace worked when we used it a few days ago. The RV owner's manual mentioned that if there wasn't enough battery, the furnace would not ignite. But even with the generator on, it didna work. Jeremiah took some panels off to look for anything obvious that might be wrong. I finally took the panel off the fuse box (we have both a circuit breaker box AND a fuse box…seems excessive). There, #7 had its red light glowing. So, turns out there was a broken fuse. That fuse was NOT for the furnace, as you might guess. But rather, it was for the LP gas monitor, which Jeremiah had removed and replaced with an invertor. Now, all along I was suspicious of this invertor, and in fact it had been acting wonky lately. (warning beeps when charging the laptop when there should have been enough battery). I had recently read an RV blog post where someone had strange electrical issues and it all was traced back to a faulty invertor. Jeremiah expressed doubt, but who knows how this thing is wired. So we replaced the fuse, and the furnace worked! Then, Jeremiah did some testing on the invertor. All of a sudden, we had no battery and a dim display on the levels monitor panel. I was freaking out, because I thought there was some horrible problem whereby the battery was being drained by the invertor. Even with the invertor removed AND it's fuse removed, the problem didn't resolve. Worse, running the genny did not fix the panel and give full battery, which it normally does. Finally, we discovered that the same #7 fuse had blown (likely during Jeremiah's testing). But instead of giving a steady red warning light like before, it only flashed the warning light when you checked the levels on the panel. ?????????? Why wouldn't a broken fuse behave the same? So frustrating. We put in our last spare fuse and all is fixed. Missy and I plan to arrange for professional installation of a second (piggy back) battery and a larger invertor.

After working all morning on this issue, we no longer felt like packing up and moving out. So we decided to stay throughout the weekend. It turned into a beautiful day. If you moved into the sun, you could even get away with wearing only a t-shirt! Missy did some reorganizing of the storage spaces and the garage. I took the dogs on the down-creek hike. During the afternoon, lots of people started showing up at the campground. By 4, it was 2/3 full. Till now, only 2 other campsites have been occupied. I was guessing that this was their fishing opener. This morning the forest service was here running buckets of fish to dump in the creek. They seem to spend a lot of time and money on restocking. By the end of the day, only 3 campsites remained unoccupied. Lots of people brought dogs, so now we have to be careful to keep Buddy tied up so he doesn't run after them.

Tomorrow is the Ocoee release again! Yay! We get to paddle again! We plan to go early to have some internet time, so hopefully I'll get some blog posts up.

Long Day Out

Today's plan was to head out at 10 am to the NOC and spend a day in the area. Missy and I were game to run the 7 mile Nantahala River, which Jeremiah was dead set against setting paddle in again. He is still bitter from discovering way back on our first trip SE that if the river is listed as Class III, more likely it's a class II. But we thought a warm, sunny fast float could be fun. The plan was that (since we'd have the dogs with us) Jeremiah would drop us off, and then wait for us to take out at the NOC, where we'd all then try the recently built play wave. (Do you sense a big ol "however" coming up?)

However…we didn't follow plans because of the weather. Not having reception at Lost Creek, we didn't know the weather. It was very sunny, but it was 51 degrees and there was a stiff 10-15 mph wind that made for a brrrry windchill. So while Missy and I had been imagining enjoying the Class II water because it would seem refreshing in 80 degree weather, we were NOT willing to suffer a long and cold paddle unless there were some thrilling rapids. Which the Nanty does not have. So we putzed around the NOC for a bit. Tried and failed to get on their wifi. Went shopping. Jeremiah got new river shoe/boots, and I got ANOTHER belt river rope. (The first rope was tossed in the Ark river by Jeremiah in Colorado. The second was poorly tossed to Missy by me, when I was stranded out of my boat in mid-river on the Cascade River in MN). Here's hoping the third one stays with me more permanently.

Jeremiah tried to shame Missy and me into getting into our gear and trying to playboat, but we weren't having it. Not only are we less than enthusiastic about cold weather playboating, but the main feature wave was too low. See, the Nantahala is on a daily release schedule, so we thought we were golden. But I guess it too is subject to the harsh reality of a rain drought, and so the water was releasing at a lower rate. Bummer. So Jeremiah bravely suited up and put on. He battled a SUP for wave time on a skimpy wave for about 10-15 minutes. Then he gave up and got off the river. A bust of a time. Missy and I enjoyed our river-side time by teasing the friendly ducks who would come to over if you appeared to have food. Buddy and Cassie dearly wanted to meet those ducks as well, but were prevented for obvious reasons.

By now it was getting later…after 4. We still needed to find a Laundromat and get some laundry done. For once, we had some well deserved luck. Karen (our GPS), directed us to an establishment that was still in business. Missy and I got the loads started, and then left Jeremiah to monitor them while we went to Walmart in search of a bigger memory card for my phone. After laundry was done, we headed home. We had great difficulty in doing that simple task. First, there was a detour for our route. But instead of having huge signs pointing that out, there were poorly placed signs on the side of the detour street. So, if you were not a local, you wouldn't have known to look at the detour street 5 miles before the closed road came up. Grrr. Then, for some reason, Jeremiah decided not to take one of the 2 known routes to the campground, but instead thought Karen would know what she was talking about. She led us on a merry chase up and down the mountain, before finally announcing we were on Lost Creek Rd….when in fact we were at a dead end near some houses. Double Grr. That was about 40 minutes of excess driving. We finally got back at 8 pm. Felt like a frustrating, wasted day.

P.S. When we inched into reception range, all of us got notices from friends and family that a horrible thing happened in our neighborhood in Brooklyn Park. Someone had killed 3 people at the house kitty-corner from ours. This had happened a couple of days ago. Apparently there is no named suspect. Scary! Good thing we weren't there at the time.

More Days at Lost Creek Campground

April 9-10, 2012

I got a bit behind on blogging. We spent 2 whole days at the bottom of the mountain. No rivers are running. We had cold mornings, into the upper 30s and low 40s. It takes a long time to warm up the campsite, due to all the tree coverage. Missy got a fire going, and we pretty much had that the whole time. Missy and I took a trail up the creek and went firewood hunting. This forest allows you to gather wood, so we brought our clippers and our kayak gear bags (which make excellent firewood backpacks) and sought our quarry. The ¼ mile radius around the campground is pretty much picked clean, so we branched out. Found some great pine that wasn't rotten because it hadn't fallen on the ground. It sounds corny, but a fire made from wood you hunted yourself is so much more enjoyable. :-)

I discovered that if you crossed the creek at the end of the campground, there is a nice, level path that continues down the creek. Must be an old road. It's perfect for walking elderly dogs. This creek is so crystal clear that I find it fascinating to just stare into it, looking at the occasional fish and more common pollywogs. I took a picture of a spot that was 6 feet deep, but yet looked only inches deep. But the picture didn't turn out like I'd hoped; you can't tell at all how clear and deep the creek is. Oh well. I did some reading (ebook) and just generally relaxed while the dogs hunted around. Missy took the walk with me one day, but we had to turn around early because someone was fishing. One time, on the walk back, I lost Cassie at the crossing back to camp. I didn't worry, because it was only about 50 yards to the fitty. I walked with Buddy through an empty campsite, and all of a sudden I heard Cassie on the upper trail doing her stranger bark. And then this guy came tearing down the hill at top speed. Cassie had scared the bejesus out of him. I felt terrible, but he was gracious about it.

A coupla other things of (possible) interest: One night I had stored my hammock under the fitty, per usual to protect against dew. Some critter chewed a hole in it and built a nest. There was some kind of synthetic material in there. What was that about? Who builds a nest where there is no food source, under a heavily trafficked (both human and canine) building site? So strange. And the other thing: We'd all been sitting around the campfire trying to list the 43 mammal species listed in a newsletter as being in the Cherokee National Forest. Jeremiah named vulture…and I called him out on naming a bird. Then he and Missy mocked ME, saying birds are mammals! Hah! The next time you, the reader, sees Missy or Jeremiah, be sure to mock them for thinking birds are mammals.

Second Day on the Ocoee, or Boondoggle Day?

If you guessed Boondoggle Day, you win!!!! We left for the river around 12:30, giving the day time to warm up. We'd traversed 2 miles of the mountain road when we became aware of a loud hissing noise. We pulled over, which in itself is dangerous since there are no shoulders and this is a one-lane road and we were hidden by curves, and discovered the newly installed spare tire was leaking like crazy. WTF???!!! I was worried that there was some kind of problem with the truck that was causing it to pop all the tires on that back passenger side. But…upon further inspection, Jeremiah realized he had mistakenly put the spare tire on backwards. Oopsidaisie! So the valve stem busted off and that was the leak. The good news was there was no mysterious issue with the truck. The bad news….we were stranded on the mountain road with a flat tire and no spare spare. Of course, we had no reception to call for help, and even if we did get to a place with reception, we were concerned that no one would be open since it's Easter.

After some discussion, it was decided that Jeremiah and I would ride the scooter to the main road and try to call USAA. (I have roadside assistance coverage. One of the best deals in town!) I was terrified to ride the scooter. When we purchased it, Missy and I had an agreement that she would be the scooter person. I don't feel safe riding on it, and it was very scary riding on the windy, dirt, one-lane mountain road for 5 miles. To be fair, Jeremiah is a competent driver, and as much as possible he drove slowly in consideration of me. When we got to the main road, Jeremiah was able to get reception and we called USAA. We tried requesting that they send someone who could fix the tire, but they said that wasn't part of the service. So we would have to get a tow truck and be towed to a place with tire service. Nice thinking USAA….instead of paying $30 for a repair, you're going to pay $200 for a tow. Whatever. It was tough to keep constant cell service (walking around, waving the phone in all directions), so we decided to scootie the 3 miles to the service station/convenience store/tubing rental place that we'd passed the other day. I had seen it had a sign saying open 365, so I hoped that meant even Easter. And they were open! Jeremiah filled the scootie from the old fashioned pump (you had to come in and tell the lady how much you pumped). I love the gas economy of the scooter. 60 miles/gallon.

Jeremiah still had spotty reception, so he drove off to find a better spot. I stayed at the store. Turns out, the tow company had already tried calling to see if we had a dually, but since Jeremiah didn't get the call, the tow driver had to go back to his shop and get the bigger flatbed just in case. (For those of you who are interested, we don't have a dually). We had ourselves another 20-30 minute wait. We drove back to the top of the mountain road to wait for the tow truck. The hope was that the driver would let me ride with him down the mountain so that I wouldn't have to ride the scootie again. The tow turned up, and the driver was a southern sweetheart, 23 years old. Such a nice guy. He of course agreed to let me ride with him. Now, the trouble I had was that his southern accent was VERY strong. With the windows open and the loud truck, I couldn't understand most of what he was saying. But luckily he was more of a talker then a question-asker, so I got away with some well-timed nods. We arrived at the pickup, but there was no way for the 30 ft tow truck to get turned around the other way. Missy got in the tow truck (she had been waiting with the pickup for the 3 hours. She got to listen to an audio book the whole time) and we drove the 2 miles to the campground. There we had a chance to talk to the driver better. I guess USAA hadn't been clear on what we needed. They just told him to take us to the nearest town. He said he didn't think there'd be anything open. He told us he had a "tire guy", who he got all his tires from. But this guy wouldn't be open until the next morning. We finally decided that Jeremiah would go with the tow driver into town to see if anything was open. If not, they'd park the truck at the tire guy's place and Jeremiah would scootie back to camp and return in the morning. I was impressed at how nice the driver was. Plus, most of the people who passed the pulled over truck or saw Jeremiah and I waiting with the scootie pulled over to offer help. They give Minnesota Nice a run for its money. Thanks people of Reliance, TN!

Missy and I waited anxiously for Jeremiah to return. Finally, around 7 pm, he pulled up….in the truck! Turns out that there was nothing open, but the tow driver called his tire guy. The guy agreed to go to the shop and open up to help us! How awesome is that? So we got a new valve for the spare, and we bought a new tire for the truck. (Well, it was a used tire). We kept the bad tire in case we can get a refund since it should be under warranty.

So, to sum up, we did not have an awesome day on the river (which suuuuuucks, since this is a weekend dam release only, and we don't have a lead on any other rivers running that we can do during the week). However, even though it was bad luck to have these tire problems, we feel lucky that we got the problem solved with no complications. Here's hoping that this is the last of our bad luck.

First Day on the Ocooee

The day started out quite cold. It was in the low 40s, and took a bit to warm up since we are heavily shaded. We agreed to leave by 10 so we'd make sure to have enough time for 2 runs. Missy and Jeremiah would go first, and then I'd join in the second run. The 7 mile drive up the mountain from our campground certainly goes faster when you aren't white-knuckling it with a fitty, but it still takes a looooooong time due to all the switchbacks.

We got to the river by 11, stopped to scout powerhouse on the way up. It wasn't as busy as I thought it would be. I didn't check AW, but it's possible that other areas of the SE got rain and so that would mean lots of other options for boaters. Missy and Jeremiah put on at 11:30. I stayed at the putin for 30 minutes, working on adding pictures to all my blog posts. It was very slow going, but at least they were loading correctly. At noon, I drove down to the takeout to wait for my sibs. I spent another 1.5 hours on picture loading. Missy and Jeremiah showed up at 1:30, and luckily they had had a good run. So we loaded boats and headed back up to the top.

Missy decided not to do a second run, so we didn't have to set shuttle for the 2^nd run either. It's funny, though, how many comments we get about the scootie. Everyone seems enamored of the idea of being self-sufficient for setting shuttle on runs. The funniest moment with a scootie admirer was when Missy was by herself at the pickup, and a guy walked by and couldn't hold back asking "How heavy is that scooter? How can you lift it up there alone?" He couldn't see the ramp (to drive the scootie up onto the hitch holder), and was incredulous that Missy could lift it up on her own. Heh.

My run with Jeremiah started out a little nerve-racking. He told me to just follow him, since he remembered all the lines. But there's a lot of boulder dodging, and so it was hard to pick my line and try to watch if Jeremiah was making any big moves. After a quick eddy break, we worked it out so he would warn me before any drops of consequence so then I was free to relax between drops. The Ocooee is a fun, action-packed run. Too many rapids to be counted, with fast giggle water between. Its only downfall is…..SNAKES!!!!! In the middle of the run, Jeremiah goes "Hey, there's a snake" and swimming RIGHT at me was a hideous snake. Have you ever seen a snake swimming? It evokes a primitive fear response, and I was screaming like a banshee as it headed for my kayak. Seriously, it looked like it was going to board my boat. I'm not even that scared of snakes, but I could not prevent the screaming. We were in a giggle water section, so I'm sure all the rafters behind us thought I was insane.

We got off the river and decided to get our grocery shopping done. We drove about 20 miles to a super Walmart. It was an annoyingly long trip due to construction in the shopping mall area, and because we were stupid to shop at Walmart on a Sat afternoon. Blech. But, as I try to remind myself, I'm not in a hurry anymore. So I tried to chillax, which is tough when you're in a checkout line for 20 minutes.

We got back to camp around 7, and right when we parked, we saw the back passenger tire on the truck was completely flat! This was flabbergasting; since there was no way Jeremiah could have driven that curvy mountain drive without knowing he had a flat. But it seemed just as impossible that we somehow ran over a nail or something right as we got to camp. He got the tire off, and there was no sign of a puncture. So who knows what happened. Maybe a slow leak down the mountain? Jeremiah put the spare tire on, and we called it a night.

Moving Day to Lost Creek

We got an early-ish start. The thinking was that this campground might get filled up the later in the day it got. We were looking at a 3 hour trip, so we wanted to be on the road by 9:30-10. The pack up went smoothly. I went up on the roof to sweep off all the tree debris that had been accumulating. There was too much on the slideouts to just pull them back in without cleaning them. There was some more leakage when Jeremiah was filling the freshwater tanks. I was worried we busted through the tanks again, but hopefully it will just be the relief from accidentally overfilling. We drove to the sewer dump, where Missy and I let Jeremiah take on that chore whilst we went to the gift store to see if we could find a souvenir. There were no bumper stickers, and the plain stickers were waaaaaayyy too plain….just initials of the park and that's all. So Missy got a walking stick pin. Still not sure what she's going to do with that.

The drive to Reliance, TN had just one small bump in the road. Karen and Google Maps had differing routes, so I had already warned Missy and Jeremiah to be prepared for the usual TN bad mojo of bad directions/confusing road signs. (Referencing the long ago annual trips to Gatlinburg, whereby the only time of the 5 trips that we did NOT get lost was when we'd taken a shuttle). We pulled off the road at the entrance to the Forest Rd to the campground. Jeremiah took the scootie for the 7 mile ride to see if the fitty would make it on the road, and if there was an open campground site that we'd fit into. He came back and reported it was a go. I took over driving, which was a bad idea. This road was one lane only. Meaning it's 2 way traffic on a narrow one lane dirt road. I've never had a more stressful drive. I had to try to watch my mirrors on the 1000 tight corners to make sure the trailer didn't drop off the mountain, but then at the same time I needed to watch the road ahead for oncoming head-on collisions. At the end of the drive, my nerves were shot, so I vacated the truck. Jeremiah parked us in our new spot.

The online description said there was a $7/night fee. It also said there was a water spigot. Both of those are not true. So, we get to camp for free, but there is no water. Hopefully our tanks will last us the 10-14 days that we want to camp here. It's a nice little campground loop, with about 12 sites. We're backed up against the mountain, and the sites backing up to the creek are mostly taken. Everyone else here (the campground is about ½ full) is tent camping. I think people were probably surprised to see our big rig pull in. There is lots of tree coverage, so it will be mostly shady most of the time. There's a 50 yard trail from the back of our site over to the crystal clear babbling creek. I look forward to hucking my hammock over there on our next off day for a relaxing day by the creek. We all walked up the road to check out the trailhead, and Missy almost stepped on a snake that was fully stretched out catching some rays. Not sure if it was venomous. She poked it with a stick and then screamed when it moved. That made Buddy go into a full-on protective aggressive mode, and if I hadn't been holding his collar he would have attacked the snake. This just makes fuel for my phobias, because now I'm going to be scart of the dogs ambling into snakes on our hikes.

The windchill here is surprising after so many days of warm weather. Temps in lower 60s, but with the strong wind, you need a warm fleece jacket. The overnight lows will be in the lower 40s, so we'll have to bundle up tonight. The plan is to leave by 10 to get to the Ocooee Release. We have no reception here, so we'll have to hope we get something at the river so we can post this update.

Last Three Days at Bandy Creek

April 3-5, 2012

Missy and I took the dogs on a long hike. We drove to the Leatherford Landing to take the trail to Angel Falls. (About 2 miles downriver from where we took out on the first run). There actually is a sign for the trail about 100 yards from our campsite, but that would have been 8 miles roundtrip. Way too long for our aging, arthritic dog. (And, if I'm being honest, probably too long for his owners too). We thought we were getting an early enough start on the day to beat the heat (leaving around 10), but the sun shone brightly on the path for most of the hike. It got into the 80s and was humid. We took it slow, for Buddy's sake. He is now on an all-the-time-on-the-leash program. Cassie enjoyed her offleash time running ahead and then racing back to check-in. After about an hour, we still didn't make the falls. Even though it was probably only another 5-10 minutes downriver, we didn't want to risk overdoing it for the Budster, so we turned back. It was a great hike, except that the sandals we were wearing let in little rocks and sand and then trapped them there as blister-making torture devices. We desperately need new hiking sandals.

We spent the rest of the day and the next alternating between reading in the hammocks and taking respite in the A/C. No river runs because the river got too low. Missy and I went to the bathhouse to make use of the nice showers with decent pressure and room to turn around. Talked to Mom, who is doing well with her PT and has an estimated move-back-to-Prairie Lodge date of 1 week.

We got some rain overnight of the 4^th, so the river was back to the level of our 2^nd run. Missy offered to be shuttlebunny for Jeremiah and me, so long as we were up to paddling the whole 6 mile run. I readily agreed…I'll take the 2 miles of flatwater paddling to avoid the 1.5 hours of setting shuttle. There was a chance for passing thunderstorms, but we didn't let that scare us away. Got on the river at 1. It was muddy brown today, and possibly a little bit higher for our 3^rd run. Although the skies darkened and we heard thunder 2-3 times, we never got any rain or thunderstorms. Yay! The run went smoothly. I had planned in my mind to walk the IV if it was cold and rainy, but I guess the gods wanted me to run it since the weather was nice. Jeremiah and I took out higher up on river right and climbed a boulder to look. We could only see the entrance, and part of the exit of the rapid. I told Jeremiah I felt fine following him closely and so we took off. Things went fine for Jeremiah, of course. I was doing fine until I got to the bottom and stared into the gates of Hell. 3-4 massive converging, jumbles of nasty cross-currents. I only got ¼ of a second to take it all in and try to see a tongue. I failed, so I just threw out a hail mary stroke and prepared for my beatdown. My top half went one way, and the boat was slammed by a cross-current. It really strained my abs. I got flipped, but I hit my roll right away and paddle away victoriously.

The rest of the run went smoothly. Jeremiah had redemption at the other tricky rapid. I was nervous AGAIN looking at it, but I lined it up and got er done. The paddle out wasn't even that bad because the river was gorgeous. The little bit of rain along with hot sunny days really made the trees leaf out. Quite a difference from the last run. I told Jeremiah he should make sure he enjoyed what might be our last wilderness run. (Only damn release, roadside runs in our immediate future). We got off the river at 4, and drove back to camp. Missy had a campfire going, which was nice because the weather turned suddenly chilly. Tomorrow we're packing up and heading 3 hours south to a campground nearby the Ocooee. If no rain comes, then we'll expect about 1000 paddlers to go to the Ocooee release this weekend. It will be busy, but hopefully it will be fun. And cross your fingers that we get a spot at the first-come-first-served campground that is our first choice.

2nd Paddle on Big South Fork

We were planning on taking off at noon to go paddling, but we putzed around and didn't leave until almost 1. We agreed to try the alternative take-out, which would eliminate the last 2 miles of flatwater (into the head wind). But, this takeout was down a loooooooooong, bumpy, windy, sketchy, one-lane road. It added about 80 minutes to the shuttle. So it wasn't such a timesaver as much as one would hope. We got on the river about 2 (Missy had to hike back UP the mountain to look for her helmet, which she lost on the hike down. Tee-hee). The river was already noticeably lower. The gauge wasn't working that morning, but later it would show at around 1000cfs). This made it a little more scrapey, but still fun. The class IV drop turned out to be an easier run…the newly exposed rocks channeled the current into an easy to follow line. And the cheese-grater rock at the end (the one you didn't want to meet with your head if you were upsidedown) was fully exposed and actually had a friendly cushion of water pushing you away. Sadly, the way this drop and shorelines are composed, you have to make your decision to walk and stick with it. No going back (I know this sounds wrong, but to get to shore you have to shoot through narrow channels of water. One way only). So Missy and I were walking reluctantly.

We enjoyed the 80 degree weather with decent passing cloud cover. It did get warm at times, but luckily the water was there to cool us off. As we came up to the drop where I had my equipment failure, we discussed whether to run or to look. Ultimately I voted for looking because I needed a chance to stretch my dead leg. Good thing we looked, because it was different at the lower level. 2 new f@#k up rocks were in play. We discussed options, and agreed on a line with a right to left move to punch the seam and then carve right. Good thing we sent Jeremiah to test it, because this line didn't play out. There simply wasn't enough room to get the speed needed to punch the seam. Jeremiah fought his stern out of 2 holes, and then fought being flipped on a swirly eddy on river right. Missy and I discussed options for quite some time. Finally, I decided to go for it. I knew this one would be hard to line up from the river (no good markers), so since Missy was still on shore, I asked her to direct me if I wasn't where I wanted to be. (I wanted to enter 2-3 feet to the left of Jeremiah's line). As I suspected, it was tricky. I was CERTAIN I was lined up in the correct spot, and Missy kept beckoning me closer to the right. I thought she was directing me into the hole on purpose. She said I had lined myself up to head right over the left side pourover. Oops. So with her help, I entered at the right spot, leaned forward and paddled hard* I broke the seam and carved nicely through the rest of the drop. It was exhilarating! Next up, Missy: she started out looking promising, but ended up pointed too far right in the middle of the drop and she went scraping down the exposed eddy rock. Not perfect, but not a disaster.

We took out at the new spot. Jeremiah got on the scootie, and we waited for an hour and 15 minutes for him to get back with the truck. Seems to be the payout to enjoy the benefits of mountain rivers…long shuttles. Happy to pay the price so far! When we got back, thunderstorms moved in. At first we had lightning and thunder only, but later we got a little bit of rain. Not enough to raise the river, sadly.

I'll end with a couple of Jeremiah quotes that had Missy and I laughing:

[while driving] Jeremiah: Is that a real dog? (This was said in a funny tone, as if he'd been hallucinating dogs for some time, and wanted reassurance that this was a real dog. I can't tell if this is truly funny, or if you just had to be there).

[on the river] Jeremiah: that is counter-intuitive the other way. (To which I replied "soooooo, you mean it's intuitive?)

Off Day

Happy Birthday Jeremiah! We got a late start this morning, so we were rushing to get out the door to make our 10am skype appointment with Josh and Max. On the way to the campground, we passed a convenience store/café that adverstised wifi, so we thought we'd get a good connection for skyping. Turns out the connection was pretty weak. But still tried to connect. Unfortunately, we could not hear Josh/Max. So we waited until Jeremiah finished his breakfast and then went to the car so we could try using the video of skype along with a cell call on speakerphone. (A funny note about the breakfast…they gave Jeremiah a whole gravy boat full of gravy for his biscuit. But I guess normal southerners must use TONS of gravy, because the cook and another worker asked Jeremiah about 4 times if he needed his gravy refilled). We managed only a few minutes of conversating before Josh had to get Calvin from his nap and be on his way to visit Mom. Bummer.

We had planned on paddling today, but when I checked the weather, it showed that there would be passing thunderstorms. We aren't normally squeamish about taking chances with lightning, but since this was a big river with canyon sections, we decided better be safe than sorry. So we decided to have an off day. As it turned out, the skies turned ominous a coupla times, but there was no rain or thunder. Still a nice, relaxing day at camp. I took Cassie on a hike on the trail that starts here in the campground. It's a dual purpose trail. On weekends, it's for hikers only. During the week, it's for biking too. I think it would have been fun to ride that trail on a bike. I've been working on getting Missy to agree to adopt mountain biking as our non-weather-dependent activity.