Awake: 5:50am Temp 51 Some clearing Overnight @ Orofino, Idaho
Before breakfast, I start doing my outside chores like “one more time”
cleaning the standing water from the top of our slide outs & draining our
black water tank. Would you believe that during these dreary moments, the
sun peeked out from behind the clouds, revealing some blue sky &
brightened our day. Only then do we fully realize just how beautiful this
area can be. Now we have a similar view as those famous people from the
Lewis & Clark expedition had during their camping time when exploring
through here. Story has it that the actual trees that were used for the
dugouts were cut from the location where Canoe Camp RV is now located. How
about that!? Around here, later this summer, they will be celebrating 100
yrs of the Lewis & Clark Trail…expecting an even larger crowd than the
usual summer tripling of its population.
We like the water from this campground so I switch on the auto fill button
to top off our pure water tank (161 gallons). The water we have left in
our pure tank is from the campground in Bernardo, New Mexico which we
visited on March 28. The filling takes maybe 10 min but…when I push the
switch to stop the process, nothing changes & our pure water tank now
spits water overboard under the coach’s belly. The electromechanical
whatever gismo must have failed & I am not going to take time for a fix
right now. With that gismo failed, any water coming into our system will
1st go to the pure water tank & overflow…when we draw water from our pure
water tank with the marine pump, the pump runs continuously so it
definitely needs to be rectified soon. When we get a reasonable cell phone
signal, I’ll give the Newell guys a call for ideas.
Leave the Orofino Canoe Campground @ 9:30am with clearing skies….this is
more to our liking. Just as we cross over the Clearwater River Bridge,
unknown to us, Jim & Betty are doing their 3-4 mile daily walk & see us
motoring down the highway. As we approach Lewiston, I ask Kathy to check &
see if we have cell phone coverage & if we do, to call Jim & Betty to
thank them for their hospitality & touring + to double check on the better
hwy to take up to Spokane, WA., hwy 195 or hwy 95? We have a good signal &
she rings for Jim & Betty. Betty responds “we just saw you on the highway
heading toward Lewiston.” Kathy & Betty talk for about 10 min & hwy 195 is
the way to go.
En route, we stop @ a small rest stop to make a few cell phone calls. 1st
of all, the campground we had selected in Spokane as our next destination,
highly recommends that we don’t even think about it. OK! Our big rig is
too big. So Kathy calls our 2nd choice campground, the person answering
the phone kind of discourages our traveling through Spokane in our motor
home because of so much road construction. Hmmmm, so now it’s down to our
3rd selection, a quiet & serene spot in the country that may be a little
too far from town….but they would be happy to accommodate us today. I
program the GPS for that campground, then call Tommy @ Newell & tell him
of our new glitch. He advises that I take a heavy duty screwdriver & give
the water solenoid a good rap to loosen up the stuck valve. Sounds good to
me!
As we are driving through the town of Cheney, still 19 miles from our
destination, Melissa calls: The University of Indiana in PA wants to
interview Kevin sometime next week for a computer position. This is an
exciting announcement for them & for us. They talk for as long as our cell
signals hold out….maybe 15 min…then we are surrounded by tall trees. We’ll
try & call her later.
Arrive @ the Klink’s Williams Lake Resort, about 19 miles Southeast of
Cheney, WA. @ 1:50pm. This place is very nice, it’s well laid out with
shade trees, a marina, an active & somewhat upscale restaurant & the lake
with great fishing opportunities. It was by no means a big rig friendly
campground, however, but with Kathy’s guidance, we do fine.
Today’s travel: 3+46 hrs 166.3 miles 22.5 gal 7.39 mpg 46.8 avg speed
I wasted no time after parking to get to work on that so-called, stuck
solenoid. With my biggest screwdriver, I rapped & rapped to no avail. With
threatening dark clouds above & the Newell service folks home for the day
in Oklahoma, I had to think of something else. Out comes some of my
tools…& I take the bottom section of this water diverter apart. It turns
out to have a diaphragm with an electrically powered plunger & that
diaphragm has a weep hole which I could see was plugged up. Another hmmmm,
so I cleaned off the debris which opened the weep hole, reassembled the
unit & viola! It works again. Whew!
Tomorrow I’ll call Tommy @ Newell & give him a head’s up on the rest of
the story. During my fixing time, Kathy took the Suzuki & drove to the
higher elevations nearby to find some cell phone signals so she could talk
more with Melissa but …nothing.
We take a 30 min walk around the campground for exercise.
6:30 Dinner: Leftover Tuna casserole, cauliflower & toast.
Evening time: Watch PBS using antenna: “Visiting Beijing.” It was a well
done tour of the highlights of Beijing which we enjoyed seeing since we’ve
been there & saw many of the sights they were covering.
High travel temp=64 Lights out: 10:58pm
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