Tuesday, August 21, 2007 – Harrisburg, OR

Yesterday – Monday –an interesting day. As mentioned in the last blog, we visited a tire emporium on Friday and had all four rear tire valve stems replaced with stainless steel in an attempt to fix a slow leak. Everyone agreed that that fix was potentially a good fix, given the symptoms.

Well, the best plans, et.al. don’t always work. After driving back to Shell and Lynn’s place Friday night, we encamped for the weekend. The idea was that Margaret would talk to the “parties involved” in Fernandina on Monday a.m. and if necessary, fly directly to Jacksonville from SeaTac to get the ball rolling with the city. As it turned out, things looked a little brighter on Monday, so we headed south.

One of the lessons “learned” in the last 18 months of RV’ing is to check tire pressures all-around before heading out. (A slow leak on one of the 5th- wheel tires cemented this lesson in stone for yours truly.) When I got to the inside right rear, there was zero pressure on the tire. Not just low, but nada. Shell brought out his air compressor and we attempted to put air in, but no, there was nothing but a loud air-blowing sound.

So we drove back to the tire emporium and “complained”. The young man came out to check. He reached in (over the out-side tire) and wobbled the inside tire! No only no air pressure, but it wasn’t even seated on the rim! A wonder we didn’t ruin the tire driving into town.

To make a long story shorter, it was a bad valve stem installation – the tire was fine. Soon, all was well and we headed out of Sequim. Owing to the late start, we only made it back to Tumwater – site of our previous stay. Fortunately, there was a space available so we were set for the night – as late as it was.

Today – Tuesday – we headed south on I-5. After several hours of mist and rain (with intermittent wipers), we hit sunshine (novel!) in central Oregon.

We talked to the folks at Monaco motor-homes (in Harrisburg) but their earliest appointment availability to do repairs was November 11. After a very short discussion, we decided we didn’t want to wait that long before heading back! So the plan is: we’re going to stop in to the parts department tomorrow and pick up a windshield wiper dash – switch assembly (I’ll see if I can put it in). There is an RV repair place just south of here we can try it all else fails. All remains to be seen.

We actually ran both air conditioning units this afternoon after pulling in. A big change from running the heater in Sequim / Olympia. The view out the window looks more like central Kansas, than central Oregon.

Today’s picture is a plum tree in Sequim Master Gardener Demonstration Garden. Although we grew up in Florida amongst lots of citrus, we haven’t seen a lot of the fruit trees so prevalent in the northwest. Before today (Friday), I had never seen a real, live plum growing on a tree. An education!

Wayne