Weekly Update

Been a busy week.  We're getting warmer.  The trees continue to leaf out, pollen fills the air, and a nice, weather-wise weekend got the tourist out. The lake was busy for Memorial Day weekend with parking lots full of boat trailers. We didn't have ice on the local lakes, but national news showed the ice still floating in Lake Superior.  The days are getting long with sunrise just after 5 AM and the sun setting right at 9 PM.  Wanna stay up and watch for meteor showers?  If so, plan on staying up for along time.

The Rainy Lake tour boat (Voyageur) arrived Tuesday and training on it started today.  Yesterday was a training day for a lot of the new staff and became my day to travel between all the visitor centers delivering gift shop supplies and providing some semblance of a break to the rangers - one each - managing the Kabetogama and Ash River visitor centers.  I can now say I've made a cash register sale at all the visitor centers in Voyageurs Natl Park!

And for the first time in my life, I've filled a vehicle with E85 gasoline.  Don't know enough to discuss the merits of environmental friendliness vs. lower fuel mileage, but the $2.749/gal did catch my attention.  And guess which fuel type shared that E85 gasoline fuel pump?  Diesel!  If our Ford diesel's Bosch-built high pressure fuel pump ever got a whiff of that E85 stuff, it'd rust out in a couple of seconds.  We won't be stopping there for diesel!

Anyway, our work week is done.  The schedule is still a little disheveled as training continues.  We've got five days off in a row.  I think we're gonna head off and see some sights we didn't get to last time we were here.  At least that's the plan.  Later, David.

And the trees are puttin' out leaves...

After a couple of days of getting reintroduced to the visitor center, we're getting back into the swing of things.  The cash register software is new for this year and way easier to use.  Several forms that use to be hard-copy only are now online.  The interior lake's boat reservation process is also way easier, too.  And Donna got the privilege of filling out her background check.  Oh, what fun!

Only hiccup for this year is that some of the campsites are now, for the first time in the history of the park, reservation-only fee sites.  We're sure to have some interesting times with visitors over that.  That process isn't new to Donna & I as we've used it for years in Shenandoah Natl Park.  But when you go from free to fee, it gets interesting - especially when the national park is seen by some local individuals as an intrusion into the way things use to be.

And I can see their point.  It wasn't too bad to pick up a permit at the boat ramp, fill it out, leave a copy at the boat ramp & boat on out to pick up your favorite campsite that your family has camped at for years (think "family tradition") on a first-come, first served basis.  Now, if you want that campsite, you gotta go online, reserve it, and pay a nightly fee.  Since Voyageurs doesn't have an entrance fee, this is how you recover costs to maintain screen toilets, picnic tables, tent pads, boat docks, bear-proof food lockers, etc, at the campsites.  And given we survived the new boat reservation system two years ago, we'll probably survive this one, too.

The Coast Guard  had determined that Rainy Lake is now ice free and the navigation buoys are in place.  There's also more deer hanging around here this year (3) than we saw the last time we volunteered here (1).  And one of them looks pregnant.  They're skittish when we walk near them, but seem to be almost oblivious to motor vehicles.  And they blend in perfectly with the woods.  So we're becoming accustomed to looking intently around every curve when we're out on the roads.  The ticks are out, too.  So now we itch even when nothing is around.

It's getting warmer.  We're suppose to be in the 70s this weekend.  The birch trees leafed out on Tuesday.  You could really see the difference between our morning and evening walks on Tuesday.  Other trees are following suite. By this time next week, we'll barely be able to see our neighbor's trailer.

On a different note, we also got Ben, the park's electrician, to rewire our power pole to balance out the power a little better.  We still don't have the wattage to run everything as we'd like, but we can now turn off a few things & run the microwave/convection oven as Donna pleases.  And that's a big deal!  Our surge protector still drops us offline due to low voltage every now & then, but it's still not as bad as it was.  This has also pushed us to invest more heavily in LED bulbs.  We're changing the ones we use the most to LED.  Where we can, we're buying "warm white" LEDs to mimic the "color" of the original, non-LED bulbs.  The picture below has the warm white LED bulbs on the left and shows a good comparison to the "cool" white LED bulbs on the right.  If my math is correct, we'll drop about 5 amps off our power usage of lights each evening.  And given our current electrical power conditions, that can be the difference between dropping offline due to low voltage when you turn an appliance on or staying up on "shore" power.

So that's the highlights of our week.  Hope you're having a good time.  Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend!  Later, David

Back at Voyageurs Natl Park

We're back at Voyageurs Natl Park for another season working as volunteers in the Rainy Lake Visitors Center.   We were greeted with snow on this year's arrival.  Kinda nice...made it pretty.  But as this pictures shows, Voyageurs is a scenic location when the sun comes out.  Of course spring is a little late this year - just like a lot of other places.  Rainy Lake is still 75% full of ice.  So boating activities are getting a late start this year.

It's good to be back.  We've finished our first week of training and start working the Rainy Lake Visitor Center Sunday when it begins its summer season, seven days per week operations.  Unfortunately, they think we remember stuff and are getting us back working the visitor centers a little faster than they did two years, ago.  Staffing isn't as large as it was two years ago plus they've added more interpretative activities.  So next week we get to relieve the lone interpretative rangers at Kabetogama and Ash River for a lunch break while the remaining staff continues with training. At least it makes you feel good that they trust you.

Also new this year is there's a second couple volunteering for the season who will be responsible for the ethno-botanical garden at the Rainy Lake Visitor Center.  Randy & Shirley are from Florida and the cold weather is trying their patience.  However, their little rescue dog "Gizmo" is eating this place up and enjoying every minute of it.  And it's kinda weird to drive through the wilderness and find two large 5th wheel trailers in the middle of nowhere.

Oh, and our biggest surprise:  We're able to receive HD satellite TV amongst all these trees.  And based on the way the antenna is angled (and where our smart phone app says the satellites are located), we may be able to keep it when the leaves come out.  We'll see.  And we're getting about three to four bars, 4G cell phone service.  I know that may not impress you, but we are in the middle of nowhere. And all this while staring at a beautiful fir tree out the back window.

Anyway, that's it for this week.  Later, David

Duluth, MN

We've moved on up to Duluth, MN to await for the volunteer RV sites to open at Voyageurs.  After having the Pinnacle combo washer/dryer removed, we made overnight stops at North Utica, IL (Hickory Hollow RV Park), Oakdale, WI (KOA), Grand Casino RV Park at Hinckley, MN, and then to Ogston RV Park just north of Duluth.

Pictures are of the loons here on the ponds at the RV park, Goosebury Falls State Park on the north shore of Lake Superior just north of Two Harbors, and the ice on Lake Superior.  Since arriving, it's rained every day with severe thunderstorms on Wednesday & Thursday. Not great for outside activities, but you get things done.

Concerning the Pinnacle combo washer/dryer.  We're told that the damage was due to overloading.  Apparently, it can't handle 5 lbs of underwear, so we're leaving it back at Lagrange, IN and ordering a new Splendide 2100 XC.  We can't travel through this part of the country without something breaking.  This time, the locking mechanism for the pocket door broke, and it appears we've had one corner of the kitchen slide jump a tooth or two on the slide mechanism gearing.  Nothing like good ol' US interstates to create demand for repairs.  We're able to still lock the pocket door in place for the time being and added a shower curtain rod to prop against it to minimize movement while we travel.  No idea how to realign the slide as the alignment guides are already at their max limit of travel.  So that goes on the September work order. 

Anyway, it looks like a rainy day to travel to Rainy Lake on Friday.  Later, David

Shipshewana, IN

Our trailer service at Paul & Kay Cross's Indiana Interstate Enterprise is complete.  We've moved over to Shipshewana to await for better weather before moving on up to Voyageurs and to test out the Pinnacle washer/dryer combo.  We had one surprise as they found we'd cut one of the brake lines on the trailer.  That explains the poor trailer brake performance during a pull-test at Fredericksburg.  Anyway, it's all repaired now.   We've also gotten new shower fixture handles and a new hose for the shower head to replace the old rusty handles and the old, leaking hose.  We've also gotten cookies at Sturgis, MI and hot, soft pretzels here in Shipshewana.  Good food, but bad for diets!  Donna's hit the local knit shop, too.

Unfortunately, the Pinnacle test didn't take long.  The heating element quit working about 10 minutes into the first dry cycle.  We'll go back to Indiana Interstate Enterprise in the morning to have the Pinnacle unit removed.  After carrying the dead Splendid combo washer/dryer up here, we're not in the mood to continue to tote a 160 lbs of dead appliance around for the next 5 months.  Compared to the support we got from Splendide, the Pinnacle support just doesn't appear to be there.  The Pinnacle call center says they'll Google someone and have them meet us there to look at the unit when we get there. (You got it - Pinnacle is "Googling" for a repair facility to help us.  When our Splendide combo quit, Splendide gave us business names, people's names and phone numbers to call to help.  Pinnacle "Googles".)  Too bad there's no Splendide units available, or we'd have bought a new one in the first place.

Kay Cross has talked to the dealer who sold us the Pinnacle about taking it back or repairing it.  That dealer said to go through Pinnacle.  Maybe Pinnacle can just "Google" us a trash dump to leave the unit at tomorrow. We may get lucky and find that Paul has a tech that can fix it quickly.  Doubt it, though.

In other news, weather-wise we've been way more fortunate than most of the eastern half of the U.S.  Cloudy, windy, and showers has been our weather.  Looks like it'll break for the weekend.  We may continue on to Voyageurs tomorrow depending on what happens with the washer/dryer or just stay here one more day.  It all just depends.  We've got some slack in the schedule, but it's beginning to get low.

So that's our week.  Hope yours is going good.  Later, David