Back to Normal Weather

As the title says, we're back to what we call normal weather.  With that said, we've gotten out more and started hiking & walking some of Grand Teton.  First trip out was a planned walk around Two Ocean Lake.  Unfortunately,  Two Ocean Drive was closed.  Guess the bugs weren't bad enough to open the road to the public, yet.  One ranger told us the road would be open when the weather improved.  Some people opinioned that it was closed due to bear activity.  Whatever.  The result is the bugs will be bad when the road opens.

On a whim, we decided to take a dirt road/forest road just north of Jackson Lake Lodge that - through Google Earth - looked like there might be a parking area near Two Ocean Trail.  Turns out this was a jackpot find.  Without any signage, we found a nice parking lot that's very active.  A lot of people know about this parking lot.  It gets you close to Emma Matilda Lake Trail and Grand View Trailhead. 

The Grand View Trail is rated hard by AllTrails app.  We decided to go as far as we dared and ended up having a nice hike uphill for a long while before reaching the Grand View Point.  Best part - return trip is all down hill!  Top photo is one of the many views you get as you approach Grand View Point.  We came across the black bear on the way down.

We took a day off for local shopping in Jackson.  The next outing was a walk along String Lake trail.  We walked up to Leigh Lake and returned.  Decided to try to make it to Jenny Lake, but turned around at one of the snow banks that we just weren't comfortable trying to cross.

That finished our days off for this week and we were back playing tour guide at the hatchery.  Eggs arrived Wednesday - all 210,000 of them.  Not that many by large hatchery standards, but it's a lot for the Jackson hatchery.  This picture to the right shows them sitting in about an inch of  50 degree (F) water.  Roughly 5,500 eggs per tray.  Sack fry are expected to start showing themselves over the weekend.

This picture to the right is Donna giving a talk to a local class of 4th graders.  I think they're reciting a poem they've just learned.  Donna's "salute" is her covering her eyes from the sun. 

So that's it for this week.  We're still doing well.  We're either in better shape than last year or we've learned to pace ourselves.  Most likely we've learned to pace ourselves.

Oh, just a side note:  Donna got a pic of Bear 399 on Sunday.  As soon as we get it moved to a drive I can reach, we'll post it on the blog.

Thanks for dropping in and checking up on us.  Until next week, David 

Weekly Update

Our first week back at the hatchery is history, and we've experienced a little weather that's unusual for us.  We also visited Schwabacker's Landing - known for it's beaver dams - on Tuesday.

We're basically stuck in a weather rut where the highs are in the 40s and the lows are at or below freezing.  Being high elevation and vulnerable to the Wyoming winds, the weather can seem extreme if you're not use to it.  For example, after eating lunch at Signal

Mountain Lodge Monday, we experienced rain, sleet, snow and sunshine - all within an hour of us finishing our lunch.  Kinda unusual for us!

We're staying warm, though.  The hatchery remains busy as it prepares for it's next 200,000 fish eggs to arrive.  We get a few visitors from time to time.  Suppose to have a couple of tours drop by tomorrow (Friday).  The summer parking lot isn't open, yet.  The cooler

weather makes walking from it to the hatchery a little uncomfortable for visitors, so the hatchery is allowing people to continue to park next to the hatchery.  I think the plan is to continue to do this through the Memorial Holiday.

Otherwise, we're doing fine.  We fell into our routine rather quickly which

was somewhat surprising to us.  Within a few days, it was almost like we hadn't left. 

Anyway, that's the week we've had.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Until next week, David



Pictures:

Top - a view of the snow that fell early Monday morning.

2nd from top - a warbler drops by

Middle - a Golden-eye at Schwabacker's Landing

Last two - views of the Tetons from Schwabacker's Landing Trail.

Back at the hatchery

We finally made it!  There's was a point when it didn't seem we would, though.  Got in yesterday.  Not raining, so backing the trailer into our spot didn't take nearly as long as last year.

We had a not-so-eventful trip out.  We ended up only having to fully reinstall two of the MCD shades.  They're too heavy and if Paul & Kay don't have a way to reinforce the fasteners for the

MCD brackets, we'll have to go back to the original type shades.

We also had one of the hot water fittings to the washer came apart while we were in Cabela's campground.  This always results in a good "washout" of the storage area and one of our storage bins.   That's where this one fitting drains when it comes apart.  Donna put the 

fitting back together.  We had the RV tech from Albany RV come out and put a new fitting in while we were in Laramie.  All seems to be working fine.  It'll break again in a few years, but we learned how to get more slack in the lines so it's easier to work on next time.  Wish we'd known this three years ago!

Today was official check in, fill out the 

volunteer forms, pick out the uniform shirts, sweater, and wind breaker day.  We also put the volunteers' names on the mailbox and updated the site number labeling so delivery people will know what box goes to which RV when making their deliveries.

Once that was over, we headed out to Signal Mountain Lodge for lunch.  Wanted to ensure the Tetons were still

there.  Significantly more snow than when we arrived last year.  Rivers and streams are high, but not overflowing like last year.  There's still snow on top of the Wind River and Gros Ventre ranges, too.  There's still snow on the ground in parts of the "hole", as well.  And, new for this year, Jenny Lake Visitor Center area construction is finished.  We didn't stop and visit, but it looks great from the outside as we drove through the parking lot.  And still not enough parking!

So that gets you up to date.  We start work Saturday.  We'll be here until September 9th or 10th unless we really upset the hatchery staff.  There's no plan to do that!

Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  As the blog no longer supports location links, I'll post that and titles of the pictures after I sign off.  Until next week, David 

Location:  Jackson National Fish Hatchery, Jackson, WY

Top photo:  our view south across the Natl Elk Refuge toward Jackson, WY

Second photo from top:  the hatchery as seen from our site

Third photo from top:  Sleeping Indian Pond

Fourth photo from top:  our site

Next to last photo:  Grand Tetons as seen from the south entrance of the park

Last photo:  that's Cascade Canyon on the other side Jenny Lake 

Curt Gowdy State Park, WY

We stopped for a couple of nights in Laramie, WY to visit the Snowy Range, but the byway is closed.  With the byway closed, we rode over to visit Curt Gowdy State Park.  We'd learned of this park back in the summer of 2009, but had yet to visit it.  (Remember, our trailer hates I-80. We don't travel this way unless the perceived advantages of traveling I-80 out weight the destruction I-80 does to our trailer.) This park is located midway between Cheyenne and Laramie, WY on Wyoming State Route 210.  The visitor center is new, and it appears that there's new (or at least renovated) campsites in some of the loops (some sites with concrete pads for the picnic tables).

What we didn't know until we got here is that this park is a mountain biker's paradise.  Trails are rated from novice to advance/expert.  There are several cutoffs from the main trails where the bikers can go "play" in rougher terrain.  And what's not to love about trails named "Igneoramus" (and that is how it's spelled on the trail sign) or "Pinball"?  There's a handicapped accessible, paved trail at the visitor center, too.

We chose to hike the Stone Temple Circuit which takes you through many of the parks more picturesque rock formations, Ponderosa pines and a variant of Aspen trees that were just beginning to bloom.  It's a mid-range hike of about 4+ miles.  We were passed by or met numerous mountain bikers - some with dogs running with them.  I think the dogs were having more fun than the bikers!  We quickly found that we're not in shape for these high elevation hikes - no surprise there.  We enjoyed our hike though and will be back.

We posted several pictures of the visitor center and our hike.  If you have the time, take a look at them.  We hope you enjoy them!  David

At Kearney, NE

Near Amana Colonies, IA.  No corn, yet.

Well, a week has passed and a lot has happened.  Indiana Interstate Enterprises took the trailer in last Thursday morning.  We got it back Saturday.  They'd done a ton of work and finally fixed a complaint I'd had with the bedroom slide since we bought the trailer in December 2010.  One of the many problems with the RV industry is it's ability for manufacturers to admit something isn't right.  After years of complaining about the flex of the trailer and how it affects the bedroom slide as it rides down the road, Paul notice my complaint.  He fixed the pan that holds the bedroom slide once it's slid in the trailer.  That pan was supposed to be installed with 16 screws.  Paul found only three had been used.  There's no evidence of screw holes for the other 13.  It's now installed correctly, and we're no longer twisting & breaking corner trim pieces on the bedroom's slide exterior as we travel down the road. 

Back to the story: we loaded up with groceries on Saturday and headed west along I-80 Sunday morning.  Before I go on, let me remind you:  Our trailer and I-80 have a mutual hate for each other.  We have broken more stuff on the trailer, lost more wheel center caps on our trailer wheels, lost more trim screws, broken more latches, etc on I-80 than any other interstate.  Sunday proved this mutual hate is alive and well.  Yeah, we lost another center wheel cap - no biggie as it's the first one we've lost in years.  However, this time I-80 is demonstrating that not all upgrades to the trailer really work as planned.  Our upgrade to MCD shades last September has proven to be a bad decision.  The shades are too heavy for the wood window trim to hold.  The installation screws just can't hold the shades' weight.  We're basically bouncing them off the windows as we travel down the road.  We're now afraid to touch them when we stop for the night. And given our window valances are almost permanently installed, these shades are not the easiest to reinstall when they do fall.  Plus the screws stripping out is destroying the wood trim on the inside of the windows.  Looks like we get to go back to the old style shades this September.

Moving on:  Stops this week were at Geneseo, IL; Newton, IA, and Greenwood, NE where we stopped for two nights to allow a cold front and severe weather to pass before continuing west.  Tonight we're in Kearney, NE (about halfway across Nebraska).  Since it's a cold front that pass, we're experience colder weather - freeze warnings.  Climbing in elevation isn't helping in that department.  We're at 2,200 ft tonight.  Weather channel app indicated highs near 70 when we get to Jackson, WY next week.  Plenty of time for that change, unfortunately.

Upcoming stops are Sidney, NE (Cabela's); Laramie, WY (another planned multi-night stop with freeze warnings); Rock Springs, WY, and finally our goal - Jackson, WY.  If we get lucky, maybe the window wood trim will last, and we may get quicker at reinstalling the MCD shades as we go along.  One can dream, ya know!

Thanks for stopping by and checking up on us.  We plan to be at the hatchery this time next week. David

Back in Lagrange, IN

Essenhaus, Middlebury, IN

Riverwalk, Elkhart, IN

Long read - just documenting what happened.  Read at your own risk...

We got out of Luray, VA last week just fine.  Nothing after that went as planned.  Hence, that's why we tell you, "That's the plan...until it changes"

We arrived at Bedford, PA Wednesday of last week at about 12:30 PM and got the trailer off the truck.  At that moment, we had a complete hydraulic failure on the trailer.  Third time in 10 years when you count both 5th wheel trailers that we have owned.  Lucky for us, only the front legs were extended.  Most trailers have a backup where you take a drill and turn the hydraulic pump to move things.  It's painfully slow and can take several hours to pull everything in/up as necessary for safe travel.  In our case it took about an hour and three people to move two legs:  One to run the drill turning the pump, one to hold the button on the controller to open the solenoid so things can move in the preferred direction, and one (in this case, Bob from the campground's maintenance staff) to confirm things are moving in the desired direction.  We put the trailer back on the truck and had everything stowed for travel about 3 PM.  We decided to take the trailer all the way to Howe, IN where there's a hotel with a parking lot where we can park the rig and spend the night.  We arrived about 11:30 PM Wednesday night.  We'd made phone calls along the way trying to get appointments rearranged and moved up to see if we could get the hydraulics repaired first.

Now, with our current trailer's layout, when everything thing is stowed and slides are in, you can't reach anything.  Only one door of the fridge can be opened, no clothes, no access to the bathroom & toiletries...you get the idea.  We took the hotel's complimentary razor, shaving cream, toothbrushes and tooth paste, turned the trailer's refrigerator off, and called it a "morning" about 1 AM (Thursday).  After a few hours sleep, we found that there were no rental cars to be had until that afternoon, and Lippert notified us that they couldn't help us until our planned appointment on May 1st - a week away.  Indiana Interstate Enterprises (from here on called "Paul & Kay's) couldn't help as they couldn't work on the trailer until the hydraulics were repaired (though they helped immensely as you'll read below).  We decided to run the generator some to try to save the frozen food in the freezer and begin to see what food could be saved from the fridge area via the one door we could open.

Once we got the Samsung refrigerator to turn on (Samsungs are notorious for being hard to restart after several hours of begin off), we found that the fridge area had only dropped to 42 F and the freezer was at 31 F.   Having lots of experience with taking the fridge apart several times last year to defrost it until we could get it repaired, that experience came back to pay dividends.  With one door fully open and the other door opened maybe open an inch, we took the interior apart which allowed Donna to removed all the food.   Donna was able to save enough food from the trailer's fridge to fill our little fridge in the hotel room.  She also crawled around in the back of the trailer where she could and grabbed a few creature-comfort things she could reached.

After that, Donna decided to make a reservation for a rental car, and that worked to our advantaged.  By a little after noon, we had our choice of four cars to choose from.  A trip down to Paul & Kay's to vent our frustrations and make a plan and set priorities of what to repair on the trailer when they got it.  (Keep in mind: we're missing our planned appointment there, and they are booked with future appointments - what work gets done depends on when they can fit us in vs. when we have to leave for Wyoming.)  As we went through the repair work to be done after the hydraulics are repaired, they told us they had a spot where we could park the truck & trailer, not block anything and plug into power so that we wouldn't lose the frozen food.   Now things are really improving!  After moving the trailer down to Paul & Kay's shop, we were off to Walmart for  laundry supplies, toiletries and wardrobe to get us by until the hydraulics are fixed.  And that's how we rolled until 4:40 AM Wednesday morning when the alarm clock went off and our day to have the hydraulics repaired at Lippert in Goshen, IN began.  (OK, we did make a couple of trips back to the trailer from time-to-time and took a bunch of things from the pantry.)

Work at Lippert could not have gone better (notwithstanding a low tire pressure reading on one of the truck tires).  Made two new friends.  By 4 PM all hydraulics were repaired (new pump, electric motor, wiring harness and touch pad controller), we could move everything as needed.  We planned some additional work for Lippert to do when we're in the area in September, and headed to one of the campgrounds in Shipshewana to sanitize the holding tanks so we can have them worked on at Paul & Kay's shop.  We're back at Paul & Kay's by 6:30 PM and plugged into a 15 Amp extension cord Paul & Kay have left out a door for us to plug into to keep the fridge running.  Things are looking great and we're emptying out the storage area to make it easier for Paul to work on the trailer's electronics until I notice the inverter is still carrying the fridge. It's that stinky piece of "ground fault" &*%$#$%^&&*()(*^^% **&%$.   REALLY???  WHY????  WHY NOW????

Four resets of power to the trailer didn't solve anything.  I remember that Paul had told us it could be the transfer switch.  I took a rubber mallet and tapped (Yes, I tapped.  Yes, I wanted to take a sledge hammer to it and boy did I want to take a sledge hammer to it, but I really did tap - ask Donna) and we had good shore power for the fridge when we tried another power reset.  We'd save frozen food for one more day!  This morning they moved the trailer into a bay to start repairing what they could.

(Trivia question:  Now that the hydraulics work and we can open all the slides, what do you think we got out of the trailer?  A second pair of shoes for me.  We've gotten so use to our emergency wardrobe from Walmart, that we decided to just keep wearing it.)

Things are going well.  We got the truck tire repaired this afternoon.  Take a guess which wheel?  Go on, guess!  Passenger side, inner rear dual wheel.  It's always the passenger side, inner rear dual wheel.  We had one nail go into one tire on our F450 the whole time we owned it.  Which tire?  Passenger side, inner rear dual wheel.  Had a low tire reading on the new truck two years ago which happened the first time we experienced that stupid *^%$%^##*&% "ground fault" gremlin.  Which tire?  Passenger side, rear inner dual wheel.  It's always the passenger side, inner rear dual wheel.  ALWAYS!

Movin' on: Truck goes in for service tomorrow as we now have unplanned time to do that.  If we're lucky, it'll stop raining/snowing, and we'll have good weather for the weekend.  We don't bother Paul & Kay.  We need to leave by May 9th to make our May 15th arrival date in Jackson, WY.  There is no plan - just a "it'd be nice if..."

Thanks for dropping by and reading about our adventures!  Until next week, David