Heading out in July 09

Well we are finally back on the road. Our departure was later than I anticipated due to doctor’s appointments and prescriptions but we headed east about 2PM. It was an uneventful trip over Santiam Pass and thru Bend. We stopped at the rest area in Brothers to take a break and feed the “girls”. While we were parked I walked around the truck checking things out and noticed some fresh oil spots first on the steps and then, upon further searching, elsewhere. I looked under the truck and noticed some drips there too. Not a good sign. I had just had the transmission flushed and synthetic ATF added. It was not necessarily a good idea. Synthetics are slicker true, but they are also thinner so they will leak out where conventional products won’t. Anyway, I didn’t know what exactly the problem was but I knew that I needed to get it looked at. Since we were heading for a visit to Malheur on our way east, and I am familiar with Burns I decided that we would stay an extra day and get it checked at Burns Ford Garage. The bottom line is it was a $7.95 front transmission seal and $400 later it was fixed. I’m not excited about having to fix it but glad it failed in a place we know.

Speaking of being in a familiar place, that is what the Malheur area is. We were saying to each other as we drove down Hwy 205 south from Burns, “this is like coming home”. We pulled in to one of the spots at the headquarters that is reserved for volunteers and as we stepped out of the truck, we remembered one of our LEAST favorite parts of the refuge, MOSQUITOES! They are awful this time of year and don’t diminish until after the first cold nights which is late August. So there were hundreds of the pesky devils to greet us as we got the trailer set up. When we got into the trailer for the night, we spent over an hour killing over 50 mosquitoes that had sneaked into the trailer. They are even bad in town this year. While I was sitting in the Ford dealer, I was talking with a local who said that he had chickens and they took care of the mosquitoes in his yard. Chickens can be a pain the in neck but after another night at Malheur, I was wondering where I could buy some.

While the truck was being worked on, I rented a car and went back to the refuge to pick R and we drove around visiting several people we had met during last year. It was a lot of fun.

Leaving Burns we headed east on 20 to the Idaho border where we drove north on Hwy 95. Just north of Council, Id we turned west and met our friend Bob who led us up into the mountains several miles. We pulled our trailer into a Forest Service Campground called Cold Springs. Its currently being upgraded with a new gravel road and parking spots and new tables. No hook-ups but very nice and quiet. Bob and his wife are spending the summer parked along a lake not far from there. They also have not hook-ups, but you wouldn’t know it. They have solar panels and a generator so they pretty much have everything they need. They have coffee in the morning cooked by their electric coffee maker. They watch a little TV at night if they want. And they have this magnificent view from their lawn chairs every day. Not a bad way to spend the summer.

This morning we left the campsite, drove back down the 4 miles of gravel to Hwy 95 and turned north. At New Meadows we took Hwy 55 up to McCall, Id. It is a very hip town on the banks of Payette Lake. We continued down 55 to Boise and I-84. Two hundred plus miles later we turned south on Hwy 30 at Pocatello and we are still on it ( or right next to it tonight) . We are parked in a less than ordinary RV park in Monticello, Id which is in the extreme southeast corner. This is hay country. Tall green grass-like fields stretch for miles and miles in all directions in this broad valley.

Tomorrow our destination is SW Wyoming, namely Kemmerer, WY (home of the first JC Penney), Fossil Butte NM, maybe Flaming Gorge, and a wildlife refuge that I saw on the map. We are checking out future spots to volunteer, so we will be looking for interesting places that we can use our interpretive skills.

I’ll let you know how it goes.