Friday, June 8, 2012

Day 23 – June 8, 2012 – Idaho Panhandle

 

We are now pretty much settled in for our summer stay in the Panhandle of northern Idaho. We are about 35 miles south of both Coeur d’Alene ID and Spokane WA. The owners of the RV Park are very friendly as well as our fellow RV residents. We have been kept busy with the many activities here such as dinners fixed by the park owners, movie nights, a dance, pot luck dinners, Friday night cocktail parties, etc.

This is our first extended stay in one place with the motorhome so it has taken us a while to learn how to arrange things in the coach to be more convenient and comfortable. In our usual mode of living in the coach, we kept everything in place for travel, so as to minimize the time it took to get back on the road.

At the end of last year’s trip we had to replace the washer / dryer. We only ran it once to test the new replacement and it wasn’t used again until we arrived here. During the first use here we discovered a problem; it was using a whole lot of water. At first I thought the problem was caused by the fresh water pump. A day was spent adjusting the water pump. That solved the shower hot / cold fluctuations but the washer problem remained. Well as the old saving goes; “When all else fails, read the manual.” The manual described the exact problem! The drain hose was installed too far into the drain pipe and was siphoning the water out of the washer. I re-installed the drain hose to specifications, problem solved. Now I do need to fess up. I helped installed the washer and it was I who put the drain hose far into the drain pipe to make sure that it would not slip out of the drain pipe while bouncing down the road.

Mik has fallen in love with this location as there are quite a few ground squirrels here. We were walking a couple of days ago and there was a group of four squirrels playing together. As we approached, one sounded the alert and the group scattered. In the confusion, one squirrel ran right into Mik. Mik caught it in his paws twice and then it escaped. He now is quite confident in his ground squirrel hunting and wants to spend the day outside trying to catch another one. It has become difficult to get him to come inside.

For those of you that followed our past summer trips, you will remember how the rain and cool days followed us all summer long. Remember the magic day highs of 52 degrees F? Well so far this summer is no exception. It has been raining just about every day since our arrival and the day’s highs are in the low fifties and nights are in the low forties with a couple in the mid-thirties.

We are insured by the local residents that May through mid-June is the rainy season here and that the weather will become real nice. They are not aware of our pass reputation of the rain following us along with the cool days and cold nights.

There are many historical towns and sites nearby. When the weather clears, we plan to do day trips in the Hummer and post pictures and video on the blog. In the meantime, we will continue our indoor pool and gym exercises.