Day Five - What A Ride

After a somewhat slower start today, it feeling very good to be off the road for a day, I and another of our camping party decided to see if we could get in on the jet boat ride up Hell’s Canyon. John drove down to the marina where we found a gal signing people up and asked her if there was room for two more. We were walk-ons and there was room for us, so we paid the $111 and took our seats. I had read about Hell’s Canyon and the Snake River and the boat rides a long time ago but I never thought I’d have a chance to actually do it. Boy, was it worth it!

We took the half day cruise which included several stops and lunch. It left the dock at 10:00 in the morning and we pulled back into the dock at 5:00 in the afternoon. That’s a long half day.

The boat was being driven this day by the owner of the business, a gentleman of 64 who’s been on the river for many years. He gave us a narrated tour that included geology, history, natural history and personal anecdote. He used a sound system and was easy to hear. The boat itself was made of welded aluminum and was constructed locally by one of the ten shops that specialize in these boats. It had seating for 21, although we only had 17 on this cruise. Fully loaded it had a draft of 10”. It was powered by three engines, had three pumps and nozzles, and had 900 horsepower. What a hot rod.

                                                A Mule deer doe and fawn along the shore

                                                             A turkey at our lunch stop

We stopped at a camp leased by the excursion company for our lunch break. But camp doesn’t describe this place. It is a ranch with a house and barns that was taken over by the Forest Service and then leased on a long term basis. I has a full time staff that helps the cruise customers in the summer and the fishermen in the fall. It has an orchard with apples and apricots and a large stand of blackberry bushes. It has its’ own hydropower station and satellite internet. And it has its’ own herd of mule deer and flock of turkeys, which are plenty wild but somewhat approachable if you’re still.

                                                             A Rocky Mountain sheep

We saw unique basaltic volcanic formations. We saw animals:  deer, turkeys, osprey, and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. We saw boaters and fishermen and state wildlife researchers.

There are chinook salmon and steelhead trout in season and a land locked population of sturgeon. That’s what the researchers were studying. You can fish for sturgeon but it’s strictly catch and release.

We saw petroglyphs carved into the rock eons ago.

We went 59 miles upriver, which is to say south. The river starts out as a reservoir because the Snake River has multiple dams along its’ course for hydropower. As we left the flat water of the reservoir we encountered more and more rapids, some with long series of standing waves of about 4’. On the day of our trip, the Salmon River, which empties into the Snake, was flowing 9,000 gallons per minute (gpm) while the Snake River was flowing 30,000 gpm. The water level was relatively low for this time of the year, which brought several large rocks into our path. The captain skillfully steered the boat through the rapids and, while thrilling, it was never dangerous.

Just as it has been in camp and on the road, the temperature on the river was hot, around 100 degrees. We were given all the cold water and soda we could handle and urged to stay hydrated. The air off the canyon walls was blast furnace hot and we only occasionally got some cool. But, we had the opportunity to go swimming at least three times along the way in the 71 degree water.

By the end of the day we were tired out but carried away a memory that will last a lifetime.

I don't think the video loaded but I wanted to get this posted while I could. I'll keep trying with the video as time permits.

Day Four - Here Come the Hills

Too soon we had to leave and head back out into the heat. By this time we were learning a little more about how to rig the bus and had developed a way to open and hold several of the windows to admit at least some air. The ride was a little bit cooler and more comfortable for most of the day and the temps only hovered around 96. With the late start we had a shorter day which helped as well.

As we left the rolling farmland behind and appraoched the hills we drove the longest grade I've ever been on. It's called White Bird Hill and is the site of the massacre of the Nez Perce indians.

Along the way we stopped just north of the little town of Riggins at a country farm stand. The geography and climate of this region make it very suitable for fruit growers and I was surprised to see the availability of fresh apricots, peaches and cherries.

                                                            Stopped at the fruit stand

                                                            Along the Little Salmon River

                                                                    Another River View

We completed our run up to Lewiston and met a niece and her family camping at Hells’ Gate State Park just south of town. We had arranged reservations to visit with them and camped in the spot next to them for the night. It was a pull through site with water and electricity. While we have no AC in the bus to speak of, we do have a direct connection to the overhead air conditioner which we were able to plug into and get some help from the heat. The temperature in the campground was around 103 when we got there late in the afternoon.

                                       Our spot the first night at Hell's Gate State Park in Idaho

Unfortunately, the humidity is fairly high as well and we found that the air conditioner isn’t draining its’ condensate as well as it should. While much of it is running down the outside of the bus, an unacceptable amount is also being experienced inside. It is throwing water up and down the aisle which we attempt to control with a basin for the drips that fall straight down and towels for the rest. It also means that we just can’t have the ac running all the time. But the temperatures are still cooling down quite well at night so while the days are hot, the nights are quite tolerable, even comfortable.

Day Three - Hanging in There

                                                        The bus at a fuel stop on the way

We pulled away from the Ely airfield a little after 7:00am and continued Northbound on Route 93. This was the route that took us pretty much all the way across the state of Nevada. Now we’re trying to see what we can do to help with the heat. The windows have a clamp system that lets them open from the bottom and then swing out and up. They are only supposed to be opened in case of an emergency. We figured we qualified so we kept trying to figure out how to open them just enough to get some air but not enough to be dangerous. It worked, kind of. The temperature was just a little better, only getting to 106 this day.

We were heading for Lewiston, Idaho but we knew that would be a real stretch. We wound up stopping after about 400 miles in Weiser, Idaho. Our route north took us through Twin Falls, Idaho which gave us our first look at the Snake River. The river travels along the north edge of town and through a striking canyon. 

We stopped at the scenic overlook and took lots of pictures. Leaving Twin Falls, we then took a detour that followed the river for about ten miles and enjoyed the peaceful views. We missed our turn back onto the interstate which gave us an excuse to go into a tiny town and turn around at a country store which happened to sell Tillamook Ice Cream. Our flavor of choice was vanilla with raspberry. Absolutely delicious!

                                                         Our parking spot in the barnyard

We pressed on through the heat and finally found our stop for the night. Once again, John had come through with a contact from his bluegrass music community and we were invited to spend the night at the farm of a family he had met. We had a lovely barbeque dinner on their patio with a view of ripening corn and fields of grain. We parked in their barnyard next to a pen with sheep and another with dogs. But there was no smell and it was very peaceful. One of the high points, after the wonderful hospitality, was that fact that they had a guest room set up above their garage with air conditioning, a full bath with shower and a couch I was able to crash on for the night.

                                                              Our neighbor for the night

                                                  The chicken coop and an old Chevy truck

                                                                          An old barn

                                              The view of the back yard out the kitchen door

The next morning John cooked breakfast for us all in their wonderful country kitchen. Sausage and gravy over homemade biscuits, scrambled home grown eggs, sausage patties and plenty of hot coffee. Friends had been invited over as well and the gathering looked and acted like a family reunion. What a great time!

Day Two - Off to a Rocky Start

After an early start we got onto Interstate 40 West at Ash Fork. Things were going pretty well but a vibration led us to pull into a tire shop at a Loves just short of Kingman, AZ. We had the front tires balanced and the air corrected all around. We found a right front tire that is out of round. So much so that it would take more than the allowed amount of weight to correct it. Well, they mounted 22 oz. and we were off. But not for long.

 Just ten minutes later we pulled into a WalMart in Kingman to fix lunch and make repairs. We wound up getting a bunch of kitchen stuff. But the big delay was trying to get the kitchen cabinet to lock the drawers. I don’t know if we sustained damage at the unloading or if the vibration of over the road travel was just too much for the locking mechanism. At any rate, we wound up spending four hours in the parking lot. The temperature was hovering about the 100 mark inside the bus. We found out that the engine powered AC unit does not work at all.

One of the differences between a bus and a motor home is that a bus is meant to have self-contained climate control. All of the comfort function is provided by the engine powered AC unit or the onboard Webasto heater. There is no other system for air intake or venting. The windows are supposed to be opened only in an emergency as an escape hatch. There are no powered intake/exhaust vents as there are in a motorhome. We have a 13,500 btu Coleman air conditioner recently installed in the roof but a motorhome this size would normally have two 15,000 btu units. And we have no ready generator to fire up to power the ac, only a portable Honda generator, which, while a very good piece of equipment, is really only useful if we are set up in camp.

So, the bus got hot. We got hot and it was about to get worse. We left the parking lot and headed North toward Las Vegas. The temps kept slowly climbing and by the time we made Tinsel Town it was 114. Inside and out. With no air. We had ice in the freezer so we kept handing out ice water. There’s nothing to do but keep going and hang in there and hope for better temps as we get further North. But the temperature just refused to back off and we just sweltered. The dogs were really suffering and the old folks weren’t much better. We kept going and going and going and finally would up in Ely, Nevada, about 450 miles later. That’s a long day in the heat considering that we really didn’t get started on the day until about noon.

We weren’t the only ones to get hot. Somewhere North of Vegas, the engine and transmission decided getting up the hill in 5^th gear was more than they wanted to do and went on strike. All power in the bus quit and we slowly coasted to a stop. It’s 114, we are in the middle of nowhere, looking at hours of down time for a repair. Dark clouds of doom are following us. But, after a short rest, the engine cranked right up and into gear and away we go. It hasn’t burped since but it rides in the back of our mind.

We did manage a rest stop at a pleasant roadside. We sat and had more drinks and let the dogs romp but it was still over 100 in the shade.

                                                                        Our rest stop

But now the good news.

Our fearless leader, John, is a private pilot and he landed us at the Ely airport, a private facility on the North edge of town. After explaining who he was and our need, he secured permission to park in the lot for the night. What’s so great about that you say? Well, one of the courtesies extended to visiting pilots is the use of the hanger facilities, which included a full kitchen and wonderful bathroom facilities complete with showers. So we jumped into the shower (in turn) and cleaned up and cooled down and relaxed. To top that off, we had brought a couple dozen ears of fresh sweet corn from a farm in Camp Verde and John used the kitchen to cook them for us and the other folks sharing the facilities. And it was just scrumptious, the best I’ve had in a long time. I even managed to down one of the beers I had brought along. The fridge, like most RV fridges, had struggled with the high temps but recovered overnight. 

                                       The sunset view over the runway from the bus that night

The nice thing about the dry desert is that is really cools off at night. By the time we awoke in the morning it was in the high 50’s and everybody was in good shape and ready to go.

A word about the Ely, Nevada airport. It turns out that this little airport is situated in a long valley surrounded on both sides by really good sized hills. The particular geography makes this one of the premier soaring destinations in the world. There were pilot visiting there from around the world, including Poland, Germany and New Zealand. Most had self-powered gliders and had towed them in special trailers to the field. They were there for a week or a month and lived on site in motorhomes. One also had a Gold Wing motorcycle that he carried on a lift on the back of his motorhome. And they were the nicest people you could hope to meet.

We're Off - Almost

{First off, let apologize to everyone who has been waiting for new postings to the blog. Between the travails of the trip and the geography we have passed through, today, day seven of our trip is the first opportunity that I've had to have both power and connectivity in the same spot. We went straight north out of Las Vegas where there is just nothing for cell coverage. Then when we got out of Nevada, we were traveling in deep valleys or were camped far from towns and had no coverage there either. I expect that this will continue and I'll post at every opportunity. It's been much tougher than I had hoped.}

We had been warned to be ready to go this Saturday so we were packed and ready at 8:30 in the morning. We took our stuff down to the bus and got it all loaded but the bus detailing was still in progress so we came back home. Went back down at 1:00 and it was the same story. Went back home and watched a shower blow through with the beautiful rainbow seen above. Then we went back down at 9:00 and we finally left at 10:30 pm. So, we have committed to the trip and everybody has gotten their stuff together and loaded. This is not only the start of the trip, it is also the shakedown cruise for the up-fit. Things might happen. And they did. With the first good right turn, the kitchen cabinet (aka tool roll-around) was unlocked and decided to unload its’ contents all over the floor. We continued unabated while some of the passengers cleaned up the spill. No real damage but what racket when it let go.

We start off and get out of town before anybody can change their mind. I think that was the logic behind leaving no matter what because we only drove about 50 miles and pulled into a parking area just short of Ash Fork to spend the night. Everybody was pretty keyed up but we finally got to sleep. We were up at 5:30 and pushed off a little while after.

                                                         Our parking spot the first night.

A Side Project

I try to do little side projects to help earn my keep here while we wait for the bus conversion to conclude. When I first got here, I reinstalled the pump timer that I had first put in two years ago. The well pump had been replaced and the timer never hooked back up so I rewired the pump circuit to put the timer back to use. Otherwise someone had to go out to the pumphouse and turn on the water on and off twice a day. It's easy to forget the times involved and the timer takes the guesswork out of it.

After I had built the solar array for the bus, I had one solar panel left over. I proposed that it could be used to power a ventilation fan for the tack shed. Everybody liked the idea so hunted about for a suitable fan. I looked in the local flea market on Saturday but they didn't have a single fan, much less one I could use. I wound up going to AutoZone and buying an electric radiator fan. It fit perfectly for the space I had to work with so I cut a hole in the roof of the storage container and mounted the fan.

 Some time ago, a roof ventilator had been found on the side of the road, brand new in the box. It's one of those roundish whirly things that vents by the action of the breeze. I mounted that on the outside of the hole in the roof. That way any breeze would act to vent the enclosure when the sun wasn't out.

I mounted the solar panel on its old frame and mounted it on the roof, running the wiring through an existing hole in the side of the container. The output from a single panel is close enough to the power requirements of the fan that I didn't need to add a controller to the circuit. It works like a charm and significantly reduces the temperature inside the container. There's an inlet hole in the side of the container that is always in the shade to draw in cooler air.

I went down to the bus last night to start the wiring. I had gone into town earlier in the day and gotten the batteries and other bits that I would need. For batteries I went to BatteriesPlus and got two Trojan 6 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries. They will be wired in series to get 12 volts and will be charged by both the solar panels and the engine alternator when we're under way. The alternator is a 265 amp oil cooled model. It looks as big as a five horse motor.

I managed to get the refrigerator all wired and we tested the electrical parts of it to make sure that was good. I also wired up a couple of fused distribution panels and a charging center for each end of the living space. They each have cigarette lighter sockets and USB ports so that we can power and charge our laptops and phones on the trip. I still have to install the batteries and the isolation solenoid and mount and connect the solar parts, both panels and controller.

Most of the windows have curtains now. The bunks are about done and a stove has been found. Work on plumbing, both gas and water is continuing. I'll do more wiring when the plumbing gets a little more wrapped up. We're doing womething different for hot water. We have an on-demand, propane fired water heater that is portable and will be deployed when hot water is desired. It will be stored in a lower bay while under way and then retrieved and hung on the outside of the bus and plumbed into the water circuit when we want to shower. Otherwise, only cold water will be supplied to each of the faucets. It's certainly a different approach and if it doesn't work as planned, we will have enough plumbing supplies along to make changes on the road.

Moving Day

 These are the two horses we moved today. Cisco is on the left and Tess is on the right. Cisco is an old cow horse who is living out his retirement here in the pasture. Tess is a younger horse acquired a few years ago to ride. Both horses are effectively pasture ornaments.

The horses are well fed and have spacious areas in which to roam. They each have separate pastures. But horses are a lot like other pets. They need constant contact and handling to keep them tame and easily handled. These horses suffer from a lack of handling. Being left alone most of the time they are fairly wild and Tess is especially skittish. Three of us spent over half an hour trying to catch Cisco in his pasture this morning. We finally lured him with some feed and got a halter on him. Tess was easy to halter but absolutely refused to enter the trailer. We all worked for over two hours to get her into the trailer. Finally, what worked was to back the trailer into a slope and empty two tractor bucketsful of dirt onto the trailer floor so it looked like the ground went right into the trailer. Even then we had to box her in with gates on one side and the tractor on the other. It took lots of kind words and urging to get ther to finally move into the trailer. You just don't force a half ton of horse to do anything. And if she got too wild, we wouldn't even have been able to hang on to her. So we proceded to be as patient as we could muster and as creative as it took. It only took five minutes to unload them and they both looked visisbly relieved. Here is Tess in her new quarters in the shadow of the San Francisco peaks North of Flagstaff.

While we were trying to figure out how to get Tess loaded, this guy crawled out of the pasture.

It was four foot Bullsnake, a non-poisonous snake common to the area. In fact all the snakes I've seen out here have been Bullsnakes. I have yet to see a rattler. The cat wasn't too sure of what to do.

After we delivered the horses, we met a bunch of family in downtown Flagstaff for lunch. We went to a diner called the Galaxy. It's right on the old main route through town which also happens to be Route 66. They play up the old time connection to the hilt and have the walls covered with pictures of movie stars, most from quite a long time ago. The had great food and a huge menu and great service as well. Certainly a place not to miss when traveling through.

The horse delivery took up most of the day so that meant I didn't get any time in wiring on the bus. That's on the list for tomorrow. I saw the main sink being plumbed in today and the new wheel seal is done.