Day 2 and 3 Through Oregon to Nevada

Day 2

Yesterday Art had noticed that the indicator light the showed when the brakes on the Jeep had been applied was not working. The fault was in a loose connector at the motorhome. While Gillian was off seeing to the sim cards he attacked same with the crimp tool and a little pressure had the connecting wire from the Jeep staying put.

After all the running around and fixing was done we finally got under way at 12:35. The weather looked good for the Oregon route so at Salem we turned east.

At 2:20 we pulled off the highway alongside a small fast flowing stream for lunch. Here Gillian noticed a small bird perched on a rock amongst the rapids. Suddenly it dove into the water and
disappeared! It stayed down for a surprising amount of time before darting out of the water and back onto the rock. It did this several times, sometimes emerging onto a different rock several feet away.

We got the camera out and focused but now of course all it did was stand there and preen it's feathers. It must have been pretty wet because it went on for a long time. Then it just stood there while we took pictures. We finally gave up, put the camera away and returned to the road.

Anyone know what kind of bird this is?

In the town of Bend, we had planned to stay in the Walmart but there were very prominent signs saying No RVs and NO OVERNIGHT CAMPING though there were several rigs there. Gillian checked with a customer service staff and was told that they couldn't tell us it was OK because there was a city by-law against it. If someone came and told us to move we would have to move. Since the flattest area was right by the street where we would be very noticeable,  not wanting to be awakened we moved on to the Sandia RV park just a few minutes away, where we arrived at 5:30.

We did plug into the power since we were paying anyway but didn't bother with the water or sewer as the holding tanks were in good shape. The park was not one of the nicest by any means. The pads were asphalt, narrow, cramped and not level. $38.00 for a place to park for the night whether we need services or not. We won't be stopping in Bend again.

Not wanting to leave thing on a flat note, I'll continue on with Day Three!

Day 3

Leaving the RV Park at 10:00 AM Art made a wrong turn so we made a small detour through town. Another beautiful day, a very pleasant drive. A bit after noon we pulled into a Rest Area to give Tia a break and Art reset the ham radio frequency and APRS path for the International Space Station, hoping to report our position that way.

For the Geeks and other interested parties: APRS (Amateur Position Reporting System) takes the data from a GPS and send via ham radio digital repeaters to an igate where it is uploaded to the internet. The International Space Station has such a ham radio digital repeater and it is possible to connect through it when the space station goes by withing range.The position can be seen on Google maps either on a map view or satellite view and you can zoom in or out.

To see all the amateur radio stations heard by the ISS both on a list and on a world map go to http:/ariss.net

To see where we last reported from, either via the ISS or directly via ground based repeaters go to   map.findu.com/va7rv-12

Note: Since where we are (and often elsewhere) the internet is very slow and unreliable, I'll be writing in Open Office and posting where we can. Meanwhile, I'll add a few points as to were we are.Or rather were, at the time.

APRS as mentioned above has been working very well with lots of relays from the Space Station. Even through the wet trees and rain! Yes, rain.

We began to run into bits of rain in Oregon but it was still a pleasant and comfortable drive. This high plains type of country in this southeast Oregon is not what the average tourist thinks of when you say Oregon.

And the windshield wipers were doing something strange. Art had noticed a short time ago that the wipers weren't "parking" where they should, right up near the mid windshield divider, but were almost a foot away. Getting a little concerned.

We stopped for fuel in Hines, near Burns, the fuel gauge hovering at the edge of the red warning bar. Our Silverleaf isn't working, (more on that in a moment).

We had travelled 878 kilometers (about 550 miles) since topping up in Port Angeles. We took on about 59 US gallons if memory serves, averaging 9 US MPG. Better than expected.The rig has a 90 gallon fuel tank.  According to our Silverleaf program we averaged 8.8 MPG pulling the Tracker and 8.2 with the 4 door Jeep. That was over several years.

The Silverleaf takes data from the engine computer and allows to be read easily on a computer. We have a new computer and uploaded the latest software and couldn't get it to work properly. It wouldn't report the fuel use. The old one accurately reported how much fuel we had left and how far we could go at the current usage. Very useful information when fuel stops are few and far between. We called Silverleaf and were told that the latest version was written for the newer engines and had issues with older engines such as the Cummins 5.9 ISB (ours). The latest version had come out to fix issues with the new engines! We were told to get rid of V3.1 and download 2.5 and it should be good. Well we downloaded 2.5 OK, extracted the zipped files, and get the message “File Not Found”. NOT being computer literate we need to contact them again. Or find someone who can tell me what I'm doing wrong (or not doing right). I'll probably have time for that while waiting for the new windshield. (Spoiler Alert)

  

The closer we approached Nevada the more threatening the clouds and as we crossed into Nevada the more frequent and heavier the showers. We arrived at our tentative objective for the day and proceeded to the Walmart in Winnemucca Nevada for the night, arriving shortly before 6:00 PM As we drove though town we noticed a FREE RV parking sign in town!

Raincoats were mandatory! Here we purchased a few grocery items (like WINE) and Art got a new pair of jeans to replace the ones he had ripped in Port Angeles. He had tripped on the sidewalk and put a tear in the jeans as well as in his own knee. (The knee repaired itself.)