We left home on Sunday and expected to have Charlie’s brother, Jim, who lives on the coast, join us at Stone Creek Campground at Timothy Lake in Mount Hood National Forest the same day. At one point we thought we might have missed the turnoff for Timothy Lake, so we pulled off in a large pullout. The roads were not shown on our Atlas map, and we had no cell coverage, so we decided to continue on to Government Camp, to see if we could get a signal there. Then we saw the sign for the lake, a couple of miles down the road. What a relief! We had a lovely campsite just a few steps from the lake, which is just through those trees. The trail to the lake was right next to our campsite.
We were worried when Jim didn't show up by Sunday evening. Cell service was weak and intermittent. The camp hosts were expecting him and knew he was related to us. They kept coming by to see if he had arrived. When Jim hadn't shown up by bedtime, I sent him a text asking if he was OK, but got no response until well after midnight, when I received a text from him saying that he was somewhere on a one-lane forest road with no place to turn around. He thought he might have to abandon his rig and retrieve it later. His GPS had stopped working, and the forest roads were not on the map he had. He said he was going to spend the night there.
In the morning, we told the camp hosts, and they alerted the sheriff's office. About mid-morning on Monday, we received a call from a neighbor friend of Jim's. Jim had drawn a map of where he was (copied by hand from Google Maps when he had cell), but had been unable to send it to us because of the poor cell reception on our end, so he sent it to his friend.
She relayed it to us, and we took it to the camp hosts, where we learned that they had been in touch with him, off and on by phone. They sent the map to the Clackamas County Sheriff's office and the U. S. Forestry Service. They found him quickly after that, thanks to the map, and guided him out. When he got to the main road he was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy. “Are you Jim?” the deputy asked. The deputy led him to the campground. Jim was parked in his campsite by 2:00 on Monday afternoon, safe, but completely worn out.
While trying to turn around in the forest, Jim had unhooked his rig. After unhooking, the jack collapsed. It will have to be replaced, as you can tell from this photo. (That L-shaped thing is his jack.)
At the campsite, He had to use some of those plastic things to increase the height of the stabilizers, because of the slope of the parking pad.
We later discovered that the lock on the part of the hitch that's on the trailer was broken. (Hitch receptacle? I don't know the term.) He could hook up again, but it would no longer lock.
Jim was able to call the dealer and make an appointment for Friday morning. During our few days together, we spent a lot of time investigating the damage and discussing what was going to need to be done to repair it.
One more disaster became obvious when Jim was putting everything to rights in his trailer: The fridge was not working, and his frozen food was almost room temperature. We made room in our fridge for his food and tried to eat up what we could that was still good during the next couple of days. He still had quite a bit of food he would be able to take home, but he had no ice chest. I suggested filling plastic zipper bags with water and freezing them in our freezer. Then he could put the ice and his food in his freezer and use it as an ice chest. It was a good idea, and it worked, but one of the bags of water leaked in our freezer before it froze solid. He had enough to use, but we came home needing to defrost the fridge. After removing everything from the fridge and turning it off, we left the doors open. I put a dishpan under the front of the freezer and the produce drawer on the next shelf down, to catch the water. I also put a sponge on the bottom of the fridge, because some drops of water were escaping the two receptacles. I pulled up pieces of ice as they became loose enough, using just my fingernails, because I didn't want to damage the lining of the freezer. Now it's clean and dry. (I have a child-size broom for sweeping out the pod, and I used it to hold the freezer door open.) Jim made it to a rest stop about halfway home, where he spent the night. The next day (Friday) it was just a short hop to the dealer in time for his appointment. He left his 171 with them and continues home. He texted us saying that the service people at the dealership acted as if they had seen a bent jack before, and it could be replaced. He added that the food stayed cold in his makeshift ice chest. This was the first time he was using his fridge with gas, so it may just be something had never been turned on. One more thing to get the dealer to fix for him.
We had a good time in spite of the difficulties. Timothy Lake is a beautiful area, with trails going all the way around the lake. Some are specifically for hikers, but others allow bicycles and/or horses. There's a boat launch area in some of the campgrounds around the lake, including Stone Creek Campground, and there are occasional small beaches and places to fish or swim. The campsites are nicely spaced.
We did a lot of hiking and had some great talks and meals. The weather was great. We're looking forward to camping together again soon. We will pay a lot of attention to our travel directions next time. We hope to go back to Timothy Lake again, perhaps next year. Here are brothers...and brothers...enjoying our campsite.
I had a chance to try out the folding stool we bought so I wouldn’t have to squeeze into the dinette seat, which is smaller on the left, where I’ve been sitting. It also frees up the seat to be used for stuff we just need to drop somewhere. The other seat covers storage, and if I need to get something out of that compartment, everything has to be removed. This is working out much better.
We did a lot of short hikes. This one was Monday, while we were still worrying about Jim, but had spoken to the camp hosts.
The dogs took to the water right away, especially Sandy, who loves to swim, although he’s still learning the technique. It’s usually too shallow for him to get his feet off the ground for long enough. However, if we throw a stick into the water, Sandy is always the one who retrieves it.
When not hiking I enjoyed listening to an audiobook and knitting in our campsite while Charlie read a book on his Nook.
We also spent a lot of time listening to Jim describe his adventure.
When we travel, the dogs ride in the back, fastened in with harnesses attached to their seat belts. Dusty is stoic. Sandy relaxes, anticipating the next adventure.
The table has a seat belt, too. I don’t like that the buckle is right at the edge of the table, but I think I can cut off enough of the longer side to make a new, longer strap for the other side. Another project.
We removed all our stuff from the trailer when we got home and on Friday, and I cleaned what I could without power. I plan to vacuum this week, but we will have to hook up to an extension cord.
Saturday we backed the RPod into her berth next to the house. Then we went to the No Kings demonstration at Drake Park. There was a good turn out. We heard an estimate of 4,000 people. It was more people than we had seen in one place in our small city.
June 14th, the day of the protest, was also International Knit in Public Day. I took my knitting along and got a bit done, although we had the dogs with us, so I was frequently interrupted. Here’s the progress on my The Love of Spiders Shawl.
I didn’t get any quilting done at all. It's a queen-size quilt, so too big to take. I hope to get back to it this week, though.
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If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for More Classic Tales Retold or Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses or More Classic Tales Retold, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.
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What's on my iPhone: Finished listening to The Widow of Fallbrooke Court by Kasey Stockton using the Chirp app. Just started Autopsy by Patricia Cornwell.
What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting on some dish towels or something.
What's in my hoop: My whole cloth quilt. No progress this week because I didn't take it camping. It would have filled the RPod.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: The dolls plant some seeds and watch them grow in About Plants.
What's my tip of the week: If you're ever without electricity but have a gas stove or a fire to use for cooking, you can use your pressure cooker as an oven. I did this during our camping trip to heat up individual servings of lasagne, which would be difficult to do in a saucepan or skillet. I wrapped each serving in heavy duty foil and stacked them in the silicone sling on a rack. I had cut out the bottom of a foil pie pan to line the sling with, so the steam would rise around the edges. After bringing the pressure up, I timed it for 10 minutes, then let the pressure drop on its own. It was perfect!
Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.
If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the publisher gets a cut. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well.
Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.
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