4-7-2018

4-7-2018 Spring Break

4-7-18 Kalaloch Campground

            We were going to spend a night or three on Lake Quinault, but it’s storming pretty good, and we thought Klaloch would be a better place to see the storm.  It’s raining and the wind is 15-30 MPH.  It’s supposed to be like this all week.  We shall see how long it takes the kids to drive us crazy.

            We got 8.4 mpg on the way here.  I haven’t check oil or coolant yet, waiting for it to stop being so wet outside.  It’s pretty wet inside too.  2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 adults, and a pile of soaked clothes and coats. Add the catalytic heater to that and the relative humidity. It’s really wet in here.  

            I expected a better cell signal.  Guess I wont be doing any remote computer work.  I’m on vacation anyway.

4-9-2018  Kalaloch Campground

            It rained off and on all day yesterday.  Kinda felt bad for the tent campers.  Today is really nice.  It was even sunny for a while.  It warmed up nicely and was downright pleasant. We had a couple of walks on the beach and cooked salmon on the fire.  

            The camper showed another problem that will need fixing sooner rather than later.  When I first pulled the camper off the truck when we first bought it, I noticed that one of the centering frames (those 5 inch triangular things in the corners of the pickup bed that center the camper in the bed) was loose.  The driver’s side rear.  I bolted it back down and thought nothing of it.  I also remember there being a sheet of metal covering the plumbing and black tank at the front of the toilet.  There was a rusty dent in it.  Putting the pieces together, that centering frame needs to be 1 inch forward.  It punctured the sheet metal and the sharp edges have worn a tiny hole in the black tank at about 2/3 to the top.  You’d never know it if you keep the tank at least half empty like I have.  Today we are a bit full and it’s dripping down the bolt hole of the centering frame. When we get back home, I will need to pull the truck forward a bit, pull the sheet metal off, apply a fiberglass patch and see if I can come up with an idea for not puncturing the tank again.  Remove the centering frame? Relocate it? Don’t pull the camper so far forward?  

4-10-2018 Kalaloch Campground

            The solar charger gets little use here.  We did plug it in today though.  The 16,000 MaH battery does not go as far as it used to.  It will charge our current phones 8 times then it’s dead.  Figure in our watches that need charging, Lorena’s phone needs charged twice a day cuz god knows why, but it’s always at 5%. The solar battery lasted 2 days.  I did bring the generator Dad gave me.  It’s a Honda 650 (650-watt max). I plugged it into the house battery yesterday and today for an hour and it seems to do a good job of keeping the house battery from being completely dead all the time.  We charge our phones off the house battery when the solar charger is dead and it’s a pretty significant drain.  I don’t know how many amps are in a typical deep cycle battery, but next time it needs to be replaced I’m gonna spend a small fortune and buy one with the highest amps available.  

            I jacked the camper up and moved the truck forward 1 inch.  I have yet to do a complete investigation to see if that’s the solution, but it will do for now.  I emptied the tanks and there is no more leak.  I’ve noticed that the tank monitor is showing the tanks more full than they really are.  I filled and flushed the black water tank a couple of times and it seem to be reporting correct levels.  The grey water is empty but shows 1/3 full.  

            The old man who owned the camper before us disconnected the hot water tank.  He said it used a lot of gas.  9,600 btu. He coupled the cold water into the hot water out lines and used the gas line to run the catalytic heater. I plan on reconnecting everything, running a T off the gas, and get it working again.  I figure if we only turn it when we actually need hot water (not sure when that will actually be) the usage can’t be that bad.  The biggest problem by far will be that the drain has been open to the outside for years.  I’ll fill it with vinegar and water (50% mix) and cycle the heat 3 times and see if the tank is usable.

4-11-2018

            Today is an inside day.  It’s been raining pretty good all day.  We took a long walk through the campground and the beach and got very wet.  My rain gear is decent, but everyone else looked like drenched kittens.  The forced air heater works well.  It’s fast and hot.  It literally puts as much heat outside as inside though.  Not very efficient at all.  The catalytic is hot and very efficient, but it makes everything very wet.  We hang the wet clothes above it and they dry fast. 

            I’ve been putting the generator on the house battery for an hour every day and it is more than keeping up with the demands of everything we have including the phones and other electronics.  I’m very happy with how it is working.  It’s a lot quieter than the other generators around us so I don’t feel bad about running it.

            The boys are getting pretty crazy with cabin fever.  Lorena showed them how to play War, 21, and Speed, that kept them busy for a while.  They need to get outside and run some of this energy off.

            Tomorrow we will head up to Sol Duc Hot Springs and see if there is an opening.  I looked at the reservation schedule and it seems fairly busy even for this time of year.  We didn’t bring swimsuits so there will be no soaking in the springs.  

4-12-2018

            Drove up to Sol Duc today.  The camp sites are mostly empty.  Found a nice one on the river side.  We walked to the Resort to see what that’s about.  Looks pretty commercial.  There were 4 deer wandering through the campground.  The trees here are really big.  A sizable one was cut down by the forest service for some reason.  I spent some time counting rings and I think it was about 375 years old.  Based on that there are several trees in our camp site that are 250 years old or so.  They are 4-5 feet across.  

4-13-2018

            Lorena had her heart set on the hike to Sol Duc falls.  It’s a 3-mile hike from the camp site.  It started raining again last night. No light rain like at home either.  It’s a proper steady wet rain. So, we put our rain gear on, such that it be, and walked up there.  The hike was rough and really swampy the first 2 miles.  The trail got a lot better at the junction with the upper trailhead.  My boots soaked through by the time we got to the falls.  Overall, it was worth the hike.  Really a spectacular site and the old CCC shelter was a welcome respite from the rain.  The boys really struggled the last 2 miles back.  They were completely soaked through and very cold.  We turned on both heaters in the camper and made coco.  It was pretty wet in here already, and with so many wet clothes it’s like a tropical rainforest.  A bit of a rest, and a large hot meal and the boys feel much better. 

            Tomorrow, we head home.  No one is really excited about that.