3-21-21

3-21-2021 Alder Lake Main

Last year was pretty pathetic for camping.  We put less than 1,000 miles on the camper.  Covid can kiss my ass.

I like to start the year off with a milk run and Alder seemed a pretty good place to start.  It should take a bit over an hour to get there.  With as screwed up as traffic is on a Friday it took over 2 hours.  The truck idled up in the heavy traffic to fend off overheating and we got 7mpg.  

The lake is down significantly.  The spring run-off must not have started.  It rained off and on, and when it wasn’t raining it was drizzling. It was pretty cold too.  Lorena was concerned that the campground would be full.  Seems that with no one able to take their hotel vacations they’ve all bought campers.  There were more people there than expected, but it was only about half full.  

We checked out the horse camp just west of Ashford. (Sahara Creek DNR Horse Camp).  Really primitive, but should be a reasonable option for off season.  Best of all, its free like Margaret McKinney is in Capitol Forest. 

I bought 2 new LP tanks.  These horizontal tanks sure are a lot more expensive than the upright ones.  Took a bit of wrangling but I got them squeezed in.  The Acme connectors are a lot better and easier to use than the old style.  

I hear a vacuum leak from the engine.  That might explain the soft brakes.  Maybe the rough idle too.  It’s always been a bit rough though.  I’ll need to look into the mechanism that controls the idle up when the engine gets hot.  Not sure how that works but it seemed to be sticking on the way to the campground.  The intermittent switch on the windshield wipers didn’t want to work on the way down.  Worked just fine on the way back though.  Something else to take apart I guess. 

Spring break is in 2 weeks and I’m looking forward to a week on the coast.  Lorena thinks Kalaloch will be crowded.  If so we might end up at Rialto at least for the first weekend till everyone goes home Sunday.