And a New Year Begins

I dropped the cat off to be boarded and drove back to Oregon on Christmas Eve and arrived in Seaside on Christmas Day. I had one small bit of excitement. While driving downhill, over a pass in Montana, I hit an icy patch- and wound-up spinning aound and backing down the mountain briefly before nosing up gently against the cement barrier. The only damage was to the front license plate shown below.

Fortunately, there was no other traffic in the vicinity. After I unclenched myself and resumed travel, all was good. There was snow all through MT, ID, WA and OR. Some of worst snow after MT was coming through the coast range of Oregon getting into Seaside.

Seaside was a little different than when we visited in the Summer.

Jen, Patrick and Charlotte had to leave early to rescue one of their cats who was not reacting well to the boarding process. Kate I drove back a couple of days later. That afternoon we went by the storage locker and managed to load up all of the artwork into the car. It was packed to the gills; there wasn’t even room for my suitcase, so it went back to Goodwill, with the clothes cushioning the artwork.

I left early Friday (12/31) morning (this time with AWD – All Wheel Drive – set on). The was snow through the Columbia Gorge, but when I came out, the roads were generally clear and dry in a snow-covered landscape. I stopped in Butte, MT for the night. The next morning, I started back driving, again with the roads mostly clear, although with some blowing snow. I pulled in about 4:00pm to a disaster.

Although both the Conex boxes had power (and heat from the mini-split systems), there was neither AC nor DC power to the trailer. Those of you on the family Zoom call on Saturday got to see the results. After the call, I got to troubleshooting. I found an inline fuse that was melted & fused near the 12v battery. I cut the fuse out and wire-nutted the connections and got the 12v back (including the furnace). 110vac power was provided by a handy extension cord off the exterior Conex box outlets. The next day (Sunday) I got up to go to church and discovered a flat tire (left rear). After a thorough review of my inventory of invectives, I started unloading car so I could get to the jack and the crank to lower the tire.

I was initially annoyed over the inconvenience engendered by having a flat tire, but upon reflection, it was a blessing. The thought of having to empty the back of the car alongside the road, to get to the jack in the middle of the night was decidedly unpleasant. Having to unload the car into a Conex box and change the tire at 8:00AM (in sunny & windy conditions) wasn’t that bad. In retrospect having the flat tire at home was a blessing.

I made it to 10:30am Mass, and after church went back to troubleshooting the AC power. Discovered the bulkhead connector that feeds the AC into the trailer was defective. We unscrewed the connector plate and cut the connector out and hardwired the power in. Voila, we have 110v live in the trailer. Monday I can try to get a replacement connector from the RV dealer, but that is a lower priority.

On Monday I met with Mike, the well drilling guy. I did ask about water witching. He admits that he’s seen it work, but he wasn’t a fan. The biggest problem is that the Witcher can’t identify quality of the water. For instance, we do have water at 120ft or so, but it’s not potable. He thinks he can get good water, just depends on how deep you have to drill. He repositioned the drill to get ready to start again, but his crew probably won’t be back or recovered until Wed or so.

Also, on Monday we started building stairs to access the storage areas above the Conex boxes.

Monday afternoon I took the flat tire into the local Les Schwab dealership. The found the cause of the flat.

The root cause of the flat was a butterknife handle found in the tire. It was bouncing around inside the tire, as well as it being run flat for some unknown amount of time, means I need at least two tires. That being said, given that I need a more aggressive all-weather tread in Wyoming (and given I have 3 years of wear on the tires) I decided to get 4 new tires to the tune of $1,234.72.

All in all, it was an exciting arrival back in Wyoming. But given what could have happened, I appear to continue leading a charmed life. Sorry Sis, but it is what it is.