~Monday, August 24, 2020~
Day 71
A day mostly of chores and tackling a few items on the to do list. We’ve noticed that the smoke from the California fires has slowly made its way northward with each day getting a bit hazier. It’s such a shame that so many families have been displaced and that over a million acres have been burned, this time due to lightning. There were over 10,000 strikes in Northern California. And the fire season still has a few months to go.
Once again, the refrigerator/freezer needs defrosting. This time, this task took a bit longer as there was more ice build up, and a few mistakes were made. We’re still in the trailer’s infancy learning all there is to learn. It would have certainly helped if we had read the manual before we started. On RV fridges, there are fins in the back of the fridge which help circulate cold air inside. But when there is any moisture from food that hits them, the moisture sticks and slowly begins building up ice. To remove the ice, I thawed it with a blow dryer set to “warm” where it started melting onto the bottom of the fridge (always have towels handy). After I had done this, I learned in the manual not to use a blow dryer to defrost the fridge since the heat can warp or damage the plastic and metal inside. Ugh, but it works so well. Anyway, the water was flowing through a tube which was routed to the refrigerator access panel floor, instead of draining to the outside. That is the key piece we should have checked first. As the ice was melting, it was accumulating water in there, and then made its way to the floor inside the trailer. So, a roll of toilet paper later added with a bit of frustration, the lessons learned were
1. before defrosting the fridge, you have to open the access panel and redirect the hose to the outside and
2. Instead of a blow dryer, opt for the old “hot water in the bowl” trick.
The freezer is much simpler to thaw out than the refrigerator, where you just need to make sure you have plenty of towels/sponges handy to soak up the water. Hopefully with the nice warm day, things will dry out quickly.
Jeff was checking the bikes to make sure everything was good, when he discovered my rear tire was flat. The last time I rode it was the ride to BJ’s in Bakersfield. So I guess we’ll be adding that little errand to our list with going to Coeur d’Alene tomorrow, in addition to some sightseeing.
We thought it would be nice to have a few campfires while we’re here, so we stopped by the nearest camphost (there are several here), to purchase a few bundles of firewood. He was from San Bruno, CA and a huge Giant’s fan, and she, from Washington state. Then we made our way to an overlook to check out the history of the area.
It’s truly amazing the series of events that occurred here thousands of years ago. Idaho’s largest lake, and the 4th deepest lake in the Western United States at 1,150 feet deep, Lake Pend Oreille was formed by a devastating outwash from the Glacial Lake Missoula floods that transformed it forever. A huge glacial meltwater flood, where water flows underneath the ice, eventually broke down the ice dam leading to a series of events that drastically transformed the landscape. Amazing to think this cataclysmic chain of events led to this beautiful, calm and serene scenery we see today.
We found access to a beach area on Lake Pend Oreille near the Sunrise Day Use Area, where we let Sadie get out some energy with swimming followed by a great run on the huge lawn area. The large complex there has a covered picnic area, volleyball, horseshoe pits, a playground for kids, and to top it off, beautiful scenery of the mountains and lake all around. What a great place this would be for a chili cook off.
A great evening of Cornhole (I lost again), and a chat with my best friend, Michele, followed by a delicious falafel dinner.