The final barrier has been surmounted. The motorcycle was delivered to the new owner yesterday. I rode it up to Nampa, Idaho, a four-hour ride. It was a beautiful fall day and the trip was completely uneventful. The bike ran very well and no issues were seen. Huzzah! We can start on our Big Trip!
We have a few things to do in the morning including laundry, fill up with propane and fuel, take the car cover over to my car in storage and get that put in place, visit Social Security for the third time which hopefully will fix their problem with providing me with Part B insurance, and finally dropping Nina’s car off where it’ll stay until we come up, get it, and drive it down to Arizona. Hopefully all that can be done by 11am and we can be On Our Way!
The Honda mechanic called yesterday to say they likely have the problem with the motorcycle solved. They found the fuel line between the fuel pump and the fuel filter obstructed; blocking 70% of maximum fuel flow. That would mean at high speeds with high fuel consumption the engine would be starved for fuel. That certainly fits the symptoms I was experiencing! They said that they would put everything back together on Thursday and take it for a test run. They called again this afternoon to say that the 80 mph test run was successful and they are confident the problem is resolved. Huzzah!!!
At the moment we are in North Salt Lake. It is quite different being here in our daughter’s house while they are not here but in Mumbai! Our oldest granddaughter is now queen of the house and is taking magnificent care of us with some very delicious chicken curry. I had seconds.
We’ll return tomorrow to Pocatello and I’ll take the bike for a serious test. Just maybe it might be fixed for real! We may be able to leave in the next several days!
Life is very good.
All things of significance happen for a purpose. This delay has been in a few ways very helpful. For instance, the other day we learned of a place where we can store my Toyota Rav4 inside for an extended period of time for $30 a month. We put the car in storage yesterday! When we get back from Hawaii everything electrical in the car will be dead, the tires will probably be flat, and the battery useful only as a core trade in. But, it will have been protected from the weather and should readily return to service. It’s also possible that we can put the motor home in the same facility when we get back to Pocatello in February.
We’ve had a couple of problems with Social Security medicare insurance. Because we were still here, we’ve been able to go to the Social Security office and get the problems quickly resolved. One of the medications I take has been reclassified and the process for refills has become very cumbersome. Being here made it possible to get the paperwork completed and much of the bureaucratic complexity handled. That would have been very difficult on the road and we might have had to return within the next couple of weeks to be able to work with the Veterans Administration to handle the complications inserted by the DEA.
There are often silver linings in the midst of frustration.
The motorcycle is now at a different service center. The Kawasaki mechanics couldn’t figure out what was wrong and said the bike had never failed for them. It fails for me every time, so I don’t understand that. It’s now at the Honda place and we’ll see what those mechanics come up with. The potential buyer definitely still wants the bike. The Honda folks say they won’t be able to look at the bike until Tuesday. So, we’re here for at least one more week. With any luck at all, they’ll figure it out on Tuesday, have it fixed by Wednesday, and we can deliver it on Thursday.
Well, that just gives us time to do some of the little things. Things like cleaning the carpet in the motor home! It doesn’t take very long, but lots and lots and lots of very dark water came up. We’ve also been consolidating down to the stuff we’ll be taking with us on the trip out east, south, and west. On Monday we’ll take a bunch of stuff to the storage unit and do some reorganization. When we come back through in February, we’ll need to pack up what we’ll take to the Mission Training Center and then box up what we’d like to ship over to Hawaii to be there when we get there … thinks like a TV and some of my ham radio equipment…. Getting it ready now means we will have less to do in the February winter weather.
Walking Along the Portneuf River
It also gives us some time to enjoy the fabulous fall weather we’re having here in southeastern Idaho. With high temperatures in the mid 70’s, little or no wind, and clear, blue skies, the weather couldn’t be more perfect. We’ll probably think this is cold weather when we get back from Hawaii! So, we’ll enjoy it while we can. Hopefully it can continue for another week.
Tomorrow is Sunday. After Church we’ll go over to Soda Springs to visit with my mother. We try to get over every Sunday, if possible. She’s doing as well as can be expected. She’d like to be doing a whole lot better, however! She’s fairly feisty at times.
Yesterday’s post included a picture of our motor home and the tree behind the motor home in full fall colors. Well, overnight the wind and the rain came and the tree is pretty much denuded! It did reveal two large nests, however, that weren’t visible before. These nests must have been a dream home for some birds earlier this year and perhaps even in years past. Do birds reuse old nests in trees from year to year?
It turns out, that question has been asked and a nature conservatory in England answered the question. Based on their answer, my guess is that these nests will not be used again and will become relics of the past. Out here in the west there are many, many old, abandoned farm houses that were once someone’s dream home but now are slowly crumbling into dust.
Today is Fast Sunday. Once a month we go without food and drink for twenty-four hours and contribute what we would have spent to the care and feeding of the poor. The Sacrament Meeting on that Sunday is devoted to testimony bearing by members of the congregation. Nina bore a beautiful testimony (made me tear up … as usual). Our Sunday School class discussion was in Isaiah 1-6 and was perhaps one of the nicest and spiritual discussion in a very long time. When the discussion goes beyond the textbook answers (say your prayers, keep the commandments, be good people, etc.) and makes me think specifically about how I’m living and what I might do better, that’s a great lesson and discussion. That happened today.
We’re shooting for being able to leave on Friday. Only the motorcycle stands in the way! I won’t know more about that until Tuesday.
Fall is in full swing here in southeastern Idaho. In our RV park, the tree beside our spot is very busy dropping bushel baskets of leaves. There are still plenty of trees still to turn, however. That just means it’s high time to hit the road and get out of here!
One big question has been what to do about transportation while we’re traveling for the next six weeks or so. The car we usually pull behind the motor home is no more (it now has a home in Seattle). Neither of the other two cars can be towed four wheels down. One option we have been considering is buying a car hauler trailer to bring a car along behind. New ones are more than $3,200, which is out of the question. I found a few used trailers on ksl.com that might fill the bill. So, today we unhooked everything and drove the motor home down to the Ogden, Utah area to look at a trailer. It would have cost about $1,900 to buy. We looked it over and clearly, it was not the right trailer for us. That pretty much sealed the decision. We’ll drive the motor home and if we need something else, we’ll rent it. We can rent a lot of cars for $1,900! The motor home itself is small enough that we can usually park it in a normal parking spot. It’s just a hassle to unhook everything, drive around, return to the campground, and hook everything back up. However, we’ll get much better gas mileage when we’re not towing anything.
The drive had another purpose as well. It’s been quite a while since we’ve gone any distance in the motor home. Since the last time we drove more than 600 miles in the motor home both Nina and I have new knees and Nina has had Achilles tendon surgery. This was a shake-down drive to be certain we had everything in order for the long distance driving. There are a couple of things we need to adjust, but over all, we’re ready to be on the road.
While we were driving back from Utah, my phone rang:
“Hello, this is Roland”
“Hi there. Is this the soon to be Elder Smith?”
“That would be me!”
“This is sister (garbled, I never did get her name) … from the visitors’ center in Hawaii. You might have a few questions?”
Wow! Did we ever!!
Since I was driving, I handed the phone to Nina who had a delightful conversation. We learned a lot. There are only a few couples at the visitors center along with a whole bunch of young Sister Missionaries. Our assignment will be to supervise one of the shifts at the center. Shifts are five hours long and when we’re not on duty, the rest of the time is ours to do as we wish (keeping with missionary standards, of course). We can work at the temple, volunteer at the cultural center (which comes with a free meal), go sightseeing, or whatever! That was very interesting information.
We also learned that we can rent a car from the mission for $150 a month, so shipping a car over isn’t needed at all. Nina will be wearing a mumu fitted to her size. I’ll be in a short-sleeved white shirt and slacks. She can wear sandals (a real boon for her!). Our apartment is nicely furnished and looks out at the Temple.
We walked a different route Thursday morning. Both of us were tired, so we decided we wanted a “flat route” to walk. The Greenway path along the Portneuf River was the ideal place to walk. Forty minutes and 1.4 miles later, we had met our goal for the day. The weather was (and remained so the entire day) just fabulous. The trees are showing very nice (for Idaho) color and the walk was very pleasant. I’m certain it’ll be on our agenda again … if there’s enough time!
We’re working on the to-do list so we can leave next Friday. There are still several unknowns (for instance, the motorcycle still isn’t running right), but we’re closing in. One of the big questions is whether or not we should buy a car hauler trailer and haul a car behind the motor home across the country or should we rent cars when we’re staying at places. A used car hauler trailer will cost about $2,000 and would probably sell for that much when we were finished with it. However, it’ll really affect the gas mileage. So, I’m still fussing with the numbers.
Locks of Love
We walked as far as a bridge across the river before we turned around. I noticed several padlocks on the chain link fence on the bridge. The lover’s practice of “locking their love” and throwing away the keys is here in Pocatello as well.
This one had a date on it, but no names. That was part of my criteria for showing the lock. Don’t want to publicize something that might already have gone down in flames! We’ve got a spare padlock here somewhere. Maybe we should join the club??
The first time I had seen padlocks on a fence was in Florence, Italy. I ran across them again in Germany (called to my attention by an article in the newspaper). Since then I’ve read about similar activities across the world, as documented by Wikipedia.
Sheepherder Camp
Mother’s cordless telephone has been giving her a lot of problems. She has trouble hearing when someone calls. The phone she has is very old. The markings are worn off and it’s difficult to tell which button does what. It’s also very easy for her to accidentally turn the volume down. So, we ordered her a new phone which arrived on Thursday. After the walk we drove over to Soda Springs and installed the new phone. Hopefully this will work much better for her. The phone is definitely quite loud!
On the way back home as we exited the freeway next to Prime Time Auctions, I noticed several old sheep camps along the back fence to be auctioned off at their next auction on Saturday, October 11th. Nina has been fascinated with these canvas-covered units, so we stopped and took a look at the most authentic of the sheep camps.
Gotta See Inside
Looking meant climbing up and poking her head inside! When I was very small I remember that Grandfather Smith had a few sheep they he combined with some other farmers in the area into a fairly large herd of sheep. During the summer the sheep went up into the high forest to graze. They hired an old Basque sheepherder and outfitted him with a sheep camp that looked (as I remember) very much like this one. It had a wood-burning stove, a place in the back for his bedding, and had a big basin attached to one side along with a fold-down table. The other side had a couple of big water barrels. The camp was pulled by a couple of horses which the sheep herder kept with him all summer as his conveyance.
This is a short iPhone video showing a bit of the interior.
Monday evening Nina and I went to the Mystique Theater in Chubbuck (neighboring town to Pocatello) to their production of Les Misérables. The production runs through November 8th with performances on Friday, Saturday, and Monday evenings. The Friday and Saturday evening performance can include dinner.
We thoroughly enjoyed the production. All of the cast and supporting folks are amateurs and local residents. My goodness, what marvelous talent lives here in southeastern Idaho! Many years ago when we were living in Pleasant View, Utah, we went to a production of Les Misérables put on by a Broadway touring company, a professional company. The performance was moving, incredibly well done, exactly what one would expect from a professional touring company. Well, our local amateurs did an incredibly moving performance as well. I was particularly impressed with the acting and singing of the young woman who played Eponine. Nina was also very impressed with the actor who portrayed Javert, the merciless inspector, who’s suicide scene was, well just delicious, it was so well done.
If you live in the Pocatello / Chubbuck area, take the time, spend the money, and go see the production. It’s well worth it.
Why do days always go so differently than originally planned?? That’s the curiosity for me today. Other than breakfast and the start of a walk, nothing else happened as planned.
The walk is probably the main culprit. We’ve been trying to take walk every day for the past couple of weeks. Usually they’re between a half-hour and an hour and something around or less than two miles. Today we started and Nina said I was in charge of figuring out the route. So, we started along a new route. I was ready to turn around at the one mile mark, but Nina thought we were doing well and we were in a pretty area. At 45 minutes I suggested turning around, but since we hadn’t ever been in this area before, it was possible to make the walk a big loop, and neither of us knew how long the big loop would be, we continued.
The 4.54 Mile, 2 Hour Walk
Clicking on the image will show a full-sized map of the route … it turned out to be a long, long, long walk that included a fairly serious uphill at the end.
The “grey” marks on the map are where we stopped, sat down on a bench, and recuperated. The Runkeeper app allows me to “pause” the walk when we were not actually walking, so the two-hour time doesn’t count the half an hour we spent on a bench somewhere along the route.
We got back to the motor home about 11:30am; the day was close to half over and we were both somewhat beyond exhausted, sore, sweating, and even a bit grumpy. Showers helped, but as I write this, I have both feet up as I don’t want any weight on them at all. The day wasn’t completely downhill from there, but at times felt like it!
