Category Archives: what the hell kind of pictures are these?

Possession Point

We thought we visited Possession Point State Park but as it turns out, we was at the Possession Point County Park. The state park was about 1/2 miles down the road.

Ok, whatever, not like I ever use a GPS or read road signs or anything.

We took a small hike, about 3/4 of a mile, but it was all +/- 300′ and honestly we didn’t see too much to make it worth the time and effort. We did see many American Robins, a few Dark-eyed Juncos and a bagillion Tent Worms which are everywhere, we had so many crawling on us, we got tired of picking them off.

We hiked to the peak and found a nice place to rest, but again, nothing really to see but tree’s and we found a water fountain of all things on the peak but of course, it didn’t work.

We walked around the dock and saw 3 Great Blue Herons and as well as a Osprey and heard a few Rufous Hummingbirds and 4 or 5 rabbits and some deer.

We drove back to Freeland, WA and stopped at the local food truck of Bubba’s Burgers and enjoyed eating them, not the best I have ever had, but I would go back.

We will go to Possession Point State Park soon, the County Park was ok, but honestly, it needed a lot of care to make it look more presentable and less neglected.

Slip Sliding Away…

We still do not have a sewer line installed here at our Host site. So every Monday or Tuesday we pack everything up and drive the 200 yards or so to the sewer dump, dump our tanks and drive back and set everything back up.

It normally takes an hour. An hour we would love to be doing something else, but it is what it is.

This past Tuesday I was trying to bring the bedroom slid-out in, but when I pushed the switch, nothing happen. I pushed it a few more times, still nothing, I told Pauline that we had a issue, but when she tried it, it worked just fine.

Hmm. Ok.

We went to the dump station, dumped and came back and started to set things back up when I tried putting the slide-outs out, the main one again had no issue, but the back one hesitated, but after a minute or so it started going out, but stopped completely about 2″ from being 100% out.

After that, we had nothing at all.

Grrr….

We went over every fuse we could find, all of them was fine and after a hour or so of trying to figure out what to do next, Pauline called our dealer and they suggested it could be the slid-out circuit board. After a quick search we found the circuit board, and when the switch was pressed we could hear a “click” from the circuit board. We checked the fuse on it, but it was still good.

Our dealer then told us that we should have another one, find that, start swapping parts, and figure out what it is, and if its still not working, its the circuit board itself.

We started our search for the second circuit board and found nothing, they told us they are usually where ever there is space, and at times, its in a non logical space, like under the refrigerator, or under the hood etc, but we still couldn’t find it.

We tried to google an answer, but no search term we used came up with  found anything useful. So we said the heck with it and spent $97 + shipping and ordered a new circuit board.

We got the new circuit board on Friday and was pretty confident it would work, I went outside and plugged the new board in and Pauline pressed the switch and…. Nothing.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Ok, what now?

The only thing I could come up with was, take the bed apart and see if there is anything noticeable.

We stripped the bed and took everything out of the storage and took the bottom panels off the bed frame and saw what we had seen the last time we looked under the floor panels when we first bought Ackbar well over a year ago, nothing but 4 bundles of wires going in various directions.

However, this time I started to see what I was really looking at. There was not 4 bundles of wires, there was only 2 bundles of wires and 2 conduits that use to be where the 2 wire bundles use to be inside of. I fallowed the wires and saw a plug was under the bed frame itself.

I also noticed this the last time we was under the bed well over a year ago, but I gave it no thought at all, I was just looking what was there, not trouble shooting. I tried to pull the plug from under the bed frame, at first it was very tight and hardly moved, but it soon loosened up and with some work, I was able to free it from under the bed frame, and when I finally got all the wires free, the two ends came apart rather easily, in fact, they came apart too easy.

Now it all made sense.

I joked with Pauline “Could it really be this simple” and plugged the two ends together and asked Pauline to press the switch.

BOOM! Worked perfectly.

I discovered a factory defect.

The wires come up from the cargo area through a hole under the bed, the wires have to be  about 18″ long so they move with the slid-out and don’t pull out of the motor. The bed frame sits on top of the carpet and runs over the hole.

The moving in/out pulls the wires in/out under the heavy bed frame, its being ran over and ran over and ran over, that is why the conduits separated from the wires and why the plug itself was under the bed frame.

After looking over the situation, I decided to put the wires back into the conduits, and taped them both up with electrical tape, then tape the 2 conduits together.

I had Pauline move the slide-out in/out a few times as I sat and watched what the wires would do. My tape job made the wires stiffer and they slide under the frame with little resistance. While not perfect, I think this will work.

I also had to tape the plug itself, the locking part of the plugs were bent from being ran over multiple times, so the plug would not lock into itself.

Of course since the new circuit board is electrical, it’s non returnable, so we paid $97 + shipping for nothing but a spare part, we discussed putting it on ebay or craigslist, but honestly, we are not too concerned with it, you never know when you might need a new one.

As a side note, we ordered this from Monaco Parts, they also told us our RV only has one slide-out circuit board.

I really wish we could find a Haynes Repair Manual or similar for our RV, I hate feeling clueless on my own RV/Home. While we are getting better, we still have a long way to go.

I had planned to take more then just 2 pictures of this mess, but you know how it is when you are focused, you just want to fix it and get it done.

May 29, 2014 - South Whidbey State Park - This plug coming undone cost us $97 + shipping.

May 29, 2014 – South Whidbey State Park – This plug coming undone cost us $97 + shipping.

May 29, 2014 - South Whidbey State Park - The conduits being ran over by the bed frame is a design flaw.

May 29, 2014 – South Whidbey State Park – The conduits being ran over by the bed frame is a design flaw.

 

 

Fort Ebey State Park

~May 28, 2014

We stopped at Fort Ebey State Park on the way home from Deception Pass State Park. We was planning to spend a few hours there, but we had stayed longer at Deception Pass then we had planned and decided to just take a hour or so and see what it has to offer and plan a day in the very near future and just take our time.

From what we saw, we will for sure be coming back, they have 14+ miles of trails as well as other interesting things to see.

Deception Pass State Park

Pauline and I made the terrible mistake of youth and moved our original wedding date of October 15 to May 31. What we failed to see was, May 31 is usually a Holiday weekend.

We soon discovered that everything we would LOVE to do on our anniversary, is sold out, booked, and just generally over crowded that we don’t want to be there. We prefer to go site seeing/camping on weekdays over weekends to avoid crowds of any kind, and now that we are camp host, we have to be here for weekends anyway, so we spent our two days off site seeing/birding/hiking around Whidbey Island.

I had a “West Coast Guarantee” when I enlisted in the Navy and was stationed at NAS Whidbey Island from 1990 to 1993. Prior to coming here I have never even heard of Whidbey Island, and when you are 18 with a “West Coast Guarantee” you are thinking “Hawaii” or “San Diego” and when you get Whidbey Island, you can’t help to be anything but disappointed.

I was gone well over a full year of those 3 years, and when I was here, it was usually winter and total crap weather, so I never went out to site see except for what I could see from my bar stool.

When I left the Navy I went back to Indiana and soon met Pauline, we married and on our second anniversary Pauline said she wanted to see the Pacific Northwest, so we came out here for 10 days and visited with my best friend/brother and drove all over the area.

That is when I realized what a great opportunity I had in my youth that I wasted. The Northwest is the best place in the World for Pauline and I.

Some years later, Pauline and I moved from Indiana to Florida and some years after that, we moved to Oregon. As one close friend told us when we arrived.

“I didn’t understand why you ever moved to Florida, you are not Florida people, you are Northwest people”.

One of the greatest compliments we have ever had.

While at NAS Whidbey Island, I drove on and off the island the only way we could, via Deception Pass. I could not even estimate the number of times I have driven that area. And I never once stopped to see Deception Pass State Park. My favorite hangout was the Deception Pass Saloon. I spent countless hours there. It was less then 100 yards from the entrance of the park.

Pauline and I finally stopped to see the park in 1999 and we was both blown away by what we saw. How did I ever miss this?

The ignorance of youth.

We have since been to the park at least 4 times since 1999 and on two of those visits we came across “The Fish Lady” as we called her, since we have no hope of pronouncing her name correctly. The other 2 visits we couldn’t find her.

This trip, we realized that we have never been to the North side of the park, so this time, we started there. Only to soon realize, we had been here before. So we went to the South side of the park expecting to find “The Fish Lady” and soon realized, she must be on the North end.

We go back to the North end and while driving to where we expected to find her, I blew by the park entrance, and since there was a car behind us, I was not able to o a U turn, so we kept driving to find a place to turn around, we soon arrived to a section of the park we have never been to, and since we was there, why not stop and look around?

WE FOUND “THE FISH LADY!”

Lesson 1) We have terrible memories.

Lesson 2) We have really terrible memories.

We also walked on a rocky beach and soon realized there are a bagillion crabs under the rocks we was walking on, I moved 1 rock and there was at least 7 crabs of all sizes running in all directions. We could even hear them moving under the rocks. It was border line horror movie vibe.

We also just missed the lowest tide of the month. Something else we failed to think about prior. They have a really neat “rope trail” going over lava rock, you stay on the rope trail and you can see all sorts of ocean life all around. Had we been a few hours earlier we would have see starfish and octopus and whatever else we could have seen during low tide, but the tide was returning as we was there.

Next time.

We had a Volunteer point out some crustaceans and we saw some seals, both Barn and Tree Swallows and Bald Eagles, Sparrows and of course the countless crabs.

We spent about 4 hours looking around Deception Pass before we went to Oak Harbor and had some Greek food that was really good, the lamb meat was cubed over shaved, but it was still REALLY good, but when you are use to gyros one way, small changes are noticeable.

We then spent a hour or so at Fort Ebey State Park, we planned to do more site seeing there, but we was both getting tired, so Fort Ebey will be another day.

We was also able to see some F/A 18’s and P-3’s doing some “touch and go’s” at NAS Whidbey Island. While it got VERY loud at times, it was still great to see, Pauline and I both miss the military life.

Here are the pics.

More pics of South Whidbey State Park

We are still learning the park, there are still too many trails we have not walked yet, and we have been here for over a month, that is just sad.

While there are plenty of birds to hear, seeing them is another story. We see plenty of American Robins and Dark-eyed Juncos with some Spotted Towhees but everything else is hearing more then seeing.

We do have a Downy Woodpecker nest near a trail and really close to a bench, it’s pretty nice to sit there while the adults fly in and out and the hatchlings chirp and chirp. We also see some Osprey every so often, but as with Fort Flagler, there is just too many tree’s to block the birds from view.

Stupid trees are ruining nature.

Yesterday we also saw a Turkey Vulture with 4 Osprey circling over the beach area, there was also a Raven chasing one of the Osprey’s.

There are plenty of rabbits and deer here. Pauline and I saw the Doe with her 2 Fawn that I saw a week or so ago yesterday, one of the Park Aides also got to see them, it’s always cool sharing a nature moment with others.