It has BEEN a DAY!

Map of Bear Lake. We are the blue dot.

Friday, Aug. 17, 2018

This has been one heck of a day, from beginning to end.

Joe and I both slept so wonderfully last night in the Flying J parking lot. Whatever noise there was outside, it didn’t bother either of us, even with our windows open. We had nice cool air and we slept quite late, I think it was after 8:00 when I woke up!

From there, we started slowly. I even took a lot of time to upload photos etc. for the past two blogs. When I finally took Cassie out for her walk, it was a beautiful day--a blue sky, and in the low 70s (but the air IS dry, so it felt perfect.) Joe felt great after his night’s sleep too, and both of us were just feeling smug as could be at how well we felt and what a nice day we were expecting. And because he was feeling so good, and it was comfortable outside, and we were at the Flying J on a flat surface (and would be able to get anything automotive we needed), and we didn’t have to hit the road asap, Joe decided it would be a good morning to do the oil change that Sam (the RV) needed by now, about 3,000 miles since the last change.

He’s changed the oil often. He has all the equipment. So we didn’t expect any problems. He got out all the stuff he needed and slid underneath Sam to open the valve and drain the used oil into a pan. He called me for help with finding the right size socket when the one he had didn’t quite fit, and I stayed around to help pour the used oil into an empty container when it was all drained (that turned out to be a big pain, and I had to run into Flying J to buy a funnel to help with the job. But a bit went onto the asphalt). He added the new oil into the engine. And in about 45 minutes or so, the job was finished.

But after I threw away all the empty oil bottles and came back to the RV, I found him worriedly sitting at the table. He said, “I may have done something absolutely terrible.” It turned out, he was afraid he had drained out, not the used oil, but all the transmission fluid instead. The two valves are quite close to each other under the rig. He asked me what color the liquid was when I poured it from the pan into the empty bottle. Because some of it had spilled, and I’d done a lot of wiping it up, I had noticed the fluid was pinkish. Which is the color of transmission fluid. That confirmed his worry. For about an hour, he kept reading the manuals and looking online at some videos, he went back under the RV, and he used the little dipsticks to test the levels. It seemed like the oil was full, but the transmission indicator didn’t seem to have ANY liquid on it. Uh oh.

Eventually, he was convinced that he had, indeed, drained out the wrong stuff. I was still calm-- all it needed was for us to obtain 7 quarts of transmission fluid and pour it into the engine. We were sure Flying J would have it. But.... they told us they did not.

Now we had a problem. We could not go ANYWHERE with no transmission fluid. We looked up local auto centers/mechanics/services. We found 2 names in McCammon (which is the town we were in) and one at Lava Hot Springs, 12 miles down the road where we were last night. But one place was a disconnected number, one was leave a message and I’ll call you back. The third said they had the fluid at the shop, but “everyone is out on a service call” and they would call back when someone got in.

We pondered trying to get up to Pocatello, about 20 miles away, where they would have everything, but it was a shlep and we might have trouble getting back (we were picturing hitch hiking-- there was no Uber service!) Then I went into Flying J and they gave me a list of guys who had left their numbers at the place in case someone needed help. The first was another “leave a number,” but we finally found a guy who sounded intelligent! He had a mobile service business and said he could bring us the transmission fluid. All this had taken at least a couple of hours-- it was now already after noon. But we were very relieved to have SOMEONE who could help us.

At this point, as we waited, I made Joe change his clothes-- his shirt was soaked in oil, and his shorts were filthy. The new shorts he put on were missing a button, and he went into the Flying J to get a sewing kit, even though I had a small one. They didn’t have that, either! He said to the woman, “You guys are really letting me down! No sewing kit... no transmission fluid....” And she said, “I might have transmission fluid! I will look in the back.”  And she had 5 quarts after all!!

So Joe came back and added the fluid into the engine, and got a reading that it was “enough”. He yelled, “Call the guy, maybe you can catch him so he doesn’t have to come!” but just at that minute, the guy pulled up next to us. So he and Joe did some more diagnosing, we needed two more quarts of fluid (which he had brought), and after some more back and forth, it was decreed that Sam was roadworthy again. The funniest part was-- our savior was a Kiwi-- he had a lovely New Zealand accent, and he and Joe talked about his history (he came to America 30 years ago to work on race cars, and ended up staying in Idaho.) In the end, he charged us a flat $200 cash (mostly for his time, not the transmission fluid), which was a break. Joe thinks it was because he felt sorry for us, and liked Joe. But whatever, it WAS maybe dumb, but it would have been much worse if we could not have gotten what we needed.

By this time it was 2pm, and we were pretty hungry and jumpy. We drove back to Lava Hot Springs and found our same parking spot from last night. Then we decided that we should eat out rather than try to fix anything--it was hot and we were tired and hungry. The only restaurant right near us was a Thai restaurant, so after our New Zealander mechanic, we encountered a lovely Thai man at the restaurant, where we had a tasty lunch. Then we went back to the RV, and after pondering all our options, I realized that we both needed to destress, and Joe’s body needed some TLC. So we got into our bathing suits and went into the hot spring pools again. The sky had gotten overcast, bringing the temperature down to a comfortable level, so the hot tubs felt excellent and were really a VERY good idea. Clearly, we needed to give ourselves a little TLC-- the entire ordeal with the transmission was very upsetting, although we both kept our cool.

Idaho is a huge producer of Alfalfa hay. We love the color.

At about 6:00, we were soaked, dried, reclothed, and back in the RV. We had decided to shorten tomorrow’s drive to Dinosaur National Monument in Utah (5ish hours) by driving at least a LITTLE way tonight. In the hot springs, I picked up some flyers about Bear Lake, which I knew we would be passing. One of them gave me a very useful map showing all the campgrounds around the lakeshore. It being Friday night, I was afraid it was a long shot,  to find an empty site there, but it was worth a try. So we made Bear Lake, about 90 miles away, our destination for the night. On the way out of Lava, we saw an ice cream store, and Joe pulled up to a curb and I ran in. They had no-sugar-added Moose Tracks, so we further nurtured ourselves with ice cream before leaving town altogether.

Scenic but unimproved. Then it got worse.

We drove along, enjoying the southeastern corner of Idaho’s scenery, and we took the “road less traveled”, because the state park campgrounds on my map were on the less developed, eastern side of the lake. We went through the tiny hamlet of Dingle (really!), and then our road suddenly turned to gravel, and then to packed dirt. But the scenery was great! When we got to the northeast corner of Bear Lake, the pavement came back, and we drove down the lakeshore. The first campground had a “Full” sign, as I’d feared, so we kept going.  Then we got to a point where road barriers said “Road Closed, Local Traffic Only.” Seeing as how this was the ONLY road on the eastern shore of the lake, we HAD to keep going (the road work began at the Utah state line-- Bear Lake is half in Idaho and half in Utah.) We got to the next campground, with a dug-up road entrance, and it looked fairly full, but there was no sign on the road.

We made a careful K-turn so we could get into the driveway to the campground (it was slanted back toward us, so we couldn’t just turn right) when we saw a truck coming up from the campground. Sure enough, it was a park ranger, who told us the campground was full. But then he added that the next campground down, Rainbow, had three open sites. We said, “We’ll TAKE ONE!!” So we turned ourselves around yet again, and he led us on down the same dirt road, which was in TERRIBLE condition, rutted, and they are doing construction to widen it, and it was just a mess. When we got to the campground, he stopped and got out of his truck and said there were now only TWO empty slots (someone must have taken one while we were driving behind him.)

View of Bear Lake from our campsite

And then he says, “Site 1 is empty, and it is the most isolated, that’s the one I’d recommend.” So he told us how to find it (it is far away from the rest of the campsites) and when we pulled in, we could not believe it. The spot is GORGEOUS!!!  We are near absolutely NOBODY, right on the lake. For some reason (wind?), the lake is making incredible wave sounds, more like an ocean than like a lake. The color of the lake water, by the way, is famous for being the same turquoise as the Caribbean, and it IS beautiful. So it is like being on the shore of the ocean, the sound is just a wonderful ceaseless ocean-sound, and we are near absolutely no one, so it is quiet and secluded. Cassie was so excited when we got here, she actually was barking before we got out of the RV!

So it HAS been a day! Started out with us in such a good mood, followed by a lot of stress and worry and (on Joe’s side) upset. Then was the “we need to take care of ourselves now” part, and going into the hot pools was just wonderful and what we needed. And then cutting the drive down for tomorrow, and getting such a stellar spot (a mere $12/night, too!) was so unexpected, that we feel utterly amazed and blessed and incredibly fortunate. And it even has good cell reception!!

Tomorrow we will finish the drive to Dinosaur, hopefully, and get to see the new visitor center with the glass wall that was unfinished when we came here 7 years ago. And then we’ll look for a place for the night, and Sunday we will find Ben and Miriam someplace in central Colorado. Barring unfortunate situations, the next few days SHOULD be good ones.