A report from my summer camp.

I brought my bicycle with me to Washington with the idea of riding regularly to get exercise and lose weight. Thank heaven I’m riding once in a while. I’m eating so much that I need the exercise to keep from really porking up.

I noticed that my bike’s rear wheel wasn’t perfectly round. It may have been damaged in transit on the bike rack we put on the back of the camper. Or it may have already been damaged for some other reason. In any case, the wheel’s rim rubbed against the brakes. it wasn’t enough to prevent me from riding, but I figured it would be nice to get it fixed.

I found an excellent bike repair shop in East Wenatchee: The Second Wind. It wasn’t fancy or flashy. In fact, the place looked as if they hadn’t fully moved in (or were in the middle of moving out). But the repair shop on the side had three guys, including the owner, hard at work. The owner fixed up my wheel in a matter of minutes, then helped me choose a new bike seat and swapped it out for me. It was a pleasure to get good service within minutes — I’ve become so accustomed to people telling me I have to leave whatever needs repaired or wait.

The Second Wind is at a great location: at the end of a street that butts up against the pedestrian/bicycle bridge across the Columbia River and the loop trail. I don’t know if they do bike rentals, but they should!

Of course, I’d brought my bike along partly to ride that loop trail. It’s 11 miles long and up until that point, I’d only ridden about 6-1/2 miles on a single ride. It was hot and I ate a big lunch and I talked myself out of it. (Can you say lazy?) But next trip, I’ll do it.

The riding in Quincy isn’t exactly interesting, although it is easy. Quincy is mostly flat farmland with straight roads, laid out in a grid according to sections of land. A section is a mile square. So going ‘around the block” out here by the golf course means riding about 4 miles. Two blocks is 6 miles. Closer to town, there are more roads, but there’s also more traffic.

My riding has been sporadic. My first ride, last week, was about 2 miles. The other day, I thought I’d ride to the airport, which is 4-1/2 miles away, and back. I wound up doing just 6 miles total (around two blocks).

Yesterday, I decided to ride into town to check for mail and buy a bottle of wine. (I allow myself 1/3 bottle of wine each evening, after 6 PM if there’s no chance of rain.) Town is about 6 miles away. Taking the truck sucks down a full gallon of gas, so driving into town each day is costing me about $4.50. I figured, why should I spend the money and add to carbon emissions when I can take my bike and get some exercise? So I did. And I think the bike repair really helped out — the bike seemed easier to pedal. (Could it be I’m getting back into shape that quickly?) I was tired when I got to the post office, but not wobbly. I had one letter waiting, which I strapped onto the rack on back. Then I hit the wine shop and had a conversation with the proprietor about local wines. He set me up with a bottle of Jones of Washington cabernet. From there, i went to Harrington’s Drive In for a small hot fudge sundae (I needed energy!). Then the long ride back. There was a mile-long stretch with a gentle uphill slope that was the most challenging part of the ride. Then I was back, feeling as if I’d really accomplished something.

I hope to repeat this performance at least three times a week while the weather holds.

A report from my summer camp.

One of the drawbacks of living away from a very comfortable, fully equipped home is the laundry problem. I need to find a coin-op laundry to do my wash.

This week, I went to Quincy’s lone laundromat for the second time. While examining the filth around me as I waited for my clothes to dry, I decided it would be my last time.

I can’t understand how a laundromat can get so incredibly filthy. What are these people doing? How can they leave their trash around? How does the floor get so dirty? Doesn’t anyone take a rag over the tops of the washers? Ever?

Do you know how hard it is to fold sheets by yourself when you can’t let them touch the floor?

I spotted a laundromat in Wenatchee on Monday. It’s a long drive to do laundry, but I’ll do other things while I’m there. And it’s only once a week.

A report from my summer camp.

There was a big fire northwest of Quincy on Sunday. I first saw the smoke when I first drove into the Quincy Lakes area and didn’t think much of it. I figured someone was burning brush or trash. But when I next saw the smoke, it looked like a big, white mushroom cloud. Later in the day, the base of the smoke had spread. It was obviously a wildfire.

I was concerned for a while that it might have been orchards burning. Maybe even one of my orchards. So after I finished my trip through Quincy Lakes and my visit to Cave B (where this photo was taken), I drove up as far as the turnoff to Crescent Bar. I could then get a better idea of where the fire was. It seemed to be in the highlands beyond the farmland.

Meanwhile, on Monday, when I drove to/from Wenatchee, I saw a helicopter with a Bambi bucket going between the fire site and the Columbia River. The smoke was greatly reduced, but it was obvious that they were still working on fire control.

Next time I’m out with my helicopter, I’ll check it out.

Have I become “trailer trash”?

I’m writing this from the dining table in my 21-foot pull trailer. I pulled it to Quincy, WA on the back of my 1994 Ford pickup truck from Wickenburg, AZ last week. You can read about each day of that journey here, here, and here. Now I’m camped out in the parking lot of a golf course built on a flat farm field. I have a full hookup — electricity, water, and sewer — and a tiny but lush green lawn between my camper and the big fifth wheel camper parked in the next spot.

The golf course’s “RV Park” is on the corner of two main farm roads. White Trail Road comes south from Route 28 and curves to the east past the golf course. Route 281 runs north-south between Quincy and George, where I-90 cuts through central Washington. These roads get a good amount of traffic that includes everything from farm tractors to 18-wheelers. Because White Trail Road has a stop sign at the corner, the big trucks often rely on engine braking as they coast past the RV park. Fortunately, there aren’t a lot of those. Unfortunately, there is traffic on both roads from about 3:30 AM to 12:30 AM — in other words, most of the day and night. Oddly enough, the sound of the traffic doesn’t seem to keep me awake. (More on that in a moment.)

The golf course is surrounded by farmland. Huge fields with irrigation “circles” grow wheat, potatoes, and other crops. Across the road is a residential area with a row of houses and tall shade trees. There’s a small pasture filled with milking cows and I can often hear the sound of a horse’s whinny and a rooster’s crowing. There are also a lot of rabbits and unfamiliar birds.

The RV Park has five full hookup spots including mine. Four are filled. There are also a few electricity and water (but no sewer) sites, two of which are occupied. There’s room for at least 20 more campers here. But since the golf course doesn’t advertise the availability of the sites, they’re not likely to fill up.

My neighbors keep to themselves. The big fifth wheel’s occupant is normally gone for the day by 5 AM. The other two full-hookup trailers, which look as if they’re about as old as I am, don’t seem to be occupied at all. In the five days I’ve been here, I saw two trucks stop at one of them for the night. Otherwise, they’ve been empty.

I also had an overnight neighbor in the spot on the other side of my camper; they backed in with a big fifth wheel but never bothered to unhook it from their truck. Instead, the man and woman pulled out their golf clubs and hurried over to the pro shop to get in a game of golf. It was afternoon when they arrived, but since the sun doesn’t set here until 8:30 PM, they had plenty of time for their game. They stayed the night, but when I returned from my errands the next day, they were gone.

My trailer is comfortable. It’s 21 feet long, but none of that floor space is taken up with beds. Instead, the beds drop down in their own little tent-like structures on the front and back of the camper. Each bed is slightly smaller than queen sized. Their mattresses are 6-inch foam. Because I only need one bed, I stacked two mattresses on the back bed and put linens on that. The other bed is open, but I’m using it for storage and for Alex’s cage.

The camper is definitely not designed for cold weather. Cold air comes right through its poorly insulated shell and the tents on each end. It has a forced hot air gas furnace that can does a pretty good job keeping up with the cold, but it’s very loud. It gets down into the 40s (F) here at night. I have a small electric heater that’s quiet and I set that up in the camper’s main area each night, mostly to keep Alex warm.

My bed has flannel sheets and three blankets on it. Since I added the third blanket, I’ve been sleeping remarkably well. In fact, when I wake at sunrise (around 5 AM) with Alex’s first words, I feel cosy and refreshed. I don’t want to get out of bed. This is extremely unusual for me — at home, I jump out of bed as soon as I wake.

The camper has a three burner stove, oven, microwave, small double sink, and decent sized refrigerator and freezer. There’s also a tiny bathroom with sink, shower, and standard RV toilet. It has a reasonable amount of cabinet space and storage under the dining area’s benches. Both the dining area and sofa can be converted into beds for short people. There’s a special shelf for a television and an antenna on the roof, but I don’t have a television installed. I haven’t missed it yet. There’s a stereo with a CD slot and an MP3 input, so I can listen to NPR and my iPod. There’s also an air conditioner on the roof. We tested it before I left Wickenburg and it worked extremely well in Arizona’s hot sun. I’ve been told I’ll be using it soon, but so far, the weather has been unseasonably cool here.

My morning routine here is similar to at home. I make coffee with my one-cup electric drip coffee maker and cook Alex’s scrambled eggs in the microwave. I’m trying to blog each morning, but I’ve been busy with other settling in tasks, so I’ve neglected my blogging. Lately, I’ve been getting exercise by walking orchards. I brought my bicycle along and expect to get exercise riding it back and forth to the airport (4 miles) and the town of Quincy (5 miles) on mostly flat farm roads. I did walk around the golf course one morning and I expect to do that more often — perhaps when it’s too hot to ride my bike.

I’ve been eating entirely too much, mostly in the afternoon, when I’m done with my errands for the day. I’m working on getting that under control. I was really hoping to lose weight here — not gain it.

Today, I’m going to Seattle to pick up my helicopter and bring it to Quincy Airport. I’ve rented a hangar for two months, so I’ll spend the morning reassembling my helicopter tow bar and swap out my big trailer tow hitch ball for the smaller one that works with the tow bar. At 10 AM, a golf course employee will be picking me up there and taking me to Wenatchee Airport, where I’ll catch a flight to Sea-Tac. Then a cab to Boeing Field. Later today, I’ll fly up the Columbia River, detouring to meet another pilot at Mattawa before continuing up to Quincy. With luck, I’ll have the helicopter put away in its temporary home by 6 PM.

There’s rain in the forecast for tomorrow and Tuesday. Looks like I might finally get to work.