Mt. Rainier, WA, pow wow, and fridge repair

July 13-15, 2011

On July 13th, I left Patt’s house and headed to Mt. St. Helen’s.  When I got there it was raining and very cloudy so I was not able to see the mountain, and it was not expected to clear for several days, so I headed towards Mt. Rainier.

Photos of Mt. Ranier and Elbe, Washington

Arriving at Mt. Rainier I found a campground and got a campsite. There was no water or electric hookups, and it was supposed to get down in the 40’s at night. They only allow generator use from 8-10 a.m., noon to 2 p.m., and 5-7 p.m.   They do sell firewood so warmth comes only from warm blankets or a fire.  It got down to 54 degrees in my camper every morning and it was in the mid 60s when I went to bed at night.

I drove around part of the park and got to Paradise where the snow was really still very high, I think it was over 10′.  The ranger said the record snowfall at Mt. Rainier was I think in the 1980s at 1122 inches or something like that. This year it was a little over 900 inches.  I am using a friends laptop so I don’t have my article to post today.  When I get my laptop hooked up, I will post my notes  and photos from Mt. Rainier.  I did attend 3 evening ranger talks and learned about the trails, plants, and mountain.  Very interesting.  Only animals spotted were deer and chipmunks.

The ranger said that it is the dry season at Mt. Rainier… they could have fooled me. For the 3 plus days I was there it was rainy, cold, and drizzly almost the entire time. The wildflowers are really pretty and just starting to bloom.  They fields where they grow in mass are still under heavy blankets of snow.

By the way, I am no longer blue, it wore off in about 3 days.  I defrosted my fridge Monday night at Patt’s house, and after being at Mt. Rainier I noticed that my fridge was not really cooling the temp inside like it should have.  I was pretty level, so that was not the issue. I restarted it on gas, that didn’t work, ran the generator, etc. Nothing worked, so today, Friday, June 15th I drove to Camping World and had them look at the fridge.  All my frozen food thawed, so it’s going in the trash.  I was told that the cooling unit is not working, and that it is almost the same cost to replace the fridge than just the cooling unit.  Here is another LARGE expense not planned, but necessary.  It looks like the fridge was installed in the camper before it was finished. Camping World told me they would most probably have to remove my large side window to get the old fridge out and the new one in.  More $$$ for labor.  I’m guessing this fridge is the original 1998 one.

Timing is okay, I am at a pow wows mostly for the next few weeks helping my friend.  I can use his fridge and ice chest for a while. It seems that there is a Camping World in Burlington, WA near the pow wows the end of July and beginning of August, so the store there will have the fridge for me, hopefully on August 2nd and I will go get it installed and have to buy new food and stock the fridge.  Once again, the timing is okay.  At least it’s just a fridge and I can still go where I want and then get it installed later on.

Today I arrived in Seattle at Discovery Park for a pow wow.  After helping Ron set up his booth, we went out and had a really nice seafood dinner overlooking the boats in the marina.

After this pow wow, next weekend there is one in Auburn, WA, then the last week of July in LaConner, WA. That’s about it for now. More soon.

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