Sunday, 07JUL, we hit the road in the RV. First issue we run into is that are supplemental breaking system blows one of the Toad’s fuses. Rather than trouble shooting it on the side of the road, we decide to drive the 50 miles without supplemental breaking for the Toad. After fighting US2 traffic thru Monroe, we had an uneventful drive to the Navy’s Jim Creek Community Recreation Area, located on Naval Radio Station (T) Jim Creek. We set up camp & then had a walk about; beautiful facility but no cable/no TV/no wifi & very poor cell phone connection. Dan replaced fuse in Toad. See below internet link for info about this remote military facility.
http://www.navy-radio.com/commsta/jimcreek.htm
https://jimcreek.navylifepnw.com/programs/7f38068f-b802-4308-9def-12471f9a54c6
Monday after lunch we drove to their Twin Lakes boat facility, & we actually saw a Sasquatch on the way. Later that afternoon Dan heads to Rec Building to use website & view their Interpretive Center (aka small museum). This radio station was built to allow worldwide communication with all US naval vessels (even submerged nuclear submarines). Although satellite communications have taken the place of long wave, low frequency, radio communications, the equipment is still maintained & tested as a backup system.
1952 news story - "The antennas now being stretched between the mountains at a height of 2200 feet above the valley floor consists of ten strands varying in length from 1.5 to 2 miles. The antenna system will zigzag between 12 steel towers, 65 to 200 feet in height, atop the parallel tops of two mountains. Each strand of antenna is a one-inch cable of 37 steel-cored phosphor-bronze wires. About 30 miles of the cable is required, in addition to the steel cables suspending the bronze sections at the proper height above the valley. A transmission line 5,000 feet long is required to feed the station's power into the antenna system, there are 23 additional steel "bus" towers in the valley supporting this line. Stretching these antenna cables is providing problems for the contractors, Campbell-Atherton Construction Co. of Seattle and Pomeroy Electrical Contractors Inc of San Francisco. Existing hoisting equipment proved unusable because of the 33 tons of strain on each cable. Two hoists, designed and built at a cost of $37,000, failed to do the job."
The first operational test message was sent on 17NOV53 first test -
"Naval Radio Station Jim Creek had done what it was designed to do, something that had never been done before. For the first time in the history of radio communications a message had been sent directly and instantaneously from a single transmitter to receivers around the globe. The tactical importance of this accomplishment is illustrated by the fact that the replies, sent in higher frequencies, at shorter wavelengths, and with far less power, took much longer to arrive, and many had to be relayed through several transmitters. But Jim Creek's primary mission was not to receive; its mission was to transmit messages quickly and securely to distant military assets, and at that it was highly successful."
Tuesday AM, 09JUL, on the road back to the house in Sultan.
Friday 3AM, 12JUL, we are awoken by a 4.6 earthquake. Saturday AM head to the Ballard Seafood Festival, which we last attended in 2016. Unfortunately the line was too long for Corrie to get her scallops from her favorite food truckL
https://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2016/07/01-31jul16-sultan-wa-upper-tupper-lake.html
https://seafoodfest.org/
Thursday, 18JUL, AM Dan headed to Bremerton to babysit the grandkids, Jaxson & Mason. Friday was dedicated to “athletics” for the boys. In the morning swim lessons, & the afternoon was Brazilian Jiu Jistui lesson. Then back home for a movie & popcorn. Saturday AM, 20JUL, Dan catches ferry home back to the house.
Tuesday AM, 23JUL, Dan takes the RV in for new front tires. On the spur of the moment right after lunch its off to a Ford dealer to look at possible new Toad. Our 2008 GMC Canyon pickup has served us well, but now has over 150K miles (not counting towed miles) & we have had $3K in repairs this yearL! We have been looking at various vehicles but not many vehicles can be flat towed, & the list gets smaller every year.
We were interested in all electric or hybrid but discovered none could be flat towed behind an RV. We then concentrated on small vehicles to lighten the load on the RV & for better fuel economy than the GMC got. We both know how to drive a manual transmission but prefer automatic. Turns out the only vehicle that fit the bill was a Ford Fiesta.
One of the preferred Ford dealers listed by our USAA insurance sent us an email with all the Fiestas & their prices. Buried in that list was an upscale Fiesta ST-Line with $5K in discounts! Why the discounts, probably because car had been on the lot for three months? This put the asking price below the MSRP of the basic/stripped Fiesta? And it was equipped with fog lights, 16 inch alloy wheels, blacked out roof with moon roof, Ford Sync3, heated seats, heated mirrors, 6 speed sport automatic transmission, electronic temp control, & few other small items. After the test drive, we negotiated another $1.2K off the price, & five hours later we left in the new Toad.
Thursday AM, 25JUL, we pick up grandkids, Jaxson & Mason for ten days of babysitting. During that time there were smore’s around the family fire pit; bocce ball & lawn jarts; the new pool finally got lots of use; movies & popcorn after dinner; & Corrie starting teaching the boys Dutch.
Tuesday morning, 30JUL, Corrie headed to Bremerton for girls day out w/daughter Rebecca. Wednesday (last day of July) Corrie returned from Rebecca’s.
Other than trying to keep up w/the boys most of the month Corrie gardened; while Dan volunteered with Habitat for Humanity & did lots of mowing with the push mower. The lawn tractor developed starter problems & was taken in for repair. Forcing Dan to mow a different “section” of the yard to keep upL
