Nov. 30 to Dec. 6, 2011

Fernley/Fallon, NV: Worked at amazon.com five, 10-hour days. Bob had two days with 1/2 hour overtime, so I waited for him in the lunchroom. 

One night was super windy and, once again, our whole unit shook and wind whistled in the windows. Thankfully, this has only happened twice since we've been here.

Thursday night we went to Pizza Barn for BBQ Chicken pizza with pineapple and Hefeweizen beer (on tap). Bob got to watch the Seahawks football game while I marveled at the new jukebox (completely computerized with the newest songs headlined on the screen, interchanged with the song currently playing followed by the top picks. OK, I was a little bored.).

Sunday night we went to Black Bear Diner for dinner. I ate pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, corn muffin and sauteed veggies. Bob had the Asian chicken wrap and helped me eat my potatoes and veggies. After dinner we went to Lowe's so we could buy a kit to heat our fresh water hose. (We don't want a frozen fresh water hose again!)

Sunday night the temperature got down to zero (0) F. Luckily we had filled our fresh water tank and removed the fresh water hose overnight. Bob was going to put on the hose heater on Monday. However, when Bob wanted to hook the fresh water hose up in the morning, the spigot was frozen, even though it has a heater on it. We called the RV Park maintenance guy.  

During the night, for some reason known only to the water spigot and electricity hookup box, the GFCI switch had tripped off. Once the maintenance guy figured that out and hit the switch, he told us to wait 10-15 minutes before we tried to turn on the city water. After 20 minutes, it worked like a charm.

Here's our view of the RV Park.

I did laundry, hung out in the 5er, and cooked spaghetti dinner. 

Bob's project for the day was to connect the heater wire to the fresh water hose and insulate it, then attach it back to the 5er so our hose won't freeze. 

When he went to Ace, he bought a special black hose which advertised it is good for putting a heating wire on. He spent the better part of the afternoon outside in very cold temperatures putting the heating wire on the hose, wrapping the hose in fiberglass insulation, wrapping that with plastic wrap, then putting foam insulation over all that, followed by duct tape. We were sure this solution would last us for years to come in cold weather.


At 7:45 a.m. this morning, someone knocked on our door. We were still asleep. Bob jumped up, got dressed and answered the door. A lady was out there to tell us we had water gushing from the side of our rig. 

Bob bundled up as the temperature was about 9-10 degrees F. He had to detach the insulated hose from the city water and water intake to the 5er. Icicles had formed on the outside of our rig where the water cascaded down. 

Ice and icicles!

Water also went under our rig and throughout our part of the RV Park, causing ice to form on the dirt road and under our 5er. 

Water from our leaking hose!

Our space in the park. Isn't it a beautiful day?

Brrr. Poor Bob. He kept coming back into the RV to run his hands under warm water to thaw them out.


To get to the bottom of the problem, he had to cut apart all his hard work from yesterday, all the way down to the hose. The hose had apparently frozen and split which caused the city water to gush out. We don't know how the hose froze as the heating wire has a light which shows it's working PLUS the fact he had the hose wrapped with two types of insulation. Back to the drawing board. We are learning as we go. 


Ft. Churchill State Historic Park, Tuesday, Dec. 6: Today we went back to Ft. Churchill with some friends who really wanted to see it and go hiking with us. After our tour of the little museum, we did a four-mile, round-trip hike through the ruins of the fort, along the Carson River and through some sagebrush to Buckland Station. 

Our friends Bill and Jeanette.

Buckland Ditch is frozen.

Carson River

Buckland's Station

The day was sunny and about 45 degrees with no wind blowing. We bundled up, but the sun beating on our dark clothing warmed us quite nicely without getting too hot. I ended up unzipping my coat, taking off my mittens and unwrapping my scarf (thank you, Gina) from around my neck. On our hike we saw quail, cottontails and a number of jackrabbits bounding out of our way. 


After our hike at Ft. Churchill, we drove a 16-mile, gravel road scenic route to Dayton. We saw a coyote out in a field of cows. We think the coyote was after rabbits...it had no interest in trying to bring down a cow or calf.

Ft. Churchill and Dayton were both on the Pony Express Route and the scenic route followed that route. At Dayton, we went to Dayton State Park and learned the history of stamp mills used to extract silver from quartz.

For dinner, we went to Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant in Dayton and had a very good dinner.


Tomorrow we go back on 10-hour work days.