Put Your HORSE on a Leash!

Ok, so it isn’t a horse…but it is tall enough to be a miniature horse, and I would hate to have to carry around a poop bag for this baby.  I don’t understand WHY some people think their dog is too good for a leash.  First noticed this friendly monster as I took Bubba and Skruffy for a walk after we changed sites at the Florence Keller Park…more on the change in a bit.  As I walk by the site this large group of people were at I noticed this HUGE dog, with a short lady holding onto its collar.  Its head came up past her belly button…but the dog did not fight her, or do anything but look at Skruffy and Bubba as they past by.  Skruffy did not see the dog, but at the last minute she smelled it and just started to run over that way until I gave her a small tug.  Bubba did see it, went over by it, but just did nothing but keep walking.

To be fair, in both of these pictures the dog is on a leash.  But it was running around off leash for a long time.  Just prior to this picture I was outside at our new site sitting on the bench.  I look down and it is looking right at me.  Then it looks at its owner, then back at me and takes four steps my way.  Then stops and looks back at the owner, who is oblivious to the dog, and the dog is smart enough to know this, so it takes four more steps, looks back, sees it is clear, and trots over to me.  It is very friendly, and I tell it hello and pet its head, which is eye level with me as I was sitting down.  Then the “master” calls for it, and I tell it to go home and not to come back.  Next time I see it, it is on leash.  However, a few hours later I see it is off leash again.  PEOPLE, you might think YOU have a nice dog…but the dog someone is walking by your site might not think it is so nice, and a fight could come fast and furiously. 

Here is our new site…it is the largest pull through in the campground…site “B”.  Why some are numbered and some lettered beats me…I think this portion of the campground is not as old as the numbered area.  After two nights we decided that we needed to catch some free WiFi to download some movies from Amazon.  We first tried Walmart, but it was very slow…but we did buy just a few things while there.  Then we tried Starbucks, but the Home Depot signal came in better…but I was still thinking we could do better.  We headed over to the Public Library, and before I went inside I tried to find some WiFi…and to my surprise, the State Park Headquarters across the street had a good, fast, strong WiFi, and we sat there for a couple of hours downloaded about six movies.  While there, I decided to finally try a DVD in our GPS Sound System…I had told Marcia I thought a DVD could play in it, and yes, it can.  So we watched “Quiet Man” for about the tenth time in the past couple of years.

You can see between the two pictures above that this pull through is very large…however, if you have a 40-45’ motorhome, keeping your tires on the pavement might be hard to do as it curves around these trees.  However, a truck and trailer combination would work just fine.  We would have pulled into the spot we had the past two nights, but some car with a tent took it from us.  We did not try to save it because we were only 90% sure we would return…and return we did.

All of the sites come with a picnic table which is made of hard plastic or rubber…I am sure it uses recycled materials, it is very firm, very durable, and you don’t get splinters in your butt.  There is a fire ring, and a nice place to pitch a tent if you are so inclined to do so.  All for $15, and there are many water spouts throughout the park, along with toilets…although many of the latter are the kind you see along side the road in work areas…if you know what I mean.  And their trash bins are made to look like tree trunks of cut-down trees…cute, but without signs I think many people don’t even know they are there.

In every RVer’s life comes death…death of your batteries.  I have noticed that our battery charge is getting shorter and shorter.  Once we got down to one of three lights, but after just an hour or so it would go from three lights to two lights on our meter reader…and I have voltage tester that I plug into a 12V outlet and it dropped from 12.6 volts to 12 volts in less than an hour with very little juice being used by us.  In normal use we could stay above 12.4 volts for a few hours.  So instead of waiting for a full death, I decided to get new batteries today (Saturday).  Being so close to Oregon, where not sales tax exist and typically cheaper prices, we headed to Brookings to Fred Myer.  This Fred Myer was as big as the one in Soldotna Alaska that we used a lot last year, but the parking was smaller…go figure.  However, they only had ONE of the Interstate batteries that I wanted…but as luck would have it, there is a place right across US 101 from Fred Myer called Carpenter Point S Tire & Auto Service, and they had two of the batteries I wanted.  Total price was $295, but we will get $30 back on Monday when we return the old batteries.  Went up to the rest area just north of Brookings where I “thought” we were going to change the batteries.  Thought about it and remembered a Passport America park just south of the border that we had been to before, so I called Salmon Harbor Resort (I hate when they use that resort name when they are nothing but a park), and they had one last spot that we could have for $19 per night.  So we turned south, declared no fruits or fire wood at the border check, and we pulled into the park in less than 20 minutes.  After resting for about an hour I took out the old batteries and put in the new…An hour later we were back in business with power.

    

Salmon Harbor has some nice views…especially if you are one of the dozen lucky enough ones to get the waterfront spaces as seen in the picture above-right.  For everyone else, you are stuck in the other area which has little space, little privacy.  For us, however, we just wanted to get the batteries installed and give them a nice charge before we camp in more secluded areas.  Sunday night we will most likely stay at the Lucky 7 Casino and give the new batteries a try.

This is the office, game room, etc.  They have laundry, showers, and about 2/3rds of the sites have mobile homes in them.  Salmon Harbor has been a family-run business since 1989, but eight months ago the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation (which owns the casino) purchased the Salmon Harbor Resort and some other surrounding lands, about 60 acres in total, which are historical lands of the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation.  For now, nothing has changed in the park…put people who have lived in the park for a long time are worried that it will shut down.  This area along the shoreline was a major village of the Tolowa Dee-ni’, there was a large Native American city in the area which was destroyed in 1853.  I think soon the whole area will have a new name…Xaa-wan’-k’wvt Village and Resort.