I am finally settled in at Lake Harriet for the summer. I have only moved my rig 3 times in the same campsite since I have been here. I was backed in when I first got here, but I didn’t have a good view of the river. I moved much closer on my second move and had a great view of the water coming around the curve in the river. But the trees blocked the direct sunlight on my solar panels. I couldn’t really tell until the rain finally stopped. It had rained up here for over a week so there wasn’t much sun to speak of anyway.

Then when the sun started shining again I got up on the roof to see if I was getting full sun. Only one panel was in the sun due to the tree branches in the way. I then decided to move it to it’s present spot where for a few hours a day I get full sun on my panels.

When it was raining I was forced to use my generator for an hour or two to keep my batteries charged up. Even then I never did get a full charge. When I moved to the last spot I checked my fuel level and it was just a bit over ¼ full. I had filled up in Estacada on the way up here, which is 31 miles down hill from my campsite. At this rate I would be buying gas all the time to keep my batteries charged. Hopefully this new setup will work for me without having to replenish gasoline.

Chica is getting used to this area and all it’s different smells. We go for walks in the afternoon around the campground. Most people are pretty good about keeping their dogs on leashes and of course I also have to follow the rules. On an occasional day when there are no campers in the campground I will let her off leash for a minute or two. She likes to run around but always stays close by. She is starting to see new people come into the campground every day and is getting better at barking at them.

I have a great support team that gets me anything I need. They are also good at delivering firewood when I get low and water every two weeks. I have a sewer at my campsite, but getting water from a manual hand-pump would be tough. My area manager comes by once a week to check on me.

I have use of the front-load washers and dryers on Wednesday at Timothy Lake about 10 miles from here (7 miles on gravel) so I usually run up there. I can also get a nice long hot shower as well. The main reason is to get on the PGE Intranet site. I cannot access it using Wi-Fi but have to get on at one of their computers. Then I can check out all payroll information, sign-up for medical, dental and vision care and 401K. I also take my own computer to download my email and check my accounts. However my phone doesn’t work there. Plus it is always nice to talk with the camp hosts around the Timothy Lake area and see how things are going with them.

I have to go into Gresham, OR for a Walmart stop to refill my prescriptions. That means driving to Estacada, then north to Sandy and northwest to Gresham. I drove through Sandy last week and it is a fairly big town with lots of big stores. They have a Fred Meyer store there. I am used to shopping there as I shopped at one in Washington last year. Most of the time I will just take a day and drive to Estacada to take care of my weekly business. I usually spend a few hours in the Estacada library where I was able to get a library card. I can also use their Wi-Fi to also download email and check Internet stuff.  I also try to get caught up on telephone calls and answering voice mail. They also have an Ace Hardware Store and a Harvest Market where I do most of my shopping. Just outside of the market is a spot where I can turn in my recyclables for credit to be used in the market. It is not a huge market, but have most everything I need and are very friendly.

It was very busy on Memorial Day weekend with all the campsites full with lots of families. This past week I only had a couple of campers, but it looks like every weekend from here on will be busy. All the reservations are full and the 4 walk-in sites usually fill up by Thursday. My day use are is usually full with a lot of families out for a picnic and lots of fisherman. Many of the people that come to this campground have been coming here since they were little kids. One guy told me was 58 and his family first brought him here when he was 7. He has returned every year since then. I get the same story from many people.

The fishing up here is fantastic. They stock it with trout almost every week and last week they stocked it with 2,000 legal trout and 125 trophy rainbow trout 16 inches or more. One of my campers had 3 trophy trout that he showed me. WOW were they beauties. I wish I had taken a pic.

While in Sandy I will pick up some fishing gear at Fred Meyer’s and get me a license and try my hand. I got a book at the library all about trout fishing and have been watching a lot of the guys fish off the shore. I can’t wait to cast my line and nab on of those trophy’s!

Sorry for no pics, but I have had problems with my Photo software and all the pics I took and uploaded are no longer there.  I will have to upload them again, but unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera with me into town.  So I will catch up next week.

My grandson is flying up here on July 5 and staying a couple of days.  I am really looking forward to that.

I promise to write more detail next week with lots of pics.  I hate not having Internet.