CULVER KOA AND TRUCK REPAIRS

Here I sit in the laundry at a KOA. We didn’t plan to stay here for two days, but the truck had a different idea. As we were climbing up Blue Box Pass a truck went by us and we thought that it was making a terrible noise. We thought he blew a tire; however, as we continued up the steep road, we discovered it was US making that noise. There was a rest stop at the summit. We stopped, took off the bikes, and looked up and down the truck. We could not see any problems; so we called Travis, our handy dandy repairman. Steve did all the things Travis said to do and couldn’t find any major problems.

After lunch we set out again on our way. Travis found us a Ford garage in Madras, OR, that was about 45 miles away. The noise continued when we accelerated to go up the hills and as there were many, we just held our breath. I called the Ford garage to inform them of our arrival. The serviceman was very nice and sent a mechanic out right away to ride with Steve. The diagnosis was a disintegrating catalytic converter. We are so lucky that we have 2! The parts needed to be ordered so we traveled 6 miles to the KOA for the night. We took the truck in the next day and the repairs were made. Hopefully all will go well and we will continue on our adventure.

On our way to Culver, OR, we passed by Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson. They are snow covered as they are about 12,000 or so feet high. The view was hazy because the farmers in the area are burning their fields after the summer crops have been harvested. We saw a tractor pulling this contraption, fed by propane, with fire coming out and burning the land. That is a job I wouldn’t volunteer for…