Enough food and snacks for 2 weeks, just in case Oregon is out when we get there
Friday morning was hectic. It was the 13th of June and while I’m not a superstitious guy, something important did go ‘clunk’. Packing was a little behind for a 1pm boat departure but not bad. No worse that it has been in the past. But then it happened….something in the fridge went “click…..click” and no more working fridge. For those not in the know, I use a fridge when offroading because, well, I can. It’s like a cooler but better, especially for this 10 day trip to the desert. The fridge is an Engel 45 which can freeze or just refrigerate a week’s worth of food. It runs on both AC and DC and it’s the DC side of things that was giving me a fit.
Good wind and dust protection
I had put in a new always-on cigarette lighter plug in the battery box moments before plugging in the fridge. It seems something was wrong with that setup as evident by the clicks. Changing to a new plug didn’t help so I did the best with what I had……and went to the store to buy an inverter. I was wary at first about using an inverter as it uses more energy than need be; to transfer DC current to AC then back again at the fridge. Plus the unit I bought had a fan that stayed on the whole time. I was afraid I’d draw the battery down over night; a worry that was later found to be baseless.
OK then! It’s actually a boring day after this. I picked Sabrina up and we caught the 1:30 boat. Much to our surprise a crazy lady was banging on our window at the dock. It was Kim! She had just got off the ferry and saw us heading over and said a quick goodbye/good luck before we drive on. It was nice to see her before we left!
From the ferry we picked up a pair of sunglasses, socks, pink Klean Kanteen and a buff for Sabrina to help keep the anticipated dust out. Slog through traffic…..end up at Kevan’s place to pick
up the camping reservations for the night. More slogging. Eeek, traffic stinks. Finally we make it out of town on I-90 heading for I-82 then Hwy 97 south to Bend. Our campsite for the night, arriving at 10:30pm, was at Tumalo State Park, site A79, a fine spot for a rooftop tent to park. Sabrina was a great help getting things setup and we were soon off to the slumber. The day was easy once we were on the road. Sabrina is a great roadtrip companion….no stops for over 7 hours! She’s a trooper and fun to be with in the truck.