Breezy Hills for a Few Weeks

 The drive from Columbia Park to Breezy Hills was a grueling one... almost 45 minutes in nice weather... we did arrive safely though.

Last year I made reservations for this year, and chose to spice it up a bit, moving to a different section of the campground.

We are located on the shore of the collection pond, which is behind and to the right in the bottom photo.

This is one view out of our "Clam" canopy. 

The interesting part about being at this site is the company we keep... bull frogs. We have already figured out there are 5 or 6 that love to chat throughout the night, and I have identified them as such: a banjo with a broken string, a washing machine in the agitation cycle, two light sabers battling, a honking goose, and a dog trying to hack up something stuck in its throat.

The true excitement began just after we arrived and I used our toilet. For those that do not currently have an RV, this may seem strange to you... constant flow.

INDOOR PLUMBING REMOVED

You see, our toilet has a foot valve for flushing and filling the bowl. The temporary fix was to turn on the water pump only when we needed to flush, but this causes a concern when trying to use the sinks... solution... stick the bowl cleaning brush in the toilet to keep the ball valve open so the water doesn't over flow the bowl.

Having identified the problem with the toilet, I went to buy the necessary repair part. This led to the next concern... filling the holding tank, and the drain valve is closed. Is anyone seeing the concern? Well, while I was out achieving my goal, Carol went about her business cleaning, which required the use of water. She put the bowl cleaning brush in the toilet, and marched on smartly. Well.... when the tank can't hold any more water what will happen... yes, the bowl filled up, and preceded to travel out of the bathroom, down the stairs, and into the living room. Besides putting our infantry of towels into action, I broke out our portable carpet cleaner, and put it into action.

Having never replaced a water valve on an RV toilet, I called in a mobile repair tech to show me the way... at a price of course... but the job was completed without excess frustration. All smiles.

All is looking good until hiccup number two. We noticed that the flies were a bit heavy, so we decided to bring out one of our fly catchers and put it outside. if you have used a fly catcher, they work great. The way they work is through a dissolvable packet of chemicals and organics in water. You partially fill the container with water, then add the packet, and screw on the lid. The key is to ensure the lid is securely on the container... oops. While carrying the container the lid came off and some of the contents hit the carpet... no problem, tighten the lid and out the door we go, all good, no worse for wear.

No worse for wear didn't last too long. You see, I didn't explain to you that the chemical make up of that packet, smells like dead possum, or something just as bad. Later into the evening and into the next morning we noticed an unusual amount of flies in the house. With some thought, it dawned on me that we have the enticing scent of death on our living room carpet. Guess what got put into service again... that's right, the portable carpet cleaners. I cleaned the area of such great interest, and we left for the day to celebrate our granddaughter's birthday. 

Got back home, no Amityville horror, in other words, no flies.

We thought we would try out some of the mosquito repellant tricks from the internet.

This here is coffee grounds. Fresh or dry used grounds can be used. The recipe we followed suggested a bit of lighter fluid on the grounds, which heats up the grounds to a smoldering state, putting out smoke the mosquitos do not not like. It appeared to work, we  didn't get bit while we were sitting outside.

Not all days were play, although most were. Here is a project I played with... driven by a thought Carol had about making space on the bathroom sink counter.

Before, we had the brushes and mirror sitting on the counter in a basket. Carol was looking for another way to store them, and I had the idea to use coat hooks... they travel well. 

This is from our outing to the Kristmas Kringle Shoppe in Fond du Lac. (https://shop.kristmaskringle.com). The store is open year-round.

There is always time for a campfire between the rain drops.

My other project was cleaning the outside of the trailer. You see, the trailer hasn't had a good washing since our stay in Wyoming in May. The poor trailer has been several snow showers, heavy rain, lotta dust and dirt. Most campgrounds do not allow the washing of any vehicles... but for $10.00 and permission from the owner... I was able to wash our trailer.

Our last week here is during the Experimental Aircraft Airventure (EAA). Carol and I decided not to visit the show, more because I am not a big crowd kind of person. 

We figured that we got enough of a show just sitting by the fire... and looking up. The planes took off about 8 miles from the campground, and flew over us.

The weather was pretty good to us, except for air quality.

It is hard to tell in the photo that the setting sun is an orange ball falling from the sky, but it did. At one point the smoke was heavy enough that the moon was a brilliant orange too. The smoke was still survivable though.

We leave on my birthday to head west to South Dakota, via Wisconsin, and Minnesota.