Focht Family Blog

I used to think I would never want to live where it snowed. I really love it here and am enjoying the snow! This is the perfect spot. About 20 miles in one way there is a town where there is no snow and 30 miles the other way is so much snow that the pass has been closed because of avalanches the last two days. On Sunday afternoon we decided to drive up to the mountains and take the kids tubing. However, we drove around the parking lots for a long time without finding a spot and ended up going to get some gas and planned to come back and try again at finding a parking spot. This is a HUGE ski area and there were people there to ski and snowboard as well as the tubing. While at the gas station we saw sleds for sale and thought that maybe we would just buy three and find a hill off the road since we saw many people doing this. Another family told us not to bother with the tubing because they only had one size of tubes and the kids would fall through them so that sealed it. They gave us directions to a public sledding hill and we bought three plastic sleds and headed out. Here is a picture of Samantha and Timmy throwing snow at me while we were getting everyone out to go to the hill.

Here is Nathan helping Joshua get his gloves on.

I couldn’t get a picture of us actually sledding since I was sledding with the kids. Timmy and Samantha both took two solo trips at the end but the rest of the day it was one adult with a kid in front of them going down the hill. It was my first time sledding (I feel so deprived). Timmy wants to go skiing so maybe next year we will give that a try. I have been skiing a couple of times. After we were done sledding we took a picture of the kids sitting on the sleds and asked a nice man that was working at the hill to take a picture of all of us.

I almost made it through the day without falling but when we were getting into the car, I loaded the sleds into the trunk and went to close the trunk. I didn’t have any traction with my sneakers so when I pulled down on the door, I slid under the car. My mother-in-law took a picture while Samantha was trying to help me up.

It took me a few minutes to stop laughing so I could get back out from under the car. :)

During the night we had snow falling and didn’t realize it so this is what we woke up to Monday morning.

Samantha took advantage of the snow and built a snow family on one of the sleds complete with a dog.

We were worried that we wouldn’t be able to get out of the campground but by lunchtime we headed out. Nathan had to meet with a client so while he worked we took the kids to the Children’s Museum. I will put that in the next post.

After the Space Needle we walked over to the Pacific Science Center. It is right next to the Space Needle. They have a whole bunch of things in the same area. There is also an amusement park, a children’s museum and a food court in the same area. I am really enjoying our membership to Boonshoft in Ohio. We all got in for free with the reciprocity program. The first building had dinosaurs in it. Both of the boys found a footprint and tried it on for size.

In the second building there were a lot of things that had to do with space. There were displays of soda cans that weighed different amounts and showed what they would weigh on different planets. They also showed how many Earths would fit in one Jupiter and how many Jupiters fit into the Sun. That was humbling to see how small the Earth is in comparison. While in that building, Joshua found a space capsule to play in.

Samantha and Timmy were busy building aliens.

After this building we went into one that had a live bug zoo and a butterfly house. Timmy and Joshua both got to pet a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. There were also sections where they got to put together bugs. Joshua decided to take his ant for a walk after it was put together.

After the bugs, Nathan helped the kids devise a path to roll a ball down. They had a lot of fun learning what happens you put boards in various places and how it affects the path the ball takes.

The next building had a few more animals. They had some snakes, a display of naked mole rats, and a tide pool area that had starfish, anemones, and sea urchins that the kids could touch. They also had a water area they could play in. We didn’t let them play that long since it was freezing temperatures outside and we didn’t want them wet.

The last area in the science center was an area where you could test your strength and learn about your body and your senses. Timmy ended his day by playing tic-tac-toe with a robot. He thought that was pretty cool. We then went to the food court and headed back to the RV.

I have had a busy week and we have had a visitor for the last few days so I am behind on updating the blog. I am going to try to catch up on our week’s adventures tonight. When we got to Seattle I told Samantha that she needed to work really hard this week to get our schoolwork done because we had a surprise for them at the end of the week. Thursday night after the kids were asleep, Nathan’s mom arrived for a visit. I told the kids that they would have a surprise in the living room when they woke up on Friday. Samantha was up first and when she found grandma in the living room her first question was “Where are we?” Apparently she thought we have driven to GA while she was asleep! :)

The first place we went on Saturday was the Space Needle. It was very cold and windy up top.

After looking outside for a bit the kids and mom decided that watching from inside while eating snacks was a better idea. :)

Nathan, Barbara and I each took a lap around the top so we could see all of the scenery and take some pictures. Unfortunately you cannot see the mountains very clearly but it was beautiful to look out and over the city to see snow crested mountains in the distance. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

The part was in by 8:00 and it was repaired quickly. We picked up a rental car in Tacoma because we weren’t sure that we could make it to the local company before it closed. We have decided we need to start checking in while it is still light because it seems like we always end up setting up in the dark. We have two pull-thrus next to each other and we parked mom backwards so our doors are facing each other. It is cold and there is snow on the ground but the roads were all clear.

Today we spent most of our day on the side of the road. We stayed at a Walmart last night and got an early start today. We were going to try to make it all the way to Seattle by tonight. However, about an hour from the Oregon border while we were still in California we heard a pop followed by a hissing noise. Nathan didn’t hear the noise but then noticed that he was losing power although the engine was still running and there were no alarms. I told him it sounded like a hose had blown.

We pulled off onto an exit but it didn’t look like there was anything on the road but snow so we limped back up the on ramp and parked on the side. We put some flares out (thanks to the police at our last breakdown) and put the slide out enough to open the access panel. When Nathan opened it we found that a metal elbow had been blown off of a hose. It was the turbo so without it we would not have enough power to get up any of the mountains unless we were going about 4 miles an hour! We called Spartan and all they would do is send a tow truck. They wouldn’t get us a flatbed tow and said we would have to sign a release for them to tow us. After the last one damaged our coach we didn’t want to do that.

We called Cummins and tried to track down the part so Nathan could fix it on the side of the road. We found one that said they had it in Oregon. We arranged for a courier to pick it up and bring it to us. When the man got to the shop to give the part to the courier he found out that although the computer said he had it, he did not. He said he could have one at his shop first thing in the morning. He arranged for a tow truck to come and get us and while we were waiting Nathan decided to try to patch the problem. Here is a picture of the elbow that blew off after Nathan patched it. The rim was sheared off when it blew so Nathan had to use some duct tape and tighten the collar a bit more to get it to hold.

Nathan thinks it blew because it is rubbing against the metal plate on the side and when the engine is flexing on the bouncy roads it was putting to much pressure on it. He thinks when they put the new engine in they didn’t check to see where everything was rubbing when they replaced all of the hoses. If there is something good that has come out of it, I noticed that one of the bolts on another collar was rubbing a hole in one of the air conditioner hoses, so we can get that fixed as well. This is a picture of the hose after Nathan moved the collar and taped the hole that was starting to develop from the rub.

We did a few trials of speeding up the ramp and backing back down. There was some air escaping around the elbow because we could hear hissing but the elbow held up to the pressure. We tried going up one mountain pass and when we made it over we canceled the tow truck and decided to limp to Oregon to get the part. The good part is that so far on this breakdown we haven’t had to vacate the RV. On the way to Oregon we found a place with a wide pull-off that had lots of snow so we stopped so the kids could see it. Timmy was up front but for some reason the other two did not answer when I called them multiple times to come out in the snow. So… here is Timmy playing in the snow.

Here is a picture of the trees that were behind Timmy while he was playing.

By this time we were starting to get into flurries and we were glad we weren’t being towed after dark in this weather. Here is a picture of the snow hitting our windshield and a picture of some beautiful snowy scenery we were driving by.

After we got into the town in Oregon we were driving to we stopped at a mall and walked around and ate dinner. We then drove to Cummins and parked for the night. Hopefully when we get up the part will be here and we can repair and get out of here in a timely manner so we can make it to Seattle tomorrow.