Day 8 – July 11th – Doyles Station to Badger, NL

Day 8 – July 11^th – Grand Codroy, near Doyles Station to Catamaran Campground near Badger, NL

Very pleasant drive to Catamaran Campground, did not see any wildlife, but we know they are here, must be hiding in the bush, that’s OK J. Much of the terrain reminds us of sections on northern Ontario, especially the areas between Kapuskasing and White River.

Vance and Joan were off to Fortress Louisburg for the day and said that they really enjoyed it except for the black flies and cool temperatures!

We had three “bits of excitement” after arriving at the park, the first one was to find that there was no water pressure, they run off artesian wells here and the foot valve for the pump had to be replaced, should be all better by 6:30 – no big deal.

The second “bit of excitement” was that the Kitchen slide would not open.  All it would do is ratchet (click, click, click).  Well time to pull down the coreplast and take a look.  Piece of cake right? Just get the battery operated drill and zip, zip right? Wrong!

Drill batteries are flat from lack of use (note to self about charging drill batteries before leaving home).  Although it took a little longer, I removed the screws and took down the coreplast.  Off with the motor and gear box and removed the clutch.  It had a spring clip that was a pain to remove and re-install (hmm, had spring clip pliers at home that woud do the job in seconds – just can’t bring everything).  Did the fix hopefully, tried it and seemed to work, however, now do I put the slide out and not have it come in which would keep us here or leave it in and be able to travel, hmmm…..  Decision was to leave it in, we can still access the fridge and the cupboards to get a few things, no big deal.  We will wait until we get much closer to St. John’s just in case things don’t work. The good news from all of this is that the belly was totally dry, meaning no leakes and no outside water migration, Yea!!

While closing the belly panels back up we started to hear major thunder, and it started to get overcast, oh, oh!  Well a few rain drops fell and that was it, good!! We thought it had missed us, however it hit Grand Falls/Windsor which is not too far east of us.  Evidently the storm was significant enough to take out the generating station and knock out power to what we were told was a large part of the area including our Catamaram Campground.  We took a walk and was informed that the power should be back on by 8:30.  So we just sat and enjoyed the quiet. Also, of course with no power the staff could not finish the installation of the new foot valve and pressurize the water system. Another reason to carry a bit of water in the Ti’s fresh water tank at all times.

Power came back on about 10:00, and the water pressure was back up to snuff a short time after that.

Off to King’s Point tomorrow for a view of some waterfalls.