:: Winthrop Washington in September ::

:: Since we just bought our motor home at the beginning of August, we didn't really have a whole lot of Summer left, so we decided that we would head out of town a couple weeks into September to enjoy the rest of the Summer sun ::

:: We headed through the cascade loop and ended up in a windy little gold mining town called Winthrop,WA. It's a wonderful little town, and the night before we left we had booked a site at the Winthrop KOA - I was delighted, we had a pool, local convenience store and free wireless Internet; what more could a girl ask for!?!?! ::

:: Here's Jacob in town with his $1 - waiting to get to the candy store to purchase something special ::

:: We were headed into town in the motor home on the first morning we were there, and all of a sudden Mr. L said there were no brakes, he was pressing the gas and the brakes were locked. Not locked off, but locked on. So we pulled over to the side of the road to try and see if it was a quick remedy. A few minutes into being at the side of the road a light blue old Chevy pulled up, with an old silver haired man and woman in it. "Ya havin' car troubles?" he asked, Mr. L responded " my brakes seem to be seized". The old man asked if we had any tools, that we did, he then proceeded to tell us to bleed the brake line and gave Mr. L the exact place that the nut was in to bleed the brakes. Mr. Silver haired man from heaven, drove away and we bled the brakes. We made it into town to find out that the only repair shop in town was too little to do anything with our seemingly big problem ::

:: So we head out of town to the RV parking lot and I take the kids to the park while Mr. L checks out the possible sources of the seizing brakes. Every time he would bleed the line, we drive for a little and they would get hard again and we'd have to bleed the line again...this happened aprox. every 2 km's. He couldn't figure out what to do so we called my parents to see if they could find a larger outlet that could help us with our big problem. They did -- 8 miles away there was a local Les Schwab that would be able to handle the size of truck we have. But 8 miles, is a fair distance from us especially when our brakes would only give us 2 km's until we had to bleed them again - because they wouldn't let us accelerate any faster ::

:: Once we figured out that we would have to drive to the next town for any assistance, we decided to make the best of our very hot 31+ day and walk into town and enjoy the day - we walked the shops, read about the town and enjoyed ice cream...all in all it was a very nice relaxing afternoon. Then around 3:00 we headed back to the motor home and started out for the next town, and hopefully an easy fix ::

:: We had to bleed the brakes multiple times on the way to Les Schwab but we made it there in one piece. Thank goodness! Once we got to Les Schwab they fed us a whole bunch of Bologna that we would have to replace our whole braking system etc. etc. etc. Which we fell for none of it, we're from the big city, you small town people can't pull that over on us! So we sat in the Les Schwab while they tried to diagnose the real problem. That took at least 1.5 hours and then they came back and said it was a power boost...it wasn't the actual breaks but a system that controlled the fluid that assisted the breaks {or something like that}. And the part would cost $2000 plus labor to install it. And the part wouldn't be in for at least a week. Oy ::

:: Here's Jacob watching a show on the lap top and eating Les Schwab popcorn while we were waiting for the diagnosis ::

:: While we were at the Les Schwab we had free Internet so we Skyped with my parents trying to figure out a better plan to replace the power booster. Mr. L along with my Dad executed a plan that would cost much less than the $2500 USD that we would have had to spend at Les Schwab. My parents would bring some extra tools, pick up the parts and drive the three hours to our campsite and the following day Mr. L & my dad would change the part. My parent's picked up our van {in case the plan didn't work and we needed to leave the motor home in Winthrop} and went to the local auto supply in Bellingham, picked up two different power boosters {to ensure we had the right one}. We in the meantime drove back to the KOA, again bleeding the brakes every few km's. Mr. L proceeded to log onto the Internet and research research research how to fix our problem ::

:: Here are the boys. I gave Mr. L a break and went for a walk while he tried to figure out what the heck to do, this was when we were still at Les Schwab ::

:: We were so thankful for so many things: that this didn't happen when we were driving at night on the cascade hwy, that we had a pool at the KOA so we had some relief from the weather, that we had free internet and that my parents were available to bring down the parts for us, seriously, it wasn't the most wonderful situation -- but it couldn't have been better, given the circumstances! ::

:: Here are our boys, discussing something deep after we arrived back at the site from Les Schwab :::: My parents arrived just in time for the campfire on Saturday night ::

:: The next day Mr. L & my dad got started on the power boost project, 4 hours later, they were done, the truck had been test driven and we were good to go! And the cost of replacing the part...just over $300 that's including the gas to get my parents to us! Not too shabby eh!?!?! So after the job was done the guys headed to the pool to relax a little before we started the trek home ::

:: This hot air balloon floated over our breakfast table on Sunday morning, what a beautiful site for us - I bet their view was incredible! ::

:: Cole & Mr. L enjoying the pool ::

:: The boys getting ready to jump into the pool again ::


:: Sunday afternoon we headed for the scenic drive back through the cascades, it was a beautiful drive home. Our nerves were pretty fried by the whole episode with the brakes, but all in all we really enjoyed ourselves and made the best of a pretty crappy situation ::

:: These are some of the shots from the view on the way through the cascades ::

:: This was the last hurrah with our motor home for the Summer, bitter sweet - but good memories all the same...we can't wait to get out in it again in May! A big huge thanks to my parents for helping us out, we couldn't have done it without you! ::

:: Now back to reality, Jacob starting school and getting into the swing of life! ::