July 6 through 8

What an adventure this visit was! Nora and I went camping with the Junction City/Harrisburg Church group. But before that could happen, I had to get to Kalama or exit 32 on I-5 in Washington to pick her up. On the way to get Nora, the faithful truck broke down in Albany, 30 miles from Harrisburg . Suddenly I had zero oil pressure while driving 65 mph on the freeway. I pulled over and decided that it was my oil pump that had finally failed. Sometimes failing oil pumps will pump fresh oil better compared to more used oil, so I decided to drain out two quarts and replace them with the two fresh quarts on hand. This didn't work and time was ticking away. It was clear that I had to do something else, so I decided that I'd limp the truck to the next exit, which was in sight, find a place to park then call a rental car agency. Within thirty minutes, I was back on the road on my way to get Nora in a rental car. I made it with time to spare.

On the way back from Kalama, I decided that I'd try one more thing before giving up altogether on the oil pump in the truck. I could change the oil putting some additive in to make it thicker. It worked! The oil pressure slowly came up to an acceptable range. It was too late in the day to return the rental car, and we had a campout to get to, so I left the rental car at the Phoenix Suites Hotel in Albany expecting to call the next morning and telling them where it was.

The truck engine drove fine with the thick oil. Nora and I had some dinner and proceeded on to the campout. When we arrived, the Roger's family had already set up our tent. Nora helped me put our beds into the tent. It was still daylight at camp Alpine, but we didn't see anyone yet that we recognized, not even the Rogers. Other Wards were also having their campouts and some were playing volleyball, others were playing football, and others were simply sitting and talking in groups. Nora wanted to play with the kids that she saw running and chasing about.

The first kid we saw when starting to look was Sierra Briggs. Nora and Sierra played for a while together as we walked to a campfire where we had smores and visited with others. After about an hour near the campfire, we were tired enough and it was dark enough to go to bed. Making our way back to the tent was easy because Nora had her flashlight with her. She did really well holding it out in front of her while walking.

Once in the tent, we changed into jammies but it was just too exciting to be in the tent to turn the light off and go to sleep. The Rogers came back to camp and started playing cards. We paid them a visit and were invited in to play cards. Nora had fun jumping into the sleeping bags and playing with Birgit, Tricia, Ronald, and Chris.

By the time we were finished with the card game, Nora was tired enough to go to sleep. We retired to our tent and wene to sleep after a bit of fussing over sleeping bags and the flashlight. The next morning was quite boring for Nora because all the kids she had seen the night before, which was just a few, had already gone home. Breakfast was nice and then we visited the Zavalas to call the rental car people and tell them where the car was. After that, we went to the pond to watch older kids in the canoes trying to catch salamdenders. Then we packed up and went home.

The truck seemed to be doing OK, so we decided to go swimming at the wave pool. As usual, it was fun to be at the pool. We stayed until dinner time and went back to Harrisburg. The next day was Church and then back to Kalama. The truck was making some engine noises and I resolved to rebuild the engine.

August 8, 2001