RV Adventures

Jim Update

Before I detail our visit to Crater Lake National Park, just a note on Jim not feeling well. After Crater Lake, we drove for three days to get to Las Cruces, New Mexico to meet with the builder of our new house. We thought it prudent to have Jim go to urgent care to see why he had not yet recovered from that pesky virus. He was feeling OK, but actually had me drive a couple of days (only for an hour and only on a straight, deserted US Highway) to give him a break. The result of the urgent care visit was unexpected.

I’ll cut to the chase. Jim is now a patient at Memorial Medical Center Hospital in Las Cruces. Somehow bacteria has gotten into his body causing a systemic infection. The worst part is that the infection has decided to really attack his artificial knees. That explains the fever and the swollen knees. Yikes.

Jim is going to have surgery tomorrow (Sunday, August 1) to open his knees up, wash them out and replace the plastic parts. He is going to be on IV antibiotics for a good while to try and beat this infection. Once we get past the surgery, we will then decide how/when to get us and the RV back to Rochester. Fortunately, we have insurance that covers moving the RV in situations like this.

In the meantime, I have made plans to fly to Texas next weekend for Janelle’s PhD hooding and graduation and then returning back to Las Cruces. The RV is parked at an Elks Lodge and they know our situation. We have a few acquaintances here in Las Cruces and my brother lives in Albuquerque. We have support for Jim if we need it in my absence

So this will probably be the last “Let’s go RVing” blog post for a while. Jim’s knees take priority. But for now, let’s go visit Crater Lake.

Crater Lake

We spent four days in the vicinity of Crater Lake National Park. We picked a campground without hook ups in a National Forest. The trees initially proved a problem for our solar panels that Janelle had just cleaned. Your batteries won’t charge if the panels can’t get sun! But we eventually found the perfect campsite. Well, almost perfect.

Janelle decided she wanted to do a backcounty backpacking trip on her own. She was going to spend two nights out on the Pacific Crest Trail as it traversed Crater Lake National Park. This trail is the West Coast’s answer to the Appalachia Trail.

Janelle had her Garmin InReach Satellite communicator with her. It works when cell phones don’t. The InReach allowed her to send simple messages to us and visa versa. Messages like this:

Jim was feeling well enough to play tourist, so we got that message just as we were entering the park. Alas, Crater Lake was in the vicinity of the Bootleg Fire.

Above I showed you a picture of Wizards Island the day before. Below is the same picture of Wizards Island along with another picture taken at the same location with all the smoke. What a contrast!

We drove all the way around the lake, but there wasn’t much you could see.

The next day, I had to go pick up backpacker Janelle from the trailhead upon the completion of her hike. Again, the wind had shifted. What a difference a day made.

It’s a shame Jim wasn’t able to see Crater Island without all the smoke. I think our rule is going to be “Don’t visit the Pacific Northwest in late summer.” It seems we always run into smoke somewhere when we do!