All's well that ends well

Here we are at Crystal Crane Hot Springs.  What a treat. We had a new RVing experience today.  We discovered after we arrived here that there is no laundry facility for guests. So, today we unloaded Topper and drove Red Ryder into Burns. We did some shopping and went to the laundromat.  More specifically, we went to Jiffy Wash.  Laundromats have come a long way. We did a load of wash in 29 minutes and dried it in 28 minutes! Hardly time to really get into some reading material. No, this wasn't our new experience...

When we returned to Topper, in a heavy wind with driven rain, we discovered that the power had failed in the park.  That hasn't happened to us before.  We began making plans for conserving energy, but I assured Jill that with water and sewer hook-up and plenty of propane, we merely need to conserve battery power.  That was before I used the bathroom and found that there was no water for flushing.  Apparently, the park's water is well water that requires a pump.

God was kind, though, and we were without power for about an hour and half. It went off for about five minutes again later, but now we have had continuous power for several hours. I took the precaution of putting some water in the fresh water tank, just in case the AC power goes off. We can still flush with the fresh water and our pump.

OK, so that was the big excitement. The trip to Burns was fairly non-interesting, but we do have enough clean clothes to get home. 

Meanwhile, here are some shots taken at the park.  It is in the desert (or semi-desert), so there are few trees.  Nevertheless there is an awesome beauty about this place, especially when the light is at a sharp angle, like at sunset or sunrise.

 Here we are looking across the park from our campsite, last evening. The teepee is just one

of the many options for staying here. There are motel rooms, dry camp sites and full hookups. 

 This is a similar view taken just before sundown today looking east. 

 And about the same time looking west. 

I will try to upload some more photos tomorrow, but the bandwidth is just too little right now. 

We enjoyed two soaks in the hot springs today.  The first was this morning. The sun was out and the wind was fairly calm. It was lovely.  This afternoon, after our power outage, we decided to soak again.  Our campsite is about a hundred yards from the hot spring. The wind was blowing and the temperature was about 54 degrees.  Having had no heat in the camper because of the power outage, we looked forward to warming up in the spring. 

Well, sometimes what you expect and what happens are not in sync, if you know what I mean.  Being concerned about the security of our jackets and towels, I carefully stacked them so that the wind would not move them. We walked into the spring and were happy to immerse ourselves in the warm water...which wasn't quite as warm with cloudy skies and wind as it had been in the morning sunshine. 

We moved around, getting ever closer to the hot water inlet until we found just the right temperature. Just as we found the perfect spot, a big gust of wind blew my towel and both of our jackets into  the water.  The towel nearly sank. The jackets floated, but got plenty wet.  

Now our campsite is upwind from the spring, so the trek home was into the wind (mind you it was 54 degrees, wind about 15 mph) wrapped in sodden jackets carrying a wet towel that probably weighed in at 7 lbs.! Can you say, "Freezing?"

We got home, slipped into sweat clothes and turned the heater on.  It took awhile, but we finally warmed up about dinner time.  All's well that ends well.