Somerville, Car Repair, Somerville Lake

 March 18, 2010.

We got up late, about 8:30.  It was a beautiful sunny day and temps warmed to the lower 70’s.

We needed to take Joyce’s car into town to have the cooling system checked out.  We got going about 10:00 and drove separately into the town of Somerville.  It’s a small town with one traffic light. 

One of the volunteers at our park had recommended a repair shop called Shoppes.  We found it and spoke with the owner regarding the problem.  He checked it out with a temperature gun and didn’t think it was overheating, yet something was going on. He suggested a place for breakfast in town and said to come back after he had the mechanic check it out.  This small town restaurant was pretty good!

They didn’t have a prognosis when we got back, so we took a ride around Somerville Lake.

Below, we are driving on the two lane road built on top of a levee.

There are a number of campgrounds around the lake.  Surprisingly, they all look basically the same as the Army Corp or Engineers parks.  None appear to have sewer hook-ups.  The bath houses all look the same.  Yet except for Yaqua Creek and Rocky Creek the other parks are privately run.

After a few hours of testing to include a pressure check at the shop, they decided the prudent thing would be to try replacing the thermostat and see if that would fix it.  Of course they don’t have one so perhaps tomorrow we will know if it’s fixed.

Below, a field of wild flowers

Later after dinner, from our rig we could see about 40-50 deer in large groups in the fields around the park.  We took Maggie and Rico for a walk and a closer look.  The deer were not at all concerned about us getting closer, though we didn’t want to get too close and scare them off.