Marty's Travels

My house has wheels

Back in Chimacum

So I’m back in my spot in Chimacum staring at brown sheds instead of $10 million motor yachts, ferry boats, kayaks, and seals, otters, eagles. I gotta figure out how to spend more time up there.

My neighbor in dry camp (there are two cheaper spots with no hookups in the park) woke me last night with a problem. He was in a small camper, a van conversion, and had run down his engine battery so he couldn’t start the van. He asked for some things from me:

Regular extension cards so he could string a line across the driveway to plug into a full-hookup pedestal to charge his battery.

I said no, and he asked if I could use my truck to push him into a hookup site.

His next idea was to call AAA, and I agreed that would be best bet.

Generally speaking (very generally), dry camp costs range from 0 to $10 a night in the west. At Point Hudson, it’s $30, a very high number comparatively. The hookup sites are much higher, and if you use an extension cord to someone else’s power pole, it’s basically theft of an inn keeper. The “dock boss” here is very nice, very experienced, and very diligent. (She’s a kick to watch and talk to. She spends half her time dealing with the richest people in the west, who tend to have a bias towards not paying the proper amount.)

So since I want to come back and know the boss, I’m out on the theft plan. AAA came in this morning, and it turned out he had other problems besides just a run-down battery.

Nowadays, a dead starting battery in a car is a pretty rare thing, and offering a “jump” is liable to cause more damage to you.