Had to peek out the door first thing this morning to see what the Winter
Storm roaring across the country dropped on us.
Maybe three inches of snow on the truck’s tonneau cover, so that part
isn’t so terrible. However, the
temperature on my phone was reading -1…that’s worse than the snow in my mind.
With our world covered in a 3” layer of white, I thought, “Wonder what
the eagles’ nest looks like?” Pulled up
the Live Cam and was surprised to see absolutely no snow. Of course, I have no
way of knowing what the temperature is at the top of that sycamore tree, but without
snow, it definitely looks warmer than it is here.
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We sat around the hotel waiting again today, but it feels like a
different kind of waiting at this point.
Just waiting for that call to tell us the camper is finished. Yesterday, Kim had a follow-up conversation
with Shawn about a slight price increase because he'd found an issue with the
camper’s electric brake system that needs to be replaced. Impressive that he’d started on it so
soon after we left.
To pass the time today, I decided to do some video editing I’ve been
meaning to do for years. I have a folder
my desktop containing videos meant for a time such as this…well, not
specifically a camper breakdown but for when I have nothing else to do. Some videos are snippets of the WonderKids
but more go back to the late 80’s/early 90’s when we got our first video camera,
which took a full-sized VHS tape. I took
the time years ago to convert the tapes to digital files and they're now on my computer, waiting for me to do something about them. Since they were originally on tape, the quality isn’t stellar but I still got
lost in watching those videos…my kids range in age from 46 to 38 now and I was watching snippets of their childhood. What a fun way to pass the
time!
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Since I was using my computer to edit videos, I took the opportunity watch
the eagle cam again. Split screened it again with the eagles on the left and
video editing on the right. Multi-tasking at its finest.
Someone has been posting pictures and comments on the eagle cam website;
someone who has been watching the eagle cam a lot. She sometimes gives a detailed
minute-by-minute description of what the eagles are up it. Maybe that’s her job
so people can go right to that position on the recording timeline or maybe she
just has a lot of time on her hands. Whatever the reason, I was able to find
out from her comments that there are three eggs in the nest (seen from the
camera #1 angle) and the eagles are named Bella and Scout. One bird is noticeably smaller than the other
and I’ve been wondering if that’s the male. I know in some bird species the
female is larger so I turned to Google for the answer: Female
eagles are generally larger than male eagles. This is called
"reversed sexual size dimorphism". The
size difference between males and females helps with their roles. Males
are smaller and sleeker, making them better hunters. Females are larger,
allowing them to sit on the nest for longer periods and deter predators. Well, now I know. And, yes, I’ve noticed that the larger eagle
is on the nest longer and oddly, it seems that the smaller one (Scout)) is the more
meticulous housekeeper of the two. He
flies in and before he takes over incubation duties, he moves sticks around and
fluffs the nesting material. Haven’t
seen Bella do that but then again, maybe I missed her attempts at making the
nest looking it’s best because I was lost in watching Marshal learning to ride
a bike…almost 38 years ago.
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We’re in a basic hotel room, chosen because I could book it online, it
was on our route and in our price range. Neither of us cares to spend $150 on a
room when we’re usually in it for less than 12 hours. We headed back here
Friday night simply because it was the closest hotel to where the tire debacle
happened. Again, I booked it online.
Both times I selected a room with two queen beds simply because
of its first-floor location; we didn’t want to schlep our bags up a flight of stairs again. Both times we were put in ground-level rooms with a king bed; there was no price difference, so no problem with that.
of its first-floor location; we didn’t want to schlep our bags up a flight of stairs again. Both times we were put in ground-level rooms with a king bed; there was no price difference, so no problem with that.
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I wanted to do some laundry…the bulk of our clothes are in the
camper and the dirty stuff has been accumulating. Kim found out that there is a laundry
room on the second floor, but all rooms only have outside access in the hotel. So,
this afternoon we braved the 2o temperature outside and took our
clothes up to the laundry room. Dumped the
clothes in the washer, put the quarters in the coin slots, pushed them in and heard
the washer motor kick on but didn’t hear any water coming in. Kim reached over
to feel the water hoses…frozen. Then he reached over to feel the wall heater…cold
air blowing in, not hot air, despite that it was set on hottest setting. We left the lid up on the washer so the motor
wouldn’t burn out, put the clothes back in the bags and headed back down to the
room only to find that our key didn’t work. Criminy! So, we headed up to the
lobby to get a new key card, also telling the clerk that the water lines in the
laundry room were frozen and that the heater was blowing cold air. We walked back to our room with a new key, but
I wasn’t so sure that the clerk really understood the issue with the washing
machine. Temperatures are expected to rise
in the next couple of days with it getting in the 60s by Monday…maybe the pipes
will thaw soon.
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We’re hoping to bust out of here tomorrow, but I won’t count those
chickens until they’re hatched. Speaking
of chicken, the camper is in a heated building; I have been wondering if the ice
and chicken in the freezer are still frozen.
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