Start of the next project and a walk around the marina

After getting settled in to our campsite Monday afternoon at Saxon Harbor, Carl started on the next project. He wants to install the water softener unit into the rig so he doesn't have to pull it out of the bay and then return it every time we set up and pull down at a campsite. It is heavy and awkward, and, especially if the slide it out above the bay, hard to maneuver. 

The water softener as it currently sits outside the wet bay -- we put it away when we are traveling in one of the bays under the slide up toward the front. You can imagine that if the slide is out when we are getting it out or putting it in that it makes handling it even more awkward (so we try to remember to get it out before putting the slide out and storing it after the slide is in).

The plan is to install it permanently, but, there is no room in the wet bay to install it where it would be closest to where it needs to be hooked up. He has read that other folks have installed it on the passenger side, in the bay directly across from the wet bay. Between the two are our water tanks, fresh water tank and grey and black tanks. His plan is to run a hose from the wet bay, across the top of the fresh water tank, hooked to the water softener, and then a return hose that will tie into the inlet into the fresh water system. In this way, we can either be hooked to shore water via the water softener or able to fill the fresh water tank through the water softener so our fresh water tank has soft water.

For this project, Carl had gotten a fresh water hose a while ago that he needed to cut in half and then put new ends into the cut ends.

Original hose -- figuring out the middle point

End cut - ready to put in the new connections

Starting the process to attach the new end using the Clamptite tool and stainless steel wire

Clamptite tool placed on top of Carl's phone which is the source of instructional YouTube videos.  YouTube is your friend to get help in how to use new tools! (https://clamptitetools.com/)

Carl had inherited the Clamptite tool from Dwayne. Dwayne and I had watched the sellers at the big tent in Quartzsite a few years ago, demonstrating how they could create custom clamps quickly and easily. It is quite a nice device and small and light to carry with us in the RV. The only heavy part is the stainless steel wire (that's in the blue container in the picture above -- about a pound of wire in there).

Start by measuring and then wrapping the wire around the piece you want to clamp

Insert the Clamptite tool

tighten

When it gets tight enough, reverse the tool...

... all the way to the other side -

Clip off the wire ends, and then press them down -- what a neat looking clamp -- one side completed.

working on the other side

Second side completed

Carl now has a new skill in using the Clamptite tool, and he has the first step of the installation of the water softener unit completed too!

Tuesday was a chilly overcast day, but we decided to walk down to the marina area and to see Lake Superior.

Looking east...

... and looking west toward the breakwater and entrance to the harbor.

The yellow star marks where we are on the edge of Lake Superior.

Around on the other side of the harbor is access to the "beach". I had read on reviews of the Saxon Harbor Park that the beach access was poor -- and we'd have to agree!

Gracie is way up there on the hill!

Although it was chilly, the sun eventually came out and we enjoyed a campfire in the late afternoon. A deer came down the hill just behind our rig and grazed in the valley behind us -- she looked very pregnant. Folks in a neighboring rig said that they had seen two different mothers with fawns -- one fawn older and the other quite young. I guess I would have thought that they would have given birth by now, but maybe we are still within birthing season for the deer in this area. We are enjoying the quiet of this campground -- no road noise, and very few sounds other than those provided by nature.