A day in the life

Since we’ve had all the repair work done and new tires installed on our smaller motorhome, I’ve been looking for an excuse to take it out for a more extended road trip to make sure everything was working correctly. I was also wanting to slosh the water in the freshwater tank around to clean it out for later use. I was also needing to refamiliarize myself with how some of the controls function. More on that in a bit.

The opportunity for a trip came up this past Sunday afternoon. I loaded a couple of the dogs in the camper and away we went. I was heading north on the Parks Highway from Big Lake. I figured I’d drive up to the Upper Susitna Shooting Association range at mile 94 and turn around for home. That makes just shy of a 100-mile round trip, plenty of distance for what I wanted to do.

The trip up went well. Everything was running fine. I turned off the Parks into the parking area around the clubhouse and turned off the ignition. I couldn’t get the key out or turn the steering wheel. Now what? I went in the building and visited with the guy for a few minutes. I also, finally, picked up my new gate key, since I am a Range Safety Officer (RSO) at the facility. I then asked if anybody knew anything about auto ignition systems and explained about the key situation. One of the guys walked out with me to the motorhome.

He opened the driver’s side door, took one look, reached in, and immediately had my keys in hand. I had been following him and didn’t catch up until he had already turned around. I asked him what he did to free the keys and he said he had just shifted the transmission into “Park” and the keys came right out. When I pulled in, I had simply turned off the ignition without shifting the transmission.

I stood there with egg on my face and thanked him. I mumbled something about someday learning how the controls worked. He said, “no problem” and walked back into the clubhouse. I hopped in and started the trip home. As I drove by the open clubhouse door, I yelled out “Thanks again” and continued the return trip home.

Again, the trip home was uneventful with everything working fine. Since I was driving by Susitna Landing, I decided to stop in and see how things were since I hadn’t been there for a couple of years. I pulled in and parked outside the wide-open gate. Several things were different. First, there was a digital “iron ranger” along the fence line to accept fees. The office was closed with nobody present and the housing unit with all the decking surrounding it was totally gone. It was an unmanned operation.

Fish and Game had cancelled the concession contract for the previous operator because upkeep of the facility was not being done as required by the contract. The decision was made for the department to operate the facility as an unmanned site using a reservation system and utilizing the previously mentioned iron ranger.

I walked through the fence area where the iron ranger was and noticed there were only maybe a half-dozen camping groups present in the area I could see. In years past, on a bright, sunny June weekend, after trout fishing was legal, date wise, I would have expected the campground to be filled, or close to it. I was surprised at the lack of folks on site.

I hope Fish and Game keeps a close eye on this facility because, being unmanned, the potential for vandalism is high. I would hate to see that since this is a nice facility for boating access to the Kashwitna and Susitna rivers and as a camping site. All the improvements were part of the last major project I wrote and oversaw, being in the Sport Fish Access Program, before I retired.

I climbed back into the motorhome and headed south. I arrived home, again, with all operations being normal. I remembered to shift the transmission to its proper setting and the keys almost fell out. One thing I had noted before the trip was that the electronic locking switch on the passage-side door wasn’t working. After unloading the dogs, I went to that side door to lock up the cab figuring I’d need the door key. I pushed the lock switch, and everything clicked locked. What do you know?