Back to Idaho

August 8th, 2024

For my last evening near Hamilton, I decided to go into town to get a few last supplies at the Safeway, and then pig out on a pizza at Kodiak Jax. Parking was sparse and I ended up in a spot with a 2 hour limit. I thought that would be plenty of time. It almost wasn’t. It took 25 minutes before they came to my table for the order. Then it was another 45 minutes to get the food. I asked for a box as my time ran down. That took 15 minutes. Then another 20 to pay. By the time I walked back to my truck, I had only 5 minutes to spare. The pizza wasn’t too bad, but the service went at a glacial speed.

I left my campsite shortly after 7 a.m. the next morning and drove south, crossing into Idaho at Lost Trail Pass. I was back in the Salmon River drainage. My next adventure was breakfast in a diner in Salmon. The very young waitress took my order. I asked for a sausage and cheese omelet. This qualified as a “Build Your Own” order. So, she asked “what do you want in the omelet?” I replied the obvious, “sausage and cheddar cheese”. She looked at me, patiently waiting. When I didn’t say anything, she asked “do you want any eggs”. That took me a minute of thought. I had never been asked that question before. As she took the order at another table, I heard her say that this was her first job, and it was her third day. I later had to go to the register to ask for my bill. Normally, this might call for a reduced tip. But, she was also pregnant. I boosted the tip to 25%.

You hear a lot about small towns near tourist attractions (Salmon River fishing and rafting). However, I did not find Salmon to be all that special. I drove a little way back north and found a small campground along the river for $5 per night. I signed up for only 2 nights.

At this point, I ran into a problem. I set up in site #2. Then, while cooling off in the trailer, I was hit by a stench. It smelled like a dead animal that had cooked in the sun. I looked around and under the trailer, but didn’t discover the source. I wondered if some rodent had gained access under the trailer, and died in one of the storage areas. I opened up everything in a search and found nothing. The only possibility was a nearby “bear proof” garbage bin. I opened all the windows on the trailer and turned on the Magic Fan. The odor seemed to be coming from near the door, but it had weakened.

Furnished with the trailer, is a Propane/Carbon Monoxide Alarm. It went off. This little device has been a bane since I started travelling. It not only detects Propane or CO, but it detects every other molecule that happens to be in the air. This includes cooking odors, spray deodorant, insect repellant, and even flatulence. You don’t dare eat chili. You will be woken every 5 minutes all night long. You will constantly have to get up and hit the reset button. This gives you 5 minutes of peace from the screeching tone. So it was, that the detector went off.

I did everything I could think of to clear the air. I closed windows on the garbage bin side of the trailer. I aimed a fan at the detector. I moved from Site #2 to #1 which was on the upwind side of the bin. Nothing helped. I was worried that I would have to give up my $10 site and move to some other campground. I thought maybe I should go to the campground host and complain about the stinky garbage been (it was full of garbage). I even thought maybe I could tolerate the odor, sleeping through the night, but I would have to locate the detector fuse and disable it.

I was sitting on the bed trying to make a decision, when the phone rang. It was my friend from Minnesota. I described my problem, and he said “trust the detector and make sure you don’t have a propane leak”. So, I took the cover off the stove and discovered one of the burners was on high. Of course, there was no flame. Then I put two and two together. The night before, as I was hitching up the trailer, I decided that since I would not be cooking my own breakfast the next morning, that I could turn the propane off at the tank. But, I forgot this the next morning when I decided it would be 1 1/2 hours before I could get to a town for breakfast, so I should at least make coffee. When I turned on the burner on the stove, it would not ignite, and that is when I remembered the propane was off. I opted to skip coffee.

So, you can probably now guess what happened. I didn’t turn off the burner. This was not really a problem until hours later, when at the new campground, while unhitching, I turned the propane tank valve back on. Gas then started coming out of the burner inside the trailer. Guess what! RV Propane smells like a dead animal.

Checking interior propane valves should be added to the checklist when packing up. Don’t sit for 2 hours in a propane filled trailer. Always, always, no matter how annoying, trust your propane detector. Once in a great while, it can actually detect propane. Never be tempted to disable it. Lastly, never be tempted to sleep overnight with a stench.

No matter how old and experienced you are, one can always learn new things from mistakes. In the interest of viewing the world as a “glass half full”, it was my lucky day. Nothing in the trailer caused a spark.

Thanks Mark! You nailed it.