Where's Toto?

OK so I arrived in Kansas. I lost two hours on time zone changes, so I am not hungry at 6 pm, but that makes no sense. I didn’t eat anything today! Wait….two donuts from the motel this morning. Very stale. Very tasty. Very sweet.

So I’m not cooking yet anyway. So there!

Starting at the conclusion, it was so much better to be setting up the pop-up for a multi-day stay. I think it sucks to be sweating through the set up just to get to the fridge to go to bed to break down. This is more like home building. TV on in the background. Fan trying to make a difference. All in all, comfortable.

Back to the beginning.

Last night when I saw Alamosa, after the long ride, I didn’t need more issues. However, the ridge, which should have been cooling on the ride on electric, wasn’t. It was like a nice little oven. I was unsure whether all the food was trash, so I grabbed the folding portable ice-chest we got as a free gift for a bank account and stuffed everything in it. Then I went looking for an ice machine. None to be found. This motel has seen better days. Way better. But I went to the office, and they had an ice chest full of ice. Grabbed a plastic ice bucket and dumped the ice in the chest and tried to make a salad. The head I picked, butter lettuce I think, was slimy and as I tried to rinse it, it fell apart. This is making me hungry so I just started some rice. Hope I remembered right - 1 rice to 2 waters for 10 minutes.

Where was I?

Oh the food… I added Ice this morning, and found the coffee pot and left the food in the ice chest and headed out.

One mountain, but not like yesterday. Lots of hours. Met a guy who used to live in Cuyacuos (near me in CA) at a gas station when I asked him the time and he got chatty. Wanted to know if McClintocks was still in Arroyo Grande, and is Bob’s Big Boy still there and …

Killed a fly. I hate flys.

Now…Oh yeah, I am out of the mountains and the miles seem so much faster when you are on a flat road. 10 minute construction delay, a wrong turn onto a freeway that took 10 miles to get off and turn around, but other than that, uneventful.

The RVParkReviews.com (I think that’s it) I read last night about this place were worrisome. On the highway. Lots of junky mobile homes. Not well kept. But it was what was here so I persisted. It’s great. Has TV and power and water and sewer and showers and I’m just peachy.


OK – Terry has all the TV/VCR/DVD/clocks reset from the power failure, and I have a phone book for tomorrows research. Dishes to wash and bed.

Enough?

Up over a big hill

First let me say I am tired. So I am rapidly forgetting what I did today. Or where I was….but let’s try.

I started at the RV Park in …. Hmmmmm… was it Pahrump, NV? Wasn’t there another stop after that? OK Monday was Home to Pahrump then Tuesday was Pahrump to … quick map check…Tuba City…Navaho Nation. Nice spot. Hot…Noisy at 5 am as all the workers leave for their jobs.

Had a nice hot shower… a good use of time. Then after I hooked up this am and left and came back in the other driveway to turn in the water faucet handle to get my $5 deposit back, I headed out and noticed the brake controller had a new light….red.

I quickly switched from Oakie Larry advice mode (what if the trailer starts fishtailing down a mountain?) to Heacock mode (This little thing…don’t bother with brakes). Drove all day without. I stopped at an RV Service center to ask them to check and they said the output plug looked OK, but it was probably just corrosion. Not very friendly. I filled the “empty” propane tank. It only needed 1.1 gallons. So it wasn’t an empty tank (they hold 4.2 gallons). So my thinking the refrigerator wasn’t cold this morning because the propane ran out was wrong. I switched tanks before relighting it, and maybe it was just not lit right last night. It got cold. But then why was it not cold today after hours of driving? Thinking spoiled food, which is all in the portable ice-chest.

Today I went over a hill. It starts in Pagosa Springs Colorado around 7,000 feet and goes up over a very steep mountain highway that had me struggling to keep up 30 mph in 2^nd gear. At the top I read 12,900 on my GPS. Luckily they have a 35 mph speed limit all the way up. Did I mention the thunderstorms?

Falling asleep around 3 pm, which was 4 pm (time zone) I stopped – had a mountain dew, found a headlight out…jogged around a minute…back in and decide first motels I see are a good stop. Don’t want to have to fold up a wet camper in the morning. Guy at Auto repair center says only place to buy a headlight is in Amarosa, and that’s where I went and got the one halogen headlight they had at Walmart. I don’t think the existing one is halogen, and I’m thinking the wink is a nice look, but I have to remove the grill and turn signal cover lenses to chang6e the bulb so it will be a day or two.

And here I am at the motel, where there is supposed to be coffee in the room, but I don’t see it.

I’m posting this via e-mail, so lets see if it works, shall we?

All over the place

Blogging from the road…..
I set up another blog just for the travels, but then I apparently gave this blog address to her…. So it is no longer totally uncensored…
The best laid plans….
OK so the other blog gets stuck here…
Followed by my new stuff…
I am writing this off-line, so I don’t have any idea what preceeded it. I willjust pick up where I remember I was… at home…heading east.
Actually South to go east – 101 to 166 to 33 to 119 to Bakersfield. The pop-up tows very easily. But I worry. Constantly in the mirrors, making sure I don’t slow down the cars… feeling like a trucker, until I pass one and know they look at my little trailer with …disdain..derision…no..they don’t even look. Wish I had a CB.
I do have my PC on a custom built table, plugged into the new 400 amp inverter, along with the phone recharger, the Bluetooth headset recharger, the powered speakers plugged into the PC to amp the sound from the ripped CD’s so I don’t use the batteries on the MP3 player.
Somewhere…at about 115 degrees in Nevada, the inverter started screaming for air..then shut down. I unplugged the speakers and the whole shebang recovered. Guess speakers draw a lot of power.
Pulled into the gas station at New Cuyama, and then realized it was boarded up, but saw a Porta-John and headed there and saw a sign taped on it that said “Fire Fighters Only”. What? Civilians don’t have to pee? Here comes Super Fire Cop from his recliner in the shade… I apologize, in totally non-aspy fashion…I can do that well…wheels spinning…I ask about the fire… Is this the same fire from months ago that started over by 154? (Knowing it was) He’s hooked. After about 10 minutes of kissing the ass of all the fire crews that ever lived, and being amazed at the size of this fire (biggest in California history-size counts) and patiently listening to all the descriptions of the fire scene (a moonscape) and the history of firefighting in the area – should have let it burn 20 years ago, I cross my legs and beg for a free pass. He accommodates.
To Bakersfield I go, waving at my house in Taft (which has a new fence) as I go by. In Bakersfield I go 10 miles north of my planned ….

Time out… I was supposed to check the refrigerator …not cold…check the outside…not lit…probably out of propane on tank one. Switch to tank 2 and relight… wait an hour…back to blog..

Where was I…in Bakersfield…OK so I went 10 miles north to fill my half empty propane tank (no coincidence – why do you think I remembered the fridge?) because it was Delta Liquid Energy, and I had my tank filled at Delta in Arroyo Grande, because they fill the tank at home. Frankly (enter Aspergerishness) it has to do with minimizing the number of new parameters I have to deal with. I don’t know how you get propane… Can you do it without removing the tank from the popup? What will it cost…what is my conversation going to be. I had those questions answered at the AG Delta, so there is a slim chance that they will work the same in Bakersfield. I know it is slim, but I’m willing to try it, even at a 10 mile detour.
Pull into Delta. Door says closed…I stop anyway. Closed for lunch 12 to 1. Guy at desk with napkin tucked in collar (Really!) We holler through the door, but I can’t hear a thing and he’s not cracking that door. He’s pointing east to the back of the lot or the Sierras. I say “No Problem….just wanted a top off…and I skedaddle. I see a few other propane signs, but I’d rather freeze on a mountain top or have all my food spoil at this point. I assume I have a couple of days to recover and get propane before the second tank is done. That’s a Randy Asperger Meltdown. Well hidden, but still disabling.
Off I go to the east…one finger punching buttons on my PC, checking the Steets and Maps directions, the other checking current location on the GPS, adding CD’s to the miz and still on the PC for music( the inverter cries later).
Pahrump Nevada….across the bla6zing desert. No kidding. 100 plus. Plus a lot. According to Billy in Pahrump, probably plus 18. It seemed like 120. AC going, but I don’t want to waste fuel, so I use it intermittently. First I get really sweaty. Then I close the windows and crank it up. Then I get sweaty again. Is this healthy?
Pahrump is a typical Nevada border town. Welcome-Casino. Where’s the RV park? I remember Terrible’s is a park with a Passport America discount (50%) and I pass Terrible Town Casino and RV Park. I stop and check the PC for a number, and call and they have space and I say be there in 1 minute.
In the parking lot, and no RV park and I call and she says she thought I might be in the wrong Terribles. Dirrections to the right one, miles away. As I head into the desolate desert, I call again and say “Are you sure?” She assures me it is just ahead, and it is and I stop and Billy the night security guy checks me in and I set up…
And I step on the plastic bag with the tomatoes from the garden.
And I decide that diner better include squashed tomatoes. Four squashed tomatoes. With salad dressing. I’m full. I checked out the buffet(and the casino), but I’m full.
Back at the camper, I have a dad and two daughters fishing at the lake (a really, really nice RV park) and decide to try my luck. Got a bluegill but none of the big bass Billy promised me were there.
(aside – just realized I can listen to music on the PC while typing…It’s 9:00 on a Saturday and the regular crowd shuffles in..)
I just forgot what state I am in!
Navaho Country…ARIZONA/Utah.
In bed at 9:00 pm, exhausted trying to figure out what regular folks do. Easier to just say “I must be tired…I drove all day.” No real sleep until early morning hours.
Got the coffee pot out, but couldn’t find the filters and decided that was an entrée to the mini mart. Who the fuck needs an entrée to a mini mart? Me. Got coffee, and gas and there’s a big ol’ propane tank with a big ol’ “PROPANE” sign, but I can’t yet. Mentioned to time this particular melt-down. But I did handle the first pump with no display, and the the backed up to second that refused my card and the clerk who didn’t understand, and the requirement that I name an amount because “fill-up” is no good, but I’ll only be charged what the receipt outside says and then the machine says see clerk for receipt which I got, but I have no idea whatsoever what it said and I’m afraid to reach in my pocket to see. I looked and I don’t have it. Whew!
How many hours thinking about the fact that a trailer with two wheels is less stable than a trailer on an 18 wheeler with 12 wheels. And gas mileage and AC and surfaces of highways and the occasional thought about sand in the desert. Skip lunch to put the miles on or to avoid the decision of what to eat?
Day two was a lot like day one. Miles and gas stops and maps and music and traffic and worry about whether there will be a camping space when I get there, wherever there is. I’m pretty sure I’ll drive all night before I try something new.
Navaho Country. Tuba City. Called from the road so I had a space reserved. Pull in and register and pay the $5 deposit for the handle to turn on water at the site, and yes I do need a card key to the bathroom. Setting up is hard. I must be tired. Levelling is tough. All set. Unhook. Watch the trailer run about 5 feet because I forgot to chock the wheels. It stops. Back 5 more times to hook up again and move it, to find it is too far from the water for my 25 foot hose so I hook up again and back it up and up on the blocks to level and CHOCK THE MOTHERFUCKING WHEELS and unhook and the electric cord is too short but I have an extension cord and now it’s time to cook!
Restaurant sounds good, but that’s people and decisions and fat.
Chopped veggies and salad and a couple of franks with some cheese. I’m OK now.
But the fridge wasn’t lit! It’s 8:00 and I got here at 4 pm…I’ll check it several more times before bed.
Getting tired of writing. I’ll head to the front office where there’s a wifi connection and post this.

Ready

Not nearly...

I know where I am going, sort of.

I know how I am travelling, probably.

I am pretty sure what day I am starting the trip, and I even have at least a couple of stops I will be making.

But there is much to do, like starting a Blog. This way, if anyone asks Terry how my trip is, she can tell them to get it directly from the horses asses mouth.

Outline as it stands.
Leave early Monday 8-27-07, via 166 to Bakersfield then to the Mojave. Depending on how long that takes, stay somewhere between Barstow and Nevada.

Then a couple more days of meandering and arrive in Garden City Kansas.

Spend 3 or 4 days researching Ravanna and Beersheba and the great Grandparent's land, and then to Hutchinson (Reno County Historical) to see what I can find there and then to Topeka (Kansas State Historical) to do the same.

Then the rest is pretty well defined. Go to New Jersy, meet Terry, go to North Carolina to see Sam and Lance and Kiley and Madison, then via Atlanta, Jackson, Houston to San Antonio. From there a quick jump to Taos, NNM and then home. Approximately.

Right now I go to WalMart to get soda and beer and a folding recliner for Terry.