5C's Que Pasa

It was a chilly 53F inside the RV yesterday morning, the promise of things to come.  We didn’t leave until 10:30AM as we wanted to avoid rush hour traffic through Sacramento.  Just as we were in the midst of the freeway maze an old Ford van pulled up right next to us.  We both heard a bang and saw that the van’s hood had flipped up and crashed into the windshield.  I saw that the windshield was totally shattered and the hood was still in the up position blocking the driver’s view. Colin quickly hit the go fast peddle to get out of the way.  I felt bad for the van driver but there was nothing we could do but get out of his way.

Next thing we saw was a huge electronic sign, “CAUTION HIGH WINDS’.  Those winds stayed with us all day.  Even at 55MPH it was a fight.  We have never experienced winds like before.  Just down the road we saw an RV awning laying along the curb.  Ouch, that will cost a few bucks to replace.  Swaying in the wind as he went by a ‘Safety Kleen’ truck shot past us.  Seconds later we saw something flying towards our windshield. Colin touched the brakes to slow a bit and we saw a banana peel hit the road!  The idiot was not being safe nor clean.

It is hard to believe that we have been on the road for nine days/ eight nights.  The rest area we stopped in for lunch today had an RV dump and we decided to dump the grey water and take on some water in the fresh water tank.  We have four more full days on the road and this will make it easier for us.  We can go ten days without dumping but why push it if we don’t have to.

Extra stop along the road at Carmeh's request. At this point Caeli decided she didn't want to come back in the RV but stay outside. Colin had to carry her back inside.

These trucks are built in the middle of nowhere. I love the colours.

We never saw Mount Shasta this year. Instead we had some rain followed by a snow squall at the Black Butte Summit.

We arrived at the Yreka Walmart at 5:10PM. Today a 303.4 mile day and it should have only been 300 miles but I directed us right instead of left and we added 2 more miles. In my defense the instructions never said if they applied northbound or southbound.

As I have mentioned before we don’t have a GPS but CPS….a Contessa Positioning System.  We saw diesel fuel for as high as 4.39 today.  Good thing we will only have had to do the one fill up in California.  Turns out that this was a great place to stop.  In addition to having lots of space there is a good selection of stores.

Behind us is an O'Reilly store where Colin picked up wax for the RV for next year and a Walmart that did not have any heaters for sale, just fans!! There was a frost warning for the night.

Beside us was a Raley's store which is new to us. Here Colin was able to find 2 very nice electric heaters that we can use when the generator is on. One of our heaters is not very good and the other died so we were indeed in need.

Colin came back to get me with the news of a huge gluten free section. So I went in and stocked up on bread and pancake flour, bread, granola and granola bars and I can't remember it all but enough to get me through the first few weeks at home.

We were warm and cozy inside our house on wheels with the heaters on, a good dinner and the last hour of Celebrity Apprentice.  All in all a good day.  Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

A question from a reader asked about the condition of CA99.  It is being repaved and most sections are in great shape.  They are also widening the road, adding another lane which will make it very nice to drive next year.  The worse sections of pavement was were they are still under construction but none of this held us up speed wise.

Tags: gluten free, The girls, travel, USA

We drove 326 miles yesterday, from the Boron rest area to Stockton, California. I am writing this to you from our overnight stay at Walmart. We did try another Walmart but it was too small for us.

We take our time in the morning and didn't get going until about 9:20AM. Soon we were seeing all the wind turbines. They must have been generating a great deal of power because it was still very windy.

As we climbed the pass it became very cold and I was shivering. I didn't have a jacket or sweater so I used dog blankets to keep warm. Shortly after this was taken Colin turned on the furnace. Just 2 days ago in LHC we were running the generator for A/C.

We stopped at Love’s in Tehachapi as Colin had another tire question.  Oil was spewing from the lugs and he just wanted to check that that was normal.  Back on the road 10 minutes later.  It took until 11:30AM for the outside temperature to reach 65F, our lows on the Isla.  What a strange spring this is!  We did manage a nice walk in a rest area.  Carmeh lets us know when she has had enough travelling.  Mostly the girls sleep but today after 3.5 hours of driving Carmeh insisted on us stopping.  She keeps pawing us and becomes very restless.  After our walk she went back to sleep.  What do your pets do while you are travelling?

It remained windy all day. Why do they call these dirt devils?

The wind is blowing the soil off an agriculture field. These farmers must lose a lot of topsoil every year.

Lots of colour along the side of the road but too difficult to get a shot at 55 -60 MPH.

We finally had to stop for diesel and paid 3.989 per gallon.  It is what it is.  There is a lot of construction along CA99 as the road is being widened.  It did not slow us down at all.  We stopped at 4:30PM  in the Hammer Lane Walmart in Stockton.  It was so windy and cool out that other than a brief walk we stayed inside the RV.  This morning we are leaving later as where we are headed tonight will be very cool.  Time to put away my sundresses. Colin is pulling out our heaters if he can find them.  I don’t think the furnace will be enough tonight.

Thanks to Bob and Donna for making a comment on my blog and for getting me to do some real thinking.  Rather than assuming we did the math.  Bob you are correct, it is still cheaper to get diesel in Mexico.  3.79 litres equals 1 US gallon.  At 11.61 pesos ( the 11.34 price was in Soynata only ) per litre is costs 43. 89 pesos per 1 US gallon or approximately $3.61 USD.  We did the calculation with a rough 10 to 1 ration re the pesos/dollar. Thanks Bob for making the comment and urging me to publish the correct information.

Tags: Isla de la Piedra, Mexico, travel, USA

It was hard to drive away from our great spot here at Craggy Wash. Carmeh was in her element.

Caeli has taken to hanging out between the sofa and the recliner, a new dog den.

While Colin backed us up and rehooked the car I was preparing fruit for us to munch on as we drove.  We knew the moment we left Arizona and hit California, the roads are so very bumpy.  It is a good thing that we ride on air bags and have independent front suspension.  After a quick lunch break at a rest area we pulled into a Love’s Truck Stop in Barstow.  In order to validate the new tire warranty the lugs have to be re torqued after so many miles.  Diesel fuel here was 4.23 per gallon cash price, still much cheaper than we paid in Mexico.  The Love’s station was only one mile out of our planned route today.

As we turned onto CA 58 the dust and wind really picked up. I had read online that high winds were expected, gusts between 30 - 50 MPH and they were.

At Kramer Junction Colin just had to stop to check out a 'pot' shop. He has this plan to get a certain pot and plant a banana tree, inside our home. Hmm...okay. However not so okay that I had to come out of the RV to approve the purchase. I have never ever been in such a wind and my face was caked with dirt. I couldn't take a better photo because I didn't want the dust to go into my camera lens.

We got to our windy and dusty destination about 3:40PM having travelled 228 miles.

We are parked in a rest area just 11 miles West of Boron. There is a large side area away from the cars and semis and we feel very safe putting out our slides here. This was the first time we had set up the satellite dish since we left the Isla and it wasn't an easy feat in the wind but Colin persevered. Sunday is our main TV watching night.

This is what we look like inside while stopped on the road, internet connected, TV on, the girls eating and playing and me in the kitchen. You can see the new pot on the floor by the kitchen counter.

In case you were wondering we had caesar salad and homemade pizza on a corn tortilla crust with onion, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, pineapple and veggie pepperoni on Colin's ( I can't have it because of the gluten ) and lots of chihuahua cheese. It was very good.

Stayed tuned for the next leg of our journey North to Canada.

Tags: food, The girls, travel, USA

We reluctantly left our Quartzite camp and headed into Lake Havasu City at about 9:50AM.  First stop was to pick up 9 bags of dog food which should last us until mid October.  The girls are on a special Hill’s kibble which is almost 50% cheaper here in the USA.  The vet was not available to check on Carmeh so we will wait until we get home in a week to have her lump checked..

The forecast high today in LHC was 98F, I am sure it was even hotter than that.  Our noses have been so dry and bleeding since we crossed into the US.  The winds here are very high and hot hot hot, almost like a blast furnace.  Big stop shop at Walmart, nothing clothing wise but more odds and sods and enough wine to get us into Canada.  I found some gluten free bread but way too high in calories for me so I will make do with my frozen corn tortillas.

At 3PM we were ready to head into the BLM lands when Colin decided to drive up to I40 & HWY 95 to the Love’s Truck Tire Shop.  He wanted a second opinion.  It is a good thing he did.  They looked ( actually about 3 guys ) at the front RV tires and declared they were not safe and we likely would have a blowout within a day. 98% for certain he said.

You can see the lump. The front right tire was worn unevenly. The tires were made in 2005 even though we only bought them 5 years ago, so they had been sitting around deteriorating even before we bought them. We were also told that the tires we have wore so badly because we travel heavy and they only have a load rating of 14. The new tires have a load rating of 18 which means we can carry another 1800 LBS per wheel which is a lot. Most have been all that wine I buy for Mexico that wore down the tires!! But actually we have to go by the chassis load ratings so we likely won't be adding an more weight to the RV.

How lucky were we? VERY!! We just happened to be travelling on a slow day in our schedule and had the time to check in at Love's. They just happened to have free time and just happened to have the two much better tires for the RV.

These guys are working in 98F heat and hot wind.  I was inside with the generator running doing paperwork and drinking vino blanco.  More surprising was that the left front tire had a further problem in that the inner belt was separating.  George said we likely would not have been able to drive to Nevada ( not far away at all ) never mind Canada.  Better yet they did check the ball joints and everything seems just fine in that area.  The back four tires are in good shape and not worn.  They are good for another year.  All in all this took two hours of our day.  Absolutely great service from Love’s.

We then fueled up since we were already there and we would soon be in California.  The cost of diesel is still the cheapest in Parker at 3.84 and at Love’s we paid 3.94 cash price.  However we only took 50 gallons so it was a mere $5.00 difference.  I forgot to mention, the cost of the 2 new tires and labor and all the little extras came to $1299.91.  We think that is a very fair value for the wonderful service we received.

Finally on the road at 5:40PM. We decided to head back towards LHC and the Craggy Wash BLM lands. As we turned off the highway Colin said there was a Love's truck following us. We finally stopped. It was George from Love's returning our 50AMP power cord. At one point we were going to plug in but went with the generator instead and somehow with everything going on the cord was left in the bay. Thank you George!! You really went above and beyond.

We think we have been here at Craggy Wash but a long time back and that perhaps since then the camping boundaries have changed.  We didn’t remember having to drive so far back.  There were many easy areas for us to park in in the no camping section but as we drove further back….well…..

The girls had been so good hangng out in the RV during the shopping part and the tire part. They came alive as we drove into the wash. At this point we decided to not go further back but to unhook and turn the RV around. Much easier as we could see where we were and the sun was setting soon.

We were set up by 6:20 PM and Colin took the girls up the hill. Not so windy here.

Someone had created this path in the middle of nowhere and so I took my glass of vino and the girls for a wee walk.

The view from the top of the path. You can see Carmeh panting.

Self portrait.

The end to an interesting day.  Thanks for these photos mi amor.

Tags: RV repairs, travel, Tres Amigos RV Park, vino

The good news is that both Colin and I found some clothes.  We had tried all of the big stores to no avail and decided to hit Kohl’s. Bingo!!  Everything was on sale and there were some very very nice things.  I have never shopped at a Kohl’s before and will try it again.  Best part is that for every $50.00 spent we received a cash card to be used between April 18th and May 1st and we just happen to be overnighting near a Kohl’s on April 18 and have $50.00 to spend!  Great deal.  I was also able to pick up a few gluten free frozen meals which will get me thru the next few days.

Only 85 miles today.

The bad news is that as we were leaving Yuma about 2PM Colin heard a strange sound coming from somewhere in the RV.  Being as analytical as he is, he eliminated everything but the tires.  He stopped twice and checked them but everything seemed fine but the sound was still there.  So he slowed the RV to 55MPH just in case and we drove into Quartzite. Fortunately there is a truck tire shop there and we went in for an assessment.  Two guys came out and looked at all of the RV tires and quickly determined that the front right tire was wearing unevenly, likely due to the ball joints.  We were due to have those ball joints redone this year.  We should have done them last year but instead we built a new house.  Cost is likely around $3000.00 for just the parts.  Then you add in the labour and two new RV tires and there you have the bad news.  We are still able to drive home as we are but will need to keep checking the tire tread.  We could put our spare tire on but the ball joints will only wreck that tire also.

By 4:30 PM we were set up in the BLM lands.

At 6PM it was still close to 90F. Just me and lots of flies.

There are very few people camped here, I guess it is just too hot for them plus most snowbirds have headed home.  We did run the generator to cool down the inside.  The girls seemed happy just hunting with their eyes which was a good thing as we were worried about snakes.

Now for the possibly worse news.  We noticed a few days ago that Carmeh has a lump on her right side just behind her shoulder.  It seems to us that is has doubled in size in the last day.  We hope that it is just inflammation from a fall ( that we don’t know about ) but I don’t think so.  It is a soft lump and she does not seem concerned when I touch or push it.  Needless to say we will be keeping a very close eye on this new development.

Today our plan is to head into Lake Havasu City ( you can see the map above, not a long drive ) to do a few things on the list and then to find another BLM campsite for the night. the forecast for LHC is 98F today.

I was already asleep last night when Colin took this shot. Wow!

Tags: medical, RV repairs, The girls, travel, USA