It's Getting Warm

We spent two nights at a county park in Bishop, CA.  This was our view from our site, the east side of the Sierra mountains. 

Came across this nice fixer upper.  Beautiful mountain views with good ventilation. 

Ghost Girl and her Little Red Wagon outside Death Valley.

Zabriskie Point in Death Valley.  Did you see this movie in the 1970's?

I did but don't remember anything about it.  

We are in Pahrump, NV. for a few days.  It's getting warm so when we leave here we will go to higher ground.

See you later.

Evie and Joy

Tires Tires and More Tires

So as some of you might remember, I had to buy two new tires for the front of the RV,  in Southern California.  Well now we have four new tires on the rear as well.  While driving eastbound on i80, east of Auburn going about 60 mph, we had a blowout on the inside dualy passenger-side-rear.  It was quite exciting there for a minute and this is what the tire looked like after.  

Tow truck driver in yellow/green and our guardian angel CHP guy

So it seems that the previous owners put the oldest baddest tires on the inside where no one could see them.  The two inside tires on the rear were original to the RV in 2001.  It is advised that tires be replaced about every five years or so because they get sidewall rot from the sun.  But rot was not what this tire had, this tire did the same thing that the one in the front did, it had total tread separation.  We've all seen bits of tires along the roadways, well that is what happened here.

Brand new shiny rear tire.

Shiny new front tire.

The rear tires are not the same as the front.  Next time I will buy new tires on my time schedule and get a matching set of six.  But I was happy that a tire shop in Auburn, CA had four tires that were the right size.

We are now in Carson City, Nevada.  We took a 'shortcut' from Truckee, CA to Carson City, NV.  I'll never take that shortcut again.  There was an uphill grade that the rv almost didn't make. It was white knuckle time.  Because of that I was ready to stop at the first rv park we came to.

Lake Tahoe (not my best picture).

That's all for now.

Evie and Joy 

Short Update

We have finally left Mendocino county heading east towards Reno and highway 395.  We had an appointment at Camping World in Vacaville, to have our refrigerator serviced as it was making an odd noise.  It was determined that the burner unit was going out and needed to be replaced.

California wildflower, Blue Dick

But this Camping World store didn't have the right burner.  So after a few phone calls it was determined that the Roseville store had one on their shelf so we unhooked our little Honda and took off to Roseville which is 40 minutes east of this Vacaville store.  We got back with the part and am now waiting another 2 hours for them to put it in for us.

A blurry Lantana flower but the leaves are in focus. 

My Friend Thomas

A very good friend, in fact my first boyfriend from high school and pre Vietnam war days, passed away this week so we will be going towards southern Nevada to hang out until it is time to head to So-Calif. His funeral services on April 10th, will be in San Bernardino county.  Thom would have been 65 years old on April 11th.  

That's ok as we have all the time in the world and it's a beautiful time of year. 

Until next time.

Evie and Joy 

We Took a Day Trip to the Mendocino Coast

We took a day trip to the coast.  It was about 65 degrees and clear.  We saw many beautiful fields and flowers..

Fresh green grass

Tamarisk Tree

Redwood trees

14% grade with Albion Bridge

Mendocino Head lands

Trillium 

Lady Banksia rose

See you soon.

Evie and Joy

Going Home

So we went home.  Through some of the most beautiful areas of California. through fields of blooming wild flowers.

The low growing variety of California poppy

Through fields of blooming wild flowers

Fog line south of San Francisco as seen from Highway 280, note cows in foreground.

Up Sunset Blvd.

Down 25th Ave.

Through the Presidio, around a corner, and

wa-lah the Golden Gate Bridge.

We've been here in Ukiah, which is about 3 hours north of San Francisco, at the fairgrounds for 10 days and yes the rv repair shop has found and fixed all of our electrical problems, and big problems they were.  Somewhere along our way someone climbed under our rig and ripped out all our new wiring because they were copper.  In the process of yanking the wiring out that caused a bunch of other problems. But time and money can cure just about everything and we are all fixed up.  We will stay here a few days more to make sure everything is A-OK.

Sunset in Ukiah, CA.

We'll be back on the road Monday, March 23, going east towards Reno, NV.

Be back soon.

Evie and Joy

Mail, Electrics and Tires

Mail
Today we drove back to Niland, CA to pick up our mail.  We asked to have our mail forwarded to us last monday, all it had to do was make its way from Ukiah, CA to Niland, Ca.  Its had a week to get here, but nnooo it still isn't here.

Electrics
That's ok because we are returning to Ukiah to have the people who did all the work on the rv in the first place FIX EVERYTHING.  The truck battery which is brand new won't hold a charge longer that 2 days before it's completely DEAD.  And the same with our brand new solar system and batteries.  They won't hold a charge longer that three days and that is with the sun shining on the brand new solar panels.  Solar Mike spent two days checking it all out and he wasn't able to find anything amiss.  So we're going back home.  The good news is that on saturday I bought a jump-start thing kind of like this only bigger and a good thing too. Because after having to call AAA twice last week and having to wait for them to find me I now have my own jump thing and I used it this morning.

Sunset over the Salton Sea

Full moon getting ready to set over the Salton Sea.

You see a lot of this along the shore of the sea, and 

yes it smells when the wind is blowing a certain way.  

Those aren't shells under the dead fish those are old fish bones. 

Ok back to today.  We left a forwarding address with the post office and headed towards the LA area. As we were merging onto interstate 10 there commenced a great jiggling and vibrating from the front end of the rv.  I had to have a death grip on the steering wheel and it was painful.  So we decided to look for a tire and wheel place around Beaumont area and after checking out some small places and making a wrong turn we ended up in Moreno Valley where we were able to fit into a Goodyear tire center.  They were big enough for us and had time.  Well the tread on the front passenger tire was coming apart.  So glad it didn't do that while we were on the freeway going 60 mph.  So one hour and $450 for 2 new tires later we were once again on our way but by now it was 5pm so we found an rv park and we are safe and sound for the night.

We will continue our trip north tomorrow.

But after all that drama and wining I do have some good news.  I'm in negotiation on my house, I got an offer saturday and I countered it today so we shall see how that goes.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

See you in a few days.

Evie and Joy

San Diego, The Salton Sea, Slab City and Solar Mike

     We spent three nights in the San Diego area at The Santee Lakes Regional park.  This park has lots of rv sights with full hook-ups and it isn't far from my daughters home.  We got to go out for dinner each night and got lots of good visiting in.

Rain over The Salton Sea

     When we left the SD area we headed east on I8 and at El Centro we turned north towards the Salton Sea where we spent 3 nights in the Salt Creek Primitive camping area.  We came to this area to boondock and try our new solar electric system.  This is when we learn that it wasn't working.  Not only that but the battery in the truck was dead as a door-nail. DEAD BATTERIES all around.  Not even enough power to run the 12 volt lights.  arrrggg  The ranger had come by every day to watch over us because two storms were going to be passing through.  On one of his visits he advised us that we might want to move to higher ground, which we were able to do but that was the last time the truck started.  So on monday morning, March 2, 2015 we call AAA for a jump and then drove into Brawley, CA where we went on a quest to fine a new Interstate battery for the truck.  I wanted and Interstate battery because that is what was in the truck.  I made many calls and went to the Interstate web site looking for a place in Brawley that sold Interstate brand and wasn't able to pin down a place.  OK never mind we'll settle for a NAPA battery instead. On our way to the NAPA store I couldn't make the turn into the parking lot so drove on past it for two blocks and was able to get this rig turned around and heading back to the NAPA store. While tuning back onto the street what should drive past us?  A big green Interstate Battery truck so I thought the best thing to do was to just follow him to where ever he was going.  And that's what we did.  Followed him to a tiny repair shop of a Mexican man who spoke almost no english but within about 10 minutes I was driving away with a new battery bought right off the mother truck and installed, all for $150.  I was a very happy camper.

White Pelicans huddled against the rain, one duck and some seagulls.

We then left Brawley headed back north on highway 111 towards Niland, CA. which we went on past going all the way to The Fountain of Youth Spa and RV Resort for the night.  We needed to plug in and also dump the holding tanks and fill up with fresh water.

Look, snow on the far mountains. 

This morning we got up and drove back to Niland to go on an adventure looking for Slab City and Salvation Mountain.

We came to Slab City to find Solar Mike and have him trouble-shoot our new solar system and fix it.  The first thing he found is that the old inverter in the rv had not been disconnected.  So my new panels were producing 7 amps and the old converter was using 11 amps just to keep itself going.  So off the top we were running a 4 amp deficit.  There by draining the batteries.  It was just a coincidence the truck battery died at the same time.  So we are sitting in Solar Mikes yard in Slab City while his dog barks at everyone and Mike and his gang works on our rig.  The first thing he did was disable the old inverter.  Now one of his crew is on the roof moving two of the old new panels so they won't be shaded by the roof vents or the air conditioner.  And hopefully those changes will get us up and running.

Here we are at Solar Mikes note Red Wagon isn't hooked up, 

Mom drove in behind me this morning.

We will stay out here at the Slabs for a day or two to make sure everything is working and if not we will come back and re-assess the situation. 

See you later.

Evie and Joy