What a day.

Everything was sailing along smoothly until we got to the LA Grapevine. Going over it in a normal car is no big deal. With the RV? Different story. We stopped only a little way into the trip up the mountain to unhitch the car so I could attempt to control the overheating problem we’ve got. I did pretty good, but a good part of the trip was made going only 15-20 mph on a 70-mph freeway. The flashers got a good workout. Even at that speed I wasn’t the slowest one on the trip. Trucks get to use their flashers a lot, too.

At the end of the day we made it safely to the Lancaster Elks hoping there would be a space open for us. They have 60, but you just never know. Once we found the lodge, I was happy to see they had a lot of open spots so I could put that worry away. Picking one was another job. I paid the camp host the required $25 for the night (a really decent price) then picked a spot where the trees weren’t hanging so low. I think most of the folks parked here have been in their spots for a long time and the trees just grew around them over time. The downside is they only have 30-amp service so we could only run 1 A/C at a time.

For us to connect to a 30-amp service required aa adapter. I have 2 or 3 of them at home in the garage along with other stuff I forgot, so we had to find a store to purchase one. First we tried Lowe’s, then Auto Zone, then finally wound up at Bobby Joe’s RV Center at the edge of town. He had one and I was happy to pay the $40 for it.

Back at the RV I got the power and water connected while Diane undid the slides then we sat down to a well-earned dinner. Diane had one hotdog and a salad left over from yesterday and I had two hotdogs and a can of chili. It was all good.

When we parted ways after unhooking the car, I kept Max with me in the RV. All the way over the mountain he was good as gold then he started getting super antsy about 20 miles from Lancaster. He was trying the climb on the dash, then had to lay right by my feet, then under the dash, then my lap. It wasn’t working out so I stopped and gave him to Diane while we were hunting for the Elk’s Lodge in Lancaster. She said he did similar things for her and she figured it may have been anxiety for him since we weren’t together. Makes sense because up until today, every trip we’ve ever taken we were all together. Today was different.

Tomorrow, we begin the last leg of the trip to San Diego. I have no idea how far it is, or when we hope to arrive, but it’s going to be wonderful to be able to look ahead at more than one day of down time. This time we get at least 3 weeks. At least that’s the plan.

I will, of course, keep you informed of our success along those lines.

You can wish us luck if you wish. We might need it.