It’s been a long harrowing day on Highway 101. We left Willits around 1000 and made our first stop in town at the local Les Schwab to have the RV tires first pumped up a little. Actually, they needed to be pumped a lot. Most tires had 65-70 psi, and we needed them to be 90. My assigned Les Schwab tire jockey fixed us right up in about 5 minutes, then we were on our way.
It was raining when we started but it quickly turned to snow mixed with rain. As we progressed, the mixture of snow to rain turned to mostly snow, then only snow. Thankfully, the roads remained clear so there was no problem on the road. I kept the speed at 55 because 101 is a wiggly road so even though the speed limit for most of the trip was 65, but I stuck with 55 anyway. That made both Diane and me happy.
Putting more air in the tires made a big difference in how the bus handled. Steering was much easier and we didn’t jump around as much as it has up to this point in time. Should have done that years ago.
We got to Eureka around 1432 hours and parked in space #1. After getting it all hooked up, I went in and paid for 2 nights as directed. When I got back to the bus Diane told me that she’d made a big mistake because she already had a reservation for Tugman State Park for the 8th. That means I would have had to drive nearly 5 hours on Saturday. So, we reverted to 1 night and plan to spend tomorrow night in Harris State Park in Brookings. That was the original plan.
We’re staying home this evening. Diane thought about getting dinner at KFC but the one she found only got 2 stars and she won’t eat at anyplace that has 3.5 or lower. We have food so will cook this evening. I think it’s going to be ham, baked potatoes, and some sort of vegetable. Probably beans.
It appears that I’m going to survive my fall. For a while there I’m sure Diane wondered if the damage was permanent. The damage to my glasses is certainly permanent. I do have a spare set of spectacles thanks to Jennifer. The only drawback to using the spares is they were calibrated for computer use. Therefore, distance vision, though a little fuzzy, is better than having the glasses fall off my face at a critical moment. So, we’re going with them. Besides, Diane said she like them better than the bent glasses because they don’t make my face look mean.
We’re heading north, finally, up Highway 101, west of the snow. The snow was a concern because neither of us wants to be driving in that stuff. I do have chains for the bus, which I purchased years ago in the event the road rules dictated that travelers must carry traction devices. Well, I’ve got them, but I have no intention of ever installing them. My plan, if I’m ever in a situation where chains are required, I’d simply turn everything off, hand my keys to some lucky devil, and catch a ride home. I know, that’s a tad radical, and I probably wouldn’t do that, but it’s an option.
Thankfully, though it’s a little chilly outside, it’s a cloudless sky. The sun is shining all over the place. Quite different from the typhoon welcome we got yesterday. That was miserable. My fuzzy shirt is still dripping from that episode.
Thinking back on that fall, both of us are a little bewildered because when I’ve fallen in the past, my knees always took a hit. Like lots of skid marks and sometimes bloody spots. This time, I had on new jeans and there wasn’t a mark on them from the fall. I studied the area where I fell for a long time. The spot where I hit the ground was evident by the dried blood.
At the time, I had Max with me, and he was attached to the long cable tether we use when he is out alone. That’s not ideal for walking him because it doesn’t retract. I figure that had something to do with the mishap, too. So, bear with me and see if this makes sense.
I lifted the dumpster lid with my left hand and deposited two bags of trash with my right. I remember that part. Then I turned to my right and took a step with my right foot. At this point Max found something interesting to my right and lunged that direction. I took another step with my left foot that ended close to the blue bumper. When I tried to keep up with my right foot the bumper was in the way and caused me to go down on my left side but somehow my knees didn’t hit the ground. They must have encountered the white bumper, and the remainder of the impact was absorbed by my right arm which should have caused me to roll left. But, considering the size of the blood spot, I must have laid there a while before getting up. Diane said I was gone about 1/2 hour, and the dumpster was only a couple of minutes away. I obviously did not tuck and roll like I’ve been trained to do.
It’s still very confusing and the mystery remains about why my pants didn’t get dirty. Not even one littler speck to commemorate the event.
Therefore, I proclaim that for some reason I was saved from catastrophic damage at the last second and time stopped for a bit.
Simple as that. Then I got up and went back to the RV, but I have no memory of that trip. My first semi-sentient moment was in the bathroom when Diane was cleaning me up and I suggested she take a photo to document this event. These memories were fleeting as was the trip to the hospital. I recall part of the trip and by the time we got to the first doctor I feel that I was aware of my surroundings just fine. It was weird but it didn’t bother me at all. Also, the pouring rain washed away all the evidence I left in the parking lot as if nothing happened at all.
The doctor wanted to keep me for observation in case something else happened, but we had places to be, so we talked him out of it
Now, about Mendocino County. That’s where Willits is located, our next destination.
The trip very nice, rolling through hundreds of acres of vineyards. It’s very peaceful and easy on the eyes after all the high desert sand. It was nice to be surrounded by fields of green grass interspersed by all those grapevines so perfectly lined up and so well-tended.
It rained a bit toward the end of the 2-hour trip which we drove non-stop. We found the RV Park easily and we were the first people to show up this day. Others arrived later, but the park is practically empty. It’s a very nice park and it’s a little sad we’ll be here for only one night.
After getting everything set up, we left Max in charge of the TV remote and headed into town for something to eat. The chosen destination was Lumberjacks Restaurant. It’s apparently a chain restaurant and it was really good. Diane had a hamburger, and I had a chicken-fried steak. Here’s the only photo taken inside the restaurant.
Diane took this to show everyone how well my eye is looking. I’m mending quite well, and it should be invisible by the time we get back home in Oregon.
The weather looks pretty good so it’s on to Eureka tomorrow.
Today was difficult for a number of reasons but the most obvious one was my injuries from the recent face plant.
Highway 12 most of the way through the Sacramento Delta area. Lots of water everywhere.
Rained most of the way but retained the gullywasher for when we were hooking up at EOJ..
Glasses suffered in the face plant and won’t stay on my face. Especially when it’s pouring rain.
We got all set then a guy from the lodge came along and said we have to have something under the jacks so we pulled the slides in and lifted the jacks. Then I put the rubber dodads I purchased in San Diego for just that purpose. Technically, the jacks are off the ground but not centered very well on the pads.
Yesterday, Diane asked me to get her cereal. and fiber. So I did, and stacked them up by her elbow. She didn’t know it was there so guess what happened. Yup. It all came tumbling down.
In her defense, she was neck deep in her plans that changed due to my face plant in the parking lot. We lost one day on the road. So far.
The village of Petaluma lives on Highway 101 about 100 miles from our current location. That’s a reasonable drive for a day on the road. I know, some of you guys don’t get off the road until you reach the final destination no matter how far it is. Right, Doug?
We used to do that all the time when we wore younger people’s clothes. I think that’s something like a refrain from a Billy Joel song.
Diane’s calculating our next step after reviewing the weather on points north. What she saw totally rules out travel on I-5 through the Siskiyou Pass, so we are going west from Lodi to Highway 101. I may have mentioned that as a possibility yesterday. Today it’s a firm decision.
It’s 1035 now and we must check out of here by 1100 so I need to go outside and unplug everything.
NOTICE: There’s a long pause here caused by the need to visit the Emergency Room.
OK. Change of plans. At this time, it is 1908 hours and it’s been a very busy day. If you can do basic math you will see that it’s been about 8.5 hours since my last entry. So, “what,” you may ask, “happened to make it a busy day?” “Well,” I could respond, “Jerrie fell down and broke his crown and bled all over the parking lot. It could have been worse, but a healthy young nurse provided the help that he got.” Yup,
Here’s what happened.
I took Max for a walk around the park, all the way around, and returned him home so I could prepare the RV for launch to our next objective. As soon as I opened the door, Diane handed me a couple of bags that required me to transport them to the local dumpster.
Being of sound mind I chose to obey to avoid damage to myself.
Max accompanied me, as usual, and we deposited the bags in the dumpster and I turned to my left as I stepped away, and apparently stubbed my toe against one of the parking barriers strategically located near the dumpster.
As a result of my foot striking the parking bumper, I tumbled forward, knowing that a painful landing was forthcoming.
The landing never happened, as far as I could tell, because my next cognitive memory was of me in the RV getting my face washed by the lovely Diane. Apparently, there was a disturbing amount of blood on the left side of my face that was caused by the landing I don’t remember. Yes, I’m missing approximately 40 minutes of time from the fall until I regained consciousness sitting on the toilet in the RV. Although I was bleeding profusely, I retained enough legitimate wherewithal to ask Diane to take a photo to commemorate this onetime event. She took two of them.
You can tell by my smile that all was not right with my face. At this point, I was unaware of the amount of damage the fall had caused. Why else would I be smiling like that?
My memory skipped a little here and my next coherent memory I was outside listening to Diane and Dianne discuss the best course of action to address this catastrophe; call an ambulance, go to the emergency room, or wait until tomorrow to see how bad it really is. A trip to the emergency room won the discussion.
Not knowing where the hospital may be, Dianne led us to the closest one around. Diane led me inside and introduced me to the intake nurse and said the magic words that gets you to the head of the line. She said, “I think he may have had a stroke that caused him to fall.”
Boom! I was in a wheelchair heading down the hall to get a CT scan. Once that was done I was strapped to a gurney and a nurse pasted electrodes all over my chest then connected wires to them randomly to initiate an EKG. I also got an automatic blood pressure cuff and an oximeter. All of this was connected to the equipment behind my head. I learned that if I took the oximeter off, it made a bunch of noise. So, I left it on.
They put an IV in my left arm and a short while later a young lady appeared to fill six tubs with my blood. She took this manually from my right arm. She was very good, and I let her know she was appreciated.
Then I laid on that gurney for the next 4 hours waiting for more info from the doctor or a nurse passing by. During that time my face took on a different look.
Later in the day I discovered a wound on the inside of my left lower lip. It, too, was caused by my fall, I’m sure.
I found this one with my tongue. I’m guess it would really hurt if I got some citrus juice on it so I’m staying away from the oranges.
Now that I’ve shared all of this, I must report that I’m feeling pretty good, all things considered. So our plans to move to Highway 101 at the coast. are back in motion. We leave tomorrow morning for Petaluma. It’s 84 miles away and is supposed to take about 2 hours.
Actually, we exited Highway 99 at Lodi and drove over to Woodbridge where we checked in to the Lodi Elks Lodge RV Park. Yes, the Lodi Elks Lodge is located in Woodbridge. I was a little confused, too, but got over it.
We planned to stay two nights, but the weather north of us is getting pretty bad so we are changing plans. Chico was in our sites for day after tomorrow, but the weather report for tomorrow will dictate our path.
Other than getting to the Lodi Elks safely, stopping in Turlock for fuel, and getting our holding tanks dumped, nothing has happened. So, let me share some photos I took at the Merced Elks RV Park.
First, the park is situated on somewhere between 20 and 75 acres. That’s as close as I can get by just eyeballing it. It’s a huge piece of property. Max and I walked to the fence line where I took a picture toward the left …
Straight across to the RV’s …
and to the right down the fence line.
Just ahead of us in the last photo are a few olive trees loaded with olives. Sorry I didn’t get a closeup photo for you.
While standing there, just looking around, a little brown chihuahua came running for Max from across the field.
We don’t know what his name is but he and Max acted like they were long lost friends. Since they were both off leash, they took advantage and ran all over the place. I did my best to keep up and wound up over by the orange trees by the laundry room.
The orange trees, 5 of them, are on the other side of those buildings. You’ll just have to use your imagination.
Another photo I got a kick out of was this one …
He likes to spend time outside, so we tether him to the RV. Since we spent so much time in Tucson where he had to walk on similar color-coded rocks, he chose to lay on the cement pad for the power connection. I suspect the pad was nice and warm and much better than laying on the rocks.
I’m struggling for things to add to this, so I just better quit and call it a day.
The Elk’s RV Park is about 4 miles from Merced and it’s very quiet out here in the country. I don’t know what used to reside on this property, but it’s surrounded by orchards of some sort and there are orange trees that are loaded and available to us to take what we want. I’ve tried a couple, and the oranges are very good. I’m saving a couple of them for Larry and Sue who led us to this park. Thanks.
Today we took a trip to the nearest Best Buy so I could get a couple of devices to solve a problem created by not closing the door on our Dish receiver. It’s pretty exciting when we do that because it falls out of the cabinet after the first bump in the road and dangles in front of my face. Driving down the highway with a Wally hanging in front of my face is tricky. You’d think seeing that open cabinet would be so easy to do, right? But, it’s escaped our view more than once. I’ll add that it hasn’t happened in a long while, but when it did, the external hard drive we use as the DVR reached the end of it’s short USB cord and broke the USB connecter on the receiver. There’s another port that still works fine, but we need two of them now. So, I purchased a USB hub to solve the problem. It’s plugged into the good port and the DVR and a Dish Wi-Fi fob is plugged into the HUB and there are two empty spots. Guess I’ll have to figure out what else I can attach, now.
Boring stuff, right? Sorry about that. I just have to report things. This one was serious because Diane had things recorded on the DVR that she wanted to watch. The Wi-Fi device is necessary for us to get NETFLIX on the Dish receiver. That’s what we’ve been using to binge watch the “White Collar” series. We’re on the last season right now. It’s been a fun trip and we’ll be sad to see it end because then we’ll have to find a new show.
The other device I got was another fob-like thing that plugs into my iPhone and iPad so I can capture all the photos on those devices. I don’t know how many photos are on my iPad, but there are over 62,000 on my phone. Ridiculous, I know, but that’s OK. I take lots of photos. Sometimes I even go back and look at some of them.
After I was done at Best Buy Diane drove us right back to the RV park without using the GPS. It was a test, and she passed it with flying colors. She’s very good at remembering routes and doesn’t get turned around like I do. That makes her the best navigator ever.
Gotta get to sleep now. Tomorrow is another grueling drive. We’re going to the Lodi Elks Lodge. It’s about 83 miles away so it’s going to take about 2 hours to get there. But we need to get fuel for the bus before we go. Should have filled up before leaving NAS Lemoore but we both forgot. With the fuel detour we should make it in 3-4 hours easy.
Temporary Sanity ... 