0945 – OK, it’s official. Neither are we flying nor driving home to visit my primary care doctor to check my arm. We’re staying right here as planned. I suspect most of you already figured that out. Instead, we’ll just keep an eye on my wounds and if they start turning the wrong color, or my arm becomes unusable, we’ll visit another emergency room. Or, I’ll let Max lick the wounds and make them go away. He’s good at that.

1911 – For those of you not familiar with military time, or the 24-hour clock, that’s 7:11 pm. It’s interesting, and kinda cool, the way eleven’s keep popping up in our lives. It happens a lot. That 7:11 was the most recent, but just before that Diane told me she thought she’d like to go to church in the morning and found a Lutheran congregation in Coronado that’s located at 1111 5th avenue. So, of course, we’re going. Service at 10:11 am but we’ll be there at 10:00 am just to make sure we’re on time.

Today was pretty laid back for both of us. There’s a Goodwill in Imperial Beach that caught Diane’s eye so she went to visit it and discovered that it’s in a complex of other stores she enjoys visiting. So it was perfect. She left me home, alone with Max, so I could watch the Oregon vs. Oregon State football game. We can do that now that we get all the channels we pay for. It was fun to watch. During half time I took Max for a walk about.

Just as the Colorado vs. Colorado State got started Diane returned hungry and deemed it appropriate if I got off my lazy butt and cooked something. So, I did. I cooked a bunch of eggs, making them look a little bit like an omelet, threw some cheese on it, warmed some little chunks of ham (for me), toasted some bread, and we had supper. Diane poured the milk. It wasn’t bad. After supper I took Max for another walk then we sat outside the RV looking across the bay at San Diego and the Naval Station. It’s quite peaceful here. There was no Seal activity today unless they are in super stealth mode.

Now it’s getting chilly, below 70, so we’re going in for the night.

Hope all is well. One of these days we’ll be someplace where I can add a photo for you once in a while. Don’t know why it doesn’t work now.

G’night.

We Made it! Seems like we’ve been driving for weeks instead of days. Now we have to get used to not having to get up early so we can move on to the next stop. We’ll be here until October 8th, I think. Something like that. Then we can move along.

Our main objective today was to circumnavigate Los Angeles by selecting the proper freeway. There are many to choose from. Thankfully, the Garmin we have for the RV knows the way and got us here just fine. We encountered a number of hills that caused the rig to overheat, but slowing down seemed to solve the problem. In a few days we’ll go searching for a mobile mechanic who can visit us to drain the radiator and engine of whatever is in there and refill it with the proper mixture of coolant. There will be a report.

Here’s the view from space #29 … to the right, directly across from the park is the 32nd Street Naval Station where I spent a lot of time many years ago.

That’s the San Diego skyline across the bay from us. You can see the Coronado Bridge, also. We don’t have a waterfront space, but ours isn’t blocked by a neighbor.

It’s very comfortable here sitting outside without my shirt sticking to me. Temp must be in the low 70’s, while every night we stopped the temp was around 100. Nasty.

I took Max for a walk shortly after arrival and he marched me right down to the bay and jumped in. He was leaping around in the water like a porpoise, having a great time. Then he did some zoomies in the loose sand and immediately ran back to the water. The people sitting around in their chairs really enjoyed his water show. Now he’s a mess, of course, but he’s been a really good puppy so there’s no way we could be upset with him. He actually cleans up well and pretty easily. Just pick him up and shake him a little and all the dirt just falls off like magic.

See you tomorrow.

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.

We got to Naval Air Station Lemoore right on time after an uneventful cruise down Highway 99. I say uneventful because we didn’t run into anything even though we had plenty of chances to do so. Many of the drivers down here on the map drive like daredevils auditioning for a movie. Thankfully, we missed every one of them.

Getting on base was simple. The GPS took us right to one of the gates that was accessible for us. It wasn’t the main gate, as we were directed to use, but it worked. Once that was done, we went searching for the MWR office to check in, pay the camping fee, and get directions to the RV park.

NAS Lemoore is huge, like a city planted in the dessert, so finding MWR was a challenge, but not one we couldn’t manage. Once there, I left the bus running while I went in to take care of business. I asked for a map of the base so we wouldn’t get lost but they didn’t have any. That was a bummer, but in reality, just one more challenge. The young lady helping me found a kind of map and tried to make a copy of it was missing parts. She gave me a narrative about where we were and where we should go but it didn’t make any sense to me since I had been driving all day (3 hours) in the intense heat. I just nodded my head as if I was totally aware of what she was telling me, then went back to the bus and disconnected the car. I knew Diane could find our ultimate destination.

We drove around a while with no luck because there weren’t any signs telling us where to go. So, I parked in a very large, empty parking lot and released Diane to search our surroundings. She returned about 1/2 hour later with good news. I followed her to the RV park and she led me pad #25 where I parked perfectly the very first try. It was simple because every space as a cement pad large enough to accommodate the largest RV in existence. I know that’s true because one of them was parked on pad #26.

After I got the water and power connected, Diane took a trip to the commissary for some needed supplies, leaving me alone to make one more attempt to make the Dish work. Sadly, it didn’t, and neither was I able to get any channels on the antenna. So, instead of catching up on the news we spent all our time reading. Not a bad thing, really, Oh, and we ate supper, too. We were going to cook the steak we’ve been hauling around with us, but it was late, again, Instead we ate the rest of the beef stew Diane made before we embarked on this journey. That stuff never goes bad and it was delicious.

It’s been decided that the Dish antenna has ended it’s life cycle and is now available for me to dismantle to figure out how it ticks. Oddly, I actually did that the last time we were at NAS Fallon in Nevada a couple of years ago. Another “oddly” thing is that the RV park in Fallon is exactly like Lemoore’s. Very nice facilities.

Yesterday the heat was grueling sand Max was totally done with lounging in his little throne. Luckily, there’s a dog park next to the forest or landing pads so I took him there and turned him loose. Just as we got to the park a gentleman was leaving and he apparently turned on some sprinklers in the Small Dog area of the park and Max was ecstatic. He found a sprinkler that was making a puddle, dug out around it to make the puddle bigger, then layed down in it, happy as a clam. Almost like cooling off in the crick at home. This one, however, was muddy, but he’s proven that he’s not afraid of a little mud. Consequently, he got very muddy.

Back at the RV I hosed him off knowing that he’d dry in a couple of minutes, which he did.

We got to bed around 9-ish and slept the night away.

Now it’s Saturday morning and our projected departure time is one minute away. We’ve decided we’re not going to make it. The destination is Lancaster Elks Lodge. They have 60 sites. If it’s full, we’ll go on down to the Palmdale Elks Lodge (15 miles) that also has 60 sites. Surely one of them will have a spot for us.

See you later.

The trip from Redding to Merced was very nostalgic for us. In addition to coming this way to visit with Jennifer, Daniel and the kids in Modesto, we spent time on both Highway 99 and I-5 running back and forth from San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Pedro to home (Oregon) while we were in the Navy. We got to know these roads quite well.

Going past Modesto we took extra special looks to see what had changed and what we remembered. Even though it’s been many years since our last trip this way, it was very familiar. The big difference for me was the traffic. The freeway past Modesto is very much like LA now, not the way I remember it. All 32 lanes were just creeping along through the city as all the participants competed for the best lane to get just a tiny bit ahead of everyone else. We just plugged along in the slow lane and made it through a couple of minutes behind them watching the game unfold. Kept me busy. Max wasn’t impressed. Diane weathered that storm well.

Once we reached Merced the GPS led us away from the freeway to 3600 Wardrobe Ave. On my honor, that’s a place. We were given site #11 and it was not difficult to get parked and set up. The only problem was, that after all that driving with the dash A/C keeping us cool, once plugged in, the roof air would not function. In my heat induced ignorance, I could not figure out what was going on so I looked for help in the form of an RV repair service. The first guy I talked with was on the East Coast somewhere. He connected me to a more local source and I was able to secure a tech for next Tuesday. Since the A/C didn’t work, and the temperature here is running in the 100’s, and we would be long gone by Tuesday, I begged and pleaded for a spot for tomorrow. He granted my wish and I agreed to pay whoever showed up $274 to take a shot at fixing the problem.

At this time Diane was out shopping for dinner so I was left to my own devices. The deal was done.

Then, I had an epiphany. My mind zoomed into a closeup view of an annoying little switch on the panel next to the door that is easily bumped on the way out of the bus. I quickly went to it and clicked it and everything worked, like magic! The switch is a battery cut out that terminates power to everything in the overhead, like all the lights. Some of that missing DC current powered the control panel that allows one to control the A/C.

I quickly called Xavier, the guy who made my appointment, back and cancelled the tech visit. Then I turned everything on high and took Max for a walk. Diane showed up shortly thereafter and we had dinner.

Another issue was my ongoing battle with the Dish. I couldn’t find a good location on the ground where it could ‘see’ the satellites. If I hadn’t lost the roof ladder extension, near the Rogue River, I could of put it on the roof where there was unrestricted access to the entire sky. I figured that I could borrow a step ladder from someone, but Diane suggested we go to Home Depot and just get one. So, we did that.

With the ladder I got the Dish on the roof but no matter how many times I reset the Dish, it just wouldn’t work. Ultimately, Diane said try broadcast channels so I did. We got plenty of them so Diane made a decision that instead of fighting with the Dish at every stop, we just to broadcast channels until we get to San Diego. Then, if the Dish doesn’t work, we will just replace it and I can have the old one to dismantle to see how it works.

With that directive my life on the road became far simpler. Life is good.

Right now it’s 0715 in the morning of the sixth day and Max is pleading to go outside so I’m stopping.