Day 3 – The Appointment -- Dead Inverter

 

Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.

This is it.  No more counting the days.  We have definitely arrived at one of our destinations.  Well, it wasn’t a destination we had planned on until the day before departure.  All of those pre-planned stops were thrown out the window when this destination was written in ink. 

 

Our appointment wasn’t until 1:30 but it was in the hills 45 miles east of Modesto.  Yes, there are hills around Modesto.  However, those hills are on the way to Yosemite.  So, it was a good thing we didn’t have to run out the door early.  It meant that we didn’t have to get on the road early at all .  The drive was interesting.  The hills were rolling.  This is where there are dairy farms and pastures.  We also saw rows and rows of fruit and nut trees.  It was definitely a nice drive and even a nice day for it. 

 

Once we started the drive I could understand why this thing was such a good buy.  No one else wanted to drive to check it out.  Look how far we drove and how many plans we changed just to check it out.

 

 

Well, it wasn’t just to check it out.  We knew it was a good deal …. if it materialized.  We weren’t talking about saving just a couple bucks.  This was a matter of saving a couple thousand bucks.  Now they were speaking my language!

 

I must admit we were just a tad apprehensive though . just a tad but not enough to not go.  It was a long way from civilization, GPS coordinates were sketchy, cell phone signal non-existent and the seller knew we’d be carrying cash.  Craigslist is a great place to advertise and sell items or to buy but you have to be cautious. Running into thieves who use it is not that unusual. 

In the meantime, I kept trying to sending texts to our son. You know to send him the phone number, location, ad and just about everything else.    He was anxious about this transaction also.  I figured he'd at least know where to look for us. The problem was the cell signal was not very dependable. 

We were cautious for about two minutes but it took us six hours to complete the deal.  We even hung around until a notary could show up ... at the seller's home.  We sat around for hours sharing RV and travel stories.  What super nice people!

Boy!  Did we get a deal!  We have a little work to do but boy did we get a deal!  We can do a little work for the price we paid.

We weren’t sure how long we figured we’d hang around Modesto.  Heavy rains were predicted to start arriving on Sunday.  Now that is changed and the rain isn’t supposed to come in until Monday.  We'd certainly rather be in the rain than in the wind.   We may take the extra day to  spruce up the new toy.  Or, we may not.  This planning stuff just doesn't seem to work well for us.  However, we do know we have to get it ready to travel.  That might take a bit.





In the meantime, we discovered another little problem.  They seem to keep coming and coming.  Our inverter bit the dust.  That means no Walmart parking lots, casinos, dry camping at Elks or boondocking of any kind until we get it replaced.   We also discovered we forgot to load a very important item on our trailer ..... our blueboy!!  It's still nicely put away in the storage shed at our cabin in Washington.  Believe me ... enough is enough is enough.

Back to that planning thing ....  when we originally set out a route Modesto was not on our map.  Instead we were on the way to Vallejo for a ferry ride to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.  Next we were on to the Salinas Elks for an excursion to Monterrey and Carmel.  Then, it was on down the 101.  However, this side trip changed most of that. Now we need to think about replacing the inverter and where to have it shipped.  We didn't necessarily have much boondocking planned on our trip south but we still want it replaced as soon as possible.  And, as I'm just getting ready to post this ... all the beautiful sunshine is gone and it's been RAINING hard!  That would also have played into rethinking some of those plans. 

‘Tis life on the road.