More Problems -- Definitely Not An Uneventful Trip

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

 

I've always said I like uneventful trips.  Believe me this trip has been anything but uneventful!!

The weather was turning.  We didn’t want to stick around in Modesto when the showers hit but it looked as though that was going to happen anyway.  We had a few things to do and some things to install to make travel with the new RZR secure   -- rain or no rain.  We were thankful that we did leave the few days early.  Had we not?  Well, we probably would have been in the bad weather and snow in Northern California.  In addition, weather was so bad even a tornado snuck through.  Traveling in bad weather is definitely not in our plans.

One of the first things we did was make a trip to Home Depot.  We had purchased some ratchets for the new RZR previously. (Remember, the RZR we bought in our previous blog?)   If we said they were a pile of junk, I think that would be an under-statement.  So, back they went.  We ended up buying some chains, locks and different ratchets.  Why is it when you take something back the refund is never as large as  the next purchase?  That was definitely the case. 

We were also in the market for a winch for the RZR and a new inverter.  Our inverter bit the dust and we were hoping to replace it as soon as possible with the exact same one.  The winch was easy to find but the inverter not so much.  I ended up ordering it from Amazon for delivery on Wednesday at our next Elks Lodge down the road ….  Isn’t Amazon wonderful?  Aren’t the Elks Lodges wonderful too?  However, if you order something delivered to you down the road, it means you really need to go there.  We found that was a little problem but now we had no choice.

I’ve often said I can’t drink anything with caffeine at night because I’ll end up staying awake.  The night before I broke that rule and had two cups of Oolong tea about 9:00!  By midnight I was wide awake and stayed that way for the next three hours.  So, about 2:30 I needed a nap.  No more tea with caffeine.  It has to be herbal.  So, I napped while Terry finished up his little projects.

 

We like parts of California. We would like to find a place to hang around for a couple months in the fall. That way we'd be closer to Washington for our trip back over the holidays.  We're looking and I'm sure eventually we'll find a place.  The problem is California is an expensive state.  It's not just the fuel either.  Yesterday we filled up the Jeep  and paid $4.15 a gallon.  We’ve seen some stations with unleaded at $4.45 but that’s about the highest so far.  Of course, we’re heading south and that’s where we had heard it was the highest.   In Oregon we paid $3.90 at a Pilot Station.

Daylight got ahead of Terry with all the work (play?) he wanted to do on the new toy before we pulled out and headed south.  He finally finished installing the winch and the RZR latched down to the trailer.  The new ratchets seemed to work great and everything appeared to be secure.

The next morning the weather was gloomy.  There’s not much we can do about the rain but it was time to get on the road .................... or, so we thought but then ............... we had another hiccup.  It's not as though we hadn't had enough of those already. 

After Terry pulled in to dump he made his inspection walk around the motorhome.  One back tire on the driver's side was now very low on air!  It just  looked like a low tire from there but that was the outside tire we were looking at.  We were only one mile from a Big O Dealer and that's where we spent the next three hours.  Remember a couple days ago we spent three hours on the side of the road?  This time at least it wasn’t on the highway.  We're not sure exactly what the problem was but we have an idea.  Anyway, we’re hoping having tire problems this year is behind us.    We're thinking they were grossly over inflated.  However, we decided we weren't going to take another chance.  We had all the tires replaced.  Last March we got tired of tire problems on the Jeep and did the same thing.  This has definitely been the year of tires for us.

Having a blowout in an RV of any type can be very dangerous.  We know.  We've heard stories from others about their blowouts.  So, over the last few days we've had two of these and been very, very lucky.  Thank you, God!   Or, do you think He's trying to tell us something? 

Needless to say, we have definitely had our issues on this trip and we haven't even been on the road a week yet.   Remember the problems?  First we had a blowout in Oregon, a theft in Oregon, burned out instrument lights, dead inverter and now more tire problems.  If problems come in sets of three, does this mean we have one more problem about to face us?  Can we count that we left the blue boy behind or can we count the situation with the stress of being pulled over by two local policemen as another problem?   That's right ... we finally got on our way only to get pulled over by the police.  Honest!  We didn’t do a thing!!!

This was just one of the cops finishing up business!

We almost turned around to head back to the Modesto Elks.  We just didn’t feel like getting on the road.  What else was going to happen?  We went back and forth whether to head on or just relax for the rest of the day.  Eventually, we pulled out of Big O and headed towards the coast.  Again, the plans of the morning went out the window but we knew we had to head south.  After all, our inverter was due to be delivered there.  We certainly couldn't change our minds now.  In the morning we had thought we would be heading towards Atascadero.  Instead we headed almost due west towards Salinas.  It was a shorter drive.  See what I mean about making plans?  They just don't seem to work.


Most of our route was on back roads that went through a few little towns.  After we had gone through one town we noticed two police cars racing up behind us flashing their lights.  Both pulled in front of us and stopped.  They were side by side blocking us and our lane in the little two-lane road.  Aargh!  What'd we do now?  We may have needed money to pay for those tires but we didn’t rob any banks.  We also were very careful not to speed through their town.  Terry already had the registration and insurance out.  However, one officer was more concerned with the trailer than any paper work.  Evidently, someone had called a report in that a trailer had just gone through town on fire.  It wasn't us.  When they realized we weren't on fire one police officer left while the other one apologized for stopping us and we were on their way.  Whee!  That was scary.

Up and over those golden California hills.  Those hills are sure steeper than what we thought!!

Need I repeat that this trip south has not been uneventful but we're still limping on. 

Our new home for a couple days --Salinas Elks.  
Joining the Elks was one of the smartest things we did.

’Tis life on the road.