Two Penny Travels

Weather in Aguanga

We have now spent a week in Aguanga at the Jojoba Hills SKP Resort where we have a membership. We arrived with the HOT weather, and tonight it is supposed to cool, remarkedly! Hope that is the case.

The temperatures reached above 110F, and one day the thermals grew so large they became a real cumulo-nimbus thunderheads that dumped over half an inch of rain on us. It was delightful to get wet, and it kept the lightning from starting many fires. There were several lightning strikes in our area, and a couple of times the power went out for a few minutes. The humidity climbed, but we were able to survive.

So we are now looking at a week of moderating temperatures, mostly in the 80s. It will be nice, and I will be able to get some work done out in the yard on the pruning and rearranging of our lot.

I'm sure the hot weather will return later in the fall, but for now, we plan to enjoy the fine climate here. I will work on articles about RV leds for prudentrver.com and doing needed landscaping. Alice will work at adjusting to living in the new home, a Teton 5th wheel. We don't expect to do any traveling soon. We will keep in touch.

Sam

 

Base camp

We left Lost Hills about 9:30 this morning, and after a longer than expected drive, reached our base camp at Jojoba Hills SKP Resort near Aguanga, CA about 5pm.

The trip was longer time-wise. It was a struggle for my truck to pull the 5th wheel up the Grapevine, and I stopped for a period of time to let the engine cool. Then, it over-heated again going through Palmdale with the stop and go, and I spent some time in Little Rock getting some coolant to add to the radiator.

That put us into San Bernardino right at the beginning of the Friday afternoon commute, and that really slowed us down. The commute continued all the way into Temecula. Outside temperatures were running up to 102F, so the truck tended to get over-heated in certain situations. Not the most comfortable drive.

Finally, we got onto Hwy 79S and cruised up to our park. It looked much the same as when we left it. Our first task was to go inside the base camp rig and start the air-conditioner, but we found we could not open the front door. We could not remember where we put the keys, or even what they looked like. As it turned out, after about 30 minutes of trial and error, we found that we had the keys on our key-rings,  but they were not the ones we expected.

At last we made it inside and started bringing the home rig back to life. We rested on the patio in the glider swing for a while and talked about all the things we needed to do. The birds came around to visit and complain because we had not yet put out the bird seed, but we kicked back and relaxed. It is good to be home.

sam

Back on the road

Thursday morning, the calipers arrived from Dallas, and they are being installed on our Automate 5th wheel. BUT, as the installation proceeded, it became apparent that I really should have the wheel bearings repacked, and then when they took the wheels off the front axle, they found that two more bolts were missing! The quality of the Automate product is falling in my eyes.

Mark, the mechanic at Harvey & Songer who is doing the installation, says he should be able to replace the bolts, but it surely is distressing. AND the pads are getting very thin. We can make it back to Temecula, but we should have them replaced there before going out again. I will need to order them from Kodiak in Dallas since they are not standard.

It is 10:15am right now, and we should be on the road and traveling in less than an hour from now. We plan to drive to Lost Hills, spend the night, and then go on in to Jojoba Hills tomorrow. It will be good to get back to base camp.

Update: we got on the road about 11:30 and made it to Lost Hills RV Park about 5:30. 282 miles of steady driving. The park is not too bad,  but costs $35/night.

sam

How To Change Plans

It is Tuesday, and we are still at Lake Minden TTN. We move to the Harvey & Songer lot in Marysville this afternoon. If we are lucky, parts will arrive tomorrow morning and we may get back on the road in the afternoon. That was not our plan.

We were scheduled to see my sister Rosemary and her family in Hanford yesterday evening, then continue south to Soledad TTN near Acton for a night, and arrive at Jojoba Hills on Wednesday.

A key to living as a full-time RVer is to be able to instantly change your plans on the drop of a hat, or in this case, when a caliper on your brakes drops off. As we were pulling out yesterday morning, both Alice and I heard a funny noise from under the trailer. I let her drive as I walked behind searching for the source of the noise. It seemed to be a left wheel, and when I watched carefully I could see the caliper on the back wheel was rocking back and forth. I crawled under the rig and found the two bolts holding the caliper to its support plate were not there.

On a Sunday, in an area where you don't know many people and who there is to help, what do you do? Ask around camp for a local to give you advice. The fellows from Florida and Oregon were not much help, but a fellow who lived in Marysville gave me the name of a parts place that should be open on Sundays. I called them and they directed me to a brake shop called Harvey & Songer.

Okay, we reparked and extended our stay by one night here at Lake Minden. We drove into Marysville and I located H&S, but they would not open until Monday morning. We had lunch and returned to relax.

This morning I called and talked with Jim Songer. He said bring the trailer in just after noon so they could look at it and order parts. He hopes they can put the parts on Tuesday morning and get us out tomorrow. For this evening, we can stay in their lot, and they will provide some power. Also, if I unplug the trailer from the truck (so the brakes will not be activated), I can pull the rig to Marysville (carefully) instead of calling for a very large trailer to come and pick it up.

I figured things would work out this way, or something like it. All that was important was I should not get all upset and excited. I should roll with the punches. Once again I was lucky and did the right thing.

We will have a different schedule getting back to Jojoba Hills, one that may involve staying in Elks lots at new places, but that will be easy. In any case, we should be back there later this week.

sam

Lava, Lava, Everywhere

For the last six days we have been camped at the Hereford Ranch Hat Creek RV Park just off Hwy 89 north of Lassen. It has been a most pleasant sojourn, and one we expect to repeat in the years to come.

First, it should be noted that there is no Verizon service here, so we have no cell-phones and our air-card does not work. But they do have free WiFi, so I am still on the Internet.

This is the Hat Creek valley. It is the remains of a A'a stony rough lava flow 20,000 years ago from the Lassen Peak family of craters, including the Hat Creek fault. Up near Old Station is the lava tube cave, the 20-foot diameter remains of a liquid-rock river that flowed beneath the surface as the 16 square mile lava field cooled.

We first came here in the 1960s and 70s to explore and fish. My boys learned much of their fishing expertise and enthusiasm from their grandfather on the upper Hat. In time, as we aged and wanted more comfort, we adopted the camper-style of living. We found a great place further down the valley at the Hereford Ranch where we had running water and electricity. Besides, it was closer to the lower Hat where the REALLY big trout hung out (barbless hooks and two fish limit).

Much of it remains the same, though I understand the DFG now plants the lower hat. But it is still very limited waters, and there are still some big fish.

But the big difference is up on the lava beds just this side of Old Station. Last year a fire raged through the scrub oaks and mesquite atop the lava flows. There was not much to burn, but what there was was burned to a gray powder of ash. Now it looks like the moon. No green. No life. Dead.

This has happened before, but not in my lifetime. It was a heartbreak when we drove through it. My consolation is that life will come back to the lava beds. The rains will fall and wash away the ash, and seeds will be blown in from nearby hills. Life will return, but it will be a long time. 

In the meantime, we will stay here in the still-green parts of the Hat Creek valley. At least for the next couple of days, then we continue our journey to the south.

Sam Penny

Moving on to Hat Creek

Nine days at SnowFlower TTN above Truckee, and tomorrow it is time to move on. It has been most pleasant at this elevation of 5,800 ft. The high temperatures have reached the mid-80s, and the winds have been breezes. The nights have been cool enough for Alice to want more blankets.

We have been into Truckee three times, so I am becoming more and more acquainted with I-80 up and over Donner Summit (7,236 ft). The road is pretty rough in places, and construction is rampant. After all, there is the winter season and the construction season in this part of the country.

I wonder how well the roads up here are going to survive the next few years. The state of California is on a course to bankruptcy, or whatever condition is equivalent for a sovereign state of the USA. I anticipate that the price of fuel will rise, meaning people will drive less and there will be less fuel tax to pay for the roads. I figure that in a few years the state will quit maintaining secondary roads (at least to the level you find them now), and after than they will cut back on maintenance of the major roads. The road over Donner Summit could become a really rough road.

In the meantime, tomorrow we go back to Truckee and then turn north on Hwy 89. We are going up to the valley of the Hat, north of Lassen. One of the most beautiful creeks in the state still flows down the valley through the four mile wide lava beds. Near Baum Lake much of the underground water flows out the large springs and forms the lower Hat Creek. It is a place for fly fishing, and I intend to try my luck, at least for a while.

At least Alice should not get so cold. They are predicting highs of 89 and 90, though nights will be mid-50s. We'll tell you more when we get there.

Sam Penny, the Prudent RVer