Trip Home and Other Follies

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We left for California on April 20. We had a totally uneventful trip. Well our return trip has been anything but!

We spent 3 days packing the motorhome leisurely and on Wednesday 9/5 we finished the packing. We went to move in the motorhome slide and it was rusted in the open position. I pulled out my trusty can of WD40, the miracle tool, and sprayed all gears, and pulleys. There is a manual way to close a slide with a wrench. I was lying on the ground with the wrench and Jan was pressing the motor button. Finally with a lot of effort we got it closed.

It was an easy four hour drive to Lake Tahoe on US 50. We then turned north on CA 89, which went around the west side of the lake, and I drove over the most scary road ever. It was worse than any of the Colorado Mountain Passes. There was one stretch about 1000 feet long that was exactly two cars wide with no shoulder, steep cliffs on both aides and no guard rails. Thank God that no other vehicles were going in the opposite direction. Two minutes after crossing, a large truck and trailer went past us. There were also a couple of 10 mph hair pin turns that were very steep. I drove around them at about 5 mph and I didn’t think that the motorhome would make it up the hill, but it did. Don’t forget the motorhome weighs 18,000 lbs and the car being towed weighs about 3,600 lbs.

We got to the Sugar Pine State Park campground around 4 pm and took it easy. The next morning, I got out my trusty WD-40 and worked the slide until it moved freely. If we have another host job at the beach we will move the slide every couple of weeks and keep the gears and pulleys well lubricated. I plan to bring the motorhome to my mechanic friend to look for any rust damage. On Thursday we went into South Lake Tahoe. We went into Harrah’s casino just across the border from South Lake Tahoe. You cross a street from rustic motels and restaurants in California to the high rise casinos in Nevada. We played $10 each for almost one hour and cashed in and got our $20 back.

We have 3 bicycles on a rack on the back of the Saturn. We have my daughter-in-laws new beach cruiser and Jan’s and my bikes. Our bikes are low entry bikes formally known s girls bikes. Normally you hang the upper bike bar on the 2 rack poles. With low entry bikes, there is no upper bar so you must buy a cross beam which is adjustable length and a clamp at either end. You then clamp one end under the handle bar and the other end under the seat.

Just after we left Harrah’s, we were going about 20 mph, and a motorist beside us told us that one of the bicycles was dragging on the street. I pulled around the corner on to a no parking street and stopped. The seat post on Jan’s bike had broken and the only thing holding the bike on was a security cable that I have on the seats so that no one can steal the seats. If we had been going fast, I might have lost all three bikes. We took the wheels of Jan’s bike and put it in the back of the Saturn. My new bike had some damage and the new beach cruiser had a few scratches.

We left Lake Tahoe and went north to I80 and through Reno. We then dropped down to US 50 in Nevada which is also known s the “The Loneliest Road in America". US 50 parallels I80 across Nevada and Utah. It was a long interesting two lane road. I found out that when Google maps says that a road will take 5 hours, add at least another hour for RVs. There were many long and quite steep sections where I was driving 30 mph up the hill. We spent the next night in Ely NV.

The next day we day we headed to Torrey Utah. Torrey is at the entrance to Capital Reef National Park. This was a long day also. Unfortunately Jan will not drive the motorhome and I do all of the driving. We had made a reservation at a campground in Torrey about three weeks before. When we got there about 5pm we were told that our reservation had been canceled because the person in our site decided to stay another night and the owners were too stupid to tell them no. They had called us that morning and left a message but cell phone coverage across was almost nonexistent. They told to try another campground up the street. There was no one in the office when we arrived but the sign said to take any open site and check in later. We then left the motorhome and disconnected the Saturn

On the front of the Saturn is a portable plastic wind protector in front of the Grill. We have this to protect the front of the car from rocks and dirt. I have a pad lock securing the wind screen to the hitch on the car. This lock had been giving me problems. I could not get if off. I had brought a cheap bolt cutter about 18” long. The cutter could not cut off the lock. With a screen on, it is not legal to drive the car because the head lights are covered. We then went looking for a bolt cutter in this very small town. I stopped at a gas station but the lady could not help us. I then found the fire station but no one was there. We then headed back through town to another gas station. There was a craft stand with three couples working so we stopped to ask then for help. One of the guys tried to break the lock with a hammer but instead it was damaging the screen frame. I mentioned that I had a cheap bold cutter and gave it to them. When I said cheap they asked me if I had bought it as Harbor Freight, which specializes in cheap tools. We all had a laugh when I said yes. Two of the men worked on the lock and finally cut it off. I had to put the screen in the back over the seat, so I took out two rods that held the three parts together. We talked to them about the campground that had screwed us and told them where we were staying.

We then visited the park which has amazing rock formations. There is a 10 mile scenic drive through the park. When we got back to the campground we stopped in to register. It seems that I had left the two steel rods that hold the wind screen parts together on the ground where the men had helped me. They brought the rods to the campground.

The next day we left Torrey on route 24. We drove through Capital Reef National park on one of the most beautiful roads. We got to Lake Dillon after a tiring seven hour drive and camped on the lake. In Breckenridge, we ate at our favorite Swiss restaurant and had cheese and chocolate fondues.

On Tuesday, we drove to Greeley CO for the Colorado State Samboree and annual campout for the Colorado Good Sams a camping club. The event was at the Island Grove Regional Park. I am the web master for the state web site.

And then the rains came. The 500 year floods hit the Denver and Colorado Springs areas on Wednesday. We had few problems at the park with the Poudre rive running through the north end of the park. Two of the parking lots flooded and many RVs had to relocate to the higher ground for the last two days. One of our members from Colorado Springs had to spend Thursday night in Denver because of the road closures. We closed up the RV in the pouring rain and drove home Sunday September 15^th in the rain.

We had house sitters and had to cleanout many closets and all dressers. Now the fun begins putting our house in order.

On September 26 we fly to Boston for Jan’s 50^th high school reunion.

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Photos

13 08 Lake Tahoe (13)
The super narrow road