California here we come!

We decided to leave the SKP park a day early since rain is forecast and we have 900 miles to go to our next destination.

I learned a valuable lesson as I drove the car to the dumpsters before hooking up.  We like to put the trash on the hood of the car as we tend to forget it if we put it inside the car.  The smell is unpleasant.  There was water on the windshield and without thinking I hit the wipers.

 

Whooosh!  The trash bag went up and followed the arc of the wiper blade until it did a dismount on the left side, spilling garbage all over the road.  It could have been worse; the other bag was about 20 pounds of cat doo-doo from the litter genie.  If that split…well, I don’t want to even think about it.

Lesson two learned that morning was when I picked up all the trash, put it back in the bag and placed it once more on top of the hood.  Then I jumped in to drive the rest of the way to the trash bins, but I couldn’t see.  There was this big white bag of junk blocking my view.  Note to self…put this bag on the passenger side of the car and away from the wipers.

Feeling confident the worst was behind me I started to hook the car to the motorhome when Left Brain let me know that my closet door just fell off.  Thankfully, George always hides next to the bed and no cats were harmed in this latest mishap.

one down...one to go

I started out the day by driving about 100 miles over a little more than a two and half hour period….up through the mountain range.  Lots of going up the hill with the trucks at very slow speeds with the flashers going. The terrain is starting to look much different now.

At noon we found a spot for gassing up at $2.99 a gallon and Left Brain took the wheel.  He feels ready and I’m getting much more comfortable with driving, but really needed a break.  Soon we crested 4310 feet, the highest elevation on I-5.  It’s all downhill from here.

When we needed a place to park for the night we were looking for a pull through and inexpensive.  I had to chuckle at the reviews I noticed about the park we chose.  One said “keep driving” and the other just said “Deliverance”.  Well, I take these with a grain of salt and the price was right, so onward we went.

When we pulled in I could almost hear the banjos beginning to tune up….and then I went inside this charming establishment.

The owner obligingly put his cigarette down in the tin can with a notch cut out to hold it while he registered me.  Normal rate is $35, but with Passport America it’s $17.50 and may still be overpriced at that.  I told him I wanted a level pull through and he said they are all the same.  When I countered him that the ones when we first pulled up looked pretty slanted he just said “whatever one you want darling”.  My eyes were starting to burn from all the cigarette smoke and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

As I left the office the two others sitting on the porch (no banjos in sight yet, but I don’t think they were far away) commented on our motorhome with “Nice rig”.  Granted, there were a lot of Halloween decorations, but I don’t think that’s what made this place look scary.

Once safely ensconced in my RV I turned to Left Brain and told him that if he had said I had a pretty mouth we’d have to leave quickly.  Note to Marti:  this place made the one in Las Vegas look like an oasis.

I hauled the fallen door out of the bedroom into our spacious living room and accessed the damage.  Left Brain unscrewed the remaining part of the door and we reassembled it with some glue and then I put straps on both ends while the glue sets up.  No way is this going to be enough to support the weight, so we’ll leave it off until we can buy some mending plates to fortify it further.

The cats are in their “traveling tubes” which consist of a mere 15 feet of tunnel, so we’re all roughing it during these next few travel days.  Unless we find an area we want to explore more, we plan to just use casinos or whatever cheap lodging we can find along the way until we arrive at our destination.

Why does my shadow look so much slimmer than I really am?

Once again, the car battery was totally flat out dead.  My new little charger didn't do a thing to it.  Left Brain put the trickle charger on it overnight, but perhaps because of the thunderstorm it prevented it from working properly.

We lost the TV due to the storm.  The cell signal was so low that internet was not possible, so about 8:30 PM we went to bed out of boredom.

Long Live the Queen of Creepy Campgrounds