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California 2009
We headed down to Chico California to get
an extra fuel tank put onto the truck. This will greatly
help our long distance capabilities and let us pick and
choose which diesel station will get our fabulous business.
Our Rig (and Truck) has:
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104 gallon
fresh water tank,
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32.5 gallon black tank,
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72.5 gallon gray
water tank, (both the shower and the bath sink go into one
and the kitchen sink goes into another tank adding up to
72.5 gallons),
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30 gallon gasoline tank,
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38 gallons diesel tank,
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and we still have our four 5 gallon
small tanks for water
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On 11/19 got 6 solar panels with 4 AGM
batteries to give us 600 amp hours of free
electricity (this is the maximum amps before we go to
50% of our batteries.)
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And had a 4000 watt generator that can
have as many amp hours as there is gasoline.
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On 11/25 we will got: an extra fuel tank
(74 gallon diesel tank) so now we have a 112 gallon
diesel fuel tank. This tank is not gravity fed (which is
illegal by the way), but it has a pump, that
periodically pumps diesel from the auxiliary tank into
the main tank. As the main tank goes down, so that the
main tank is always showing at full or 3/4 full. We also
have a display on the dash that tells the status of
the tanks, it also tells you when it is pumping and when
it is not. So you can see the actual gallons of diesel
that are left.
November 24th, Tuesday: Heading South
to California, took some pictures of Mount McLoughlin which
is over 9,000 feet above sea level. I love how these peaks
just appear after going around a corner. We also saw Mount
Shasta, constantly took pictures of it (at 14 K it is a big
mountain!) and will have those pictures up tonight (I
hope!). Well, not on the night of the 24th, took me a while
longer sorry.
We left Henderson's around 11:30 am - Sasha
had to get some parts for the next oil change that we will
do somewhere in the desert, and I wasted a good 1/2 hour on
the phone trying to get in touch with someone that is pretty
unreachable. Anyway, I cleaned up the place, got everything
in its place, and then put in the slides. I then backed up
the truck, and got the hitch in the VERY FIRST TIME! Yahoo!
that is a first for us, I am so excited! It no longer takes
an hour to hitch up! Of course, Sasha got it close, I just
had to finish the deal, but STILL! EXCITED!
So I packed us some goodies for on the road,
no sandwiches but good snacks. However, Sasha had even
better snacks - we had gotten this trail mix called Mt Hood
Trail Mix from Winco - one of the bulk items, and oh boy,
was it good - candied peanuts, dark chocolate covered
raisins, white chocolate covered somethings, and well, I
guess I shall have to eat more of it to let you know what
was in it. But it was GOOD. It gave us the sugar high that
we needed. But now Sasha has crashed - well, not really, he
is taking a nap before we head into Chico.
We are only about 50 miles away from
Transfer Flow, they are the company that will put in an
extra fuel tank into the truck. We are looking at the 74
gallon extra tank that will be put in the bed of the truck,
right behind the window. How they do it I don't know but
Sasha called them up first thing this morning (around 8:30
am) and asked them if they could do the job tomorrow. They
said yes, so this is good. We are headed towards one of the
most congested areas of the USA on the most traveled holiday
during the year. We are hoping they will let us stay there
tomorrow night too, so that we can drive to wherever we are
going on Thursday.
Sasha woke up, it is now dark out - 5:30 -
and we have 50 miles to go. Once we are there, and we have
set up, I will write in.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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My sister plays this game with her kids. As they
are driving up to New Jersey from Virginia, they go
through a bunch of states. So when they are leaving
one state they say: Bye Bye [State], Hello [New
State].
So in reference to Brenden and Lindsay: Bye, Bye
Oregon |
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Hello California! Finally in California.
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You know how they have lots of signs in the new
state that you are going into, well, California had
a bunch, so I was taking pictures of some of them,
including this one.... They actually have a toll
booth right on the highway, where EVERYONE, and I do
mean everyone, has to stop and let them know if they
are carrying citrus fruits.
We got stopped and they asked to see inside of
our refrigerator. |
Now this is the interesting part. Since we
do not allow shoes inside of our rig, I took off my shoes to
walk over to the refrig. The guy immediately noticed and so
did not come into the rig. He had a flashlight, and shined
it into the refrigerator. He saw the grapefruit in there,
and asked to see the two that we had in there. I took them
out and showed them to him. He said that they looked fine
and that we were allowed to keep them!
Supposedly, there is this virus on citrus
and so California is bent on making sure it does not come
into California. Texas and Florida citrus have this problem.
Well, we will make sure not to bring those citrus into
California, for sure!
Took about 15 minutes to do it all, sorry to
the person behind us. But they saw Virginia plates, and so
stopped us. I can only imagine what it will be like with
Texas plates!
| Picture |
Explanation |
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Right after we finished up with the Department
of Agriculture, we spotted Mount Shasta. The next
couple of pictures are of that 14K mountain. |
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Let's just say, we really liked this mountain,
especially as it was far enough away that you could
see the beauty, but not the coldness. We stopped at
a rest stop and took pictures. |
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This picture is fuzzy, moving truck and all, but
check out the reservoir, pretty low. |
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But still, quite beautiful! |
We arrived at TransferFlow in Chico,
California around 7:30 on November 24th! There was someone
still there, she was cleaning, and suggested a place to park
that was outside of their place. That was fine for us. Nice
place right near the municipal airport.
November 25th, Wednesday, the day
before Thanksgiving. They wanted to get the truck at 7 am,
which meant we had to get up a little earlier than what we
normally do, but still they had it in their shop by
7:15-7:30 am not bad for people that sleep in normally.
Don't have any pictures for today, but we basically were out
in the sun. Both of us reading and enjoying the day. It was
warm, probably got up to 70 degrees!
I was reading Flood Tide, Clive Cussler
book, and Sasha was reading Atlantis Found also by Cussler
and enjoying the sun, finally getting to wear a tee shirt.
They had the truck done by 2 pm. We paid and
they had no problem with us staying another night. People
started leaving around 3 pm, and Sasha changed the oil of
the truck. We had gone 5,000 miles since Buxton, NC! Well,
it was off by a couple of hundred miles, so he did it a
little early, but it was a good way to go. We will recycle
the oil at a Walmart.
November 26th, Thursday -
Happy Thanksgiving
Everyone! We got up a little late, and decided where to go.
We did want to have a sort of Thanksgiving dinner, I was
first thinking of a Old Country Buffet or something along
those lines when Sasha said, there are lots of casinos
around where we are going, you want to stop at one of those?
We found one on the way, Colusa Casino in the town Colusa,
California. We had to drive a little ways to it, but on
Thanksgiving day, we only drove a total of 75 miles. Oh
well!
We had a nice spot, they were very
welcoming, showing us where the RVs were parked. No hookups,
but we had lots of sun so our batteries were fully charged
and still charging until the sun went down.
 The
dinner was nice, buffet, cost about $21 for the both of us.
Dessert================>>>>
After dinner, we went to the player's club
to sign up. OK, if you are going to go this route RVers take
note: GO to the player's club and sign up FIRST! because
when we signed up, we got a 2 for 1 at the buffet! Man, we
goofed! Plus we got $10 on the card to play with. You need
to put a dollar in to get it to play, but one dollar is not
going to break the bank for us.
It took a while to find a game that I wanted
to play, but then we found it:
| Picture |
Explanation |
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It is called Bulls Eye. |
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Definitely a fun game. Sasha found this game for
me, I think because he wanted me to play something
cute and fuzzy. With Cows and chickens, almost feels
like Farmville or Farmtown from Facebook. What is
really funny is that we played for pennies - that is
right - penny slots!
In the end, we put in $7 and got back $45 - I was
up to about $53 but in the end, decided to stop at
$45. So it paid for our dinner. Not bad - a little
over 500% return for a $7 investment. Easy to see
how people get addicted to this. And seeing how I
love to play games...well, it is good to put a limit
on it. |
We went back to the camper happy.
November 27th, Friday - Hopefully go
more miles than yesterday. Well, we did go more miles, but
we still had a late start. Crack of Noon club strikes
again, this time we did not leave until 1 pm. But hey, not
too bad. We went about 200 miles this time, landing in
Coalingo, CA. We had gone through rain and bad roads for
part of the time. So we stopped at a Denny's for dinner and
decided to stay the night. We asked the manager if we could,
and she did not have a problem with it.
Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to get
past Los Angles without a problem.
November 28th, Saturday - another
Crack of Noon club day. Hopefully we will get past Los
Angles and near Joshua Tree National Park - but it will
probably be Sunday before we get into the park.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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While driving along I-10, we started to see huge
fields of grapes. I was thinking there was a
vineyard around, but I now think that was just some
wishful thinking. Instead, maybe these are the
bunches of grapes you get in the store. Lots and
lots of them! |
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Lots of trees too, with fruit of some sort,
could not quite figure out what they were growing. |
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More grapes |
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The dreaded Grapevine Road. Supposed to be
white-knuckled for all those RVers who have
overloaded their rigs without the proper brakes. Or
like the song - Hot Rod Lincoln, "Going up Grapevine
Hill, passing cars like they were standing still,"
However, we were in the right lane, and everyone
else was passing us. |
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Going Down Grapeview! |
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Grapevine Going down 5% for 5 miles, not too
bad! |
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Beautiful Reservoir |
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Brake Lights and views |
Well, we only got to another Casino, San
Manuel in Highland, California. The parking of the rig was
really tough, had to go up this really steep hill.
Ok, what happened we would not wish on any
RVer - first of all, do not go to San Miguel Bingo and
Casino on a holiday weekend or on a Saturday night as it is
SO unbelievably crowded and with an RV, not a good idea. But
we did not know.
Do NOT go to a Casino that does not have
SIGNS for Truck and RV parking because you KNOW they will
put you in the farthest place imaginable. But we did not
know.
DO NOT go to a casino that is up a hill when
it is dark out. But we did not know.
If you have to flag someone down, just to
get an idea of where to park, DO NOT go to that casino, turn
around and go to a Walmart. But we did not know.
AND finally, when there is an extremely
steep hill (at least 7% grade) DO PUT your truck into the
lowest gear and go up the hill slowly and confidently, DO
NOT do what we did: up in Drive, stopping for a slow and
witless security guard to tell us where to go, and the
transmission slipped under such huge weight. Let's just say
we were scared beyond belief, thinking we had harmed the
truck, but Sasha was able to make the turn and we were able
to finally park.
We recovered for a bit at the camper and
then went down to the casino - had to take a shuttle as
there were no sidewalks and it was too far away - dark and
down a steep hill. We went into this casino, and it totally
paled in comparison to the previous one, even though it was
bigger, because 1. people smoked like fiends, 2. their
ventilation system wasn't good enough (or it was
overwhelmed), 3. the place was packed, 4. Even the
non-smoking area was smoky, and 5. they did not have penny
slots.
Because we went on a Saturday, the buffet
was hugely overpriced - $21.95 because it was seafood and on
a holiday weekend. Supposedly, they bussed people in from
Los Angles and other places, they offer free bus rides -
Like the Hotel California, you can check in but you can
never leave.
We played just a little, ate dinner at a
cafe and decided it was not worth it, so we went back to the
camper.
Because we took a shuttle to get there, we
had to take a shuttle to get back a 30 minute wait.
Once back, we enjoyed the evening, and planned our route for
tomorrow.
(These pictures were taken the following
morning, but you can see the parking lot and our views -
they were pretty nice that evening!)
| Picture |
Explanation |
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So here is a picture of Sasha and the rig the
next morning. Great blue sky. |
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This is part of the hill that we had to go up
last night. |
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Long view of the rig, truck and Sasha |
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The curve right before we were supposed to make
the turn into the parking lot. |
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Hard to tell of course the steepness of the hill
and road. |
November 29, Sunday: near Joshua Tree
National Park: We realized that we were only 100 miles away
from Joshua Tree National Park so after a quick breakfast,
we headed out, much earlier than our Crack of Noon Club
timeframe. We had heard from a park attendant last night
that Sundays in the Casino were packed, so we wanted to get
out ASAP. So we did.
| Picture |
Explanation |
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Windmills again en-route to Joshua Tree. |
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There are many more windmills since the last
time we were down this way (over 10 years ago!) |
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Night view of the campsite. Good view of Sasha
and the Moon. |
We headed out to the southern end of Joshua
Tree NP, where there is lots of BLM land in which you can
park for free. We found a place relatively far away from the
highway but close enough so that we get internet.
It took us about an hour to get parked. We
are still getting used to parking the rig and yelling
commands to each other just does not work and gets both of
us angry and frustrated with each other. So I parked the rig
because I can take direction better and Sasha can give
direction better than me.
It worked well, and we have a great spot,
pointed south, views of the hills when we walk out the door,
and views of of the highway about a mile away. By the
time we had set up, the sun was starting to set, (around
4:30 it is earlier because of the hills/mountains) so we set
up our chairs and had a glass of wine, and watched the sun
set. Beautiful! Saw the moon rise too, that was really nice,
very close to full moon, I'd say it is coming in the next
couple of days.
November 30th, Monday: Checking out the
area, forgetting a few things, and the Border Patrol!
We took a drive around the Salton Sea, which
is quite a long drive, to check out Slab City, get diesel,
do laundry and check out the area. We took the drive with
just the truck and left the camper in our nice spot.
The Sea was unbelievable, so large and
shimmering in the sun. The road was undulating, the air dry
and we reached 80 degrees in the sun. There was a slight
breeze but it was pleasant, and we were (when we went to the
State Park) a minus (-) 280 feet below sea level! No wonder
it was so warm!
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Explanation |
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Picture of the rig at the site, morning |
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Great view, beautiful day! |
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This is just a picture out of the window as we
were driving to The Salton Sea. |
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Good spot for boondocking, but not so good for
internet. Won't have to worry about wind though. |
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Very dry out here! |
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Lots of boondocking spots! We just did not know
and chose one closer to the highway. |
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Does the color of those rocks match the color of
the page? I think so! |
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The beginning views of the Salton Sea! |
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Canal for something useful, hmmmm what could
that be? |
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More farms growing more stuff. |
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Yellow Peppers, we went over, thinking it was
farmers selling the stuff but no deal. |
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But this was the view we kept seeing, a
shimmering sea. |
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More of the sea |
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Welcome to Slab City: you can check out two
sources for this, one from Tioga and George (just
Google it!) or through Wikipedia. Wiki gives it not
so good a feeling, while George puts a nice spin on
why the people are there and the rigs. Just want to
show you some pictures of the rigs there. |
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First of all, some are hidden away, we did not
want to get too close, because, although all of the
sites are free and the people are friendly, there is
still some etiquette going onto a campsite. |
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This is just one of the RVs here, slightly more
upscale than others. Lots of solar panels. |
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This one was interesting - has his own windmill
too. |
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Bus! Even the tires are painted! Notice the
satellite dish on the top...Still need the TV! |
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And there are not just RVs here, after all, the
Salton Sea is not too far away! |
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Now we are starting to get a little interesting
here, not sure if the second RV is attached to the
first for extra living or not. |
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Why no windows I don't know |
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This guy did not want to be with everyone else,
it seems. |
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The Range, I think it is a happening spot, just
not right now. |
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I do not think the bus is going anywhere anytime
soon, but look at the array! |
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 Salvation
Mountain, although we did not go in, we took a
couple of pictures |
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Interesting - used bales of hay, plus other
stuff. |
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After we left Slab City, we started to notice a
really strong smell of manure....I mean REALLY
Strong. Click on the picture and you will understand
why. We could not see the end of it. |
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Salton Sea, Sunset, and the moon! |
| Beautiful Day. No
clicking needed, you get the point. |
December 1st: Joshua Tree NP hike, we will
have a new page, but I just wanted to write a couple of
notes;
We checked out the campground, there is no
way a rig bigger than 25 feet could get into the spots -
even the host spot was small. The employee housing is
Mission 66 - has not been updated and there are mice who eat
up the wires of your truck and are in the walls and
ceilings. The spot for the volunteer range was small, our
rig would be tight, there is no shade, and the truck would
not fit.
The park ranger had no idea what a unigrid
was -so we had to pay the entrance fee - my volunteer pass
was up last month, so we bought the America the Beautful
pass. Then, they did not take credit cards as there is no
phone service in the visitor center, the employees use
booster repeaters to get the signals. No internet, just
gorgeous views. Huge solar array at the maintenance area.
There is a discrepancy with the maps vs the
trailheads in distances. but will discuss later about that.
Very close to the visitor center and before
the campground, there is a dump and fresh water. No Charge
that I could see. So that is great, We already filled up
once, we will be filling up again tonight.
Where are they now? Continue to check the
website to find out! Since there is a new month,
California will continue with the
Hikes of 2009 - Joshua Tree NP.
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