June 20, 2002
Being without a "hookup" so I can upload this site drives me nuts! Sorry for the delay.
From Yosemite we went to Sacramento and enjoyed getting the brakes re-installed on the trailer. Yup, those shiny new ones that came on the axles that Dexter was kind enough to replace. But lemme back up a bit. Running from Las Vegas to Costa Mesa for the bus conversion convention, I'd had the SmarTTire alarm go off telling me that the right front inside tire temperature was at 190 degrees. That's out of specs, so I pulled off to see what I could see. Smelled like burned brakes to me, but the tire itself didn't feel all that hot. The pressure was above 80 psi and I set them at 65 cold, and that seemed a tad high to me, but not dangerous. The cold max pressure is 85, so I felt we were well within limits. We sat for a little while, and the temperature came right down to about 140 and we left to continue the trip. As I was pulling into the parking lot of the Orange County Fair Grounds, I could really hear the brake squealing and sort of grinding. As we left, everything seemed "normal" so we just headed North to visit son Rick and his wonderful wife Lynn. After coming down the "Grapevine" (a wicked curvy, hilly stretch of CA highway), we stopped to re-fuel, and Barb said the noise was so bad we'd better have them looked at. I agreed that the noise was excessive, and if we could find someplace to have them looked at we would. She took off in the Jeep while I got fuel, and pretty soon she had me on the radio telling me she'd found a place to get them looked at. I followed her into a dirt parking lot where there were several tow trucks--the big guys. The trucks that can tow a semi off the Grapevine. And yes, they had a technician who could adjust the brakes for us. When it came time to adjust the right front brake, the wheel wouldn't turn forward. It would spin backward just fine, but not forward. It would turn about 5 degrees, make a clunking sound, and stop turning. I had the tech pull the wheel off, and there was the electric brake magnet dangling by its wires. After clipping the wire the magnet went for a ride on the floor in the back seat in the truck. We'd already come over the Grapevine and, besides, with the brakes the truck has, the missing one off the trailer wouldn't be noticed. We spent that night in a Bakersfield Wal-Mart parking lot, and the next day went to Sacramento, spending that night in the parking lot of Village RV (an RV dealer). Monday morning I called Dexter and learned that everything had been normal after all. These brakes just make noises, and there is a small clip that is supposed to hold the magnet, but seldom does when the wheel is removed, and, to top it off, the wheel isn't supposed to roll forward when it's on jacks! Oops! The fellow at Dexter agreed to pay for everything, since the axles were so new. We were back on the road in no time, and spent the next couple of nights at Cal Expo in Sacramento. While the RV park there is mostly asphalt with hookups, it's right on the American River, and there's a terrific bike trail along the river that we enjoyed a couple of times, not to mention the greatest showers in the RV world. Son Rick and his wife Lynn came by for dinner on Tuesday, and Wednesday we headed for Oregon. Spent the next two nights in Wal-Mart's RV park in Medford, driving to Fred Meyer's parking lot right on highway 62 with "For Sale" signs visible from all over. Had lots of lookers, no buyers. With the weekend coming up, I wanted to go someplace quiet and Barb wanted to go someplace inexpensive. Why pay for hookups we don't need? Why indeed. Off to the Elks Club we went. Only in Medford, OR, the lodge sends us to their "Pic-nic" grounds.
Does this look quiet to you or what? Right on the Rogue River to boot. Originally planning on spending only the one night before heading to Grants Pass, we instead spent 3 wonderfully quiet nights there. And then on Sunday we got to eat Father's Day breakfast right there at the picnic grounds. All you could eat eggs, ham, sausage, biscuits & gravy, pancakes, and fruit for $6 each. What a deal. There was another couple already parked a ways away from us, and we joined them. Fred and Trish were great! They had a Snark (Styrofoam sailboat) on the roof of their 5th wheel just like Barb and I used to have, and that was just the beginning of things we had in common. They invited us over after breakfast, and we enjoyed their company for several hours. And to top it off, they invited us to go out to dinner with them and some other friends of theirs, also fulltimers, and then the 6 of us went to yet another friend's home where Fred and Trish had been helping them get ready for a huge garage sale. Imagine walking in the door of a 60 X 40 shed/barn/garage FULL of stuff (you'd have to see it to believe it!); we browsed for what must have been a couple of hours picking up some treasures to boot, then it was off to ice cream. Then Darrell and Rosie (the other fulltimers we had dinner with) joined us at Fred and Trish's place where they taught Barb and I a new game called "Back-up" that had been invented by yet another friend of Fred & Trish's. Now, I've not been just rambling on here with insignificant details of a single day in our lives for nothing. It's just that this kind of thing happens all the time when you live on the road like we do. Out of the blue, unplanned activities with people you've never met before but that you're sorry to leave behind. What fun. You should try it.