California, Here We Are!

 

Kings Beach, California, October 24, 2020 

The first place we touched California soil since July.

Note the waves from the wind - almost enough to surf.

    Thursday morning, October 22, we took our time at Camp Kelly, walking the trail again and enjoying that beautiful sage brush country before heading west on Highway 50, nicknamed the "Loneliest Road in America." We have come to love Highway 50, crossing the expanses of "sage brush ocean" between mountain ranges running from north to south in the state of Nevada. We stopped for a break at Sand Mountain, a little over 90 miles east of Camp Kelly. Sand Mountain resembles Great Sand Dunes National Park, or Great Sand Dunes National Park resembles Sand Mountain, Nevada with a mountain of sand piled up next to a mountain range. Sand Mountain is smaller than the the Sand Dunes at the National Park, the sand is whiter, and the dunes are open to Off Highway vehicles. We didn't drive back to the dunes, but stopped to stretch our legs at this familiar landmark along Highway 50.

Cabins we helped build many years ago at Camp Kelly.

They have been improved since by siding and roofing with metal to prevent birds and pack rats from entering.

Morning light at Camp Kelly

Notice the sunlight on the tops of the distant mountains?

I always like seeing where the sun has hit before I can see the sun.

View from the trail at Camp Kelly - notice the yellow trees in the distant ravine?

The closed gate at Camp Kelly as we headed west. 

Not sure when we will open that gate again, but I know we will return.

Sand Mountain, 25 miles east of Fallon, Nevada on Hwy 50 - note the hazy sky from the western fires.

        Some of you have asked, "Who, or what, is LesThora?" LesThora is the name we gave to our motor home. Shortly after we got her, Rob suggested that we name the motor home Lester because the letters LES are on the license plate, but I said I thought it should be a girl's name, not a boy's name. Thor is the manufacturer of our motor home so we came up with the name LesThora. LesThora has been amazingly problem free for over 13,000 miles on our four month journey. We had expected to have some problems - RVs kind of always have problems. As some have said, it's like subjecting an RV to constant earthquakes to drive it down the road, but until the morning we left Cathedral Gorge State Park on Tuesday, October 20, the only issue we'd had was with the tires, and replacing all six in Michigan was just good, routine maintenance. While Rob was washing the dishes at Cathedral Gorge he asked me to turn on the water pump. When I went to the switch I noticed it was in the on position, but the light that should indicate it was on was not lit. It was an annoyance, but we figured we could easily manage without running water until we could get it fixed by draining water out of LesThora's storage tank, washing dishes the old fashioned camping way and pouring water down the toilet when needed. Somewhere on the road I called ahead to an RV repairman in Reno and he said he could fit us in last Thursday, but we didn't want to get to Reno that soon, so we figured we'd wait until we returned to California. He did tell us that it was probably just a fuse and not in need of a new water pump. We looked at the fuse box, but we couldn't figure out which fuse was for the water pump.

    As mentioned previously we have had the oil changed along the way three times, but other than that we have done no maintenance or repairs to the engine of LesThora and it has been running excellently until we started up from Sand Mountain, 25 miles east of Fallon, Nevada, pretty much in the middle of no where. As we started out Rob noticed the check engine light come on and it was blinking. He pulled over and we could tell LesThora was idling rough so we called the Ford dealer in Fallon and based on my description they advised us not to drive it. We called AAA roadside service to get a tow ordered and were asked if we had alternate transportation for us because due to Covid, they could not transport us while towing our RV. We said no, we absolutely didn't have alternate transportation - remember we were in the middle of no where! We let AAA do their work of trying to find a tow vehicle which they said would be there in 60 minutes - a time period we totally mistrusted - and then we called one of our sons who are both more mechanical than either of us. After conferring about what was going on with LesThora our son felt it was safe to drive it the 25 miles to Fallon as long as it ran OK. AAA called back about 60 minutes after our initial call and when I asked if a tow truck was on the way, the dispatcher said, "Well, that's what I need to talk to you about." I told her we were canceling the call and she sounded relieved. I didn't ask when or if she expected us to see a tow truck, and we proceeded with no problems to Fallon where the Ford mechanics took us in right away to do the needed diagnostics - basically we were over do for a tune-up. They were gracious to park LesThora in a nice level spot in the back parking lot so we and the cats could sleep in her overnight. We had put Elsie and Straus in a crate while they checked out the RV, much to their chagrin. Friday morning we once again crated the cats, but when the service department told us it could take all day to do the needed repairs we decided we needed another solution for Elsie and Straus. We converted LesThora's bathroom to a cat apartment with their cat box in the shower. They had access to food and water and their cozy cat beds. Everything worked out well and we were back on the road at 2:30 Friday afternoon.

LesThora's exposed engine

    After I posted my last blog, friends Hilary and Mike, who live in Wellington, Nevada in the Smith Valley sent a message inviting us to spend the night at their place where they had full hook ups before we would cross into California. After leaving Fallon we headed south west to Wellington and had a very enjoyable evening at their beautiful place. Mike, who is much more handy mechanically than us immediately found the loose fuse and our water pump was back in operation so now LesThora feels as good as new. We took a nice walk behind Mike and Hilary's house on Saturday morning and then headed through Gardnerville and around the north shore of Lake Tahoe as we entered California.

Early morning light, Wellington, Nevada

Kings Beach pier

We were delighted to find blue skies in California and enjoyed a walk to the end of the pier. When I was the pastor at Kings Beach United Methodist Church I walked to the end of the pier, only a half mile from the church, virtually every morning.

"Donner Summit" on Interstate 80. The "real" Donner Summit is a few miles east near old Highway 40.

    We made it to our Colfax area home on Saturday afternoon and were greeted by two daughters - Erin and Ruth - and granddaughter Avienda. We got pizza for dinner and settled in for  a week before we will head to our Camp host volunteer position at Samuel P Taylor State Park near San Rafael on November 1. We will be there for three months and in easy driving distance to visit our California children and grandchildren. Sunday morning Rob and I took our usual 4 mile round trip hike/walk up to an irrigation canal and views of the coastal range to the west and the Sierras to the east. Sunday afternoon PG&E turned off the electricity in the area in an announced PSPS (Public Safety Power Shut Off). We bought a generator for the house so that the refrigerator, some lights and computers could still operate. Ruth, who lives in the house with her daughter Avienda, is a full time Electrical Engineering student studying remotely, and can't get by without power. For two days we could hear generators all over the neighborhood until the power came back on mid day Tuesday after PG&E sent out crews and helicopters to inspect the lines. PSPSs are a part of the new normal in California.

Rob took a short cut near our turn around point on Sunday morning's hike/walk. 

It was about 1/10th of a mile pretty much straight up.

I chose the long way - about 1/2 mile with a more gradual incline.

The blue sky above the trees. 

We were glad to have missed the horrible smokey skies of just a few weeks ago.

Helicopter inspecting the power lines behind our Colfax house.

A more close up view of the helicopter. It actually looked a lot closer than this.

Granddaughter Avienda and Elsie

Straus relaxing on the back of my chair

Full Circle

We traveled through 34 states in four months - still have 16 to visit, though I don't think LesThora will make it to Hawaii, and so far we haven't caught the bug to drive to Alaska, but the other 14 are certainly doable, and we plan to get to them sometime in the future.

Another full circle

These pins represent 19 of the 20 National Parks we visited, 5 other National Park Units and 2 of the state parks we visited on this four month journey. 

The hat rim is full and getting heavy, so time to archive them on my old hat and begin again, I think.

Not sure if Samuel P. Taylor State Park has a hat pin, 

but if they do that will be the next pin I'll be wearing.