Posting late again...Part 1

Let's see...I was last in Elko, and then headed for Saratoga CA. LONG day, but exciting! I chose to go over the Sierras via Ebbett's Pass, and we did just fine with the grades and the twisty-turny road until just before the second, slightly lower pass when I (and a long string of others) got behind someone in a brand-new 4-wheel drive truck whose driver thought he couldn't go more than 15 mph. Then it started to rain, which became quite a serious hailstorm. The hail wasn't big enough to damage anything, but came down so fast and hard that we were driving through 4" of wet, slushy stuff for several miles. I hadn't found a gas station where I expected to be able to, so was driving on a low tank. I actually made it to Bear Valley without the "out of gas" light coming on! The cost was highway robbery, but it's not the first time I've encountered that, and am now more savvy: fill when you can where the price is right, even if it's only half a tank.

It was dusk by the time I hit Farmington, so had to drive the rest of the way on freeways in the dark, but did OK, helped by the fact that in CA cars with trailers are limited to 55 mph. So I got in the right lane and let everyone else go around me. It was certainly more comfortable in that situation not to be trying to keep up with freeway traffic. Apparently few besides me feel the need to drive at the posted speed limits, but I didn't want to get stopped.

Had a wonderful Sunday/Monday with Steve and Terry! Terry and I went to the Alameda Point Flea Market on Sunday, and I found some goodies...several for my son's use when he's making/serving liquor infusions. Could have spent more money but we ran out of energy just before the closing time. Coming home with a gorgeous multi-colored bedspread which I will probably use for something else entirely.

Due to a general lack of energy and balls, I bailed on two side trips to Berkeley I had planned, and went over to Half Moon Bay State Beach on Tuesday. Lovely site with a small ocean view; cooked rice and a steak on the Coleman for dinner and then hit the hay at dark. Woke early to the sound of gulls and when I looked out, saw they were fighting over something indistinguishable but orange which was too big for any of them to carry off. Finally one of them managed to fly off with it (I surmised later it was my cheese) at which point I looked over at my table and supplies only to discover that raccoons had completely trashed everything. They got into the food storage box and ate everything they could find (oddly, the rice and powdered chai containers were intact); got into the cooler, ditto. But the worst of it was that everything they touched was muddy and wet, and they maybe even tracked their own poop all over the whole mess. I salvaged what I could, tossed the rest into the dirty container and got out of there. Ick. And ew. And O.M.G. (Wish the ranger at the entrance station has mentioned the possibility as the ranger at the Tetons did for the bears.)

So I drove down to Fresno to stay for a few days with my old friends from the 80s and my stint as a theater costumer. It was really hot, and sleeping in the trailer was a bit of a trial, but I learned that if you just ignore the discomforts (like sweat running into your eyes) you can still get to sleep and get a good rest. I also found that when it's safe to do so, sleeping with the hatch on the trailer open and with my head at that end of the trailer is pretty good. Little Guy makes a screen that attaches there with a zipper down the middle and a canopy that extends beyond it, but it's pricey, so I'm going to make my own. Don't need a zipper as I can't climb in that way anyway, and don't need the canopy so it shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish. I might, however, invest in the tent that attaches to the side of the trailer so that I have privacy and somewhere to stand up to dress and undress...my most irritating problem at the moment.

(Later note: the side tent is only a screen tent, the rear tent doesn't fit my model, so back to the drawing board on that. I did find a tent at Camping World that wraps around the back of an SUV and I might be able to adapt that...I hope. But will keep investigating all the possibilities)

More to come, but not right now. I'm revamping my plans and will drive straight home. Bella and I are tired of camping. I might even leave today. Being old means you have to pee during the night and the hike to the bathrooms is daunting. Will get a motel somewhere once I get on the road.

Road Trip: the start

I haven't been able to get wireless access until tonite in a motel in Elko, so will do 2 days at once, assuming I don't fall asleep first.

Day 1: Denver to Moran WY (the northern entrance to Teton National Park). Drove. Drove. Missed the turnoff for the shortcut to Rawlins WY so added an hour? two hours? to my trip, and I didn't actually get out of Lakewood until almost 9, and still had to stop for gas and ice. Traffic was light, though, and the car and trailer did well. Bella is a GREAT traveler!

I forget in between trips up there just how beautiful the clouds are in Wyoming: big, fluffy poufs of the sort that angels live on and today the most astonishing "horsetails" I've ever seen. Just breathtaking. And traffic was minimal, so I made pretty good time.

I had made a reservation for the Coulter Bay RV park, and they asked me to call if I wasn't going to get there by 6. I wasn't. Called from DuBois (that's DUE Boysss in Wyomingese) which should only have been an hour longer, but got told there was some ugly road work in between requiring pilot cars and one-lane stretches. I was lucky enough to be 3rd in line with only a 4-minute wait at the first stretch, and the 2nd was done on our own. Both were long and on dirt, with a 35-mph limit. But it was beautiful up there, and on the down side, began to get peeks of the Tetons. I haven't been there since about 1968 and had forgotten just how spectacular they are. Made it to the park, and found that for $10 (instead of $25), I got some sort of Golden Age pass that will let me in free to all National Parks for the rest of my life. Dang!!

The RV park was OK, but not much room or privacy, and since I've discovered that it's virtually impossible to do anything inside the Teardrop (and Bella has to be confined somewhere where she can't do too much damage while I'm away), it was too dark to cook by the time I began to settle in, ablutions were minimal, and Bella and I crashed. It was cold. And I forgot to bring my lovely, warm hand-woven Indian blanket for a topper, and had to settle for a much thinner, rough cotton Mexican throw I have which has been in the back seat of the car. When I woke up sometime in the night, the whole place smelled like a doghouse. And we were still cold, so I slipped on my heavy sweatshirt, and we got some more sleep.

I discovered, much to my surprise and chagrin, that my trailer doors DO NOT lock from the inside, which means 1) anyone can get in from the outside and 2) because of the type of handle, Bella just has to hit it with her paw and she can get out. Luckily, she didn't. She just kinda shivered and burrowed closer to me all night.

Forgot to charge my phone, so sometime in the night it signaled me that it was juiceless, which meant no alarm this morning. We actually awoke around 7:30. No one else was up so I took Bella for a walk and then took her into the restroom with me (against the rules!! but not posted, so tough.) Breakfast seemed hopeless, and I wanted to get on the road, so found Cheerios and milk. Blah. MUST get better with the Coleman stove (which could not be left out overnight because of bear danger).

We drove down the length of the Tetons to Jackson, which is a charming little town with no empty parking spaces at all. On the way we stopped at a couple of overlooks and read about 1) the formation of the Tetons and 2) what the glaciation accomplished. The whole thing is just, well, awesome. I'd like to go back sometime and stay somewhere with a view of them. For several days.

Took the "back" way over to Idaho via Teton Pass, which in Colorado terms isn't particularly high, but is pretty much straight up and almost as straight down. The car was pushed to its limits on the up. We went through Idaho Falls, Pocatello, and Twin Falls on our way to Wells, NV. Mostly without incident, and I was blown away by the cultivation of crops in Idaho. I had no clue they grow thousands and thousands of acres of wheat in all the little valleys and up the hills. Swan Valley is gorgeous, and would be a lovely place to live. Under 9,000 population if I remember the sign correctly. Lots of horses in the fields and the lush cultivation - bucolic to the max.

We arrived in Elko to the news that it's not only Labor Day weekend, but the County Fair as well. Not only that, but main street is all torn up so you drive it in single, side-by-side lanes on gravel at best, and I can't believe the business all along it haven't demanded better "ramps" from street to business pad. Anyway, I followed the directions sent to me by the RV Park where I'd made a reservation. They were wrong, so I went looking for it, and found it by following the directions if you were heading East on I-80. They'd reversed them, thank you very much. And then I drove in only to find that the RVs were parked about 6' apart, most of them were the huge ones with generators, and the only place to walk one's dog is way down at the far end. Gravel. On everything. Not a tree in sight. Not a shrub in sight. Just row after row of big RVs. I went into the office to use a bathroom and told her I wasn't going to stay after all. Yes, I had to eat the fee, but I badly needed someplace where I could get clean and feel clean, and yes, maybe cook dinner, not to mention breakfast. I don't think there was room to do that, and I probably forgot to notice no mention of tables at each site. Ugh. Found a Super8 farther south (on the torn-up portion of the same road) and got a room. Turns out I was at the Travelodge office, but still got a room and the price wasn't ghastly. Good thing I got there when I did, because they were almost full and I probably got the last dog room.

For dinner? Across the street was a "King Buffet" which I wouldn't have chosen except that when I went to gas up the car, the traffic had become massive, the street no less nasty, and no one seemed inclined to recommend somewhere I could go for a casual meal. So that's where I went. It was edible, I'm full, and don't think I'll be sick, and that's probably the best I can say for it. (I don't mean this in any racist sense, but how come those places are always staffed by women whose only English is "buffet?" "drink?" and "thank you." Are these eateries the place where Chinese immigrants come first? Like, do they provide jobs as a "service" to people who want to come here from China?)

So, not to forget, I'm making notes on what to improve or change for my next trip: the nice 5-6" mattress that was retrofitted in the trailer by her previous owner has to go. It blocks the screens in the doors (which are stupidly on the bottom half); Makes it harder to get inside; even I can't sit up comfortably inside; and it's heavy and VERY awkward to make up. Also the vinyl-covered wire shelf they installed across the rear of the trailer was not only useless, but didn't fit correctly into the (partly broken) fittings, so was more than useless. I will replace said "storage" area with cloth shoe-bags, handmade and specially compartmented and sized for the things I need in there: place for purse; place for keys; place for various pieces of clothing, flashlight, books, the laptop, etc. Ditto window curtain fittings: half-assed and don't really work. I will devise Velcro on door itself and backside of curtains. Or shades, which could be raised above the screens for ventilation. Which is important. I forgot to open the top ventilation hood in Teton. But since it meant climbing up and un-taping a makeshift cover, I probably couldn't have done it in the dark anyway.

So now we're both fed, and I desperately need to go take a shower, so will close for today. It wasn't all bad...just a definite learning experience.