Week 25
Last week we explored Yosemite and this week we are headed towards LA but first RV maintenance…then visiting old friends…then more RV maintenance…
Day 171 Mon 09/25
So, yesterday we headed back to Modesto so we could get some work done on the RV today. We stayed the night at the Cline’s house and in the morning John drove the RV to the shop and rode his bike back to their house. Chad and Corrine graciously offered to let us hang out at their house with the cat and the dog for the day while the RV gets worked on. When John dropped off the RV they asked if they were also looking at the leaking radiator…this we did not know was an issue until today! So hopefully they are able to order a new radiator and replace it today with the rest of the items already on their list to do: u joints, king pins…Cooper and Molly (their 4 month old labradoodle) had a blast running in the back yard and jumping in the pool while buster hid behind the piano for the day. Turns out the shop could get a radiator, but it would cost double what John had previously paid. So he reached out to the company that he bought it from back in May and turns out it is under warranty and they could ship him another one but it would not make it in time so we decided to ship it to our next destination and just keep the current radiator topped off till we pick it up, so John could switch it out again himself and then get his money back for the warranty. Tonight Chad made dinner for us and we played cards and had a dance party in the living room. We got a room at the La Quinta down the road since it is pet friendly, so Chad drove us there with all our stuff and the animals. This is our first night in a hotel on this trip and it had a king size bed so Cooper and Buster thought they were living large now! Cooper definitely needs a puppy because he was tuckered out after playing with Molly all day!
Day 172 Tues 09/26
This morning we woke up at La Quinta and chilled in the room until check out at 12pm. I took an Uber back to the Cline’s while John walked Cooper there. We hung out waiting to hear about our RV from the maintenance shop. We were told that they should be done today, then we got a call saying when they opened a box of parts they were missing pieces…So we had to get another hotel room for the night at La Quinta. Corinne drove me and Buster there with all our stuff and John and Cooper walked to the hotel. We were able to catch the This Is Us season premiere on TV tonight so that was a plus! The RV does not have a TV (thank goodness) so we haven’t been keeping up with any shows on this trip. Only what John is able to download when we have Wi-Fi. Cooper and Buster are getting used to the extra space and king size bed for everyone to have their own personal space on the bed.
Day 173 Wed 09/27
This morning we woke up at La Quinta again and chilled in the room until 12pm check out waiting to hear about the RV. John walked Cooper to the Cline’s to hang out with Molly and grab his bike to ride over to the shop to check in while I hung out in the lobby with Buster in case we needed to get another hotel room for the night to limit the back and forth with the cat. He doesn’t exactly like his carrier. Turns out the king pins had to be sent to a mill shop to fit the RV so it was going to be another night…La Quinta only had suites for tonight and they were too expensive so we opted for a cheaper room down the road at Baymont Inn and Suites. So I took an Uber with Buster to the Hotel. John and Cooper met me for happy hour and dinner at a Japanese restaurant down the street from the hotel with an outdoor patio. We found out in the news today that a big chunk of rock fell off El Capitan in Yosemite and killed a climber and injured another…we were just there a few days ago and John definitely got an instinctual feeling that he should not hang out long at the base of the mountain without a helmet! So scary.
Day 174 Thurs 09/28
This morning we woke up at the Baymont Inn and Suites in Modesto still waiting on our RV to be fixed! A volcano is expected to erupt in Bali and they have evacuated 140,000 people off an island. And, another chunk of rock fell off of El Capitain in Yosemite again today and this time blocked the road out of the park. We chilled in the room until the 12pm check out then I moved to the lobby with Buster while John walked to the Cline’s with Cooper to wait for a call about our RV. They finally finished up 3 days later than expected and John picked me and Buster up at the hotel and we went to say our goodbyes to the Cline’s before leaving town. We drove to Walmart in Atwater for the night to make our way towards LA.
Day 175 Fri 09/29
This morning we drove to Walmart in Bakersfield, and it didn’t seem like the best part of town. John and I could not believe all the trash on the highways along the way, really all over California. We drove past several garlic and onion processing plants and it smelled for miles away. Note to self never live near an onion or garlic plant!
Day 176 Sat 09/30
This morning we woke up at 4:30 am to hit the road early to drive over the “Grapevine” and into Van Nueys where our friends Kurt and his wife Gia live. We met Kurt At Texas A&M in undergrad and after college, he moved out to LA to work at Dreamworks. The drive was pretty with the sunrise over the mountain, but we could not believe the amount of traffic at that hour in both directions. Kurt and Gia were volunteering for their neighborhood association clean-up day so we joined them in the effort. After cleaning up the sidewalks around their neighborhood park we moved on to an alley where people have been dumping junk for a while. The saying many hands makes quick work was true, it was a total transformation in about an hour. When we wrapped up the clean up we headed back to their house to hang out for the afternoon. We checked out their renovated house and yard and took showers. We grabbed lunch nearby with Kurt and ran through the car wash and ran an errand to Home Depot to get some things for a house project Kurt was working on. John helped Kurt test out tongue and groove cutting methods for a desk build he was working on while I relaxed with Cooper and Buster in the RV. Kurt and Gia just adopted a chiuala terrier mix named Sienna 3 weeks ago and they had not had much luck introducing her to other big dogs, so unfortunately they did not get to play. The replacement radiator that John ordered arrived early instead of Monday as scheduled. We made a quick salad for dinner and went to the movies to see American Made based on a true story. It was crazy! Essentially America created our own war on drugs and other wars around the world in the 80s…I felt like I did after most documentaries, eyes wide open and chin on the floor to what is possible with money and power.
Day 177 Sun 10/01
This morning we woke up at our friends’ Kurt and Gia’s house and realized John’s bike was stolen off the back of the RV while we were sleeping…I thought I heard an animal climbing the ladder which has happened before, but I guess it was them cutting through the bike lock cable…After breakfast and saying our goodbyes, we drove to our other friend George and Susan’s house in LA to hang out. We met George and Susan at the WAAC, and they are another WAAC wedding. They now have 2 young kids a daughter named Melody and a 2 month old son named Ilia. Susan was visiting family in Vancouver with the kids, so unfortunately, we were not able to meet them this time. On the drive to their house, the cruise control went out and the RV started to misfire often, not to mention John thought the brakes were not reacting as quickly as he would like…We met George for lunch at a cute local joint called Bondi Harvest. We shared road stories from George’s cross country bike adventures and from our trip so far. We walked back to George’s and he had saved a spot in the shade for our RV in front of his place with their two cars so we moved the RV and leveled it out. John had originally made up his mind that we would leave LA today as he was fed up with the city and wanted the hell out of California in general, but after a full belly and George pushing a bit we decided to go ahead and stay the night. George shared his blue label Johnny Walker that he was gifted from his father in law for the birth of their child to celebrate our arrival. It was tasty! I did a load of laundry, and George showed us how to create Google maps of our journey to embed in our blog like he had done for his bike trips. John and George went to Home Depot to pick up parts for his handyman tomorrow. Tonight, we made dinner and talked shop. We slept on street in front of their house in the RV with plans to leave in the morning after morning traffic died down around 10am.
This week has been super stressful as far as worrying about the RV maintenance, but a nice surprise forced break to reconnect with friends in far places, and we got to stay in a hotel for the first time since our trip started in April! The cat and the dog didn’t mind the extra space to sprawl out in either. We knew what we were getting ourselves into by buying a 1985 RV and budgeted for maintenance along the way, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t take the wind out of your sails anyway at the time. Virginia (our RV) needed a bit of some California Love I guess. We are so thankful for being blessed with friends in far places. It has grounded this journey in connecting with roots even though we are essentialy nomads for the year. Next week we are looking forward to heading east for the next leg of our journey. Thanks to George I will now include a weekly map that shows where we have been.
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