Day 18 The other woman on the move

Today is the end to our little adventure we arrived home mid afternoon and no dings or dangs

not that we didn't have a couple chances.. Driving was the worst part with some of the idiot

drivers out there. We were able to see some things we will never forget, maybe I should rethink

that sentence,

                                 THATS ALL FOLKS

Day 17 The other woman on the move

Its time to move on, we always meet some of the nicest people at the Redding Elks and
they always have cold beer, buy 1 get the second one Free .So last night I checked the
under ground weather with a forcast of rain and lite snow above 5000ft in the Siskyou
pass but Sat was a storm alert. So as we head up the pass we start seeing those mushy
rain drops which quicky turn to snow and then compact snow. So as we head down in
a line of trucks on this corner with a good super I see the trucks trailer in front of us
slide to the left but I didn't react fast enough to release my Jake ,as the bus slid sideway
and killed the motor because the wheels weren't turning the motor to keep it alive plus
no power steering, so now we are sliding and Im trying to restart the motor and turn into
the slide once I got the motor going I was able to get things under control, I looked over
at my dear co-pilot and she was whiter than the falling snow and speechless BUT only for
for a few seconds haha . A mile or so down the pass we got out of compact snow and
back to rain, pretty much what we have had the whole trip.
We got washed right into the old 7 Feathers where we have been many times before, So
now my co-pilot just calls some indian and we get a free parking pass with, full hookup .
If you remember a few days back I was complaining about the 12$ hambeger well these
indians want 13 bucks [crazy ] 2 slices of bread and a thin slice of meat !!!!!!!
After diner my co-pilot was going to the girls room and thats the last I saw of her and its
almost midnight now. maybe  those casino gods are treating her well.

Day 16 The other women on the move

OK here's the deal last night, we were lost and confused and so was the GPS, every way
she took us there was a locked gate, so with the lite of day we could see that we were
within a 1000ft of our home on wheels but the gate stopped us and the rest of the story
is they lock the gates at dark and open them at daylite, and the little old man that checked
us   in at the park kept that little secret to himself. So this morning we plotted a coarse out
of this place, I really didn't want to lose site of the bus but my co-pilot kept track of every
turn on what street. haha  With all our travels this will be at the top of the lost list !!!!
The museum has some great planes starting with a B 17 flying fortress B25 J a lite
bomber that launched off a aircraft carrier and then the B 36 this is the largest bomber
ever built, out of 380 built this is 1 of 4 left, powered by 6 huge  engines ,this plane
is huge and must of been a feat to land at this short runway. stepping up a few years
newer  a    SR-71 Blackbird capable of speeds 2350mph at 80,000ft now thats hauling
ass !!!!
Leaving Castle RV park with heavy rain and several spots on 99 with water over
the road slowed our trip A bit but we were able to drop anchor at Redding Elks
and go get my FREE BEER after I bought the first one.
   Later

Day 15 The other woman on the move

Another day on the road, we left Bakersfield pouring rain and rolled into Atwater
Calif Castle Air museum with the pouring rain and picked up the wind somewhere.
Both our GPS's seem to be worthless in this area, I really don't know how we found
the RV park, we only run 200 miles today and its still early.
 So we are off to  Yosemite N Park, never been there and want to take it off the
bucket list. As we wind our way up thru the now lush green valley, the terrian starts
to turn as we climb some trees and  alot of schrub brush, then it turns to all rock where
they have literally cut the road in the rock for miles and miles, with todays machenery
it would be a MAJOR project but this road was put in in the 20's. As you get close to
the park entrance there are several large lodges. would of liked to go farther into the
park but there was a major slide and they closed the road at 7 to remove and repair the
orignal road and I didn't want to get stuck behind the line. So this little tour added
another 200 miles round trip for a grand total of 400 for the day.  OK
 Now we stopped and had a great dinner and its time to go home ,remember at the start
of the blog I said the neither GPS worked very good, well that hasn't changed and its
now dark .I thought we had the road names and where to turn but that didn't work very
good. We are lost out in the middle of no where, all roads we take are gated, might have
to spend the night in the car till it turns lite, haha In the distance I saw some car lites
leaving one of the many buildings and was able to catch them, and they were nice enough
to lead us to the hidden road, from there we made it to our home on wheels.

Day 14 The other woman on the move

Today we left Quartzsite, rainy and windy never to return !!! My co-pilot plotted
a coarse to avoid those LA nuts & I-5' which we will never travel again !!!!!!!
Between rd construction,20+ miles on this one road that had 3/8 mile apart 2ft
deep water canal across the road, that was probably 60ft or the length of the bus
and tow car .Now in a sport car they might be a  rip but in the bus they were a
pain in the ass. S ome youg engineers bright idea > Now my final bitch of the
day is Palmdale Calif, every block has a stoplite, now there was over 25 of those
babies and we made 2 of them on yellow, and I used better than a 1/8 tank of
fuel to get thru there damn town which I will also never return .
 We landed in Bakerfield RV park for night and had dinner at a on sight resturant
and now my co-pilot is not feeling so good. ???

Day 13 The Other Woman Is Resting

Well the preface says the other woman is resting but I  think the occupants are the ones
after the last couple days. We have got a fair amount of walking in, checking out all the
little junk stores', so in one little store I found some unpriced wire ends the size I will need
on the 32 project { US ] made,so the  owner just wanted them gone , so for 20 bucks I
got thousands of wire ends, my co-pilot just schook her head and the best part, she paid
for them[ Score ] We had planned on going to the BIG RV candy store but after we walked
all the way to the back of the lot it wasn't open yet.I had hoped to talk to someone about
our new tire monitior thats not working [ Oh Darn ]
 Our plans have got changed, because of the goverment shut down, I had hoped to spend
a day or two at Yosemite but now we will just drive up to the gates !!!!!

Day 12 The other woman on the move

I think the highlite of the day was ALL the bugs we killed. We got out of Usery park
mid morning, overcast skies and lite traffic and drove awhole 179 miles to Quartz site
Arz.. The GMC & Eagle Intl are having a rally here so we thought we would just drop
in but not do the dinners etc. We had a little time this afternoon to hit just a few of the
many little portable tent shops. In the morning we will hit the big tent[candy store ] of
RV acccesories from A_Z . may stay other night ?????
   Later

Day 11 The other woman is still resting

Ma & Pa Crane head to the big city !!!
 Today we were up and even eating breakfast before the rooster even thought about
doing his thing, My dear co-pilot had a coarse plotted and off we go, the rooster still
hadn't opened his eyes. Things went good till we got to where we were told we could
park the prevous day.[ well darn ] Special Permit Only ] So down the road  we find
the public parking, now this puppy is huge and all gravel and they park us at the
farthest point from entry gate and this young man asked if we needed a ride in his
surrey and my leg quickly said yes !!!! so we get to the entry gate and have to wait
for the ticket booth to open. Once in,this place is huge, new cars, old cars, boats,
fire trucks, motorcycles etc a big track with 3 hi proformance Dodges giving a
whopper thill ride [drifting] So by now, its lunch time, lots of food venders but they
want to rob you . This will be the last time I pay 12 bucks for a  burger 6 for fries and
4 bucks for a drink- times 2 Now im surprised they didn't charge us  for a place to
set. So its getting towards the end of the day and my co-pilot is slowing down and my
leg  has about had it.,now this is like Magic, I say to my co-pilot lets leave and find that
Casino we saw coming in and have dinner there, WOW, she got a new lease on life, I
thought for a second that women was going to carrier me out !!!!
   Later

Day 10 The other woman is resting

 I think this might be the 3rd day we woke to that ultra bright lite shinning in our
bedroom window sure beats 35 and raining or freezing !!
 We had two addresses we wanted to find today, these fancy GPS's are OK but it is
there way or no way. In the good old days you could stop at any Service Station
and get a state map or city map with big enough print an older person could read
it. WELL!!! we got the scenic tour with this fancy GPS, we really had 2 of them
going, taking us 2 different ways . The first auction was already going when we
got there had a good selection of cars going cheap . Getting towards the end of
the day we started searching for the BIG auction which is the 12th that we came
for. I got tired of riding the Merry-go- round and stopped and ask some drunk ,he
knew where we had to go.With that behind us we headed home, found a Golden
Corral just a few miles from our base camp, NOW I don't recommend going to
these places,way to much good food and a person tends to eat toooooooo much !

Day 9 The other woman on the move

Another day on the road, hit a few heavy traffic spots but we prevailed and rolled into
the Usery mountain park late afternoon. Nice open road going in, found the guard house,
and got directions, which I didn't follow very good, he said first road to the right so I was
looking for a nice road like we came in on { not a Jeep trail } after a short distance my dear
co-pilot nicely informed me you missed your turn, etc, etc . So I got turned around and headed
in on the Jeep  trail, now let me tell you we could SMELL their dump station long before
we saw it.  Our spot luckly, was far enough away the smell was not a probably but some
people were only a few hundered ft away  NO WAY for me !!! Our spot is OK a little
unlevel but with  the Air Bags we got level ..
  Later

Day 8 The other woman on the move

Today my dear co-pilot said she would like to go out for breakfast[ OK she laid
awake thinking about this all night ] so I ask where she would like to go [ none
of this, I don't care ] first word out of her mouth CASINO and then handed me
the street address and headed to the car.
NOW if you aren't going 15 miles an hour over the speed limit you are going to
get run over, honked at, or at least flipped off, turn signals never use them, stop
sign whats that..The OLD ones are worse than the younger one maybe its because
they can't see,
So we make it to the casino and have a great breakfast she got to help fund the
remodel and left with a smile on her face, like the old saying [ Happy wife happy
life ] from there we drove on BOB HOPE avenue and GENE AUTRY trail that
ended us right in front of the Palm Springs Air Museum.Now I can't begin to tell
you how excited she was but she wasn't the only one that did their homework !!!
This museum is rated like  11th in the nation  and planes a  flyable B17 that I got
a tour thru ,  B24    B 25 and working on a B36   49 planes with alot of the old
WAR  BIRDS from world war 11 that won the war and some of the pilots that
flew these planes and lived to make it home and tell their stories , Short film
clips  of bombing runs, dog fights and the roll the women WAF's played in the
winning the war and I think my dear co-pilot might of enjoyed it !!!!!!!!!! A
trip back in time of what these men and women went though and gave up that
alot of the new generation doesn't give a rip about and just don't think what it
would be like if we had lost the wars.

Day 7 The other woman on the move

So day 7 the first morning we woke to that altra bright lite shinning in our windows
sounds it will be short lived another storm on the way . That short 50 mile drive
went good, got to the ELKS early enough had no problem getting a spot, did have
a slight problem with the guy parking us but we got that straightened out !!!! We
will be here 2 nites then another 300 miles to base camp. Oh another slight problem
I have is my co-pilot, she was awake today and seen the Casino's on the way in and
wants to help support the poor indian nation .
   Later

Day 6 The other woman on the move

Here we go, another day on the road, but not without a little excitment, we had been on
the road about an hour on one of my shortcut roads steeeeeeep and curvy had just passed
a  semi and my 110 DB electric horn went off so then I had to ask my co-pilot WHATS
THAT SMELL and she just smiled at me and might of said a few other things I won't
repeat. I changed the position of the tilt column seemed to be a temporary fix. The rest
of the trip was pretty quite, get that pretty quite, we made it into the Yucaipa park to meet
our RV friends for dinner and a bit of catch up. We met this couple in Burns Ore and have
kept in touch thru the years.
In the morning I have a big drive, one those you just hate to think about,maybe 50 miles
to Indo Elks.I think my longest day was 420 miles and to date total is 1325 with another
300 to get to base camp. Now this little black box with keys said 1200 from point A to B
before we left home, SO just because you heard it on your Commuter don't believe  it
 Later

Day 5 The other woman on the move

well! We might  as well stayed in Washington because it hasn't stopped raining
since we got into Calif.. Today I pounded out 419 miles aaaaaaaand got it down
to showers with a sun break or two. We made it to Bakerfield and the Orange
Grove RV park, YES it has oranges,they just started letting people pick and
they are good !!!!! not like the ones in the stores and we have a BIG bag full.
Since we got to the RV park my co-pilot has said that C word several times,
little does she know while she was counting sheep, and logging up those miles
I might of  passed 1 or 2 , but I was still looking for that place she told me to go
yesterday !!!!!!!!Aren't payback FUN

Day 4 The other woman is resting

WELL ! where to start , This morning we woke up to a cold bus and dead battery for
the generator as we are dry camping. Normally my co-pilot will start the generator from
the comfort of her warm bed  but today I had to get up and flip the emergency start to get
the generator going to make power to run the heaters so the cold would go away and she
could visit the real world !!! Now a few years ago she might have ventured out from under
those covers but today she calls it my parade and tells me to go somewhere ??????
So now I  am out in the cold trying to find that place shes talking about and do a temporary
repair on the generator until we get to warmer weather.!!!
During that search for the place she wanted me to find I did find our old Italian resturant
we use to go during the Sprint car races complete with the sawdust on the floor and so
dark you can't see what you are eating !!!!
After breakfast still looking for that place my co-pilot was talking about we headed up the
hill to Paradise,along the way different companies have camps set up for crews to live in
while they are putting in all the different comunition cables and power lines  ETC.. As we
get closer to town you  can see where the fire came up from the lower valley and just ran
up the ridge where Paradise is built for miles. Never seen anything close to this devastation
maybe burn 6-8 houses in a row skip one house, burn 6 more, a house setting in the middle
of a group of trees all burnt, house untouched, large metal industrial building not burnt down
but folded over from the intense  heat.. Once million dollar homes with all the fancy landscaping
gone with their HIGH DOLLARS cars still in the once garage melted to a little glob of shit.
Buildings that once hide cars, you could see some an old Henery J.,54-5-6 Ford PU's
55-6-7-8 Chevy's rows of old VW bugs &buses now can be seen, but are gone FOREVER.
Just the not important cars like we drive just what we saw an easy 1000-1500 cars an old
old bus with a true frame so hot the frame melted and bowed to the ground and 100ft across
a road an old-old building still standing!!!!!!
The little town of Magnalia a few miles above Paradise,  [The news never talked about ] is
gone only the gas station, like it had a no burn card, buildings within 50ft each side GONE.
They seem to have power to any stores that survived, some lots have been cleaned,others
have framed houses on them already, some say they will never go back. Any house in the
Chico area for sale just increased it price by 25,000 +++
In the morning we will be off  while I still look for that place my Dear CO-PILOT talked
about !!!

Day 3 The other woman on the move

We it hard today 84 miles !!! from Redding to Chico a trip we have made many times
skipped a year and went from Sept to Jan . Half the old nut trees along 99 have been
torn out and replaced with young ones ,the rest are bare and look dead. lots of new
buildings. The Elks lodge where we always stayed for the races has made big changes
extended there power hook ups and filled and graveled a large waste area in the back
corner of the property where we are dry camped because half of Paradise is in all the
other spaces with power. The ones that aren't here are at the fairgrounds, it is Packed
looks like a gyspy camp and most of the RV parks are full. The town seams to being
all the can for the Paradise people. In the morning we are going to drive up to
Paradise if we can!!!

Day 2 The other woman on the move

SO   Last night after I did the blog we were  like acouple bugs in the rug nice
and warm ,well a few hours in, the wind came up and with it already cold with
frozen snow on the ground, we got up this morning thinking we were like a
couple ice cream bars in the freezer, yes with ice on the inside of the windows !!!!
Everything started good and I was looking for some cheaper fuel As we got closer
to K Fallls found a Pilot with cheaper fuel until you read the fine print after I fueled
and went to pay[ crooks ] I stuffed my tanks so we dont have to buy any of that
Calif gold !!
We ended up in Redding at the ELKS with plenty of time to drive up to Whiskey Town
to see what was left of such a neat area , all the boats that were lost and favorite picnic
spots for families and the hit and miss way the fire burned homes and buildings.
By that time it was pushing 4:30,time to get in line for one of those Jacks steaks and
secret salad they serve OH I almost forget then we had to go to the CASINO to give
them some of her winnings from the K Falls casino last night. Last time we were at
the Redding Casino they had a   nice litle area with chairs for the younger generation
to rest there those young bones. The bastards took them out and put in more machines

DAY 1 The other woman on the move

Here we go a 5 star day even with my co-pilot not feeling real good ! got out on time

lite traffic.good weather but cold. First time across 97 from Biggs, the road signs say

[ Take a trip back in time ] that we did, seen some old covered wagons, a bunch of

old cars , some wagon road ruts and petrified horse shit. The trail led us to some Indian

Casino The KLA MO YA !! I had planned on taking on some cheap indian fuel but there

prices are  crazy, just want to fuel before Calif..

Had planned on taking 138 off 97 down to I-5 and stop at 7 Feathers but ended up staying

on 97 because of  SNOW and never traveled 138 before .