We drove Little Green home over Saturday and Sunday, boondocking at a rest stop in Tulare. The kids settled right into their bunks, no problem, but Timmy was very mosquito bitten from being outside last night in Chico. They slept well; we all did. At one point a cop drove through the lot, but didn’t bother us. Nobody did. Not even the trains that came by several times in the night. I woke up early, probably around five, but wanted to sleep a bit more. I kind of wish we’d gotten up then, as driving home to Vegas on the Sunday of the fourth of July was a bit of a mess. We overheated (nearly) and had to pull over a few times, as there were two accidents that had us in stop and go traffic for over an hour. Stop and go traffic, going up the Baker grade, coach air conditioner wasn’t working. Not fun, but not entirely discouraging either. We will try to do our summer desert driving much earlier from now on. And we figured out that the air conditioner had tripped a switch…..
Prior to getting into the desert we stopped near Tehachapi at a place called the “National Chavez Center” which is where Cesar Chavez is buried. There was a nice rose and botanical garden with fountains, but my favorite part was being able to take a small walk to look at the “golden, rolling hills of California”(from either a Bruce Cockburn or an old hippie buddy Jon Sikora song). I love those hills, usually dotted with California Live Oak trees. I want my kids to know and love them also, as we really are Californians even though we live in Nevada.
The kids had school Monday morning and popped out of bed no problem. Good sign. The trip was refreshing, not exhausting. Steve and I ventured off to The Oasis RV Park in Vegas to empty our ‘black water’ tank. It wasn’t hard at all. So now we know. I was so proud of us. We also went to LV RV which is right next to Camping World to see about getting our air conditioner fixed or replaced. We got a nice guy who finally came out to look inside, and he showed us how the switch had tripped, and gave us a bunch of good advice. We are finding that rv people are friendly and helpful, so far. Steve keeps bringing up how we could be fulltimers. We could. We’ll see.
meanwhile, today I put our bumper clothesline on all by myself, as it was quite a simple deal. Makes me think that I should invent some products to make rving simpler and more like home. Maybe make some money that way. Our little wooden folding dining table is finished and ready to go. I need to see if our chairs are going to fit behind the front seats. Lots to do and miles to go before we finish…at least we have a vehicle for our dreams now. We are all very happy with our choice. And working together to get all the carpet ripped out. Not as easy as I’d hoped.
The day we met Little Green
At the National Chavez Center
The Golden, Rolling Hills Of California (Near Tehachapi)
