The Long and Winding Road

Saturday, March 10th, 2018

The plane was delayed about 45 minutes leaving Cabo.  The pilot managed to still get us into LA on schedule.  Getting through Customs is another thing.  Confusing system and I think they like it that way.  Long lines and nothing you can do about it.  Trying not to look at my watch every other minute; we finally got through.  Why do I feel like I am going to be pulled aside and slammed into a little room and accused of some crime against the state when trying to get back into my own country?  Too many Nazi movies perhaps, or snarky comments about the current administration ?probably that one!

We took a short taxi ride to the storage facility and the gate was open !  Heading back onto hellish
I-10; it was raining and gray.  Not very LA like at all.  Heading East through the  chaotic traffic we both started noticing how courteous fellow freeway drivers were. They used signals! Let us in when we were jammed up to complete stops and not once did anyone flip anyone off ! What's up with that?  Again, being from NY we are not used to this sort of behavior on the highway. 
We came to the conclusion that these people have made peace with the insanity of their driving situation and for self-preservation, not really because they wish to let you into another lane, they have decided that to make it another day they have to act civilized on the road.  Astonishing.  Not once did we come across that usual little prick in a pick-up truck (why always a pick up truck??) that zips in and out of lanes and causes potential death and destruction with inches to spare.  They were right on schedule in other states though but we managed to survive. 

Night found us back in Ontario, California, sleeping among the big rigs with their ever running motors.  Before we went to sleep we watched Netflix on the motor home's tv.  Yes children, we are just that smart!  Thanks to Dave stopping at a Best Buy and asking the 16 year old working there how to do such a thing; he bought the correct cable and we can now watch Amazon Prime, Netflix and whatever is on the I pad.  So proud of us!

Sunday, March 11, 2018

A brilliant, blue California morning and we headed for Palm Springs.  Finally out of the metro area of LA the landscape changed dramatically.  We stopped for fuel off the interstate in Corazon, CA.  When pulling out of the parking lot we heard a thump-thump-thump.  I thought we left something unsecured in the kitchen area so I went back to look.  Nope.  Dave got out and checked the tires.  Sure enough he heard a whooshing noise and their was air escaping from one of the outside dualies tires. shit, shit, shit !  Before we left home Dave took it to the Mercedes shop in Rochester (Mercedes is as bad as Apple-ONLY Mercedes service people can seem to do anything to a Mercedes) and had them go over it for the big trip.  They suggested that valve stem extenders for the double tires be installed so it would be easier to add air to the tires if necessary.  Dumb design (I think) anyway that the valves on the inside tire are facing away from you-near impossible to get at! So they did and we felt confident that we headed off any potential vehicle issues as best as we could.  So, long story short, the extender broke off it's holder and it was banging around and we probably ran over it as the end was smashed and letting the air out slowly.  Being about 40 miles from Palm Springs the only thing Dave could do was tape up the end; the air stopped and we chanced the drive.  Of course it is early Sunday morning, we are in the middle of no where and everything is closed anyway.  We made it about 10 miles down the road to a rest stop--thankfully--and pulled off, determined we couldn't drive any farther lest the tire shred to pieces. We needed a permanent fix.   At least we had cell service.  We called the roadside assistance people that we have a contract with and they sent someone out.  Lucky for us it was a relatively simple fix.   The tire was refilled with air and we were off again.  Kinda' worried about the same thing happening to the other side but really, what were the chances?

This time the thousands of wind turbines outside of Palm Springs were eerily motionless.  Very strange sight.  None of them were moving.  I thought the Santa Ana winds never stopped blowing?
Hope to get back there someday.  Really like that part of California.  We stopped at a Walmart to re-provision the MH for the trip home.  Our goal was to be in the Tucson, AZ area for the night.  We enjoyed the southwest scenery along the way.  So different than what we are used to.  So much unusable land out there!  We spent the night in a Walmart parking lot.  Seems to be an endless supply of Walmart parking lots and truck stops that are very RV friendly out there.  Since the way we choose to use the MH is to not hang out in RV parks and just travel, it works out pretty good for us.  Of course we have an app on the Ipad that tells us where we can anchor out, I mean camp out!

Monday, March 12, 2018

57 degrees and cloudy outside and we thought we might want to head way south to Big Bend National Park but as the day progressed we decided to do that some other time.  We were listening to the sequel of "To Kill a Mockingbird"; "Go Set a Watchman" by Harper Lee.  As is often the case, the sequel isn't up to the original.  My quick summary of the book is that is was the classic awakening by an older child that their parent(s) are not perfect and only humans who try to do their best and make mistakes along the way.  Still a good read as I love her descriptive writing (a la' Steinbeck).

We stayed in a RV park for the first time on the trip in VanHorn, Texas.  It was clean and the majority of the people there seemed to be living in their motorhomes and trailers as there were decks built and flower pots and such.  Probably work in the oil industry and move around a lot. 
When we left on this trip we laughed that we would either like the motorhome experience or quietly sell it when we returned home.  We have both decided that it's a keeper.  It's plenty big for the two of us.  We are cool with spending the night in secure Walmarts-truck stops and Cracker Barrels as crazy as that sounds, maneuvering it in cities and parking lots is manageable and being able to pee when driving down the highway is kinda' cool.  I see more road trips in our future.