Category Archives: California

One week in

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It is now the Monday after the Tuesday we left.  I don’t think it has sunk in yet as our last week has been a week that we have done before.

We left California on Tuesday.  We spent two nights in Kingman AZ (which we have done before).  We then did some moochdocking at my mother’s house for 4 nights (which we have done before).

The refrigerator is now working great again so we stocked up on groceries yesterday and are leaving this AM.

This is where it really starts, then unknown.  The one thing we know is that we are meandering toward Austin to get our trailer registered and get Texas licenses.  We also need to get Roxie established with an MD or two.

The plan is to go about 200 miles today and stop around Safford AZ.  But our plans can change, now.

A non-standard day

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The part that could potentially fix our refrigerator problem arrived Monday.  I put it in and I immediately heard the propane fire up and the flue gets hot.  Sounded good.  However, when I got in the trailer the display was still not working.  The light was on inside the fridge which was a good thing.  About 5 minutes later it all shut down.  That is some progress.  I spent many hours trying to find the other part.  One RV part store said they could get the part the next day but by the time they returned my call it was too late to get it next day.  We decided to order the part and have it sent to my mother’s house and leave on Tuesday, the non-standard day.

We knew this was the day to leave.  We went through our normal routine at breakfast but then it all changed.  We had to ensure that everything was out in the truck or trailer.  Take multiple passes through the house and we still managed to miss a few things.  Our son can get those to us though.

We said goodbye to our neighbors and she took a few shots of us (her name is Tatiana Ruelas and does photography if you are interested).  Here is one in front of our old house (right) and the new house (left):

And us driving down the street, leaving for our adventure:

Off we go!  May 2, 2017 10:25am

Since heat was descending on us, and Arizona, I was hoping to find something cooler  I was thinking Kingman as it was higher in elevation and about 10 degrees cooler.  CA99 to CA58 to I15 to I40.  A path we know very well.

We ate lunch late in Tehachapi after a bit of driving around because I missed the main road.  Barstow was next for a fuel stop.  More driving around because of a new stretch of 58 and a misinterpretation of a detour sign.

We eventually got on I40 and saw the famous mileage sign:

We will probably get there sometime.

2 hours of extremely boring driving before exceedingly boring Needles to eat.  Fortunately, we tow our own toilet because there is not much on that road.  But without everything working right in the trailer (refrigerator), it feels more like we are just towing this:

This is the first real test of the new truck and it did great!  I love the engine braking going down hills.  The dash is mostly a flat screen so Ford can put up whatever information it wants.  Normally the gauges are the standard analog (along the top) but when it goes past the mid-point, Ford puts up the actual numbers:

Other than me being unemployed, leaving our home of almost 23 years, our town of 31+ years, getting confused twice while driving, having the rig loaded the heaviest I ever have, and driving 400+ miles in one day, there was one more non-standard.

We were out of California.  At 9:25 pm we crossed into Arizona. Some 11 hours later.  Another non-standard for us, not being California residents.

I hope that the days to come bring many non-standard days as we have had many years of standard days and it is time for a new part of our lives.