If you have followed Carol or me on Facebook you know we turned south a few weeks early. Carol has written a review of her excellent experience at Island Hospital ER Anacortes. After a series of walks and hikes it became clear that she needed to see a doctor which lead to our visit to Island Hospital ER in Anacortes. Since we had almost reached the northernmost point of our plan we decided to turn south and get back to Jojoba Hills so we could deal with doctors we know and who know us. 

I have been doing all the driving for this run, unlike out normal routine of 2 hour shifts. As we sit in Sommerville RV Park in Coalinga CA. there is one more 6 hour day ahead of me. We finished our great audio book “Roosevelt’s Confidante: A Maggie Hope Mystery” by Susan Elia MacNeal and will pick out something else for tomorrow.

Today had its ups and downs. We had an easy early departure from the Elks Lodge in Redding CA and rolled on south at a steady 57 to 60 mph. Late in the afternoon we pulled into yet another Rest Area for a bathroom break and walk to stretch the legs. As I was returning from the restroom a trucker accosted me with a tale about a really lucky man who I had to meet. A group of truckers were gathered behind a truck and I was told that one of them had won an unimaginable sum at a casino in Toronto and was handing out $100 bills. I noticed a game of Three Card Monte going on in the group and decided that $100 would cost a lot more. I tried to excuse myself gently, but one of the group was really aggressive and would not take no thank you for an answer. When he laid a hand on my arm I merely stared at his hand and then at him and he released me and began to swear at me and tell me I didn’t belong in the country.  Obviously a full red blooded Trumpista. I hustled Carol on to the coach and rolled before we even had our seat belts done.  

An hour further down the road my TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) sounded an alarm.  Instead of the expected signal loss from a sensor it reported that a tire on the Jeep was losing pressure. A stop on the shoulder of I5 is never an occasion for joy. In this case I determined that the tire had indeed lost 20% of expected pressure. I ran the pressure hose from the front of the coach to the front of the Jeep and reinflated the tire for the remaining 50 mile run to the campground we were headed for in Coalinga CA. On arrival it was already down a couple of PSI. A call to Coach-net, my road service company, resulted in the arrival of a local tire repair guy an hour later. He found a long brad in the tire and was able to remove it and plug the tire. In the mean time one of our Air Conditioners had failed. I located the circuit breaker and reset it and that fixed that for now. Then I tried to wash my hands and determined the water pump was not working. A brief round of trouble shooting located the disconnected power lead. It is still disconnected as I can’t see how to restore it without removing the pump, the connection is on the back side. I connected the hose and we are good for now. 

A sizable glass of Gin over ice led to the beginning of recovery from my trouble shooting efforts. It was followed by a wonderful omelette stuffed with Brussels Sprouts and other goodies and corn bread prepared by Carol, the best RV chef on the road.