North from Los Angeles, to the Oregon border.

Saturday, April 9th. (Thought I better put day/date in here--I'm getting confused as to what day it is!) Left El Chorro (The Stream) RV Park and pushed on northward for all of 20 minutes before we spied a small grocery store with easy access and lots of room to park; in we went--we needed a few things. Forty minutes!!!! later we were back on the road taking in the scenery.



A few miles down the road we came across a sign: "Highway 1 closed 88 miles ahead. Big Sur open". While we pondered the effect this would have on our planned route we passed a connection to Highway 101. We soon realised that there were NO OTHER connections before the closure. It took several more miles to find a place to turn around and eventually we were climbing the hills on route 46 towards Paso Robles on the 101.

An hour after that we pulled into a rest area on the 101 for a pee break and a snack, another 30 minutes. An hour and a half later it was time for lunch.

We had heard years ago, planning our first motorhome trip to San Francisco, that RV's weren't permitted over the Golden Gate bridge and into downtown San Francisco. We had parked our old motorhome at the ferry parking lot in Larkspur and taken the boat across.

Thinking that this would still be the case we planned a go around route. We turned off the 101 to the 680, 780 and a few other freeways to the 37 around the top of San Pedro Bay and back to the 101 at Novato, well north of San Francisco. It was a long way. In retrospect it might have been "fun" taking the 101 all the way through. We later Googled it and found no information about restrictions. Ah well.

The geography at Novato was interesting. Here a river meets the ocean with large sandbars for much of the interface with sea on one side and river, marsh and lagoons on the other, which later gave way to farm land.

We were in need of fuel again and eventually came across a service station offering diesel (they were few and far between) and with the aid of a friendly local found an easy way back to the highway. The price was a little less than the last fuel stop, only $4.45 per gallon.

Well north of San Francisco we stopped for the night at the Sonora County Fairgrounds. The RV Park here is part of the Passport America system, of which we are members, so our $30.00, 50 Amp full hook up, free wireless campground cost us only $15.00! We connected the electric only, we had lots of water and lots of space in the waste tanks. Probably take care of those at the next stop.

It was a cold night. Extra blanket, jammies and socks for Art! He was happy that only the electric cord had to be coiled and put away in the morning--though it was stiff as a stick!

It was here that Art realised that the battery on the tracker was getting quite low. He put the voltmeter into the cigarette lighter outlet to read a very low 12.1 volts. (12.2 is considered half charged.) The battery had been running the air compressor for the "Brake Buddy" our auxiliary braking system for the car while being towed. It had also been running one of the map lights behind the rear view mirror for who knows how long--Art just noticed it was on!

Remember the body man in Mexico saying about the hood of the car: "Don't open it!"? Well he had to in order to connect the battery charger! The good news was twofold--the battery charged up just fine and he was able, with Gillian's help, able to close the hood again.

Sunday, April 10th

We were on the road at 9:00, stopped for a 15 minute break at 11:00 and again for lunch at 12:40 when we took time to heat up some soup and make a mug of coffee for Art to sip on during the drive. We also turned on the gas furnace to heat the place up.

We had been using the dash heater to try to direct a little warm air at his feet, when Art detected the smell of engine coolant emanating from the vents so shut the heat off. At this stop he had a look and sure enough there was a small amount of liquid dripping from the heater unit! Hopefully this will wait until we get home!

On the maintenance topic, we heard on the TV News from home the other night that Grayline West, the tour bus company in Victoria that we used to do all our motorhome mechanical service, had closed! This is terrible news. They have been a superb shop, service was excellent and relatively inexpensive. And of course they were very familiar with rear engine diesel motorhomes. They had a fully equipped shop, including air conditioning service and paint and body work and hoists that would lift a 40 foot bus.

In the middle of the afternoon we realised that we had missed four things while shopping yesterday; oatmeal, tea, vegetables and Calgonite (to use to clean the holding tanks). We pulled in to a shopping center and Gillian went in to take care of it. She returned a short while with two of them ( and a few other things) saying "What were the four things we needed?--They didn't have any Calgonite." Art started with "Oatmeal . . . " and was interrupted with "I'll be right back" and off she went. Still it was only a half hour stop and Art got a bit of a nap!

The road now headed into the hills.There were some steep uphill grinds, then down and back up again and so on and so on. After a couple of hours of this we pulled off for a minute to check the coolant level. All was well so we carried on, leaving California with no regrets and entered Oregon. One more step on the way home. We arrived at Gold Beach, our stop for the night, about 6:30.

It was cold and breezy and he was tired so Art decided to not do the draining and refilling of tanks tonight but wait until morning, it wouldn't get any worse. Ha!

Then it began to rain, the wind is increasing (though not so bad as the other night) as we watch TV, have drink and make and eat our dinner.

As we get ready for bed the rain is still pouring down.

Our destination tomorrow is near Boiler Bay State park, where we will stay a night or two with our friends Steve and Nancy. We first met them several years ago in the El Manglar RV Park in Zihuatanejo and have kept in touch ever since. Always a fun and interesting couple we were looking forward to the visit.

May add a few pictures later.