The day began with a beautiful sunrise, viewed at 6:30 a.m. as I readied the rig for an early getaway. We were eager to beat the folks leaving Las Vegas for LA on I-15, and we also heard that winds would pick up later in the day along the route to Bakersfield.
Having said our goodbyes to Julie, who spent a couple nights camping with us, we reflected on the nice hikes we had in the red sandstone of Valley of Fire, and remembered a couple of cozy campfires. Julie and I even attempted to enter the Atlatl World Championships, but our aim was errant.
Julie left ahead of us, as we had to hit the dump station and fill up with gas (bet that’ll be the last gas under $2.00 we see). Coursing through Las Vegas’ construction scarred main highway, Julie called on the phone. The water heater had leaked at Casita Julie, flooding the living room. We made a mid-course correction and took the 215 to Julie's.
A soggy carpet, likely sheetrock damage and a kaput water heater. Just great! We called the insurance company and they promised help ASAP. We were 5 years into a 6 year guarantee on the water heater, but at best there may be just a bit of pro-rata contribution towards the next water heater. The joys of long-distance property ownership. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do, so we left things in Julie’s capable hands and headed back onto the highway.
As we climbed the grade west of Las Vegas it got breezy. The further west, the windier it got, blowing a steady 40 mph head-on and gusting to 60 or so. I am expecting that this leg will turn out to be the worst gas mileage in our RVing travels, likely about 5 mpg. Most of the time it was tough to stay above 50 mph. The LA-bound traffic clogged the lanes, making our journey even more exciting. It was a white-knuckle ride.
How windy was it? At one rest stop I viewed a crow trying to fly into the wind. He was making no headway despite frantic wing-flapping, so he landed and tried to hop. Each time he hopped, the wind blew him backwards. He finally gave up, crouched down, his beak low and parallel to the ground and started walking to his destination. Now that’s windy. Annika even refused to take a whiz, balking as stinging sand hit her face. She would travel cross-legged instead for several hours.
Clouds of dust rose into the sky, obscuring the view of nearby mountains. It was an ugly day, the toughest day of driving the rig I had ever experienced. 200+ miles of hell. Finally at 3 pm we called it a day and pulled into the Orange Grove RV Park, east of Bakersfield. It’s an ‘old reliable’ for us, and scores of fellow RVers blew in.
No pictures of today’s excitement, except the ones Julie sent of the water damage, which don’t compare to the vistas of Valley of Fire. Our spring trip nears its finish with Annika having proved her worth as a camper and traveller. We’ll make sure the satellite dish is tuned up before our next major trip in June-August to Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
As ever, I am grateful for Janice, my co-pilot, campmate and Scrabble partner.
2 comments:
Did Sunday's drama cause you to forget mentioning that you lost two (count 'em, TWO) games of Scrabble on Saturday to me?
If it is still an option, a "tankless" water heater (we have one) is wonderful--Really cuts down on the storage of unused hot water/and the cost of keeping it hot. A little more expensive, but you will re-coup very quickly
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