October 22, 2012

El Solana RV Campground

Inyokern, CA 93527

This was the most frustrating, stressful day since our journey began.  It started out okay.  The first annoyance was when I received a call from the property we use for our bricks and sticks house.  The current tenants, an elderly couple, complained that they could not get the garage door to close.  Of course, the first thing that came to mind was maybe they had blocked the sensors. (Well, actually the first thing that came to mind was how much this is going to cost us)  But Vicki, the manager, said she checked it out and the sensor was fine.  Because she hadn’t been able to contact us (we haven’t had cell service for a couple of days) she called in a handyman who determined the problem was the door itself.  The door is splitting at the bottom.  He was able to put a bracing board as a temporary fix but we will need a new door eventually.  He only charged $25.00.  The first challenge had been dealt with.

 We left Tule Campground at 10:30 and followed the GPS directions for our next location in Inyokern, CA.  The first leg of the trip was okay.  It wasn’t until we were routed to 155 that we had the first inkling of what was to follow.  The road was very narrow with a very steep grade in areas.  Monte had to pull over a few times to rest the truck which really made me nervous because there wasn’t much room for cars to get around us. 

Finally, at around 4,300 feet in elevation, we came to a fairly large area that we were able to pull over safely and let the truck rest.  We weren’t sure what to expect when we opened the rig.  What we found was that the freezer door had opened and all the ice cubes had spilled out over the floor.  The microwave door had opened and the glass turntable was on the stove.  Luckily it hasn’t broken.  We considered ourselves lucky that was all that happened.

We ate lunch and discussed possibly turning around and going back down the mountain or taking a ride in my car for a few miles to see if the road was going to improve or be worse.

As we were discussing our options, a car pulled over and the driver, whom I know regard as our guardian angel, asked us if we needed any assistance.  We relayed our fears to her about continuing on the road.  She said we MUST turn around and go back down the mountain because we had very steep grades coming up if we continued on the same road. 

We went back down the mountain and took the route our angel showed us on a physical map.  It took us two hours out of our way but it was well worth it.  The second challenge had been dealt with.  BUT we had learned a very valuable and possibly expensive lesson (to be determined as the transmission fluid on the truck has a burnt smell) and that is to always check the roads on a physical map before starting out.

When we stopped for gas and tried to use one of our credit cards, the sale was denied.  I had to call the credit card company to assure them that our two vehicles were traveling in California and the gas sales should be authorized.  The third challenge had been dealt with.

The RV Park we ended up at didn’t exactly have the wow factor but we were so tired and stressed out by that time that we didn’t care.  We were in the Mojave Desert and we really didn’t have many options at 6pm.  The manager, who gave us a list of available sites, suggested we get set up quickly as there was a storm coming in.      

After setting up, surprisingly, when we raised our antenna, we were able to receive several stations.  The camp had advertized free WIFI but when I questioned the manager about it she informed me that it had been down for a week and Verizon was scheduled to come the next day to fix it. 

We went to bed before 11 but at 3am I woke up from the sound of the wind ruffling the slide toppers.  I gave up trying to get back to sleep and watched TV but kept expecting the roof of the rig to be blown off.  It finally subsided at 5am and I was able to fall asleep.