I'm back

[XMEN Gambit]

We've been away on vacation for the past two weeks. What a trip.

My grandfather's 90th birthday was last weekend and he lives with my uncle in California. My uncle wanted to have a big party, there, with a bunch of the family.

I may or may not have mentioned here that I bought a fixer-upper pop-up camper in January. Yup, we took the camper to California. From Dallas. 1600 miles one way.

The first day we drove 15 or 16 hours. After setting up camp at the Flagstaff KOA, I had to go out and find (and collect) some things we'd forgotten. Took a while and got caught in construction. Was very late, and very tired, by the time I got to sleep. Up the next morning and drove through the worst part, IMO - namely the Mojave desert. From Kingman AZ, or maybe Needles, CA, all the way to Bakersfield was a hot trip. And then about 5:30 on Thursday in Bakersfield the wheel fell off the camper and ripped the lugs out, too. Had to have it carted to a local tire place that was still open, but they couldn't get to it until the next morning (Friday). I'm not sure they knew much about trailer tires but they knew the nuts had been mis-torqued, and the wheels had been put on backwards so that the valve stems faced in. Done by a place here in town that had packed the bearings for me. Must have a word with them. Arranged by phone to stay with my uncle while we were in Merced (about 3 hours north of Bakersfield) instead of sleeping in the camper, and away we went on Friday after learning they couldn't the the needed parts that day. Arrived and Found out another uncle had shown up in a pop-up, too! Stayed there for a couple days, went to San Francisco, had a nice party, etc. Monday we had planned to leave for Yosemite but the tire place was having problems and needed another day. (Grr) So left Tuesday morning for Bakersfield, stood over them until they got the thing going, and then took off for Coarsegold (south of Yosemite). We'd planned on 3 days there but only got one, so did the rush tour. Grr again. Then off to Morro Bay where this huge rock sticks out of the Pacific and it was always foggy and cool. Kinda like San Francisco. Spent 3 nights there and then when we were leaving to come back, we were assaulted by a couple of particularly stupid deer. Well, the SUV was, anyway. We got off pretty light, with a couple of dented body panels, a shattered windshield, and a completely missing side mirror. The deer that jumped us is probably not so well off... Anyway, drove from about 5 AM Pacific time to Winslow, Arizona where darkness and thunderstorms strongly suggested we pull over and get a motel room. Shattered windshield contributed to that decision. I'd actually wanted to make Albequerque, but had to take it easy on the tires and drive a lot slower than I'd have liked, especially when we crossed the Mojave again. 119 degrees around Needles!! That was about noon local, no telling what it got up to in mid-afternoon. I did NOT want to get a blowout or break down in that. Nope. So got home around 11:30 last night, unloaded everything and went to bed.

I've had better vacations. Pretty sure the credit card bills are going to be nasty. Could have been a whole lot worse though. Still very very glad to be home.

Pictures soon.

[Spinning Hat]

Welcome back! Breakdowns on the road are never fun, nor are they usually cheap.. :/ At least you get a day or two at home to recuperate before returning to the grind.. or the vacation from the vacation...

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

I'm glad you guys made it through there okay. There's a reason places like Edwards exist out there!

Did you enjoy the desert? I hope the tire didn't ruin the whole trip, it sounds like you guys were able to salvage something.