March 26, 2005

March 26, 2005

Aguanga to Tehachapi, California

DAY 281

 

Today was sunny and hot ... and somewhat frustrating.

We left Jojoba Hills SKP Park this morning, and backtracked about a half a mile on Hwy. 79 to the Aguanga Post Office to buy a stamp. I wrangled the rig into the Post Office parking lot, only to discover that they didn't open for another 15 minutes. I was too impatient to wait ! We headed west on Hwy. 79 to the next city, Temecula. The landscape was very lush "high desert". At Temecula, we filled up with diesel, bought Bo a larger choker at PetsMart, and replenished supplies at Wal-Mart. We found the Post Office in Temecula and bought the stamp I needed, then headed northwest on Interstate 15 towards Los Angeles. About 50 miles out of Los Angeles, the traffic got thick, and so did the smog. For the next couple of hours, as we made our way through the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles, I encountered the worst drivers I've ever shared a road with. Rude, and self-centred to the extreme, with really poor driving skills and habits. I had a car change lanes so quickly, without a signal, at my left front corner that I had to swerve onto the shoulder on the right to avoid clipping his right rear end. Later, as I passed a tractor trailer, on a 4 lane divided highway, an impatient driver behind us passed both of us by passing on the right hand side of the truck, on the shoulder, then try to move left back into the lane in front of the truck, as I finished passing the truck and began to move back into the right lane ! We just about side swiped at 70 MPH in front of the tractor trailer. I'm really glad we took the advice of many, many people who told us to go around Los Angeles, before we head for Hwy. 101 along the Pacific coast. Even going around Los Angles puts you through the eastern suburbs for a couple of hours. We stopped at a mall in one of the eastern suburbs, Rancho Cucamonga (HUH ?) for lunch. Shortly after lunch, we climbed, and climbed, and climbed, over the San Bernardino Mountains. We were just about up at the snow line. Once we were over the San Bernardino Mountains, we were in the Mojave Desert. We started to see the very unusual looking Joshua Trees. As I-15 curved off to the northeast, we took Hwy. 395 to the northwest. At the town called Four Corners, we turned west onto Hwy. 58, and filled up with diesel for the second time today. We drove past the Edwards Air Force Base, where the Space Shuttles land, to the town of Boron. It was already mid-afternoon, and we were planning to spend the night at Boron. When I saw the "trailer trash" RV Park at Boron, I decided to keep going.

We stopped for the night at the town of Tehachapi. We are at the Tehachapi Mountain Valley Airport and RV Park. Somewhat of an odd combination ! On one side of the RV Park, is the airport. A mile or so beyond the single runway is the world's largest windmill farm, climbing up the side of the Tehachapi Mountains. Once again ... welcome to California ! On the other side of the park is an apple orchard. This is a really lovely area.

I started to work on the hot water heater as Joanne prepared supper, and it didn't go very well. Worse of all, I dropped a screw on the gravel and could not find it ! I'll look for the screw again tomorrow, and hope that I can be more successful at trouble shooting the problem. After supper, I attempted to sign on to AOL through the cell phone, to check if we received an e-mail response from Joanne's cousin. It should have taken a couple of minutes. The computer wouldn't communicate with the cell phone. I spent two futile hours trying to make it work ! I'm ready to hit something with a baseball bat !

DSK