March 27, 2005

March 27, 2005

Tehachapi to Bakersfield, California

DAY 282

 

Happy Easter !

Today was sunny and very warm.

It took me about 3 hours of spinning my wheels late last night to solve my computer / cell phone problem. It should have taken me about 3 minutes. Such are the consequences of being tired and frustrated. It was very odd that starting about 11:30 P.M, a bird sitting in a tree nearby started to sing loudly. I went outside to see for myself that it was indeed a bird, in a tree, singing late at night. I wonder what kind of California bird sings at night ?

This morning we puttered around a bit with some minor maintenance. We didn't really want to leave much before the park's check-out time of noon, because we were only planning to drive a couple of hours to Bakersfield, to get the water heater fixed at Camping World tomorrow. Joanne phoned some local orchards to see if they were open today. She found one that was open. I watched gliders and their tow plane taking off from the airport, and then watched gliders landing. Sort of neat ! Landing without power. Us regular airplane pilots consider a landing without power, such as if an engine failed, to be a major emergency. For glider pilots, every landing is a "forced landing". I noticed that there was snow just a few hundred feet up the side of the mountain across the airport. I later found out that we were in a valley with an elevation of between 4000 and 5000 feet ASL, so you don't have to get much higher than that for there to still be snow, despite the fact that the temperature in the valley was about 80 degrees.

We drove a few miles down local roads to the orchard and produce stand that Joanne had found was open. What a great place. Reasonably priced, great selection, all produce certified organic. Yes, we must be in California ! There was free meatball soup, and carrot cake, for lunch for the customers. How nice.

I forgot to mention something that I noticed yesterday, as we were near Los Angeles. At every freeway exit, and at every mall, there is a Starbucks. What a great idea. Pump them full of caffeine with a "Grandé Double Double", then send them out onto the freeway to drive like assholes !

After buying produce, we left Tehachapi heading northwest in Hwy. 58, a 4 lane divided freeway. The first 14 miles out of Tehachapi was all downhill, at a grade of 5% to 6%. Fourteen miles, travelling between 100 and 120 km. per hr. / 60 to 70 MPH, without touching the accelerator ! The hills all the way to Bakersfield were all lush and green.

We arrived in Bakersfield in mid-afternoon, and found our way to Camping World. It was open today, for sales, but not for service. We parked in their parking lot to await the opening of their service department tomorrow morning. We were the first rig parked here awaiting service, but now, late in the evening, there are 8 rigs parked here overnight. I assume they're all here for service tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we went inside and bought some stuff I needed for maintenance, then I spent the balance of the afternoon doing rig maintenance in the parking lot. I replaced the side marker light that was broken by the flat tire mishap in Quartzsite. I replaced a broken roof vent crank handle. And finally, the biggest job for today, I replaced the "city water" fresh water inlet connection on the side of the trailer. I had a bit of a rude encounter with a man walking across the parking lot. He took exception to my facial expression which obviously revealed that I thought he was ignorant for not knowing where Manitoba was ... or even that a place by that name existed ! California and Texas are the only 2 states where we've encountered overt rudeness. We took Bo for an obedience training session, and discovered that there is a fresh water fill and holding tank dump on the side of the building. That will be very convenient for tomorrow. After we get the hot water tank fixed ( hopefully ) we can dump and fill before we leave. Joanne prepared a nice Easter dinner, while I spent about an hour on the phone with AOL Tech Support. After a frustrating 45 minutes on the phone with a moron, I hung up and phoned AOL Canada. My problem was solved in about 2 minutes ! We had a nice Easter dinner, then did some trip planning.

DSK