March 31, 2005

March 31, 2005

Watsonville to San Martin, California

DAY 286

 

Today was sunny and hot. That's about the only thing that went right about today.

We took our time preparing to leave Pinto Lake Park this morning because we didn't think we would be travelling very far today. As we were pulling out, I realized there was a blown fuse in the truck. I decided to leave it, and fix it later when we were in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Our first stop was going to be Wal-Mart in Gilroy. We had to get from Watsonville on Hwy. 1 to Gilroy on Hwy. 101. That seemed easy enough in planning. Both highways run north and south, just a few miles apart. We got twisted around entering Hwy.1, and ended up headed in the wrong direction. I took an exit, and attempted to enter again in the opposite direction. Again we got twisted around, and again I ended up heading in the wrong direction. Welcome to California freeways ! Another exit, and I finally got headed the right way on Hwy. 1. We exited onto Hwy. 152 heading the short distance east to Hwy. 101. Halfway to Hwy. 101 was a sign prohibiting vehicles longer than 45 feet from continuing on Hwy. 152. We had to detour over to Hwy. 129 to get to Gilroy. We got all twisted around again, and drove around a little lost, and a lot frustrated, trying to get onto Hwy. 129, to get just a short distance over to Hwy. 101. Finally we made it to Hwy. 129, then onto Hwy. 101. At Gilroy, we exited at the sign directing to the Visitor's Information Centre. We got to the Visitor's Information Centre, and I cut a corner too sharply, hitting the curb with the trailer tires, and slicing open the sidewall of a tire on the metal drain embedded in the curb. The tire blew ! And it was the new tire I purchased 2 weeks ago in Quartzsite ! Another 100 bucks down the drain because of a moment of carelessness ! And, of course, those are American dollars ! I'm angry at myself, and having a hard time forgiving myself tonight, although I keep trying to console myself by telling myself that most moments of carelessness behind the wheel of this rig would result in a lot worse consequences than the loss of a hundred dollar tire.

I changed the tire, while Joanne went inside the Visitor's Information Centre and got directions to the Wal-Mart in town, then made lunch. Gilroy bills itself as "The Garlic Capitol Of The World". The staff in the Visitor's Information Centre offered Joanne some garlic flavoured jelly beans. She declined ! We drove to Wal-Mart, and while Joanne did a bit of grocery shopping, I located and changed the blown fuse. Easier said than done ! We left Wal-Mart, and Gilroy, heading north on Hwy. 101 to San Martin. We headed for the Camping World at San Martin, where we have an appointment at 8:00 A.M. tomorrow morning to get the water heater repaired.

We were planning to visit Joanne's cousin in Capitola today or tomorrow, but things haven't quite worked out as well as we had hoped. We cancelled our visit by e-mail tonight. We also made a decision to buy 4 new trailer tires here at Camping World while we're here. Two of the tires were on the trailer when we purchased it, and are worn, and ready for replacement. I blew the brand new one today. And the spare is under rated for the trailer load. The only half decent tire left is the one we bought in Minneapolis on the Labour Day weekend, and it already has a fair amount of wear on it. That one will become the spare. The under rated current spare, I guess I will keep as an unmounted spare spare. Regardless of how much or little the water heater repair is, tomorrow is going to be a very expensive day.

Tonight while I was walking Bo, we came across a stray dog. She was wearing an engraved tag identifying her as Brandy, with a phone number. She was quite content to walk along with me and Bo, so I thought I would just take her back to the trailer, and phone the number on her tag. While we were walking, a very frustrated gentleman came around the corner of the Camping World building calling Brandy. Turns out he had been wandering around looking for her for an hour, since she had escaped from his motorhome, after he scolded her for eating the $30 book he had purchased at Camping World a few hours earlier. Her feelings were hurt, and she would not go back to him. I had to call her close to me, then hold her by the collar while he came over and snapped her leash on. Oh, well, if nothing else went right today, at least Bo and I helped rescue an escaped dog.

DSK