WE MADE IT!

Greetings all,

This will be a quick post, as we arrived in the midst of the storm that was hitting most of the state and the internet was down where we're staying. We're getting ready to eat a quick breakfast and unload the truck.

The last drive challenged us once again. It wasn't the rain that created the problems, but the wind. It was coming from the West, gusts up to 40 and for much of the drive, we were headed North. The wind hit us broadside....very uncomfortable for Claudia towing the trailer and white-knuckle time for me. I don't think California needs to build any more wind turbines....they can simply purchase old 26' Penske trucks and mount them on big poles, where they can spin in the wind.

And then....we exited at Auburn and drove the final 25 miles to Nevada City. The scenery changes quickly. Off to each side of the road, instead of interstate lanes, you see huge Sequoia trees and towering pines. The last miles were sweet, even as tired as we were. After years of planning and figuring out how we could pull this off... the beautiful little town of Nevada City was suddenly....right there. It was, I have to admit, a little surreal.

We checked into the quaint Northern Queen Inn (our home for the next couple weeks) and shown to our chalet. It sits at the rear of the property (pictures added later), right beside a rushing creek and a beautiful waterfall. We'll post some pictures and a video later today. Right now, we're preparing to meet the guys we hired to help us unload the The Beast into our storage unit. We rented two units, one for the household stuff and one for the cars and the bike. It's drizzling rain, but that's OK. The storm has moved East. We feel very fortunate to have made the trip safely. No flat tires. No accidents. We didn't get lost once, thanks to Claudia. Her skills at navigating and sleuthing out motels along the route have now reached legendary status. What a trooper. She had never driven a truck, never towed anything....and she just did both for 3,200 miles.

More later.....we're off to unload.

Cheers....Wayne, Claudia and Tuck

Outrunning the storm...in a 26' truck

Hi everyone,

As I write this, we're in Los Banos, CA and watching the Weather Channel report on a really bad storm that is hitting Southern California and parts of Northern California today and tomorrow. Damaging winds, historic rainfall in some areas, mudslides and one of the lowest atmospheric pressure readings in California history. Oh well...at this point in the trip, we've gotten pretty damn tough. We're channeling the words of Lt. Dan in the movie Forest Gump as they rode out a storm..."is this all you've got?!". Bring it on!

We left the beautiful Coachella Valley yesterday morning (Indio, CA....we want to come back here sometime) and headed out for our last long ride of the trip. We figured it would be an easy 400 mile drive. Boy...were we wrong. We knew we had to avoid the LA traffic, so we picked a route that used secondary roads that the RV crowd uses...and also a lot of long-distance truckers. That's the good news. The bad news is that the roads were horrible. I'm pretty sure some of these roads haven't been paved since they filmed Rawhide. We bounced along at 55 MPH for most of the day. I have to explain something about driving The Beast. If the rear wheels on either side go into a rut, a bump, or a section of uneven pavement, the entire truck lurches to that side. When it does that, the top of the truck leans about 2' to that direction and if you don't correct it "right now", the truck will head off the road. Quickly. I'm not sure who it scares most...me or the drivers behind and beside me. Sorry guys...no harm intended.

So there we were, really behind schedule and heading to Bakersfield. We knew a storm was brewing from the weather reports earlier that morning in Indio. Then, off to our left, the sky turned gray, then brown, then black. The wind gusts started knocking me around (a 26' long metal slab is a great sail) and we pulled off to top off the fuel and rechecked the weather. That's when we realized that within a couple hours, a severe storm was going to hit the very area we were driving into and specifically the Bakersfield area. 50 MPH gusts, biblical rains and warnings to get off the road. All we could do was hold on and hope we could outrun it to the North. It started to rain. I turned on the wipers and.....they didn't work. Yup....the guy who had installed our new windshield had installed the wipers incorrectly. Heading into a historic storm, this was really shitty news. I called my navigator (Claudia) and to my amazement, she said "I think we just passed a Penske depot on the road below the freeway." What? I looked over, since she was ahead of me and sure enough, there it was. We pulled off the freeway and drove into their lot, with the sky getting darker and darker. Once again, the Penske folks were amazing. They pulled a mechanic off his current job and within about 30 minutes, the wipers were fixed and we were on our way. As we left Bakersfield, it was black behind us. We made it out of town with about an hour to spare. Really.

We headed out on the last leg to Los Banos, our stop for the night. We entered the San Joaquin Valley, "Breadbasket of the US", and passed miles and miles of flowering fruit and almond trees. So beautiful. We were hoping the road would improve, as were tired and the storm was coming. The road (I-5) had other ideas. In spots, it was fairly smooth and we could drive 55. In others, there were potholes 6" or more deep. Quite possibly, one of the worst sections of road we had driven on the entire trip. I was only able to drive about 45 mph. I've changed my mind about the money from the sale of legalized pot going to repair the Oroville Dam. I think at least half should go to repaving I-5. It's that bad and the sheer number of trucks that use this road guarantee that it will only get worse. But....we made it in to our final La Quinta around 7:30. Yeehaa! The trip odometer turned over 3,000 miles. We feel pretty good and we should. Not many people would attempt such a crazy trip. Perhaps naivete is a good thing.

Dinner last night was amazing. The producers of "Chopped" should let us compete. We were so tired that we decided "no more fast food". We had a burrito and a Stouffer's mac and cheese from the La Quinta pantry and one of our last bottles of really good wine....a 2003 Plump Jack cabernet. The irony of that is not lost on us. It's probably one of the best wines you can buy under $100 and we were drinking it with food we would have turned down in our high school cafeteria. Tuck loved the remains of the mac and cheese. What a great dog. But...we were happy, safe and sound and Tuck fell asleep on his bed. All was right with our world.

We're now in Los Banos and watching the storm. It's not good. We've decided it's too dicey to attempt to unload the truck today in Grass Valley. We've come all this way and protected our belongings. Why let it all get soaked? So, we're going to head to our final stop of Grass Valley and check in at our rental chalet at the Northern Queen Inn.. Rest up overnight and unload everything tomorrow. Light rain and almost no wind is predicted for Saturday. The plan is hatched. We've hired two guys to help us unload at our (2) storage units...one for the Volvo, the Isetta and the BMW and the other for all the stuff in the truck. Stay tuned.

Cheers!

Hotel California is open...and we checked in today

Greetings family and friends, 

As we pulled into the Best Western in Indio, CA, we reflected on the past week. And what a week it's been. Since pulling out of Punta Gorda last Thursday morning, we've covered about 2300 miles and moved the wagon train through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. We've driven in 85 degree heat and 34 degree blowing rain, stopped at enough Love's truck stops that we're now eligible for their "Professional Driver" status, cracked a windshield on "The Beast" (more on that later), wiped out the inventory of Cheezit's and Combo's on I-10 from Tallahassee to Tucson, learned first-hand why fast food is neither fast nor food and oh, so much more. If I don't write this stuff down, it becomes a blur. Perhaps that's for the best.

And now, the Cliff's Notes version of the last couple days. We left the tiny town of Van Horn, TX yesterday morning and were glad to see it in the rear view mirror. We loaded the truck, got Tuck settled into his back seat apartment and drove out of the La Quinta parking lot only to find....drum roll please....six Tesla charging stations located on the West side of the parking lot. You can't make this stuff up. We stopped at the front desk to pay our bill and asked the morning manager how many Tesla's (or any other hybrid for that matter) she had seen using the fancy (pictures later) charging stations and were informed that no one had ever used them. Shocker...we're 200 miles from nowhere in the Texas wastelands. Anyone venturing through this territory in a Tesla needs more help than six charging stations. The best we could figure was that Elon Musk owns this particular La Quinta and he's using it as some sort of road test facility.

As I mentioned yesterday, the windshield of The Beast started cracking Tuesday morning. A small rock hit it and the rock won. A tiny 1" crack became about 12" long by mid-afternoon. A call to Peske and I was instructed to bring in the truck asap. They had a huge storage lot and maintenance facility in Tucson, so that's where we went. They were waiting for me when I arrived and they had already filled out all the paperwork. These people are organized. The shop was spotless. There's a reason Roger Penske's race cars win a lot of races. We dropped off the truck and headed to the motel. This morning, it was ready by 6:00 AM with a brand new, shiny windshield. They had it in stock. Amazing.

The drive today was a good one, at least by our standards. We loved the stark landscape...so very different from the palm trees we left only last week. Tucson was nice...Phoenix not so much. I-10 was pretty good for most of the way, until the last 75 miles, where it was rough and all trucks had to maintain 55 MPH. We rolled into California and looked for the "Welcome to California" rest stop. There wasn't one. Not even a sign. Really? Every state we've crossed has had a welcome center. Perhaps the millions that will flow in from legalized pot will be enough to build a proper welcome center? On second thought, fixing the Oroville Dam is a lot more important. It didn't matter...it was great to finally get here. We've almost made it.

Signing off for now. Everyone is snoring in the room but me.

Cheers!

Tuscon, AZ...and a cracked windshield

Just a quick post...we'll add more later tonight. Yesterday morning, leaving Texas, I noticed a small crack in the Penske's windshield. A small rock had hit it earlier, but I didn't notice anything at the time. Well, guess what? It grew longer all through the day and by yesterday afternoon, the crack had enlarged to a curve about 10" long. It was growing with each bump in the road. I called Penske and they said to bring the truck in immediately. Fortunately, they have a huge depot in Tucson. These people are super to work with. The shop foreman called me on the road and said he had a glass repair guy on the way. They were waiting on us when we arrived about 5:00 and they immediately pulled "The Beast" into the huge maintenance area and we headed to the La Quinta.

We're headed back to the Penske shop this morning to pick up the truck and get back on the road. BTW...the weather here is beautiful. I totally understand why this area of Arizona is such a great place to spend the winter.

More later and some pictures will be added. 

The wagon train is on the move....

Westward HO!

Greetings from the oasis of Van Horn, Texas. And I mean that literally, but more on that later. First, a little update on our arrival in Baton Rouge (a city I have fond memories of, as I went there often when I was stationed at Ft. Polk after getting drafted. Boy, that's another story in itself). Anyway, after another hard day of driving over a rebuilt Roman road they now call I-10 Louisiana, we arrived at another pet-friendly La Quinta. This one was sandwiched alongside the interstate. Convenient, but not exactly a place to walk your dog. Poor Tuck. His walk consisted of a 3' grass median that ran along the frontage road. What a sweetheart, he just looked up at us as we walked him with an expression that was somewhere between "you actually expect me to poop here" and "please put me up for adoption". Since we arrived late and nothing was open, our dinner was once again....turkey sandwiches, chips and wine. Reminds me of college. The good news is that the La Quinta was newly renovated, having just been rebuilt after the flooding there last Fall. If you're traveling, with or without a pet, check them out. Very impressive for the price.

The following morning, we packed the wagon train and headed for San Antonio. I was hoping the roads would improve. They didn't. It was another really long day. Claudia was amazing through it all. I couldn't catch her out on the open road. She's a natural at this truck-driving stuff. Give her some snacks to munch on and a diet coke and she is gone! Tuck, bless his heart, just curled up in his sleeper sofa back seat and slept.

San Antonio was a frustrating stop for us. The city has a lot going on, but it was super crowded even on a Sunday afternoon. Perhaps it was the record-breaking heat (86) that drew everyone to the downtown area? Traffic was terrible. There was nowhere to park and even if you found an open lot, our truck was too big to fit. What's up with that San Antonio...does your city planners all driveMini's? So, even though we got lots of great recommendations on places to visit located on the Riverwalk, we found that that once we got there, it was too hectic to really enjoy. Perhaps another time?

To finish up for the night, we had a great drive today from San Antonio to Van Horn, Texas. Without a doubt, our best drive day yet. I-10 was flat and smooth and I could actually keep up with Claudia. I rarely bounced out of the seat. It was, however, a bleak drive. Let me just say this...I have a hugely renewed respect for the brave souls who crossed this great country in wagon trains. Are you kidding me...how did they did they do it? We drove for 9 hours on I-10 (with rest stops) and we passed maybe two very small towns, one gas station/truck stop (Love's Truck Stops). They sell everything, including their own brand of jerky. We passed. This is one drive I would absolutely not make at night, although lots of people do, because the speed limit is 80. What a tease, I couldn't get to 80 down a ski slope with a tailwind.

And then....as if by magic...up on the horizon is the little town of Van Horn. The oasis I mentioned earlier. We had reservations at the Hampton Inn, so we weren't worried about our room, but were amazed to find a new Red Roof Inn and a half dozen other really nice motels. Way out here in the middle of nowhere. It turns out that Van Horn is about halfway between San Antonio and a lot of popular towns in Arizona. Tourists, the RV crowd and motel developers figured it out. It also has a Chuy's Tex-Mex restaurant. Score. Great food and super reasonable.

Before I sign off, a comment about the weather. We left San Antonio this morning and the temperature was about 80. We unpacked the truck tonight in a light rain, with a blowing wind and the temp was 39. Yikes...that's a helluva drop since we left Punta Gorda. We are now layering our clothes, which is a nice way of saying we are putting on everything we own.

Tomorrow, we head for Tucson. Cheers!

San Antonio at last!

Greetings to friends and family...or anyone who is really bored and ended up on this page by mistake. Come to think about it, that might include family and friends too.

We're going to update the blog today, since we're staying her two nights and have some time.  We both want to add to the posts, so I'll finish my ramblings and then Claudia will write her much more interesting and grammatically correct posts. After three hard days of driving, we landed in San Antonio, TX last night around 6:00. Exhausted doesn't do it justice. Bone-tired is closer. But, we made it and stuck to our schedule.

I've decided that the Penske truck is actually just a steel cargo container that Penske painted yellow and converted to make it look like a real truck. It basically has no suspension. The ride is closer to an old roller coaster than anything I can describe, but it does have an air seat, which makes it fun when you "come back down" from one of the big bumps. I'm kidding...this thing is killing me. It's war....man vs machine.

We're going to download some pictures from my camera and her phone to the blog today...we just have to figure out the process that Squarespace (the website builder) uses. More in a little while.

California here we come!

Wow...our long anticipated move to Northern California has begun. It's a little surreal sitting here in a La Quinta motel room, somewhere on the outskirts of Tallahassee, writing about the move. After years of work on our home, it finally happened. We did it. And....our motel is only a few blocks from a Krispy Kreme (the first one we've seen in years). Life is good.

We finalized the sale of our home yesterday (February 9th) and rolled out of town in a 26' Penske Freightliner truck (equipped with a massive diesel engine, 3 steps up to the cab, an air horn just like the big boys...YES!...and an air suspension seat for my tired ass). The Penske contains a few pieces of cherished furniture, 150 storage boxes, all my tools and the BMW R26. Our new red RAM 4x4 truck had a full load of boxes and the Isetta firmly strapped down inside inside the trailer. I hope.  If you've ever wondered how you can haul a car inside a 6x12 trailer, stay tuned. The Isetta is truly a micro car.

Except for a few tense moments in the big truck, the first day went well. Claudia is doing great driving the RAM and towing the trailer. For someone who had never driven a pickup, or towed anything...she is doing amazing! Tucker, bless his sweet heart, slept most of the way in his comfy bed...which is the entire back seat of the truck converted into a sleeper sofa.

We will be writing more later today and posting some pictures. Right now...it's time for my first "hot out of the grease" Krispy Kreme donut and some coffee.