The electric slide

The afternoon of June 11 was like most days in a new campground.  We had driven just over 4 hours, a long day for us.  We had parked in the camp site and done the usual set up.  This includes utility hook up, unload the bikes from the Jeep and lock them to the back of the RV, and various other activities.  Diana un-stows and sets up inside and I do the outside.  The process takes about 45 minutes.  We had dinner and sat back to relax.  It was the first time in about 2 weeks that we had a good internet connection and we had TV!  (See a previous post about TV).  So we are all settled in comfy cozy.

About 9 PM it is finally getting dark and we are happily watching TV.  THUMP!  The electric went out.  No big deal this has happened before.  I went out turned off the breaker then turned it back on.  We have power.  THUMP!  No power.  After about 3 attempts we pulled out the manual on the power guard and surge protector built into the RV.  As with most owners manuals, it was worthless.  So I unhooked the power and we decided to go to bed and deal with this in the morning.  Now we do have house batteries that power lights and other essential needs and we have camped without any hookups before so this is not a big deal.  Say "good night, dear."

The next day we decided to move from the 30 amp electrical site we were at to a 50 amp site.  The idea was to see if the problem was with our RV or with the power source from the park.  So we broke camp, packed up everything and stowed it so we could roll.  You can't just move the RV without stowing everything even for a short distance.  We backed into the new site, hooked up the 50 amp power and presto...clean power.  We called the check in station to tell them we moved and why.  They were not to happy about it but we needed to stop in and pay the difference between the 30 amp site and the 50 amp site.  When we did that we were told that they checked the 30 amp line at our previous site and it had some major power fluctuation.  From nowhere near enough power to way over what should have been.  Score one for the campers.

So we are very pleased that our equipment did what it was supposed to do.  That is protect our appliances and other electrical items by not allowing "dirty power" into the system.  We are also pleased that our equipment is fine and that the problem is the campgrounds.  Not a nice thought but we are glad it is not our problem.

California

We arrived in San Diego, California on April 9th.  We left California on June 11th.  So 2 full months in the "Bear Republic".  As a summary we saw;

San Diego

Los Angeles

We have been in desert climate and in some chilly temperatures.

Our campsite in Joshua Tree National Park.

  We have seen breath taking ocean views and redwood forests.

Elephant seals resting on a beach on highway 1.

 Redwoods big and tall.

We have focused on the coast line with a few stops slightly inland.  It has been an amazing 2 months.  But we are not done.  We have moved on to Oregon and Washington for now and will be in these 2 states until September.  But as cool weather arrives in the north in the Fall, we will begin to migrate south this time with a more inland path, but still in California.  By Thanksgiving we will be in Arizona and winter there.

Television

We have 3 TVs; one in the living space, one in the bedroom and one outside.  There was supposed to be one more over the driver’s area but we opted out of that one to gain storage.  This is a ridiculous number of TVs in such a small space for 2 people.  But, there they are.  We enjoy TV and are fond of certain shows.  So TV is a good thing to have.

We have 3 options to receive a TV signal.  We could use a satellite service like DISH or Direct TV.  Both have advantages and disadvantages.  So far we have not signed up with either, partly because of the disadvantages but mostly because we are cheap!  Another option is cable.  A few campgrounds offer cable as part of your hookup fees or for an additional charge.  If it is part of the hookup fees we plug in, if not we say no, again because we are cheap.  Our final option for TV is over the air broadcast.  It is free and this is the one we use most of the time.  When we get to a camp site Diana programs the TVs through the remote.  A simple process she starts while un-stowing other things.  Some campgrounds get 50+ stations.  Some get a few while others get none.  One campground in Texas we got 4 channels.  All 4 were Christian stations, 3 in Spanish and one in English with a strong Hispanic accent.

Currently we are in a campground where we have a cable hookup but get no channels.  So we tried over the air and got no channels.  Then we learned we could get a cable box from the office for a refundable deposit.  I hooked it up but no channels.  Diana hooked it up and we got no channels.  The office called the cable company and they re-initiated the box.  Still nothing.  So this is one of the sites where we have no TV.  This is not a problem but prompted me to write this blog.  Now turn off the computer and go watch TV!

Trees

After spending January - March in the desert, then moving into Southern California we did not realizes how much we were missing big trees.  So we decided to camp among them.  This is our camp site near Leggett, CA.

Along the northern part of California highway 101 there is a section of road call the Avenue of the Giants.  we got our tree fix here.  These babies are huge!

 Gnarly old thing...the tree was cool, too.

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 Did I mention these trees are big?!

Bike Rack revisited

Previous posts have chronicled the issue with the bike racks for the back of the Jeep.  We finally found one online that looked like it might work.  The problem was that when ordering on line merchandise you are never sure when it will be shipped and delivered.  This is a problem for us since we move regularly.  But we figure out the timing and had the rack shipped to our next scheduled stop.  Then we were delayed by Diana's medical issue.  So we called the campground and told them our situation and asked them to hold all packages for us.  We had 3 separate items being delivered from 3 different shippers.  They said they'd hold our deliveries until we arrived.

The bike rack arrived and we put it and the bikes on the Jeep.  After considerable trial and error securing the bikes we got it.  We went for a short ride to see how things worked and  all was great.  The next day we hooked the Jeep with the bikes attached to the RV and drove 3 hours to our next spot.  We were on some rough roads, and traveling at 50 - 60- mph.  We had some sharp turns and more rough roads.  All traveled well.  Finally, the bike issues is resolved.