Just get away...
2019.05 High heat is scheduled in Chico, about 98F degrees.
The sky was absolutely a coal black to the East. A thunderstorm was coming in.
I almost did not want to leave because I would miss the show.
Never the less, the RV and van were loaded, and minds made up.
Linda always brings ten times more stuff than is needed, but that is OK, she is a girl, and not going to change.
Not that I would want to change that.
i gave her two cardboard boxes, and had her stuff the boxes with what ever she wanted.
But they would only go into the van.
There was plenty of random room in the van, but the RV has everything already packed and in place.
The van's air bags were already pressurized yesterday: 38 lbs. We are set...
Skirting the storm, with double rainbows to the left.
Outside temperature is 53.7 degrees
Transmission temperature is 112 degrees
Engine temperature is 191 degrees.
Stopped over in Colusa, at the park. Callie was tapping me on the knee; She had to pee.
Linda had to pee too.
Although we had public restrooms, Linda choose to hop back to the RV,
and use our own, as she always does.
They are supper clean and private.
Storm is still to the East, with a black sky.
We continued on just past Clear Lake, which is a misnomer as it is not a clear lake.
And we slept at the Robinson Rancheria Casino; The parking lot familiar and welcoming.
Clock saying: "Night Time Now"
The clock talks about things, and one thing is when it is sundown, and "Night Time".
However, the Longitude is different between Robinson's Casino and Chico.
The clocks tables are for Chico, and as a result are a few minutes early.
It is difficult to hear, but first, there is the Alert Sound, which is a Sonar Ping.
Then the voice clears its throat. All autonomous speakers Clear Their Troat.
Then the announcement of who is talking: It says "Clock".
Then the message: "It be Night Time Now".
Then the end is a "spit", in human facsimile, indicating End Of Message.
We awoke refreshed. Had a good shower. Then went into the Casino for a good breakfast.
We were pleasantly surprized to find little smoke.
I was worried that after a nice fresh shower my hair would smell bad. But no! No smoke.
The Casino has made some nice changes. Smells good now.
And Always, as before, pleasant waitresses, and good food.
Refreshed at the Casino, we could now enjoy the Red Woods. Other travelers can not enjoy the Red Woods because it takes hours to get here, and once here, they are too exhausted.
You have to have an RV, and travel slow.
Stopped over at the "Donkey Park", and enjoyed its beautiful grey stream. What is the same grey color as some rivers in Oregon.
How a dog can get hot in Fort Bragg is beyond me...
Callie just loves Fort Bragg, especially on the beach. This is at McKerricher.
Callie playing in the sand
All along the Bluffs, there are these yellow daisies.
Here is a video in the RV. The time is about 15:58, or 4 in the afternoon for girls.
The reason I know, is that the clock announces the day of the week exactly on the hour, to second.
This time is synced with Fort Collins in Colorado. I designed everything.
You can also see the two lead acid controllers. I invented and designed those too. I built everything in the RV.
I believe you can see part of the Lithium Controller.
You can hear the noise of a solar panel as I turn up a knob. Panels are very noisy devices,
and that is all you can hear at the moment.
You can also see a test of all the panels for short circuit current. Each goes to about 3 amps at the moment.
The moment is at Fort Bragg in overcast fog.
A tour of the RV
Heading back. Reload fresh water to about 25%. It is a 60 gal tank, so 25% is 15 gal of fresh water.
And that weighs 8 lbs/gal, or 120 lbs. Not bad.
We decided to leave FortBragg, after several great days.
And after stopping at McDonalds for Egg Macmuffins and orange juice,
we were on our way to what we call the Donkey Park.
It was only about 15 miles away, but we ran into trouble with the engine temperature gauge.
The engine gauge remains at 1/4 scale,
while the actual temperature from my custom gauge reads from 190F to 201F degrees. The thing is stuck.
I will have to get a new Temperature Sender that goes into the engine block when we get back.
I just hope it is not connected to my computer.
If that problem was not enough, another arose:
I rode the brakes too much, and did not down shift down enough, and did not slow enough.
And soon we smelt brake fluid. My fault.
We got stopped, and i could not read the IR temperature gun.
The reading was no longer visible "straight on". It was yet another problem.
I could pull the trigger and use "hold" to try and angle the display to see something.
But the display was jumping around, and giving ridiculous readings of 500F degrees on the rotors.
I abandoned the IR gun and stuck my fingers through the rims to the rotors.
They were plenty hot, but not 500 degrees.
I stuck my fingers through the rims on the back of the van, they were plenty hot too.
I felt all the brakes.
However, on the Trailer, the two right brakes were warm, and that was OK.
But on the left (drivers side) the back was cold and the front was kinda warm.
Got a another problem here. We waited about 20 minutes and continued on with a bad IR temperature gun,
and a bad temperature sensor on the engine.
We reached our destination at the Donkey Park, which was half way to Willets.
Before we could leave, we watched a car pull in front of us,
and parked as close to the iron donkey as possible, and as a result, blocked our path.
We could not leave, but that was Ok, because we witnessed an old man carefully exit the car,
and walk with strained effort. But he had determination in his direction as if he was seeing a past love.
He moved his hands over every gear and lever, in a slow caress.
He stuck his fingers into every crevis of iron as if he were totally blind.
We did not mind waiting: An old old man with long ago memories.
We were soon on our way with a fresh view of the gauges.
I had no idea that it was such a climb from the Donkey Park to Willits. One hill was over 1600 feet in elevation.
The engine was OK; running warm, and out of the range of the thermostat at 200F degrees.
That was OK, I am on it and paying attention. 200 degrees is still OK.
But what I could not control was the transmission temperature.
It started out at 130F degrees and began climbing to 188F degrees.
I could not keep a constant pressure on the transmission, as I had to slow for every curve,
many at 25mph, and then reengage the transmission and resume the pull. Constantly changing speed.
The transmission was going through a lot of work with all the shifting.
I do not think it would have gotten that hot if I could have kept a constant pull.
Finally, at 188F degrees, I could stand no more!
I pulled over to prevent excessive transmission wear at elevated oil temperatures. The van is my baby.
188 degrees is just too hot!
We rested in the shade of the redwoods, no longer subject to being rushed by traffic that backs up behind you.
And Off the road, everything was back to being fine. I put ice cubes in my Pure Leaf Tea,
and with a tea in one hand, and Callie's leash in the other, went off to see and sniff some stuff.
We drove the last 4 miles into Willits with ease.
It was about 13:30 and the outside temperature was already 80F degrees.
And we decided to wait out the heat in a parking lot, under a simple parking lot shade tree.
Linda got some more shopping in. No disappointment there, and you have to feel that there are no hardships anymore.
I have learned to play with serendipity.
She seemed to have a grandkid in mind, as she went into a 99 cent store.
The mall offered Pizza or Tacos from two opposite corners.
The choice was unanimous; We had some wonderful shredded beef tacos with radishes and green herbs.
Had to move the trailer twice to follow the shade.
As a child, I had to move my tricycle around like this. It is easy.
But that is the joy of having an RV; You do not have to be anywhere, and you can just hang out where ever you happen to be.
As it was getting dark, we decided to travel on down the road to the Casino near Clear Lake, and sleep there.
Which was great sleeping there. Being dark, we did not have to search for shade, and could park anywhere.
We slept good with the windows open with plenty of fresh air. The air came in with a slight breeze. Perfect.
And we did need the screens as we killed three mosquitoes. They died easily, shut the screens, and we had no more trouble.
