The Big Road Trip – Days 7 – 15

So, it’s catch up time now. After arriving in Ontario, OR on Memorial Day (May 31), I acquired a small two-room suite at the very nice, modern, Super 8 hotel in Ontario. It was the furthest from the freeway and all the mainstream traffic and backed up to the back side of a strip mall. In other words, there was very little noisy traffic during the day.

This was important since I then converted the suite into a recording studio with all the acoustical materials I had crammed into the Caddy RV. The bedroom became the studio area and worked excellently. I set up the recording gear in the sitting room on the desk and – within about an hour and a half, I had a working studio, tuned to my liking and ready for four days of recording. This was actually on the 6th day (Memorial Day). I then sat back and relaxed for the rest of the day and enjoyed being off the road.

Tuesday morning, my author, Cameron Taylor, arrived on time at 9 AM. We were going to record two audio books with Cameron for Tremendous Life Books in Mechanicsburg, PA. Cameron’s books were titled “8 Attributes of Great Achievers” and, the soon to be released, “The 12 Paradoxes of the Gospel.” He is also the author of “Does Your Bag Have Holes?” We spent an hour or so getting acquainted and creating our comfort zone for a good working relationship and then we dug in. The balance of that day and the next three days were some pretty intense work. Cameron is a very intelligent, sharp, committed and ambitious young man. I was very thankful to have had the opportunity to meet him and to work with him. We both turned a lot of hard work into a lot of fun, though there were a few times when I thought he might be losing his voice. But, he hung in there like the real trooper he is. I allowed four days for the project and we finished right on time. Couldn’t have been more perfect.

While in Ontario, I drove around a bit in the evenings just to explore the town and see what it was all about. Ontario is about 10,000 population, mainly supporting an agricultural community. It’s right on the Snake River, dividing Oregon from Idaho and it’s about 60 miles northwest of Boise, Idaho. It also appears to support some outdoor recreation and gave me the impression that it was a gateway to some of Oregon’s beautiful nature in the eastern part of the state including along the Snake River – which I believe is known for it’s great fishing and for some serious rapids if you like serious white water rafting. I also enjoyed eating at a local eatery called the Brewsky Broiler. I had a delicious meal, which was way too large to eat in one sitting, so I brought it back to my suite and enjoyed the rest of it the next evening. I had a terrific server, Julie, who appeared to be in her late 30’s, was a very attractive blonde, blue-eyed, and shapely, I might add, young woman. She, like virtually everyone I came in contact with in Ontario, was very friendly and open. She told me about her family and being the youngest of 12 children and growing up on the family farm and other facets of her life and life in Ontario. It made the dining experience much more personal and, certainly, enjoyable.

I broke down the studio on Friday evening after Cameron and I completed the recording process and I had backed up all the recorded files on my portable audio back up hard drive. Packed up the car except for my bag, my attaché case and the cooler (that I iced in the morning before I left), made sure the Caddy RV was gassed, oiled and ready to hit the road again and then settled in early for a good night’s sleep since I had about a 12 to 13 hour drive on Saturday, Day 11 of the Big Road Trip, to Fresno, CA – the next destination on my adventure.

I was up early on Saturday morning, finished my packing, had a little breakfast and blasted off with my navigator, Fiona, (my GPS) directing the way. It was an awesome trip. I saw a bit more of the agricultural region of Idaho, then the southeastern part of Oregon and then into Nevada. I don’t think I was ever much below about 4,000 feet and probably over a mile high most of the time. Once in Nevada it was in a very different world with beautiful deserts and small western towns. I thought once I reached Winnemucca, NV I was going to stay on I-80 to Sacramento, CA and then catch CA 99 south into Fresno. But, NO! Fiona had a different route planned for me.

Off I went, off the Interstate and down through the desert. I was high (in altitude, that is, just to make it clear). The high desert took me through little towns and oases. There was little, but sand and scrub brush, rattlesnakes, scorpions and such for miles on end. In the distance, I could see snow-capped mountains. I stopped in Fallon, NV and found a Subway sandwich shop and grabbed some lunch. Then, onward I drove. All of a sudden, I realized that the temperatures outside the car were at about 94 degrees and . . . my Caddy RV air conditioning had turned off. Remember, the blower fan had stopped working back in Indiana, I believe. I kept pushing the “On” button, to no avail. Here I was in the 94-degree heat of the high desert, with no air conditioning. Instantly, I recalled my youthful days when our cars didn’t have AC – and I thought, gee, I survived those days, I’ll make it through. Well, with all the ways to ventilate that Caddy, I was, actually, never uncomfortable. I passed the very large Walker Lake and when I crossed into California I passed Mono Lake.

As I was approaching California, I noticed these VERY HIGH mountains. I pretty much had pegged them as the Sierra Nevadas. Now, I know these are HIGH mountains, but I figured, there was a pass, somewhere, through them and not over them. I was right. It was called Yosemite National Park. I had no idea I was going to experience Yosemite on this trip. Wow! What a treat. I had my Senior Pass, so it cost me nothing to go through Yosemite, and CA 120 took me through the park and through the pass I was hoping for. I just didn’t realize that I was going to be at 10,000 feet above sea level going through the pass. I’m going to consider having a pressurization or oxygen system on my motor home. Actually, while the air was thin and this was pretty heady stuff, I had no problem. Of course, the temperatures went from a high of 94 degrees to a low of 50 degrees.

The sights and vistas were AWESOME! I was driving through some of those snow-capped regions I had seen in the distance – and there were avalanche warnings on the road as I drove along. It appeared that some of the roads had just been opened within the past few days (or I couldn’t have gone through). The snow melting created amazing waterfalls everywhere and that water became raging streams and rivers. What a place to experience nature and so much of its beauty and fury in the same place. I’m sure glad I converted to a digital camera with lots of memory. I didn’t have to change film and I just kept shooting photos endlessly.

Well, I made it to the other side and down into the San Joaquin Valley and Fresno was only about 45 miles away. I arrived, safely and happily, in Fresno about 9 PM or so and pulled up in front of BJ’s, my former Mom-in-Law, house. Wandered in and was warmly welcomed by BJ and my former wife, and still good friend, Cynthia. We chatted for several hours until I was falling asleep while I was talking. What a day, I went from 60 degrees to 94 degrees to 50 degrees and ended at 84 degrees. What a roller coaster ride, literally.

After a good night’s sleep, we enjoyed a beautiful (but hot) Sunday culminating in a tasty barbecue at my former brother and sister-in-law’s beautiful home nestled in a pecan grove. The rest of the week, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were relaxing days. I had the AC checked out by two different places. The first guy was very honest and said it had a serious problem, but he was not able to work on it since he wasn’t equipped for that kind of work. He didn’t even charge me for the time he put in. Boy, did I appreciate him. I took it to another place, near BJ’s and they were AC specialists. They checked it out thoroughly and gave me the bad news – about a thousand bucks. I wasn’t prepared to invest that at this point. But, they did get it recharged and while it was leaking, it was still cooling the car. My brother-in-law, Forrest, had an AC filler hose with a pressure gauge and a couple spare cans of R134a refrigerant that I have with me. BJ and I went to a place outside Fresno that she took me to last year, Humphrey’s Station, for breakfast one morning. It’s been around for well over a hundred years and used to be the general store and supply place back in the old mining days and such. Now, it’s kind of a biker bar, restaurant. Good food, great prices and a wonderful covered patio next to a little stream to enjoy the meal and nature.

All in all, my four days in Fresno were delightful and relaxing and helped prepare me for the next part of the road trip adventure – the trip back east. That takes us through Day 15. Day 16 is Thursday, June 10th and it is the day I left Fresno with my first destination being Kingman, Arizona and the famous, original Rt 66 of Nat King Cole’s “Get Your Kicks On Rt 66” fame. And that’s where I am right now.

My next episode will be Day 16. Now, it’s time to kick off Day 17, cruising Rt 66, the Grand Canyon and ending up “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona” tonight. (For those of you who didn’t catch that, it’s from an old Eagle’s song – “Take It Easy.”)

Enthusiastically,
Ed