Last impressions, first impression and last impressions (redeux)

First last impressions:

Leaving Oregon after 4 months of 3 and ½ months of rain with a couple of not-rainy days entangled within that period, I realized that, uhhh, it must not be July (you know the old joke, Oregon has two seasons, July and rain). Everything rusted – my jacks are rusted and extremely difficult to turn despite the application of almost a full can of WD-40. The spruce needles have made the floor at the door extremely dirty and difficult to remove (and the needles are EVERYWHERE in the trailer). The pilot light on my hot water heater won’t stay on once the water has warmed, so I have to plan when I need hot water to wash the dishes (and I don’t get much more than that). Oh, and the hail.

 Besides that, I enjoyed the stay at Cape Blanco. The people were nice and the area was a ways away from civilization (15 miles to Port Orford, 6 miles to Sixes). I spent some of my free time walking the beach at Tseriadon and Lake Marsala picking up agates, other good looking stones, and interesting looking rocks. I tried to go after every storm (we had quite a few), but didn’t always make it.

I tried to walk around the campground (about ½ mile) every day or so, but it really wasn’t much fun in the rain. On nice days, though, it was a short enough hike to do easily without hurting much of anything. My hip and knee, though, let me know that I had better not go down the very steep road to the beach. Those times I did, my knee and hip let me know in no uncertain terms that they were not amused.

Two days before I left, the sun came out and lit up a beautiful blue sky. It lasted until at least the day I left, maybe longer. One of the few times I have been able to hitch up when it wasn’t raining (the story of my trip, so far).

The trip down 101 was uneventful. The first night I spent in Ukiah at the fairgrounds. There were a few people there, but it was quiet and, surprisingly, dry. Stayed hitched up and left early.

I made it to Morro Bay that day. It was cold and cloudy, since we were maybe a ¼ mile from the beach. I learned I can easily back up into a space that is close to being too small, on a road that is too narrow. There was barely enough room front to back (I was an inch from the fence in back and almost overhung the road in the front) and only enough room side to side to park the truck next to the trailer if I didn’t mind not being able to open the doors fully. But it was good for one night.

I also found out that I didn’t need to get to Cottonwood Cove until April 9 (instead of April 4), so I spent 3 nights in Victorville. I also learned there that my trailer’s A/C doesn’t work. So, no cool air for me. I needed it in Victorville because after the 40-50 degree weather in Oregon, it was getting up into the upper 70’s and lower 80’s in Victorville.

First Impressions:

Desert, dry, hot. Need A/C, which I don’t have. Hoped the rusty parts on the jacks would go away (didn’t because it rained (!!!)). I was put into a spot with no sewer dump that I could find (it had been broken off below ground level), the cable connection was cut off and the connection on the cable I did use was a male connection, so I needed an adaptor to use. I was told that a flood that had occurred recently had washed a lot of stuff away and things hadn’t been fixed since the flood (although the motel was getting some new stuff).

The desert itself is full of interesting and unusual critters of the fauna kind. I did see a couple of big horns coming around a bend while driving from Searchlight to CC and almost gave them a spanking. Fortunately, I had just spent lots of moola getting my brakes fixed. The road to Searchlight is downhill to CC, which means it is all uphill from CC to Searchlight.

Very desolate, with different types of fauna depending on how far down the road you went. Some plants are more altitude dependent than others, I guess.

Last Impressions (part two)

The people I worked with were fun people and I learned a lot working the front desk at the motel, but because my A/C didn’t work, I realized I needed to be someplace cool while I worked to earn money to get it repaired. So, I gave my notice.

It was a cool day (relatively) when I left. The desert and the sun combined, however, to make it very warm in the truck.