June 11, 2016 Saturday - Going from Winnemucca, NV to Ketchum, ID

At Wells, NV, at the intersection of I-80 and Hwy 93, there’s a wonderful restaurant called Bella’s.  Wow, awesome homemade comfort food! 

While we were waiting for our food, Peggy saw a man who was wearing a “Thorium” T-shirt.  If you know our son Peter, you know he is and has been a strong proponent of Thorium as a clean energy source for years, instead of the nuclear plants.  He goes to Thorium conferences, etc.  Peggy asked if we could take a picture of his T-shirt then a book he happen to carry with him.  We found out he use to work for HP in Sunnyvale!  Now he lives in Bozeman, MT and does not own a computer…strange.  We got his name and address and passed it onto Peter.  Small world!

Camping:  Meadows RV Park, Ketchum, ID for 2 nights nice bathrooms.  Very quite but tight quarters.  Located right off the bike path!  WiFi stinks.

Leaving Winnemucca

The Thorium T-shirt we saw at Bella's Restaurant.

June 10, 2016 Friday – Going from South Lake Tahoe, CA to Winnemucca, NV

We drove via Hwy 50 through Carson City.  The wind was howling from the time we woke up this morning.  It was strong enough that Peggy pulled out the emergency radio to see if there were any alerts on the passes.  The only alerts were on the water!  The RV is like a big barge.  Strong winds make it very difficult to control and keep it on the road.

We fought the wind all day.  It makes you tire quickly and your arms get tired holding the steering wheel in place.  We had to change drivers more often to stay alert.

Camping:  New Frontier RV Park, Winnemucca, NV
Nice laundry and bathrooms!  Very quite and clean.  Nice one-night layover.

June 8, 2016 Wednesday – Going from Lathrop, CA to South Lake Tahoe, CA

We’re in South Lake Tahoe at a National Forest campground called Fallen Leaf Campground.  We’ll be here for 2 nights then we’re moving on.  They’re full for the weekend.  It’s a great location with lots of bike trails and hiking.  We rode our bikes down to Lake Tahoe then through Camp Richardson to town and had dinner.  On our way back, on the bike trail, were 2 black bears running towards us!  Luckily they ran into the woods before getting to us.  Peggy's regretting having had her bike souped-down by Terry to go slower.  She's thinking maybe it needs to go FASTER in bear country!  Wonder if he could add a new setting…BEAR MODE!

One of the 2 bears that came running towards us while riding on the bike trail.

The fridge seems to be staying cool now that it’s not hot.  So, we guess we avoid hot weather.  We're okay with that!

Camping:  Fallen Leaf Campground (NFS), South Lake Tahoe, CA – 2 nights
$16.50/night with senior lands pass; dry camping; showers for a fee; BEARS!

June 7, 2016 Tuesday – Still in Lathrop, CA

We left the RV to be serviced and took our electric bikes to ride around Manteca.  They are really handy and a lot of fun.  They were not able to find anything wrong with the refrigerator so we packed up and did laundry today so we could leave tomorrow to start our trip.

The plan…head to North and South Dakota via Idaho because we haven’t been there.

We're ready to head out to explore Manteca while the RV refrigerator is being checked.

June 6, 2016 Monday – Still in Lathrop, CA

We’re still in Lathrop, CA at Dos Reis County Park.  The RV refrigerator is not staying cool and the service center can’t see us until tomorrow morning so we’re here for at least another day.  Yesterday we finished securing the storage containers with a cargo net. 

Today we’re working on our list of online to-do items we didn’t finish before leaving home plus planning the first leg of our trip!  It continues to hit 100 plus degrees here everyday.

We should have updated our Garmin GPS maps before we left home (yes, it was on the list-just no time).  It’s eating up 6 GB out of our monthly 14 GB downloading the update but tonight is the end of the billing period and we have the data remaining to spend on it.

June 5, 2016 Sunday – Still in Lathrop, CA

We didn’t go anywhere today.  We worked on the cargo net project to secure our overhead storage bins so we can drive into the mountains to cooler weather.  Temperatures continue to be over 100 degrees here in Lathrop, CA but the sunset was gorgeous with Mt. Diablo in the distance.

All storage bins are secure now.  We're ready to go into the mountains!

Sunset over Mt. Diablo

June 4, 2016 Saturday – In Lathrop, CA

Today was very productive.  We:

• Got rid of 3 HUGE trash bags full of Terry’s really nice suits at Goodwill.  Wow, do we have room to move now!
• Found a cargo net at AutoZone to restrain the overhead bins.
• Got a replacement lock for the door at a RV service center in Manteca and Terry installed it.
• Got hardware to lock the new drawer we had installed.  It was opening and closing as we drove.  Everything needs to be locked down or secured.
• Refrigerator…Figured out it’s the LP side of the 2-way fridge that’s broken so anytime we unplug from power the fridge goes out.  We’re hoping we can get in to be seen on Monday at the RV service center.  In the Bay Area, they were booked for a month!  We may be going to coolers and use the fridge for decoration!  Hmm, where are my refrigerator magnets???

This is a wonderful county park-centrally located, reasonably priced and quiet.  It’s not away from it all but that’s not what we need right now.

Terry installing the new door lock.

We finish putting the map showing the states we've already visited on the RV.

June 3, 2016 Friday – Going from San Luis Reservoir, CA to Lathrop, CA

It’s way too hot here and there’s very poor cell reception.  Our mission today is:

• Find a better place to park for a few days with cell/internet access for planning.
• Secure the overhead bins so we can head to the hills where it’s cooler.  Our idea is 2 pieces of wood (top and bottom) with hooks on each wood strip.  We’ll use a hammock as the cargo straps because we can’t find real ones.

Camping:  Dos Reis County Park, Lathrop, CA
$25/night with full hookups, shade and cell reception.  We’re staying here a few days.

We have everything except the netting to secure the storage bins over the cab so we can go into the mountains.  We’ll check Autozone tomorrow.  Tonight the refrigerator went out while running on propane.  We’re hoping it was operator error.

June 2, 2016 Thursday – Going from Cupertino, CA to San Luis Reservoir, CA

We’ve been living in the RV since May 20th, 12 days, so our tanks are full and we need to dump.  The closest place is Sanborn County Park in Saratoga, CA.  Then we returned to park in front of our own house to put stuff back in the garage and get clothes.  Neighbor's stop by to say goodbye, give us lemonade and treats AND one last shower before we hit the road.

After saying our last goodbye’s to friends, we finally leave Cupertino at 9:30 pm!  We’ve been wandering homeless for 2 days in our city going from friend to friend!

Camping:  San Luis Creek Campground at San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos, CA.
$38/night full hookups with $2 senior (62) discount

June 1, 2016 Wednesday – Going from Randy Lane to Cottonwood Drive in Cupertino, CA

Today is the day our tenants move into our house.  We’ve stayed up all night packing and cleaning.   We got all our stuff out of the house and into the garage by 7:15 am and Terry backed the RV out of the driveway and drove it 45 ft in front of our neighbor’s house.  The tenant arrived at 7:30 am! 

Neither of us can think straight right now.  We’ve had several nights of 3-4 hours sleep followed by an all-nighter.  Not good.  Luckily, the tenant is okay with us returning to the garage tomorrow, after some sleep, to finish.

Camping:  in front of the Joiner’s house

First leg of our journey:  45 ft to our neighbor’s house to sleep 4-5 hours.
Second leg of our journey:  1.9 miles to our friends, the Joiner's, to park, take a shower and get organized.  The showers were wonderful and so was dinner!