http://picasaweb.google.com/kyotesue/MoHoToOregon
Last Monday was a holiday for me, so Mo and I ran down to the valley to get some work done on the MoHo. Didn't happen, but we had a fun day any way. Did the Home Depot thing and even got to go to Costco, which I don't do here in California because it's too far away for me to justify the purchase of a membership. Got home by 3 and had time to make a great baked chicken dinner with oven fries. Amazing how easy it is to not feel guilty when your fries are baked not fried.
Mo was was planning to go to Klamath this week by herself to try to get the MoHo registered, and we kept watching the weather window, with really cold temperatures and snow. The window was pretty short and the T up there was 0 to 5 degrees, not a good plan for being in a motorhome with the water lines still not winterized. So Monday afternoon while cooking supper I had a brainstorm. "Let's leave a 2 am, I'll go with you, we will get to Klamath mid day when it is a warm 25 degrees, there is no snow predicted for at least 2 days, and we will get out of Klamath and back down off the mountain (Shasta) by dark. I can help drive and we can do it."
So we did it. Left at 2 am, got home 24 hours later at 2:30 am. whew. The funniest part for me was that while the alarm was set for 2 am, so we could leave at 3, I woke up at something like 11:30, and couldn't sleep, so we just gave up and got up and left. 3 hours sleep doesn't work too well for me! I am at work today and my brain isn't functioning at all. It was a fun trip, though, an adventure, with a bit of excitement added. About 80 miles from home with more than 300 to go the moho dropped something important on the freeway at high speeds. Guess the manifold and exhaust system didn't have a clamp done right and everything came undone.
Because of the time window, heavy rain in California, at the fact that it was 3 am and nothing was open, we just kept going and made it all the way to Klamath. I can't tell you what a Ford V10 sounds like with no muffled exhaust system, especially climbing up the pass over Mt Shasta. Hysterical. We bombed into the rest areas in our new fancy rig sounding like some kind of teenager from 50's hell. Got to Klamath by 10 am and managed to get the thing fixed right away at the Ford dealer. Amazing that they said, "oh here, let us roll her in right now", instead of "come back a week from Tuesday" The guys were laughing when we drove it in, saying, "Hmmm, did someone drive over a snoberm somewhere?" "No, we don't live in this stuff, we did this in California!" The question was valid, since Klamath has had a real winter this year, and the berms are piled up everywhere in parking lots and between driving lanes on the roads. Some are so high that it's even hard to see the top of the MoHo which is nearly 11 feet.
After getting things fixed, we parked in Wal-Mart and rented a car to drive out to Mo's house where the snow is many feet deep. That was fun as well just trying to walk up to her door without crashing into a big snow hole. Drove back to town, bought a burger and and actually got back over the pass before any more snow hit. It was a gorgeous sunny 4 degrees when we left Klamath, and pouring and 43 degrees by the time we hit the valley in California.
You never saw 2 more worn out old ladies in your life. We both drove, but Mo did the last really hard part from the valley up to my house with all the hard rain and narrow roads with no shoulders and curvy stuff. I hate that awful feeling of driving and having to keep driving when I am sooooo sleepy and tired. ugh.
When we hit I-5 yesterday I also had a feeling Deanna had to be somewhere around since her trainer does most of his driving on that I-5 route and I was hoping to at least pass her and wave. Of course, I didn't know what color her truck was or even where she was and didn't get an answer when I called her in the morning. But as we left Klamath, she called, and lucky for me she was actually about 300 miles south of Sacramento, and we were just about 300 miles north of Sacramento, and all this meant a good chance for meeting in the middle. Yaay.
Next thing I know, it's Deanna again, saying she can't get her big rig into any parking lots and would I mind shopping for her for some goodies that she needed? This was good for a laugh and I stopped at the Redding Wal-Mart. As we got closer, we kept checking in and decided that the Dunnigan Pilot was a good place for us to gas up and for them to actually be able to park the truck. So much fun to see Deanna coming into that huge place in a huge rig in the dark. We sat there waiting for half an hour or so watching all those rigs and were amazed at the number of big rigs coming and going. The number of trucks on that road is pretty staggering. The other thing that we noticed is that most of the I-5 truckers are pretty nice, courteous, and don't really do that awful tailgaiting and speeding that was so prevalent as we crossed the country on I-80 back in May last year. Will have to ask Deanna what that is all about.
Deanna jumped out of her rig looking great as always even in her flannel shirt and work boots. I got to meet her trainer Mike and took some photos, of course that was embarrassing to both Deanna and Mike with all the other big rigs around there watching, but gee, I'm the mom, I can do stuff like that.
It was so fun seeing her and giving her a big hug, even though the whole visit lasted maybe 10 minutes. Might be different when she and Keith are driving together, we could actually meet somewhere if they are close by and maybe have a meal. Haven't seen Deanna since the reunion last August, so this was a little treat, for sure. Photos are up on the picassa site as well.
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