Return to the West!

If our last trip was dubbed Westward Bound, I guess we are now in the sequel:  Return to the West!  However the last 2 days could be titled the “Servicing Soap Opera”

Our flight out on 9-11 was uneventful, which is always a good thing.  I wish you all could have seen David’s face when both the truck and the RV cranked on the first try.  He was like a kid with a new hotrod!!  We were able to move everything over to the Prado County Park with few hassles.  Having skipped lunch due to a tight connection in Salt Lake City, we drove into town to a brew pub for supper and stopped at a grocery to buy the essentials for breakfast in the morning, plus a steak to grill later.  Jet lag caught up with us and we were ready for bed by 7:30…. We did stretch it to 8!!  I can hear you all now …. “They really are turning into “old farts”…

We knew that Wednesday would be “Mechanics’ Day” and that it would hold a few unwanted surprises.  When you have a 13 year old RV, a 15 yr old truck and a 10 and 6 year old Segway , there are sure to be maintenance issues.  We dropped the RV off first and though they poked and prodded it all day, most everything passed with flying colors.  “Bessie” got new oil, fluids and one new headlight (so I guess she now “needs glasses” like the rest of us!).

Can you guess what this is? **

 When we plugged up Deb’s Segway, the battery wouldn’t charge. We found a dealership in Anaheim:  Orange County Segways.  So while they were tending the RV, we headed there figuring we would find a Jiffy Lube for the truck along the way.   It was about 40 miles away.  Before we started out, we remembered the last episode of OCC (Orange County Choppers) we had watched where Paul Sr. had added a restaurant to his shop.  “We’ll go there for lunch,” we thought.  A little research told us that OCC is located in Orange County NEW YORK, not Cali!  Glad we googled first rather than asking locals and looking foolish! (so what am I doing, but confessing to everyone on our blog!  LOL).   We found out that the best way to totally kill a lithium segway battery is to leave it on the segway for 5 months.  Actually since it has a small drain, even a few weeks will totally drain it and it will be DOA!!  Trying to make us feel better, the dealers checked our serial numbers and told us that the batteries were 5 and 6 years old and were nearing their life expectancy anyway.  We also found out that our older segway is now a “collectable”… lol  It was an expensive lesson to learn.

Sure enough, a Jiffy Lube was close by the segway dealership and we dipped in there and managed to  ward off all of their “up-selling” and thought we had accomplished all of our maintenance chores before a late lunch!!  On the way to the brew pub we noticed a battery and brake light. Now were 40 miles away from our RV and in dire need of an alternator!  Again, google to the rescue, we found a Nissan dealership within 2 miles and they were able to get “Rosie” going within a few hours.  Our only real problem was we were not going to be able to get back to the RV place before they closed, but they were able to charge our credit card and leave her outside the gates with the keys locked inside (and Dave did think ahead and had the spare key with him!).

Now we had 3 hours to kill, car-less in Anaheim.  We walked across the street to a diner.  We enjoyed several laughs with the waitress about their “Carolina BBQ” and “Carolina Stir Fry”.  Apparently if you are writing a menu in Southern California, Carolina means sweet and bourbon flavored.  (well, I guess that does describe David pretty well!... mmmm…)  We passed, but did enjoy their “diner food”.  Since we had “bonded” with the waitress, we asked her what we could do for 2 hours within walking distance and found that there was a movie theatre right around the corner.  One more check with google, and we found out we had just enough time to walk there before the 2:40 showing of The Words.  We were blown away by The Words with Dennis Quaid, and Jeremy Irons.  We highly recommend it!

With Rosie now enjoying her new pacemaker, we were about to test it out on 40 miles of LA freeway and 5 o’clock traffic.  We learned the delights of the HOV lane!  Everyone else is going 20MPH and we are sailing along at 50! Oh there were a few slowdowns, when we got to freeway intersections, but if I lived here, I would pay someone to travel with me to be able to use the HOV.  We did notice that the double yellow line to “protect” the HOV, was just a “suggestion”, especially to big Ford trucks and motorcycles.

As we began to reset up camp in the dark, Dave says, “There’s something wrong with this picture:  we spent twice as much on the truck as we did the RV and 4 times more on the segways!”  I guess that is the cost of technology!  The steaks we bought Tuesday would have to wait another night or 2, as we were too tired for anything more complicated than a sandwich!  We did listen to NPR and watch TV past 10, to reset our jetlag.

As I write this leisurely on Thursday morning, Dave has plotted our course for next week.  We are looking forward to a few days in Yosemite and will be spending the weekend near Healdsburg where the Guernsville Jazz and Blues Festival should be in full swing.  Meanwhile, THIS weekend, we are looking forward to revisiting The Bruery and Bootleggers and a few new breweries here in Chino.  Maybe we’ll even grill those steaks!

** The Answer:  The inside brain of a Segway - note the 5 gyros in the yellow bracket in the middle