COUGH, GAG... SMOG!

We had three relaxing days at one of our favorite RV parks, Park of the Sierra in Coarsegold, California. This is one of the Escapees private parks, with sites available to Escapees for long-term lease or short-term stays.

It is beautifully designed, with large spaces tucked into the grounds between the oak trees and rocky outcroppings that are typical of the Sierra foothills. The neighbors are friendly and the hilly layout is good for getting exercise.

We used to have our name on the list to get a long-term lease here - yes, sites are limited, so there is a waiting list of 5 years or so!



After two years, we took our names off the list, mostly because of the weather: HOT, hot, hot in summer, and cold (with occasional snow) in winter. Since we are most likely to sit in one place during either summer or winter - and we didn't like the weather here during either season, we decided it wasn't the long-term spot for us.


This trip opened our eyes to another disagreeable aspect: SMOG. It was the worst I have ever seen, really sickening. At Park Sierra, we were a little bit above the valley floor (the famous Central Valley of California) at 1,700 ft. elevation... loook at these photos, which I took as we descended into Fresno and on south to Bakersfield.

This is NOT fog, though it looks so dense you would think so. It was horrible. Residents must suffer dismal health side effects.


After three and a half hours of driving through this haze (while I took dozens of photos in amazement), we headed east at Bakersfield, over the Tehachapis (4,000 ft.) and down to the high deserts of southern California. High wind warnings had be posted for this area last weekend (which is why we spent the weekend at Park Sierra, avoiding the gusty winds) and any smog that had been here was blown far, far away! What lovely difference.

We're parked tonight at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster... off to Indio tomorrow.

FOUR FLAT TIRES??

Thanks to my new tire pressure gauge and valve extender caps (see photo) that allow me to check the air pressure without removing the valve cap, I was excited to check the tire pressures before we took off after a 31 day long stay at Cal Expo RV park. The passenger side front tire: BINGO, right on target, and so easy to check.

Oh-oh. It was obvious even to my naked eyeball that the outer rear passenger tire (we have two on each side in the back) was was flat-ish, bulging out near the ground. Pressure gauge confirmed 47.5 pounds (should be 90 pounds). Okay, potential problem, but I stayed positive and moved on to the inner tire. ZERO pounds. Nothing on the new gauge. Nada.

That rocked me back on my heels. Had the battery gone dead in my new electronic gizmo? I got out my old trucker's pressure gauge... same puzzling result. Could it really be true that we had NO air in one of our tires??

I walked around to the driver's side, thinking that we weren't gonna' be leaving by 11:15 am, our planned departure. Not quite as bad: 46.5 pounds in one tire, 82.5 in the other. And the front tire was perfect! What the heck could flatten our four back tires while leaving the front tires untouched??

Flash: the new valve caps! All four of our back tires have long, metal tube extenders that make it possible to check the air pressure without crawling on the ground like a reptile. When we first got the new valve caps, in Port Townsend, I couldn't make them work on the rear tires (apparently some technical mismatch with the already existing extensions). While we were at Cal Expo, I took a little more time to try to figure it out and actually got one working, so we replaced the standard rear valve caps with the new valve caps.

Looks like the new caps are the equivalent of a slow leak! They work perfectly on the front tires (which is where they were most needed), and on the Jeep - in both cases, they are screwed directly onto the valve stem, rather than an extension. Probably could work on the rear tires, too, if perfectly adjusted - but I give up.

One of the great things about a motorhome with air suspension is the on-board air compressor. We hooked up our air hose and refilled our tires... a slow, but convenient, process. Ready to roll again!

ANOTHER HURDLE

If you have been following the blog, you know that we traded in Jules, our used-up 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee, for Jules II, a new-to-us 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee. We LOVE our new Jules, and had fun getting her ready to travel with us: ordered new floor mats; replaced a blown out speaker; touched up some dings on the doors and hood; and applied film to the fog lights and headlights to protect them from flying debris (the fog lights on Original Jules were the first things to break).

The big item, though, was to have Jules II set up for towing. This requires some wiring (so the lights on Jules work in concert with the lights on Scoopy), a break-away switch (so a panic light inside Scoopy alerts us if we lose Jules II), and a big metal baseplate and adapter attachment that allows us to hook our heavy-duty tow bar to Jules II to bring her along.


The baseplate is bolted or welded to the bottom on Jules II, and the adapter is bolted to the baseplate. Adapters vary, depending on which kind of tow bar you have on the back of the motorhome. In our case, we have a tow bar made by Demco, so we asked for a Demco adapter. This installation takes several hours at an RV shop - we used Allied Trailer Supply, where we had the same work done 5 years ago on Original Jules.

When Odel brought Jules II home after the installation, we were both shocked by the humongous size of the adapter - it looked nothing at all like the unobtrusive tow bar connection on Original Jules. It was a type in common use - we see them on many towed vehicles - but not at all what we had pictured (or wanted). After much deliberation on our part and unhappiness at Allied Trailer Supply, we had them replace the adapter they had installed with one they ordered for us directly from Demco. The whole process had required a couple of trips and had been somewhat of a pain in the patootie, but it had all paid off - we were happy with the looks of the end result.

Out in the parking lot, ready to hook up - well, let's just say I'm glad we have a hammer and lots of silicone lubricating spray! The tips of our tow bar need to slide between two metal doo-hickies (I think these might fall under the technical heading of "flanges"). The tow bar tip and the flanges all have round holes in them, and the three holes need to line up perfectly so that we can insert the super-sized metal pin that will keep them connected while we travel.


Let's say the tip on the tow bar is 1/2 an inch wide... so maybe the space between the flanges should be 5/8ths of an inch wide, or at least 9/16ths of an inch. I estimate that the space between our flanges (the two on the left in this photo) was 51/100ths of an inch wide, because even a tiny little metal imperfection, the size of a grain of iodized salt (I'm not talking sea salt here), kept the tow bar tip from sliding between the flanges!

Do you think we were going to go back to Allied Trailer and beg them to reinstall the huge, clanky adapter we had rejected?? NO WAY! We sprayed everything with silicone spray, hammered the salt-sized imperfection into oblivion and just MADE IT WORK. It was a real trick to get all the holes lined up to accept the pin but by now, after overcoming our tire problems, we were totally and completely focused - we were leaving Sacramento, by God.

And so we did. We hit the road at 11:55, only 55 minutes after we started the engine. After one quick stop to check the tires again after a couple of hours on the road and to gulp down half a turkey sandwich, we arrived at our destination with 10 minutes to spare and are now settled in to a beautiful site at one of our favorite parks. Whew!