Yes, We Made it to Sacramento Area

 

Indy with her new Hair Cut

We arrived safely Thursday Evening at my Sister Sandy and husband Arny's backyard...a place we have found ourselves each year for a number of month since 2012.  All three of our dogs LOVE their backyard, and LOVE both of them too.  When we arrived, Indy squealed and squealed.  This is our first RV in which we did not need to have ramps since our first Class A which we could pump up the air suspension to get over the steepness of the driveway.  We did scratch with the luggage carrier, but very little, and it didn't even leave a mark.  Hooked up electricity, and we were set up for the night.  We only hook up the electricity because many days we will be leaving the backyard, going to visit mom, shop, do laundry, visit my precious Granddaughter...so using water stored in the fresh water tank makes coming and going easier.  Also, while out, we can empty our grey and black water holding tanks, which is easier than filling the blue tote and walking it over to the other side of the house to get rid of the holding tanks contents.

We have visited a number of times, and tomorrow Sandy takes her to a hearing aid appointment and then the four of us will have lunch.  Visiting her reminds me of when her mother was in the same environment, yet a larger facility, way back in the late 70's, early 80's.  I would visit Grandma and she would always say, "Now which one are you?"  Heck, she had 11 children, and 50+ grandchildren, so what do you expect???  Mom gets confused in that she thinks Sandy is her sister Mary...she has called me by my dad's name many times, but once you point out who you are, she remembers...some day that may not be the case.

The fires in California are a good distance away from us.  We do smell smoke in the air, but the air does not show any heavy smoke look.  We do hear Cal Fire planes going north, but most of the planes hitting the big fire are working out of Redding, which is closer to the active fire areas.  That fire, called the Park Fire, is nearly 400,000 acres and 90 miles north of us.  It was started by a guy who pushed his automobile/truck down into a gully while it was on fire.  He hung around to watch the fire spread, and others who saw him do it told the authorities, and he was arrested on site.  A new fire southeast of us called the Pedro Fire is 130 miles from us and is already 4,000 acres in size.  It is not burning as quickly as the Park Fire, but we are now coming back into a hot cycle, with temps hitting 100 again starting tomorrow.  Oh, how fun...

Saturday we have a date to see my granddaughter...now that will be fun...

Drowsey Alert & EMERGENCY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY -- What I didn't know still...

Imagine if you would, driving a few hours and you decide it is time to stretch your neck.  A little to the right, a little to the left, head up, head down, and BEEEEEEP...It appears your are drowsy!  WHAT????  A guy can't stretch his neck out without the creeper dash system acting like that kid in school that has to tell the teacher on everyone!   No, I was not tired, just stretching my neck...gee whizzzzz

Then today...I was driving along the two lane highway in Colorado close to the four corners area.  The road is hilly...goes up, then down, then up a bit higher, than down even lower, over and over and over.  Then, as I just get to the top of one of these hills, there are three trucks in their appropriate lane headed up the other side of the hill.  Apparently "Creeper Dash" (I coined that term Nancy) throws a HUGE HISSY FIT!  An alarm...yes, an alarm goes off.  I look at the Dash and it said something like, "Emergency! Stop! and a Flash, and it all goes away.  I pass along on my side of the road, the trucks pass along on their side of the road, and Marcia is like, "What the Hell was THAT?"  Oh, I wish I knew...   My guess is, Creeper Dash thought the trucks and us were going to hit each other.  It took about 2 seconds before it realized that like Congressman Jamaal Bowmen it panicked and pulled a false alarm.  Then, like the Congressman, it goes on like nothing unusual happened.  The only difference is that there was no media that witnessed mine, so Creeper Dash got away with it...

I forgot to mention yesterday that I drove for well over an hour first thing in the morning without one lane assist violation.  All proud with my shoulders pulled back I look down at the buttons under the GPS-Radio-ETC Screen and notice a light on...it is on the lane assist...Indy must have been trying to look at me through the front window and hit that button twice in a row turning the alarm off.  Dejected, I turned it back on, and within 10 minutes it goes off.  GRRRRR!!!  

Then today, while driving up in the North West area of New Mexico I hit a 40 mile stretch that had lots of pot holes...as I drove around as many as I could, Creeper Dash reported me as a lane violation.  Well, Creeper Dash is just lucky I did not have a gun in my hand...

Today we are in Monticello Utah, tomorrow we will visit Arches, then drive to Salt Lake City were we are meeting Stephanie and her Aunt Debbie (my first wife's sister) for dinner.  After dinner we will travel an hour outside of SLC to a rest area so that Thursday we won't have to worry about any morning rush hour traffic.  Not sure, but we might just get to Sacramento Thursday night...