And So it Begins

Today we begin a motorhome trip from Nacogdoches, TX to Southern California. This will be our first long trip since we traded for a new motorhome last summer. Our intention is to be in Newport Beach for the birth of our grand daughter. The distance is a few miles shy of 1,600. Today is Wednesday and we plan to complete the trip on Sunday afternoon. Oh, we haven't left yet, either.

We hope to be on the road around 3:00 or 4:00 pm this afternoon and drive 91 miles to the Cracker Barrel restaurant on I-20 near Tyler, TX. They allow overnight parking and have a very large parking lot. We will stop there and overnight so we can get an early start tomorrow after a great breakfast in restaurant. We will then have four full days to travel the remaining 1,500 miles. That's only an average of 375 miles of Interstate Highway a day, or about six or seven hours per day of driving time. It's mostly straight and flat so we should be there in time, unless Siena decides to make an early debut. No need to worry about something we can't control.

We will be gone about four weeks and I plan to post reports of the trip here. I hope that I have nothing exciting to write about, unless it is something we witness rather than being the subject of the excitement. We seem to have a knack for finding trouble when we go on long trips in the motorhome. Wish us better luck, please.

I Think I Can, or, The Little RV Who Could

After cleaning and straightening up the motorhome we left the Meadowcliffs RV Park.  It was 10:30 AM, the temperature was 77 degrees, and we only had 56 miles of travel to reach Lake Tahoe.  The only obstacle in our path was the dreaded “Kingsbury Grade,” or NV 207, topped by the Daggett Pass Summit at an altitude of 7,334 ft. 

We began the ascent at a little less than 4,900 ft. and followed the serpentine highway, switchback after switchback, for an 8-mile long climb that took us 2,500 ft. higher than we were at the beginning of the climb.  Our diesel slowed down a bit but it never faltered.  The engine temperature only experienced one very brief excursion above 199 degrees.  It hit 204 degrees within a 10 or 15 second period until I downshifted and increased the RPM.

The scenery was awesome, or so Carol Ann told me.  My eyes were watching only the road, temperature gauge, and tachometer.  I pulled over once to allow a few cars to pass, however, after experiencing the difficulty of regaining forward momentum I said no more “Mr. Nice Guy.”  We managed to maintain 35 to 40 mph, most of the time in 3rd gear and covered the 8 miles in only 13 minutes for an average speed of 34.9 mph.  Not bad.

Once we reached the summit it was only a few minutes downhill until we saw the very blue Lake Tahoe laid out before us.  We drove through a very upscale North Lake Tahoe and 5 miles later reached our destination, Tahoe Valley Campground in South Lake Tahoe about 12:10 PM.  We checked in, parked the motorhome and after we had settled in, had lunch.

It is now 6:15 PM; the temperature is 75 degrees with a relative humidity of only 24%.  We have opened the windows and allowed our air conditioners to take a well deserved rest.  Bruce and Karen arrived a short while ago and are now set up next to us so we are going out with our chairs to sit under the pines and drink wine.

Well, it’s now 8:30 PM and I am just now posting this.  Carol Ann and Karen have gone to pick up a pizza.  I’ll start taking photos of Lake Tahoe and area tomorrow.

Now it’s 10:30 PM.  We’ve had our pizza and beer and enjoyed sitting and talking.  I will post this and go to bed.