It’s been so long since I had a chance to sit down and write something I have completely forgotten where I left off…I do remember making comments about the “egging”, so I guess I’ll start there!

Our trip took us to a family party on Sunday afternoon and our “ship” was moved to the party palace that day.  Cathy and Darell have a mansion that sits on about 3 acres of ground in Petaluma, California.  In order to own property of that magnitude you have to spend a ton of money.  Darell races cars on rally tracks…the kind that go up and down mountains, through valley cuts and end up somewhere near where they started.  His cars are all souped up with Corvette engines and the cars are all Ford Mustangs.  He likes the looks and feel of the Mustang, but the power of the Chev motors.  A look into the cars makes you scratch your head and wonder just how on earth they got all that engine crammed into that frame.  He says they will go over 200 mph!  As for me, I say, Not with me in it it won’t!  He loves his speed!  And he told me several of his stories about how guys have “bumped” him to try and get him out of the way.  The rims on his favorite race car has all the marks of a “bump” alright…worn down to almost where the bead of the tire makes contact with the rim.

So, race cars require a garage where they can be pulled apart and put back together.  He has that!  A huge garage where he has 6 race cars and a really cool old 30’s something pickup truck.  The kind of pickup truck you see in the “Rat Fink” books of the past..you remember…the guy with the big head and all the freckles.

There is also a place to park the cars they drive…A Mustang GT and a Mazarati…Oh and then there is the lowly Beamer that sits outside (poor thing).

So, here they have this giant place and the house is as big as the yard with the court room as you walk into it and that extends into the kitchen, dining and sitting areas…total square footage of the entrance and all you can see before you, I’d guess to be in the neighborhood of 50,000…then two doors lead you out into the swimming and patio area.  A short swim takes you to a wall you can dive under and on the other side are two cabana type bars…his and hers if you will.

I’ve made it sound like Cathy and Darell are swimming in cash.  I don’t hardly think they are, however they do have some expensive tastes.  Darell said he got the place as a bank owned deal and it was run down as crazy.  The yard was full of tall dry weeds, the sprinkling system all broken from two winters of freezing.  The roof tiles (clay) were broken and allowed water to get into the walls and the ground had no drainage so water came down off the eves and ended up in the basement.  They poured a ton of money into it to get it into the shape we saw it.  He thinks in 5 or 6 years he will sell it and they will move into something more modest.  Someone also said, the home was built by the first woman to win the California lottery…I don’t know if that is real or not.

The party was a total success and I got to meet cousins that were only names before…now we are all Facebook friends and will be able to keep in touch!  For those of you affiliated with this family, I must say we have a great bunch in our tree.

Well the party ended and the next morning Sherry and I headed over to Mike and Ilenes to spend the last night of our stay in beautiful California.  On a down note, Sunday night, our lovely Aunt LeOra ened up in the hospital with pneumonia, water around the heart and a bunch of other things that made her have a tough time breathing and feeling human.  We had planned to visit extensively with her and talk about family and the farm, but that didn’t happen and we are very sorry about that.  She is getting some very necessary care at this point and will be in better hands once she gets out of the hospital.  They are changing her primary care provider as what put her into the hospital should have been prevented had her doctor been on top of things.  Yes, she is 99 years old, but she still thinks, breathes and is full of life, why take that away from her by not giving her the care she deserves?  I’m very glad they caught up with her problems and are giving her the care she deserves!  We love her very much.

We did get to visit with her on Friday evening and she was full of her normal spirit!  That is why we decided to stay over Monday night, to continue our conversations and laughter.  Oh well!

So now, it was off toward home.  In the past we would have stayed in an RV campground at Fernley Nevada, a nice little “half way” place with nice campgrounds.  Driving the coach is fun for me, but after several hours of driving it begins to cause a stress in the neck muscles.  We reached Fernley and the time was only a bit after 3 p.m.  I decided to make the additional drive to Winnemucka, Nevada.  Construction plagued us about half the way there which added time to the otherwise 2 hour drive…oh well, we made it and put up in a nice little campground…little campground?  It holds over 150 units and was packed!  The people must have been as tired as we were because the night was as quiet as could be and the sleeping wonderful, with a cool breeze and light rain!

We awoke to birds chirping and the sounds of people pulling out of their spots.  When I finally took MaPa’s for a walk, the place was half empty and it was only 7:30 in the morning!  The folks must have had some long hauls to make that day and had to get early starts.  Or else they just like to get to their next spot in time to do some swimming in the parks pool…who knows.  We pulled out about 10 ish after a great breakfast of bacon, eggs and hashbrowns!

Our minds were made up to head for home…I had about 7 hours of drive time ahead of me which is about 2 more than I like, but the thought of sleeping in my own bed at home was appealing enough that I didn’t notice the strain on the neck.  We arrived home about 6 p.m. and MaPa’s was so happy to see his “turf” when I opened up the door to the coach and he jumped out onto his own lawn!

OK, so now I’ll tell you about the gas station guys.  Remember when we first started this trip and the guy came past with the golf cart and pointed out my bad front tires…well that was a “for real” problem that we fixed just down the road from where the guy was on the golf cart.  So, here we are in Battle Mountain and I pull into a Shell station…Three grizzley looking guys sitting on a bench outside the “we can fix anything” bays and as I’m pulling up to the pump (it takes me a bit to pull up to a pump, because first off it has to be on the right side of the coach, and secondly I have to pull up so the back end of the coach is even with the pump handle.  In order to do that I have to stretch out and look carefully through the rear view mirror on that side) one of the grizzley guys is walking alongside the coach looking at the rear tires.  He is obviously in my line of site.  When I stop and get out to see if I’m close enough to pump gas, he is all over me with “This tire is about to lose it’s cap!  You need to replace it!  You need these guys to put your spare tire on!  See here, the cap if about to come off!”  And he points to the weather checking near the rim.  I look at him and say “I’ll be just fine”!  He shrugged and went back to his seat.

I started to pump the gas and then realized the cost of their fuel was $4.56!!!!  I stopped the pump and ended up only putting in 10 gallons of gas.  That was the highest priced fuel of our entire trip!  The next highest was $4.01.

So, when you are out on your vacation, watch out for those “helpful” guys at the freeway off ramp gas stations.  They aren’t all watching out for your well being!

Bears Butt, glad to be home

July 25, 2013