February 17 to April 2

I have created many mental calendars since we left Washington in February, headed south in Abe, anticipating many great adventures to report.  We arrived at Chuck’s ranch in the foothills of the Sierra, east of Visalia, CA, on Shrove Tuesday and are still here!  We had many repairs to make on Abe and were referred to Paul Everett’s RV Country (PERVC) in Fresno, a certified Tiffin repair site.  It took them until March 4 to get Abe scheduled into their shop and approved for the work.  Jerry delivered it with a list of 21 items that needed to be repaired.  Sadly, some of these items had been identified by the previous owner, but had never been addressed.  (We’ve learned quite a lot about the inadequacies, inefficiencies, poor organization, and untruthfulness of the RV industry!)

Jerry has spoken with all of the entities involved, from the owner of the Tiffin RV Company, on down the list to the service manager in Fresno, almost on a daily basis.  Part of the frustration has been that he could not get a straight answer from anyone about the status of the parts ordered, what work had been completed, and when we could expect the bus to be ready to roll.  Finally on Friday March 27, all of the problems on our list had been verified, parts had been ordered, and they had arrived at the service center.  Does it seem amazing to you, as it does to us, that it took 23 days for this to happen? 

We drove to Fresno Monday, March 30, to see Abe, review the progress of the repairs, and to offer “encouragement.”  We did a walk-around with list in hand with Rod, the actual service person that was working on the bus.  He seemed capable and forth coming but it quickly became apparent that not much had been done.  We reviewed a list of 21 items and learned that 6 easy ones were done, 6 more were in progress, and the remaining 8 hard ones were not yet worked on.  He had also found 2 more problems…or created them?...and so we added them to the list.  It took Monday and Tuesday for Rod to complete the driver’s side slide repair…much longer than few hours predicted.

Theoretically Monday, April 6, we will confirm that the list has been completed and do a serious test drive.  Once that’s done, we go to a different service center in Fresno to resolve our transmission problem.  Yep, the final big one!  Once that’s done, I hope we are good to go.  When we arrived here in February if anyone had told me we’d still be here until after Easter, I would not have believed it!  Looks like an optimistic departure date is April 8 or 9.

We still would like to explore some of the spots we’ve heard about in Arizona and make our way to Pearland, TX, (just south of Houston) to visit with Lewis and Bonnie Smith and see the 40 acres they’ve purchased.  This land is their retirement plan for 2017 and they’re currently getting water and power to the site.  After that visit, we’ll make our wandering way to Illinois for a visit with the family.  We think we’ll spend the summer exploring all the spots in the Midwest we have not seen:  Door County, WI, the UP of Michigan, Minnesota’s boundary waters, etc.  We’re looking forward to trying dry camping in the bus and cruising the “blue roads”.

Life here at the ranch has not been too difficult and we readily admit that this was the best place for us to stay as we resolved the problems with Abe. 

We’ve been able to help Chuck with some big projects:  cleaning and then painting the horse barn and the paddock fences, tearing out the front lawn and re-sodding it, and helping with trimming, mowing, and spring cleanup.  It’s looking pretty good around here!

Since we’ve been here so long we’ve had the opportunity to catch up with lots of Visalia friends we haven’t seen in awhile.  In the first few weeks we were here, we sometimes had 2 or 3 “dates” in Visalia.  What fun!  Beth was in town for a quilting class so we had lunch with her, then had our income taxes done, then went to dinner with friends!  We’re certainly caught up on all the new restaurants.

We spent one weekend with Jill, Bob, and Lauren and it seems like it’s almost time to go again.  They have converted their guest room to a playroom for Lauren, so we stayed in a hotel…not quite as comfortable or convenient.  It’s better for them, though, since it gives Lauren a place for her little tent, her train set, her kitchen, her shelves, her stuffed animals, etc. etc.  She doesn’t lack for toys.  Spring had arrived in San Jose so we were outside a lot.  I had found a recipe for bubbles and a creative way to blow big bubble snakes.  Grandpa and Lauren loved it!

We went to Ventura for 2 nights last week and caught up with friends there, too.  In the last few years we were in Visalia, we would often go to Ventura for the weekend, finding this little beachside community fascinating.  Boating friends have a home there and we spent a day with them.  It seemed a little strange as we were used to seeing them on their Nordic Tug or ours!  In fact they were the couple we cruised to Princess Louisa Inlet two summers ago (2013) and traveled together for quite awhile.  They sold their boat before we sold ours and they are also interested in a motor home.  I’m afraid some of our stories made them reconsider that idea, though!

Chuck and Bobbie have hosted two barbecues while we’ve been here and we’ve enjoyed experimenting with his “grill”.  Visalia and Lemon Cove friends joined us for beautiful evenings under the stars.  Chuck has lots of oak to burn and the pyromaniacs (aren’t we all, just a little?) had a great time.

We’ve even visited with Washington friends that we thought we’d see in Arizona.  Instead, they stopped in Visalia as they were headed north on the homeward bound part of their trips.  Jon and Norma Owens were one of these couples.  We have known them since high school back in central Illinois!  They drove out to Chuck’s in their RV and spent 2 nights.  We took them up into Sequoia Park to see the big trees and had a great day with them.  I’d hoped to show them the beautiful hillsides of poppies we’d seen just the week before, but they were gone.  As you’ve probably heard, it’s very dry here and the wild flowers didn’t last long.  The south-facing hillsides are brown and the rest of the hills will soon lose their green lushness.  Yep, time to go!

It is lovely here at the ranch in the spring and I’ve taken advantage of the sunny weather to hike up the hills and find wildflowers.  Some of my photos:

Fiddleneck on the hillside.  These pretty flowers are everywhere…come early and stay late!  I can remember calling them “weeds” in our lawn in Visalia.  Not out here at the ranch, though.

Fiddleneck and “white flowers” (yep, I ought to know the name of them but I don’t!) on the hillside above Lake Kaweah.

Usually Chuck’s dog Mia comes with me to explore the ground squirrel holes and dart around the hillsides.  One afternoon we scared up a small pack of coyotes!

Under one of the shady trees up high on the hill, we even found these bees…swarming??

After church one Sunday Jerry and I drove up Dry Creek Road to Mountain House and back to Woodlake on Rte. 245 to see the poppies.  The hills were green and the flowers were in abundance.  What a great time to be here!

This drive has always been a favorite and many of our out-of-state company were given this tour when they came to see us.  The route winds along a small creek up to about 3,000 feet where Dry Creek Road ends.

Mountain House, a rustic tavern, sits at the intersection of Dry Creek and Rte. 245.  I don’t know the history of Mountain House, but would not be surprised if it were an old state coach stop.  Today it’s a lovely place to get a beer, a burger, and rest your posterior if you’ve taken this trip on your motorcycle.

There are a few ranches along this drive that have entrance signs indicating their establishment over 100 years ago.  This is very much ranching and cattle country.  We get a sense of the “old west” along these back roads.

The lupine had just emerged to give us another splash of color!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.  Not a bad place to wait on Abe to be repaired.  A little gin and tonic overlooking the lake at sunset helps relieve the frustrations.

Stay tuned…the Adventures of Smokey and the Bus Bandits will resume any day now!