Vacaville to Carmel

Sept 14^th

Well we had an interesting morning today. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe we’re living in a realm of bad karma… We were getting ready to pull up stakes so I started to disconnect from the auxiliary propane tank. As I unthreaded the line, a major blowback of propane came gushing out past the fitting. Dang and double dang. Now what? Or what next?

I assumed that the problem was a broken valve on the auxiliary tank so I called Chris at Nor’ West Mobile RV to see if he had any ideas – he did the original install of the extend-a-stay auxiliary propane system. We chatted for a while as he looked for the warrantee info for the manufacturer. With that information he suggested locating a local propane service tech.

So up to the office to get a phone number for the local propane dealer. I called them and they apologized but no, they didn’t have any available service techs for at least a week. They suggested calling the local Camping World which I did. Again, no luck. They don’t have mobile service but suggested a local mobile RV guy. I called his number and left a message. Then I decided I better call the tank manufacturer’s customer service. Amazing! I spoke to a real person on the second ring.

After repeating my story for the fourth or fifth time she asked me several questions, none of which applied. Then I hit the jackpot… she gave me the name and phone number of the head of their R&D department. I immediately called him and after discussing what I was experiencing, he suggested that the problem was probably related to the bad regulator valve in the main line and to try turning the actuator switch on and off a couple of times leaving it in the off position.

I did all that and then tried to undo the hose from the auxiliary tank once more. This time only the normal amount came out of the line and I was able to complete the disconnect so we could get on the road. I called the R&D guy back with the good news and put the brass end cap on the hose to seal it. Once that was done we were able to pull in the slides, pull up the jacks and get under way.

The roads in this area are really heavily trafficked with lots of semi’s. As a result, there is a lot of bad pavement and nothing is straight or flat, plus there is a perpetual 20 mph side wind making the first 140 miles a real grind. But we made it to Carmel and turned onto Carmel Valley Rd to go to our home for the week, “Carmel by the River RV Resort (http://www.carmelrv.com/). 

We arrived at the one lane bridge and tried to see if we could get across without taking off the tow dolly and car – no go. So we took the car off, then disconnected the tow dolly and pulled it off the road out of the way so we could get to the campground. There was about 10 inches of clearance on each side between the tires and the bridge curb. With Tina following in the car we drove sloooowwwwly across the bridge. But the fun was just beginning. 

We were still over half a mile from the resort and it was a very small, narrow road along the hillside with a cliff face on the drivers side and a drop off on the passenger side. Coming around an uphill blind curve we met a pickup towing a horse trailer and she was already over the crest of the hill. I got out and looked to see how far over I could move the front of the rig and still keep the tires on the road (the shoulder was less than 15 inches wide with a 50 foot drop off).

Moving ever so slowly and checking where my tir was we were able to get enough room for her to pull alongside the coach just far enough that I could go forward and pull the front of the rig in behind her trailer giving her enough room to get past as the rear end swung out away from the hillside. But wait, there’s more!

After finall negotiating the final curves and hills I made it to the top of the entrance lane and stopped at a big stop sign thinking this was where I needed to stop to register.

Just as I got out a guy walked out from behind the rig and asked me why I had stopped. I pointed to the stop sign and he asked me where I was going. I told him “Carmel by the River” and he said, “Follow that one lane road a little further, it’s just over the hill.

Arghhhh!! I got back in the rig and slowly eased down the hill and sure enough, there was the campground and registration. We had finally arrived. The nice lady at registration showed us where to go and it turned out to be an easy site to get into, especially with Tina’s expert directions. We got all set up, walked the dogs and had lunch. And yes, it was only in the mid 60’s and cloudy, a 20 degree difference from the past few days, but then we are on the coast.

After lunch we talked to the ladies in the office about the dolly and she said she would have one of their staff help me get it in from the other side of the bridge and that he’d come and let us know as soon as he was back. This was about 2:30 PM. By 4:30 I was a little concerned so back to the office I went and found out that they hadn’t heard from him but he was aware of the situation. So we took the dogs for a walk down to the river – very shallow with lots of trees and brush over hanging.

By 6:30 PM we were nervous about the trailer so I walked back over to the office – they were closed. So we grabbed the bicycle cable and padlock, threw them in the car and drove out to secure the trailer to something, anything, at least until tomorrow. We got to the bridge, drove across and the trailer was gone. Dam, dam, dam I waited to long. Somebody decided it was too good a deal to pass up. With heavy heart we turned around and drove back to camp.

Parking in front of the rig we could smell a burnt rubber smell coming from the car. All I could do was shake my head and tell Tina I’d look at it tomorrow. With that I walked down the row a ways toward the storage area and what did I find but our trailer, parked next to several others.  Talk about an  emotional roller coaster… but at least we had that problem resolved!!

Well we had leftovers for dinner, yummy, blackberry cobbler with coffee icecream for desert and decided to just take the rest of the night off, so we are!

We’ll have lots more pictures tomorrow and over the next few days as we explore Carmel and Monterey so stay tuned for more of our exciting adventures!

Miles driven today, 174. Total for the trip so far, 1,030 miles.

To see all our photos, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski