Petaluma CA and the KOA

Greetings Earthlings. Here we are in Petaluma, our home for the month of May. May is a difficult month, it's too hot to stay in AZ, but too cold everywhere else. It's chilly here, but sunny so far. I did not realize how close to the coast we would be; we're getting more ocean wind than I would like, but it's always something.
We're at the KOA, and the site they put us on was so sloped that even with two boards we could not level the RV. The grounds guys had to bring a bunch of gravel out, and even with that, we're still on two boards. For you non-RVers, two boards is a lot. We are level now, which is good, but it's just an icky site, we had to build a step by stealing gravel because our stairs debouched onto a 45 degree hill and we both slid a couple of times when the mat would scoot down the hillside. So, if we decide Petaluma is a repeater, we'll be asking for 164, 165, 144 or 145. They're flat, out in the sun and satellite friendly. None of those words apply to this site.
Overall the KOA is not terrible. They have petting animals for the kids, see the baby goats? Cuuuuuuuutttttttteeeeeeeee.

The riding is good, except for the aforementioned ocean breezes (gusting to 25 tomorrow). We've only been out once, but we noticed most people crossed the center line when passing us, and I observed several instances of oncoming cars moving to their right so that the cars passing us would have room to move left. There is a plethora of low traffic volume country roads. We can ride from the RV park, so that's good, too.

Here is Jim out in the boonies.

Here are some boonies.

This is pretty much what it looks like once you get away from highway 101. Apparently really stringent land use laws were passed, classifying this area as a Heritage Farm region, meaning that people can not sell out to the developers and reap huge profits from the sale of their land. While I personally am glad about this, I wonder how the land owners felt about it. Perhaps this knowledge will be available on the web.
We'll probably ride on the roads this weekend, and try some of the regional parks for mountain biking during the week. There's a small one close to us, and a big one 20 or so miles way.

Food prices are surprisingly high here. What's up with California fruits and vegetables costing the dang earth? Even at Costco, California avocados are $1.05 each, they're 50 cents in Tucson. What's up with that? I keep telling Jim to pretend we're in France, that's what we kept telling each other last year when we were in Canada.

Monday we're taking the truck in for new rear brake rotors (this will be replacement number TWO) which will not be done under warranty. They are warped, just not warped enough to get Chevrolet to pay for them.

We are good, we hope you are all, too.

Days 1 and 2 of the California Transit with Grumbling

Greetings from California. We are on day two of the three day transit. Last night we stayed at the Shadow Hills RV Resort in Indio. The RV park was pretty nice. They had ONE pull through slot, which we were lucky enough to get. It was level, so we could stay on the truck for a quick get away in the morning. I would recommend the park.
If you've ever wondered what I10 between Phoenix and Indio looks like, here it is.

This morning we left Indio, and drove past Palm Springs, and it was windy. We asked ourselves, is it always this windy? Why yes, yes it must be, otherwise we would not see the biggest wind turbine farm we have ever seen, just outside of Palm Springs. It was just phenomenal to see them all whirling. They have them in two sizes, short and tall. This is just one area of them, they were everywhere.

We took the 210 Los Angeles bypass, and happy we were about that. If you are towing, do NOT get on that section of freeway with a full bladder. There is no where to stop and answer the call of nature for many miles. Please make a note of this.
This is after LA, there was a pretty good display of wild flowers. These are the orange ones.

These are the purple ones all over the hill side. It was pretty spectacular.

I5 south of Coalinga (where we are now) is an abysmal piece of road. The bumps, holes and bad patches are unbelievable. I am going to have to love Petaluma a lot to ever drive this section of road again. Coming in to the valley, there was a 5 mile section of 6% grade (downhill). We may have fried another set (or two) of rotors. Since Chevy went to ceramic brake pads, there have been issues with the brake rotors overheating and warping. We will be seeing the Chevy dealer in Petaluma on Tuesday. Oh frabjous day.

These are the orange groves next to the Almond Tree RV park in Coalinga. It's not a terrible park, it's out in the middle of the orchards and vineyards behind a couple of gas stations. There is not much to choose from on I5 in this part of California. Anyway, back to the oranges, they're in bloom. The scent is overwhelming. It will be good to be upwind of them.


So, tomorrow we will arrive in Petaluma for the remainder of May. Hopefully we are going to like it a lot. Pictures, and maybe some more grumbling, will be forthcoming.

McDowell Mountain Park

Behold! The next wave of blooming cactus. This is a Buckhorn Cholla, a relative of those nasty chollas that have been puncturing our tires and flesh out at Fantasy Island. They seem to bloom later in the season than anyone else.

This is McDowell Mountain park. It's one of our favorite places. The first two days we were here it was HOT! Lower 90's. Even though we were getting up and out early, we felt like we were baking when climbing up some of the hills. We may have to rethink spending the last week of April here, it's too dang hot!


Here is Jim at the end of a ride at one of the ramadas. We split a candy bar and drank a bunch of water. I like Jim's technique for drinking from his Camelbak.


Today it is windy and 25 degrees cooler than yesterday. We decided we would hike the Scenic Trail out at McDowell instead of riding. The beginning and end of the trail is quite pleasant, the middle section is steep and challenging. We decided it would not be part of our riding portfolio.

We got pretty excited when we saw this descent. It looked really good. Once you get around the corner, this turns into a twisty little section (that still looks like fun) right on the edge of a cliff. We tempered our enthusiasm at that point, we both still have cornering excursions, and it would be bad to go over the edge of a giant hill.

Tomorrow we plan to ride one more time. There's a hill I've been walking because I'm trying not to let my pulse get over 140 or so. I may give it a shot to see what happens with the new drug and since I still have real time monitoring.

This is me in my Life Watch monitor. It's kind of cool. There are three EKG leads stuck to me, you can see one on my right chest, and the round thing by my navel is a Bluetooth sending unit that talks to the cell phone. I carry a Blackberry which sends data 24 hours a day to monitoring central. They send tracings and analysis to my cardiologist daily. They're invaluable for diagnosing what kind of arrhythmia a person has, since they're worn over a period of time, and can catch the heart in the act of misbehaving.

Is anyone following the controversy over the new Arizona immigration law? All the TV debate is focused on the Hispanic segment of the population. One wonders whether our Canadian friends will have to carry documentation with them at all times. Its passage is already having an economic impact to the state; people are not coming up from Sonora to shop, conventions have been canceled, potential students and programs are breaking ties with U of A. The lawsuits have begun.

So, we're out of here Saturday, on the way to Petaluma, CA.

Scottsdale AZ - Eagle View RV Park

Here's a little more cactus loveliness for you. The bloom is winding down, I'm almost done, I promise.


So - here are the mountain bikes on the new rack with the old Swagman cover. It's not designed for platform racks, it's designed for the racks where the bikes hang from the top. However, if you turn it upside down it works pretty well. We had to tie the zippers down so they wouldn't work their way loose, but other than that, it's pretty well adapted to the new rack. You'd think they would make a cover, they make this kind of rack.

Ken came yesterday morning to finish the camera install. It was laborious. Here is Ken drilling a hole in the side of the truck bed. Rachel is under the truck with her hand in front of the trailer brake wiring harness to ensure that Ken doesn't hit it with the drill. Thank you Rachel. It took longer than any of us expected, getting the wire through the truck firewall was a pain. I'm so glad we outsourced that install.


Here it is, in all of its camera glory. See the bikes? It's very unnerving how much movement there is. There's a microphone as well, which we need to learn how to turn off, we had to listen the ladders rattling on the way to Scottsdale.

So, we're now in travel configuration - Ken, who has strongly held opinions, cast aspersions on the strength of the welding we had done to support the receiver. We kept reminding him that it's max 110 pounds, but he seemed to think that a much heavier gauge tubing should have been used. Who knows, we'll keep an eye in the welds to see if they're doing something bad.

We're in the Scottsdale area until Saturday morning. We were going to stay at the McDowell Regional Park, which is just gorgeous, but it's really hot here and we wanted 50 amp service so we'd be able to run both of the air conditioners. We're going to have to get up early to go ride McDowell before it's too hot. Currently it's 91 in the shade at 1711 hours. So, no internet coma for us in the morning. Up and out will be the rule of this stay.

Death to my Schedule

Owning and living in an RV forces a person to assume a bovine posture and to chant a soothing mantra when your schedule implodes. We were so close to making a clean get away from Tucson, so close. Notice the use of the past tense in that sentence? Were. But now we're not.
Thursday, Ken Cameron of Cameron's Reliable RV came out to install the rear vision camera. Talk about something that is not a user friendly install! He ended up running the coax from the camera down behind the refrigerator (which had to be removed), through the floor and towards the front via a conduit that he and Rachel installed along the frame rails. Keystone, in their infinite wisdom, did not provide for any after market electronics installations.
This is Jim Waddle in the yellow shirt, and Rachel and Ken Cameron. Ken was looking for places to run wire. Anyway, they got about half way done on Thursday, when the weather went to hell and so they left before finishing. Unfortunately, Ken has had periods of not feeling well recently, and Friday and Saturday were bad days for him. So, at this point we do not know when Ken will return or when we will leave.

So, here we are and here we be for awhile. We've spent yesterday and today purging items from the basement to make room for the satellite antenna. If it hasn't been used in the past 7 months, out it goes.
If Ken doesn't feel up to finishing us up tomorrow, I think we're going to go out to Fantasy Island and ride. We've been seeing a lot of jackrabbits while riding. Often all you can see is the tips of their ears moving through the bushes, they look like dogs they are so big.


Other than reconfiguring the RV for travel we have zippity doo-dah all to report.

More Cactus and Allison's Heart

Ok - I know I said no more cactus pictures, but these are just so pretty I could not resist. This is an ocotillo with the red blossoms. They had been green and leafy, but they're all dropping their leaves now. The yellow bushy things are jojoba plants.

More prickly pear.


Jim and Kim Waddle have been here this week on their way to the West Coast. It's always lovely seeing them, Kim is a brilliant cook and has a great wine cellar as well.

Tomorrow Ken Cameron is coming to install the rear vision camera. That will be our final RV action item to close before leaving for the summer. We expect to depart Sunday for a week in Fountain Hills. So, you may all expect pictures of somewhere new, and interesting.

I have had a personal set back. Beginning in January I've had 9 episodes (or events as the cardiologist likes to call them) of atrial fibrillation. My particular version occurs while bicycling; my pulse will jump to 230 and my heart bangs around in my chest like a mad jack hammer. The worst of it is that while this is happening, oxygen is not effectively flowing to my head or legs. Both of these things are bad when one is mountain biking. After some rest, it will settle into a bounding irregular 134 bpm rhythm for awhile. I've been prescribed Flecainide, which is a sodium channel blocker. As you all no doubt recall, muscle contraction occurs via the mechanism of the sodium-potassium pump pushing ions across the cell membrane. The drug seeks to limit the rate at which the heart can contract. So far the side effects are debilitating due to the fact that I can't sleep. I'm going to give it 2 weeks and then ask for something different. I'm very angry and sad about this. I feel like I had a life that I liked a lot, and now I have a new life that I don't like at all. There is a surgical option (cardiac ablation), but given my recent bad surgical karma, I'm reluctant to try it. It's hard to get an unbiased opinion on what one should do. The obvious choice would be to stop riding, but that's what Jim and I do. Some people play golf, other people ride. I want to ride, damn it. So, that's what is happening with me.