Yeah baby! This is the way to do Ashland. It’s funny, I lived and worked in this town for several years and I think I maybe came out to Emigrant Lake once. When I’ve come back to vacation, we’ve always chosen the hotel that’s right in the middle of town (since we’ve had enough money to do that, rather than crash with friends, that is). We came up once with Dory and stayed in a little private campground nearby and that was so-so. This place is for sure the way to go in the future and I’m glad I secured a couple nights to go with theatre tickets.
It was a short drive from Shasta to Ashland and we stopped for lunch in the nicest Rest Stop. It’s right at the place where highway 96 takes off and it is grassy, and right next to the Klamath River. Super peaceful. We arrived in town around 1:30 and pulled right into our site. What a view! We are sort of walking distance to the water, but there are pricker plants and a steepish hill to get there, so I just drove my kayak over to the day use area and got set up over there for an afternoon paddle. Richard got to do some work because the service is excellent. Then he went for a dip in the lake. Friday night we had tickets for “Julius Caesar.” Yeah, the Festival still blows me away. Pretty darn timely, and incredibly powerful production this year.
Saturday we got to see back to back productions of “Henry IV Part 1” and “Henry IV Part 2” as matinee and evening performances. It is rare that you’d get to see these two shows in this way, with the same cast, set design, and costumes. And one right after the other. It makes the second play far more approachable when you are able to see the character development and relationships grow from the first one. There was some incredible acting going on and I got a surprise by being seated right next to the king’s throne for Part 2. These were done in the small theatre, and “in the round,” meaning the audience was seated on all four sides of a central stage.
Sunday, we did some flexible planning. When I bought tickets and reserved sites months ago, I was expecting to blow through town fairly quickly. What I didn’t know at the time was that some good friends were performing in the Cabaret show, “The Drowsy Chaperone.” So we lucked out on being able to get one night at Glenyan RV Park for Sunday, and I scored tickets to the Cabaret for a matinee. We were able to scoot into the empty site before official check in time and thoroughly enjoyed the show. It is well worth seeing if you’re up that way. The best part was being able to catch up with old friends and share real life stuff, not just the happy times that go on the blog or on Facebook. As for Glenyan, I come away with an overall better impression than last time, where our site was located next to a chain link fence and propane tank. There are some nice shady sites by the river, some that are so so, and some that really aren’t that nice. Maybe you can request a river site, but otherwise it seems like a crap shoot. There is also definitely traffic noise from highway 66. Perfectly fine for what we needed, but I’ll be looking to the Emigrant RV campground for future stays.
So already, I am appreciating the unscheduled roaming. It can be unsettling, not knowing where you are going to stay and not having it all mapped out. Not my style. But see, if we had, I would never have stayed to see the Cabaret show and would not have gotten to connect with wonderful people. I’m liking this. Uncomfortable, but liking it.
Total miles from Shasta: 113.1, 16.3 mpg, 2 hours 32 minutes. Site 4. Awesome. Any of the sites next to the water are super. The site on the far end of the loop may have direct access to the water. Excellent LTE for ATT and Verizon. In fact, you can see the Verizon tower by the lake. Full hookups. 5 min drive to town.
Thus begins our summer experiment. We are heading out with basically no reservations and a lot of open time on the calendar. Richard is working a flexible schedule, meaning, he will work as much as possible, providing we have adequate service for him to log on and check in. When we’re somewhere really fun, he’ll take vacation days. Weekends are free. We have a rough idea of going north, maybe as far as Glacier National Park, but we aren’t committed to that, nor are we counting on that. The idea is to be totally flexible and roll with what comes. Translation: we don’t really know how to plan for this kind of traveling so we’re going to be uncomfortable from time to time and see if it’s worth it.
We do have reservations for the first weekend leg of the journey and that is in Ashland. It would be fairly silly to expect to get a place on the weekend and I planned well in advance with show tickets to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and a reservation with hookups. We decided to go ahead and get a head start by leaving Thursday and stopping somewhere along the way. Richard found us a spot at Antlers RV campground right on the north finger of Shasta Lake. This is logistically a great location to stop, however, the campground is really packed to maximize the number of sites. No complaints here, but I’m not sure it would be a destination we’d want to use to hang out at the lake.
Along the way, we stopped for lunch by taking an exit off I5 for the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge. That turned out to be really fun. There is a 7 mile auto loop you can do (it’s dusty) and even in the “off season” we spotted some Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Jack Rabbits, and deer. This is exactly the type of thing we wanted to open ourselves up to with no hard plans or ambitious daily destinations. Onward!
Forewarning: this is a long post that is not about camping, but it is all about forewarnings. So take heed.
All was boring and full of freeway up to Carlsbad where we saw a sign for a state beach and thought we could have a nice lunch stop. We pulled off to find that most of Southern California also thought that would be nice. There was nowhere to park and I almost got myself into a cul de sac pinch when I pulled over for Richard to make a call. Luckily, we got turned around and just headed back on the freeway until we found a rest stop. Again, back heading north, nothing much to report and traffic not too bad, until we saw one of those big light up freeway signs warning of a crash and a delay. This was important, though we did not appreciate it at the time.
When we finally got to the slow down, it was a pretty abrupt stop. But we were expecting it, so we inched along with everyone else until we eventually came to the exit recommended by Google. As soon as we’d pulled off the freeway though, we were stuck. It appeared that many, many other people were following Google’s advice onto a route that took us through small, residential neighborhoods. There was an endless line of cars, trucks, buses, and trailers, all trying to get through these tiny streets and you would only move a few feet every maybe fifteen minutes. Kind hearted residents, no kidding, started passing out popsicles to the stranded motorists. People just trying to get into their driveways had to wait for someone to creep forward long enough for them to cross the never-ending line.
That went on forever. And then we eventually got routed back to the highway where the situation had only gotten worse. There were now four lanes of traffic sitting at a dead stop for hours on a part of I-5 where there is nothing but roadway, a small shoulder, and a steep drop off to your right into a canyon. And now thousands of vehicles, running their engines constantly to keep the AC going, were filling up the atmosphere with carbon monoxide. Many trucks had pulled over and given up along the shoulder and I started having serious thoughts about joining them when I saw campers who had literally taken out their camping tables and chairs and were setting up right there on the side of the road. I think the only thing that held me back was the belief that somehow the car’s air filtration system was keeping us from just passing out on the spot. It occurred to me to tell Richard to quickly put the car in Park, should I expire first.
That went on for even more ever. We got to the start of it around three and we didn’t emerge after the accident until seven thirty. When we finally inched up to where we could see actual emergency vehicles, we could understand. A big rig truck was lying perpendicular in the road, only hanging onto the shoulder by about half. The rest of it was hanging off the end of the drop off and there must have been ten huge towing vehicles and a crew of people trying to figure out how to pull it back. We got there well after the incident had occurred, so we obviously saw the cleaned up, post tragedy, version. Sadly, I guess the truck driver was killed and at least one other car was involved. Very sad.
While we didn’t beat the setting sun, we did have enough dusk light to easily pull in and find ourselves next to a surprisingly beautiful body of water, out in the middle of nowhere, just off I-5 in Bakersfield. Who knew? I enjoyed the hell out of a glass of wine by the water while Richard scooted down the road to a Subway and brought back dinner.
As for Buena Vista Aquatic Recreation Area, it was really nice and a total surprise. You’d never know there was water there from the freeway. There are two lakes, both geared toward water sports, and the larger one is huge. The premium sites are right next to the water, where you are in fact allowed to launch your own boats. I imagine it must get pretty hot there, but it was a glorious respite after a long, long, day.
Aside from testing out working on the road and being out of the house during painting, we did have a motivation for heading so far south. 
The drive down was a slog. We stuck on I-5 the whole way to make sure service was strong. There’s not much to say about going through Los Angeles. I did spot the Matterhorn from the freeway as we passed Disneyland and I still get a little thrill out of that. I wasn’t the least bit tempted to stop, but I mentally reviewed many fond memories of that place, especially with my mom when I was a kid. Same with Legoland when we passed that further south. The highlight of the day was stopping at a vista point in San Onofre to have lunch and allow Richard to be on a call for an hour or so. That worked super well. I got to stare at helicopters engaged in some kind of military type activity, taking metal rectangles from a ship out in the water over to the shore. I’m very curious what the heck they were doing because four of them were just going around, taking turns depositing rectangles, the whole time we were there.
I also got to entertain myself by watching maybe twenty ground squirrels being illegally fed by other vista watchers. Right about the time I was getting bored with vistas, Richard’s call was done and we moved on.
As we approached Santee Lakes, it was looking more and more like this was not going to be a “roughing it” camping experience. In fact, even the level of “camping” we do looks downright John-Muir-in-the-wilderness compared to this place. The resort is located pretty much in the middle of a small suburban town. Yes, there are lakes, seven of them. And each one is meticulously landscaped and manicured and watered, with little bubbling fountains here and there. I saw a beautiful Heron standing at the lakeside, but I can’t be 100% sure it was not animatronic. In short, this place is big rig heaven and it was packed. We spotted some very expensive looking RVs, but very few people, I think because most of them were inside with air conditioning watching TV. Fair enough. We stayed inside with our air conditioning too, so I can’t be too judgey. And honestly, if we’d gotten a waterfront site, I could have been quite content there. Of course, you’re not allowed to put your own boats in the water, but you can rent theirs.
Wednesday, we headed over to Pahaque and met the people I’d conversed with through email many times. They are nice guys. They took a look at our awning and retrofitted it with a center support pole, which, by user reports, helps to prevent water pooling during rain. I could already tell it will help with wind because we had it up without any of the guy lines staked and it looked pretty solid. I described what I wanted in terms of bug netting and we all agreed there would not be any easy solution that would be 100% bug proof. However, they will give it a go adding some panels and we’ll see what we can do. I also showed them a visor from a fellow Altoiste and they saw how the “keder rail” is installed on an Alto. This turns out to be a crucial factor in how their products attach to the trailer. They were duly impressed by the fact that there are no screws inside the railing, like there are in other trailers. They also gave us a helpful hack by suggesting using window locks at the ends of the rail, to prevent the awning from sliding. After a while of chatting, we headed back and Richard worked while I napped.
We took a nice little walk around the lakes before heading to evening routines. One very nice thing about this place was that the site was so level, we didn’t even need to unhitch. That, plus a sewer hookup on site, made heading out the next morning very easy. I think this place would be awesome for families. There are lots of activities and something called “Teen Camp” which looks like a good bet for entertaining children. There are bike rentals, boat rentals. And San Diego is nearby for day trips to the zoo or whatnot. And all the sites are full hookup and very flat. It’s like a Super KOA (in fact, a big sign in front declares it to be “Award Winning”). If you think of it that way, you won’t be disappointed.
Well, that was an interesting place. Really, we were just looking for an overnight with electric hookups for the AC, so the “resort” destination at Lake Piru lived up to all expectations there. And we knew it would be hot coming inland, so no surprises there (the dashboard temperature gauge read 110º, but I doubt it was quite that high). What we didn’t expect was the deserted, what-catastrophic-event-just-happened-here? kind of feel.
We made a stop along the way for grocery shopping and to get a nice Doryable dinner since Monday was our anniversary. Sunday was Dory’s 2nd Altoversary and I must say, her day was the more romantic of the two, given sunsets and fine dining in Morro Bay.
Besides the large rigs occupied by “residents,” right on the other side of the fence from our site, I think we saw maybe two other campers. Even the bathrooms felt oddly creepy. Like instead of thinking, “My, what nice, clean bathrooms, with so many private shower stalls.” we both came away with an impression more like, “Wow, look how many places to hide bodies.”
Well, we are not at the Third Annual Altoistes rally in North Carolina because I can be rational sometimes. That would have been a big trip to justify for a four day event. Still, I wanted to. Instead, I picked up a project I’d abandoned last summer and cleared out our bedroom in order to have it painted and re-floored. Understand, this wasn’t a purely cosmetic project. It had become more of a health and safety issue over time and the few people in the know have all signed non disclosure agreements. Given that plan, we decided to make a crazy trip down south to the headquarters of the company that makes the Alto awning. Richard is treating it as a mobile work week and we’re finding it is going ok so far.
But first, we spent the weekend on the coast near Morro Bay to escape the heat. We left Friday morning and were rolling by 10. Richard was in full work mode, which appears to mean tapping on a laptop, dropping his mouse, and holding on and off conversations with other remotely connected programmers. We took a detour on our way to Coyote Lake because that is a mere 82 miles from us and offers kayaking potential. There are electric hookup sites there, which would be nice if it’s hot. I noted that site 7 had a good view, but is in full sun. Worth checking out.
We camped in the San Simeon campground before, but up in the Washburn “primitive” campground. I think the only difference is there are vault toilets up there, no showers, and unpaved roads. This time we checked out the lower San Simeon Creek campground in a “nonspecific” site (which means you can secure a reservation ahead of time, but choose your site based on what is available when you get there). I did take notes on sites that were on the nice side and have solar, but they all seem fairly equal to me along the outside of the loop. Inside the loop is much more in the thick of things, but we were fine with whatever. There was certainly a different vibe on the weekend when it was packed with partiers and families than on Sunday night. We had a group next to us, for example, with a palatial tent compound set up and they ran a generator most of the day. I’m not really sure what for, besides inflating the beds.
Saturday we split up so Richard could go on a bike ride and I could go kayaking in Morro Bay. That was pretty spectacular. The weather was perfect and a far cry from the 100s we’d left behind. There were definitely otters in the water as well as Pelicans and seals. We had a miscommunication on where we were supposed to meet up, but luckily there is pretty good cell service in that area, so I ended up picking Richard up out near Montana Del Oro. Sunday we hiked the San Simeon Creek trail and had dinner at 
Anyone remember the cartoon with the 
Down in the valley, temperatures were in the high 90s or low 100s for most of the weekend, but up at 5k feet, it never got too bad and mostly stayed in the upper 80s. This was a good thing, because we did not have hookups to run the AC. We left midday Friday and Richard was able to work in the car. It really does take about five hours for us to get there, even without traffic. We were rewarded after the long drive with a lovely sunset over a much fuller Shaver Lake. Dorabelle is just across a little bay from Camp Edison and has many nice beaches to launch boats or just hang out. There were lots of campers this weekend and lots of boats on the water.
Saturday Richard wanted to do a bike ride down into the valley and back up, but the road into Shaver Lake, at least the last six miles of it, is quite narrow, with no shoulder. He also wasn’t too keen on the idea of all that descending because the gradient is pretty steep. For some reason, he was into the idea of climbing, even in the heat, so we came up with a compromise. I drove him down to Tollhouse and returned to the lake to do some paddling. Then, once he’d climbed most of the way, he could stop at a little market and wait for me to pick him up with the car. That worked perfectly and timed well with the amount of paddling I felt like doing in one stretch. I got some impressive before and after shots to show just how much the level of the water had risen since we were there a couple of weeks before. Apparently they had intentionally let a lot of water out in order to make ready for the snow melt. This time, the lake looked good and full. Sadly, all around you can see the decimation of the pine trees after the long drought. I’m not sure how many of them succumbed, but there is a lot of deforestation going on to remove the dead ones.
After his hot bike ride, Richard was up for spending time in the water. What he didn’t like the last time he tried boating was the feeling he was going to tip over. So I went and got him a floaty in town and towed him around the lake like an aquatic trailer. He got cheers from some of the guys on the beach, who said they wanted to throw him a beer and take pictures. It was Father’s Day weekend, so I guess you could justify the image.
But this application was a good one, the only problem being the fact that without bug netting, the awning sort of acts like a bug attractor and trapper. I’m scheming some ideas about how netting could possibly be added to it, but I still note that there are limited circumstances in which the effort it takes to put up and take down would make it worthwhile.
We made a quick stop at the same vista point we lunched at before and I noted, through not very scientific methods, that Dory is cooler inside than outside if you run the fan at full speed. Long drive home and we waited until eight to unpack and move Dory into the garage. Summer has arrived in all its glory.
This one goes on the list of favorite campgrounds for sure! The park is only open from April to November and is geared toward tent camping. Several of the sites list a maximum vehicle length of 12′ and would not be suitable to an Alto. But there are a couple that are 24′ and level enough that small trailers can get in with no problem. This is a very beautiful campground and they take great pains to keep it that way. Some of the wildlife in the area is endangered, so it is a “crumb clean” park. That means you truly do need to be careful about not leaving any food out or around which would attract Jays, squirrels, or raccoons. Worth it, 100%.
It only took us about two hours to get there Friday and we got to enjoy beautiful views of the California coastline on the way. The weather was cooler this weekend, but, being on the coast and in a redwood forest, I think this would be the place to go when inland temps get up there in the summer. Saturday we went on a beautiful hike along the Six Bridges trail (There are. We counted.). Along the way, we met a group of volunteers who were working very hard to keep the trails nicely maintained. After all the recent rain, they have found it only takes about a month for the trail to go from cleared, to impassably overgrown. Then we climbed up the Ano Nuevo trail and got some views all the way to the ocean. From there, it was a magical, gentle downward stroll through the forest and back to the campground. We figure the loop was about 4 miles and about 700′ of climbing. That was one of my favorite hikes.
We played around with the rear view camera a bit on this trip. It had worked perfectly for about a year, then started giving us problems. It would work sporadically, then not at all. We sent it back in and got a replacement camera and were able to verify that it worked, but only with the roof up and the receiver antenna sticking out the window. 
So this weekend we tried a BFA (A=Antenna, you guess the rest) and that seemed to do the trick. It’s pretty darn big and I’m not sure where to keep it when not in use, but I truly prefer being able to see behind me when I’m backing into a site, so I’ll make it work. In other tech news, and for those who have been worried about us dying in our sleep, we got a standalone CO detector which has yet to terrify us awake. Richard gave it a stern warning that at the first sign of a false alarm, it will be toast. It seems to be behaving.
Sunday we knew we were going to have to stop at Half Moon Bay on our way home to dump our tanks (no dump at Butano), and given the fact that my last work day was Friday, we were itching to stay out a little longer. When we pulled in, we asked about sites and sure enough, for one night, there was a non hookup site available. There was plentiful solar and at this point, we both blew a happy fuse. Once we calmed the giddiness down, we went for a walk on the beach, gawked at a group flying around with huge surf sails, and biked into town to get takeout dinner. I highly recommend a place called Ark and their Chicken Tikka Masala. Sunset on the beach… yeah. Life is good.
Monday morning, Richard had to go to work. Luckily, his commute was pretty short. As long as he has good cell service, it really doesn’t matter where he parks his laptop. He was able to hop online and do his job equally well at the beach, sitting in Dory, and he’s pretty sure none of his coworkers even knew he had his back to the ocean rather than our dining room wall. The only limiting factor to this setup turns out the be his laptop battery, which does not (yet) have a 12v solution. So when he took his “lunch break,” we hitched up and drove home. He jumped back online without missing a beat as soon as we got home.
This year, Memorial Day weekend brought the sweet respite of no internet service. I usually get pretty antsy when there is no connection at all from anywhere inside a campground, but it is clear to me that I needed a break. We still found time to check in with home every twenty-four hours, but once we got within about five miles of the campground, it was radio silence, a bottle of Rombauer, and bliss.
Saturday was project day. Richard had previously installed a Sun Saver Duo solar controller so that the solar panels could charge the main battery and the coffee machine battery simultaneously. It appears to be a pretty nifty unit and also has the added benefit of bringing in the amps at a slightly higher rate than the original one. Richard programmed it to use whatever solar energy it is getting and send 90% to the main Alto battery, and 10% to the smaller 50 amp battery. He wired up a plug in the battery box for one end of the cable, and Saturday finished the project by wiring a plug in the wall to go to the solar controller. We can verify that the system is working as intended, which means we shouldn’t need to plan long outings to have hookup sites just so we can charge up the coffee battery.
The other nifty thing he did was to install a dual USB charging outlet, pulling from the circuit that used to run the CO/LPG detector. We’d pretty much given up on the factory wired detector. It was excellent at detecting moisture, spilled beer, and sound sleep, but we decided a while ago that we’d rather just die peacefully than need to consistently pull the fuse at 3am. We will instead get a battery operated standalone unit and see how much it detects. But again, dying in our sleep in Dory = not a bad way to go.
All projects were completed by 2, so Richard went on a bike ride and I wrote the last report of the school year. That took a couple of hours. I then followed his route with the car, and met up with him on the road. This jaunt also coordinated nicely with a daily check in with the outside world. Then it was back to blackout bliss and a Blue Apron meal of Meatballs & Tomato Sauce with Asparagus and Creamy Rice. OMG. That was good. I’m 50 and don’t like brown rice, but that was really delicious brown rice. Perhaps, with the addition of fromage blanc, pan seared asparagus, cilantro, and lime juice, I could learn to appreciate the stuff.
Sunday was the warmest day of the weekend and we planned to redo the hike to the Balconies Trail Talus caves. It turns out, we were not the only ones on Memorial Day weekend to have that thought. We bailed at the last minute after standing in line for the shuttle while feeling crowded. Instead, we went on the South Wilderness trail. That was lovely, though would have been better about five to ten degrees cooler. It was an out and back and we figure we went at least five miles total. That was plenty. When we got back to Dory, we cranked the AC and had ice cold lemon waters. Another “Lost,” another quick trip to see if the world was still there, and back for a grilled dinner of beef satay and skewered veggies. While I cooked, Richard utilized the portable grey water dump tank. I think that may have been the third time it’s ever been used. For a two night stay, we don’t need to dump. If we had wanted to conserve, we could have made it another night, but the thing is really big, so we kind of wanted to feel like it was worth it to bring. Plus, over the summer, Richard wants to see if we could go places during the week where he could work during the day. If we can find a place with strong internet, electric hookups or solar, and a dump station, we could stay M-F. We shall see.
Monday we packed up leisurely, expecting to hit traffic no matter when we left. Sadly, as we were cleaning up, I found out from a ranger that the big flying birds we had been positive were Condors, were in fact Turkey Vultures. Apparently, the Condors have all flown to Big Sur. Oh well. I did not inform the campers next to us because they were pretty excited about seeing Condors. In fact, the evening before, there was quite a gathering in the campground of people looking up with binoculars at the seven circling Condors, exchanging remarks about how they were clearly larger than Turkey Vultures, and look, you can even see the distinctive white coloring that makes it certain they are Condors. And who can say? Maybe all the RV campers know more than National Park Service Rangers whose job it is to know about these things.
Wow, I really like lakes. A big huge thank you to our Altoiste buddy, Linda, for the recommendation of Camp Edison at Shaver Lake! This may have been one of my favorite places, though it was a long drive and I would have preferred a longer stay. But isn’t it always the case that we’d like a longer stay?
What a site! We had a beautiful and unobstructed view of the lake, but I will say it was rather unlevel. Perhaps if we’d repositioned closer to the power pole, it might have been better. But we pulled out the trusty BAL leveler and raised it to its max. Good thing we always carry that just in case. Also a good thing we carry a step stool. Linda was just across from us in a rockstar site right by the water.
Saturday was a big day. Richard went out for an impressive bike ride, while Linda and I and her three doggies got to paddle the lake. Lake kayaking is my official favorite thing. There is no current, no tide, just easy, peaceful floating. Linda’s doggies were pros, even the puppy. We spent a good several hours paddling all around Shaver Lake. Once we decided to go back on land, we left the kayaks inflated on the chance we might want to hop back in the water later on. Then we relaxed in our respective Altos until Richard got back.
His ride covered forty miles and climbed 5,702 ft, so he was understandably tired and ready for food. First though, we had brought along all the fixins to install a Trimetric battery monitor for Linda, so we started on that.
To install a Trimetric on an Alto battery, often the most difficult part is fishing the thin wire that goes from the battery area, to the inside where the monitor needs to go. We got immediately confused when we looked at Linda’s Alto because hers was lacking the plastic tubing that houses the bundle of wires coming out of the battery on the port side. We found another tubing bundle on the starboard side and realized we were going to need to run the wire up through the floor on that side (*ok, it turns out we also have that same tubing on our Alto, we just never noticed because the one on the port side is so much more obvious. It also turns out the port side tubing is for the Caravan Mover, which Linda doe
s not have. So there you go). I got to be the one on the ground with pine needles in her hair, carefully pushing the wire along from bend to bend. This process is not unlike when you accidentally pull a tie string out of something like pants or a jacket hood, and have to shove it back through, inch by inch, until you can pull it out the other side.
The next step was to install the “shunt” onto the battery. This is what actually reads the activity on the battery. Richard had made a fancy copper connector to go from the shunt to the battery terminal. Only problem: the terminal screw was too short. This stopped us dead in our tracks for a while until I asked if it could possibly be mounted upside down. Richard saw no practical reason that couldn’t work, so we were back in business.
Upon our return, Richard started the process of hooking up the monitor. It turned out to be far more time consuming that he anticipated because he’d brought the wrong wire stripper. So…. he would go at it with a pair of clippers for a while, and either get it, or mistakenly snip the wire and have to start all over again with all four tiny wires. Poor Linda all this time, was standing outside in the dark with her doggies. Can you just feel the fun? So, cut to the chase, between his fiddling and my fiddling, we got it hooked up, tested, and mounted. I think it was around 9pm when we packed all the bits and tools away. That was a long day, requiring some follow up discussions for how to avoid similar situations in the future. We now have a “signal” I can give in moments when I think something is a bad idea but can’t explain all the reasons why. I also made reservations for this same site in October so we can have a do over. I really would like, someday, to go for a sunset paddle on a lake.
Sunday we enjoyed a nice, lazy morning. We headed back a little after noon, stopping at a vista point for lunch and coffee. The drive back only took around 4 hours and we got back at 6ish, gave an Alto tour, and collapsed for the night.
