My RV was in Fresno for about a month in November and early December, and during that time I had wonderfully high highs, as well as some challenges…so typical of life!
I spent Thanksgiving with my kids at my uncle’s house in the Los Angeles area. I hadn’t seen my aunt and uncle in about five years, and hadn’t been to their home in decades. My kids met my uncle when they were too young to remember much, so this was truly a family reunion.
The day after the holiday, my brother’s two kids rode a train for two hours each way to visit with us at my uncle’s house for four hours. We hadn’t seen them in almost two years. I can’t even describe with words how amazing it all was. A fabulous visit!
From Los Angeles, my daughter and I drove up to San Francisco to visit an old friend. I lived there in my 20’s and early 30’s, and hadn’t seen my friend in 28 years – so many great memories!
And, my father grew up in San Francisco, so we visited his childhood home as well. From there, we drove back to the RV in Fresno, and Caitlin stayed with me for a few days before flying back to Seattle.
That part of the past month was fantastic! But, for the remaining three weeks of my Fresno stay, I was alone – two weeks before the trip, and one week after. Unfortunately, I was able to do very little genealogy research, which was the whole point of being there. I spent a few hours in the genealogy section of the library one day, and my daughter and I visited the cemetery together. That was it.
My time in Fresno was spent preparing for my trip to England, and taking care of a myriad of administrative details. It was enrollment time for health insurance, which threw me into a financial tizzy for a week afterwards. I researched trip insurance, phone, internet and medical coverage overseas, RV storage options, car rentals in England, rental car insurance, how to get my prescriptions filled while I’m away, and what to do for a GPS. I finalized lodging plans for England and researched options for my trip to Italy. I did my online Christmas shopping and worked on my genealogy classes. In other words, I was busy. Not much fun, but all good.
When I was in LA, my aunt and uncle very generously offered to allow me to store my RV and car at their house while I’m in Europe, which will save me a ton of money, and give me peace of mind as well. More good.
Moving on to my complaints, I truly did NOT like the Fresno campground. I paid extra to be on the lagoon, but it was all dried up. The site was sandy, which meant I tracked the stuff in to the RV and I was constantly cleaning. There was no picnic table. My fellow campers seemed to be more or less permanently there – perhaps seasonal workers – most of whom had dogs which constantly barked. Either that, or there was loud music playing into the night. Or both.
It was cold – the last day there, I woke up to 28 degrees – and the bath house wasn’t heated, so I had to wait until it warmed up in the afternoon to take a shower. Not only that, but the bath house was disgustingly dirty. Even my daughter said that she didn’t know how I could stand it. I took really fast showers.
I had an infestation of ants and lady bugs. I was under a tree which constantly dropped something hard, like a nut, which made me jump out of skin every time I heard it. The tree debris also prevented my slide-out from retracting on the cold morning I packed up, so I had to get up on the icy roof with a broom to sweep it all off.
And, things started to break. My brand new computer completely crashed and I had to send it back to HP for repairs. My brand new microwave stopped heating food. The hot water heater was emitting a horrible burning smell, so I turned it off and had no hot water for the last week there.
Oh, and let’s not forget the car. I had a recall notice regarding the seat detection mechanism on the passenger side, which impacts the airbag. There was no Mini dealer anywhere near Fresno, so I scheduled an appointment in LA. Then, I had to jump-start the car with the RV several times the week before the appointment, so I asked the dealer to take a look at the battery. The final bill was $1,200 – evidently the power steering lines were leaking and had to be replaced, which was completely unexpected.
For car repair news on the positive side, I took the whole rig into the Camping World in Fresno the day I left. They repaired the damage to the front end of the car at no charge. The hitch shouldn’t dip more than 3″ between the RV and the car, and my level was something like 9″, they said. They corrected the hitch by installing a down bar (which I understandably had to pay for), so it won’t happen again.
It was kind of serendipitous that as I was coming to the end of my time in the RV, things were falling apart and I was feeling very ready to move on. I just felt done, and very much looking forward to the next chapter in my adventure.
Roots on Wheels 