Uh oh!

 8:22 am - Friday - October 14th - Fontana, CA - 64° F, 78% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the south......heavily overcast this morning with a forecast high today of 81° F.  Notice that humidity?  It's about 50 points higher here in SoCal than it was at LPG&RVR!  On this date in 2017 we were at Ririe Reservoir near Idaho Falls, ID for one night....we went to bed with green grass next to our Newell, and woke up the next morning to a foot of snow.......↴

As has been the case for a month, or so now we turned on our heaters first thing Thursday morning to chase away the cold night air one would rightly expect at over 4,000' elevation, just as we did the last few weeks at LPG&RVR.  In the Eastern Sierra town of Bishop, CA it feels like Fall, as it should.  Within 5 hours we would transition from Fall weather to late Summer weather in Fontana, CA.

Once I had posted my latest daily missive it did not take us long to be ready to haul anchor, and begin next leg of our journey to Glamis North Hot Springs.  Thursday would be our biggest driving day since we left LPG&RVR at 256 miles.  I'm glad we gook the first 450 miles in small bites, and I now felt ready to tackle a big driving day.  As we turned right off Sierra Street in Bishop, CA onto US-395 southbound I noticed the time was 8:50 am....by 2 pm we would be arriving at the Elks Lodge in Fontana, CA, and a completely different world than that in which we have lived the last 6 months....heavy traffic, dense population, smog, and significantly warmer overnight temps.  But, as oft I do, I get ahead of myself.

It was a windless day as I set the cruise control to 60 mph, and then just held onto the wheel for the next 210 miles......

South of Lone Pine

Little Lake

Nearing Coso Junction and now under 3,000' elevation for the first time in 6 months

......with about 46 miles to go the traffic began to increase dramatically, and I could feel my grip on the large Newell steering wheel tightening more with each mile we drove further south.  We took a short break just below Kramer Junction with about 40 miles to go, and since we were just off the road I turned on my emergency flashers, but left the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 running.  I usually turn off the engine, but for some reason I left the engine running, but turned the key to the far left position, or accessories position....why, I have no idea.  When I returned to the driver seat a few minutes later I turned off the flashers, and puled back into traffic to begin the 2 mile climb out of the Kramer Junction area.  When the key is in the accessories position none of the gauges work, so, not remembering the key was in the accessories position I glanced at the coolant temperature reading as I often do and saw it was over 215° F....far too high.....UH OH!  I kept glancing at it in confusion as the engine had been idling for 5-10 minutes, and usually the temp reading is around 185° F, or less at idle.  Suddenly I imagine I smell coolant, and begin to think the worst.....either a coolant hose has burst, or my fan belts have broken....I quickly pull onto the shoulder again, put the Newell in neutral, then rev the engine to cool it down, but the temperature does not drop at all.  Suddenly I glance at the key, and see it is in the accessory position.....doh!  Once I turn it to the 'ON' position, the temp reads 184° F....double doh, and a BIG 'WHEW!' escape my mouth.....lol.  All is back to normal, and we once again merge back into traffic heaving heavy sighs of relief intermixed with nervous, but relieved laughter.

The rest of the trip was just slogging through mind numbing traffic as we neared the merging point of US-395 with I-15 southbound, and then the real fun began in earnest.  As you crest over the hill and see the Pomona Valley you begin an 8 mile, 6% grade downhill run.  I put the Newell into 2nd gear, and let the Jacobs Brake take over.  The Jacobs Brake keeps us at around 35-40 mph.  The traffic is very heavy as we make the descent, and here are a  few videos TLE shot to relate how heavy the traffic was, and how smoggy the air was/is here in SoCal......

......we arrived safely, and without further incident at the Fontana Elks Lodge around 2:05 pm....

Safely ensconced in site #9 for five nights

.....we're only going to be here for 5 nights so we did not pull out the artificial turf, and just did a minimal setup, which did, of course, include deploying our Starlink 'dishy'.  As has been the case all four times we have deployed it we had internet within 10 minutes, and MBPS speeds of over 120.....what a deal!

Thanks for stopping by!