September 8 - A day of clusterf%$ks

Sunday, September 8  What a day of Clusterf#ks!

My maternal human is poking my paw again.  She used to do it a lot, then only once in a while, but she is doing it more.  I hope my paternal human does not poke me too.

Instead of walking the mile plus to the Cerro San Luis trailhead, Spouse and I drove over to it, so that we could hike one of the loops in its entirety. I promised Spouse it would be the lower loop so that he would want to do it!

We started up again, then cut over to the Lemon Grove Loop.  It is a foot path, but we did see a few courageous mountain bikers on it.  No room for error there.  It travels along the rolling hillside.  We can view the freeway and the backs of the buildings alongside seeing into some personal lives there!  The trail winds, has some reasonable ups and downs.  I had photographed the map so I could refer to it.  Invariably, maps do not show all the little cutovers and trails.  Since this trail is shared with cattle (and their cowpies!), some of these offshoots could be cattle trails for all we know.  We follow as best we can.

We see deer tracks in the dirt, climb over a few small rock outcroppings, thankful that we are not on our bikes.  Since the trail was not very clear, we asked a hiker for info.  She was the spitting image of my nephew’s wife Jennifer, not just in looks, but in her voice and mannerisms.  Spouse and I were in awe of the similarities!  The trail continued through some oaks, and through a eucalyptus forest, then through a lemon grove.  Go figure, there would be a lemon grove in the Lemon Grove Loop.  Who would have thought of that…

It looped around and brought us to where we ended up with our bikes.  Cow #45 shared the trail with us.  Wasn’t Trump #45??  We finished the loop, then headed back to get ready to hit the road.

This is where the fun begins…

We pack Artee up, throw Rudy in the truck, then go to hook up to the truck.  Spouse tried, then he tried. Forward and back, up and down.  A full HOUR later, he noticed a spring had popped off the hitch.  He got it off the truck bed, put it in  place, and the miracle happened!  We could hook up!

Then, he pulls over to dump our tanks.  The black tank kept dumping and draining and draining and draining…  Until Spouse notice that the hose he used to flush it was still turned on.  Duh…  So much for an early start…

Finally, on to 101 north, it isn’t 30 minutes before Spouse has to pee.  He slows to pull over and the brakes (which he just had worked on) were violently vibrating.  He peed, and he started using more of his exhaust brake.  Another 30 minutes, another pee.  He probably made it an hour before another pee.  And one more time for fun.  The brakes seemed better but we are on alert.  Are we going to need a repair?  Not sure.

Driving up 101, there is tons of farmland.  Patches of green, gray green, and look at that, that looks like cauliflower.  Wonder what that stuff over there is?  But we are sure feeding a lot of people with all this.  We pass through Castroville, home of the fried artichoke hearts. 

There is a major heat wave down south, yet as we pass Moss Landing near Monterrey, it is overcast with patches of fog, temperatures in the low 60’s.  There is quite a bit of traffic heading north.  We keep our distance, but our brakes seem to be ok for now.

When we get to Santa Cruz, we head north on hwy. 17 heading, then onto 9 heading to Felton.  Then the GPS pranksters kicked in.  Hwy 9 is a small road that winds through a redwood forest.  The GPS bitch has us turn right on Laurel.  Hmm… pretty small street but since there is an RV park here, it must be ok, right?  Left on this street… really?  right on the next street?  She is kidding right?  These streets are way too small for anybody towing anything let alone the size of Artee.  Finally, we refused to take the bait.  We were stuck.  We knew we could not go straight, turning right was not going to happen.  Backing up was a nauseating possibility.  Some guys in a car waiting for us to get out of the way told us we might be able to use the turnaround at the bottom of the road on our left.  Spouse walked down and checked it out.  It would be tight, but our only viable option.  We kissed a few twiggy branches but were able to make the turn.  We found a road with a double yellow line so we knew it was big enough, and headed back towards hwy 9.  I got out my phone and found the RV park.  WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE TURNED!  The park is right off of hwy 9.  Spouse now hates the GPS bitch too!

So now… right on hwy 9.  As I tell Spouse to turn left, he passes the entrance.  Oy…  we are on a tiny windy road.  There is no place to turn around.  After about 3 miles going 15 mph, winding and holding our breath, we find a spot that is big enough and make the uturn.  Then we get to tow Artee back down the tiny windy road.  We get to the turn, but it is at such an angle, there is no way our truck could turn down the road, let alone our truck with Artee.  So…  we go about a mile and Spouse makes a turn on a hilly street.  Didn’t like the scraping I heard along the street, but we were able to finally get to the Cotillion Gardens RV park.

But wait, there is more…  We get to our site (I had booked it online and it was supposedly our size).  Technically, it was our size… that is if you didn’t mind not being level both left/right, and front/back.  We might be able to unhook, but we would never be able to hook up again.  Back to the office… fortunately, there were a couple other sites available and one fit us just fine.  We are all alone in this area so it is perfect.  The redwoods tower above us.

The last clusterf?#k…  I tested Rudy for his diabetes.  His numbers have been low for the last 4 months, but they are getting higher.  Looks like he might need to go back on insulin.  Will test him tomorrow to see the trend.

Vodka tonic, beer.