On the road!!

Location, Mammoth, CA

I am playing catch-up on the journal as I had no time to update it until now. It is early Wednesday morning in a camp ground near Mammoth, Ca. The temperature this morning was 41 degrees and sunny with hopes of it getting into the 90’s today.

To back up, we left the house around 11 AM on Tuesday after numerous phone calls from friends with good wishes for our trip and calls for our son making Dr’s appointments for the coming weeks. He is doing better this morning as his shoulder feels better. I really think he may have something major wrong with it like a torn rotator cuff, but time will tell.

We made a fast trip as far as Santa Barbara and all traffic came to a stop. It took us an hour to get through town. Cal Trans was trimming flowers or some such in the center divider I guess. We stopped on the Rincon so I could check the trailer lug nuts as I had removed all wheels when I repacked the wheel bearings. Specs call for a recheck every 50 miles for the first 200 miles after removing the wheels. We also ate a quick lunch while stopped.

The trip to Tehachapi was via Hwy 126 from Ventura to I-5 and North over the “Grapevine”. I go this way to avoid the traffic North of Los Angeles. We do contend with truck traffic on the “Grapevine” but there are 4 lanes and that helps. The road bed is in poor shape for the 2 outside lanes but 20 minutes of climbing gets us to Hwy 138, Quail lake road, and easy 2 lane driving east to Hwy 14. From there it is North on Hwy 14 to Mojave where we stop for fuel at the Mobil station on the south end of town. They have a truck island out back and a large lot to turn around in. Diesel was $3.09 per gallon.

From Mohave it is an easy climb west on Hwy 58 to Tehachapi and our friends Budd and Brenda’s home. They have lots of cement to park on and it is easy to just back into there yard. We enjoyed diner and conversation and by 9 PM all were ready for bed. The temperature had been in the high 80’s which is just perfect. It cooled off enough for sleeping.

Wednesday morning we had a quick breakfast and pulled out about 9 AM. The trip north on Hwy 14 is high desert and baron but still quit interesting. The temperatures gradually moved up to about 93 degrees for most of the trip north. We stopped in Bishop, CA for lunch at Schat’s Bakery, Home of the Original Sheepherder Bread. No trip through Bishop is complete without a stop at Schat’s. We all had a “Mule Kick” sandwich which is roast beef with all the fixings and jalapeno peppers on Mule Bread. Very tasty! We picked up a loaf of Sheep Herder bread and some dessert for later also.

The climb out of Bishop to the top of Sherwin grade is slow and tedious. It is about 4000 foot climb to the top at 7000 feet. Once there it is a good fast road to Mammoth. We found a place to camp together and quickly set up and got out the chairs for some relaxing. Dinner was a pasta casserole Clyda had prepared ahead of time with salad and sheep herder bread. Desert was chocolate dipped coconut macaroons with Muscat dessert wine. Yummy!

If we get to the library today I will post this. The Mammoth library has Wi-Fi and is the easiest place to get to the internet.