Foiled plans

We are at the Kah-Nee-Tah High Desert Resort and Casino, near Warm Springs, Oregon on the Warm Springs reservation (map). It's beautiful here, and this is a nice property, where we could easily spend another night. Unfortunately, we are still out of water.

We did stop yesterday in Madras, where our guide claimed there was water at the city park. We found the park, and it, too, would have been a lovely stop, but could find no spigot. There were bathrooms, though. We opted to continue here, knowing that the tribe also operates an RV park just half a mile from here. We stopped at the Safeway in Madras before leaving town, complete with gas station, but could find no water there, either.

On our way in to the casino here, we did stop at "the village" where the RV park is located. The entire village is gated and there is a $5 day use fee; the entry road past the gate looked to be a challenge for Odyssey. Louise asked at the gatehouse if there was any way we could get some water, and the response was sure, so long as we wanted to spend the night in the $53.50 per night RV park. That might actually be tempting mid-summer, when we could use the power for air conditioning and when the included admission to the mineral springs pool complex, complete with water slides, might be enjoyable.

We knew we had enough at least for showers last night and dishes this morning, and so we just came here to the casino instead. I did transfer a few gallons to the wash tank out of the drinking water tank, just in case. We had a nice dinner at the casual Chinook restaurant in the casino (the white tablecloth Juniper Room is only open on the weekends at this time of year), and the casino gave us $5 apiece in slot play for signing up in the players' club, which we parlayed into $5.25 in actual cash.

My plan today had been to turn north off 26 just before Mount Hood onto 35, which would take us to Hood River on the Columbia. From there I planned to wend our way north through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, past the east side of Mount Saint Helens, and into Randall. Unfortunately, this has been a late storm season (it is snowing around Mount Hood even as I type), and two of the roads we'd need to take through the forest are still closed. In fact, one of them, Forest 25, suffered a landslide last year and will probably not open until late in the summer, if at all this season.

That means that we will continue along 26 all the way to Portland, instead. We'll pass by the southwest flank of Hood on our way, and will probably have to push through some snow today. We should be somewhere near Rhododendron tonight, and if we don't have water by then, we will swing by Flying-J in Troutdale tomorrow. The good news here is that we have friends in Portland, and I am crossing my fingers that we'll be able to get together on short notice. Since we had not planned on passing through, I had not contacted them ahead of time.

I now need to rethink what we will be doing over the next week. We could be at Infinity in just a day or two after hitting the I-5 corridor, which is a bit too soon. One possibility will be to make a few stops at various shops en route, such as Peninsula Glass where we can get our screens replaced, or Pacific Power to get a new PROM for the ECM. Alternatively, we can head over to the coast for a few days, although the weather does not seem particularly conducive to that.

All together again

We are parked at a horse trailhead in the Crooked River National Grassland, a couple miles off US-97 between Redmond and Madras (map). It is an idyllic spot, with a view of hills in every direction, and overlooking the broad agricultural valley to our west. In addition to several posted trails leading from here, the Forest Service has also constructed livestock pens and a loading ramp here. They look to be mostly unused, and we definitely had the whole place to ourselves last night. A lone pickup truck towing a dirt bike trailer coming out of the forest has been the only vehicle we've seen since arriving yesterday afternoon.

It's such a lovely spot that we would stay more than just one night, except for the fact that we are out of water. I put in only two nights' worth back at the Bend Elks, knowing we would have to dump in the next couple days. The DPW dump station in Redmond had only a rinse hose, though, and I did not want to fill the fresh tank from a spigot so close to the sewer. Dumping there is now $2 (our guide said $1), and we had to scramble to find two singles to drop in the iron ranger.

The next town north is Madras, which has no Indian restaurants, as far as I can tell. The guide says it does have a city park, though, with free overnight parking and a water spigot, so we will tank up there. We might even spend the night, although it is only 20 miles from here. Our other option tonight is the casino in Warm Springs. I had originally planned to be in the Mount Hood National Forest tonight, but it is supposed to be snowing and near freezing there; Madras and the casino will be in the 50s.

Our beloved George is back with us, not much worse for the wear other than a shaved spot on her arm where the IV was. We have some fish-oil stuff we are supposed to squirt on their food now, and we have instructions to get another blood panel wherever we are in two weeks. We dropped another two CAT units, in addition to the CAT unit we left Monday. "CAT" stands for "Cough up Another Two-hundred," by the way, so one CAT unit = $200. She does seem more chipper after the hydration therapy, and we are very happy to have her back aboard.

One pet short

We are parked in an industrial neighborhood on the northeast end of Bend (map). In addition to being quiet, out of the way, and free, it is also right across the street from some shopping and several restaurants, including Olive Garden, where we ate last night.

We are still in Bend because the vet decided to hold George overnight. After yesterday's hydration, urine sample, and X-rays, they decided she probably did not have more kidney stones, but may instead be on the cusp of some type of kidney disease. It is in the very early stage, if at all, and can be controlled with diet. I guess they wanted to run some more tests and observe her for another day, but we really miss her when she is not aboard.

We're scheduled to pick her up at 3, so in a few minutes we will roll out of here, stop at a fuel station where I spied $3.059 diesel last night, pick her up, then roll north out of town. Our next stop will be Redmond, where there is a $1.00 dump station at the Public Works department.

After we dropped George off yesterday, we stopped by the Les Schwab in the center of town to have the drivers rotated. We need to swap inners for outers, a laborious process because it involves dismounting and re-mounting the tires to the rims -- our inners are steel and outers are aluminum. The charge was a very reasonable $88, and it was not a moment too soon, as there was significant wear on the inner shoulders of the inner tires.

Another George report

We are at the Elks lodge in Bend, Oregon (map). The lodge here has eight RV spaces with 30-amp power, and while we did not really need it, it's always nice to charge the batteries fully, and we did make use of the heat and hot water. We are just a mile or so from the vet.

The vet could find nothing wrong with George upon physical examination, but they did draw blood. This morning the blood panel came back indicating some kidney function issues, and, given her history with kidney stones, they are going to follow up today with hydration and get a urine sample. We're worried; her last kidney stone nearly killed her. She finally passed it and was fine, and though we never saw it, we're pretty sure it was a diamond, based on the bill.

The cats have been on a urinary-tract food formula ever since, so we were a bit puzzled. This morning, though, we've had an "aha!" moment. Completely coincidentally, yesterday I decided to clean out the faucet aerators, as the faucets have been acting up. An unbelievable amount of crud came out, and all of it was, basically, solidified calcium crystals from taking on hard water in our travels. We're constantly dealing with the effects, including having to soak the shower head in vinegar periodically, and replacing the diaphragms in the hot water recirculating valves roughly every six months. So it occurred to us this morning that maybe the hard water is contributing to George's issues.

We'll ask the vet when we bring her in this morning. In the meantime, the all-seeing, all-knowing Internet tells us that, yes, hard water can contribute to kidney stone formation. So we are now contemplating either putting a softener on our drinking system, or just buying distilled water for the pets.

We'll leave our space here at the lodge to go to the vet -- riding the scooters is hard on the pets. We may end up right back here tonight, or elsewhere in Bend while we await results.

Photo: George as a kitten, summer 2001.

Bend bound

We are in a dispersed camping area just off Oregon 31, in the Deschutes National Forest (map). A forest road leads off from here and we've seen a number of log and chip trucks heading into or out of the forest.

This is a well-used area, and it was listed in our Day's End guide, even though it technically does not meet the rules for dispersed camping, which normally require you to be at least ¼ mile from a paved road. There is room here for a good number of rigs, but we had the place to ourselves last night. It's a bit too accessible for our tastes, with the result being that there is plenty of trash strewn about, including a television set. But for an overnight stop we decided we could overlook that detail.

We had briefly contemplated spending more than a night here, and we walked half a mile down the dirt forest road to see if there was a better spot. But in the end we decided to just make it an overnight, which is a good thing because we have become increasingly worried about George, who has been a bit lethargic and not herself lately. This morning we decided to hightail it into Bend this afternoon, and we got her a 4:30 appointment with a vet there.

We need to do laundry, too, so we will clear out here in just a few minutes so we have time for the laundromat before the vet. Tonight we will most likely end up at the Bend Elks Lodge for $15, if we don't come across something free on the way. We'll also make a stop at the UPS store, since one of the slide projectors sold yesterday and we need to ship it.

Depending on how things go at the vet, I may try to get Odyssey's tires rotated while we are in town. The drivers are starting to look asymmetric and need to be flopped, and I'll have them flop the steers, too, if they will fit on their balance machine. There are three Les Schwab stores in town, and I would bet some other commercial tire shops as well.

Our week for gravel turnouts

We are at yet another gravel pull-off, this one along US-395 north of Lake View, Oregon (map). Just a few yards east of us is an older alignment for 395, still paved, and we briefly considered pulling the bus up onto the old road for the night. Ironically, there is a commercial RV park just a quarter mile north of here.

Yesterday's drive was lovely, up into the Surprise Valley and across the Warner Mountains. As we rolled north to the state line, we noticed Goose Lake is nearly empty, the first time I've seen it this way in the two decades I've been coming up here. We made a brief stop at the Safeway in Lake View for supplies before continuing here, a spot that was listed in our Day's End directory.

Today we will take Oregon 31, the continuation of the Oregon Outback Scenic Byway, which will angle us over to US-97 towards Bend. We've done this road before, in the other direction, and remember it as being quite a beautiful drive. First, though, I'd like to take a walk on the old grade. The countryside is gorgeous, with the hills green with spring, but still sporting patches of snow.

A road less traveled

We are at another gravel pull-off along Nevada 447 (map), less than five miles from the California border and only 65 miles or so from where we started yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday turned out to be a gorgeous day, and as we passed through Gerlach, a town with one gas station and one saloon, the temperature was already approaching 60. In another hour it was in the high 60s and sunny, perfect conditions to work on the Webasto if we could find an appropriate place to stop. We knew most of the land on both sides of 447 was BLM, and I was hoping for a spot before we left the state. It was starting to look doubtful when we came across this nice parking area in a canyon.

We were already proceeding at a snail's pace when we arrived, because there was a calf in the road, just moseying along. I had slowed down to walking speed to ease past the calf, in case it spooked right into our path. Just as we passed him, we spotted this area, and at that speed we had plenty of time to evaluate it. Often as not, we come across these kinds of spots too fast to really do anything about them, and this one, in the middle of an S-bend in a slot canyon, would have been no exception had it not been for the calf. Serendipity, I suppose.

It was early afternoon when we got settled in, and I got to work on the boiler. It takes a bit of effort to get into the enclosure and get it apart, but once inside they are easy to work on. As I suspected, after two years since the last cleaning, the photocell that acts as a flame sensor was nearly completely blackened over, and that was the likely cause of the spontaneous shutdowns. A liberal dose of WD-40, an old toothbrush, and a shop rag were all it took to get the sensor cleaned up, as well as the ignitor electrodes and the burner nozzle. By all rights I should have replaced the nozzle while I was in there, but the only spare I have has more hours on it than the one that's in there now. I am still looking for a heating supply that carries these nozzles.

That did the trick, and we had no further trouble with the heater last night or this morning. While daytime highs here are in the 70s, it dropped into the high 30s last night, and I expect we'll need the boiler in the late evenings and early mornings for another couple weeks yet. While I had the engine bay open and the tools out, I also took the time to tighten up the fan belts. They've been squealing at certain RPMs since we replaced the idler pulley bearings last year, and they are incredibly difficult to adjust -- a single idler tensions two belts, and getting the tension balanced on each is tricky. Only time and load will tell if I got it right this time.

This is a largely untraveled part of the state, and we've only seen perhaps a dozen vehicles since we arrived yesterday afternoon. While thousands descend on Gerlach every year on their way to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert east of there, most arrive from the south, via Sparks, as we did. This turnout seems to owe its existence to gravel or aggregate collection, as a huge chunk of the hillside to our north has been eaten away by heavy equipment. There is even some pavement here, and I am speculating that there might have been a portable asphalt plant here at one time. A lone tree lends character to an otherwise stark and industrial parking area.

This was a great place to stop for the night, surrounded by hills on all sides, and the timing and weather were perfect for getting the heater fixed. But it is not the sort of place we can settle in for a few days to catch up on other things, so we will move along. Today we will cut across the very northeastern corner of California and we should be in Oregon this evening. I heard back from Infinity Coach yesterday, and we now have an appointment there for the week of the 10th, just ahead of Trawler Fest. That gives us just over two weeks to work our way through Oregon and Washington, and I hope to catch some spots we've missed on our previous visits.

High desert solitude

We are parked at a graveled pull-off on BLM land, on a side road off Nevada 447, perhaps ten miles south of Gerlach (map). It was completely dark save for the moon, and other than the coyotes we heard nothing all night. This morning we've seen nothing but a handful of dirt haulers coming and going from the side road (and where, we wonder, does one need to haul dirt out here?).

Yesterday we got a fairly late start out of Sparks. After I posted here, I spent another hour or two working on maps, routes, and services, and then we needed fuel. We had around a third of a tank, but Nevada has the cheapest fuel we'll see all the way to Washington. Checking my fuel pricing web sites, I discovered some of the cheapest diesel in the area, at $3.059, was just down the block at a 76 station, so we looped around Victorian square and pulled in. I think my request for $600 worth befuddled the clerk; I ended up having to authorize the pump twice to get that much. It was an automobile dispenser, so we spent well over half an hour putting in just under 200 gallons.

We also knew it would be a while before we saw either a restaurant or a decent grocery store, so we stopped at the Raley's at the north end of town on our way out. Little did I know that development has overrun the area to the north, all the way to Spanish Springs, which sports a Save Mart. En route, we passed a Costco and an enormous Wal-Mart SuperCenter. The last time I headed up to Pyramid Lake, there was nothing north of Sparks except the BLM's wild horse adoption center until you got to the little store at the edge of the reservation.

We had a lovely drive along Pyramid Lake and through the little town of Nixon, entirely within the native American reservation. The hills surrounding these valleys are gorgeous right now with a dusting of snow on all the peaks. After leaving the res, we passed Lake Winnemucca, often completely dry but yesterday covered edge to edge in shallow water.

We have at least two weeks to get to Puget Sound, so we are taking things very slowly. Somewhere along our route I hope to find a nice spot to settle in for a few days, where I can tackle some projects. The Webasto has been acting up again, requiring us to restart it every ten minutes or so, and I'd like to get it apart and clean the flame sensor while we are still using it every night. I still have half a dozen or so items to photograph and get listed on eBay, and both our computers need attention. Plus, after nearly a month of eating out every night with friends, it will be nice to be eating in and keeping more to our preferred diet.

Waiting out the storm

We are in the bus and RV lot at John Ascuaga's Nugget hotel and casino, in Sparks, Nevada (map). This lot is right on Victorian Square, within easy walking distance of several restaurants, a multiplex cinema, the transit center, the Amtrak station, and, of course, the Nugget.

We arrived here Monday evening. When we got to the bottom of the hill in Carson City, we decided it was too early to stop. Besides that, US-395 now routes around downtown, and so we did not even pass the Carson Nugget. We continued north all the way to Reno, where we had several stopping options in mind.

Long time readers will remember us staying in a couple of different casino parking lots in Reno, most notable the now-defunct Reno Hilton, which has since become the Grand Sierra. However, a few years ago (2007, I think), Reno passed a city ordinance against RV parking anywhere in the city, even on private property, except in an RV park. Enforcement was aggressive, and many RVers have been avoiding the city ever since. We read on the Casino Camper web site, however, that the city council had decided to stop enforcing the ordinance last year, except on a complaint basis. Reports were that the Atlantis, and possibly the Grand Sierra and the Peppermill were once again allowing parking.

Our first stop was Atlantis, which has the advantage not only of being one of the largest and most well-appointed properties in Reno, but is also close to several other restaurants and services. Sure enough, there were a handful of rigs in the west lot. However, in the last few years they have upgraded the lot, which is now fully paved and lit. More importantly, they have installed speakers on most of the light posts, and blare music throughout the lot 24/7. That's not conducive to spending any time there, so we moved along.

The Grand Sierra now has signs forbidding RV parking in the main lots, citing the city ordinance. They do have a full-service RV park, which is both pricey and unappealing. There is also a truck lot, which we probably could have used, but it was cramped and a long way from the hotel entrance. The Peppermill has always been difficult to access, so we came directly here instead.

Unlike its better-known neighbor to the west, Sparks has never had a parking ban, except in its own city parks and lots. The Nugget briefly stopped allowing parking a couple years back, but once again permits it, in this lot only. The guide claims that security will come by and possibly talk to us, but we haven't seen a single patrol since we arrived.

Although the restaurants in the casino have not called us, we did go in yesterday to get massages in the spa. A bit pricey, but that included access to the hotel's indoor pool complex for the day. It was 90° in the pool area, and the pool itself was 85°, while just outside on the deck it was a chilly 40° yesterday. In fact, the last bit of the storm blew through yesterday and it snowed here on and off all day. While we were at the pool and spa, we discovered the showers are actually in a publicly accessible rest room across the hall.

We also ate at two different restaurants on Victorian Square during our stay. That included having a nice lunch with our local friend Julie yesterday before our spa appointment. I would have liked to enjoy more of the area on foot, but the weather has been crappy most of the time we've been here -- part of the reason we've stayed put for a few days. Today is the very tail end of the storm, and we've decided to get rolling this afternoon. Ironically, it will be in the 70s here this weekend.

The lousy weather gave me a chance to get some inside projects done, including repairing the slide projector that belonged to Louise's late stepfather. That's working now, which let me get my old projector listed on eBay. I also got the electric heaters cleaned out for the first time in six years -- the amount of pet fur that was packed into them was remarkable.

We've more or less decided to head to Anacortes for Trawler Fest. That would have been easier starting from San Jose, but we're glad we came up the hill to ski. It does mean wending our way back to the coast as we head north. We've already done US-395 through California, so from here we will head north through Nevada on 445/446/447, just lopping off the very northeastern corner of California on the way to Oregon. We have a full four weeks before the show, so we'll take a very leisurely pace through eastern Oregon and into Washington, and I will be contacting Infinity Coach to see if they can squeeze us in for some maintenance the week or so before the show.

Done skiing for the season

We are parked at the Horizon Casino in Stateline, Nevada (map), familiar to us from previous visits. Unlike then, the town seems deserted on this visit, and the casino itself is nearly defunct. Apparently the Montbleu across the street gutted the tables and most of the slots out of the Horizon when they were under common ownership, and the new owners have an agreement not to replace them for two years. The old Nugget next door to the Montbleu went out altogether, a stark contrast to the boom we saw at the Red Hawk down the hill.

Yesterday we arrived at the ski area around 11 after a slog up the hill, and got a great parking spot with the tour buses, right next to the base lodge. We ran into our friends as we walked into the lodge, and had a quick lunch before heading down to the rental shop. We both brought our own poles, and I also had boots, which must have been 20 years old. While they were very lightly used, they literally started disintegrating right there in the shop just from plastic aging, and the rental guys made me rent boots anyway. I'm hard to fit, with a bony instep that rubs on most footwear, so the rental boots were killing me within minutes, but those are the breaks.

It felt really good to be out on the slopes for the first time in nearly a decade. Like riding a bicycle, the skills stay with you, even if the muscle tone does not. We spent the first couple hours on the green trails because we were skiing with a six year old. She's definitely ready for blue, though. By the end of those two hours, Louise was pretty much done, with aching quads, and since our friends had been skiing since 9am, the little girl was ready for a break too. Eric and I got in another two good runs on more challenging terrain, and I was actually surprised that, other than the sore insteps, the skiing was not really taking much of a toll on me.

When we got back to the lodge, the girls pronounced that they were done for the day, and we decided we could call it a day as well. So I've skied a total of two and a half hours for the season. On our way up here, we had discussed skiing again today or maybe tomorrow, when there will be another ten inches of fresh snow on the mountains, but Louise is really too sore for another day.

Our friends stayed with us aboard Odyssey last night, and as a treat for the youngster Louise drove their mini-van here from the ski area some 20 miles away, while they rode upstairs in the bus with the panoramic view out the front window. This is the first time in weeks we've had the inside covers off the windshield, and we were dismayed to find a two foot crack along the right side of the glass. This is more or less than same place it cracked four years ago, and we know now how that happens. We've been very careful to avoid any frame twist when parking and leveling the bus, but I think we ended up with some when we parked in Mountain View last week, and apparently it was enough to crack the window. It is, at least, well out of the main field of view, and extends fully from the top edge to the right edge, so it can not spread further. Unless we notice any problems with it, we will probably just live with it as it is for the foreseeable future.

We did have a nice and scenic drive from Echo Summit to the state line, and having a car available facilitated going out for pizza last night and a nice breakfast this morning. Our friends left about midday for the drive back down the hill to the bay area. We've been enjoying a pleasant afternoon here in the high sierra, although there has been some smoke in the air since we arrived from a prescribed burn across the lake.

When we arrived here at the casino we got a parking pass from security for two nights, on the chance we might want to ski today or tomorrow. Now that après-ski soreness has set in and we've decided against that, it makes more sense to get out of the Tahoe basin before tonight's snow comes. The forecast calls for snow all the way to Friday, and with no chains we could easily be sidelined here the whole week.

We still have not settled on whether we will head to Anacortes for Trawler Fest or points east of here and on to Saint Louis. But in either case, Reno is on the route, and so this afternoon we will head down the hill on US-50 into Carson City. We can either continue north from there into Reno-Sparks with half a dozen overnight options, or stop for the night right in Carson at the Nugget. We'll probably make the decision when we turn onto US-395.

Foothill stopover

We are at the Red Hawk Casino, along US 50 in Shingle Springs, California (map). The casino here is brand new, built in 2008, and neither the casino nor its dedicated US-50 ramps appear on Google's satellite view yet.

I am not a morning person, so we opted to make our dinner stop in Los Banos at 5:00 -- early for us -- so that we could make more progress last night. Dinner was very good, by the way, and we can heartily recommend the M&M Italian Restaurant to anyone passing through there. We made a quick fuel stop at Flying-J in Ripon, and rolled in here before 9.

We did cruise through the casino just to check it out when we arrived, and also to check in with security. They have several nice looking restaurants, including a steakhouse, a buffet, Mexican-American and Asian themed venues, and a fast food outlet. The place was packed for Saturday night. Free beverage stations were located throughout the casino, and most of the restaurants are located on a lower level that features a non-smoking gaming area. A first for us was encountering a special table game area featuring incredibly loud music and very scantily clad female dealers, targeted at the young male demographic. We wondered if casino dealers can file a Cal-OSHA claim for hearing loss.

The RV parking is in the same row of angled back-ins that the tour buses use, adjacent to the enormous 8-level parking garage. It suited us fine, but those with slides would have to keep them retracted. It was pretty quiet, but the busy Saturday night meant plenty of activity in the garage, and I am guessing the valets are mandated to honk at every ramp and turn, because I could hear distant honking constantly from the upper levels, reverberating through the structure.

In a few minutes we will dig out our ski gear and head up the grade to the Sierra At Tahoe ski area. We've agreed to meet friends at the rental shop at noon, and we'd like to have already been fitted with gear.

Slide show mania

We are parked at the Monterey Elks Lodge (map), on a hill overlooking Monterey Bay. Unlike our last visit a few weeks ago, the lodge was crowded when we arrived yesterday afternoon, and we squeezed in to one of the last three spaces, and the only one long enough for us.

Before we left the bay area, I had a quick trip down memory lane as I dropped off a set of blueprints at Covad Communications. It was my first time setting foot back in the building since I left the company a decade ago, and I was surprised at how little some things had changed. The building was built as a Network Operations Center (NOC), with a mission-control-like room as its centerpiece. The NOC has since been moved to India, and the control room has been dismantled. I'm not sure why I kept the blueprints all these years, other than that I poured a lot of my energy into that building.

We also dropped off a four-wheel furniture dolly at a friend's house in Redwood City, then picked up a Crock Pot from a different friend across town before dropping off the car and visiting with our friend who lent it to us. It felt a bit frantic closing out all the errands before leaving town, but we're glad to be rid of most of the "stuff." I have a few things left to list on eBay, and I am still trying to find a taker for the Freon.

I'm typing this at my father-in-law's; as I type, he and Louise are staring intently into the slide projector, going through dozens of their old family slides. He's got a projector, too, but mine has a fancy pop-out screen that makes scanning through slides easy, with no need to set up a screen, darken the room, or adjust a lens. I've also got a "stack loader" for the slides not already in carousels. I just went through this process myself a few days ago, culling thousands of slides down to less than a hundred I really wanted to keep.

It's amazing how the Internet has changed everything; 30 years ago it seemed like a good idea to have half a dozen photos of the Firth of Forth railroad bridge, or the QE2 steaming out of port. After all, who knew when I would be back? Now, of course, we can download photos of places, monuments, artifacts, and things in general, current or historical, any time we want. I elected to keep only slides featuring people I knew, or events I attended. Everything else went into the trash. For example, I must have tossed half a dozen photos of the inside of the chapel at the Air Force Academy, and my father-in-law just ran through a half dozen photos in his collection that looked identical to mine -- one wonders just how many identical photos are gathering dust in storage closets around the country.

Back when I was taking all those photos, I bought a projector to last a lifetime. Shunning the consumer-grade "Carousel" brand projectors, I went right to the top-of-the-line professional Ektagraphic projector, which looked similar but weighed twice as much. It's been rendered completely obsolete by digital photography, and I will be lucky to get $40 for it on eBay. Too bad there is no way to convert it to a digital projector, which I could actually use. My own slide-sorting is done, and as soon as Louise and her dad finish with his, sometime today, the projector will be ready to list. The slides we've decided to keep will be sent off to be scanned digitally.

Tomorrow we will head inland to Los Banos. where we plan to have dinner at the M&M Italian Restaurant, started by friends who used to work at Original Joe's in San Jose. We've been saying for nearly three years that we would get there, but it has never fit into our travel plans. We've committed to meet friends at a ski area west of Lake Tahoe mid-day on Sunday, so we'll be getting an early morning start up the hill.

Wrapping up our visit

We are parked on the street in Mountain View, California (map), in front of a long-defunct Hewlett Packard facility. Across the street is a old dormitory facility for the county's work release program, also long abandoned. That makes this part of the street quiet and unobtrusive, yet we are just steps from the light rail station. We've stayed here before, and it will likely continue on our short list of parking spaces unless the joint across the street reopens, or the city posts more restrictive parking rules.

We spent nearly a week in our familiar spot on the street in Sunnyvale, having just left there yesterday afternoon. The limit in any one parking spot is technically 72 hours, but we did move in the middle to use the dump station at the lodge. The two class-C rigs sharing the street with us never moved the whole time we were there, and one looked to have been in the same spot since we left there three weeks ago for San Jose. I chatted briefly with one resident, a painting contractor who could not afford to live anywhere else. There was also a car that showed up each evening and left each morning, an array of clothing neatly arranged on a closet rod across the back seat. We've noticed a lot more folks living in their rigs on the streets since the start of the downturn.

Notwithstanding nightly police patrols that hardly gave any of us a second glance, we did not want to overstay our welcome, and after six consecutive nights on that street we decided to change venues for the remainder of our stay. On top of that, we will be returning our borrowed car tomorrow, and the proximity to the light rail station here will make it easier for us to make our way back home afterward.

Our goals for this visit have been achieved. We attended a wonderful recital on Saturday of music written by our friend Alva, in honor of his 70th birthday. That was the item on our calendar that originally had us heading in this direction. And our project to clear out the storage unit is also done, with the unit being rented on Sunday to a young couple living in the building, who took us up on a discount for annual pre-payment. We've taken another three boxes to recycling, and cleared out most of the eBay items; what is left yet to be dealt with fits in three or four boxes, and we'll carry those with us and deal with them as we are able.

Disappointingly, I still have the Freon R-12, which would sell in a flash for a princely sum on eBay, but which I lack the means to ship anyplace. And oddly, no one bid on the set of five slide carousels, which I've had to re-list. I still have a few odds and ends downstairs to be dealt with, including a bunch of parts for obsolete police motorcycles. We've sold quite a few items for mere pennies, but at least we've kept them from the landfill.

We've managed in one way or another to catch up with almost everyone we know here in the bay area, one benefit of this relatively long 3+ week visit. But with a dinner get-together almost every night, events and visits many afternoons, and non-stop sorting and selling the rest of the time, we're tired and ready to be done here. We've decided to have one last dinner with friends tomorrow night, before leaving Thursday morning. We'll drop the car off before dinner, and take Cal-Train to the light rail afterward.

From here our plan is to make a brief stop in Monterey for a visit, which will also involve disposition of some slides and photos, as well as making one last good use of the slide projector before we sell it. From there we will head over the hill to Los Banos, where we know folks who have a restaurant we've been promising to visit for three years. And finally, we will head up to the sierras, where a storm this week has dumped plenty of fresh snow, to see how well we fare at skiing after a long absence from the sport.

Coming up for air

We are back on the street in Sunnyvale, California (map), a block from the Elks lodge here. Yesterday afternoon marked two full weeks parked at the San Jose Elks lodge, technically the limit there.

While I was packing up to leave, the camp host wandered over and offered that we could stay longer if we needed to. Apparently, the 14-night limit is enforced only when necessary. And while we do need some more time here in the bay area, we were ready for a change of venue, and besides, after two full weeks, our waste tanks need to be emptied, and there is no dump in San Jose. There is a dump, though, at the Sunnyvale lodge just a block from here, and we headed straight there after leaving San Jose mid-afternoon.

Sunnyvale has a bunch of arcane rules about when the dump station can be used; apparently their sewer connection can get overwhelmed, and they don't want the dump used on the weekends when the lodge is busy. That's fine, but they also seem to decide arbitrarily to close it at other, unpublished times too. So when we pulled in yesterday afternoon, they told us it was "not a good time" to use the dump. I had to pressure the guy into telling me when, exactly, would be a good time, since I already knew Thursday-Sunday were out. He finally conceded that today before noon would be OK, and since the lodge office, where the dump station key is kept, does not open until 11, that gives us a window of an hour to get dumped. We don't have enough tank capacity left to wait until Monday, so we picked a handy spot on the street for the night, and tried not to disturb too many of the carefully arranged boxes in the living room.

Speaking of which, I can now report that the storage closet in our condo building in San Jose is now completely empty. The last item, a chest of drawers, was picked up by its eBay buyer yesterday morning, which contributed to the sense that we could be done for a while in San Jose. The vast majority of the closet's contents are now gone forever, with the remaining bits arranged in our living room and the scooter bay while we deal with them. After two solid weeks of work, interrupted only by nightly dinners and a handful of lunches with our various bay area friends, we've made a huge amount of progress.

The tally so far:

• Four bankers boxes of records to the shredder
• Five boxes of paper, metal, and other miscellaneous materials to recycling
• Five boxes of items to Goodwill
• Four lots picked up through "Freecycle"
• Two boxes of keepsakes passed on to other family members
• Over $2,000 raked in on eBay, across 40 lots of items
• Another $700 in sales on Craigs List and direct to Internet dealers
• Only two boxes of stuff to the trash

What's left in the bus are a few boxes of items that are sold but not yet paid for or shipped, and three boxes left to be sorted. Those would include thousands of photographs, including slides, which would explain why I have not yet sold the professional model Ektagraphic slide projector, currently down in the bay. Also down in the bay is the three pounds of Freon R-12 in a 30-lb cylinder that I can't seem to sell, even though I've dropped the price all the way to $30.

I still have some items on eBay (and several things ready to list), including the pets.com talking sock puppet and related items that we bought for a staggering $250 at a charity auction, which I explained in this post. I'm also taking advantage of this flurry of eBay activity to get rid of some things that have been kicking around the bus for several months, waiting for me to get motivated.

We are committed here in the bay area for another week, until at least the 12th, unless we get called for disaster work. At least we can now move the bus on a moment's notice, even with the handful of boxes. We may stay somewhat beyond that, depending on how many of our friends we've managed to visit by then. After that, the schedule is something of a tabula rasa until June, when we need to be in Minneapolis for a meeting. The NüRVers rally in Texas is probably too close in for us to try to make. One possibility might be to head up to Anacortes for Trawler Fest, and stop by Infinity for some maintenance.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go dump my tanks.