We have had some stressful days and now that I have come down from that and have internet, I thought I could write a complete sentence!

Since I wrote last, we spent two more days at the lake.  One day we hiked around the lake and you can see from the pictures how beautiful and sunny it was. 

The next day was very cloudy and went into town in Mt. Shasta and had a nice stroll through the town and I appreciated the older buildings.  We stopped for lunch at a burger chain and Jerry had a mushroom Swiss burger and I had a chicken salad wrap.  Add a lemonade and ice tea and you come to $54.  No kidding (instead of kidding read the expletive of your choice).  At that price I refuse to take a picture and google review them!  In case you did not know I have a google review badge and am in the top 10% of google reviewers.   I even have followers.  Getting back to our stressful days, this was not one of them, it was only annoying.

Saturday, we left to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  You will see this day listed on the days of rain schedule.   This is where the stress began.  It should have been about a 3-hour drive and Jerry had been driving a lot so we split the driving.  We left at 8 am and he drove until about 11.   We should have been there or close, but traffic was more than we have seen on the trip.   We pulled over in a rest area and because we didn’t want to spend time at a restaurant and I was still shell shocked from the $54 hamburger lunch the day before, I made some chicken salad, thank you Costco canned chicken you make a great chicken salad, we ate and then I started driving.  If you are a devoted reader, and I hope you are, you will remember we had wonky windshield wipers taped up with duct tape that were hitting into each other.  If you missed it look for the post – Stop 7 – Quartz Flat Campground, Superior, Montana   https://twooldfartsandadog.org/stop-7-quartz-flat-campground-superior-montana/

The rest of the trip was about 40 miles, but it was in driving rain, up and down mountains with high cliffs and sharp turns.  Every time I put the windshield wipers on, they hit each other and the driver side one flew off the glass extended out from the arm.  I was literally going about 20 miles and hour searching for a pull over spot, which were not frequent, so Jerry could put the wiper back in place and I could clear the glass.  It took us 2 hours to go the 40 miles.  During this time, we had no cell reception or internet and all I could think was if we did have trouble there was no way to contact help.   The one blessing was there were no other crazy people on the road, because we had to be crazy driving though this rain.  We finally arrive at Lassen Volcanic National Park and the pictures you see of all the burned trees are the result of the 2021 CA Dixie fire that was so devastating.  The pictures of us at the sign show just how bad visibility was.

We stopped at the Visitor Center to see about staying over on Saturday night.   This is the day the US budget is set to expire and funding for the National Parks Service will be halted.  We were not sure if we could stay there.  The Ranger told us we could stay Saturday night but not Sunday night if they did not pass a budget.  This was another stressful situation.  We planned this trip to visit many National Parks and had many reservations.   If the budget was not passed the rest of the trip was going to need to be rearranged or scrapped.   Now in the scheme of things that would happen if the budget was not passed, our issue was non-existent.  So many other more important issues, human services, healthcare, air traffic controllers, highway maintenance, are really critical, if Jerry and Deb complete their vacation is not.  I think it is human nature to become caught up in our own issues and that is what happened to me and caused me stress.  Luckily my son was able to text me the shut down was delayed 45 days and when we were at the Visitor Center, I had some internet and heard the good news. 

The rain broke a bit and we started up the mountain to the mud pots.  The steam holes and mud pots were very interesting and the burnt-out areas heartbreaking.  I know the forests use the fires to thin out tree canopy, rid the forest of old trees and make space for new growth.  It is still so sad to see the burnt-out trees. 

Once we saw the mud pots,  we continued up the mountain.  It began to rain hard again. We couldn’t see where we were going and there are no guard rails in National Parks and we knew it was a long way down.  This park had very few turn arounds or parking lots.  The visibility was so poor you could not see the sights.  I finally found an area I could turn around and pulled over.  Jerry fixed the windshield wipers and when he got back in, I said, I am calling it.  I am going back to the Visitor Center.   He said, Yes.   So, we went back to the Visitor Center and inside to see what the weather was predicted to be for Sunday.   It was an 80% chance of continued heavy rain.  It was 3 pm and I did not want to stay in the parking lot of the Visitor Center since we had a four-hour trip and two days to our  next campground.  We mapped the route to our next location and found we would be driving through the Lassen Volcanic National Forest.  It did not tell us where the US Forestry campgrounds would be, but we knew we would pass some.  Jerry started to drive and passed two of them and by 4:30 when we saw one, we decided to stop.  It had paved spots and was right off the highway.   It was pretty empty and we had our choice of spaces for $7 for the night.  Since I am at heart a New Yorker, we stayed in the spot that had the most road noise which I thought would be uninteresting to bears.   There were many signs warning of bears.  It took us and hour and a half to go 27 miles.   But the spot was beautiful.

The next day was Sunday and that is laundry day.  I found a laundry in Chico, CA that was about an hour down the road.  Jerry helped me to bring in the laundry and then went to find a place to park.  It was taking him a long time to come back and help me.  I loaded all three machines and set them running.   Then I went outside to bring the detergent into the RV and get the dryer sheets.   I could not find him.  I heard him talking on the phone and followed his voice to find this flat tire on the RV.   The front passenger side.  What are the odds of two flat tires on one trip?  Based on historical data of our trips, zero.  See Stop 9 – Columbia River Gorge if you missed the first flat tire story.  https://twooldfartsandadog.org/stop-9-columbia-river-gorge-oregon/

It seems while exiting the laundry parking lot and looking for a space to park a curb jumped up smashed the hubcap and knocked the tire off the rim.  It is Sunday, how likely do you think we will find a tire shop?  Well, a very nice man who is a truck repair man came out.   He was able to use our current tire which was only 2 years old and remount it.  $400 lighter.

After the repair, we drove to Yuba City, CA and stayed one night in the Fairgrounds RV park.  The Fairgrounds was beautiful.  The only but is that it was the favorite corner of the locals for drag racing.   That brought the police.  The Fairgrounds did have heavy duty fencing and secure gates with codes so I felt safe.   Even though we did not need the A/C it provided background noise to drown out the outside noise. 

From there we came to River Point Marina and RV Park in Stockton, CA.   It is so peaceful here.  Even Ernie is enjoying the view.  There was a spectacular sunset last night and I am sure just as beautiful sunrise.   I seem to always miss those!  We are enjoying the down time without driving and recovering from our stress.

We were not able to get into Yosemite National Park when we were making reservations.   Yesterday I found a cancellation for one night for tomorrow so we will be there.   The next day is Sequoia National Park.  Next week we are in LA.  That should be interesting, at least we rented a car for that portion.