At Susanville Walmart for the night and I’m torn

At my current rate I’m not making it to Quartzsite until late Saturday or early Sunday. I have to run a payroll tomorrow and could get that done in the morning before I leave.
Or, I could stay at a nearby rv park and get some work done on another client as well, AND do some personal and physical housekeeping. That would put me at Rice Ranch late Sunday or early Monday.

I don’t know.

I had a shop figure out what was going on with my truck and trailer. The plug from the trailer to the truck was not working correctly so my batteries weren’t charging. They fixed it and I had them do an oil change as well. And they did it in good time. I was on the road by 11am and got to Susanville before dark. But I’m behind schedule and if I drive long and hard .......

A day off the road sounds good. A day to take care of professional and personal business sounds good. And a day to get some things organized. I just threw my stuff in here and have not unpacked.

But that means I’ll be late for the meetup.
Right now, I’m too tired to make a decision. Think I’ll sleep on it.

Talk tomorrow.

Our second night, Serenity is sick all over, Elvis is still wary but he’s found some perks

I’m having tea because it’s cold here in Lakeview OR. The furnace is not working but it did last night. The fridge isn’s cooling and the oven won’t turn on but the stove does. Hence, the tea. The stove top is my only heat source. The next two travel nights will be warmer than here so there’s that. All I’m eating right now are Lunchables, so there’s not much in the fridge anyway.
And I paid to plug in and get water but the electrical system isn’t working either. Is it my ignorance or are there real issues?

All that said, I may stay another night here if I can find someone to give my truck a look under the hood and an oil change. One of those things that got forgotten in the chaos before leaving Portland. It was looked at by a friend but all he said was to go ahead and get an oil change.

It is what it is, and I’m creating a new lifestyle here. There are going to be bumps in the road and a steep learning curve. And some improvisation is bound to happen.

The comments still don’t work either. I’m not going to work on that until I have more time. If you know me you have my number. You can text me. Debra, I can talk to you on your Patreon page and anybody else reading will probably be from Deb’s Patreon page, so if you really need to get in touch with me, give Debra your number and we can text each other.

I’m heating my cast iron Dutch oven on the stove to generate heat. That’ll get me through the night.

The drive today was awesome!! The drive is called “The Oregon Outback Scenic Byway”. I saw a massive raven. I bet that bird weighed more than Elvis. It looked me in the eye and I said “hi” but s/he did not greet me back. S/he had been looking for human garbage to eat. I wished I had something to throw out. That was at the rest area I spent the night at. And I saw a couple herds of antelope or deer on the drive as well.
The color of the hills was so spectacular and I’ve been thinking about it all day so I could describe it for you. Snow had fallen a day or two earlier and there was frost everywhere. Out of the snow white ground was the remains of last summer’s grass. It was the color of sugar cookies just as they start to turn golden and before they brown. Maybe Champaign gold would get close to the color. The contrast of the white and ‘gold’ was hard to take my eyes off.

I saw several old abandoned farm houses next to a second generation house built close by. Also a church / one-room schoolhouse. Summer Lake went on for miles; as far as the eye could see.

Think I’ll go to bed and read. I’m reading a book called, “The Souls Between”, by B. Neil Brown. Also known on YouTube as, “No Legs, No Problem”. I love it!! It’s just the kind of book I like to read.
Talk tomorrow...

I’m at Cow Canyon Rest Area for the night

This will be short. I didn’t get out of town until 11:30-12:00. Since I didn’t want to drive at night, I found a rest area that I could get to by 3:00 or so.
I don’t know how far I’ll get tomorrow. I’d love to get to Susanville CA but that may be pushing it. I’ll start working that out when I’m done here.

It was wonderful seeing the east side of Mt. Hood. I’m used to seeing it from the west and north sides. There is snow on the ground up the roads are clear. This side of Oregon is beautiful. And I saw a hawk fly down from a tree and across the road in front of me.

I’m tired and ready for bed but it’s only 5:00. Ha! That’s why I have a Kindle!

Talk tomorrow.

The comment problem

It may be that Safari isn't compatable with Blogger and that is causing the problem. I will try posing tomorrow using Google Chrome. I hope that works.

It's the middle of the night. I can't sleep.

I'm excited but it's drowned out by all the preparations I need to do. I'm exhausted and I'm sorry I haven't posted. I've been falling into bed at night.

I also understand that comments aren't posting. I'll work on that.

I leave Tuesday and should be in Quartzsite AZ by Friday afternoon. The weather looks good for the whole trip if I actually get on the road as I would like. Cross finger. I'm humbly asking my angels to watch over Elvis and I.

I have to turn over the keys to my house tomorrow, license the trailer, buy some groceries and finish packing. I also need to make a few other purchases for trip.

I haven't had enough time to practice some of the maneuvers I need to know, like backing up, for instance. I hope to turn on the furnace and water heater tomorrow. I was packing my stuff away today in the cold. I should have turned the heater on but I didn't expect to be out there organizing stuff as long as I was.

I have to tell you about the near trip-ending thing that happened on Thanksgiving. I hit a small bump as i was parking here at my brother's. The tailgate of the truck popped open and fell onto my brand new power jack. It was destroyed and I had no way to unhitch the trailer.

Mind you, I am extremely fortunate that the tailgate did not fall while driving over here. I hit plenty of bumps on the way. All the roads have dips and bumps. Even the interstate. I can't help thinking that angels were keeping that tailgate closed until I got here.

The next morning I made a couple of calls to mobile RV repair shops and got a wonderful, helpful and all around nice guy to replace my power jack.

If you're ever in the Portland area and need help with your RV, please call Wayne. Which reminds me. I need to write a Yelp review for him.

So Wayne and his helper took off my tailgate as well as replacing my jack. As this was going on, we discovered my trailer battery was dead. I ended up taking my trailer to his shop that afternoon so his teams could add another battery, check and charge the dead one, fix a running light that was out and fix the connector on the truck so the battery would charge properly.

I have to tell you all that I am very nervous. It is totally crazy to be doing what I'm doing. I've never driven a diesel truck or pulled a trailer before. I don't know how everything works on the truck or the trailer. Because of my months-long closing, I am not as prepared as I planned to be.

I really do love the truck though. I'm very comfortable driving her. I love her even though I had to detach the tailgate for now. There are some things I want to do to the trailer but those things will have to wait.

There is so much more I'd like to tell you but it's now 1:30 am. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep but I ned to try.

I'll post again as soon as I can; hopefully tomorrow night.

I finally have pics!

Finally, here is a pic of Firefly and Serenity (and Elvis). My maiden voyage was a 40 minute drive through Portland's eastside just as it was getting dark. It was too dark to take a pic when I made it home. I wanted a chance to practice left and especially right turns before i got on the streets but there was no time. I just had to get them home.

I will go to a nearby parking lot and practice backing up for a while before I load it and take it to my brother's. I'll spend the next couple days getting her ready to go and closing down the house. But today is Thanksgiving so once I'm at my brothers, I am going to relax.

Oh, and before I leave, I could not believe the guys at the service center yesterday. They all loved my truck and even spent time telling me about the gauges and various buttons.

I love driving Firefly. The more I do, the more comfortable I feel. But the best part is that I feel like she is the ONE. Like she was waiting for me to come get her.

Talk later!

I HAVE BEEN FUNDED!!

It took all day. I got word from Tim to go pick up my check, I took it to my credit union and they released the whole check into my accounts. No more waiting. I was holding my breath the whole time. I was waiting for something to happen, some block, someone saying, "you'll have to wait a little longer".

So, slowly, I cheered but I was too busy to think, I just needed to keep moving. After the bank, I took a cashier's check for my trailer to Blue Dog RV. I pick it up tomorrow afternoon.......

WITH MY TRUCK! I bought a truck!! She's a Dodge and diesel and a bunch of other good stuff. I feel like I went into a lion's den. I entered the men's club. I mean, guys everywhere... it's a TRUCK store for god's sake. Trucks everywhere. All trucks. And they are all so big I can't climb into them without help from, you got it, some of the guys!

Sorry I didn't get a picture yet. I barely got to the bank and back before dark. Tomorrow, tags and insurance. And a STEP so I can get into it. She's a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 with a Cummins diesel engine. I need a topper for her too.

Put that on the list. Oy

My truck is named Firefly and the trailer is Serenity. Someone may get the reference. Let me know if you do.

It's past bedtime and I need sleep but I want to blog. Grr. Why did I start a blog? Takes time. Too much time; but less time than a vlog. That is a time consuming, but fun hobby. I've got too many hobbies already. I am not a minimalist when it comes to hobbies. Probably something for the therapist there.

I love my crafts because I love getting into that creative state of mind. It's a zone. When I'm in that zone, i can be as tired as I am now, and keep going and going. I have to make myself go to bed.

I ordered supplies and equipment from Amazon but I'm going to have to get solar in AZ. Some of the things I wanted to get from Amazon would not arrive in time to leave Sunday so I took them off the list.

Okay, I'm going to have to give up the ghost and go to bed. I'll watch Debra Dickinson's YT live chat before I sleep. That'll give me pleasant dreams.

Love to all. Talk later. Pictures tomorrow!!!

I lied.

My closing continues. I was pretty mad but have calmed down some. I was suppose to be funded today but it didn't happen. Now I'm promised tomorrow.

I'm not going to go through the long list of things I need to do again. I still have to do them but in less time.

This is what's left. All the photos and artwork are going to my brothers for safekeeping.
Til tomorrow.......