May 12 – Start of journey, Scott's Valley, California

1:41:35PM PDT – Ignition

1:41:50PM PDT – Blastoff

Mileage 35632

The Adventure Begins…

Yesterday morning in 6 hours I said good-bye to my life. I whipped about town hurriedly saying farewells. Picked up Bob at Mom’s and headed for Mt. Hamilton, our exodus route from Silicon Valley. It was traveling into a new time zone. We even saw herds of elks in the upper meadows.

Deb’s a terrible driver, an awful companion, and she makes me eat rotten fruit. She’s bossy, overbearing, and no fun as a traveling companion. We’re in a "campground" that smells like a feedlot, and we’re parked next to a flock… did I say "flock?"… next to most of the ducks in California. They are very loud at 5:00AM.

May 13 – Start at Hatfield State Park, Newman

Forgot to record the mileage.

They were crows—what does Bob know?

And this is just the beginning. We spent our first night next to a stinky dairy outside of Newman. This is a strange campground—no parking in sites. I guess tent campers walk (really now) to their table and firepit, but Vinnie had to stay in the parking lot. We decided to pay $3 instead of $12 since we didn’t use the grass at all. Let’s see if they let us leave without paying additional dollars.

Going to ride to Crows Landing through the flat valley here and visit my Aunt Joni and Uncle Marvin  at the family ranch. Bob has never been there before.

We took the back roads. Wind had not come up yet, so it was slight head winds at times. Only 2 really large, chasing dogs in the first 10 miles. (We took a different way back). Those valley homesteaders see no need to cage the animals.

Heading back was tailwinds and we cruised. Even the busy River Rd. had no traffic.

My Aunt and Uncle fed us breakfast and gave us a tour of the house my great-grandfather built. They have done a tremendous amount of repair and updating to a turn-of-the-century family home plus my uncle has built himself most of his walnut equipment. We received an impressive tour.

Headed criss-crossing through the Valley. We checked each mountain pass, but all are closed except Highway 88 (Kit Carson Pass). Our motto—no interstates thus 50 and 80 are out. Currently drinking pale ale at a quiet campground in San Andreas off Highway 49. It has taken us 2 days to maybe go 200 miles.

The raving shrew is at it again. I have to drive all day. I have to lock up the bikes. I have to spend all my money to get food and water and ice cream. What does she think this is? Be Nice to Deb Year? I don’t know how much longer I can stand it. If it wasn’t for the constant sex, sex, sex, I would have left years ago.

But it was a great day. Deb has been telling me about Marvin and Joni’s house for years, but I had no idea it was quite so magnificent. It’s a showpiece.

Camping outside of San Andreas. Breezy, but good weather. And we even have a free rent-a-kitty at our campsite. Very "talkative" and friendly. Settled right into my lap. I like hookups. Shore power is much easier to deal with. Plus you can recharge the vacuum, the electric toothbrush, the phone, and the laptop batteries. "Roughing it" is not for the meek. My martini has expired, and I must refill the glass…. Be right back.

Ahhhhhh….. nothing like the cold bite of the ice-cold vodka out here communing with Mother Nature. I’m sure she’d approve. We’re at one of the nicer RV parks we’ve found. Clean and quiet, with a good, large pool and other amenities.

Fun night at the old campsite. Bob is snoozing, not really sleeping at about 8PM. We walked about the RV park. His words to me, "Don’t ever let me live in a trailer park!" This is not like where Mom & Warren live.

I mapped our first 2 day’s routes in the topographic program we have. Don’t want to get behind in this. Wait a couple of weeks and see then what we are doing.

May 14. Leaving San Andreas

Mileage 35893.

Left Gold Spike Campground in San Andreas still heading north on Hwy 49 to Mokolumne Hill. We headed up #26 since neither of us had been on it before and since the town of Bummerville appeared to be on this road. I wanted to go to Bummerville. But, it turns out, that it was off a couple of more windy roads and we skirted it. What a lost opportunity!

Don Axtell, you should check out this highway on your way to the Death Ride—lots of ups and downs and not much traffic.

This road intersects Kit Carson Pass (Hwy 88). Lots of snow and frozen lakes. Here we are in shorts for our summer outing. It is beautifully clear, but 40F. Once we dropped down to the valley from Monitor Pass, we were slammed by the wind. No riding at all over here today. Two hands on the wheel driving. Stopped to walk about Bridgeport. We have found one area we will not move to. This wind and desolation over here is not what we are looking for.

However, there was a frisky, buxom woman named Wanda who was. But, alas, Deb said we had to move on. Wanda was not allowed to be part of our explorations. Sometimes Deb can be narrow-minded.

Twin Lakes has shore break and 2 foot white caps. Only a few hardy souls out fishing the banks. We bundled up to walk up the valley. Cascading rivulets winding their way to the lakes. This is a very dramatic backdrop with the sheer craggy cliffs surrounding the lakes.

Bob took me out dining last night. The resort café with a hundred fishermen and us.

"Fine Dining" at a fishing resort has got to be one of life’s more unique experiences. But the wine came in three colors, and the martinis were only $2.50 so we were thankful for these small blessings. The average fisherperson appears to be about 65, retired, more than slightly overweight, and has a spouse who enjoys the occasional brewski. They were all here last night.

May 15 Mono Village, Twin Lakes

Mileage 36075

Dawn breaks cold, clear and still. Our outside temperature reading is 29.8F as the sun rises.

And Deb was scornful when I came home from Fry’s with a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer with current, min, and max readouts. Now look who’s quoting temperatures! I win again!!!

Fry’s is life itself.

I’m going to bundle up and ride back to Hwy 395. Bob said he would pick me up there.

Not a chance. I’m headed straight for Bridgeport and hoping to find Wanda. Maybe Wanda can drive. Deb can’t. I fear for my life and have to do all the driving.

So before Bob would let me ride off into the distance, he made me help with morning cleanup. First problem—the hose and water spigot were frozen. We used hot water to pour over spigot, so we could turn it off. But the hose was full of ice. I used the old gravity flow technique and poured hot water through the hose until we could drain it and coil it again. Then the draining of the "black" and "gray" water tanks. Bob pulled on the 4" expandable line, but it didn’t expand, it broke. So we stuffed it back inside its snug tube and went looking for a RV service center.

I started to ride down the road. Cold fingers!! I stopped to warm them and re-glove and hoped Bob would come by soon. He didn’t and once I was warm again I started pedaling some more. When he did come by I hopped in because it turns out the nearest RV service dealer is in Bishop about 100 miles away and we hope he will work on it today.

We are passing many spots we wanted to visit. Probably will have to come back this way. It is very clear today. The snowy, crested mountains loom in front and beside us.

The RV service guy said he was open from 9:00Am until 1:00PM, and he would try to work on our broken sewer drain line if he wasn’t too busy. We took off for Bishop, one and one half hours to the south, posthaste. The guy worked on our hose off and on while he wasn’t tending to his retail trade and managed to fix it. We had a full "black water" tank so we would have paid any price, but we got parts and labor for about $50. Gotta love these small towns. He was the only RV service guy in a 150-mile radius.

So we jumped back into Vinnie and took off back to the north to resume our explorations. We stopped at Bodie, a deserted mining town and saw that. Very interesting. It was founded in 1878 when gold was discovered there and died in 1932. It’s been mostly left alone since then.

From there we decided to camp at June Lake, again with hookups so we can check our new sewer hose and flush our tanks. And our tanks needed flushing! Deb’s been eating so much that the tanks fill quickly. And I should mention that Deb has discovered a joy unbounded – a potty that travels with her. No more do we have to search the countryside for a gas station or a large bush every half hour. She just climbs into the back of Vinnie and … well, you get the idea.

May 16 Started at June Lake

Mileage 35632

This morning I went over to the office to register since the office was closed when we pulled in last night. I got to chatting with the nice lady owner, and she offered me a job! It was quite shocking. I mumbled something about just having left one, and thanks but I didn’t want or need one.

We waited til the morning warmed up to a sunny 36.7F before taking off for the June Lake Loop ride…downhill the first half and up the second half. You would have thought we had ridden 50 miles, but in actuality only 22. I guess we need to ride more, but my feeling was the 7500-foot elevation had something to do with it. Brian and Judy did 200 miles in 13 hours and we did 22 in 2 hours, but we did stop to look at a lot of scenery.

And the scenery was quite magnificent. The mountains are spectacular… snow-capped and very clear. Not as spectacular ad Deb’s butt, but then I get to ride behind her.

Showers, then down the road. Tried to drive up to the Mt. Whitney Portal where the hikers take off. Got about half way up the road and decided that Vinnie was more valuable to us for the summer than a momentary glimpse of a mountain. His transmission was mightily straining, so we turned him about and headed for Death Valley.

This is more like it. Sitting at Panamint Springs at sunset…temperature in the high 70s. I have my laptop on the campground table and Bob is cooking dinner (a first for the trip).

And it was quite a great dinner. Lime chicken over noodles with broccoli and French bread. Included was an amusing and perky Chardonnay.. Scintillating to the taste buds, and, of course, the perfect compliment to my wonderful dinner. I do so well with so little!

May 17 Started at Panamint Springs, Death Valley

Mileage 36538

Morning dawned at a comfortable 70F. Much better than our 2 previous frozen mornings. We had windows open to hear the birds chirping in the trees. Shorts and T-shirts at 6 AM. Yeah!!!

It sure was nice to wake up to a warm breeze washing over our naked, entwined bodies.  The sunrise was quite beautiful and soothing.

What can you say to those who have been there, you know the sights. We didn’t go off-road, since once again we are saving Vinnie for the duration of the summer. We stopped at some sand dunes. Neat tracks in the sand. The museum was pretty interesting and the movie made in 1980 was fascinating with drama sounds emoting in the background. Onward…

My navigator missed the turn. He doesn’t know yet that he is to watch the maps when he is in navigator position. We ended up at Zabriskie Point to which he said "that’s where we wanted to go to anyway". Turned around and headed for Badwater and the ultimate salty, dry lakebed. We walked way out into the flatness and it was really hot. Why did we go out there? Because there were some foreigners farther out on American soil, that’s why. Busloads of them.

I felt it was important for us Real Americans to go at least as far a two busloads of German and French "tourists" whose real purpose, as we all know, is to ogle the large, firm, and perky breasts of our magnificent American women. And I didn’t "miss the turn" as Ms. Bossy suggested. I went that was on purpose because I can spell Zabriskie, and you-know-who can’t. Not many Zabriskies in Santa Cruz.

And I should mention that, appropriately enough, it was at Death Valley that our relationship reached a new low. We were 282 feet below sea level. It was very sad. Badwater is another place these damned foreigners tried to outdo us. Naturally, we didn’t let it happen. We walked out in the hot, dry salt flat as far as they did.

Once thru Death Valley we realized we were close to Las Vegas. We tried to get tickets to see the Cirque d' Soleil performance of "O", but couldn’t. We decided to go to Las Vegas anyway. Our home for the night—a parking lot behind Circus Circus. I never thought I would do this.

But it wasn’t that bad. They had a nice pool and the showers were hot, clean, and free. We took the shuttle to Mandalay Bay which was quite impressive. We had a very good prime rib and bottle of Pinot Grigio at another local casino, and then went to the Venician. They just keep building bigger and better casinos. Adult Disneyland! Got to bed at 11:00 which is waaaaaayyyyy past our usual 9:00PM bedtime.

May 18 Las Vegas

Mileage leaving Lost Wages - 36787

The Liberace Museum. Way better than I ever thought it would be. Nobody has ever been willing to visit it with me, but Bob did. I really like Bob.

I never thought I’d go there, but I was quite impressed. Never saw so many little old ladies in one place in my entire life. He had an impressive female following for a gay guy.

Headed south thru the wind to Laughlin. Had always heard about this made up little town and wanted to see it. Many old people pulling slots. For those who want to gamble without the nightlife and glitz.

The place looked like a geriatric convention at 2:00PM. Walkers everywhere! And the temperature in Needles reached 105.7F outside and slightly over 100 inside the van at one point. The Indoor/Outdoor thermometer is great! It’s mounted high in the van so it doesn’t register the driver/navigator area where it is much cooler due to the van AC .

Now we are in Needles. Soaked my feet in the Colorado. It is very hot here. We bought an air-conditioned room tonight.

Max temp inside Vinnie (we forgot to leave vent open) – 102.2

Max temp outside – 105.4 Needles, CA