Bummin'

I made it to Cali in one piece! The sun is shining and its supposed to be in the low 70's today. Life is good.
We ended up meeting up with my cousin and staying in a hotel by Independence. The total bill came to over $800 bucks. Good thing the bank of grandma was with, else I would have zilch right now. We drove through Kansas with a pretty good cross wind the whole way and made it to Dahlhart, TX for the night at an RV park. We got up around 5:30, went and had breakfast at a nice little cafe, then hit the road. Of course we had about a 30mph headwind. Combine that with going up some relatively steep climbs and the truck was working hard! I figured we were only getting around 4-5 mpg going up the hills. Engine temp never budged though. We stopped in Winslow, AZ for gas and a potty break, and I decided that we would stop at a free campsite I found on freecampsites.net. It was really nice and on a lake with hardly any one there! Definitely would stop back again sometime. That night it got to about 25 degrees and I didn't turn the furnace on in the camper, but we both had plenty of blankets and a cup of tea warmed us right up.

We got going and at the border for California we got checked for produce. I had all the heavy and bulky stuff I was carrying with like my saddle and totes of climbing stuff on the floor blocking the way. The lady checking said, "Woah..... Yeah.... You got any produce in there?". "Nope", I said and she said something about making her boss happy so she tried to get inside and failed. She let me go and took my word I guess. Then we took off across the desert in the most desolate place I have ever been; just north and east of Joshua Tree Nat'l Park. There was one little gas station for the 150 miles or so between Needles, CA and 29 Palms. Pretty landscape though. We stopped for gas in Yucca Valley and paid $3.93!!! Of course gas prices would have to skyrocket when I take a cross country trip with a trailer!
Anyway, I made it to my brother Mike's here. I got the trailer set up in the backyard. Everything is organized and put away. I can't believe how much extra room I have in my trailer! Anyone that wants to come visit, I have plenty of space and even a memory foam for the extra bed! They work all week, so I guess that will give me time to finish up the small fixes on my trailer and give me time to do some thinking and relaxing.
Oh yeah, btw, I GOT A JOB!!!! I got a call when I was coming across NM asking if I would like to take a campground host job up near Lake Tahoe, CA. I can't remember the exact spot, although I did some research and Boca Reservoir sounded like something my manager, Jay, said. Anyway, its right on what they call a lake out here (reservoir). Its got all sorts of different types of trout, rainbows, brook, brown, and a couple kinds of salmon too. Too bad a non-resident fishing license is over $100 bucks, but I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet I guess. The site is shaded by pines and sits at 6000 feet of elevation. I have no electricity and no water as of right now. The forest service is supposed to put in a well, but we will see about that! I have to go around and pick up trash, clean a couple toilets and just be a jolly fellow I guess. Not too hard to do. It's 8.50 an hour, I work 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the evening, the rest of the time is mine along with two days off a week. Its not a lot of money, but it sounds like a sweet gig!
The job doesn't start til early May, so I have 8 weeks to kill. I'm still thinking of heading to Bishop here in about 3 to 4 weeks and rock climbing. We'll see where life takes me.

Painted my decals on the trailer finally too. Turned out pretty good for me not being handy with a small brush!