I hope to meet some of you there!
************
We went to a Camel Farm next. We
saw four day old camels, fed them, etc. They had a rare species of
wild cats. Once, one of these paired cats just could not get along
with his mate. The mate was moved far to the other side of the farm,
out of sight. Some way, they must have been able to communicate,
though. When one of the cats suddenly died, the mate went into
depression and quickly died also.
The Yuma Rodeo was a good show,
complete with the best of the cowboys, very bad bulls, precision
skydivers, and little kids riding bucking sheep. The skydivers were
the most amazing. They all jumped out very high up, ten or so. They
gave off smoke from their shoes, so we could follow them. Each knew
exactly when to pull the cord, so that they came gliding in, the
first one landing exactly in the center of an X in the center of the
arena, and just had time to get his chute out of the way before the
second landed perfectly, and so on. None failed to land standing up,
and none messed up. It was totally unbelievable.
Again, there was no room for us at
the park. They set us up, right on the edge of the swimming pool,
again with a long electrical cord.
Crossing into California, Gas
jumped up 12 cents a gallon, and we needed a fill up in both
vehicles. Wouldn't you just know it?
Behind San Diego, the desert is at
sea level. It rises 10,000 feet very quickly. I started noticing
barrels of water on regular pull offs, and I knew we were in trouble.
We had to stop, cool the motor off, and add more water, several times
before we reached the top. That had never been a problem before. I
knew we had a lot more Rocky Mountain crossings ahead, and I shelled
out several bucks to get a raised, topographical map, so I would know
what was ahead. I could then pull the car off and drive it up
separately on those long pulls. Turned out, all the other high Rocky
Mountain crossings were cold, and we didn't need it. San Diego was a
neat place, especially the Zoo. They had four pandas, which were rare
at zoos, and Barbara was in love with them. There was a long line by
their cage, and the pandas were treated like royalty. Everyone had to
be really quiet, enforced by four security guards. She went through
that line four times. San Diego also had a very large naval presence,
along with ships, and that was interesting.
We found our friends Patty and
Dwight's house at Temecula, and we parked our rig right out front.
They just never fully understood why we slept in our RV instead of
coming in their house, But it was our home, now. And, Barbara builds
a great bed. It sometimes gets so tall, before she gets it right,
that she has to have a step stool to get in it.
They showed us around Southern
California royally for a couple of days, The J. Paul Getty Museum,
and lots of other wonders. The Cafe we ate in specialized in being
crass and rude. A large sign, right up front, said, “Eat and get
out.” The waitresses had a really big chaw of bubblegum, and,
between bubbles, greeted us with, “Yeah, whatta' ya' want?”
I drove our 53 foot road train
right through LA. After that, I knew no big city driving could scare
me again. Later, Europe was a totally different story.
We parked just north of LA near
Hollywood, in Van Nuys. Barbara was not doing well. Her abdomen
hurt. It got worse. She said she felt like she was full of gas, so I
tried pushing on her belly to help get it out. Not the smartest thing
I've ever done. She got even worse. Finally, I walked across the park
to a pay phone and called the police, asked where the nearest
hospital was. He said he didn't know. It depended on where I was.. I
had not the foggiest, and I had to go back and ask Barbara. I didn't
even know the name of the park. Kinda illustrates yet once again,
just who the brains of this outfit is. Even when she's impaired.
After waiting half the night (literally) in the emergency room, the
diagnosis was gall bladder problems, and it had to come out. Right
now. And it's infected. I sure hated to see Barbara being wheeled
down the hall, waving and looking back at me, all the way to the OR.
The surgery went well, but her infected condition required several
days in the hospital. The Kids were ready to load up and head west,
but I told them it was too far, and there was nothing they could do
for her here. Being away from family in a crisis is just part of
being a traveler, and we both accepted that. When I went to check
Barbara out of the hospital, I knew our insurance was handling it.
But they said they preferred to get $1000 down in cases like this,
being travelers and all. Okay, that sounded reasonable. A long way
and weeks down the line, they sent us another copy of the bill. The
$1000 had just disappeared. We had befriended the hospital's Patient
Advocate lady, who was also an RV'er, and we called her. She said she
would take care of it. A few days later we got a check for that
$1000. When insurance is involved, never pay up front. Let it go
through the insurance process. Early payment always gets confused,
and the confusion is always in favor of the hospital.
After she recouped for a few days
in our RV, she wanted out of it. So we took a few smaller trips,
seeing the area. That old strategy of seeing a large city on Sunday
just didn't pan out in LA. The traffic was as bad at daylight Sunday
morning as any other time.
After ten days, she felt like she
could travel, so we headed for Arkansas in the car to let her regain
her strength before continuing on with our travels. In moving the RV
to storage, that thing about the back end sticking out far right on a
left turn finally got me. I left a long deep scratch in someone's
car. I never talked to the owner, but the Park Director and our
Insurance fixed it while we were in Arkansas.
I made the long drive home as easy
on Barbara as possible, but it was still hard on her. Corey, the
rising “Next man of the clan,” took us aside. “OK, now, you've
had your trip. It's time to end it, now.” We thought otherwise.
Barbara and I decided long ago, as long as one of us was capable of
wiping both our bottoms, we are in charge of our life. Of course, if
we live long enough, the time will come when we both are very
appreciative that we have caring children
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