Leaving Bass Lake to Lake Tahoe

                                Monday 5/7/2012

These are pictures Joe took with our new zoom lens on the night before we left Bass Lake, CA. 

It was the super moon. neither of us were impressed with the super moon. It looked like any other full moon to us. We would not be able to get this close up of the moon like this, without the zoom.

We left Bass Lake going south on Hwy. 41 back to Oakhurst. In Oakhurst we took Hwy. 49 northeast. Joe was not happy with the road. He does not like roads with very little shoulders, or curvy, and has steep inclines and descents.

I like two lane roads because they are more interesting than interstates.

Some of the grasses on the hillside had turned pretty pink.

As we descended we lost the tall pines.

At the small town of Mariposa, we turned on Hwy 140, going southwest. If we turned northeast on Hwy. 140, it would have taken us into the north entrance of Yosemite National Park. We never saw Tioga Road in Yosemite, because it was not open yet. Summer is the best time to see Yosemite National Park, but you will have to fight the crowds, will miss all the great falls because the snow melt will have ended.

From Mariposa we made a climb again, to add to the other many climbs that day.

View from the top, as we headed back down.

At 870 feet we get to the rolling golden hills. We were told the rolling green hills that we saw when we first entered into California the first of April, would turn gold in a month. And here they were.

At about 560 feet, we lost most of the trees.

Soon we were in the valley of central California again,

and back to the orange groves.

I didn't know pistachios were grown in California. The advantages of travel. Learning where pistachios grow!

Not sure what is growing in this field. Maybe alfalfa.

Hwy. 140 connected to Interstate 99. We drove north 112 miles  on I-99 to Sacramento.

I-99 is a continual city to city, with no or very little country views. I did see these pretty white flowers along the roadside though.

In Sacramento we took Hwy. 50 toward South Lake Tahoe. Joe really dislikes big city driving. This is what he doesn't like about our travels.

On Hwy. 50 our check engine light came on as the engine missed a few times.

Around 4PM, on Hwy. 50, outside of Sacramento we hit a big city traffic jam. Once we got started  and going over 40 miles an hour the motorhome missed several times again. We started discussing what we should do. We took an exit to the suberb of Folsom, and found the nearest Wal-Mart for plan B. On the way to Wal-Mart, Joe saw a small RV dealership. After parking at a Super Wal-Mart, we unhooked, and drove the Honda back to the RV dealership. The dealership told Joe of a RV service business just up the street where we were parked. We drove up there and they gave us a name of another business. By then it was after 5:00. Joe told me to check the computer for a Cummins dealership. Praise the Lord, there was one just 20 minutes away back in Sacramento.

Cummis told us we could park behind their business, and hook up to electricity. They could see us first thing in the morning. We waited at Wal-Mart for a couple of hours to avoid rush hour traffic; then we headed back 20 miles to Sacramento.

We hooked onto I-80. this part of I-80 was terrible. Really ruff, and bump, bump bump! We held our breath's that the Nest wouldn't die along the way. She missed a few times but held up.

We found the Cummings repairs facility, and back up to our new backyard for, not sure how long?

The hook up parking spots are outside of the fenced area, so we could come after hours. They closed at 6PM, so we did get there before they closed, but wouldn't have had to.

On a positive note the parking lot had  flowering bushes to photograph.

While I took pictures of our new backyard,

Joe hook us up to electricity and also discovered a water hookup for watering the bushes; which he tapped into.

The next morning we had to be up and ready to let them take our Nest into the garage by 8PM. That was a real trick for me!

We  pulled into the garage. They let us stay in our nest while they hooked us up to their computer system to analaze our computer for fault codes from the day before. They could see that we had a fuel flow problem, but were unsure if it was a delivery system problem or an engine problem. They suggested that we replace the fuel filter to begin with. Joe asked them to do some other maintanance, as we had no history of prior maintanance. He asked them to replace all the belts on the engine. Then drain and replace the transmission fluid and filter and drain the coolant and replace with new coolant fluid. Also replace the air filter. They did all these things that day and told us that our differencial showed signs that it needed a new seal but they didn't do that type of repair. After doing a full day's worth of analaizing and maintanance work they hooked the nest up to a dynometer and it still cut out under load. They said they would have to continue to check things out tomorrow, very discouraging news! We returned to our parking spot for another night. ( I had Joe write this section of the blog, since I don't know a thing about automotives)!

In the afternoon, while they worked on our Nest, we found a Wal-Mart for groceries. Sacramento's Super Wal-Mart had a very artsy look!

That night, someone moved into our neighborhood. At least we drove ourselves to Cummings, and didn't have to be towed in, like our new neighbors.