Patterson, California

Good afternoon, my friends. Today we find ourselves in Patterson, California. Here's what I know about Patterson: It is known as the "Apricot Capital of the World," and holds an annual Apricot Fiesta to celebrate with many drinks, food, desserts and games. If you've been paying attention, then you'll remember I said we'd be in Tracy in my last post. I was wrong. (I know...weird, right?) We're actually some miles down the road. 

We've always traveled around 300 miles on driving days...usually more than that. For this trip, and hereafter, I've shortened our driving days to no more than 250 miles. Most days we're driving somewhere in the 200-225 mile range. As I plan the trip, I'll look from our last stop for a place approximately that distance down the road, and use that as a destination. Then, I look for RV parks in the area. This area was hard. Most everything was terribly expensive...ridiculously expensive. And this place is more than most any place we usually stay, but it was available. Sometimes it goes that way. 

So this is going to be a post of terrible pictures. It was dark and foggy the whole drive. Too dark to take very sharp photos, and besides, there just wasn't much to see. Let's start with the birds. I ended up with just this one shot, somewhat focused. It's a great egret.

We were traveling through an area with acres and acres of rice paddies. There were also thousands of birds, including large groupings of egrets. In my effort to show you all the egrets, I was ending up with images that look like the one below.

Eventually, I gave up trying. We saw lots of ducks, and probably a dozen hawks. 

We also traveled through the San Joaquin Valley. As of 2018, the gross value of agricultural production in the county was $2.6 billion. The top product was almonds, followed by grapes, milk, and walnuts. San Joaquin County is home to one of the largest walnut processing facilities in the world, DeRuosi Nut. We passed by many, many square miles of groves and orchards. In the image below, I was trying to show you the tumbleweeds that stack up along the fence lines. 

If you're unfamiliar with tumbleweeds, just know that they are iconic, dry, rounded plants (most famously the invasive Russian thistle) that detach from their roots in fall and are then carried by wind, scattering seeds for reproduction, a process that spreads them across disturbed, arid lands like deserts and roadsides, creating cultural images of the American West but also fire hazards and physical obstacles. Indeed, in one of our trips south, we found a whole lane blocked off on a busy Los Angeles freeway because it was filled with tumbleweeds.

Also, we saw many tidy acres of grapes...

And some other kind of berry...this looks like a new field.

It's hard to tell on these leafless trees, but these are probably almonds. When they bloom in the spring, they are lovely, and they fill the air with a heavenly fragrance.

And this being an agricultural area, we didn't see a lot of barns, but here was one I spotted as we pulled out of a rest area.

And you know you're in California when you see the eucalyptus trees. Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia, but you can read about how and why they made their way to California right here. There was a veritable forest of eucalyptus at the rest area.

Their peeling bark is interesting to look at.

So that's about all I can tell you about today's drive. We'll be heading south again tomorrow, and we'll end up in Taft, California, which is Mike's birth place. He left Taft when he was two and has no memories of the place at all. We've talked many times of visiting, just to have a look at Mike's origins. This will be the first time we've actually stopped.

Okay, so let's talk about this slide problem in the RV. I took some pictures this morning to help me explain. The problem, as I understand it, is that the gearing on either sides of the slide has gotten out of sync. Mike repaired it yesterday, re-syncing the gear mechanisms. But then when he tested it by bringing it in and then back out again, it made the same terrible clunking noise and was clearly out of sync again. We can tell because the two sides of the slide are different distances from the wall.

In the image below, I'm standing at the rear end of the fifth wheel looking toward the front where the bedroom is up those stairs on the right side of the image. The kitchen is on the left, and it has its own slide. The island sink is in the middle, and the dining area and two reclining chairs on the right. The problem slide is the one on the right.

In the image below, we've brought in the slide. You can see the room is a lot smaller. The wooden strip on the right side is the edge of the slide.

If I rotate my body to the right, you can see one of the recliners in the image below. On the right side of the image is the kitties' window leading to their catio. There's also a couch there. You can see they have plenty of access to their catio, and the couch is usable too. Yes...lots of quilts. The furniture is hide of nauga (sometimes referred to as "naugahyde"). Their kitty claws will poke permanent holes, and so we keep everything covered with quilts for both protection and comfort.

Walking to the far side of the room...now I'm near where the stairs lead to the bedroom...you can see there's still plenty of room to maneuver around in the kitchen. Smitty was helping me decide which pictures would best illustrate our situation.

In a nutshell, we've decided to simply leave the slide in for the next few days. We can bring it in and out, but that clunking noise is worrisome. For the time being, we want to avoid bringing it in and out on these day driving trips and overnight stays. The television is directly across from the recliners, and so we can still watch TV. The most inconvenient part of this is the small opening that allows us to access the table when we want to eat a meal...or when I want to write a blog post. Still, this is doable, even if we had to do this for the remainder of the trip. Except for that, it doesn't really cause us any problems insofar as using the space is concerned.

When the slide started acting up yesterday, we both felt pretty defeated. We hated the idea of ending our trip just two days from home, but we talked about it. Instead, I believe we came up with a workable solution: we'll leave the slide in until we reach Escondido. We have a full month's stay in Escondido, and a friend has recommended an RV mobile repair person who'll be able to come to the park there and repair the slide...maybe. 

Even if it can't be repaired on the road, we can just put the slide out and leave it out until we're ready to move on. From there, we have two weeks in Boulder City, Nevada...equal to one slide in and out. From there, we can move on to Pahrump for another two weeks and another in and out of the slide. We may decide to skip Death Valley at the end of our trip and head for home at that point. And then again, for the overnight stops, we'll just leave the slide in and make the most of it.

So, okay. We're both feeling pretty good about this way of handling this problem. We both really like this RV, and we both love RV travel. Still, these kinds of mechanical problems suck. And, as I've said many times, traveling is inconvenient. It doesn't matter how one travels, problems will crop up in the form of delayed flights, lost luggage, hotel snafus, and the like. Mechanical problems are the bane of RV travel. We've dealt with worse problems, and we'll get through this too. It doesn't have to end the trip.

And with that, I'll leave you to the remains of your day. I have food to get us through the next two weeks, but Mike is looking all hang-dog and asking if we can go out this evening. A couple of margaritas will do us good. And, yes, we could make our own margaritas, but having someone else make them will help with healing. 

That's all I have for you today. We're expecting crappy weather for our drive tomorrow. Hopefully, nothing more than rain, but one never knows. I'll check back tomorrow from Taft, and we'll see where Mike got his start in life.