Quick Down And Up

We've become settled into our spot here in Dutch Flat since our arrival in August.  It's too long since we've been out.  We're feeling the itch to hitch!

Garden Grove needs us to repair a broken slide.  We'd rather not make the long drive to southern California for one repair.  When we get approval for a repair at E & J Gallo Winery, we decide to make a quick trip down and back up.

Unfortunately, the city where the winery is located doesn't have any RV parks.  We decide instead to stay a little further away and drive to the repair site.

Arriving at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds after dark had us a little confused.  The park is a small triangular shaped lawn area with hookups along the perimeter.  Two sides of the triangle have campers parked perpendicular so we opt to fill in the third side of the triangle.  We had FHU for just $25/night.

The next day we went to the winery to make the repair.  One of their 15K gallon water tanks had a leak at the bottom.

We were greeted at the locked gate and shown to the tank at the rear of the facility.  There is a row of five 15K gallon tanks used for their reverse osmosis process.  The tank outlet at the bottom of Tank #4 had a small crack which caused it to leak.

I don't even know just how tall these tanks are!

We unloaded our tools and got to work right away.  After a test weld we knew it could be successfully repaired.  Tim was pleased to see the final results of our work!

One more night at the fairgrounds and then it's off to So-Cal.  The Garmin says it'll take about six hours to get to our destination.  Boy was it WRONG!!  We didn't arrive until after 8:00pm...  The traffic was terrible!  It seems everyone was out on the freeway this Monday evening.

We had called ahead knowing the office would be closed before our arrival to get our site number.  I had reserved a pull through at Orangeland RV Park.  This is our second time staying there.  As usual, it was clean and welcoming.  The staff member I saw the following morning encouraged me to pick some of the fresh citrus fruit growing abundantly throughout the park.  As promised, the grapefruit were amazing!  Before leaving we picked a bag full to take back with us.  They're much better than the grocery store variety.

Tuesday was the day to make the necessary repairs to the very damaged slide at Garden Grove Park.  We had received photos and already knew what to expect.  Two city employees were at the site to greet us.  We don't require assistance but it's always nice to meet our customers in person.

This is our second time repairing the same slide.  We've been able to acquire some orange material recently so we were able to replace the newly damaged area with a more closely matched color.  The tan patch is still in excellent condition, even after over two years of use, so we decided it would be best to leave it alone.  Another very successful repair by PolyMenders!

Raven has an appointment on Thursday back in northern California.  She's getting measurements taken and a repair estimate written up for warranty work.  Hopefully the tire blowout damage will also be covered.  *fingers crossed*

no unhitching necessary :-)

Wednesday we start the long journey back up central California.  We had decided that we would stop at Flag City RV Resort in Lodi for one night.  That way we would already be hitched up Thursday to arrive at the RV shop on our way back to Dutch Flat.  We used the Passport America 50% discount making our stay $32.50 plus tax.


The following Saturday, December 8th, we have an RVillage end of the year gathering.  We get to see our friends Steve and Debbie again and meet some new friends.  One of the couples mentioned to us how they found a private property owner who is renting them an RV spot on their land.  It got us thinking about our situation.  We have a long one hour drive each direction to work.  That's a lot of diesel for Rainier, gas for the Camry and time for each of us.

Ron found us a new place to park Raven!  Sunday's Craigslist ad was up for just two days.  A full hook up RV site was available in Roseville :-)  It's minutes from our shop so we'll be saving money on fuel and saving time with our commute.  It appears we'll be in the area for a little while so this is perfect for us at the moment.  One more week in Dutch Flat and then it's moving day for Raven.

Fast Forward to Today, December 20th

Raven was winterized last Saturday for her move down the hill.  The main reason is because she'll be at her new spot without us for a few weeks.  You can never predict the weather so we wanted her pipes safe while we're away.

We've been on the road since dropping her off.  We're currently staying at an Airbnb home in Oklahoma City.  We're 15 minutes away from Alex, Kana and our second grandson Benjamin Octavius! :-)  Jessica and Emmett are staying at Alex's house so we get to see them again.  Plus, Ron's folks are flying in tomorrow from North Carolina.  It'll be a fantastic Christmas!!

Next post I'll be sharing photos of our journey along the way and of course photos of our two beautiful grandsons!!