From Arizona to Rosamond, CA

If you recall, I was forced by my satellite internet provider (Direcway) to return to the states in order to receive a refund of a wrongly charged ‘termination’ fee. The management of Direcway have their collective heads so far up their collective tushes that they will never figure out why they get flamed all over the web at hundreds of sites.

Anyway, I left the RV park in Amado and headed north to Tempe, then on to my brothers house in Rosamond, CA.

As you can see the weather was kinda gloomy. Matched my mood. I wanted to stay another month in Mexico. Sigh. I’ll be back there in November or December:

I stopped just for this picture since the topography was so typical of the area:

When I got to Quartzsite, I first stopped at the Love’s Fuel station there in town. I’d been paying $1.86 or so per gallon of diesel in Mexico, and here it’s $2.59. I’m lucky to have found that price. Most of the places I’d passed in Arizona were in the $2.75 per gallon range.

As I drove through town, I found that all the RV business that are here from around late November through early February are now closed so I won’t be able to do any shopping for RV parts.

I spent the night at the free BLM camping area savoring the cool breeze that whipped through the area. I’d parked a 100 yards away from my nearest neighbor so I got some alone time. While waiting for nightfall, I did some fluid checks on the rig and checked the air pressure in the tires. With everything OK, I had dinner and watched some TV, then went to bed early.

The next morning, around 6am, I woke up refreshed and ready for another day of driving.

I headed north towards Parker, Arizona because I wanted to avoid having to drive through all the traffic around LA. My brothers place is 90 miles north of LA so I took the roads that take me north of Edwards AFB.

This is the highway to Parker:

A few hours later and I’m heading due west. The weather cleared up a little and I took this shot because I was near what is really a spectacular desert valley. It doesn’t really come through that way in the picture. Guess you need to go there yourself:

Later on, I passed this volcanic rock field. Kind of interesting but no cinder cone or caldera, notice how the day has brightened up:

After this, I passed through Barstow and onto Highway 58. The 4 lane section. Around the middle of that section, I hit a pothole that rattled my teeth. Right after that, I’m hearing a loud thumpa, thumpa, thumpa. Sounds like a flat so I start to pull over. I stop at a pull out and check all the tires. No flat and no tread separation that I could find. And no dead animals stuck between my duals. But whenever I move, a loud noise from the front end. I think I’ve got it localized to the left front, I call service and they dispatch a truck to tow me back to Barstow for service. While I’m waiting, I lift the rig on the front leveler and discover that the noise is coming from the right front wheel. And it’s loud too. While messing around with the tire, I find that 4 of the six lug nuts are loose! So I call and cancel the tow but ask for a tire truck (big rigs use them when they have a flat on the freeway-they have the tools and a compressor and can fix any tire problem without towing). The same outfit says they’re still coming out and can do the work. Meanwhile, I’ve tried to tighten the nuts with the tools I have but this is a 19.5″ tire so you need to apply around 200 Ft/Lbs to these nuts. I don’t have the strength. The tow truck gets there and I find that the guy has no idea about this big of a tire. Doesn’t even have a torque wrench with him. Not even aware of the tire pressures needed. Anyway, working together we get the nuts wrenched down tight and I head out. No more noise. Whee, another potential problem solved with a simple fix. I gotta tell you, the noise was so loud and so persistent that I thought that there was major front end damage to deal with. Here’s a shot of the wheel:

You can see by this shot that I was able to find a nice pull off of the freeway in order to work on the wheel. And there is a handy turn around for the tow guy to head back to town right here too:

Note: Found out from the manufacturer and other sources that the torque needed for the big nuts holding the wheel on is 450-500 ft-lbs. I don’t have the tool for that much torque but I’m looking for one.

A few miles down the road, this is the Mojave Desert:

A few hours later and I get to my brothers house in Rosamond, CA. He’s in Las Vegas but I’m just happy to be here. Note the steep driveway and street, I keep telling him that he needs to buy a new house on flat land with RV parking but he’s not hearing me:

Here’s the little patio he’s built to give himself a nice area to look out over the valley in the evening, has a little pond too: