(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Traveling with Woolibaar Part One [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-05-20 For some time (a couple of years) I was afraid I would no longer be able to be a camp host. I have a lot of bone/muscle problems that have precluded my doing much of anything. Spine problems were just the start. And the two fake knees. And arthritis. None of those were the only reasons I could no longer do the hosting part. Turns out years of bad posture and bad living were the bad parts. Brachial plexus injury began and then a rotator cuff sprain/strain made simple tasks like washing hair and other parts too painful to do efficiently. This all was made worse by my wild and crazy living, and the raucus life of unthinking and strainful knitting and quilting. Hard, fast living indeed!! So, a chiropractor seemed to be an acceptable option. Of course, the choice of chiropractor was important. The most recent has (had, more later) corrected most of my problems from 50 to 100% better. I felt so good, I signed up to be camp host at Steinaker State Park in Utah. So, I arranged to be there May 4th, meaning a few days travel time. I left Crescent City, CA (CC) on Monday, April 29. Thus began the travel and troubles. There are three ways to drive away from CC to other places: North and South on Hwy 101 and East on Hwy 199. Since I was going East, 199 it was. (BTW, West is the Pacific Ocean, really hard to drive on, and the wrong direction to boot.) CC gets its name from the very long crescent shape of the beach. 101 runs along side it, 17 feet above sea level. May be underwater soon if global warming continues. Always runs the risk of tsunami, like in 1964 and the Alaska earthquake destroyed much of the harbor. Since then it has been rebuilt. Still very little altitude above sea level. I truly HATE 199. It isn’t just that to the Oregon border it is all uphill. It isn’t that the road wanders through the burned out area from last year that occurred right after I arrived in CC. It isn’t that there are places where the road is so narrow and curvy it becomes a place to hold your breath with the 18-wheelers barreling through like they were auditioning for the Indy 500. It isn’t that on one side the mountain goes straight up from the road with a foot of “shoulder”. It isn’t that on the other side of the road the mountain goes straight down to the Smith River with, if you are lucky, a foot of shoulder mostly with guard rails. It is ALL of those things. Did I mention that I HATE 199? This time there were two places where road construction stopped traffic for almost two hours total. First time I was number three in line. Second time I was number one. Even without a trailer I don’t hurry through (see reasons above). With a trailer, once we were released, I had to pull over to let 5 minutes worth of traffic go by. More delay, mostly because, unless it isn’t clear, I hate 199. The rest of the trip to Grants Pass (including a stop for petrol) and Medford, OR was busy, lots of cars but, fortunately, no rush hour. Downhill on I-5 to Medford and an expressway to Hwy 140 to Klamath Falls and Lakeview. The usual, no drama, just uphill and a stupid downhill that ends at the edge of Klamath Lake where there was more construction that held up traffic for 20 minutes. Got gas in Klamath Falls and bought 9 gallons after traveling 90 miles. Not too bad (10 mpg) and better than the 8 mpg I usually get pulling the trailer. So I’m semi-happy with that since gas is cheaper in OR (4.59 vs 6.49 in CA for premium). Through Klamath Falls was like old times since I had lived nearby for a while. On to Lakeview. In all the times I had lived nearby, I had never been to Lakeview. The drive is mostly level, with some stretches of straight. It was a pleasant drive and I arrived only an hour and a half after I said I would. I was constantly checking the road signs and my watch to see how I was doing. I thought I would be later, but it was nice to be earlier than I had recalculated. As it was, I drove for 9 hours if you include the time for the construction delays. The RV park I stayed in has the nicest proprietors. There doesn’t seem to be much to do there except hang out your latest Trump flag and post a sign demanding that Oregon move its borders. Temperature in the morning was suggested (by the weather guessers) to be a toasty 24 degrees That is Fahrenheit. I was afraid the roads would be icy or there would be snow. Nope, dry, safe roads. Which is good, because the trip from Lakeview to Battle Mountain, NV was horrifying, frightening, and in some very few places, dull. Map of So Oregon showing 140 from Lakeview to Nevada I like paper maps and 140 shows as mostly straight to Lakeview. Once past there, the road shows as a not-straight line. Oh, how maps deceive. Though a few summits were indicated, there was not a clue as to how bad the road turned out to be. Horrible pavement from chains and bad paving. Curvy, lots of ups and downs on curves. The only good thing (or bad?) was that there was almost no other traffic, either in the opposite direction or going my way. Before the trip, I kept checking the road cameras for Oregon. In case you didn’t know, cameras lie. I think where the cameras are is where they make sure the roads are perfectly paved and clear. The rest of the route can take care of itself, not a good thing for a curvy road. It was also obvious that any tax money was spent on “real” highways (like I-5) and next to none on a not-so-major, and especially a minor, highway. Adel, OR shows as a spot on the map, and has a road camera but it really is a place that if you blink, you will miss it. There is a huge sign saying it has gas, RV spots, a café, propane and a grange hall. That is the “town” of Adel. I thought I might have to stop there and get gas but it (all of it) was closed. I was worried I might run out of gas because of all the summits. I like non-freeway travel because it is slower and usually has better scenery. The scenery was beautiful, rocky, scrub brush, few trees, and lots to see. There were places where the road appeared to run into the mesa way in the distance and I would try to guess which way I would be going. Sometimes I was wrong. There was one place where I wanted to be wrong, but I wasn’t. If you have ever been on Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, you may remember there was a place or two where you could look down 1000 feet where the two lane road was narrow, but level, the speed limit was 25 mph, and there was a small stone wall keeping vehicles from heading over into the abyss. I was scared on this part of the road, but I never felt like I was going to die. Now imagine the same view with a two lane road, a 7% incline, a speed limit of 55, NO guard rail and next to no shoulder. I clenched everything I could clench and some I couldn’t. I thought I was going to upchuck, and could NOT look over the side. I even may have been whimpering. Once I got to the top, it took twenty miles of travel to unclench and stop shaking. I have NEVER felt so terrified in my life. For a couple of days before leaving, I had been having premonitions that it might not go well if I made this trip. Either the truck would break, the trailer would break, or I would break, or die. Going uphill, all I could think was “truck don’t fail me now”. If the truck couldn’t get to the top, the trailer would pull me over the side and I would be gone. When the road got less steep towards the top, and I could see if there was anyone coming the other way, I started taking my half out of the middle and left lane. After this, I no longer felt the premonition Because of this horror show, I will NEVER go West on that road. NEVER!! NO WAY!! Going down will wear out the best, newest brakes. Going East there were steep climbs but once past the summit, the downs were easy and short. Going West, not so much. It was after this I ran into my first traffic jam. BTW, most of the area is open range, so an open eye must be kept. Traffic consisted of cows, calves, cowboys on horses, and a pack of cattle dogs driving the poor cows crazy. I stopped instead of following the car in front of me, because Ceiling Cat knows what cows might do to an over-large vehicle when the critters get nipped by a dog. Of course, we all know what cows do as they amble along. I have proof splattered all over the front of my trailer. Nice polka dots. More ups and downs and curvy road to Denio Junction, NV. Time to get gas. Didn’t think another 75 miles would work before getting gas. Only one flavor, though, 87 grade. My V8 pulling a trailer needs at least 89 to 92 to actually want to pull the trailer up hills (yes, more of those). A bottle of octane booster, the last in the store, helped immeasurably. From there to Battle Mountain was the usual boring, dull, keep the accelerator pedal to the metal, fight the wind. Did I mention the wind? From any direction it reacts with the trailer like it was a sail. Headwind slows forward motion, sidewind sends trailer from one side to the other of the lane. Requires both hands on the wheel, more than usual. Had to shake my arms every once in a while to relieve some of the stresses involved in making sure I stayed somewhere near the middle of my lane. What about a tailwind you ask? Have no idea, have never, ever in 10 years of pulling the trailer ever had a tailwind. There is also the problem of trucks passing by, going faster than I was. The bow wave of air from the front of the truck would push me to the right and the vortex of air from the back of the bow wave would suck the trailer to the left. The turbulence from the rear of truck would do battle with my poor truck. Different types of trucks did more or less damage in that connection. I was constantly looking in my rear view mirror to make sure no trucks came upon me before I got ready for the reactions. Part Two tomorrow [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/20/2241723/-Traveling-with-Woolibaar-Part-One?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/