We sold Alice within a week of advertising her and headed to So-Cal the next day to look at several prospects we had lined up down there. As it turned out, none of those were quite the right fit and none of the other folks we called while down there even bothered to return our calls, so we headed back home after three days to re-group. Even though it was an unsuccessful trip, it was good to be back on the road again!
Once home, we contacted a few more people in the southern part of the state (we were trying to primarily go south to avoid the ghastly fires then burning in the Napa/Sonoma area), but then my brother saw a listing for a nice Dolphin up north in Susanville,CA. We had been trying to avoid the wide-body models due to their 8.5' width, but this one was in such good shape we decided to scrap our previous plans and head north instead. One of the things that attracted us to this coach was the fact that the man selling it was a retired rv service technician who had done several
upgrades and maintained it beautifully. From the moment I first saw the ad I started thinking of her as "Dolly", an obvious but nonetheless fitting name. I was hooked.
The weather prediction for Susanville turned out to be quite accurate, but no one mentioned the high (6000'+) passes along Hwy 36 in the weather reports; we were blindly hoping for the best. There were the usual (and some unusual) delays the morning we left and the requisite wrong turn delay later in the day, so it was already mid-afternoon when we started up and around the southern base of Mt. Lassen. The sky was getting darker and the windshield wetter as we climbed ever upward, and then it happened; falling snow! Just what we flatlanders needed to make the journey complete (deep sigh and quiet grumbling). Fortunately Joe has driven in snow before, having lived part of a winter in Stowe, VT
At first it was kind of cool to see the tiny snowflakes drift down, but then the snow started building up on the road where the sun never gets below the canopy of the trees...and then we hit the ice and slush! I wish we hadn't been in such a hurry (and perhaps had snow chains on board, or mud and snow tires on the mini-van) because the one spot we stopped "on the mountain" was absolutely lovely. The snow fell in complete silence; no birds, no animals, no cars anywhere around (because who else would be dumb enough to drive over a mountain in a snow storm except us coastal types?). Everything had a powdery softness to it; even the rocks and highway appeared to blend seamlessly into the landscape. There were no hard edges anywhere. Having had very little experience with falling snow, I was enchanted with the Christmas card scene around me and could have stood there all day, or at least until my fingers and nose turned a cool shade of blue.Being as how we needed to be on our way before the "polite" snow storm turned into a full-on blizzard, we didn't linger long in the velvety white wonderland, but moved on to slowly pull out from under the leading edge of the flurries. We stopped in the gorgeous little valley between the passes to make a pit stop at the local restaurant/lodge and the storm caught up to us again, so we zipped back onto the highway and outran it a second time. The scenery along this part of the highway was beautiful, even under cloudy skies and threat of snow. The small town of Chester looked just the way you would expect, with gift shops and diners, A-frame real estate offices and motels with mountainy sounding names like Timberlodge. You know...the road trip towns of our childhood!
We arrived in Susanville and checked into our motel in the early evening, which left us just enough time to jet up to Dolly's location at Eagle Lake before dark. Of course, the road we chose to take along the west side of the lake was more closely related to a goat trail up and over a ridge, and was of course covered in slushy snow that was already beginning to ice up as the air temperature dropped like a rock and darkness began to descend. Finally we found the right house (after getting completely lost; stupid GPS system) and looked her over. As it was late and we weren't really looking forward to the return trip in the dark, we arranged to come back in the morning for a test drive.
After a belated anniversary dinner at the mexican restaurant next to our hotel and a well deserved sleep, we headed to the bank and then back up to the lake via Hwy 139 on the east side of the lake, which we had discovered the previous evening (at our host's recommendation) to be a much better route of travel; wider, sunnier and just generally more pleasant. This road still had to climb a long way from the valley floor, but the slope was much more gradual than the first route. Also much more appropriate for bringing a motorhome back on, which we did a few hours later. That's right folks, we couldn't resist adding Dolly to the family. Of course, the long grade was all downhill on the way back to town, but the new rig handled it just fine. Joe declared her much easier to drive than her predecessor despite her larger size. In all fairness to Alice, she did have a missing shock and a broken leveler for most of our trip last July, so the comparison was probably unfair.
We debated the idea of heading home then but it was already late afternoon and it was predicted to be cold that night, which roughly translates to "watch out for ice on roadway". We knew there would be a long construction delay on Hwy 36 as Cal-Trans was hard at work on pasting the highway back on the side of the mountain near the tiny town of Mineral. This is a long one-way stretch of controlled traffic which has yet to be fully repaved, and has not had the cliff side guard rails re-installed yet. Not a drive we wanted to make with night coming on; it was spooky enough in broad daylight in a mini-van the previous day. So we went to the local Wallmart to buy sheets and paper plates, plastic forks, etc. for dinner later. We briefly debated the idea of overnighting in the parking lot there as several other rigs were doing, but decided against it as we were not really set up for boondocking yet and had not filled the water tank. Joe found Susanville RV Park about a block away and we went there instead. We had to figure out a few things on the rig while it was still light, as it had already been winterized by the previous owner. We ended up being unable to hook up to water, so had to use the case of bottled water in the mini-van for cooking, etc. Because of that and our lack of any pots or pans, we just ran to the store and bought microwavable food for dinner that night (swiss steak in gravy with mashed spuds and veggies... not too bad for a desperation meal). During our years on the road as motorsport photographers there were many times we would have been happy to have a meal this good; we once had to select dinner from the only convenience store in town still open at three a.m.!
I think I can safely guarantee that we will never again drive Dolly over Hwy 17, no matter what direction we are headed. Too many drivers want to share your lane with you, despite the fact that you need all of it. Joe was having to hug the right side line because all the speeding idiots were coming into his lane. Apparently most drivers in this area feel the dividing line is merely a suggestion for their consideration! When you combine right line hugging with the natural tilt of a motorhome in turns and add in really tight walls of rock, it is likely to cause the person following you ( for instance, ME ) to come close to having a coronary about 57 times in 20 minutes! I was really expecting to see a puff of rock dust followed by an explosion of fiberglass fragments and mirrors to hit my windshield at any moment. Fortunately Joe has a lot of experience driving large motorhomes and trucks because of his years running his transportation company in Hollywood, so we made it home unscathed.
And so, a new adventure begins. We are currently in the process of installing solar, and a new tv antenna. We are modifying an area for the ever difficult process of hiding a kitty litter box in plain sight (if you travel with cats you can feel my pain), and figuring out where to put all the stuff that was specifically purchased to fit the GMC. While this coach has far more storage, it isn't necessarily as perfect a fit for what we currently have. We have already installed new tires, as the old ones were in pretty good shape but past their use by date. We also resealed the roof, but we'll discuss that in detail in a later post.
Before we can leave we will have to acclimate the cats to their new home, which should be interesting. It seems like most of the travelling cats out there adjusted pretty readily to the changes asked of them so I'm hopeful that we will be as lucky. Then, in early January, we hit the road for good!
Stay tuned for further updates and be blessed, my friends! -Lynn
