Back To Bishop

Our Trip to Bishop (click on map to enlarge)

We arrived in Bishop, CA about a week ago to do another work camping stint. Instead of driving up Highway 395 like we usually do, we traveled in Nevada on the East side of the White Mountains. Bishop is in the Owens Valley between the White Mountains and the Eastern Sierras.

On the trip here, we visited Death Valley and the temperature reached 90 degrees in early April!

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It’s just beautiful in Bishop.

There’s a fair amount of snow on the Sierras and the road to Yosemite is still closed because of snow. In fact, there are a number of roads closed for that reason. Earlier this week we had a couple of RVs come into our campground that had driven through heavy snow storms in Mammoth (about an hour up the road from Bishop).  Remember that Bishop is at about 4,000′ elevation while Mammoth is at 8,000′. Elevation does matter.

WILDFIRE

Owens River Campground Fire on February 18th (click on map to enlarge)

About a month ago, a wild fire swept along the Owens River just north of our campground. The fire devoured about 2,800 acres.

As I write this, another wild fire (the “Moffet Fire”) has closed Highway 395 just north of Lone Pine, CA. Lone Pine is about 50 miles south of Bishop. This looks to be a bad fire season.

After arriving at our campground, we took a Jeep trip through the fire area.

On the Road Again . . . Camping in the Hualapai Mountains

Havasu to Hualapai

Our first campground destination was a short hop from Lake Havasu City. We thought that best for this year’s “shakedown” trip. Besides a dripping Gray Tank valve (which I’ll have to replace again), the trip was uneventful.

Our Camp Site @ 6500′

DAY HIKE

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DINNER

Just a mile down the road (that’s a 10% grade) . . .

DEER

Mule deer family dining across the road . . .

NEXT STOP: Nevada

Crack #2 & TPMS Fixes

And now more of this . . .

Whilst cleaning the Corian stove cover, I noticed a lonnnnng crack on the back side of the cover:

Behold! A nasty crack.

Here’s the Bird’s-Eye Lowdown View

Since we’re leaving Lake Havasu City in a few days, I came up with this kludge — glue a thick piece of metal to the back side:

Here’s the Prep . . .

Here’s the result . . .

Yeah, it’s heavy

TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) Fix

After we discovered that one of our back tires was flat — without us knowing about it, we decided to put in a TPMS which monitors our RV’s tire pressure and temperature.

TPMS Sensor on Each Tire

Constantly Monitors Tire Pressure and Temps

While it’s a great system, the battery in a sensor can go dead. So I spent Sunday replacing the batteries in a couple of sensors . . . easy peasy . . .

Little Sensor Batteries

“Isle of Dogs” Clip Leaves Flirt Wanting More

No animals were hurt in the making of this film. “Isle of Dogs” trailer.

Cracks & Chair in a Box

CRACKS

I’ve been watching a wood crack in our RV’s China cabinet grow longer and longer. So before we get on the road again, I though I’d better fix it before the cabinet falls off the wall.

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A few hours after the China cabinet was fixed, I discovered a crack in the Corian cover over our RV stove. Job security. More on this later.

CHAIR IN A BOX

Jan wanted an alternative to laying on our coach. Google search . . . Result = Lambright Lazy Relaxor Lite Recliner. So we ordered one 5 weeks ago and Jan’s chair arrived unassembled in a box:

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Our first impressions — thumbs up.