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Journey to Yosemite (Oakhurst, CA)

Click on map to enlarge

After two days at the Success Lake campground, we hit the road for our next campground in Oakhurst, CA. We followed Highway 99 to Fresno and then Highway 41 to Oakhurst.

On our way to Oakhurst, it was orange grove after orange grove after orange grove. What was really strange was seeing lush green orange groves surrounded by parched, brown grasslands. Madera County was a treat — rolling hills, huge granite formations, and the Sierra mountains in the near distance.

Madera County – 1

Madera County – 2

We arrived at our campground about 2 pm. While it’s no RV “resort”, our camp site sits just above the Fresno River.

Site 44

We’re going exploring tomorrow . . . bought a cantaloupe that must have been grown locally because it was awesome !!! More later.

Tule Campground @ Success Lake (Porterville, CA)

Click on map to enlarge

Elevation: 659 feet

It was only a couple hour drive from the Mojave campground to our next stop at the COE (Corps Of Engineers) Tule campground on Success Lake.

We’re used to going up Highway 395 to Bishop and seeing the eastern side of the Sierras. However, this time we’re traveling up the western side to Yosemite.

It’s only a two-day stay so we’re kicking back and enjoying the view . . .

Our Site 52 – a pull through

Looking East towards the Sierras

Rent a Pontoon

Flirt chillin’

On the Road Again (Mojave, CA)

Last Night in LHC (London Bridge at sunset)

As much as we’ll miss our Crazy Horse park model (or “home”), we have a lot to see this summer.

Our jacks were fixed in a day by 3-Ts RV Products in Lake Havasu City. They answered all our questions, and we highly recommend them. It seems that the 40A fuse holder for our hydraulic jacks melted! They explained how we could raise up the jacks ourselves if this happens again.

However, we discovered a not-so-slow leak in one of our Jeep tires. So this morning Jan took our Jeep to Big O Tires to get it fixed. We figured it might take longer than one day to plug the leak or get a new tire. But we caught a break. The Big O techs removed a screw from the tire and plugged the tire at no charge — and this all took a few hours so we were on the road by 11 am.

Our Mojave Camp Site

Those are the Sierra Mountains behind our RV

Breakdown in Kingman, AZ

We left the Grand Canyon campground Saturday morning and arrived at a campground just outside of Kingman, AZ later that day. As usual, we put down the four hydraulic jacks that level our RV and then put out our two slide outs. Hunky dory.

Stuck Jack

However, the following morning when we tried to raise our jacks to leave, they all stopped halfway up. Bad mojo. We tried lowering them, but no go. Also, a nasty little “LOW BATTERY” red light appeared on our HWH jack control panel.

Check the jack manual . . . our coach batteries could be bad. I check the battery voltage and they appear ok. The manual also had detailed troubleshooting information . . .

RTFM

. . . that ended in “replace the pump”. Lovely.

There was no way I wanted to do this level of troubleshooting, so time to call Coach-Net, our road side service provider. A few hours later help arrived . . .

The Cavalry

The service tech said he could (A) raise the jacks manually, but not fix the cause of the problem, or (B) troubleshoot the system at $125/hour. We chose “A”.

x 4

So one hour and $175 later, our jacks were all up and we could resume our journey.

We decided to return to Lake Havasu City (77 miles away from us) and get our jacks fixed at a service center we’ve used in the past.

We stayed another day at the Kingman campground and left for Lake Havasu on Monday morning. We rented a cheap storage space for our RV and moved back into our Crazy Horse park model. We were all moved in by about 2 pm.

On Our Park Model Porch

Taking in the view . . .

Click on photo to enlarge

Reading a book and Happy Panting  . . .

So we take our RV in for service on Wednesday. I figure it will take more than a day to fix, so we’re making the most of our stay . . . weather is beautiful, sit on porch, catch a movie, go out to eat, . . .

Final Entry from Grand Canyon

Our Last Hike

Tomorrow we’re outta here. Heading West for California and $4/gallon gas.

LAST HIKE

Our goal was Yaki Point, but most of the route would be sharing with bicyclists so we decided to stop at the canyon rim.

So Many Choices

Beautiful from Any/Every Angle

THE ELK

They arrive in the morning and later at dusk. They are prolific poopers. From what we saw, no one bothered them while they munched grass all day. When she first saw an Elk, Flirt was spooked, but I think she finally thought of them as just big, different-smelling dogs.

FLASH FROM THE PAST

1992 — A Brief Stopover During Our Route 66 Road Trip

A Lot Closer to the Edge than She Remembers

1994 — Four-Day Stay at El Tovar Hotel ($250/day then, $575.12 now)

On Our Room’s Balcony