Mother Nature Lessons


My plan was to head south to get on a less likely to snow route to Ohio. I wanted to spend the holidays with my siblings, which hasn’t happened in, I have no idea, many years. So leaving Sacramento I headed to Bakersfield and the plan was to take I40 across the southern states and then get to Ohio. Keep in mind that bad weather could change my plans in an instant.

I learned a few things on this day. The first is that high winds and RV’s are enemies. The second is that rough roads, no matter how good you pack, will result in things hitting you in the head when you open the cabinets. The third is, never depend on rest areas, being open. It certainly seemed that in California there was a plan to close most of the rest areas I went by. Okay, yes I was not good at rest areas yet, but I had a plan and wanted to execute it. Executing a plan is very difficult when the state won’t cooperate. Since it was early in the day and Arizona was close, I couldn’t wait to test my new ideas in their rest areas. More on that later.

So around Edwards Air Force base, I noticed a sign that stated high winds and gust the next 10 miles. Well, high winds were the case and the 10 miles turned into what seemed to be a thousand miles. Have you ever leaned back in a chair and almost fell over but saved it. I felt that way for about three hours. I’m hoping in time that I will get over the fear of the RV tumbling over and over on its side like a bad NASCAR crash, but for now, let’s just say I’m a bit overly cautious. I know this from the encouragement from other drivers behind me. I did receive a few thumbs up from passing cars and trucks. Not sure if it was for MotorSilk or just the fact I hadn’t killed anyone or myself, but I’m going to take it as a good sign.

It was late in the day, dark, I was tired and as I crossed over into Arizona, I saw the sign for Lake Havasu and an RV park there. I’ve never been there and did see some interesting spring break video from there once, or was it girls gone wild, anyhow, I took the exit and went looking for the RV park. As it turns out I found the RV park and it was full, but I did see a Wal-Mart store and decided to do a little shopping and test their policy on overnight stays. Turns out the shopping went well, but the overnight stay was cancelled by a local law forbidding it. Still tired but happy to have spent some time outside of the RV, I headed back to I40 confident a rest area would be close.

Well, after going by the first one that was closed, I sought out every sign in the dark that mentioned RV Park. Turns out I found a nice little place called the Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel East of Kingman. I got a well deserved night of rest and headed out the next morning ready for the adventure to continue.