Travels with The Rayman

Yesterday was quite a day but before I enumerate on all the things that happened, let me tell you where we are.  Clio, CA.  Up in the Sierra Nevada mountains in some of the most beautiful places ever.  It is located in Mohawk Valley.  Click on this link for more info.  http://www.graeagleplumas.com   The Feather River runs through it.  An unpopulated place, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, the pine trees grow on every mountain and meadows are treeless.  Cows graze in the meadows and the Canadian geese hang out in the meadows early in the morning.  You see occasional deer and if you listen closely, an owl will call out in rhythmic hoots ever so often.  The train comes through several times a day and the engineer tugs on the horn wherever it is required.  You only notice that at night.  The valley rumbles and the whistle blares.

There is a post office in Clio.  And not much else.  Down the highway, Graeagle can be found.  It boasts a golf course, a few small retail stores, a lake with Graeagle Yacht club where you can rent paddle boats and kayaks by the hour.  It’s a small lake but gets lots of action because it is close to town (almost in the middle) and has a parking lot.

When we arrived here for the second time this month, we were driving our new motorhome.  Our virgin voyage.  What a delight the new rig is to drive.  We had no idea the newer machines were so much easier.  What a difference a rig makes!!  So, being new to us, there is a steep learning curve.   Advanced electronics.  Less storage because we have a huge refrigerator, a “fireplace”, much bigger TVs, a larger shower, a lou in it’s own room with a sink.  So something had to give.  The storage is less in order to make room for all the new and improved items.  So, a period of adjustment has been entered into.  Thank goodness our friends, the Coverts, came up for the weekend.  They have been indispensable to our period of adjustment.  So has it been a godsend for the Donnollys to be here too.  They arrived on Friday for a week.  We are blessed.

So excited were we that we announced dinner would be at our place and we were doing the whole meal and providing the libations.  Wildly bold but so appropriate as a big thank you for tasks done and yet to be done to help us through our new RV experience.

The plan was on Thursday to do the walk thru at 9:00 and then start transferring everything from the old Dog House to the new Dog House.  How hard could that be?  Well.  It was 97 degrees in Sacramento and our old and new RVs were about 110 inside.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Who put all this stuff in this RV anyway?  What a pain in the derriere.  It took hours.  The only thing we had to eat and drink were peanut M&Ms and water.  Oh, and a few Fritos.  By the time we were done, sweat was pouring off us and we were exhausted.  However, our work was not done.  I had to drive the Fit to Whole Foods to buy some trout for our big dinner the next night.  Along with a whole list of other things.  And because the move took longer than expected, Rayman headed out in the new RV and I was to catch up.  Rayman’s last admonition to me was to hurry.  So, I did my best to hurry.  I ran around Whole Foods trying to find everything on my list and a few things extra (never go grocery shopping when you are hungry).  One of the extra things I bought was marinated olives and feta cheese.  And I got the trout on ice.  However, I also bought bone-in pork chops, and a rack of lamb.  And frozen shrimp and scallops.  These things required refrigeration but the refrigerator was heading up Interstate 80 and I was still in the market.  Well, I got in line, off loaded the groceries and as I was doing that I noticed that the olives had tipped and the container was leaking oil.  Olive oil.  So, when I got to the cashier I warned her about the oil on the floor.  She left the register and cleaned it up herself.  Then as she started checking the groceries, she said, “Next time you come in, please notice that this is the express line (15 items or less).  I had $200 worth of groceries.  I was mortified.  OMG.  I profusely apologized and informed her that our Whole Foods doesn’t have an express line.  Then I apologized to the people behind me.  I apologized to the magazine rack.  I am extremely good at falling on my sword because of all my previous experience.  It was horrible.  I just wanted to melt into the floor.  And because I had fresh trout on ice, I picked up a special “keep it cold for 24 bag”.  Only it was defective.  And the display was empty.  The checker’s helper had to go off in search of another one.  OMG.  Time stood still.  I continued my apology tour.  Finally, I made my escape with my tail firmly between my legs.

Then I called Rayman.  I implored him to meet up with me as I had perishables, after all.  He and I finally met up at a rest stop above Colfax.  But before we did, I called him and told him my car was almost empty.  So when we met up, he told me to drive the new dog house and he would follow to the next gas station.  That was about 20 miles away though we didn’t know it and the low gas light came on.  Finally we stopped at the first station and filled up.  Then we rode up the road toward Truckee.  And we were so enthralled with our new dog house that we missed our exit and had to go 10 miles further, turn around and come back to the proper exit.  We were exhausted.  And it was about 5:30 at this point with another hour to go.  OMG.  What a day.

The next day, Friday, was a crazy day too.  Our new, expensive dog house would not level properly.  So, we called the dealer.  They said to bring it back.  No way where we going to do that.  So, Rayman got on the phone with the people in Alabama that made the RV.  All patience was gone.  A runaround ensued.  In order not to get in too deep, I decided I needed to go to Portola, a town about 20 miles away.  So I left Rayman on the phone with Alabama and I headed out.  Well.  The air conditioner only blew hot air.  So, I stopped at the gas station in Graeagle.  No one there could help until Tuesday.  So I drove to Portola and went to the same repair shop that we had visited last week when our horn didn’t work.  The man asked me to drive the car into the bay.  He then asked me to turn on the air full blast.  I complied.  He then sauntered around to the driver’s side and looked in.  He came back to the front of the car and announced that the air conditioning button was not pushed in.   OMG.  I went into full apology mode (a trend was forming).  He said that as far as he was concerned, “this never happened”.  The repairman in the next bay was snickering.  I was only slightly embarrassed because it was so hot that I was too relieved to have any self respect.  I drove off with a few big thank yous.

When I returned to the RV park, the rig was level, I was cool, and all was right with the world.   That’s when we met up with the Donnollys and I started cooking dinner.  Here’s the proof of our trout dinner.  Yummy.