Surrounded by orange trees

Surrounded by orange trees

Still on the way to GMCWS rally at Manteca. We are in Bakersfield at the Orange Grove RV Park – one of our favorites – and surrounded by orange trees (see the photo) with lots of green oranges. The coach ran great again and the weather cooperated with highs only in the high 80’s – not bad for crossing the desert. We had to stop in Barstow to replace a tire that had developed a bubble. Drove the last 50 miles at under 40 mph to keep it from separating. I couldn’t see the bubble myself but as soon as we got to the tire store the tech saw it and showed it to me. Replaced the one bad tire, checked the others, and we were on our way in about an hour.

We got the tire at the Firestone store in Barstow. Carol called them when we decided a tire was bad and asked if they could help. They were very helpful, said they had 6 of the correct tires if we needed them and they would try to figure out which tire was bad. The correct tires turned out to be Firestone Transforce HT’s and the out-the-door price was just over $200 each – a competitive price. With the advice of the technician and the owner/manager we decided to only replace the one tire that was faulty and bet that the other 5 tires were OK – he checked the other rear tires and I am sure I’d be able to feel a bubble on a front tire. I have learned another lesson and will know more when the next tire problem happens.

Our route on this trip is one we used to use a lot and are pretty familiar with but we still could not remember why we started going the other way – just outside of L.A. After today we can remember again – hills. The coach is very good and strong but those hills between Needles and Bakersfield are big and long. The climb out of Needles is about 15 miles of almost constant climbing – the total climb is about 2500 feet in that distance but it is unrelenting. It is a good thing that the weather is cooperating and the temps are only in the 80’s. The climb from Mohave to Tehachapi is another 1500 feet – the climb going the opposite way – Bakersfield to Tehachapi – is 3500 feet. We may go home via L.A.