12/26 - 12/27/04 Shakedown Cruise
Every transport needs a shakedown trip. eBoy had twice pulled Gypsy up and back the 40 miles of straight freeway between her dealership in Albany, OR, & her temporary home in Eugene. There Timmy & I had lived in her for a couple of weeks at our home base, plugged into shore power the whole time (except for a very brief test of the newly installed solar power system). But a brief test is all you can hope for in Eugene in December, where the sun makes only the rarest, brief appearances. So a shakedown was clearly in order. But the call of the open road & a desperate need for sun drove me to head out for California without the dry run trip I had hoped to arrange. Also, I had Christmas week off, so away we went.
The first leg from Eugene to Medford was uneventful as a threatening weather forecast did not amount to much & we had dry roads all the way. The next concern was Mt. Ashland & the Siskiyou Summit Pass. If there was trouble there, I would head for Crescent City & take US101 rather than I5. But the highway info line reported good conditions, so off we went. Unfortunately the highway info line was for Oregon and we were barely into California, not even as far as Weed, when traffic came to a dead stop for more than an hour. And it took another 2 hours to complete the Shasta stretch to Dunsmuir, in worsening weather & with the remains of yesterday's packed snow on much of the road, chewed up by chains, leaving a severe washboard surface. I could only grimace thinking about what Gypsy and her cargo were experiencing - a literal shakedown.
In the blowing rain & sleet it seemed the only thing to do was to push on. And on…out of the Siskiyous and down the Sacramento Valley. We only made 2 quick rest stops and one to refuel, most of the way in the rain, reaching Livermore 10 hard hours from Medford. Timmy was very good, but he was losing patience. Stopping now didn't seem to make sense, being only 30 miles from our destination, so into the mountains we headed.
Our goal was the property that my daughter Morpheus and her husband Shannon own and live on in the Diablo Range, east of Mt. Hamilton and southwest of Livermore. The road in was worse than I expected, very winding & for a nine mile stretch, single-lane. Still in the rain, mind you. Fortunately we met no one, but it took the better part of an hour to complete the final leg of our journey. And again I was thinking about what must be going on within Gypsy as we negotiated curve after curve.
In the dark and rain, I missed some of the landmarks Morpheus had written me about, so that I ended up at the wrong closed gate. With the last dregs of juice in my cell phone I managed to reach her & ask for help. A few minutes later, she appeared through the downpour with flashlight in hand & got me to the right gate, our next challenge. Limited turning space meant that getting eBoy & Gypsy through without damaging them or the gate posts would not be easy. But we managed after several attempts. I parked not quite on the level, but good enough after that harrowing day.
Opening Gypsy's door, I was found the contents of my desk & its now upside-down drawers blocking the way. Hmmm… first note to self: secure desk drawers next time. But most everything else was intact. My next day inventory revealed 4 broken wine glasses, the rack would need work. But all Timmy & I wanted to do at that point was head for bed; everything else could wait.
