Craig's blog

We had a leisurely morning here at beautiful Zion Park. After breakfast, we rode our bikes to the Visitor’s Center (about 300 yards) and decided on our plan for the day which was to make lunches, ride the Pa’rus trail (about 2 miles), stop by the river and eat our lunch, take the shuttle bus from there to the last stop in the valley, hike the “Riverwalk” hike, then shuttle back to the bikes and ride home. We didn’t quite do that. Instead we made lunches, rode the Pa’rus trail, had lunch by the side of the river and played in the river for a couple of hours. Then we rode back to our campsite. We were too hot and tired to try to take a moderate hike. Patty and I were disappointed, but it seemed like the prudent thing to do. We spent ½ an hour in the rental motorhome and then we walked to the river here by our campsite and played in there for another couple of hours. We came back to camp when a thunderstorm hit, then we bbq’d some flank steak with corn and Caesar salad, rode our bikes to the local store for ice cream cones and that was it. We just made our new/alternate plans for the end of our trip so that we will go back through Las Vegas and pick up our Suburban and trailer.

Well, things didn’t turn out quite the way we planned (to say the least). We did leave Barstow at 5:30 and had a nice drive to Las Vegas, stopping to get breakfast along the way at a Casino (boy do we dislike Casinos).

The noise that Snowie made continued and my gut told me it wasn’t good, so I decided to stop at the Chevrolet dealership in Las Vegas. It’s huge and really busy. However, the service guy (Slim) said he’d get the service foreman (Rory) to ride with me, pulling the trailer. Rory seemed quite good and we went for a ride. As soon as I got enough load on the car, the noise became apparent, and Rory said, “that’s internal engine noise – maybe a lifter, a rocker arm, or a piston, and I don’t like how your oil pressure gauge is fluctuating at high RPM.” He strongly advised against using the Suburban to pull the trailer across the desert or in the mountains. It only has 18,000 miles on it! L He also said that this 8.1L has always been indestructible and he was shocked that it would have an internal failure like this.

Well that really put a kink in our plans! I was really disappointed. I’ve done so much work on Snowie and the trailer and the trip – I didn’t want to see it all go up in smoke.

We started to consider alternatives (nobody rents a vehicle that can pull our trailer), and we settled on renting a motorhome so we could continue our trip. So at 11:00 we called around and found a 31’ Winnebago Class C on a Ford E450 chassis. We drove across town, had lunch at another Casino (L), picked up the motorhome, and drove back across town to the Chevrolet dealership, where we had left our trailer. We transferred everything (BBQ equipment, bikes, chairs, dishes, pots & pans, dry food, refrig food, clothes, linens, etc) from the trailer to the motorhome in 107 degree heat. It wasn’t much fun and took a couple of hours. We left the trailer and Snowie at the dealership – it should have a rebuilt or new engine when we get back (we hope). We took off from Las Vegas at 5:30 PM for Zion. We stopped to get some dinner and got here at 9:00. It’s been a very long day for everyone. The kids are exhausted (all 3 have been awake since 5:00) as are we.

One silver lining is that we’ve talked over the past year some about whether a motorhome is a better choice for camping for us. We’ll get a chance to use this one for 14 days and see how we like it. We (I) already miss so many of the niceties we’ve added to our trailer and Suburban, but that doesn’t count – it’s the motorhome concept that will be interesting to try. So far it was easy tonight to pull in and be all setup, without the un-hitching, etc. It was also much easier to park in parking lots and drive around in town.

We look forward to seeing Zion tomorrow. I also need to refigure our trip, because we’ll have to make some changes to pass through Las Vegas on our way out. Good night.

We ended up leaving at 7:30 instead of 7:00 and we ended up stopping for 3 hours instead of 2 ½. So we arrived in Barstow at 6:00 which was pretty late. We went for a quick swim while Patty made some dinner. Then we did the laundry, swam again and got an ice cream cone. It’s hot here – 95 when we arrived and 85 now at 10:00 pm. We hope to leave tomorrow by 5:30 to get to Zion at a decent hour and to beat the heat as best we can.

This morning Patty went for a run, then we cooked bacon, hashbrowns and eggs outside and had a great breakfast. I love cooking outside. After that I went for a bike ride to Andrew Molera State Park. It was a reasonably technical ride that was fun except it was through a poison oak forest. I worked hard not to touch it, but I’ll be lucky if I come out unscathed. This afternoon we spent a couple hours floating on inner tubes and Patty’s Great Grandpa’s raft down the Big Sur river. It was great fun although the river was cold and the sun wasn’t out. Annalise was the big tuber.

Here are some pictures from our Big Sur Camping.

We said goodnight to the family tonight and got ourselves all packed up. We hope to leave around 7:00 tomorrow morning. We’ll see how we do. I’m a little worried about waking the neighbors. Tomorrow’s a big day. Roughly 350 miles and 7.5 driving hours.

On Sunday we stayed around camp at Big Sur. The kids played in the river in the morning and played Barbie’s in Aunt Toni’s tent trailer ALL afternoon. L I went for a bike ride in the afternoon 1200’ up a dirt road (same one I did last time we were here).

Today I got up early (6:30) and took off for Monterey to get Snowie checked out. The dealership in Monterey was quite helpful and got on it pretty quickly. They concluded that it was detonation because of too low octane gas. I think that seems possible, although we’ve always burned regular and never had a problem before (and it wasn’t particularly hot) and it didn’t sound exactly like pinging to me. I’ll burn premium the rest of the trip. I’m glad it was something simple (at least I hope it was).

At noon we headed off for Pfeiffer beach. It turned out to be a nice afternoon – warm and not windy like it has been all the other times we’ve been there. We had a great time.

This evening I planned the drive for Wednesday. We hope to leave by 7:00 in the morning after having eaten breakfast. We’ll see if we can pull that off. We’re off to Barstow. There were a number of options in terms of route, but I’ve decided we should take 1 North -> 156 -> 101 -> 46 -> I-5 -> 58.

We started our 24 day “Colorado Camping Trip” today. I’ve been really excited about it and now it’s here. J

We talked last night about leaving at 9:00 AM, but decided not to rush too much and to get some exercise first (Patty went for a run and I swam). We ended up leaving at 11:00. From the very beginning of the drive (on 280), I thought I heard a funny sort of clicking from the engine of our Suburban, particularly at higher RPM. By the time we got to Monterey, it was clear that there was an unwelcome noise at higher RPM and the check engine light went on for awhile when the engine was turning 4000 RPM. I’m both surprised and disappointed that we could have a serious engine problem with only 18,000 miles on this 8.1L engine that is designed for the kind of hard work we put it through. We stopped in Monterey at the Chevrolet dealer, but of course their service department isn’t open on Saturdays. We decided to press on and made it to Big Sur Campgrounds around 3:00. So much for an easy first day.

At this point I don’t know what’s wrong with the Suburban. I’ll try to do some diagnosis tomorrow, but I’m not optimistic I’ll be able to figure it out. I expect on Monday I’ll drive back up to Monterey (to the tiny looking dealership) and see if they can figure it out.

We’re in site 93 here in Big Sur Campgrounds. This is a different site than we usually get. We’re sandwiched between two other campers, although we’re along the river. It would be a very nice spot if we had family on both sides. The rest of the Lombardo clan (Great Grandma & Grandpa, Frank & Carol, Gus & Colleen, Terry & Fred and Toni and Brett) are all right next to each other.

This sure is a nice campground for an “RV park” with water & electricity hookups. So far the trailer seems fine, even if Snowie (that’s what we call our Suburban) is hurting.

We leave tomorrow on our long-awaited camping trip. I'm like a little kid when preparing for big camping trips. I can't sleep and I'm constantly making lists of things that I need to do. We leave tomorrow - then I'll be able to sleep. :)

I gave blood today (as I do regularly). However, today was different. They asked if I'd be willing to use a new process, Automated Blood Collection (ABC), that would take 2 units of red blood cells out of me and give me back my plasma. Since it sounded like it was better for the blood center, I decided to give it a try. I'm a convert and I'll do it again next time. The only noticable downside to me was that it takes 25 minutes instead of the usual 5.

The upsides are:

1. They use a much smaller needle that didn't hurt as much and left a tiny hole instead of the big one that often reopens on me.
2. They got 2 units of B- blood from one donor that can both be used in one patient, which is better for the patient.
3. I don't have to (and can't) come back for 16 weeks, because I lost 2 units. The way I figure it, with the drive time, the questionnaire time and the waiting 15 minutes afterward time, I'll spend much less time giving blood if I do it twice as often and the needle is in my arm for 25 minutes instead of 5.

I highly recommend the process (and of course giving blood in general). You can make an appointment at the Stanford Blood Center.

One of the things I've really enjoyed doing with my time off is riding my bike. Rides that seemed nearly impossible a few months ago are relatively easy now. Biking is a great way to see the beautiful area we live in while getting exercise. It's also been a nice way to spend time with some friends I haven't seen in a while that like to ride.

This shot is from a 44 mile ride I took June 15 when I carried a camera (which I don't usually do). It's one of my favorite rides. Here's a link to a web album of the ride so you can enjoy it vicariously: Skyline Bike Ride.

This weekend my oldest daughter, Kelly, danced in 5 shows (1 Friday, 3 Saturday and 1 Sunday). She did 4 different routines and did two or more per show. I thought it would pretty boring to watch (especially I had to sit through several dress rehearsals earlier in the week), but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Her dancing is getting good enough that it's actually fun to watch and the dance school, Dance Connection, had plenty of really great high school dancers that were really impressive.

Jessica (5) danced in one of the shows too. Her's was more amusing than anything else.