Day One of our East Coast Odyssey

Getting ready to go on a lengthy cross country trip is something like trying to decide just what supplies you're going to need for your cabin in the wilds of Alaska for the next two months. Sure, unlike an Alaska wilderness trip, in a motor home you can just stop in the next handy town and pick up the pickles you forgot or score a loaf of fresh-baked bread. But that's where the differences end. If you need a flashlight to set up camp in the dark or a lug wrench to change a tire you better have brought those items along. As I always discover when I get ready to take one of these trips, the list of things "I better not forget" seems to grow daily. For instance, I carry no less than three fire extinguishers, one of which is reachable from either inside or outside the coach. I carry a wealth of repair items from silicon sealer to nuts, bolts, and screws.

I also carry a variety of digging tools. A couple of years ago when the coach "walked" out of its right front tire when we pulled to the shoulder of the interstate in Minneapolis, had I not had a shovel to dig a hole for the jack to get low enough to lift the front axle we might be there still. I have a set of those cute little orange triangles which you set up behind the coach when you're broken down to keep folks from plowing into you. Those also came in handy during the Minneapolis disaster. I have a bunch of "picnic" accessories including plastic table cloth, spring clamps to hold the table cloth, bug repellents, lantern for after dark picnic table chats or game playing, two different barbecue grill sets for setting up where all they give you is an old truck wheel to hold your coals, mesh covers to keep the bugs off food, and so on. We carry a variety of drive-up ramps to elevate some part of the coach as well as spare pieces of wood if more elevation is needed. We also carry folding table and chairs should none be provided at a given camp site. Naturally I have all manner of tools to fix minor breakage of things including a cordless drill driver.

I'd really like to carry a heavy duty jack of some sort so I could change my own tire if absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, I just don't have room for a jack big enough to lift this heavy dude. So, I'll just have to rely on the roadside assistance guys that we pay for. If you sign up for such a service make sure they will handle motor homes which is not always the case for your standard AAA card or similar. I also carry a six-foot ladder should I ever want to climb up and release the awning. So far I haven't used it since I have not so far encountered a time when I wanted the awning extended. The thing is so old now I suspect if I pulled it down it would fall to pieces. Still, the ladder comes along just in case. I could go on but I'm probably boring you. The main point, for me at least, is to try and anticipate every possible travel requirement. When Concetta says she needs a jar of jam, a coffee scoop, or a band aid I want to be able to open a locker and pull it out. Today, day one of our east coast odyssey, we rolled out of Carson City just before 10:00 and headed south along the familiar highway 395 which cuts through Nevada just a half mile

from our house. We didn't hurry. Most times I keep the speedometer at 55 or 60 and just take it easy. I had hoped that we would have sunny skies for our first day of traveling but it was not to be. The skies looked leaden and I found myself hoping that the gray clouds weren't hiding any snow that we might encounter somewhere in the high mountain passes. Still, it was beautiful. Everywhere we looked the Sierra Nevada was covered with snow from the recent storms and even the lowest peaks were snow-covered all day as we wended our way south through Minden, Gardnerville, Bridgeport, Lee Vining, Bishop, Big Pine, Independence, and Lone Pine. We stopped for lunch in the picturesque town of Bridgeport, but for the most part we just cruised, listened to our book on tape by Steven White, and just enjoyed the scenery. We got into our camp at Boulder Creek just south of Lone Pine about 4:00 p.m. after stopping for gas just north of Lone Pine and topping up the tank which was just over half full still. Our plan tomorrow is to travel a bit further down Highway 395 to Olancha where we'll turn left onto California 190 which will take us through the center of Death Valley. Our goal, at some point, is to reach Nevada highway 95, which will take us south to Las Vegas.