Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

As I am sure you are expecting at this point, the sun rose on a cloudless day today and elevated the temperatures very quickly into the 100-degree range (39 C). To give you an idea of how hot it gets and how quickly it gets hot, we try to brush our teeth as early as possible in the morning before the water gets hot. You see, the sun beaming down on the hose, which connects the MoHo to the water supply, as well as on the ground, under which the water pipes lie, heats the water up incredibly. The sun got the water so hot one morning that I actually had a shower using only the cold-water faucet … and the water wasn’t cold at all! Of course, water this hot makes brushing your teeth quite unpleasant. So yesterday, since we had not yet turned on the water heater to warm up the water in our hot water tank, I decided to brushed my teeth with the “hot” water, in other words, turned on only hot water faucet, since it had not heated up nearly as much as the cold water due to the insulation around the tank. Strange but true. And I just knew you were wondering about that. Anyway, we were off to San Francisco today but before we got seriously underway we wanted to pop in to an RV repair place to pick up a few things and also to see if they could fix our “grey-water” valve. If you don’t know what I am talking about perhaps I should leave you in blissful ignorance. The valve still worked but a small part of it had chipped off and, under certain conditions, might leak. We thought it best to fix this before it becomes a larger issue. Incredibly the first place we went to not only had all the supplies we were looking for, but they also were able to fix our valve problem … right away! … while we wait! Amazingly we were back on the road within an hour with a nice new grey-water valve. Something tells me that taking care of this in a relatively small town was the right thing to do. Also, since I had an RV fix-it guy available I decided to ask him about that “noise” we hear coming on and subsiding again whenever we take the MoHo up long grades. I told him that it sounded to me a lot like a very loud fan. He verified that my guess was exactly right and then went on to say that I should not be concerned when I hear that noise when going up steep hills, but rather, I should be concerned when I DON’T hear it. Now that is exactly what I wanted to hear. Another tid bit of information we gathered at the RV place was about the temperatures we were experiencing. While filling out the work order I asked the guy if it was always this hot around here or are they getting an unusual hot spell. He replied that this summer has actually been “a mild one”(?). He said that normally the temperature gets as high as 115 F (46C) and, when it is hot, can reach 125F (52)! That friggin’ hot! How would I brush my teeth then!
Next, it was a stop at the gas station, then the grocery store and then a quick MoHo lunch. Then FINALLY we hit the road to San Fran. Everything went well until we hit I-80. What a crappy road! It is 4 lanes of the bumpiest, patchiest pavement I have seen on the entire trip. That is, with the possible exception of highway 75 on the Canadian side of the North Dakota border towards Winnipeg. At least I can understand why highway 75 is crappy … nobody lives there! But I-80? There were probably more people driving on I-80 than live in all of Winnipeg. And the rest of the trip did not get any better as the roads got even busier and wider. Navigating the 48-foot MoHo through this tangle of lanes is not what I would describe as relaxing. Fortunately we were going against the main traffic flow as we saw a backup for miles and miles coming out of San Fran at around 5:00 on a Thursday. How can the people here live with that everyday? Then the wind started to kick in. The way the MoHo was gyrating started to remind me of our “encounter” in Iowa and I immediately started getting a little tetchy. Then, to make matters worse, I saw that we were going to have to go up and over a bridge that crossed the bay. You can imagine how tightly my hands were clenched around the wheel as we began our ascent into what was surely to be a severely windy affair. I got up one side and over the top while still managing to keep it in our lane with rapid and abrupt steering corrections as required. Then I felt the one thing I did not want to feel. It was a sudden, strong but NOT shortlived blast. In a split-second I started thinking about what my options would be should this grow any stronger. Then two things happened. One, the blast subsided, and two, I heard a very loud roar to my left. It turns out it was not a wind gust per se but rather the buffeting from a passing transport truck which I had not even noticed with my full concentration on keeping the MoHo heading down the road ahead. But it did make me wonder two things. First, why was the transport seemingly unaffected y the winds coming of the San Pablo Bay? And second, if I am being passed by a transport while going over a bridge, how wimpy is my driving? I comforted myself by assuming that the transport truck must be carrying an empty load … ya, that’s the ticket. Then we had to deal with these winds all the way around the bay. How did that go? I just proceeded along at the legal limit… with the steering wheel at about approximately a 90-degree angle to the left. We finally made it to our exit and then had to perform three left turns in a row in rush hour traffic to get to the campsite. Lots of fun. Then we got set up at one of our least desirable locations yet and the kids got on their bikes to check out the place. The only upside seemed to be that we found an errant, if not that strong, unsecured WiFi signal so I was able to start to get caught up on the blog lag.

Today’s word:

tetchy \TECH-ee\, adjective:
Peevish; testy; irritable.