Today was a rest day, and we’re in Houston, so we went shopping!

We had lunch at Sal y Pimiento, a restaurant heavily influenced by Uruguayan cuisine. Great ceviche, pollo aguacate and churrasquita de puerco. Their wine shelves were dominated by wines made with the Tarrant grape, brought to Uruguay by Basque settlers. We drank water, not the Tarrant. Too much to eat, so leftovers will be dinner!

Then we went to the Tecovas store, selling boots designed in Austin and handmade in León, Mexico. Last year, we bought Lucchese boots; this year Tecovas. Deb bought boots of brown leather and Jim some with the vamp made of caiman skin. Alligators are endangered, so no email, please. We’ll be practicing our boot-scooting on every dance floor.

Walking back to the truck, we encountered a Sur la Table store, where we got a great pan for the Goose and a microplane for parmesan.

A couple of other stops for electrical butt connectors and a parts retriever, then back to camp.

After our trip to Tombstone today, I had unexpected repairs to make on the Goose. I found water has dripped into a cargo compartment onto a GFCI outlet, which explains why the GFCI breaker has been popping (I think). The outlet is underneath where the kitchen sink is, so I looked under the sink (think circus contortions) for leaks. No leaks where the power goes through the floor, but found that some of the sink piping was leaking because it was incorrectly sized and installed.

Off to Ace Hardware for plumbing bits, then repair the sink (more contortions). Debbi helped by holding the piping while I sawed it to length, then I set it in place. I’ll have to get on the roof to see if a clogged gutter is letting air conditioning condensate drip down the side of the Goose and into the cargo compartment. Oh well, back to dumping black and gray tanks, which was interrupted by the GFCI thing.

While using the macerator to pump the tanks, I noticed a connector smoking. Turned off the pump and prepared to replace the connector. However, I could not find any indication of which fuse controls the macerator. Plan B was to have Debbi watch me while I pierced the wiring on either side of the connector with the pins of my electrical meter to ensure there was no power in the wire. That worked. No power in the wire, and the macerator power switch was not leaking current.

I then spliced in a jumper to replace the melted connector. Think circus contortions again in the compartment where the macerator lives. Oh, and I’m doing this in the dark, so Debbi is holding a flashlight for me. One of the butt connectors failed the pull test, twice. Finally got a good connection and pumped the tanks with no smoke. Yay! Tape the butt connectors (more contortions) and clean up.

So, blessings. This all happened in a place where plumbing bits can be obtained (Benson AZ), I didn’t get electrocuted, and I fixed the problems. It’s good to be handy.

We went to Tombstone today, a silver mining town where in the 1880s occurred the gunfight at the OK corral. Today, it’s a tourist town, with fees for nearly everything. We walked the streets, briefly visited the Boot Hill graveyard and toured the Courthouse history museum. Fun day!

On 11/5, we left Sacramento and proceeded via CA-99 (the old route that I-5 supplements) to Bakersfield. This city counts among its notables he country outlaw musician, Merle Haggard.

CA-99 drives through the industrial/ agricultural heart of California.  It’s a freeway, and goes through a great number of small and large towns.  Fruit and nut trees in the millions, corn fields and such.  Very flat and dusty.  Lots of irrigation ditches and water control features.  Boring stretch of road, in not so good repair.  However, it is farther east than I-5, so we did not get into LA traffic.  Our cab/ chassis AC failed during the trip. We arranged with Bakersfield Truck Center to diagnose the AC on Tuesday, and maybe it’ll be easy.  If not, repair occurs on Wednesday.  We also finished getting the Dish satellite TV system to work (yay!).

11/7:  the AC diagnosis found corrosion on a sensor electrical connection that prevented the AC compressor from turning on.  Clean the sensor pins, tighten the connection and it’s fixed!  No charge.  Back to camp.  Cooked a steak and decided to stay one more day before proceeding to the Joshua Tree National Park. to get the Maine General documentation set.

11/8:  day in camp.  Laundry. 

Nice slow morning, then into Sacramento.  Following a suggestion from Mark yesterday, we visited a specialist grocer, Corti Brothers, serving Sacramento since 1947.  We got great deli sandwiches and bought some specialty gourmet items like wild orange jam, Italian-made pasta, chutney and English mint sauce (for lamb).

Then we drove to the California Railroad Museum.  Displays of railroad history and the effects of the railroad on California were very interesting.  There were actual rail cars and engines in the museum, and touring them was fun.  Reminiscent of enlisted berthing aboard a Navy destroyer!  Large model railroad displays were being operated by model train nuts, and there were large static displays of every gauge of model train.

Finally, we walked around Old Sacramento.  The old buildings were nice to look at, but are filled with every sort of kitschy tourist store.  There are paddlewheel boats on the river for short cruises and dinners “at sea.”  After we had enough, back to camp!

We had a lazy morning in camp, including a large laundry load.  We had a suggestion from friend Fred to see an olive oil mill, Il Fiorello, in Fairfield CA.  That was a great way to spend an afternoon!  We did a guided tasting, with small bites to illustrate how the oil pairs with food.  We watched a ton of olives working their way through the mill and centrifuges to extract pure olive oil.  Note that no olives in modern production are actually pressed anymore, and our tasting guide said lots of EVOO is actually cut with other oils, so not really EVOO.  Look for the certifications on the label to be sure, and surprisingly, Costco oil actually is EVOO!  Also, EVOO goes off within a few months of being opened, so we’ll probably toss the stuff on the dining room table when we get home.

We were allowed to get up close to the milling machinery and taste the extracted oil immediately after it came from the press.  The owners were very kind to us. Visit if you can!

On our second day of travel, we rose about 8, and were away about 10.  I-5 moved very smoothly.  We traversed the very mountainous Siskiyou Summit and down to the flatlands past Mount Shasta.  Rained on and off all day.  The Goose performed admirably, with the engine brake and gear control making downhill grades easy to restrict.  Much happier with the larger Goose than last year.  Still had to slow down to 40-45 mph for the steep uphill climbs, but rock solid.

We descended from the mountains, passing through Weed, which was burned last year in wild fires. some regrowth is evident and rebuilding of structures is well underway. We on the east coast do not comprehend what a factor and danger is wildfire.

Drove through the amazing Sacramento valley, recalling from last year how many fruit and nut trees are planted.  Took I-505 toward Vacaville.  We stayed at the Vineyard RV park last year, so we knew what to expect.  Easy check-in and set up.  Drove to the local Safeway for food.  Quiet night.