PEACE ON THE ROAD
Adjusted Plans
June 22, 2008
Thursday, January 29, 2009
POTR #41 Adjusted Plans
In the time that I have been on the road I have had a few people ask me where I have liked the best. I still have to say that there are so many places that are nice that it is really impossible to call any place the best. There have been several places that have little appeal for long term but were great for a short time. A tremendous number of people apparently disagree with me but I think that where I am now is one of those places. We have been in the Los Angeles area for nearly seven weeks now, three different camps, but will moving by the time you read this. There are several places here to visit that are very interesting. Everyone knows about Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Universal Studios, and numerous other places. But is seems to me that everything is a long way across a crowded city no matter where you happen to be staying. When you get there you will find a lot of people standing in line most days. Simply put this place is too much city and not enough farm. When we move we are planning to move further north, unless of course we have to adjust our plans.
My very first memories of space exploration were pictures that had been taken by a special telescope that was about the same age as me. Of course I did not know its age then. What I heard was the name Palomar, a place in California. I would not want to bet that in first grade I even knew where California was located, except very vaguely. The two hundred inch Hale telescope, the largest in the world at the time, first saw light in 1948 the same year I was in first grade. It had to be the newest most exciting thing for a teacher to share with their students. It still stirs feelings of excitement in me when I see pictures that have been taken with it. Because of light pollution from Los Angeles the telescope has lost about half of its ability to see. It is a very beautiful building in a very beautiful area and so great to visit even if it has to be in the daylight when it is mostly closed with only a couple of workers inside.
THE 200 INCH HALE TELESCOPE AT THE PALOMAR OBSERVATORY
It took thirteen years to cast and grind the mirror from a glass blank that was cast in Corning, New York. The cooling of the glass blank took many years, even nearly being thwarted by WWII. The first astronomer to use the 200 inch telescope was Edwin Powell Hubble. The Hubble Space Telescope was named in his honor. The use of the telescope is scheduled a year or more in advance. The astronomers spend a lot of time planning exactly where they want to look and comparing images that have been taken by others in both the time before and after their own scheduled time. Unfortunately if the weather prevents observation on their night they may have to wait another year before they can try again. There are an average of seventy five nights a year that no data can be collected. Two hundred and sixty nights a year there is at least some part of the night that is clear enough for some observation. The road to the observatory was a surprise. It was extremely crooked. One seven mile stretch is claimed to have twenty switchbacks. We were passed by several motorcycles on the way up that were pushing their speed as high as they could and they passed us on sharp blind curves. We went on a week day so I can well believe that on average two motorcycle accidents happen every weekend that require ambulance assistance. I read that the sport cars do about the same thing with less accidents.
MASTODON STATUES AT THE LA BREA TAR PITS IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES
A misconception that I likely developed some time in grade school was about the tar pits in LA. When I first heard of them I don't know, but I do remember that they were fascinating. Petroleum seeps upwards from from deposits in the underlying strata through fault cracks to the surface. The more volatile parts of the petroleum vaporizes leaving a natural asphalt material. When and if the conditions are just right an animal could get trapped in the asphalt. Its struggles to free itself would attract prey animals which could in turn get trapped in the tar. In time the bones would sink into the tar, turn brown, and wait to be discovered by man. Until this year I thought that an animal was caught often enough so that there would a carcase visible any day. I was wrong. The entrapment period has existed for about 40,000 years, so there was a herbivore and a group of carnivores that was entrapped one time every ten years or so, likely during only a hot period in the summer when the heat would soften the tar.
In certain I think that our picking the LA area to make a stop in was advantageous in ways that we would never have guessed and would not desire. Our first camp was up a canyon out of the city. As we were driving back home the first time after going out I ran over something in the road and had one of the fastest flats I have ever had in my life. Put on the spare and drove into town the next day to get it repaired. It had a two inch cut through the tread. We had to order a tire for the next day. Next day we got the new tire put on, and the tire shop gave me a set of chrome valve caps for free. Going there the check engine icon on the Jeep came on, so we also stopped at the Jeep dealership. We needed an oil change anyway. We were told that the valve that triggered the fault light was working fine although it might fail again in an hour or not for several years. It was expensive so we opted to see if it was just a fluke. Later it was replaced for no charge under warranty. Two days later it faulted again, in addition the cruise control started malfunctioning at the same time. I went back to the dealership and they found a switch on the cruise that might be the problem or it might be another switch that had to back ordered three weeks. In three weeks we planned to be long gone. The one switch had a broken mounting tab so for $5.00 I had it replaced, and I tried the Jeep for a couple more days. When the cruise malfunctioned again I called in and had them order the other switch. We figured that it was better to stay around for a bit extra because this shop knew the problem and another shop would have to start diagnosis from scratch. As soon as I ordered the switch the cruise control started working properly. I was in that dealership so many times I am forgetting what happened when. When the three weeks were up I went back in and had the switch replaced. Amazingly it has cost me an oil change, a $5.00 switch and mileage. I truly expected hundred of dollars in fees, but it was covered under warranty. Part of that warranty was due to California law I believe. I think, but am not positive, that it would have cost me more in other states. The service engine light came on again, so back I go to have it checked again. That time it cost a reasonable amount. At least the cruise is working, the engine icon has not displayed again and my tires are all inflated. I hope that it stays that way.
I am sure that all of you know that when you have trouble with a vehicle another one will also start having troubles too. Some time in the last year we developed a small oil leak on the Cat engine on the Vectra. Just recently it has seemed to be getting bigger. We were in a campground where a company was doing wash and wax of RVs for a reasonable price. I had both the Vectra and the Jeep washed and waxed. Then of course it sure would be nice to have the oil leak fixed before it got all over the Jeep and on the back of the Vectra. We called the Cat dealership to see what it would take to get the leak fixed and an oil change. The Vectra was due for that too. Amazingly they said bring it in the next day. Usually there is at least a weeks wait if not three weeks. We took it in and they found where the leak was and also a default code activated in the engines computer 255 times. They fixed the leak which was because of a gasket where the power steering pump attached to the engine. Since that pump was a Freightliner part and not Cat it was no longer under warranty. Last October it would have been. On a diesel engine like I have is an "air to air cooler" that is part of the turbo charger system. It too is a Freightliner part that was built for Winnebago. If the one that was put on my motor home had been in an over the road truck it would have been in the shop for replacement within a few months, but I do not put a lot of miles on in my travels. Cat called a radiator builder to see if he had a replacement of a good quality. He said he had either one of two possible ones that Winnebago has used. Wrong! Mine is one that he has never seen with an order time of a week. What he did was to patch mine well enough so that I could continue to use it for a while without danger of immediate failure along the road which could have happened. Cat put it back in the Vectra and we went back to the campground we were in, then back here to Lytle Creek last week. We thought we would be at Cat one day at the most. We spent three days in the shop and two nights in their parking lot. It has been ten days since the "air to air" was ordered so it should be here. Unfortunately the mother of the radiator builder died a few days ago so we don't know what the status is because he has closed shop for a few days. When it comes in we will return to Cat and they say they will have it installed in a single day. I did not get this out in time so things have changed. It took two days to get the part put in. We spent a night in the parking lot and another in a Holiday Inn Express, but at least we are back in camp with a fixed (I hope) motor home.
There are some surprising things that we run into, of course that may happen anywhere that we may be. Just a few miles from one of our camps the Budweiser Beer company had a breeding farm for the Clydesdale horses. There are not any tours available but the horses can be seen from the road. We often see the team horses in commercials, rodeos, fairs or other venues but to see the foals was a treat that is not common. We have also seen the adults in Fort Collins, CO and St Louis, MO, but I don't think there have ever been young animals on display.
I can remember my mother making cottage cheese when I was very small. How she did it I don't remember. She did not make a habit of it when I was older and maybe she never made it more than a few times. On TV I have seen programs that showed some of the steps to making cheese and once in New York I saw some cheese making in a pioneer village setting. None of these are quite like seeing it done in person. We went to a small, perhaps even micro, cheese factory. A few times a week they take a tanker of milk and make Gouda cheese. A regular sized factory would take all the milk production from several dairies, but this one does not even take all of a single milking to make a batch of cheese. They do make their cheese in the same style that it was made in the Gouda area of Holland. As we were going to the observation platform I noticed that the building was actually a truck trailer that had been converted to their needs. I found out later that cheese making, the aging shelves and other work areas were in converted refrigerator trailers. The trailers are licensed for the road, but of course never on the road. The picture below shows two of at least six aging trailers. Cheese which may be plain or one of several herbal flavors, or smoked or with jalapeño is aged in these thirty pound wheels for anywhere from sixty days to five years. In five years the cheese will lose half its weight. It is sold across the USA and in foreign countries in whole wheels or cut into wedges as small as a few ounces. We tasted at least ten different different cheeses and then bought some of ones we thought were the best. Some of those Gouda cheeses were really gooda. (Sorry I just had to say that.)
WHEELS OF GOUDA CHEESE IN THE AGING ROOM AT THE CHEESE FACTORY
As our adventures continue we will seek new territory to explore and new things to tell you about.
Till later this is Doug of
Peace On The Road
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