Here we are at Delta Shores RV and Marina, in the Sacramento Delta Area near Lodi, California.   It took us a week to get here from Mesa, that included a hiccup that caused us worry for a couple of days.

We left at around 10:30 am on the 23rd of April because we weren’t going that far - at least that was the plan.   Turns out my relying on a greeting on the phone of the park we had stayed at before was over a year old and the phone was supposed to have been disconnected since the park was CLOSED!   So we had to unhook and turn around, re-hook up and continue on for another 90 minutes.  Luckily we found a park with openings on a Friday night on the Colorado River.   To say we are out of practice with hooking up, etc., would be a vast understantment.  

Of course the first thing we had to do was fill up before heading across the desert.  It has been 18 months since we had to add fuel to that big tank!  So the first $150 went into the tank!

One of the things that happened even before we headed out was Dave having a slight problem with cords, cables, and hoses trying to hook up while we were in Mesa.  He met the gravel ground with the results shown here.  Actually the brusing around the eyes darkened the next day and his arm and leg were also bruised.

We then moved on to Palm Springs where we spent a couple of days just learning how to exist, figuring out where we had everything stored and then headed to Bakersfield.  From Bakersfield we headed north on US 99 to Lodi for 3 days of wine tasting.   My mistake was taking US 99, which really is worse than I-5 from Bakersfield to Lodi!  We bounced so hard that the electrical connection between the coach and the car came loose and destroyed that cord.    After we got into Lodi, I went to get the cords out of the car to hook up the coach to power and water and THE CAR WAS DEAD.

Called Coach-Net, they sent someone out to jump the battery, but he couldn't.   So in the morning had Ford Roadside Assistance send a Tow Truck to take her in and before he started, he got his jumper out (really small but powerful) and sure enough, I saw one of the side lights flicker and she turned over.  We kept her running and noticed a CODE light, so called the Ford Dealer and said we were going to drive over and could someone just check the code.   So they did, cleared and it persisted, so they were in the process of getting us a rental and were about to have it brought up, when Service Advisor  turned her off and restarted her - and code was gone!   He took her out, drove her around, turned her off and on, etc., and we decided to watch her for a couple of days and see how it goes.We had already scraped our reservations for the next week since we had a feeling we were going to be here for a week or two. We found a park only 12 miles away (not the greatest, but as a membership park it is free) for Friday to the next Friday.    And since we are in the area, we will do a few wineries while out driving the car!

Went to Michael David Winery Farm Restaurant Thursday morning for breakfast.  They have their dining room outdoors in a big tent with plenty of room between tables.   David had a concoction of ham and gruyere cheese on top of sourdough toast with a béchamel sauce, over easy egg on top and hash browns.   And he ate the WHOLE thing!  I had an omelete filled with tender asparagus with jack cheese and country potatoes and sourdough toast.  And no, I couldn't eat it all.

Gave a big sigh when the car fob unlocked the doors this morning - she seems to be back to her old self!   After breakfast, we went to an RV Repair and Parts store in Lodi and found a cord that would fit - well actually they put the correct connection on the end for our old coach.

If you look closely, you will see that the bruising under his eyes are improving for Dave. 

So Friday morning (April 30th) we hitched up the car, crossed our fingers that everything would work correctly and moved 15 miles west!  Even stopped and did our fill up on the coach so we won’t have to next Friday.  Everything went fine, car followed right along, no problems.  Not a great distance, but we will change our normal routine and  stop and run engine for a few minutes after an hour or so until I get comfortable with our normal 4 hr straight drive.