Wrong Way Feldman

Okay, well, we're still trying to figure that one out. We had a bit of a set back. On Tuesday morning we got up to leave Richfield, Utah for Grand Junction, Colorado. It was pouring rain so it took us a while to decide if we wanted to bother with driving through the storm. When we finally decided to do it, Rusty, being the checker of all things practical, tried to turn on the windshield wipers. They wouldn't work. You could get the washer to work but not the wipers for driving in the rain. He messed with it for quite a while and then I messed with it. Finally we tried calling Tiffin's support hotline but because our RV was so new and we didn't have the number we needed for the warranty it took a bit of time. After about an hour of messing with that it was decided that a mechanic would need to be called in. We got one approved but it would be over an hour before he could be to the campground and by then it was 11am, so we just extended our time in Richfield by another ...

I have owned and/or driven more than 40 cars in my life (and at least 10 motorcycles and maybe 15 or 20 bicycles but that’s another story). I started with the family station wagon, a 69 Dodge Polara with facing rear seats that my dad sold me for $400. Then one morning after an all night party I loaned it to some idiot I had just met and he went out and got it t-boned (wait who was the idiot here?). I drove it for a while after that but it was seriously compromised. I sold it to a junk yard for $25.   69 Dodge Polara (stock photo) My mom gave me her car, it was a 76 golden-brown Plymouth Fury coupe, I was fond of it because it was the first car I owned with an ass-kicking stereo. It always ran rough though and one day it just conked out and I left it at the side of the road. I intended to tow it home but the cops got there first and I never could afford to get it out of the impound. My dad then sold me his 72 Buick LeSabre, again for $400. I drove that f...

We hit Vegas on Sunday afternoon around 1pm. By 4pm it was 112 degrees. We didn't even unhook the car, just plugged in the electricity and water, put out the slides and turned on the AC. Rusty didn't want me to cook and he didn't want to eat a salad so he went to the Casino and brought back some food. We ate and passed out early, getting up at the ass-crack of dawn to try and hit the summits before the big heat of the day. Our next stop was the KOA in Richfield. Not a bad spot and we had clouds and cooler temps in the afternoon. Whisky loves this place because she can hang around outside on the grass. That's where she spent her entire Sunday afternoon. Here's our awesome spot: We met this couple with two kids who were on their way from Wisconsin to San Louis Obispo as he's working on a grant and it's his time to work for the next nine months on the work they're doing. He's a mathematician but applies it to nature. It was pretty cool talking to...

HERE'S a game you can play on a road trip, it's called Goat Poker. There are no rules and you can play for hours and no one ever wins or loses so it's best played with kids between the ages of say 4 and 14. There are a few exceptions to the no rules rule, which are these: NO hitting NO yelling NO spitting and you MUST take turns. If there's a disagreement to be settled, MOM will settle it. Period end of discussion... dumb looking black and white goat even dumber looking goats in a tree (wtf!) SO anyway here's how you play: as you drive along a player might say something like this: "We just passed a black and white goat on my side, I get 20 points." Another player then says "Yes but after we passed the goat we passed a white horse on my side, so not only do I get 20 points but you also have to give me your 20 points which means I get 40 and you get zero." Then a third player chimes in with "We just passed a red car going the othe...

PREVIOUSLY ON WRONGWAYFELDMAN.BLOGSPOT.COM: Delivery day... AND SO we finally get to the end and the beginning: Leaving Day. We got the entire house cleaned out, except for our bed, and the night before it's June 25 so the fireworks are going off like crazy and Whisky is absolutely freaking out so I spend a good two hours trying to hold her on the bed but I finally gave up and let her down, she was so worn out by then from trying to get away she dropped into a deep sleep in the corner, fireworks notwithstanding. Not how I want to spend my last night but often you can't get what you want... We get up and shower and move the bed down to the carport to join a whole lot of other things we're having the gardeners haul off, including Julie's cowboy boots which as it turns out we could have kept oh well. AND NOW we're ready to go...we take one last swim in the pool for about 20 minutes. Then we get dressed and I go out to hook up the Fiat to the tow dolly and real...

Okay, well most of it has been fun and games, but it's also been quite a bit of work figuring stuff out. This is the manual for the RV and all the components: We've had some problems figuring out the inverter and a couple of things are just bad and don't work at all. We left Oceano last Friday and I drove us out of the RV park and then from Ventura to Malibu down PCH!  Rusty is right that it's easy to drive on the freeway, PCH was a bit challenging. It took me a while to figure out the curves because you sit over the front tires. But once I did the only challenge was taking care of people getting in and out of cars and pedestrians. Friday was the wedding rehearsal and then the wedding was on Saturday so we were quite busy all weekend. Sunday we cleaned the RV from top to bottom inside.  I can't believe how quickly we were done. We got the built in vacuum and I feel really stupid because who needs a frickin' broom when you've got the vacu-suck device...

Well, it was bound to happen. I just thought it would happen later than just a few weeks into our retirement. On Tuesday afternoon we all took a walk on the dunes. Rusty and I were standing on the crest of this huge dune contemplating running down the straight drop (the problem isn't going down, but then having to climb up a steep wall to get up out of the bowl of the dune) when all of us sudden Whisky takes off. She does this incredible face plant at the bottom coming up totally covered in sand. Rusty and I look at each other in shock and then down we go as well. She was trying to spit the sand out of her mouth. I had some water with me and we got it out of her nose and mouth. Early the next morning she wakes me up because she's shivering uncontrollably - it wasn't because she was cold, but because she couldn't open her eyes.  It must have hurt like hell. I took a hot compress to them and got out some saline drops and tried to rinse them as best I could. I gave her a p...

PREVIOUSLY ON WRONGWAYFELDMAN.BLOGSPOT.COM The house slowly empties out... SO here we are and Mike Thompson finally calls and says "COME GET IT!"on Friday June 16. FIRST LOOK:   We arrived just a bit early and they were still cleaning it... ANYWAY we're really excited but also a little trepidatious and we had to go to the bank before coming here and take out a cashier's check since that's how you pay for one a these things. Plus, I am a bit nervous about driving it home in rush hour Friday afternoon 405 traffic so I didn't sleep too well the night before. I'm thinking I might just park it out front and take a nap until about 3 am and then drive it home. But the minute I see it I'm like we're taking this thing home RIGHT NOW. SO we hang around the office for a while since the "New Owner Orientation" guy isn't quite ready for us. There's a small box of stuff they have for us which includes a catalog of about 1000 pages of...

This RV park is at the end of a road in the middle of farm land. The RV park itself isn't much to look at, but just a few feet away is the entrance to the Dunes.  Rusty and I took our chairs out last night to watch the sunset: Whisky thought it was the coolest place ever! We had to hike for quite a ways in order to get a view of the ocean but we found the tallest dune and headed up to the top. Our cute little folding chairs were hilarious as once you sat down in them, they sank up to the seat in the sand. After hanging out for a while we thought, let's see if we can get all the way to the ocean and off we took off again. There was some growth (beautiful yellow flowers and some type of scrub) and after hiking for about a half mile we popped out on the beach. It's the beach you can camp on and ride ATV's and dune buggies and where did we pop out?  At the friggin' trash pile. We hiked a bit north and set up our chairs. Then the attack of the huge kille...

Pulled over for a dog nap (okay, Whisky's been napping since we left Betabel).

Rusty, Whisky and I did the 17 Mile drive in Pebble Beach yesterday, which is basically a private road that they charge you $10.25 to drive through the fancy shmancy Pebble Beach golf course   on the Monterey Peninsula. I have to say it was amazing. Beautiful pristine white sand beaches, cypress trees and tons of wildlife. We saw deer, sea lions, elephant seals, harbor seals, lots of birds and even did some tide pooling. The coolest thing we saw was a tiny orange starfish. About the size of a quarter. Dogs were allowed everywhere so long as they were on a leash and didn't bother the wildlife. We spent hours just sitting and chilling. We finished up our day with a nice dinner. Rusty had salmon from the bay. And we shared a bottle of Monterey wine. All in all a very lovely day. Today we're off for Pacific Dunes in Oceano, making our way back to LA and Eddie and Christine's wedding! xoxo Julie

Yep, that's me behind the wheel. Rusty and I found this great service road about a mile long next to an organic farm. He had me practice figuring out where my back rear tires were, straight backing up, three point turns, and whipping a u turn. I even parked it in our camping spot! Needless to say I was very nervous to start with but after a while I was feeling pretty good, although it's really hard to figure out where your back right tire is. Of course, driving it down the highway will be totally different! I'm really glad that we got a smaller RV. Some of them are HUGE. I can't imagine driving them down the road... xoxo Julie

brought about an unusual sight. A white pickup with a shell pulls up next to a white van rear end to rear end. Then the guy gets out of the truck and puts on something that looks like a disposable hazmat suit. The van is full of crates and he starts loading his truck with the crates. I was afraid to look but Rusty did. He said the crates had dead chickens in them. When the truck was loaded, he took off the suit and drove south. The van drove over to the north bound onramp and was sitting just waiting. Some things just can't be explained....

Rusty and I took a brief trip to Hollister a couple of days ago to pick up supplies. Little did we know it was the annual July 4th Hollister Bike Rally Lots of cool bikes all over the place and signs in every store "Bikers Welcome". It's the first real traffic we've had since we've parked here on Monday afternoon. Of course, we hadn't left the place so there's that! So then last night we decided to take a drive to Moss Landing. Again we weren't thinking about what weekend it was, but off we went. We couldn't believe how much traffic there was. Once we hit Highway 1 it was non-stop. Rusty really wanted a burger but we couldn't really find anything other than fast food so we decided to pull over and take a look at Google maps. That's when Rusty sees the Zmudowski State Beach sign. The beach was 2 miles away through strawberry fields. The smell was amazing, I swear it will be my go to meditation place from now on. It was o...

Otherwise known as our slice of heaven.

PREVIOUSLY ON WRONGWAYFELDMAN.BLOGSPOT.COM Rusty reduces hoarding to the micro scale. Julie soldiers on...  SO it's now the beginning of May, and still no word on when the RV is going to be delivered. I call and email the salesman, he tells me he'll have something definitive by mid-May. Julie says let's leave it up to the universe and all will be well. I take her advice and continue to prepare the house and stock the RV supplies cache. However I still lose sleep trying to figure out what to do if the RV fails to show up in time...  Julie continues to get up and cheerfully go for long walks in Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area with Whisky, go to work, and come home happy, damned if I can figure out how with everything in such disarray but I am grateful for it.  SO a little more on the process of decluttering and downsizing. As the days roll by I continue to sort through 50-odd years of accumulated stuff. All these years our life has continuously expanded, now it...