Today was a good day, Although last night was not a particularly good one with my travel partner absent.
I got a great night's sleep last night, almost 10 hours, thanks to no rowdy neighbors, although one RV the made a racket continuously for over an hour until quiet hours started at 10 PM. Saint Ambien help a lot.
My only chore for today, visit Donner at the hospital. So I made haste through my morning chores to get on the road to Flagstaff.
The morning started off on a good note when I found that missing surefire flashlight. Apparently, when I was searching in the dark for the cleaning supplies the other night at 2 AM, I laid it on my driver's seat and somehow it slipped under the beaded seat cover that I use to keep the circulation moving in my abductor muscles while I am driving. I knew eventually it would show up, and it did. I think that's the only place in the entire Defender, tent, and gear bags I did not search and I found it accidentally. But I do not expect to find those expensive Costa sunglasses mysteriously went missing on the drive down the California coast, as I explained earlier on the blog.
I had several uninvited visitors this morning at breakfast. First, a few elk meandered not too far from the campsite, but they were more interested in what nature provides and the not-so-appetizing selection they would have found on my picnic table. But the ravens thought otherwise. I walked away from the picnic table to get something in the Defender for a moment and when I returned just two minutes later I noticed that one of the four packages i just bought yesterday was missing. later, I noticed a group of six or so ravens feasting on something about 20 feet away from my campsite. I wandered over and saw what was left of the oatmeal package. I personally do not like to be party to feeding the wildlife, and I feel guilty that I let them get something.
Before I left for Flagstaff, I took a well-deserved shower in camper services. It is pretty well outfitted with showers, bathrooms, and a laundromat. However, I think the shower stalls are best used by people four feet or under as there is very little space to sit down and put on your socks and shoes after a shower.
I got on the road at 11 o'clock. My spirits lifted significantly when I received a call from Dr. Lisa saying that Donner might be able to go home today as he has recovered significantly although he still has a ways to go, but this could be trested on the road.
Before I picked up Donner, I stocked up on things for the return trip home at the local Walmart. I look for a new bed for him but the trip home there were none suitable for him. As a rescue – day gift, maybe I'll let him sleep on my mattress and see that he really has the better deal with his bed.
I had two close calls today, the first was, as I was pulling into the parking lot for the hospital, i smell something burning. It was not the usual burning smell from the engine, but something like an electrical fire. I pulled into the parking lot intending to inspect under the hood, but then I saw smoke pouring out of the dashboard. The recharging cable connected to the useless MOPHIE battery charger was smoking. I quickly turned off the engine and disengaged the cable and everything was OK. if I had waited a few more minutes before investigating, or if I had been on the highway when this started, it would've turned into something more serious. I know that from experience. In 2002, my auxiliary heater short-circuited on a remote peninsula in Newfoundland and brought down the entire electrical system in the Defender, and I had to bivouac in the Defender that cold, stormy night until I could get AAA to send truck to tow me the next day 110 miles to the nearest Land Rover facility. Also, while this was happening, the defective satellite phone that a company called Rentcell rented me did not work and i had to wait until morning to catch someone driving by with a cell phone to call AAA.
I got a great night's sleep last night, almost 10 hours, thanks to no rowdy neighbors, although one RV the made a racket continuously for over an hour until quiet hours started at 10 PM. Saint Ambien help a lot.
My only chore for today, visit Donner at the hospital. So I made haste through my morning chores to get on the road to Flagstaff.
The morning started off on a good note when I found that missing surefire flashlight. Apparently, when I was searching in the dark for the cleaning supplies the other night at 2 AM, I laid it on my driver's seat and somehow it slipped under the beaded seat cover that I use to keep the circulation moving in my abductor muscles while I am driving. I knew eventually it would show up, and it did. I think that's the only place in the entire Defender, tent, and gear bags I did not search and I found it accidentally. But I do not expect to find those expensive Costa sunglasses mysteriously went missing on the drive down the California coast, as I explained earlier on the blog.
I had several uninvited visitors this morning at breakfast. First, a few elk meandered not too far from the campsite, but they were more interested in what nature provides and the not-so-appetizing selection they would have found on my picnic table. But the ravens thought otherwise. I walked away from the picnic table to get something in the Defender for a moment and when I returned just two minutes later I noticed that one of the four packages i just bought yesterday was missing. later, I noticed a group of six or so ravens feasting on something about 20 feet away from my campsite. I wandered over and saw what was left of the oatmeal package. I personally do not like to be party to feeding the wildlife, and I feel guilty that I let them get something.
Before I left for Flagstaff, I took a well-deserved shower in camper services. It is pretty well outfitted with showers, bathrooms, and a laundromat. However, I think the shower stalls are best used by people four feet or under as there is very little space to sit down and put on your socks and shoes after a shower.
I got on the road at 11 o'clock. My spirits lifted significantly when I received a call from Dr. Lisa saying that Donner might be able to go home today as he has recovered significantly although he still has a ways to go, but this could be trested on the road.
Before I picked up Donner, I stocked up on things for the return trip home at the local Walmart. I look for a new bed for him but the trip home there were none suitable for him. As a rescue – day gift, maybe I'll let him sleep on my mattress and see that he really has the better deal with his bed.
I had two close calls today, the first was, as I was pulling into the parking lot for the hospital, i smell something burning. It was not the usual burning smell from the engine, but something like an electrical fire. I pulled into the parking lot intending to inspect under the hood, but then I saw smoke pouring out of the dashboard. The recharging cable connected to the useless MOPHIE battery charger was smoking. I quickly turned off the engine and disengaged the cable and everything was OK. if I had waited a few more minutes before investigating, or if I had been on the highway when this started, it would've turned into something more serious. I know that from experience. In 2002, my auxiliary heater short-circuited on a remote peninsula in Newfoundland and brought down the entire electrical system in the Defender, and I had to bivouac in the Defender that cold, stormy night until I could get AAA to send truck to tow me the next day 110 miles to the nearest Land Rover facility. Also, while this was happening, the defective satellite phone that a company called Rentcell rented me did not work and i had to wait until morning to catch someone driving by with a cell phone to call AAA.
The good news about these unwelcome experiences on the road is that they give you the confidence the next time they happen that they will be solved.
The visit at the hospital was brief. After Donner was brought to me, his very competent nurse, Tiffany (two), explained to me what was going on and his medications for the next 10 days. Then Dr. Lisa joined us and that visit was not only professional but rather pleasant. She assured me that if I followed the medication regimen over the next 10 days, Donner steadily recover. I left that visit with the same confidence that I had when I left down her there on Saturday.
I got on the road from the hospital only after getting the obligatory photograph of Dr. Lisa and Donner. I explained in an earlier posting the mistake i made by not including Tiffany Two in that photograph, so I will not repeat my apology here.
I drove back to the camp by way of Route 180, the empty, beautiful highway running through a National Forest that is a joy to ride. We stopped off at call Daisy's rest stop so Donner could demonstrate that he is getting back to normal, and he did.
The second close call came as I was pulling out of the road leading onto180. One of the reasons that the Defender is such a marvelous vehicle is that it is well endowed with safety features for off-road driving, including an external roll bar. Unfortunately to get that capability, it has weak spots, One of which is that it provides blind spots and all four corners of the defender. Although when I pull onto a highway I always look both ways and then drive on the opposing lane for a while before pulling into my lane just in case I did not see a speeding vehicle that was in my blind spot. Unfortunately, there was one today. The good news is that nothing happened because he recognized what I was doing and speeded by me straddling the shoulder, so my guess is that since he did not blow the horn, he did that on purpose thinking that he could control the situation. Nevertheless,It was a close call.
The remainder of the drive home was absolutely splendid. Beautiful scenery in all directions, an absolutely gorgeous setting sun in the west, an empty highway, Red Rver Rock blasting on my Beat headphones, and my beloved dog lying next to me in his passenger seat bed. If you want to get the feeling of what I experienced, take yourself on a drive someday on the most beautiful empty highway near you, play Red River Rock on your device and stay right at the speed limit. If your spirits were high before that drive started, they will go through the roof. If you your spirits were low, they no longer will be. You don't have to leave your worries behind, because that drive will erase them from your mind.
We arrived back at the camp ground at 6:15 and I drove right to the laundromat where I washed all of the victims of Donner's infirmity the other night so that he has fresh start now that he is home.
Tomorrow, Donner and I will explore the Grand Canyon, letting him do all the sniffing he wants to do. And I will get the obligatory photograph of the two of us standing before that magnificent scene. I am also anxious to see from my photographs if I can find the spot where my mother and her sister stood getting photographed at the Grand Canyon in 1936, when the two of them, 23 and 21 years old respectively, drove from New York to Los Angeles in what today we would called an old buggy. If I have one inspiration for my own trips, it would be that brave trip that my mother took back then.
That's it for today.
Oh, by the way, tomorrow, October 30, is the third anniversary of Donner's rescue – day. For him it will be business as usual, but for me it will be a very special day. The joy that I get from the dog is in measurable.
Ed and Donner from the Grand Canyon.
