THE BIG Q

 IT'S WAARRRRMMMMM!!!  At least warm-ER than it was in foggy California.  I left Bakersfield with high hopes for no traffic.  Other than the windshield that was so dirty I couldn't see out of it, we cruised right along.  I finally stopped in frustration and tried to clean it.  It didn't help much.

Then I remembered I did not turn the gas off.  No big deal, in my other rigs it was never turned off, but I took the Tehachapi exit anyway.  Well that was the wrong one to take.  There was no turnaround wide enough.

Two blocks later, I was back on the road, soon to be cruising through the Lucerne Valley.  That always makes me VERY nervous since that's where that head-on accident almost happened.  No one would have survived that.  I literally hold my breath through that entire section.

That's when everything went crazy.  I had it on cruise control, with the brake assist turned OFF.  There is one very VERY steep section into a big gully.  The van didn't like that one little bit.  The brake assist came on, it slammed on the brakes, and orange/red lights began to flash.

BRAKE ASSIST NOT FUNCTIONING.  That's GOOD!  I don't want it to!  But the warnings would not go away.  They replaced the little zero in the center, which happens to be my speed.  Ding ding ... flash flash ... it would not stop.  Great!  Now I'm on another big downhill.  I was hoping at least the brakes would work.  On the left is a speedometer, completely covered up by the steering wheel, so no telling how fast I was going.  AND I had no cruise control.

I finally pulled over and turned the engine off.  That should do it!  NOPE ... still flashing lights.  Too bad ... I'm driving you anyway.

Now in downtown, I pulled into a parking lot and played with the touch display.  I spotted the word FUNCTION and tapped it.  MORE THAN ONCE.  I think I beat it into submission.  There's just too much fancy dancy electronics on this rig.  With a big sigh, I headed back on the road, and to my amazement the little zero speedometer showed back up and the orange disappeared.  YAY!!!!  Once again I turned that feature OFF.

That's when we hit the traffic jam in Indio.  They chose a Friday afternoon to close a four lane highway down to two.  It took an hour to get through that mess.

At long last I MADE IT!  I'm in QUARTZSITE and parked between Patsy and Bill ... and Deb and Tom.  Sadly, I'm in their Happy Hour spot.  Mr. Gibbs came out immediately for some puppy love, but wanted to see Cooper more than me.  He KNEW he was in that rig, so he just sat and stared at it.

We camped out for over an hour, me completely forgetting the time change, which got me this morning.  We got up at 4:30, but it was 5:30 here.  Love these smiling faces.  Both Patsy and Deb got pictures, so this is the only one I took.  

This was the most satisfying part of the day, besides surviving the drive ..... Bills famous bacon cheeseburgers!  OH YEAH!!!  No one barbecues them better.  Dinner was delicious!!  I can't thank them enough!

As darkness fell, I caught Deb and Tom packing up.  They will leave this morning to spend Christmas with their family in the snow back home.

We were all waiting for that fabulous sunset Q is known for ... and it did not disappoint.

Even looking East, it was gorgeous!!

It just got better all around.

And then this happened.  There's just not much better than an Arizona sunset and the pictures don't do it justice.

Mr. Cooper and I are pretty beat up this morning.  It was a long seven hour drive for us, having been stuck in that traffic jam for over an hour.  The time change ... that doesn't help.  

Today will be spent resting up and reorganizing the rig until I can actually FIND things.  It took me an hour to find a fingernail file last night.  

And so it begins ... FIVE DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS!!!!