Day 14 – 3483 miles … Heat, Heat, Heat

Took us a while to get out of Las Vegas. The girls made a morning trip back to Circus Circus, Kelly headed back in for a little while as well. I hung out at the RV with Jack and did some remaining laundry. We took advantage of the pool that the KOA has and swam for an hour, while Michelle packed things away in the RV. In the end, we left around 1130A.

We drove about an hour south of Las Vegas and stopped for some lunch, shopping at the outlet mall and to fuel our guzzling home … we seem to be averaging right around 6 mpg. The temperature was well over 100F by 10A and continued that way.

This drive has some long hills, not steep and not winding, but still some loonngg hills. This gave out RV a good workout, as the heat did a number on the engine and us :). Our generator also doesn’t like the heat, and it decided to “rest” after just 30 minutes of use. This meant, that the RV’s only AC unit was the one in the cab (driven by the engine). While this does a decent job of keeping the driver and passenger cool, it isn’t enough to cool the rear of the motorhome. By 2P, anything back more than 3ft from the front seats was well over 90F … ugh.

We cross the Mojave desert (yep, that was hot) and make our way into Los Angeles. As we get closer to LA, the traffic gets worse … as the traffic gets worse, my nerves get worse. As my nerves get worse, my temper gets short … as my temper gets short, I make everyone unhappy …. sorry … I hate LA traffic. The combination of really poor condition roads and the traffic that is constant, followed by people who absolutely, must be there, 10 minutes ago … makes this a hell for me … not sure how else to describe it.

We stop about 45 minutes from our campground for ice cream and for me to cool off, figuratively and for real … then continue to our campground in the Pomona Hills. As we turn off the interstate and head up a hill towards the campground, I get passes very angrily by another motorhome … he was in a huge hurry and I was apparently holding him up in this last 2 miles to his (and our) destination. He misses the turn-off and has to make a U-turn, this puts me in front again, and on a road that is only 2 lanes and uphill … wouldn’t you know he tries to pass me again … he realized that his RV didn’t have the engine for it and pulled back behind me … no more than 10ft off my rear bumper … got to love LA.

By contrast to my experience getting here, the campground is very nice. On a hilltop, overlooking LA, with a lake, grass and excellent facilities. We get checked in, get our site and set up. We call for a pizza and it gets delivered to the site … got to love LA.

The temperature is perfect, light wind, around 72F … the girls play on the grass and we have a nice evening. Everyone asleep, to a very cold motorhome (making up for the heat of the day) by 10P.