We started the morning by calling and talking to the service rep at the Fiat dealership up in Lake Havasu. I explained our situation and asked if I could tow our car up to his dealership so they could figure out what the problem is and then fix it. He said that we could tow the car with out damaging it further. But, he also said that he would not be able to inspect the car until tomorrow morning since they were rather impacted today.
Armed with that information, Mary Margaret and I discussed our situation and decided to not go to Lake Havasu but, instead, continue on our trip up to the Bay Area. Once there, we can drop the little Fiat at a local dealership and rent a car while we camp at the Del Valle campground in the Livermore Recreational Park where we will be staying for the holidays. We believe it may take a week or so before parts are ordered, arrive and then installed. We would much rather spend the time waiting for the car to be fixed up in the Bay Area instead of at Lake Havasu. By doing so, we can visit with our kids and grandkids as originally planned.
With this plan in mind, we revived up LeuC and started driving down the run. Our initial goal was Ludlow, California, where we dry boondocked on our trip from Sacramento to Tucson before Thanksgiving. However, since we left our campsite around 8 this morning, we decided that we would just continue on. We did stop at the little DQ that is in the gas station just off the freeway at Ludlow, where I enjoyed a cookie dough blizzard. Mary Margaret was much better than I regarding our diet, as she passed up the opportunity of diving into some ice cream.
After driving 7 hours, with an hour spent on filling up LeuC with diesel and me with ice cream, we arrived at Camping World in Bakersfield, CA. They allow RVs to dry boondock in their large parking lot. We drove a total of about 360 miles, which is a new one day record for us. I drove rather slow most of the way (between 55 and 60 mph) as the winds were whipping at us as we boogied down the road. We fought winds of greater than 25 mph for most of the day. It was a bit of a challenge to keep LeuC tight in her lane as either big rigs passed us by or we passed them by.
Once we set up at Camping World, we called the Fiat dealer up in Concord, CA which is the closest dealership to our campground in Livermore. They too are very busy and it will take between one and two weeks to get LeuC fixed. However, since we will be in the Bay Area for the next month, that will work. We will have to rent a car to get around during that time period.
Tomorrow, we will drive up to Concord, drop off our little Fiat, and then cross the Sacramento River and spend the night at the Benicia Recreation Area. It looks like they allow RVs up to 45 feet to spend the night there. There are only three sites but we are hoping that at this time of the year and this part of the week, we should not have a problem snagging one of those sites. Then, on Wednesday, we will drove down to the Del Valle campground, near Livermore, where we will be spending our time in the Bay Area. Along the way, we will rent a car.
Going Down The Road With The Leu's 