Friday, April 8, 2022. Corning CA to Los Altos CA
It was fortunate that it had cooled off overnight. It had dropped from 84˚F at sunset to 59˚F the following morning. We were able to sleep well. It was very quiet aside from some dogs barking far off in the distance, carrying on some sort of late night doggie gossip line. While we were sleeping, another Sprinter Van conversion came in and parked near the entrance. We were up at 7:30am and out the gate by 8:00am, with the owners of the Airstream travel trailer not far behind us.
We drove directly to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield California where Ben met a couple who had purchased our used Hensley Arrow trailer hitch on Craigslist and had paid by certified check a week earlier. The check had cleared and the couple was from the Las Vegas area. They had driven down and spent the night at a nearby hotel to make this rendezvous. The exchange went smoothly, relieving our RV of a couple hundred extra pounds of weight.
We went into the Jelly Belly factory but were disappointed to see that the factory tours were no longer free, but now self guided and $5 each. We used the bathrooms and bought several bags of jelly beans in the gift shop.
We used the Gas Buddy App to find a service station selling diesel at $6.07/gal, the A&A Gas and Food Mart. After pulling up to the pump, Ben discovered the opposite problem with this diesel fuel nozzle than what was encountered in Central Point Oregon. This one had the larger commercial nozzle with a diameter of 1-1/4”.
Once again, the Volkswagen TDI emergency refueling adapter came in handy. The odometer read 15878 miles and the tank took 12.922 gallons. It was hard to tell if the tank was really full because the oversized nozzle’s fill sensor doesn’t work with the emergency adapter so it tended to overflow and splash around the adapter. If the fill was accurate, that would yield only 13.6mpg, one of the lowest recorded since we bought the RV.
We then drove directly to Ben’s sister Eileen’s house in Los Altos. There was a bit of traffic in San Jose, but we managed to arrive around 1:30pm. Our RV just barely fit in their driveway next to their Tesla. The temperature was again in the mid 80’s. We were able to plug into a 120V 20A outlet in their garage, and thanks to the SoftStartRV modification, we were able to run the air conditioner to cool the RV down to 72˚F, although it took an hour go drop from 86˚F to 72˚F. We did go for a ride in Eileen’s Tesla Model 3 to grab lunch at In-N-Out. That was a treat since we’d been craving In-N-Out since seeing the first In-N-Out in central Oregon.
Ben’s brother George had flown down to the Bay Area with his wife and daughter for a Spring Break get away. They had hit the main tourist sites on their first day in the area, but Beth developed an allergic reaction to a “Beyond Beef” hamburger just as they were leaving the dock in a power boat rental in Salsalito, causing them to turn around and spend the rest of the day in an urgent care facility. Fortunately, she had a mild reaction that had responded to oral antihistamines. George came over to Eileen’s, as well as Ben’s other brother Dave, who had suffered a serious heart attack this winter and is still working through cardiac rehab. His wife has been his private Uber since his cardiologist won’t let him drive until July. Eileen’s husband Tony got take out dinner from Chef Chu’s restaurant, which we enjoyed in a back yard meal with very pleasant conditions as the earlier heat of the day cooled off.
Everyone got a tour of the RV and we coordinated a plan for tomorrow, with a hike in the morning and a Stanford football scrimmage watch in the afternoon. Ben got shuttled over to Dave’s home to pick up one of Dave’s cars to use tomorrow since Sharlene has a prior commitment for the day.
