4/7/07 - Kingsburg, CA

Not a good day. We left Furnace Creek Campground to drive through Death Valley on our way to Sequoia National Park. While driving down the steep mountain pass our brakes overheated and started to smell. We stopped to let the brakes cool off and dumped our tankfull of fresh water. Just as we got to Panamint Springs we had a flat tire on the Pathfinder. After much hassle of finding out how to remove the spare tire and work the jack we finally got the spare mounted. Then we drove to the nearest town, Lone Pine, CA to get the tire fixed. Spotting a tourist, the shop charged $50 to fix the tire with the excuse that the tire has a pressure sensor. Then on the road going into Bakersfield we ran through high winds which threatened to topple us. Then the low tire pressure light came on, We pulled over into a closed weigh station where two other RVs were sitting out the wind. I added some air to the tires (all of which seemed to have OK pressure). We visited with the other RV people in a big motorhome. One of them called the California highway advisory phone number and got a report that the high winds should end about 5 miles down the road. So we continued on (despite more low tire pressure warning lights). The drive into Bakersfield was gorgeous – rolling verdant hills which looked like a Grant Wood painting. We arrived at the Viking RV Park in Kingsburg about 9 PM. This place was a real dump. The grounds were nice, but the bathroom (only the women’s was open) was filthy, and only had one shower and one toilet operational. The place was also next to a train track with loud whistles all night.