After going without sleep for 26 hours the day before and getting out of Seattle later Friday than anticipated...I stopped to park and sleep in a store parking lot south of Portland, OR. Throughout the night, my RV electrical system turned off and on due to an unidentified circuit issue. Saturday am October 9th, I cruised down to the local Les Schwabs and installed four (4) new house batteries and found the delinquent cable that had broken off in the process. Five hundred and seventy three ($573) later, I rolled into the local fuel stop and threw on another $274 worth of diesel fuel and hit the road. Now a bit after 12:00 midnight the evening of October 9 and early morning of October 10...I stop for dinner and crash for sleep in the restaurant parking lot in Redding, CA.

It is 6:45 am Sunday morning October 10 as I crank up the engine, warm up, and hit the highway on I-5 south for Los Angeles. Now 11:30 am after everything running beautifully...my engine temperature goes from 194 degrees F to 251 degrees F. Ooops! Pulled off road at next off-ramp and parked by Frosty Freeze 30 miles north of Colinga, CA in the middle of hills, pucker bushes, and zero parts... Looking under the hood, I find that part of my exhaust pipe fell off, thereby diverting hot exhaust into the engine compartment and in turn, melted the flexible disc in the coupling between the end of the engine crankshaft and the hydraulic pump that runs my engine's cooling fan. Not good : ( Bright idea! Remove thermostat, drive slow, and limp to bigger city. Result. Not good : ( Made it two miles from Frosty Freeze and found myself now stranded along freeway making two mile bolts forward every _ hour or so once engine cooled down. Now, 7:00 pm and dark. Still in the middle of nowhere. Finally arrive to Harris Ranch near the metropolis of...yes, you guessed it...the whopping city of Firebaugh (another word for nowhere). At this point, I am still 234 miles north of my walk launch point on the shore of Santa Monica's beach at 8:30 p.m. on the day I was to begin. Weary, frustrated, and not very motivated. Still, I unhook my tow vehicle, fill up with gas, and head down I-5 south trying to make my launch point before midnight. Now 11:33 pm...30 miles north of launch point needing to pull over to read map for route through LA to Santa Monica. Nuts! I fell asleep along side of the road, hit the gas, and headed out.