California day 2

August 2

I awoke in the van ahead of Razelle; it was the sound of joggers padding feet as they ran by in the cool first hours of morning sunlight that roused me. I went into the house to type out an update of this blog. My phone rang. It was Razelle calling from within the van. She couldn't find the door handle to let herself out! I went out to rescue her. This van is so much of a letdown, compared to the caravans we had before in Australia. Razelle reported that she hadn't slept well; because the street is canted slightly so rain will run to the curbs, the van also listed toward the curb and Razelle had rolled up against the side of the van in her sleep all night. At least it wasn't hot in there all night long; but until it got cool enough during the night, sleep wasn't quality sleep.

Today's adventures took us no more that a dozen miles from where we spent the night. They included a trip to the post office, to a kosher food store and to the AAA. To accommodate the limited storage space we have in this van, we packed up some items intended for Israel in a box sold within the post office. The clerk wasn't familiar with the forms I'd need. After I filled in the registered-mail form she learned that parcels to Israel can't be registered (only flat pieces can). I hope what we sent doesn't have customs fees added. I tried to send it in a way that will avoid incurring them.

Next we found the kosher food store. Razelle stocked up on kosher salamis and I found some Israeli cheese (danablu) I miss from home. These had to be purchased in limited quantity because of the limited space our tiny refrigerator has. The clerk spoke Hebrew but kept switching back to English. The owner told us where we could find a kosher restaurant nearby. We next ate lunch there. Razelle had a steak, but she was disappointed in how they prepared it. I had chicken soup and a spicy hot dog. It was all kosher. Let's just say that "next time" we'll both probably try something else instead of ordering these items again.

The day got hotter as we drove around. The AAA was in Thousand Oaks, some distance away. Getting there involved driving uphill, and while the engine worked harder to climb I noticed that the van's air conditioning stopped blowing cold air out of its vents until the road leveled off. We hadn't even left the area where we got the van and already I found something wasn't in good repair with it. I found myself dwelling on this for the rest of the day. Eventually I called the emergency number on my key chain and spoke with the rental agency about this. I was told that since I was near where it had been picked up, I should go back there and have them troubleshoot it. I have also noticed that the steering has some play in it and I mentioned that maybe it could be tightened up too.

At the AAA I showed my membership cards (the guy had never seen an Israeli Memsi card and was thrilled to peruse it). We got material on camping and recreation, plus maps to look at, even though I rely a lot on my GPS nowadays.

Back in Oak Park we stopped at a CVS pharmacy to get Razelle's film developed. The woman who developed it lamented that she'd studied photography in college and all that knowledge has little purpose anymore in this age of digital cameras. She was pleased to see that some people still use film cameras.

There is a large grocery store in this complex, so we stocked up on items that we will need for the trip ahead. I did the shopping and got stuck at the register while someone ahead was returning 4 dozen boxes of pasta. This required the clerk to hand write the info on each box on a clipboard. We waited in line for 45 minutes while he painstakingly did this. It was the express line! While we waited a fire truck a police car and an ambulance pulled up outside the store with lights flashing and sirens going. I was concerned that Razelle out there in the parking lot was hurt; she was concerned that something had happened to me (heart attack maybe) in the store. She called my phone. Isn't it great to have two working phones? I'm glad I set that up. We found out that we were both OK. Razelle also had the keys to the van so, you see, we've learned from our prior experiences. (I have no idea what the crisis out there was, something about a pregnant woman.)

We returned to Julia and Bryan's place at dusk and chatted with them about all our concerns about the van. We're also concerned about how this phase of the trip has gotten bogged down in purchases and adjustments to circumstances we hadn't anticipated. Every seafarer hits the doldrums during a long voyage and we had just encountered our doldrums. The pleasure of discovering new places has been replaced now by discovering that the old places aren't what we remembered. One wants to be able to rely on ones senses and ours were playing tricks on us here. The topic that vexed me the most was that van parked out there on the street. It is 10 years old. I need to be able to rely on it to take us all the way along the route I've projected we'll take. I'm not entirely secure about that. What have I gotten us into? This van was rented from "Adventures on Wheels." I am concerned about the kind of adventures this van is going to provide us.