Praise for the Scan Gauge and Never trust your GPS 5-22-11

As most of our friends know, Ron is a fan of tools and gadgets. His exploits to Home Depot, Orvis, and Camping World are legendary. He is constantly upgrading things on our home on wheels as our neighbors know. They are very tolerant of having our RV blocking their driveways while "Project Man" carries on. One of this year's little purchases was a Scan Gauge. Now, we have driven 40,000 miles without one and I was wondering why we needed one. Ron, on the other hand, was sure we needed one so that we could monitor our engine and get all sorts of information from the engine's computer. He loves anything with a digital display. So, in goes the Scan Gauge, just to the driver's (me) left on the dash so that I can monitor all this great info as I drive, as if I have no other distractions while driving (coffee mug, munchies, two dogs battling for key position up front, a crazy GPS that likes to send me into unchartered territory (more on that later), unforgetable scenery, etc).

We left Joshua Tree this A.M. for what we thought would be a five hour drive to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. I was not enthused about driving California's freeway 99 north, but it was Sunday and there was very little typical CA traffic...no problem there. We were not too far out of the Sierras when the GPS sent us over to Route 245. I had planned to go up Route 63 but wasn't quite sure why I had planned to do that. Since, in all cases the GPS is correct (according to Ron) I went along with its plan. A few miles later a news flash entered my slightly fatigued mind that the reason I had chosen 63 over 245 was that back in January I had looked at my Mountain Directory West (essential for anyone driving the mountainous west - it has saved me many times if I only consult it and abide by its recommendations) and it had said something about 6-9% grades if you travel 245. But....by the time of my news flash I was mentally geared to drive on. I hate to back track and that's not a good thing. Sometimes turning back to take a different route will save you a lot of time. Remember that Jane!

We turned onto 245 and started to climb. The Mountain Directory West did mention the grades, but I don't remember it saying that they were all uphill. About 2 miles in we hit the first 9% pull. That's a lot with a loaded motorhome, especially if it's a long pull. It was. Here's where the Scan Gauge earned its stripes.

I had noticed that when I drove through Joshua Tree the transmission fluid temperature (one of those digital readouts) would start climbing rapidly on uphill grades but that if I downshifted with my "Tow/Haul" button the temperature held steady or dropped. If I dropped my speed I could bring it down more. Evidently, one of the keys to long transmission life is to keep that temperature from climbing into the danger zone. Now, I could see what was going on and could adjust my gearing and speed accordingly. Kudos to the Scan Gauge and apologies to Ron for questioning his purchase of yet another gadget.

Speed was not the issue on 245...about 15-20 mph was the max you could drive without falling off the side of the road (as in straight down a thousand feet or so) on one of the "S" turns. I think I failed to mention that there was a sign at the beginning of 245 that said "Curves" and "Steep Grades". I took that to mean a few curves with some steep grades. Wrong again! It was a 30 mile non-stop "S" curve, steep grade pull. There were no signs of curves ahead because it never straightened out.

The good thing about the drive (besides the magnficent views) was that there were only about 3 or 4 vehicles oncoming for the whole 30 miles and there was no one behind us who wanted to pass. That pretty much tells you what type of road we were driving. I was thinking that if we survived this I would have passed advanced motorhome driving when a cowboy driving a white pickup truck coming towards me gave me the thumbs up/high five sign. Boy, that gets the Mojo going. Crazy woman drives crazy road for fun.

Just after that we passed this wonderful (and only) business on the side of the road. I think the cowboy had stopped here and I was thinking that I might want to stop but wasn't sure how that would go with another 15 miles of this road to go. Onward we traveled.

A few miles into this climb I got to thinking that Ally might want a front seat view. She travels in the back with her seat belt on. We were essentially alone on the road and my reasoning (always a little compromised) said there was little chance of an accident other than falling off a cliff (in which case being seat-belted in the back versus the front wouldn't make much difference in the end result). It's amazing her parents let her travel with a crazy woman driver who loves a sense of adventure. She moved up front and decided to take a few photos of our travels.

You can thank her if you're feeling a little dizzy right now. Sheer drop-offs don't bother her. She had a lot of fun and did a good job of documenting our travel on good ole route 245.



We arrived after about 8 hours of travel...



...and got settled in our campground at Kings Canyon NP.




You may ask why I put so many photos of this road on the blog. It's to remind me how a 5 hour drive can turn into an 8 hour drive!

The real lesson of this blog is GADGETS ARE A MUST and NEVER TRUST YOUR GPS!.

Although, as our good friend, Dave, says, "It takes you places you would never otherwise see." Ain't that the truth!