Tehachapi 2008

Our recent overnight near Tehachapi reminded me of our first overnight there in late December, 2008.  We were en route to LHC for the first time, had rented a home here for the month of January, 2009.  We had the A-frame pop-up trailer (Chalet) in tow.

We had spent the previous evening with Doug (Trish's brother) and Jan in Sacramento.  Doug recommended Orange Grove RV Park, just east of Bakersfield, for our next overnight stop.  He and Jan always overnight there en route to and from LHC because it's large, well managed, conveniently located, and has a nice bonus if you're there in winter: free oranges.  I ignored Doug's advice because I wanted to put more miles behind us: I had planned to overnight in Tehachapi and stayed with that plan.

Bad decision!  I failed to take the altitude into consideration and was unaware of the constant brisk winds.  It was below freezing when we arrived at sunset, quite a shock after the mild weather at lower elevations.  The RV park was up in the hills above town so it was even colder, and to top it off, there had recently been a heavy snowfall.

We pulled into the campground at dark.  It was very cold, very windy, downright nasty outside, wind chill probably below zero.  Lovely!  And us with only summer clothing!  The office was closed so we just pulled into a vacant site, hopped out of the truck and ran around like crazy people setting up the trailer and hooking up to shore power so we could get some heat in the trailer.

The plot sickens: The Chalet had no WC and I had been delaying a pit stop for some time, trying to arrive at our campground before dark.  I really had to go!  Number 2!  I abandoned the warmth of the trailer and dashed out into the frigid night in search of the restroom.  I found it - all locked up.  Sunnavabitch!  Now what?  Then, I remembered that I had had the foresight to anticipate this situation and had purchased a device called Luggable Loo.

Loo is nothing more than a toilet seat designed to fit atop a 5-gallon plastic pail.  Place a plastic bag in the pail, set Loo on top, drop 'em, take care of business.  Which I did - inside the trailer because I'm fond of my delicate parts, still find them useful occasionally and prefer they not get frozen off.  Business completed, Loo quickly exited stage right, air freshener entered stage left.

Kudos to Mr Loo and raspberries to Mr Dumbass for deciding to overnight in Tehachapi in late December!