Bakersfield

  On Friday my wife dropped me off at the train station in Santa Ana at 6.30am. The Greyhound to LA was due to leave at 7.05 but I still had to get a ticket. I had tried to book online the night before but was having internet problems, it would have saved me two dollars and a mini panic attack....the ticket window said it did not open until 7. Anyway it all worked out and by 7.02 I was sitting on a nice comfy seat.
  The Greyhound of today is a lot different than the Greyhound I used last time, about seventeen years ago. These buses are really nice. New, clean and spacious. They even had a plug outlet for phones or laptops. I was half expecting to see an attendant coming down the aisle with drinks!
  In less than an hour I was in LA but then had to wait an hour and fifty minutes for the connection to Bakersfield. No problem, I had brought along some munchies, a thermos of coffee and a book.
  The reason for the trip was to look at, and hopefully purchase, a 1987 Chevy G20 Class B that I had been negotiating via email and phone.
The photos I had seen looked good, just what we wanted, and the price was right (after I had the owner knock $750 off). I was excited. I had not been to Bakersfield since the days when I used to drive the 350 miles to visit my wife-to-be every second week and then it was only a pit stop, being about 150 miles from home base. To get there you have to cross a mountain range using the 'Grapevine', a winding freeway through the pass. If there is any snowfall the Grapevine is subject to delays, mandatory use of chains or closure. Judging by the weather forecasts I did not expect any problems as there was a two day window of dry, windy conditions.
  It took two hours to get to the Bakersfield depot, most of which I slept. It was a full bus this time. The kid sitting next to me was travelling up to Tacoma, Washington to visit his mother. That's a long way on a bus! It was chilly when I stepped out of the depot and onto the streets, but I phoned Steve (the seller) and he was only ten minutes away. Time for a ciggy.
  He had the Chevy in a storage yard across town and I recognized it as we pulled in. Looking good. I took it for a spin, checked  everything I could think of, gave him the cash and was off. He had filled the gas tank so there was going to be no need to stop but just before the freeway I pulled in to the gas station to clean the windshield. I knew I was in Bakersfield as the only music on the radio is Country and Western. Traffic was light all the way back, even through LA so I made it back to the beach by 3.30pm.
  The van drove very well, even over the Grapevine which is fairly steep in parts. I took my wife and dogs for a spin but was a bit pooped to do any more with it so I parked it. Since then I have been compiling a list of changes and fixes that I plan to work on for the next month. First thing is to register it in California, it has Indiana plates now, and add it to the insurance. All in all I think I got a good deal and am already thinking of selling it for a profit after I work on it a bit but the wife says no. We have not come up with a name yet, I don't like calling it 'the van'. We are toying with: the pod, the shuttle, the shuttlecraft or the shuttlepod. I don't like any of them. I'll wait for inspiration.

Some road pics