Memorial Day Weekend 1999 Bethel Island, CA Page 1 Friday, May 28, 1999 Kay and I took the day off from work so we could go up to the California Delta to begin our Memorial Day holiday weekend early. Because we didn’t have to be anywhere at any particular time, we were able to sleep-in a little; it was a nice indulgence. When we finally got around, we finished loading up the motorhome and took off for the grocery store. Before going into the store we had a quick breakfast at a nearby McDonald's. While Kay was in the store, I cleaned the windows on the motorhome and checked my phone messages at work. I also went into the store to buy charcoal for the weekend’s barbecue. I was pleased to find the store was having a sale on twenty-pound bags of charcoal. When Kay came out of the grocery store with our supply of groceries, it almost looked as if she bought for a week instead of for the weekend. Of course the food did have to get us through a four-day weekend. We were finally on the road a few minutes before 11 o’clock. The trip over to the Delta was uneventful, but we felt we were just ahead of a large traffic rush. It was as if the large push to get out of town early for the holiday weekend was right behind us. Just as we came over the hill on Vasco Road, I began a sneezing jag. I apparently had driven into an invisible cloud of allergens. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was going to be a weekend of sniffles, sneezes, and itchy-watery eyes. We arrived at Tom and Nora’s place on Bethel Island at about 12:40. We pulled in forward to park on the left side of the driveway as viewed from the street. We normally would back in to a spot on the other side of the driveway, but Tina and Kevin would be coming in a large motorhome that needed the longer space. There also were going to be a lot of cars in the driveway over the weekend. Our motorhome fit very nicely in its assigned campsite. We had water and electric hookup available, but I only used the electricity. However, I never did find the cable TV hookup. Looking up at the levee and dock roof Before the weekend was over, the driveway would look like a traffic jam. Tom and Nora’s neighbors have three cars among themselves. They were having their adult children and grandchildren over for the weekend. At one point people had to shuffle cars to allow others to get out of the driveway. Eventually, the cars were arranged in such a way that those staying for the weekend were in front and those who needed to get out earlier were in the back out close to the street. After getting our motorhome level, we went down to the dock to see Tom and Nora. There was a brisk wind blowing across the dock that would continue most of the weekend. Tom was toiling away cleaning the teakwood on his boat. Tom has his boat looking very nice. He and I talked for awhile about the work he was doing on his boat. Kay and Nora talked for a few minutes, and then Kay went back to our motorhome to make lunch. After visiting a few minutes longer, I went back to our motorhome to eat. Tom and Nora’s next dock neighbors When I returned to the dock after lunch, Tom was washing the hull of his boat. As he went around to the outside of the dock, I decided to go around to see if there was anything I could do to help. Because the wind was blowing, I pulled the bill of my hat down to keep my hat from being blown off. To help keep my hat on my head, I walked looking down at the dock. This all worked together to keep me from seeing the extension on the bow of Tom’s boat. POW! I ran into the extension and put a nice abrasion on my head right through my cap. Things went black for a second and I saw stars. Nora came up with a good idea to keep me from repeating that collision. She hung a rope from the end of the bow extension so I would get a warning of the extension’s presence, even if I was looking down at the dock. I didn’t have any more crashes during the weekend. After recovering from my sudden stop, I offered to help Tom, but there wasn’t much left to do. So he had me rinse down the other side of the hull after he had scrubbed it with soap. Now that I had the water hose, I used it to rinse the heavy layer of dust off the decking of the dock. As I hosed down the dock, I noticed some weeds growing in the cracks between the dock and a couple of posts. So I pulled the weeds and washed the dirt away. Tom said that now he wouldn’t have to mow the grass on the dock because I had just pulled it up. My head was still in pain from the blow it took earlier, so I figured I would sit down and fish from the end of the dock for a while. I was using a dual hook rig with two kinds of bait. After waiting for what seemed like a long time for a critter to take the bait, I finally caught a catfish on the hook baited with a nightcrawler worm. While I was fishing, I talked to Tom as he worked on board his boat. While I fished and talked to Tom, Kay and Nora worked at learning a new craft technique they found at the last rubber stamp show in San Jose. They also made some greeting cards. These activities kept us all busy until it was time to get ready for the evening meal. Fishing from the dock Tom fired up the barbecue using a combination of regular briquettes and some containing pieces of mesquite wood. Because we were cooking for only two couples, the fire was small and only took a short time for it to be ready. Kay and I grilled turkeyburgers while Tom grilled some salmon for Nora and himself. It was very pleasant to have our evening meal sitting out on the dock with a view of the water and rushes. An evening view from the dock After cleaning up after our meal, the four of us went aboard the boat to get out of the night chill. With the wind blowing, the outside temperature had dropped to an uncomfortable level. Through the boat window, we were treated to a view of a nearly full moon. As it came up, a shimmering streak of light shined across the water. Sunset as viewed from the top of the levee As we talked, a couple of the lights overhead went out and Tom got up to hit each light housing to get the lights to come back on. Tom and I talked about what might be wrong with the overhead lights. I speculated about all the possible causes for the problem with the lights. It could be anything from a bad lamp socket to a defective switch or a possible loose wire crimp. So I opened one light fixture and found nothing obvious that would cause a problem. The wire crimps looked okay and the switch seemed to be okay. I disassembled the lamp socket and put it back together when I found nothing that appeared to cause a problem. After putting the lamp fixture back together, The lamp worked fine. It was no longer intermittent. I told Tom how the switch contacts could become corroded in switches that are not used often and cause a light to be intermittent. I told him how exercising the switch briefly could temporarily correct such a problem. So he tried the technique on the switch of one of the intermittent lights. It appeared as if Tom was successful at getting another light to work. So we now had all but one light working. Tom hit the housing of the last defective light fixture, but to no avail. It was getting too late to start working on another light, so I told Tom I would work on the defective light the next day. So it was time to head for our motorhome to get some sleep. It had been a good evening. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact the . ©1999, RVFunTrips.com. 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