The first day started with a bang. Literally. Before we even made it as far as Sacramento, the front right tire blew out. Thankfully I never lost control of the bus and was able to pull over to the shoulder of the freeway with no problem. I got the bus jacked up and the spare put on with no trouble, but I have to say that it is unnerving to work on a vehicle up on a jack and feel everything rock when a large vehicle blows past at 70 mph.
The tire was all my fault; the previous owners had mentioned that three of the tires were new, but the fourth tire was going to need to be replaced before long. I should have replaced the darn thing while we were still in Cupertino. Oh well, lesson learned.
The spare rode just fine, but I was anxious to get the tire replaced in case anything else went wrong. The next big city was Yuba City, where the only tire store we found was in a Walmart. I had always taken a small bit of pleasure in the fact that I had never spent a dime at a Walmart before. And so, the streak came to an end. The guy who helped me was rather clueful and they got a new tire mounted, balanced and on the bus in pretty good time.
From there, the day improved dramatically. We drove on Highway 70 along the north fork of Lake Oroville, through the Plumas National Forest. Most of this drive was through a dramatic canyon with a small whitewater river at the bottom. The water was beautiful and we passed several amazing flowing rock formations. We even stopped for a bit to dangle out feet in the river.
A lot of the land in this area is owned by PG&E, which has several hydroelectric plants and at least two dams on the river. The campground for the night was Lake Almanor. We’re at about 4500 feet elevation, so the lake was fairly cold, but pretty. The only complaint was the mosquito population.