The Shaver Curse

It's official - there is curse on successfully getting to and from Shaver Lake, CA. We have experienced the curse for years but this year it is in full effect. Seriously, it shouldn't be that hard to get a vehicle from Long Beach, CA to a lake an hour outside Fresno. But - the past two days that was the impossible mission. I'm sitting here at home in Long Beach still only dreaming of jetsking and camping. I just traveled around the world for 6 months with no problems...but a girl can't get herself to Fresno!

Here's the story: It all started Sunday morning at 5am. We piled in the motorhome and headed off. Eighty miles later we were stuck on the side of the road just outside of Magic Mountain. We blew our Turbo something or other and were forced to call in enforcements to pick us up and tow the two jetskis home while the motorhome was towed to Whittier to hopefully be fixed. We were home by 11:30am. Talk about a bad start, but we were not defeated!

Today (Monday) the motorhome hadn't been fixed and we opted for plan b. After running around all morning to make this happen, my cousin Ashley and I got my sister's big Chevy truck loaded up with all our camping gear and the jet ski trailer. We got a late start at 2pm but hoped we would make it up the mountain before dark. Around 3:30pm our first obstacle struck....flat tire on the jetski trailer. I noticed the tire looked low and before we could even exit...BAMM blow out just before Santa Clarita. We changed the tire and found a tire shop carrying another spare (just in case).

Okay - it's now almost 5pm. Again, we headed back on I-5 and seriously 15 miles later, sparks were flying as our muffler literally fell off and we are now dragging down the highway at 60mph. By this time all the muffler shops were closed and we decided the Shaver Lake curse had won this round too. Since we only made it an hour away from home, we decided to head back with our motor humming and feeling seriously defeated. We even took the same emergency exit road to get on the southbound 5 freeway as we did the day before. It was depressing to break down in almost the exact same spot two days in a row. But...the motorhome could fixed by Wednesday morning and maybe we'll try one more time to break the curse.

If you don't believe me that there is a curse, my sister can recount the dozens of breakdowns, flat tires, motorhomes in vapor lock and bad alternators we've encountered. And I won't even get into the time it took Jim Meirs 36 hours to make it to Shaver. Over the years, random injuries and illinesses that have detoured our trips. And then, even if you successfully make it up the mountain, I guarnetee you something will break. It's usually a broken boat or a busted jet ski. It's always something. Maybe that's why Shaver Lake is so special because it's such a miracle if you make it there and back without a hitch.

190 days later...

We visited Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, India, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Mongolia and China.

Thousands of Photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anntrak/collections/72157603994648055/

Quotable Quotes

In 6 months you have a lot of laughs. Below are some of our favorite quotable moments, we'll be saying this stuff for years.

“Ho Chi Minh, city of motorbikes. You don’t have a motor bike you don’t have a life. You have no boyfriend, no girlfriend, nothing. A while ago they say, you ride motorbike you wear helmet. We say we no wear helmet, helmet looks like rice cooker on your head.”
- Mekong Delta Tour guide

You buy postcard for your boyfriend.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.” [Jen’s response]
“That’s cuz you no buy postcard.”
- Cambodian girl selling postcards

“Where you from.”
“Nowhere.” [Jayme’s facetious response]
“Capital Oslo. Population 4 million, minus three. 1-2-3”
- Cambodian boy selling postcards who thought we were from Norway

“Who’s the weggie.”
- Thai hiking guide who can’t pronounce his “v’s”.

“You want more wegetables, you can add more wegetables. You want more carlots, you add more carlots.”
- Thai cooking instructor

“Girls, what are you complaining about! You could have been born with your boobs knocking between your knees.”
- James the Kiwi on women’s rights in India after seeing a female goat.

“You said 60 rupees!!! For 6 people!!!”
- Jen losing it with an Indian cab driver

“It’s a deal, it’s a steal, it’s the sale of the $%*! century.
- Pink Harry on finding 15 rupee Kit-Kat’s in India

“So be that.”
- Danielle on quantum physics.

“Egeszsegedre!”
- Jayme’s words before spilling a glass of white wine on Ann’s lap

"It's a stuuudent thing."
- Our friend Katja on student events in Slovenia

“I need to call China; I have a problem with them.”
- Jen in the Czech Republic on being charge 3 times for her plane ticket home

“I hate you and I hate you and I hate you the most!”
- Drunk guy at 4:30am in Warsaw hostel (best if reenacted by Jen)

“Crem de la Kremlin.”
- Tad cracking himself up in Moscow

“Do you have a flagg...”
- Tad's impression of Eddie Izzard on British colonization

“I pack like Paris Hilton.”
- Tariq on his 60lb backpack for the Trans-Mongolian railway

“When we were young we had no toys; we played with our toothbrushes.”
- Tariq on growing up in England

“Dab a little behind your ear and you're ready for formal wear.”
- Tariq on the smell of smoked Russian fish

“Darling, have you seen how rubbery this is – you could play squash with it.”
- Tariq’s steak in the Russian train dining car

“Mongoowia.”
- Say this in your best Kim Jong II Team America accent

"You have lamas in Mongolia...three toes, they spit."
- Rupert on lamas in Mongolia. The sign in the museum, however, was talking about the Dahlia Lama.