Monday, April 11, and Tuesday April 12, 2011: At Bakersfield:
We headed for Bakersfield for just a two-day stay on our way to the Yosemite area. The 106-mile trip was uneventful and we arrived at A Country RV Park by noon. It's a nice, smallish (120 spaces) park, the first one we've used this year that's out of the Thousand Trails system. We don't plan to do anything exciting here, since it's Bakersfield, after all.

Yesterday, we received sad news from Becky's sister Wendy to the effect that Kam Kuwata, her 57 year old brother-in-law, had been found dead that morning in his LA apartment. Kam was a wonderful man, with whom we had enjoyed many a family gathering. He had spent his entire career working as a Democratic Party strategist and campaign manager. Tuesday morning, the Los Angeles Times carried a long obituary celebrating Kam, including this quote from President Obama: "Kam's brilliance as a political strategist was matched by his passion for our country and the process by which we govern ourselves. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to Kam's extended family of friends and to so many in California who mourn his passing."

The fancy airbag system that is part of the hitch mechanism on the new trailer seemed to be out of line. I called the customer service phone number on the hitch and had an interesting conversation with the tech who answered the phone. She gave me some advice and, in following it, I determined that the device had been either installed incorrectly at the factory or messed with at the dealer. With the information the customer service lady provided, I fixed the problem. I called her back to report the positive result, leaving a message since she was otherwise engaged. She called me back to say mine was the nicest call she had received in some time.

The rest of Tuesday was spent at Walmart and Camping World, filling our few empty spaces with more goodies. Tomorrow morning, we head for Yosemite.