Days 91 and 92: Castro Valley, CA

Stop 58: Chabot Regional Park, Castro Valley, CA

We've had no wi-fi here and, frankly, don't have that much to report so I'll break the pattern and do two days in one post.

Our trip down from Ft. Bragg ended up being about 200 miles. Google Maps and or GPS would have had it about 25 miles shorter but their routes would have had us approaching the Bay Bridge on I-80 and then crossing many lanes of busy traffic to make a fast lane I-80 to fast lane I-580 transition (with a very sudden merge into the fast lane coming from the Bay Bridge. It all sounded like a bit of a nightmare with a trailer so we avoided the whole mess.

Knowing the area as well as we do, after crossing the Richmond Bridge, we took I-80 a couple of mile North and then crossed over to Orinda on San Pablo Dam Road. We went out through Walnut Creek, down I-680 to Crow Canyon Road to Castro Valley.

Our campground is in a eucalyptus forest at the top of the Oakland Hills, overlooking South Oakland an Fremont. In the distance, we can hear the trains and the jets taking off at Oakland Airport.

Here's a photo of our trailer in it's site:

We've stopped in this area to visit with my Mom in Walnut Creek for a couple of days. Some very windy roads (through Chabot Park, Redwood Park, Moraga, past St. Mary's College, through our old neighborhood in Lafayette) take us to my Mom's home in Rossmore. It's much too extreme a route for the trailer, particularly when you consider the large number of bicyclists on the road.

Here's a photo of me and my Mom:

Our primary activity here was trying to get her new printer working. The printer that she'd ordered on the internet was delayed so we found the same printer in the store and arranged to return the internet printer when it arrived. The new printer could connect by USB cable or wi-fi. She didn't have wi-fi and, of course, the printer didn't come with a cable. We tried a cable that she had and, when it didn't work, the diagnostics reported a problem with the cable. A new cable didn't work any better.

I talked to Comcast and was told that we could exchange her cable modem for one with wi-fi at not cost. We drove to Concord and, after waiting in line forever, learned that she would have to switch her account to a high-speed internet account ($50 more per month) so that she could get the free upgrade. Once again, Comcast justifies my low expectations.

We stopped by Best Buy and bought a wi-fi box for $39. She now has wi-fi and the printer recognizes the wi-fi. The installation program is looking for a serscan.sys file that doesn't seem to exist. On that note of failure, we had to leave.

I'll be in touch with Microsoft, Dell and HP to find out where I can download a serscan.sys for Windows Vista 32-bit SP2 and maybe we can get her printer working soon.

-J-