Is That a Flat Tire? And Lava Tubes

Our plan for Friday morning was to drive about 88 miles from Burney Falls to the Lava Beds National Monument.  Craig has a navigation program on his Android phone, and we have tested it out a number of times in our home territory.  Unfortunately, when Verizon service goes away, the navigation software can't get its instructions.


However, being a well prepared traveler, I had printed out the MapQuest directions for our first six stops on this trip. But because I confused one line of the directions, we thought we had overshot our destination when we were really 20 miles short of it.


We got to a point where we  weren't sure about making a turn.  Fortunately we could see a little town in a "wide place in the road" just ahead. 


We passed the turn and stopped for directions.  Unlike the average city gas station attendant, the man working there was quite helpful, and told us we should have turned "back there."


No problem.  It was a very "wide place in the road" with good visibility, and almost no traffic. Craig did a nice wide U turn.  


At the end of the turn we heard and felt a Thump, Thump, Thump!  The car was doing an oscillation in the rear camera monitor, probably in the front end.  We stopped right away and got out to check the tires expecting to find a flat.  Strangely, everything was fine.  Craig got back in and pulled forward slowly.  I watched the wheels, and nothing seemed amiss.  I did have to run alongside the Alfa for a ways, but finally he stopped and I got aboard.  We don't understand what happened or what the noise was.  We went on our way and all is well.  It had something to do with making the U turn.  


Any ideas?

We arrived at the Lava Beds just before noon, had a little lunch, and then went off to see some Lava Tubes.

I found that I am getting a bit claustrophobic in my old age.  I wasn't really comfortable going down into holes in the ground!

I was better about the larger tubes. We had to wear hard hats and use flashlights.  There were no guides.


It was interesting, and I do like caves in general.  There was something about some of these that made me uncomfortable.  Maybe it is because I have experienced one of California's bigger earthquakes,  (1989 Loma Prieta) when we were very close to the epicenter.  Maybe it was because I carry a packet of grief in my heart for the eleven year old grandson of a friend of mine, who died in the collapse of a sand cave he and his friends were digging in the side of a cliff.


For whatever reason, I just prefer to be top side for as long as possible!