Last night we watched a movie called Craiglist Joe. It’s a documentary of a guy trying to survive for 30 days solely on Craigslist contacts.

The movie reminded me of something we saw in the Northwest – hitchhikers. All along US101 in Washington, Oregon and northern California, we saw people hitchhiking. I haven’t seen that many hitchhikers since the 1970s.

Back then I made a couple of epic hitchhiking trips. Jim Birditt and I packed our backpacks and hitchhiked from San Diego to the Grand Canyon. It took two days to get there. Once there, we hiked down the Kaibab Trail. It was February, so there was snow on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

As you hike down the trail, the climate changes dramatically. We went from alpine to desert to sub-tropical as we descended into the canyon. At the bottom, we rolled out our sleeping bags nect to the Colorado River and dry camped overnight.

The next morning we hiked up the Bright Angel Trail. It was a difficult climb. Jimbo had a stomach bug and was sick as we climbed. The last mile was icy and the footing was treacherous. When we reached the village at the top of the trail, we decided to splurge and booked a room at the El Tovar Hotel.

We came back to San Diego via Route 66 and I-10. This route also took two days for our return. We met some colorful characters on that trip.

The other epic hitchhiking trip was when I moved to Colorado in 1976 to become roommates with Jimbo and Chris Nirschl. I packed most of my belongings in a metal footlocker. My parents shipped it to me later. I had a backpack, an acoustic guitar and about $200 in my pocket when my mom dropped me off at the I-8 onramp at Rosecrans Street. Sounds crazy now, I know!

The guitar proved to be a good thing to have along. Not only could I entertain myself at night, it also helped me get out of rural New Mexico. I was somewhere north of Winslow on a desolate stretch of road. Cars were few and far between.

A lone woman drove by. A minute later she returned, turned around and offered me a ride. She was going to Pueblo, Colorado. She said she didn’t usually pick up hitchhikers, but she wanted company for the drive and figured anyone with a guitar case in hand couldn’t be all that bad. We had great conversations and I bought her lunch along the way.

Back in the ’70s, we didn’t worry much about the dangers of giving a stranger a ride. Apparently in some areas people still give rides to strangers. I don’t know. We didn’t pick up any hitchhikers, so I don’t really know how successful they were at getting rides.

Yesterday I was a little worried about the chassis battery on our coach. Motorhomes have two separate 12-volt electrical systems. One for the chassis that operates the starter motor and engine electrical functions. The other is the house system. This operates lighting, ceiling fans and so on in the coach.

Then there’s the 120-volt AC system. This operates items that require typical household electricity, like the dishwasher and clothes washer. It also operates a converter that steps the voltage down to 12-volt DC. The convertor also charges the house batteries and maintains the charge. The chassis battery isn’t charged by the converter on our motorhome.

I didn’t open the isolator switch on the chassis battery because I was using it to power our Verizon Jetpack wifi. I didn’t think the draw would be enough to matter over a few weeks. I  was wrong. The parasitic draw of the electrical components and Jetpack added up. I checked the battery and saw the voltage had dropped below 12.2 volts. This means it was at less than 50% of its capacity. Continuing to draw it down would damage the battery.

I should have kept one of the Deltran Smart Chargers I sold in our estate sale. I went to Walmart and bought a Shumacher battery charger/maintainer. This unit has smart charging technology. A low battery will be bulk charged to bring the voltage up. The charger then goes into a float charge mode that maintains the battery without overcharging it.

I hooked it up yesterday. This morning the battery is fully charged and the charger is in maintenance mode.

Last night I soaked a cedar plank for the wild Alaskan king salmon filet Donna bought at the farmer’s market on Saturday. I tried something different this time. After soaking for a couple of hours, I put the plank on the hot grill for a few minutes. This dried the surface. I rubbed both sides with olive oil, then put the salmon on it. This was a technique Donna found in one of her recipes.

Wild Alaskan king salmon filet on cedar plank

It was a fairly thick filet, about an inch and a half. I cooked it on the plank over medium heat for 10 minutes. Then I reduced the heat to low for another 15 minutes. It was perfect. This will be my method from now on. I’ll adjust the grill time, depending on how thick the filet is.

Cedar planked salmon served with cumin-roasted Brussel sprouts

Today I don’t have much of a plan. We’ll take a bicycle ride, then see what comes up.