I forgot to mention something in yesterday’s post.

Last week, I posted about the Cobra 38 WX ST* handheld CB radio we bought. That post is here. Before we returned to the RV park on Sunday, we tested the CB again. Donna was in Sheila’s car. I keyed the mic on the mobile CB in our coach and said, “Can you hear me now?” I could see Donna. She was talking into the CB, but I couldn’t hear anything. When you talk on the CB, you have to hold down the push-to-talk button. I thought she wasn’t pushing the right button. I said into the mic, “Push the lower button on the left side to talk.”

Donna got out of the car and came to the door of the coach. She was clearly frustrated and told me she knew which button to push. Something else must be wrong. I tried the handheld and it transmitted to the coach. She took the handheld back to the car to try again. The same scenario played – she could hear me, but I couldn’t hear her. Then I had a thought. I told to get out of the car. She stepped out and now I could receive her signal fine.

The antenna for our mobile CB is on the left front of the coach, above the driver’s side window. The antenna on the handheld is obviously on the unit itself. When Donna was in the car, the steel roof of the car was blocking the signal transmitted from the handheld. She could receive my signal though. I think there are a couple of factors influencing this. The mobile unit in our coach is more powerful than the handheld. Also, it takes more power to transmit than to receive. So she could receive my signal, but couldn’t transmit. For a while, it looked like our plan to relieve some of the communication frustration was backfiring.

Donna was waiting, radio in hand, at site 110 when I pulled up in our coach. I looked at the rear view camera monitor and it looked like I was in position to back in. I asked Donna if I was far enough forward to cut the wheel and begin backing in. She told me to go a few more feet forward.  As I began backing in, she talked to me and gave me instructions. I was able to position the coach perfectly in one shot. This sure beats the heck out of waving arms and hand signals!

Yesterday, I changed our plan. Donna would take Sheila’s car and do some grocery shopping while I rode the scooter to Sheila’s house. I looked at the front door lockset. The doorknob had been drilled out and wasn’t usable (see Monday’s post).  I rode over to Ace Hardware and found an exact replacement for the door knob assembly. I had them re-key the lock so it would use Sheila’s existing key, which also fits the deadbolt and back door. It took about an hour for them to re-key the lock, so I had lunch while they did that.  I returned to Sheila’s house and changed out the front door lockset.

I spent the rest of the afternoon organizing the trailer and figuring out how to hang our bicycles. I have the bicycles hanging in there now and everything is falling into place.

Last night, I walked to Dan Diego’s Bistro to watch the Monday Night football game. Donna picked up Sheila and Connor at the airport. Donna and Connor came back to the RV park while Sheila went to teach her exercise class and run a few errands. Donna baked cherry pistachio biscotti, which I’m having with coffee right now. Yum. Shortly after I came home, Sheila returned. We sat and visited for a while.

I’m  having a hard time believing today is Christmas Eve. The forecast calls for temperatures in the 70s along the coast, warmer inland. It’s not just the climate that throws me. It’s also about how the time has flown by. We’ve been in San Diego for over three months! When we pull out on Thursday, we will have been in San Diego for 97 days. I’m looking forward to hitting the road again. I just hope it isn’t too windy crossing the mountains.

This evening, Donna and my daughter, Shauna, and I will go downtown to Ra Sushi. It may not be a traditional Christmas Eve meal, but we love sushi and they’re having happy hour specials all day! Tomorrow, the three of us will go to the movies and then we’ll go to Sheila’s house for Christmas dinner.

Merry Christmas!

*Just so you know, if you decide to purchase one of these through the Amazon link in this post, I’ll earn a small commission. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!