I got busy on Friday. We needed to have things ready to roll, or nearly ready to roll on Saturday morning. I moved our bicycles into the trailer and changed the way I hung them. It may seem like a small thing, but it made a big difference. I hung our road bikes with the chain side toward the trailer wall instead of toward the center. I did this mainly to avoid getting chain oil on my shirt when I’m loading/unloading the trailer. This made me rethink the way I had a few other things stored as well – all for the better.

A little past 1pm, Carole Sue, Mona and Shauna arrived for lunch al fresco at our picnic table. Donna had prepared tea sandwiches and split pea soup (and also heated up some leftover curried butternut squash soup for Mona – she’s allergic to ham which was in the split pea soup). I took a break from my chores and enjoyed lunch in the company of beautiful women.

Lunch with Donna, Shauna, Carole and Mona

Our neighbors, Mike and Linda, were away but I showed Carole and Mona the art he creates with beverage containers. He calls it trash to art. He takes aluminum soda cans and cuts them, then folds them into cool wind ornaments. He also takes plastic soda bottles and makes them into fish ornaments. I didn’t notice before he left for the day, but he gifted us with a cool wind ornament that looks like a gear set spinning when the wind blows, which he hung from our mirror.

Aluminum can wind ornament

This one looks like a gear set spinning

Two-liter soda bottle re-purposed

Another soda bottle fish

After lunch, I continued to move things to the trailer and prepare for the road ahead. At Mission Bay RV Resort, we have to leave our cargo trailer in a separate lot. I spent much of the day walking back and forth from our site to the trailer. I have an app on my Samsung Galaxy S5 called S Health. One of the things this app does is count the number of steps I’ve taken. I walked over 7,700 steps back and forth to the trailer! It wasn’t all about taking things to pack in the trailer, I also brought the ladder from the trailer to clean the windows on the coach and, of course, carried it back to the trailer.

On Saturday morning, we continued our preparations for a travel day. This was more routine, but since we’ve been stationary for a while, we had to think our way through it. Donna made a point of clearing up expectations. She wanted to know when I thought we should have jacks up and the coach ready to leave our site. She’s good at this stuff – clear communication and setting expectations makes life together so much easier.

We rolled out of site 114 a little past 11am. We went to the lot where our trailer was stored and had it hitched and were on our way by 11:45am. This was later than I hoped for, but again not a big deal.

I told myself not to sweat the little stuff. If we were a few minutes behind my expected schedule – it’s small stuff. Really, our problems are first-world problems, there are so many people with bigger issues even to the point of lives being at stake.

Another thing I did differently was how I warmed up the engine. In the past I always started the engine at low idle, ~525 rpm, then slowly raised the idle speed to 700 rpm once the oil pressure came up. After a lot of reading and conflicting advice, I’ve concluded that it’s better to go to a high idle of ~1,000 rpm once proper oil pressure is reached. So, I started the engine at 525 rpm, then raised the idle to 700 rpm. With the idle speed at 700 rpm, I pressed the cruise control on and set buttons simultaneously which is programmed to raise the idle to ~1,000 RPM. This should help mitigate the cool combustion temperature and concomitant cylinder wall washing and crankcase oil dilution.

The drive through east San Diego County and up over the Tecate Divide was a piece of cake. The Cummins ISL pulled us up and over the mountain passes without an issue. The fluid temperatures were well within the normal ranges and we maintained 55mph all the way. Like last year, we stopped at the rest area at Buckman Springs near the summit.

At the summit, we had a tough quartering headwind from the northeast. At times it would really push us to the right. I can’t complain though. Our Alpine Coach Peak chassis handled it fine. All the way down the east side of the mountain pass was easy. I used the two-stage Jake brake and never even touched the brake pedal. This was a huge difference from driving the same stretch of road last year in our Gulfstream Sun Voyager.

Once we hit the desert at Ocotillo, I set the cruise control at 59mph, right at 1,500 rpm. This was a reasonable speed and also fuel-efficient. We found the same boondocking area near Imperial Dunes and Buttercup Station as last year. We drove slowly off-road and discussed view preferences before we claimed a spot. Presently we’re boondocking on BLM land in the Picacho Recreation Area with no neighbors within 200 yards. I checked out the Dish satellite reception. I’ve got San Diego broadcasting on Dish Network and I’m looking forward to the Chargers vs Chiefs game. If the Chargers win, they’re in the NFL playoffs!

Boondocking at Picacho

We have great Verizon 4G coverage here in the middle of nowhere. Last year it wasn’t so great at Hidden Shores. We’ll move there on Monday. Hopefully I’ll have internet access and can post from there.

By the way, I ended my last post with a question. Sadly, no one answered. Tumbleweed Connection was the title of Elton John’s album released late in 1971.