We pulled into Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort as planned on New Year’s Eve. Our timing wasn’t so good though. We arrived at the office at 12:05 pm only to find they close for lunch from 12:00 to 1:00 pm. A few raindrops were falling – even though the weather guessers said there was zero percent chance of rain – so we settled down in the coach, had some lunch and waited. At 1:00 pm, I checked us in and we headed over to our familiar site 5245.
Most of the sites around us were empty, so I had ample room to maneuver. I should add that the orange trees at the corner of each site always make it a little harder than it has to be to drop our trailer. We were set up fairly quickly and the rain didn’t continue. The sites at Viewpoint are roomy – it’s one of the things we like about this park.
We were surprised to find neighbors moving in as well. Our friends Chuck and Sue came in across from us and a neighbor came in next door. We didn’t expect much activity on New Year’s Eve.
Plenty of room
I had called the Two Wheel Jones Bicycle Shop the day before to confirm Donna’s bike was ready to go. They were supposed to phone when they had it ready, but didn’t. They told me “No worries, it’s all set and on the showroom floor.” Once we were set up, we drove over to the shopping center at the corner of Power Road and McDowell Road to the bike shop. I wasn’t too happy to find the bike was on the showroom floor as they said, but they hadn’t installed the rack and bag I’d ordered or the upgraded pedals! In fact, they said the pedals hadn’t arrived!
They quickly resolved the issue and even robbed a set of the pedals from someone else’s order – they hadn’t come in to pick them up, so Donna left with the bike fully assembled as ordered after 30 minutes or so. The new bike is similar to the one we bought last summer in Arlington, Washington. The main differences are this is a women’s specific design – the frame and seat are different – and the color is Miami Green instead of black.
Donn’a new Trek Dual Sport 2 bicycle
Once the bike was ready, Donna rode it a mile down Power Road to meet me at Lucky Lou’s. We met some of the usual suspects there for a cold one before Donna rode the four miles back to Viewpoint. We locked the bike in our trailer. Donna wanted to get a new bike lock before she took the bike anywhere. She ended up ordering a German-made folding lock that should be a formidable theft deterrent. The lock wasn’t cheap – it cost about $100, but that’s not unreasonable when you think about the cost of replacing her bike. We traded in our two road bikes for her Trek Dual Sport 2 last July and having it stolen less than six months later resulted in a cost of over $1,000 to replace the bike and accessories.
While we were at Lou’s, a number of people checked out Midget-San which was parked right at the entrance. There are almost always interesting cars in the lot at Lou’s and this day was no exception. I saw a beautifully restored Mercury Monterrey in the parking lot. I didn’t meet the owner, so I don’t know the model year for sure, but this body style was built from 1952 to 1954.
Mercury Monterrey at Lucky Lou’s
The cool weather persisted until the weekend with highs around 60 degrees and overnight lows in the upper 30s. At this time of year, the Phoenix area is a little colder than what we’d find in San Diego, but it’s much drier. San Diego’s rainy season runs from Christmas to March.
I finally shook the cold I’ve been fighting and now Donna’s over hers too. We’ve been taking it fairly easy. Donna started the Bright Line Eating plan on New Year’s Day. This plan cuts out flour and sugar. It still allows plentiful portions of food though. This plan is healthy and Donna has had great results with it. One of the menu items is pizza chicken – I wrote about it before. It’s an interesting dish that substitutes slices of chicken breast for pizza crust. Donna serves it with spaghetti squash and it’s very tasty.
Pepperoni pizza chicken
On Saturday, my middle daughter, Jamie, and her significant other, Francisco, came by to visit. They moved from Texas to the west side of Phoenix recently and are only about an hour away from here. We sat outside in the sun and had lunch and talked while I was distracted by the wild card weekend NFL games on the outdoor TV.
Before they left, a neighbor unloaded a car from his trailer. It was a hot-rodded 1961 Chevy Impala. I wish I’d taken a photo. It’s a beautiful car with an incredible black finish. The panels are so smooth and the paint is flawless.
Monday, Donna and I hit the pickleball courts. It was windy and the gusts made outdoor pickleball very challenging. This morning, I played in the 3.0 round robin. I usually play in the 3.5 group, but I needed to work out some of the rust from only playing indoors for the past several months. Tomorrow, I’ll resume the refined skills coaching sessions I did last year. These are sessions for players moving up to intermediate level play. I enjoy coaching them and it helps my game as well.
The temperature reached highs of about 70 degrees over the weekend and today we should see the mid-70s. We’re sure to have another cold spell before things start warming up here in Mesa, Arizona.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
The last week was a bit of a whirlwind. We were able to close escrow on the sale of Ken’s house without having to drive up I-15 to Riverside County – thanks to the concept of electronic signatures and a service called DocuSign.
Once the funds were transferred into the trust account, I made a distribution to beneficiaries. This involved running around to three different banks to distribute the funds with the least cost. I only had to wire money to one account. Wire transfers cost $35 per transaction. By using free cashier check service, I was able to directly deposit into two other bank accounts that have branches here in San Diego.
I’ve held back funds in the trust account to cover any bills that may still be outstanding – things like ambulance transfer costs, medical, and personal income taxes for 2019 on behalf of Ken. Overall, my duties as Successor Trustee progressed quickly and relatively smoothly. I’ll be glad when we can wrap things up and close the trust in four or five months.
Wednesday morning, Donna had her alarm set for 5am. I could hear rain drops on the roof of our coach once I was awake. She was planning to call Lyft for a ride to the airport, but I drove her there and dropped her off around 5:45 am for a flight to Albany, New York. She was heading to Bennington, Vermont for a surprise visit with her parents. The occasion was her mom’s 80th birthday. I would be on my own for the next five days.
On the way back from the airport, I hit the drive-through at Jack-in-the-Box. I don’t think I’ve been to a Jack-in-the-Box in thirty years or more. I went for a breakfast burrito and was surprised by the size of the thing. It had egg, sausage, potato and cheese and was over 1,000 calories! Yikes, I can’t make a habit of eating like that!
I played pickleball at Ocean Beach Recreation Center (OBRC) and hopefully worked some of those calories off. It continued to rain throughout the day and all day Thursday as well. That left me shut in for a couple of days. I had an idea for a Christmas present for Donna, but I had to do some research. The rainy days gave me plenty of time to search the Internet.
Donna has been really diligent at practicing the clarinet. She played the instrument in her junior high school days and picked it back up in July. I’m amazed at how well she can play it. Clarinet is not an easy instrument to play. There are tone holes, keys and levers that require an number of different finger positions to create notes in different registers. I think I read there are 24 tone holes altogether on the instrument.
Donna’s clarinet is a used student model she picked up when we were visiting my daughter, Alana, in Arlington, Washington. Donna has an ambitious goal of playing in the Viewpoint Golf & RV Resort band when we get to Mesa, Arizona next month. I have no doubt about her reaching this goal.
I didn’t know anything about clarinets. I know from my experience with guitars that the step from a beginner instrument to a more advanced, higher quality piece can be a vast improvement. For example, going from a $400 electric guitar made in Asia to a $2,000 Gibson is a huge leap in playability, tone and overall quality. I decided to research clarinets and see if there is a similar step in quality of the instrument.
Over a few days I learned more about clarinets than I ever thought I would. Indeed, the step from a student model to an intermediate level clarinet is a big difference. Once you reach this level though, the next level of instruments follow the law of diminishing returns. For example, going from a $400-$500 student model to an intermediate model of around $2,000 makes a very noticeable difference in the quality and playability of the instrument. But, unless you’re a professional musician, going from a $2,000 clarinet to a $4,000 clarinet doesn’t make that same jump in quality. It’s more subtle and probably only a pro would be able to pick out the nuances that make a clarinet cost $4,000 or more.
The thing is, buying a musical instrument can be a very personal decision. What speaks to one person may not be the same for someone else. So picking out a clarinet to buy for Donna was a bit of a conundrum. I finally decided on a few models and concentrated my research on those. I read opinions on musician forums and reviews. I watched countless YouTube videos. Then I bit the bullet and placed an order. The deal is this though, that meant I had to reveal her Christmas present early as returning a musical instrument is a time-sensitive issue. You can only test drive it for a week or so or most shops won’t accept a return unless there is some kind of defect.
The rain moved east by Friday and we had a sunny day. I took advantage of the weather and got Midget-San out of the trailer for some exercise. I drove to OBRC for more pickleball. I loaded it back in the trailer when I came home. It was a good thing I did as rain started again in the evening and rained off and on all weekend.
I picked Donna up at the airport Sunday around 5:30pm. After we settled in back at Mission Bay RV Resort, I told her about the clarinet. I told her it would most likely arrive on Monday and she should try it out. If she didn’t like for any reason, we could exchange it and my feelings wouldn’t be hurt. It seems like I always have reason for an early Christmas present reveal over the past few years.
The clarinet, which is a Leblanc Serenade model made of African blackwood (Granadilla) with silver plated keys came on Monday afternoon. It’s a real beauty.
Leblanc Serenade in carrying case
One of the cool things about a clarinet is the compact storage – just right for someone living in 300 square feet. The instrument breaks down into five component parts and is easily stored or transported. There’s a break-in process recommended for wood clarinets and Donna’s already on it. It should be fully broken in and ready for long session use by the time we get to Viewpoint in Mesa, Arizona.
Another item I received was an air filter element for our coach. I prefer the Fleetguard brand of filters for the Cummin ISL diesel engine and that’s what I got. Air filters are a tricky item to set a preventive maintenance schedule for. Much depends on the conditions it is operated in. High exposure to dusty conditions mean more frequent replacement while more “normal” driving conditions can extend the life of an air filter. Changing it too often is not recommended as the air filter element gains efficiency once it traps a certain level of particulates. Most diesel-powered coaches have an air restriction gauge for the intake that would reveal an air filter that’s becoming clogged.
Some people think these gauges are worthless while most air filter manufacturers will tell you they’re the best way to know the air filter condition – they say it’s impossible to tell the actual condition of an air filter just by visual inspection. Judging by the restriction indicated on our gauge we didn’t need an air filter element yet. But, there’s also a time factor to consider. Over time, the element (paper in our case) can weaken and eventually break down. It only takes about a tablespoon of dust to completely ruin an expensive diesel engine. I’ve also heard of a case where a paper element disintegrated and pieces entered the combustion chamber with catastrophic results.
So, I’ve arbitrarily set a two-year air filter change interval as long as the restriction gauge shows the air filter is still good. In other words, if the restriction gauge showed excessive restriction before two years, I would change it sooner. But if the restriction gauge remains in the acceptable range, two years is the maximum time. Our filter was last changed in October 2017. We haven’t run the engine since we arrived here in late September, so I’m at the two-year interval although this is December.
Air filter restriction gauge – still in the green
It’s importatnt to keep things clean when you change the air filter element – it’s doesn’t take much dirt to ruin an engine.
Old filter on the left, new on the right – it’s hard to judge condition by visual examination
The Fleetguard filter comes with a new rubber sealing washer for the wing nut securing the filter. I always renew this washer to avoid having a leaky seal that could allow dirt to enter. It’s also important to tighten the wing nut sufficiently to compress the seal on the backside of the air filter element sealing it to the housing.
New seal on wing nut
The last step was to note the date of the filter replacement – I use a strip of duct tape and a marker.
Date of change recorded
Today it’s partly cloudy but there’s no rain in the forecast. The rest of the week should be dry, but it’s cooler with the temperature only reaching the low to mid 60s. It’s December, so I can’t complain about cooler temperatures!
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
I haven’t been posting much lately as much of my time is spent dealing with the estate of my late step-dad, Ken Keller. Donna and I traveled up to his house to box stuff up for donation. We met my brother, Eddie and his wife, Rachel, there last Saturday and got much done. The house is in escrow and the buyer wants to close quickly, but also wants to negotiate along the way. I’ve made a couple of concessions, but now it’s time to move forward.
I was stymied for a while because I didn’t have the certified death certificates. The funeral home that ordered them for me from Riverside County just put them in an envelope and dropped them in the mail with regular postage. No tracking or priority. If I’d known they were going to do that, I would have gladly paid the $8 or so for a trackable Priority Mail delivery. After 10 days, they finally agreed that these documents were lost in the mail. They ordered four more certificates.
They called me on Tuesday and said they had the certificates and were sending them via courier to their San Diego County location in east El Cajon. I drove there on Wednesday and finally had the certificates in hand. Now I could move forward.
I had an Affidavit of Death of Trustee drawn up to allow me, as successor trustee, to handle the sale of the house. I couldn’t file the affidavit without a certified death certificate. Here’s what I find a little crazy about that. The certified death certificates are issued (at a cost to the estate) by Riverside County. The affidavit needs to be filed and registered by Riverside County. So, I pay them to issue me the certificate, then I submit an affidavit with the certificate back to them and they register it for another fee. Typical government racket.
Next I had to go to Wells Fargo Bank where Ken had his account. Again, I needed a certified death certificate to take over the trust bank account. This was a lengthy process and I spent nearly two hours with a banker. With that done, I can fund the trust with the proceeds from the sale of the house. Hopefully, things will get simpler from this point.
I also took care of a couple of projects over the past week. I mentioned before about the alternator on Midget-San overcharging the battery. The alternator is internally regulated, so it had to be replaced. Parts for the Nissan A15 engine in our Midget are easy to find and relatively cheap. I was surprised to find an AC-Delco remanufactured (in the USA) alternator at RockAuto for only $36!
The alternator charges the battery while the engine is running. The charging voltage will vary depending on the state of charge of the battery. As the battery becomes fully charged, the internal resistance of the battery rises and the charging voltage will drop. The old alternator was charging between 15.5-volts and 16.0 volts. This is too high regardless of the state of the battery charge. The new alternator charges between 13.6-volts and 14.5-volts. Much better.
The other project was something that only required me to write a check. The front side windows on our coach were fogged. These are double-pane windows. When the seal between the glass panes is compromised, moisture can condense between the panes. When the windows warm in the sun, fog forms and obstructs the view through the glass. A company called Auto Glass Boss came out to our site here at Mission Bay RV Resort and resealed the glass. They removed the windows, separated the panes, cleaned the glass thoroughly and installed new sealant. The glass is so clear now, it looks like there’s no glass there at all!
We had a major change in the weather here. On Tuesday night, rain moved in with a cold front. We had a blustery day Wednesday with periods of rain all day. The temperature only reached 60 degrees. Yesterday was partly cloudy and cool – in the mid 60s. We should have clear skies and mid to upper 60s for the weekend, but more rain is forecast to arrive by Thanksgiving.
I’ll close this post with a couple of dinner plates Donna prepared. First up is a coconut curry salmon dish with cashews that she made last week. It was spicy and very good – a keeper for sure.
Coconut curry salmon with cashews
Last night, Donna made baked lemon chicken. It was a simple single sheet pan meal and very tasty.
In my last post, I mentioned an issue I had with Midget-San’s oil pressure. The replacement oil pump I ordered came from RockAuto on Tuesday afternoon. I’d been in touch with Bill Masquellier about doing the work at his place in El Cajon. I met Bill when he was working at British Auto Repair and replaced the rear hub/axle seal on the Midget. I later found out he was only filling in there temporarily while another mechanic was on an extended vacation. Bill is very knowledgeable on British cars and also has experience with engine swaps. He knows the Datsun/Nissan line of engines.
I was to meet Bill at the Gillespie Field Cafe – a small cafe at the airport in El Cajon – at 10am on Thursday. I arrived early as I had made allowances for traffic but managed to have smooth sailing eastbound on CA52. I parked in front of the cafe at 9:30am and took a walk. I saw an interesting car in front of a hangar and met the guy working on it. It was an Intermeccanica Omega – an Italian car made in the late ’60s with a Ford 289 V8 engine. They only made 33 of these. While I was talking to the guy, I saw Bill drive his Austin-Healey Sprite in. Bill phoned me and directed me to another hangar on the west side of the airport.
He opened one of the hangar doors and I parked Midget-San inside. I immediately noticed a number of covered cars along with and airplane and lots of parts in the hangar. We opened the hood (bonnet) on Midget-San and while the engine cooled, Bill gave a me a tour. First off, he showed me a 1928 Hudson. He explained that the hangar and the cars inside belonged to his brother-in-law, John. John bought the Hudson when he was in high school and it was his daily driver in the 1960s.
John has a fascination with cars designed and built by Ettore Bugatti. Bugatti’s first design was a small car. He drew up plans for every piece of the car and the engine as well. But he didn’t have the money to actually build the car. So, he sold the plans to Peugeot who then manufactured the car from 1905 to 1916 and called it Bebe. There were two 1913 Bebes in the hangar. Then Bill pulled back a car cover to reveal a mint condition 1935 Bugatti. It’s one of the top examples in the world and has to be valued around a million bucks!
1935 Bugatti
There was another Bugatti – an all-aluminum 1938 that was in pieces being restored. This car only weighed around 2,200 lbs and had 200 horsepower making it one the fastest cars on the road at that time. Cool stuff.
Bill quickly pulled the alternator and oil pump from the Nissan A15 engine in Midget-San. I remarked how surprised I was to find the pump in stock at RockAuto. Bill told me this oil pump is used in at least three Nissan engine families and is a fairly common part. That made sense. We primed the pump and reassembled everything with a new oil filter and fired it up. The oil pressure came up within a couple of seconds. Much better!
Bill put a volt meter on the battery to make sure nothing went awry when the alternator was removed and discovered it was over-charging. The alternator was supplying over 15.5 volts. It has an internal regulator that must be bad. This will eventually fry the battery – the charging voltage should never exceed 15-volts and ideally would be around 14.2 to 14.4-volts. I’ll have to replace that next. This is what happens when you have a 48-year-old car with a 39-year-old engine.
Across from the hangar is the Allen Airways Flying Museum. The museum is owned by Bill Allen – a good friend of Bill M. Bill asked me if I was interested in a private tour of the museum. He had the keys and we entered the closed museum. There are a lot of interesting pieces of aeronautical history there. I saw a couple of Stearman Biplanes in the museum hangar and told Bill I frequently see two Stearmans fly over Mission Bay Park, almost daily. I described them and he told me one of them was in the corner of the hangar and the other – a orange-yellow one was a rental plane that sees almost daily use.
The other Boeing Stearman in the hangar was a beautifully restored silver plane with a blue stripe down the side and blue wing bottoms. It had tail number N-3188. This was the last plane owned and flown by Steve McQueen!
Allen Airways photo of N-3188
Steve McQueen requested number 3188 – it was his ID number when he was at reform school in Chino. Bill Allen bought the plane and completely restored it.
On Friday, Donna and I drove up to Sun City and cleared some items from Ken’s house. I also met with a realtor and we discussed marketing the property and a realistic valuation. The realtor is Sherry Dodson and she has a track record for the gated community Ken’s house is in. She’s sold around 10 homes per year there for several years. She had good comps to establish a realistic value. Setting the price too high could result in problems with a buyer obtaining financing. We needed a number that would appraise without leaving money on the table. After an hour or so, we came up with a price and a plan.
Saturday was a fine day. Donna and I rode our bikes along the Bayside Walk to Mission Beach. Along the way at Crown Point, we saw a large number of row boats for crew racing. It appeared to be a large event for mostly junior rowers. The crew teams looked to be high school age or maybe college. I’m not very good at guessing ages anymore – they all look young.
Racing boatsCrews sculling on the bay
We made a loop from Mission Beach to Pacific Beach Drive and back to Mission Bay RV Resort.
Saturday night, Donna marinated a flank steak and served it with baked potato and roasted brussels sprouts. Delicious!
Monday was Veterans Day and another fine day. We took a drive in Midget-San out to Cabrillo Monument on Point Loma. We made a stop at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
From the cemetery looking toward Naval Air Station North IslandLooking at San Diego Bay toward downtown
Last night, Donna tried a new recipe for a baked pasta dish with Italian sausage crumbles and broccolini. She’s used garbanzo bean rotini which has more protein than regular pastas. It was very good, though not something we would have often because of all the cheese and cream!
This morning I finalized a counter-offer on Ken’s house and it looks like we are moving forward on the sale. We ended up within $2,000 of the asking price and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that we get a favorable inspection result and appraisal.
The weather forecast for the week ahead looks great. It might be slightly cooler with highs in the upper 60s to low 70s and overnight lows in the mid 50s. That’s November in San Diego!
I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels without gaining any traction lately. The death of my step-dad threw me for a loop and as successor trustee, I have much to do. But, there’s a hitch. I had durable power of attorney (POA) for his financial affairs. However, the POA is only applicable while he was living. The POA would allow me to make financial moves on his behalf if he was incapacitated. Now that he’s no longer with us, the POA is meaningless. That’s where the trust comes into play. The thing is, I cannot make a move as successor trustee until a death certificate is recorded with the county and I have certified copies. That’s the sticking point – I don’t have copies yet.
Once I have the certificate, I’ll open a new bank account for the trust. I’ve already obtained an EIN for the account. Then we can start converting assets and fund the trust and also resolve any debts. Some things that should be easy aren’t so easy. For example, I’ve tried to cancel his cable TV service. The cable company, Frontier, won’t do it unless I have his secret four-digit PIN. I don’t have his PIN and have no way of getting it. They’re happy to keep receiving the automated payment he set up. I’ll get it figured out.
Meanwhile Donna and I have been getting back into a more usual routine. The weather has been unusually warm for this time of year. The week before last, we rode our bicycles to Pacific Beach. After cruising up the boardwalk and making a stop at the bike shop, we went to Kono’s Cafe for lunch. Kono’s is right across from Crystal Pier – it was Tug’s Tavern back in the day. They have a patio deck across Ocean Boulevard on the north side of the pier overlooking the beach and ocean. We dined alfresco and watched the surfers while we enjoyed our lunch.
North side of Crystal Pier View of the beach north to Bird Rock
On such a warm day – the temperature reached 90 degrees – I expected the beach to be crowded. But, as you can see in the photos, the beach crowd was light. On the way back to Mission Bay RV Resort, I snapped a picture on the north side of Mission Bay – called Sail Bay – looking southeast toward Riviera Drive. There weren’t many people there either.
Sail Bay toward Riviera Drive
A week ago Saturday, we drove Midget-San up to the Cuyamaca Mountains and the town of Julian. We went to an event called Belly Rumble. It was at the Menghini Winery and was put on by a group of San Diego British Car Clubs. They had food and drink, an informal car show for British marques and belly dancers!
Austin Healey’s and a MG TD on the endBelly Dancers on the stage
The winery was a few miles outside of town. On the way back, we stopped in Julian – a small town with a population of around 1,500 people. Julian is known for apples – specifically apple pie. We found the usual throngs of weekend tourists in town and long lines for apple pies at the bakery.
Midget-San in front of the Julian Mercantile
When I started the Midget to leave the winery, the oil pressure was very slow to build. In fact, the gauge showed zero PSI for over a minute before it built pressure. I was about to give up and call for an expensive tow, then it suddenly came up. It’s usually a little slow, but climbs within 10 seconds or so. I suspect an oil pump or pressure relief issue. This is not good. Left unchecked, it will eventually lead to bearing damage.
I talked to Bill from British Auto Repair – he’s the mechanic who replaced my hub/axle seal. He’s familiar with the Nissan A15 engine swap in Midgets and knows our car. He told me something I didn’t know. The Nissan A15 engine has an external oil pump. The pump is built into the oil filter flange on the side of the engine and can be easily replaced without pulling the engine or dropping the oil pan. This is good news! Outside of engines with dry-sump oil systems, I can’t think of another application with an external oil pump. Usually they’re located at the bottom of the engine block near one end of the crankshaft and, at minimum, the oil pan needs to be removed to access it.
I ordered a new oil pump from Rock Auto – an amazing online parts store. The had oil pumps in stock for this obscure 38-year-old engine. I’ll take the car to Bill’s place out in El Cajon once I have the part and replace the pump. We have Ken’s car still, so we’ve been using his Kia Soul for transportation and Midget-San has been parked in the trailer for the past two weeks.
The hot, dry weather spell has passed and we are experiencing a more “normal” San Diego climate. The daily highs are in the low to mid 60s with overnight lows in the upper 50s. The 10-day forecast calls for more of the same with little chance of rain. The cool nights are just right for sleeping with a window open and a down comforter on the bed.
As we are getting back to our routine, I’ll close this post with a couple of dinner plate pictures.
Chicken feta sausage with sauteed spinach, peppers and mushrooms and garlic cauliflower mash on the sideShrimp with a feta-tomato sauce and green beans – more garlic cauliflower mash on the side
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
I haven’t written a post in over a week. It’s not just due to laziness on my part – I’ve been busy and family matters have me out of my usual routines. My step-dad, Ken, is still at Ramona Rehab Center in Hemet. It’s a little under two hours of driving time to get there if the traffic is flowing well. With a traffic jam or two, it can take three hours each way. His condition seemed to be improving, but then things changed. I finally got a report on the doctor’s findings.
He has a lung tumor of about 3.3cm in the left lobe. This is why he has fluid in his lung. I suspect he may also have additional tumors in his abdomen. At his age, 88 years old, no doctor is willing to risk surgical procedures – he probably wouldn’t survive an operation.
I’ve made several trips up to Hemet over the past week and half. The plan was to move Ken out of the rehab center on Tuesday, October 15th – tomorrow. Donna returned from her trip to Vermont last Wednesday night and she drove up with me on Saturday. We made a couple of stops to check out boarding care facilities. We found one we liked in Winchester – about 15 or 20 minutes away from the neighborhood Ken lived in. The boarding care facility is a normal looking residential house in a newly constructed neighborhood. They can accommodate up to six patients and have two attendants on duty 24 hours a day. After looking at the home, we drove up to the rehab center and faced some bad news.
Ken’s condition had worsened. He has a bacterial infection commonly called C. diff. It’s contagious and they won’t be releasing him until it clears up. I didn’t know this on Saturday – the test results came in on Sunday. I paid the admission fee and pro-rated care fee for October at the boarding care home on Saturday to make sure he had a private room available when he’s discharged from the rehab center. It won’t be happening tomorrow though.
Meanwhile life goes on and I had a few interesting days. On Thursday, my friend Gary Stemple invited me to go fishing with him and another friend of his named Duane. I bought a one-day California fishing license at Dana Landing at 3pm on Wednesday afternoon after returning from a trip to Hemet. I told the girl at the counter I needed a one-day license for tomorrow. I also needed a one-day Mexican fishing permit in case we crossed into Mexican waters. She told me I had to get the Mexican permit online.
When I got back to the park and started to search for the Mexican permit, I noticed the California license she issued me was for one-day but it was for Wednesday! Who would buy a license at 3pm and have it expire at midnight? I told her it was for tomorrow. I went back and she issued a new license without any further hassle.
Donna came home from the airport close to midnight Wednesday night. It was a long travel day from Vermont. I was up at 4am to go fishing. We left Harbor Island in a 24-foot center console fishing boat at sunrise. The first stop was at the bait barge where we filled the live-well with live anchovies.
The fishing turned out to be a bust. We got skunked, although we fished hard at the nine-mile bank and also near the Coronado Islands of Mexico. There was a lot of naval activity outside of San Diego along a couple of shipping lanes. We saw a few Littoral-class combat ships. These stealth warships are futuristic looking and a bit scary.
Littoral – class combat ship
Another ship passed by us and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I think it was some kind of support ship for underwater research. It had two submersibles – the orange shapes you can see in the photo – and a weird open two-level deck.
Research vessel?
When we headed south toward the Coronado Islands, we rigged three lines for trolling. I drove the boat as we trolled slowly – about 4mph. Gary napped on the bow seats while Duane took a nap on the aft bench. As we approached the islands, I saw what looked like a powerful go-fast boat come around one of the islands and head toward us. Something about it made me think this wasn’t good. It was speeding on a heading to come directly to us. When it was about 500 yards out, I could see a number of men on board – at least a dozen. And they had guns.
As they came closer, I told Gary to wake up – we have armed Federales coming. I put the boat in neutral and wound my line in. I told Duane to wake up and start reeling his line in – we were going to be boarded. As their boat came alongside about 10 yards, I could see they were Mexican Federal agents with automatic weapons and body armor. They came around behind us and ran over two of our fishing lines, cutting one of them.
One of the men on board started yelling at the boat driver and had him back away. They floated about 30 yards beside us with all eyes on us. Duane asked me if he should get his passport and permit out. I told him to keep reeling his line in and keep his hands in their view. I didn’t want him to reach inside his backpack.
Once Duane had his line and lure in, they seemed satisfied that we were merely gringo fisherman. The guy that yelled at the boat driver seemed to be in charge. He gave us a thumbs up and called out, “Okay?” Gary replied, “Bueno.” They drove away without boarding our boat! How weird is that?
As we headed toward the islands, I spied a fin cutting the water about 100 yards away. Gary drove toward it. It was a large shark – we think it was a mako based on the color and it was about eight feet long. We gave up fishing around 3pm and headed back to San Diego Bay.
As we entered the bay, two go-fast boats came toward us and passed off the port side about 50 yards out. They had flashing lights and each held eight or 10 special forces troops – probably Navy SEALS from the Coronado North Island base. Then two more flew by followed by two more pairs – making a total of eight boats.
Gary continued cruising at about 25mph toward the gas dock and Harbor Island when we noticed a go-fast boat with flashing lights coming up on us from behind. We thought one of the special forces boat had turned around to follow us. Then we heard the whoop-whoop of its siren and we slowed to a stop. It was a Coast Guard Patrol Boat with three, 300-horsepower outboard engines! Two officers boarded our boat. It was a routine safety check. It went smoothly – we had all of our gear and paperwork in order. This was the first time any of us had been boarded by the Coast Guard.
On Saturday morning, Donna and I drove Midget-San to the British Car Day show at Spanish Landing Park on San Diego Bay across from the airport. It was a nice show with the cars organized by marque representing various car clubs in the area.
Nice 1959 Bugeye Sprite
There were several Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprites. My first car was a Bugeye that I bought when I was 15 years old.
Mister Bean – a British comedian
The original Mini was a very small car sold under the Austin or Morris nameplate. The current versions are much larger cars. In the photo above, you can partially see a Clubman wagon with wood trim in the background.
1957 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud
There were several DeLoreans on display. Although DeLorean Motor Company was an American company, the cars were built in North Ireland, making them British cars.
Back to the Future
This old MG was interesting. The bonnet not only covered the motor, it extended beyond the firewall to expose the steering column and control pedals. It looks like it might have been a bit drafty on the legs and feet.
Circa 1930 MGClose-up view of open bonnet
We saw Paul Konkle’s 1962 MGB racecar. Paul is the owner of British Car Repair where I had the axle/hub seal replaced on our Midget.
Donna looking good in Paul’s MGB racecar
Paul raced the previous weekend at the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) Nationals at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. He brought home a gold medal!
Paul’s SVRA medals
We had to leave by 11am to go north to look at boarding care facilities which brings me back to the start of this post.
Gary invited us to join him on Sunday and drive up to Carson for the Chargers game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football. Gary has season tickets and Donna was our designated driver. There were so many Steeler fans visiting southern California at the game, the vibe in the tailgating area was hostile. I’ve never experienced such a negative atmosphere inside the stadium at a Chargers game before.
Great seats
The weather here in San Diego continues to be outstanding. Last week was a little warmer than usual with highs reaching the mid-80s. The week ahead should have highs in the low-to-mid-70s and overnight lows around 60 degrees.
I’m staying busy here in San Diego. In my last post I mentioned dropping the Midget off for repairs at British Auto Repair near the Sports Arena. I also had ordered new wheels and tires on Monday. The current tires had good tread but they were five years old and seemed like the rubber had hardened.
I was also getting a vibration that was worse at 55-58 MPH. Usually when you feel a vibration at a speed in 50 – 60 MPH range, it indicates a wheel balance problem. But this vibration would be more pronounced intermittently. It seemed like an imbalance or out-of-round condition of two or more wheels would align in phase at times and the steering wheel and shift lever would shake. The wheels on Midget-San are the original Rostyle stamped steel wheels – nearly 40 years old. Cosmetically they looked brand new, but I had no idea if they had suffered previous damage and had been straightened.
Original Rostyle steel wheel
Back in the 1960s and early 70s, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) had a number of classes to race British cars in. Back then it seemed like every British race car was shod with eight-spoke cast alloy wheels called minilites. When I was a teenager driving an Austin-Healey Sprite I lusted after a set of minilites, but they were out of my budget. Those wheels not only looked sharp, they were also lightweight. Wheel weight is an important factor in a vehicles handling characteristics. Wheels are what auto engineers call “unsprung” weight. Unsprung weight is any weight that’s not supported by the vehicles suspension, such as wheels, brake discs and axles. These components are more or less hung from the suspension springs and shocks.
Nowadays minilite style wheels are available from a few manufacturers. I ordered a set of Minator minilite style alloy wheels from Moss Motors with free shipping on Monday. I also ordered a set of Toyo tires from Amazon Prime to mount on the new wheels. I was pleasantly surprised when the wheels and tires were delivered together from UPS Wednesday afternoon!
Wednesday evening Donna took a flight to Albany, New York enroute to her parents house in Bennington, Vermont. She’ll be there for a week helping her dad rehab from a broken hip. So, I’m a bachelor for the week.
Thursday morning I called Discount Tire to see how much they would charge to mount and balance the new tires and find out when they could it. When I told the guy I had the new wheels and tires already, he put me on hold and didn’t pick up in the next five minutes. Obviously they weren’t interested in doing the job. I hung up. Next I called Victor’s Tire and Auto Detail shop up the hill from here on Clairemont Drive. They said they would do it for a total of $60 out-the-door and to come in anytime. I drove up there – two guys on two tire machines mounted the tires then balanced them and I was on my way within 15 minutes!
New tire and Minator minilite style eight spoke alloy wheel
I put the wheels away in the trailer, then my phone rang. It was British Auto Repair. They had finished the axle/hub seal repair. I wasn’t expecting it for another day or two. They also told me that the gasket and O-ring was all that was needed – I had caught the leak early enough to avoid damage to the brake shoes and there was no hub damage. So a repair that could have cost as much as $600 only came to $200. Good news indeed.
I took an Uber to the shop and drove Midget-San back to Mission Bay RV Resort and parked next to the trailer in the overflow lot. I was able to change the wheels and had the car ready to go in no time.
New wheelsAn osprey supervised my work
I took a test drive up to Torrey Pines and back. Smooth. No sign of the vibration I could feel before. The car drives better and I think it looks better too!
Friday I drove Ken’s car up to Hemet to visit him and check on his progress at Ramona Rehab Center. It’s a little over a 90-minute drive without any traffic tie-ups. He seemed to be doing better and was in fine spirits. But, they had taken another chest x-ray that morning and were waiting for the results. The doctor thinks he’s getting fluid in his lungs again. I still haven’t heard anything but I intend to follow-up this afternoon.
At happy hour at the Offshore Tavern and Grill last night I heard about a surfing contest at La Jolla Shores this morning. I headed up there at 10am to check it out. The Windansea Surf Club had their Menehune Juniors contest. I hung out on the beach and watched for a while – some of the kids are pretty good!
Nice ride
An ensemble with two guitars and a bass played surf music. They had a van with their amps and a generator in the parking behind an EZ-up canopy. They sounded good and played a lot of surf classics from the 60s.
The surf sound – Fender Jaguar guitars and Reverb amps
The weather has been fantastic and we can expect more of the same in the coming week. Today will be the last day I can say I’m 62 years old. My 63rd birthday is tomorrow.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
The short drive from Oceanside to Mission Bay was uneventful Friday morning. The day before, I had called Mission Bay RV Resort to inquire if they were still using the e-mail Fast Track check-in process – I hadn’t received the e-mail. The guy I talked to didn’t seem to know – I could hear him asking someone else in the office – then he said I would get an e-mail. I didn’t. Mission Bay RV Resort is under new management. I won’t go into the details in this post – it’s been a political football – but now the RV park is being run by the same people that operate Campland – an RV resort on the bay across Rose Inlet from Mission Bay RV Resort.
Not much has changed so far, but there was one positive at check-in. When we first started coming to Mission Bay, we were required to leave the park for at least 24 hours after one month – what we called the 24-hour shuffle. One month was defined as 31 consecutive days. Then they changed the policy to allow two consecutive months – 62 days. Now three months are allowed before you have to leave the park, so we’re checked in for 93 consecutive days. This is great – packing up and getting out of the park for 24 hours when you want to have an extended stay here was always a pain. We unloaded Midget-San and dropped the trailer in the overflow lot, then set up in site 111.
As usual we found many activities going on in Mission Bay Park. The RV park also filled up for the weekend. This is the normal pattern here at this time of year – lots of weekend warriors but generally quiet with many empty sites during the weekdays.
Something going on at De Anza Cove
We’ve been having king tides with the high tide over six-feet above the normal sea level. The tides should be back to a more normal level after today – the high tide will be about four feet above mean sea level.
I have my outdoor TV set up again – I hook it up to the park’s cable TV. It allows me to sit outside in the evenings and puff a cigar while I watch football. Sunday night, that’s what I did.
Sunday Night Football on the outdoor TV
I’ve been trying to stay on top of my step-dad’s healthcare at Loma Linda Hospital in Murrieta. When I visited him last week, I went to the nurses’ station on his floor and gave them my contact information and told them I was next-of-kin and had power of attorney for his healthcare decisions. I thought we were clear that I was the contact person. They didn’t contact me. They kept calling Ken’s neighbor, Helen with updates. Ken’s good friend, Ray, and his wife, Helen, live across the street from Ken in Sun City (Menifee). Ray is 90 years old. I think Helen is well into her 70s and she’s had her hands full taking care of Ray and looking after Ken. Helen is sharp as a tack and really on top of things. We finally got it straightened out with the hospital so I would be contacted if needed.
Ken is doing better, but he’s not able to fend for himself just yet. Monday we had him transferred to a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation. Hopefully he’ll regain enough strength to be able to go home soon. Donna and I borrowed her sister, Sheila’s car on Tuesday and drove it up to Menifee to get some things from Ken’s house. I took Ken’s car – a 2015 Kia Soul – and we drove to Hemet to admit Ken to the rehab facility. I figured it was best if I kept his car in case I needed to take him anywhere else. I couldn’t get him into or out of the Midget. I also picked up his mail and took care of some financial matters for him.
I made a Costco run on Monday morning in Midget-San. I’ve written about the Costco on Morena Boulevard here before. It’s the original Price Club location. I’ve also written about the high end liquor they offer there. When I saw a bottle of Russian Beluga Vodka, I was dumbfounded.
Beluga Vodka – only $6,999 for 750ml
I don’t understand how any vodka could command a price of $6,999 – but it does come in a Lalique Crystal bottle. The 50-year old Scotch Whisky from The Glenlivet tops all though.
The Glenliviet – $18,999
This morning, we dropped off Midget-San at British Auto Repair near the Sports Arena. The right rear axle/hub seal is leaking. I don’t have the work space or all of the tools needed for the job so I found what are probably the best British car mechanics in the area for the job. Since I have Ken’s car right now, it was a good time to get the repair done.
Tonight, Donna will fly out of Lindbergh Field to Albany, New York. She’s going to Bennington, Vermont to visit her parents for the next week. She’ll be helping her dad with his rehab – he broke his hip a few weeks ago.
The weather here has been great – daily highs in the 70s and overnight lows around 60 degrees. I can expect more blue skies and fine weather in the week ahead with a slight warming trend after the weekend. I’ll probably make a trip or two to Hemet – about 90 miles from here – to visit Ken and check on his progress.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
I closed my last post saying we had eight nights to fill before we could check in at Mission Bay RV Park in San Diego and needed a plan. What we came up with may not have been the most exciting plan, but it was practical. We left Bishop and headed south on US395 for about 140 miles to Ridgecrest, California.
The Elks Lodge in Ridgecrest has about a dozen sites with full hook-ups – five are 50amp service. Ridgecrest isn’t the most glamorous destination, but at $20/night it would work for the first four nights we needed to fill.
Ridgecrest has been in the news recently due to earthquakes centered near the town. In July, quakes with magnitudes of 6.4, 5.4 and 7.1 happened. In the last week, several smaller quakes occurred including a a magnitude 3.2 on Saturday morning, which was recorded by geologists, but we didn’t even notice it.
Ridgecrest’s other claim to fame is the China Lake Naval Station nearby. China Lake is mainly a research and evaluation facility for the US Navy – and it’s also the largest landholding in the navy’s inventory.
When we arrived, there were a few other RVs there, but after two days, we had the place to ourselves. We didn’t do anything exciting while we were there. Donna caught up on a couple of assignments while we took advantage of the 50-amp service to keep the air conditioners running during the day. The high temperature hovered around 90 each day, but quickly cooled off after sundown to overnight lows in the upper 50s. We also had excellent satellite reception and I recorded Formula One and Moto-GP races.
A park all to ourselves in RidgecrestWe dropped the trailer across from our site by the lodge
The Ridgecrest Elks Lodge has an RV club and they’ve done a great job with the RV sites, but the lodge doesn’t seem to be very active. They do have Bingo on Thursday nights and Donna went over to play. On Friday evening I went in for a cold one around 5pm and found only two people there. The bartender told me Fridays are usually quiet as so many people get out of town for the weekend. The lodge is closed Saturday and Sunday!
By the time I had the Midget secured in the trailer and hooked up, it was 10:30am when we pulled out of Ridgecrest on Monday morning. We followed US395 south to I-15 and went over Cajon Summit. Cajon Summit is followed by six miles of steep downgrade dropping into San Bernadino. The traffic was harrowing on this stretch as expected. Cars dart from lane to lane trying to take advantage of any opening without much regard for tractor-trailer and big-rig RVs.
We took I-215 down through Riverside and continued our trek southward. We made a stop at Ethanac Road in Menifee where I knew there was a travel center. Finding truck stops in southern California isn’t as easy as some places. I filled our tank with diesel #2 at $3.75/gallon. Not bad considering California fuel prices – we’ve seen much higher prices.
My step-dad, Ken, lives nearby but we didn’t see him. There isn’t anyplace nearby to legally park an RV. We would have to go several miles, then unload the Midget for a visit and load back up to get on the road. I really wanted to get past the afternoon rush through Temecula and get off the road. Our destination was another four-night stay at an Elks Lodge – in Oceanside this time. We’ve wanted to stay there for a while but weren’t able to get a reservation in the past. This time we got lucky and snagged a site for four nights – only a 30-amp service this time. The 30-amp service isn’t a big deal since we have cooler breezes here coming off the Pacific Ocean and don’t need to run air conditioners.
Tuesday morning Donna and I took a ride down the Coast Highway to Saint Michaels By-The-Sea just after crossing into Carlsbad. We met Debbie Bednarski – a friend from my high school days – there and played pickleball. They have two outdoor courts and 12-15 people showed up to play. It was great to see Debbie again and also get back on the pickleball courts.
While we were there, I received a phone call from the my step-dad, Ken’s neighbor, Helen. She told me Ken had just been taken away in an ambulance for transport to Loma Linda Hospital in Murrieta. I knew he was complaining about shortness of breath and it seems like it’s gotten bad enough that he needed attention.
This created a little tension for me – I had to figure out how to handle the situation. Donna’s dad had taken a fall a few weeks ago and broke his hip. He had successful surgery but now needs rehabilitation. He spent two weeks in a facility before Donna’s sisters decided to take over. Linda is a nurse and Sheila is a physical therapist. Sheila flew from San Diego to Vermont to get him going on rehab.
Meanwhile, Sheila’s 15 year-old son, Connor, was invited to play with a band made up of local middle and high schoolers opening up the Padres MLB game with the national anthem at Petco Park on Tuesday night. I needed to drop Donna off at Sheila’s place in La Jolla so she could use Sheila’s car to drive Connor to the ballgame and back.
I called the hospital and talked to an ER nurse. She told me they were taking Ken to X-ray, he was coherent, his vitals were good and I should wait and check back later. So I carried on and drove Donna to La Jolla. I called the hospital again and the nurse told me nothing had really changed and she advised me to sit tight and wait until the doctor came up with something. She didn’t seem overly concerned at this point. I notified my sister and brother and also my daughters of the situation. They admitted Ken to the hospital for more tests and observation.
Yesterday I drove the Midget up to Murrieta. It’s a blast up the interstate most of the way – not a fun drive in a small British sports car. At the hospital, I found Ken’s room and he seemed much better. They had discovered a large amount of fluid in one lung and drained 1.5 liters from it! With the liquid removed, he could breathe much better.
I’m concerned though. The thing is, his heart rate, blood pressure and temperature were all fine. He just couldn’t breathe. To me, I’m thinking this isn’t pneumonia or some kind of infection – he would’ve been ill. So why was there fluid in his lung? The only thing I can come up with is congestive heart failure or cancer. He’s 88 years old, so I’m hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
Meanwhile, Donna has plans to fly to Varmont next week. She’ll spend a day with Sheila learning what needs to be done to assist with her dad’s physical therapy. Sheila will return home while Donna stays there for a week or more. Family matters matter. I’ll be at Mission Bay RV Resort – we check in tomorrow.
A rain shower passed through here this morning. We skipped pickleball, but drove down to the Oceanside Farmers’ Market near the pier. There were some unique vendors and we bought more than usual.
Oceanside Farmers Market – and the back of Donna’s head
It’s cloudy and cool – the high might reach 70 degrees. We expect pleasant weather at Mission Bay – daytime highs in the low 70s and overnight lows in the 60s. Hard to beat that.
Our third and final stop of the 13-day Alpine Coach Association (ACA) Eastern Sierra Tour was at Highlands RV Park in Bishop, California. Saturday morning we gathered together at the group area for breakfast goodies and discussed the day’s activity. We were going to drive up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest – about 40 miles away.
Donna and I drove there in Midget-San. We headed south to Big Pine then turned east on CA168. This road climbs from about 4,000 feet above sea level to about 10,000 feet above sea level in a little over 20 miles. Our destination was the Shulman Grove Visitor Center. As we started climbing on CA168, we were following a group of Porsches. These guys were having fun, cruising at the speed limit or below on the straights, allowing gaps to open up between the cars, then gassing it through the tight twisty sections. We were able to keep up with them most of the time in the Midget – of course they could have run away from us at any time, but since they didn’t run at high speed on the straights we stayed with them.
After climbing steep grades, we were around 6,500 above sea level when Donna said she smelled coolant. I also could smell it and saw the coolant temperature gauge suddenly shoot into the hot zone. I quickly pulled off the road and shut the engine down. I opened the hood and found the coolant hose had come off the water pump again – this happened once before in Winchester Bay, Oregon.
I had checked the oil and coolant levels before we left that morning. Looking at the coolant reservoir now, I could see the level in the overflow reservoir hadn’t changed. Here’s the thing – the engine coolant is held in a closed system. When the coolant absorbs heat, it expands. Since it’s a closed system, the expansion of the coolant creates pressure. This is a good thing – up to a point. At 15 pounds per square inch of pressure, the boiling point of water is raised to about 250 degrees.
The cooling system in cars has a radiator cap that relieves pressure – anywhere from 11 pounds to 25 pounds per square inch, depending on the design. This pressure relief valve in the radiator cap directs excess coolant into the overflow reservoir. When the engine cools, the coolant contracts and another valve in the cap opens and coolant is drawn from the reservoir back into the engine.
Our engine was hot. Expanding coolant should have flowed through the pressure relief valve in the radiator cap and into the overflow reservoir. This didn’t happen. When it cooled down a bit, I removed the radiator cap and found it difficult to overcome the spring pressure on the relief valve. My theory is a defective cap didn’t relieve the pressure in the cooling system. Something had to give and it was the hose connection at the water pump.
A few of the ACA members on their way up to the Bristlecone Forest stopped and offered assistance. I reconnected the hose at the water pump and waited for about 25-30 minutes to allow the engine block to cool. Then I started adding water. By then we had told everyone that had stopped to carry on – we’d be fine. It turned out I didn’t have enough water. Luckily, a car with tourists – we think they may have been Germans with rudimentary English – stopped and gave us enough water to fill the radiator and a bottle of drinking water. It was about 90 degrees outside and we were in the direct sun. We made the rest of the climb without any issues – I didn’t push the car hard and kept an eye on the coolant temperature.
At the Shulman Grove Visitor Center, a park ranger gave us a presentation telling us about the bristlecone pines and the methodology for determining their age. We learned that the information scientists have gained from the ancient trees has been instrumental in confirming or debunking many scientific theories regarding ancient history, climate and world events. There are trees here over 4,800 years old – the oldest known and confirmed organism.
The soil in the area is not at all fertile – it mainly consists of dolomite. The thing about bristlecone pines is that the hardiest trees with the longest life span are the ones that grow in the poorest conditions. The ranger pointed out a tree that was growing in a small ravine where it received more water than the trees on the hillsides. It was also more protected from the wind. The tree looked very healthy. He told us it was only a couple hundred years old and its life expectancy was only about 400 years. Another tree was growing on the hillside. It was exposed to the wind and received little water as any rainfall would drain down the hill. About three and half feet of its root system was exposed from erosion. This tree was between 300 and 400 years old. It had two dead branches but he thought that tree would likely live for a few thousand years. There’s something about overcoming adversity!
Relatively young, healthy tree growing in favorable conditionsOlder tree in the center with two dead branches sticking up struggling for survival but likely to live a long time
There was a dead tree he pointed out to us. By taking a core sample they determined that the tree had been standing there dead for more than 250 years! In this high, dry climate, there aren’t many organisms to attack the living or dead trees.
Old dead bristlecone pineBristlecone pines growing on a dolomite hillside
The drive back down to Big Pine revealed just how steep the climb was. Many sections were 8% gradients or more. We stopped at a scenic overlook and could see all the way across the Owens Valley. We were in the White Mountains on the east side of the valley and the Eastern Sierra Nevada range is on the west side. We could also see the town of Bishop about a dozen miles away as the crow flies.
View across the Owens Valley
Back in town, I stopped at O’Reilly Auto Parts and bought a new radiator cap and a gallon of coolant – I had about half a gallon of coolant stored in the trailer. Sunday morning I drained the water from Midget-San’s cooling system, refilled it with a 50/50 mix of coolant and replaced the radiator cap. The rest of the day I stayed indoors and watched football and the Moto GP race from Misano, Italy. The temperature outside was in the upper 80s. We shared another potluck dinner with the ACA group.
Monday morning we had an early start. Our destination was about 70 miles south to the Museum of Western Film History and Alabama Hills in Lone Pine. Lone Pine has a 100-year history of film making starting with Fatty Arbuckle in 1919. The Alabama Hills on the west side of town have a unique rocky landscape with the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada range for a backdrop. This landscape has been featured in countless films – mostly, but not limited to, westerns. Elaborate sets were built here to make the film Gunga Din and the mountains in the background were supposed to be the Himalayas. A sci-fi movie called Tremors was filmed here. The opening scenes with Robert Downey Jr. in the first Iron Man movie was filmed here. Many commercials – mostly car ads – are filmed here. The location has the great landscape and it’s only about six hours away from Hollywood.
After taking a self-guided tour of the museum, we got in our cars – well, we didn’t get in Midget-San – we rode with Michael and Teresa Weitz in their Jeep – and went out to the rough roads of Alabama Hills. We had a tour guide that led us to stopping points where various movie scenes were shot. He had a stack of enlarged photographs – stills taken as the movies were being made. He pointed out the rock formations that were used in different scenes and told us how the sets were made. Look at the photos below and see if you recognize any of the landscapes.
Our tour guide with a photo of the “Duke”
On the way out of Alabama Hills on Tuttle Creek Road, we passed a house nestled in the rocky terrain that Hopalong Cassidy lived in for nearly 40 years.
Hopalong Cassidy’s place
We had lunch in a park in Lone Pine, then headed back north on US395. We made a stop about 10 miles out of town at Manzanar – a National Historic Site. Manzanar was an abandoned town that was converted into a “War Relocation Center.” This was essentially a concentration camp for Americans of Japanese descent during World War II.
Donna and I did a self-guided tour of the museum there. I looked at the roll listing the names of Japanese-Americans imprisoned there. I found two with the surname Ohata – my mother’s maiden name. I don’t know of any of her relatives that were in the USA before she came here from Japan in the 1950s – so they probably weren’t my ancestors.
We took the driving tour of the grounds. This gave us a sense of the scope the camp which contained over 11,000 Japanese-Americans in a number of barracks arranged in “blocks.” It was an emotional place for me and I had conflicted thoughts about what happened and comparing it to the terrorist threats we face today.
On the drive back to Bishop, the wind really picked up velocity. There’s a wildfire burning in the west valley and the wind wasn’t going to help contain it. We saw a warning saying that the power company had cut electricity in Mono County to prevent any wind damaged power lines from starting more fires. Mono County is just north of Bishop which is in Inyo County.
Midget-San made the 140-mile round trip without missing a beat and the cooling system worked perfectly. I’m confident that my diagnosis of a faulty pressure relief in the radiator cap was correct.
Back at Highlands RV Park, I was sitting outside and reading in the shade while Donna took a walk to shop at an antique store. The wind was gusting well over 30mph. I saw an awning ripped from a coach down the lane from us by the wind. I thought of the canopies Tom Polk had at the ACA group site and ran over there. I was just in time as the large canopies were being lifted and tossed about by the wind. Two other ACA members, Bud and Norm, came over and we managed to dismantle the canopies before they were damaged. I also retracted a neighbor’s awning that was left out while they were away.
The scheduled activity for Tuesday was a tour of the Laws Museum outside of Bishop. Donna and I toured this museum when we here in May and I wrote about it in this post. We skipped the 10:30am tour and rode our bicycles to the museum grounds about five and half miles away arriving at 11:30am. The organizers picked up sandwiches from Schat’s Bakery and brought them out for a picnic lunch on the grounds. We also had a short train ride on a Brill car built in the 1920s.
Diesel powered Brill carOur bikes parked in front of Southern Pacific locomotive number 9
We had a catered dinner back at Highlands RV Park. We had the same local caterer for three dinners on the tour – one in Mammoth Lakes and two here – she did a superb job on the meals!
This morning marks the end of the ACA Eastern Sierra Tour. Most of the ACA members have pulled out of the park as I type this. We’ve extended our stay another night and we need to come up with a plan. We’ll have eight nights to fill before we’re scheduled to arrive back at Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego.
With the warm temperatures, we’ll have to choose any boondocking locations carefully.
*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!
