Category Archives: Restaurants

London Bridge

After spending days indoors writing various articles and reviewing one of her books for an upcoming reprint, Donna decided it was time for a break. The weather was much nicer Friday with an afternoon high of about 70 degrees.

We rode the scooter to town. Donna got a tip for a good place to stop for lunch at the Barley Brothers Brewery and Restaurant by the London Bridge. There’s quite a story behind the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City. In 1958, Robert McCulloch bought 3,353 acres of land along the east side of Lake Havasu at Pittsburgh Point. This is the same Robert McCulloch that was the CEO of McCulloch chainsaws and also the creator of the community of Fountain Hills, Arizona – I wrote about that in this post.

This area of arid desert land wasn’t very useful at the time. It was a long way from any major cities and didn’t attract visitors. About the only thing here was an old Army Air Corps field and runway. The federal government deeded the 13,000 acres of land around the airfield to the state of Arizona. The state in turn deeded the land – reportedly free – to Robert McCulloch for his promise to develop the area.

McCulloch needed a way to attract attention and bring people out to this desert on the Colorado River bordering Arizona and California. His real estate agent, Robert Plumer, heard about an old bridge in London that was for sale. The bridge originally spanned the River Thames and was built in the 1830s. It could no longer support modern traffic and had to be replaced. Plumer convinced McCulloch to buy the bridge and transport it to Lake Havasu.

What he actually bought was the exterior facing stonework of the original bridge. A new reinforced concrete bridge was built in the same shape as the original. The original stonework was carefully removed and numbered from the old bridge. It was transported via ship to Houston and ground transport to the desert. Reconstruction began in 1968. The granite facing was clad to the exterior of the new bridge in the desert. At the time, the bridge didn’t span a body of water. It was erected over a wash leading out to the Pittsburgh Point peninsula. Once the bridge was competed in 1971, the wash was dredged and filled with water creating an island on one end of the bridge. The bridge was a successful lure and brought people to Lake Havasu where real estate agents started selling property. Today the population is estimated to be over 53,000.

London Bridge under construction in 1971 – file photo

Aerial view of the bridge from 2011 – file photo

Instead of blasting down AZ95 on the scooter, we took a more scenic route down London Bridge Road (map). The thing is, London Bridge Road doesn’t take you directly over the bridge. You have to cross back over AZ95 in town to get to McCulloch Boulevard North which is the road that crosses the bridge.

Once across the bridge, the first building on the right is the Island Mall. It houses a few boutique stores, Shugrue’s Restaurant and Barley Brothers Brewery. We parked and walked down to the waterside at the bridge. It’s beautifully landscaped with nice walking paths. There are boat docks and boat tour tickets can be purchased for a tour of the lake.

London Bridge view from waterside path

Tour boat unloading passengers

The tour boat we saw had an interesting hull. If you click on the picture above to enlarge it, you’ll see what appears to be a flat bottom under the familiar shape of the bow.

After taking a short walk along the waterside, we went up to the Barley Brothers Brewery and Restaurant. Donna and I ordered glasses of oatmeal stout – Donna had a pint and I had the large 23 ounce pour.

Donna at the Barley Brothers Brewery with stout

Donna at the Barley Brothers Brewery with oatmeal stout

The beer was good but I thought it had a lingering bitterness that I don’t expect from oatmeal stout. Donna ordered a plate of mussels in a broth and I went for the pastrami sandwich – it was really tender, thinly sliced pastrami with apple slaw, swiss cheese and thousand island dressing on rye. It was yummy! The portion was big and the sandwich was rich – more than I’m used to eating, but I managed.

The view from the brewery was great.

View from Barley Brothers Brewery

After the big lunch, we went down to the rodeo grounds to scope out the area – we’ll be moving there on Monday. Then we went grocery shopping. Donna had quite a list of things she needed to prepare hors d’oeuvres for tomorrow’s Super Bowl game.

Today the temperature should be well into the 70s. We’ll get out and enjoy the nice weather.

From Kafta to Sushi

Donna and I played pickleball at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center on Monday. They only play for two hours at OBRC. We were home by 2:30pm. I had one task to take care of as we prepare to hit the road after nine weeks in San Diego.

I replaced the windshield wiper blade assemblies. The last time I replaced the wipers, I put new rubber inserts in. The blade assembly wears over time and the pivot points loosen. The blade clamps around thin metal strips reinforcing the rubber blade material. This area also loosens its grip after the inserts are replaced a couple of times. I found 28″ replacement blade assemblies to fit our wiper arms at a school bus supply company in Clinton Township, Michigan called Unity School Bus Parts. I don’t have any affiliation with this company, but I included a link in case a reader needs parts.

The blades are attached to the wiper arm with shoulder bolts. The replacement blades were a perfect fit. The shoulder bolt has an 8mm hex head and is fastened with a 6mm hex nut.

Shoulder bolt for wiper blade

Old and new wiper blades

This was a simple task. I think I spent more time walking to the trailer and back to get the proper wrenches than I spent actually installing the blades

Around 5pm, we went to Kris and Tom Downey’s (Open Road 365) coach. We were invited to join them and their friends, Ray and Kathy, for dinner. Kris is recovering from surgery on her broken ankle and is mostly confined to hobbling around in her coach. Ray made kafta – a middle eastern dish of ground beef and lamb on skewers or rolled into oblong meatballs. Donna made orzo with roasted cherry tomatoes and parsley.

Donna working her magic in Kris’ kitchen

We enjoyed the meal inside and sat and talked. Some of us enjoyed adult beverages as well. As always, the time flies by while the conversation is flowing.

Donna, me, Kris and Tom

Tuesday we had nice weather. It was sunny and clear out and slightly warmer with the temperature in the upper 60s. I went to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center to play pickleball while Donna stayed home to do some early spring cleaning in the coach with the products she is reviewing for Family Circle magazine. I intended to get started on packing things in the trailer after pickleball but I showered and went to Offshore Tavern and Grill instead. I had a farewell toast with the guys there.

I came home before 5pm because we had an early dinner reservation. Donna’s sister Sheila and our 11-year-old nephew Connor were picking us up to go to Sushi Ota. This popular restaurant has some of the best sushi in San Diego – make that the best sushi we’ve found anywhere. We ordered a large selection and I stuffed myself. Connor wanted to try uni – sea urchin – and I talked him into ordering it with a quail egg. He was venturesome and went for it. And he liked it!

Sushi platter – uni with quail egg in the lower left

Today we have partly cloudy skies. I’ll remove the windshield cover and tire covers and set the tire pressures. Then I’ll pack the trailer. We have cloudy skies, but the forecast calls for zero percent chance of rain until this evening. I should have ample time to pack everything this afternoon while it’s dry. Donna’s out for a bike ride with our friend Johanna this morning, then she has a lunch date in Old Town with a former colleague. I’ll scooter her over there and she’ll take the bus back while I’m packing up.

Tomorrow we’ll pull out and head up to Temecula about an hour away from here. We plan to spend two nights at Jojoba Hills SKP Resort – an RV park for Escapees members. Then we’ll move to Golden Palms RV Resort in Hemet. We plan to stay there for one week. This should be enough time to assist my step-dad. I’ll drive him to the hospital at 5am Monday morning and drive him home once he’s released after surgery. We’ll hang out and help him while he recovers. Hopefully we’ll have dry weather up in Riverside County.

Hello Fresh

You probably heard that San Diego, along with most of California, was slammed with El Nino driven storms this week. We had heavy rain on Wednesday, lashing down at times as hard as I’ve ever seen it rain here. There was a short break in the weather in the morning. Donna took advantage and went out for a run. I made a break for it on the scooter and picked up beer at Keil’s. My timing was not so good – it started raining again as I left the store. We spent most of the day indoors.

Donna sent weekly Hello Fresh deliveries to her parents for Christmas. Each delivery includes recipes plus all the ingredients needed to create three healthy, tasty meals for two. Members get a discount code that they can share, so Donna used it to order a box for us. (We got $40 off the regular price of $69 and that gave Donna’s parents a $20 credit on their subscription – their discount code is DQVHHL – you’re welcome to use it!)

On Wednesday evening, she prepared the first meal – a skillet chicken pot pie.

Hello Fresh recipe and pre-measured ingredients

The pot pie was different from the commercially available pot pies at the grocery store. It didn’t have a pie crust – it had biscuits similar to dumplings.

Chicken pot pie recipe ready to serve

It was good and the ingredients were fresh. I thought it was a little heavy on the thyme. Although they claim it’s a meal for two, the portions for this recipe would be very large if we served it that way. We usually eat smaller meals, so we ate a little more than half and had leftover pot pie. I paired a special edition beer – it was collaboration between Sierra Nevada Brewing up in the bay area and San Diego’s Stone brewing. They brewed an IPA, split it in half and barrel aged them. Half of the batch was aged in a gin-infused bourbon barrel, the other half went into a rye whiskey barrel. Months later they brewed a fresh batch of IPA and blended all three beers together. It was an interesting ale. It didn’t have a heavy bourbon presence – I think the gin-infused barrel cut that a bit. It wasn’t overly hoppy. It seems like a lot of work to make a beer like this. I liked it but it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me.

North by South IPA

We had a break in the rain on Thursday morning. I looked at the hourly forecast and the weather radar and told Donna we might have a passing shower around 9am and heavy rain around 11am. Donna walked to Enterprise to rent a car. She timed her walk to arrive there ahead of the showers and it worked out. She wanted a car to get to her appointment to have her hair cut.

The 11am rain prediction was true. Donna came home around then. I used the car to go play pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. Donna stayed home to work on her blog post. We’ll have the car through the weekend. Originally we planned to pull out of here on the 8th, but I extended our stay until the 14th. I’m glad we didn’t have to pull out on a stormy day and hit the road.

On Thursday evening, the rain abated and we went to the Offshore Tavern and Grill for their holiday party – not sure why they decided to schedule it for after the holidays, but they did. All drinks were three dollars and free hors d’oeuvres were served by the wait staff walking around with trays. One of the appetizers was prime rib bruschetta with horseradish sauce. It was delightful. I also ordered a poke plate made with sushi grade ahi tuna for us.

Poke plate

There was quite a crowd and everyone was having a great time. We were lucky to get seats at the bar, but after an hour or so, we decided to head for home about 8pm. Back at the park we found new neighbors two sites down from us. They invited us to join their campfire. We enjoyed talking, sitting by the fire and imbibing adult beverages.

Neighbor’s campfire

On Friday morning, we awoke to abundant sunshine! It was a welcome sight after days of rain. California needs the water and the rain was a good thing. The snow pack in the local mountains and Sierra Nevada range will be a big help in the spring. Donna and I drove over to the Ocean Beach Recreation Center for pickleball. We always have fun there. We met a couple, Scott and Norma, that are full-timers staying here at the Mission Bay RV Resort. We hope to get together with them soon. Norma stopped by in the afternoon and invited us to visit around 6pm. I had to take a rain check as we already had plans for our friends, Bud and Mona, to visit us in the evening.

Donna made the second of three Hello Fresh meals Friday night. She made sage-butter pork chops with roasted broccolini and citrusy potato salad. It was very good. Donna is having fun with the new recipes.

Sage-butter pork chops

With this meal, I tried another Stone special release in the Stochasticity Project line. It was called Grainiac and the grain bill included 2-row pale malt, white wheat, grouse malted millet, grouse malted buckwheat, carrarye, golden naked oats and triticale. It was definitely a malty brew somewhat reminiscent of their Arrogant Bastard ale.

Grainiac

Bud and Mona came over around 6:30pm. We sat outside and talked. As always, when we spend time with good friends, the time flies by. We chatted for a couple of hours before they had to leave. Mona had to be up early for work.

Bud, Mona and Donna

We wanted to go see Hans’ band, The Sand Devils, play at a club in North Park. But we weren’t up to it by 9pm, so we stayed inside and watched an episode of Penny Dreadful.

We have clear, blue skies again today. The temperature is below average in the low 60s. There’s a chance of rain around midnight. We’ll have to get out and enjoy the sunshine!

Not Giving Up

Tuesday morning was busy. After writing a long post about my quadcopter experience, I had to scooter over to Point Loma to pick up a prescription from Dr. Ryan. When I returned, Donna’s sister Sheila came to pick her up. Sheila was headed out of town for a ski trip. Donna went to the airport with her and brought her car back here. We’ll have access to a car for a few days and Sheila doesn’t have to hassle with airport parking or taxi cabs.

I scarfed down a couple of tamales for a quick lunch then headed over to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center (PBRC) for pickleball. Donna arrived about 45 minutes later. Afterwards, she stopped off at Sprouts to pick up some groceries. She cooked spicy scallops with zucchini and tomatoes over whole wheat spaghetti for dinner. As usual, I’m eating well!

Spicy scallops with zucchini and tomatoes

I ordered another quadcopter from Amazon to replace the one I lost (see my last post for details). Amazon had a free overnight delivery deal for Prime members.

On Wednesday morning, we decided to go out for breakfast – a rare treat. We went to Leilani’s Cafe in Pacific Beach (map). On past trips to Hawaii, we’ve enjoyed snorkelling in the mornings. This works up a hearty appetite that we sometimes fill with a traditional Hawaiian breakfast called loco moco. Leilani’s is the only place I’ve found outside of Hawaii that serves this dish. Loco moco is a hamburger patty with two fried eggs on a bed of rice. Then it’s smothered in brown gravy. It’s so good and very filling. According to Donna’s MyFitnessPal app, it’s about 650 calories.

Leilani’s loco moco

When we left Leilani’s, we took a side trip to Tourmaline Canyon – a popular Pacific Beach surf spot. The lot was full but we managed to find a parking place and went down to the beach to watch the surfers. I was surprised at the number of people there on a Wednesday morning – well over 50.

Tourmaline Canyon placard

Lots of surfers catching the waves

From there, I drove Donna up to the top of Mount Soledad to take in the views. I thought I had taken her there before, but she said she hadn’t been there. I wrote a post about Mount Soledad with pictures a couple of years ago.

When we came home, my first delivery of the day arrived from Amazon. It was a 64GB SD card I ordered for Donna’s phone. I installed it and upped her phone data capacity from 16GB to about 80GB.

Later my second package arrived – another Syma X8W quadcopter. I unpacked it and found this one to be more sinister looking – it’s all black opposed to the original white one. I disregarded the confusing instruction manual this time and assembled it in about half the time the first one took.

Ozark giving the ‘copter the final inspection

I charged the batteries and tried a different approach to trimming the controls. Donna nearly flipped out when I fired it up in the coach! I lifted off about six or eight inches from the floor and saw it was going left and away from me. I set it back down and made the trim adjustment. I lifted off again, then set it down and fine tuned the trims. After a few more tries, I had it hovering less than a foot off the floor in complete control. I think this is the key. Set the trims and get it stable, then fly. I’m used to radio-controlled airplanes – these are always trimmed in flight and flying 100 or more feet off the ground is no problem. My last RC airplane was a giant scale Edge 540 replica – 40% scale with a wingspan of ten feet.

I put the “copter away and charged the spare batteries. I have three sets of batteries for it as it has a short flight time – less than ten minutes before the batteries run low.

Donna prepared lemon chicken piccata over steamed spinach and whole wheat spaghetti for dinner. Another delicious, nutritious meal.

Lemon chicken piccata

It’s cool this morning – about 50 degrees under clear, sunny skies. The wind is calm. I think I’ll get the ‘copter out and try flying again. I don’t give up that easily! This afternoon we’ll head over to PBRC for pickleball.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, 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!

Lost Cat

I’m writing my 600th post on this blog today! I’ve been writing a little less than usual lately – mainly because we’re stationary for an extended period and I haven’t had much to say.

Friday was a blustery day. I used the time indoors to remove the screens from our vents. We have two 12″ Fantastic Fans in roof vents that have screens on the inside. These fans do a great job of pulling fresh air into the coach and circulating it out the roof. Over time, the screens collect dust and need to be cleaned. The screens have eight screws in a plastic ring attaching them to the electric fan. It’s not too difficult to remove them. I cleaned them with 303 Multi-Surface Cleaner and water, using a Brillo bug scrubber to get the stubborn debris off.

At 4pm, we joined Tom and Kris Downey at their place and we drove over to Offshore Tavern and Grill on Morena Boulevard for happy hour. Tom and Donna tried the New English Brewing Pacific Storm Irish Stout while Kris and I settled on Stone IPA. The beers were good! We ordered appetizer plates – seared tuna, mac and cheese, poke and a 50/50 mix of tater tots and sweet potato fries with cotija cheese. We shared the appetizers and it was enough to call it dinner. We talked and enjoyed each other’s company for a couple of hours. I was so wrapped up in the conversation and food, I neglected to take any pictures.

On Saturday afternoon, I scootered Donna to her sister’s house in Point Loma. Donna’s nephew Connor was in a play and Donna went with her sister Sheila to watch it. I walked a few laps of the park and visited with the guys at the security shack while she was away. After the play, Sheila and Connor came over to visit and see Ozark the cat.

Donna wanted to ride her bike on Sunday morning so I got her bicycle out of the trailer and pumped up the tires. She planned a route along Old Sea World Drive to Quivira Basin and back. While she was out, I watched the Chargers game against Kansas City. It was another heartbreaker with the Chargers only needing a yard to tie the game but not being able to get it done before time expired.

We had a visitor for the afternoon game. Debbie Bednarski came down from Carlsbad. She planned to pick up her husband Bruce at the airport around 3pm. I’ve known Debbie since we were in junior high school. Donna made her famous crab cakes and served them over a bed of herbs and spring lettuces. We had a beer and enjoyed conversation while keeping an eye on the Dallas Cowboys at Green Bay game.

Donna’s famous crab cakes

Whenever we have visitors, Ozark the cat enjoys the attention she receives. She’s gregarious and always approaches people when they come into the coach. This was true when Sheila and Connor were here and she snuggled up to Debbie on the sofa as well. Lately, she spends much of the afternoon curled up on the seat in the front of our living room. I’ve read that cats sleep up to 17 hours per day.

Ozark the cat doing what she does best

We had a curious incident with Ozark on Saturday morning. As usual, she was in bed with us when we woke up. We didn’t get out of bed right away. But when we did get up, Ozark had disappeared! Usually she’ll head to her food dish and wait while I clean it and fill it with food. She didn’t come out this time. I figured maybe she was sleeping behind the sofa. After a couple of hours, Donna was getting really worried because this was unusual behavior and maybe Ozark was sick or something.

I got a flashlight and took the cushions off the sofa. Ozark wasn’t under or behind the sofa. I took the lower drawers out of kitchen cabinet to see if she got in there somehow. Nope. I checked the bedroom closet and the small opening in the bedroom slide. No Ozark. Donna was calling her but we didn’t hear any response.

Donna was getting worried – a coach parked a few sites away from us lost a cat recently. They posted signs for their lost cat – it was a stray they picked up in Ohio and traveled west with. I knew Ozark had to be in the coach somewhere. We hadn’t opened the door so it wasn’t possible for her to get outside.

Our bed has two long drawers under it which open at the foot of the bed. Donna pulled open the drawer where she stores our towels and sheets. There was Ozark, nestled in the towels sleeping. It’s a mystery how she got in there. I’m thinking the drawer was left open enough for her to climb in which is something she does whenever a drawer or door is left open. One of us must have closed the drawer without even thinking about it – neither of us recalls closing it. There aren’t any openings in the pedestal the bed sits on where the drawers are located, so there’s no other way for Ozark to get into the drawer. Anyway, she wasn’t lost and we’ll be careful not to leave any drawers open.

Today we have cool weather and warnings for gusty winds and high surf at the beach. The high will be in the lower 60s as it’s been all weekend. The forecast calls for warmer temperatures on Thursday and Friday, then another spell of cool temperatures. The only thing on my agenda today is to clean and refill our hummingbird feeder. We have regular visitors feeding at it and I like watching them.

My hand is much better. I’ve been exercising it with therapy putty and plan to play pickleball tomorrow.

My hand is healing from the surgery

Playing Catch Up

When I started this blog back in July of 2013, the intent was to provide a way for family and friends to follow along as we transitioned from the workaday life and traditional housing to the full-time RV lifestyle. As time went on and more readers started following, I tried to add more detail about what life on the road is like.

I started adding technical content and also tried to illustrate how it’s not just one long camping trip. In fact we rarely sit around a campfire. We shop, clean, and prepare healthy, delicious meals in our home on wheels just as we did in our sticks-and-bricks home. And though our neighborhood changes, we are part of a close-knit community.

My goal is to post consistently. I’ve fallen behind these past few days, so I’ll catch up now.

On Friday morning, I scootered Donna over to the Ocean Beach (OB) Recreation Center to play pickleball. After dropping her off, I went to Costco to buy baby back ribs to cook on the Traeger on Saturday. I came back to OB and picked up Donna at noon. We rode down to the base of Newport Avenue to the South Beach Bar and Grill. We found seats on the upstairs patio giving us a view of the beach.

Friday’s weather was cooler with highs in the 60s and an onshore breeze that brought some clouds and added moisture to the air.

View from the upstairs patio

There was quite a swell coming in and the waves were big. Even higher surf was predicted later in the afternoon. We watched a few surfers as we ate tacos – I had a mahi taco while Donna went for a calamari taco. We washed the food down with a pint of brown ale from Helm’s Brewing located up on Clairemont Mesa. The brown ale was more like a porter – Donna and I liked it just fine.

Helm’s brown ale

On Saturday morning, Donna went for a run. While we were talking the night before, she said she was thinking about entering a 10k run in a few weeks but didn’t think she could run six miles right now. I told her that she could do it – she just needed to reduce her pace from the speed at which she runs three miles. If she set a sustainable pace, slowing if needed, she should be able to go six miles. She mapped out her route to Crown Point then along the Bayside Walk path to the Bahia Hotel – about five and half miles.

She made the distance without walking! At the Ventura Cove parking lot, she rented a Decobike – a cruiser style bike – from the bank of bikes docked at that location, one of many automated rental locations around San Diego. She paid $5 with a credit card for 30 minutes. She had to pedal madly to make it back to De Anza Cove in less than 30 minutes. She docked the bike at the De Anza stand with one minute to spare! She’s planning to do that run again, but she’ll pay seven bucks next time for a full hour of use so she can just take her time cruising home.

While Donna was out, I did a deep cleaning of the Traeger wood pellet fired grill/smoker. Then I prepped the baby back ribs. I was in for a surprise when I opened the packaged ribs I had bought at Costco. I thought that two racks of ribs were vacuum sealed per pack in typical Costco fashion. Nope, there were three racks stacked in the package. I seasoned the ribs with Sweet Rub O’Mine, wrapped them in cling wrap and refrigerated.

Later, after I fired up the Traeger, I found that I couldn’t fit three racks plus a pan of apple juice on the grill, so I cooked two racks as originally planned. I timed the cook so we could sit outside for an early dinner before sunset.

We had company coming – our friends Hans Kohls and Lisa McGuire. We’ve actually only met once briefly at Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve about a year ago. I follow Lisa’s blog (Metamorphosis Road) and they read this blog. So we feel like we know each other – at least we know what we’ve been up to. Donna received a text telling us they were running a little late as Hans was picking up his new Fuji carbon fiber 29er mountain bike. I walked out front to meet them and give them a car pass so they could drive to our site.

Calm water for a sailboat moored at De Anza Cove

I was glad we had a little extra time. All afternoon there was a breeze blowing out of the north. The space between our coach and the Foretravel coach in the site next us created a breezeway which intensified the wind right over the Traeger. The fire pot temperature was normal, but the thermometer in the top of the grill showed we were cooking the ribs about 30 degrees lower than usual.

While the Traeger was doing it’s thing, I took a walk through the RV park. I saw a 45′ Newell in one of the bayside sites. The owners were outside so I asked them if they minded me taking a photo of their coach. Newells are fantastic high-end luxury coaches. This one was a 2009 quad slide model that the owners special ordered – most Newells are made to order. It was a beautiful unit and we talked for about 20 minutes. At one point, their friend who was in the next site asked me if I sold motorhomes. I said, “No, why do you ask?” He said, “You seem to know all of the specifications and everything else about these motorhomes.” Well, I guess I’m a bit of a motorhome geek and study up on them. I looked online and found two used 2009 Newell quad slide models for sale. They were both priced at $899,000. I wonder what they cost new back in 2009? Today a model like that is around $1.8 million.

2009 Newell quad slide

Lisa brought the makings of a kale salad. As she prepared it, Donna kept an eye on the sweet potato fries baking in the oven. I took the baby backs off the grill and loosely tented them in foil. Meanwhile, we opened a bottle of beer they had brought and poured four taster glasses. It was a special release from Stone Brewing called Xocoveza. This is a milk stout that’s supposed be like Mexican hot chocolate. It had cocoa flavor for sure. It was delicious and I think it would be a great after dinner beer. They found it at Trader Joe’s.

Baby back ribs, sweet potato fires and kale salad

I put the third rack of ribs on the grill and let it cook while we ate.

Dinner time at the picnic table with Donna, Lisa and Hans

We had a enjoyable evening with good food, beer and much conversation. We sampled a few other beers we shared together. Hans held back after a couple as he had to drive back to Santee Lakes.

Beers we sampled Saturday evening

One of the beers we tried was really interesting. It was Pinner Throwback IPA from Oskar Blues Brewery in Longmont, Colorado. This is a session brew with 4.9% alcohol by volume (ABV) and 35 International Bittering Units. These numbers are way low for IPA – they are usually a minimum of 6% ABV and from 70 IBUs on up to 100. This beer had the citrusy hop taste of an IPA without the malt body. It was thinner with a strong grapefruit finish. Delightful on a hot afternoon when you don’t want a heavier beer or high ABV.

Later, I took the third rack of ribs off the Traeger. This rack cooked hotter and much faster. When I cut the rack into two pieces to wrap and refrigerate, it was very tender and juicier than the ribs I served for dinner. The Rendevous is a famous barbeque restaurant in Memphis and they advocate cooking dry Memphis Style ribs hot and fast as opposed to the low and slow method used for most barbeque. When I reheated that third rack of ribs by wrapping it foil and cooking in the convection oven for 30 minutes at 275 degrees, they came out super tender and tasty. The Sweet Rub O’Mine doesn’t provide as much bark on the ribs as the Stubbs or Traeger rubs did. I can see I need to experiment with ribs more. Maybe next time I’ll make sure to keep the heat up, then wrap in foil and cook on low heat for an additional 30 minutes.

The third rack of ribs

I didn’t mention the phone call I received Saturday morning. It was my old friend from school days, Sonny Sanchez. We were next door neighbors when I lived on Moraga Avenue in Clairemont. It’s been a long standing argument between us over who moved there first. I think we moved in at around the same time – but I’ll always claim to be there first. Sonny had an extra ticket to the Chargers NFL game and asked if I wanted to join him on Sunday. You bet!

Sonny picked me up Sunday morning and we drove to North Park where we picked up his Uncle Anthony. Sonny had three tickets his boss had given him, so the three of us were going to the game. At the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot, we met up with another old school mate, Gary Stemple. We tailgated in the lot, then went in and saw a disappointing performance from the Chargers. Denver’s defense was too tough for them. We had a blast anyway. Thanks again, Sonny!

Tailgating before the gane - Sonny, Gary and me

Tailgating before the game – Sonny, Gary and me

This morning I was busy. I had to move lots of stuff out to the trailer and pack up. We left Mission Bay RV Park at noon after about three hours of work. We’re at the Sweetwater Summit Campground at the Sweetwater Regional Park. We’ll return to Mission Bay tomorrow. Just last week I found out we can stay at Mission Bay for up to 62 consecutive days now. They double the stay limit for returning long-term visitors. We certainly meet that requirement having spent 7 months there in the last two years!

Kramer’s Best

Donna met a new friend, Johanna, playing pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center (PBRC). They’re planning to ride their bicycles up to Torrey Pines on Friday. So fixing her bicycle became a priority – the shifter cable for the rear derailleur broke on her last ride.

Donna had an appointment for her annual check up Wednesday morning so I scootered her up to Washington Street. After her appointment, we went to Lanna Thai on Mission Bay Drive (map) for lunch. Pad Thai is a favorite for both Donna and me – they make a good Pad Thai there.

After lunch, I got to work on Donna’s bike. I set up my Cycle Pro bike stand outside the cargo trailer and mounted Donna’s bike on it. Her bike is equipped with Shimano Ultegra brakes and derailleurs. The brake lever applies the brakes when you pull the lever toward the handlebar. If you push the lever toward the center of the bike, it works as a shifter. It does this by applying tension or releasing tension on cable through a ratcheting drum mechanism inside the brake lever hood.

New shift cable

I removed the old cable and threaded the new cable in place. I cut the cable to size, allowing a few spare inches. Then I tried the shifter. Oops! It didn’t work. I looked at the drum again and realized the cable wasn’t connected to the drum properly. In fact, the drum was stuck and wouldn’t return to the spring-loaded rest position so I could thread the cable through the drum properly.

I had to remove the new cable and start over. After poking and prodding around, I finally saw a few strands of wire. Part of the old cable was stuck in the drum, wedging it in place. This was why the drum wouldn’t return to the spring-loaded rest position. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to get the piece of stuck cable out. I was eventually able to grip the barely visible wire strands with a small hemostat and work it free. Once the old cable end was out, the drum rotated from the internal spring pressure to the stop. Now I could thread the cable through the drum and route it back to the derailleur.

I was glad I left a few extra inches of cable when I cut it so I had something to work with as I tensioned the cable and adjusted the shifter. Donna’s bike is back in business. The 15 to 20 minute job took me over an hour!

With that job done, we scootered over to the new Trader Joe’s location on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach, one block west of Vons. The new store is brighter and airier than the old location was.

After shopping at Trader Joe’s, I was ready for a cold one and went to the Offshore Tavern and Grill. I was hoping to run into Butch there. Butch won the football pool last week. Traditionally, the winner of the pool buys a round for the other pool entrants – usually on Tuesday night. Butch didn’t show up Tuesday and he wasn’t there Wednesday either. I hope he’s okay.

Around 6pm, UPS delivered a package. It was something I needed for another project. Somewhere on the web I read about a wood refinishing product – I don’t remember where I heard about it or the exact story I read. The gist of it was this – a couple had a motorhome and the cabinets were in need of refinishing. They had a friend who was a cabinet maker. They invited him over to look at their cabinets. The proposed a trade. They would give him stereo equipment worth several hundred dollars if he would repair the finish on their cabinets. He agreed to the barter.

Later, he came over and went to work. He spent all of half an hour wiping the cabinets with a special product, then rubbing them dry with a cloth. The people were amazed – the cabinets looked like new. The magic product is called Kramer’s Best Antique Improver.

Kramer’s Best Antique Improver

We have a cabinet that had something spilled on it and I thought the finish was ruined. I don’t remember how it happened, but I wanted to repair it. The Kramer’s product isn’t cheap, but I thought it was worth a try so I ordered it online. This morning, I wiped the damaged wood on the cabinet door with Kramer’s on a square of cotton cloth from an old T-shirt Donna’s been after me to quit wearing. After I applied the Kramer’s, I used a fresh, clean cotton cloth and rubbed it dry. I didn’t spend more than five minutes on it. Here are the results:

Damaged finish on wood cabinet door

Rub on, rub off with Kramer’s and it’s job done

I don’t have any affiliation with Kramer’s in any way. But this stuff is amazing and I wanted to share the results. I’ll tackle our dining table and chairs next and touch up a few other cabinets.

The weather continues to be agreeable. We should see mid to upper 70s today and through the weekend. Overnight lows have been in the 50s – perfect sleeping weather. I need to scooter over to Costco this morning, then Donna and I will go to the PBRC for more pickleball action this afternoon.

Back to the Bay

In my last post I mentioned evidence of flash flooding in the area. Ogilby Road had apparently been flooded leaving sand, dirt and debris which was removed and piled into berms on the shoulder area. When we found the rock garden, it obviously had been flooded as well. The rock garden is on the edge of an arroyo. Fast moving water must have filled the arroyo and rearranged the rocks.

Here’s a view of the rock garden from December 2014

This is what’s left of it

Donna went for a walk before sunset. She met the owners of the Alpine Coach parked about half a mile away from us – they were the only other people within sight. They were Alpine Coach Association members Rick and Sue Niemeyer from Hemet, California. She visited with them for about 20-30 minutes. I was getting a little worried that she might get caught out after dark. Once the sun sets out here in the desert, it gets very dark quickly.

Sunset in the desert

Donna made it back just as it was getting dark. She made a pan-seared steelhead trout filet topped with sauteed fresh ginger and scallions for dinner. Just because we’re boondocking, we don’t have to eat hot dogs and marshmallows!

Pan cooked salmon with rice and steamed spinach

Pan-cooked steelhead trout with basmati brown rice and steamed spinach

We had a mostly quiet night. When we went to bed, the lack of noise was almost eerie. In the early morning hours before sunrise, the wind kicked up and made a lot of noise. I was up in time to catch the sunrise which was a mirror image of the sunset the night before.

Desert sunrise

We hit the road at 9:40am and headed west on I-8. We made our usual stop on this stretch of road at the Buckman Springs rest area in the Laguna Mountains (map). We took a short break and Donna heated up leftovers for lunch in the microwave oven.

We crested the three 4,000+ foot summits – Tecate Divide, Crestwood Summit and Laguna Summit – then began the rapid descent to El Cajon. Our coach performed beautifully. The coolant temperature never exceeded 195 degrees on the climb over the summits and the Jake brake easily controlled our descent – I never touched the brake pedal all the way down.

The traffic thickened quickly near El Cajon and the drive over La Mesa into Mission Valley wasn’t exactly fun. It never ceases to amaze me when I see some of the bonehead moves car drivers make to try and gain an advantage of a few seconds or to overtake someone so they can take the off-ramp ahead of them.

We checked in at Mission Bay RV Resort around 1:30pm. We have site 135 for the next 31 days. After checking with the security supervisor, Thomas, I drove to our site with the trailer still attached. We unloaded the grills, scooter, chairs and a few other items from the trailer before we went to the storage lot and dropped the trailer. They don’t allow cargo trailers in the sites here. Trailers have to be left in the storage lot. It was handy to be able to unload most of what we’ll need before dropping the trailer. When it’s time to leave, I’ll have to deal with getting everything back to the trailer.

While I was setting up, I stood up and turned while attaching the fresh water hose. I smacked my head against the bottom corner of the bedroom slideout – again. It was a hard whack – I knocked myself down on my backside. My scalp is cut and my head still hurts.

Donna walked over to Enterprise Rental on Garnet Avenue to pick up a car. We rented a car for the weekend so we can visit my step-dad in Menifee today. He is having health issues and I want to see how he’s doing. While Donna went for the car, I scootered over to the Offshore Tavern and Grill for a quick cold one and to enter in this weekend’s football pool.

After we returned home, our friends Bob and Sini Schmitt from Edmonds, Washington picked us up. They are here at the park until next weekend. They took us to their son’s new bar/restaurant. Their son Beau had a partnership with a place called 57 Degrees where he ran The Brew Project. He just opened a new place on Fifth Avenue south of University last Monday. The new Brew Project has been a real project. Bob and Sini have been helping Beau remodel the two-story building and getting the place ready for business. It’s a cool old building in a hip part of town called Hillcrest. We sampled local craft beers – they had 24 beers on tap – and ordered dinner. I had the Havana torta which is carnitas, applewood smoked bacon, swiss cheese, sliced pickles and whole grain honey mustard on telera bread. It was outstanding.

Donna went out for a 3-mile run this morning. She’s planning to run a 5k with her sister Sheila and nephew Connor next weekend at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

The weather here is just about perfect. The forecast high today is 74 degrees with clear blue skies. Overnight lows are around 60 degrees. The weather guessers are predicting more of the same for the next five days.

Happy Birthday Sara

Although the afternoons have been quite warm, the dew point is low and the dry air is agreeable. Even without clouds, the desert sunsets can be spectacular.

Beautiful sunset from our site at Usery Mountain

The evenings cool quickly. On Friday evening, after enjoying happy hour at the Red, White and Brew, Donna and I dined al fresco on grilled boneless chicken thighs at our site at the Usery Mountain Regional Park. It was so nice out, we sat outside until well after 10pm.

Dinner in the open air

In the morning, Donna asked me to scooter her to the Pass Mountain Trailhead. This seven-and-a-half mile trail has an accumulated elevation gain of nearly 1,200 feet. Most people report taking up to three and a half hours to complete the loop – Donna did it in two hours and fifteen minutes.

While Donna was hiking, I scootered over to the Ace Hardware on Power Road. I was looking for a way to add tie-down points along the walls of the trailer. I didn’t find what I was looking for there, so I went down the road to Home Depot. No luck there either. So I scootered over to the Ace Hardware on Higley, which is a well-stocked store. Strike three. I guess I’ll have to wait until we reach San Diego and order what I want from Amazon.

We wanted to rent a car to go to a celebration at the Beer Research Institute (BRI) on Stapley in south Mesa. Our friend Sara Graff’s birthday is this Tuesday and her husband Howard arranged a get-together on the back patio of BRI. We waited too long to book a rental car. Most of the places had closed at noon on Saturday – the ones that were open didn’t have availability.

Making the 18-mile ride (each way) after dark on the scooter didn’t seem like a good idea, especially since I intended to sample a couple of brews. But Howard and Sara offered to come all the way out to the park to pick us up – Sara said she wanted to meet Ozark. Still, that was really nice. Thanks, Howard and Sara!

Donna was feeling adventurous and had a sample flight with a saison, vanilla porter and coffee porter. I had a West Coast style IPA and a black IPA. The beer was good. We had a plate of appetizers that included pretzel balls with dips, southwest poutine and meat candy – yum. The meat candy is sriracha-coated candied bacon.

Sara's party enjoying the back patio at BRI

Howard and Sara’s party on the back patio at BRI

We ordered entrees as well – Howard generously picked up the tab from the open menu to celebrate his wife’s birthday. I like your style, Howard! Donna had a mac and cheese bowl with green chilies and machaca. (She figured she earned it after her hike!)

Mac and cheese with green chilies and machaca

I went for the New Mexico stacked enchiladas plate, which is layers of corn tortilla and shredded chicken with green chilies, cheese and sour cream with a sunnyside up egg on top. We were told we had to try this when we in Albuquerque, but never got around to it.

Stacked enchiladas

After dinner, it was time to break out the cake and sing happy birthday to Sara.

Happy birthday to you

Make a wish

We had a great time. Donna used the Lyft app on her phone to call for a ride home. The Lyft driver showed up within minutes and took us right into the park and dropped us off outside our coach. (If you ever want to try Lyft – or Uber – we have free ride codes we can share with you. Just ask.)

I’ve been dealing with a sore lower back for the past few days. I plan to take it easy, watch the Moto GP race from Sepang and some NFL action. Donna has plans to meet up with her friend, Julia, from Fountain Hills.

Power Outage

I haven’t posted for a couple of days as things have been fairly quiet around here. On Monday morning, we expected a scheduled power outage as the park is upgrading transformers. The power was supposed to be out at 6am and remain out for four to six hours. To compensate, a free breakfast was scheduled at the sister resort, Towerpoint, next door (map). Donna and I walked over to Towerpoint at 7:30am. The breakfast was great – I had a full plate of eggs, bacon, potatoes and a biscuit with sausage gravy! That’s way more than I usually eat, but you know how breakfast buffets are.

After breakfast, we walked over to the Towerpoint Sports Complex. We brought our pickleball gear and met a few players on the court. We played five or six games and had a good time. When we came home, we found the power was on at 9:30am. Later, a park employee came by and delivered a flyer saying the transformer work was delayed and the scheduled outage would occur Tuesday morning, followed by another outage Wednesday afternoon.

Donna serving on the Towerpoint pickleball court

On Tuesday morning, we went back to Towerpoint and played pickleball again. We love this game. I also went to their office to see if they had any availability for us to return here in mid-February. They couldn’t find a site for us – January, February and March are the busiest months for RV parks in the Phoenix area. Later, the woman at the Towerpoint office phoned me and said she found two sites that should be suitable for us and advised me to come back and look at the sites. I reserved site J27 from February 15th through April 15th. This should work out fine for us – our tax accountant is here in Mesa and we can get that handled while we’re here.

When we were in Albuquerque, Donna noticed the left reverse light was out on our coach. I didn’t bother with it while we were there due to all of the balloon activity filling my days. I also didn’t bother with any diagnostic work. Since the right reverse light worked, I ruled out any possibility of a problem with the signal reaching the lights. The tail light and turn signal worked so I didn’t think I had a ground problem either. I went to NAPA Auto Parts and bought new bulbs. The 3156 bulbs came in packages of two. Since the reverse lights and the turn signal lights use the same bulb, I bought two packs so I would have bulbs on hand for all four positions.

I removed the left rear light assembly and took the bulb socket out of the bulb holder by twisting it 90 degrees. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the bulb and the filament appeared to be intact. I broke out my Fluke multimeter and checked continuity through the bulb. I read 50 mega ohms of resistance (50,000,000 ohms)! The new bulb showed 0.9 ohms of resistance. Apparently there was an internal problem with the bulb that wasn’t visible to the naked eye and that’s why it wasn’t working.

Looks can be deceiving

Later that afternoon, I stopped in at Lucky Lou’s and met up with the usual crowd – Leendert Hartoog, John Huff, Mike and Jodi Hall and Pat Fitzpatrick – for a cold one. I came home and our friends and former neighbors, Joel Myaer and Lana Jansen, picked us up and drove us to Alessia’s Ristorante Italiano on the corner of Higley and Brown for dinner. The food was outstanding. I had the strangola over capellini and Donna had pesce puttanesca. Donna and Lana split a bottle of Sangiovese while Joel and I enjoyed Birra Moretti (Italian lager). It was a beautiful evening and we had the entire outdoor patio to ourselves!

Joel, Lana and Donna at Alessia’s

We’ve had some wet weather since we arrived here in Mesa. Thunderstorms have passed through daily with sudden wind gusts and rain. Most of the severe weather has passed by to the west and north of our location. The forecast calls for drier weather ahead.

Donna had an early dental appointment at 7am this morning. I’ll go to the dentist for a check-up and cleaning this afternoon. The power will be out again this afternoon and the park has a free early dinner scheduled. I’ll start packing the trailer this afternoon. We’ll pull out of here tomorrow and head up to Usery Regional Park where we have a site reserved through Monday. We love that place – the hiking, biking and views are so nice there.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Restaurants

London Bridge

From Kafta to Sushi

Hello Fresh

Not Giving Up

Lost Cat

Playing Catch Up

Kramer’s Best

Back to the Bay

Happy Birthday Sara

Power Outage

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