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Sweetwater Summit

Last week, I noticed a vehicle entering the Mission Bay RV Resort with a hang tag that showed a checkout date of 1-31-16. What’s significant about that? Well, Mission Bay RV Resort has a policy of only allowing a stay of 31 consecutive days before you have to leave the park for a minimum of 24 hours.

Later I stopped by the office and asked how someone got a checkout date more than 31 days after entering the park. They told me they’ve altered their policy. If you’ve been here before for a long-term stay, they will double the allowable stay to 62 days. They said the change was made last August. When I made our reservations in September, I thought we were still limited to 31 days. I made a 31-day reservation followed by a second 31-day reservation after a day out of the park. You would think they would’ve mentioned the fact that I could have stayed for 62 consecutive days – they had my history in their system and knew I stayed here frequently.

Monday was our day to leave. I didn’t like the site we were in – I think site 135 is one of the worst in the park, so I looked forward to the move. There’s a large tree at the front left corner of the site. This not only interfered with satellite reception, the tree dropped debris constantly. I could hear stuff falling from the tree and clunking on the roof. Then at night, birds would roost in the tree. This resulted in bird droppings all over the front left corner of the coach and on the windshield cover.

Monday morning I shuttled stuff over to our trailer. They let us leave the trailer in the overflow lot while we are out for our 24-hour “exile” period. I made several trips to put our chairs, grills, ladder and Donna’s bike in the trailer. I parked our scooter behind the security shack and covered it. It’s a secure parking spot.

We pulled out just before noon. Our destination was the Sweetwater Summit campground – part of the Sweetwater Regional Park. We hadn’t stayed there before. Our route took us east on I-8 through Mission Valley to I-805. We followed I-805 south to CA94 east, then CA125 south. It’s about a 45-minute drive. This was uncharted territory for me. Back in the day when I was growing up here, there wasn’t a CA125 freeway. I’m not sure when they built it. The pouring of the concrete on CA125 south of CA94 was poorly executed. It’s like a roller coaster ride. The speed limit is 65mph. I was traveling around 60mph and that was too fast as the suspension was working overtime through the whoop-de-do surface. I’ll avoid CA125 from now on.

The volunteer at the gate at Sweetwater Summit had our check-in package ready and told us that the site we booked – site 129 – is the most requested site in the park. We drove up past the Sweetwater Reservoir over the ridge and down to the northwestern end of the park. The site was a long pull-through, reasonably level and was screened from the nearest neighbor with shrubs. The windshield view was nice.

Windshield view at Sweetwater Summit

View to the east in front of our site

Sweetwater Regional Park is in a suburban area but it seems like you are far from the city once you enter the park. It feels similar to Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, but it has more traffic noise than Santee Lakes. We chose to stay overnight here to check out the park for future reference.

We didn’t explore much past our corner of the park Monday afternoon. I watched the Monday Night Football Game – it was dark by the time the game came on. I noticed a few commercial airliners passing just to the north of us. They were flying low as they made the final descent to Lindberg Field. San Diego International Airport, also known as Lindberg Field, is the busiest single runway airport in the country. The runway is oriented east-west. The prevailing wind is from the west, so most of the time, take-offs and landings are to the west on a heading of 274 degrees. We were about 10 miles east of the runway. The jets flying by were throttled back for the descent so they weren’t making much noise.

On Tuesday morning, Donna went out to hike on a trail into the Regional Park. She had asked at the office for a trail map – the map wasn’t very clear, but she got some verbal directions about how to make a loop. I took care of a few chores at the coach, then I went for a hike up toward the water tank on the ridge behind our site.

Yep, it’s a trail

I saw warning signs to beware of rattlesnakes.

Watch for snakes

On top of the ridge, I could see the reservoir on the north side. Donna told me later that she spotted a coyote right about here.

Sweetwater Reservoir

Looking back toward our site, I could see many hiking trails. Donna went up over the ridge, down the switchbacks and then crossed under the freeway near the golf course. She followed a trail to the dam and then along the Sweetwater River before heading back to make a loop crossing a pedestrian bridge over the freeway back to the campground. She finished her four-mile hike in time for a phone interview with an editor from Oprah.com at 10:30am.

Trails and golf course in the background

We pulled out of the campground just before the noon checkout time. I took a different route back to Mission Bay – I didn’t want to bounce down CA125 again.

We checked in and I drove over to our site – we’re in 145 now. Before I could reach our site, a fifth-wheel trailer was blocking the lane. The guy appeared to be struggling to get the trailer aligned with his site – which was next to our site. Donna asked me if it’s possible to jack-knife a fifth-wheel trailer. I told it was and this guy was about to do it. We waited for a good five minutes or more as he jockeyed back and forth and finally got the rig into his site.

As usual, Donna directed me with the Cobra hand held CB radio. I made a three-point turn and lined up perfectly. I love it when it works out like that – especially since all of the neighbors were watching as they were entertained by the guy in the fifth-wheel.

After getting the coach set up and eating lunch, I walked to get the stuff from the trailer. On the way, I saw our friends Tom and Kris Downey (Open Road 365). I stopped to say hello. Tom offered the use of his Chevy Equinox to haul my chairs and stuff back to our site. I took him up on the offer. I was able to load the chairs, ladder and push broom and drive back to our place. I unloaded then went back for the Weber Q grill. The use of his SUV saved me at least four walking trips out to the overflow area to carry stuff back. Thanks, Tom!

I walked back to the trailer to get the Traeger grill – it was too big to put in the SUV. With that done, all I had to do was get the scooter, then put on the tire covers and windshield cover. By then I was ready for a shower and a beer with the guys at Offshore Tavern and Grill.

This morning we have mostly cloudy skies that should burn off this afternoon and the temperature will reach the 70s. There’s a cooling trend forecast for the coming week with a slight chance of rain tomorrow or Friday.

*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!

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!

Grilling in the Dark

Before I started blogging, I had no idea of the amount of spam I would receive. I have software loaded on my WordPress template to block spam and prevent malicious logins.

Spammers typically try to post comments that are nothing more than links to a site they want people to visit. Spam is blocked and sent to a spam folder – I get 80 to 100 spam comments per day. Once a comment has been identified as spam, all future comments from that sender go to the spam folder. If a comment is posted by an unknown author, it’s held for moderation. This means that I have to look at the comment and decide if it legitimate or a spam attempt. If it’s legit, I approve it. The software has blocked over 59,000 spam attempts since I installed it.

Malicious logins are attempts to login as the administrator and take over my site. This is a scary thought – who knows what they would want to do with my site. The software has blocked more than 10,700 malicious login attempts. Having a strong password is important.

Donna’s sister picked her up yesterday afternoon and they drove to her house in Point Loma. Donna’s bicycle was there from Donna’s ride last Saturday. Donna was dressed for a ride and had a route planned out for a scenic ride back to Mission Bay RV Resort. She couldn’t have picked a nicer day – the temperature was in the upper 70s with clear skies. Here are some pictures she snapped on her ride.

On Shelter Island looking across San Diego Bay toward downtown

Sunset Cliffs in south Ocean Beach

Dog Beach in north Ocean Beach looking toward Mission Beach

Bike path heading toward West Mission Bay Drive

Other than a tough hill climb over the point on Talbot Street, she had a pleasant ride (map).

Donna surprised me with a gift the other day. When we were in Albuquerque, she bought it at the vendor area of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. She saw an item that she thought I would find useful during the short days of winter. Donna is really good at thinking ahead and finding useful gifts.

She knows how I dislike grilling in the dark. Working with a flashlight can be difficult if you have to use utensils at the same time. Donna found an LED headlight on an elastic band. I’ve used it a few times this week as it gets dark by 5pm. The headlight allows me to have plenty of light while my hands are free.

LED headlight

Headlight in action

I used it last night to grill chicken. I paired a Stone Cali-Belgique beer with it. Stone calls it a California IPA with a Belgian twist. It’s their usual IPA recipe fermented with Belgian yeast which imparts a spicy flavor.

Stone Cali-Belgique

Other than a few clouds and cooler temperatures in the forecast for tomorrow, we expect the weather to stay nice through the weekend – 70s and blue skies.

Short Cycling

I’ve been trying to take it easy and let my hand heal from the trigger finger surgery. I looked back at my blog posts from October of last year and found the recovery time from the trigger finger surgery I had back then took longer than I remembered. The surgery last year released the ring finger on my right hand which is easier to work around than the middle finger I had done this time. One of the benefits of posting a blog is the ability to go back and look at past events and see what really happened.

Most of my activity has been limited to taking walks around the Mission Bay RV Resort or over to the bay. The weather has been a little on the cool side with daily highs in the mid 60s. That’s set to change today as we should see temperatures in the 70s with clear skies for the next week or so. We can’t complain about the weather!

On one of my walks, I noticed the marina across Rose Inlet past Campland to the west of the RV park was full. I don’t recall seeing this many boats there before.

Boats at the marina

While I was out walking, I also saw the smallest Airstream travel trailer ever. I don’t think I’ve seen one this small before.

Tiny Airstream

I snapped a photo as I walked past. When I walked back on the next lane behind the Airstream, I noticed the large Dometic Penguin air conditioner on top. It looked oversized on this small unit.

Big A/C on a small trailer

Having an oversized air conditioner is not necessarily a good thing. It can cause a problem known as short cycling. This can happen in a regular sticks-and-bricks home as well as an RV. A short cycling air conditioner runs for a short period, then shuts off. Then it turns back on only to shut off again.

Short cycling can create a number of issues. One is excess humidity. Usually an air conditioner will run long enough for the moisture in the air to condense on the evaporator and drain, leaving the air relatively dry. When the A/C short cycles, it doesn’t condense as much moisture and the air can feel damp and uncomfortable.

The other issues are wear and tear. Stopping and starting the compressor excessively causes wear. On start up, the compressor motor draws a large spike of current – it takes more power and causes more wear to start the motor than it normally does while running. Also, if the compressor shuts off for only a short period of time before restarting, there can be residual head pressure in the compressor making it difficult to start.

I’m sure Airstream knew what they’re doing when they installed such a large A/C unit on a small travel trailer. I’m guessing they reduced the fan speed for lower cooling output to prevent short cycling.

I rode the scooter over to Costco on Morena Boulevard yesterday. We were on our last roll of paper towels, so I wanted to buy a bulk package of paper towels and pick up more bottled water. I need to have water with me at all times due to a chronic dry throat condition caused by head and neck radiation. I also picked up a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Brut champagne for Donna to ring in the new year at the end of the month. Veuve Cliquot is her favorite and Costco had it at a good price. The bottle included a custom-fit insulated vinyl bag for it. I picked up a 22-ounce bomber bottle of Stone IPA for me. This was a special release made with fresh hops and it’s meant to be enjoyed fresh, not stored. It had an “enjoy by 12-25-15” label. So I did.

Stone fresh IPA

Last night we grilled green chile turkey burgers on the Weber Q grill for dinner. Donna walked to Vons in Pacific Beach in the afternoon – about a four mile round trip – and picked up cheese bakery rolls. I toasted the rolls on the grill and they were so good with the burgers.

Turkey burgers with avocado on cheese bakery rolls

I enjoyed the Stone IPA with my burger. To be honest, I don’t know what the fresh hop IPA is all about – it tasted like a Stone IPA that’s always available at the store. With all of the craft breweries around here, everyone is always experimenting and trying to come up with the next hit beer. Whenever someone comes up with a winner, the copycats follow. I’ve seen a few fresh hop IPAs on the shelves here – I think it’s gimmick more than anything though. I don’t taste any difference.

Donna plans to catch a ride with her sister Sheila to her house today. She left her bike there last weekend. From Point Loma, she wants to tool around Shelter Island, then ride through Ocean Beach and back here (map). I think I’ll hit the beach at some point today and take a walk.

Too Much, Too Soon

Donna rode her bicycle to her sister’s house on Saturday. Sheila was out of town skiing in Park City, Utah and left her car keys for us. Donna and I mapped out a route for her to ride that would keep her mostly on bike paths or roads with bike lanes. She planned to ride the old Sea World Drive path to the Sunset Cliffs Boulevard bridge, then follow Nimitz to Chatsworth (map).

She ended up crossing on the wrong bridge – she took the West Mission Bay bridge to the intersection of Midway and Sports Arena Boulevard. It was a good thing we looked at the map together before she went. Once she realized her mistake, she knew what to do to get to Sheila’s house. We had already discussed a few alternatives before deciding on what we thought would be the safest route. She rode to Rosecrans Street and then cut through a neighborhood on Evergreen. This worked out fine and she made it to Sheila’s house in about 45 minutes.

When she came back to Mission Bay RV Resort with the car – she left her bike in Sheila’s garage – we went shopping. We drove over to CVS in Pacific Beach to pick up a few things. While I was there, Donna walked one block west to Trader Joe’s. When I was done at CVS, I drove over and parked in front of Trader Joe’s and walked to Petsmart to pick up cat food for Ozark. After I dropped it off in the car, I went into Trader Joe’s and found Donna at the checkout counter. Very efficient.

We were considering going over to Sardina’s for happy hour – also my last chance to hand in my football picks for the week – but when we got into the car and I began driving home, I realized that I had overworked my hand. It was sore and I wasn’t feeling too good. After unloading our groceries, I hung out at the coach while Donna went up to the La Jolla Village Square to shop for shoes. She also went to Cost Plus World Market and bought tomolives and blue cheese stuffed olives for me – my favorite martini garnishes. Then she picked up some sushi to go.

On Sunday morning my hand was stiff and sore. I think I was trying to do too much with it. After I removed the bandages on Friday, I did passive range-of-motion stretches. I did more on Saturday plus carried bags of groceries. I decided to rest it as much as possible on Sunday. It was a good excuse for me to hang out and watch football.

The RV park was full of motion Sunday morning as all of the holiday weekend crowd packed up. There was a steady stream of RVs exiting the park. By noon, the park went from nearly full occupancy to maybe 30% occupied. It was a beautiful day out with the temperature in the upper 60s and clear blue skies. I managed to get out and walk a few laps of the park to take in some fresh air and get a little exercise. Donna went for long walk-run in the direction of Mission Beach.

Beautiful afternoon at Mission Bay looking west from the RV park

There were good football games on TV all day. The Chargers ended their losing streak by knocking off Jacksonville in the morning. Then I watched a thrilling game in Seattle where they prevailed against Pittsburgh. I also toggled back and forth to the game in San Francisco where the Arizona Cardinals won. There were so many controversial calls in all of the games – I think the NFL needs to take a look at simplifying their rule book. Before the final game of the day in Denver where the New England Patriots lost their undefeated status, I opened a special brew to celebrate the Chargers win.

While we were in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Donna and I visited the Duel Belgian Style Brewery and Taproom. They had outstanding Belgian inspired beers there. I bought a bottle of their Cezanne Magnifique which they describe as a barrel-aged imperial saison. Barrel-aged implies hints of whiskey while imperial always means high gravity – high alcohol content. Saison is a style of ale that is sometimes called farmhouse ale and is usually pale in color and spiced with coriander or zest.

Duel Cezanne Magnifique

The forward whiskey flavor of this ale dominated the palate. I wondered why they called it a saison, other than the color. At 10.5% ABV, it was certainly “imperial.” As it warmed slightly, I began to taste more of the spice flavors that lingered. This is a complex and tasty brew with low carbonation. I think it may be the most expensive ale I’ve ever bought at nine dollars for a 12-ounce bottle.

Today Donna plans to go to Ocean Beach for pickleball at the recreation center. I’ll pass and rest my hand. I have a follow-up with Dr. Leek a week from Wednesday. Once he removes the stitches, I’m hoping to get back to pickleball. Meanwhile we’re making plans to have guests next Saturday for a barbeque. Hans and Lisa (Metamorphosis Road) will visit us here at Mission Bay RV Resort Saturday afternoon. They are currently at the Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve and will be there for a few more weeks.

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m thankful for…

My family.

My friends.

Good health.

Living this life on the road with my wife.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Nothing to Eat or Drink

Thank you for all the support before, during and after yesterday’s medical procedure. On Monday evening, I received a call from the Mission Valley Heights Surgical Center telling me my surgery was delayed until 4pm Tuesday. This meant I was to arrive at 2:30 to begin preparation. It also meant I couldn’t eat or drink anything after 8am.

On Tuesday morning, Donna made a breakfast burrito for me before she went out for a run to Crown Point. Before she left, I told her I saw pictures on Facebook of flooding in the area. The flooding was the result of the King tides. King tides are the highest tides and are predictable as they are the result of astronomical occurrences. Along the San Diego coastline, the high tides Tuesday through Friday this week are expected to be around +7.5′ , the highest tides of the year.

Donna’s route wasn’t flooded and she came home with dry feet. While she was out, the surgery center called me again and asked if I could come in an hour earlier. I was all for it – going all day without food or a sip of water wasn’t going to be easy. I have chronic dryness in my throat due to head and neck radiation (cancer treatment).

I rode the scooter over to Costco to pick up a couple of heavy items before my hand was out of commission. I bought a 40-pack case of bottled water and a 42-pound bag of kitty litter. Costco was a zoo – it always is around the holiday season. I also picked up a bottle of Stone Thunderstruck IPA – it’s their 2015 Anniversary Ale limited release. I had a bottle of it last week and liked it a lot. It’s made exclusively with hops from Australia – Topaz, Galaxy, Ella and Vic Secret hops. The name comes from the song “Thunderstruck” recorded by Australia’s rock band, AC/DC.

Stone Thunderstruck 19th Anniversary Ale

After I unloaded the goods, Donna and I scootered over to Hertz rent-a-car on Garnet Avenue, a couple of miles from Mission Bay RV Resort. I rented a a Kia which Donna drove to the grocery store while I returned home on the scooter. By the time Donna came home from grocery shopping, I had shaved and showered and was ready to head to the surgery center.

The check-in process at the center was efficient. A little past 2pm, I was taken to the preparation area and had an IV started. I needed the hydration – I hadn’t had anything to drink since 8am. I met the anesthesiologist, Dr. Jones – he wasn’t the same one I had here last year. He reviewed my previous surgery and said he wanted to go lighter on the sedation. He thought I would be fine and I would be able to recover and leave sooner with just propofol for sedation and a local anesthetic to block the nerves in my hand. Last time I had a propofol IV cocktail that included valium.

After a short discussion with Dr. Leek, I was taken back to the operating room. Once everything was set up, Dr. Jones turned up the propofol and I was out for a few minutes. While I was sleeping, they injected the nerve block in my hand. I didn’t feel a thing. Then he dialed the propofol back just enough for me to be conscious but still on the edge of dreamland. I was able to hear Dr. Leek and respond when he told me to bend my finger or make a fist. It was a weird sensation to be aware but not really connected while he was working on my hand. He found the flexor tendon on my middle finger was herniated and a cyst had formed. No wonder my finger would get stuck closed. This made it a little bigger deal than the usual inflammation associated with trigger finger. I definitely made the right decision to have surgery versus getting another cortisone injection.

After he closed the incision, I was wheeled into the recovery room and had my vitals monitored. I finally had a glass of water. I was ready to leave about 40 minutes later.

My hand will stay wrapped and be unusable for a few days

We drove home and were back by 4:30pm. After dinner, the numbness in my hand was wearing off. I took percocet (oxycodone) to manage the pain. I expected the percocet to help me sleep through the night. That didn’t happen. I barely slept and had a fitful night.

Rain came around midnight and it rained off and on all night. The wind picked up around 2am. The wind, rain and King tide have flooded a few areas. I wish I was up to getting out and shooting a few photos, but I think I’ll be taking it easy today.

The day before Thanksgiving, I want to say “thanks again” to all who wished me well yesterday. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving with friends, family or wherever you may be.

Seaport Village

Donna and I played pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center (PBRC) on Thursday afternoon. I won’t be able to play again for a few weeks. PBRC has pickleball on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Next Tuesday I’ll be at the Mission Valley Surgery Center to have a minor procedure on my right hand. I developed another trigger finger on the middle (long) finger of my right hand. It’s painful and my finger gets stuck when I close my fist. It flared up at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta where I did a lot of heavy lifting and pulling on ropes. This is the third finger to do this. I had surgery on my left middle finger in 2002, then I had surgery on my right ring finger last year.

On Friday morning, Donna went for a bike ride with her friend Johanna. They rode up the Rose Canyon bike path and up Gilman Drive to Torrey Pines (map). I’ve biked that route – it’s a nice ride. They stopped for breakfast at The Farmer and The Seahorse, a new restaurant with a nice outdoor patio. They were surprised to find an Airstream indoors that is kitted out as a private meeting room.

I mentioned before that our DHS Mobile Theatre amplifier blew. I did some research, but all I could find was a used replacement on eBay that was being sold “as is” with no guarantee it even worked. I called the original supplier, RiverPark, to see if they had any suggestions for replacing it. They didn’t show any availability online, but I thought they might know of a suitable alternative.

When I talked to their technical support guy, he told me they had a replacement unit in stock! I ordered the new unit and it arrived Friday night.

DHS Mobile Theatre System amp

I installed the unit Saturday morning and we have five-channel surround sound again.

The weather here has been unbeatable – clear skies with the temperature near 80 degrees in the afternoon. The nights cool quickly and the temperature drops to the upper 50s overnight.

Sunset over Mission Bay from the west end of the RV park

Saturday was the warmest day – it reached the upper 80s. Donna and I went out on the scooter in the late morning and rode to Seaport Village. Seaport Village is a touristy area on the waterfront west of downtown San Diego. It’s filled with quirky shops and restaurants. On Saturdays, they have an open air fish market at the Tuna Harbor pier. Local fisherman sell their fresh catch. We walked along the pier to see what was on offer.

Donna at Tuna Harbor

They had fresh dorado, big eye tuna, blue fin tuna, live black cod and a long nose skate. We also saw a stand with live sea urchins. They prepared the live urchins and made sushi to order.

Big eye tuna

Black cod and long nose skate

Live sea urchins

We didn’t buy any fish but we may in the future. We’ll have to see if we can come up with a method of cooking a whole fish – that’s how they sell them there.

The walk along the pier with the breeze coming off San Diego Bay was refreshing. Boats passed by and I was wishing I was out on one of them.

Boats passing by the pier

Off in the distance, we saw tents set up on the south end of Seaport Village. It was the San Diego Wine and Food Festival. We took a walk down there but decided not to buy tickets. Wine on a hot afternoon didn’t sound appealing.

Wine and Food Festival in the distance – Coronado Bridge on the right

As we walked back through Seaport Village, we looked in some of the shops. We also passed a carousel with kids riding the horses.

This kid doesn’t look as happy as his mother

We scootered over to Cedar Street for the Little Italy farmers’ market. We found a stand selling hard (dry) sausage and couldn’t resist the sopressata. They also had raw sausage that we might cook today – we bought a three-pack of smoked gouda sausage. The guy selling it recommended cooking it by placing the sausage in a pot of water – you can add beer or seasoning and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, turn the heat off and let it sit for seven or eight minutes. Then grill the sausage. I’m going to try his method.

After we left the farmers’ market, we dropped off the sausages at home and rode to the Pacific Beach boardwalk. It was like a summer day – warm and sunny and lots of people on the beach. We wanted to stop for a cold one, but all of the places along the boardwalk were crowded. We ended up stopping at Amplified Ale Works a block off the boardwalk. We took a seat at their patio, but it was too warm to sit in the direct sun, so we headed home.

Last night, I prepared chicken leg quarters – I used a rub I recently ordered from Amazon called Lambert’s Sweet Rub-O-Mine.

Dry rubbed chicken quarters on the Traeger

Our friends Bud and Mona joined us for dinner. We dined outside at the picnic table. It was dark by then, but Mona is allergic to cats, so dining inside with Ozark wasn’t an option. The Lambert’s rub is a keeper – sweet and salty with a kick of chili pepper.

Dry rubbed chicken with Morroccan quinoa and green beans

Dry rubbed chicken with Moroccan quinoa and green beans

We sat outside until about 9pm before we walked Bud and Mona out to their car. The air was still and the bay was like glass. I shot a photo of lights from houses on the mesa to the east reflected on the black, glassy water.

Today we expect another sunny day with the temperature reaching 80 degrees. The forecast calls for a cooling trend starting on Wednesday. I’ll be watching football today.

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.

30 Degrees West

Donna came home from her trip to LA for the 5K run at Universal Studios earlier than I expected. She arrived here at Mission Bay RV Resort by 1pm Sunday. I had football on TV – I was able to get local broadcast channels but I still couldn’t access ESPN and a few other channels.

In my last post, I mentioned rain Sunday morning. It remained cloudy all day with a few light showers. In the afternoon, the wind started picking up as an area of low pressure developed over the desert. The onshore flow of wind from the Pacific was blowing east at about 20 mph. I saw a weather alert for high winds – gusts up to 40mph – from 6pm through 10am Monday morning.

I was surprised to see a couple of RVs pulling out of the park around 4pm. The normal checkout time is noon. I mentioned it to Donna and she thought maybe they arranged a late checkout to watch NFL football. I was hoping they had a short drive – I wouldn’t want to be on the road with wind gusts of 40 mph in a high-profile vehicle.

Around that time, a technician from DISH network came to check out our reception problem. He asked me what kind of antenna I had. When I told him it was a Winegard, he wondered aloud why he was sent. They only work on their (DISH) antennas, not private-branded equipment. He had a sophisticated compass device that could locate the various DISH satellites. When I told him I was only receiving 110 – not 119 or 129 – he used his equipment to locate the satellites.

The problem turned out to be simple. I thought we were oriented facing north with the back of our coach at 180 degrees – due south. His equipment showed us facing 330 degrees north-northwest with the rear of the coach at 150 degrees south-southeast. Satellite 110 is directly behind our coach with a clear line of sight, but 119 and 129 are west of there. We have a tree on the west side of the coach and tree branches were blocking the satellite signal. He also showed me that the satellites were much higher in the sky than I thought – about 53 degrees up from the horizon.

I knew a clear line of sight to the satellites was required. I just didn’t realize our orientation put two of the satellites off to our left rear. There wasn’t much I could do about it by then. Our Winegard antenna is permanently mounted on the roof and automatically locates the satellites – it’s not like I could move the antenna or point it manually to try to find a signal.

On Sunday night, we had pizza delivered from Mountain Mike’s. They are known for their outstanding pepperoni made in-house. This was the most expensive pizza I’ve ever had delivered at $30 for a 14″ pie. Although it was good pizza, I don’t think it was worth $30 plus tip for the driver.

Expensive pizza

The wind blew hard overnight. I woke up several times when the coach was rocked by gusts. The wind continued to blow throughout Monday morning. Tree branches and leaves littered the park. The cover for the Traeger grill blew off and was under the picnic table but we didn’t lose anything.

I talked to the security supervisor, Thomas, and asked him if he thought the park would trim the tree branches blocking our satellite antenna. He put in a call to have a groundskeeper come over and take a look. While I was talking to him, a guy came and asked if anyone found a 10′ x 15′ awning mat. His had blown away in the night and he couldn’t find it.

A couple of guys came over to look at the tree next to our coach. After a bit of discussion, they decided to get management approval before they tried to do anything about the branches. When they came back, they said they could remove the branches but I would have to move to coach first. They apologized and said they knew it was a pain to disconnect everything and make the coach road ready just so I could move it 50 feet away and back again. I moved the coach and they had the branches cut in about five minutes.

I backed the coach into our site – this time I positioned it about a foot further to the right of the tree to allow more clearance. Once I had everything set up, I reset the DISH receiver. Now I have satellites 110 and 119, but not 129. This is okay – I can tune in Monday Night Football on ESPN with the two satellites I’m receiving now. In the future, I’ll avoid site 135 when we’re at Mission Bay RV Resort.

Who knew the tree to the left of our coach was partially blocking the signal

Who knew the tree next to our coach was partially blocking the signal?

The wind died down Monday afternoon. Donna and I rode the scooter to Pacific Beach. I dropped Donna off at Vons supermarket to grocery shop while I went to the UPS store to ship the old receiver back to DISH. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I’ve already installed, programmed and activated the replacement so all I can do is return the old one.

When I went back to Vons to meet up with Donna I found a beer I hadn’t seen before – Stone Ruination 2.0. I’ve always liked Ruination, but what is 2.0 all about? I bought a bottle to find out. It seems Stone thought Ruination needed to be updated. It was originally released in 2002 – before the real boom in craft beer and the India Pale Ale (IPA) style became so popular.

Ruination 2.0

I drank the Ruination 2.0 while watching Monday Night Football. In my opinion, it isn’t an improvement over the original. I’m thinking maybe Stone hasn’t been able to get the same type of hops used in the original Ruination, so they developed 2.0 and are calling it an update. Marketing – who knows for sure?

I want to give a shout-out to our friend and fellow nomadic RVer, Jeff Spencer (RollingRecess). Jeff competed in the Ironman event in Tempe, Arizona on Sunday in the men’s 55-59 age group. He finished with a personal best overall time of 11:46:06 – 12th in his division. He was first in his division in the swim and won $100 for that. His time for the 2.4 mile swim was 57:11. He completed the 112-mile bicycle portion with a time of 5:59:30 and ran the 26.2-mile marathon in 4:34:34 – he picked up the pace over the last two miles to set his personal overall best time. Jeff Spencer – you are an Ironman!

Today we have fine weather – wind at five to 10 miles per hour. The temperature should reach 70 degrees after a blustery and cool high of 61 degrees yesterday. The extended forecast calls for temperatures reaching the mid to high 70s over the next several days. We’ll be off to play pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center this afternoon.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sweetwater Summit

Playing Catch Up

Grilling in the Dark

Short Cycling

Too Much, Too Soon

Happy Thanksgiving

Nothing to Eat or Drink

Seaport Village

Kramer’s Best

30 Degrees West

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