About a million years ago, back during my first year in community college, I worked at CalTech as a custodian. It was actually a pretty great place to work although the wages for temporary employees like me were lousy and work started at 5:00 A.M. The trade-off was that the people I worked with were terrific and quite bright albeit a tad eccentric. I met another sub-par wage earner like me named Guy Richardson there back in 1972 or 1973.

Over the next couple years, there were many changes in our lives and we pretty much lost contact. A death of one of our former cronies compelled Guy to get ahold of me a few months back even though we had not seen each other for about 40 years or so. During our rambling subsequent conversations, Guy told us about a museum in Sylmar, CA, called the Nethercutt Collection. The Nethercutt is actually two separate collections installed in two separate buildings located across the street from each other in Sylmar.

After much recent tomfoolery with my smarter-than-me phone, we agreed to meet at the Nethercutt today. One of the two facilities was closed for renovations today but, fortunately, the massive automobile collection was open. We had been ambling around in the fabulous collection of vintage automobiles (all of which are not only meticulously maintained but also fully functional) when Guy strolled in, fresh from a bit of business he had accomplished this morning. Disappointingly for me, he looks quite healthy and is an affable guy but our reunion was very nice. We spent the next couple hours checking out the fabulous automobiles and hobnobbing about nearly everything before departing to go eat.

Yesterday I had checked Sylmar for good restaurants and had suggested we go to Buffalo Bill’s Mercantile, a barbecue joint. Once we got there, however, it was a grubby-looking little hovel and nobody seemed to be home although it was tough to tell because there is no parking nearby. We then consulted the internet and headed to nearby Taqueria Mi Ranchita which now seems to be a child dentistry place. Foiled again, we drove down the street to a little place called Los Tres Hermanos Express, a combination tiny dining place with a drive-up window. The food was pretty good and the cute waitress was very nice.

After some more hobnobbing, Guy went back toward his place in the San Fernando Valley and we headed back to Acton. The usual L.A. traffic reared its ugly head and we had a slow passage going home but were able to turn off crowded CA-14 onto Soledad Canyon Road which had blissfully sparse automobile activity. It is about a 10 mile drive from CA-14 to the campground but recent rains have greened everything up and it is a gorgeous drive.

We got a few photos and you can see them by clicking the link at the end of this sentence https://photos.app.goo.gl/YU8EdK8QJ4546GkV9

The day before yesterday we acquired our new trailer brake controller and plugged it into the existing trailer brake wiring in the truck. As far as we could tell, it seemed to work. We made extensive reservations at RV parks along our northward route in expectation of a trouble-free passage. After all, we had a new brake controller, a very recently serviced F-250 and a trailer that had just departed from its yearly maintenance.

However, once we got out on the highway and actually putting the brakes to the test, cryptic L.E.D. displays would appear on the controller although it worked well enough. Referring to the instructions that came with the controller, we found that the mysterious displays had corresponding messages printed in the instructions that were just as undecipherable, startling and totally useless to common folks like us. Before I get into any challenging driving, I will need to get the trailer to a repair facility so smarter folks can exorcise the demons.

We left Wilderness Lakes in Menifee this morning and drove north through Angeles National Forest lands up I-215 & I-15 until we got pretty close to a place called Cajon Junction. We then turned northwest on CA-138, skirting the San Gabriel Mountains, until we got to Acton and pulled into the Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails facility. It rained quite a bit more than normal in this desert this year and the campground is now two separate campgrounds because runoff lahars took out the campground road. We pulled into a spot and set up in the warm temperatures.

Soledad Canyon TT is sort of run-down and one entire campground loop with about 50 or 75 spaces is closed entirely. Power from the park’s pedestals is iffy and those pedestals without power are not marked so we relied on some neighboring campers who directed us to a spot where someone had just departed and they had been using the park’s power. Lots of pinon pines, oaks and cottonwood trees here but if it wasn’t for irrigation and the adjacent Santa Clara River, this would be a dusty gravel lot with nice restrooms, shower facilities, pools, a pond, adult and kid centers, no Wifi and lots of desert dwellers. Some have teeth.

Yesterday we hooked up the truck to the trailer brakes and our initial assessment that something was awry with the trailer brakes was correct. We suspected something was fishy with the brakes when we pulled into Wilderness Lakes Thousand Trails two days ago and the brakes were non-existent. My belief that I am an electrical Einstein notwithstanding, I started calling around for mobile RV repair guys (it’s Easter Sunday) but was soundly defeated in my attempts to speak with anyone other than recording machines. Goddamn Christians.

However, this morning I called all the mobile RV repair guys and was fortunate to get ahold of Mike Townsend Mobile RV Repair. About 90 minutes after calling, a service tech and helper showed up in a fully loaded tool truck. In about half an hour, the service guy had isolated the problem and ordered the parts. In order that he not be required to return, I will pick up the parts at his shop tomorrow and bring them back here. Since our problems were minor, he showed us how to install the stuff (it is plug-n-play) and I will attempt to show how smart I am by plugging them in.

Peggy also tricked me (she asked) into going over to the enormous Hemet Walmart where we got some food but. more importantly, dissolving RV toilet paper. Sometimes it dissolves when you are using it but it doesn’t clog the finicky and sensitive RV sewer system aboard our fifth wheel.

Recently we have been getting up earlier (for us), awakened by my cell phone’s alarm with a truly obnoxious rooster crowing noise that makes me almost jump up and salute. It works well. Today, here in attraction-free Menifee, CA, we used our early morning hours to pop down to Les Schwab so we could give them 1.4 kilobucks for brand new truck tires and wheel alignment before we get very far into the boonies. We also made it to a small watch repair shop in an extraordinarily large shopping mall. The shopping mall even had a little locomotive operated by a tubby guy in yellow overalls. It was pulling a few small wooden cars filled with kids doing all kinds of kid stuff while riding. After 30 minutes, the watch repair guy handed me back my formerly cheap Casio watch with new parts and pins and stuff.

After much confusion over how to get around in Temecula, we elected to drive to Costco where we got cheap diesel and Irish Cream coffee additive. Peggy was able to get all the way across Costco twice, check out and exit the store before I could finish with filling the fuel tank, partly due to the Temecula locals who see nothing wrong with clogging all roads in all directions while auto-stalking shoppers making their way back to their suburbanite SUVs. Gridlock reigned in the parking lot.

We decided we had already had as much fun as we could stand so we took our loot back to Wilderness Lakes where we set in for some extended malingering. There is also a little train here that chugs around between expensive RVs. It is half again as big as the train in the shopping center so the train cars are larger requiring adults to ride as well as kids. The park also has great birds hanging out near the green water ditches. Canadian geese, some big swans, ducks and night herons can be spotted scooting about between the RVs scavenging bread crumbs from the whole crowd.

We finally left the San Diego area today after malingering for way longer than we initially intended. When we arrived in San Diego back in October ’18, we knew we would be staying until around the 1^st of March. We failed on that scheduling.

We were considering staying until the 25^th of April but through neglect and poor anticipation on my part we were timed out in our current digs at Pio Pico because 15 days ago I stupidly only scheduled us in the park through today. I foolishly was not aware that Easter or the second Sunday in Septuigisma (?) was this weekend and parks typically fill up. When I tried to extend my stay for six more days, park management merely grinned and said “No chance!”

So yesterday Peggy and I started storing loose items and picking up all our chairs, lights, bird feeders, ladders, outdoor rugs and other sundry items and prepared for departure. Today we were up early and we finished our preparations and sodded off. We headed north through usual miserable Southern California traffic up into Riverside County where we pulled off at another Thousand Trails facility called Wilderness Lakes. Wilderness Lakes is remarkable in that there is absolutely no wilderness and the only bodies of water around are some long, serpentine ditches filled with green water that are periodically stocked with channel catfish for those tempted to fish for the ugly creatures.

The campsite does have good Wifi and TV reception and the spaces are ample. There are lots of birds which is nice because there is almost nothing else to see around here. Idyllwild is about 75 minutes and 6000 feet up from here but we can’t see it.

When we arrived, we headed right through the gate, found one of the few available RV spaces and pulled in. The trailer brakes acted a bit funny when we pulled into our space but I have smacked the brake controller before and maybe all we need is to re-adjust it. If not, we will be calling a mechanic Monday to come to the park to exorcise the demons from our braking system.

It is strange that the controller would go out. This is the second controller we have had. We had the brakes done on the trailer and the truck in San Diego. While we were in San Diego we also had the trailer springs replaced, the truck serviced including new ball joints and batteries. The Ford dealer was probably happy I stopped in because I left behind $1800. The trailer guys also got about $1300 so I figured we were good to go. We have done a bunch of repair on the trailer during our stay at Pio Pico because our 2018 trip was pretty tough on the trailer due to two tread separations the whirled the tread sections around in a frenzied and particularly destructive fashion.

We think our initial, pretty destinations will be up around Sequoia National Park. From there we intend to go a bit further up the road to Yosemite National Park. After that, it is probably going to be mundane through California’s Central Valley’s farms and massive orchards until we approach Northern California where there are gorgeous conifer forests and spectacular fires each autumn.

We have just returned from a leisurely week in Mexico and have re-established a temporary residence in our home RV park, Thousand Trails Pio Pico, east of San Diego. Our lodgings during our week in Mexico were generously provided by my sister, Julie, who attended a boring but ultimately terrific owners meeting for our timeshare in Cabo where she won a free week at the resort. We happily took her up on her offer to share the unit at Club Cascadas de Baja.

We scheduled on Alaska Airlines and the flight down was nice but I noted that either I have grown substantially more voluminous or the airline has figured out how to put in virtual seating since they now seem to have installed more passenger seats than can actually fit in the flying tube. My feet were not visible when seated and my abdomen was not the thing blocking the view. It was the back of the seat in front of me. The were mysterious devices bolted in the nether space under the seat ahead that precluded any extending of lower extremities. The seat itself was padded sufficiently to make your important regions go to sleep only minutes after takeoff. It looked like they removed one row of first class and replaced it with 10 rows of steerage seating. However, each seat back had a TV-like doodad on which miserably uncomfortable scum class passengers can watch a variety of movies, TV shows or play games to take their minds off their discomfort. The goodies were inconsequential; I got a two-pack of wafers about half the size of an ordinary saltine. Back in Row 30, the flight attendants indicated there were no good food selections available since there are so many passengers on the plane who have ravaged the prime stuff, leaving the unwanted and neglected. The water served was warm.

Luckily, we were in Cabo San Lucas when not riding on the torture craft and the weather, food and lodgings were spiffy except the first night where we stayed at a downtown hotel called the Estancia Real or “King’s Estate.” The hotel had a passable pool and concrete box springs for the mattresses but a good free breakfast and even better pay breakfasts at a fixed 60 pesos or 3 bucks. The downtown location was great for dining and shopping but a bit noisy at night. However, it is a minimum frills kind of place and the King must be a cheapskate to stay here.

Club Cascadas was great. Great architecture, good food, a good library and puzzle closet, superb staff and poolside bars make for good fun. The view of the azure bay and gigantic cliffs and rock formations at end of the Baja peninsula make for stunning viewing from the resort’s private beach and mostly outdoor restaurant. Shady palapas shield lily-white gringos from fierce sunlight.

Now we have returned to San Diego and set up in our home park in order to make preparations to leave the San Diego area and head north. We have been here for a much longer duration that we envisioned and it is time to head north before summer comes and we shrivel up in the ferocious sun like spiders on a skillet. The truck needs to be serviced, considerable shopping needs to be done, some minor trailer chores and maybe a new set of truck tires are on the agenda. We need to get back on the road.

Today is the first day of spring and we are starting to think about leaving Southern California’s delightful winter weather and resuming our journeys to parts unknown. Well, maybe not unknown but different from here.

It has been a particularly wet winter here in SoCal but we were extremely fortunate not to have the horrible weather seen throughout most of the country this year. There have been substantial wintertime tornadoes in the Midwest and the South. Northern California has experienced record snowfalls that came right after terrible fires. The mud is a-slidin’. Many Republicans have had their ample estates cut off from their stockbrokers by tough weather that severed roads and highways. Here at Pio Pico, the long-time formerly parched stream bed that runs the length of the campground was awash with water, sometimes ignoring shorelines and running unfettered through the park and beneath expensive recreational vehicles. For a couple days we were prevented from leaving the campground due to high water crossing all the escape routes. Since we had everything we needed right in our Barbarian Invader fifth wheel, we were not inconvenienced and were able to enjoy taking short trips to go view the carnage.

After one particularly nasty gully washer, we were able to head out to Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument on the last little spit of land west of downtown San Diego. The rains had cleared all the crud out of the air and looking from the Point back over San Diego and all the way to the Laguna mountains 50 miles east and 7000 feet higher resulted in absolutely stunning views. Just a few days ago, from our campsite in Pio Pico, we settled into our spiffy outdoor folding furniture and watched hundreds or maybe thousands of Lady Butterflies passing by on their migration from Mexico to their summer digs in Oregon. From this same campsite we can watch the activities of the Border Patrol as they pursue those crossing from Mexico without the benefits of passports or visas as they make their way into anonymity and substandard wages. Poor bastards.

We intend to lurk in SoCal for about 3 more weeks and then we will leave the gorgeous weather here and head north. We are going to Cabo one more time before we depart but then, after re-stocking for extended travel, we will bugger off and take a long, circuitous route to Concrete, Washington, where my favorite Thousand Trails facility lurks beneath massive Douglas Fir trees along the Skagit River. There is also the best hamburger joint known in the nearby town of Sedro Woolley where I can go to violate healthy eating guidelines for old people. Just thinking about it makes me think I may be a reincarnated Pavlov’s dog.

There’s a few early 2019 pix to see if you click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/h3mzr5gm3RZ5RX7m9

It is now past the middle of February but the weather here in San Diego seems to not recognize historical patterns this year. We have been moving back and forth between our home park, Thousand Trails Pio Pico, and a very nice San Diego County Park called Sweetwater Summit but the 10 miles between them does not put us into a different weather pattern. It has been raining an extraordinary amount for this local desert environment. Long-dry stony creek beds are now full, and sometimes overfull, since November. The surrounding countryside in most recent years has been either a light brown or flame-colored but this year all the grasses, trees and bushes are a brilliant emerald green. Just a few days ago, we were obliged to remain in the Pio Pico campground area for two days because the roads both ways from the park were flooded. A large contingent of Thousand Trails members had gathered near the entrance from the east to the park to watch motorists who thought their small, low cars would pass through the raging torrent exiting the creek in the park and crossing the highway. Some of the motorists were correct, some were mistaken but the smart ones turned around to take the 45 minute drive around on rural roads. Unfortunately for them, the road was also flooded west of the park so they should have considered traveling another day. Peggy had convinced me to go shopping the day before all the flooding started so we were just as happy as could be while malingering close to our fifth wheel for the duration of the temporary road closures.

So far this winter we have been here for some four months and, considering the El Nino weather freezing out almost the entire remainder of the country, we appear to have guessed right when scheduling a long stay this season. We have completed some onerous tasks while here, including some truck service, considerable trailer repair from our two unfortunate trailer tire blowouts which tore up quite a bit of trailer wiring and undercarriage components, not less than seven forays into Tecate, MX, to get our old teeth fixed by the reasonably-priced female dentist we have found there. We both got a nasty cold or flu and were mutually required to cough up many things resembling yellow jellyfish.

I purchased and have been operating an eraser wheel to slowly remove the funky decals that were ugly when we bought our traveling home and have gotten more scroungy since. It is very slow work because the adhesives used to bond the infernal decals to the gelcoat trailer walls are very tenacious and resist all efforts to remove them.

We got to spend Xmas and New Year’s with our kiddos Dana, Sam and Kate, Sam’s wife. We got in contact with a few of our friends. I received a cell phone from the kids for Xmas, a brutal deed that I may never forget. I am quite stupid regarding my new smart phone but I can sometimes get help from children to make the confusing device operate consistent with my wishes. I am almost up to idiot status after a month and a half of near-total confusion.

We have some medical visits to the doctor, a bit of Medicare stuff and a final service on the truck before we leave the San Diego area for this year’s adventure. We also are going to make another trip to Cabo with my sister, Julie, before departure. We don’t generally go to Cabo twice in one year but Julie won a free week at our timeshare and was sweet enough to have us accompany her. We thought refusing would be rude, if not moronic, so we are going.

It is pretty near the end of the year and, foolishly, I thought there should be a final entry in 2018. We returned from our 2018 trip across the U.S.A. in early October and since then we genuinely made progress although not a lot. Peggy got rid of some property she used to own in Oregon, we got new propane tanks for the Barbarian Invader, we fixed both sides of the trailer demolished when our former set of tires inconveniently gave up the ghost – twice, we acquired new LED lighting for the trailer, we changed the truck’s oil, fooled around in Cabo for two weeks, spent Xmas with the kids and spotted a few of our old cronies. I got an inconvenient root canal and a crown after three trips across the border into Mexico to a better dentist there than my former dentist here.

Along about our third trip, Peggy mentioned that she had an issue with a tooth and ended up getting a root canal and a crown, just like me so we can encourage each other to only chew on one side. Quite a bit of our recent time has been spent sitting in long lines trying to cross the border back into the U.S. after our dental forays thanks to the Trump administration’s current vision of the Border Patrol, Customs and general fencing, walling or slatting. We must appear to the dutiful, bored Border Patrolmen at the frontier to be elderly, gray-haired, arthritic terrorists because they give us the fisheye as we hand over our passports.

We will be lingering in Southern California until we can head north toward the Pacific Northwest without freezing at night. As long as the nighttime temps are above about 50 degrees, we can maintain a pleasant temperature in the trailer with small electric heaters powered by the park’s electrical grid. Below 40 degrees outside means we have to use the trailer’s furnace which burns our propane. We don’t mind the cost of the propane but having to fill the tanks is a pain in the ass and we prefer to do it the easy way.

We also prefer to hang around our stomping grounds until we get some geezer healthcare, medical insurance and Medicare issues resolved. We would hate to be in Spokane with a heart attack only to find that our insurance will only pay if we check into our local San Diego Kaiser facility. We will see in the next few weeks how weird healthcare coverage can become since the government has declared a complete brain fart on the health of the ancient codgers like us. It was nice of the government to wait until we were eligible for Medicare to attempt to get rid of it. I imagine the Social Security Administration’s new, current policies involve killing everybody over retirement age so the government can forget about them, allowing the remaining population to worship the Cheeto Jesus full-time.

This is not really a blog entry or any real information. This is a short blurb about getting my son who is not an idiot to fix an issue with my hosting service that I, a bona fide computer idiot, is incapable of resolving. More info later.