After two days of miserable, filthy toil in high velocity Santa Ana winds, we believe we have finished the repairs to our trailer. There was considerable damage to the underside of our fifth wheel trailer from two tire tread separations; one low-speed variety near San Antonio, Texas, last February and a high-speed rip & shred east of Salt Lake City on I-80. The Texas version clobbered the rear electric jacks, some flimsy aluminum body parts, the left side tandem wheel fender, an alloy wheel, the living room slide-out lighting electrical power and some weather stripping designed to keep water from the wheels from the inside when traveling on wet roads. The right side catastrophe likewise dinged up some body panels, rearranged the right side fender profile into junk parts, stripped out the under-trailer waterproofing and ripped out some floor insulation. Little did we know that the right side waterproofing and insulation repair would be the worst task we encountered.
We started the right side repairs by purchasing a polyisocyanurate foam board, a length of peel-n-stick waterproofing window flashing, some steel strapping material, some wood cleat stock and a wide assortment of screws and washers. Then we climbed under the trailer to start the work. To make things interesting, there were Santa Ana winds gusting to about 40 mph for both days required to complete the repair and we finished each day exhausted, gritty and quite filthy from our worming around on the ground under our home while being sandblasted. Our repair was certainly better than the cheesy work installed at the factory but the location under the trailer but above the tandem wheels made for some interesting contortionist moves to get repair parts installed. Exotic cuts in the rigid repair materials were required to slip over flanges and around water piping that needed to be inside the insulation envelope. We were able to work together although the challenges almost forced the eruption of harsh language. There was considerable grunting, moaning, swearing and lacerations required to complete the work.
However, we are now finished with the major repairs to damage incurred during this year’s journey. I am almost at a loss as to what to do now but I promptly spotted my vaporizer and bottle of Jack Daniel’s which will help me get through the lull. We can now go back to our old to-do list of peeling the ugly decals from the exterior trailer walls, scraping colorful dead bug carcasses from the front of the trailer and fooling around. We are both glad the major repairs have been completed.

Today we climbed under the left side trailer wheelwell and slideout and repaired the electrical wiring destroyed by our tire tread separation back in the spring of 2018. I anticipated a complete nightmare while exposing the wiring harness, finding the wiring break and repairing it. As usual, I was incorrect.
Exposing the wiring was a pain in the butt and finding a comfortable place to recline on the sharp and jagged stones was fruitless but, surprisingly, we found the broken wiring and replaced it with a non-OEM wiring assembly. We used a coiled, heavy-duty 10′ tool extension cord which I cut the regular plugs off of and wired the bare ends into the remaining wiring harness ends. Surprisingly, it worked perfectly. We are quite amazed but very bruised due to the funky location we were obliged to use for our feeble efforts. Peggy bruises more than I do so she now appears almost speckled with purple dots which I can spot when leering at her nakedness.
Since we fixed the demolished cheesy plastic fender on the left side back in October, I believe the left side repairs are done and we can continue on into other stuff we really don’t know how to fix on the right side. We don’t think any wiring is involved but there are water piping insulation, wood deck and waterproofing issues we will need to address before we do any substantial driving on wet or damp roads. We already fixed the right side cheesy plastic fender that was shredded when the right side rear tandem wheel took a shit in Utah in September. We can now make out the light at the end of the tunnel.

We have now been in San Diego County for about a month. It is nice traveling less but the scenery doesn’t change very much. We initially returned from our 2018 journey and checked into Pio Pico but our Thousand Trails membership requires we stay in any of their campgrounds for not more than 21 days per stay. We did our 21 days and then moved into Sweetwater Summit County Park not far from Pio Pico. The county campground has full hookups, a superb view from site 115 where we stayed and great phone service but no wifi. Pio Pico has pay wifi and full hookups but no phone service. It seems that California, hotbed of things electronic and data-ish, would have digital communications up the wazoo but they don’t.
After a week at the county park we were eligible to move back into Pio Pico for another three weeks so we did although we won’t be here three weeks. The trailer will go into storage around the 21st for a rest while we do two weeks outside our home-on-wheels. During our month here we have been to see the kids and dogs a few times, we replaced the cheesy plastic fenders destroyed during our two tire tread separations we suffered during this year’s journey, we got the oil changed in our F-250, did some research about fixing the rest of the damage from the tire failures and got some parts on the way, bought comfy boots for me and did considerable research into socks. We will be obliged to do additional clothes shopping for me, forays I detest worse than diarrhea. My spouse hints that my old, but very comfortable, duds may need replacement but I think she has an unrealistic view of the situation. I am already going into mourning over the pending discard of my current, holey and threadbare attire. Clothes just ain’t proper unless they have holes where body hairs can breathe.
We still need to fix the wheel well over the trailer right side tandem wheels where the blowout ripped all the insulation and waterproof barrier from the trailer deck. The left side slideout still needs me to go underneath and find the broken wiring for interior lighting torn away by the left side trailer tire blowout. I noted that Pio Pico has an abundance of large, jagged stones on the ground where I will be obliged to lay when doing these repairs. Discomfort, coming up! My only consolation is that if I can’t fix the issues, the mobile RV mechanic will get to recline on the stony bed.