We have had our Barbarian Invader trailer set up for two weeks at Pio Pico TT near Jamul, CA. We have performed some maintenance on the trailer by ourselves but it is going into the shop on the 21st for the yearly brake check/replacement, wheel bearing re-pack and a sniff at the equalizer(?) between the axles. I have completely replaced the drinking water system to make our lives easier and wetter.
I performed the every other month battery service in the trailer. We replaced the microwave oven that failed at Monument Valley last June when our electrical system went kaput. The original model microwave that came with the Invader is no longer available, of course, but we did find a model that would fit in the same cabinet space and would accommodate the trim without being ugly. We acquired a ladder that will support my massive weight without collapsing at the most embarrassing moment. I should be able to conveniently access the roof now without taxing the cheesy, flimsy ladder screwed to the body panel at the back of the trailer.
We will also be taking Charlotte Taylor Wilson, our beloved Ford F-250 in for a yearly check-up which looks like it will at least involve new ball joints which no longer are built with the ability to be lubricated. Charlotte has faithfully pulled us around 70,000 miles in the last 26 months and, hopefully, keeping on top of maintenance will get a few more thousand miles out of her.
We also got to see many friends still living in our hometown of San Diego. We were fortunate in that we got to enjoy the marriage of our friends, the Merbacks’ son, Trevor, to Gina, a longtime crony of Kathleen, my son Sam’s fiance. We probably drank too much liquor a few times but we’ll get over it.
When we finally leave Pio Pico on about the 28th, we suspect we are going east, maybe to Arizona, New Mexico and, perhaps, Texas before we come back to go to Mexico for a week in early December. I hope we get out of California for another year or so after that. We do love the road.