Temecula Connections

After I posted yesterday, we grilled chicken for dinner. I used the brick method I described in this post. Donna had two large chicken breasts with bones and skin on. They came out great – the brick method works so well.

Brick grilled chicken breast

Brick-grilled chicken breast

We took our plates and utensils to the gazebo located about 100 feet from our coach. There are tables and comfortable chairs there between the fine arts and pottery studios. The weather was perfect – temperature in the low 70s with a light breeze.

Donna at the dinner table in the gazebo

Donna at the dinner table in the gazebo

After dinner, the sunset over the Temecula Valley was nice with just enough clouds to give it color.

Sunset over the Temecula Valley

Sunset over the Temecula Valley

We waited until 8am to get out of bed this morning because generators aren’t allowed before 8am. We needed to run the generator to brew coffee in our Keurig machine. The Keurig doesn’t like the modified sine wave from the inverter – our generator provides a pure sine wave electrical current.

After coffee and cereal, we rode the scooter up to the pickleball courts. They have four courts here that run from sideline to sideline on the tennis court. It makes for a lot of lines on the courts. For pickleball, we only pay attention to the blue painted lines. There were 17 players at the court when we arrived. There was a mix of abilities with a few very good players on the courts. One of the guys competed in the USAPA National Championship event.

Donna and I played a few games and had fun. They generally play here from 8am to 10am, so we’ll have to get there earlier tomorrow.

After playing pickleball, I rode the scooter to Temecula. It’s about a 14-mile ride northwest on CA79. The traffic moves along at 60 mph on CA79, so it was a brisk ride. I went to an auto parts store and found a new flat-four trailer electrical connector. I also bought butt connectors and a crimping tool. I found a 1-1/16″ deep socket for the water heater repair. While I was in town, I stocked up on beer and found my favorite Blue Ice American Potato vodka.

When I returned, I replaced the electrical connector on the trailer. The old connector had damaged pins. I must have stepped on it or maybe rolled the front trailer jack tire over it. I’ll be more careful of the cord and connector in the future.

Old connector with damaged pins

Old connector with damaged pins

New connector with nice, round pins

New connector with nice, round pins

I cut the old connector from the harness and prepared the new connector. First I cut the wires to a shorter length – I didn’t need the 24″ length that came with the new connector. Then I stripped the wire ends and crimped butt connectors onto the new part.

Butt connectors crimped into place

Butt connectors crimped into place

Next I stripped the wire ends on the trailer harness and crimped the open end of the butt connectors to the harness.

All crimped together

All crimped together

The last step was to seal each butt connector individually with tape. Then I wrapped all of the butt connectors and wires together with tape to reinforce it.

Final wrap reinforces the butt connectors

Final wrap reinforces the butt connectors

That’s it, job done. I checked the trailer lights and all is good.

I’ve decided to leave the water tank repair until Sunday morning. We’re dry camped and if I start on it now, I will lose a minimum of 10 gallons of water. We should have plenty of fresh water on board but why chance it. There are showers a few hundred feet from our site.