Author Archives: Mike Kuper

Balboa Park

It was a beautiful, sunny day Saturday so we decided to head out to Balboa Park. Of course we can say it was a beautiful, sunny day most of the time here in San Diego, but for some reason we felt compelled to get out to the park. The temperature reached the upper 70s with blue skies. We rode the Spyder which made parking relatively easy. Parking a car on a weekend at Balboa Park can be an exercise in patience.

Balboa Park is about 1,600 acres of land in a roughly rectangular shape. The land was set aside for the park in 1835, making it one of the oldest public recreational parks in the country. The park is bordered by Sixth Avenue to the west, Upas Street to the north, 28th Street to the east, and Russ Boulevard to the south.

There are 16 museums in the park along with 17 gardens and botanical buildings. Much of the park is open space with green belts, natural vegetation, walking paths and areas set aside for archery and frisbee golf. It also includes the world famous San Diego Zoo.

El Prado with museums in the background

Natural History Museum

Botanical Building

Spanish Village Art Center

California Bell Tower and Museum of Man

Rose Garden and Natural History Museum in background

Donna was interested in a display and video presentation at the San Diego Automotive Museum. This display detailed the Plank Road. The Plank Road was built in 1912 and operated until 1927. It was literally wooden planks on the Imperial Sand Dunes. The planks were the only way an automobile could cross the sand dunes between El Centro, California and Yuma, Arizona. The Plank Road allowed travel from San Diego to Tucson or Phoenix by motorcar. Eventually a paved road replaced it. We learned that a portion of the Plank Road still exists west of Gray’s Well. We intend to stop there and check it out on our trip from San Diego to Arizona at the end of the year.

I shot a few photos of cars I found interesting in the museum. The first two are German compact cars from the 1950s. Post-World War II Germany had a need for cheap transportation. These three-wheel cars provided it. The first one is a 1957 BMW Isetta Sport. To enter the car, the front panel opened up – this was the only door.

1957 BMW Isetta – note bumpers added in front identifying this as an USA import model

The second one is a 1955 Messerschmitt KR200. Messerschmitt was an aircraft company and it shows in the design of the cockpit with the driver in front and passenger rear with a clear canopy. This car isn’t much bigger than our Can-Am Spyder – and we have more than ten times the horsepower.

1955 Messerschmitt KR200

Beautiful 1938 Delahaye Type 135 Roadster. Immaculate coach work.

1974 Lamborghini Countach. The car behind it is a Bizzarrini – one of three built.

1960 Sprint Car with a fuel injected Chevy small block

Hot Rod built around a 1942 Ranger V-12 aircraft engine

It was great way to spend the afternoon – the museum was interesting and walking around Balboa Park is always a treat.

Sunday was November 11th, Veterans Day. On this day we pay tribute to those that have served our country in the military. It’s also Armistice Day marking the end of World War I. Today military personnel and veterans are treated respectfully for the most part. It wasn’t always this way though.

My step-father, Ken Keller, served in the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and fought at the battle of Chosin in Korea. It was a horrible battle as US troops were outnumbered and overrun by Chinese forces. Veterans of the Korean War are largely forgotten.

In 1974 at the age of 17, I enlisted in the USMC and went to boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego. That’s right, boot camp right here in my home town next to the airport. Boot camp was hell at times but I mostly enjoyed the 13 weeks at MCRD and Camp Pendleton. I excelled at most tasks and graduated on December 31st, 1974.

Me, 1974

From there I had orders to report to the Naval Air Station in Millington, Tennessee near Memphis. That was where I attended “A” school and learned to be a jet mechanic. Again, I excelled at the program and graduated in the top 5%. I was given some choices in my next duty station. I decided I wanted to be back in southern California and chose Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Orange county – about 50 miles north of San Diego where I was a plane captain (military occupational specialty 6012 – ADJ). This move was the first of a series of poor choices.

Being that close to home, I spent most weekends or any other free time back in the neighborhood hanging out with friends, going to the beach or parties. But things weren’t the same. People looked at my high and tight Marine haircut and assumed I wasn’t from here. They also assumed I must have come back from service in Vietnam. Both assumptions were wrong, but that didn’t stop people from disrespecting me. I was called a baby killer at a party in La Jolla. Another time I was waiting for a bus to the beach on Balboa Avenue when a guy came up with a couple of girls and spit at me and told me to go back where I came from. What? I’m from here, I thought, but I didn’t say anything.

It didn’t take long for me to become disillusioned with the military way of life – instead of directing my anger and shame at the people disrespecting me, I turned against military authority. Within two years, it was clear I had no future in the military. I wish I would have done things differently, but that was another time and public sentiment was largely anti-military back then.

I’m glad things are no longer like that although we still have much division in this country. I have nothing but respect for our military forces and the people that serve in them.

If you’ve followed my posts you may remember me mentioning the high-end liquor they have at Costco here. The Costco store on Morena Boulevard is gearing up for the holidays and that means more high-end booze. This bottle of 41-year-old Glenmorangie Single Malt Scotch doesn’t quite match the $18,999 bottle I saw there last year, but at $6,999 for a liter, it’s not cheap!

41- year-old Scotch Whisky

The week ahead looks like we’re in for more of the same weather-wise. Highs in the mid-70s with a few clouds and no rain in the forecast.

 

Back to Normal

Things are settling down to some semblance of normal around here. When I wrote my post last week, I thought I’d turned the corner and beat the flu-like symptoms. It wasn’t to be. Tuesday morning I woke up feeling like I’d relapsed. I didn’t do much but sleep all day.

Donna returned from her two-week trip to Vermont Tuesday night. Two weeks is the longest we’ve been apart since we married over 12 years ago. While she was in the northeast, the climate was little different from here. She had to wear winter clothing! We don’t do much of that. She also wore the Lucchese boots I bought her last year. She probably wore them more in the two-week period than she has all year.

Donna dressed for New England weather

I wasn’t very good company when she got home – in fact I was dead to the world asleep in bed. The virus lingered and I wasn’t good for much for the next few days. Donna did a pile of laundry and also restocked the refrigerator and pantry. I’m eating a higher quality diet again!

Grilled chicken thigh and veggies with feta cheese

Thursday night Donna grilled chicken thighs and a medley of vegetables with feta cheese. She came home in time to see the best sunset of the season so far.

Nice sunset – I wish I was up for a walk to the bay at that time

Friday was my break-through day. I finally felt rested and better. While Donna was in New York, she went out with her friend Joan for dinner. Donna ordered a poke plate and wasn’t impressed. They left out a few details – like sesame-soy dressing and scallions.  Friday night we went to Offshore Tavern and Grill and ate there during happy hour. I had the poke plate made with cubed ahi tuna, sesame-soy dressing, cabbage, scallions, avocado and fried won ton wrappers.

Poke plate

Donna went for the seared yellowfin tuna made with sushi grade seared tuna, scallions, cabbage, soy sauce, ginger & wasabi. The meals were delicious as always.

Seared yellowfin tuna

Donna’s boots had a couple of scuffs – mostly on the heel stack and edges of the soles. I broke out my shoe-shine kit in the morning and went at it. First I cleaned the boots with saddle soap, then went over them inside and out with Bick 4 leather conditioner. I dressed the edges of the heel and sole with Fiebig edge dressing and finished up with a light polish with Kiwi shoe polish. The boots look new again

Saturday was a beach weather day. We ran a few errands then walked the boardwalk at Mission Beach. It was perfect beach weather – the temperature topped out just over 80 degrees with abundant sunshine and light wind. We had lunch on the corner of Mission Boulevard across from Belmont Park – Mr. Ruribertos Mexican Cafe. We ate at a table on the sidewalk.

The forecast calls for cooler temps with highs around 70. We’re heading over to Ocean Beach to play pickleball at the recreation center this morning. Like I said, things are returning to normal around here.

 

Chest Fever

I’m near the end of my two-week bachelor stint as Donna will return from her visit with family and friends in Vermont tomorrow night. My bachelor time has been mostly uneventful as I settled into a routine. I would check my e-mail and waste some time on the Internet while having breakfast, then go to one of the recreation centers to play pickleball for a couple of hours. After lunch I attended to domestic chores – dishes, cleaning Ozark’s litter box and sweeping. I even figured out how to use the Splendide washer/dryer combo and did a few loads of laundry.

The rest of the afternoons were spent mostly relaxing and reading a book, then going for a cold one with the guys. After dinner, I usually watched TV outside and puffed a cigar. This changed last Friday.

We’ve been fortunate in that we’ve only had a couple of minor medical issues and I’ve only been sick once in the last six or seven years. I fell ill in August of 2017 in Iowa and was down for several days. On Friday, illness struck again. I felt out of sorts all day and had a cough that worsened as the day went on. By dinner time, I had no appetite, I skipped happy hour and a cigar was out of the question. I went to bed early and tossed and turned all night.

Saturday I was much worse. The cough became an unproductive dry hack like a child with croup. You know how it is when a song gets in your head and you can’t get rid of it? Well, I had the song by The Band Chest Fever in my head all day. It was apropos – by the afternoon I was running a fever and my ailment seemed like it centered in my  upper respiratory system and sinuses.

By the way – an interesting thought on the song. The intro to Chest Fever features fantastic work on the organ by band member Garth Hudson. He based it on Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue in D minor. Back in the day, The Band drummer Levon Helm used this song to illustrate the unfair music industry practice of awarding a larger percentage of the royalties to the author of song lyrics. The lyrics in Chest Fever are mostly nonsensical and I couldn’t even recite them. That’s Levon’s point – do you think of the lyrics or Garth’s fantastic organ playing when you hear this song? Garth should have earned a greater royalty. But I digress.

I spent most of Saturday reading and napping. At one point in the morning, I had to go out and get a few groceries – the refrigerator was empty and the pantry low. I would read for 45 minutes to an hour, then doze off for 30 or 45 minutes throughout the day.

Saturday night I tried to watch the Moto GP coverage from Philip Island, Australia. The coverage started at 7:30pm, but the premier class was set to race at 1pm local time on Sunday. Due to Australia being halfway around the world across the International Date Line, that put the start of the race at 10pm Saturday PDT. I couldn’t stay up so I set the DVR and went to bed.

Sunday morning I felt better – my head was clearer, the fever broke and the cough not as severe. But I hadn’t slept all that well and I was lethargic. I watched the Moto GP race I recorded, then turned on football and kicked back on the couch. There were three good games televised on Sunday plus the Formula One race from Mexico City. Then there was the World Series game as well. I did a lot of channel surfing. I dozed at times through all of it. All this time in bed, on the couch and in my recliner has left me with a sore lower back. As usual – one thing leads to another.

This morning, I mustered enough ambition to make myself a ham and cheese omelette. I used to be a pretty good omelette maker but haven’t done it in ages.

Not up to Donna’s standards

Of course Donna would never have served it without a side of fruit and a garnish. She has much higher standards than me.

So, life on the road isn’t always sweet sunsets and spectacular views. But, we’re in a great location and I can’t complain about the weather!

Hunting for Fish

The Santa Ana weather condition I described in my last post continued on Friday. It was a gorgeous day – the temperature reached the mid-80s and the wind wasn’t too gusty. After lunch, I rode the Spyder to Dana Landing where I purchased a California sportfishing license and a Mexican one-day license. While I was there, I spoke to a deck hand that had been out on a charter fishing boat three times during the week. He told me a fishing lure called a Butterfly was working well on tuna. I bought one. It’s a metal jig about four inches long and an inch and a half wide shaped like an elongated diamond. It weighed seven ounces.

He said people were having success dropping the lure over the side of the boat. It flutters as it drops down simulating an injured bait fish. You just let it drop freely and wait for a fish to hit it on the way down. Reel it up and repeat.

It was nice out and I decided to take a look at the beach. I parked the Spyder at Mission Beach next to the roller coaster at Belmont Park. The beach had fewer people on it than I expected on such a fine summer-like day.

Mission Beach from the boardwalk near Hamel’s surf shop

I ended the afternoon with a cold one at Offshore Tavern and Grill, then came home for dinner. I went to bed early. Saturday morning the alarm clock had me up before 5am. After breakfast and coffee, I packed a sandwich, a few bottles of water and some beer in a cooler. I met Gary Stemple at the entrance to Mission Bay RV Resort at 5:40am. We drove through light traffic to the marina at the Sheraton on Harbor Island where we met another old friend from my high school days, John Barrientez. We loaded our gear into a Parker fishing boat with a 225 horsepower Yamaha outboard motor from Freedom Boat Club and headed out just after sunrise.

Our first stop was at the bait barge near Point Loma. The bait barge has wells with large nets holding live anchovies for use as fishing bait.

Fishing boats lined up at the bait barge

We bought a half-scoop of anchovies. I don’t get the math or terminology, but a half scoop is equivalent to three or four small scoop nets full of fish.

Scoop net of live anchovies

We got lucky and one of the scoops came with a mackerel about 10 inches long. The live bait went into a bait well which circulates water from the sea – constantly refilling the well with water and dumping the excess through a screened drain.

Bait well full of live anchovies

When fishing here in the ocean, a good supply of live bait is necessary. Once you find the target fish, tossing a handful of anchovies into the water – called chumming – keeps the fish actively feeding near the boat.

We headed out into the open ocean. Our destination was the nine-mile bank about 11 miles away. This is a ridge in the deep ocean water – like a mountain top – where the water is about 300 feet deep. The underwater trenches and canyons around it are about 3,000 feet deep. The various predatory fish – like tunas – move up out of the deep water over the bank hunting for prey. It’s a big ocean though and finding the fish is the first order of business. You can’t catch fish by blindly throwing a line in the water. It’s like hunting – you need to find the area where you’re likely to find the target fish first.

We looked for signs of activity. Sea gulls diving or dolphins working the surface indicate areas where bait fish are and predatory fish are likely to be in the area. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the water was relatively calm. It seemed like a perfect morning to be fishing, but we didn’t see much activity as we cruised along the bank. I sat on the foredeck scanning the water and spotted a pod of dolphins feeding a couple hundred yards away. By the time we moved over there, the dolphins had disappeared and we didn’t mark any fish on the fish finder.

After an hour or so, Gary decided to move to another area. We headed south to the Coronado Islands of Mexico (Islas Coronado). Gary has had success there in the past. We found several pods of dolphins feeding near South Coronado Island. We worked our way around the island in Mexican water but didn’t mark many fish.

Coronado Islands of Mexico

We found a natural channel between islands that was 30 to 70 feet deep and finally marked some fish. After a few minutes of dropping my lure, I had a strike near the bottom in about 40 feet of water. Catching fish in the tuna family is always fun. These fish are fast swimmers and they don’t nibble at the bait. They hit it on the trot. I flicked the lever on my reel and set the drag – the hook set itself and I had a fish on!

It pulled a few yards of line out, then swam back toward the boat. I reeled the line in madly as it went under the boat then turned toward the bow. I climbed past the cabin to the foredeck and got it under control. John manned the gaff but I soon realized it wouldn’t be needed as the fish wasn’t that big. We got it on board and at first I thought it was a skipjack tuna. Later I realized it was actually a smaller cousin called a bonito.

Soon after that, John hooked one using a live anchovy and he brought it on board. We put the fish on ice in the fish hold.

Natural channel between small islands

Meanwhile, some seals and sea lions on the islands were watching us. They knew a fishing boat meant an easy meal. Soon a half dozen or so were around the boat looking for chum and hoping to steal an easy meal from the end of our lines. Just like us looking for dolphins and birds as indicators, they saw us as an indicator of easy prey.

A sea lion was coming after the 10-inch mackerel that Gary had in the water for bait. Then a couple of birds joined the meal line. Gary had taken the mackerel off his hook and put an anchovy in its place. A cormorant took his anchovy and caught the hook on his bill. Gary brought the bird to the boat and attempted to remove the hook. The cormorant – that Gary and John insisted on calling a duck – was indignant and wouldn’t have it. He stabbed at Gary’s hand with his bill and drew blood. We had no choice but to cut the line and hope the bird could shake the hook.

The seal and sea lions chased the fish to deeper water. We moved to another spot to fish away from the seals. Gary had brought some fine cigars along and he offered them to us. The thing is, I like cigars but I like to savor them. I find pleasure in smoking them slowly and discovering the complexity of flavors as it burns. The first third is different from the middle and the last third usually ramps up the flavor. I figured smoking a fine cigar while I was jigging a lure would be like pouring a couple of fingers of good scotch then tossing it down in a gulp – not my style. So I passed on the generous offer of a nice cigar.

We weren’t marking any more fish, so we headed back to San Diego Bay. The conditions were near perfect for sailing and the bay was filled with sailboats. They were able to set a reach in either direction on the bay and we had to be vigilant of their course. Sailing vessels have the right-of-way over a power boat.

View of San Diego from a couple miles out on the ocean

On the way into the bay, we saw a tall ship. It was a replica of the San Salvador. The San Salvador was a 98-foot galleon that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed to California in 1542. The original carried a crew of about 30 men. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to sail around the world on such a vessel.

San Salvador replica sailing in San Diego Bay

We also saw a racing yacht – the Stars and Stripes. There are four of these boats in existence, one of which Dennis Connor sailed to victory in the 1987 America’s Cup in Australia.

Back at the dock with bonito

When we got to the dock, we decided to give the two bonito we caught to the dock hand at the Sheraton. Bonito tend to be a little oily and although many people like to grill or smoke them or even cut them for sushi, they aren’t a favorite of mine. We didn’t get the yellowtail, skipjack or yellow fin tuna we were after, but all-in-all it was great day on the ocean with good friends. Thanks again, Gary and John.

Three Early Mornings

We finally had a change in the weather pattern here in San Diego. Since we arrived in late September the humidity levels have been much higher than usual and the days have been partly to mostly cloudy with low clouds in the late afternoon obscuring the sunset. We were lucky on the night of the SpaceX launch as it was one of the few cloudless skies.

Last weekend, the humidity levels dropped to a more normal level – ranging from 25% to 40% relative humidity. Clouds have been higher or non-existent since then. It made for a nice sunset last Saturday.

Sunset on the bay last Saturday

On Tuesday morning, the alarm clock was pinging at 5am. We had to be up early so I could drive Donna to the airport. She flew to Vermont to spend some time with her parents and also have a girls’ weekend with friends from her college days. We have Sini’s car – Sini generously left it with us while she’s up in the northwest.

Donna left just as another weather condition arrived – Santa Ana winds. Santa Ana winds occur in southern California when high pressure develops inland over the desert areas. This creates an airflow over the coastal mountains with strong wind gusts and dry air mass. The wind flows offshore and often makes great surfing conditions. Our daytime highs have been in the low 80s with clear skies and overnight lows in the upper 50s. It’s a few degrees cooler at night with clear skies.

I’ve spent most of my week playing pickleball and handling domestic chores. I’ve just about emptied the refrigerator of leftovers and I still have over a week before Donna returns. Of course I have a cold one at happy hour with the guys. Yesterday I had a Belgian ale at Dan Diego’s called Duvel  – it’s one of my favorites. I think I first tried this beer when we were in Amsterdam – it’s popular in The Netherlands along with another beer I’ve never seen in the states called Jupiler.

Duvel ale

Tomorrow I’ll be up early. My buddy from high school, Gary Stemple, invited me to join him on a fishing trip. We’ll take a fishing boat from the Freedom Boat Club location on Shelter Island and head out from San Diego Bay. We plan to hit 9-mile Bank and hopefully find some tunas – bonita, yellowtail, skipjack and, if we’re lucky, yellow fin.

9-mile Bank is like a mountain under the ocean. It’s about 11 miles from the mouth of San Diego Bay on a southwesterly heading. The bank itself is approximately 10 miles long and the water depth is a little over 300 feet. Today I’ll head over to Dana Landing and buy a California one-day sport fishing license and also a one-day Mexican fishing license. The California license costs $15.69 and the Mexican license will be $20. You can get the Mexican license for less money if you buy in advance online. I didn’t do that because I wanted to wait until the day before to be sure the trip wasn’t going to cancel for weather or any other reason. We’ll be straddling the California-Mexico border.

I’ll be up early again on Sunday. The Chargers are playing the Tennessee Titans in London, so the game will air at 6:30am PDT.

SpaceX

I was sitting outside watching the Sunday Night Football game and puffing a cigar when a guy walking by alerted me to an unusual sight in the clear, dark sky above. It was a rocket streaking by west of us, heading southwest. I called for Donna to step outside – we watched as its glowing trail sped away leaving a “V” shaped wake in the sky. It abruptly disappeared when it escaped the earth’s atmosphere. It was the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching a SACOM-1A Radar Imaging Satellite. The first stage had already separated by the time we saw it – I wish I could’ve witnessed that.

Other than that, we haven’t been up to anything too exciting. I play pickleball on Mondays and Wednesdays in Ocean Beach and Tuesdays and Thursdays in Pacific Beach. Donna joins me about 50% of the time. The weather has been pleasant – low 70s in the afternoons and cooling by about 10 degrees overnight. We’ve had more cloudy days than I expected though. September and October are usually fairly dry and offer up great beach weather. We haven’t had that so much this year. The humidity remains higher than usual with partly sunny and breezy afternoons. We can’t complain though – there’s been plenty of rough weather in the other parts of the country.

On Monday night, Donna grilled wild Coho salmon with ginger scallion topping and served it with grilled shishito peppers and baby bok choy. It was a great combination.

Grilled salmon, shishito peppers and bok choy

Monday and Thursday I meet up with the guys for a cold one at Dan Diego’s. On Tuesday and Friday we hit happy hour at Offshore Tavern and Grill. Tuesdays are Taco Tuesday at Offshore and it’s a treat. They have oversized tacos with your choice of steak, chicken or carnitas for $3. If you want fish or shrimp, it’s a dollar more.

Wednesday night Donna made walnut crusted tilapia which she served with green beans and acorn squash with sage and nutmeg.

Walnut crusted tilapia with green beans and acorn squash

Donna is still following the Bright Line Eating Plan, so she has to meet certain requirements on portions and proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrates. It hasn’t affected me too much – I think I’m getting more vegetables and fiber than I usually eat though.

Before this turns into a food blog, I’ll mention one minor project this week. One of the door catches on the laundry room – that’s what we call the utility closet housing our Splendide combo washer/dryer – broke. There’s an Ace Hardware in Pacific Beach that’s an old-time full service hardware store. They had the replacement part I needed and it was an easy repair.

Tomorrow Donna plans to spend the day with her 13-year old nephew Connor while her sister is away at a wedding in Los Angeles. She’ll be gone from morning until late at night. I don’t have a plan at this point. I’ll have to get used to it – on Tuesday, Donna is flying back to Vermont to spend some time with her parents and visit with friends she hasn’t seen in a long time. She has a girls’ weekend planned in Wilmington, Vermont with two college pals who met 38 years ago when they were on a foreign exchange program in England. And there’s also a reunion planned with a group of people she worked with at one of her first jobs. I’ll be on my own for two weeks. I better get another quick lesson on how to operate the Splendide washer/dryer!

 

Birthday Surprise

We’ve had a relatively quiet week here at Mission Bay RV Resort. Most of my days were consumed with pickleball. I played from 10am until noon or 1pm Monday through Thursday. Monday and Wednesday I played at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center. Tuesday and Thursday Donna joined me at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. By Friday, my legs were heavy – I’m not used to this much time on the courts – so I took a day off.

On Wednesday morning, Donna went out for breakfast with her friend Jana. While I was at pickleball and she was at breakfast, we had a delivery. I wasn’t expecting anything and Donna sent me a text saying she picked up the package at the office. When I came home from Ocean Beach, I had a surprise. Donna gave me my birthday present a few days early. She and Jana had set up a flat screen TV in one of the basement compartments. Donna figured I would enjoy sitting outside in the evening to watch football and enjoy a cigar – great idea!

New outdoor TV

Friday evening Donna made a variation of the pizza chicken dish called Sheet Pan Chicken with mozzarella, grape tomatoes, red onion and pepperoncinis. She served it over spaghetti squash and with steamed baby spinach.

Sheet pan chicken

Saturday was my birthday. I’m officially an old guy – I qualify for Social Security and I can get a senior lifetime National Parks Pass since I’m 62 years old now. Donna ran in a 5k race in the morning benefiting the Wounded Warriors Project. We’d planned to spend the afternoon at the beach, but sometimes the best laid plans go awry. The day kind of got away from us. Around 2:30pm we set out to find rental electric scooters. There are a few companies providing these in San Diego and they are usually plentiful around Mission Bay and the beach areas.

I downloaded an App from a company called Bird. We found one scooter right here in the RV park after searching around for a bit. Then I found another one by the Mission Bay Boat Club. Donna had activated the first scooter with her phone and I tried to activate the second one. For some reason, my phone wouldn’t connect with the scooter and I couldn’t activate the rental. I found another scooter near Campland where someone had left it off the path in weeds. I couldn’t activate this one either – my phone wouldn’t read the bar code. By then it was 3:30pm and we gave up on the scooter and beach idea.

The weather for the last week hasn’t really been beach weather. Usually at this time of year, there’s a marine layer of moisture that creates cloudy mornings. It’ll burn off by noon and the afternoons at the beach are nice. So far this year, the cloudy skies have lingered on most days and it’s been breezy. The weather pattern is being affected by hurricane storms south of here. The humidity has been much higher than normal.

Donna grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignon for my birthday dinner. She smothered them with sauteed mushrooms and onions. It was delicious with a side of grilled broccolini with tomatoes and roasted delicata squash with feta cheese.

Bacon-wrapped filet mignon with mushrooms and onions

After dinner, I treated myself to a glass of 20-year-old Speyside Single Malt Scotch paired with a Perdomo 20th Anniversary Epicure Connecticut cigar. I sat outside and enjoyed the smoke and drink while I watched TV. Donna’s out for a training run this morning – she’s running in a 10k in a few weeks. I’m going to watch Moto GP racing from Thailand, then NFL action.

Dragon Boats on the Bay

It’s already time to turn another page on the calendar. Goodbye, September. Hello, October. We’ve been in San Diego for a week and it went by fast. We had some things to take care of – Donna and I both had dental appointments on Wednesday, We got an hour and a half of pickleball in on Thursday at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. I had to leave by 11:30am because I had scheduled an appointment to have an estimate for new slide toppers at noon.

Last year I wanted to replace the slide topper on one of our bedroom slides. It was showing wear and tear and I had made a repair to a small hole in it. I had a quote from Shade Pro while we were here, but I didn’t realize how reasonable their price was. The slide topper is a fabric covering on a roller that attaches to the outside of the coach and extends over the slide-out when it is put out. It keeps debris and rain water from collecting on the top of the room slide. I didn’t have the topper replaced last year.

When we were in Mesa, Arizona, I had two guys give me quotes on the replacement. That’s when I realized I  should have had done it here in San Diego. One of the guys in Mesa couldn’t get the proper fabric for it. The other guy said he would have to order the fabric from Dometic and it would be over $400 for parts plus another $200 or so in labor. Shade Pro has a shop here in San Diego – Spring Valley actually – where they custom-make the fabric for toppers and awnings. They offer both high-quality acrylic material in a variety of colors or lower cost vinyl toppers. They quoted $189 for materials for high-quality acrylic fabric matching the color of our current toppers.

When Rich from Shade Pro came out on Thursday, I told him I wanted a quote to replace all three slide toppers. The living room slide is 16-feet long and that topper was more expensive. The price quoted was $189 for materials for each bedroom slide and $239 for the living room slide. Installation for all three was $240. Total price for all three – $857 plus tax. Way better than spending about $600 for one! I told Rich I wanted to go for it. He asked, “Will you be here tomorrow?” I said yes and he said he could be back between 11am and 1pm to do the work. I was surprised they would have the toppers made up that fast. He said he would call the order in and the shop would have the fabric ready to go by the morning.

Over the summer, we encountered numerous thunderstorms including high winds at times. A tear started in the bedroom slide topper and somewhere in Colorado it shredded. The other two toppers were beginning to rip at the seam where they join the metal casing on the coach.

Torn bedroom slide topper – looks like a bird added insult to injury

Donna had a lunch appointment in Old Town on Friday and I stayed home for the installation of the toppers. Rich showed up a little past noon and went to work. The large living room slide was stubborn and he spent about an hour removing the old fabric and installing the new one. The smaller bedroom slides were easier and he spent about 20 minutes on each one.

New Shade Pro slide topper

I’m really happy with the results and would recommend Shade Pro if you’re in southern California. They have added service in Yuma, Tucson and Phoenix too, although it may take a day or two to get the fabric there.

My high school buddy Gary Stemple invited us to go for a boat ride on Saturday. He picked us up here at De Anza Cove around 2:30pm. He had a center console type fishing boat about 22 feet long from Freedom Boat Club. We cruised to the south side of the Hilton Hotel where an event was being held. It was the 9th annual dragon boat races at Tecolote Shores Park.

Dragon boat enthusiasts at Tecolote Shores

Dragon boats are canoe shaped vessels with dragon heads on the bow. They seat eight to a dozen or more paddlers, a tillerman and a coxswain that usually beats a drum for cadence. They were racing four boats at a time in various categories – women’s teams, men’s teams and mixed. It’s a real workout as they paddle furiously – especially with the windy conditions Saturday afternoon.

Dragon boats on the bay

We cruised over to the Freedom Boat Club at Dana Landing. They were hosting a party with food and drink on the grass. It was a fun afternoon. It made me think of something I read somewhere – The ocean is my potion, I’m getting my vitamin sea. We’re happy to be back in San Diego.

Sea Lion near Dana Landing

Donna’s sister Sheila picked her up Sunday morning. They took the Sea Eagle kayak to Shelter Island and paddled on San Diego Bay. When they returned in the afternoon, Donna put the Sea Eagle back in the trailer and retrieved our Weber Q grill. They hauled the grill to our site in Sheila’s SUV. That’s one hassle about Mission Bay RV Resort – we have to leave our trailer in the lot outside of the RV park and shuttle gear back and forth.

Donna roasted a turkey breast from Sprouts on the grill along with shishito peppers and delicata squash. The delicata squash has a thin skin that can be eaten – you don’t have to scoop the meat out of the skin.

Grilled turkey breast, shishito peppers and delicata squash

The weather has been a little unusual. The daily highs have been in the low to mid 70s and it only cools to the mid 60s at night. The humidity level is higher than usual – around 70%. I think this is an effect of Hurricane Rosa to the south. High surf is expected over the next couple of days. Yesterday the temperature hit 80 degrees and we should see upper 80s today with an overnight low of 70 degrees. We might need air conditioners today!

 

Cat’s Eye Surprise

I haven’t posted for a full week and the days seem a little blurry. We’ve been on the move since we left Maine in July with only a few week-long breaks. We left Indio, California Friday morning and made a short run to Hemet. It was an easy drive west on I-10 to Beaumont where we hit CA79 south to Hemet and the Golden Palms Village RV Resort there. We’ve stayed at this place a couple of times and I always forget how tight the sites are. We had a back-in site where we dropped the trailer and parked our coach next to it.

Tight sites notwithstanding, this park has some amenities we like. First off is pickleball – they have four courts and are in the process of building six more. This early in the season, the courts aren’t crowded, but once the snowbirds arrive they’ll be full. Donna and I played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings  and had a lot of fun. They also have three swimming pools – Donna enjoyed time relaxing and swimming. The weather was hot – 100-degree highs so pickleball was an early morning activity.

Friday night Donna made shrimp with fennel and feta for dinner – this is always a favorite. She served it over spaghetti squash – a major player in her Bright Line Eating Plan.

Shrimp with fennel and feta

On Saturday she went to Stater Brothers grocery store and bought pork chops. This is something we rarely have. She pan fried them and served them with cauliflower fried rice. Cauliflower rice is an interesting dish – it’s cauliflower that she shreds in her food processor and it then substitutes it for rice. It’s a pretty convincing act as the cauliflower fried rice tasted authentic. Again, this dish fits her eating plan.

Pork chop with cauliflower fried rice and broccoli

We had some difficulty maneuvering the trailer out of our site when we left Hemet on Monday morning. While I was looking things over and formulating a plan, I noticed the right rear tires had low air pressure. Our rear dual wheels are linked with a system called Cat’s Eye. This system uses an air hose attached to the valve stem in each of the dual tires. It has a valve that will isolate the tires from each other in the event of a sudden pressure drop, so if a tire blows, they both won’t go flat. It also has a yellow ball in the valve mechanism that’s split in half. When the tire is inflated to a pressure higher than the set point, the two halves of the ball close on each other and the ball looks solid. If the pressure is below the set point, the halves separate and look like a cat’s eye. This set-up allows me to inflate both rear duals at the same time and ensures they are at equal pressure.

Cat’s Eye system

I saw the cat’s eye and knew we had to be below 90psi. I assumed we had run over a nail or screw exiting our site. I checked the pressure and it was only 73psi – we run 95psi in the rear tires. I got our Porter-Cable air compressor out of the basement compartment and filled the tires to 97psi. I wasn’t feeling too good about it as I didn’t know how fast it was losing air. The tire was fine the day before.

As we pulled out of Golden Palms Village RV Resort, I remembered the Les Schwab tire store half a block down across Florida Avenue. I pulled in there. I asked a guy there if they work on RV tires – he said they did. I told him what the issue was and he had me park the coach on the side of their shop where they had a roll-up door and air fittings. They were on it right away. A guy jacked up the coach and removed the wheels. This isn’t easy – the lugs nuts are torqued down to 450 foot-pounds and it takes a large. heavy-duty pneumatic impact wrench. Then you have to manhandle the wheel and tire which weigh over 120 pounds each.

He dunked the wheels in a large water tank and couldn’t find a leak. He thought the Cat’s Eye was leaking, but he couldn’t test it.

Leak didn’t show in the water tank

I put my air pressure gauge on each tire to see if one had a lower pressure than the other. When I put it on the inner wheel, I saw bubbles blowing around the valve stem. I showed it to the guy. The valve stem had worked loose. I don’t know why it was loose and why the bubbles didn’t show when he dunked it, but it was definitely leaking. He fixed the valve stem and put everything back together. I asked him how much I owed and he said, “Nothing – just remember Les Schwab next time you need tires.”  I tried to give him a tip for the hour he spent wrestling with our wheels but he wouldn’t accept it.

By the way, our Toyo 295/74 x 22.5 tires have over 37,000 miles on them and they still look new. These tires routinely run 200,000-plus miles on commercial trucks. I’ll have to replace them in a couple of years due to age – motorhomes typically don’t wear tires out.

37,000 miles and the tread still looks new

We rolled down I-15 and made our way to the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista. We had one more night before we could check in at Mission Bay RV Resort. Tuesday morning we drove to Mission Bay but arrived too early for check-in. So we waited in the parking lot at De Anza Cove. Donna took the opportunity to ride the Spyder up Clairemont Drive to Sprouts and stock up on groceries. I’d reserved our favorite spot – site 112 and we pulled in right at 1pm.

Site 112

We say we don’t have a home base – we don’t own a house or have stuff in storage anywhere. But, this is our sixth year at Mission Bay and we stay here typically for three months. We also spend the rest of winter in Mesa, Arizona – another three-month stay. So, if we have a home base I guess it’s here or in Mesa.

Yesterday we had a few clouds and the high temperature was 73 degrees. Overnight the low was 63 degrees. Today we expect cloudy skies and a high of 72. The next few days should be a little warmer with clear skies. This is why we come here!

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to purchase anything, 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!

 

The Heat is On

Last Friday, Donna and I rode the Spyder down from our camp site to Williams. Historic Route 66 runs right through town. It’s split into two one-way streets a block apart with most of the businesses on the eastbound street. The old downtown area is a mixture of old west and Route 66 memorabilia tourist traps. We walked the length of the district from 5th Street to Slagel Street – a distance of about six blocks and back before stopping for lunch at El Corral. I should have heeded the sign which proclaimed “Fine Mexican – American Food.” I have a rule to never eat at a restaurant that boasts Chinese – American cuisine – I guess that rule should extend to Mexican – American. My meal was average at best. Donna enjoyed her taco salad though.

The main drag through Williams

We packed up Saturday morning. We loved our boondocking site in the national forest here but we had a couple of reasons for moving on. First of all, we wanted to find full hook-ups so Donna could catch up on laundry. We had been without a sewer hook up since we left Cañon City. We don’t run the Splendide washer/dryer when we aren’t on a sewer hook up because it uses too much water and would fill the gray water tank. We also planned to meet up with friends and family before we hit San Diego, so we needed to allow a few days for that.

Our boondocking site was about 7,000 feet above sea level. This meant we had cool nights with the temperature dropping to about 50 degrees. We like cool nights with a window open and a down comforter on the bed. Our route west on I-40 was mostly a downhill run. When we reached Kingman, 100 miles later, we were at 3,000 feet. We stopped there to get the coach washed at a Blue Beacon truck wash. It turned out to be long wait – they only had one wash bay and we were seventh or eighth in line. It gave Donna a chance to fix a salad for lunch and an hour later we were on our way.

We left I-40 at exit 9 and took AZ95 south to Lake Havasu City. Lake Havasu sits at an elevation of about 500 feet above sea level. We drove to the Elks Lodge east of town which is higher ground – about 1,100 feet above sea level. The Elks Lodge had full hook-ups and plenty of space to accommodate us without dropping the trailer.

The lake below the Elks Lodge – photo from Donna’s early morning run

We traded high elevation for high temperatures. The weather in Lake Havasu was clear, sunny and hot. The daytime highs were about 105 degrees and it only dropped to about 80 degrees at night. We had both roof top air conditioners running full-time.

Donna cooked up a nice meal for dinner. She made chicken thighs sauteed in white wine with onions and herbs and served over roasted cauliflower slices with garlicky spinach on the side. Delicious.

Chicken thigh with onion and herbs over roasted cauliflower

Donna found pickleball in Lake Havasu City, so Monday morning we rode the Spyder to the community center and played several games. It was great – the players were all friendly, the games were competitive and we had a lot of fun. I’m really liking my new Paddletek Paddle.

We left Havasu Tuesday morning around 10 am and headed south to Parker, Arizona where we crossed the Colorado River and hit CA62 west. We took this quiet route through the desert – the road surface dipped and rose like a roller coaster through some areas. We were familiar with this route as Donna and I traveled it many times while touring on our motorcycles. There’s a stretch that runs parallel to a railroad track for miles and people have created graffiti out of light and dark colored stones and wood rail ties along the sides of the rail bed. It’s amazing how many people have taken the time to spell out their names or put up symbols in the middle of an otherwise empty desert.

If we continued west on CA62, we would eventually hit Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree National Park, but we turned off onto CA177 and veered south to Desert Center and I-10. This took us up to the divide at Chiriaco Summit which separates the Chuckawalla Valley from the Salton Sea basin at an elevation of 1,706 feet above sea level. From there it was mostly a downhill grade to Indio.

We stopped at the Indio Elks Lodge and have 30 amp electric service and fresh water. We are the only rig in their RV park. Our purpose for stopping here is to visit friends – Kris and Tom Downey. They spent about three years on the road and now live here. Kris picked us up and we went to see their new house, then went to dinner. It was taco Tuesday night. Kris and Tom picked up the tab – thanks again for the tacos and beer!

It’s a little cooler here at night than Havasu was, but we’re still in the desert. Today Donna is going with Kris up to Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains above Palm Springs. They plan to poke around town and maybe do a little hiking – the elevation there is 5,400 feet above sea level so it should be cooler. I plan to make a Walmart run, then stay indoors and read – the temperature here will be around 100 degrees this afternoon. Tomorrow we’ll move on to Hemet, California.