Category Archives: California

Pre-Halloween Fun

On our way back to the Mission Bay RV Resort on Saturday, I stopped at the Shell gas station on Grand Avenue to fill our fuel tank. It’s a large station with room to maneuver. After I pulled in, I stopped short of the pumps and tried to see which lanes had diesel fuel. The station was busy and all of the lanes had cars in them. Donna was about to exit the coach to take a look when I said, “Forget about it.”

I noticed the sign on the roof over the pumps – clearance 12′-6″. The satellite dome on the roof of our coach is 12′-6″ above the ground. No way was I pulling up to the pump under a 12′-6″ structure. We’ll fill the tank next time we move. It’s 3/4 full, but I like to keep it filled when we’re parked for an extended period of time. This minimizes the air space in the tank and reduces the amount of water condensation.

We arrived at the park around 12:30pm. We had to wait for about an hour before they checked us into site 111. I’m not sure why we had to wait. I walked into the park and saw site 111 was open. Several other rigs were also waiting to check in.

We were set up in no time. I used the auto level feature on the HWH hydraulic system. I wasn’t happy with this feature before, but after I found and corrected the loose ground on the HWH control box, the auto level is working smoothly. All I have to do is press the button twice and the auto level sequence begins. It levels and stabilizes the coach with the hydraulic jacks and shuts itself off.

The park filled with weekenders. The park put up Halloween decorations and had activities for the kids. We had our own Halloween plans.

On Saturday evening, Dr. Jeff Sandler picked us up at the park and drove us to Donna’s sister Sheila’s house for a Halloween party. The party was for her son, Connor, and his friends, but the adults enjoyed themselves as well. We had adult beverages and great food.

Kids at the party

The adults enjoyed the party

We had fun and were back home by 9:30pm. At this time last year, Sheila had a Halloween party which we attended. While were at the party, those Dirty, Rotten Thieves stole our cargo trailer.

Sunday morning, Donna was up early. Jeff picked her up at 8am. They drove to Point Loma to watch Connor finish a 5k race. Donna’s other sister, Linda, picked Donna up afterward on her way to the airport. She was going to Ohio on business for a couple of days, then on to her home in Vermont for the remainder of the week. So we’ll have her car this week which is nice. After dropping Linda at the airport, Donna drove to meet Jeff, Sheila and Connor for breakfast at Snooze, a popular downtown breakfast spot.

Sheila and Connor after the race

While Donna was out and about, I rode the scooter over to the Model Yacht Pond at Paradise Point. I wanted to check out the radio-controlled (RC) power boats that are on the pond on Sundays. I posted about the Model Yacht Pond here.

There were a few guys with gas-powered RC boats there. The season is over, so there wasn’t a lot of activity. The RC boats have changed since I was involved in the hobby decades ago. Most people run larger gasoline (weed wacker type) water-cooled 2-stroke engines rather than the model nitro-methanol glow engines. Back in the day, glow engines ruled. The two-stroke gasoline engines are cheaper, more reliable and burn gasoline mixed with two-stroke oil, which is much cheaper than a nitro-methanol blend.

RC boat with a 26cc two-stroke engine

Nice finish on a mono-hull race boat

A fast catamaran

I hung around for a little while and watched a guy dial in a sport hydro RC boat. This was a very fast boat and turned like it was on rails.

Sport hydro RC boat skimming past at 60mph

The hydroplane-type hulls are very fast and have unbelievable speed through the turns. The mono-hull boats require more finesse to get them turned.

Mono-hull RC boat sending up a rooster tail

I came back home around 11am and spent the rest of the day watching football. At this time last year, I won the football pool after picking 12 winners out of 14 games. I’m not doing that well this year, but I’ll have seven or eight more tries at it.

By the afternoon, the park was nearly empty. All of the weekend Halloween partyers had left.

This morning, I completed our health care elections. Open enrollment occurs in October. I almost forgot to do it. I have health care benefits through Volkswagen of America as a retiree. I’m thankful we don’t have to find health care through the Obama-care morass.

Today looks like it’ll be another beautiful day for a bike ride. I’ll unload our bikes from the trailer and go out for a ride.

Home on the Hill

Our first month at Mission Bay RV Resort at De Anza Cove in San Diego ended yesterday. One month is the maximum length of time you can stay in the park. After one month, you must leave for a period of at least 24 hours before you can check in again. I wrote about it last year in this post.

The City of San Diego has been fighting the residents of the mobile home park at De Anza which surrounds the RV park. This land was originally owned by the state. When the city worked out a lease with the state to add this land to their Mission Bay holdings in the 1950s, it was supposed to be a park for “travel trailers.”

In the 1970s, the city and state governments agreed to “phase out” permanent residents. At the same time, the state of California passed a law ensuring that residents could stay until the lease expired in 2003.

At the time the lease expired in 2003, residents filed a class action lawsuit against the city. They won an injunction in court allowing them to remain in their mobile homes – which may have once been mobile, but were made permanent long ago. The battle has been ongoing in the courts since then.

The “phasing out” continues. As residents pass away, their dwellings are demolished and the empty lot belongs to the city. Last month, the city council passed a bill to allocate $22 million to relocate the remaining residents. If they can reach an agreement, the mobile homes will disappear.

There has been much speculation over what will become of the area when that happens. The state still insists that the land was always intended for recreational use. There have been rumors of a resort hotel or enhanced RV resort. You know which rumor we want to believe.

I believe this lawsuit is the reason for the one-month maximum stay in the RV park. The city doesn’t want any chance of RV dwellers claiming residence in the park. Making us leave after a month is their insurance policy.

We opted to spend our 24-hour exile at the Sycuan Casino like we did last year. It’s about 30 miles from De Anza. It’s an easy drive and the distance is long enough to exercise the coach and get the running gear up to operating temperature. I think this is a good thing to do. We also run the generator while we’re parked at the casino. Monthly exercise for the generator is also good.

After we arrived and set up in the upper lot, I took my driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance to the casino’s security area. They require these documents to issue a free overnight pass – they actually gave us a two-night pass and encouraged us to stay and enjoy the casino. They didn’t require this documentation the first time we stayed here, just a driver’s license. Now they want to make sure we are the registered owners of a licensed and insured vehicle on their property.

Our home on the hill at Sycuan Casino

We enjoyed a cold one at the casino sports bar, then walked back up to the upper lot called Bradley 2. Bradley 2 is the designated RV parking lot. It’s large and we are the only occupants at this time. Later, we returned to the casino and had dinner in one of the restaurants there. I had the kung pao chicken. Donna had a baja chicken bowl. Both dishes were mediocre at best, but there was lots of it. We both brought home leftovers that we’ll have for lunch today.

Donna made banana pancakes with walnuts, chocolate chips and dried cherries for breakfast this morning. We plan to shove off soon and head back to Mission Bay RV Resort to begin another month long stay.

Time Keeps on Slippin’

I mentioned wasting time playing a computer game called 2048 in my last post. It’s a matching game. The game has a board with 16 squares. It opens with two numbered tiles, numbered two or four. Every time you move a tile, another number two or four tile appears. Put two twos together and you get a four tile. Put two fours together, you get an eight tile and so on. The idea is to reach the number 2048 before the 16 squares are gridlocked with tiles. It’s challenging. I worked on a system and kept getting close – I would usually reach 1024 before I got locked out. Yesterday, I finally hit the magic number.

Bingo!

After I hit the winning number, I went out for a bicycle ride. I rode through Crown Point to Pacific Beach, where I stopped at Seňor Pancho for a plate of five rolled tacos with guacamole. Seňor Pancho is on Mission Boulevard on the northwest corner at Hornblend. It used to be a Der Weinerschnitzel when I was growing up in the area.

On the way back to the Mission Bay RV Resort, I stopped to watch sailboats on the bay.

Identical sailboats racing each other across the bay

I’ve joked many times about how every day is Saturday. The fact is, I lose track of the days many times. The time just slips away. While I was standing there, I realized it was Wednesday and our first month at Mission Bay RV Resort was coming to an end.

Mission Bay RV Resort is owned by the city of San Diego. The city only allows RVers to stay in the park for a maximum of one month. After a month, you’re required to leave the property for a minimum of 24 hours. I’ll go into what I think is the reasoning behind this in another post. Our time is up on Friday. That means I need to pack and prepare to leave today, so we can pull out tomorrow. We’ll go the Sycuan Casino near El Cajon and spend the night, then return on Saturday after serving our 24-hour exile.

When I mention staying in a parking lot overnight – such as a casino or Walmart lot when were on the road – I think some people get the impression that we’re living as homeless vagabonds. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we overnight in a parking lot, it’s a matter of convenience. We’re fully self-contained and live in a comfortable, albeit small home. Our home just happens to have wheels.

When we’re in a nice RV resort – or even boondocking in the desert, on a beach or along a river – we live what we consider to be an excellent lifestyle. We stay in places that generally have agreeable weather. We meet up with family and friends and make new friends. We take advantage of outdoor activities. We grill and dine outdoors often. We’re not roughing it. This is a lifestyle choice for us, not a road trip or vacation.

Some people have the means to take this lifestyle to an even greater level of luxury. Right now, there are at least four coaches in the park that cost well over one million dollars. The owners of these coaches may or may not be full-timers, but they spend months out of the year in their motorhomes. They could be living anywhere, but they choose to be here with us.

Donna read a Facebook post yesterday by one of her full-time RVing friends about her husband having surgery. Someone posted a reply suggesting that maybe they should get a hotel room for a few days to recuperate. What? Why would anyone leave their home to recover in a germ-filled hotel? Donna’s friend isn’t on a road trip. Like us, they’ve made a commitment to this lifestyle and their coach is their home.

I have much to do today before we head out. The temperature this afternoon will reach 80 degrees. We’ll have back-to-back travel days, so I probably won’t post for a couple of days.

The Solution

I haven’t posted since Sunday morning. This wasn’t due to laziness on my part – well maybe it was a factor. I just didn’t have much to say. My Sunday was consumed with NFL football. I watched the Chargers lose a nail biter when Kansas City kicked a field goal with 30 seconds left in the game. Donna went out for an easy spin on her bicycle, then spent the rest of the day taking care of business.

On Monday, I puttered around while Donna worked on her book revision. I did a lot of hand exercises with therapy putty and wasted time on a computer game called 2048. It doesn’t seem that hard until you try it. Then it becomes an obsession to score the 2048 tile. I have yet to get past 1024.

Yesterday, Donna went out on her bicycle at 8am to meet up with a training group on Fiesta Island. The group is part of a cycling club called Cyclo-Vets. This is a San Diego-based Masters Racing and recreational bicycling organization. Its members include dozens of national cycling champions and gold medalists in the Senior Olympics. The Tuesday morning ride is coached by a time trial coach, but is open to anyone wanting to improve speed and fitness. Donna learned some new techniques. They did intervals and high-cadence spinning over the 30-plus mile ride. She came back excited to join the club and plans to continue training with them every Tuesday morning. These coached sessions will surely help to increase her speed and racing confidence.

While Donna was out on her bike, I retrieved a ladder from the trailer and went to work cleaning our coach. We aren’t allowed to wash the coach with a hose and bucket of suds here in Mission Bay RV Resort. I did a waterless wash with a product called The Solution. This product was recommended by our friends and fellow Alpine Coach owners, Dave and Lynda Campbell. I purchased it at the FMCA Convention in Redmond, Oregon, but hadn’t tried it until yesterday.

The Solution waterless wash

The Solution comes in a gallon-size jug that contains a few ounces of a concentrated formula and an empty spray bottle. I added distilled water to the formula to make a full gallon. Then I poured The Solution from the gallon jug into the spray bottle. I applied a fine mist of the product to small sections of the coach and wiped it with a microfiber cloth. I used a second, clean microfiber cloth to buff the area. I cleaned the entire coach, from the roof line to the bottom of the basement compartments.

The Solution worked really well. It was a matter of spraying an area and wiping it clean. It took me two and a half hours and a little over a quart to clean the entire coach. I’m really pleased with its appearance – the coach is gleaming. Now it will be a matter of seeing how well the shine holds up. The Solution claims that waxing isn’t necessary when this product is applied.

Clean and shiny

Later, I rode the scooter to the Verizon store. I wrote in my last post about a discrepancy in the credit that the Verizon salesman, Christian, told us we would get for Donna’s old phone and what the Verizon customer service support person told me. Christian said we would receive a $200 credit while a one-hour chat session with the support person resulted in an offer of a $17 credit. I told Christian what had transpired. He said he would straighten it out and that we would definitely get $200. He got on the phone with the Verizon trade-in center. He was on the phone with them for 50 minutes!

It turns out the trade-in center was supposed to e-mail a promotional code to me. With this code, we will qualify for $200 versus the “normal” trade-in of $17. They said I would receive my code within 48 hours. There went another hour of my life dealing with Verizon.

After I left the Verizon store, I stopped at the Pacific Beach farmers’ market. I picked up San Diego wildflower honey for my daughter, Shauna. She has pollen allergies and wants to try the honey therapy. I also bought more Rickaroons. We love ’em. And I picked up a couple of bottles of extra virgin olive oil from a local family-owned business.

By the time I got home, it was time to go to the Offshore Tavern and Grill for my free football pool drink. Donna and I didn’t fare too well in our football picks, but at least I got a free drink.

Donna saw an Alpine Coach pull into the park while I was out. We also saw a Kymco Downtown 300i scooter, identical to ours, in one of the sites. Last evening, we took a walk through the park and introduced ourselves to the Alpine Coach owners, Marvin and Donna. Their coach is a 40-foot mid-door triple slide like ours, but it’s a 2008 model.

Marvin owned a construction business that specialized in building horse arenas, race tracks, rodeo and fairgrounds. He traveled throughout the country operating his business. Over the years (since the 1980s), he’s owned 13 different motorhomes that he used to travel to the construction sites. He’s owned his Alpine since 2008, when he bought it new. Like most Alpine Coach owners, he’s enthusiastic about the brand.

He sold his business and retired at the age of 50. They have a home in Boise, Idaho but do a lot of traveling. They come to San Diego several times a year. His wife, Donna has rheumatoid arthritis and gets regular infusion treatments here at Scripps. They agree that San Diego has the best doctors and medical facilities.

This morning, I broke out the ladder again and finished cleaning the windows on the coach. When I washed the coach yesterday, the front windows were too warm to clean them. I got on it early this morning before the sun heated them up.

Clean glass

We have another beautiful day ahead with temperatures in the mid 70s. I think I’ll ride my bicycle to the beach this afternoon.

Friends and Family

I rode the scooter to Dr. Leek’s office Friday morning. He examined my hand and removed the stitches. He said it looked good and now I need to work on motion and hand strength. We set another appointment for four weeks out. He told me I could cancel the appointment if everything is going well three weeks from now.

I knew Donna was busy on her book revision, so I didn’t come straight home. I rode the scooter to Ocean Beach and stopped for lunch. I kicked around the beach. It was a beautiful day. The north end of the beach near the jetty is called Dog Beach. It’s one of the few beaches in the county where dogs are allowed on the sand.

Dog Beach

I made another stop at the Model Yacht Pond. Two guys were sailing their model sailboats on the pond. The sailboats are interesting. The boat in the photo is about 40″ long. Servo motors with clever linkages are used to trim the sails. A servo operating a block-and-tackle on the stern applies tension on the carbon fiber mast. This is used to keep the mast from whipping about in gusty winds. The model sailboats are cool, but I’m a motorhead. I’ll come back to the pond next Sunday to see the power boats.

Radio-controlled model sailboat

Last week, when we bought our new smartphones, Christian (the Verizon guy) told us they would send return packaging via mail in 10 to 14 days to return our old phones. On Thursday, I received an e-mail from Verizon with a USPS label attached and instructions to return my phone by October 24th. This confused me. I went online to the Verizon site and started a chat session to ask what I needed to do. I had two phones to return but only one label, and if I waited to receive the packaging that Christian said we would get, I would miss the October 24th deadline.

I spent an hour online chatting with a customer service representative who didn’t understand my issue. She was also the slowest typist ever. I would sit and stare at my screen which said a message was being typed for several minutes before I would receive a one-line question. I finally came to the conclusion that we have two returns with different instructions. My old Samsung S4 needed to be sent with the label that was e-mailed to me. Donna’s old Samsung SII will be sent when we receive the packaging for it. There’s still a disparity in the credit amount we should get for the old phones. I need to go back to the Verizon store and straighten that out, the customer service representative had me going in circles until I gave up and ended the chat.

On Friday night, Donna’s sister, Linda joined us for dinner. I grilled a Morrocan-spiced rack of lamb which Donna served with a brown rice pilaf and sauteed zucchini, peppers and onions. Later we watched an old movie – My Cousin Vinny. It’s a great movie. Joe Peschi and Marissa Tomei are both outstanding in this comedy classic.

Morrocan-spiced rack of lamb

Saturday morning I rode over to the Pacific Beach post office and mailed my old phone. At 11am, my daughter, Shauna, picked me up. We made the 90-minute drive up to Menifee to visit my stepdad, Ken. We stopped at the Kentucky Fried Chicken near his place and bought an eight-piece meal to have for lunch with Ken. Ken loves Kentucky Fried Chicken. I can’t even remember the last time I had it.

Anyway, we sat and talked for a couple of hours before we headed back. On the way home, we stopped at Trader Joe’s in the La Jolla Village Square. Donna had sent me a text message with a long list of groceries to pick up there. I’m glad Shauna was with me because the store was a zoo and she knew where to find everything.

Donna and Linda were in Lakeside at a country music festival with Mona. They made plans to attend this event a few weeks ago when Mona told them she had two extra tickets.

Linda, Mona and Donna at the country music festival

Last night I watched an entertaining Moto GP race race from Phillip Island, Australia. I won’t spoil the results in case a reader has it recorded. Donna came home from the festival around 9:30pm, halfway through the race.

The Mission Bay RV Resort has the usual weekend crowd with lots of kids in the park. Today is NFL football day. I think I’ll do some hand exercises while I watch the games. I broke out my number 14 Dan Fouts throwback jersey – I hope to see the Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs and go 6-1.

Just Another Day

I haven’t posted since Wednesday, mainly because I haven’t done anything special. We’ve been at the Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego for three weeks now. Our days are pretty routine. I can’t say much about the weather. Every day for the past week has begun with an overcast marine layer, with the temperature in the mid-60s. By noon at the latest, the overcast burns off as the temperature rises to the mid-70s. Very predictable. But ‘m not complaining.

When we hit the road 15 months ago, we started out like most full-timers do. That is, we hit the ground running. We acted like tourists on vacation, trying to see all of the sights and flitting from place to place. We went from Michigan to upstate New York, then across the country to the Pacific Coast in Washington. We followed the coast south and made our way to San Diego last fall after just nine weeks on the road. We covered something like 7,000 miles in that time.

When we arrived in San Diego last year, the idea of settling in one place for three months seemed strange. We still saw lots of local sights and went out and about. We learned to adjust to our new way of life and really started living the full-time RV lifestyle.

Our coach is our home. Sometimes we’re homebodies. Donna is busy working on a book revision and doesn’t have time to sightsee right now. She still enjoys getting out on her bicycle or jogging in Mission Bay Park on a daily basis. I usually get out and go for a walk at the beach or ride my bike. In the evenings, we just hang out. It’s no different from when we lived in a sticks-and-bricks home. Some days are couch potato days.

The big difference is that we can move wherever we want, whenever we want. When we left San Diego at the end of 2013, we moved at more leisurely pace. Since trading up to our new (to us) coach in January of this year, we’ve covered about 6,000 miles, less than 700 miles a month on average. We spent January through April in Arizona, mostly in one place (Mesa). Then we made a big loop of the western states over the summer. We’ve learned to break up our travel and keep our travel days under 250 miles. When we stop, we usually stop for at least two nights.

The pace we ran in the beginning was unsustainable. It was exhausting. Reading other full-timer’s blogs, I see this is a common occurrence. Most of us start out thinking life on the road means constant motion. Donna and I are better at planning our travels now. We’ve settled on having extended stays in San Diego and Arizona. These are our home bases. The fall in San Diego is hard to beat. The climate is mild and there are so many things to do. Arizona is a great place to spend the winter months.

Next year, we plan to make another cross-country trip, but we’ll do it at our own pace. We’ll have certain destinations that we want to reach by a certain date, but we’ll be able to be flexible between planned stops.

When we lived in our sticks-and-bricks home, I enjoyed grilling. I also enjoyed eating the great meals Donna prepared. That hasn’t changed since we hit the road. In fact, I grill more often than ever because we’ve got grilling weather year ’round.

On Wednesday evening, our friend Mona visited us. She and Donna took the Sea Eagle kayak out for an hour-long cruise on the bay. When they returned, I grilled boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Donna prepared hot sauce-butter to put over the chicken and served it over corn-and-spinach salad with a baked yam on the side. The hot sauce-butter was an adaptation of the steak recipe she prepared last week.

Grilled hot sauce-butter chicken with corn-and-spinach salad and baked yam

Last night we enjoyed wild Alaskan cod poached with tomatoes, summer squash, white beans, onions and red peppers, and grilled rosemary toast.

Wild Alaskan cod poached with tomatoes and summer squash

I have an appointment for a follow-up visit at Dr. Leek’s office this morning. He’ll remove the stitches from my hand and I can start working on regaining hand strength and finger motion. My fingers are very stiff now.

Other than that, it’s just another day in the life of a full-time RVer.

50,000 Hits

Yesterday marked a milestone for this blog. We had our 50,000th hit! It’s gratifying to know people check in on us and find the blog interesting enough to come back from time to time.

Once again, the skies cleared up by noon. I was finally able to get a sock and shoe on my right foot. The toe healed and is fine. With shoes on my feet, I put on my helmet and took my mountain bike for a ride by the bay. I left De Anza Cove and rode south along the east side of the bay. Near the Hilton Hotel, I saw an interesting water toy. It looked like an oversized tricycle. It seats two and the rear wheels are paddle wheels. I saw two of them out on the water and one on the shore.

Water trikes

It looked like they moved along without too much effort. You see all kinds of things on the bay.

I rode with the heel of my right palm on the handle bar. The swelling in my hand has gone down, but the stitches still pull and I lack finger strength. The stitches will be removed on Friday when I go in for a follow-up with Dr. Leek.

After my ride, Donna and I rode the scooter to the Bayard Street farmers’ market in Pacific Beach. It’s not that large, but they have plenty of fresh produce. Donna discovered Rickaroons there. Rickaroons are healthy and delicious energy snacks – a perfect treat after a bike ride.

Farmers’ market on Bayard Street between Hornblend and Garnet

I made the usual stop at Offshore Tavern for my Tuesday free drink. The winner of the football pool buys a round for the rest of the guys who entered the pool. Although there are more than 30 entries, only half a dozen or so show up for their free one.

Last night, I watched last weekend’s Moto GP race in Japan that I had recorded. Marc Marquez sealed his second consecutive Moto GP World Championship at the age of 21. Moto GP is the pinnacle of motorcycle road racing. This was the first time Honda captured the championship at the Twin Ring Motegi race track, which they own. Marquez is destined to break many records if he stays healthy.

We have a thick marine layer overhead this morning. The rain showers didn’t hit us in the night. The overcast should burn off by mid-day. I expect another pleasant afternoon. Donna’s friend, Mona, is coming by later in the day and the two of them plan to take the kayak out on the bay.

Paradise Point

Yesterday’s weather was predictable. The marine layer burned off by noon and we had somewhat hazy, blue skies. The weather pattern is changing as the wind shifts from the northwest. This brings moisture and the possibility of much-needed rain showers tonight.

I was feeling restless by noon yesterday. Donna is busy working on a book revision that has a deadline. I went out on the scooter and stopped at the Chase Bank on Cass Street in Pacific Beach. I still have stitches in the palm of my right hand, which made riding the scooter a little difficult. I quickly learned how to relax my grip enough to keep the palm of my hand off the handlebar. I was basically riding with my thumb and two fingers.

I tooled around Mission Bay and rode to Paradise Point. Paradise Point is a 44-acre island on Mission Bay, accessed from Ingraham Street. The island sits between west Mission Bay and east Mission Bay, with Fisherman’s Channel on the north side and Mission Bay Channel and South Cove on the south side. Roughly half of the island is part of Mission Bay Park, open to the public. The rest of the island is occupied by Paradise Point Resort and Spa – a 464-room full-service luxury resort. When I was growing up and through the ’80s, it was known as Vacation Village.

Back then, I spent many Sundays on the island at the Model Yacht Pond. This is a rectangular basin surrounded by well-kept lawns. It was built as part of the Mission Bay Park master plan. The original intent was to have public school students build model boats and have inter-scholastic competitions.

Back in the ’80s I was a member of a club called the San Diego Argonauts. The Argonauts are model boat enthusiasts and they sponsor monthly competitions at the pond. The regular schedule calls for members of the ship building guild to sail their intricately detailed electric powered boats on Saturday mornings. You’ll see everything from model fishing trawlers to luxury yachts to battleships.

On Saturday afternoon, once the wind usually picks up, the pond is taken over by the sail division. Cleverly designed radio-controlled sail boats sail gracefully across the pond. Nowadays, most of these boats are very high-tech with carbon fiber hulls and masts.

On Sundays, the power division rules the pond. Various scale models of racing type boats are on the pond. Some are larger off-shore designs powered by weed-wacker type engines. You’ll also see hydroplanes powered by nitro-burning, two-stroke-model racing engines.

I had a mono-hull racing boat back in the day, powered by an O.S. Max 7.5cc racing engine. I participated in monthly races sanctioned by the North American Model Boat Association (NAMBA). NAMBA sets the rules for various classifications of racing boats. My boat was controlled by a two-channel radio – one channel for the throttle and one for the rudder.

Model Yacht Pond

Model boat racing became an expense beyond my means as I was raising a young family and had other hobbies as well. I was racing to win, and oftentimes I would be much too liberal with the nitro-methane percentage – resulting in blown engines. I only competed for one season.

Paradise Point Resort also includes two beachfront restaurants and the Barefoot Bar. The views are spectacular.

View to the northwest from Paradise Point at Fisherman’s Channel looking across Sail Bay

View to the south across Mission Bay Channel towards the West Mission Bay Drive bridge

We’re planning to hit the farmers’ market on Bayard Street this afternoon. We have yet to make it to the farmers’ market in the Little Italy district on Saturday. I thought we might go this weekend, but then Donna reminded me that she and her sister, Linda, are going to a country western music festival in El Cajon with our friend, Mona. I think I’ll go watch the model sailboat regatta at Paradise Point.

New Phones and Data Plan

One challenging aspect of life on the road is Internet connectivity. I’ve mentioned this before, but It’s something you take for granted when you live in a sticks-and-bricks home with unlimited, high-speed Internet service.

Internet connectivity is a must-have for people on the road. Donna relies on it to do her work and earn income. In my case, it’s more of a convenience to stay in touch and keep up with events.

Many RV parks offer free wifi. We take advantage of that whenever possible, but what they don’t tell you is that “free” really means “free when it’s working.” When the RV park fills up and numerous people are trying to connect, it bogs down. Sometimes it gets so slow that it’s unusable. Or you can’t get connected at all.

When the free wifi is too slow or unreliable, we use our Verizon Jetpack. This device allows us to access the Internet via the Verizon network. It’s on the same account as my Verizon smartphone. Here’s the catch – data usage can get expensive. We try to limit the amount of data we use on our Verizon account. For example, we avoid streaming video content. By carefully monitoring our usage and taking advantage of free wifi whenever possible, we’ve been able to get by with 10GB or less of Verizon data usage per month.

That changed for us on Saturday. Donna and I went to the Verizon store in Pacific Beach. I stopped there last week and went over the October promotional data plans with the guy there. We upgraded our data plan to 30GB for $130/month. This is a great deal – it’s half the price of a 30GB plan last month. We also upgraded our phones to Samsung Galaxy S5s. It took about two hours to get through the paperwork and account changes. When we came home, we spent several hours getting our phones set up and personalized.

My set-up was easy since I was migrating from a Samsung S4 to the S5. Donna had to back up all of the apps and data on her Samsung Galaxy SII to her laptop and then transfer what she wanted to her new phone. I used an app called Smart Switch Mobile that seamlessly moved my apps from the old phone to the new one. The Verizon guy told me about it last week. He said all of my data would migrate without a hitch.

He was mostly right. All of the apps were moved. One of the ways I amuse myself is by playing a game on my phone called Subway Surfers. I have amassed a huge war chest on this game. I’m at the highest level and had more than a million coins, over 900 hoverboards and hundreds of other bonuses. These riches have allowed me to compete in a weekly challenge where I routinely finish in the top five against other participants worldwide.

Subway Surfers – the app – transferred to my new phone. But none of my data came with it. I’m back at the lowest level with no coins or tools. I have to earn them back all over again. It frustrated me, but at the end of the day, it’s just a game. I have the time to work my way back to the top.

In my last post, I mentioned our neighbors with the under-inflated front tire. On Saturday morning, I checked their tire pressure and found 30psi in the left front tire. The right front tire was at 98psi. I set up my portable compressor and tried to fill the left front tire for them. The valve stems on their wheels are short and hard to reach. After 20 minutes of futzing around, I had the left front tire up to 90psi. I put a metal cap on the valve stem. Later, I talked to them and told them what I found. I was hoping it was a leaking valve core and the cap would stop the leak.

On Sunday morning, Donna and I drove Shauna’s car to the airport to pick her up. On the way back, we stopped at the Broken Yolk on Midway Drive for breakfast. This is a popular breakfast restaurant – they have at least three locations in San Diego. Although the food is good, I find them to be overpriced and service is on the slow side.

When we came home, I talked to our neighbor and he told me that their tire was down to 40psi. The guy (I never learned his name) called for roadside assistance. They sent a tow truck! I don’t know why they didn’t send a mobile tire service. The tow truck driver had a large compressor and managed to inflate the tire to 95psi. He sprayed Windex around the rim where the tire bead seats. Bubbles quickly formed along a section of the bead. The tire bead wasn’t sealing. This is usually due to foreign matter caught between the bead and rim. It could be dirt or a piece of paper label from the tire. The only way to fix it is to remove the tire from the wheel and clean the area, then remount and inflate the tire. The tow truck driver wasn’t equipped to do this.

I went back to our coach and turned on the NFL morning game pitting the Green Bay Packers against the Miami Dolphins. Then I saw our neighbors pulling out of the park! He was going to Phoenix, Arizona. I guess he was going to take his chances of driving with a slow leak. I hope it worked out for him. Driving a 30,000+ pound vehicle with his wife and kids on board for 300 miles with a front tire losing air doesn’t seem prudent to me.

In the afternoon, I watched the Chargers play in Oakland. The San Diego-Oakland rivalry dates back to the inception of the American Football League. It’s a bitter rivalry – we don’t like them and they don’t like us. Even though the Chargers had won four straight games and the Raiders were 0-4 (going back to last year, the Raiders have lost 10 straight games), I knew it would be a tough match-up in Oakland.

The Raider fans threw eggs at the Chargers bus as it entered Oakland County Stadium. The game was a gritty see-saw affair. The Chargers took a three-point lead with two minutes left in regulation. Jason Verrett, the Chargers number one in pick in this year’s draft, sealed the game when he intercepted Derek Carr’s pass. The Chargers headed home with a divisional win and their record is now 5-1.

This morning, it’s overcast with a marine layer. I expect it to burn off by noon. We’ll have clear skies and temperatures in the mid-70s this afternoon.

Dings and Scratches

I took it easy and hung around the RV park again yesterday. The usual Friday influx was evident. It’s a long weekend for some people, Monday is Columbus Day. It seems like there are more kids in the park than usual.

In the afternoon, a Newmar Dutch Star diesel pusher backed into the site next to the driver’s side of our coach. Three youngsters ranging from about seven to 12 years old piled out – two boys and a girl. They pulled bicycles and skateboards from the basement of the coach. They were riding and skateboarding in between the two coaches. I saw one of the kids run his bike into their coach. I was thinking of the dings and scratches I would find on our coach later.

Their mom packed beach towels and whatnot and they headed down to the beach. After they left, I went outside and looked our coach over. No worries, they didn’t hit it. I looked at their coach and saw several dings and scratches. I noticed the front tire was low on air pressure. This is not good. Low air pressure is the leading cause of tire failure. Having a blowout on a front (steer) tire could be a hair-raising experience.

Under-inflated front tire on our neighbor’s coach

Later, I saw the mom outside. I mentioned the low tire. She looked at it and told me the tires were just put on before they left Utah. They’re planning to drive back to Utah on Sunday. I looked closer and I saw the cap was missing on the valve stem. The valve might not be seated well and it could be leaking. Today, I’ll break out my Porter-Cable compressor and fill the tire. I also found a spare metal valve stem cap that I’ll put on. I would hate to think of them driving down the freeway on an under-inflated tire.

Donna spent the afternoon shopping with her sister, Linda. When they returned, they told me a motorhome had a mishap at the other end of the park. While backing into their site, they hit a tree! I took a stroll around the park and surveyed the damage. It was minor, just cosmetic scratches.

While I was out, I took a walk along the path by the bay. The tides have been unusually high. The tide was going out and shore birds were feeding along the waterline. I snapped a photo of egrets and rails feeding together.

Egrets and rails feeding

We have Shauna’s car again today. Donna dropped Shauna off at the airport last night. Shauna flew to Portland, Oregon to join her sisters for their maternal grandmother’s funeral service. RIP Delaurice Grams.

We plan to head over to the Verizon store today. Our friends at Technomadia and Nina at WheelingIt wrote about the great October offers from Verizon and AT&T. I think we’ll upgrade our phones to Samsung Galaxy S5s and contract a 30GB/month data plan. Our current data plan has us scrimping on our data usage. My only fear is that data usage seems to expand with data availability. How long will it be before we find 30GB is too low?

We’ve had mild weather and the trend continues. Highs in the mid 70s, overnight lows in the mid 60s. I can’t complain about that!

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: California

Pre-Halloween Fun

Home on the Hill

Time Keeps on Slippin’

The Solution

Friends and Family

Just Another Day

50,000 Hits

Paradise Point

New Phones and Data Plan

Dings and Scratches

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: