Yesterday was a day that got away from me. Donna was working on her computer most of the day while I sat in a lounge chair outside and read a book. The temperature remained in the mid-60s all day and the marine layer didn’t burn off until after 3pm.

Around 3pm, we rode the scooter to the Vons grocery store in Pacific Beach. Nowadays, you can’t get the advertised price at a grocery store without a “club card.” If you don’t have a card, you’ll pay too much for most of the things you buy. Stores use the cards to track people’s purchases and preferences. They also try to create loyalty by making cardholders feel like they’re getting special deals.

Donna and I each have a Vons card which we got soon after we arrived here. Yesterday, we both forgot to bring our cards along. Neither of us have bothered to  register our cards, so using our phone number was not an option. Donna told me not to worry about it.

The cashiers at Vons will not apply the “discount” price unless you have a card or are registered in the system. There’s another grocery store in Clairemont that we shop at called Keil’s. They also have a club card. However, at Keil’s we just tell the cashier we are visiting the area and they apply the card discount for us. The cashier there told us they have a lot of customers from the RV parks.

The approach to the discount card business at Keil’s makes sense to me. Why clog up their system with cards that are used by people that are visiting the area. It doesn’t make sense to track those purchases and  send flyers to addresses that are out of town.

Back to our cardless shopping at Vons. When we got to the cashier, Donna asked if she could join their rewards program. The cashier said “sure” and handed her a card, which Donna immediately swiped through the card reader and got the discounts. Now we have three unregistered cards.

This club card business is a little crazy. If I kept a card for every store I shop at, I would need another wallet. Of course, we could register our cards and use our phone number at the cashier, but that means giving our address, e-mail and phone number so the store can track our purchases and start pitching advertisements to us. We decided to keep the new Vons card in the scooter’s glove compartment. It’s funny how we can use the card without registering it. It’s also funny to me how the cashier will not apply the discount but will happily hand over a card for you to swipe.

At BevMo, I was required to complete the registration form before they would apply the advertised pricing. I complied. I’ll bet someone mindlessly keyed in my information, including my South Dakota mailing address. BevMo doesn’t exist in South Dakota,but they probably mail flyers to me there, which our mail service recycles. At our request, the mail service doesn’t forward junk mail.

One of the items I wanted to get at Vons was book of postage stamps. I learned that our insurance carrier, Progressive Insurance, would reimburse the cost of the windshield repair I paid for last week. I just need to mail them the invoice. With all the club card hub-bub at the cashier, I forgot to get the stamps.

After we returned, I dumped and rinsed the holding tanks. This is a job I do every five days or so. Then I went to the tavern for a cold one and to submit my football picks for the weekend.

Today, the overcast should burn off before noon. When Donna returns from her exercise class (she scootered herself today), I think I’ll go for a bike ride. Later, I’ll go out to buy stamps. Maybe I’ll go to the two RV dealers in Kearny Mesa and kick a few tires. We’re thinking about upgrading our coach next year. I’m pretty happy with what we have, but there are some things I wish for. Donna needs a better working environment. If we don’t replace this coach, we need to think about modifications to improve her office space.

Yesterday marked the end of our third month on the road. We rolled out of our driveway in Shelby Township, Michigan, for the last time July 23rd. Looking back, the time is a bit warped.

What I mean is that time seemed to stretch over the first two months. We visited so many places and did so many things, it didn’t seem possible that it all happened in two months. The last month was spent in one place, Mission Bay, San Diego. We’ve settled into daily routines. For me, everyday is Saturday. The weeks are marked by NFL football games on Sunday. The time has flown by.

Last weekend, we reached our 30-day limit at the Mission Bay RV Resort and had to leave for a day. Once we hooked up the trailer, I actually enjoyed driving our motorhome to El Cajon. Among RVers, this is known as “hitch itch.” Hitch itch is a hankering to hitch up and hit the road.

We plan to stay put in San Diego until January. We’ll have to leave the park two more times as we reach the 30-day limits. That should satisfy my hitch itch until we head to Arizona in January.

We’ve had a couple of days with unseasonably cool weather, about 5 degrees below normal. In San Diego, that means the daily high along the coast is in the mid 60s. Unseasonably cool is what the weather report says, but I’m not complaining. It will warm  up to the 70s tomorrow and through the weekend.

Donna is working on updating her website, unclutter.com. She’s also working on her book promotion plan and generally figuring out how to work while living the full-time RV life.

Today, I’ll study the NFL schedule and pick my teams for this weekend’s games. I doubt if I can repeat last weekend’s results when I picked 12 winners out of 14 games.

I love my Weber Q100 gas grill. It’s portable, large enough to prepare a meal for four and it works so well. The flame is proportional to the settings on the  knob, making it easy to control the temperature.

Last night I grilled the tastiest, juiciest chicken breasts ever. I used an unconventional technique that provides such great results, I have to tell you about it. Start with skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts. Sprinkle your favorite herb seasoning; Donna used a mixture of minced garlic, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and herbes de Provence.

While the grill was heating, I wrapped two bricks with aluminum foil. Reduce the flame on the grill to medium (about 350F). Place the chicken breasts skin side down over direct heat. Then place the foil wrapped bricks on top of the breasts and close the cover on the grill.

Foil wrapped bricks on chicken breasts – start with skin side down

Grill for 10 minutes, then use an oven mitt or tongs to remove the bricks and set them aside on the grill. Turn the chicken breasts over and put the bricks back on them. Grill for another 10 minutes. Remove the bricks, place the chicken on a platter and voila, you’ll have tasty, juicy chicken.

Flip the chicken and replace the bricks

Ready to serve

I’ve read that this technique comes from Italy, created by either the Tuscans or the Romans. They call it pollo al mattone, although they usually cook a whole chicken with this technique. The weight of the brick presses the meat into the grill, crisping the skin and helping it to cook evenly. The brick also covers the meat, keeping it moist. I know it sounds a little weird, but it really works. Donna found this technique in a magazine called (The Best of) Fine Cooking Grilling. Try it. I think you’ll like it.

Served with brown basmati rice and spinach sauteed with diced sundried tomatoes and sliced garlic

Yesterday, Donna went out to lunch and spent the afternoon with her friend, Paulette Ensign, who says she is one of our biggest blog fans. After they left, went for a bike ride. Later, I went to the tavern and collected my football pool winnings. I bought a round for the other guys there who participated in the pool. It’s their tradition. I’ll have to study the match-ups for this weekend and try my luck again.

This morning it’s overcast with a thick marine layer. I expect it to burn off later and we’ll have another fine day in San Diego.

I haven’t posted since Friday. I anticipated this as we had a busy weekend. Mission Bay RV Resort is owned by the city of San Diego and they have strict rules. One of the strictly enforced rules limits RVs to a 30-day maximum stay in the park. After 30 days, you must be out of the park for at least 24 hours before you can return. This means your RV and all belongings must be off the property. For us this meant I would have to pack the trailer and take it with us.

I spent most of Saturday preparing to leave. I organized the trailer and loaded the scooter. I packed some of our stuff in the basement compartments. I lubed the rams on the jacks and one slideout. I hooked up the air compressor and set the tire pressures. By 4pm I had most of my chores done. I asked our neighbor if I could lock our bicycles behind his trailer and retrieve them when we return on Monday. He didn’t have a problem with it. The bicycles are a hassle to load in the trailer. I load them suspended from the ceiling. They’re one of the last things that go in. Leaving them here may have been cheating, but it made loading the trailer much simpler.

At 5:30pm, my friend from our school days, Carole Sue Bringas, picked us up in her car. She took us out to  eat at the Fish Shop on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach. This is a popular restaurant/bar/fish market. It’s very casual. You order at the counter, take a number and seat yourself. They bring the food to your table. Ordering is a three-step process. You choose your fish (I chose yellowtail), then you choose one of eight seasonings (I chose Fish Shop Seasoning) then you choose your style – taco, salad, sandwich or plate ( I chose the plate which comes with two side dishes). The food was excellent although I have to say that the Fish Shop Seasoning was very spicy. Donna had the Fish Shop Shrimp Special (say that fast three times!). Carole treated us to dinner (thank you, Carole Sue!).

From there we drove downtown to the Hyatt Hotel. We went to the bar at the top of the Hyatt. The view of San Diego Bay from there is spectacular. We had a drink, then moved on. Carole took us to a place on Morena Boulevard called the High Dive. It was a lively cafe/bar that locals from Bay Park frequent. After a drink there, Carole dropped us off at the RV park.

I paid the RV park a late checkout fee of $10. The  usual check out time is noon. For $10 they allow you stay as late as 4pm. The only caveat is this; they record the time you leave and you must be out of the park for a full 24 hours or more before you can check back in.

I wanted the late check out so  I could watch the Chargers play the Jacksonville Jaguars on TV. The game was played in Jacksonville, so  the TV broadcast was at 10am local time and wouldn’t be over until about 1pm. The Chargers played a good game; Phillip Rivers led the team to a 24 – 6 victory. The defense hasn’t given up a touchdown in 11 quarters.

We thought about our options for our 24-hour leave. Some people park in the public parking areas in Mission Bay Park. This isn’t legal as parking is forbidden from 2am to 4am in these lots. Some people get away with it though, because the enforcement is spotty. I didn’t want to risk having a cop knock on the door after 2am. Another option was to move to another RV park in the area. I didn’t want to pay for a site when I would only be there for a day and wouldn’t hook up. There are casinos in San Diego County that allow free overnight RV parking. I thought this made the most sense.

I dumped and rinsed the holding tanks before the game. Once the game ended, Donna and I finished packing, pulled the slideouts in, raised the jacks and rolled up the awning. I disconnected the water and power. I made a few walkarounds, checking the compartment doors and generally looking things over. We haven’t moved in 30 days. I wanted to  be sure we weren’t forgetting anything.

Once I was satisfied, we rolled out to the lot behind the office. While I was hooking up the trailer, Donna checked us out. I was 2pm when we left the park. Our destination was the Sycuan Indian Casino in El Cajon. It’s about 30 miles from De Anza Cove. The drive was smooth and uneventful. As we drove through El Cajon, Donna was reconnoitering gas stations. She found a couple that looked easy enough to enter and exit. We decided to stop at the Shell station on 2nd Street on our way back to Mission Bay RV Resort.

The drive to Sycuan took us through Granite Hills. This is a pretty area with high-end luxury homes. The landscape is rolling hills covered with sagebrush and manzanita. There was a short, steep (10%) descent on Dehesa Road, but it wasn’t a problem although I wondered how we would fare climbing it on our way back.

Once we entered the casino property, we were directed to an empty parking lot called Bradley 2. This lot over looks the casino and the regular car parking lot. We had the whole lot to ourselves and tried to find a fairly level spot. The lot slopes; I had a hard time leveling the coach. Once level, we put the slides out.

Our spot in the Bradley 2 lot

Parking lot view from Bradley 2 lot

We walked from the Bradley 2 lot down the stairs to the casino. I counted the steps, 49 steps from the lot to the casino level. I read complaints about these stairs on a couple of forums when I was researching places for free overnight stays. The stairs are fairly steep, but we didn’t have any problems. We went to a sports bar in the casino and ordered food. I had a couple of beers and watched three NFL games at once on the array of TVs in the bar. I picked a couple of upsets in the football pool for the weekend. My picks were looking good. I had Washington over Chicago, the Jets over the Patriots, Pittsburgh over Baltimore.

Sycuan Casino viewed from the Bradley 2 lot

We walked back up to the RV. I ran the generator and watched the Sunday night game. I picked another upset here; I had the Colts over the Broncos. I picked 12 winners out of 14 games and won the pool!

View down the stairs from Bradley 2 lot

View up the stairs from casino level

Yesterday we walked to the casino for breakfast. The Wachena restaurant in the casino is quite good. After a leisurely breakfast, we made the RV ready for travel. The drive up the steep grade on Dehesa Road wasn’t an issue, we motored right up. We gassed up at  the Shell station Donna spotted on our way in. We were back at De Anza Cove by 12:30pm.

We couldn’t check in until 2pm, so I parked in the public parking lot outside of the RV park. Donna went for a walk while I sat in the grass and read a book under the shade of a tree. At 2:10pm I pulled into the lot behind the RV park office. We checked in for another 30-day stay. I dropped the trailer and we settled in at site 111. I think I like this site better than 148, where we were before. It’s closer to the gate and has different trees that aren’t shedding nearly as many leaves.

Last night I walked over to the Offshore Tavern and Grill to watch the Monday Night Football. This NFL season is getting expensive. Oh well, my football pool winnings are offsetting the beer bill! I walked home around 9pm.

The 30-day/24-hour shuffle is a small price to pay to stay in such an ideal location. I don’t understand the rule though. The other RV parks in the area (Campland and Santa Fe) have 90-day limits. On the other hand, getting the RV on the road for some exercise every 30 days isn’t a bad thing. The 30-mile drive is enough to get everything up to operating temperature and allow the fluids to boil off any condensation. The emollients in the rubber of the tires are redistributed as you roll down the road. Sitting stationary for long periods of time is hard on vehicles.

This life of retirement is busy! I’m really enjoying it though. I don’t understand when people say retirement is boring. Donna says she can see how much more relaxed I am. I have no plan for today, other than a long bike ride at some point. Life is good!

I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I just heard the seven-day weather forecast; sunny, highs in the 70s under blue skies for the coming week! So happy to be here.

Yesterday we got off to a slow start. Around 11am, Donna and I finally dressed for a bike ride. We rode the Sea World bike path. There’s a radio controlled (RC) airplane field off of Sea World Drive. We stopped for a few minutes to watch the model airplanes. In the ’90s, I was heavily involved in RC airplanes.

I worked my way past the RC airplane trainer stage and eventually competed in International Model Airplane Club (IMAC) events. These competitions require the pilot to fly specific maneuvers in sequence. Judges score the pilot on the geometric precision and placement of each maneuver. I put a lot of time and effort into it. After a few years I was competing with giant scale airplanes – like an Edge 540 with a 10′ wingspan powered by a Desert Aircraft 150cc twin cylinder horizontally opposed two stroke engine. This power plant could accelerate the 32-pound airplane straight up.

In 1997, I competed in the national championship in Morgan Hill, California. I won my class and my first national championship. In 1998, I competed in the nationals again, this time in Toledo, Ohio. I won my second national championship there. Then I hit a wall. Trying to maintain proficiency at that level requires constant practice. Expectations from sponsors and spectators can be very high. The pressure took the fun out of it and I walked away. I sold all of my equipment after the 1999 season and quit flying RC airplanes.

After we returned from our ride around Mission Bay, I worked on the leaking sewer hose fitting. I tried everything I could think of to stop the fitting from leaking to no avail. Finally, I gave up and decided to replace the hose extension and install new fittings. I suspected that my couplers weren’t compatible with the hose I used. When I built the extension to hook up the sewer hose outside of the compartment, I used Rhino Flex hose. I chose this hose for its durability. The Rhino Flex couplers are oversized and hung too far below the compartment. So, I used Valterra couplers.

I rode to Walmart to source the new parts. Unfortunately, Walmart didn’t have the parts I needed to build a new extension. There was a guy there looking at RV accessories. I asked him if there was an RV store nearby.

He began telling about the stores I already knew about – one in San Marcos, another in El Cajon. These were quite a distance away, I wouldn’t have time to go to either place. Then he said, “Oh yeah, there’s a La Mesa RV Center on Ruffner Road.” This was about four blocks away from the Walmart we were in.

I went to La Mesa RV and talked to one of the guys there. He confirmed my suspicion of a compatibility issue. Even though the Rhino Flex is supposed to fit Valterra hook-ups, he told me the hose only seals well with the Rhino Flex couplers. I decided to rebuild the entire extension with Valterra hose and couplers.

By the time I returned, it was after 4pm. We were expecting guests sometime between 4:30 and 5pm. I didn’t have time to build the new extension, so that’s on the things-to-do list for today.

Brett and Cheri Alguire drove down from their home in Dana Point to join us for dinner. Donna met them at a SendOutCards convention. They are planning to escape to the full time RV lifestyle next July. We talked about the ups and downs of life on the road. Donna went over her experience of going paperless and how she handled important documents. I went over some of the routines of set up and things to consider before buying an RV with Brett.  If I knew what I know now before we jumped in, I might have made a few different choices. It’s a good move on their part to research now and plan their transition. We also  gave them advice on where to find more information from people with far more experience than us, such as the Technomadia blog.

They’re obviously excited about the prospect of full-time RVing. We look forward to meeting up with them again down the road.

We continued our conversation over dinner. I grilled boneless chicken thighs with Moroccan spice rub. Donna served it with lentils and green beans. For dessert Donna made fresh mango ice cream in her Vitamix.

Moroccan spice chicken thigh with red lentil and green beans

Homemade mango ice cream

Today, a mobile glass repairman will come out to fix the ding in our windshield. This happened when an oncoming truck carrying an uncovered load of gravel passed by in Montana. Then I’ll get to work on the plumbing.