Dinning Room Table/Cabinet - Santee, CA

Before starting our trip south, we realized that part of our dining area remodel was 'unmodeling' itself. It consists of a cabinet attached to the floor (of the living room slide) at inside edge with the tabletop attached to that and to the outside wall of the slide. Almost all of the screws had jiggled loose so we had ourselves an unmoored piece of furniture that would not stand alone

We inverted it and placed it on sticky mats, found somewhere to put all the dishes from the cabinet and hoped for the best. Fortunately, it behaved itself on the trip. Until we can fix it, we've put the shelves in the cabinet upside down so that the dishes can go back in. The screw holes on the wall are rather large now and one has to be concerned about the thickness of an RV wall and not simply go get longer screws.

We've had a busy week so we haven't gotten to it yet.

No ANTS, so far - Santee, CA

As soon as we parked the rig and connected the electric (for inside A/C), we started our attack on the ANTS. Ruthi dribbled BORAX around the entire RV. Then she did an inch by inch inspection of the grounds looking for the telltale tracks the ANTS make going to and from their colony.

While the BORAX is suppose to keep the ANTS from invading your space, it really just provides a nicely paved/clean highway for them to traverse the neighborhood. But, the good news to that is it is much easier to find the marching columns of ANTS on the white surface. Which means they then get drenched in the poison liquid.

Everyday after Ruthi walks Karma and rides her bike (if temperatures are below 90s), she replenishes the BORAX trail and seeks out errant ANTS. there have been isolated ANTS, scouts probably, that she has dispensed with. One morning, Ruthi saw that the ANTS had gotten onto the rig via one of our bikes - they were climbing up the kick-stand which was outside the BORAX "moat" and following the bike's structure to the chain locked to a hitch connected to the RV and from there all over the side of RV. Out came the deadly spray and they were eliminated!!!

Then Ruthi went inside to verify that they had not yet gotten into the interior spaces. Phew, no ants there!!!

Tiny Toilets – All Over California

The first time Ruthi noticed the small size of toilets, was when we were at Boots’ son’s house. The toilet there is the size of the toilets Ruthi’s sister has in her pre-school – built for 4 or 5 year olds. As we traveled across America, there didn’t seem to be small toilets anywhere else but California.

Now, we notice these small toilets in restaurants, RV parks, gas stations, mall stores, etc. There is something about California that seems to attract toilets of a smaller statue. While we do occasionally find regular sized toilets, the vast majority are “small”.

Heat Wave - Santee, CA

We woke up to pee early this am (6ish) and decided it would be smart to finish hooking up to the utilities. When we get into a new site, we quickly connect electric and turn on propane, leaving water and sewer for another time. Yesterday we had appointments and grocery shopping that kept us out in the heat most of the day.

We started filling the fresh water tank (for emergencies since we can – and do – just hook up to their water directly for our stay here), got the bikes down from the carrier and locked up front; put the rug out to minimize dirt into the rig (really does very little to that end but we keep fooling ourselves), and finally pull down the awning to help shade the door side of the RV. Well, things were going well when we broke the pull mechanism on the awning and couldn’t pull it down. With the heat wave coming we were a bit panicked.

There’s a work truck in the RV park that we see a lot that says something about “RV Awnings” sold, installed, fixed, etc. Off we go to find it. It wasn’t where it usually parks so we circled that particular section and were about to return home when he pulled in. We whined/explained about our “problem” and he followed us home. We parked on one side of the space and he on the other. We had barely gotten out of the truck when we noticed that he had the awning down. He showed us how it can get a bit skewed and needs a little brute force to square it up and pull it down using the side supports. He gave us a new pull strap, showed us how to use our “de-flapper” thingee (keeps the awning from ripping off the rig and leaving the earth’s gravitational pull to enter the universe during heavy winds), and went on his way – no cost??? What a guy – sweating sweating sweating and doing a good deed!

Winter can't some soon enough!!!!

SB Castaic to Santee, CA

Again pulling out at 9am, for the same reasons stated in the “SB Oceano . . .” blog entry. This time we knew the route through LA was bound to be slower and maybe as bad as our NB pass. Today the NB traffic was thick and slow like we had experienced 2 weeks ago. Our South heading was easy, less traffic and few delays. The biggest problem we had was 2 navigational errors that put us into LA’s light industrial district. We ended up off Interstate 5 because of confusing signage – novice drivers. Both times we were lucky that our smart phone GPS got us back on track (I-5) quickly with no problems.

When we are towing our rig and get onto surface streets, we are always cautious that we might get into a “tight” spot with no option but to turn around or backup. Neither of which are simple (see blog above about our length and tight spacing). We made very good time through LA and beyond.

Valencia Travel Village – Castaic, CA

This is the same RV park we stayed at on our trip north. The front desk clerk offered us another site and Ruthi convinced her that we liked #17 (the one we had maneuvered into before). Ruthi was driving and attempted to get us into #17 again but the tree on the left seemed to have moved a little bit more towards the site gravel pad. So, we got as close as we could without hitting it and realized Ruthi would need to back up and go around for another try. This is not unusual for us or other RVers.

We have often made a number of shots at a particular space before we could safely position the RV. We have watched others have similar challenges. If you think about it – we have a 24 foot truck and a 34 foot trailer. With the 4-5 foot overhang, this makes the entire length about 54 feet. It’s not our old Subaru Legacies (maybe 8 feet at most) anymore. Short of a career in the hauling business, driving semis for years and years, it is usually a challenge to get into some of the smaller, tighter spaces in the older parks.

Ruthi backed up and was positioned to “go around the block” so to speak and try again when Boots suggested she try going down another row and cut through a sight that would provide a straight shot into #17. It look like a better approach and she tried it. Success!!! We plugged in the electric and got inside to the A/C!

SB Oceano to Castaic, CA

We were more prepared for our trip south. We used our smart phones to watch the traffic patterns on Monday and Tuesday; we decided that leaving at 9am again would be the best. Any earlier would put us into commuter traffic and any later was only worse. So, off we go expecting a little slow down south of Santa Barbara before we left CA 101 to CA 126 heading east. Surprise! surprise! we had no delays to speak of and could see that NB was as slow as it had been for us 2 weeks prior.

We made good progress to our usual pit stop for diesel before parking for the night. This particular station has regular pumps for cars and non-towing trucks and 3 large lanes for the semis and RVs. While we could get into the smaller lanes, we try to always pick those with enough space for easy maneuvering. The only open spot was in the middle of 3. The left one was occupied by a Coke delivery truck off-loading pallet after pallet of goods for the associated store. And, the right one had a semi waiting for its owner to return. The middle one it is - our tank is on the driver’s side. The pump on that side did not have a number, hmmm. Ruthi went in to make a questimate deposit on how much fuel we’d get. The clerk said that we were at pump “14”. When Ruthi returned she could see that the pump on the other side of the truck’s tank was labeled “14”.

She removed the handle from the pump and raised the switch and tried to start pumping. Nothing happened – after 2 more tries, Ruthi returned to the clerk to find a solution. The clerk explained that she would need to remove the handle from the pump labeled “14”, lay it on the ground, and flip the switch. Then she should return to the pump on the tank side of the truck, pickup its handle and flip the switch. Tada – diesel flowed into our tank and did not flow out of the handle sitting on the ground on the other side. Seems a little weird, don’t ya think?

The Perfect Place – Somewhere???

Here’s what we want in the place we finally put down roots (before we pass away, hopefully): diversity - ethnic, age, restaurant, movie theaters, etc. We like being near a major airport hub and would prefer good, plentiful public transportation. The weather needs to be warm(not hot) – between 60 and 80 is ideal!

So, where is that place??? We are still looking and will let you know when we find it.