Category Archives: Opinions

Sixteenth Day – Quiet Time

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Diane did Laundry today. Three loads at the park laundry facilities and a couple loads at the on-board washer/dryer. This means I have to take another shower.

All we did today was just hang around the ‘house’, walk Max every once in a while, and eat. Life is simple.

I took some photos, too, and as I was fiddling with the laptop, all my recent photos magically appeared so I can now add them for you to see. All you need to do is go back to the old entries, starting with First Day and see if it makes sense.

Here are some I took today on Max’s last walk.

Fifteenth Day – Downtown Danger in San Diego

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That title sounds menacing, but it really wasn’t. Mainly it was annoying and some of it was all because the GPS was leading us in circles. It’s a long story and I’m hesitant to get into it, but what the hey, I’ve got nothing but time. You have permission to stop reading this any time you wish. Just don’t tell me.

First, the morning was overcast when I got up and it made me wonder if there was going to be rain in the forecast. Since I don’t check the news when I get up, or listen to the radio, I didn’t have a clue about what the weather would be. Also, I didn’t really give a rip because weather isn’t one of my concerns while we’re parked here in our current paradise. Nope, it might be cloudy, but it’s neither too hot nor too cold. Just perfect.

By easily ignoring the morning weather we had one less problem to worry about. Not that there was anything else to worry about but, you know, you just never know what might happen. That meant we could go out today and do something different instead of just hang out in the RV. We’ve been here a week and it’s about time we got out and looked around a little. Right? Yes, we needed to look around the town in which we lived for a number of years in the 80’s.

We had 2 objectives when we left: 1) Get gas in the car. It’s been running on empty for a few days now and we don’t want to get stuck halfway across the San Diego Coronado Bay Bridge although it might have been pretty exciting: 2) We decided to have lunch at the Shake Shack. We ate at one of those in the Portland area with Maryssa, Matt, their baby Tommy, Bob, Steffani, Jennifer, Daniel, Cedric, Lydia, Jeran, Jasper, and Siah. Say that six time real fast. The food at that facility was very good so we thought we’d try it again. Diane found one in Old Town so that’s where we went first.

We found the Shake Shack easily because the GPS hadn’t decided to test us yet. Again, the food was very good. The only negative was the price – two simple cheeseburgers, one order of fries, one root beer and one chocolate shake for $35 and change. That seemed a little excessive but, heck, we’re on vacation so it’s Ok to splurge once in a while. I offered Max a french fry, but he refused. I’m pretty sure he was hoping for a hunk of hamburger instead.

When we were done eating, I programed by phone to take us to a local Chevron so we could top off the tank. This is where the GPS went crazy on us. It took us around in circles to the point where Diane was getting really upset until I realized that the station it was trying to get us to was on the MCRD base, but the GPS didn’t know where the main gate was. What fun. It was then that I reprogrammed it to take us to the closest Chevron it could find, and it took us there without error.

The station was pretty crowded when we arrived, but we managed to get near an unused hose. I started the process then was accosted by a young black man who had wandered across the street and stood about 10 feet from my back, as I worked, yelling obscenities about the “racist b**ch who owns the station.” He also proclaimed, over and over, that he was a “n*gg**. Since he was behind me, I ignored him as best I could and continued filling the tank. I could have terminated the process and just walked away, but I stuck it out until the hose clicked off at 14+ gallons and about $75. All that gas and a show, too.

When I put the hose up, I had to turn around to get into the car, so eye contact was unavoidable. It was brief and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it seemed to have been enough for this young man to terminate his tirade and walk away. I actually felt as though I dodged a bullet.

Back in the car Diane had already programed the GPS for the trip home and that’s where we went. It was determined, unanimously, that old town San Diego was far too peopley for us and nothing like we remembered from all those years ago.

Before entering the park, we stopped at the dog park situated just outside the gate. A young couple had two labradoodles, one black, one white. We waited until they left because we didn’t want repeat of the dog fight at the previous dog park. I explained our reason for waiting which was a good opener to conversation. We didn’t get names, but she is an emergency room nurse, and they own a townhome in Tucson, AZ which they offered to sell us. That was thoughtful, but since we didn’t get names, or numbers, it’s not likely to happen. Still, it was an interesting offer. Nice kids.

When Max had sniffed every corner, and blade of grass, we went back to the RV. Diane sat outside and read while I watched the last few minutes of the Chiefs and Bengals football game. It was an exciting game. Kansas won.

Now it’s late and time for me to brush my teeth and go to bed.

Fourteenth Day – Living the Dream in Coronado

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0945 – OK, it’s official. Neither are we flying nor driving home to visit my primary care doctor to check my arm. We’re staying right here as planned. I suspect most of you already figured that out. Instead, we’ll just keep an eye on my wounds and if they start turning the wrong color, or my arm becomes unusable, we’ll visit another emergency room. Or, I’ll let Max lick the wounds and make them go away. He’s good at that.

1911 – For those of you not familiar with military time, or the 24-hour clock, that’s 7:11 pm. It’s interesting, and kinda cool, the way eleven’s keep popping up in our lives. It happens a lot. That 7:11 was the most recent, but just before that Diane told me she thought she’d like to go to church in the morning and found a Lutheran congregation in Coronado that’s located at 1111 5th avenue. So, of course, we’re going. Service at 10:11 am but we’ll be there at 10:00 am just to make sure we’re on time.

Today was pretty laid back for both of us. There’s a Goodwill in Imperial Beach that caught Diane’s eye so she went to visit it and discovered that it’s in a complex of other stores she enjoys visiting. So it was perfect. She left me home, alone with Max, so I could watch the Oregon vs. Oregon State football game. We can do that now that we get all the channels we pay for. It was fun to watch. During half time I took Max for a walk about.

Just as the Colorado vs. Colorado State got started Diane returned hungry and deemed it appropriate if I got off my lazy butt and cooked something. So, I did. I cooked a bunch of eggs, making them look a little bit like an omelet, threw some cheese on it, warmed some little chunks of ham (for me), toasted some bread, and we had supper. Diane poured the milk. It wasn’t bad. After supper I took Max for another walk then we sat outside the RV looking across the bay at San Diego and the Naval Station. It’s quite peaceful here. There was no Seal activity today unless they are in super stealth mode.

Now it’s getting chilly, below 70, so we’re going in for the night.

Hope all is well. One of these days we’ll be someplace where I can add a photo for you once in a while. Don’t know why it doesn’t work now.

G’night.

Thirteenth Day – The Dish is Fixed!

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It’s been a good day. We went shopping at a Walmart Super Store for some food to replace what seems to have gone missing over the past few days. Then we went back to Camper World to get a new Wally because I was convinced that the old one took a beating in all the heat it suffered.

Once home I carted all the new food inside and Diane, like a magician, found places for all of it to reside. A couple of the items she got was some dead chicken pieces and a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies. While she lounged around on the patio with Max, I cooked all that stuff for lunch, and it was OK because that’s my job. I’m the cook. She cleans. I love the tradeoff. So does she. Thankfully it was good. She said so.

After eating all that dead chicken Max thought, it would be nice if he got to go for a walk because he had to stay home and guard the RV from intruders. He’s good at that because he’s such a scary little guy. Having said that, I’d bet he didn’t bark even one time while we were gone because he was asleep. I’m going to install a camera and see if that’s true.

Once we returned from the walk Diane gave me permission to install the new Wally and see if our life without TV was going to change. Before calling the designated number to activate the new Wally, I hooked it all up, paired the new remote to Wally, and it started going through its paces without me having to do much of anything as it moved through the process. All I had to do as wait for the que to dial the number and finish it. The end result proved to be the solution to our on-going dilemma we’ve experienced on this trip. Everything worked perfectly. We’ll never have to leave the RV at all except to get food. Life is good.

As the sun started going down Diane pried herself out of her patio chair and did a few loads of laundry so now we have clean towels, and I have my underwear back. I was running low. Tomorrow it will be sheets and some other stuff that doesn’t concern me.

Just as we were fixing to sequester ourselves in the RV to watch TV, we saw some interesting boats in the middle of the bay moving slowly with blinking red and amber lights. Diane said she’d seen then earlier zooming to the south in a line, going like the wind. This time they were heading back to the north. As we watched them, we became aware of small green and red lights bobbing in the water, moving very slowly toward us.

In the bay next to the RV park is a large docking facility for some really fancy boats. It’s owned by the Navy Yacht Club San Diego that has use of buildings in the park. I know that’s true because I’ve seen the signs.

As the lights moved around the bay, steadily moving north, the smaller lights migrated into the space between the bay and the docked yachts and the RV park. It wasn’t long before everyone in the park was standing/sitting along the edge of the water watching what was going on. As the sun set, the lights were easier to see.

Considering where we are, in very close proximity to base and beach where advanced Navy Seal training is conducted, I presumed the small lights in the bay were tethered to swimmers making their way from the southern end of San Diego Bay (Imperial Beach) back to the base from which they embarked. My presumption was adopted as truth by all the people surrounding me, that we were watching future Navy Seals at work. It appeared their objective was to transit that small space between us and the moored yachts without lights, in the dark. I have to admit that it was only Diane and me standing behind our RV, but many others were drawn to the drama taking place in new technology. There were no bubbles that would indicate a swimmer so they must have been using either rebreathers or some sort of technology that allows the escort boats to wirelessly send them oxygen via the tethered lights. They came toward us then moved away but always moved north to circumnavigate the docked yachts. It seemed they were doing this for our benefit, but in truth, it was probably Special Forces testing fancy stuff. I think everyone agreed that this was far better than listening to them firing weapons all up and down the beach for hours before quiet time – 10 pm.

I’m convinced I’m right, as is Diane. It was a display of Seals at Work. Amazing.

In case you’re wondering, my arm still hurts, and I took the bandages off to relieve pain from the swelling. It’s not bad but removing the bandages helped my attitude. Diane read the paperwork sent home with me from the hospital and learned that I’ve been advised to see my primary care doctor in a week for follow-up. So, I guess we’ll either have to fly home next week, or head home now since it took us a week to get here. That decision will be made tomorrow.

Good night.

Twelfth Day – Dish Debacle at Fiddler’s Cove

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This morning, I woke up with an optimistic feeling about my chances of defeating the Dish Gremlins that have plagued us since our arrival here. It’s very perplexing to have such difficulty with a system that has functioned perfectly for us all up and down the west coast, into Montana & Utah, and pretty much ever where else. Then we started this adventure, and we’re currently parked in probably one of the best areas in the world for complete access to every satellite ever launched in the last 150 years. There must be something about going south that Dish just doesn’t like. Making matters worse (for me) the Dish support folk’s solution for everything is to rescan the channels, over and over. I’m really tired of doing that.

I guess I’m just being a whiner, aren’t I? But that doesn’t really matter because I’m the customer which makes me always right. Right? Now I must pause and plan the rest of my day. It’s only 0930 but I’m sure I need a nap.

No, no nap. Not yet, anyway. Instead, we put Max in the car and headed to Imperial Beach so Diane could get her toes done. She does that once in a while. Max and I dropped her at the nail place and continued on to the Veteran’s Dog Park so Max could run free. He hasn’t done that in a while.

When we got to the park there were 3 big dogs who greeted to him, and everything seemed to be Ok. Then, all the sudden one of the big guys got a little pushy and Max objected with a growl, then the fight was on. The big dog grabbed Max by the neck and shook him like a dishrag and I was sure he was going to die. It was pretty horrible. Ignoring all the things about getting into the middle of a dog fight, I got into the middle of it because no one else seemed to be doing anything.

I succeeded in getting Max away from the big dog and he seemed to be OK and I was amazed. I later found one puncture wound on the back of Max’s neck and that was all. Me? My right arm and hand were well used in the extraction and I’m OK with that. Max survived. Had I not intervened when I did, I have no doubt he would have died.

The owner of the attack dog helped clean up my wounds using some supplies provided by a gentleman who apparently lives in his car in the parking lot. Then I went back to the toenail place to get Diane. She was a little surprised to find me with my right arm all bandaged up and, after hearing the story, took Max back to the RV and took me to the Sharp Coronado Hospital Emergency Department. It’s interesting because they appear to be working in the parking lot and that’s where patients wait until the doc can see them. I asked the nurse about that, and she said they’ve been working that way for the last two years. Seems to work OK because from the time I checked in, saw the doctor, got cleaned up, got my tetanus shot, drove to Walgreen’s for my prescription, then back to the RV was about 1.5 hours. That would never happen at home.

The wounds were much more impressive while they were bleeding and lost their splendor once they were cleaned up and bandaged.

Now it’s all wrapped up. And they hurt, especially the one on my forearm. I’m looking forward to seeing how colorful my arm is tomorrow.

Other damage is to both shoulders and my left shoulder was almost normal again. I guess I am destined to have sore shoulders forever. That sounds like a complaint, I know, but I’d do it again to save our little dog.

The dog that gnarled on us is the one on the left. The more I think about the attack, the more I’m convinced that Max was the instigator. We know how touchy he is to be bumped by a foot and I’m pretty sure he threw the first punch. So, perhaps he learned a lesson. Doubt it, but you never can tell.

We’re sitting outside on our patio digesting our supper and thankful that Max appears to be back to his normal, loveable self.

What a day.

Eleventeenth Day – Relaxing in Space #45

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Today we did pretty much nothing. That’s right, nothing. Well, nothing other than eat every once in a while, walk Max, try to make the Dish system work, visit with neighbors, and walk Max. Eating was sporadic, walking Max three times was mandatory (he insists), and visiting with neighbors just happens.

Then, there was all the gunfire going on up and down Coronado Beach for 5 hours, 4-9 pm. Everyone knows it’s the Navy Seal training, so I just look at it as the sound of freedom. The weapons being used were semi-automatic but I’m not sure of caliber. I’ll ask my new friend, Ray, a retired Gunners Mate Chief from Arkansas, who just happens to be driving an almost exact replica of our RV. Yes, he and his wife and 3 dogs also has a Holiday Rambler Neptune XL, but his is a 2008. He and I had a nice visit and will we’ll be getting together again. Fun guy. Much younger, be he’s a fellow chief so we understand each other.

The last walk of the day for Max was just as it was getting dark. The RV Park is situated on the water side of a housing area where houses are no doubt very expensive even though most of them do not have a water view. At the end of the park the asphalt turns to and brush, a good place to walk a dog. There’s a path through the brush that goes toward the homes and circles back around to the park, but going that direction, at that time, had us walking directly toward the gunfire. We couldn’t see what was going on because of housing and sand dunes, but we could definitely hear them. Max didn’t want to have anything to do with going that direction and made it clear he wanted to walk aways from the noise. I let him choose the direction and he led me right back to the RV which was about 1/2 a mile away. That tells me a little about what he may have been subjected to while running the streets in California before we got him. He was not a happy camper out there.

Back at the RV we watched a documentary on 9/11 that showed us a great deal about what happened before, during, and after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Both Diane and I remember that day vividly, as I’m sure most of you do also.

Today was much cooler than yesterday. The next few days are supposed to cool even further. It’s nice to not having your clothes stick to you all the time and to have the A/C units running nonstop to cool things down. It was nice on our ears. We don’t know how long the cooling spell will last, but it’s OK. Today was beautiful and comfortable. We’ll take it that way any day.

Seems like there was something else I wanted to share but all I can think of is that Diane pointed out that I misspelled “presidential” on my last entry so once this is done, I’ll correct that.

Be safe.

Tenth Day – Fiddler’s Cove and our Dish Antenna

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Today was a little laid back because we didn’t have a plan. Then we thought about the Presidential Debate scheduled for 6 pm which evolved into a discussion about problems we’ve encountered with TV reception.

The first space we had, #29, had an excellent list of channels on the cable service provided at each space. We had most of the network channels and a ton of other channels we don’t really need and probably won’t watch. But they are there if we want to. We moved to #45 and the cable service is severely limited. But the view is magnificent.

We have the option of over the air broadcast channels which works but brings us mostly Hispanic channels that we don’t understand very well, and maybe one network channel. That’s not consistent with the previous luck we’ve had with OTA channels. When it worked well the antenna had power to it, but that seems to have gone away for some reason. That points out a reason for me to, perhaps, take a look to see if I can find out why. Maybe tomorrow.

Our other TV option is the satellite Dish. When we’re not surrounded by trees, or buildings, it’s the best. Tons of channels in addition to all of the networks. It’s perfect. No, it was perfect. I was unable to get it to function properly here in San Diego and I wasn’t sure why. So, with Diane’s approval, I dismantled the antenna to see if there was something obviously broken, or loose inside. That permission was granted after we had decided to take a road trip to a local Camping World to buy a new antenna. Looking at the innards of the old antenna was done, and a determination made prior to the trip. I couldn’t find any obvious issues with the old antenna so I put it back together and we hit the road.

Diane plugged the Camping World location into her GPS and away we went. Got to go over the Coronado Bay Bridge both ways. After getting the new antenna we stopped and got lunch at Wendy’s, found a city park where we ate our hamburgers, then journeyed on home. On arrival I unwrapped the new antenna, connected it, and it didn’t work any better than the old antenna. I spent hours, literally, on the phone with Dish techs who tried to help me but, at the end of the day, it was a waste of time. No one could figure out why the antenna would connect but the signal strength was too weak to function properly. Seriously. I was on the phone with one guy for 1.5 hours. Really! Wore me out. I must of rebooted that system a dozen times and nothing changed.

So, tomorrow we’re taking the new antenna back on the assumption that there’s really nothing wrong with the old one. Maybe it just doesn’t like the humid air down here and it will get over it once we move along to Arizona. I’m committed to turning my trouble shooting prowess, which is questionable, toward finding out why the really good OTA antenna doesn’t have power because if I can retore it I feel good about the possibility of resurrecting it to a point where we’ll be able to get channels from all over the place. Maybe even from LA where all that stuff originates.

So, please wish me some luck while I dabble with electrical circuits on my quest to solve this problem. I know, it’s only 12 VDC so it wouldn’t kill me unless ai fell off a ladder because I was shocked, and broke an arm, or leg, or arm and leg, or a rib or two when I tumble into something hard on the floor. Something like that.

The reason for all this TV reception concern was the debate as I mentioned previously. Diane thought it was going to be on ABC but while fiddling with our various choices for seeing it I discovered that it was actually on NBC. Guess what! That’s the only network channel we could get on OTA antenna! So, we got to watch it after all.

The upside of all that effort was I got a lot of exercise and Diane got to spend the entire afternoon sitting in her chair on our very large patio, reading a book while the cool breeze off the bay kept her cool. She needed that. Apparently, I slugged her in my sleep last night and interrupted a pretty good night for her. I slugged her in the arm but I have no memory of it. Proof that him getting closer to losing my mind.

Before this devolves into something I don’t want to talk about, I’m going to quit. I’ll let you know how the search for OTA antenna power works out.

Cheers.

Ninth Day – Fiddler’s Cove Marina

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Another beautiful day in Southern California. The high temperature was 97 degrees but there was a nice breeze off the water making it pretty nice to sit and watch the activities around us. We did take one trip into Coronado to replace the steak that turned rancid for some reason. I mean, we planned to eat it a week or so ago but one thing and another delayed it to the point where it was 3 weeks old by the time we decided cook it. It was pretty gnarly. I personally didn’t see a problem, but Diane did. Left alone, I would have cooked it and probably got sick so that’s one more reason I plan to keep her around. I actually don’t need any more reasons for that, I’ve got plenty of them.

The trip to downtown Coronado was very pleasant. Very reminiscent of driving around in Palm Springs. Lots of tourists. What makes it really interesting to us is that it’s surrounded by Naval bases. They have NAS Coronado on the north end, COMPHIBPAC to the south, 32nd Street Naval Base on the east across the bay, and wide-open ocean all the way to China on the west. What makes that OK is that Navy Seals train on Coronado Beach on the section that is wide open to China. We’re all safe.

We had a real meal, our first one on this trip, on that steak and the asparagus and corn on the cob Diane bought many days ago to go with the steak that went bad on us. Thankfully, the veggies were just fine. Diane doesn’t eat corn on the cob, so I got to eat all three of them and it was wonderful. Between the corn and the asparagus, we used almost an entire stick of butter. Oh, and we shared a very large baked potato, too. That used part of the butter.

After the meal we sat outside in the nice breeze, enjoying the view

… birds diving in the water for stuff … no photos for that …

… and things, or people, that float past us on the water …

This lady is in the first space in the park with whom she shares a gentleman who has one entire half of his face tattooed with so much ink that half his face is blue. I’m pretty sure it’s OK that I took the photo since she was, like, right there on the water, but I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell him you saw this photo. He might take it the wrong way.

Later, when the sun was almost gone, Max took a notion to object something out back on the water. He was barking at it which is totally unlike him. He generally only barks at dogs that bark at him first. So, we had to look.

Turns out, it was just a magnificent sunset that he wanted us to see.

What a good puppy, right?

Good night.

Eighth Day – Fiddler’s Cove RV Park – San Diego

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We Made it! Seems like we’ve been driving for weeks instead of days. Now we have to get used to not having to get up early so we can move on to the next stop. We’ll be here until October 8th, I think. Something like that. Then we can move along.

Our main objective today was to circumnavigate Los Angeles by selecting the proper freeway. There are many to choose from. Thankfully, the Garmin we have for the RV knows the way and got us here just fine. We encountered a number of hills that caused the rig to overheat, but slowing down seemed to solve the problem. In a few days we’ll go searching for a mobile mechanic who can visit us to drain the radiator and engine of whatever is in there and refill it with the proper mixture of coolant. There will be a report.

Here’s the view from space #29 … to the right, directly across from the park is the 32nd Street Naval Station where I spent a lot of time many years ago.

That’s the San Diego skyline across the bay from us. You can see the Coronado Bridge, also. We don’t have a waterfront space, but ours isn’t blocked by a neighbor.

It’s very comfortable here sitting outside without my shirt sticking to me. Temp must be in the low 70’s, while every night we stopped the temp was around 100. Nasty.

I took Max for a walk shortly after arrival and he marched me right down to the bay and jumped in. He was leaping around in the water like a porpoise, having a great time. Then he did some zoomies in the loose sand and immediately ran back to the water. The people sitting around in their chairs really enjoyed his water show. Now he’s a mess, of course, but he’s been a really good puppy so there’s no way we could be upset with him. He actually cleans up well and pretty easily. Just pick him up and shake him a little and all the dirt just falls off like magic.

See you tomorrow.

Seventh Day – Lancaster Elks Lodge #1625

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What a day.

Everything was sailing along smoothly until we got to the LA Grapevine. Going over it in a normal car is no big deal. With the RV? Different story. We stopped only a little way into the trip up the mountain to unhitch the car so I could attempt to control the overheating problem we’ve got. I did pretty good, but a good part of the trip was made going only 15-20 mph on a 70-mph freeway. The flashers got a good workout. Even at that speed I wasn’t the slowest one on the trip. Trucks get to use their flashers a lot, too.

At the end of the day we made it safely to the Lancaster Elks hoping there would be a space open for us. They have 60, but you just never know. Once we found the lodge, I was happy to see they had a lot of open spots so I could put that worry away. Picking one was another job. I paid the camp host the required $25 for the night (a really decent price) then picked a spot where the trees weren’t hanging so low. I think most of the folks parked here have been in their spots for a long time and the trees just grew around them over time. The downside is they only have 30-amp service so we could only run 1 A/C at a time.

For us to connect to a 30-amp service required aa adapter. I have 2 or 3 of them at home in the garage along with other stuff I forgot, so we had to find a store to purchase one. First we tried Lowe’s, then Auto Zone, then finally wound up at Bobby Joe’s RV Center at the edge of town. He had one and I was happy to pay the $40 for it.

Back at the RV I got the power and water connected while Diane undid the slides then we sat down to a well-earned dinner. Diane had one hotdog and a salad left over from yesterday and I had two hotdogs and a can of chili. It was all good.

When we parted ways after unhooking the car, I kept Max with me in the RV. All the way over the mountain he was good as gold then he started getting super antsy about 20 miles from Lancaster. He was trying the climb on the dash, then had to lay right by my feet, then under the dash, then my lap. It wasn’t working out so I stopped and gave him to Diane while we were hunting for the Elk’s Lodge in Lancaster. She said he did similar things for her and she figured it may have been anxiety for him since we weren’t together. Makes sense because up until today, every trip we’ve ever taken we were all together. Today was different.

Tomorrow, we begin the last leg of the trip to San Diego. I have no idea how far it is, or when we hope to arrive, but it’s going to be wonderful to be able to look ahead at more than one day of down time. This time we get at least 3 weeks. At least that’s the plan.

I will, of course, keep you informed of our success along those lines.

You can wish us luck if you wish. We might need it.