Category Archives: Family

Change of plans

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Time to catch up on what has been happening. The last blog entry, before the 4-year recap, talked about where we were going next. Well, at least that was what we thought would happen next. Not quite, but changes in plans are something that we have become used to.

The plan was to wait around a bit, head to our friends in SoCal to help them install Solar on their Airstream, and then head to Visalia for a medical procedure that was 5 months in the waiting. However, the medical procedure got moved up by 2 weeks! That changes things!

We decided to change things around a bit. Go from the Vegas area to my sister’s for just under a week, to Visalia for the procedure, down to SoCal for a week, back to Visalia before heading to see our daughter and family in San Francisco. Good plan.

We had a good visit at my sister’s but the road from Vegas is always fun. The long way is down I-15 to Barstow and up 395. Another way is going through Death Valley and up the Panamints. Either way is long or difficult. I asked what route they take? They told me they take US95 out of Vegas, turn west on NV226 which turns into CA168 to Big Pine. Sounds plausible. But… I don’t think I want to take it again. It is a lot of climbing on steep, tight corners and a one-lane portion thrown in but we did make it!

While we were in Bishop, we all took a day’s drive to Mono Lake to the South Tufas. One place I had never been to before:

After our visit to Bishop, we headed toward Visalia. We know how long that trip is and we broke it up by staying in Tehachapi with a quick stop at Red Rock State Park:

The previous time we spent the night in Tehachapi, we were going to stay at the Flying J but ended up opting for the KMart parking lot (yes it was a while ago). This time we stayed at the Mountain Valley RV Park. This park is right by the airplane glider airport and we were able to watch the gliders for a bit in the AM:

We made it to Visalia in the middle of May and had all the necessary procedures done. I did a quick repair on the trailer, replacing an old stove vent:

I also saw this sign while in Visalia. Not quite sure what to make about it. Where’s the love?

We now headed down to our friends in SoCal to help with their trailer. It was a week’s worth of work but we were able to get two solar panels installed, with room for a third, replace batteries with Lithium, add a power protection system, and various other upgrades. Here is a shot of the panels:

Right before we got there, our friends did something that ultimately changed our plans again. They purchased another Airstream, a Bambi:

Their older Airstream is unusable due to the upgrades so they have the new one to take trips in. They wanted to take it out, naturally. Being retired, changes of plans are not too much of a deal so we took another in stride. We knew we were heading to see our daughter so we set up a meeting with them on the cool coast afterward.

Back to Visalia for a bit then off to San Francisco. We got to see our daughter, her boyfriend, and our grandson for the first time since the pandemic took off. It was a long time and very welcome to see them. We took a day trip to the Chinese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park one day:

Next stop Oceano. We were going down there to meet the Chen’s and their new Airstream’s maiden voyage. We stayed there a bit over a week and it was so nice and cool! They could only stay the weekend. We went back to the heat after that for a few more appointments in Visalia and then we headed off. My thoughts were to head to Montana, North Dakota, somewhere that might be cooler. However, while in Oceano we discussed an alternate plan with the Chen’s.

Being recently retired, they wanted to get out in their new trailer some more. They were planning a trip cross-country to visit a lot of friends along the way. They asked us if we wanted to join them. We thought we might as well, at least for a little bit. We wanted to be back for our grandson’s 5th birthday at the end of August.

We planned on meeting the Chen’s in AZ on a specific date, this gave us about 2 1/2 weeks to get there. We decided to head up to Redding to see Roxie’s sister. We stopped in Stockton on the Delta for a few nights en route. Here is the view from the trailer:

Next stop was Redding, during a lot of heat and smoke. Oh joy!

Isolation

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I am writing this around day 30 of our government imposed isolation. We made it back to our son’s house the middle of March to take care of some previously setup appointments. About 5 days after we arrived, California started the stay-at-home policy. We were able to get a few of the appointments satisfied but not all. Many of them were cancelled, some without any future appointment made. One of the important ones, I felt, was Roxie’s crown for her dental implant that was done in December. This, I guess, is considered non-essential. The people that made the list obviously didn’t need a dental implant finished!

Our plans were to take off from here after the appointments and head to checkout some potential areas for a future home. Now we are in the holding pattern.

Life in this isolation is not very different than our normal lives. We like to stay in our trailer most of the time even when we are on the road. We don’t socialize much when we are stopped either, so not much different there.

One of the things we miss is going out to eat at restaurants. Taking food to go is not the same. The other thing is not being able to take in a movie at a theater. We will be very happy when those are opened up again.

I don’t see the delay in reopening very soon. The public knows how to distance and the public knows that the government is very willing to shut services down quickly. Open it up with restrictions. If it ramps back up, go back to minimal isolation.

One silver lining is that I have time to do some projects on the trailer and the truck. Planned projects are replacing a trailer marker light (failed), Jimmi-Jammer lock security on the truck, caulk a leak in the trailer, weatherstripping on the trailer door, replace the electric heater element in the hot water heater, add a camera and TPMS to the trailer. I have already done some projects like a louder horn on the truck using my upfitter switches, add a pull handle to the inside of the trailer door.

There is one other project that I finished that was both functional and cosmetic. Down by the trailers step Airstream put this small little step light that only adds a bit of ambiance when illuminated. It adds very little light for the step:

I had to steal this photo. (thanks HighSky RV Parts)

I found a nice and bright LED light for a license plate and replaced this light:

Much brighter!

Our Classic Airstream has a clear handle for helping in and out of the trailer. The newer Classics have this handles illuminated in blue. It is a very nice affect. While the step light was removed it gave me the opportunity to fish electrical lines up to the handle. Luckily our son has those fish tapes that are needed. I also used a couple of T10 light bulbs (designed for cars) with a remote control to change the color. I chose blue for this photo of the end result:

I am pleased with the result.

I still have some time before that restrictions are lifted so I had better get with it!