Thursday: (02/01) Granola and a banana for breakfast. I caught up to the mail, and paid the renewal fee on the Hyundai, Talked to Ernie about a problem with his window. I’ll need to re-seal the class and repair the frame of the window in the door of his trailer. I took Dawn to the cobblery to get her shoes repaired. Then I took the Hyundai to the Smog Test shop to get it tested for the renewal. I looked at the Van Inverter problem and it appears to be just totally dead so there is no display or response to the controls. I looked into a problem with the Van temperature control not communicating with my phone. Somehow it just became deselected on the thermostat. I also checked why the water monitor reported the house only used 5 gallons last month. Maybe I should have congratulated Lou, Dawn and Ernie for being extra conservative with their usage but it seemed a bit too low. It appeared to be a little askew but I thought the battery might be dead again but I was never notified and it reported the fact it had been moved so I replaced it with the proper alignment and it now works. It looks like the meter reader likely moved for some reason and did not place it back correctly.
Friday: (02/02) Scrambled eggs for breakfast. I drove Dawn to an exercise class. Then I dropped the van off at America’s Tire to get its new tires. They are BFGoodrich K02 tires which should provide much better traction and they have thicker sidewalls. Chicken and cheese sandwich for lunch. After my lunch I picked Dawn up from her class and dropped her at home. Then I went to pick up the van. And finally, I took Dawn to get her groceries. Salad for dinner.
Saturday: (02/03) Granola and a banana for breakfast. I tried to repair Ernie’s loose/broken frame door window. While removing the frame to re-glue the glass in, I dropped the glass. So, no repairs today. I then spent a lot of time cleaning up the broken glass from the patio, from under his trailer and out of the cracks in the brick patio. When I finally finished that I then had to install a cover where the window was. Then I ordered a replacement window and frame. BBQ ribs and chili beans for lunch. I took Dawn to pick up her shoes with reglued soles. No more smiling shoes. Pineapple cottage cheese for dinner.
Sunday: (02/04) Granola and a banana for breakfast. The wind was very gusty and it rained a lot today. Lunch from Panera Bread. I had a sandwich and French onion soup. Dawn had broccoli soup. Dawn and I went grocery shopping at Walmart and Smart and Final. In the afternoon we had some really heavy gusts, one of which blew over my plywood that is stored behind the motorhome under a tarp. It had also broken the cord that held the tarp in place. Fortunately I was here to know it fell down and it was only drizzling at the time d-so the wood didn’t get very wet. I replaced the cord and tightened a holding block that is supposed to keep the panels upright. I did my laundry from the trip in the afternoon. Dawn made celery plantain soup for dinner.
Monday: (02/05) Granola and a banana for breakfast. I drove Dawn up to attend a wake for one of her teachers in Mill Valley. I had two unfortunate experiences with the van that reduced my confidence in the van, The cemetery where the wake was held was at the top of a steep hill with good smooth pavement. It was wet due to rain. I had to stop just after starting up. I could not get the van to go up after that. The wheels just spun. I ended up backing out into the opposing lane causing much fear for the car behind me, I parked in a park across the street and walked Dawn up the hill. The second problem ws when I tried to turn into the park. It was a hairpin turn with a slight down hill slope. There was a post that I needed to avoid so I tried to back up slightly and jog in but it would not move backwards, no spinning just wouldn't move. I had left it there while I walked Dawn up the hill. On my return I thought what the problem might be and straightened my wheels and it backed up with no problem. I guess either the computer is aware of the position of the steering and limits the transmission or having the wheels turned to the extreme angle puts too much strain on the transmission. The sprinter does have a much tighter turning ability of the front wheels. Also, reverse just seems to be weaker than first gear. In either case, it is something to be aware of in the future. All this after all the fearless driving on really bad dirt and gravel roads in the desert that had elevated my confidence. I scrounged lunch from the van. We had salad and peaches for lunch. I still can't cook until the inverter is fixed. The new one arrives Thursday. I had written Renogy about any possible fix and they had not responded in two days so I figured they likely would not be responding. While I waited the delivery time doubled. The next day after I ordered a replacement they did respond requesting a video of the problem. Humm? They want a video of a dead device. I don;t think it will go well anyway. I did org=der a Renogy inverter again though because it will be an easy replacement and any others would be twice the cost and require a lot of refitting. I relaxed in the park waiting for Dawn; We started home about 1500 stopping at Harry’s Hofbrau for dinner. Rain was light and intermittent all day. We did get to see several rainbows in our travels including a double rainbow. About 1930 Ernie;s replacement window arrived. I suspect he will like having a better seal on his door than the temporary cover I had installed during our husky winds.
Tuesday: (02/06) Granola and a banana for breakfast. I relaxed until about 1000, then I got busy. I took dawn out to pick up some lard recycle barrels and lemons. I opened the replacement window package and glued the glass into the outside frame and left it to dry. Then I worked outside in the yard cleaning up leaves and limb debris from the yard on this rare sunny day. I finished up at about 1430. Then I went to get some Chinese food from Wok Express in Sunnyvale for lunch and dinner. Then I visited REI and bought more Darn Tough socks. I’ve decided to replace the thinner socks in my feet fleet. They are not cheap but lasting 10 years is pretty good. Back home I installed Ernie's new window into the door.
Wednesday: (02/07) Granola and a banana for breakfast. Today was another heavy rain day. I relaxed inside. I prepared scrambled eggs with cheese for brunch. I received the replacement inverter/charger for the van in the afternoon. Earlier I had started a pork roast with sauerkraut and potatoes for dinner.
Thursday: (02/08) Granola and a banana for breakfast. Leftover pork roast with sauerkraut and potatoes for lunch. I finally got outside and got busy. I removed the bad inverter/charger from the van. Then I installed the new one. While I had everything open, I also did a modification to the battery switch which I’ve been waiting to do. I originally paralleled both batteries and installed a single through switch. Since I’ve been having problems keeping both batteries charged to 100% and matching charges, I decided to install an “off-1-both-2” switch. Now I can individually charge or use either battery or both. I really am not sure this will help because I think the problem is just improper State-Of-Charge calculation in each battery's internal board. Their individual cell and battery voltages seem correct but they still seem to shut down when they reach a low SOC. I had to make up some new cables to install the new switch. They are a smaller gauge but should still match the maximum use current needs.Lou arrived back home from Bakersfield about 1500. Salad for dinner
Friday: (02/09) Granola and a banana for breakfast. I cleaned up and put everything away in the van that was disrupted by the inverter replacement. Leftover pork roast with sauerkraut and potatoes for lunch and dinner. In the afternoon, I drove up to Picchetti Open Space Preserve and took a short walk. Then I visited Harbor Freight for a couple of things. And finally, I stopped at the Walmart neighborhood Market and got some things to stock the van refrigerator. I ended up having to go back inside a second time to get some things for Lou. I then relaxed in the van in their lot, watched videos and took a nap while the sun went down then returned home.
Saturday: (02/10) Granola and a banana for breakfast. We visited the Palo High School Flea Market. I found a couple of succulents I liked. We had waffles with berries and sausage for lunch.We decided to go down to the pinnacles for a couple of nights. I made a reservation for Sunday through Wednesday. Dawn needs to be back by 1300 Wednesday for a class. Ernie dropped by and said he broke the pedal on the toilet in his trailer. It also had a full load. He headed off to get a new toilet in San Martin and I cleaned out the toilet. When he returned, I installed the new toilet. I had a little trouble getting the water line to stop leaking. Then it was time for a shower. Leftover pork roast with sauerkraut and potatoes for dinner. I prepared to leave for the Pinnacles tomorrow by moving a lot of stuff from the TV. I drained the holding tanks and filled the water.
Sunday: (02/11) Granola and a banana for breakfast. We did our final preparations to leave in the motorhome. Dawn had some final pickup to do at the library so we didn’t leave until about 1130. We headed down to Gilroy and had breakfast at the Longhouse restaurant having the usual Cowboy Garlic Pork Chops. We then continued on to Pinnacles National Park and set up camp in site 104. For dinner, we had mashed potatoes with what would have been spaghetti but our squash was bad. I had scheduled two hikes but ended up with no other hikers for tomorrow so I’ll be alone for whatever hike I now end up doing. I do have two people joining me Tuesday.
Monday: (02/12) Nice sunny cold morning. Since no one was signed up for my hike at 0930, I lounged around all morning with the idea of taking a hike later. We relaxed all day with a couple of walks as well. Lou made macaroni and cheese with bacon bits for breakfast. Fried eggs with steak and potatoes for dinner.
Tuesday: (02/13) I made a corned beef, egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast. Carla, Karen and Mo joined me for a hike out the South Wilderness Trail. Unfortunately we met a river several times bigger than my last visit here a few weeks ago. We had to wade across the 8 feet wide 18’ deep channel. The trail was nice for quite a ways until we came to a spot the trail proceeds up the usually drawer river bed so was had to turn around about one mile before the end of the trail. We did get to see a waterfall that has never been there on previous hikes and another creek was also flowing good. Everyone seemed to enjoy the hike. We all had lunch at our campsite after the hike. I had a sandwich. Minestrone soup and toast for dinner.
Wednesday: (02/14) Granola and later a frittata for breakfast. We left camp about 0930 and headed up to Holister. We needed a good Internet connection for a class Dawn needed to attend but the connection in Hollister was slow and intermittent. Odd. We continued on to Gilroy. We had lunch for the Walmart deli. Soup for Lou and Dawn and a chicken breast and a salad for me. We had a good connection in the Walmart parking lot. Dawn’s class was from 1300-1530 so Lou and I did some shopping at Walmart and Costco. Lou and Dawn then took off in the Jeep separately to check some thrift stores. I took the back roads back home arriving around 1800 after it was dark and also it was raining. We emptied the motorhome fridge and freezer so the Motorhome can go in the shop tomorrow without a worry of the refrigerator going off. It was fun backing the RV into its space in the dark and even darker due to the rain. Lou made hamburger steak and baked potatoes for dinner.
Thursday: (02/15) Lou and I were up early to head down to San Jose with the motorhome. It needed some work on the suspension to fix a death wobble when going over a bump over 55 mph. Leale’s in San Jose fixed the problem five years ago. I mistakenly had the shocks replaced by Ross Equipment but they did not do a good job and aren’t going to stand by their work. It turns out that the shocks that were replaced were warranted for life but since they are now gone, I get to buy even more shocks but this time they will be the right ones again. We’re also getting some other work done like fixing a bad leveling jacks and possibly some new slide out awning covers and? After dropping the RV off Lou and I stopped by La Victoria taqueria for some breakfast burritos. Back home I got to work on a reappearing leak with Ernoe’s toilet. I ended up making three trips to various hardware stores to get the parts to connect the water without a leak. Lou made tempura for a late lunch/dinner. She also baked a nice apple pie that fortified dinner. I spent some time settling into the van rearranging a lot of extra stuff stored from the motorhome.
Friday: (02/16) Lou and I went to breakfast at A Good Morning Restaurant. Back home I cleared the leaves from the playhouse roof and cleaned up some limbs and other debris. Now two barrels of compost ready for the garbage man. Otherwise I relaxed all day.. Lou made lunch with leftover garlic pork chops chunks with noodles and cauliflower. A salad and some spaghetti squash with steak chinks for dinner.
Saturday: (02/17) Granola for breakfast with a peach cobbler chaser. A nice walk around the block with Lou to start the day. The dark clouds showing on our walk turned into rain the rest of the day. Corned beef and cheese sandwiches for lunch. I did a little cleanup in my shop exposing some of the top of my workbench. I then did some tests on the dead inverter per a message from Renogy and responded back to them with the results. Lou’s stew for dinner.
Sunday: (02/18) A very windy morning with heavy rains much of the rest of the day. A croissant with sausage, egg, and cheese from the freezer for breakfast. I took Lou out shopping to satisfy her need to get out of the house. We visited Cost Plus, Marshalls, Harbor Freight, Savers, and others. Lou’s stew for dinner.
Monday: (02/19) ) More wind and rain, A croissant with sausage, egg, and cheese from the freezer for breakfast. Lou and I went to the Walmart Neighborhood Market for groceries. A ham and cheese sandwich with a salad for lunch. Lou made some zucchini noodles and some kind of chicken bits for dinner.
Tuesday: (02/20) Granola for breakfast. Lou and Dawn were off to appointments, shopping and thrifting all day. I received another reply from Renogy support asking me to video tape some tests that I had already reported to them verbally. These tests are actually irrelevant since it failed the first test. Really only wanted to see the multimeter showing the correct voltage and that there was a big battery bank. I attended a little bit of a webinar various times during the day. It’s on van building and life. Not too much for me to learn from them so far. Later I took the van out to get some gas. Then I returned some stuff to Lowe’s before stopping to get lunch. Then I browsed around REI. I then stopped at Trader Joe’s to look around and got a couple of things. After a nap, I stopped at a Grocery outlet in Sunnyvale then headed home. Chinese food from China Express in Sunnyvale for lunch and dinner. Also some asparagus and tater tots for a later dinner.
Wednesday: (02/21) Granola and a banana for breakfast. Lou mentioned that the sewer replacement crew was working just down the street so I was busy much of the day supervising” the work. They ended up being delayed an hour or two due to a car parked in their way and an unavailable city tow truck to haul it away. They ended up working until after 2000. They are pulling in a larger pipe there on El Camino Real and , even though it is larger, they use the same hammer in the pipe that they used on our street’s smaller pipe. Just as the pipe was about to emerge the draw cable broke to add some excitement. That caused a little more delay using a backhoe to assist bring the pipe in the last foot or two. For lunch I had a couple of egg, potato and cheese breakfast burritos from the freezer and a salad. I also spent some time attending more van life presentations. Most of them ended up providing little information, nothing I didn’t already know, and were really just sales pitches for the presenters. I watch the hour long presentation in replays skipping through each in about 5-10 minutes. I also fixed Lou’s computer that was having a problem with its disk drive. Lou made a rice dish with chicken, pineapple, and cashews for dinner.
Thursday: (02/22) Granola and a banana for breakfast. Not feeling good today. I think my kidney stores wanted to make their presence known so I had severe back aches and a bloated feeling most of the day. We all went to Bajis Restaurant for a hamburger lunch. I then drove out to the baylands and parked. I tinkered on the computer and napped. I never went for a walk. I roused myself about 1730 and went to Whole Foods to drop off an Amazon return. Then I stopped by Super Taqueria to pick up dinner of burritos and quesadillas.
Friday: (02/23) I prepared ham and eggs with toast for breakfast in the van. A nice day. I’m feeling good today. I took a walk around the neighborhood in the morning. 1230 I checked with Leale’s TV. They have fixed the jack problem. Gave a $1200 estimate on slide topper replacement. Still need to road test and repair the sway problem.
Saturday: (02/24) Granola for breakfast. We all drove over to the Niles District in Fremont across the bay to look at thrift and antique stores. For lunch we went back up to Union City and I got my lunch at Asia Express while Lou and Dawn got lunch at a nearby Mexican place. Back home we relaxed after all the work of shopping. I had leftover Chinese food for dinner. In order to do this day trip I had to remove a lot o=f stuff from the Van’s garage and put Lou’s scooter in there. Back home I had to reverse the moves.
Sunday: (02/25) Leftover burrito for breakfast. We watched the Sunday morning TV shows to start. Also, Sunday is refill the pill boxes. About 1030 I headed off in the van to Tarwater Trailhead in Pescadero County Park. I hiked the Tarwater/Shingle Mill Loop. It’s only about 5 miles. I started at 1135 and finished at 1400. I decided to cut my beard and hair so I started the water heater. I then washed my head and beard. While it dried, I prepared a salad for lunch. Then I cut my hair and beard. Easy enough to do since they are all done with a #2 comb on the clippers making everything about ⅛ inch long. I had planned on taking a shower after the haircut but, for some reason, the parking lot at the trailhead kept having visitors. Most didn’t hike anywhere but just hung around the TH. I was planning an outside shower so I had to change my plans and shower at home. Back home, I took that shower. Then some friends came by and took us to dinner at El Grullense Taqueria down the street.
Monday: (02/26) Granola for breakfast. I had a doctor's appointment this morning and Lou came along. She made me go because of some swelling of my feet. After the appointment we went to lunch. Lunch at Panera Bread, some nice French Onion soup with a steak and cheese sandwich. Back home, I relaxed the rest of the day. For dinner, Lou made Shepherd’s pie with tater tots as the topping.
Tuesday: (02/27) Granola for breakfast. I drove over to Mountain View’s Shoreline Park for a walk. Then I worked on our taxes until it was dark. Leftover Mexican food for lunch. Lentil soup for dinner.
Wednesday: (02/28) Waffle and berries for breakfast. I worked in the office this morning, paying bills, writing letters and other stuff.. Salad for lunch. A sausage for an afternoon treat.
Thursday: (02/29) I said my goodbyes to Lou and Dawn this morning at 0800 and headed off toward Death Valley. I bought gas at the cheapest station in Cupertino. I decided I needed to call Leale’s Rv and check on the status of the repairs on my RV. I ended up just going to thor show and talking with the service rep Savio. He said that had repaired the jacks and the sway problem and wanted me to take a test drive in it to see if they had. They did not replace the shocks, again but found several problems with the sway bars and other items that had come loose or broken. My test drive was satisfactory and Savio had outlined some further actions to be taken if needed. They also recommended that I replace the tires that are now 11 years old. I stopped by the recommended tire shop, Ramone’s, and checked on new tires. I also tested the jacks a couple of times. They still have to replace the slide toppers and a couple of other things but I may be able to get it out of the shop late tomorrow. So, my leaving town is again delayed for a day or more. Probably for the best as I would have had to return if they had finished and I want to be gone for a few weeks. I stopped at Panda Express in Sunnyvale for lunch and confirmed the tire order and coordination with Leale’s. Lou made macaroni and cheese and I contributed a salad for dinner.
