Saturday, February 4, 2012

A Trip to Oceanside

Zoe

Well I did do some traveling, but without the trailer.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, my daughter and her family have moved to Gaborone, Botswana.  Brian is managing a project there for at least the next two years.  Last week he had a conference in DC, so the whole family packed up for a visit to the USA.  I decided it would be a great time to drive down to Oceanside to visit with them while they were visiting Brian's parents.  Everyone is doing fine, and I took lots of pictures.  If you are interested, check the Oceanside link at Lakeshore Images.
Had an interesting phone call while in Oceanside - Capitol One called to ask if I was making charges in China.  Since I wasn't, they suspended the card & mailed me a new one.  I have no idea how they got the card number but I have been using it for most of my purchases since it has a better rewards than my HSBC cards.  Oh well, I'm glad they caught it quickly.

They offered to send it to Oceanside, but since I was going home the next day, they sent it to Oswego. The new card was waiting for me when I got home; I activated it, however it was declined when I tried to use it the next day.  Another phone call to Capitol One & everything is back to normal.  I even had one of my own photos added to the card.

I'm still planning to "thaw" out the trailer in early April & head out for another spring & summer of travel.  Everything is a bit loose right now (well, all my travels could be described as "a bit loose") since I hate to plan too far ahead.  I do want to see Cedar Key in Florida, and plan a stop in The Woodlands, TX to see my sister in law, and I need to be at Bullard Beach State Park in Oregon for a fiberglass trailer rally July 11 - 14. I hope to see New Mexico, revisit some locations in Arizona & Utah, and drive the Mount Baker Scenic Highway in Washington.  If I'm still out west, I would also like to hit the 2nd Annual Rocky Mountain Egg rendezvous in Leadville, CO while visiting friends there.

I feel like I could leave today.  This has been one of the mildest & least snowy winters I can remember here in Oswego.  The biggest storm of the season (about 1') was while I was in Oceanside, and it melted before I got back.  We have had less than 2' of snow all winter - we would normally have well over 5' by now.

I have a few more projects to do on the trailer before I leave.  I did add a 1000w sine wave inverter (mostly so I can make a pot of coffee in the morning!) but I still want to add some lightweight shelves to the "closet", and install a 2' square mirror somewhere.

I also need to find a practical way to store a spare tire for the RAV4.  I gave up on the run flat tires.  I had to replace the second set at 40K miles, and since they ride hard, are useless on snow, and cost $275.00 each, I went with real snow tires for the winter.  I purchased another wheel, and will buy 5 real tires in the spring.  Still deciding whether to add a rack for the tire on the roof or just stick it in back behind the seats.  I'd love to find a 2010 RAV4, (preferably Barcelona Red) and an owner that wants to trade a rear door with, as my granddaughter says "a button" for my door without one, but I don't think that is all that likely.

Until Next time!