We are all packed up and will leave in the morning. After doing laundry and taking care of dumping the tanks in the RV, we will drive to Stoddard OHV area to explore. It will be our first time there and we don't know what to expect. We have a map and the GPS, so will be able to find our way around okay.

Today we get to go jeeping. I'm not in a rush to get out, though, because I would rather wait for it to warm up a bit and it's nice to sit inside under a blanket with a cup of tea and time to write. Gerry is a busy beaver this morning. He took his jeep out of the trailer and is getting it ready for the trail. He is planning on re-organizing the trailer today to get more tongue weight before we hit the road again. It was a bit squirrelly for my drive yesterday and we hope a little more tongue weight helps. After the slide-in camper goes, we may buy a fuel tank for either the back of the truck or the front of the trailer. That would keep us from having to deal with all the gas cans and if on the trailer, it would allow us to control the tongue weight by the amount of gas we put in. There will be plenty of clearance once the overhang from the camper isn't there to worry about. I think we should put it on the trailer because then we only carry it around when we have the jeep and need for gas. The negative is if we decide to tow the trailer with the motorcoach then it will be even heavier and is already pushing the limits of the hitch rating.

We love the freedom of our chosen lifestyle. It is so great to be able to pack up our home in less than an hour and drive to a new scene. Every week we can have a different view out the window - or every day if we so choose. We have done the travel-every-day thing and are happier now to spend more time and explore an area more. I keep looking out the window at the jeep trails and am starting to get anxious to get wheeling. I hope the skies clear up and the day warms.

Gerry has a bunch of last minute things to do to his jeep today when the hobby shop opens as 11am. I'm going to try to fix the wiring one more time for my drivers window and then take the Dodge truck over to Tina's to shampoo the front seats. They are pretty dirty from our trip to Alaska and I hope the stains come out. I also want to try to do something with Timmy today and look forward to seeing Tina for a while. Mom will still be camped out here tonight and I'm going to bring her out here after school. I also want to do some grocery shopping to stock up on supplies from the commisary before we leave here.

Yesterday I cleaned my jeep out and ran the shampooer across the seats and floor in the front. So much mud came out that I can hardly believe I was sitting on the seats in nice clothes. I am sure there is more dirt left, but I didn't want to over-saturate with water. Next time I'll get more. I spent about 5 hours cleaning it out and then ended with playing with Kayla for a bit while I waited for her mom to get home. They are all coming over tomorrow for BBQ burgers and hot dogs. It will be Jessica's first time seeing my new motorhome. I look forward to a bright sunshiney day and lots of love.

This morning is quite a bit warmer than yesterday and I look forward to a good day. I am going to install the cooler on my power steering return line and then head over to Tina's house to steam-clean my jeep seats. My mom may be coming camping out here this weekend and Tina and her family may come out as well. The weather will be great and it's a long weekend so I hope they come visit out here at the beach. We head out of town on Wednesday for the desert.

The shop said they would be done with my car by Friday, so when I didn't hear from them I called them after lunch. They said to call back at 4pm and they would know if my car would be done. That seemed ludicrous to me that they wouldn't know if I could pick my car up until 2 hours before closing, but I complied and called them back shortly after 4pm. I was told to come at 6pm to pick up my car. Shortly before 6pm I returned my rental car to Enterprise and called the body shop to let them know I should be there shortly after 6pm. They told me they would wait for me to get there. I expected to arrive and have my car all ready to go. When it wasn't out front, I became concerned but was reassured by the folks inside that it would be out soon. A few minutes later someone came out and told me they were waiting for "the paint to dry" so they could see "if the color matches" and it would be about 20 minutes. This didn't make me happy, but I patiently waited not 20 minutes, but 45 minutes with occasional updates from the shop. Then someone came out and asked me if I have a kill-switch on my car because it wouldn't start. "No, I don't have a kill switch", I said. The guy disappeared into the back once again and I heard the car briefly start and die. I went back into the shop the next time the guy appeared and tried to start it myself. The car wasn't getting any fuel and without tools and my ace mechanic, I didn't try to troubleshoot the lack-of-gas problem. I just called my night-in-shining-Dodge to come and rescue me. They guys from the shop waited with me and told me to come back on Monday to have the fender buffed out, because they weren't quite done. This alarmed me, but I said "ok". Pretty soon Gerry came with tow-bar in hand and we hooked up my jeep only to learn that the ball on the not-so-shining-Dodge was the wrong size. We elected to go forward with the tow anyways since we had a set of safety cables to hook up as the primary and chains to hook up as secondary. The only negative is that the front of my jeep was only 18" from the back of the slide-in camper in the truck and I had to do all the braking from my jeep. This was quite scarey to me because I couldn't see anything around the camper/truck and without power my brakes weren't very good. But with our cell phones on (mine in my lap on speakerphone), we made the drive back to the base with Gerry telling me when I needed to brake or turn. After what seemed like an eternity, we made it through the gate on base and dropped the car off outside the hobby shop for troubleshooting Saturday morning.

Saturday morning we were at the hobby shop when it openned at 9am and towed my jeep into a bay next to Gerry's jeep (which was left on the lift overnight during his transfer case changeout). I determined that my fuel pump wasn't pumping because there wasn't any power to it. After looking through my book, Gerry and I decided there was probably a bad relay, switch, resistor, or wire under the hood. I started with the area where the body shop was working and found a bank of relays, but no information in my book as to what they were for. As I was asking Pete from the shop about their computer manuals, he poked his head under the hood and said, "what about this wire, where does this go?". I said, "beats me". He plugged it onto a spade connector nearby and I jumped in the jeep and vrrroooooommmmmm. Problem solved. Apparently, someone at the shop inadvertently unplugged the wire, probably when picking up a tool they had set down on the engine. I was just glad to have my jeep running because I wasn't looking forward to having to drain my full-tank of gas to get to the in-tank fuel pump if that had been the problem.

With the jeep now running, I decided to tackle the next thing on my list; replacing the transfer case linkage. The original jeep linkage is a poor design and we still had the piece of wood holding mine in place from our last trail fix. Gerry found a linkage made by Novak and had ordered it for me. I just needed to remove my old linkage, including shifter, and bolt on the new one. Well, it wasn't quite that easy and I had to leave by 3pm to help my mom with a dinner she was hosting for the dinner club she owns. At 3pm I was knee-deep in work and over my head in frustration. So, I took off the parts I was trying to adjust, threw them in the back of my jeep and drove off with no center console and a big hole in the floor. I helped my mom out that night and put the troubles of the day behind me.

The next morning Gerry worked with me to adjust the linkage, which was much easier with two people and I had everything bolted in place by the time the hobby shop opened at noon. I went over there and worked next to Gerry, who was almost done with his jeep. I adjusted the play for the linkage to be where I wanted it and then figured out how I wanted the shifting lever bent to come up through the center console in the correct place. Gerry helped me bend the steel shaft by heating it up with the shop's torch while I bent it in a vice. We were done fairly quickly and I put it in and got everything cleaned up and back together. This was a much more satisfying day than the previous two.

Then came yesterday. I brought my jeep back to the body shop first thing in the morning for the "buffing" they had asked me for. When they arrived, I explained the pulled wire that caused my starting problem. I also explained that I wasn't happy with the work they did. The color was too light and there were pits in the filler. He said the buffing would take care of the pits and he would have his guys try to match the color better. I was told the car would be ready by the end of the day. I was called and told to pick it up at 5:30pm. My mom brought me there and they brought the jeep out with a big surprise for me. They painted a couple of the other areas on the jeep that needed it and also the rear body armor plate I had prepared. That was really nice of them and I was much happier with the color and thanked them for the extra work.

Now comes today and I am going to work on the power steering pump when the hobby shop opens at 11am. Gerry is going to work with me until I am comfortable proceeding on my own and then he is going to work on his jeep. It's running great with the new engine and he has a list of other things now to do. I suppose it will never be "done", but always a work in progress. Our jeeps can both certainly be enjoyed as is and I am anxious to hit the trail again soon.

Honey and I walked on the beach today and I found two sand dollars. One got a small chip in it carrying it in my pocket, but I still consider myself lucky for the finds. The tide was on its way out as we strolled along the water's edge looking for treasures. There were several snails and a large sea slug dead amongst the driftwood. As we returned back along the beach I noticed the tide starting it's turn to head back in. When walking on the edge one shares more intimacy with the changing of the tides than those looking from afar. It's good to live on the edge every once in a while to keep in touch with the tides. It's a gorgeous day with clear, blue skies, calm seas, and warmer temperatures than I've seen in a while. We are supposed to get up into the 70s this week and I look forward to the balmy days. Tomorrow after going for a physical at the doctors in town, I'm going to swing by Harbor Freight to buy a chipping hammer so I can work on learning welding. I should pick up some 6011 welding rod, too. That way I can go over to the auto skills shop and use their welding equipment in the afternoon. There's plenty of scrap metal, too, to use. My goal is to be able to weld my new steering stabilizer brackets on my jeep next week. I think I'll make spaghetti for dinner tonight. It's about time to get started on the meatballs. I am going cook up some extras and freeze them for future use. They'll be real handy for use on meatball sandwiches or to throw in a future batch of spaghetti.

My lip is starting to lose its numbness from the dentist this morning and feels like there are creepy-crawlies in it. I hope the novicane is worn off soon. I managed to eat salad for lunch without biting my lip or cheek. The dentist ground out one of my old fillings because the tooth had cracked and put a crown on it. It was reallly neat to see him design the crown and make it right there in the room while I waited. The machine was a cerex and popped the crown out in 10 minutes. I was on my way within an hour and a half.

Gerry is working on installing our new water heater. The old one had trouble lighting and we wanted one that could run on electricity and propane so that when we are hooked up we can just leave it on all the time and not have to worry about using up propane. He's not having much fun trying to get the fittings to quit leaking but he just got it to stay lit on propane, so at least he's making progress. I plan to take the dogs for a long walk but want to wait until Gerry's done in case he needs my help for anything. Then I need to wash my jeep and clean it out for bringing it to the body shop tomorrow to have the dent from the crash in Wyoming on I-80 fixed. My insurance pays for a rental car so I am going to get one and then I don't have to worry about sharing a truck with Gerry.

I need to run out to the auto store in Simi Valley to get a fan spacer for Gerry. He's down working on his jeep. We got the engine in yesterday and he hopes to get everything connected up today so he can start her up. He ended up using the heads he had rebuilt last year for this new engine. He had another set of heads down at a shop in Oxnard for a while, but they weren't getting it done and told Gerry the day he was supposed to pickup the finished heads that they needed new valves. That is when he elected to use the old ones. He paid for the labor and parts thus far and took the boxes of parts from the engine shop. He may put them up on ebay. When I bring the parts to Gerry, I'll work on my jeep's body work some more. Off I go.