My Cougar and Me 2018

I woke to the last day of August and the last day of summer. Duncan was getting ready to go to work while I was getting my trailer ready to head out on the road again. We said our goodbyes and off he went while I got some breakfast organized. I had hoped to reach Phoenix by tonight but also had a curiosity about stopping over in Quartzite, Arizona. Despite being the Friday before the Labor Day weekend the traffic wasn't bad at all. I had not dumped my grey or black tanks in some time and they were both pretty full so I stopped at the Morongo Casino just outside Palm Springs, CA where Duncan had told me about a dump station. For the non-RV bunch in the audience, the grey tanks hold water from the sinks and shower, mostly just soapy water, while the black tank holds waste from the toilet. I needed to dump these two tanks and for $15 I could do just that. Once completed I was back on Hwy. 10 to Phoenix. Here are some shots of the massive wind farm outside Palm Springs....

Today I'm either going to repair Duncan's water heater or die trying. It's me against water heater technology. Duncan knocked on my door before he headed off to work. He had a bottle of Tito's Vodka and some high-end tonic in his hands from the night before and it kinda looked like he was returning them and wishing me safe travels. It's Thursday and I've been here since Monday afternoon. I guess it's time to leave. After breakfast, I called Barry in Florida and he was able to walk me through some of the wiring. I won't bore you with the details but I was finally able to get the heater to work. I needed to finish the installation so it was off to Lowe's for some caulking material to ensure that rainwater didn't seep into the RV around the heater causing more problems. It always feels great to fix something, especially when it's been down for months. Now I can leave and know that my friend has hot water again. Duncan came home early today a...

Duncan had to be at work early so he was long gone by the time I got up. Looking out the window it appeared that the mist was gone and nothing but blue sky could be seen in all directions. As most of you know I enjoy fixing things and solving problems. I really want to get Duncan's water heater working before I go but the wiring still has me stumped. I took a lot of photos and texted them to one of Duncan's RV friends, Barry, who lives in Florida. Duncan seems to think he can walk me through the wiring issue. We were unable to talk today so that will become a priority tomorrow morning. Remember that package I'd been waiting for at Giacomo's place. It was my new headlight bulb and I finally got the chance to install it and now I have two headlights again. While Duncan was at work I took advantage of the time to get out of the compound and do some grocery shopping and also get a haircut. He had referred me to his personal barber, Minghzi, who I'd had do my hair a ...

Last night we had agreed to leave for the Peterson Automobile Museum at 9:30 am so I wasn't surprised when Duncan was knocking on my door at about 9:25. Duncan Williams is a character who clearly dances to his own drummer. Not only does he live in a stationary RV but he drives an old "cop car" complete with search lights and front bumper bar. He had been to this museum many times over the years as they changed their displays so he drove us into the city. Parking in metro LA is always a problem but the museum was attached to this very unusual parking tower. The entrance to the parking area is to the right in the above photo and below is Duncan trying to tell me not to take his picture using sign language. The museum had a special display of Porsche cars as they evolved over the years as well as some of their race cars. They also had a wonderful display of unusual custom motorcycles. Below is the Honda "step through" that spawned the advertising...

I was up working on my blog when Nicole appeared, bleary-eyed, as she had an early morning doctor's appointment. She made us a cup of coffee and started getting ready when Giacomo appeared. After Nicole had left Giacomo prepared me some scrambled eggs and fruit for breakfast. For the past week I'd been running around with only one headlight working on the truck. Since these fancy LED bulbs were still under their one year warranty I had contacted the company and they had shipped me out a new bulb. The package was scheduled to deliver some time that day so I didn't want to leave until it had arrived. Giacomo had a "reread" to do at the studio at 1:30 so I stayed back waiting for the package. It arrived around 2:00 so I texted Giacomo to tell him I'd be leaving for the studio to pick up my trailer and I'd be on my way. He waited for me and gave me a hand hooking up so I was cruising down the 110 toward Hawthorne by 3:00. We'd had such a great time tog...

I woke up very excited about the day ahead. Giacomo had arranged to borrow a friend's Harley V-Rod so that we could ride up to the famous Rock Inn together. Giacomo has his own bike but we needed another one for me. Since "It never rains in southern California" it promised to be another glorious sunny day with a light breeze blowing off the cool Pacific waters. In other words, a perfect day for a ride. We had to drive to his friend's place to pick up the bike which meant that I had to ride over there on the back of Giacomo's. This plan to go for a ride had been hatched back before I left home so I had packed all my riding gear. Here we were just about to suit up. Nicole was not joining us so she took the following video as we rode off. This was our route so it was a nice combination of high speed freeway driving up the I-5 and then the fun began. The pavement wasn't in the best shape but the road was one windy son of a gun. Not having r...

Each morning I wake up, look out the window and see nothing but mist. It's the same here in Los Angeles. Giacomo and Nicole live up in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the city far below so you have this panoramic view of the valley. Here are the same two pics later in the day. It's so vastly different from where I live and so interesting the way homes have been constructed so precariously perched on the surrounding hillsides. I'm really hoping to experience a sunset from this lofty vantage point before I leave. We all had a bit of a lie in being Saturday morning. I got up first and took advantage of the time alone to work on my blog. Giacomo had joined a baseball team of other people in the entertainment world and they had a practice at 10:30 am. I continued to work away while he got ready and Nicole prepared some coffee and breakfast for us. Up until now I hadn't spent much time getting to know Nicole so after Giacomo had left we had some time to tal...

I was anxious to get going and got up early, packed up everything, rehitched the truck and trailer and drove into town to share a coffee with Daniel and say goodbye. We said our goodbyes and I was off. Before hitting Hwy. 101 I stopped for gas. Gas prices in California are among the highest in the nation. I paid $3.79 USD per gallon which is roughly $1.30 CDN per liter which is now pretty closely aligned with Canadian gas prices. According to my GPS my route to LA was just over 400 miles and should take about 6 1/2 hours so I was in for a long day on the road. Hauling a 6000 lb. trailer always takes longer than the same trip without one. Here I am parked with the big rigs at a rest stop. All during the trip I was coordinating with Giacomo my arrival time so that he could be there when I arrived. At first he was going to have me drop my trailer at a friend's place in a gated community nearby but at the last minute he switched the plan so that I could park the trailer on hi...

Good morning everyone. Another fine morning it is out here in the land of fruits and nuts. Here's a photo of the small parking area in front of Daniel's landlady's home where I'm camped out. I had electricity and Daniel had come up with Lynda's password so I had wifi too. Because of this it wasn't necessary for me to run into Starbucks and use theirs so I had a nice relaxing breakfast and finished up the last two days of blogging. Since I had a limited supply of water and no sewer disposal I had a shave and shower in Daniel's pool house before meeting up with him in town. We had a cup of coffee and discussed what we might do for the day. At this point he received a text from Lynda and she was not happy about me using her electricity and had gone out and unplugged me. I wasn't overly surprised by this because after all Daniel hadn't asked her permission to use her electricity. This wasn't a significant setback because I had packed a nice s...

As much as I appreciated Daniel providing me with a spot for my trailer, I had no electricity, water, wifi or sewer so today I was hoping we could get the power and wifi situation resolved. Fortunately, I still had 30 gallons of fresh water on board for washing. Daniel is an early riser so he had already left for his town "office" at the Starbucks coffee shop by the time I woke around 8:00 am. We had agreed to meet there at 10:00 so this way I could have my morning coffee, I could finish my daily blog from the day before and we could plan our first day together. Before leaving I was able to successfully level the trailer out and disconnect my truck. Here is a photo I took of the crazy steep hill I had to negotiate the night before in pitch darkness. After breakfast, I drove into town and met up with Daniel. Once logged into the Starbucks network I got to work on my blog while Daniel conducted business on his computer and shared some conversation with some of his many f...