The irregular passage of time is the most unexpected part of this trip so far. Some moments fly past, while other moments stall unnaturally long. Yesterday feels like last week, yet somehow I wish I had more time to linger with some of the laughs and frets and amazing views.

The first couple of days flew by. We left on a Wednesday afternoon and drove south to the Seven Feathers RV Resort just south of Roseburg. We woke Thursday morning to a very cold trailer, because the Alde heating system is nonfunctional and the AC heat pumps were not designed to provide heat below about 40 degrees, and we woke to 28 degrees and frost covering the truck.

Shivering, we packed up and hit the road early. We made it to Medford in time for a 7am breakfast with my dad, which was a welcome visit at the start of a long trip. After breakfast, I would have preferred to find a parking lot to start my work day, but heat remained an issue with the Alde system on the fritz.

Just before leaving home, I sought an alternative solution and tried our new ceramic space heater on the inverter. It was a 1500w space heater, and the inverter is 2000w, so the odds were in my favor. But failure is a dear companion of mine in the arena of electrical equipment, so this did not end well. It appeared I had blown the inverter. I didn’t have time to trouble shoot the issue because we were on a timeline to leave town. Fortunately, Micki had lined up camping spots with shore power for the first week and a half or so (to use our AC heat pumps as a hedge against the lack of the Alde heating system), so I didn’t immediately worry.

Lacking sufficient heat to sit in a parking lot to work in freezing weather, we left breakfast in Medford and continued south all the way to Redding to outrun the freezing temperatures. Despite the hurry, we were able to enjoy some of the remarkable scenery along the way.

We arrived at the JGW RV park in Redding just after noon on Thursday. The park was mostly well kept with the exception of a handful of mildly unsightly stationaries (I’ve seen worse). The sites were all paved and most were pull-through site with full hook-ups. I set up the shore power and the Starlink and went to work for the remainder of the day.

We woke up Friday morning in Redding at 4:15am and started gathering ourselves for more travel. We were in the truck and rolling away by 5:22am, which is not bad for only the second day. We’ll improve with practice.

We continued south for about three hours to Fairfield, CA just a bit outside of San Francisco and parked up for work in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The weather was tolerable so the lack of heat didn’t matter too much, and Micki got a bit of shopping done in Wal-Mart. Over the lunch hour we drove the remaining hour to our next campground just south of San Francisco in Pacifica, CA. Fortunately we’d be staying two nights. The single day without travel is a welcome reprieve, because we’re realizing the one-night-at-a-time leapfrog effort will be a bit exhausting until we become accustomed to it.

The actual RV park is not much, being one continuous parking lot with neighbors very close. But the big draw for this campground is being right on the coast. Our spot is less than 100’ from the edge of the cliff down to the water, so walking to the edge is a matter of a few steps. The attendant told Micki that the RV park was historically much larger, but the ocean took back a portion of the land closest to the shore. I Googled it and you can click here for the story from 2016. One of the pictures is of this exact RV park.

Setting up, I again put up the Starlink, this time putting it on top of our portable flagpole to get it above the remaining RVs so close to us. It worked great. I finished the workday with strong internet and phone service, and Micki cooked up some shrimp and clams she bought from the Safeway just up the street along with some crusty sourdough bread. We had a quiet night inside the Mouse House on Friday night.

The weather in Pacifica was consistently windy and rainy, which got progressively worse over the course of Friday and Saturday and into Saturday night as well.

Saturday morning we did a load of laundry in the park’s laundry facility, which was surprisingly clean and well-equipped. I also did some random chores around the trailer, including tackling that inverter problem. Turns out I had blown that terminal block fuse. Again. Fortunately for me, the shipping delay last time around had left me with an extra fuse, which of course I brought with me. I replaced that fuse – again – and the inverter is now working like a charm. We’ll have to buy another one along the way so we have another spare for the next time I blow it, which seems a near certainty because I can’t leave well enough alone.

Saturday late morning and early afternoon we explored San Francisco, which was very fun despite the weather. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and got some selfies from the Oakland side.

We also drove down the infamous Lombard street. Note this is in our Ford F350, which was a very tight squeeze driving down the tiny and steep winding street. In general, driving the truck through San Francisco was not ideal because of the hills and the pedestrians, but we got through it and had a good time.

We went down to the wharf, had chowder for lunch, and perused some of the touristy locations nearby.

By the time we got back to the truck, we were both fairly soaked from the rain, but it was completely worth it. We had a great time. Back at the Mouse House, I put the hitch and flaps back on the truck and pulled the water and sewer lines in anticipation of tomorrow morning’s departure. Then Micki cooked up some Salmon and asparagus from Safeway, served alongside crab purchased today at the wharf and some shrimp left over from yesterday’s dinner.

As I write this, the trailer is being shaken by the aggressive wind and rain. The trailer seems to amplify the sounds of the raindrops splattering on the aluminum skin, which is ordinarily somewhat soothing. However, the wind feels like a Tolkienesque ogre trying to get inside, and he’s really putting his shoulder into it, and the sensation is mildly disconcerting. The weather service says the wind is only 25mph, but being so close the ocean, it feels like more.

Tomorrow morning (Sunday) we’re planning to get up very early and drive all day to get to Los Angeles by dinner. We have some family down there we haven’t seen in a while, and we’re looking forward to reconnecting. I imagine the weather and the long drive will have the effect of stalling the passage of time, so tomorrow will likely be a long one. We’ll continue to try to capture the special moments along the way.