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Published: November 8th 2007
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Saturday - House in shambles
This is the stress at its peak and Amy being a trooper. Starting Point = Carlsbad, CA Final Destination = Virginia Beach, VA We are putting the west coast in our rear view mirror and heading east for our new/old home in Virginia. We will be camping in our 1985 Land Cruiser across our greatish country. We are sad to leave sunny California, but looking forward to the new stage in our lives.
This blog entry is intended to allow family and friends to follow our trek from San Diego to Virginia. We aren't doing this to rub in that we are taking this way cool trip, but hoping that our trip might inspire others to go out and see what is beyond the boarders of your town.
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Until Cross-Country Trek to VB
Entry #1 - 11/08/2007 - Move Planning and Trip Preparations As I am writing this first entry, our current travel plans are incomplete. We have plans to leave on Sunday and meander up the California coast. We plan to take in some sights and camp along the way. I am sure we will poke our heads into a few wineries and a few cold water barrels maybe, but we don't have a finite plan
Sunday - Truck
This is how bad it was and on the day we scheduled to leave no less. (its more fun that way). Our northern most point along the coast will likely be Portland, Oregon to stay with our friend Jen and then we will hopefully know by then our route East.
Right now our days are filled with working, packing, trying to rent out our house, and making sure the rig is ready for the trek. Our house is slowly becoming emptly of all the things that made it home to us. The walls are all empty and the furniture is all sold or packed. We said goodbye to our two cats Daisy and Flanders yesterday and they arrived safely in Virginia Beach and are enjoying Mema's hospitality. From what I hear, Flanders has already forgotten about California and is all about the southern hospitality. Amy's car will be shipped out tomorrow and we should have all our stuff in the large shipping pods by tomorrow evening. We are going to spend Saturday cleaning up the house and finishing up some odds and ends before we leave. We also are planning on going down to the beach on Saturday night to make a bonfire and enjoy the cool onshores breezes from the Pacific one last time
Tuesday - Hitting the road
Got a late start, but there is nothing special about socal freeways so we just hauled as far north as we could. before we head north(east).
Entry #2 - 11/14/2007 - Comedy of errors, but we are on the road Oh boy, where to start.
(Keep in mind that through all of this Amy was busting arse primarily solo to get the house and truck packed and cleaning up)
Thursday My truck started running hot. Didn't overheat, but it was running hot. This was a known problem with a supposed known solution; change the fan clutch. Changed it and it didn't help.
Friday I got a recommendation for a radiator guy from Cliff at work (life saver).
Saturday Diagnosis was that the radiator needed to be rebuilt and the water pump was leaking. Couldn't get it looked at til Monday, so best case I we would be leaving two days late. Not a dire problem cause our house was still far from finished. Took part of the day off and watched VT pound FSU. Would pay for that on Sunday.
Sunday Packed the pods all day until 2am and then started pulling the radiator. After falling asleep on a milk crate in the garage for a bit and dropping my wrenches uncounted times I had the radiator out by
Wednesday morning view
We really lucked out on this pull off spot. This is the sunrise view from the bed in the back of the Land Cruiser. 6:00 am.
Monday After a bummed ride and car (thanks J), we dropped the radiator off for service. Monday sucked, but I continued to push to leave only 2 days behind. Unfortunately at about 1am my body gave out and I couldn't hold the wrench anymore. Not before the water pump was in place.
Tuesday With my heart set on leaving at noon I went to work early after getting my first couple hours of sleep in a while. Went to work around the house helping Amy put the finishing touches on it. Just in time, Matt Mulli and his buddy Rob, showed up to give me a hand with the truck. I really don't know how I would have gotten it done without them, and by then the stress had built to volcanic proportions. I was cutting 3 days into my vacation and was not happy about it and Amy was fed up with moving. Matt saved my arse and helped us leave by 9pm. Truck started up and ran cold, so we hit the road.
On to the travelling - We drove North as far as we could before we both crashed. I found a turn-out
Elephant Seals in San Simeon
If you look close you can see two juvenille male elephant seals practicing sparing. They will grow to several tons before they actually fight for mating rights. Way cool!! at about 4am just south of Hearst Castle and we crashed in the Land Cruiser. The new platform worked like a dream and we snoozed for a couple hours.
Wednesday (Today) - I was woken at daybreak by a truck in the turnoff with two guys claiming that the surf out front had been 6ft the day before. We brewed some joe and hit the road. We were only a few miles from the Elephant Seals and got to check out a few young pups. Amy digs seals.
The coast from San Simeon to Monterey is breath-taking and the truck ran like a champ climbing all those ocean cliff-side switchbacks.
We stopped in Monterey and took an intense jog on their boardwalk that skirts the bay and the harbor. It was probably one of the most beautiful runs we have both experienced. After the jog and looking at tourist junk we got dinner on the wharf. I decided to push north of San Francisco tonight, but stopped in at a coffee shop in downtown Monterey to post. Amy is asleep on the table across from me and only took one sip of her coffee. I am rocking
Truck and View
The truck ran like a champion through the windy switch backs along the monterey coast. a egg nog latte and can't believe it is already that time of year.
Though we are sad to put So Cal behind us it is really starting to get exciting to be on the road. We both love traveling and the fun really started when we went jogging Monterrey. It felt like we were finally on vacation then. Well, I am going to hit the road. We will push hard tonight, but try to get some sleep. I am pushing to be in Portland tomorrow night, but we are going to stop in Sonoma and take the coast road up, so we might not make it.
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Anne7878
Anne
N-oice!
Love the update... makes me think about all the stuff Matt and I should have done before Brianna decided to show up... these are special times guys!!!