2022 Adler Spring San Diego Trip

 A typically overcast morning which will soon clear up. Replaced the pop-up lever in Anna's bathroom sink so that the stopper worked. Went over to Amy's this morning. Dug out more of the pit for the sump pump outside her bathroom. Water seems to be filling more slowly - maybe it is just immediate after the rain. Water is coming out of her crawlspace on the south side and going into the drain which must have been put in many years ago. Started building the rain barrel platforms for Amy using pressure-treated 2x4 and some cedar fence boards that were left over. Amy and Carmen went to pick up poke at Ono Grinds, our favorite poke restaurant on 30th st. We had it with my leftover Thai food from last night. I made a quick trip to Home Depot to pick up more screws and was able to finish the rain barrel stands. At 4:30, we had a call with Mia, a consultant at Maxable Spaces, about building ADUs. The costs are pretty crazy, $8,000 for San Diego city permits and $12,000 for a designer t

 A bright sunny morning, pretty typical. We went over to Amy's house to continue working on projects while Amy was at work. Carmen started organizing La Casita so that we would have access to the wall where the kitchen and bathroom would probably go. I called Aztec rental to see about getting a chipping hammer but it was not available so I searched around and found that the Home Depot in Lemon Grove had rental tools and was able to pick one up there. It took about two hours to chip out the concrete sill under the bathroom window. Unfortunately, as I was digging down, the hole started to fill with water. More soil can't be removed from the crawlspace to access the plumbing as the water will run under the house. We had lasagna soup and other leftovers for lunch. I returned the chipping hammer to Home Depot and bought pressure-treated 2x4s to build a rain barrel stand for Amy. On the way back I went to Baskin Robbins for a milk shake and was disappointed to see a notice that they

 Rain is forecast for today but it is sunny and windy so far this morning.\ Came over to Amy's house around 11 and did some more digging by the foundation vent under the bathroom. Very tedious and slow-going using the hoe and long steel wrecking bar to loosen soil. Removed several buckets of soil. Amy's lawn in the front and by the sidewalk was getting very long so I mowed it with her weed-whacker and her push reel lawnmower. Everything grows very quickly here when it rains. Rain started around 1pm, rained fairly hard and then stopped around 4pm. Carmen is busy making dinner of lasagna soup and apple duff for desert. Mason and Anna came over around 6 and we all enjoyed appetizers, delicious dinner and desert. When we came back from Amy's around 10pm it had stopped raining as Mason only had room for one person in his car and took Carmen back. Anna and I walked back. Around 10:30 it started to pour with thunder and lightening.

 I have been trying to dig out Amy's crawlspace under her bathroom. I don't know why there is so much debris there or how anyone managed to access the plumbing when her house was flipped. I can see new ABS piping for the shower but there is less than a foot of clearance from the joists to the ground. And the water supply pipes are below the joists. I've been using a concrete hoe to pull out the material and there isn't even enough room to get the blade of the hoe under the pipes. I noticed that the cast iron pipe coming down from her bathroom sink was wet around the outside although I doubt this is leaking significant water. I also found a broken piece of cast iron and don't know what it is from. I would like to expose the cast iron piping which will be quite a job. Anna took us in her new car to Alpine where we have gotten beer and the most delicious pizza. There is room for 5 of us i

 A beautiful day in San Diego. Only 65 in the shade but it feels very warm in the sun. Carmen and I came over to Amy's in the morning. We started digging out the opening in the back near the bathroom that looks like it was just a crawlspace vent but we would like to turn it into a crawlspace opening in order to more easily work on the plumbing. We got quite a bit dug out but it is sticky clay which is hard to dig. Amy got lunch for us at North Park Produce which has an amazing assortment of international foods, many from the middle-east. Anna and Mason are at a party for Neil, Anna's boss who is moving to a new job in the public defender office.

Starting mileage:   79510 Starting time: 11:00 am Ending mileage: 79630 Ending time: 5:30 pm Travel mileage:  120  Travel time: 3:00 hours 3092 miles later, we've arrived in San Diego! We came first to Anna's house to unload some thing as we are staying here. We got quite a welcome from Anna, Bella and Farrah. Then we went to the car wash at the end of Amy's block as our car was filthy with road salt and grime. We got the special wash and the car really shines. Penny gave us a great welcome at Amy's as Amy was still at work. Amy called a couple days before to say that her shower drain wasn't working at all.😖I tried using a little plastic snake to no avail. I got the shop vac from Anna's house and stuffed it in the drain. After sucking out the water and whatever else, the drain seems to be running ok. For dinner we went back over to Anna's and she had made a delicious vegetarian quiche. It was also good to see Mason again. Day 7 route - Forest Falls to San D

Starting mileage:   79228 Starting time: 10:00 am Ending mileage: 79510 Ending time: 5:30 pm Travel mileage:  282  Travel time: 7:30 hours We took a brief walk out on the strip this morning before leaving around 9 - much quieter than it was last night! Passing through the NV-CA border near Primm, there is a huge solar-thermal electric generating plant. There are 3 huge towers that hundreds of parabolic mirrors focus the sun on in order to make steam to generate electricity. The light is so intense that there is a bluish haze around the towers. We decided to take the scenic route through the Mohave National Preserve on the way to Joshua Tree. We were surprised to pass through a large "forest" of Joshua trees here. It was interesting to see the Joshua Trees in bloom. On one side of the road there had been a fire and the landscape was a desolate forest of Joshua Tree skeletons. Later on, we passed an area where calcium chloride was being mined by digging trenches in the soil whe

Starting mileage:   78722  Starting time: 8:00 am Ending mileage: 79052 Ending time: 4:45 pm Travel mileage:  330  Travel time: 9:45 hours (including time change to PDT) It was only 27 degrees with heavy frost on the car this morning, but perfectly clear skies. Before starting on our journey to Las Vegas, we decided to take the Rim Drive in the Colorado National Monument which was only a couple miles from our hotel. This slowly winds back and forth up the canyon wall to the mesa at the top, then meanders for 20 miles back down to Grand Junction which is about 10 miles from Fruita. The scenery is quite spectacular with the road going through narrow passageways and switchbacks, with overlooks to the Colorado River below. At the top there was a visitor center which wasn't open yet but we went on a short nature trail from the parking lot. On the way down, we were very lucky to get the photo below of Bighorn Sheep. They don't seem to be particularly afraid of people as one was eatin

Starting mileage:  78136 Starting time: 8:45 am Ending mileage: 78720 Ending time: 5:45 pm Travel mileage:  584  Travel time: 10:00 hours ( including time change) When we got up this morning, Google Maps indicated that I-70 was now open in Colorado so we decided to try it. When we left, it was 34 degrees with snow blowing sideways in the strong wind other cars were on the road and it seemed manageable. The first 30 minutes was "white-knuckle" driving, with gale-force wind blowing snow across a lightly snow-covered highway. In this time we saw a FedEx box truck, a semi-trailer and 3 cars in the ditch. The snow stopped and we just had to deal with the strongest wind we've driven in. At the last main town before Colorado, I-70 was closed with a barrier and police cars blocking the road. We went into a coffee shop to get coffee and figure out what to do. We decided to take a route south towards Santa Fe which hopefully was open. When we left the coffee shop, we discovered tha

Starting mileage:  77601 Starting time: 7:45 am Ending mileage: 78136 Ending time: 4:45 pm Travel mileage:  535  Travel time: 9:00 hours It was 60 degrees and overcast this morning, going up to 70 before coming down to 50 by the time we arrived here. After enjoying St. Louis-style BBQ last night, we thought we should try Kansas City-style BBQ in Kansas City and found Smokehouse BBQ a bit north of downtown. One thing quite different is the strong smoky flavor. Another is that since the ribs are smoked slowly with the sauce, more of the sauce flavor permeates the meat. It was very good. Much of the area we passed through was rolling golden-brown prairie grass range land. We could see herds of cattle grazing. There were a few areas with wheat and hay being grow. W passed through a huge wind farm with over 150 wind turbines. It was nice to see them all briskly turning in the wind. I found an interesting web site, the National Wind Turbine Data-Base that lists all wind turbines and wind far

Starting mileage:  77034 Starting time: 7:45 am Ending mileage: 77577 Ending time: 3:30 pm Travel mileage:  543 Travel time: 8:45 hours (not counting time change) Happy Spring! It didn't quite feel that way with the temperature 40 degrees and light sprinkle which continued for a couple hours. It turned quite beautiful with bright sunshine and in the low 70s by the time we got to St. Louis. It is also feeling more like spring as we get further south. Along the way, we started to see the red tips of the maple along the road and when we got to St. Louis, daffodils were out and magnolias are starting to bloom. While crossing Ohio at 75 MPH, we were able to hear and watch (not Carmen who was driving!) our home church service livestreamed on Facebook. Gas was $3.99 to $4.19 in Ohio and $4.19 to $4.49. It is $4.49 - $4.59 in Illinois. One thing very noticeable coming into Indian is the profusion of billboards along I-70, larger and more than we noticed on other states. Going through Ohio

Starting mileage:  76538 Starting time: 8:45 am Ending mileage: 77007 Ending time: 4:45 pm Travel mileage:  469 Travel time: 8:00 hours We don't have plans to do any particularly interesting things on the drive out this time. But maybe we will find something along the way. I like to keep a blog so we look back at it later to refresh our failing memory. We had mostly packed the car the day before because rain had been forecast for today. It was only misting lightly and 50 degrees this morning. It didn't take long to finish up organizing the house, turning the water off, etc, before putting our cooler and suitcases in the car. It was a mix of rain and sun off and on all the way to West Virginia with temperatures 60-75. We stopped at a Subway restaurant in Altoona, PA for lunch. Gas was $4.49 when we entered Pennsylvania and $4.29 by the time we needed gas in western Pennsylvania. We signed up for a Sheetz loyalty card which gives us an extra 3 cents off, no big deal. Speedway is

 It has been a busy winter and spring - we are ready to hit the road. It was amazingly warm today with sunny skies and the temperature over 70. We were able to rake the lawn and fertilize the rhododendron and Japanese Andromeda - they should be happy when it rains.  We will miss the daffodils and other spring flowers that are poking up and will be blooming in the next couple of weeks. We were busy packing and loading up the car. We are bringing 6 very heavy boxes of ceramic tile, plumbing, electrical and construction tools. Most importantly, we are bringing driftwood that Amy carefully scavenged when she was visiting Indian Lake almost a year ago.😉 We are taking a southern route to have a warmer drive. We will visit our good friends Steve and Sharon Cady in Forest Falls, CA the day before arriving in San Diego next Friday.