The Beach Day

Taking after my father, I usually take every day of vacation as a challenge to find a way to expend energy and accomplish sightseeing feats at alarming rates. However, it occurred to me today that, if my adventures are to last a solid month, there will need to be slower days to retain sanity. Today was a “beach days.” We slept in, spent the day in Valencia working on cars, running local errands, and spending quality time with great friends.

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George replaced his starter in an attempt to fix his hot-restart issue. With friend Eric Robi’s assistance, the starter is replaced. It seems to work, although we have yet to test a restart after significant highway miles.

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He also replaced a lot of his fuses because they were in somewhat alarming shape.

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Evan worked to diagnose his alternator and battery issue. There’s some significant weirdness happening somewhere in his electrical system, not the least of which is how the battery is stashed underneath the carpet in the trunk while his motor and alternator are under the hood. His verdict was that it actually is not the alternator, although I’m not sure what that leaves.

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My noble pickup spent the day lounging in the sun because it is, in fact, not currently broken. At least not in unexpected ways. My noble steed served me well ferrying runs to and from the grocery and hardware stores, collecting supplies from each to nurse the other vehicles and us three drivers back to health and acceptable caffeination levels.

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Aunt Heidi and her boyfriend John cooked burgers on the grill for us at her house while we ate, drank, and filmed more video interviews for Evan. We all told stories about our own experiences with the trip preparations.

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George actually bought the Bumblebee sight-unseen after that Craigslist search, but Heidi was the one to actually met the seller at Nyseco Motors in Santa Ana, so her insight was deeply entertaining.

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So today was a pretty great rest day, with good times and good friends at a restful pace. Tomorrow, we will head out via the 27 and the 1 through Ventura to Paso Robles. A bit out of the way, but I’m told it’s gonna be worth it.

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Trixi, Aunt Heidi’s dog.

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Yep, this is definitely in California.