Our last two days have been spent trying to get back to our "normal" lives.
After an hour long drive on Wednesday morning we returned our rental car to the "off airport" location and then boarded a shuttle bus to take us to the airport.
We had a 1:30PM flight from Lihu'e Airport in Kaua'i that arrived at San Francisco Airport, CA at 9:40PM. Three hours of that flight time difference was due to the time zone changes (Hawai'i doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time).
Once in San Fransisco we had to locate our Hotel Shuttle Bus that brought us to our hotel for the night in San Bruno, a San Fancisco suburb. It was 10:30PM before we crawled into bed and set our alarms for 5:30AM.
At 5:30AM we awoke and had plenty of time to catch our scheduled Uber pickup at 6:00AM. Uber transported us the 12-miles over to the Amtrak Bus Depot, where we caught a 6:45AM bus over to the Amtrak Train Depot in nearby Emeryville.
We had tickets onboard the 8:25AM California Zephyr Amtrak Train to Sacramento for the nearly 2-hour ride. Once in Sacramento we scheduled another 12-mile Uber ride over to Vinnie's Northbay Airstream Repair where ROVER and THE POD are waiting for our arrival.
By 11:00AM we were checking out all the new modifications and repairs that have been going on for the last nine weeks while we've been on vacation.
ROVER was easy! Vinnie's has partnered with a company that specializes in PDR (paintless dent repair) that works well with the aluminum skin on Airstreams (and ROVER). At least twice over the last 7-years ROVER and THE POD have been caught in several hail storms, the most recent one was in Iowa last May.
In addition to the minor hail damage, most of which was on the roof and out of sight, each vehicle had accidental damage. ROVER had a ding in the drivers door from a rock that kicked up off the road and quite frankly, I was just tired at looking at it everytime I climbed into the truck.
Likewise, THE POD has two dents up high by the stove vent that have been there since our very first stop back in May of 2018 at Bahia Honda State Park in Florida. A quick moving storm picked up our 10x10 shade canopy and threw it up against the side of THE POD, quickly rendering it "NOT BRAND NEW" anymore.
Anyway, Ivan was able to make all the damage disappear without having to replace any of the expensive aluminum panels.
THE POD had quite a bit more work done than just fixing dents. Where do I start?
Let's start with the repairs! After 7-years and 70,000 miles of traveling down all kinds of bumpy roads our galley, which houses the kitchen sink and stove, had began separating from the wall by at least a half an inch. That has been put back where it belongs and resecured to the wall. In addition it has been attached to the floor to hopefully prevent it from happening again. Same goes for the nightstands on both side of the bed.
We had to replace the city water inlet due to a leak, this has been the second time we've had to do that. There is a new and improved model for this part made by a company called Airkrafters, which is made out of stainless steel instead of plastic. Unfortunatly it is not yet available for purchase, but you can be sure as soon as it is, we'll be getting one.
We had THE POD pressure checked for leaks and decided to have all the seams on the roof recaulked. This meant all the solar panels had to be removed and put back in place. Also, the entire roof was pressure cleaned while the panels were off. This is more of a maintenance item than a repair.
We had both the dump valves replaced. The grey water and black water valves were becoming difficult to operate and more importantly were beginning to develop slow leaks. We also had an access panel cut into the underbelly to make this job easier if it ever needs to be done again, turning a 6-hour job into a 2-hour job.
We replaced the 7-way plug that connects THE POD to ROVER which makes all the lights and brakes work. This was also replaced a year ago with a cheap one that we bought off of Amazon. Now we have a Heavy Duty one that should last a lot longer!
We had a new Propane Leak Detector installed because you can never be too safe when it comes to the "Silent Killer".
We had the water heater tank drained and flushed to extend it's life and solve a small leaking problem we had if we left the heater on too long.
We had the wheel bearings and brake drums inspected for the first time in 70,000 miles and all appeared to be well. Of course one of our two axels is only about 4-years old, so it has a lot less wear.
Now for the FUN stuff, our upgrades and modifications!
We replaced our original frosted door glass with a clear tinted window that matches all the other windows on THE POD. This enables us to see outside when someone knocks on the door.
We replaced both of our original Fantastic Fans in the roof with MaxxAir Fans that are quieter, reversable (so we can either blow air in or out) and the best part is they are remote controled, so that us two short people don't have to stand on our tippy toes to operate them.
We replaced the original bathroom and shower exhaust fans with new MaxxAir fans that once again are much quieter.
We replaced both of our original skylights in the hallway with thicker, heavy duty Maxim Skylights.
We had our tongue jack rotated 90° to give us more clearance so that ROVER's tailgate can be lowered even while we are attached to THE POD.
It was after 6:00PM before we towed THE POD over to the same RV park that we stayed in just before we left for Hawaii. As a matter of fact, we are even in the exact same campsite that we occupied 63 days ago.
One of us (me) slept in until 8:00AM this morning. Thanks to jetlag returning from Hawaii my body was telling me it was 2:00AM.
But we can't worry about that right now because we have a lot to do today.
Before we departed for Hawaii we emptied our entire refrigerator and pantry. If it wasn't sealed in a can, it went into the garbage can. That means today or tomorrow we need to restock everything so we can get back on the road Sunday morning.
We put a good dent in locating everything we need today. After spending just over $700 on a trip to Costco and Walmart we have everything we need except fresh produce and drinking water.
After that it was time to find a different Walmart where we could fill our four 3-gallon drinking water bottles.
The Sprouts Farmers Market is where Tricia wanted to shop for all of our fresh produce needs. They had everthing we needed and now they have our $82 to restock the shelves with.
Looking around for the cheapest gas in town, using the Gas Buddy App, sent us back to Costco to fill up ROVER's gas tank with $4.39 fuel. Thankfully we still had 3/4 of a tank from before we left for Hawaii.
Now that all the shopping is done, it's time to concentrate on others items that need to be done before we hit the road Sunday morning. Things like fill and flush our fresh water tank several times to clear out anything that might have fouled out the inside of the empty tank over the last two months.
We have one small load of laundry to do, which fortunately we can do right here at the campground office. There is also the task of mounting our new ceiling fan remote controls to the wall and finding a place to display all of our new Hawaii souvenirs.
At 7:00AM tomorrow morning I need to be online to make reservations for 6-months from now at a campground in New Mexico. After that is done, we'll eat breakfast and then around 8:00AM hit the road.
We've got a long travel day ahead of us, 250-miles, to a First-Come-First-Serve campground in Nevada. We want to arrive around 2:00PM and before all the 34-sites have been occupied.
How about our State by State Bucket Lists or Visited Campgrounds List?
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