Good Morning!!!! 56F @ 8:15AM. Partly cloudy. High 73F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
Holy mackerel, you folks have been busy! Catching up took a couple of hours, but I'm happy to read of no severe accidents or more bad luck. Hope it stays that way.
The trip was a success, with only minor stumbles on the van's part. The wire repair worked, but now on occaission the engine will stumble and die instead of catching and running when the key is turned. Sometimes requires many attempts to get going, then runs like nothing happened. I have a new place to check, a rat's nest inside a plastic box in the engine bay, that may help to explain the low voltage I saw last Wednesday. Hope springs eternal.
Got a nice shady spot to camp, but with the cool temperatures, that wasn't such a good idea as I was too cold most of the time. Fortunately, the motorcycle stayed on the bumper hitch and wasn't needed.
This was a shot from Friday morning. By this time Saturday, most of the open ground was covered in Vanagons. Almost 300 vans, twice that many people, were all got very friendly trying to find room for everyone. It was all good, though, as I got to catch up with old friends I hadn't seen in three years, and make a handful of new ones.
Highlight of the weekend was a ride to the top of the off road park, in a Syncro Vanagon with six other beefy guys. I sat in the back row between two of 'em, and couldn't see well out the windshield, but whenever I did get a glimpse, I couldn't understand how we were rolling over what was in front of us. Really really steep hills, often badly rutted, boulder fields, even an obstacle course complete with van sized teeter totter were all on the agenda. It was a real eye opener as to what one of those vans can do in the hands of a good driver, which would not be me.
Had a couple more hiccups on the way home, which reminds me that the wind was fierce both ways. 40mph cross winds that felt like a giant hand was grabbing one bumper or the other and giving the whole thing a shake. The lanes on the freeway were just barely wide enough to only need one, but the steering wheel was always in motion trying to keep inside the lines. New found joys of piloting a high profile vehicle.
Turns out the StarLink dish came in two shipments, only one of which I was able to get held for pickup. The dish itself got tossed behind the gate and left, and I was happy to see it still there on my return. I set it up briefly, which was a simple matter of plugging in two pieces of hardware and clicking "SETP" in the app. That created a WiFi network that provided internet access. The other box is supposed to have a pole mount, Ethernet adaptor, and masonry wall installation kits in it, so the rest of the network can take advantage of the increased speed:
I tried a few videos using the new link, and it was like watching TV. No buffering, and no waiting for anything to load. Talk about a game changer!
The boys are supposed to be back in action on the driveway this morning, so I'd better get out there and see what they're up to.
Hope everyone's week gets off to a great start!
