New Addition

Well, I went to get a Dessert Pass to go riding in the dunes with my quad a couple of weeks ago at the local motorcycle shop.  It was a Saturday and I had time so I to a look around.  The sales person came up to me and asked if I had any questions.  I told him that I was just looking at the dual sport motorcycles.  So he showed me some and they were not as expensive as I thought.  I had not done any research as of yet.  Long story short, I ended up buying this and it has been a whole lot of fun.  Excellent gas milage if I want to take it to work on a nice day or just cruise around the local trails.

It is a XR650L 2012.

Just another vehicle added to my collection.  I now have two quads, motorcycle, bus, Touareg and various other cars (5 other cars) that others in which my family drive.

San Diego to San Francisco and back road trip

Jessieca and I were married back in August of this year.  For our honeymoon, we took a road trip from San Diego to San Francisco and back.  We started off by camping the first night just above Malibu on the beach at a camp ground called Leo Carrillo.  The camp ground was crowded for a Wednesday night.  Also everyone seemed to want to pass through our camp site to go to the restrooms.  Not cool.  

The next day we headed to Pismo Beach where we stayed in a hotel to get a shower after a night of camping.  Below are some shots of where we stayed and the surrounding area.

Below is a picture of the grounds outside our room.

We took a walk on the beach.

Random rock on the beach.

Sunset at Pismo Beach.

The next pictures are some VW toys that were in a store display.  The store was closed or I might have bought some of these.

After Pismo Beach, we headed north to Morro Bay.  

While eating a restaurant, we spotted some seals resting on the rocks outside the window where we ate.

After stopping for lunch in Morro Bay, we headed north again to the Big Basin state park just below San Francisco.  However on the way we stopped a saw these whale seals (I believe) on the beach.

During this stop, we took a couple of scenic views.

This is how we traveled.

We are now in the Big Basin state park with Redwood trees all around.  Very cool.

Then off to San Francisco.

We took the cable car because I have never been on it before.  

Jessieca looking very uninterested.

And my goofy self.

The bay bridge.

Some entertainment we checked out.

We took a bike ride along the water and rode down one of the piers (pier 7).

We were in San Francisco for 3 days.  Once we left San Francisco, we headed back to San Diego but stopped just north of Santa Barbara for one more night of camping a El Capitan campground on the beach.  This was a very nice campground with not too many people.  No pictures unfortunately.  

We were gone for 7 days taking our time checking out the sights.

Touareg AC fan replacement

Before leaving for our road trip. I needed to replace this fan.  Over the last few months, my AC has been making a funny noise where the fan seemed to be slowing to a stop and I would get no cold air.  If I turned down the speed of fan, it would at least run and give cold air.  Since we were going on an extended road trip, I wanted to make sure that the AC worked well.  Here is the fan removed with the new replacement on the right.  I bought the replacement from Rockauto for much less than the dealer but it is the same fan.

Different views.

The old fan had a lot of dust and debris which I am sure that it was from the brushes wearing out.

I had to remove the passenger side panel below the dash.  No clips, just pry off from the side closest to the seat.

One set of wires connected to the panel on the right and the wires connected to the fan on the left.

Location under the dash where the fan resides.

Overall not a hard job.  It took me about 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

Getting Married Today

Well Jessieca and I are finally getting married.  We will be married today on the Emerald (yacht) in San Diego Bay.  We will be taking a road trip to San Francisco.  We will take the Egg.   We wanted to go in the bus but it is not ready yet.  So the Egg will be packed for camping and hotel stays.

We will start by leaving on Wednesday next week.  First stop will be in a Malibu beach campground for a night.  Then to Pismo Beach.  We will stay in a hotel there to get a shower.  Then we are off to Big Sur for some camping in the Big Basin state park with the giant red woods for a night.  After that, we are in San Francisco for three nights.  Then back home with a stop at a Santa Barbara beach campground.  Hopefully there will be many photo opportunities.  We are excited about the trip and hope all goes well.  I may blog while on the trip, but we may be having too much fun to stop and type.  So I will at least update when we get back.

See ya then.

More shop additions

I added a few things to my shop this past weekend.  I hung my dart board in one of the two offices.  This is the front office (considered the lobby of the unit) where I set up my work out equipment.  The throw line for the dart board is right at the doorway from the lobby to the warehouse portion of the unit.  Here is a picture of the dart board hung in the "work out room".

I finally bought a creeper.  I am trying this molded plastic one.

I also got this stool that raises and lowers with a tool tray for the base.

I also bought is grinder stand for my grinder that was mounted to my workbench prior.  I like it because it is very easy to get to now.

Lastly, I obtained this drill press from my father's tool collection.  He passed away two years ago but a lot of his tools are still in the garage where my mother lives.

Now, I need to start using these things to get my bus back on the road.  So hopefully I will be posting some progress on the engine soon.

A little doodling in the shop

I have this step stool that I obtained from my grandparents when they passed.  Not a big deal in regards to the step stool, just where it originated.  Anyway, here it is in my shop.  It is the green thing on the right.  It obviously folds for storage.

So, I got the itch to clean it up and paint it black with some cool step covers.

Lots of sanding to remove the old paint and rust. 

                                                   

The steps were covered by this cardboard type thing you see here.  There were plastic fasteners holding the cardboard on the stool.  This was on the top step.

This was on the bottom step.  It was glued to the stool.

The other side.  

This is the finished product and the look I was trying to achieve. 

I am happy with the way the stool turned out.