The internet is inspiring. Back when I was researching for camper shells for my truck I came across a lot of pictures from people who go into wilderness and have a storage/sleep setup inside their camper shell. I'm not as crafty as they all are and I decided to start my project at 9pm after work on Friday night, knowing I was planning on camping the very next day, so I made it simple. All it took was some sawing, gluing and nailing and I came up with roughly was you see below (I changed the foam cushions to eliminate road vibration). It costed $90 total and I have leftover wood and supplies. 

Things I said on Saturday between leaving the boat and getting to the campground:

"I forgot the pan for cooking and kettle for coffee" - "I forgot my sleeping bag" - "I forgot Ice" - "I forgot about wood" - fortunately solutions to my forgetfulness were all in reach. 

We drove to Blue Jay Campground in the Cleveland National Forest near Lake Elsinore on Saturday afternoon to find is almost empty. It works on a first come first serve basis so you drive around, pick a site, and go pay for it at the front entrance under the honor system. Camping out of the truck rather than a tent meant that we had our eyes set on a parking spot that was close to the fire, preferably in shade and as flat as possible. I used the extra wood from the project to level the truck so we could sleep comfortably. Mia helped to set up our inflatable sleeping mats as I started a fire and we were settling in for the night. The whole night around the campfire we just kept saying that we need to go camping more often, its a fun, cheap, and exciting way to spend a weekend. 

On Sunday we stopped by my favorite old sandwich shop in Fullerton where I went to college, it changed a bit and had a lot going on around it, but was filling. I kept thinking I would sail the dinghy today but there was absolutely no wind. This ended up great because I went to storage to drop off the camping gear, grabs surfboard and went surfing in the nice conditions. Bonus, now my surfboard fits it the covered storage under the sleeping platform I built in the bed of my truck. 

We got new pour over coffee filters (because I lost my French press filter to the sea) and used the morning fire to boil water.  

First Christmas with Andrew. Can you spot the pacifier gift I gave him?  

Waking up at my moms house two days before Christmas knowing that the next couple days will be filled with cooking, eating and seeing family, it made the long drive after work and 1:30am arrival all worth it. By Friday night both of my brothers and their wives and baby Andrew were all there. Saturday was Christmas Eve which meant that Mia and i were planning on leaving after a special dinner. We opened presents, had dinner and hit the road heading for SLO.  Christmas Day and the next day I spent with Mia's family then I left early to go back to the work.

A couple examples of the great thoughtful gifts I received are below - a Fujifilm Insta Mini 8 camera, which spits out wallet sized instant pictures like a Polaroid. I was given an Amazon gift card which immediately went toward more film and a brown leather carrying case for the camera. I got a west marine gift card which was desperately needed to replace the jib halyard, thanks to Mia's braiding skills we were able to rig up a way to run the new line behind the old line and up the mast. Mia also gave me my first pair of hiking boots so we tested them out on New Year's Eve in Palos Verdes, it was raining and muddy but a lot of fun.

Rainy NYE hike to bluff cove

The first real rain since I've installed my roof racks on the camphershell came through and I felt around inside to see how water tight the seals are. At least one wasn't. So I had Saturday morning to do a couple projects and among taking the boat out for a pump out and rearranging the galley shelves to put cups and kitchen ware and moving spices, oils, and cooking stuff inside behind the tinted sliding plexiglass (which looks much better and will be better for setting up to go sailing) I also grabbed some trusty butyl tape from the dock box and went and sealed the hardware on the campershell...of course it probably won't rain again for a long time now. I ran out of time and Mia and I drove down to San Diego to make a quick stop my friends holiday party and then spend the night and following day with her family down there for an early Christmas. We had fires going, games around the table, football on tv, and a gift exchange. After, they took us to The Lodge at Torrey Pines golf course - super beautiful and a really special way to make it start feeling like the holidays.

We took a brief trip over to Mia's dad apartment to help him finish moving out. It offered access to the larger (just sold) house on property and a great wooden-deck beach-lookout of Leucadia. The weather was obviously very sunny and warm during the day, bit dipped into the 40s at night - frigid for San Diego standards. 

First season I ever put a wreath on - hoping it causes LA drivers to be a little nicer.  

I work in accounting Monday through Fridaystarting between 8 and 10 am to 6 or 10 pm. Surely almost all of us make to-do lists. Ideas and reminders strike me at random times throughout the day and I hate when I can't recall what it was at a later time. If my phone is nearby I'll just add it to a list in the 'notes' app. Anyway, on some lunch breaks I take a walk and brainstorm what projects and things I can do when I know I'll be in town for the upcoming weekend. I get fulfillment out of starting and finishing as much as I can on my own, that's why living on a sailboat (which require endless amounts of work) was appealing rather than a burden. In contrast to my full-time job, which I don't really get any fulfillment from.

Also in contrast to my job, when I take those lunch break walks I also catch up on a list of bookmarked blogs of sailors, hikers, travelers, and photographers. Somewhere along the walk and staring at my phone, I read about Vasquez Rocks. It's an hour drive away and I wanted to go this weekend, I wanted to revisit that feeling of escape I received from that Running Springs hike last weekend. By the end of the week my to-do list was accumulating into a dozen bullet points of varying priority and not even on that list was to actually get out and hike Vasquez Rocks.  Fine, another time. I knocked out 9 of 12 of the bullets on my list including installing a roof rack on my truck, getting a white elephant gift for a work function, mailing a birthday gift to Matt, getting an oil change, washing the boat, washing the truck, etc etc. Routine things, but we haven't been "home" often for months and it feels great to accomplish even the little things.

The campershell that I mounted the racks to is not rated to carry more than 150lbs - and I don't plan on loading anything close to that up on top either, however I went to the hardware store and came up with a way to use metal as a dual purpose backing-plate to spread the weight on the racks as well as hanger points to tie and mount things on the interior of the shell. I also had to make two trips to hardware stores for bigger mounting harware than what was provided. I'm happy with the result. I think my accessorizing is finally over, after having the vehicle for almost 12 years, I guess I got interested in improving it a little now that I dumped so much money on the transmission because I realized I'm going to have it awhile longer. I also have a re-found interest in taking it places to car-camp comfortably in the bed (or a tent) and hit a trail, waves or whatever destination early the next day on weekends. We'll see. Maybe I've been reading too many adventure blogs lately.

New racks from Vantech in black aluminum  

Mia and I both washed our cars and the sun finally came out = photo op

I finally stuck my custom bear sticker on. It anyone's looking close, I broke off a bolt on the rack by tightening it too tight. 

A Cenoura got a wash for the first time in about 7 months to get the layers of dirt off and I did an "on hands and knees" deck inspection and found out I need to replace a halyard. 

I let the group walk ahead to the lookout area that we embarked on this hike for. I slowed down my steps, strayed off the trail at the fork and I went left to find two crucial things. The first was a patch of dirt, dry and soft, sticking out of the surrounding snow for me to put down my empty beer can and stomp it compact before I put it inside in my jacket pocket with the other flattened one. After this both of my hands could free and I was able to address the second thing I was looking for - a tree to pee behind. Halfway through completing part two of my mini mission, I heard voices of hikers over the hill coming up a different trail, or was this an extension of somebody's backyard? At that moment I was reminded that although I believed I was alone up there, I wasn't far away from anything. That's the beauty of being able to come back up to Running Springs, just a short drive up from LA.

I stumbled down from my wilderness porta potty and back on the right trail to the lookout where my group was taking pictures. I chose my steps on the crunchy snow/ice carefully as I opened the last Coors light I had in my jacket pocket and joined the fun.

At the beginning of this hike we were greeted by three men at the trail opening who told us they were coming to cut down Christmas trees (illegally we think) and they told us they see bears here but since our group of 10 would talk and yell back and forth on the trail it would keep anything harmful scared and away from the trail. The local knowledge was assuring enough and we continued on. About a week ago this area received the first snow of the season therefore all of the shaded parts of the mountain had the winter landscape we came up here for, in addition to celebrate Friendsgiving with Mia's core group of friends.

We returned before it got dark to having our beverages of choice in hand, snacks, games, and a warm crackling fire to fill the silence between any music tracks we requested via an Alexa (a wireless, internet connected, smart speaker that you can give orders to). My time spent up there was less than 24-hours in total but thankfully the feeling of escape and leisure sets in immediately after getting out of the car and lasts until you are driving back descending in elevation into the flat, hazy smog of the Los Angeles basin... back to chores, alarm clocks and work, but with more valuable memories and a greater appreciation for welcoming friends and access to adventure.

I drove up to my moms house and we went to celebrate thanksgiving in Lodi. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Julia's family and see the new baby again.  

The baby's schedule: Sleep, cry, eat, repeat  

After some time up in Northern California I drove down to central California to see Mia's family. It was pouring rain which made seeing horses and getting a Christmas tree fun and feeling like winter (finally) 

Mia feeding her horse George and Maeve keeping another horse distracted out in the rain  

The sunset through a passing storm system  

I bugged their cat until she got sick of me  

I took advantage of the opportunity to see my brother Matt and his wife Julia and their 3-week old baby Andrew briefly up in Sausalito. I drove up on a Friday night to San Francisco where Mia was staying for attorney convention business. My mom also drove over to Matt and Julia's so it was all of us together for Sunday afternoon. It was pretty surreal seeing them cooperatively take care of this tiny baby and also realizing I'm now an Uncle.

While there I stepped out to make a call to the marina office and got the good news that a different slip will be available to move to. The whole point has been to get as far away from the Shade Hotel as possible. That place is garbage and devastating to the area as far as the boating community is concerned. But money talks and alcohol and food is enough to get everyone with authority in the city persuaded to go along with it.

Anyway the following weekend on the night of the hotel's official (like 6th) grand opening, we started the motor on A Cenoura, took the dock lines and shorepower cord with us, and tied up to another dock about 200 yards away. It's quieter, darker, and we're facing bow-south now which I think will be cooler inside and better in the summer. We can park closer to the dock and use the bathrooms that don't usually have homeless people hanging out around the doors. So it's a win-win-win-win-win. It took two dock-cart trips to relocate the stuff in my dockbox and that was it. Probably will go down as the easiest move of my life. The following day I went to clean and scrub out anything remaining in my dockbox (soggy sand paper, some screws and washers) and the hotel was visibly trashed from their party. Cigarettes were all over the walkway and blowing into the water, hotel towels thrown from balconies were blanketing sea life on the rocks underwater, plastic "keg" cups were scattered around probably tossed off balconies...all of these images just get under my skin and defy the whole "environmentally friendly" lie that the hotel portrays.

So I'm happy that we moved a little bit away from the money taking monstrosity but when I think about the rules they're breaking and getting away with and the widespread and significant damage across the value and safety of the marina and marine life surrounding it, I get upset. Luckily now that it's a little easier to keep it out of sight and out of mind that means I probably won't complain more on my website about it. You're welcome.

Final night in this slip was the grand opening for the awful intrusive hellish hotel  

Finally got to hold Andrew  

Four years ago when I moved onto the boat I was seriously interested in buying a shell for the bed of my truck. It would have solved a lot of storage problems at the time but back then I couldn't justify spending $1,500-$2,000 on a new one. I browsed Craigslist as often as possible for a long time and gave up after a few months The toughest part was realizing that the cab setup of my truck required a very specific shell shape to match the line of the back of my truck so not just any shell would work.  I would occasionally look over the past four years and kept my fingers crossed that someone with a 2005-2015 white, regular cab Tacoma would be selling a camper shell with windows in good condition. Finally, two weeks ago, that post was found. For $800 I got exactly what I was looking for. 

On the drive back home my immediate priority was to get the rear center brake light wired up. I went to Discount Campershell in Long Beach and for $20 they hooked up my new brake light and then we collectively discovered some burns on the wiring going to the left brake light, which hasn't operated correctly for awhile. Some Wd40 and wiggling got that light working too. I was so happy with it. The truck looks great, in my opinion, and everyone diving behind me can know when I'm hitting the brakes.  

I am still happy with the shell, but less so with the transmission. Oddly, the exact moment I pulled away from putting a $800 new-to-me accessory on the truck, the gears were acting up. Neutral crunch first gear crunch second gear silence third gear crunch fourth gear. I've sort of had a semi broken and sensitive transmission for couple years and every mechanic blamed it on whoever put my clutch in (around 120,000 miles) saying it was shoddy workmanship (Lexology in Redondo Beach-stay away). Anyway I was warned that the synchros were wearing out. I drove carefully and had work-arounds to get into certain gears smoothly and kept on getting from point a to b just fine. But now, accelerating away with my awesome new campershell, it just got worse - a lot worse. Finally I felt like I was on the brink of hearing a crunch and then seeing sparks of metal transmission bits bouncing off he ground behind me. Obviously I'm going to keep this truck for awhile, I thought, I just invested more in it. I should get that transmission checked out. 

My transmission torn apart  

They said these two parts had no oil between them and rubbed metal to metal.  

An example of the gear grinding culprit

I took it to a reputable shop near my work and they did $1,700 of work which they were 90% sure would fix it. It unfortunately did not. They kept it another day and found out the synchros are all blown out. Replacing it piece by piece is more money and time than just getting a new transmission, so the less expensive but still good plan is to put a slightly used transmission in for over $2,000 on top of what I paid already.  They kept the truck a few more days and put in a different transmission. I immediately could tell something was whirring in idle that shouldn't have been, they agreed, and it took another week to get another transmission in. At least I got to drive my vehicle with the crud transmission in it to get around. Finally after the second replacement transmission things seem good for the one mile I drove it back to my office. I'm driving up to San Francisco tonight so I guess that will be a good test drive. 

If I had known all of this before I took my truck in, would I have evaluated the worth of my truck versus the cost of repair? I don't know.

Many of the broken pieces  

That truck is the most dependable of any machine I think I've ever relied on. And I just made it look more to my taste and more functional to my daily routine. 11 years old and 185,000 miles and I feel like I just bought it a second life. 

I did learn that the regular cab tacomas are discontinued and therefore their value as a used tuck is sky rocketing in the niche market of people who want them. The truck that was carrying the shell I just bought was sold, used for 8 years, for $14,000. This high resale value was Something for me to weigh against letting it go over a transmission repair. But, ouch, my wallet hurts.  Also, this matter of being discontinued could be why the shop was looking for used transmissions. They worked with a company that picks up collision-wrecked vehicles and parts out the good things, like 5-speed Tacoma transmissions. 

On another note, last week I was getting socks out for my day and say a lizard hanging on to my storage bag. How did it get there? Where did it come from? I was confused. I actually thought for a moment about letting it stay, grow its tail back and chase any other bugs away, but I don't want it crawling around my tiny home. Out it went  

Stowaways not welcomed.  

Congratulations to my big brother and Julia and their healthy and happy baby boy!  

My mom is finally a grandma! 

My brother Scott and Nicole are expecting their daughter in January and are shown here getting some baby experience  

Born 10-27-16 just after midnight and just in time for Halloween! 

I'm excited to hopefully meet Andrew in about a week when I take a trip up to the Bay Area. 

Went up to visit Mia's family for the October Birthdaya celebrations. Her mom and her sisters (16th) birthdays are both close and we spent the weekend seeing the horses, test driving some cars for Maeve and going to a couple nice dinners. 

Mia taking Journey out for a spin