Aaron’s car needed some repairs so we met him at Robby’s Auto Repair in Poway, recommended by Mark Snyder Electric. After dropping Aaron’s car off, we then dropped Aaron off at Mostra Coffee for him to work while we headed to the Hilltop Community Park to climb Black Mountain. We took the Nighthawk Trail which was initially narrow with flowers taller then us lining the trail. After 2.1 miles and 821 feet of elevation gain, we reached the top of the mountain which is occupied by many electrical antennae. Although the wind was cool, the sun was hot but the view was well worth it as we could see in every direction - mountains and cities in the valleys. Total trail time 2 hours 15 minutes. We picked up Aaron and had lunch at Mi Ranchito Mexican Restaurant. The special of the day was lobster burritos. Rosemary had a lobster taco and a red snapper taco. Aaron had the lobster burrito while I had a combo of the lobster burrito and red snapper taco with rice and beans. The burritos were huge but I managed to finish my meal. I guess the hike helped my appetite. We picked up Aaron’s car and headed to Aaron’s for some well needed r&r.
Day 20, April 21, 2019, Sunday. San Diego, CA
We visited the Mission Trail Regional Park and hiked the Oak Canyon Trail which led to a waterfall. After a stop to admire the site and the scenery, we continued which led to the Fortuna Mountain Trail and then another, the Grass Loop Trail, which finally got us back to the starting point. About 4 miles over 2 and a half hours of sometimes rocky and seemingly always uphill trail made for a sound sleep at night.
We went to the downtown farmers market in Little Italy. The market is quite large and many good things to taste, and I did. We made a few purchases and also stopped at the Nonna Café Zucchero to buy some pastries for later dessert, a Jesuit and a raspberry almond pastry. Dinner at Hachi Ramen where I had the Tan Tan was great. Rosemary had the Kyushu Tonkotsu. We then walked into Balboa Park and to the Japanese Friendship Garden to attend a guitar concert. The performer was Jiji who was very talented and she played the acoustic guitar and the electric guitar. I enjoyed the classical pieces she played including Asturias but the modern pieces on the electrical guitar were too loud for my taste and not enjoyable.
Day 18, April 19, 2019, Friday. San Diego, CA
We drove to the Old Town trolley station and took the trolley 4 stops to the Sante Fe Depot where we walked to the Embarcadero and ate our picnic lunch. We spent the entire afternoon at the USS Midway, a retired air craft carrier. The ship is huge and contains examples of many of the different air craft, old and new, that flew from carriers. Several lectures from retired carrier pilots on the procedures of landings and launches complete with videos were fascinating. Across the bay was the USS Roosevelt carrier. And during the afternoon, several other navy ships passed by. Dinner with Aaron at Phuong Trang Vietnamese and dessert at Cauldron Ice Cream with varied flavors made while you wait and served in puffle cones. We shared two, Thai Tea and the Sun, Moon & Stars as they portions are large. Delicious.
A knock on the door at 8:20 am by Mark Snyder ready to go to work on our inverter. After a few tests, it was determined the inverter needed to come out of the coach for bench testing. Diagnosis was a bad fet board. With a new fet board installed, it was then discovered that the fan and the dc board were also bad and thus the end of this inverter’s life. A new inverter of the same model was then installed but not without some difficulty as the inverter location is upside down on the ceiling of the basement and the unit weighs in at 65 lbs. All done about 1:30 pm and included an educational session where I learned how to program the inverter. The old one was not properly programed possibly contributing to its death. We checked into Campland on the Bay in San Diego. We met Aaron for dinner at Kroran Uyghur Cuisine, which is Muslim Chinese food. We let Aaron order as this is one of his usual haunts. Our dishes of plov, manti and lamb with naan were very good and quite different, especially the Uyghur milk tea which is salty, not sweet.
After confirming our appointment for tomorrow (Thursday) morning at Mark Snyder Electric to address our inverter issue, we headed to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Lunch in the metal sculpture section of the park and then a short hike amid some of the sculptures. After a short stop at the visitor center, we hiked the Borrego Palm Canyon Trail. The trail is 1.5 miles each way to a desert oasis. The first mile is desert with warnings about carrying enough water, rattlesnakes and mountain lions. About the last half mile followed a small stream with an occasional small waterfall which we had to cross several times on rocks or a fallen tree trunk. The rocks seemed to get bigger and the canyon narrower the farther we went. We finally arrived at a beautiful stand of California Fan Palms. The hike in took 1 hour 20 minutes. After a 15 minute stop at the oasis to cool down, we started our return hike. The return was shaded quite a lot due to the sun now behind some of the mountains. Return time 1 hour 10 minutes. We then headed to Poway which required us to traverse a mountain range of about 5,000 foot elevation. Fortunately for Rosemary, we were driving on the inside lane. We parked for the night behind Mark Snyder Electric which is in an office complex.
An almost uneventful desert drive to Yuma, AZ. Along the way we hit some rain and then I got a warning on the dash “water in fuel”. Stopped at the next rest area and called Freightliner’s 24/7 hotline. I suspected it was a false alarm as the coach was still running well and the hotline confirmed this. We visited Martha’s Garden Medjool Date Farm where I had an eagerly anticipated date shake - delicious! After the shake we sampled numerous dates and bought 2 lbs of fancy dates. After a free dump station found on my new app “RV Dump Sites” we crossed into California and entered federal land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management just off I-8. We lucked out by one day as from Sept 15 to April 15 its $40/night to park overnight and free other times. No facilities but a great view of the desert and some mountains. An almost quiet night if not for the train track somewhere within earshot.
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