We are at the Elks lodge in San Jose (map).
Long-time readers know that we stay here when we're in town because there is ready access to the VTA light rail system, CalTrain, and several bus lines right across the street. And, right now with all this really cold weather, 50 amps of power for $18 per night is a good deal -- we'd be going through $15-$16 a day in diesel and maintenance on the Webasto and generator otherwise.
We've been going a mile a minute since we got here, between running errands and visiting folks -- so much so that I haven't really had time to post. Today is my first day to relax a bit, and so my exciting birthday activity is sitting here quietly and catching up on the blog.
We've knocked down eight of our must-do visits, with a ninth scheduled for tonight. Later this week, one of our readers will come by to pick up the old LCD TV, which is in the scooter bay at the moment. We've also been contacted by some local folks who are looking at buying Odyssey's sister coach, and they'll be dropping by to have a look at some of what we've done differently.
At this point, we are on schedule and it looks like we will leave here as planned Monday morning, heading for Death Valley via Monterey and the Salinas valley.
The one fly in our ointment once again has to do with our power train. We've been leaking a good bit of oil, presumably since we left Ed Hardy Diesel. In fact, I've added two full gallons since then, less than 2000 miles ago. From what I can see, it looks like it might be coming out around an airbox cover, a pair of which were removed for inspection on that visit. It's possible it's as simple as not having properly torqued the screws, or a bad gasket. We need to stop someplace to have it looked over. We've also been getting an intermittent "Check Transmission" light when the system is cold, with the ATEC reporting a Code 12. So there is a possibility we will swing by either D&A in Bakersfield or PEDCO in LA between Monterey and Death Valley.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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Well, a very happy birthday to you. You need it with all these mechanical problems. Olive Garden tonight? -- Reader Jon
ReplyDeleteSean & Louise, Karan and I are still in Fresno, are you going to cross over and come down 99 or are you going down 5? If you come down 99 let us know, maybe we can get together for lunch.
ReplyDelete@houn -- thanks for the well-wishes. Actually, we had dinner scheduled with a bunch of our motorcycling friends at a pub in Redwood City with easy CalTrain access. Unfortunately, many did not make it due to an overturned gasoline tanker on US101. Still, we had a nice celebration with about eight or so in attendance.
ReplyDelete@spyderman -- too early to tell. Our plan had actually been to go down 101 after leaving Salinas, and not cut over into the central valley until CA46. However, we are now thinking of backtracking a bit from Salinas to visit friends in Los Banos, which would bring us down 5 or 99. In which case we can certainly swing over towards Fresno. A lot hinges on where we are going to go to have the oil leaks looked at.