We were up super early, breakfasted and out to the car by 9am because we didn’t want to muck around. We’d talked about being ready to go by noon and we were determined. At breakfast, Debbie had her laptop out and informed us that our switch had been delivered to Oregon, so there was no point waiting around for that to arrive, I would have to pilfer the switch out of my car.
That’s exactly what I did. It took me a while, but eventually I wrestled my switch from my trim with Dan’s help then I went to work installing it in Dan’s car. Dan had finished all the carpentry, so there was nothing left to do but clean the van up and pack. He busied himself with that as I made the last few connections. Emmi came out to join us for a couple of hours, telling us about all sorts of things that she’d learnt from school and from TV and we both got her to give us a helping hand more than once, handing us the right tools and such. She’s a very smart, lovely girl, even knowing how to say, “Hello friend!” in Spanish. At one point, we all ran outside the van to see an array of planes flying overhead, probably to commemorate Memorial Day. Apart from that, we had no distractions. I finished installing the switch after about an hour and both Emmi and Dan were impressed with the set up. Now we just had to hope that the second battery was healthy after a six hour drive to San Diego.
Electrical work done, I got started on the hard bit – packing. I’d been dreading this bit because I’ve become so used to just taking everything I own with me everywhere I go, but it was surprisingly easy. I went down from two containers to one for my clothes and filled the other with shoes, towels and other things I’d need. I was impressed I was able to compress my life down to two containers for the space of a month. By the time I was done, my van looked gutted. We’d put my mattresses underneath Dan’s to give us a super comfy bed, half my pantry was in Dan’s van, the fridge was gone and most of the window pockets were empty. I felt bad leaving her, but we needed some time apart. I took my bike off the roof and stowed it in the garage, turned the mains power off from the solar panel and that was that. I gave the keys to Debbie, we exchanged details since I was the only one that would have a working phone and I added her to my SPOT list.
Dan and I looked at each other at around noon. The car was packed, we were ready to go. We went inside for lunch, another Caesar salad and chatted with Debbie a while, making sure we’d thought of everything and wouldn’t be getting caught without something essential. Thankfully, we didn’t come up with anything so we had no more excuses. Debbie and Peter walked us outside and had a quick look inside the van. They seemed happy. So much so, that Debbie told Dan that Peter had been looking online at motorhomes, obviously keen to try out our lifestyle. We hugged goodbye, I thanked them for having me and my van and they wished us a safe trip.
Cleo safely in the back, we left Phoenix. It was happening now! It was 1pm, so we weren’t too far off our original plan and we had a six hour drive to Ocean Beach. It took us the first two hours to figure out a good system with Cleo after she jumped around the back and the front trying to find a spot she liked. Having gotten used to front seat privileges, she now had to find a better place to sit. I shut the curtains in an attempt to stop her seeing outside, because it’s the scenery going by that gets her so excited. That sort of worked, she found a comfy spot with her back legs on the bed and fronts on the fridge.
It was damn hot. The van’s AC struggled, cutting off air above a certain speed because the engine needed the extra vacuum to run, so we were limited on speed, but that didn’t matter too much. We stopped at a servo for fuel not far out of Phoenix, then again at a Maccas a couple hours in. Once we got past Yuma, Cleo dropped her guts and we considered that a warning shot for a dookie, so we pulled over immediately to let her out. Dan walked her for a good twenty minutes, but no dice, so we carried on and tied her to the inside of the door so she couldn’t get on the bed. We didn’t want to start the trip with an accident in the living room.
The drive all the way to the coast was familiar but we didn’t get relief from the heat until we passed the last mountain range and were hit with the cool air from the ocean. We were close. We stopped one more time at a servo for a pee break and twenty minutes later, were in our old stomping ground. We parked on the main street and walked down to the pier where we put our toes in the sand and the water, right by an elaborately crafted lady in the sand. Cleo still didn’t need the bathroom so we went back to main street for what we’d both been excited for – $2 beers and sake at the sushi place. We parked right out front so that Cleo could see us from the driver’s seat and sat in our usual spot at the window. We’d only made it by ten minutes. As soon as we got our first round, people were getting turned away at the door since the restaurant was closed.
Dan had sushi, me, gyoza and edamame and we managed to get two rounds of drinks in before we had to leave. It was bed time anyway after such a long drive so we were keen to make camp. We drove away from main street and over to Sunset Cliffs where Dan had heard there was a good place to park. Sure enough, we found a spot on the street right by the ocean where we could fall asleep listening to the waves. Our first night sleeping in the new van, we were both excited, but exhausted from the drive so conked out pretty quickly.
