In Need Of A Day Off

In desperate need of a weekend get-away, Kelly and I left our base in Half Moon Bay last night, retreating about 70 miles to the south.  Roughly 90 minutes later we arrived to Coyote Lake County Park about an hour after sundown, making our efforts to back into our site frustrating for us, but surely comical to others.

We’ve been here once before and made a mental note to keep this place on our shortlist of easy to access parks … especially since the area is very dog-friendly.

The timing of our escape was ideal, affording us the opportunity to watch stage-6 of the Tour of California – America’s largest and most prestigious bicycle race.  This multi-day event kicked-off Monday in southern California and concludes Sunday in the northern wine country town of Santa Rosa.

Today’s individual time-trial – commonly referred to as ”The Race of Truth” was occurring near our campground so Kelly and I killed a few hours this afternoon watching the event.  We rode our bikes to a particularly technical section of the course to view the action.

A BMC rider passes, followed by an NBC TV motorbike, team car, and race official

We saw some of the world’s top professional cyclists zipping through a downhill s-curve section of road at speeds pushing 30 MPH.  The time trial is set-up such that riders race individually against the clock – in this case 19.9 miles, starting in reverse order of their overall standing in the general classification.  We waited around to see the Maillot Jaune pass by, then hit the road ourselves, as I needed to complete a little RV maintenance project.

Overall leader, Tejay van Garderen (team BMC) wears the Yellow Jersey, closely followed by a parade of race officials

Last night as I was prepping the Airstream for travel, I noticed the electrical cord had experienced what appeared to be damage from a power surge.  The impairment looked fairly significant and I was thankful for my beefy surge protector, which I always keep connected … “just in case”.

Damaged surge protector (left) and power cord (right)

Initially, my plan was to simply to buy a new cable, but when I saw the whopping Camping World $80 price tag I decided to explore other options.  As it turns out, the solution was quite simple actually – remove the damaged prong head and replace it with a new one.

I’ve always been a bit leery of electrical projects, but I located a replacement part for only $18.  Before talking myself into another course of action, I decided to go for it.

Having convinced myself that if things went horribly wrong and became a complete fiasco, I’d probably die quickly and without too much pain.  With this sound logic in hand, I figured why not give it a try?

I proceeded to sever the damaged plug, prep the wiring, attach to the newly purchased plug, and put everything back together.

The damaged plug, whacked from the cord

All wires prepped and ready to proceed

All the wires ready to go

Repairs complete

<<Spoiler Alert>>

Obviously I didn’t die, as evidenced by me writing this posting.

In the end, the project was quite straightforward and embarrassingly simple.  That said, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t take serious pause before plugging the newly repaired 30-amp cord into the generator.

Proud of my accomplishment, I embarked upon assisting Kelly with   another project of no less importance – dinner.

Following our meal, Kelly and I took Lilly for a trail hike and I rewarded myself with a cold beer.

Hillside hike with views overlooking the town of Gilroy, CA

All in all, a great usage of our long overdue PTO day.