15 October, 1999:
Coleman responded to our list of requests today, and has sponsored us with all kinds of necessities and comfort items. Jocelyn's faves are the two slingback chairs and the keeps-ice-cold-for-5-days-in-90-degree-heat cooler. She also changed the gear oil in the rear differential tonight -- with lots of prodding, instruction and help from Steve. A first for her. She had fun and makes a pretty good mechanic -- a little bit to Steve's surprise she thinks. We also borrowed a ball hitch from Bo Neece of TLCA/LCML, the helpfullness and kindness of whom we were still talking about hours later. We are pleasantly surprised by the support, well wishes, and the group in general's willingness to help us out. What a great way to begin such an adventure.
17 October, 1999
Today we packed. Okay, Beebee packed for the second day in a row; Steve moved the piano and struggled with UHAUL ("Just because you reserved that 2 weeks ago doesn't mean we can guarantee that it'll be here, sir"); then we both loaded up the trailer. Then unloaded it. And re-loaded it differently because we thought it was too front heavy. Then considered doing it all again. Then decided front heavy was okay after all.
Long day. We had great help from our friends, Geeta, Mike, Damon and Doug. Thanks guys.
We're now headed up to Long Beach in the craziest traffic… We've been on the road for an hour and we've only made it to Oceanside (about 20 miles). It feels like we're on the 5 in Anaheim. Our cousins, Dave and Haven are making us dinner and putting us up for the night. We're really looking forward to relaxing with them. It's been a long weekend and there's still about 900 miles to go. It appears the traffic was due to some sort of man-hunt. We saw about 6 cop cars -- two on an overpass a few on the side of the road and one on the opposite side of a ravine. Interesting. Sort of. Okay, not really, but we're bored.
19 October, 1999
Hi all!
Jocelyn (aka Beebee) and I are starting a new game for us and a little extra project for the website: an official Land Cruiser sighting page.
It isn't up just yet, but probably will be soon as we are driving down the 5 right now and it is really boring… working on a laptop in a 60 at 75 mph sure beats the heck out of sitting inside building a website!!
On our trip up Monday (yesterday) we saw a nice looking 40. It was about 12:15pm and we were by Margie's Diner near San Luis Obispo, CA. The red 40 with white hardtop was headed South on 101. (one point for Steve)
Also saw a silver/champagne colored 60-series on Carmel Valley Road in Carmel, CA at about 9am on Tues (today) (point for Jocelyn)
I also saw a green 40 with bfg all-terrains and a white hardtop on Hwy 1 (northbound) in Carmel, CA at about noon on Tuesday- but it didn't count because Jocelyn wasn't in the car.
So if any of those were your rigs, let us know!
21 October, 1999
Today, we got the first part of our sponsorship from Coleman-two coolers. One that is "iceless"
i.e. it runs off of 12-volt electricity (it's a small fridge, really) and another which keeps ice cold for five days in 90 degree heat -- Steve WILL be testing that feature! We've got the electric one plugged in right now and plan to test it out with some yogurt overnight. In other news today, it looks like Steve may be taking a trip to SEMA in Vegas in early Nov. So if you're going to be there, drop him an email, he'd really like to meet you. We're also really excited about a potential nerf bar/bumper sponsor. More news to come on that.
23 October, 1999
Another long day at Euro-Tek getting Sandy ready to go. We had really hoped to get her painted today, but didn't realize just how much work
(and time) it would take to tape and sand her… after six dusty hours in the sun we called it a day (coulda worked more, but couldnta finished the job). In spite of the disappointment of not finishing today, we are still awfully grateful to Joel for all of his help and for offering to finish up for us mid-week. Looks now like he is going to finish the paint job on Monday, stay tuned for pictures, it's going to look really great.We also spent a few hours getting that much closer to ready to move out. Only a few days left in the house and we are both feeling pretty stressed out about moving- not so much because we aren't ready to go, it is just proving to be a difficult move for us, both logistically and emotionally. But we are doing a good job of keeping the "big picture" in sight.
Speaking of jobs, only a few more work-days left for Steve, and Jocelyn is practically done. Wow. Time sure flies when you are making a major life-change.
It now looks like Steve and Jocelyn will both be headed up to SEMA in Vegas (Sandy too!) to meet some sponsors and to just sorta poke around. We are always interested in meeting people, so if you are planning to be in Vegas on the 3rd or 4th, let us know.
By the way, the new fridge passed the yogurt test with flying colors.