29 December, 1999
The last few days have been really good- we finally broke down and made a detailed list of all of the things we have to do before we leave. The list is a little bit daunting, but we feel like we aren't too far behind schedule. One of the best things that has happened is that yesterday we got a call from George Carousos of Extreme Outback letting us know that he has found a trailer that may work for us! Very cool. We'll post more info as it arises. Thanks, George!
Unfortunately, Steve came down with a cold/flu thingy today, which has really slowed him down. He did manage to finally put up some pictures of his trip to Hollister Hills the other day. You can see them here. He doesn't much like the story that goes with the pictures (illness isn't much of a muse), but at least the page is done.
Beebee, on the other hand, is finally feeling great after a few weeks of fighting some kind of bug. She managed to do all sorts of good things today- including signing us up at a local gym for the month of January. Being homeless and not having a fixed schedule has been a great excuse for gaining a few pounds and getting a little out of shape. We'd like to whip ourselves back in to shape a little bit before the trip starts.
2 January, 2000
New Year's Eve was nice and mellow, just as we wanted it. Spent the evening at Karyn and Randy's* place and drank some Dom Perignon to ring in the new year with style. Steve was still tenaciously holding onto his cold and Beebee was trying to not catch it. Makes for a pretty uneventful evening. But we, okay just Beebee, saw the fireworks on the Eiffle Tower and that was keen. New Year's day we did jack squat. Nada. Sat around in front of the fire and drank hot toddies. (*Steve's sister and brother-in-law)
Today, on the other hand, we headed out to Hollister Hills. It was J's first time and Karyn and Randy came along for the ride. We had a great time with Steve doing the driving until Randy and Karyn left. Then Beebee 
took over for a while and practiced on some roads that we both thought might be quite a bit like what we'll be driving on the trip. Jocelyn didn't exactly have fun, but she did learn a lot and is already trying to plan a date to go back.
We had hoped to meet up with some other 'cruiser owners that we have met online, but somehow we managed to miss them. Maybe next time.
4 January, 2000
Spent Sunday night at J's mom's. Helped her move furniture on Monday morn and washed all the muddy Hollister gunk off Sandy.
We also suffered a slight setback yesterday when Jocelyn called All-Pro to set a date for installing the rear bumper, tire carrier and nerf bars only to hear from Jon that they are no longer doing that kind of thing and have "Let go of everyone".
"Uh, yeah, alright, okey dokey, no problem."
Okay, that's not exactly what she said when she got off the phone …
So, needless to say, we've been revising our plans in that arena just a little bit.
7 January, 2000
When you can haul yourself out of bed to see it, sunrise is really beautiful. This is the one we're seeing from highway 101 at about 7:30 a.m. We decided yesterday that since we're up to our eyeballs in things to do and have really no good reason at all to travel south, this would be a perfect weekend to go play in San Diego.We arrived in San Diego and made our first stop at Euro-Tek where Joel said he'd be happy to paint our trailer before we head off. Cool.
It's so good to be in Mission Beach. It still feels like home, especially since Cris and Sonja live across the alley from our old apt -- 
This pic is taken from their livingroom and looks out at the bay. Our old apt is the partially cut-off window at the corner of the building. So to entertain ourselves while Crisonja were still at work, we went for a nice long run on the beach -- the day was warm and clear with very little wind -- then hooked up with Cris and Sonja. At night we hung out, drank some beer and watched a really bad movie called "Ravenous". Cris (who picked it) only had one thing to say in his defense, "Well, none of us had already seen it, had we?"
In Sandy news, she got her windows tinted yesterday. We were a little nervous leaving her on a rather deserted corner of Salinas at a shop that only takes cash and doesn't exactly advertise that it's open, but they did a good job and charged us significantly less than the quotes we found in SD. We are still getting used to driving around in the new cave-like atmosphere, but it should be a lot cooler inside now. And in bigger Sandy news, we got a trailer. Finally. Helder Manufacturing (Marysville, CA) is in the process of building us a great little off-road trailer with a locking metal lid to keep all of our junk nice and safe.
Cruiser spotting: we were watching the movie "Instinct" last night and noticed a tan FJ60 in the driveway of the Dr's daughter. Pretty cool. Beebee pointed to it first, but Steve called out that it was a 60 before she did. Tie.
8 January, 2000
Today
we woke up to Cris' wonderful hot morning beverage concoction of coffee,
steamed milk and Kahlua. Then for breakfast we walked down the boardwalk
to
patronize the best little greasy spoon in Mission Beach -- Mr. D's. You
walk in, pick one of the few seats, grab your own silverware, napkins,
juice and coffee and order some of the cheapest food around. Buck seventy-five
for two eggs, hash browns, biscuit and sausage. After our feast, the boys
went and played at a wrecking yard and Steve came back triumphant with
a grab handle for the driver's side of Sandy, but otherwise empty handed.
There were three wrecked 60-series cruisers there but, alas, no tailight
lens that wasn't broken.
We visited our friends Geeta and Paul for dinner. Had a great time hanging out taking and watching some fun vidoes. Geeta's got every episode of the Simpsons taped, so Beebee got her fix while Steve tried very hard to stay awake.
9 January, 2000
Today was awesome. Beebee drove all day long and had a great time doing it. We went out to Anza-Borrego desert and did a run called Diablo Drop Off (full-page write up coming soon). Much of the driving is wide, sandy wash with just a couple of 3+ obstacles. You drive out through this fabulously beautiful dry ocean bed which used to be the gulf of California. Oyster beds rise up all around making high brittle cliffs on either side raked through with layers and layers of sediment. One can get going pretty fast and pretty squirrely out there -- so much fun.
We got back to town tired and dirty, but happy; had a quiet dinner at our favorite Mexican spot in Mission Beach and tumbled into bed.