This is the first post of the 2015 Drive Across America road trip

• This is a summary of the past several months where I made improvements to the “casita” (1959 King Richard Scamper teardrop trailer):

  • Revamped the entire 110v and 12v systems to be more robust and useful. Added a 12v wheelchair battery to the tongue area of trailer. Added a fuse box and battery charger to facilitate charging the battery when hooked up to shore power. 12v LED strip lighting has replaced the stick-on 3v LED lights that always seemed to be falling off while traveling.
  • Cleaned up and finished the galley hatch. Looks really nice, making the galley a welcoming place to prepare, eat a meal and engage in conversation. Also added LED strip lighting on the hatch.
  • Acquired a Coleman 200A lantern of close vintage to the trailer. This small red lantern cleaned up well and is much more appropriate in size compared to the large military lantern I carried with me last year. Hope to make more use of the lantern on this year’s trip.
  • Cleaned up, repainted and put anti-vibration shelf lining into the fore and aft storage cabinets in the sleeping cabin. Made use of plastic trays and army surplus canvas bags to store items such as electrical hookup cords, first-aid kit, and other supply items. All this should cut down on the dust and wear/tear on items being jostled around and misplaced during travel.
  • Replaced all the lidded trays in the galley area and sorted through and removed items that were never used during the last trip. Food storage was reduced from the large trays that had to be constantly shifted between sleeping area and truck cab every night. Now all food will be kept in the galley area and more food supplies will be purchased along the way, rather than packing so much food from the start.
  • Cleaned out, repaired and polished the icebox interior. Replaced the plastic tubing serving as the drain trap with copper tubing, which won’t deform. Removed some of the stainless trays that were beating up the interior and will be replacing with plastic lidded storage.
  • Refinished and covered the support platform plywood on tongue with aluminum tread plate. This brightens up the front part of trailer and should eliminate the need for repainting this platform which used to get pretty weather-beaten by the end of the travel season.
  • Mounted battery box on tongue, forward of the LP tank. Still need to come up with a method off securing the battery from theft…
  • Repainted the LP tank. Replaced the copper line between LP tank and stove. Not sure what type of goop had formed in the old line over the years. I assume the old line was the original when the trailer was built.
  • Built a fresh air fan that can hang from the curtain rod on either cabin door. It’s powered by 12v.
  • Applied rubberized undercoat to bottom of trailer.
  • Replaced cable hookup for trailer tail lights. Replaced damaged section of tail light cable between the tongue and fuse box. Re-homed the grounding point for the tail lights from galley to the frame under the cabin, street-side.
  • Replaced all skin screws with stainless steel screws (#8, 3/4″, pan head). In areas of exterior that are painted black, black painted SS screws were used as replacements.
  • Repainted tongue
  • Washed and waxed the wheels. Replaced missing hubcap on the curbside.
  • Repainted, waxed and applied new undercoating to the fenders. Cleaned, repainted and waxed the trailer exterior under the fenders.
  • Removed mattress pad, vacuumed and cleaned cabin deck. Spot cleaned mattress and reinstalled.
  • Replaced the old military surplus Linco torsion axle, which was frozen and provided no spring support whatsoever. Delivery of the new axle was delayed until xx-March.

• Repairs and improvements were also made to the 1992 Toyota pickup tow vehicle:

  • Replaced front brake pads that were soiled by oil leak during 2014 trip, causing chatter during high speed breaking.
  • Replace instrument cluster so that now there is a functional speedometer and odometer
  • Installed a gooseneck connector for GPS unit to keep GPS unit placement legal
  • Installed additional 12v outlet in console area
  • Cleaned out glove box and other storage areas in the truck.
  • Installed lumbar support on driver’s seat
  • Installed gear bag on back of passenger’s seat
  • Cleaned carpets and mats
  • Cleaned seat upholstery
  • Repainted windshield wiper arms. Replaced wiper blades
• Purchased supplies

• Target date for departure is sometime during the week of 22-March-2015. Duration of the trip is approximately two months, with the target to return back to San Jose / Los Gatos by 29-May-2015. There is a yoga retreat at Tassajara Zen Monastery in Carmel Valley the weekend of 5-June which I want to attend after the trip.
• On this trip, I’ve forced myself to be more social by attending a teardrop trailer-only rally in S. California (Lake Perris, near Hemet), the weekend of 27-March. My cousin Marta and her husband Manny have a “desert home” near Mojave and asked me to visit there while I was in the area and their son, Frankie, was on his spring break from high school. I look forward to this, since Manny and I share the same fascination with old stuff and junk yards.
• My Aunt Dorla, cousin Pat, her husband Walter and my niece, Mary Laura are all anticipating that I will visit them in Livingston, TN in mid-April. I also look very much forward to this visit, since visits there have always been happy and I always feel very much at home while there. In addition, my next restoration project, a 1963 Airstream trailer, awaits me at my cousin’s goat farm. It’s mine to have and restore, a gift from my cousin, who wants it out of the way. On this trip, I plan to document the condition of the trailer much more thoroughly, and to plan how it can be moved to a TBD location. Tennessee is currently the easternmost portion of my planned trip.
• My godmother, Nellie Pill, is anxious to see me, after forty-some years. I was contacted her last Sunday (15-Mar) and we plan a visit during the first part of April in Flagstaff, AZ, weather permitting…
• The lady who lived with us and took care of me and my siblings in our pre-teens, Lupita Wilkinson, lives with her husband, Enrique, in Pirtleville, adjacent to Douglas, AZ. It has been close to ten years since I visited with them. I would like to do so on this trip.
• I want to make a side trip to El Paso, TX to visit the Evergreen Cemetery to find out exactly where my great-grandfather and his eldest daughter are buried. Last year, due to timing issues, there was no one at the cemetery to show me where he was buried, and the cemetery is quiet large (42 acres).
• Not sure at this point if I’ll be traveling to the Seattle area on this trip. If so, in addition to my cousins and uncle in that area, my former boss, Mike Gerhold has asked me to drop by if I’m in that neighborhood.
• Also, LinYi’s mother and sister have extended a warm invitation to visit them, if I make it up to the Vancouver area. I feel kind of strange being there if LinYi is not (LinYi didn’t seem to be bothered by the idea), but I know that Ali becomes quite agitated while I’m there.