Day’s 5 & 6 - February 11th & 12th, 2025
February 11th
6:45 a.m. Temperature 10 C
One of us is very excited about today. The other, not so much. We will let you guess which is which. Today’s the day that Phoebe (Oh, sorry. We forgot to mention that Phoebe is the name of our van. The kids picked it back in 2018. Not exactly the aggressive, off road, wilderness camping beast name Simon would have chosen but it’s like when you let your kids name a pet or something, that’s what you have to go with. At least it wasn’t snuggles! So Phoebe it is. And no “Smelly Cat” references please.) Anyway, as we were saying, today’s the day that Phoebe gets her big suspension upgrade at Agile Off Road here in Santee, CA. That was the appointment we had to make and is why we had to just drive to get here with no time for sightseeing on the way down from Canada.
We knew that we had to upgrade the suspension as the van is big and with our camping build it’s also very heavy. If we channel our inner Jeremy Clarkson we would say that It drove like a pregnant hippopotamus with a wounded leg! And going around corners it was even worse! And going over bumps it was very, very sloppy. The stock Sprinter suspension, especially the rear leaf springs were just not up to the job anymore. We had to get an upgrade however, we couldn’t do it until the build was totally finished as it required weighing the front and rear of the van to correctly spec the springs. We did that at a weigh scale on Vancouver Island when we did a short road-trip there last September. And as Phoebe is a lady, we won’t reveal her weight here.
So, at 8am we checked her in and went to wait in the showroom. Agile’s set up is great - they have a sofa, flatscreen TV, coffee machine, water, snacks and free wifi as well as places to work, a washing machine and dryer and a shower. We used them all. After all, we were there for the whole day. More so after we also decided to get the big brake upgrade so we could properly stop the thing once we got it going. And the throttle tuner we also got certainly helped with that!
We ate, worked and watched two movies - Kinda Pregnant with Amy Schumer which was very funny, we would both highly recommend and Subservience with Megan Fox which was OK. A bit freaky really, especially after seeing the AI robots in the news at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. Fiction becoming reality? Not too sure why all of the SIMs have be so good looking though. Why not make a nanny robot that looks like Nanny McPhee or Mrs Doubtfire instead? Would probably have saved all the problems caused in the movie. ;)
Also, the dogs got lots of walks during the day to stop them getting stir crazy sleeping in the showroom. It was during one of these walks that we discovered that Aluminess Products (the company that supplied our side ladder and SUP pole and our rear storage box) were based just across the street from Agile.
By 6 p.m. we were all done and after saying our goodbye’s we headed out to the van to check out the upgrades. Looking good. Looking real good. A little over an inch higher off the ground (just a result of the stiffer springs and shocks, it’s not a lift kit and we didn’t want it to be) and not sagging in the rear anymore. And isn’t that something we all want ;) Getting to test out the upgraded driving experience would have to wait until tomorrow though as were tired and just wanted to make dinner, talk to the kids and go to bed. By the way, I should mention that our “kids” are 19 and 21, so not really kids anymore. But they are our kids so we will continue to refer to them as such. Also, “young adults” sounds ridiculous. Thought we would mention their ages in case someone reading this thinks about calling social services to report children abandoned at home while their parents swan off in a van to Mexico. They are more than capable of looking after themselves and we think they actually prefer having the house to themselves when we are gone. Plus this time they don’t have to look after the dogs as they are with us. Freya is a Goldendoodle and is 3 years old. She is an old soul and is very loving and sometimes unsure about new situations. We love her very much. Otis is a Bernedoodle, he is 9 months old and is a crazed, psychotic, maniac. Apologies any to crazed, psychotic maniacs reading this. No offence meant. It’s just his puppy mentality. He’s not just a puppy, he’s a PUPPY!!! Maybe he’ll calm down. Hopefully soon. Maybe he won’t and this is just his personality forever. We love him anyway. Otis adores Freya. he loves her completely. Freya likes Otis. Freya also hopes Otis will calm down.
Distance travelled today: 0 KM
February 12th, 2025
7:30 a.m. Temperature 9 C
Albert Hammond lied to us. “It never rains in Southern California.” Yes it bloody well does! It’s raining today! In San Diego! We wanted sunshine. We left cold, snowy Vancouver for sunshine and we get rain. Typical.”
We did our usual, dogs go potty, make coffee and hit the road routine. Man, does she drive like a dream! Corners are no longer a problem, there’s no pre-corner thinking, mid-corner adjustment or post-corner regrets, just turn and go. No more body roll. She drives like a car. Much more responsive in accelerating. And now she stops like she means it.
We headed to the nearest Walmart for some D cell batteries we needed for our shower controller and in the line up at the register, the lady in front of me let me in front as I only had one item. I thanked her and asked is it was a Scottish accent that she had. Turns out she was from just outside Glasgow and had been living in Santee for a long time. We chatted briefly and when I mentioned the rain she said that “ok, we need it.” So maybe I won’t curse Albert Hammond and the weather gods anymore. My new Scottish friend says they need the rain and if you know anything about the Scots it’s that they know all about rain so she’s probably right.
We drove East out of Santee on Hwy 8, a scenic route that took us through the Valley of the Moon, a strange place with hills of boulders that looked like they had been piled there by some strange alien beings. It was spectacular scenery but it was a short drive as we were only headed to the Yuha Well rest stop to set up to work for the day. We have Starlink for internet (we’ll certainly need it in Baha as some parts have no cell signal) and got it set it up and together with our laptops, extra monitors and mobile printer we were all set to get shit done. And get it done we did. Until about 5 p.m. when we set off for Calexico and our first ever overnight stay at a Walmart. And we also purchased our Mexican auto insurance policy online during the day.
We filled up with Diesel at the Walmart gas station, did a little grocery shopping in Aldi (Emma was happy with that as we don’t have Aldi in Canada) and ran into Walmart to buy a box of staples (we had run out - obviously way too much stapling while getting shit done earlier in the day) and a pack of diet Pepsi (we should state that other cola beverages are available, we are not sponsored by Pepsi and have not been paid for this advertisement. Although if anyone from Pepsico is reading this and you want to sponsor us please feel free to reach out, any fees similar to what you paid Michael Jackson or Michael J Fox in the 80s would be fine. Failing that, free truckloads of diet Pepsi would also be acceptible.)
We had dinner and tidied up the van to get it ready for the border crossing into Mexico in the morning. We threw out the garbage and some apples that we knew we couldn’t take across the border (I’ve always wondered why it’s always the healthy stuff that border agents have problems with. Fruit, vegetables, eggs, etc - we’ll confiscate those thank you very much. Your healthy foods are a danger to our country’s very existence. How dare you! Cadbury’s chocolate bars, Doritos, diet Pepsi - ooh yes please. Bring them all in, no problemo. (again, we should state that other chocolate bars and corn type snacks are available, we are not sponsored by Cadbury’s or Frito Lay (coincidentally a subsidiary of Pepsico so maybe we could talk about a combo deal?) and have not been paid for this advertisement. If anyone from Cadbury or Frito Lay/Pepsico are reading this ……….. etc, etc.
We settled down for the night, not sure what to expect from the Walmart camping experience.
Oh, and we have had a reader get in touch with a question and a request. “Debbie M” from Maple Ridge, BC, Canada asks - “Did Otis throw up or poop out the sock?” Well Debbie, I can confirm that the sock was most definitely pooped out. It wasn’t a pretty sight and Emma definitely will never wear that sock again. Otis did also throw up something a few days ago but we don’t think that was the sock he ate, must have been something else. Maybe the other sock? :\ She also requests that we do a tour of our home on wheels. We will put something together over the course of the next week and see if we can come up with a “van tour” video. We have been recording some video on our trip so far and we will probably put together something to cover the trip, not sure if it will be a few or maybe just one for the whole trip, we will have to wait and see. We are definitely more comfortable with writing a blog rather than talking to camera for a vlog but you never know.
Tomorrow morning we cross into Baja, Mexico!
