My brother and I finally found the time to take off together on a mini trip. I loaded up the plastic tubs early Saturday morning. First day/night in San Diego county in a place called Oak Grove. The campground had nice private spots and surprisingly some good choices for a Saturday. It's a quaint spot, not really near anything. Temps: 80 in the day, 50 at night. We made a great fire, cooked and sat up till 11pm just staring at the fire.
Sunday we packed up and went southward toward Anza Borrego. I had a nice spot reserved on the outside loop that has no hookups. A great spot that felt like we were the only ones around. It was hot: 91 daytime and a balmy 62 at night. Another great campfire and zillions of stars out on a new moon night. The bathrooms and showers were spotless and it was nice to take a shower
This was a test of a number of new things I procured in the past 5 months.
What was good:
-My packing system really made it easier but needs some tweaking. I could have condensed it down to 3 big plastic stacking tubs in stead of 4. Need some way to divide the inside space of the tubs.
-The Yeti cooler is great. I'd love one for food, one for ice and drinks.
-The O grill is fantastic. Very compact and easy to modulate the temps.
-Good food-steaks, stuffing, salad, chicken bbq beans, rice, eggs, ham, jelly beans, chips, corona beers, Titos vodka, gatorade
-The Valterra stabilizers(2 units) make the inside of the QS10 really solid. They're tricky to use but are really effective. 5x more solid inside. I may buy one more
-The queen size progressive memory foam mattress I bought from Amazon fits perfectly in the bed panel area and is quite comfortable. A real score. it's heavier and tougher to squish down when folding but so much nicer.
-the percolator coffee was outstanding.
Not so good:
-why would about 7 snaps all of a sudden go bad? The metal inside nub thingie broke off the tonneau cover and tent.. now they are stuck on the trailer. Weird and disappointing.
- I got my turn signals all fixed up but the 12v system didn't work at all. So, no lights or fans. Fuses looked good and the battery is hooked up. The 3 hours of driving should have charged the battery but it seemed either dead or not hooked up.
-I'm out of shape...I'll just say that. A 2.5 mile hike did me in.
-The two burner stove that came with the QS10.0 deal cooks well but has no minimum flame setting. So, it goes out if you try to set a simmer level heat. No instant starter either. Time for a better stove.
-one of the sink area cabinet door latches takes a number of attempts to get it open. WD40 perhaps?
on the driveway
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campsite in Borrego Springs:
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my brother, proud of his leveling job!
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here I am, about to crack one of those Coronitas beers:
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A mile up in Palm Canyon
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Great report and wonderful pictures. I feel your pain regarding the hike.
thanks
those are all iPhone pics. I also took my Sony A6000 and will sort through those too. The pano setting is a lot of fun. No video...and that was on my list. oh well. I think my brother is hooked! he's planning another trip for us late summer.
I've been trying to figure out how to pack the bedding and camp chairs into a tub...and maybe even clothes. The less that has to be done, the more time I might have to take off!