Rubber Baby Buggie Bumpers

Why retire in a crowded city?

The van comes with big urethane bumpers front and rear, which are plain black plastic.  The right front had a small dent it in from a previous renter, and after "the incident" with the flat tire, the dent was much bigger.  After a few weeks, we decided to fix it.  You can pull dents out of these urethane bumpers by applying some gentle heat from a hair dryer and then pushing in from the back.

I unscrewed part of the inner fender liner so I could reach in.  I could push the bumper out, but it bounced back.  Having no hair dryer to soften the urethane, I was stumped.  Mr. See suggested hot water and boiled a pan on the stove.  We gently poured the hot water on the bumper and it cascaded down the bumper, even underneath.  I gently pushed in from the back and it popped out!  I pushed again and even the small dent from the previous renter was gone.  I kept massaging it until the tiniest wrinkles were gone.

But would it stick?  Or would it bounce back to the old dent?  Mark ran in and got one of these huge Spanish ice cubes from the fridge and I rubbed it all over the formerly dented area to "set" the repair.  When I took my hand away, no dent!  Not even a scratch!

I've done this in the past, even with painted bumpers, although usually they show cracks in the paint when you are done.  Still, it looks better than a dent.  Why people drive around with dented urethane bumpers is beyond me.

But I digress.

We are working our way up the coast to Barcelona.  We have stopped in some small towns and stayed at Mom & Pop campgrounds right on the beach.  It is heaven.  And every campground has a bar and restaurant - it is no big deal over here to serve liquor and food.

We did stop in Benidorm, which is an ex-pat enclave, mostly for Brits.  The big deal there was the two-seat tandem handicapped scooter (coming soon to a Walmart near you!) which was made popular by a television series about that town.   If you like crowds - in the stores, the restaurants, and on the beach, this is the place for you.  Yea, it had its charms, but TOO CROWDED!  And some Brits really make Americans look reasonable by comparison.

Cities are nice and all, but I've had my fill of "tourist attractions" - museums, cathedrals, and "sights" to see.  Just the quiet sound of the surf in the background and the warm (-ish) Mediterranean sea.

Toiletries

 

I noticed on our Holland America cruise across the Atlantic that they used weird square toilets, as opposed to the oblong bowls used in America.  I assumed this was some sort of nautical thing to save space or something.  But apparently the square toilet has taken over Europe, at least in newer installations.  Like the overwrought sink, it looks cool but is less functional.

Of course, toilet shapes and types vary the world round (pardon the pun).  The traditional Japanese toilet is a hole in the floor you squat over, with water running into it.   When visiting Japan, you look for the door with "Western" on it, or learn to squat.

Of course, times change in Japan, and Toto (not the band or the dog) makes an excellent toilet that will not only wash, but blow-dry your parts, while you sit on a heated seat.  Instructions are printed in pink for girls and light blue for boys.  And yes, Toto has made inroads into the traditional American Standard and Crane market in America.

One oddity I saw in an upscale restaurant in Nazare (Portugal) was a "self-washing" toilet seat.  This was a refreshing change (no pun intended) after visiting places with no toilet seats or others with no toilet paper or both.  The instructions for the self-washing seat chided users not to attempt to raise the seat, as it was firmly attached to the bowl with a swivel mount.  When you flushed the toilet, the seat spun around and a jet of water gently poured over the seat, until it made a full circle.

Unlike the square toilet, this one had a perfectly round seat (otherwise it wouldn't work).  I am not sure whether a light jet of cold water really "sanitizes" the seat, and whether it really dried it properly.  But they get bonus points for effort.

It is interesting, however, the little things you see when you travel.  Like the Royale with Cheese, I guess.  We were traversing some mountains in Spain and looking for a place to have a picnic lunch.  Suddenly, a Mooriish castle appeared, and we drove up to it.  No one was there and it was no big deal to Spaniards - after all, their country is dotted with such relics, this one from the 14th Century.  In America, such a relic would be the site of a major museum and tourist attraction.  Here, it is "Ho hum, yet another abandoned castle - big deal!"

We are working our way up the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona, as our van trip winds down to its last week.  It has been interesting and challenging - the human factor being the hardest part.  Triads are far harder to deal with than dyads.  With two people, there is no tie-breaking vote.  But with three, well, it can come down to two against one.

We haven't had many major problems - drinking seems to help, up to a point, where it makes it worse.  I guess we all realize that everyone has their time in the hot seat and it isn't a personal thing.  Both Juan and I had to have words with Mark, as he was taking on all the chores and then bemoaning that no one appreciated all the work he did.  Come down from the cross, we need the wood!   He finally agreed to let go and let things play our and let Juan and I do more of the work.

I have had some episodes with Parkinsons, as it can make you paranoid, particularly if everyone, in fact, it out to get you.  But I take my meds and try to realize that the mood swings are just an artifact, not a real thing.  Juan gets a little tipsy if "over-served" and gets even louder than a Cuban can get - and that's loud.  But I get them all in bed and before long, I fall asleep to the see-saw of their snoring.

Google is giving me fits uploading photos, so I don't have much to share there.

Quite frankly, we are enjoying the latter half of the trip much more.  It is warmer (we all caught bad colds freezing our ass off in Portugal) and we are spending more time on the beach at small beach towns than looking a museums and tourist spots in big, crowded cities.

As for blogging, maybe my days are over.  I find less interest in cranking up the computer, perhaps because of the hassle involved.

Next week we board the Carnival Valor and spend 15 days at sea and visiting ports in Spain the Azores.  This time around, we will eschew guided tours and just take a taxi to our favorite beach spots.

Then, on to New Orleans - if they let us back into the country, that is.

Zaragoza

 I'm really not interested in doing a travelogue. Someone asked me if on our trip we were the logging or V whatever to make money or something. I really not into that and for what I understand most people who do it don't make any money and find it just annoying after a while. There's too many damn people on YouTube as it is.

After we picked up the van we stopped at all the to get groceries. Aldi in Spain is pretty simple pretty similar to Aldi in America. In other words, in the middle of the meat department you'll find garden equipment. It's not as bad as LIDL, which is another chain popular in Europe and also in some places in america. Here I literally found a drill press for sale in the middle of the vegetable department. I'm not kidding about this. They sell Power Tools with groceries.

Anyway we had to stock up on everything for the van to fill the refrigerator in the cupboards and so we had a big pile of groceries which is unlikely most people in Europe shop. When lady gave us 30 looks as a result she started piling stuff on the conveyor belt behind me making it difficult for me to put the rest of our groceries on.

If you Google bakery near me and look at your phone it'll appear like a shotgun is Blaster your phone screen. There's a bakery on every block and people get fresh bread every morning. The bread here is delicious but it doesn't last very long which is why people buy it on a daily basis. It's a whole different head compared to shopping in America where you buy a loaf of bread and has a shelf life of other gears. 100 years.

And the wine. You can buy a really decent bottle of table wine for under $2 or at least under 2 euros. With a conversion rate it probably comes out to $2 to some change. If you're willing to spend up to five bucks man you can get the real nice bottle of wine in particular some sparkling wine either Cava from Spain or sparkling wine from France or other regions. The wines of the duro region in Portugal are particularly nice.

Again, I guess we can't have nice things in america. Speaking of alcohol, the paranoid puritanical Baptist Notions about serving alcohol in America or not present here. Every small shop in outlet has a bar attached to it and nobody seems to care whether you have a license or not to serve alcohol. So you go to a campground and they have a bar. In America it's very unusual for a campground to have a bar. You go to the gym and they have a bar. You go anywhere and they have a bar. You don't have to ask if they have alcohol on the menu it's taken for granted. Nobody thinks it's weird to serve wine with dinner.

We stopped in Zaragoza one night at a free parking space for caravans. The van camper has taken Europe by storm, possibly supplanting the Caravan trailer as the mode of camping. Of course, these same Vans are now sold in America by Ford Mercedes and Dodge it used to be the Dodge D100 and the Chevrolet G10 and the Ford Econoline grew up the road. But now European advance are the norm in america. It seems like we can't make anything in America anymore other than big pickup trucks and SUVs. But that's another story.

The van Handel's remarkably well and we think we'll probably buy one second hand when we get back to the states. Either that will buy one over here and use it as our Escape pod. Anyway getting back to Zaragoza, they put in a free parking area for camper vans complete with a dump station. It's right across the street from the tram station which takes you right to downtown. They have a beautiful square with an enormous Cathedral and Juan was very good at being a tour guide. We then went to an area called the tunnel which is a series of really narrow picturesque streets with Tapas bars and went from bar to bar having a glass of wine and various tapas items. It really is a different way of living. I really love that city as it's very small and easily walkable. We've been watching videos on YouTube from a guy named Tony about touring Spain and Portugal and that's his hometown.

We kind of got lost ended up in sort of a working man's bar and decided to stop and have a beer and sit at the table and look out at the people walking on the sidewalk. Juan ordered three beers and the total came to about $4 or less. I bought the second round with larger signs that have been frosted in the refrigerator and I think it came to six bucks. Bear in mind in America you'd be lucky to get one beer for $6 even at a dive bar. Why is everything in America so expensive? Why is everything in America just a freaking money grab.

And don't ask me if that included tip cuz they don't do that s*** here.

But I digress.

The Germans and the British love the idea of wild camping which is driving your camper down to the beach or out of the woods and just hanging out on somebody else's property or in public lands. It sounds neat in theory and you can do this still in some parts of America in particular in Canada on so-called Queensland which I guess is now called kingsland. What is your mind imagine people parking out in the woods for free or on the beach tend to leave litter and debris and dump their gray water and other things on the ground and it gets out of hand real quick. Driving vans on fragile Dunes are in the forest causes erosion as well. So they're starting to clamp down on this sort of thing. We've been using a app called park for night to find spaces sometimes right on the beach period

It's really peaceful period the camper has a pop top and we sleep up on the roof and zipped down the canvas so you can watch the ocean crashing in the shore and hear it at night as you follow gently asleep.

Other times we go to RV parks which are mixed bag. Some of the ones, particularly in Portugal are a little sketchy. We went to one in Lisbon which looked like a really nice place. It had hundreds of sites in these enormous bath houses which look like they've been designed for Expo 67. But everything was a little rundown they hadn't even mowed the lawn or anything. The toilets had no toilet seats and there was no toilet paper. It was kind of weird. Other places had toilet paper but you expected to put the used toilet paper in a bucket like you were in Mexico.

Other places where Immaculate and had brand new bathrooms. But you had to pay 50 cents to use the bathroom and a dollar for the shower. On the online review sites the Germans and the Brits wind continuously about having to pay for these things. But after every use a toilet with no seat I was happy to pay. And it was a short walk to an absolutely gorgeous beach. Across the street was a shanty of a restaurant that reminded me of something from Key West. It was dining European style we swallowed for hours there waiting for our food when it finally arrived it was well worth the wait it was just amazing that they produce such dishes from what basically was a food truck. I miss that aspect of the old key west. Now it's all Condominiums and chain restaurants.

Again I apologize for the spelling errors because I'm dictating this on the phone and I have a very sketchy internet connection so it's probably old disjointed to make no sense. Maybe I'll edit it when I get back home. Or maybe it's just the Parkinson's talking.

Not Dead. Yet.

 .. but I've been busy. Sorry I haven't posted for a while but we've been on the road and it's been kind of taking up all of our time. We get up in the morning, just to say around 10:00 a.m. and finally get on the road by 11:00. We drive 100 or 200 km to a destination and then hang out for a day or two. It's been a lot of fun it's also been a lot of stress.

Sorry for the typos and spelling errors but I'm using voice recognition on my phone and you know how that works.

Arrived in Barcelona and made our way to the campervan rental place. This is about a week or so ago. We picked up our camper and made our way out of town to supposedly a nudist resort. We drove off the main Highway and onto a very windy but well paved road. Sort of the kind of road that would give the dragons tail envy.

Then it turned into a gravel road. Then a dirt road. Then we forded a couple of streams. This was a lot for a two-wheel drive van. The van is made by Fiat and it's old in America as the ram workmaster. Over here it is the Fiat Ducato, please. It's powered by diesel engine has a 5-speed manual transmission. It's been over a decade since I've driven a diesel and 10 years since I've driven a five-speed or in this case a 6-speed. It did take a little learning and of course I stalled the damn thing right at the van rental place.

Anyway the dirt road got rough and rougher and I kept up the momentum so we wouldn't get stuck. We finally get to this place and it seems like it's better days were behind it. All the pictures in the internet showed a bright and happy place with lots of people. Here it was dingy and run down and there was nobody there. But since we had gone this far we decided to stay the night. The owner told us to drive down a steep hill that looks more like a tractor trail. We managed to do this as it was dry and turned around and parked in a nice bucolic area. Our first night in the camper!

I asked the owner if we would have trouble getting up the hill, as if it got rainy it looks like it would turn into a mud pit. He replied the water would run it off is not to worry about it. That turned out not to be the case.

So naturally that night it rained. And dry dirt turned into slippery mud that was almost like grease. What's even worse is the giant rocks sticking out of the road turned into slick glass like sections. I made a running start of the hill and the traction control kicked in. The traction control on this type of van depresses the engine horsepower so the engine started lugging and cutting back. We backed down the hill and tried it again.

Two more tries and no joy. We got halfway up the hill and the thing just runs out of power. So we backed out again at this time I turned off the traction control in floored it up the hill and it's slipping and sliding. Unfortunately there's a big tree on one side and a giant rock sticking out the other. We back down to try one more time.

This time we make it further up the hill and the van starts sliding sideways fortunately toward the hill and not over the cliff. Suddenly I hear it loud bang as the wheel hits the giant rock sticking out. I asked Mark what happened he said you blew out a tire keep going. Oddly enough the flat tire ended up give us some more traction. I probably should have taken air out of the tire as it would have helped the situation.

We fought our way to the top of the hill and pulled into a flat spot. Fortunately the van came with a spare tire and a jack and tools that had never been used. Three of us got to work jacking up the truck and changing the tire. The rim had a 6-in dent in it although the tire seemed intact.

So much for our first day on the road.

Things of course have gone uphill since then. When I like about Spain and Portugal is the food here is very inexpensive. There's no egg shortage here and when you do get a dozen eggs they're huge and have yolks that are bright orange not the pale yellow you see in the states. And the ice. They make ice cubes the size of your fist you only need to put one in a glass. Why do they have such nice things here and we can't have them in america?

Of course, some people say, well you like it so much there why don't you move there?

Exactly.