What have you done with your California today?

[acer]

Pressed our Cali into service as our mini removal van. We are renting in Edinburgh pending arrival of first grandchild so needed to get the essentials up here. Everything went in like a dream - Ikea table, two Ikea chairs. Lost count of packing boxes - about 10 medium I think. Ironing board. Loads of what I am told are essential home-making items! Oh and two full size electric bikes on the back. What a great utility vehicle it turned out to be. One thing I did learn. Bikes/bike rack doesn't do fuel economy any favours!

I recently did a similar trip taking my daughter to uni. It was very tiring. Not shifting the multiple boxes and furniture etc., just removing and reinstalling the campervan bed extension!

 

[AscotGreyCali]

The Langdales, snow dusting on them and the other Lakeland Fells.

 

[turnitdown]

Don't want to spam this page with too many updates, so will include two weekends in one post.

Last weekend: Overnighted in an awesome, isolated spot just south of Aviemore, then the next day went up the Corbett Meall a' Bhuachaille with the kids. It was a spectacular day and seeing the Cairngorm Plateau across Glenmore was wonderful. Again, this wouldn't have happened without the Ocean (too long for a day trip).

This past weekend: Given the weather, just a simple overnight 20 minutes outside of Edinburgh, in the Crichton Castle parking lot. A beautiful spot under the full moon. In the morning while the boys were running around the castle grounds, they met a man walking his dogs who ended up taking them into the castle church, founded in 1449, and showing them how the organ works (and letting them play it). He is a trustee of the church, which is no longer used for regular services, and his great grandfather, grandfather, and father were reverends. This was a wonderful experience for the boys and again only happened because with a Cali, sleeping in a quiet glen 20 minutes from your home, just for fun, leads to this sort of thing.

 

[acer]

Don't want to spam this page with too many updates, so will include two weekends in one post.

Last weekend: Overnighted in an awesome, isolated spot just south of Aviemore, then the next day went up the Corbett Meall a' Bhuachaille with the kids. It was a spectacular day and seeing the Cairngorm Plateau across Glenmore was wonderful. Again, this wouldn't have happened without the Ocean (too long for a day trip).

This past weekend: Given the weather, just a simple overnight 20 minutes outside of Edinburgh, in the Crichton Castle parking lot. A beautiful spot under the full moon. In the morning while the boys were running around the castle grounds, they met a man walking his dogs who ended up taking them into the castle church, founded in 1449, and showing them how the organ works (and letting them play it). He is a trustee of the church, which is no longer used for regular services, and his great grandfather, grandfather, and father were reverends. This was a wonderful experience for the boys and again only happened because with a Cali, sleeping in a quiet glen 20 minutes from your home, just for fun, leads to this sort of thing.

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Lovely picture, lovely story.

But I don’t think that you should worry about spamming a 126 page thread.

 

[m10chkcalifornia]

So yesterday - to the beach with lots of soup, mince pies and Christmas cake and provided an impromptu mobile seaside kitchen to our Christmas guests. They were very impressed with hot soup and coffee!

 

[Palm]

a good thing to do when it -10 C is monthly charging of the batteries:

 

[AndyWT]

Nothing! She’s wrapped up at home in the box (garage to the English speaking) near Turin, whilst I’m spending winter in Singapore 3rd winter running.

Tanks drained, batteries disconnected, she’l start first turn of the key in April on my return with batteries connected as usual, if not I’ll jump it from the rear 140 Ah or wheel it out to charge from the solar.

If you are storing long term you need to disconnect everything, although I realise all stuff T5 onwards that’s maybe not possible due to some systems not waking up later requiring a visit from someone to reset systems.

 

[KevH]

Following a last minute flight cancellation from Bergen to Gatwick on the 30th, I eventually got a flight to Manchester then a train to home (to Stoke) and so spent yesterday getting myself to Gatwick Long Stay to be reunited with Ruby.
The drive home made up for the hassle, sweet as a bird, toasty warm.

 

[turnitdown]

On Thursday I took the boys up to Perth to watch the Hibs vs St Johnstone (1-1), after which we overnighted on the shores of Loch Leven (pic 1). On Saturday I got a night off and went for a long walk across the snowy Lammermuirs (pic 2), overnighting solo by Whiteadder Reservoir (no mobile signal -- absolute bliss!). On Sunday I took my older son to Celtic Park in Glasgow for Celtic vs St. Mirren (pic 3, during pre-match warmup, final score 3-0), overnighting nearby at a campsite, where we had Ridgemonkey pizza with salad, apricots and blueberries and watched post-game commentary and then Jackie Chan's 1985 Policy Story. Could easily have driven home but was pure magic hanging out just with him in the van.

 

[66tim99]

On Thursday I took the boys up to Perth to watch the Hibs vs St Johnstone (1-1), after which we overnighted on the shores of Loch Leven (pic 1). On Saturday I got a night off and went for a long walk across the snowy Lammermuirs (pic 2), overnighting solo by Whiteadder Reservoir (no mobile signal -- absolute bliss!). On Sunday I took my older son to Celtic Park in Glasgow for Celtic vs St. Mirren (pic 3, during pre-match warmup, final score 3-0), overnighting nearby at a campsite, where we had Ridgemonkey pizza with salad, apricots and blueberries and watched post-game commentary and then Jackie Chan's 1985 Policy Story. Could easily have driven home but was pure magic hanging out just with him in the van.

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Now that's what I call a long weekend...

 

[turnitdown]

Now that's what I call a long weekend...

The days are long but the years are short (weep).

 

[clarinetbcn]

Les 3 Vallées, 680km of slopes in Val Thorens, Meribel and Courchevel. We did every single run in a week, as we do every year, but if you blink you’re out of the running.



A little background: last February I snapped my femur skiing, and although my recuperation from a titanium hip replacement was going spectacularly well, in June I was violently assaulted in a robbery while on crutches, and this has been an excruciatingly slow recovery. This is my first time back on skis since then, and I’m feeling very fortunate.

 

[The Tall Luthier]

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Les 3 Vallées, 680km of slopes in Val Thorens, Meribel and Courchevel. We did every single run in a week, as we do every year, but if you blink you’re out of the running.

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A little background: last February I snapped my femur skiing, and although my recuperation from a titanium hip replacement was going spectacularly well, in June I was violently assaulted in a robbery while on crutches, and this has been an excruciatingly slow recovery. This is my first time back on skis since then, and I’m feeling very fortunate.

The snow in Val Thoren was absolutely lush last week. We haven’t done so much powder skiing in a good while.

Shame about the visibility though!

I’m glad to hear that you could still enjoy the skiing despite all of your traumas. Also slightly jealous that you got to take the Cali. We were five so no chance!

 

[SanderR72]

I went on a 17 day trip from Rotterdam to the south of Spain around Christmas and new year with a lady friend. Places visited:

- San Sebastián
- Valladolid
- Salamanca
- Sevilla
- Jerez
- Cadiz
- Tarifa
- Gibraltar
- Ronda
- Granada
- Cordoba
- Toledo

It was my first time out for a longer trip with the recently bought 2013 Cali, so I had no prior experience with it. The Cali is not an original factory version, but built later with original parts (not by me).

A very nice experience and I know what improvements I need, which is mostly (better) isolation. The diesel heater did a good job however.

I was glad that I bought a Trobolo Wandago Lite composting toilet upfront, that worked out pretty well, as well did the cooking on the gas stove.

Even though the AGM leisure batteries are a bit old, they hold up relatively well. I was never on EHU as there wasn’t any, but I did have support from an EcoFlow Delta 2.

 

[turnitdown]

View attachment 131781

Les 3 Vallées, 680km of slopes in Val Thorens, Meribel and Courchevel. We did every single run in a week, as we do every year, but if you blink you’re out of the running.

Do you use Slopes or similar to track this? If so I'd love to see a screenshot of the days. I'm curious about a few things. E.g. what does the tracker (if you used one) show for total distance, given the 680km (if that's the published distance for 3V) should be centreline of the runs, which I presume you did not ski!

Also, I00km days (plus turns, so probably 120-140km?) are no joke. Do you have to carefully and strategically plan your route to maximum efficiency? Do you run into problems like a lift is closed or something, which throws everything off?

 

[clarinetbcn]

Do you use Slopes or similar to track this? If so I'd love to see a screenshot of the days. I'm curious about a few things. E.g. what does the tracker (if you used one) show for total distance, given the 680km (if that's the published distance for 3V) should be centreline of the runs, which I presume you did not ski!

Also, I00km days (plus turns, so probably 120-140km?) are no joke. Do you have to carefully and strategically plan your route to maximum efficiency? Do you run into problems like a lift is closed or something, which throws everything off?

Hi, some of the guys use a tracker, I don’t. We’ve gone for a week every year for ten years, so by now we know the slopes fairly well. The only day we make plans is when we ski from Les Menuirs to Courchevel and back, the rest of the days are just being at the lifts at 8:45 every morning, bringing a sandwich and thermos so we don’t stop for lunch for more than 20 min., and staying out until the last lift closes. This year there was a lift out of service in Val Thorens so we missed some slopes but repeated others. The basic guides are weather, snow conditions, visibility and of course having fun.