D minus 4 - Last things

Thursday was the beginning of last things......our last tandem ride before we put her into her rack in preparation for travel.  There was a  significant chance of rain in early afternoon (80%) so we headed out around 10:15 on the tandem figuring to be back before 1 and avoid the pending rain.  As we rode northeast on the SART we could feel the temperatures dropping, and the dark clouds over the mountains looked ominous, but we forged on.  We covered the 12 miles to the end of the trail in about 50 minutes and were ordering our Subway lunch just one hour after leaving the coach.

On the ride back we began to feel the odd sprinkle of moisture here and there, but we made it home just before 1, and just before the rain.  The weather guessers were very accurate this day....indeed.  Within 20 minutes after we got home it began to rain, and rained pretty much the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.....never hard, but steady.

Sunday I will take my last ride, this trip, to the top of Mt. Rubidoux......I will miss the feeling of exhilaration as I crest the summit....I will miss the expansive views north, south, east and west as I wind my way up the mountain....I will miss the fast plunge down the mountain trail dodging around the many hikers going and coming......and, I will miss the ability to ride safe bike paths on a daily basis.   

Also, on Sunday I will write my last "D minus" blog.....then I will have to become original once again and come up with a new original title every day.....no doubt some of you are waiting for that to happen.....:D

We had a few errands to run so we got right to it after our ride.....first stop was to visit the local West Marine to buy a couple of gallons of Chevron Delo 100 40 wt oil for our Detroit Diesel 6V92.....back in November I poured the last of the Delo 100 in to the oil reservoir  I bought when we were in Savannah last March.  Even though we have three gallons in the reservoir right now I like to have some in reserve.  That three gallons will last us quite a while at one quart consumed every 14-15 hours of operation.  Typically you will not find this single weight oil on the shelves, even in West Marine, but with West Marine there is always some in the local warehouse, and that was the case Thursday.......my two gallons will arrive at the Riverside store from the local warehouse Friday.

We ran a couple of other errands while it continued to rain, and arrived back home about 3:30.  Since it was raining I spent the next hour scanning a bunch of documents that have been accumulating over the past two months.....mostly 2013 tax documents that have arrived since we got home......a perfect indoor job for the occasion.

At 5 pm we headed over to the Kiosk to attend the potluck being put on as our "goodbye" party.  We had a nice turnout considering it was still raining, and it was great to be able to say our "until next times" to everyone at the same time.

That bittersweet feeling has arrived again as we prepare to depart, but is even more poignant this time, because we are leaving our kids and grand kids behind once again as we venture out seeking new views and adventures.  If it is even possible I think this departure will be more painful than two years ago.  On the other hand we will be staying on the west side of the Mississippi for the next 12-14 months, and will be able to see our kids and grand kids this summer when they come up to Lake Tahoe this year on vacation, and next winter when we return for our daughter's wedding.

We watched the beginning of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and were surprised how devoid of spectators the venues were the first day.....the figure skating venue seemed about half full, and at the "Slope Style" snowboard competition it seemed the only spectators were from the news organizations covering the Olympics.

That was our last Thursday in RJRP.......thanks for stopping by!