Coping with the abstract.....

 7:57 am - Saturday - November 7th - TWW - 43° F, humidity 48%, cloud cover 0%, wind 12 mph out of the northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 64° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I took a tour of Desert View (east entrance) and the Watchtower at the Grand Canyon....

.....if you've never visited Desert View at the Grand Canyon you should.  The bottom picture was our view every day at work.  The view this morning....

.....the first completely cloudless day in quite a while.

Friday morning we spent time redeploying our patio awning, and the two 'sail' sunshades, unlocking everything we had locked last Saturday.  I ran the Champion 7,500 kw generator, and our Honda 2000 for about 10 minutes just to run them.  Later in the day I started the Jeep, and it fired right up and idled as smooth as ever.....nice!  We also moved the 2nd Rubbermaid outdoor storage unit into the 'lido deck, deployed one of our market umbrellas, and set up two of our four anti gravity chairs.....

....the three Bluetti 100 watt, portable solar panels are still on the trailer roof, even though I am no longer using them to supplement the solar charge going into our Cloud Energy lithium batteries, so I decided to connect them to the Bluetti batter bank in the shed.  The EcoWorthy dual axis solar tracker provides 600 watts of solar power to the Bluetti, and now the three Bluetti portable panels will add an additional 300 watts for a total of 900 watts.  We haven't run the Predator 5000 generator since last Saturday morning, and now that we are past all of the storms we shouldn't have to use it much in the next couple of weeks, either.

I stayed pretty busy all morning, and into the afternoon doing a lot of small things, and finally took a break on the 'lido deck' around 1:30 pm in one of the anti gravity chairs.  This will be a relatively warm weekend, so I can foresee some time spent relaxing on the 'lido deck' watching football on the outdoor TV.

Since we will not be moving the Newell for the foreseeable future, and certainly not in April to head north, we've begun to move things out of the Newell interior, as well as the storage bays which will no longer need to be kept there in anticipation of moving.  It is kind of a strange feeling to know we have finished our perpetual movement around the country, and we are both still processing that.  We both know, intellectually, that we are done, however, the reality of that decision is still kind of an abstract concept.  I'm sure as April of 2027  comes and goes, and we haven't moved, the reality will become more real to us.

We met in the house for dinner at 4 pm with Charles and Phyllis.  TLE prepared her famous lasagna for our dining pleasure.  We spent time talking about priorities here on the property, and decided that Saturday we would begin to repair the wind damage to the greenhouse over the summer.

Thanks for stopping by!

The long road home.....

 7:46 pm - Friday - November 6th - TWW - 46° F, humidity 76%, cloud cover 3%, wind 11 mph out of the east by northeast....clear evening skies with a forecast low of 37° F tonight.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I had just arrived at the entrance of the Grand Canyon, or 'The Watchtower' as it is officially named.....

....and settled into our site for the next 4+ months while we worked at the General Store as cashiers.  Our elevation at this site was 7,410' above sea level, and it proved to be a cold winter, but not much snow.

We were up at 5 am Thursday morning California time so we could be on our way home to TWW by 6 am (7 am Arizona time).  We had put about 70 miles on the VW since we filled up in Palm Desert on Tuesday, so we stopped at the local Union 76 fuel station to top off our tank for the 308 mile trip home.  By 6:05 am we were eastbound on I-10 retracing our steps from Tuesday.  Soon we were passing Chiriaco Summit, and within another 20 miles exited I-10 for SR-177.  We had already covered 100 miles, and would cover another 100 miles before merging with I-40 eastbound just west of the Colorado River where we would re-enter Arizona.

It was just under 50 miles to Kingman, AZ from there, and we reached Kingman in about 45 minutes where TLE bought some produce at the local Basha's Supermarket, and then we topped off our tank one more time for the final 58 miles home.  We reached the north/south arterial around 1 pm, and by 1:20 pm we had reached TWW.  The VW ran like a top for the over 800 miles we covered in the past 5 days.  She may have over 202,000 miles on her odometer, but she runs like she has half that mileage.  We bought her when she had 124,000 on the odometer, so we've almost put 80,000 miles on her since January of 2014.

While TLE began to unload the car I went to open the door of the Newell, but I could not get either of the deadbolts to disengage.  When we left last Saturday we stowed the patio awning due to predicted high winds while we would be gone.  As a result the door had direct sunlight on it for a number of hours which caused the aluminum frame to expand effectively jamming the door shut.  This has happened a few times over the years, but this is the first time in over 10 years.  The only way to cool down the door is to spray cold water on the frame for a few minutes, but we were impatient.

How did we get in?  Well, TLE's passenger side window does not always latch when you close it, and, thankfully, it had not latched the last time she closed it.  I was able to force it open, and after fetching a step ladder from the greenhouse, TLE was able to shimmy her way through the open window and unlock the door.  This was the first eventful thing which happened in over 800 miles, and it was at our home.....lol.

I drove all but 50 miles of the the entire 308 miles home, so I was a little tired.  After unpacking, and changing clothes I took a 45 minute nap.  As you know, up to 1/2" of rain was forecast for our area Saturday/Sunday, and as a result 3 of the 6 new IBC totes are now full, and the other 3 are 1/2 full, so we now have 9 full IBC totes, and 3 one half full, so we've caught a lot of water in the last two months....probably close to 3,000 gallons....not bad!

Thanks for stopping by!

Bad planning......

 7:54 am - Friday - November 6th - TWW - 39° F, humidity 55%, cloud cover 14%, wind 13 mph out of the northeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were just south of Lee Vining, CA.....

....at a boondock site overlooking Mono Lake.  The view Thursday morning.....

....in Beaumont, CA as we were getting ready to head back to TWW.

I have not yet written about Wednesday, which I will do shortly.  We were up at 5 am California time so we could be on the road by 6 am (7 am TWW time), so I chose not to write the blog post about Wednesday until we returned home.

In retrospect, we should have made our dental appointments for Thursday and Friday, so when we headed up to Beaumont for 2 days we would be able to spend more time with our kids.  TLE and I forget that while we are unencumbered with work and school schedules, or kids still are.  We can't just go an hang out with them on a Tuesday, or Wednesday as they are working.  I say that to say this.....Since the aforementioned is true we got to hang out with ourselves Wednesday, which we already do 24/7, 365 days a year.  We enjoy our company, and can always find something to do to pass the time.  

We haven't been 'junking' in a long, long time so we did a little checking, asked our kids, and found a large thrift store in Calimesa called Deseret Industries (I think they are owned by the LDS (Church of Latter Day Saints), plus a Trader Joe's just down the road in Yucaipa, so we set our plans to visit both around midday.  We haven't been to a Trader Joe's in 6, or 7 months, so we were well overdue for our TJ's fix, and I think the last time we went junking was in Klamath Falls in August.

Our first stop was at the Yucaipa Trader Joe's, which is relatively new.  Most of the TJ's we've been to over the last few years are all laid out in a very similar fashion, so it is easy to find that for which we are looking.  Within 30 minutes we were backtracking to the thrift store in Calimesa.  We've shopped at several Deseret thrift stores over the years, and this one was no exception as far as quality of clothing offered, and the display thereof.  I found a black t-shirt with a CONVERSE ALL STARS logo on the front which I liked, and TLE a couple of items without which she could not live....lol.

Around 5 pm we met our oldest daughter Meredith, our daughter Kate, her husband Nick, and two of their kids (Jolene and Levy) for dinner at Dora's Cantina and Mexican Grill about 2 miles away from our hotel in Beaumont, CA.  I neglected to take pictures, however, the food was top notch. Yelp gives them a solid 4 stars on 368 reviews, and we would do the same.

We were home by 6:30 pm, and in bed a little after 9 pm in anticipation of our early departure Thursday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Those pesky time changes.....

 7:26 am - Wednesday - November 4th - Beaumont, CA - 38° F, humidity 52%, cloud cover 0%, wind 10 mph out of the west by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 59°  F .  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were near Carson City, NV.....

.....at Silver City RV Park....observing proof we hadn't moved south fast enough.  The view this morning....

After two days in Yuma, AZ it was time to move west, and north to our next destination in SoCal.  We always forget about DST (daylight savings time) when we head to SoCal this time of year.  We left Yuma at 9:30 am, but should have left around 10:30 am so we would NOT arrive at our hotel too soon.  Our ETA for Beaumont, CA based on California time was 12 noon, and I was pretty sure our room would not be clean by then.  Anyway, we were on I-8 westbound to US-111 north.....

 

.....around the time we transitioned from I-8 to US-111 northbound we realized our timing error, so about 30 minutes later, after passing through the local Border Patrol Checkpoint, we stopped at the Salton City Travel Center, where we have stopped many times over the years, to take a break long break.  After making use of the restroom facilities I ordered a large Mocha Frappuccino and walked around the store to chew up some time.  In all I think we killed about 30 minutes; not nearly enough time.

Our next time killing stop was in Palm Desert where there is a COSTCO, and a Home Depot, two places we have not visited in a long, long time.  When parking anywhere we always seek out the tree covered shady spots, and we found one pretty quickly at COSTCO.  As we were walking to the entrance we were observing a late model Cadillac Escalade in the process of parking.  Suddenly the window of the Escalade rolled own, and the lady yells out "I'd know that walk anywhere!"....within seconds we both realized it was Candy Landry, a woman TLE had worked with for many years at her last employer.  We hadn't seen she and Steve for several years, and had just been talking about that fact, and there they were....

.....I neglected to take an 'usie', but here is a recent photo of them.  We've met up with them numerous times over the years (Port Orford, OR - Baker, CA - The Desert Bar, Parker, AZ - Colorado River, Parker, AZ), and always enjoy our time with them.  We stood talking in the parking lot for a few minutes, then headed into COSTCO where we continued our conversation for another 20 minutes.  We love serendipity!

We wandered around COSTCO another 45 minutes getting a few things, then drove across the street to Home Depot where I bought various types of fasteners to replenish my supply at TWW, as well as some lag bolts to affix the four new solar panels to the concrete pier base when we return in a couple of days.

I was only another 30 minutes from there to our hotel for the next two days, and even with all of the time killing we did we still arrived at 1:20 pm, and our room had not yet been cleaned.  We both got a cup of their wonderful coffee, and sat catching up on our social media until about 2 pm when our room was ready.  Even though we only covered about 196 miles it had been 5.5 hours since we left Yuma, and I was ready for a nap.

Around 4:30 pm we drove over to our daughter Kate's home to have dinner with she, Nick, and their kids.  We had a lovely dinner, and conversation before heading back to the hotel around 6 pm.  We'll get together with them again, plus our daughter Meredith, our other daughter, Sharon, and Rod and their two children  Wednesday night at a Mexican restaurant in Colton, CA.

Thanks for stopping by!

There's good news, and bad news....

 6:46 am - Tuesday - November 4th - Yuma, AZ - 57° F, humidity 41%, cloud cover 1%, wind 9 mph out of the west by northwest......partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Rancho Cucamonga, CA....

....having a late lunch at 'The Hat', a SoCal franchise, which specializes in hot pastrami sandwiches.  Next to 'Katz Delicatessen' in Manhattan, NY, which is the best, this is our favorite!

We awoke in Yuma, AZ to mostly clear, blue skies Monday.  This was the day for which I have been waiting since last April when I had my temporary crown installed at Dr. Urena's dental office in Los Algodones.  The day I would, hopefully, get impressions done for my permanent crown. 

Dr. Urena has been our dentist since early 2015, and I would have to say that under her care these past almost 12 years she has addressed everyone of our dental issues with professionalism, and great bed side manner.  Our collective dental health has never been better.

Our appointments for our dental cleanings were at 9 am, so we made sure we arrived at the Andrade border crossing parking lot just after 8:30 am. From there it is a short 10 minute walk to Dr. Urena's office.  We were taken into separate rooms at 8:45 am.  The first order of business for me was for Dr. Urena to check on the temporary crown to see if all was well.  I was pretty sure all was well as there had been no pain, or discomfort in the 6+ months since the temporary crown was installed, however she found swelling in the gum area around the temporary crown.  She determined pretty quickly that a deep cleaning of the gums around the crown was in order to get rid of whatever was causing the inflammation before installing the new crown, so that was the bad news.  She was about half way done with the deep cleaning of my lower right quadrant when I heard TLE getting out of her chair in the next room, meaning she was already done with her cleaning in just 15 minutes.  She's had her issues over the past 12 years, but the past few years she is in and out in 15-20 minutes.  Not so much for me....lol!

At any rate Dr. Urena completed the deep cleaning of the lower right quadrant, then proceeded to do a regular cleaning of the other three quadrants.  She advised the deep cleaning had removed the irritants, and that I should be ready for the permanent crown in a month after the gum area has had a chance to heal.  The good news is no decay was found, and there was NO infection!  I was back in the main lobby by 9:40 am, and after paying our bill, and setting our next appointment for early December, we were on our way back to the US Border.....

The streets of Los Algodones....in the top picture is the 'Purple Pharmacy' (at least that's what we call it) where we buy Pharmacuticals as needed

....by 10 am we were in the VW heading back to our hotel

As we were turning the corner to head up to our hotel I saw a Starbucks and we decided to stop for coffee and an 'everything bagel' for moi.  While we were sitting outside I noticed there was a 'Sports Clips' right next to Starbucks, and I needed a haircut, so I went on line, got my name into the 'lineup', and within 15 minutes was sitting in the chair getting my ears lowered.  How fortuitous!  While I was waiting for my haircut I called Marnie Aaron to see about having lunch with she and Rich after my hair appointment.  We agreed to meet at a new place called  'Slim Chickens', which is, as you might guess, a chicken place.  It was only 2 miles away from our hotel, so we agreed to meet them there just before 12 pm....

.....we arrived first, ordered our foot (chicken salads for each of us), and then took an 'usie'.  Rich and Marnie arrived a few minutes later.....

....as you may, or may not recall, we worked for Rich and Marnie at Ramona Oaks RV Resort for 9 months back in 2019-20.  Since we left Ramona Oaks we've seen them at least once a year, or more.  They were the best managers, and in the process we became friends.  They visited us at LPG&RVR a few years ago, at Glamis North Hot Springs, an at our boondocking site near Borrego Springs, and we visited them at their summer job in Keystone, SD (Mount Rushmore) for two weeks back in 2020.  It's always great to see them, and this time was no exception.  We talked, laughed, and ate for over 90 minutes before exchanging or 'until next times' and heading back to our hotel around 1:50 pm.

There were at least two naps that afternoon for moi, and maybe one for TLE.  We watched the Monday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the Seattle Seahawks, which turned out to be a pretty good game with the score still close with about 8 minutes to play, then the Bears broke away winning 34-17.  Both quarterbacks (Sam Darnold and Cabel Williams) are former USC Trojans, and the Seahawks are the reigning Super Bowl Champions.  Great to see those guys flourishing in the NFL!

In a couple of hours TLE and I will begin the next leg of our trip to Beaumont, CA to visit our kids, and their families.  

Thanks for stopping by!

"God willing, and the river don't rise....."

7:01 am - Monday - November 3rd - Yuma, AZ - 56° F, humidity 45%, cloud cover 1%, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2011 TLE and I were north of Ventura, CA....

 .....at Rincon Parkway dry camping in the Newell right along the Pacific Ocean, and I mean right next to!  The view this morning.....

The next leg of our trip began around 9:30 am Sunday.  We were not in a hurry as we knew we would be driving in rain all day long.  The last 200+ miles to Yuma was supposed to take about 3.5 hours, but we had no idea what the road conditions along US-95, which we would be driving for 160 of those 200+ miles, would be.  It had rained all night, and was still raining, as forecast, as we pulled out of the hotel parking lot to head to I-40 westbound.....

.....it's about 45 minutes to US-95 southbound which takes us through Lake Havasu....

....where we got a brief respite from the rain.  Soon we were in Parker, AZ where TLE took over driving duties to Quartzite....little did we know how interesting the next 100 miles would be.  Within 20 minutes of leaving Parker we began to come across water flooding across US-95 every 1/2 mile.....

.....by the time we reached Quartzite, where I took over driving duties, we had crossed no less than 30 water crossings with water ranging in depth from 6 inches to 20 inches in depth. Some had to be crossed at very low speeds of under 5 mph.  Just south of Quartzite the routine began again.....one water crossing after another.  We were in a line of about 20 vehicles for the next 70 miles until we finally broke out of the rain, and clouds just north of Yuma....

.....with about 8 miles to go.  We arrived at our hotel just after 1:30 pm....just a half hour later than expected.  To be sure, the under carriage of the VW Beetle is as clean as it has been in years....lol!

Once we were checked into our room, we relaxed and watched some NFL football.  This has been some great football weekend for me.  Pretty much every team I backed won their game on Saturday, and that continued on Sunday with the Rams, Broncos, Bengals, Raiders winning their games.  The Broncos had to come from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to wind 30-26 over the Chiefs, who until last week had been undefeated....now the Broncos have a better record than they.

Around 4 pm TLE and I walked across the street to have dinner at the Cracker Barrel.  We were talking about the last time we had a meal at any Cracker Barrel, so I looked it up on my blog...April of 2018 in Amarillo, TX on our way to Maine for the summer.....8 years is way too long....

....while I was taking our 'usie' one of the waitresses photo bombed our shot....cute!  As always, the food was exceptional.  As we have traveled along the width and breadth of our country we have found Cracker Barrel food to be very consistent, and that is the charm of this national restaurant chain.  Please don't ever change that!

Thanks for stopping by!

Adapting to circumstances....

 7:19 am - Sunday - November 1st - Kingman, AZ - 54° F, humidity 93%, cloud cover 93%, wind 18 mph out of the southwest.....heavy cloud cover, raining today with a forecast high of 57° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were boondocking near Lone Pine, CA....

Mobius Arch (Alabama Hills)

Mount Whitney as viewed through Mobius Arch

Parked right next to Tuttle Creek

....we had always wanted to boondock here and finally did it.  Wish we could have spent a week there!  The view this morning....

third floor room.

Originally, TLE and I had planned to begin our drive south to Yuma Sunday morning, but the weather forecast, which predicted 1/2 inch of rain beginning early Saturday evening, convinced is to leave a day early to avoid the anticipated muddy quagmire of the local dirt roads.  There is a lot of red clay in this area, and just a little moisture turns it spongy and gooey. The forecast also had an affect on Charles and Phyllis' plans to head back to Phoenix.  They had planned to also leave Sunday morning, but sped up the timeline to leave Saturday morning.  They were gone a little after 8 am Saturday.  TLE and I wanted to give the local roads a chance to dry Saturday, so our departure time was to be between 2:30 and 3 pm.  As it turned out that was a very good decision, but more on that later.

We spent the morning closing up all of our infrastructure (locking everything), and watching some NCAA college football.  We also stowed or patio awning, and the two 'sail' sunshades as the forecast also included winds in the 20 mph range while we are gone.  As the morning progressed we slowly packed our backpacks.  Taking lots of time to pack reduces the chances of forgetting something, and we almost always forget something.

By 2:45 pm we had packed the VW Beetle, double checked to be sure everything that needed locking was locked, and were on the road around 2:50 pm.  We had a few soft spots along our long driveway, but not bad.  The connecting road which runs along our property was pretty dry, and the main north/south arterial was in very good shape with just a few muddy areas which we were able to circumnavigate easily.  The road was still just as smooth as it was two weeks ago when we arrived, and we reached US-66 in less than 15 minutes. When the road is bad it takes us 30+ minutes.

Within 10 minutes of reaching US-66 it began to rain (earlier than expected), then became torrential.  Torrential enough that I had to slow down to 45 mph to be able to see.  Torrential enough that all of the dirt, dust, and some mud was completely pressure washed off the VW.  It continued raining, sometimes very hard, all the way to Kingman where we arrived just before 4 pm.

We made a quick stop at the local Smith's Supermarket, then headed over to our hotel, which was just across the street on Stockton Hill Road.  By 4:30 pm we had completed our check in, and were in our room.  Once we had unpacked we walked across Stockton Hill Road to the local Panda Inn Express.  It always amazes me at how much food you get for $12 at Panda Inn Express!  

We were back home by 4:45 pm, at which time I turned on the TV to watch the USC vs. Ohio State game, which was already in progress.  The score at the time was 7-3 in favor of USC (home team).  We forgot to pickup some forks at the Panda Inn Express, so I went downstairs to get some 'Sporks' we keep in the glove compartment for just such an 'emergency'.  By the time I returned it was 14-3 USC....wait, what?  USC is now unranked due to their humiliating loss to Wisconsin last week, and Ohio State is the #2 team in the nation.....

I'm actually much happier here than I appear

.....we got, by the way, an 'ACCESSABLE' room, aka: ADA room, which is twice as large as a regular room.  It wasn't classified as a suite, but it did have a couch, and two desks.  Something to keep in mind for future travels.  As the evening evolved the Trojans widened their lead to 12 points holding the Buckeyes to 3 field goals, and just one touchdown to win 30-18 on a stormy, rainy night in the Los Angeles Coliseum.  The Buckeyes didn't score a touchdown until under 2 minutes to play.  We were very impressed with the improved USC defense.  They actually played well for 60 minutes.

We headed off to slumberland around 9:30 pm looking forward to a good night's sleep, and to continuing our trip south to Yuma Sunday morning.

Thanks for stopping by!