"Real Saturday" - Mt. Rubidoux, Family and Football

You can only imagine how sweet it is for me to write the last two blog titles.  It has been a while since I wrote about how every day feels like Saturday when you're retired.....when you're no longer subject to schedules promulgated by someone else.  You remember, I'm sure, how on occasion you would wake up Saturday morning thinking it was  a work day for a few seconds, and then realize it was Saturday.....that was always a great feeling for me when I realized I didn't have to jump out of bed and get ready for work.  For those who might be new to this blog Monday is now first Saturday, Tuesday is second Saturday, and so forth.  Saturday is real Saturday, and Sunday is, well, just Sunday.....so there are 6 Saturdays in my week now, and one Sunday.

After continuing our set up for a couple of hours Saturday (deploying patio furniture, lights, raking up leaves, etc.) I decided it was time to take a bike ride to the top of Mt. Rubidoux.  The summit of Mt. Rubidoux sits at 1,339 feet above sea level.   From our elevation of 580' above sea level it is a 559' elevation gain to the top, which makes for a good training ride.

 At the top again!

With mostly clear skies the view was beautiful!

After descending from the top I picked up the SART (Santa Ana River Trail) bike path and took it north into Fairmont Park where I rode around the lake, and then back 'home'.  In all I covered 10 miles in one hour, and it was a perfect first ride.

Around 1 pm people from Nick's side of the family began to arrive for a pizza party, and we spent the rest of the afternoon meeting new people, and getting re-acquainted with others.  TLE and I gave half a dozen tours of the coach to those who were interested.  The party went on until almost 9 pm, but we called it a night about 6 pm....it was getting cold outside in spite of the outdoor fire, and two propane heaters, and besides that the Holiday Bowl was in progress between USC and Nebraska.  In fact it will be cold, or what passes for cold in Southern California, for the next 9 days with temp barely breaking 60 a few times, and down into the low 50's with some possible rain thrown in for good measure.

So, I watched USC (Trojans) beat Nebraska (Cornhuskers) 45-42 in the "Holiday Bowl".....it was a game that was way more interesting for Trojan fans than it should have been, but unlike a few times earlier this year they hung on to win the game with good defense stops the last few minutes.  The game lasted close to 4 hours.....long for a football game.

That was Real Saturday........thanks for stopping by!