Santa Anas......again.....sigh.....

6:50 am - Saturday - Departure Day! - 44 F degrees, 22% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the north.  It was very windy last night.....30+ mph all night long, but it has settled down to just breezy now.  We will be meeting our daughter Meredith for breakfast in 90 minutes, and then we are off......hopefully....

We awoke Friday expecting it to be extremely windy.....28-30 mph....but we had just a light breeze, which is not uncommon for the Inland Empire.  Don't get me wrong, we were happy it was not windy, because it meant we could probably take a walk and do some other things requiring us me to be outside.

I spent time in the trailer putting the final few things away that remained to be stowed (XM radio, remote controls for TV and radio, tools, vice, my Cannondale Bad Boy, etc.).  The trailer is now ready to receive the VW on Saturday.  I stowed the window awnings......I had stowed the patio awning Thursday, along with the awning mat in anticipation of the high winds that were forecast.

We took our 3 mile out and back walk on the PET around 10:30 am, and completed the 3 miles in about 50 minutes averaging about 3.7 mph......getting that pace back to where it should be!  The temperature was quite cool as the storm system that spawned this wind is out of the Gulf of Alaska.  I wore a long sleeved shirt to ward off the cold, and for the first 10 minutes I thought I had under dressed, however, my body temperature began to rise as a result of our brisk pace and I was finally comfortable.

TLE went out to buy a few final things.....Snap-E-Tom for one thing......

.....then it was time for me to drive over to the local gas station to fill my 5 gallon gas can in anticipation of a week's worth of dry camping near Los Algodones while TLE and I get our final dental work done for the year.  The gas is for our Honda 1000 watt generator, which we sometimes use when dry camping if we don't get enough sun to recharge our batteries.  The odds are we won't need to use it, but it is always good to be prepared, right?

Friday was also the continuation of our 'until next time' tour featuring dinner with Tim and Laila at Mariscos de Pacifico, our favorite local Mexican restaurant, at 7:30 pm......as we got ready to leave for the restaurant the vaunted high winds finally arrived, and continued all night long until we got up this morning.  Of course, I had the Shrimp Cocktail......

This is a picture of the 'large'....I had the medium....so, so good!

......we sat talking and laughing as we always do, and all too soon it was time for the 'until next time' hugs.  The cold 30+ mph north wind which greeted us in the parking lot served to abbreviate our 'until next time' hugs, which made it all the more bitter sweet.  Each time we leave SoCal and our kids it is a little more painful.  Their lives are moving forward, and changing so quickly.

As I write Saturday morning the wind continues to be just breezy........our plan is to leave after breakfast with our daughter Meredith, but that really depends on whether the wind stays as it currently is.....if it gets as bad as last night before we roll our wheels we will probably wait until Sunday to leave.....we'll see.

Thanks for stopping by!