The Valley called Pomona........

7:11 am - Saturday - March 16th - Fontana, CA - 59º F, 23% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the north......clear blue skies today with some minor wind and a forecast high of 77º F.

We slept in until 7:30 am Friday awakening with such a sense of anticipation of seeing our children, but first we had to traverse some 88 miles of SoCal freeways on a Friday, which is no small feat.  As we exited the gravel parking lot at Fantasy Springs Casino we were just slightly above 50' elevation, and would immediately begin our 50 mile climb to Banning Pass which sits at some 2,300' above sea level......

 Snow covered Mt. San Jacinto in the distance

......as we drove ever westward Mt. San Jacinto came into view.....traffic was light.....

.....within the hour we topped out at Banning Pass and began our slow descent into the Pomona Valley......the snow capped San Bernardino Mountains come into view, and we know we are almost home.  We arrived at the Fontana Elks Lodge around 11:20 am to find the RV section at almost full capacity.....

.....but managed to snag a spot. Within  hours there was only one spot left, and this (above) is how it looks Saturday morning with 13 RV's occupying the Fontana/Rialto Elks Lodge.......

......we received a call from our son Tim about 12:30 pm inviting us over for dinner, and to meet our latest grandson, Crosby Mark Hockwald.  Shortly thereafter we contacted our daughter, Kate, to inquire about dropping by their home to see her, and her family on our way to Tim's.  We arrived at Kate and Nick's home about 4:30 pm and spent about 90 minutes talking about this and that before heading over to Tim and Laila's home for dinner at 6 pm.......

 Left to right: TLE, Laila, Crosby, Tim, moi

 Can't believe our baby (Tim) is now 33 years old and a proud daddy!

Proud grandma, TLE, getting lots of Crosby time

......Crosby is about 7 weeks old now and such a cute little guy.  We took turns holding him, and talking non-stop as we always do.  By 8:30 pm TLE and I were running on fumes and bidding Tim, Laila and Crosby adieu.  Saturday we will visit the Irish Festival in Upland, CA and see our oldest son Chris, his wife Rochelle, their daughter Cynthia and her two kids as well as our daughter Sharon, her husband Rod, and son Brayden James.  We have been looking forward to this time ever since we left Maine.  It has been a long, and wonderful journey home since the middle of September, but we are happy to be back where we started some 11 months ago!

Thanks for stopping by!

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