A big bowl of Jello......

6:45 am - Saturday - April 6th - Fontana, CA - 53° F, 81% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the east by northeast.....heavy cloud cover with a forecast high to day of 72° F.

Into every life a little Jello must fall.  Sometimes we go weeks, or months without Jello in our lives, but it seems as if 2019 has been one big spoon of Jello after another.  Nothing dramatic, mind you, just a spoonful here and there, and then without warning you are given a really big bowl of Jello.  All I can say is it is a good thing I really like Jello.

As I wrote the other day, I had my first cataract surgery appointment the other day.  Everything went 'according to Hoyle' until the consultation with Dr. Dovich at the end of the appointment.  What I didn't relate to you then I will now.  Apparently the optic nerve in my right eye is larger than the one in my left eye.  That could indicate the beginnings of glaucoma.  One of the causes of glaucoma is high blood pressure.  As you know I had a period of time with untreated high blood pressure which was revealed by my stroke on December 28th, 2017.   Obviously, I've been on blood pressure medication since then.  At any rate Dr. Dovich wants to conduct a couple more tests to determine if I have glaucoma so when they do the operation to insert the new lens they can also perform a procedure to mitigate the damage, if it is indeed caused by glaucoma.  Those tests will be run on April 19th, and then I will meet again with the doctor on April 24th to get my prognosis.  

All that means my cataract surgery will be not scheduled until sometime in the first, or second week of May.  After another 4 weeks of followup appointments we would be into early June, which is when we expected to be in Dawson Creek, BC to begin the ALCAN highway to Alaska.  In order to get to our Denali reservation by July 9th we would pretty much have to drive 170 miles a day, every day until we arrived there.  No stopping to smell the roses along the way.  We want to do the Alaska trip right the first time as who knows if we will ever get back.  After a couple of days of thought and discussion TLE and I made the very hard decision to abort our plans for this summer, and aim for the spring of 2020 to make the trip.  I know, bummer, right?  However, taking care of my health is our primary concern right now.  Jello comes along, so it comes down to how you handle it.

So, what to do this summer?  We have been talking the last 2 years about finding a place to drop our anchor for a year and just work a job.....a job, mind you, that we would find fun, and a job working with good people.  A job that would pay decent money, and enable us to become more financially secure, and build up our savings.  Another plus would be our proximity to our children, grand children and great grand children for the next year.  The grands are growing so fast, and we have been missing all the changes in their lives.We haven't found that job yet, but there is one which looks promising, and there is the opportunity at the end of the summer to just continue through the fall and winter until next April.  

We found an RV park here in SoCal looking for a host couple for the summer just outside the lovely mountain town of Ramona, CA called Ramona Oaks RV Resort.  We submitted our resumes to the park manager on Thursday morning, and by Friday morning we received a call from the manager offering us jobs.  $11/hour with about 32 hours each per week.  The owners of the park are pretty much hands off, allowing the managers to run the park, and they are very nice people who have been full timing for about 10 years now.  They even worked Amazon in Campbellsville, KY back in 2012, the same year we were there.  We talked a while on the phone, and decided to drive down to Ramona (114 miles each way) to inspect the park, and meet the people with whom we would be working.

Since we were last in SoCal the traffic has become exponentially worse.  It used to be you could drive to Ramona down I-15 in about 2 hours, but with heavier traffic added to a lot of construction it took us closer to 2.5 hours to arrive at Ramona Oaks RV Resort.....

......over the decades we have lived in SoCal we have been to Ramona and the surrounding areas many, many times.  We know the area, and love the vibe of the town.  Ramona Oaks RV Resort is located 5.6 miles north of Ramona on SR-78 at about 2,100' elevation, and is about 17 miles from Julian (we visited there a couple of winters ago), and less than 40 miles from the ocean.  There is a COSTCO, and TJ's in Escondido, just 23 miles down the hill.

We arrived at the park a little after 1 pm, and spent a couple of hours visiting with the managers (Marnie and Rich), and checking out the facilities.    We were quite impressed.....

 Club House

 Catch and release fishing pond

 Very large pool, and a nice Jacuzzi

 A lot of oaks as the name would suggest

Hiking, and mountain bike trails

......amenities include, but are not limited to pool, jacuzzi, club house, miniature golf, volleyball, basketball, horse shoes, playground.  A new water tank is being installed, and the electrical system is being upgraded as I write.  The owners are investing a significant amount of money into infrastructure, which is good to see.

After bidding adieu to Marnie and Rich we headed back into Ramona to have lunch at Packard's Coffee Shop (4 stars on 90+ reviews) to have a couple of panini sandwiches, and some coffee while we discussed our visit.  We haven't been to Ramona in about 12 years, but always stopped in at Packard's for coffee and sometimes a sandwich.  We were so happy they are still open for business. In short we have decided to accept the position at Ramona Oaks, and will move down there sometime after April 25th for the summer, and make a decision by Labor Day if we wish to stay for the fall and winter.  We are very excited, and pleased with how easy this bowl of Jello has been to swallow.  This job was just posted on Workamper.com on Wednesday, the day I got the possible glaucoma news from Dr. Dovich, and within 2 days we had the job.

We didn't leave Ramona until after 3 pm.....bad decision as that is the beginning of rush hour.......it took us a full three hours to get back to the Elks Lodge in Fontana......ugghhh!!!  So, our plans are set, and we both feel at peace about our decision.  Of course, our children and very excited we will be in town for at least 4 more months, and possibly a year.

Thanks for stopping by!

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