A change of plans......

6:51 am - Saturday - April 13th - Fontana, CA - 44° F, 53% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the north......clear blue skies today with a forecast high of 81° F.

I woke up to a cryptic text message from Glenn and Laureen with a time stamp of 6:57 am saying "Propane is not coming on so no heaters and stove burners don't come on using BIC lighter...".  I had just gotten up, and I appreciate that they sent a text just in case I wasn't conscious yet.  I immediately called them.  As I wrote in yesterday's blog entry 'we' discovered that what we thought was a full propane tank, was actually a quite empty propane tank.  It took a little troubleshooting before I was convinced that was the problem, but ultimately it was, and that explained why the propane generator would only run for a few seconds before stopping.  That was a simple fix......there is a propane dealer less than a mile from Ernestine's property where they had the tank filled with 39.5 gallons of propane in their 40 gallon tank....yup, it was quite empty.

Of course, right after that the generator started and ran smoothly, the gas heaters worked, and the fridge began working again in the 'GAS' mode.  From there they headed a few blocks into town to have 6 new 22.5" tires installed.  It was determined during the installation that the front brakes have very little wear showing.....another piece of good news.  So rear and front brakes have been redone at some time in the past 10 years, and they will never have to worry about relining the brakes in their lifetime.

Throughout the day we exchanged text messages as they prepared to depart Yuba City.  Their original plan had been to drive to Colorado Springs to retrieve a vehicle Glenn bought from his brother (Honda Element) which will be used as their 'toad' car.  If you have been watching the Weather Channel you probably know Colorado has been slammed with a Spring snow storm, and it is quite cold, and snowy there.  I suggested via text that they consider heading directly south on I-5 and come to visit us, then head to Mesa, AZ to have a service done on their Newell at All Aboard America, and then head home to Austin, TX directly from there.  After careful consideration they agreed, and changed their plans....I like their flexibility in changing the Jello plan...they're getting the hang of this lifestyle quite quickly!

By the time they let Yuba City it was after 2 pm, so I found a small RV park with nothing but pull through sites about 160 miles south just off I-5 for them to overnight.  They arrived there about 5:45 pm after a lovely first day of travel in their Newell.  They will probably arrive here in Fontana late Saturday, or early Sunday.

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A picture from Glenn and Laureen's first RV park this morning

I spent most of the day watching the 2nd round of the 'Masters' which saw Tiger Woods pull within one stroke of the lead by the end of the round.....a very good day for many of the world's best golfers.....there are five tied at -7, and four (including Tiger) tied at -6, another four, or five tied at -5......should be an interesting weekend.

During that time I pulled out our four Newell manuals to go through them to weed out the documentation which no longer applies.  Many appliances have been replaced, so it was time to remove the old owners manuals, and sort through all the new documentation I have accumulated over 11 years of ownership and get it all properly filed.......

 The now empty manuals....we went from four 3 ring binders down to the two below.....↴

What is left.....just two manuals

.....in the top picture you will see two piles of documentation....the left pile already has holes so they can be put into the remaining two manuals, and the right pile needs holes punched.

The 2nd round of the Masters ended just before 4:45 pm, so we headed into the Elks Lodge for Friday night dinner.  Two of our daughters and their families wanted to meet us for dinner there, and they joined us shortly thereafter......

Left to right: Moi, Elijah (Kate's son), Nick, Kate, TLE, Rod and Sharon.....the other kids were at the 'children's table'

.....we had a typical Hockwald dinner with multiple conversations going at the same time for 90 minutes, or so.  After dinner, which was quite good by the way, we retired to the patio area behind the RV section where the kids played, and the adults continued their many conversations for another hour before the setting sun, and dipping temperatures signaled an end to another great time spent with family.

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