Done.......

 8:11 am - Sunday - October 31st - Fontana, CA - 57° F, 79% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast.....heavily overcast today with a forecast high of 73° F.  On this date in 2016 we were boondocking near Tuttle Creek just south of Lone Pine, CA with a view of Mt. Whitney.......↴

Saturday was a another clear, blue sky SoCal autumn day.  The forecast high was down to 79° F, so the 'Indian Summer' has come to an end once again.  As 'Indian Summers' go, this year's edition was rather mild.  I remember back in the mid 90's when temps hit 107° F for a few days right at the end of October.

Just after 9 am we headed out for another walk intending to walk just a couple of miles, but at the one mile 'out' mark we decided to walk another 1/2 mile before turning back and hit 3.03 miles just as we got back to the coach.....

....I continued to work on sifting through bike parts, whilst TLE sorted through paperback books, afghans, etc.  By the end of the afternoon the 'lido deck' was free of tables, and only the empty storage containers remained....I think we can mark the sorting task as 'DONE'....

.....I even worked at cleaning up our Cannondale Tandem in preparation for listing it for sale....

.....of course, I removed the very expensive, hard to replace Sell Anatomica leather seats.....the new owners can install their favorite saddles.  I'll work on TLE's old Cannondale F600 so we can list that, too, along with our once used, once inflated Sea Eagle inflatable kayak....

.....I know, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but we only used it once while we were at Cedar Key back in January of 2013, and have never used it since.  It needs to find a home where it will be used, and appreciated.

To top off a productive day Miss Serendipity treated us to a very nice sunset......

.....and I managed to roll out one string of rope lights to make the 'lido deck' a tad more inviting.....

.....meanwhile mother and daughter are doing great....

Laila and Bowie Mae

.....thanks for stopping by!

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Bowie........

 7:46 am - Saturday - October 30th - Fontana, CA - 57° F, 63% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the east by northeast.....crystal, clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2019 I was working at cleaning the pool at Romona Oaks RV Resort......↴

Friday morning we did something we have not done enough of lately.....take a walk.  We knew it was going to get into the high 80's again Friday so we left on our walk a little after 9 am.  The Elks Lodge backs up against the Pacific Electric Bike Path, and the section which runs through Rialto is very nicely landscaped compared to the rest of the bike path.  We opted to walk east on the bike path, turning around at the 1 mile mark to head back home.  In all we covered 2.13 miles, and burned about 380 caloric units......

....once we were back home I turned my attention once more to sorting through my extensive bike parts inventory, and by the end of the afternoon had cleared the two tables of all but a few parts.  There are also some electrical items for which I need to make decisions.....

.....the parts I'm keeping went into a 5 gallon bucket I have used for this purpose for years, but there are some handlebars, and a carton of old disc brake rotors whose fates are still to be determined.  Additionally, I have a bunch of 30 and 50 amp receptacles, and a single 20 amp receptacle, as well as a 30 amp box with a breaker....where am I going to put this stuff?  then there are a few propane regulators and connectors......I've really got too much stuff.....

.....and as of Friday I now have the mini blind which covers the window by TLE's recliner to restring.....

.....of course, it's not all work here at the Fontana/Rialto Elks Lodge.  We met our daughter Meredith for dinner around 5:30 pm at Juancho's Mexican Restaurant in Ontario near where we used to live.  I always look forward to time with our oldest daughter......

......while we were eating dinner I got a text from my son Tim around 6:30 pm that Laila was at the hospital, and going to have their baby very shortly.  Her first baby, Crosby, was a long delivery....two days to be exact, so we were hoping Bowie would be much easier.  Well, by 9:30 pm we got a text from Tim that Bowie had been born.....wow....only three hours, and she only had to push twice.  Say hello to Bowie Mae, our 9th grand child......

Bowie Mae - 19" in length, and weighing in at 7 lbs 4 oz

Proud papa...

.....our cup runneth over!

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A wink, and a nod from Mr. Jello.......

 7:21 am - Friday - October 29th - Fontana, CA - 61° F, 52% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the northeast.....crystal, clear, blue today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were having dinner at El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant in Page, AZ.....↴

The weather guessers forecast a high of 87° F for Fontana, but it actually hit 91° F Thursday, and for the first time in well over a year we turned on our A/C units.....they still work wonderfully, even after a one year vacation!

My main goal for Thursday was to hand over all of the backpack/camping gear I had sitting outside on top of and under the two folding tables.  I was expecting the Boy Scout troop leader to arrive sometime between 10 am and noon (he was waiting on the termite guy at his home), so I could not leave with TLE to go to her first appointment at Upland Eye Institute to get assessed for cataract surgery.  TLE always went with me to each of my appointments back when I was getting cataract surgery, but due to the Wuhan Flu they only allow her to in the waiting room, and the examination room, so there is really no point in me being there anyway.

Ben showed up around 11:45 am, and within 20 minutes we had loaded most of the backpack/camping gear into his Ford Ranger pickup.  What he didn't take, which was very little, I will donate to the local Goodwill Industries.......

.....over the four days we've been sorting through our stuff we've emptied  quite a few storage bins.....9 by my count.....

......and the trailer interior is beginning to look a little more spacious once again.....

.....once the backpack/camping gear was out of the way I began to sort through all of my bike parts.  By the time TLE returned from her appointment I had managed to get through quite a bit of the bike parts inventory, and only had one 5 gallon can left to sort through when I decided it was time to head inside to cool down in our wonderful air conditioned interior.

When I asked TLE how her appointment went she said the doctor was not advising cataract surgery at this time.  He said her vision is still very good with her prescription glasses, and that there was no  need to proceed at this time unless she just wanted to get it done. He said some of her recent vision problems were due more to allergies than to the slowly growing cataract in her right eye.....WOW.....that was not what I expected to hear.  We had planned to be here at the Fontana/Rialto Elks Lodge for at least 4-5 weeks, but now our plans are in a total state of flux.

Another task we desperately needed to take care of was having our RO (Reverse Osmosis) system serviced. It's been over two hears since my man Ruben Miranda of Kool Filtration has changed the filers and checked the system for efficacy, and Thursday was the day of our much anticipated appointment.  Since we have been out of California since late January 2020 we have not had our RO system serviced since April of 2019.  Ruben arrived shortly after 2 pm, and within an hour our system was serviced, and ready for another year of providing filtered water.  We've been dealing with Ruben since the early 90's, and have become good friends over that time, so while he worked we talked non-stop about our lives since the last time he serviced our RO system.  It turns out he is interested in getting a motorhome, and very interested in Newell Classics.  I may be looking for one for him in the very near future.

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Half as much now.....

8:12 am - Thursday - October 28th - Fontana, CA - 66° F, 39% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal, clear, blue skies today as far as the eye can see and a forecast high of 88° F.  We're in the middle of a very mild Santa Ana condition where winds blow out of the high desert through Cajon Pass into the Inland Empire.  Slept on top of the covers last night until 2 am......first time in over a year!  The overnight low was only 66°.  So far no A/C has had to be employed.

On this date in 2017 TLE and I were enjoying our 4th sunset fire at Lone Rock on the shores of Lake Powell....the pictures are looking to the east.....when the sun sets behind (west) us it lights up everything to the east......↴

The forecast high for Wednesday was 84° F, and it definitely got there, but the air was so dry we did not need to run the A/C.  Instead we turned on our Fantastic Fan and opened all the windows keeping the interior quite comfortable.  I don't remember the last time we had ALL the windows open at the same time.

After posting my latest blog offering I headed out to the trailer to pull all the backpack/camping gear out and group everything by type on two of our folding tables.  Frankly, I was a little shocked at how much we had, and how many duplicates.  There are four mummy bags (only one has been used, and that for 3 nights), 6 canteens, 5 GAZ backpack stoves, 2 Coleman backpack stoves, 3 ponchos, 6 backpack air mattresses, 4 separate cook sets, 7, or 8 compression bags, 2 Kelty internal frame backpacks (one with the store tags still attached, and the other used on just one backpack trip), 7 sets of silverware (fork/spoon/knife).....the list goes on and on.....

The GAZ backpack stoves

Four cook sets, and two coffee pots

The trailer interior before the removal of the backpack stuff

The trailer interior after the backpack stuff was removed....a slight improvement but much better, nonetheless.

.....I was able to make contact with the local Boy Scout Troop leader, and he agreed to come by Thursday to pick it all up. I am very happy all of this stuff will get a second life, if not a first life, and by that I mean be actually used for its intended purpose for the first time......lol.  Amazingly, the backpack/camping stuff accounted for about 1/2 of what was in the 'BEFORE' picture above, and 1/2 of what is left in the 'AFTER' picture is stuff through which TLE will have to sort....she thinks she can get it down to about 1 box.  The other remaining half, I am embarrassed to admit, consists of a lot of bike parts I have accumulated over the years, most of which I forgot I even had.....lol.  All of that will be disposed of one way, or another (sold/donated/trashed).

Wednesday was also coif day for TLE and I.  I haven't had a haircut since early September, and for TLE the first since May when we flew to Spokane for the wedding.  When in town we always go to Amanda at MAXX Salon in Claremont, CA.  Not only is she our honorary daughter, but she is an amazing hair stylist.......

.....that's the shortest TLE' hair has been in a long time, and it suits her well!  Our appointment was at 2 pm, so we left the Newell around 1:15 pm to make the almost 40 minute, one way drive, and arrive on time.....parking in downtown Claremont can be difficult at best, but on this day we snagged a spot just around the corner from the salon.  We were home just before 4 pm.

By the way, Claremont is in L.A. County which has some the strictest COVID rules in the nation, whereas Fontana is in the Inland Empire (San Bernardino and Riverside Counties), which is the total opposite.....I'm glad we are in the Inland Empire.

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That's a lot of stuff!

 7:14 am - Wednesday - October 27th - Fontana, CA - 52° F, 63% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the north by northeast.......crystal, clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.....okay, that's a warm one on the way!  On this date in 2016 I was working my last day at Tahoe Valley Campground before heading down to Carson City to meet TLE who was flying back from Texas where she visited with her brothers and sisters for a few days......↴

Since we didn't get all the stuff at my son's warehouse moved Monday due to the rain, TLE and I headed back Tuesday to meet my son Chris and finish the task.  We first loaded the 'donate' pile into the pickup bed of his 2005 Chevy Silverado PU and drove it over to the local Goodwill, then returned to load up the rest of the stuff.   We had planned to donate all the backpack/camping gear to Goodwill, but then  thought it would make more sense to donate it to the local Boy Scout troop which meets at the lodge a couple times per month.  As a result we had a lot more stuff to haul home, and now the trailer is really quite full......

.....thankfully it won't stay that full that long.  Just a matter of separating all the backpack/camping gear from the rest of our stuff and then delivering it to the Boy Scout troop.

After unloading all the stuff at the trailer we headed back to my son's office to return his pickup, and then headed directly to the local COSTCO to pick up a few things we only get there.  The shopping part didn't take long so we treated ourselves to two of their $1.50 ballpark hot dogs with 20 oz drinks.....

......the best food value around!

When we arrived at the Elks Lodge Saturday we had intended to dump our tanks before we parked, however, they now put a padlock on the dump station as non-members were coming in after hours and using the dump without paying.  At the time the Camp Host (Maureen) was off premises and we did not know where the key was....doh!  Oh well, we had at least 4-5 more days before we HAD to dump, so we went ahead and parked.  Upon her return, Maureen showed us where the lock box was, and gave us the combination to it.  Well, Tuesday it became obvious we needed to dump, so I spent the next hour taking care of that.  When we use our macerator pump to transfer the effluent from our waste tanks to the dump station I have to run our 100' hose across the parking lot over to the dump station, then hook up the macerator pump.  All that takes about 20 minutes.  Then there is the actual 'dumping' which takes another 20-25 minutes, and then everything must be put away as we cannot leave our 100' hose stretched across the parking lot in between dumps, right?

By the time everything was put away it was nearing 4 pm, and time for a much deserved shower, and nap!

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The big sort.....

 7: 53 am - Tuesday - October 26th - Fontana, CA - 50° F, 93% humidity, wind - CALM.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Ogden, UT having a late lunch at Roosters Brewing Company, the kind of funky, whimsical place we love so much.......↴

.....and on this date in 2017 we were boondocking on the shores of Lake Powell (southern Utah) near Lone Rock.......↴

Lone Rock in the background

Our main reason for being in SoCal is to clear our 'stuff' out of my son's warehouse, otherwise we would probably be in Spokane where TLE had planned to have her cataract surgery.  It has been a blessing for us to be able to store some of our things in my son's warehouse for the past 13, or 14 years, but all good things come to an end, eventually.  It is not a lot of stuff....it would probably fill the bed of a full size pickup.  It consists mainly of stuff we use in service of the Newell, plus some boxes of old papers which we will need to shred before disposing of them, a lot of bicycle parts, a couple of bicycles, and a lot of backpacking gear.

We had agreed to meet our son at the warehouse between Noon and 12:30 pm, and we arrived there just after 12:30 pm.  We had planned to sort everything into 4 piles.....trash, 'keep', donate, and sell....and then transport the 'keep' and sell piles back to our trailer to sort through the 'keep' pile  one more time to see if we still need all of that, and then sell what we decide not to keep along with the other stuff in the sell pile.  As forecast, it began to rain about 1 pm, so transporting all of the stuff back to the trailer was out of the question, but we did transport stuff in water tight containers.....

It's going to be a little tight in the trailer for a few days....lol!

.....as well as our old Cannondale tandem, and TLE's old Cannondale F600 road bike, which will be going up for sale, also......

....in all it took us 2+ hours to do the sorting, and then we loaded as much as we could into my son's Chevy pickup to take back to the trailer.  We'll go back Tuesday to get the rest of the stuff, plus drop off the donate pile at the local Goodwill.

By the time we reached the Newell the rain was beginning to come down much harder, and by the time we put the last box in the trailer, and my son left it was getting torrential.  We spent the balance of the afternoon listening to rain on our aluminum roof....not an unfamiliar sound after 12 months on the Oregon Coast.

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A birthday celebration.....

 7:33 am - Monday - October 25th - Fontana, CA - 57° F, 87% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the west by southwest......cloudy today with a chance of rain anytime now, and a forecast high of 61° F.   On this date in 2020 TLE and I were enjoying another one of those magical Seal Rock, OR sunsets.......↴

We attended our first family function on Sunday, a birthday party for Charlise (she prefers Charlie), but I like Charlise, so that is what I call her.  She is the daughter of our middle child, Kate.  I think I'm the only one who calls her Charlise.  Anyway, this is her 15th birthday, and it is so hard for me to believe it can be true, but it is.  The passing of time slows for no man, not even a 'vagabonder supreme' (credit to Tioga George) like myself....lol.....

Charlise Rae in the center with additional grand children (from left to right) Scarlett Rae (daughter of Amanda and Mike....Amanda is our honorary daughter), Crosby Mark (Tim and Laila's son), Nick (Kate's husband), Brayden James (son of Sharon), and Jolene Rose (Kate's youngest daughter)

.....when I spend time with my children, and their children I feel so rich, and blessed. Life is so good!

We were home from the birthday party by 2 pm, and then I spent the rest of the day cleaning, and organizing the trailer for a one month stay here in Fontana......

Well done....now I can see and get at everything again!

.....when the VW is inside, and everything else is stowed for travel it can get quite chaotic, and many things are difficult to get at.....nice to have my garage back for a time!  Oh, and the 'lido deck' is back....well, mostly back.....

The 'lido deck' is making a return

......here at the Fontana/Rialto Elks Lodge there are 14 RV sites, 12 with water and electric (30/50 amp), and 2 with electric only (30 amp).  There is a dump station available which is in reach of my 100' macerator hose, so that is how I dump my tanks......

.....in the 'lido deck' (two up) picture you will notice three concrete piers.  I bought them about 6 years ago to anchor our patio awning as it can get quite windy here on occasion, and since we are parked on asphalt there is no way to utilize the usual ground anchors which screw into the ground.  When we travel I leave them here for other guests to use, and so far, every time we return they are still there.  According to Maureen, the host here, they do get used when we are not here.    

To cap off our first full day here we were gifted with a nice sunset after glow.....

......thanks for stopping by!

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