The heart of the matter.....

7:42 am - Wednesday - December 21st - GNHS - 39° F, 55% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the southwest....crystal clear, blue, chilly, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I awoke to snow on the ground during our stint at the Grand Canyon.....↴

My cardiology appointment was scheduled for 9:45 am Tuesday.  Of course, sleeping in a strange place is never a formula for sound sleep, plus that strange place was in the middle of Poway, CA with all the attendant city noises.  Where we live (GNHS) you can hear a pin drop at night it is so quiet.  The more time we spend in extremely rural America the more difficult it is to return to to urban America, and quality of sleep is just one of the things to which we must adjust.  There is also the mind numbing traffic on local freeways, and streets.  Most of the streets in Poway are at least six lanes wide (3 in each direction), and when you come to any intersection there are usually 2-3 left turn lanes.....crazy! Anyway, excuse the digression, my point is we were awake early....over three hours before my appointment.  We don't eat breakfast as you know, and it was way TOO cold to take a walk to pass the time, so I did something I haven't done for a while.....sat and read a book....lol.

Our hotel room was very nice, but we were glad to be on our way around 9 am, and arrived at Palomar Health around 9:10 am....way, way early for my 9:45 am appointment.  For the first time since we drove down to Reno last April to get lab work done for my cardiologist, we were required to wear masks inside a facility......weird feeling!  I was called by the nurse to move from the waiting room to the small room around 9:40 am, and by 9:50 am Dr. Mulvihill made his entrance.  He went over my labs, remarked that my cholesterol was perfect, checked my heart with his stethescope, and then pronounced me fit for another year.  It has been just over 3.5 years since my heart attack, and frankly I've never felt better....something for which to be extremely grateful.

We were back in the VW by a few minutes after 10 am, and on our way to the local COSTCO to fill up our tank.  We were surprised to find premium unleaded selling for 4.25/gallon....not bad!  That, however, is not the best price we've paid recently.  When TLE drove down to Brawley last Friday to have her wounded finger checked she filled up in Calipatria on the way back for $3.99/gallon.

Once our tank was full again we began the drive back to GNHS.  We decided to drive back on Highway 78 through Ramona, Santa Ysabel, Ranchita, and Borrego Springs, and are really glad we chose that route as there was NO traffic at all.  On the way through Ramona we stopped off at Ramona Oaks RV Resort just out of curiosity to see how it looked after 3 years, and were very pleased to find the park being well maintained by the new owners, and at about 95% occupancy (it is mostly full of full time occupants)....the fullest we've ever seen it.

From there it was a little over an hour to Borrego Springs.....we stopped briefly at the top of Montezuma Grade and took a picture of the valley where Borrego Springs is located.....

....then it was a race down the 8% grade to Borrego Springs and the Red Ocotillo for lunch....it was just 12 pm, so perfect timing.....

.....we were able to order breakfast for lunch, so we did.....we love breakfast for lunch!  By the time we finished and made a quick stop at the Frugal Coyote thrift store it was 1:30 pm and we had 81 miles to go.  We figured we would be home by 3 pm, and we were!  Nothing like a completely uneventful overnight trip, and almost 400 miles traveled with no issues.

We were only gone around 29 hours, but it seemed like three days....lol....nice to be home and sleep in our own bed where pins can be heard dropping.....I wish they'd stop dropping those pins, though....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!