The day after Christmas.......

6:44 am - Friday - December 27th - Ramona, CA - 34° F, 85% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east by northeast.......clear, very cold morning with a forecast high today of 55° F.

We awoke Thursday morning knowing we would have about a 5 hour window of no rain in which to make our way back to Ramona and RORVR.  It pretty much rained all night, stopping about 6 am. As I was typing my daily blog post using my ZAGG Pocket keyboard in conjunction with my phone......

Using my ZAGG Pocket keyboard to 

compose my latest missive

......Crosby spied me and came over to see if he could help in any way.....he loves his grandpa!  We managed to be in the Beetle heading south on I-15 a little after 10 am.....TLE caught this great shot of snow in the Corona Hills as we slipped south of SR-91.....

......the traffic, as one might surmise, was very light on the day after Christmas, and we arrived home without incident just before 12 pm.  Within a couple of hours of our arrival the rain began to fall at RORVR once again.  

The Newell interior was quite chilly upon our arrival, so we turned on our three electric heaters, plus our three Suburban gas furnaces convert our home from a meat locker back into a habitable space.....within 10 minutes order is restored, and we are settling in for the afternoon to (for me) take a couple of much needed naps, and enjoy the rain on the aluminum roof.  Towards evening we watched 3 episodes of 'The Crown', the story of the life, and times of Queen Elizabeth.  We are in Season 3, and the timeline is now into the 70's. If you have not watched this series, and enjoy history, you will find this series very compelling......we have thoroughly enjoyed it up to this point. 

In closing.....my favorite picture from Christmas day......

......Crosby doesn't let many feed him, but he let me.....it doesn't get much better than this.

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Christmas day, 2019.....Merry Christmas to all!

7:27 am - Thursday - December 26th - Ontario, CA - 42⁰ F, 82% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the east by northeast......cloudy, rainy today with a forecast high of 49⁰ F.

Christmas 2019 was like so many other Christmas days over the years.  Our entire family gathers Christmas morning at the home of Chris (our son) and Rochelle to have Christmas breakfast, then exchange and open Christmas presents.  Each Christmas Chris makes Chicken Verde Pazole (chicken and hominey) soup, and each year we say that was the best ever, and Christmas 2019 was no exception.  We have been gathering at their home for 16, or 17 years now, and it has become quite a Christmas tradition.  Each year our family grows  little, and this year we had 20 persons in our stairway Christmas photo......

 20 in our annual stairway Christmas photo this year 

(Jameson is missing....taking a nap)

.....each year I turn to TLE and remark....."Except for the two of us finding each other 52 years ago, no one in this picture is connected....this scene does not exist".....it is kind of sobering to think how our choices so many years ago have shaped what our life looks like today.  I'll let the following pictures tell the rest of the story.......

......from Chris and Rochelle's home we headed back to Tim and Laila's to prepare for Christmas dinner at their home.  At Christmas dinner we get together with the other side of the family.  Frankly, the two families are competely interchangeable.....it feels exactly the same.....

......we had prime rib, and turkey for dinner with all the fixins'.  By the time the last guests left it was close to 7 pm, and we were all tired, and there was no way the tiredness could wipe the collective smiles off our faces......it was a great day spent with family and friends!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!  Thanks for stopping by!

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Errand Boy........

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7:52 am - Saturday - November 4th - SoCal - 50º F, humidity 76%, wind 1 mph out of the northwest.....clear blue skies! Forecast high for our corner of SoCal is 68º F.....great day for an outdoor wedding!

We didn't wake up until after 8 am Friday.....I always remark that the first night in a 'new' bed, or place I don't sleep well, but each time we return to our son's home I sleep better the first night, and this was the best I have slept....I think this is the 3rd, or 4th time we have stayed with Chris and Rochelle, so I guess I'm getting used to the bed.....it is a good bed, don't get me wrong.....I'm just used to MY bed.

We had a busy day scheduled so we were out of the house by 10:30 and on our way to our first appointment.......a haircut at Supercuts for moi......it's been almost 6 weeks since my last haircut and if I am going to a wedding I needed to get my ears lowered significantly.  I was able to walk right in and sit down in a chair manned by Cassandra.  She gave me a wonderful cut and shampoo in 20 minutes flat.  Then it was just a few doors down to visit the local Trader Joe's to stock up on some of our favorite wines and single malts.....it will be a while until we are close to at TJ's once again.

From there we moved south on Haven Ave. to the local Goodwill where neither of us found anything without which we could not live, then it was over my son's (Chris) office to pick up our mail, of which there was little.  We then spent about 30 minutes back in his warehouse going through my backpack stuff to pickup two Kelty down sleeping bags, my Kelty tent, a couple of inflatable sleeping pads, two Kelty internal frame backpacks, my Jetboil backpack stove, fuel, eating utensils, cookware, etc. in preparation for our planned trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in the near future.  I'm so glad I didn't get rid of this stuff!

Then it was on to a local tire store where I planned to get the two new tires I wrote about yesterday, but they didn't have my brand in stock, so they ordered them from one of their other stores, and we made an appointment for Saturday morning to have them installed.  Next it was across the parking lot to Home Depot where I stocked up on a few things I needed (a couple of drill bits, some electrician's tape, some more shrink wrap tubing, etc.).

Next we moved another mile down Foothill Blvd. to the local BevMo to pick up a few more adult beverages, then across the street to the local 'The Hat' for some of their world famous Pastrami Dip sandwiches, and onion rings......it has been a long, long time.......

.......TLE an I split on Hot Pastrami Dip, and the onion rings, and we still ended up being 'stuffed'!  Everyone who tells you about 'The Hat'  Pastrami Dips will tell you enough pastrami falls out of the sandwich while you are eating it to make another 'Hot Pastrami'....you could almost feed four people with one of them!

We had two more stops to make before we headed back to Chris and Rochelle's home.....COSTCO and TJ Maxx (TLE wanted to buy an extra set of sheets for our bed)....we were back home by 3:30 where I took a much needed nap.....shopping wears me out!

Around 5:20 we got back in the VW to drive down to Nick and Kate's home (used to be our home) to visit them and their children (Elijah, Charlise and Jolene), and while we were there Meredith (our oldest daughter) and Rod (Sharon's husband) dropped by with their son (Rod and Sharon's) Brayden.  None of the kids will be coming to the wedding so we wanted to get in some grand children time.

We were back at Chris and Rochelle's by 8:30 pm and settling in for the night......that may be an average day for someone on the workaday world, but for us that was a jam packed day, and we were tired.....but not tired enough to not watch a few more episodes of  'Mad Men'.....

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Roady........

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8:26 am - Friday - November 3rd - SoCal - 54º F, humidity 72%, wind 3 mph out of the west by southwest.  Heavily overcast with a forecast high for today of 66º F.....quite a difference from one month ago when it was 100º F!

Thursday was road trip day so we were up by 6:15 am putting the finishing touches on our packing (TLE) and writing the blog (moi)......our goal was to be in the car and on the road by 8 am at the latest, and we beat that goal by 20 minutes!  Within 10 minutes we were stopping off at the Union 76 gas station near Lone Rock (has the best prices within 30 miles....$2.89/gallon for premium) to fill up our tank, and then we were on our way north on US-89 to Kanab, UT where we then took US-89A to Fredonia, Arizona where we picked up SR-389 westbound, which became Utah SR-59 just past Colorado City, AZ.....SR-59 took us to Hurricane, UT where we picked up SR-9 and within 10 miles were merging on to I-15 which we would ride back into Arizona, then into Nevada and through Las Vegas and into SoCal once again........

.....the scenery in this part of the Canyon Lands reminds one of why you come here in the first place......just breathtaking.......

.......we made our first stop at Hurricane, UT for a bathroom break, and to switch drivers.  TLE then took the helm all the way to Jean, NV where we fueled up again ($3.85/gallon for premium....almost $1.00 more per gallon than Lone Rock), then I took the helm to Primm, NV.....the last Nevada city before you cross into California.  We again stopped to get a bite to eat at the local Starbucks.  Once again I was at the wheel and took us all the way into SoCal.  There was one more bathroom break near Barstow, CA........then it was just another hour to our destination.......we arrived at my son's home by 4 pm, which was what I had estimated the day before......perfect!

We spent a lovely evening with my son, Chris, Rochelle (wife) and their son Christopher.....Chris made up some fried shrimp with red potatoes for dinner and we sat eating and talking until a little after 8 pm.  They go to bed pretty early, so we went to our room and watched some more 'Mad Men' on their Netflix.....sweet.  I always tell TLE that staying at Chris and Rochelle's home is like staying at a nice hotel!

Friday will be a busy day for us.....we have to cram 3 days of shopping into one, which will include a couple of new front tires for the Beetle....time for some new shoes!

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Timely zones......

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6:30 am - Thursday - November 2nd, Page, AZ - 50º F, humidity 57%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast.....forecast high for Page, AZ today is 71º F, and for our road trip destination, Riverside, CA it will be 68º F under cloudy skies.

After 7 deliciously restful days at our beloved Lone Rock it was time to move the Newell 10 miles south to Page, AZ where we will park her for 5 nights whilst we make our way to SoCal for yet one more wedding.  She'll be connected to 30 amp electrical for the time we are gone for a pretty inexpensive price all things considered.

Since the distance to our destination was so minor, and we would be gaining an hour on the clock by moving to a new time zone, we took our time putting things away.  Once our stuff was stowed we moved 200 yards over to the local dump station to release 7 days of effluent into the local sewer system, then it was another 2 miles to the local fuel station to 'pay the rent' by topping off our diesel tank with 59 gallons of diesel at $2.79/gallon.  It is only another 110 miles to our winter destination at the Grand Canyon so we'll arrive there with almost a full tank.....we won't be paying the rent again for over 4 months.

We arrived at our rented site by 12:30 pm, and were set up within minutes after which we headed out to do a little shopping in advance of our 1,000 mile round trip to SoCal, plus locate a propane station to top off our 60 gallon propane tank prior to heading to the Grand Canyon.  Around 5 pm we headed over to a local gastro pub called 'State 48 Tavern' for dinner......4 Yelp stars on 282 reviews.  TLE had been doing some research a few days ago and wanted to give this relatively new place a try for dinner.....WOW......we were not disappointed.......

........they offer a number of fine beers on tap....I chose an 'Oak Creek Amber' (Sedona, AZ) and TLE a Scotch Ale.  For apps we ordered their beer battered avocados.....OMG!  We've only had deep fried avocados once before and that was at Prison Hill Brewing in Yuma, AZ, and these were every bit as delicious.  For our main course I had their Rock Fish Taco plate.....once again there was audible 'oohing and awing'.  In the background was a large screen TV with game 7 of the World Series playing.  Unfortunately for my Dodgers it was not a good night......the game was lost in the first inning when the Astros scored two runs....ultimately they won 5-1.  It was a great year, but no cigar this time.

We were home by 6:30 and settling into our evening....we watched a few more episodes of 'Mad Men' and were in bed before 11 pm dreaming about our ROAD TRIP!

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Cedar Key - Day # 18 - Accents

Wow......18 days already?  It seems much, much longer than that to me.  Monday  broke clear, a little cooler, and a little less humid.  After getting the ball rolling Sunday by finally fixing the loud shower fan I was in a good place mentally to tackle another long delayed repair.  Each of our overhead cabinets has a small light that comes on when the door is opened providing sufficient light, even during the day, to see what is in the cabinet.  All the lights have worked since we bought our coach, except the one in the cabinet over my left shoulder as I drive.  I like things to work, but had let this slide for a long time.  I didn't want to spend $10+ to fix it by replacing the old light, so I decided to use a small strip of LED lights in its place.  There were only 3 lights on this left over strip from another project, but I believed they would be enough to equal the light output of the defunct light.  As it turned out, they were actually a little brighter than the old one.

It is amazing how such a small thing can bring such pleasure to me.  I am glad I waited to fix it because I like my solution better than buying something off the shelf.  When the others start to burn out, and I'm sure at some point they will, I now have an easy fix......took me less than 15 minutes start to finish.

Once I had crossed one more thing off the fixit list, which is not really that long now, I decided tackle a new project I had only just conceived a few days before.  I had spent the last few days figuring out how to do it.   I have wanted to add some accent lighting in the salon area (living room, if you will) that was more indirect than what had been installed.  My friend Chris (Tales from Technomadia) had just installed some LED strip lighting in his kitchen, and living area and was using a 12 volt dimmer switch to control them.  He got the dimmers from Amazon for $8 each, and was ordering some more, so I asked him to include 4 for me....I've got a few more projects for lighting in mind.

Once the dimmers came in Saturday's UPS delivery I was ready to start the project, and Monday was as good a day as any.  Once I gathered all my tools, my supplies together, and with TLE's advice and assistance it was less than two hours until the new lighting was installed, and here is the finished product!

I installed strip lighting between the curtain valance and the curtains by attaching it to a wood strip to which the valance is attached.

Here is the dimmer switch, installed upside down to hide the wires.

Here are the lights with the dimmer at 100%, and below with it at around 50%.

I had an idea this lighting would look good, but the effect, and how this inexpensive lighting changed the feel of the living room area is immeasurable.   Basically I used around 28 feet of LED strip lighting, about 2 feet of 18 gauge stranded wire, a little solder, a few connectors, and one dimmer.  Total cost less than $20.

The Tiki Bar at Low Key Hideaway has been closed for a little over a week as the owners had gone on a cruise.....well they are back, and the Tiki Bar 'OPEN' sign was back on the street, so TLE and I headed over around 5:15 to grab a couple of brews, and watch the sun set.  As it turned out, many of our friends had the same idea.  We stood there talking, while snapping pictures of yet another great sunset!  There is such a feeling of serenity, and quiet as the sun dips below the horizon one more time, closing out another great day in Cedar Key.

These soft flowing colors just blow me away.......thanks for stopping by!

Cedar Key - Day # 16 - Prime Time

During our sojourn at Amazon.com we enrolled in Amazon Prime.  Essentially Amazon Prime gives you 1-2 day delivery at no charge, no matter how large, or small the item(s) being shipped.  It costs roughly $79 per year.  A number of friends who fulltime in their RV's use this to have things shipped to them wherever they happen to be at the time.  As TLE and I know from our 11 week experience at Amazon.com you can buy pretty much anything through Amazon, including many food staples.  TLE has bought a special honey she likes, some hard to find spices, etc. using our Prime account.  I am finding that a lot of people I know who live in sticks and bricks homes also use Amazon Prime.  Let's face it, most of the time there is no sales tax, and there is no shipping charge, and the convenience of receiving what you need within 2 days is pretty cool.  I have no financial stake in recommending that you check it out.  It, of course, is not for everyone, but we are finding that it works for our lifestyle quite well.

Saturday was "dump the black tank" day.....I think we went close to 13 days this time.  While I was flushing the "cooties" out of the black tank I decided to multi-task and wipe off the T-Bird.....normally, for me, this is not a good idea, because sometimes I get caught up with one task and forget the other......use your imagination.  This time it worked out well.  We decided we would walk into town and browse around.  It was a very humid day (around 89%) with a high of 81 degrees.....not as bad as I have experienced, but a lot warmer than we are aiming for.....:D  By the time we reached dock street we decided we needed to cool down a little, so we stopped off at the Island Trading Company where we acquired two frappuccinos, then went outside to sit in the shade.  Being that it was Saturday the town was packed with weekenders.  We sat there with smug smiles on our faces, because we knew we didn't have to leave this paradise on Sunday to head back to a sticks and bricks life.....we get to stay!

From there we walked over to 2nd street to see what was for sale in the Deja Vu consignment store.  TLE found some purplish earrings to go with her purple summer dress she got in Chiefland the day before, and a tank top........she deferred on several paperback books she saw.....whew!

On our walk back we passed a yard sale in progress so stopped to see what was what.  I found this propane regulator in a cardboard box of tools for $3.....all the fittings, the gate valve, and pressure regulator, if sold separately, retail for around $35, conservatively......SCORE!  Always good to have an extra regulator.....I have two in use in the coach, and they do fail from time to time.....none of mine have, but I like to be prepared.  

When we stopped by Sandy's Produce (we can never pass without buying something) Todd saw the regulator in my hand.....I saw him staring, and told him about my great find....he immediately offered me $10, then $15.....he knew what I knew.  I smiled, and declined his offer.

We continued our walk, and as we passed by a local cafe called the Blue Desert Cafe TLE remarked that we should have dinner there that night.....it is only open from 5 pm to 9pm most nights, but til 10 pm on Saturday nights.  I put up a notice on the NuRVers Cedar Key Meetup site regarding our intentions, and before we knew we were a party of 9.  We started our walk around 6 pm with Chris, Cherie, Pace and Kyeli, and as we passed by Low Key Hideaway we snagged 3 more......Debby, Bill and Forrest.

The picture taken at the Blue Desert Cafe (above) was taken by TLE using her new IPhone camera set on panorama......other than a little distortion in my profile, I think it came out great!  We knew going in that the service at this cafe was slow, but the food is great, and we were not disappointed on either count.  Of course, we are on island time, and enjoyed the time before our food arrived to talk, and talk, and talk......great conversation followed by great food.

The walk home involved more conversation, and before we knew it we were home and it was only 8:45......just in time to catch the end of the Ravens vs. Broncos game, lost in double overtime by the Broncos.....a very close game.  The second game between the Packers and 49ers saw the 49ers emerge victorious.  Sunday there will be two more NFL playoff games, so you know where I will be starting at 1pm!

And, thus we come to the end of another delightful day at Cedar key.

TLE took the sunset picture for Saturday

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