10 hours......

 7:39 am - Thursday - April 8th - Seal Rock, OR - 43° F, 76% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 46° F.  On this date in 2014 we had arrived at Lone Rock, UT on the shores of Lake Powell for the first time......I took my first panorama shot with my new (at the time) phone........↴

When I arrived home from my whirlwind trip south to Los Algodones, Mexico that I finally realized I had not written a blog about my travels on Monday.  As you know, I wrote about Tuesday in the blog post entitled 'La Dentista' yesterday morning, which, by the way, I have now updated with the pictures I took that day. Anyway, today I will write about my travels Monday, and then a separate post about Wednesday, in order to catch you up.

Monday, April 5th, was my travel day south to Ontario, CA.  I was up earlier than normal as I wanted to be out the door, and driving to Portland by 9 am.   I ended up leaving around 8:45 am.  The drive on US-20 from Newport to Lebanon was uneventful with very light traffic, as was the drive north on I-5 to Portland International Airport.  Although the distance is only 154 miles it takes almost 3 hours to cover the distance.  I arrived at the AirPark facility where I would leave my car for parts of three days around 12 pm, parked, and was delivered via shuttle to the Departures area of PDX by 12:15 pm.  My flight was scheduled to take off at 1:25 pm, so I had plenty of time to get through security, and to the departure gate (C-6).....

Bought a ham and swiss sandwich for lunch at SETAC (Seattle)

Waiting for my flight to Ontario....had to wear this mask for about 7 hours....not fun

My new Swiss Tech suitcase.....love it!

Regrettably, in order to get to Ontario, CA I had to fly first to Seattle where I had a 90 minute layover before boarding my actual flight to Ontario, CA.  Both flights were on time, and, in fact my flight from Seattle to Ontario arrived 15 minutes early at 6:15 pm.  I took the rental car shuttle over to Thrifty where I had a reservation for a 2020 Toyota Corolla, and by 7:10 pm I was on my way driving to the home of Tim (son) and Laila where I had some one on one time with my grandson, Crosby.....

Laila, Crosby, and Tim

Me, and my buddy watching a cartoon

......I was in bed that night by 8:40 pm as I had to get up at 4:30 am Tuesday morning to drive down to Los Algodones, a 3.5 hour drive each way.  In all from the time I departed Seal Rock, until the time I arrived at Tim and Laila's 10 hours had passed....I was one tired puppy!

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La Dentista - Updated, and pictures added

I am at the dentist today, and had to leave Ontario very early to get here on time,  so I will post about Monday later today.  Thank you for your patience!

Clarke

7:30 am - Wednesday - April 7th - Ontario, CA.........

I woke up Tuesday morning around 4:25 am......five minutes before my rarely used alarm was set to awaken me.  I took a shower, dressed, and was in the 2020 Toyota Corolla rental car just before 5:30 am.  It would take me 3.5 hours to reach the Quechan Casino parking lot at the U.S./Mexican border.....I arrived just a few minutes before 9 am.....my scheduled appointment with Dr. Urena was for 9:30 am, so I had 30 minutes to walk the four blocks to her dental office.....it took me just 10 minutes to cover the distance.

By 9:30 am I was in the chair, and Dr. Urena was working to clean out, and fill in 2 cavities in adjoining teeth between the gum line, and the crowns on each tooth.  These are the first cavities I have had in over 25 years, and, of course, they had to be difficult ones.

By 11 am both cavities were filled, and I was on my way walking back to the U.S. border.  I made and quick stop at the Purple Pharmacy to by another supply of antibiotics, and was through the border checkpoint by 11:20 am, and back at the car a few minutes later.  The line at the border was very short compared to a month ago.

One cool think about the Toyota Corolla renta car is its 'self driving' feature.  Once I was on the Interstate (10) I turned on the cruise control, set the speed, and the car take over.  The only time I touched the steering wheel was to change lanes, and when I had to stop at a traffic light on the highway which runs along the west side of the Salton Sea.  When traffice slowed, the car slowed, always keeping a distance of 6 car lengths between me and the car in front.  As soon as traffic sped up again, the car accelerated back to the speed I had preset....very cool, and much less tiring!

I make a stop on the way home in Westmorland to top off my tank, and then again in Mecca to get some lunch at the local Starbucks.....a fruit and cheese bowl chased with a, you guessed it, Mocha Frapuccino.  I back at my son's home by 3:30 pm, and taking a long nap.....thanks for stopping by!

Trouble in paradise.....

 6:40 am (Pacific Time Zone) - Tuesday - March 2nd - Indio, CA - 31° F, 43% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north......partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high here in Indio of 77° F.  On this date in 2018 we were having a couple of beers at Bright Angel Cocktail Lounge after hiking the Rim Trail at the Grand Canyon......↴

.....our view this morning.......↴

I began Monday with a sort of cloud over my head.  I didn't write about this yesterday as I was still trying to work out what had happened.  About 60 miles after leaving Wittmann the alternator stopped pouring electrons into our batteries, and my tachometer started jumping around like a water bug.  My mind always goes to dark places initially when things go wrong, and I began to believe I may have installed the alternator incorrectly by not engaging the gears correctly, and maybe, just maybe they had ground themselves into a pile of metal shavings.  This, of course is the worst, worst case scenario, and the worst, worst case scenario rarely, and I mean rarely, happens, but I go there anyway.  I did not sleep well Sunday night, tossing and turning as I worked through all the possible reasons why the alternator was not doing its job.  I awoke Sunday still not really knowing the 'why'.  

TLE wanted to arrive at the Quechan Border Parking lot by 9 am so she could visit Best Optical before our dental appointment at 11 am, and order some new eye glasses.  As a result we left Foothills Village around 8 am so we could stop off at the local ARCO fuel station to pay the rent (take on diesel).  We arrived at the ARCO around 8:20 am, and were back on the road about 25 minutes later after taking on 117 gallon of #2 diesel at $2.759 per gallon.  We do not want to take on fuel in California as diesel is a full dollar more, if not a $1.20 more per gallon.  We have covered 978 miles since fueling up in Sparks, NV which means we averaged 8.3 miles per gallon....a new record for us!  Of course the tailwind we had most of the drive south accounts for a lot of that increase, for sure. 

We arrived at the border parking lot around 9:05 am, paid our $12 parking charge, and were quickly on our way walking across the border into Los Algodones where we found most people wearing masks, but not all.  As we approached Best Optical we began to realize the sign had been removed from the building, and that they were no longer in business....DOH!  We've been buying our prescription glasses from them for the past 5 years, and TLE did not want to try another, so we walked over to our favorite little mall to get some coffee, and kill an hour before walking the final two blocks to Dr. Urena's office........

We love this place!

.....we decided to walk the final two blocks to Dr. Urena's office at 10:30 am just in case they could get us in early.  Due to the Wuhan Flu the border closes each day at 2 pm, so we needed to be in line to recross the border no later than 1 pm.  As it turned out they were able to get us in early, and by 12:40 pm we were finished, and on our way walking back to the border.  We got in line about 10 minutes to noon, and were through customs by 1:15 pm, in spite of a very long line.

I had not spoken to TLE about the alternator problem at this point, so on our way back to the Newell I filled her in on the problem, and what I planned to do.  I needed to remove the alternator to see if I had installed it incorrectly.  We were back at the Newell by 1:30 pm where I changed into some work clothes and began to remove the Leece-Neville alternator from its cradle.  As I pulled it out I saw that I had done nothing wrong.....everything was intact, as it should be.  I could hear an audible sigh of relief escape my lungs.  Now to determine what was wrong.  I gave TLE the good news, and asked her to come out and help me reinstall the alternator by helping me get the first bolt in, which I was able to do in pretty short order.  I reattached all the wires, including the tachometer wires, and then started up the big Detroit Diesel 6v92.....still no power coming out of the alternator. I then put the multi meter on it to confirm zero volts were flowing into our batteries.....DOH!

This is when the light went on in my mind......since the positive cable goes directly to the battery bank I should have been getting some reading, even if it was just from the batteries.  Then it occurred to me that there are two 90 amp breakers in the rear main electrical panel......one for the batteries, and second for the alternator.  I opened up the door to the panel and pressed the battery breaker, but it was okay.  I then pressed hard on the alternator breaker, and what do you know?  I heard an audible 'click ' meaning I had successfully reset it.  That was the problem.....for some reason it had tripped on Sunday.  Once it was reset, the alternator began working, and my tachometer began working properly again.  Yay for our team!!!  I ran to the entry door to the Newell, and yelled to TLE that our problem was fixed.....whew!  Below you can see the two 90 amp breakers....it was the alternator breaker which was preventing electrons from flowing to our batteries.......

......before solving this problem we were faced with possibly having to return to Phoenix to get the alternator fixed, and then having to rearrange our reservations in Riverside, as well as at the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge, but now we were free to continue northward to our original destination for the day.....Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, CA.  We quickly buttoned up everything once  again, and began the 136 mile trek to Indio around 3:30 pm, arriving at the casino around 5:10 pm.  The elevation here at the casino is exactly sea level.....

The casino

Our parking spot for the night

....we quickly leveled the Newell, and settled in for the night knowing everything is once again working as it should.....what a relief!  I took a hot shower, and was treated to a dirty martini by TLE upon my exit.  We sat listening to music as the sun set behind the Newell.  The day had a shaky start, but ended in victory!

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Return to the 'mother ship'

6:36 am - Thursday - April 5th - SoCal - 54º F, 89% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the west by northwest....heavy overcast once again (marine layer) with a forecast high of 75º F.

Our Jello plan was to be on the road back to the 'mother ship' before 9 am.  Neither of us slept very well Tuesday night and were both up a little after 6 am.  We walked next door to the Yuma Landing Bar & Grill around 7:15 am for breakfast.....the Coronado Motor Hotel provides a free breakfast there for their customers.  We have eaten breakfast there before and enjoyed it.......

 Yuma Landing Bar & Grill

.....and this time was no different.  We were in the car and on I-8 by 8:20 am headed first west, then north of CA-111 to I-10 and home.....take that Mr. Jello!  The drive was completely uneventful, although we did stop for about 20 minutes in Mecca, CA (near Salton Sea) a the local Starbucks for a break before driving the final 90+ miles to Fontana.

We were unloading our overnight bags just after noon time and then relaxing and napping the rest of the afternoon......I turned on the TV to find that they were replaying the Par 3 competition from this year's Masters on ESPN.  Many current players compete in this tournament as a prelude to the actual Masters Golf Tournament, as well as many of the older players.  This year Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson played as a threesome, and what do you know?  Tom Watson at 68 years old won the 9 hole contest over everyone with a 6 under par score, including only 8 total putts.  Nicklaus finished at 4 under par in 3rd place at age 78, and Gary Player finished at 3 under par in 4th place at age 82.....what the....

Left to right: Tom Watson, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.....ageless

.....just amazing....I am speechless....you are never too old, right?  Shortly after the end of the 3 Par contest I lit the Sea-B-Que and grilled up some carne asada in preparation for the 'street tacos' TLE promised on the drive home.

We we quite happy being back in our familiar environs knowing we would get a good night's sleep Wednesday night.  Looking forward to watching endless hours of the Masters over the next four days beginning Thursday morning......life is good.

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La Dentista......

6:18 am - Wednesday - April 4th - Yuma, AZ - 61º F, 65% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east......partly cloudy with a forecast high (which we won't experience....we roll our wheels back to SoCal in an hour) of 92º F.

I was up just before 5 am Tuesday in anticipation of our 3.5 hour drive south to Los Algodones, Mexico  for our annual dental checkups.  This year, for a change, we had no major issues with which to deal......just a cleaning for both TLE and I, and a report on our dental health.

We were in the VW and exiting the Elks Lodge parking lot at precisely 6:30 am.   Usually I drive the first 100+ mile leg of the 218 mile trek to Salton City, CA where there is a large ARCO truck stop.  We go to the bathroom, and sometimes fuel up there (which we did) before continuing the drive to Los Algodones with TLE at the helm.  We arrived in Salton City (on the shores of the Salton Sea) a little after 8 am, and were back on the road by 8:20.....

Imperial Sand Dunes.....

.....once we hit Interstate 8 it is only another 48 miles to Los Algodones Road.  About 10 miles before we exit the Interstate we pass through the Imperial Sand Dunes.  The state (California) has been gradually, over the past 3 years, repaving this stretch of the Interstate from the Arizona border to the CA-111 exit.  We were hoping they would be done by now, and they almost are, but we still had to drive through about 20 miles of construction zones once again.

We arrived in the Quechan Casino border parking lot around 9:50 am, and were across the border into Baja California by 10 am on our way to Dr. Eva Urena's offices on the corner of Avenida B and Calle Cuarta.

We made a quick stop at 'Best Optical' where TLE ordered new eye glasses.....trifocals, computer glasses and reading glasses to be picked up later in the day after our dental appointments.

We arrived at Dr. Urena's offices by 10:40, and I was sitting in the 'chair' a few minutes later having my teeth cleaned.  During my dental health examination by Dr. Urena it was determined that the screw which attaches one of my crowns to a dental implant had come a little loose, so Dr. Urena removed the crown (you just unscrew it), cleaned the crown, installed a better screw, and then reinstalled the crown.  The whole process took less than 20 minutes and I was back in the waiting room whilst TLE had her cleaning.  Total cost for our cleanings and examinations was $35/person.  Sweet!

The line to get back into the USA was the longest we have ever seen (we were told it was even longer Monday), and when we finally got to the end of the line we were about 2 blocks from the border station.  Usually it takes about a hour from there, but we were handing our U.S. Passports over for scanning a little less than 45 minutes later and walking back to our car.

End of the line

We had made reservations at the historic Coronado Motor Hotel on 4th street in Yuma so we first headed there, checked in and then over to Old Town Yuma, and Prison Hill Brewing.....our favorite local micro brewery.....

 First time I've been here when I wasn't having major dental surgery the next day.....😋

.....we quickly ordered a couple of pints of their nitro oatmeal stout, an order of deep fried avocados, and one order of their fish 'n chips to split......

......we sat talking, drinking and eating for over an hour......I was very grateful that, for a change, we had no major dental issues requiring surgery, implants, root canals, etc.  Just a normal checkup.  We were back at our hotel room by 6:30 relaxing after a long, UNEVENTFUL day.

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