A little bit of everything........

7:55 am - Friday - March 22nd - Fontana, CA - 48º F, 85% humidity, wind - CALM....it has been a boatload of weeks since I saw that word on the local weather report!  Sunny today with a forecast high of 68º F.

Initially my Jello plan for Thursday involved pulling out my two 8d chassis batteries from their compartments, clean those compartments, and them repaint them.  The door on the driver side compartment used to leak, and water would infiltrate, which caused a lot of rust.  Well, now that it is no longer leaking it is time to rust proof both of them, and apply a few coats of Rustoleum to prevent it from coming back.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate.  It only got to 58º F, and it rained on and off all the day long.....certainly not ideal conditions for what I wanted to do.

Instead I spent time in the trailer creating a new pile of stuff to be moved to my son's warehouse near the end of our stay.  The area which the prior stack occupied was looking so bare at the beginning of the day.....↴

.....by the end of the day that space looked like this......↴

 Golf clubs, skillet, pressure washer, inflatable Sea Eagle kayak, aluminum poles, large suitcase, duffle bag, two folding tables, sunscreen, golf shoes, etc.

......with more space available I can move other things around so that they are more accessible, and that is what I did.  

In between the 'down sizing' exercise, when it was raining, I went out and cleaned off the bugs from the Newell windshield, and then wiped down the VW....so much easier to do when I don't have to hook up the hose to wash the VW!

Finally about 3 pm I decided it was warm enough to take s short bike ride.  I haven't ridden my bike since Inverness, FL, and that is about 10 weeks ago!  Much too long, but now that the Pacific Electric trail is just around the corner there can be no more excuses....

....I first rode westward on the trail to Sierra Ave. which is about 2.4 miles away.......

.....then back east all the way to Cactus Ave., which is the current terminus of the trail.  There is plenty more Pacific Electric right of way on which to build an extension of the trail, and I hope someday they will finish it so that it eventually connects with the S.A.R.T. (Santa Ana River Trail)......

 

 At Cactus Ave. which is the eastern terminus of the Pacific Electric trail....I hope they will finish the project someday and extend it eastward .

.....in all I covered 6.42 miles in 35.5 minutes of moving time burning 321 caloric units, averaging 10.9 mph.  No a long distance by my standards, or a fast average mph, but I will work up to doing 20 miles in one take over the next 5 weeks.......I hope....

....of course, all through the day the NCAA March Madness tournament was playing on the TV in the background, and when I returned from my ride I settled in for the rest of the day watching one game after another.

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The Masters, Alaska and other stuff.......

7:07 am - Monday - April 9th - SoCal - 63º F, 38% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the north....clear blue skies.......it is going to be hot today......forecast high is 93º F.....at least the humidity has gone down!

Sunday was all I hoped it would be.  The Masters final round was amazing, but I get ahead of myself.  From Thursday through Saturday evening TLE and I probably spent 20 hours watching The Masters.  Sunday we woke up to Masters coverage, but I thought it was time for a break so we tuned into a soccer match in the British Premier League......in fact, we watched two consecutive Premier League matches just for a change of pace!

Around 9:30 am I decided it was time for my 4th consecutive bike ride on the PET*.....it's been quite a while since I've ridden 4 consecutive days, and frankly my legs were beginning to feel a little 'wear and tear' as I began my ride.  Prior to Sunday I had covered 82 total miles riding on the PET*, and I was thinking maybe I could pound out another 18 and break 100, but it was not to be.  There was a little headwind as I rode west, and that quickly stifled any notions of riding 18+ miles.  By the time I returned home some 56 minutes and 35 seconds later I had covered 13.7 miles at an average speed of 14.6 mph and burned just over 800 caloric units.......

......and now my total mileage is at 95.7....it will be easy peasy to break the 100 mile mark on my next ride.......

......within 20 minutes of my return the live broadcast of The Masters was beginning, and I spent the rest of the day basically alternating between my recliner and my computer desk hanging on every drive, chip and putt.  The day saw Patrick Reed hang on to win by one stroke with a one under par 71 when everyone else seemed to be tearing up the course.  Jordan Spieth carded an 8 under par 64 to fall two strokes short of overtaking Reed, although at one time with three holes to go he was actually tied at 14 under par with him.  Rickie Fowler carded a a 5 under par to fall just one stroke short of Reed.  There were numerous other players who just knocked the cover off the ball Sunday, but all came up short as Reed made just enough putts to win including a 4 footer on the last whole to hold par and win.  Within an hour of the end of The Masters TLE and I decided to take a mile walk to kind of shake out the cobwebs which had accumulated from all that sitting over the last 4 days.

So, why was I at my computer desk part of the day?  Well, I got an email from our friends Forest and Cindy with whom we plan to travel to Alaska in the summer of 2019.  A little back history here.....we spent about a month traveling with Forest and Cindy in Alberta a few years ago and had a marvelous time caravanning with them.  At any rate, Forest was asking a few questions in his email about making plans and that got me to reading the blog (click this link to read about their journey) of very good friends Steven and Linda who spent the entire summer of 2016 in Alaska.  I remembered when I first read their blog post about their trip back in 2016 that I felt I should use their trip as a sort of blueprint for our planning when we make the journey.  They had a great experience and great weather almost the entire trip and found many amazing places to stay with the "IT" factor along the way.  Right now I am on sensory overload!

TLE made a nice Veggie Alfredo for dinner......OMG!  I look in the fridge and see nothing to eat....she looks in the fridge and whips up an amazing dinner out of seemingly nothing.  I am not worthy!

Thanks for stopping by!

*PET = Pacific Electric Trail

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Masterful........

6:32 am - Sunday - April 8th - SoCal - 58º F, 83% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the west.....overcast with a forecast high today of 80º F.  The forecast for Monday shows the temp shooting up to 94º F and then 91º F on Tuesday before it slips back into the 80's and 70's again.

Saturday began with NO marine layer....the first time in almost a week.....we had sun streaming through the windows when we awoke......nice!  Once again we had no big plans other than watching The Masters beginning at 12 pm.  

For once I got an early start on my bike ride and was on my Cannondale riding westward on the Pacific Electric Trail before 10 am.  Again, I had no idea how far I would ride, but it seemed like a day to take a slightly shorter ride so I set my sights on Cherry Ave. for my turnaround.  Cherry Ave. is almost exactly 5.5 miles from the Elks Lodge which would make my total distance somewhere around 11 miles.  I've been hovering around average speeds on my first four rides rides in the 14 mph range.  I decided to see if I could kick it up a little and maybe get my average up to 14.5  mph.  It was a perfect day with no wind, or breeze whatsoever so I was able to push a little harder than I have been.  Usually when I make my turnaround I'm around 12.8 to 13.0 mph average.......when you ride westward on the PET* you are gaining elevation all the way, which keeps the average speed down.  On Saturday I was at 13.7 when I made the turn, and by the time I pulled into the Elks Lodge parking lot my average was up to 14.6 mph......

......so, the vital statistics for my Saturday ride are: 11.2 miles covered in 46 minutes with an average speed of 14.6 mph, and total caloric units consumed at 668.  So far I've covered 82 miles on the PET* this time around, and now have my goal of 100 miles well in sight.

I was back at the Newell just before noontime.....TLE already had the TV tuned to the local CBS channel for the beginning of televised coverage of The Masters, and we quickly settled in watching the day at Augusta National unfold.  It began with a light rainfall which ultimately let up.  The rain softened up the greens and the golf scores reflected that.  At the end of the day numerous players posted red figures, and several came in at 7 under par for the day.  Patrick Reed continues to lead all players, and is 3 strokes up on Rory McElroy with a number of other golfers within 6, or 7 strokes.  Sunday should be a barn burner to say the least.

We met our kids and their families at Zendejas Mexican Grill in Rancho Cucamonga at 4 pm for dinner.  Zendejas has been one of our favorite local Mexican restaurants for over 25 years.  We had a wonderful time visiting with our kids and their kids, and the food, as always, was unforgettable.  By 6 pm we were on our way home for the evening with big smiles of satisfaction spread across our respective faces.

Thanks for stopping by!

*PET = Pacific Electric Trail

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Affiliated......

7:50 am - Saturday - April 7th - SoCal - 56º F, 84% humidity (YUP!), wind 1 mph out of the north by northeast......sunny with a forecast high of 76º F.

Before I get into today's dissertation about Friday I would like to remind all my readers that we are an Amazon Affiliate.   Many of you do a lot of your online shopping with Amazon, just as TLE and I do.  If, when you shop Amazon, you access Amazon via any of our Affiliate Links we will get a small commission for every one of your purchases.  On your end you will notice NO changes......you will still get the same great prices, same convenience, and if you have an Amazon Prime membership you will still get free 2 day shipping.  When we first became Amazon Affiliates we saw a lot of you using our link, but over the past 6 months we have noticed a marked decline in purchases using our link, so I thought I would reiterate how it works.  Any income from our Affiliate link, which is small, goes to defer our costs in producing this daily blog.  As always, we thank you in advance for any purchases you make using our Affiliate link!  You can click on the link here in this paragraph (above), or at the bottom of each day's post, or any number of other links located in and around each day's blog post.

Friday was a stay at home day.  TLE busied herself most of the day with revamping her Steelcase passenger seat up front.  We will be replacing her chair when we visit Newell friends in Florida this coming winter who removed their passenger seat in their coach and are saving it for us, but in the interim TLE wants to make her current seat more comfortable....

The current Steelcase passenger chair.....no power...all manual adjustments

.......I wish I had taken pictures of her process, but essentially she removed the old 36 year old foam from the seat, and replaced it with 2" memory foam, then added a new slip cover to dress it up a tad......I sat in it and now I am a little jealous......

The new passenger seat waiting for our arrival later this year in Florida.....leather, all power, all the time....even has a footrest, which TLE will love!

.......the new passenger chair is in Inverness, FL, and we will be there in either late December, 2018, or early January, 2019 to pick it up and install it.  I am still hunting for a replacement driver's seat for moi.  

I, on the other hand, managed to get out for another bicycle ride on my Cannondale Bad Boy around 11 am.  Once again I set out not knowing how far I would ride.  Around the 8.8 mile mark (Day Creek Blvd.) I did my turn around when I noticed my caloric consumption had just passed the '500' mark, meaning I should break 1,000 if I turned around right there......

......and I did......I finished having covered 17.6 miles with 1,031 calories burned.  Even though there was a stiff headwind on the way out I managed to average 14.0 mph for the 17.6 miles in one hour and 15 minutes of riding.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching The Masters golf tournament.  I was personally pulling for Tiger Woods, but he is still not up to the Masters test after only a few weeks back on the PGA tour.  He did manage to make the cut at 4 over par, but he is 13 strokes back with two days to play.  It is supposed to rain in Augusta, GA Saturday so we'll see how that impacts the scoring.

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That's Kool!

6:58 am - Friday - April 6th - SoCal - 54º F, 80% humidity (I can feel it), wind 3 mph out of the west......heavy overcast with a forecast high of 74º F clearing by noon time.  We'll be rolling our wheels in about 8 days now.

For the past week we have had a heavy marine layer each morning which has been burning off by late morning, or early afternoon.  It is perfect bicycle riding weather.  I haven't gotten out riding as often as I would have liked, but that being said I have managed to put about 54 miles on my bike, as of Thursday, since we arrived almost two weeks ago now.

I woke up to 'Live at the Masters' on the golf channel, and had the TV tuned to 'The Masters' all day long until the final golfer finished the 18th around 4 pm.   Watching 4 days of The Masters each year is one of the highlights of each year for me.  For the uninitiated 'The Masters' is played at the same golf course, Augusta National, every year for the past 80+ years.  It was built by Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur player of all time.   Since it is at the same course every year one who watches every year can become quite familiar with every single hole, and that is me.  I've never stepped foot on Augusta National, but I feel like I have.

Just before 11 am I headed out on another bicycle ride.  I rarely know how far I am going to ride, and Thursday was no different.  I just start riding and make up my mind at some point to turn around and ride home.  Sometimes the distance is 10+ miles, which is pretty much the shortest ride I will do, or some times I go for it and ride 20+ miles....often it is somewhere in between the two.  

I started out picking up the Pacific Electric bike path at Maple and riding east to its terminus at Cactus (about 1.5 miles) and then turning around and riding back west until I decided to turn around just past Day Creek in Rancho Cucamonga........

 The eastern terminus of the Pacific Electric bike path

.....at the turn around point I had covered about 11.5 miles and felt much better than my first ride into Rancho Cucamonga about 6 days prior.  By the time I arrived back at the Elks Lodge in Fontana I had covered 21.8 miles, averaging 14.1 mph in one hour and 32 minutes of riding while consuming some 1,257 calories.......

......by the time I had returned sometime after 11 am the marine layer had burned off and it was beginning to get warm.  While I was gone TLE went out to run a few errands, which meant I would not see her for a couple of hours at least.

Just before TLE returned from her errands Ruben Miranda of Kool Filtration (Alta Loma, CA, 909-948-2465) arrived to service our RO system (Reverse Osmosis water purifier).  It should be serviced at least once a year, so every time we return to SoCal we call on him to inspect and service our system.  I first met Ruben in the early 90's about a year after we had an RO system installed in our home, so we have been dealing with him over 25 years.  During that time he has become a good friend, and I have referred him to several friends.  If you need an RO system in your RV and find yourself in SoCal at any point give him a call!

It had been about 7 years since we had the RO system installed in our Newell, and it was time to replace the 'membrane', so this service call was more expensive than usual.  In addition he replaced the filters, and the ultra violet light which helps kill unwanted bacteria and extend the life of the 'membrane'.  

We watched a number of recorded TV shows Thursday evening ('Survivor', 'The Blacklist', 'Designated Survivor', 'NCIS: New Orleans') and were in bed dreaming of Friday by 10 pm.  Another nice SoCal day spent with all our windows open.  The cold of the Grand Canyon is but a distant memory now.

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Not much......

5:00 am - Tuesday - April 3rd - SoCal - 56º F, 79% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the west.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 76º F.  Why am I up so early?  Well, today we drive south to Los Algodones, Mexico to have our annual dental checkups at the offices of Dr. Eva Urena!

Monday began slowly, and pretty much stayed slow all day.  TLE went shopping without me, and when she does that she is gone for 2, or 3 hours.  She only went to two stores, but I think she likes to shop without me so she can take her time.  When I'm with her I just want to get in and out of each store as quickly as possible.  Now if we were visiting several home improvement stores, or maybe even Harbor Freight, or Tractor Supply that would be me being gone for 2, or 3 hours.

It was quite cold until early afternoon....I had planned to ride my bike early in the day, but just didn't want to have to put on my winter bicycle wear to go riding for less than an hour, so I waited until after TLE came home to go riding....by that time the sun had come out, and the temp had warmed into the high 60's.

While TLE was gone I did take time to thin out my clothing 'herd', and managed to build a small pile of clothing to donate to Goodwill, or some similar thrift store.  That was the extent of my accomplishments until about 3 pm when I headed out to take a 10+ mile ride, which ended up being exactly 11 miles.......

......I rode the Pacific Electric bike path west to Cherry Ave. before making the turn around and was back at the Newell in less than 47 minutes averaging 14.1 mph, and burning 645 caloric units.  It is so good to be on my bicycle once again!

My final accomplishment of the day was to dump our black tank around 4:15 pm using our Shurflo macertor pump.  That task took about 25 minutes, and at least 10 of that was unwinding and then winding back up 150' of contractor hose through which I pump the black tank effluent.  It does take longer to dump our black tank using the macerator pump, but that is much more preferable to have to unhook the coach utilities so I can drive 150' to the dump station to dump.....that would take even longer, and would really be much more inconvenient, no?

At 6 pm we turned on the NCAA March Madness final between Villanova and Michigan.  As always, I just wanted it to be a close game until the end.....I did not get that wish.  The first half ended with Villanova up 7, or 8 points, and then being up by 20 or more in the second half before winning 79-62.....it really wasn't even that close as Villanova just dominated Michigan seeming to score at will.

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Easter Sunday

7:51 am - Monday - April 2nd - SoCal - 55º F, 79% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the south by southwest.....heavy overcast once again with a forecast high of 70º f today.  The marine layer should burn off by noon time giving way to partly cloudy, but mostly sunny skies.

Usually SoCal gets what we call 'May/June gloom' in May and June (duh!) each year which is caused by a heavy marine layer moving on and off the coast each day, but it appears we are getting that 'May/June gloom' in April this year.  Typically we will wake up to heavy overcast skies each morning which usually 'burns' off anywhere from mid morning to noon time leaving us with sunny skies the rest of the day.  It keeps the temperature from getting too high.  In some past years the 'May/June gloom' has extended well into July making for a cooler than normal summer.

Since we returned to SoCal we have had some sort of appointment, or activity scheduled every single day, and Sunday was no exception......for the 9th consecutive day we had something scheduled.....Easter dinner at my oldest son's home.  We left our coach around 11:30 am arriving at Chris' home by 11:50.  We were looking forward to visiting with Rochelle's (Chris' wife) side of the family, including her father and mother, Ed and Linda, but Ed had been admitted to the local hospital for emergency gall bladder surgery Friday night, and was still in the hospital on Sunday.  The operation was a success, however, the doctors wanted to keep him in the hospital for observation for a couple of days.  At any rate we had a lovely time with everyone, and a great dinner before heading home a little after 2 pm.

Not much else to report about Sunday.....I spent time watching the final round of the PGA Houston Open ultimately won by Ian Poulter in a one hole playoff.  Then I watched the NCAA women's basketball final between Notre Dame and Mississippi won at the final buzzer by a 3 point shot by a Notre Dame player.  I had no favorite in the game, and just wanted a close game.....well, I got that for sure!

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Back in the saddle.....finally!

7:28 am - Sunday - April 1st - SoCal - 55º F, 77% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the southwest.....heavy overcast with a forecast high for today of 74º F.....Happy Easter!

I've had my Cannondale Bad Boy put together for a few days, but hadn't taken a ride yet.  It has been a long time since I just took off on a ride with no particular distance goal in mind and just rode.  I took 10-15 mile rides early in the summer at Yellowstone, but the only riding option I had was outside the Park riding along US-89 north towards Livingston, and after a while that got boring, plus the shoulder I rode on was quite rough with lots of debris.  I suffered a couple of flats due to that debris, so I gradually stopped riding and just focused on hiking on our days off work.  I had the same problem at the Grand Canyon....there were no shoulders on any of the roads, and riding in a traffic lane on a busy highway is not an optimal experience, so my 'rides' consisted of 30 minute jaunts on my stationary bicycle.....that gets amazingly boring after a while, also.  The last month, or so at Desert View I rarely rode my stationary bicycle.

I looked forward to taking more than a few rides while here in SoCal, but until Saturday we had either an activity almost every day that conflicted with taking a ride, or it was too hot (Thursday and Friday).  I was determined to get out for a ride Saturday and escape the gravitational pull of the Newell.  Finally, about 9:30 am I was dressed in my riding togs and off for who knows how long a ride west on the Pacific Electric Bicycle Path which runs right behind the Elks Lodge here in Fontana....  

......as I merged on to the bike path I thought I might ride 5 miles west and then turn around....that would give me a good 10 mile ride, but as I hit the 5 mile mark I just kept going.  The early morning air still very cool, and I felt good.  By the time I turned around I had covered about 10.6 miles.  As I crossed back into Rialto my cyclo computer read 20.7 miles.......

.....and by the time I parked my Cannondale next to the trailer it was reading 21.3 miles total distance covered....

.....nice to know the 'old guy' still has it in him.  I was pleasantly tired after spinning those pedals for one hour and 37 minutes and burning 1,194 caloric units.  After a quick shower I was relaxing and watching the latest PGA tour event interspersed with a few naps.

Around 3 pm I turned on the 'Final Four' broadcast to see which two teams would make it to the final game to be played Monday evening.  The 'Cindarella' team (Loyola Chicago) controlled the game until about 5 to go in the game, and were still up by 6 points over Michigan, but they totally collapsed those last 5 minutes and lost to Michigan by 12 points in the end.  The second game featured two #1 seeds....Kansas vs. Villanova, and was expected to be a close game, but it was anything but that.  Villanova got out to a 17 point lead, and pretty much kept it there for the duration of the game.  So it is Michigan vs. Villanova in the final.....hope it is a close game!

We got in the VW around 4:55 pm to drive a few blocks over to Mariscos del Pacifico to meet my son Tim, and his wife Laila for some great Mexican seafood. TLE and I discovered this little treasure two years ago when we stayed at the Elks Lodge here in Fontana for the first time, and have been back over and over again.  Yelp has them at 4.5 stars on 224 reviews, and we would have to agree.  All four of us ordered their Picositos Tacos (shrimp) which include homemade tortillas......we all cherished every bite!  We sat and talked until almost 6:30 before we finally surrendered out table and headed for home.  A great way to end a great Saturday!

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