When uncertainty turns to certainty......

 7:10 am - Saturday - April 9th - Bishop, CA - 51° F, humidity 25%, wind 5 mph out of the north by northwest....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today in Bishop with a forecast high of 81° F, but we will not be experiencing that high....we roll our wheels in about an hour for Minden, NV where the high today will be 69° F.  Meanwhile, in Likely, CA, our ultimate destination it is 28° F right now as I write.  Here are some snapshots of Minden, NV and Likely, CA for the next few days.....↴

Minden, NV

Likely, CA

.....looks like some weather is coming to Northern California.....do you see that low of 16° F in Likely this coming Wednesday?  Looks like we are moving from Spring back to Winter...lol!

We were up by 6 am on Friday wanting to get out of Fontana before the high of the day, 98° F, arrived.  We were actually rolling our wheels out of the Elks Backyard about 7:10 am, and northbound on I-215 to I-15 a few minutes later.  We reached the summit of Cajon Pass before 8 am, and transitioned to US-395 northbound, which will take us all the way to Likely, CA, our summer destination.

By 10 am we were in the beautiful Owens Valley.....

....oh how I have missed those big, long views!  The coach ran wonderfully with engine, transmission and oil temps back to where they should be...I am so thankful for our reconditioned radiator!  

About 10 miles south of Coso Junction (Rest Area) my speedometer suddenly quit working, and when it stops working so does my cruise control....doh!  I've had problems with the signal generator several times over the years, but the last time I had to fix it was about 4 years ago, and since then it has worked flawlessly until Friday.  I was determined to get it going again, so within minutes of arriving at the Rest Area I was under the coach detaching the signal generator unit from the side of the Allison transmission.  Within a minute, or two I saw it was something simple....something I could fix in seconds, which I did.  I had the generator reinstalled within minutes, and we were back on our way with a now functioning speedometer, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, a functioning cruise control.....the cruise control depends on a signal from the signal generator to function...without that signal there is no cruise control. 

Our first destination of the day was Lone Pine, CA where we have stayed numerous times over the years at Boulder Creek RV Resort.  I figured if I was tired, or we were still having issues with engine temps we could stop there, and continue on the next day, however, when we arrived around 11:30 am the coach was running cool,  and I was ready to continue to Bishop, CA and Tri-County Fairgrounds.  Within an hour we were cruising down Main Street in Bishop, and by 1 pm we were in our campsite.....

.....from Bishop it is 150 miles to Minden, NV....not a long driving day, but over that 150 miles we will go over a lot of high elevation passes, which will be a real test for our radiator.  It is one of my favorite drives.....the scenery between Bishop and Minden along this Eastern Sierra highway is just spectacular, and we never tire of it....US-395 is our 'Mother Road'.

There was no need for A/C in Bishop on Friday....the high temp was only 84° F.  We spent the afternoon watching Round 2 of the Masters golf tournament.  To say I heaved a big sigh of relief when we arrived in Bishop without any overheating issues would be an understatement....at last all the uncertainty of the week melted away, and I was once again certain our home was in good working order.  Frankly, worrying about how the coach would perform after all the work we have had done weighed heavily on my mind all week, so for me to tell you I took a long nap during the afternoon should come as no surprise.

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A long day, but a very short post.....

Good afternoon!  We left Fontana around 7 am this morning (Friday), and I didn't have time to post my latest blog post until now....thank you for your patience!

 4:25 pm - Friday - April 8th - Bishop, CA - 85° F, 10% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the southwest.....clear, blue skies today in Bishop....our view right now↴

Tri-County Fairgrounds, Bishop, CA

.....on this date in 2014 TLE and I were touring 'Antelope Canyon' near Page, AZ....amazing slot canyon......↴

They finished hooking up all the hoses to our radiator, and pouring back in the coolant around 11:30 am Thursday morning, but there was a semi tractor parked in front of us having its radiator replaced, so we could not leave until they finished, which was around 12:30 pm.  We were back at the Elks Lodge by 1 pm, plugged in, and had both A/C's running to cool down the interior on this 95° F afternoon.  Once the interior was cool again, I went outside to finish organizing the trailer for turf and VW insertion Friday morning around 7 am.  

By the by, the total cost to remove and reinstall the radiator, 'rod' it, and paint it, plus a few other things they fixed, was around $1,900....far less than I had expected.  If it had needed a new core the cost could have exceeded $5,000.  Our radiator was last 'cored' back in September of 2006, and it cost $4,000 then, so one can only imagine the cost to do the same today.  All that being said, Sal said we had a very good radiator, and it should be good for years to come.

I didn't finish with the trailer until close to sundown, and then it was time for a long, hot shower.  We were in bed a little after 9 pm knowing we wanted to roll our wheels as close to 7 am as possible to beat the heat out of the Pomona Valley, which was forecast to be 98° F Friday, and we wanted no part of that climbing Cajon Pass which tops out around 4,000'+ elevation....we would begin that climb at 1,200'.

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Hope for the best, expect the worst, or maybe something in between....lol!

7:36 am - Thursday - April 7th - Fontana, CA - 75° F, humidity 16%, wind 10 mph out of the north.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 96° F. On this date in 2015 TLE and I were hiking the Honiker Trail down to the San Juan River near Goosenecks State Park, UT......↴ 

When I called Continental Radiator Service on Tuesday they told me they thought they would be finished fixing the Newell radiator, and have it reinstalled by Wednesday afternoon.  I thought that was rather optimistic, so I kind of prepared myself for disappointment as TLE and I began the 143 mile drive from Montecito back south to Fontana Wednesday morning around 9:30 am.  I would have been satisfied to arrive back at Continental to find they had finished the radiator, but did not expect it to be back in the Newell Wednesday.

After a completely uneventful, rather light traffic drive south we arrived at Continental around 12:30 pm, and after unlocking the Newell entry for TLE I walked to the back of the Newell to see if the radiator was back in the Newell.....

....as I anticipated, it was not.  My next question, "Was the radiator finished?", was answered in pretty short order. I looked around and saw Sal standing talking with one of the workers about 20 feet away, so walked over to ask him about the radiator status.  As I approached he was talking, so I waited for a break in the conversation.....as I waited I looked down at what they were looking at and realized it was my radiator lying there on its back.....

.....that made me happy....I could see it had been painted, and was back together.  I spontaneously spoke saying "That's my radiator....", to which Sal said "Yes!.....we're finished fixing it, and we will have it back in the Newell by the end of the day ready to have its hoses reconnected to it first thing Thursday!".....to which I replied...."Cool!".  So, it was not as good as promised, but better than I had hoped, and I am good with that.

I noticed when I was inspecting the rear of the Newell a lot of rust scale on the support beam, and mounting brackets.......

....after talking with Sale I decided to walk to a local hardware store I had spied on our way to Continental Monday morning to buy a wire brush, and some black Rustoleum paint to get rid of as much of the rust scale as possible, then cover it with a good coat of paint before they set the radiator back in the Newell.  It took me about 30 minutes to wire brush all the metal, and then apply a few coats of paint.....

......the job of dealing with the rust courtesy Coastal Oregon will go on for some time, but I am getting a handle on it slowly, but surely.

Within a couple of hours of me painting the rear area of the Newell the guys were reinstalling the radiator....it took 4 guys......

.....and there she is....back in the Newell, and bolted in....now it is time to attach the numerous hoses!

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog we are in the middle of another Santa Ana wind event, and with it comes the attendant heat.....the high on Wednesday was 94° F, and the high Thursday will be 96° F....thankfully we are plugged into 20 amp electric, and were able to run our rear A/C all afternoon, and into the night.

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Mañana......

 5:55 pm - Wednesday - April 6th - Fontana, CA - 92° F, humidity, 11%, wind 13 mph out of the north by northwest......high today was 94° F.  On this date in 2015 we were hiking at Goosenecks State Park....you can just see the Newell in the distance....about .8 miles away.....↴

We both slept great Monday night/Tuesday morning, and awoke to clear, blue skies.  We awoke not knowing if we would be driving back to Fontana, and Continental Radiator Service, or spending another night in Montecito with my sister, Hilary, and her husband, Bob.  After securing a wonderful cup of Americano coffee I took a walk around the massive family estate.....

.....the view of the Pacific Ocean is about 200°, and the home photographs nicely, too.....

Looking south toward Ventura

Entry

The kitchen

Living room

The long hallway looking from the kitchen

Dinning room

....around 10:30 am I called Continental Radiator Service and was advised they were working on our radiator, but it would not go back in until sometime Wednesday, so our decision to stay one more night became pretty obvious.  So, after a very hectic Monday, Tuesday became a kick back kind of day....I spent a lot of time reading, napping, and enjoying the amazing costal view.....

....around 5:30 pm we headed out to dinner at a local spot called 'Honor Bar' where we spent a couple of hours enjoying their alfresco dining patio, great food, and endless conversation. We were home by 7:30 pm, and headed directly outside to the patio to enjoy some more conversation, and vino.  By 9:30 pm we called it a day and headed for dreamland, but what an amazing day, and evening made even better by balmy zephyrs wafting up from the ocean courtesy the latest Santa Ana wind event.

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I almost waited too long.....

8:08 am - Monday - April 4th - Fontana, CA - 54° F, humidity 83%, wind 3 mph out of the west.....heavy overcast again today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2015 we had just arrived at our boondock site at Goosenecks State Park near Mexican Hat, UT.....the San Juan River is 1,000' below us.....↴ 

I knew we were pushing it not dumping our black tank Saturday, but I wanted to get to Sunday, so when we left Monday we would have an almost empty tank.   As I flushed the Dometic toilet about 7:30 am the sound I heard told me the effluent level in the tank was right at the top, so I headed outside immediately to hook up our SeaFlo macerator pump, and do what I should have done Saturday.....

You can buy a setup like this for about $350-400, but I made my own about 14 years ago, and it only cost me about $125 for materials, and the pump.  I can dump 40 gallons of black water in about 8 minutes.  The dump station here at the Elks Backyard is about 150 feet away, and slightly downhill.  You don't want to try and pump it further than that.

With that done I headed inside to create another blog post after which TLE and I took our last walk on the PET.....

....it was a rather modest walk in which we averaged about 3.4 mph.  We walked east on the PET to the Cactus Avenue terminus, and then south to Rialto Avenue where we headed back west to the Elks Backyard.

While I spent time organizing the trailer for future VW insertion, and putting away the patio furniture TLE headed over to COSTCO to fill the VW tank at $5.59/gallon for premium....not too bad compared to the other local prices.  

Over the course of the day I stowed the three bicycles, and reorganized the trailer, as well as the storage in each of the engine bays.  By the end of the day we had the artificial turf folded up, and all the awnings stowed.  On Monday we will drive about 7 miles over to Continental Radiator Service on Valley Blvd. to have our radiator pulled out of its cubby hole, and repaired.

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The wedding.....

 9:39 am - Sunday - April 3rd - Elks Backyard, CA - 58° F, humidity 73%, wind 5 mph out of the southwest......overcast today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were at Monument Valley taking the sunset tour.....amazing.....↴

For the first time in a long time I've taken more than one, or two bike rides along the PET here in Fontana.  I can see real improvement in my conditioning, and endurance, and Saturday the realization that the ride I would take Saturday would be my last this time around began to settle into my brain as I began my ride westward.  This is one of my favorite places to ride as I don't have to share the bike path with motor vehicles.  Initially I thought I would just ride as far as Cherry Avenue, which is 5+ miles out, and then turn around making my last ride a 10+ mile ride, but as I neared Cherry I realized I was feeling strong, and decided to make the turn around point Rochester.  When I reached Rochester in just under 43 minutes I was averaging 12.8 mph.....my best this time around.......

......riding to Rochester I gained about 143' in elevation, so going back east I knew it was mostly a downhill grade.  Normally I end my ride at Linden, which is about 1/4 block east of the Elks Lodge entrance, but I decided to go all the way to the eastern terminus of the PET.....Cactus Avenue where I made my last turn around, and headed for home......

....by the time I parked the bike at our trailer I had covered 20.5 miles, burned 1,166 calories, and averaged 13.6 mph....again, my best this time around......

......I covered those 20.5 miles in 1 hour and 30 minutes.  To say I was beat is an understatement, but it was a good kind of 'beat', if you know what I mean.  It was after 12 pm, so before I ate my first meal of the day I did my daily weigh in......I hit a new low....190.8 lbs....just 9 more ounces before I break the 190 pound barrier....a barrier I have not broken since 2014....I am one happy guy!  So far my waist line has shrunk by 3".  TLE also hit a new weigh in low.

Of course, Saturday is the reason we are back here at the Elks....it was the day of my oldest granddaughter's (Cynthia) wedding to Daniel.  The wedding was scheduled for 5:30 pm at the Pomona Valley Mining Company in, of course, Pomona, CA.  By the time I finished lunch it was around 1 pm, and there was one more task I needed to accomplish before we leave Fontana this week.....paint both the engine bays.....the Oregon Coast salt air was not kind to them, and they needed a little rust abatement.  I had two cans of the Rustoleum Gray Gloss paint, and figured it would take one per bay, and it did.  They look so much better now, and so do the rubber mats which cover them.....

The driver side engine bay

The passenger side with rubber mat reinstalled

....I finished with that task around 2:30 pm.....time for a nap and a shower!

We left home to make the drive to the wedding venue around 4 pm, and arrived there without incident around 4:30 pm. Unike most weddings, this one began on time.....my daughter is s very punctual person!   Finally, around 5:30 my daughter, Meredith, who was the officiant, called everything to order, and the service began.....

Meredith with her two brothers (Tim and Chris)

....I love short wedding ceremonies, and this one lasted about 15 minutes, then it was time to party, and celebrate.....

Wedding party

First dance

Father/daughter dance

My kids hamming it up....love it!

Brings a tear to my eye....I am blessed beyond measure

More of the beautiful women in my life.  Back row, left to right: Yvonne, Meredith, Amanda, TLE, Jena, Sharon.  Front row, left to right: Danielle, Kate, Ali, and Jeannie (my brother's wife)

The Pomona Valley at night....beautiful!

Post wedding pics....left to right: Chris, Rochelle, Cynthia, and Daniel

Left to right: Kate (daughter), Jena, Sharon (daughter) Amanda, and Ali.....I am blessed with all of these beautiful ladies in my life

Left to right: Travis and Keith.....friends of my son, Chris, since 1986.....honorary Hockwald's

Father's first look of his daughter in her wedding dress

.....what an amazing evening TLE and I had....my heart if overflowing.  I lost track of how many times I hugged each of my children, and grand children.  TLE and I have been blessed with so many weddings, births of grand children, and great grand children over the 10 years we have been vagabonding.  Many tears of joy were shed by all.

Thank you for stopping by!

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