The automatics.......

6:52 am - Wednesday - January 29th - Riverside, CA - 43° F,  79% humidity, wind 3 mph of the east by northeast......cool, clear this morning with a forecast high today of 69° F.

After our great hike to the top of Mt. Rubidoux Monday, the first in years, I decided to get my Cannondale Bad Boy out and take a 20 mile ride on the SART*.  Since we moved into our Newell Classic back in February of 2011, and lived at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park for one year I have ridden a few hundred miles on the SART*, but in the last couple of years not so much.  The SART stretches over 70 miles (currently from San Bernardino to Newport Beach following the path of the Santa Ana River with a 10 mile gap.....still to be finished) between Norco and Yorba Linda.  When I lived in Ontario, CA I often rode the stretch from Yorba Linda to Newport Beach and back.....a 62 mile round trip.  When we moved to Riverside I began to ride the northern stretch (Norco to San Bernardino), which passes right next to Mt. Rubidoux.

I left on my ride around 10:15 am and returned just before noon time having covered exactly 20 miles.......

 You can see the snow capped San Bernardino Mountains

 The Coyote Trail stretch of the trail in Norco

.....I haven't ridden 20 miles since I did it back in Burlington, VT with TLE back in October of 2018.  Just before we arrived at RORVR back in April we were staying at the Fontana/Rialto Elks Lodge and I rode 10 miles on the PET** a couple of times, so it's been over a year since I reached that bench mark.  As I began the ride I was wondering how I would do, but within minutes I was floating westbound down Jurupa Avenue to the trailhead at Martha McLean-Anza Narrow Park feeling like I could ride forever.  When I reached the Norco terminus of the SART, and made the turn around I had covered just over 9 miles.  I felt great, and like I could finish the final 10+ miles home.  I made it home with energy to spare.....

 Still smiling after 20 miles

.....as I sit here Wednesday morning composing this post I still feel fine....a little stiffness, but nothing unusual.  

Back in my workaday life I used to collect Seiko Chronograph Automatic Speed Timer watches....automatic means it is a self wind.  I bought my first one brand new sometime in 1972.......

 The original - Model # 6139-6005

......this watch, introduced in May of 1969, is known at the first mass produced automatic chronograph.  Sometime in the late 80's it stopped working, and I bought another Seiko, and put the Speed Timer in my jewelry box to be fixed someday.  In the early 2000's I had it fixed, and had a new crystal installed.  I began to collect more of these beautiful watches, and at one time owned 8 of them.  I had a 'watch winder' which kept my collection wound all the time....it's not good for them to lay idle, like any mechanical thing.  About 3 years into our vagabond life I listed 4 of them on eBay, and was surprised that they went for about $300+ each....I paid about $100 per watch originally.  So, fast forward to December, 2019 I decided to sell the last 4 as I was not wearing them, and my 'watch winder' had broken.  On December 6th I  dropped off three of my four remaining Seiko Automatic Speed Timer watches at a watchmaker in Riverside that I have known for a couple of years to be cleaned, oiled, and adjusted, which included my original Navy Blue dial Seiko.  The other two are below......

 Very rare salmon colored dial Seiko Automatic....this is the only one I have ever seen on eBay....Model # 6139-6002

The most popular of these Seikos.....called the Pogue Seiko (also Model # 6139-6002) after Col. Pogue, an astronaut, who wore one of these into space back in the early 70's.  This one has the day of the week in either English, or Arabic....I least I believe it is Arabic.

Arabic day of week...pretty cool, huh?

.....I received a call about a week ago that the three watches were ready for pickup, so Tuesday I drove over to the watchmaker on Mission Inn Blvd. to retrieve them.  At that time I delivered the fourth Seiko Automatic (black dial) to have a new stem/crown installed as the original fell out a few years ago.  I'll list the ones I have now on eBay today, but if any of you are interested in any of these watches I'll give you a good deal.

I spent the rest of the afternoon researching closed auctions on eBay to see what they are going for now, and the prices seem to range from a low of $300 for average to good condition to over $1,200 for pristine condition.  The salmon dial one is in near pristine condition with original crystal (scratch free) and Seiko bracelet.  The Pogue Seiko (gold dial) has minor scratches on the crystal, and stainless steel case, and has the original Seiko bracelet.  The Navy Blue one has a new crystal, and an after market look alike bracelet, but I still have the original Seiko bracelet, which I will include.  The case shows some wear and scratches as I wore it every day for a dozen years before it quit working.

Thanks for stopping by!

* SART = Santa Ana River Trail
**PET = Pacific Electric Trail

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Riverside living....

7:59 am - Tuesday - January 28th - Riverside, CA - 49° F, 57% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the north by northeast......sunny, clear today with a forecast high of 73° F.

After the heavy overcast, and cool temps  on Sunday the weather on Monday was perfect....clear, blue skies with a high in the mid 70's.  We decided to take one of our favorite hikes to the top of Mt. Rubidoux.  There are several trailheads by which you access the trails to the top.  We always begin our hike from the north entrance, which is the main entrance......

.....we have not hiked a lot in the last 9 months, so we were anxious to hit the trail.  Several years ago when we were staying in the Newell at my daughter's property in Riverside we used to do this hike 3-4 times per week.  We got to where we could average almost 4 mph, so I was wondering how we would do after so many years.....

.....in all we covered 3.73 miles, gained just under 400 feet elevation, and averaged 3.5 mph.....not too bad for two 70 year olds!

From there we headed to my son's office in Rancho Cucamonga to drop off a few things from the trailer to store on our shelving there in preparation for our trip to Alaska, then to the local Rubio's Coastal Grill for an early lunch, then to the local Goodwill where we both found something without which we could not live, and then home to Riverside.

While I was at my son's office I retrieved a bike saddle from our Cannondale Tandem.  We own four of these Selle Anatomica ergonomic saddles, which is one of the best, most comfortable saddles we have ever owned.  New they cost close to $200, but are well worth the expense.  Without removing my Haibike from its stowed position I removed the OEM saddle......

.....and then installed the Selle Anatomica saddle.....

.....it is a copper riveted leather seat similar in style to a Brooks saddle, but much more comfortable.....

......one of the revolutionary things about this saddle is you can adjust the ride of the saddle by adjusting the allen screw located in the 'nose' of the saddle.......↴

.....to make the leather looser, or tighter.  Everyone's anatomy is slightly different, so being able customize the fit to your anatomy really is what makes this seat special!

I moved a lot of things around in the trailer to make it easier for TLE to get in and out of the VW, and pulled a few more things out of the trailer to be taken to my son's office.  Now the only stuff up front are the bikes and our firewood for Borrego Springs, and that will be gone before we leave our boondocking site.....

.....the chairs you see in the picture above ⤴ where I used to stow my Intense 5.5 MTB used to be stowed along the wall in front of my license plate collection making it difficult for TLE to get in and out of the VW.  The piece of plywood, and the IGLOO ice chest will not be there when we reinsert the VW, so TLE will have a much easier time getting in and out of the car inside the trailer now.

.....I finished with the trailer around 4:30 pm, and headed inside as the daylight was beginning to wane.  We were treated to another interesting sunset as night once again descended upon the Riverside Elks Lodge.

Thanks for stopping by!

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NO! NO! NO! NO! It has to be a mistake!

7:08 am - Monday - January 27th - Riverside, CA - 45° F, 93% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear, and cool this morning with a forecast high today of 73° F.

Sunday had a whole different feel to it than other Sunday's, and it only got more different as the morning continued.  Sometime after 10 am we received news via the Golf Channel (we were watching the PGA tournament at Torrey Pines, which is on the north end of San Diego right on the ocean) that Kobe Bryant and his 13 year old daughter had been killed  along with 7 other people in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, CA .  I heard myself saying over and over again......."NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!.....it has to be a mistake!".....but it wasn't.  He was just 41 years old....he was born the same year my oldest daughter, Meredith.  I watched him win 5 NBA championships over his 20 year career with the L.A. Lakers, and even though I never met him, I, like so many people, felt like I 'knew' him.  The news cast a pall over the rest of the day, and it is really kind of a blur to me as pretty much every single TV station switched to live coverage of the tragedy......a tragedy that touches all those connected those 9 people in that helicopter.  As I compose today's post while listening to ESPN's Golic and Wingo show my eyes continue to form tears.  At any rate, life must continue, and it is, although with a certain unrelenting soberness.  One is reminded harshly at this time how temporal life is.....no one knows when their number is going to be called for the final time, and this event only serves as a reminder of that fact.

We did venture out briefly sometime after noon time to shop at the local Smart & Final, but were home again within an hour trying to process what happened that morning......

....I apologize for the brevity of today's post, but I just don't have it in me today.  I appreciate every single one of you who stopped by today, and I will 'see' you tomorrow, hopefully in a better frame of mind.

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The re-position.......

7:58 am - Sunday - January 26th - Riverside, CA - 49° F, 97% humidity, wind - CALM.....foggy, and cool this morning with a forecast high today of 67° F.  The new view this morning........↴

Riverside Elks Lodge

We were up and at them Saturday morning, moving day, by 6 am.  Our goal was to be exiting through the RORVR entrance by 9 am.  Between 6 am and 9 am there were a number of things which must be done.......post my daily blog post, tow our 2007 American trailer down to the office parking area, disconnect the Newell from water, electric and sewer, then turn over the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 and drive it down to the same parking area, drop the trailer on the hitch, and insert the VW for the first time since April 25, 2019.  Once the blog was done I got dressed and began towing the trailer......

....after dropping the trailer at the office I returned the Kubota to the tractor shelter, picked up my golf cart for the final time, and drove back to the Newell to disconnect her umbilical cord.  It took less than 15 minutes, and soon the 6v92 roared to life, and I began to roll her wheels......

.....by 8:30 am we had dropped the trailer on the Newell hitch, and then inserted the VW, and were ready to go......well, not so fast there bucko......as we always do TLE went to the rear of the trailer to do a light check.....to make sure the turn signals and brake lights are working.  I got the 'thumbs up' from TLE on the right and left turn signal, but 'thumbs down' on the brake lights......wait, what?  I has always been the turn signals that would be a little flaky, which is rare, but never the brake lights.  Thankfully, the brake lights on the Newell were working, so the problem had to be where the 7 pin male plug from the trailer connects to the 7 pin female receptacle on the Newell.  Thinking it was just dirty contacts (the mail plug has been hanging out in the elements for 9 months) I unplugged and then plugged it back in several times....still no brake lights.  Well, I would rather not have brake lights, than turn signals, especially on the Interstate, as lane changes occur frequently and people behind you have to know your intentions.  Without brake lights I decided to activate the flashers each time we had to slow down, or stop, hoping the brake lights would begin to work at some point.  

We took a few minutes to say our "until next times" to Rich, Marnie, Dave and Jo, and were off a little after 9 am and on our way eastward on Highway 78, then Highway 67 to I-15 where we would turn north toward Riverside, CA.  The Newell ran smooth as butter after being dormant for these past 9 months....in fact, it ran so well it was almost scary.  

Within 45 minutes we were merging onto northbound I-15, and as often the case, changing lanes frequently as lanes were added, and taken away through Poway, Rancho Bernardo and Escondido.  Once we passed the Highway 78 junction we pretty much stayed in the same lane all the way through Temecula where we left I-15 to I-215.  To say that the 111 mile drive to Riverside was just uneventful would be true, but would also be a gross understatement. It was delightful, and exhilarating to be moving again!  As I always do I turned to TLE as we merged onto I-15 and said what I always say on such occasions...."It's good to be moving again" to which she replied, as she always does, "Yeah".

We arrived at our destination for the next 9 days, the Riverside Elks Lodge, around 12:15 pm.  Saturday traffic, as I had hoped, was light.  The Newell just floated down the highway, and all I did was hang onto the steering wheel and enjoy the drive......

 There are four 15 amp outlets for use by Elks members at a cost of $10/day

.....we were the only RV in the parking lot when we arrived.  We parked the Newell with the passenger side facing the fence for privacy, and to keep the sun off that side.  We didn't even deploy any of the awnings....we just opened all the windows and enjoyed the warm Riverside air.  As it turned out the brake lights did begin to work at some point in the 111 miles we traversed, because when TLE went back to check after we arrived she gave me a 'thumbs up'.....yay for our team!

Our main reason for leaving RORVR so early Saturday was the 1 year birthday party for our grandson, Crosby, was at 1 pm, so we had to hustle after arriving in Riverside.  We arrived at the home of my son and daughter-in-law, Tim and Laila, around 1:15 pm to find the party in full swing replete with a 'jumper' for the numerous small children.  We had a wonderful time hugging and talking with our kids, the in-laws, and their many friends.  By 3 pm the all the prep work of the past few days had caught up with us and it was time to say our until next times and head for the barn.

For the first time in months I caught the sunset before it disappeared behind the local hills, and it lasted for about 20 minutes......

......life is good, and thank you for stopping by!

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Tag....you're it!

6:25 am - Saturday - January 25th - Ramona, CA - 35° F, 97% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east......clear, chilly....forecast high for today is 74° F, but we will not be here to see that....today is departure day from RORVR, and by 9 am our wheels will once again be  rolling, if only for a little over 100 miles.

The story of Friday was putting the final touches on our preparations to reposition ourselves up to Riverside, CA on Saturday morning.  There were several "had to's".....I had to put away all the wheel covers, I had to check the air pressure of 10 tires (6 on the Newell, and 4 on the trailer), I had to add 5-10 psi to each tire as we have been sitting for 9 months, we had to stow the window awnings, and patio awning, we had to fold up the artificial turf and drag it into the trailer, and the final 'had to' was to install my 2020 tag on the rear license plate of the Newell, the tag I had just purchased the day prior.......

......I did not do these in any particular order, however, the license tag was the first thing I chose to do.  I picked up the tag off the computer desk, grabbed my lightweight gloves (it's dirty back there), and began to walk out to the trailer with gloves and tag in hand when I noticed the walkie talkies sitting with their charger.....they needed to be charged before Saturday, so I grabbed them too, and then walked out to the trailer......

50' from door to door

.....it's probably less than 50 feet from the door of the Newell to the door of the trailer.  I stepped up into the trailer standing just inside the door where you see the red arrow below....this would be the 'passenger' side of the trailer.......

.....I plugged in the walkie talkies, and then picked up a screw driver to remove the clear plastic cover I have over the rear license plate, turned to walk back out the door of the trailer all the while opening my left hand where I clutched the gloves and tag.....the tag was gone!

.......so in just 50' I have dropped the tag.  I begin to search the floor in the area where I was standing to plug in the walkie talkies, but I do not see the tag.  I begin removing things from around the bicycles stowed there, and still do not see the tag......

 
.....a slight bit of panic ensues, but I keep looking, convinced I will find it in no time.  TLE and I scour the ground between the Newell and trailer.  I go over every square inch of the Newell salon.  We go back outside and repeat the ground search, then back in the trailer.  We repeat this process too many times to count.  Over 2 hours elapses and still no tag.  Finally I decide to distract myself by proceeding with the other "had to's".  I pull off the 10 tire covers, fold them, and take them into the trailer to stow in the spare tire well.  As I bend over to pull up the well door I look to the right, and what do I see?

.....the 2020 license tag lying on the floor behind the tire of my Cannondale Bad Boy on the opposite side of the trailer (where the left rear arrow is in the picture above.  How on earth did it fall from my hand, travel 6 feet and land on the floor there......I have no earthly idea.  I let out a whoop, and TLE came running....I showed her where the tag was and we both began to laugh uncontrollably.....the thought of having to go back into town and get another tag was humiliating, so what a relief to find it after a 2 hour search.  I quickly picked up the tag, proceeded to the back of the Newell, and installed the new 2020 tag before something else happened.....

.....I had hoped to be finished with my "to do's" by early afternoon, however that 2 hour delay pushed my finishing time back to 4 pm.  Once I had finished the other "to do's" I took off my Keen work shoes, which are completely, and totally worn out, walked over to the dumpster, opened the lid, and dropped them inside.....they are done in the most literal sense of the word!

 All that remained of our final day at RORVR was to meet our co-workers, and friends at El Michoacan in town for a goodbye dinner.....

......as always, the food was exquisite, and the company even better.

As I sit here at my laptop Saturday morning there is a strong feeling of enuei mixed in liberally with the joy and excitement of the beginning of a new adventure....thank you so much for stopping by!

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Then there was one.......

6:40 am - Friday - January 24th - Ramona, CA - 38° F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM......a few clouds today with a forecast high of 72° F.

Just when you think things will never change the truck arrived Thursday morning that would haul away the CONEX that has been in our storage yard since before we arrived in April.  The electrical contractors finished their work back in November, and we were told the CONEX would be hauled away in late November, or early December.  At any rate it is now gone....

 More storage space to rent now

.....once the CONEX was loaded I headed down to do the pool chores, then down to the office to pickup TLE and head to hole #9 at the golf course to finish gluing down the last three pieces of artificial turf....

  C'est Fini.....it is finished

.....it took us less than an hour to finish the job.  I wish we had time and materials for another hole now that we know what we are doing!

After that I was out of things to do for the day so I worked on a short video revisiting some of the projects I worked upon the past 9 months.....enjoy.......

RORVR projects review

.......once the video was a wrap I picked up TLE at 2 pm, and we both headed home to do some more prep work for our departure on Saturday morning.  The trailer is ready for VW insertion Saturday morning.  All that remains is to move the remaining unstowed stuff to the front of the trailer, and then haul our folded artificial turf inside......

Haven't opened the back of the trailer since April 25th

......after finishing with the trailer TLE and I hauled the turf out from under the awning, flipped it over to get the underside dry before insertion, then I cleaned the front windshield, mirrors, and side windows of the cab area, the moved to the back of the Newell to clean it.  I was wiping off the license plate when I suddenly realized I did not have my 2020 tags.  I could have sworn, and actually did, that I had paid the registration renewal.  I usually install the tags as soon as I receive them.  I could not even find the renewal notice which I usually keep in my letter holder until the tags arrive.  I began to doubt I had paid the renewal which was due 11/2/2019.....almost 3 months ago.  I'm thinking I'm going to have to pay a big penalty to get the new tags.  I check to see if there are any auto registration renewal places in Ramona so I can get this taken care of post haste, and find Alice's Vehicle Registration on Main Street in Ramona....about 6 miles away.  It is only 3:30 pm at this time so they are still open.....I grab my wallet, jump in VW and head into town.  I hand over last year's registration to the nice lady who in just seconds informs me I did pay the renewal back in October.....whew....no big penalty.  Since I never got the renewal tag I had to pay $20 for a new one....minor inconvenience, right?!  I was back in the VW headed back to RORVR where I arrived shortly after 4 pm.  So happy I chose to clean the rear of the Newell when I did, otherwise I would be driving on Saturday with expired tags.

Within 50 minutes the sun had set on our final Thursday living and working at RORVR.....just one more day, Friday, until we roll our wheels to the new, and unexpected.

Thanks for stopping by!

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The long goodbye.......

6:38 am - Thursday - January 23rd - Ramona, CA - 37° F, 93% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear, chilly.....forecast high for today is 74° F......ahhhh....back in the 70's!

As I have been driving around RORVR during the last few days doing my 'long goodbye tour' I see so many things upon which I have spent time working.....the split rail fencing renewal project, the horseshoe pits, the mini golf course, the creek path and bench, the pond path and bench, the 4 pond benches, the pool and playground areas, the area surrounding the Red Barn, the new Jacuzzi cover, the organizing of the tool shed, the 'backyard', the maintenance building, the cleaning of the two pump houses, and so many other things.  All that I see gives me a great deal of satisfaction, and reminds me why I have enjoyed working here so much.  The project which gives me the most pride and sense of accomplishment was the renewal of the split rail fencing which runs along the southern side of the park for just under a 1/4 mile.  

When we roll our wheels Saturday morning we will have been here at RORVR exactly 9 months.  We leave with smiles upon our faces....no regrets, and under good terms with the managers and owners.  We would have loved to finish our our term here through the end of March, but life is about the unexpected, about change, about what is next.  Life is about how you react to the unexpected, the change.  We are vagabonds at heart, and we have wheels on our home.....we expect change, and we look forward to the occasional visits Miss Serendipity pays us.....she has never disappointed.

I spent time Wednesday finishing the painting of the bunk beds in Cabin #65, and did some touch up on the bunk beds in #34, and #64, and then some more time up at the mini golf course doing some measuring on hole #5 to see if we have enough carpet left to replace the old....we don't.  Hole #9 should be dry enough Thursday to finish the last three carpet pieces, and then we are pretty much done here at RORVR.  Friday is our short day, and I'm pretty sure I will spend most of my time reminiscing, and saying good by to friends.

Near the end of my shift Wednesday I took down our popup dinning canopy, and the rope lights adoring it, I threw away a few more things from the trailer, and then opened up the spare tire well in the trailer and pulled everything out I have been storing there......there were things I forgot I possessed, and a few things, which I could not understand why I still had, made their way to the dumpster.  I think there were three flat screen TV bases in there from TV's that we have had mounted in the salon (we are on our 4th flat screen TV in 12 years), but have been gone for a long time now....no point in keeping them, right?

At last TLE arrived home from the office, and we headed inside for the evening as the late afternoon temps plunged once again.  We are almost ready to roll.....just a hand full of things left to put away before Saturday morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

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And then there were 3......

6:24 am - Wednesday - January 22nd - Ramona, CA - 45° F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM......cloudy, cool today with a forecast high of 63° F.

This will be a short post as pretty much nothing happened Tuesday.  I used the Kubota front loader with the forks attachment to move a very old picnic table from Cabin #124 to the storage area to be dismantled, and then deliver a newer one to that site.  The rest of the day I worked on prepping and painting the bunk bed ladder in Cabin #65.  I spent time with Alika showing him how to take care of the horseshoe pits.

Around 2:30 pm I knocked off and spent the rest of my shift putting the finishing touches on the interior of the trailer, and by 4 pm had gone as far as I could go.  All that remains now is to take down our patio lights, fold up the popup dinning canopy, fold up the artificial turf and stow it in the trailer prior to VW insertion, put away the water and sewer hoses, and stow the window and patio awnings.

It was cold and drizzly most of the day, and I never took off my hooded sweatshirt, and even though the drizzling did stop later in the day, everything was quite wet as the sun set.  I'm hoping things will dry out enough by Thursday so TLE and I can finish the last part of Hole #9 at the mini golf course.

And that my friends is the sum total of our Tuesday.  My mind is still going 100 miles an hour regarding our impending repositioning north to the Rancho Cucamonga area for 9 days, and then out to the desert for the month of February.  Just 3 days until we roll our wheels!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Making a dent.....

6:52 am - Tuesday - January 21st - Ramona, CA - 48° F, 96% humidity, wind - CALM.....cloudy, rainy, cool.....forecast high today is 55° F.

I hadn't vacuumed, or swept the pool in about 5 weeks, so Monday seemed like a good day to do so.....it would be the last time I would do those two things to the RORVR pool, so I took my time.  Over the past 5 weeks we have had multiple wind events, and while I removed as many of the big leaves as possible from the pool, it is more efficient to vacuum the bottom to get all the smaller leaves, and wind blown debris.  Due to some issues with the vacuum hose I kept losing suction, but after several efforts to figure out why I discovered the place where the two hoses couple together  was loose, and was sucking in air unless it was completely submerged.  The air would cause the pumps to surge, and I would lose suction.  Once I rectified that issue the vacuuming proceeded with  ease, but in all it took me right up to lunch to finish the pool.

In the afternoon I raked the horseshoe pits, blew leaves off the mini golf holes, and checked on hole #9.....the glue has cured nicely, and I hope I can return to finish gluing the last three piece of carpet once they dry out once again from our overnight rain Monday evening.  Rich gave me permission....actually he insisted......I use part of my afternoon to continue organizing the interior of the trailer, so around 2:30 pm I headed home and set about to do just that.....

 All three bicycles are stowed away.....my new Haibike now resides where our Cannondale Tandem used to be

 The table with my tools on top has been put away, as well as the Black & Decker Workmate bench 

The rear of the trailer still needs some work!

......by 4:30 pm I had made a pretty good dent in what needs to be done, but now my attentions will turn to the stuff at the rear of the trailer which needs to be put somewhere.....where I don't know right now, but somewhere!

TLE was home at 5 pm just as I was getting out of the shower.  I feel good about where I am at with the trailer, and I should be able to finish organizing it by Wednesday, or Thursday at which time I will begin to take down our decorative yard lights, as well as the popup that shields our picnic table from the sun, and rain.

Thanks for stopping by!

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And it begins......

6:31 am - Monday - January 20th - Ramona, CA - 44° F, 82% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east.....clear, cool......forecast high for today is 62° F.

It has been 9 months since our 1982 Newell has been outside the boundaries of RORVR.  During all that time I have only rolled her wheels twice.  Once to drive 1/4 mile down to the propane station back in August, and then back to our temporary site where we resided until site #72 had been properly leveled.  When we moved back to site #72 in mid October I thought she would not move gain until the end of March, 2020....a full 11 months after she first entered the friendly confines of RORVR.  I thought I would not be thinking about rolling her wheels until then, and that it was just a matter of playing out the string and then beginning to pack up in mid to late March.  Now, in just a matter of a few days duration all that has changed and I am in full pack up mode.   My mind races on endlessly without rest thinking about all the things which must be done before we roll our wheels the morning of January 25th.

To begin the packing up adventure I retrieved the Kubota front loader, drove up to the storage area to hook up our 2007 American trailer, and tow it down to site #73 where it will sit for less than a week while I organize the interior in advance of Beetle insertion Saturday morning.  When I moved our trailer last weekend it was the first time its wheels had rolled in almost 9 months, and I was sure it would not move again until late March.  

My 'garage' is back where it belongs

While all this was going on the first NFL Championship game between the Tennessee Titans vs. the Kansas City Chiefs was in progress, so once again, for the first time in almost 9 months I hooked up the wireless TV signal transmitters and turned on the trailer TV so I could watch the game while I worked.  When the trailer was up in the storage area it was way outside the limited range of the transmitter, but now it is less than 20 feet.  

About mid afternoon, during the second NFL Championship game between the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers, TLE and I began to take down our lido deck.....we pulled down our sun screens, folded up the table the Sea-B-Que sits upon, put away the Sea-B-Que, and BBQ paraphernalia, and put away the chairs and propane fire pit.  Our little 'lido deck' paradise is now open to the elements, and no longer private........

No more 'lido deck'

......while the Titans vs. Chiefs game was close in the first half, the Chiefs took over the game in the second half and won going away.  The second game between the Packers and 49ers was never close, and the 49ers won easily 37-20.

So, my first day of putting things away, and organizing the trailer is in the books, and my mind continues to race along.  Once we begin our journey in the Newell this coming Saturday down Highway 78 to I-15 northbound my mind will slow down, and I will once again turn to TLE and say "It's good to be moving again...." to which she will retort....."Yeah...".

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