4th verse same as the first....

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8:19 am - Sunday - October 29th - Lone Rock - 49º F, humidity 41%, wind 2 mph out of the west by northwest......clear blue skies!  Forecast high for today is 76º F....yup, another day in paradise!  Charge state at 7:50 am on our fourth morning here at Lone Rock Beach.......89%!

Saturday, our fourth day at Lone Rock Beach, began like all the other days since we arrived......I get up each morning and see that the battery charge state is at 89%, just like very other day.  I know that before 2 pm we will be back at 100%.  The last time we were here (March of 2015) we only had two solar panes providing a total of 300 watts of charging power.  Since then we visited Am Solar in Springfield, OR in October of that same year to have two additional panels installed increasing our charging wattage to 620.  The last time we were here with similar weather conditions it would take almost until sundown to get back to 100%, and sometimes even then we did not make it.  In order to keep our batteries from discharging too far overnight we would employ our small Honda 100 watt generator while watching TV......now we are entering our fourth day of boondocking and have not once had to use a generator.  We just watch as much TV as we wish, and use whatever lighting we wish knowing that we will get back to 100% every single day regardless.

After writing my blog I went outside to sit in the sun and read my book and drink some more coffee for about an hour.....it is so nice to be able to do that again.  When we were here back in 2015 we made a habit of walking out Lone Rock Road to US-89 and back every single day for our exercise.  The out and back distance is just under 4 miles, so it's a good walk if you do it at a good clip.  We headed out to do this walk around 11 am covering 3.8 miles in just over one hour....we averaged about 17 minutes a mile which comes out to about 3.5 mph.....not too bad for the old folks, huh?

The Lone Rock Beach restrooms.....our turn around point

.....that was the most exciting thing we did all day......after a summer of nonstop excitement we're enjoying doing nothing for a change.....within 10 days we will be back working again for the winter, and back into a routine of going to work 5 days per week, but have we ever enjoyed our one month of being mostly by ourselves, waking up with the sun, and doing nothing until 11, or 12 everyday.

Of course, this was Saturday, right?  And on Saturday we have college football, right?  Around 1:30 pm I turned on our 2,000 watt inverter (again no generator), and then turned on the DirecTV DVR/receiver and the TV to watch the Penn State vs. Ohio State game, and what a barn burner it was......Ohio State trailed most the game, sometimes by as many as 18 points, but in the end they prevailed 39-38.  

By the time the game was finished it was after 5 pm and time for our evening happy hour/fire/cigar/music as we watched the sunset one more time.  On this evening I chose Handel's 'Water Music' which seemed so fitting, and TLE agreed........

......just as happens every single clear evening here the setting sun suddenly lights up the horizon in the most startling way, and once again we are treated to a light show for about 10 minutes......

.......by 7 pm the sun had slipped past the western escarpment, Lone Rock Beach was bathed in shadows, and we were beginning to feel the chill of the early evening air, so we headed inside to watch game four of the World Series.  On this night the game was tied 1-1 into the top of the 9th inning.  The Dodgers had been struggling offensively now for the better part of two games, but suddenly their bats came alive and they scored 5 runs to take a 6-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th....this time their ace, Kanley Jansen, pitched well, and the Dodgers won 6-2 evening up the series at two games a piece.  It was a nice way to end Saturday!

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"Love letters in the sand....."

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7:59 am - Saturday - October 28th - Lone Rock - 49º F, humidity 39%, wind 4 mph out of the west.......anecdotal observation.....NO wind at all.  The sun has just risen above the distant escarpment.......

Good morning!

I am really getting into waking up with the sun!  I am really getting into it not being 19º outside when I get up so I can go out and take a sunrise picture without freezing important appendages.  I am really getting into wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops every single day before noon!  I love sitting by the fire each evening looking east to see how the light from the setting sun (behind us) is hitting the sandstone in the distance........

There are 10's of thousands of seashells everywhere you walk

This is the typical size of these seashells

......and I love that while taking a hike along the beach Friday we came across a sign in the sand made of seashells saying "I love you"......I don't know how long ago that was made, but how cool to discover it on a day I'm just loving being  at Lone Rock with TLE!

 TLE!!

Around 12:30 pm when we were done lazing around we decided to take the aforementioned walk along the beach to the west to see how far we could walk.  It was an idyllic day with just enough breeze to take the edge off the sun's heat.  As far as walks go, this was not a long one for us......just 3.2 miles in length, and very, very flat, but it was perfect......

.....we were back 'home' by 2 pm and sitting outside reading for the rest of the afternoon.  At the time of our return I checked the battery monitor again and found we had reached 100% sometime while we were gone, and we still have not had to run either of our generators to put charge into our batteries.  Each morning when I get up I check the charge state and it is always exactly at 89%, even after several hours of TV watching the night before.   By 8:30 the batteries are being charged by the sun, and before 2 we are always back at 100%.

Around 5 pm I moved our chairs back over to the fireplace, lit the fire, lit a cigar, turned on some Vivaldi's 4 Seasons and we watched the light dancing on the distant escarpments once again.......

......around 6 pm I put a filet mignon on the Sea-B-Que and within 14 minutes that 2 inch thick filet was ready for human consumption.....we chased the steak with some Pinot Noir, and enjoyed sides courtesy of TLE consisting of a baked potato and some caramelized onions.  Unfortunately, my Dodgers took the edge of a great day by dropping game 3 of the World Series to the Astros 5-3.....ah well, it's only sports, not real life......life is good!

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Cedar Key - Day # 31 - Exploring

Sunday started out a little foggy (see picture in Saturday's blog entry).  TLE and I were thinking about going into Pat's for breakfast....I really wanted to try another of their omelettes.   I messaged Debby (Bill and Debby's Wild Ride) asking if they were up to riding bikes into town to Pat's and got a pretty quick reply "sure".

We met out front by Bill and Debby's site around 10:30 and began our ride into town bundled against the cold damp air.  Debby set a pretty brisk pace while we all chatted.  Arriving at Pat's it was still a little cold and damp, but we decided to brave the elements and sit outside.  We were rewarded within a few minutes with clearing skies.  We continued talking about travel experiences, favorite places, places we had both visited at different times.  Eventually it was time to mount our two wheel steeds and begin meandering around the back roads of Cedar Key.  We passed by a yard sale and stopped to see what they had....nothing caught my eye, but Debby spied a purple haired Barbie doll disembodied head that she could not leave without.....the price.....25 cents.  I had no idea what she intended to do with just a doll head, but the mystery was quickly resolved.

What is Debby pointing to at the top of her bike flag pole?

OH NO! Poor Barbie!

From the yard sale we rode over to the long boardwalk next to the local cemetery that takes you out over the wetlands and along the water for quite a distance, and bikes are allowed!

From there Debby took us to another cool boardwalk that is way off the beaten path, and apparently, if you don't know about it you would never know it was there.  It's not even a place you might stumble across....it is just not obvious as you roll by.

Now this boardwalk was only meant for walking on, and in one spot it was a little sketchy, but we all made it out to the end and back without mishap, although Debby came close to sliding off the sketchy part on the walk back to dry land.

All told we rode just under 8 miles, and had a fun time see some more things we hadn't seen before.  I think we arrived back around 1 pm, but don't quote me on that.  I did not look at my watch, so it could easily have been earlier, or later.

Upon our return I found a message from Pat Bonish wondering if I would consider bringing back to life his GT STS-l full suspension carbon fiber frame mountain bike.  In a prior life he was an avid mountain biker (similar to moi), and rode several times a week, but since he has landed here in Cedar Key has not had the time to ride (there is a certain lack of mountain terrain to explore here in Cedar Key), so the bike has been sitting for a long time.  His bike has "good bones" and I'm looking forward to getting her back into riding condition.  The question is "can I get it done in 8 days?".....well, you'll just have to follow along to find out.

We walked over to the Tiki Bar around 5ish to watch our 31st sunset, and it did not disappoint.

 Well, now we are the short timers......this time next Monday we will be rolling our wheels south from Cedar Key with the memories of wonderful times spent with amazing people tugging at our heart strings.   The wanderlust of the road calls, and it is almost time to change our view again on a regular basis.  The almost 5 weeks we will have spent in Cedar Key has been full of serendipity, and has seen the deepening of existing friendships, and the beginning of others.

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Cedar Key - Day # 4 - aka: New Years Day

It occurred to me that I hadn't taken any pictures of our camp, other than one taken at night of the awning lights, so here are a couple of perspective shots.  The first is taken from the dock looking back at our coach....you can see Chris and Cherie's GM (aka: "Zephyr")  in the foreground.  The second is taken from our coach looking back toward the water.....the dock is hidden by "Zephyr".

New Year's Day......our first ever celebrated on the road, outside California, and here we are a coast away from our home celebrating in a place where the night time low was in the mid 50's, and the high was close to 70....and there was sunshine.....warm, delicious, soothing, healing sunshine.

TLE and I watched a little of the beginning of the Rose Parade, but it just didn't seem the same watching it on a 22" TV.  Eventually we walked over to site #58 to retrieve our love seat folding chair and fireplace (we ended up, at Sam's request, leaving the fireplace for him to clean and return later in the day).  We were the last ones to retrieve our belongings, and with the retrieval of our chair there was no evidence left of the celebration from the night/morning before.

I mentioned in yesterday's entry that TLE had lost one of her prized dangling earrings the day before on our walk back from town.  She had gone back to look for it, but had not found it.  Even though another day had expired, and the odds of finding it diminished, I suggested we walk back and double team it this time....two sets of eyes are much better.   As we strolled along I sensed that TLE was making peace with the loss, but I just had a feeling we would find it.  We had walked almost half way back to town when suddenly a feeling of expectation came over me that we were near the spot where it was lost, and would come upon it in seconds......the thought was still hanging in the air when TLE announced "I found it!"....there it was laying right on the sidewalk where it had fallen with one of it's feathers broken off.  

This is the second time she has lost one of these earrings, and miraculously found it again.  The first time was in a Dallas hotel a couple of years ago.  We were sharing a suite with our in-laws when TLE could not find one of her earrings......she looked everywhere in our room, but could not find it.  Patricia, married to my nephew Richard, upon hearing the news walked directly to the door of their suite, bent down and picked it up.  She said she had an immediate sense of where to find it.....hmmmmm.

Well, we walked home, retrieved my soldering tools from the trailer, got out one of TLE's cutting boards, and with with TLE holding a large magnifying glass over the earring I proceeded to successfully solder the "feather" back to the earring.  My soldering skills have improved a lot since we were in Mesa, AZ last February where my friend Tom McCloud showed me how to do a proper soldering job.....thank you again Tom!

We lazed around the rest of the day.....me watching Bowl games.....the Rose Bowl, which I always watch, was a defensive thriller right down to the last 60 seconds with Sanford making an interception, the only turnover of the game, to seal the win, 17 - 14, over Wisconsin.  An earlier Bowl game between South Carolina and Michigan came right down to the last 16 seconds.

Near the end of the Orange Bowl game (Northern Illinois vs. Florida State) TLE turns to me and says "I love our life".....well, what husband does not want to hear that from his wife after 41 years of marriage, and 11 months of living a nomadic life in a 200 sq ft motorcoach??

That was a perfect ending to the first day of 2013!

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