Grand Salami.......

I woke up Thursday with my cranium feeling like it had doubled in size.......this all due to the head cold I am enduring right now.  On the "I am actually grateful" side I am happy it is not a chest cold like it was the last two times I got sick last year in March and April.  As near as I can tell all three times I got the flu, or a cold I was around people, or groups of people who had a few individuals under the weather at the time......this most recent time my daughter, Sharon, had a sore throat when we were at the party meeting Laila's mother and grand parents.  Those chest colds, or the flu, or whatever they should be called, were brutal.  I was laid out for about a week in each case.....this head cold seems to be running its course pretty quickly.

Anyway, on to the happenings on Thursday......we slept in until almost 9 am....for me probably a result of taking the generic "cold/flu relief" medicine which just knocked me out.  We had a lunch date with my niece, Heather, and her husband Ron, and then a baseball spring training game to attend at Peoria Sports Complex.  Peoria is about a 45 minute drive from Wittmann, so we left about 10:30 with TLE driving.....by this time I was on the "day time" version of the cold/flu relief medicine and didn't feel like driving.

Ron and Heather

Heather is the youngest child of TLE's sister, Phyllis.  We last saw her and Ron in St. Louis on our way to work at Amazon in Campellsville, KY about 18 months ago.....since then they have moved to Arizona, are are loving it!  We met them at their home to take a tour, and then headed over to a local restaurant called, simply, The Place, which Yelp gives a solid 4 stars, and we would both have to agree with that rating.  They serve breakfast all day, and that is what I had......Huevos Rancheros......one of the best I have ever had.

By the time we finished talking and eating it was 20 minutes until game time, so we hopped in our vehicles and drove the 4 blocks to the Peoria Sports Complex.  Our seating (these were free tickets provided by Heather's employer, Target) were for the "Lawn" section......this was actually a nice way to watch the game.  We spread our blankets on the grass just beyond the left field wall and enjoyed a few hours of American's past time.

I look much better than I feel in this picture

As the age old saying goes......"baseball is not over until it's over".....there is no clock counting down......just 9 innings with 3 outs per side per inning.  We were treated to a "grand slam homerun", or "grand salami" in the 5th inning by the Rangers, and then a 3 run blast by the Padres in the bottom of the 9th.....yes, we stayed until the final out was recorded.....the game lasted about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  I enjoyed a bag of roasted peanuts during the game, which kind of took my mind off my stuffy nose, and fat head feeling.  Ultimately the Rangers prevailed 8-4.

Heather had to be at work by 4:30, and it was approaching 4 pm, so we bid our adieus to Ron and Heather, we thought, and then headed over to the local Target to pick up a new hair dryer for TLE.....hers had bit the dust the day before.  Just after we parked we saw Heather walking into the store.  She had a few minutes so she showed us where the hair dryers were as well as a few other items we needed.

As we found the various items we needed Heather would use this program on her phone called "Cartwheel" to scan the item to see if there were any coupons being offered.  When we got the cashier she simply had the cashier scan the bar code provided by Cartwheel, which included all the coupons Heather had found.....very, very cool.....I think we saved between 5 and 10% using that program......thank you very much Heather......TLE will be downloading that program in very short order.

We arrived back home about 5 pm......I slept most the way home, and headed right into the coach to continue my nap.  I skipped dinner which was tacos, chips and salsa, so you know I was not feeling well, right?

I woke up sometime after 6 and watched "For a Few Dollars More".......the "Spaghetti Western" from the 60's starring Clint Eastwood.  There were three movies in this series......"Fist Full of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly".  These westerns were produced and directed by Italians, hence the the nickname.  Over 600 "Spaghetti Westerns" were produced in Europe under this sub-genre.  The three Clint Eastwood films were directed by Sergio Leone, considered to have made the best films included in this western sub-genre.  I remember when I was in college back in the late 60's my good friend, Tom Carrozzo (coincidentally an Italian), suggested we head to the local cinema in a small east Texas town called Gladewater to see all three of these films.....they were hosting a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western marathon that night.  Now, whenever any of these movies is on TV I watch them.

Hope I feel better Friday......thanks for stopping by!

Desert living

Wednesday started out slow, and remained slow.....we lay in bed until after 7:30 listening to the neighborhood roosters announcing to the world the arrival of another day....actually these roosters seem to have no sense of the time......they set off crowing at the oddest times....sometimes in the middle of the night, or the middle of the day, but they always crow at the beginning of a new day.

The gray tank needed dumping after 4 days, so I ran our hose, used explicitly for this one purpose, over to the sewer cleanout just a few yards away and turned on the macerator pump.  Within a few minutes the tank was empty once again.  

We decided to put out the awning mat as we were tracking a lot of sand into the coach, and that helped immediately.  Then TLE put out the pool noodles on the patio awning bars to keep us from banging our heads, or if we do run into them there will be no damage, just embarrassment.   She also deployed our 4 solar yard lights, which always adds a nice touch to our little environment.

I woke up feeling like I was getting a head cold, but kept hoping it was just allergies, but since I really do not get allergies, began to accept the cold hard reality that I will be blowing my nose for a few days........oh how I hope it is only a few days.

TLE and I spent time with Tom in their backyard putting stakes in the ground and using a 100' tape measure to lay out the dimensions of Tom's new "barn" that will be built soon......it will be 70' x 60' in size, and 30 feet tall.....big enough to put a couple of 45' Newells inside with massive amounts of room to spare.

Around noon TLE, Tom and Darlene ran over the local Subway store (just 3.1 miles away) to pick up a sub sandwich for each of us......I stayed home and took a nap.....yep, that cold was starting to set in.  They returned within half an hour, left my Club sandwich, and then took off to go shopping.....supposedly only a 45 minute trip.....but as it turned out they did not return until almost 5 pm.....so glad I stayed home to "lick my wounds".

I took another nap, then began working on cleaning up, and servicing Tom's old bright yellow Schwinn beach cruiser.....it was a nice afternoon project for me, and took my mind off of my head cold, if only for a while.  I had the bike ready to go within a couple of hours, then went back inside the coach for another nap.  I woke up just before the gang arrived back home.

It was decided that we would BBQ hamburgers, so TLE got out the BBQ and set it up in the back yard near the Ramada.

Moi cooking

Sitting down to eat

Another great sunset

I love the gigantic horizon out here in Wittmann.......it is one of the things we love about the desert......plus it is so quiet at night....well, except for occasional outburst by the time ignorant roosters.....:D

Afterwards we spent the evening talking before heading off to bed just before 10 pm......I took some night time cold remedy and slept like the dead until 8:40 this morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

DST a week early

After a full day Monday we went to bed by 9 pm, and didn't get up until almost 7 am Tuesday.  As is typical when we have been in one place for an extended period of time I do not sleep well for 1, or 2 nights prior to departure.  I wake up in the night thinking about everything that needs to be done before we roll our wheels, and typically I imagine it taking much longer than it actually does.  Anyway, by the time I went to bed Monday night I was in need of a sound, uninterrupted sleep, and that is exactly what I received.

Tuesday we only had 138 miles to travel to our destination near Wittmann, AZ where we will spend a couple of weeks visiting dear friends Tom and Darlene.  We first met Tom and Darlene back in 2008 just after we had purchased our Newell.  They, too, were relatively new Newell owners having just renovated the 1990 Newell they had purchased during the past year, or so.  They had been on an extended vacation traveling several thousand miles all over the western U.S. and had stopped in Newport Beach, CA on their way back to Mesa, AZ to visit with Georgia and Michael who own a 1992 Newell.  We knew from reading the Newell forum website that Georgia and Michael were spending the summer in Newport Beach in their coach, and we were anxious to meet some Newell owners so we made a date with them to spend the afternoon one Saturday down in Newport Beach.  The added bonus was that we also met Tom, Darlene and their daughter Heather.  Over the next year we became better acquainted via the Newell forum, then in April of 2009 we traveled to Austin, TX for our first Newell mini-rally.  We made arrangements to travel part of the way home with Tom and Darlene as we were both going to traverse the I-10 corridor back to our respective homes.....home for them being Mesa, AZ at the time, and Ontario, CA for us.

It's always a little bit of a gamble to agree to travel with someone you don't know......you're not sure it your travel styles will mesh, or if you like the same things, etc.....you know what I mean.  I know that Tom and Darlene were a little unsure, too, but they agreed, and as it turned out we meshed quite well.....we over nighted at their home in Mesa on that trip before heading home to Ontario.  Our next travel together was home from our next mini rally in Creede, CO that August.  We stopped at their cabin in northern Arizona on the way home, and had a great time together.  When we first started our nomadic journey two years ago we spent 12 days parked in front of their home in Mesa.....we had planned on staying just 5 days, but had some mechanical issues that needed to be resolved, and Tom graciously helped me with them at night after he got home from work.  Our friendship was cemented during that stay.  If you have been reading our blog for a while you know that we spent 3 weeks traveling with them this summer from Sioux Falls, SD up into Alberta, Canada and then back into Montana, so now that I have established the basis of our friendship I will get on with Tuesday's story.

We crossed over the Colorado River just before 11 am Pacific Standard Time, but suddenly it was almost Noon......we were now in Mountain time.  Effective this Sunday both Arizona and California will be on the same time as California will switch to the farce that is known as "Daylight Savings Time".  At any rate, at least we didn't lose an hour for nothing, and we actually lost the hour almost a week ahead of schedule, but on our own terms.

We were trying to time our arrival in Wittmann to coincide with Tom and Darlene's arrival back from Canada where they attended a funeral.  At one point we had to stop in a little town called Aguila on US 60 to kill some time as we were going to arrive before our friends.....TLE made me a great club sandwich, and then we walked across the street to a browse through a small flea market that was in progress.  Tom and Darlene's new property is located a little off the beaten path, so they wanted to meet us a few blocks out and lead us into the property.  Around 2:40 we arrived at the agreed upon intersection and followed their golf cart along a very nice and smooth dirt road to their property.

Tom fancies himself a pirate, so this pirate flag flies continuously over their property.....I like it!

We were set up in no time......Tom is providing us with 30 amps of electrical power and water.  Their sewer cleanout is less than 50 feet away, so it will be pretty easy to empty our tanks.  The afternoon was spent talking and taking a tour of their new home which they are in the process of remodeling.

Around 5:30 we headed over to a country store called Wells Country Store to order some take out from their Deli.  TLE, Tom and I got two hot dogs each.....Tom and I the Chili Cheese Jalapeno Hot Dogs.......We sat out the backyard under their very cool Ramada watching the sun set, eating, talking and laughing.....in no particular order.

After two days of driving the 300+ miles over to Wittmann I find that I still tire easily, and am glad we will be sitting still for a couple more weeks while my body continues to recover.  TLE and I will begin walking Wednesay to help me increase my endurance, and then do some bike riding later in the week.

It is good to have changed our view, and I know we will enjoy this view a lot over next two weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!

Take that Mr. Jello!

We love it when a plan comes together!  "What?!"  You're thinking.......what about serendipity, and no reservations, and just taking it as it comes?  No one is perfect, and I am the least perfect nomad there may be, but when it comes to vehicle maintenance you have to have a plan.....you cannot just wing it.  The steerer tires on our coach are about 6 years old, and that is right on the edge of being too old for comfort.  Most RV tires are good for 5-7 years, and these tires were right at the end of their life expectancy.  In fact, the right front tire was showing some obvious unusual wear patterns, which in the end caused it to become out of balance.  There was a noticeable wobble at a 45-50 mph, but it disappeared over 50, so I lived with it.  Nevertheless, just after we arrived at RJRP I noticed the wear patterns had reached the critical stage and to drive much further was just "rolling the dice" as they say.

Monday we had a 7:30 am appointment at my mechanic, Joel's Automotive (owned and operated by Joel LeBron) in Upland, CA to have new steerer tires put on our coach, and to replace the defective 8D battery that caused me so much grief a few weeks ago.

We were up by 5:30 and egressing RJRP by 6:35......we waved and honked at Mike and Terrie as they were arriving at the Kiosk to open for the day....it was bitter sweet to say our until next times, but we were so excited about getting on the road again.  TLE was following in the VW.....we didn't see any point in putting it in the trailer, and then taking it out at Joel's so we could run some errands, so we didn't.  

We arrived without incident at Joel's around 7:20, parked on the street, dropped the trailer, and then pulled into his back lot to await our service.  Joel recommended a local diner just half a bloc away called Rabi's, so we hopped in the Bug and headed over for breakfast.....Yelp gives them 4.5 stars, and we would have to agree!  We both chose biscuits and gravy chased with delicious coffee.  Next up we headed down to our bank to make a deposit, then to Stater Brothers to stock up on Snap-E-Tom Tomato Cocktail that I love so much, and then over to Trader's Joe's to stock up on our various adult beverages......they will never be cheaper than California.  We made our last shopping stop at Costco where we stocked up on our favorite French Roast coffee beans (Newhall Coffee Roasting Company).  Not only do their whole beans make great coffee, it is about 1/3 less in cost than Starbuck's French Roast.

By the time we arrived back at Joel's the new steerer tires and the replacement battery had arrived.  Within a few more minutes the new "shoes" were being installed on our baby.

Look at the size of that impact wrench!  I need one of those!

New "shoes"

Everything was done just before Noon, and that was our plan.....we wanted to be on our way southeast by early afternoon, and Joel, bless his heart, delivered big time.  Next it was time to drop the trailer back on the hitch........I supervised while TLE handled the heavy bars that must be attached, then we pulled the VW into the trailer for the first time.  As it turns out the VW is way more than 1 foot shorter than the T-Bird, and several inches narrower.  We can pull the VW in with the bike rack attached and there is plenty of room.  TLE can get in and out of the car much easier, too......of course part of the reason is that she is also much skinnier now than she was a few months ago.

By the time we finished tying down the car it was getting on to 12:30, and I was hungry, so we walked over to one of our favorite eating places on God's green earth....."The Hat" to get a Pastrami Dip sandwich......this is another reason I love going to Joel's Automotive.....they are right across the street from "The Hat".

We got there just between the crowds, and got our order within a couple of minutes, then sat there savoring every bite.  So much pastrami falls from the sandwich as you are eating it that we always take it home and east the rest later......which we did!

We were back at the coach by 1, and on our way!  Finally after over 3 months we are moving again, and of course, once again I turned to The Lovely Elaine and said...."It's good to be moving again", and she, as she always does, replied...."yes it is!".

We cruised east first on HWY 210, then in I-10 through Redlands, Yucaipa, then Palms Springs to Indio where we took a break at the 100 mile mark at the local Travel Centers of America truck stop.....all, and I mean ALL of the Rest Areas between Upland and the California border at Blythe are closed....what is up with that?  The first 100 miles of our renewed nomadic wanderings were in the books, and the drive was wonderful.....the new Firestone 225 x 22.5 tires have really smoothed out our ride, and I love how much better the coach is handling.

Our goal was to reach Mayflower County Park in Blythe, CA......this Riverside County park is right on the Colorado River which forms the border in the area between Arizona an California.  Tuesday we will cross over the river into Mountain Time losing an hour, but it doesn't matter, because we were going to lose that hour to Daylight Savings Time this Sunday anyway.....thankfully Arizona does not participate in farce that is called Daylight Savings Time, otherwise we would have lost 2 hours come this Sunday!

About 50 miles out from Blythe I asked TLE to call the park to be sure they were open, and that there were sites available.  The answers to both questions were "YES".  We arrived without incident 10 minutes before the Kiosk closed at 5 pm, paid for one night and found our site easily.  We were set up (only plugged in), and had the satellite dialed in for TV all before sundown.

We took a short walk around the park, and caught a beautiful sunset....

Yup, we are very happy, and yup, I haven't shaved in a few days

TLE cooked up a wonderful dinner utilizing the left overs from lunch Sunday (some corned beef, pastrami, curly french fries,etc), and from lunch Monday.....WOW!!!  What a great meal.....I'll have go go back on a diet Tuesday to lose a couple of pounds I "found" again over the past few days, but that was a dinner to remember for a long, long time!

It was a wonderful, uneventful travel day filled with all the sights and sounds we love....the sound of the Detroit Diesel purring in the background, the sound of new tires humming along on ashpalt, and the view of the open road stretching out before us.  This is where we belong.....seeking out new adventures, places and people......life is good!

Thank you for stopping by!

Until next times

Sunday continued the "until next time" rounds........first my daughter Meredith dropped by RJRP to visit and to go to our farewell luncheon at Heroes in downtown Riverside.  Just before 2 my son Tim, and my future son-in-law, Nick, showed up to help TLE and I drop the trailer on the hitch.  First I had to back out of our spot, turn around, and then back into the spot.  With TLE's great walkie talkie directions it only took one pass to get the ball under the tongue, and then Tim lowered the tongue jack  on to the hitch ball, and then attached the anti sway bar, and other two heavy duty bars that help distribute the weight more evenly.  Within 15 minutes the trailer was hooked up and we were plugged back in to the power pedestal.

We exchanged "until next time" hugs with Tim and Nick and they were on their way home, and we were on our way to Heroes for a late, late lunch.  We had intended to go to The Salted Pig again, but discovered they do not open until 5 pm on Sundays, and it was only 2:30, so Meredith suggested we head to Heroes.  We agreed, but with a little apprehension......we had been there when we first got back and were very disappointed with their draft beer selection, plus they had no in house offerings.  This time they had their micro brewery up and running and had many great selections......TLE and I chose the Oatmeal Stout, which was just what we hoped for.......a great sipping beer!  I ordered their Caesar Salad with blackened salmon, TLE ordered the house Rueben, and Meredith ordered the Chorizo Burger with fries.  Meredith and I ended up splitting my Caesar and her Chorizo Burger, and it was still WAY, WAY too much food.....for the first time in years I took home a "doggy bag".

We had a great time talking about everything under the sun, which is usually the case with Meredith.  We arrived back home around 4 stuffed to the gills, talked a while before bidding adieu to our daughter.......of course there were a few tears......we assured her this time we would be back before Christmas in the same calendar year.

Around 5:45 we headed over to my oldest son's (Chris) home to say our until next times to Chris, Rochelle and Christopher, as well as our daughter Sharon who dropped by for one more hug.  We spent about an hour and by then I was "out of gas" again, so we had our last family hugs for a while and headed for the barn.

We watched The Amazing Race, and were in bed by 10:30.....Monday will be a very early day for us....we need to be at my mechanic's shop by 7:30 to have the new steerer tires put on, and the new 8D battery installed.

Thanks for stopping by!

Future Family

Before I get too deep into the weeds on what happened Saturday I realized just a few minutes ago that I had not given you my weekly weigh in report......I didn't lose a lot, but I have reached my new low weight on my quest to reach 185.....I came last week at 187.8!  Still a ways to go, and I will probably not hit my goal of 185 before we leave Monday, but I know once I can start exercising again on a regular basis I will make it.

There were a number of small fix it projects at our home in Ontario that I had intended to get to a few weeks ago, however life intervened and they were necessarily postponed.  Saturday was the day to get those done before we leave on Monday.  I didn't feel up to it until Saturday, so I'm glad I had enough time to recuperate and get to the point where I felt up to the task.  I waited most of the morning to hear from my son Tim, who lives there, to let know he was up and ready to assist me.......I received a text message around 10:45 from him that he was ready for me, so I headed over.

I had a mental list of the things that needed fixing based on what my daughter (Meredith) and Tim had related to me when we first got home......I had taken care of the big one, the garage door, the first few days I was home, but there remained a list of somewhat small things that I knew individually should not take much time, but then there is always what we call the "Hockwald Way" meaning a project that should take 10 minutes will almost always take an hour.  I'm sure you "do it yourselfers" know exactly what I am talking about!

First up was to fix one of the hinges on the upstairs hallway linen closet, then fix a towel rack in one of the upstairs bathrooms, then the semi bigger project of fixing the attic fan.....also known as a "whole house fan" (used primarily in the summer time to vent the hot air out of the attic in the early evening to help cool the house down.....helps keeps the A/C electric bill down).  The tiny switch that turns it on and off had broken and needed replacing.  I had done this before, a few years ago, and it only took me 20 minutes.......you know what's coming, right?  Tim and I worked on installing the new switch for almost 3 hours......there were two trips to Home Depot during that time.  Why it took so long is also a long story, but we eventually prevailed, got the switch installed, and moved on to the next task which was to figure out why the upstairs hallway light switch wasn't working......we quickly diagnosed the problem as a bad switch, and were able to replace it within a few minutes.  Finally the last task of the day was in front of me.....fix the door to the master bedroom so that it stays closed.....the latch was not catching properly......that also was very simple and I had it fixed within 5 minutes.

I had intended to replace the door hardware on the entry door, but when we went to remove the old hardware we found we were going to need a "hole saw" to saw a new hole for the dead bolt portion of the new hardware.  The 28 year old hardware configuration is slightly different than what is available today, so that is a project my son, Tim will tackle at a later date.

I got "home" just after 4 pm realizing we needed to leave some time between 5 and 5:30 to go to another dinner....this one was to meet the mother, and grand parents of Tim's girlfriend, Laila (things are getting serious when you are introduced to the parents and grand parents, right?), and also the parents of Kate's boyfriend, Nick (again things are getting serious).  It so happens that Laila's grandmother, Cathy, is Nancy's sister.......Nancy is Nick's mom (Kate's boyfriend), so Laila's mother, Jenn (daughter of Cathy), is Nancy's cousin.......a little complicated, but you get the picture, I'm sure....or maybe not.....lol.   At any rate we spent a wonderful 5 hours getting to know, potentially, Kate's and Tim's future in-laws, and they remind me so much of our family when we get together.  There were multiple conversations going on at all times.  We had a marvelous sit down dinner featuring BBQ chicken, Tri Tip, baked potatoes and roasted veggies.

At the end of our dinner Cathy, Laila's grandmother (who, by the by, does not look like anybody's grandmother), brought out an Italian liqueur called "Pallini Limoncello" for us all to enjoy.  They had discovered it while on a recent family trip to Italy.  Personally, I loved it......but I loved the story behind the discovery even more.

On top of all the fun we were having my grandson, Elijah (Kate's oldest son), celebrates his 11th birthday on Monday, so we sat around watching him open presents, and blowing out the candles on his cake.  

Just after the birthday present opening ceremony Nick (Kate's boyfriend) asked me to go with him outside, so I followed.  He proceeded to look me directly in the eye, and then asked for Kate's hand in marriage....whoa.....I did not see that coming........I have known Nick since he was a young lad (he and Tim have been best friends for years), and I like him a lot........I gladly advised him he and Kate had my blessing......so it looks like another wedding is coming down the pike in the not too distant future.

By about 10:30 I was running on fumes, and it was time to head for the barn.....we said our until next times.  We got "home" just before 11, and were in bed by 11.....that was a long day!

One thing I forgot to mention was that it continued to rain on and off all day long, and into the night.

Thanks for stopping by!

25 and 37

February 28th marked the beginning of our 26th month traveling full time in our Newell, and the 38th month of living full time in her.  You might wonder if anything has changed......have we gotten our fill of fulltiming?  Are we ready to be back in a regular sticks and bricks type of home?  Is our coach starting to feel a little cramped?  It would be more accurate to ask us if we are tired of seeing new things, meeting new people, and changing our view on a regular basis, or are we tired of it feeling like Saturday all the time?  Our answer is a simple, modest....."no". 

Actually the truth is now that we "know" what we are doing we are more excited to be hitting the road this time than 25 months ago........if that is possible.  When we left RJRP 25 months ago we were heading into a lot of unknowns.  I'm not saying we know it all now, but we know enough to be much more comfortable with our lifestyle choice.  Life is full of the unexpected no matter what your living circumstances may be.......we have learned to view the unexpected in a positive way......we now call it serendipity.  Instead of being anxious at the end of a day, and trying to carefully plan out where we will stay each night, we now look forward to what each day, each night will bring, and we are able to "roll with the punches" and adjust our "written in jello" plans on the fly.

I'm sure the rain in some parts of SoCal was as bad as the frantic prophecies of the weather guessers on the local news channels led us to believe, but here in RJRP it was much less dramatic.  It did rain all night Thursday night, and pretty much all day Friday and into early Saturday morning.  The rain was hard for about 30 minutes, but for most of the time it was a steady, gentle rain, which is really what you want after a long dry spell.  It has always been during these times of heavy rainfall we are glad we don't live in the hills, or at the beach.....they almost always get hammered by flash floods, mud flows, heavy surf.

 What it looked like in our corner of the world

The "guess" was that there would be high winds for several hours Friday afternoon, so when the first gusts hit just before Noon we scampered outside into the wind driven rain to stow away the patio awning.......even though I was skeptical about the winds they were predicting, we never take a chance with our awning.....if the guess turns out to be right we could suffer significant damage to that awning.  As it turned out, the high winds never materialized, so we spent some time drying ourselves off, and drying our wet togs in the splendid Spendide dryer.

We pretty much stayed inside all day Friday reading and listening to the rain on the roof, but there was what turned out to be a 30 minute lull in the rain around 10:30 so TLE suggested I should dump the tanks while I had a chance.......hmmmm....while "I" had a chance........well I trust her intuition, and so, therefore, I hopped to and got 'er done......I was barely back inside when the rain came again.  We'll dump one last time Sunday afternoon.....I like to hit the road with empty black and gray tanks, and a full tank of fresh water......you just never know what will come your way,....plan for the worst, hope for the best, and never, ever challenge Lady Serendipity, or Mr. Jello.

As I write the rain has started again......still a steady, gentle rain.....thanks for stopping by!