Time trippin'

Saturday was the day we would take a tour of our old college campus located near the intersection of Orange Grove and Colorado Boulevards in Pasadena.  Late in the 19th century and moving into the early 20th century the area where our small church college eventually was located was called 'Millionaires Row'.  By mid century many of these large mansions had fallen into disrepair and our church began to buy up the properties to form the Ambassador College campus.  While the college no longer exists, the property has been sold to another church group which is utilizing a large part of the original campus for a Christian high school called Marantha.  Here are a few pictures that I think will convey the original grandeur of the campus....

'Lower Garden' where graduations were held (TLE & her sister Phyllis)

 One of the former mansions we called 'Mayfair', which was utilized as a dormitory by our college.

 The 'quad' area

The student center kitchen where TLE toiled her freshman year

The food service staff at Marantha H.S. provided us with a lovely lunch in the dining area of the student center where as young adults we spent many hours many years ago.  It was comforting to see that Marantha is going to great lengths to preserve many of the structures and features of the old Ambassador College Campus.

The old Huet C. Merritt Mansion that was called 'Ambassador Hall'.  My first summer home from the Texas campus I worked on the grounds around this building.

 The planter where I would store my sack lunch until lunch time each day

My first summer home from the Texas campus I worked on the 'landscape crew', and I was assigned to work around 'Ambassador Hall' (shown in the three pictures above) weeding the dichondra lawn.  It was the kind of lawn that looked great in pictures, and from a distance, but required a lot of labor to keep it looking good.....not very practical, but very beautiful.  It was during that summer of 1968 that I developed a friendship with the Lovely Elaine, which blossomed over the years, and the rest is history.

Later in the afternoon I made contact with my brother, Dwyer, who was in town for a few days and made arrangements to meet he and my sister Jill at Congregation Ale House just a half mile from the hotel.  TLE, Phyllis and I walked the half mile over to the ale house about 10 minutes arriving there just after Dwyer had arrived, and Jill arrived about 30 minutes later.  They have a wonderful selection of their own brews, as well as other local brews.  I had their Cocoa Porter for starters, and then had a pint of their Dark of the Covenant Stout, to go along with a basket of their tacos....both were excellent, and is mute testimony to why they get a 4 star rating on Yelp.  It was the perfect venue for our family get together.  We had a wonderful 2 hours of talking and laughing before heading back to the hotel for the evening.

Thanks for stopping by!

Remembering

 Friday was the first official day of TLE's college reunion, and it was a day of moving from one hug, one conversation to another.  We ventured downstairs from our 5th floor room in the Hilton about 9 am to find something to eat before registering at 10 am, but found they had already opened registration, so we all grabbed a cup of coffee at the Starbucks kiosk, and the mingling began.  You may be wondering how I might know so many people from the school where TLE went to college, so I would imagine some explanation is in order....

TLE and I belonged to the same church when we were young.  That church had 3 college campuses.....Bricketwood, England (two hours outside London), Pasadena, CA and Big Sandy, TX (near Tyler, TX).  Even though I grew up in Pasadena I attended the Texas campus of the church college.  TLE, who was from Miami, FL attended school at the Pasadena campus.  Since I was from Pasadena I knew a lot of the people she went to school with, and it was through those mutual acquaintances that we eventually met when I returned from Texas that first summer after my freshman year. So, there you have it....even though we have not belonged to that church since the late 70's we would never have met if not for the fact our parents belonged to the same church, although at opposite ends of the country.

By 3 pm I was 'talked' out for a while.......I have found when I go to these things that I  have to pace yourself, or my voice will be gone by the end of the first day......so I went upstairs for a break while TLE and her sister went shopping.

There really isn't a lot else to relate as the memories and people would have no meaning to most of you.  Those who have known me for a few decades know my history, and would probably know some of the same people.  The one thing I will say is there is something sweet about being able to renew friendships that were forged during a very formative period of my life.  The connections are still there after all these decades, and even though we have all gone our ways professionally and religiously we still have that connection.

There was a welcoming banquet at 7 pm Friday that we attended which lasted until after 9 pm, and by then we were all pretty talked out, so we headed back to our room for the evening.  There are two more days of festivities to come......

Thanks for stopping by!

Reuniting

Thursday it was time to move on to Pasadena for TLE's college reunion.  Of course you always want to look your best so she had made a hair appointment with Amanda at Forte in Claremont, CA for 10 am.  Amanda has been a best friend of Sharon (our daughter who was just married) since they were wee little tykes and has become a very good hair stylist.  Whenever we are 'in town' TLE has her shape up her coif.  

We got there a little early so we dropped into the Starbucks just a half block away for some coffee and bagels before TLE's appointment.   Within an hour we were hugging Amanda goodbye and heading for the gas station to fuel up the VW one more time, then waiting for a call from TLE's sister, Phyllis, who was flying into Ontario International for the same reunion......around 11:45 we got the call that she had landed and zipped over to the airport to retrieve her.

The drive into Pasadena took less than an hour.....traffic at Noon is not too bad.....and we arrived at the Pasadena Hilton around 12:45.  Ironically, the Pasadena Hilton (Los Robles and Cordova) was where TLE and I spent our wedding night about forty-three and a half years ago.  This is our first time back since then.

Around 5:30 pm TLE's other sister, Laureen, and her husband, Glenn, arrived for the reunion, and we all headed off walking down Green Street to Dog Haus Biergarten, which was recommended by my oldest daughter, Meredith.  Since we were so close to where my brother Philip lives I called him and got he and his wife, Jeannie, to meet us there for dinner.  By the way, this place gets 4.5 stars on over 1,500 reviews on Yelp, and that rating is richly deserved.  Their main fare is hotdogs, and they are amazing, but they also have hamburgers that are equally amazing.  I had the 'Old Town Dog' (bacon wrapped dog, caramelized onions, roasted jalapenos, chipolte mayo, and cotija cheese)  and TLE and Phyllis split the Kung Poa Cajun sausage dog (cajun andouille, kung pao sauce, bell peppers, green onions, water chestnuts, and peanuts).  My 'dog' was amazing, but the heat provided by the roasted jalapenos lit my mouth of fire so it took two pints to get it down (:-)....they have several craft beers on tap and we had the 'Nitro' Coffee Stout.

Left side: moi, Philip, Jeannie

Right side: Phyllis, TLE, Laureen, Glenn

We had a great time sitting outside, which, by the way, is nicely heated, although the temperatures on this evening were quite pleasant outside.  The walk to and fro was about 1/2 mile each way from the hotel.  In fact, there are literally dozens of good restaurants in the Old Town Pasadena area near the hotel which are within walking distance!

So, our first day in Pasadena is in the books, and the main festivities of the reunion begin Friday.....for me the best part is already happening....spending time with family.

Thanks for stopping by!

'Runaround Sue'

Wednesday was a day for running around.......but, first there was a little matter of morning nourishment.  Our first stop was Simple Simon's Bakery & Bistro in the 'mall' next to the Mission Inn.  Simple Simon's has been a favorite of ours ever since we began to live full time in the Newell four years ago.  Whenever we are in town we must visit there at least one time.......and one cup of their amazing coffee is simply not sufficient.  They bake everything on premises, and personally I like their bagels.....TLE usually gets a scone.

The next stop on our list of many, many stops this day was the local car wash......our poor Beetle hasn't had a proper washing since early November when we first arrived in Sparks, NV to work at Amazon.  She has been mostly outdoors during that time in pretty harsh environments, and really needed that $20 spa date at Main Street Car Wash......

Then it was my turn.....my last haircut was just before Sharon's wedding, and it was really only a trim, so I was getting pretty shaggy.....10 am was the perfect time to arrive at Supercuts.....I was able to walk right in and sit in the stylist's chair.  While I got my ears lowered TLE went across the street to the Goodwill to browse....by the time I got there she had found a couple pair of shorts.....you can never have too many pairs of shorts.....seriously....I know.

Then it was off to the bank to deposit our just received IRS refund for 2013......I had indicated on my tax return that the refund should be direct deposited, but for some reason they chose to mail it.  My bank will not let me scan tax refund checks in remotely and deposit them, so thankfully we got the check when we were near our bank!  On a side note, has anyone else noticed that the IRS seems even more inefficient these past few years than they usually are?  I've gotten mail from them the past two years asking for information that was clearly provided in my original tax return.  Of course, our mail is always chasing us, so responding to them each time to point out they already had the information they were requesting took longer than it would have had we been in a fixed location, thereby delaying our refunds.

Next up was Trader Joe's to resupply our wine and scotch inventories, and then it was over to the Ontario Mills to visit my watch maker guy to get new batteries in one of my Seiko watches, and one of TLE's.  I also needed to leave one of my Seiko Automatic watches to be cleaned and serviced.

I have been looking for one of my favorite beers (Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout) ever since we left Cape Blanco and was hoping the local BevMo (Beverages and More) in Rancho Cucamonga might have it, and SCORE!  They had just 3 bottles in stock so I cleaned them out.  

And then, since we were soooo close to my son's (Chris) office we stopped in to see him one more time and get a couple more hugs, and then headed up to another favorite spot of ours......Rubio's for another fix of their amazing fish tacos before visiting one of our favorite Goodwill stores just a few blocks away.  I rarely ever leave this store without finding one, or two things I can't live without.  In this case I found a nice rain jacket (it will be raining this weekend, and I forgot to bring something somewhat waterproof) for $4.99, and another gray t-shirt.  TLE found another sleeveless blouse.

By the time we finished at Goodwill it was closing in on 3 pm and time to head for the barn.....SoCal traffic begins to get dicey after 2 pm, so we were pushing our luck.  By the time we hit HWY 60 there was an accident that backed up traffic for two miles, but finally we got passed that and were back to Kate's home by 3:30.

We were joined by three of our children (Tim, Sharon and Meredith) for dinner at Kate's, and as usual, there were at least 4 conversations going on at all times.  Our brief two day reunion with our kids is fast coming to an end, and Thursday we will be heading into Pasadena for TLE's reunion festivities.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rewind...

We've been gone from SoCal for just over a month as of Tuesday, and it was time to return, if only for a week.  The RV park where we resided the past two days has two storage areas, and one of them (the one just a few hundred yards from our site) has 30 amp electrical hookups available.  As you know we do have solar panels, but the next 8 days will have a lot of cloudiness and rain in the Cottonwood/Camp Verde region, so since we were not going to shut the coach down (empty and turn off the fridge, etc.) the odds were the batteries would be not be at 100% when we returned.  The only way to guaranty our batteries would be close to 100% would be to shut everything down, and completely isolate all four batteries.  We have four switches that can be turned off to accomplish just that.  However, for $37 we were able to plug the coach in for 8 days while we are gone, and leave the DVR on so when we return we will have a fridge full of food, fully charged batteries, and all of our favorite shows recorded.

After the deluge of the prior 36 hours we had mostly clear blue skies Tuesday morning with a little snow showing itself on the nearby mountains.

We had the coach and trailer tucked away in the storage yard by 9:50 am, and were on our way back to SoCal for TLE's college reunion.  The 399 mile drive was completely uneventful, and even with the time change we arrived in Riverside just after 3:30 pm.  TLE and I took turns driving 100 miles at a time to break up the drive....in all we stopped three times to use the restroom (we're old and drink too much coffee), once for fuel where we also had lunch.

Since the reunion does not start until Friday we will be spending a couple of days at my daughter's home in Riverside before continuing on to Pasadena on Thursday afternoon.  Of course, this gives us an opportunity to see all of our kids, and get a bunch more hugs and kisses thrown in for good measure.

We managed to get all five kids, their significant others (as the case may be), and a couple of grandkids to all meet at Tio's Tacos on Mission Inn Ave. in Riverside at 6:30.  Most of their seating is outdoors (the indoors just has a few booths that would only seat 4 each) and we had a party of 14 so we ate outside on the patio.  I was concerned that it might be too cool outside, but this is SoCal, right?  It ended up being just fine until about 8 pm when it began to cool off quickly so we bid adieu to all, involving many more hugs, and headed for home .

La Familia

As I look at this picture I am struck by the fact that without Elaine and I the rest of this picture of all these happy people would not exist.  Our hearts are full, our smiles are large, and we know we are blessed beyond measure.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ride Captain Ride....

 We spent Monday riding out the rain which came in waves all day long and into the early evening.  The forecasters were correct, and we were correct to move to our present location.  There is no doubt in my mind that those who stayed up on the red clay and tried to leave yesterday, or will be trying to leave today will be in one muddy mess.

One thing I was remiss in not reporting a couple of days ago I will report now......a few days ago TLE began to complain of a 'smell' in the kitchen area....personally I wasn't picking up on a 'smell'......she thought it was the fridge so she put a bowl of baking soda in to absorb the 'smell'.  Then she began to think that maybe we were getting the 'smell' from the gray tank, or that something was leaking under the kitchen sink.  I was still not picking up on the 'smell', but suggested pouring some dish soap down each drain (bath, shower, and kitchen sink) and then flushing it into the gray tank with super hot water to attack the mystery 'smell' that I was still not smelling.  So we did that, but finally by Sunday afternoon I was finally picking up on the 'smell'......so, it only took my sniffer 3 days to smell what TLE was smelling 3 days prior.  

Suddenly it occurred to me that we had left one mouse trap 'active' on the floor under the oven just in case we had missed any mice from our Cape Blanco sojourn.  It was over two months ago that we caught the last mouse, and it didn't seem likely there would be one after so long, but then again we have been 'boondocking' for the past 10 days, so who knows, right?  Well, we got out the flashlight, and pulled the large pan drawer out to see what we could see......what do you know?  In the forgotten mouse trap was a small dead mouse that had obviously been aging for the past 3-4 days!  As soon as it was disposed of the 'smell' began to abate.

Right after the last incident I had put dryer sheets in all the basement areas (water, storage, etc.) and forgot about them.  Dryer sheets to have a life expectancy when it comes to discouraging rodent incursion, so I guess it's time to re-deploy some more dryer sheets pronto!

We spent the day getting ready for our trip to TLE's college reunion in Pasadena.....trying to decide how much 'stuff' to cram into the small VW Beetle.....hmmm....I think TLE is still deciding even as I write.  When we weren't packing we were reading and listening to rain on the roof, and being thankful we had decided to stay here for two nights while the storm passes.

Nothing else to report for Monday.....I'll continue to post about our journey back in time to TLE's reunion.  There will be some people there she has not seen in over 40 years.

Better weather, and fewer neighbors this morning!

Thanks for stopping by!

Being proactive......

Our written in Jello plan had been to stay in our 'boondock' site on NFS land until Monday, then move down the hill into the Thousand Trails RV park overnight to recharge our batteries, dump our tanks, and then put the rig in storage there Tuesday morning while we drive back to SoCal for TLE's college reunion in Pasadena.  However, Mr. Jello saw what we were planning and sent a big rain storm to melt the Jello.  

Where we were parked is all hard as a rock red clay 99% of the time, but add a little water to it and suddenly you have red, sticky, clingy mud.  When we arrived 10 days prior we saw the evidence remaining from the last rain storm of deep furrows dug by RV's trying to move out during, and after the storm, so preferring not to get stuck in the mud, or even deal with the mess of trying to extricate ourselves from it on Monday we moved up our moving date to Sunday afternoon.

Check in time at this Thousand Trails park is Noon, and we were at the gate by 12:05 pm checking in.  At this park they do not assign spots when you call for a reservation....they just guaranty you will have a spot with full hookups that will fit your rig.  We were able to use our Passport America card to get the daily price down to $22 from $44, which gives us full hookups with 30 amp.....we've been living on zero hookups, and zero amps for 10 days, so we're happy with 30....for $4 more per day we could have had 50 amps.  We really haven't had 50 amp service since we left Rancho Jurupa January 21st.

We were in our site and hooked up by 1 pm, and by 2 pm TLE was headed over to the laundry to do a big wash.....I stayed behind to refill the fresh water tank, and dump the black tank, which had only gotten to 2/3's full over the 10 days we were 'boondocking'.  Our batteries were down to 73% Sunday morning which is not really bad after 10 days.  Had we stayed put in our 'boondock' site there is no doubt we would have been running the big generator Sunday and Monday due to the heavy cloud cover and rain to bring the batteries back up.  We still had just under 100 gallons of fresh water left.  So, over all, our first extended 'boondocking' experience was successful.  We lived well within our electrical means, and had enough black tank capacity left to go several more days.  Fresh water wise we could have gone 20 more days easily.

The rain eventually made its appearance around 10 pm Sunday night, and it rained steadily all night long, and is still coming down as I write.  Of course, the one thing you come to appreciate about 'boondocking' is the big, long, uninterrupted view, and not looking out your window and seeing two other RV's within 15 feet of you.....

The rain is supposed to stop this evening, and we will pull out of our site Tuesday morning, put the coach and trailer in storage, and be on our way to SoCal for a week.

Thanks for stopping by!