The day after.....

7:54 am - Sunday - April 7th - Fontana, CA - 54° F, 73% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the west by northwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 86° F.

For the first time since we arrived in Fontana TLE and I took a walk Saturday.  I've been so consumed with completing projects in advance of our travel to Alaska we hadn't taken time to walk.  We left on our walk around 10 am intending to walk out to Sierra Ave. and back....about 4.2 miles round trip.  As we began the walk it was still quite cool, and I was almost wishing I had warn light gloves to compliment the long sleeved flannel shirt I was wearing, but eventually the sun peaked out from behind the clouds making it much more comfortable.  Having the Pacific Electric Trail to ride bikes upon, or to take a walk upon is a wonderful local resource. It is much quieter than walking up and down Arrow Route, or Foothill Blvd.  It took us about 90 minutes to do the round trip walk, and that included a stop at the local Stater Brothers Supermarket on Arrow Route to pick up a few necessities.

I wrote previously (here) that I had ordered new VW taillight lenses off eBay, and by Friday they had both arrived, so I set about removing the old, cracked lenses, and installing the 'new' (new tome) ones.  I've had those taillights out so often recently that the entire job took about 20 minutes beginning to end.  The first time I removed them was back in Southwest Harbor when I had to replace the left brake/taillight bulb (double contact) I had to go on YouTube to find a video on how to remove them.....it is not intuitive.  The new to me lenses have NO cracks in them, and should outlast me.....

 No cracks!

.....from there I moved to the most important task of the day.....dump the black tank.  It had been 9 days since we last dumped, and to be fair, we could have waited another day, or two, but the fuller the tank is the longer it takes to dump, and flush the tank properly.  After the prior dumping debacle (the Shurflo macerator pump crapped out)  I was able to employ the recently purchased and received NEW Seaflo macerator pump to perform the task, and it worked just as it should.  The actual dumping and flushing took about 15 minutes, but deploying, and then putting away all the equipment (hoses, pump, etc.) takes about 25 minutes total.  Looking forward to once again being able to dump directly into a sewer connection via a sewer hose.....much, much faster.

Once I was done dumping the black tank it was time to sit down and cool down a little before taking a much needed hot shower.  The rest of the afternoon we watched a couple of English Premier Soccer matches enjoying the still cool temps knowing full well that Sunday and Monday we will once again experience temps of 86° and 90° F respectively.  Thankfully it will cool back quickly into the 60's and 70's beginning Tuesday.

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A big bowl of Jello......

6:45 am - Saturday - April 6th - Fontana, CA - 53° F, 81% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the east by northeast.....heavy cloud cover with a forecast high to day of 72° F.

Into every life a little Jello must fall.  Sometimes we go weeks, or months without Jello in our lives, but it seems as if 2019 has been one big spoon of Jello after another.  Nothing dramatic, mind you, just a spoonful here and there, and then without warning you are given a really big bowl of Jello.  All I can say is it is a good thing I really like Jello.

As I wrote the other day, I had my first cataract surgery appointment the other day.  Everything went 'according to Hoyle' until the consultation with Dr. Dovich at the end of the appointment.  What I didn't relate to you then I will now.  Apparently the optic nerve in my right eye is larger than the one in my left eye.  That could indicate the beginnings of glaucoma.  One of the causes of glaucoma is high blood pressure.  As you know I had a period of time with untreated high blood pressure which was revealed by my stroke on December 28th, 2017.   Obviously, I've been on blood pressure medication since then.  At any rate Dr. Dovich wants to conduct a couple more tests to determine if I have glaucoma so when they do the operation to insert the new lens they can also perform a procedure to mitigate the damage, if it is indeed caused by glaucoma.  Those tests will be run on April 19th, and then I will meet again with the doctor on April 24th to get my prognosis.  

All that means my cataract surgery will be not scheduled until sometime in the first, or second week of May.  After another 4 weeks of followup appointments we would be into early June, which is when we expected to be in Dawson Creek, BC to begin the ALCAN highway to Alaska.  In order to get to our Denali reservation by July 9th we would pretty much have to drive 170 miles a day, every day until we arrived there.  No stopping to smell the roses along the way.  We want to do the Alaska trip right the first time as who knows if we will ever get back.  After a couple of days of thought and discussion TLE and I made the very hard decision to abort our plans for this summer, and aim for the spring of 2020 to make the trip.  I know, bummer, right?  However, taking care of my health is our primary concern right now.  Jello comes along, so it comes down to how you handle it.

So, what to do this summer?  We have been talking the last 2 years about finding a place to drop our anchor for a year and just work a job.....a job, mind you, that we would find fun, and a job working with good people.  A job that would pay decent money, and enable us to become more financially secure, and build up our savings.  Another plus would be our proximity to our children, grand children and great grand children for the next year.  The grands are growing so fast, and we have been missing all the changes in their lives.We haven't found that job yet, but there is one which looks promising, and there is the opportunity at the end of the summer to just continue through the fall and winter until next April.  

We found an RV park here in SoCal looking for a host couple for the summer just outside the lovely mountain town of Ramona, CA called Ramona Oaks RV Resort.  We submitted our resumes to the park manager on Thursday morning, and by Friday morning we received a call from the manager offering us jobs.  $11/hour with about 32 hours each per week.  The owners of the park are pretty much hands off, allowing the managers to run the park, and they are very nice people who have been full timing for about 10 years now.  They even worked Amazon in Campbellsville, KY back in 2012, the same year we were there.  We talked a while on the phone, and decided to drive down to Ramona (114 miles each way) to inspect the park, and meet the people with whom we would be working.

Since we were last in SoCal the traffic has become exponentially worse.  It used to be you could drive to Ramona down I-15 in about 2 hours, but with heavier traffic added to a lot of construction it took us closer to 2.5 hours to arrive at Ramona Oaks RV Resort.....

......over the decades we have lived in SoCal we have been to Ramona and the surrounding areas many, many times.  We know the area, and love the vibe of the town.  Ramona Oaks RV Resort is located 5.6 miles north of Ramona on SR-78 at about 2,100' elevation, and is about 17 miles from Julian (we visited there a couple of winters ago), and less than 40 miles from the ocean.  There is a COSTCO, and TJ's in Escondido, just 23 miles down the hill.

We arrived at the park a little after 1 pm, and spent a couple of hours visiting with the managers (Marnie and Rich), and checking out the facilities.    We were quite impressed.....

 Club House

 Catch and release fishing pond

 Very large pool, and a nice Jacuzzi

 A lot of oaks as the name would suggest

Hiking, and mountain bike trails

......amenities include, but are not limited to pool, jacuzzi, club house, miniature golf, volleyball, basketball, horse shoes, playground.  A new water tank is being installed, and the electrical system is being upgraded as I write.  The owners are investing a significant amount of money into infrastructure, which is good to see.

After bidding adieu to Marnie and Rich we headed back into Ramona to have lunch at Packard's Coffee Shop (4 stars on 90+ reviews) to have a couple of panini sandwiches, and some coffee while we discussed our visit.  We haven't been to Ramona in about 12 years, but always stopped in at Packard's for coffee and sometimes a sandwich.  We were so happy they are still open for business. In short we have decided to accept the position at Ramona Oaks, and will move down there sometime after April 25th for the summer, and make a decision by Labor Day if we wish to stay for the fall and winter.  We are very excited, and pleased with how easy this bowl of Jello has been to swallow.  This job was just posted on Workamper.com on Wednesday, the day I got the possible glaucoma news from Dr. Dovich, and within 2 days we had the job.

We didn't leave Ramona until after 3 pm.....bad decision as that is the beginning of rush hour.......it took us a full three hours to get back to the Elks Lodge in Fontana......ugghhh!!!  So, our plans are set, and we both feel at peace about our decision.  Of course, our children and very excited we will be in town for at least 4 more months, and possibly a year.

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Slip, slidin' away....

7:46 am - Friday - April 5th - Fontana, CA - 54° F, 76% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 64° F.

The days are easy, the weather mild, and our time here in SoCal seems to be 'slip slidin' away'......

....hard to believe we have been here for almost three weeks....it seems every time I look up it's Friday again.  But, enough of the maudlin.....what happened Thursday, hmmmm?  In a nutshell, not much.  

It was quite cold first thing, and we had the heater running until about 9 am to take the chill off the interior.  I spent time paying some medical bills, updating our resumes with our last two jobs (Smuggler's Den and Amazon), scanning some paperwork to preserve it digitally, and watching Wednesday's English Premier soccer match between Tottenham and Crystal Palace being played in Tottenham's brand new $1 billion dollar stadium.  Tottenham ultimately won the match 2 - nil breaking a 5 game winless streak, and winning the first game played in their new stadium.

I spent time in the afternoon removing the Shurflo macerator pump which had failed last week, and installing the Seaflo replacement, then testing it to be sure it was working properly.  I will need to dump the black tank Friday, so now I am assured I will be able to do so, without unhooking the Newell and moving it over to the dump station.

Oh yeah, almost forgot.....I also purchased a round trip airline ticket up to Sacramento to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law, and go with them to inspect the 1984 Newell Classic they wish to purchase.  We'll do an inspection, take a test drive, and draw some fluid samples (oil, tranny, and radiator) which they will have tested to determine the current health status of the Detroit Diesel 6v92, the Allison transmission, and the big rear facing radiator.  It will take a couple of days, or more to get the results, and if everything is good they will proceed with the purchase.  Very exciting!

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The eye of the storm......

8:15 am - Wednesday - April 4th - Fontana, CA - 54° F, 84% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the southwest......heavy cloud cover with a forecast high today of 66° F.

Tuesday was the appointment for which I have been waiting for over a year.  I was supposed to have the cataract in my right eye replaced with an artificial lens over a year ago, but the surgery had to be postponed until after October of 2018 due to my stroke in December of 2017.  Since I wanted to have it done at Pacific Eye Institute in Upland, CA I had to wait until we returned to SoCal.  My appointment was for 9:30 am, and it takes about 2 hours from beginning to end.  The process involves measuring the eye, an eye test to see what I can read at distance, and close up with my right eye, an examination by an optometrist, a check for glaucoma, getting both eyes dilated (I hate that) and then a consultation with the surgeon, who in this will be Dr. Dovich.  We were out a little before 11:30 am.  I'll have to return on April 19th for a few more tests, then on April 24 I will have my final consultation with Dr. Dovich and the date for surgery will be set.

From Pacific Eye Institute we headed west on Arrow Route over to Central to pay a visit to 'The Hat', one of the best hot pastrami places on God's green earth.  We eat there at least once every year we visit SoCal, and our proximity to the Upland store could not be ignored.  Since my eyes had been dilated I could not drive.....your eyes are extremely sensitive to light for about 5-6 hours afterwards.  While I sat in the car with my eyes closed (I forgot my sunglasses) TLE picked up our pastrami sandwiches, and we headed home where we arrived around 12:30 pm.  I basically sat in a darkened Newell salon for the next few hours finally venturing out side again around 4:00 pm wearing my sunglasses to apply the gray Rustoleum paint to the LPG tank.  It took about 5 minutes to apply the primer, then I let it dry for 30 minutes, then applied the gray Rustoleum, and let it dry for about 40 minutes before removing all of the masking tape......

Before, just in case you may have forgotten

 Finished painting, now it's time to remove the masking tape

Ready for prime time....

......this is my last painting project on the Newell for a while, and I think it came out way better than I expected.  I may now cross item #5 on my 'to do' list:

5) Repaint the LPG tank with Rustoleum....again not the whole tank, but that which is visible when you open the LPG bay door.

By the time I had removed all the masking tape, and put away everything it was approaching 6 pm.  My eyes were finally back to normal, and I could open the curtains and turn on the lights once again.

For our evening's entertainment we watched a couple of recorded programs ('NCIS: New Orleans', 'Chopped') then watched 'Survivor'......once again we were 'blind sided' along with Eric, who thought he was in control....that's how it always happens.

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Classical Gas.....

7:20 am - Wednesday - April 3rd - Fontana, CA - 54° F, 87% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the southeast......heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 68° F.

Tuesday turned out to be a busy day.  I had received notice Monday afternoon that my new Seaflo macerator pump had been delivered to my son's office, so TLE and I decided to make a run into Rancho Cucamonga to pick it up, and also take another load of 'stuff' to store in his warehouse until our return from Alaska.  The pile in the trailer has been reduced significantly.....

Just a sea kayak and a couple of folding tables, plus the 

artificial turf to take to the warehouse now

....we left for the drive over to the office about 10:45 am arriving there 20 minutes later.  While I retrieved the macerator pump from the office mailbox TLE moved the VW around to the back of the building and began to unload our 'stuff'.   Within a few minutes we had found additional space on our metal shelving for our 'stuff' and we were back in the car crossing the street to the local USPS office to mail some packages: 1) Return the defective Seaflo water pump, 2) Return the TRICO pneumatic wiper core to Rome Truck Parts for refund of my $75 core charge, and 3) Return the 120 volt LED bayonet bulbs I had mistakenly purchased on Amazon.  The new ones have been ordered.  Thank God for the 'Flat Rate Boxes' the USPS provides.  The water pump and TRICO motor would have cost $25 each to send regular mail, but with the Medium size 'Flat Rate Box' it was only $14 per item. Our next stop was DSW Shoes where TLE bought some new sandals using a gift card she received for Christmas......about time, right?  From there we headed home where another project from my 'to do' list awaited my attention:  

5) Repaint the LPG tank with Rustoleum....again not the whole tank, but that which is visible when you open the LPG bay door.

I have been saving this painting job (Liquid Propane Gas bay) for last as I knew it would be the most difficult.  As you can see from the picture below there is a lot of masking to be done.....↴

 That red object in the lower right corner 

is the fuel/water separator

......I first wire brushed all the metal to be painted gray, and then set about masking everything that was not to be painted gray......↴

.....by 4:30 pm I had all the difficult stuff masked, with only the aluminum frame of the bay left.  I decided to leave that for Wednesday.  It will probably take less than 15 minutes to apply the gray paint, while it took about 2 hours to wire brush everything, and apply the masking tape.

Classical Gas by Mason Williams seems some how appropriate

The temp Tuesday was about 10° F cooler than Monday, and it was very welcome.  We began closing windows by 7 pm, whereas we had been leaving all the windows open all night, every night for about a week.

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#7 is done!

8:38 am - Tuesday - April 2nd - Fontana, CA - 60° F, 50% humidity, wind - CALM.....crystal clear blue skies today with a forecast high of 73° F....a big improvement over Monday!

7) Pull the wheels off the trailer, repack the bearings with grease, and check the brake pads.   Yup, cross #7 off the 'to do' list!  This is, for me at 69 years old, a hard, physical job, and I have not had the wheels off the trailer, and the brake drums pulled off for several years.  I do periodically get out the grease gun and add grease to the wheel bearings via the grease zerk on all four wheels, but have not felt the need to pull the wheels and drums off for several years......

Grease zerk

......I carry two 20 ton bottle jacks with me just in case I need to jack up the front, or rear of the coach.  20 tons is a little over kill, but one thing I have learned is over engineer everything when you are dealing with a 15 ton coach (actually weighs in at 29,000 lbs, or 14.5 tons).  There is no penalty for using a 20 ton bottle jack.  I also use one of the 20 ton bottle jacks to jack up the trailer when pulling off the wheels.  

As I pulled off each tire I inspected it for unusual wear, and found none.  I had these Michelin light truck tires installed on the trailer back in the summer of 2015, and they still look brand new.  Prior to that I had been using whatever brand of Chinese trailer tires that was available at the time, and they would never go more than 6-7,000 miles before the tread would begin to separate.    I've got about 20,000 miles on these Michelins and they look wonderful.  I am afraid they may 'age out' before I run the tread off them.......

 The tread is free of unusual wear patterns

......I then pulled off the brake drums and found the brake linings to be around 50% after 6.5 years (I installed new brakes back in December of 2012).  The amount of grease visible on the wheel bearings on each wheels was still quite good after a year, but I added some anyway......

Brake drums, wheels and dust caps reinstalled 

on the passenger side of the trailer

.......I worked on the passenger side trailer wheels in the morning in the shade, but didn't get to the driver side wheels until mid afternoon when the shade had finally enveloped that area.  Thankfully all four tires checked out, as well as all 8 brake shoes, and now the trailer is ready to roll to Alaska!

Four items left on my 'to do' list:

2) Replace the current house water pump with one that provides more PSI, and more GPM (gallons per minute).....it has arrived at my son's office, so I will pick it up Monday.  The current pump will return to it's box to serve as a backup water pump, just as it did for 11 years prior to it being pressed into service in Mississippi.

5) Repaint the LPG tank with Rustoleum....again not the whole tank, but that which is visible when you open the LPG bay door.

6) Thoroughly clean the roof for the first time in a few years.

8) Haul the last, and final load of stuff we are not taking with us to Alaska to my son's office warehouse.....that will be just a few days before we begin our trek north.

We came close to turning on the A/C Monday, but we persevered through the heat of the day.  After finishing the trailer task around 4 pm I sat outside cooling down in the late afternoon breezes, then took a long, hot shower (is there any other kind?).  The restorative powers of a long, hot shower cannot be denied.

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Move along, please.....nothing much happening here....

8:26 am - Monday - April 1st - Fontana, CA - 63° F, 38% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 84° F.

The temp got to 83° F Sunday, but we managed to avoid turning on the A/C.  It looks like we will have a cooling trend for the next 7 days before temps get back into the 80's again.  We are slowly acclimating to the consistently warmer temperatures we have encountered here in SoCal.  A couple of weeks ago we were running the A/C when it got into the high 70's.

I was reviewing the 'to do' list I published about a week ago, and checking off in my mind the items I have completed:

1) Replace drive tip in speedometer signal generator. It apparently broke as we left Tom and Darlene's on the 13th, so I have no speedometer right now......no speedometer, no cruise control. The part is in transit, and I should have it this week.

2) Replace the current house water pump with one that provides more PSI, and more GPM (gallons per minute).....it has arrived at my son's office, so I will pick it up Monday.  The current pump will return to it's box to serve as a backup water pump, just as it did for 11 years prior to it being pressed into service in Mississippi.

3) Replace the TRICO air operated motor which operates my passenger side windshield wiper.  You will recall I was able to get it working again while we were in Wittmann, but when it rained on our way home it would not come on, so time to bite the bullet and get it fixed.  That motor is in transit as I write.

4) Repaint the passenger side chassis battery bay.

5) Repaint the LPG tank with Rustoleum....again not the whole tank, but that which is visible when you open the LPG bay door.

6) Thoroughly clean the roof for the first time in a few years.

7) Pull the wheels off the trailer and repack the bearings with grease, and check the brake pads.

8) Haul the last, and final load of stuff we are not taking with us to Alaska to my son's office warehouse.....that will be just a few days before we begin our trek north.

It appears I have crossed just 3 items off this list, and almost a 4th if not for the non-functioning Seaflo house water pump.  We still have another 4 weeks, and a few days here in SoCal before we head northward, so I have plenty of time to finish the list.

In the morning we watched the final match play rounds for 1st and 2nd, and the consolation round for 3rd and 4th.  Kevin Kisner ultimately won out over Matt Kuchar.  In the afternoon we watched two well played March Madness Elite 8 games pitting #2 Kentucky v. #5 Auburn, and #1 Duke v. #2 Michigan State.  Both games ended in the favorite being defeated.  The Duke v. Michigan State game was decided by 1 point......the closest Elite 8 game every played.  Auburn defeated Kentucky by 6 points in overtime.

I spent time in the morning packaging up three items I am returning: 1) The defective Seaflo water pump, 2) the TRICO core being returned to Rome Truck Parts for refund of the $75 core charge, and 3) 2 LED lights.....I thought I was ordering 12 volt (DC) lights, but they ended up being 120 volt lights (AC).....doh!

We watched a recorded program Sunday evening and were in bed some time after 11 pm.....one more warm day and we are into the cooling trend once again, so we have that going for us.

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