SD - Day # 11

As promised, I dug the old scale battery  (one of those flat ones that is about the size of a nickle....#2032) out of the trash and re-installed it, and then weighed myself.....same weight....205.5.....I then put the new battery in......same weight....205.5.  Okay.....a temporary blip on my weight loss horizon, but wait, there is more......this morning's weigh in has restored order to the universe......I am down to 203.5!  Maybe I was retaining water?   Lol.....I have no idea, but onward we go!  At any rate, 203.5 is a number I have not seen for close to 2 years.  One thing that has changed the past few days.....I am hungry all the time now.  It's like my body has suddenly figured out I am only feeding it 1300 calories a day instead of the 2,000+ it was getting before.  It has been a long time since I was hungry before a meal.....I mean really hungry.  To compensate TLE has bought a lot of those baby carrots, celery, radishes, etc. for me to snack on, as well as an occasional hard boiled egg.  The extra bulk is helping me "feel" full, but I'm still losing weight, and am still hungry most of the time.....that's a good thing, right?  It has been a long tine since I had a beer.

On a slightly different note, we stopped in at Costco the other day after driving the Mini Cooper that over heated, and bought one of their house brand (Kirkland) single malt 18 year old scotches just to check it out......I have to say we are very impressed.....and at $33 for a quart I would say it compares well with several $70-100 per bottle 18 year old scotches we have tried over the past couple of years.

Sunday we had the iniquitously early Kiosk shift, but it was only from 6:30 to 10:30.....4 hours seems way shorter than 5 hours, especially when there is almost nothing going on, which was how it was Sunday......since we're 10 days past the last trout stocking the number of fishermen coming into the park was greatly diminished.  I had taken my HP Netbook into the Kiosk just in case it was a slow day and began searching for a replacement vehicle in earnest again.  As I mentioned yesterday, we have broadened our vehicle search to include Mini Coopers, VW Beetles (the new version), and Ford Escapes.  Sunday we looked at 3 VW Beetles.....two of them baby blue convertibles, and one gray coupe.  The one below is the one we are very interested in.  I'm going to take it into our mechanic Monday to have it checked out.  We both like it a lot, but until I get the thumbs up from Joel I'm not going to get my hopes up.  This one is just immaculate inside and out!  When we started our search our goal was to get a car that could seat 4 people, and carry our bikes.  The bonus here is that we would still have a convertible.....yay!  We are also able to have a 1.25" receiver installed on the Beetle so we can mount our bike rack.  We've kind of given up on the idea of the Jeep as we would need to double our budget in order to get a decent running, later model Jeep.

2003 VW Beetle Convertible

The sunflower

While I was in the Kiosk I sent a few e-mails and texts to people who had VW's we were interested in, and by Noon we had set all our car viewing appointments.  Our first was at 2:30 over in Mira Loma, the second at 3:30 back in Upland, and the 3rd was in Rancho Cucamonga just a couple of blocks from where my son Chris and his family live.  We were blown away by the condition of the first one, a 2003 VW (above)......I could tell from the pictures on Craigslist that a girl, or woman had been the driver, and I was right......any time you see a sunflower on the dash board of one of these you can be pretty sure there is a feminine touch involved, and more than likely the car will NOT have been driven too hard....the driver of this car is the owner's daughter who drove it gently.

The second VW Beetle in Upland is a gray coupe, and looks good on the outside, but the inside was a little the worse for wear.....it was a turbo with a sunroof, and runs good, but the interior would need some serous detailing.....it is about $1,000 less, but it's not a convertible.  The final VW we saw in Rancho Cucamonga was a 2005, and identical to the first one, but even cleaner if that is possible....also driven by a young girl, and it also had the ubiquitous sunflower on the dashboard.....this one is about $600 more than the 2003, but if I had a choice I would buy that one in a heartbeat.....unfortunately, we are in second position on that one, so unless the guy who left a deposit backs out that one is out of the running, but you just never know what Mr. Jello, or Miss Serendipity may have in mind.

It was a nice afternoon, for a change, of car shopping, and frankly we could see ourselves in anyone of the three VW's.....if the 2003 doesn't check out mechanically we'll move on to the 2001 and have it checked out.  We arrived back in the park just at sunset with smiles on our faces.......we think we are getting near the end of our search, and can begin to focus on other unfinished business, like selling our baby, the T-Bird!

Oh, I forgot to mention that for the first time I rode to the top of Mt. Rubidoux for the second time in just 3 days.....I was riding into a headwind about half the time so my summit time was about 2 minutes above my personal best....from the summit I rode over to the Subway to get my daily foot long sub, and then rode around Fairmont Lake again....total distance ridden was just over 11 miles.

We spent the evening watching the "Survivor" finale.....once again my favorite won.....Tyson....he played the best game, in my opinion, of the three finalists.  Another great day in the books, and many more to come.....God willing, and the river don't rise.

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 10

You'll get a kick out of this......so yesterday morning I get a "low battery" warning on the bathroom scales, so I put in a new battery late in the day.  When I go to weigh myself in this morning it comes up 205.5.....that's one and a half pounds more than yesterday.  So I ask TLE to weigh herself and hers comes up exactly 1.5 pounds more than yesterday.......hmmm....was I losing weight so fast because the battery was getting low?  I ate exactly the same thing as the day before and the day before, etc......how do you gain 1.5 pounds overnight?  I'm going to run an experiment later today.....after we get back from Kiosk duty (yeah, it's one of those iniquitous mornings again) and weigh something static with both batteries and see what happens.

We had Kiosk duty Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm.....I took the first two hours and TLE served the last 2.  I had located a Mini Cooper over in Chino Hills we were interested in so when TLE got home from Kiosk duty we headed over to  Chino Hills to check it out.  We took it on a test drive and all seemed to be going good.....in fact I really liked it......until I began to smell the dreaded coolant smell....we pulled over in a Walgreen parking lot and found coolant dripping on the ground under the engine......not good.  We headed directly back to the owner's home and gave him the bad news.....oh well....on to the next one.....we'll be looking at a 2002 VW Beetle Sunday....like I said, we are broadening our selections a little.....we want something that can seat four reasonably sized people, but is small and sporty to some degree.  Up until the coolant incident I was reminded how much I like driving a Mini Cooper....we drove Chris and Cherie's about 11 months ago while we were in Cedar Key, and loved it!

Meanwhile the wind was pretty bad all day long.....so much so that they were not able to raise the flags at the Kiosk (U.S., California and RivCo flags)....even with two people it was just two windy to get them up.

There was only one notable college football game and that was the annual Army vs. Navy game, which Navy won again for the umpteenth consecutive time in a row.  I spent time looking for cars to go and see, but that was the extent of our day.

We got home from the aborted Mini Cooper test drive around 4:30 and headed indoors for the night....there would be no campfire this night......just too windy.

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 9

If you're only reading today to see if I lost weight Friday the answer is I weighed in this morning (Saturday) and am still at 204.....to be expected.  Nevertheless, I am still enjoying my daily Subway Club.........well, Friday it was a Subway BLT.....same exact calories, but with bacon!  Even better the Subway BLT only costs $5.  Nice get that bacon taste.....I read this little excerpt yesterday:

"New studies show that not only is bacon good for you but foods cooked in bacon grease are healthy and can help raise HDL (good cholesterol) and lower the bad (LDL). Metabolism is also increased as foods are digested giving subjects more energy. A bonus side effect are the endorphins produced when bacon is consumed making the subjects 83% happier than subjects who did not eat bacon. One additional note is that eggs go well with bacon."

I just knew that had to be true.......lol!  Seriously, I know this is probably just a spoof someone put on Facebook, but it made me happy anyway!

About mid morning, after finishing the blog, and doing a little more sorting out of stuff in the trailer I don't need I took my bike ride to the top of Mt. Rubidoux......my previous best time for the 4.5 mile ride to the top was 26 minutes, 35 seconds I believe.....well, Friday was a new personal best when I topped out at 25 minutes 15 seconds!  Instead of heading straight back to RJRP I rode around Fairmont Lake on the way home adding about 1.5 miles to my normal total coming in at just over 10 miles for the ride in 51 minutes.

Another spectacular day at the top of Mt. Rubidoux

We haven't been to the movies in a while, and had wanted to see "Escape Plan" with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenager so we headed over to Moreno Valley to the Regency Theaters......that last place in the area still screening the movie.  There was also a car we wanted to look at near the theater (2005 Ford Escape) so it was a perfect combination.  The car looked good in the pictures, but when we got there the first thing we both noticed was it smelled like an ashtray, and then while I'm processing that the owner says "oh, and if you test drive it you will notice the transmission slips once in a while"......hmmm...that would have been good to disclose in the ad, huh?  Thankfully we were there to see the movie anyway so it wasn't a wasted trip.  That was probably the shortest car inspection we have done....just about 45 seconds from beginning to end!

We had budgeted time to test drive the car, so when the inspection ended in less than a minute we had about 45 minutes to kill so we headed to the local Subway to get my foot long sub (TLE had brought a "cold bag" with an ice pack to keep the half I didn't eat cold until we got home).....that BLT was delicious!

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that this theater only shows previously run moves, and they only charge $2 per person for the matinee....something to keep in mind for any other movies we want to catch up on.....I think we'll go back to see Captain Phillips next week.

There is another Santana wind coming Saturday, so we'll have to batten down the hatches, as it were, again......I was planning to have my coach professionally waxed Saturday, but that's been put off due to the high wind warnings.....last week it was rain that postponed the waxing....this week wind....don't you just love it?

By the time we got home it was dark, and the temperature was dropping so we headed inside for the night.  There was really nothing on TV to watch so TLE spent the evening reading, and I searched for cars.....I'll be looking at a Mini Cooper Saturday afternoon in Chino Hills....yep, we're looking at everything right now....not just Jeeps anymore.

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 8

So, for the daily weigh in report.......(drum roll please).......I am officially down 1 pound to 204 from yesterdays 205!  So far in the 8 days of the Subway diet I have only one day with no weight change, and one day with a 1/2 pound gain, but every other day has seen weight loss.....I am still amazed.  Obviously, this diet is not for everyone, but it sure is working for me.  I was talking with TLE about this, and she believes I'm doing well because I have total control over everything I eat now. Before I was dependent on her for each meal, and there were always seconds available.  I was reading about Jared Fogle and that Subway attributes fully 1/2 of it's growth in the past 10 years or so to the Jared Fogle ads they have been running.....that is amazing.  Every Subway I have been in is always jammed at lunch time, and dinner.   He now has a net worth of $5,000,000......so Subway has apparently rewarded him well.  I'm not planning on any Subway commercials, but it is noteworthy that you don't have to weigh 450 pounds to lose weight eating Subway subs every day, and I guess that is what is so interesting for me about this diet, and I hope others will take heart and give it a try if nothing else has worked.

There are no new vehicles to report on as I took a day off from the "hunt"......TLE and I are rethinking the type of vehicle we are looking for.....haven't given up on the Jeep idea yet, but looking at other options.

Our friends Steve and Candy left Thursday to head back to their sticks and bricks home until after Xmas, then off to Arizona and Lake Havasu for New Years for them, then Quartzite, and into Texas.  TLE and Candy had several long walks together getting caught up on each other's lives over the 4 days they were here, but eventually it was time to say "until next time"....we hope we can hook up with them in Arizona, or Texas later in the Spring.

Until next time Steve and Candy!!

While Steve and Candy were getting ready to leave I started and finished a new lighting project.  I've had two 15' foot spools of outdoor, waterproof LED strip lights that I've stored in the trailer for about 2 years now just waiting for the time, and inspiration to install them under the coach.  It took a little over an hour, but here is the result!  I'm going to install the second strip on the driver's side next week......looks very cool!  Plus it puts a little light on the step and area around the entrance to the coach.

Did some computer work the rest of the afternoon......it always surprises me how fast the time melts away when I'm working on setting up a computer.  I needed to transfer some more data from the old laptop to the new one, and install a new program, plus I was trying to get the scanner to work properly......in the end I was successful, and I actually got it set up to work better with the new computer than with the old.

I stopped by Ace Hardware a couple of days ago and picked up some rope lights and an Xmas stocking to hang on the back of the coach.....starting to look like Christmas for sure!  I think I'll add some more mini lights over the next week, and, of course there must be a tree.....of course.

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 7

Wednesday was the 7th day of the Subway  Diet for me, and as I reported yesterday my weigh in showed another loss of 1.5 pounds......it is inevitable that not every day will see weight loss, and even a day here and there were you go up slightly......this morning, Thursday, I weighed in at 205 even....1/2 pound up from yesterday.

When I left off I was going to take the 1987 Jeep Wrangler YJ (the red one) into my mechanic to be checked over.  TLE and I left to drive into Rancho Cucamonga to pick up the Jeep around 8 am, and arrived at Arnold's place of business around 8:30.  TLE followed me in the 'Bird as I drove the Jeep west to Upland arriving at Joel's Automotive by 9 am.  We were on a tight schedule to get back to Arnold before 11 am as he was going into meetings the rest of the day, and we were so sure this one would check out that after dropping the Jeep off at Joel's we headed down to our bank to get a cashier's check to pay for the car.....by 10 am we had the verdict....NO GO....there was damage to the transmission bell housing, a cracked exhaust header, the distributor was shot, and the brake master cylinder needed replacing.......BUT that wasn't what scuttled the deal.  I was willing to cover the costs of those repairs, plus a bunch of small stuff I could fix myself....the kicker was there were NO....I repeat....NO emissions controls whatsoever.  In order to get it to pass the emissions test I would have to install factory headers, the stock carbuerator, a new ERG valve, the oxygen sensor, and most likely replace the catalytic converter (plus a few other assorted items) at a cost of over $1,500.....and there was no guaranty it would pass then.  If I had just wanted it strictly for off roading I could have gotten a "green" sticker for it allowing me to use it only off road, but that's not what we need.  Sooooo, back to the drawing board again.  The one thing I have is time, and I'm getting to exercise my patience gene.

On the way home we stopped off at the local Subway (they are everywhere in this area by the way) and bought my foot long sub for the day...TLE got the veggie salad.....and we ate there before heading home.

Of course, I dug back into the Craigslist listings for Jeeps again as soon as I got home and found another one to look at just a few miles away.  As it turned out I didn't need to take this one in to be checked out......it was a "dog"....a case where the pictures far exceeded the reality of the vehicle in person.  By the time I returned from that foray I was mentally done for the day with car hunting.....time to "wash" the 'Bird using the waterless system I've been using for several months now.  One thing I have to share that I haven't written about yet.....I'm still in my mourning period....is on Monday while we were cleaning the cabins the wind came up suddenly, and a gust of wind caught the EZ-UP  canopy we had the 'Bird parked under causing it to collapse, resulting in scratches right down to the metal on the roof, the hood, and right front quarter panel.......it hurts to see her damaged like that.  

The lighting wasn't good enough to get pictures of the damage to the hood and quarter panel.....initially I only noticed the damage in the above picture, but yesterday when I was cleaning her off I saw the rest of the damage.   So, before we sell her, we'll need to fix her....sigh.

We spent the evening watching the current episode of "Survivor", and then watched X-Factor (recorded).  It was a nice, relaxing evening......tomorrow the hunt for new transportation begins again.

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 6

Tuesday morning I helped TLE open the Kiosk as the usual, iniquitous 6:30 in the am, and around 9 am, as soon as I was sure it was going to be a quiet mornin,g I headed into Upland to pick up the 1988 Jeep Wrangler YJ to drive over to Joel's Automotive in the same city to have it checked out mechanically.  It was still in the low 40's, so I was glad to find out the heater worked just fine.  I also noticed the gas gauge was reading near empty so decided to stop and put in 9 gallons.....I was so sure it would check out mechanically (why, I don't know), and I would need to fill it up anyway to drive it "home"......plus I wanted to be sure the gauge was working, and found out soon enough it was.  Joel assigned Art, one of his top mechanics, to check the Jeep over, and he did a very, very through job taking almost an hour.  From across the shop I could see him making a lot of notes, which concerned me.....soon Joel was bringing Art over to give me the news......he had a list of 16 things that needed to be fixed.....14 of them minor things I could take care of myself.....the last two, though, were deal killer for me.....number one: The transfer case had NO oil in it.......why, and how long it had no oil in it is a mystery, but the odds are some damage has been done.....number two:  The rear main seal was leaking oil.....assuming the worst, these two items would cost about $1500 to fix.....I'm not looking for a project car, so I drove it back to Jordan's (the owner) home an gave him a copy of the problems, then headed "home".  In the end I unwittingly made a $60 donation to Jordan in form of a full gas tank......it's what I get for challenging Mr. Jello in such a flagrant manner......:D

As soon as I returned "home" I got back on Craigslist to see if any "new" Jeeps had been listed, and almost immediately saw a listing for a 1987 Jeep Wrangler YJ up in Hesperia.....not very close....probably about 45 miles away, up over Cajon Pass.  I called Arnold, the owner, and found out he works in Rancho Cucamonga, and had the Jeep with him as he was going to show it to someone in San Bernardino at 4 pm.  He told me he would call me after 4 to let me know whether it had sold, or not, and if not he would drop by RJRP to let me see it.  Unlike the 1988, this 1987 is complete....there is nothing for me to get to complete it.....it has both bumpers, with a receiver in the rear bumper so I can mount my bike rack...it has a winch, a CB, a new stereo, an alarm system, a relatively new soft top, the door skins, high lift jack, rear seat, new Weber carb, after market headers, off road lights, new seats with 4 point harnesses, etc......and, and.....it will fit in the trailer!

In the interim TLE and I had an optometrist appointment at 3 pm, so we headed back to Rancho Cucamonga around 2:20......I found out I have the beginnings of a cataract in my left eye......not too surprising as I had noticed a change in my vision in that eye going back about 6 months.....plus my mother had cataracts (fixed a few years ago), and my grandfather on my father's side had them as I recall.  Nothing to do right now, but I will have surgery in my future at some point.  In the interim he gave me a new prescription for new glasses, so I will be getting those in the next week, or so.

We stopped off at my son's office (Chris) to pick up our mail, and talk for a while, and got home finally around 5 pm......caught this sunset as we were getting back on the freeway....

I was getting ready to go outside about 5:55 to start a fire we would share with our friends, Steve and Candy, realizing I had not gotten a call from Arnold yet.....my initial thought was that he had sold it, and I would probably hear later from him.....just at that point the phone rang and it was Arnold.....he had not sold the Jeep!  I gave him directions, and within an hour he was at our campsite.  The Jeep looked even better in person, and drove great, so Wednesday I will drive into Rancho Cucamonga with TLE to pick it up and take it over Joel......sure hoping this one checks out!

After Arnold left we had a delightful time talking for a couple of hours with Steve and Candy about the RV lifestyle, and answering questions, and even though the temp dipped into the 40's we were kept more than warm by the fire.  Their late model Holiday Rambler has 3 slides.....two on the passenger side, and one very, very long one on the driver's side making their 36' coach feel very big inside.

Normally I would post tomorrow about my weigh in today, but here I am Wednesday morning having just weighed myself.....another 1.5 pounds lost for a total now of 7 pounds in 10 days......I haven't been this low (204.5) for about a year.....4.5 pounds more to break the magical 200 pound barrier....YAY!!!  I still cannot believe I have lost 7 pounds in 10 days!

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 5

I weighed in again Monday morning and found I had lost another pound....that's 5.5 pounds in a little over a week of eating less and moving more, and only Day #5 of the Subway Diet.  This is almost too easy, and very little "pain"....so far.  If I seem a little giddy it is because I am.  I don't know why I waited so long to do this other than I wasn't sure it would work for me, but it is.  The cool thing is the food I "have" to eat is delicious, and I am not getting tired of it.....so far.

We started out the morning cleaning our two cabins.  The weather began cold, and very, very windy, and stayed that way all day long.  We finished with our cabin cleaning around 10:15, changed our clothes and headed into Upland to take a look at a 1988 Jeep Wrangler YJ.  It's a little older than we wanted, but with only 114,000 original miles, well under our budget, and being in good to excellent condition, so we wanted to check it out.  It looked better in person than in the pictures which were pretty good, and drove great....the engine and transmission are in great condition, plus it has almost new tires, and an almost new soft top.  The only things it is lacking are the back seat, and door skins, but those can be obtained pretty easily.

We're about 90% we'll buy this one, but I am going to have my long time mechanic, Joel of Joel's Automotive in Upland, go over it mechanically tomorrow, and if it checks out we will be the proud owners of a Jeep....then it will be time to sell the 'Bird.  We both still have slightly mixed emotions about selling our baby, but it's time, and I think mentally we are there.  This Jeep will be easier for me to work on,  and way, way less expensive, plus it will be much more practical for our lifestyle.

 When we arrived back home our friends, well primarily TLE's friends, Steve and Candy (TLE worked with Candy in her former workaday life), had arrived in their late model Holiday Rambler diesel pusher.  Steve just retired, and they will begin to travel more in their motor coach, so they have a lot of questions about the lifestyle.    We spent a couple of hours visiting before heading, no running back to the coach in the frigidly cold, windy early evening!  They'll be here for four days, so we'll get more time to talk with them, and hopefully when the wind stops we'll be able to spend some time around the campfire.  

We finished off the evening watching "Almost Human" then heading off to bed early as we have another of those "iniquitous" early mornings Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by!