Monday we are on the road again!

Last night we met our friends Stach & Jeri for dinner.  Their daughter-in-law, Gina and grandson, Trent were also there.  Stach had selected Zorba's in Chula Vista for dinner.  We had an 8:30 p.m. reservation, a little late for us but fortunately the music and the show kept us awake!  LOL!  They have a delicious Greek buffet and the music and show were a little loud but entertaining.  Poor Trent was sort of scared to look up at the dancing girls, he's nine and I think he was afraid they would want him to dance or something!  It was a fun evening.

Today we packed up the outside chairs and rug so we can leave around 10:00 tomorrow morning to head for Palm Springs.  We will be there for 10 days.  It's also one of our Thousand Trails campgrounds but we have not been to it before.  It's always interesting to go to a new campground, you never know what to expect!

Tonight we had dinner with our friend Peggy at Taste of Italy in Rancho San Diego.  It's a small little Italian Restaurant that has very good food.  We had a good visit with Peggy and a good meal.

Retired and getting on the road again..."Ain't Life Grand!"

TGIF!

Thank God it's Friday or maybe Monday or maybe Wednesday...who can remember!  We are retired....it doesn't matter what day it is!

Today we ran some errands and got a few things done to ready for our departure on Monday.  Tonight we had dinner with our friends Larry and Carol Wallis at a Mexican Restaurant in Rancho San Diego.  I'd tell you the name of the restaurant but I can't remember how to spell it!  They used to have a large one in El Cajon now they have just the one in Rancho San Diego.  Anyway, good food!  We caught up with what's been happening with Larry and Carol and family and filled them in on our sagas with our satellite, leaks in our roof and our upcoming departure.  Larry reads the blog and scolded me for not being better about writing in the last couple of weeks, so I will try to be better!

Last minute visits with friends before leaving San Diego..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Sunny San Diego!

Glad to have some sunshine this week!

We've been keeping busy.  Peggy came for dinner on Saturday since our girls night out at the cabin in Pine Valley was cancelled because of the previous week of bad weather.  We had some "mean games" of Mexican Dominoes.  It took us awhile to figure it out because there are many versions, but it was fun.

Tuesday was Valley View Casino day with girl friends, Jeri and Roberta.  We also stopped at Bates Nut Farm on the way.  We shopped, gambled and ate!  What could be better??????  Well if I won it would have been better!   Jeri and I met our husbands for dinner and it was a great day.

Yesterday we drove up to Escondido to meet one of Ted's classmates, Rusty, for dinner.  He took us over to San Marcos to Restaurant Row and we had dinner at Bruno's, an Italian restaurant.  Food was good and it was enjoyable talking with Rusty.  It's a pretty cool area and you can eat any kind of food or any type of restaurant.  There are a ton to choose from!

We are leaving on Monday for a long trip...more info as it happens!

Sunny days..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Windy & Rainy in San Diego!

Well friends, this is our third day of wind and rain, and the worst day so far!  We are now camped in the middle of "Lake Pio Pico" with gale force winds!  We have white caps on our lake - LOL!  The creek is getting full and we no longer are allowed to drink the water!  Fortunately we are snug as a bug and have a case of water!  Don't want to venture out today.  

Our Dish got turned over the first day and bent up a bit and isn't working.  We are getting 2 digital stations!  Huh, and the problem with analog was.... 

Hope all of our California friends are surviving as well!

Warm and dry..."Ain't Life Grand!"

GO CHARGERS!!!!

Football in January and the Chargers are still playing!  So exciting.  Just hope they can beat the Jets today.  Of course it seems all the tv sports people think the Jets are on a roll to win but I know the Chargers can beat them!

On Thursday our friend Larry Wallis showed up at our RV riding his bicycle!  He rides miles and miles with a group of friends and took a few minutes out to say hello.  He's amazing!

Friday night we had dinner with friends Bill & Jany Staley (I worked with Bill for 18 years at the CPA firm) and Peggy Price my best friend for over 35 years.  We went to a cute little Italian restaurant in La Mesa called Tiramasu Trattoria.  Our reservation was for 6:00 and there were a few tables with customers.  Within 30 minutes the place was full!  The food was great.  I had a delicious crab stuffed salmon with veggies yum!  Ted loved the lasagna.  Believe it or not he doesn't care for most Italian restaurants' lasagna!  Good Italian food, special coffee for dessert and good conversation how can you miss???

Last night we headed over to Otay Ranch shopping center in Eastlake to meet friends Jeri & Stan Gutowski for dinner.  We ate at the California Pizza Kitchen then headed to Coldwater Creek before it closed (my favorite store)!  The mall and theaters were very busy, a good sign in our economy.  Not sure if anyone was actually eating or buying but lots of people were out on Saturday night.  We had a great visit with our friends and a good dinner.

Rooting for the CHARGERS!..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Back in San Diego!

We left Soledad Monday and the truck drove like a dream!  The truck is finally like it was the first three years! 

We got to Pio Pico in the afternoon.  The south side of the park has full hookups and was full so we were parked on the north side without sewer hookup.  That's ok for awhile but I need sewer to be able to use the washer and dryer.  We were 18th on the "crossover list" (being able to cross over to a camp site on the south side of the street with full hookups) but several people didn't show at 9:00 in the morning to see what spaces were available that day and we were lucky enough to get a spot and able to cross over!

This week we are mostly running errands and for me nails and haircut.  Ted's meeting friends for lunch.  In other words, not much to write about!

Lucky to crossover the first day..."Ain't Life Grand!" 

Leaving Soledad Canyon

Tomorrow we will head back to San Diego and will be camped at Pio Pico for three weeks. It's been a bit windy here every day and chilly. We've had beautiful colorful sunsets every afternoon. The pictures never look as good as what your eyes see, but this was from our front door this afternoon.  

I think I've got the bug that Ted and Max got. So far it's not too bad, just a head cold and lots of sneezing but no coughing. Hopefully I'll get over it quickly!

Beautiful sunsets..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Truck engine's purring! Yippee!

We got our truck back Wednesday night and they only found the three bad injectors.  They want to see how it does with a load on it so when we leave Soledad Canyon on Monday we will see how the engine does with a load on it.  When Ted started the truck, it was like a new engine had been put in.  Drives so much better!  The great news is that it only cost $100 not the $2000 we were looking at.  That's always a good thing!

Ted is getting better each day but Wednesday Max caught it, at least that's what it seems like.  He had a cough and an upset tummy.  Lost his breakfast and in the middle of the night lost his dinner.  Yesterday we gave him some rice and he was able to keep it down.  Today he was back on regular food and seems like his old self. 

Today we went to the movies to see Sherlock Holmes.  We thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  It's very fast paced and seems like there may be a sequel coming!  Looking forward to that.

Healthy Ted, Max and truck..."Ain't Life Grand!"

We're in Soledad Canyon, Acton California

Ted is still coughing but feeling better.  The bug hit him hard on Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday afternoon Peg came over to watch the Charger game and eat with us!  She made dinner for us but we all filled up on chips and dip so Ted and I are having her pork chops for dinner tonight! 

Yesterday we left Pio Pico for Soledad which is south and east of Magic Mountain, almost in Palmdale.  We set up the RV and then took the truck down to Fontana to get looked at.  We had taken it to a Ford Dealer in San Diego County and they thought there was a problem with the torque converter.  It would take $800 just to find out if that was the problem and another $1000 to fix it.  We decided to take it back to Fontana because they had found the head gasket problem after going to five other Ford Dealerships while traveling in Texas.

We dropped off the truck yesterday afternoon and got a rental car to get back to the campground.  They called today and so far have found three injectors that were bad.  They are at least covered under warranty (except for $100 deductible) which is good because they are $250 each ($750 - yikes).   Still not sure about our other problem but they want to wait and check the truck first thing tomorrow morning while it's cold.

Speaking of cold, our elevation is around 3000' here and it is about 15 degrees cooler than it was in Fontana.  It was low 40's this morning and chilly and breezy here today.

When we left yesterday I didn't check to make sure the living room tv was secure in the cabinet and the road was bumpy enough that the tv fell out of the cabinet.  Fortunately the tv is ok but the plastic anchors on the bottom of the tv broke off.  Ted will have to figure out a way to secure the tv because we can't drive with it in the cabinet unsecured.  I hope he can figure something out - I feel really bad that I didn't remember to check the tv.

A blessing that at least the tv still works..."Ain't Life Grand!"

New Year's Day 2010! OH MY!

Happy New Year Friends! Ted and I had dinner with friends Jeri & Stach last night and then went to their son Tony's New Year's Eve party.  Tony had a tent set up in their driveway.  He had set up music and videos on a big screen from all genre's for dancing.  Even had a disco ball!  His 14 year old daughter Mallorie had several friends over as did her brother Trent (9) and Tony and Gina.  The four of us were the older generation!  It was interesting that the teens really got into our music and us older ones even knew a few pieces of their music.  Everyone was singing and dancing and a good time was had by all except poor Teddy!  He had the beginnings of a bug.  We left before midnight because he really started feeling bad.  Today he is feverish and achy but hopefully he'll rest and get well quick!

Happy New Year!..."Ain't Life Grand!"