Beautiful weather in San Diego

On Sunday we met our friends Jim and Della Crownover (classmates of Ted's) and red lippers!  We had lunch at the Red Sails on Shelter Island.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon in San Diego.  After all the recent heat Ted and I have experienced, it was wonderful down at the bay. 

After lunch the four of us attended the memorial service for JoAnn Emde, another of Ted's classmates.  Her daughters and family did a lovely job of the service and there were lots of good memories of JoAnn shared.  Other Sweetwater High attendees were friends Billy & Vicky Whited and Phil and Elaine Williams.

Ted and Susan at the Memorial Service

Bali Hai Restaurant, Shelter Island

Other Classmates attending services:

Jim and Della Crownover

Bill and Vicky Whited

Elaine and Phil Williams (aka Nick Nolte)

Yesterday Ted and I met our friends Jeri and Stach Gutowski.  We headed up to Valley View Casino.  For such a bad economy, the place was packed, and on a Monday!  We gambled for awhile (up and down), had some dinner and gambled a bit more.  Ted and I ended up $8.00 ahead.  It's a lot more fun when you don't lose!

Sharing and making memories with old friends and classmates..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Truck is running again!

Well Friday was an interesting day.  We talked to them some more about the F650 but they aren't going to give us enough for our "lemon", I mean our truck so we are going to keep our old truck and keep our fingers crossed!  We don't think we will actually qualify for the "lemon law".

They finally finished the truck about 3:30, we paid our portion that Ford didn't pay, packed up and got out of there around 4:30 (right at peak traffic time in Los Angeles).  We pulled out of the lot and a huge plume of black smoke came out.  We drove down to the freeway and went around the 2 mile block and drove back.  Unfortunately the mechanic had forgotten to clear 3 codes from the engine computer so the engine was trying to compensate for the problem, thus black smoke????  Once he cleared the codes we had no further problems - whew!

So we are settled back in San Diego at Pio Pico, we have slow and intermittent internet but no cell phone service for some reason!  Ted may try to adjust the antenna to see if we can get a stronger signal.  We are going to be here until September 1st.

Having the truck working again..."Ain't Life Grand!"

"The Truck - grrrrrr"

On Monday we left Fresno, took the Tehachapi Mountain route (rather than the Grapevine, not as steep).  Truck was doing well over the mountains. We got on 395 and right before we connected to the 15, we caught a light.  When we tried to go we had a humongous amount of black smoke and no power.  We got on the freeway and limped straight to the Ford service place.  We have been camped in their parking lot since Monday.

The bad news is that it's something different this time and they said the cost will be between $3400 and $4200! YUCK!  The good news is it ended up being the $3400 and the better news is that Ford is paying $1500 of it.  Of course if we drove in and found we had to pay $1800 to have it repaired we would have thought YIKES!  I guess it's all in the presentation - LOL!

We've looked into the Lemon Law and an attorney at our nephews law office specialized in the law at one point but after reading the information on the website, not sure if we will really qualify.  We may contact her to see what our options are.

In the meantime, they have a truck that the owner of the dealership used.  It is a 2008, has 2700 miles on it, an actual RV bed, a Caterpillar engine that is supposed to be very dependable and still under warranty because it hasn't been sold yet.  The bad news is it's a bigger engine, you feel more engine vibration and mileage towing is the same but around town is less than we get now.  So we are thinking about what we want to do.  Since our truck has been undependable and needs an RV bed so what to do!  We are going over and talk to them about it this morning.  Our truck is supposed to be ready today. 

We are going to head down to San Diego (in Fontana right now) to Pio Pico and stay there until September 1st.  We will decide what we are going to do about the truck and when we will take off again.

I received a comment from Kelly about sweet cream pancakes.  I did find this when I googled sweet cream pancakes:  cookeatshare.com/popular/flying-j-sweet-cream-pancakes-recipe.   Kelly, I also let you know where to find the batter that Flying J uses when  I responded to your comment (on my March 24th blog) if you want to check it out.  They have a great store, the original house of the family and a nice restaurant at the Mill.  Unfortunately they only sell small bags.

Being found on the blog for sweet cream pancakes..."Ain't Life Grand!"

A little cooler today!

On Friday we accompanied Claire and Craig to look at a couple of model homes that were for sale.  They were awfully tempting but I think they have decided to wait a bit for getting a house.  They are changing apartments to add an extra bedroom so that Chip and Stephen will be moving in with them on Monday!  All but Chip start back to school on the 16th!

Last night Stephen and Marissa came over for pizza and salad.  We had a good visit with them. 

Today just doing laundry and kicking back!  Tomorrow we leave for Menifee and then on Tuesday we take the truck to Fontana, about 35 miles from our campground.

It's noon and only 93 degrees..."Ain't Life Grand!"

ARRRRGH!

Can you believe that since we have been in Fresno we have started getting black smoke again and the turbo has absolutely no power!  So it's either the last injector, the EGR valve, head gasket or the turbo needs to be cleaned out.  Of course we are over our 100,000 miles so none of which will be covered under warranty.  It's gotten bad quickly so we are heading back south to the Ford service place that we trust to find the problem. 

We are staying here in Fresno until Monday then will head south.  We'll spend some time with the kids, enjoy ourself and try not to think about the truck and getting south without the extra turbo power!

Enjoying family..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Back in Fresno!

On Monday we drove down the mountain to Fresno where it is still HOT! We will be here until Friday so we have to start thinking about where we are going from here!

Yesterday Max got a haircut so he would be coooool again!  Last night we had dinner with Craig and Claire, Chip and Haley and Stephen.  Marissa was busy with friends. 

After dinner we walked over to Craig's apartment.  I took this picture along the way!

Hanging out with the kids..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Bass Lake, CA

Yesterday we drove into Oakhurst and hit the ATM and had lunch at Todd's Barbeque Restaurant.  I had the rib plate and the ribs were great.  Ted had a chopped beef barbeque sandwich that he said was very good.

We drove back to the lake and went in some of the shops at the Pines Village right next to our campground.  It is a busy little village with a resort, marina, grocery, post office, various boutiques and a pizza/bakery!  One of the shops has an outside patio that looks over the lake.  We were shopping but I don't think Ted was as sad as he looks, he just hates getting his picture taken!  LOL!

Enjoying the beauty..."Ain't Life Grand!"