Tuesday 30 April 2013

My Silverado Is In The Body Shop For Dent Repairs

It seems like forever since the little mishap in our RV site, at the Sands RV Resort, that left an ugly looking dent in the passenger side cargo panel of my Chevy Silverado.  It’s only been about 7 weeks but hopefully, by the end of this week, my truck should be dent free and looking shiny and new again.  I dropped it off at GT Collision in Duncan early Monday morning.

A few days in the body shop and this ding will be done!IMG_1100[3]

One of the reasons it seems like it’s been a lot longer than 7 weeks is because of all the questions and looks I get no matter where I go.  Like, “hey, how’d you bang up your truck”?  Whether it’s simply a neighbor, a guy at a gas station or even in a Safeway parking lot, guys seem to have an innate curiosity about trucks and anything to do with them.  Why is that?  I’ve retold the story a million times!!

grand-ole-opry

Maybe I could pen a little Country Music ditty along the lines of “My Wife Left Me Brokenhearted With A Dent In My Truck”.  I know, I know – it sounds pathetic, but I guarantee I’ve heard a lot worse song titles in country music.  Besides, the main elements are all there – a truck, a broken heart and a woman!  Maybe just throw in a little gospel and whiskey and it could be a guaranteed hit, right?

My Mazda M3 loaner carIMG_4218

Meanwhile, while I’m dreaming of fame and riches at the Grand Ole Opry, I’m driving around in a little 2012 Mazda M3 that is hardly the type of wheels a big-time country music star would choose.  What I really needed to create a good impression in Nashville is a big old Cadillac car – preferably a convertible. 

IMG_4202

Paulette was off to her Heritage Quilting Group as soon as I got back from dropping off my truck for repairs.  Not long after she was gone, I went outside before I had a chance to change my mind and finished waxing and buffing our 5’er.  So, now it’s all done and should be good for at least another year.  In the meantime, to keep it nice and shiny, I’ll still use The Solution in between polishing and waxing along with the occasional soap and water after long trips.

IMG_4203

Carrie got the o.k. to move into her new condo a day early so Paulette and I are heading down to Victoria to help with the move first thing Tuesday morning.  The other really great news is that Carrie’s hired a couple of young, husky guys to move all of her heavy furniture upstairs.  That will be a big load off of our backs for sure.  All we have to do now is move up all the boxes and clothing and we have both flat and upright dollies to help with that.

Click anywhere on the image below for instructions on Backupstemplate5

Sunday, I put a link on my sidebar to a post showing How To Backup Your Blog.  Today, I added another similar type post this time on How to Backup Your Template – both are important if you ever need to restore your entire blog, especially if you’ve made custom changes to the Template.  With these 2 backups in place, you should be in pretty good shape if a disaster occurs and your blog is destroyed.

Have a great Tuesday, and thanks again for visiting!

Monday 29 April 2013

Yard Work & How I Got Sidetracked To A Salt Mine

Unlike Saturday morning, yesterday when I first looked outside all I could see was sunshine and bright blue skies.  That only meant one thing to me at the time – work!  I knew that after most of 2 days off it was going to be back to the salt mines so to speak – i.e. waxing the 5’er and cutting the front lawn. 

All of this just to put some salt in shakers!2005-07-07_010_Wieliczka,_Poland_-_map_of_the_underground_salt_mine

A strange thing happened Sunday after dinner when I sat down at my computer to write about our exciting day of weeding, cutting the lawn and waxing the 5’er.  In my first paragraph of this blog I wrote it was going to be “back to the salt mines” referring to the work we had to do.  It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t know a thing about salt mines even though I’ve used that term my whole life!

Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ carved in the salt mine wallsWieliczka-daVinci

So, off I went to Maharishi Google to find out more about salt mines and the first thing that popped up was pretty incredible.  It was the Wieliczka Salt Mine located in the town of Wieliczka, Poland.  The mine, built in the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest salt mines still in operation.  It’s now a museum and has regular tours.

Incredible statues carved out of salt – did anybody work here??Wieliczka-color

The mine's attractions include dozens of statues, three chapels and an entire cathedral that has been carved out of the rock salt by the miners.  The Wieliczka salt mine reaches a depth of 1,073 ft and is over 178 miles long – that’s a long way to “pass the salt”!!  It didn’t take me long to find out all I really wanted to know about salt mines.  Maybe next time I get sidetracked it’ll be to a Pepper Mine!

Paulette hard at work in the middle of our front yard shrubberyIMG_4181

I’m back from Poland’s Salt Mine and ready to carry on with my regular blog about our exciting day.  Paulette wanted to do some weeding in the front yard flower gardens and shrubs while I was anxious to get more work done on the final waxing process for our fifth-wheel.  We were outside just after 9am and worked pretty steadily until almost 1pm. 

Lookin’ pretty good now!IMG_4209

Paulette did a fantastic job on the island of shrubs, flowers, plants and trees in the front yard.  She clipped enough cuttings, pulled enough weeds and trimmed enough shrubs to completely fill our utility trailer.  I managed to get our 5’er about 75% complete before needing to give my arms and shoulders a rest.

Our Dogwood TreeIMG_4207

After a quick break, I got our lawnmower out of the shed and cut the front lawn while Paulette was finishing up her weeding job.  While we were working something happened to our nice, sunny day.  Clouds started to move in and although it never did rain, it cooled down quite a bit.  By that time, we’d both had enough anyway and went inside to have lunch.

Cowichan River EstuaryIMG_4187

Later in the afternoon, we took Molly and Rylie for a walk in the Cowichan River Estuary.  Neither Paulette nor I felt much like hiking up any mountains after working all morning.  One nice thing about the Estuary is it’s a nice, flat 2 mile hike.  It was still cool down by the water but we both wore jackets so we were nice and warm.

IMG_4191

Karen (RV Travels With Karen and Al) had a rather shocking thing happen yesterday with her blog – it was gone!!  Google just left her a message saying it had been “removed for suspicious activity”.  I could understand if it was Paul Dahl’s blog, but Karen??  Anyway, while Karen was panicking because she didn’t have her blog backed up, she was able to ‘verify’ her identity with Google and everything was restored back to normal. 

Click anywhere on the image below for instructions on Backupstips

In reading comments on Karen’s blog, I noted a few bloggers still didn’t know how to back up their blogs.  So, I’ve added a new item to my sidebar called  Blogger Tips and Techniques and have added a Blogger Page with instructions showing how to do a backup.  I’ll add more pages if, and when, required. 

Have a great Monday, and thanks again for visiting!

Sunday 28 April 2013

How Is A Blog ‘Visit’ Different From A ‘Pageview’?

Saturday was one of those cloudy days with enough drizzling rain to make it a bad idea to head outside and start any jobs like polishing, mowing lawns or weeding.  For sure, if Paulette and I had begun any of those, the skies would have opened up and it would have poured.  So, we took a day off of work to see what Sunday brings.

A Pageview milestone reached on my blog Saturday – 1 million!!pageviews

On days like that it’s common for me to drift off to my computer room to play around, check out what’s new and even to respond to any email questions from readers.  One question I did get is quite a common one and it’s “what’s the difference between a ‘pageview’ and a ‘visit’ with respect to blog statistics?”   When I went to my Dashboard to look at my Stats page, I noticed that overnight the Pageviews for my blog had ticked over the 1 million mark!  Yahoo!

How much time do you spend blogging per week compared to:Time-spent-on-blogging-each-week-by-bloggers.png

I’ve never been a slave to blogger stats and seldom even look at them but it was nice to see the 1 million milestone number.  Since I began blogging in May, 2009 I’ve always been more interested in comments on my posts than with the stats stuff.  Still, it is good to know what these numbers mean so I’ll try and provide a simple explanation for those of you who use counters like Sitemeter:

BLOG VISITS

The number of visits displayed in your blog stats counter shows the number of times anyone accessed your blog during a given time period. Each access is counted once.  The stats counters use the IP Address and/or Cookies to distinguish new visitors per day from repeat visitors. 

So, in simple terms, if Russ, Rod, Paul, Donna, Sam, Janna and Judy visited your blog in one day that would count as 7 visits no matter whether they returned in the morning, noon or night – it’s still 7 visits because it’s only 7 unique visitors.  That’s Visits!

For any computer wiseguys out there looking to analyze what I’m saying here, I know there are things to consider like “unique vs total” visitors and the same visitor using a different computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone - just trying to keep this simple!

 

BLOG PAGEVIEWS

A Pageview is counted each time a visitor looks at a page on your blog.  Some visitors will read your current post for the day and then move on to someone else’s blog without ever clicking on any links in your post.  That will result in a count of 1 Pageview for your stats counter.

So, if 7 visitors look at your post and then move on to the next blog without ever clicking on a link in your post, that’s 7 Pageviews.  But, let’s say one visitor clicks on your sidebar simply to view your complete Profile, a new page is loaded and that counts as a Pageview as well.  And, if you have 10 photos and each is clicked to enlarge the photo – that’s 10 more – you’re  now up to 12 Pageviews!!  That’s Pageviews!

Stats showing a fairly typical Pageviews to Visits relationshipblog_stats_1205

So, as you can see from the above definitions there is a good reason why Pageviews in your blog stats are usually higher than Visits.  It’s because of a Visitor hanging around and clicking links on your blog whether it be photos, a profile or a sidebar link to an older post.  What does all this mumbo-jumbo mean?  Nothing really unless you’re the type of blogger who lives and dies by numbers – a horrible fate!

Have a great Sunday, and thanks again for visiting!

Saturday 27 April 2013

A Big Problem Is Resolved And All’s Well Again

Back in February while we were still in Palm Springs we received a panicked phone call from Carrie, who is pregnant and expecting our first grandson this June, saying that the condo apt. she had lived in for the past 6 years was being put up for sale.  What lousy timing that was.  Carrie’s condo had 2 bedrooms, was quiet, made of steel and concrete and located in a nice Victoria residential area.

Carrie’s condo is looking a lot like a storage locker right nowIMG_4171

Ever since then Carrie has been scrambling around trying to find a new place to live while juggling her job at the same time.  She went on Maternity Leave at the start of April, a month earlier than she had planned, so she could search for a place.  Then 2 weeks ago she was notified her condo had been sold and the new owners wanted to move in June 1st – just 2 weeks prior to her due date.  Problematic!

Lots of stuff to move upstairs next Tuesday and WednesdayIMG_4174

Just when things were beginning to look a bit dicey, a minor miracle happened.  A 2 BR condo unit in the same building came up for rent with an occupancy date of May 1st.  Carrie met with the owners last week and after a bit of frenzied negotiations closed a deal on a 2 year lease – it was perfect timing!   We spent Friday morning over at Carrie’s packing her belongings into boxes for the Wednesday move!

Cobble Hill Quarry LakeIMG_4142

After getting back from Victoria, I didn’t feel like getting all of my polishing and waxing stuff out to start applying the Pure Wax to our 5’er so I took a day off from that.  Instead, I figured I’d better cut the lawn in the back yard as it was really growing fast and getting out of hand.  I’m still surprised at how well the little Lawn Boy gas mower does.  It has a self-propelled wheel system and that really helps.

Looking straight down into the Quarry Lake – it’s pretty deepIMG_4146

By the time I finished up with the lawn it was almost 3:30pm and the muttzo’s were chomping at the bit to go for their afternoon walk.  It was the last thing I felt like doing after a long day of driving, packing and then cutting the lawn but Molly and Rylie didn’t know that.  They just wanted to go out as usual so what could I do?  Paulette and I got their leashes and we drove over to the Quarry Lake for a nice walk.

IMG_4143

While Paulette and I were deciding what to do about dinner, we got a phone call from good friends of ours (Ray and Barb) asking if we wanted to go out for dinner.  Perfect!  We arranged to meet at a little restaurant down in the Cowichan Bay Village.  It was great seeing Ray and Barb again and catching up on all the news that happened while we were away.  Dinner was excellent as well!

Have a great Saturday, and thanks again for visiting!

Friday 26 April 2013

Grooming Day, Work And Hanging Out With Google

Thursday was the much dreaded Grooming Day for the muttzo’s.  I’m sure if they knew the night before what was in store for them the next day, they wouldn’t sleep a wink – nor would we I guess.  Molly and Rylie have it pretty lucky though as Paulette’s niece, Heather, is a groomer who runs her business right out of her home about 40 minutes north of us near Nanaimo.

IMG_4163

Paulette took Molly and Rylie up to Heather’s and then after a quick visit headed off to Nanaimo for a bit of thrifty shopping.  On her way back she stopped off to see her older brother, Glen, who lives in an assisted care facility in Nanaimo.  He’s doing well and Paulette said he was happy to see her.  Then it was back to Heather’s to pick up Molly and Rylie and drive back home.

IMG_4165

While Paulette was taking care of the muttzo’s, I was home working on our 5’er.  I decided to go ahead and complete all of the polishing on the entire rig before any more waxing.  I ended up working most of the morning and managed to complete polishing the whole thing!  I used a microfiber cloth to apply the polish and then buffed it off using my 8” Simoniz buffing pad.  Next up is the final waxing job.

Waiting for a special treat for being good pups at the groomersIMG_4160

Yesterday, I took my tan colored, leather, waterproof hiking boots to a shoemaker to see about having new soles put on.  I’ve had these boots for around 10 years and they have quite a few miles on them but the leather uppers are still good and the boots are comfortable.  I was quite confident a shoemaker could easily put new soles on and I’d be good for another 100,000 miles.  Well, the shoemaker said “sure, no problem but it’s going to cost $70”.  Wowza!!

Too bad – my old boots were going to be $70 for new soles!IMG_4161

When I bought these boots I remember paying $99 so I wasn’t thrilled to be having to pay $70 just to have new soles put on them.  I thanked the shoemaker for the estimate and left the shop – with my boots in hand.  It seems like boots, much like lighters, pens, razors and cellphones are now disposable items.  I’ll have to check around at a few stores to see what new boots are going for these days.

IMG_4167

google

A few members of the Google+ Development Team held an open Hangout session recently and I joined in as the topic was the new G+ Comment System.  This is the one that was rolled out last week, integrates with our Blogger platform, and requires anyone who wants to leave a comment to have a G+ ID.  That was a deal-breaker for me.

That requirement was one of the first questions posed to Google and the developers never backtracked, never promised it was going to be changed and simply said “that’s what it is”.  Under further questions the team responded that “the Google+ Comment System is going to have a long future” so I took that to mean Blogger Integration with Google+ is definitely where we are headed.

IMG_4170

As for the requirement to be a member of Google+ in order to comment, I got to thinking a bit.  Isn’t that what Facebook does?  I don’t believe we can comment on a Facebook page without having a Facebook ID.  Google+ is growing and now has 500,000 members.  I’m now pretty convinced that having a G+ ID may be a requirement to use the Blogger Platform sometime in the not too distant future.

IMG_4166

Most of us, but not all, seem to have Gmail accounts and adding a G+ account isn’t really all that different.  Accounts can be set so that you have a minimal amount of interaction with G+ or even none at all.  That’s how I have my Facebook ID setup – nada, nil, nothing but I can still see what’s going on and it allows me access to other sites I may want to visit.  Google+ can be used in the same way.

If anyone who currently has a Gmail address but not a Google+ ID, it might be worth thinking about.  In addition to the free, unlimited photo storage one receives with a G+ ID, having a G+ ID right now might just make the transition to a Blogger platform integrated with Google+ all that much easier to handle when it does happen.  And, no, I do not think WordPress is the answer either!

Have a great Friday and thanks again for visiting!

Thursday 25 April 2013

Polishing, Waxing And Down To The River Again

Wednesday morning, I was just about set to head out the door and take my truck to have the dent in the side repaired when the phone rang.  It was the guy from GT Collision asking if I could reschedule for Monday morning.  Apparently, they were pretty jammed up and needed a few more days to clear out a few vehicles.  No problem, I just poured another coffee and headed back to my computer room.

The Simoniz 8” Random Orbit Polisher made this job a breeze!IMG_4122

After delaying the inevitable for as long as possible, I went out around 10am to begin work on our 5’er.  I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I was going to first apply a ‘Polish’ to our entire rig and then repeat the process using a ‘Wax’.  I was asked in an email what the difference was between a ‘Polish’ and a ‘Wax’.  I didn’t know for sure but here’s what’s on the back of the Meguiar’s RV Polish:

A polish can be best described as conditioner that restores valuable oils to feed and nourish the fiberglass or painted surface which creates a brilliant high gloss.  Waxing protects the high-gloss finish from the elements.

I decided to start with the back of the 5’er and get it out of the way as it looked to be the most awkward what with a huge window and the big attached roof ladder not to mention all the lights and stuff.  The little Simoniz 8” Random Orbit Polisher was a real time-saver and it worked even better than I expected.  In no time, I was able to apply a good coat of polish and then buff it out to a brilliant shine.

This stuff really does work wellDesktop12

After I had finished polishing the back of the 5’er, I changed my plan to continue on with polishing the rest of the rig before applying the Pure Wax.  I wanted to see what the actual finished product would look like.  It didn’t take long to apply a coat of wax, let it dry to a haze and then buff it out again using the Simoniz Polisher.  It looked fantastic and felt as smooth as glass – in fact, just like new again.

The high-gloss and reflections show what a shine I was able to getIMG_4137

Moving around to the shady side of our rig, I carried on with the exact same process to polish and wax about 3/4’ers of the side without the door.  By this time, my arms were beginning to get a bit sore so I decided to pack it in for the day.  I think now that I’ve got a handle on this process, I’ll probably just polish the rest of the 5’er and then go back and apply the Meguiar’s Pure Wax otherwise I know I’m going to get mixed up and forget where I’m at.

An afternoon hike took us down to the Cowichan RiverIMG_4109

One thing’s for sure, this job isn’t going to take me all summer.  Heck, I might even be finished by the end of the week.  Using the little 8” Polisher sure makes for fast work.  One thing I’m really glad about is that I opted for the 8” Simoniz Polisher over the 10” one that had 2 handles.  I lifted it in the store and found it to be quite a bit heavier – I think it would have been a killer up on a ladder!

IMG_4117

Of all the great parks we have nearby to go for hikes, I think my favourites are still the 4 or 5 parks alongside the Cowichan River.  There’s something about this clear, hard-charging river that makes me want to watch it forever.  It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon with the temperature reaching 70F when we headed off for our afternoon hike to the Glenora section of the Cowichan River Park.

IMG_4115

After climbing up and down a ladder for a few hours in the morning, I was just glad to be back on solid ground and walking forward rather than climbing up.  The trail from the parking lot to the river is a moderate downward grade until the river is reached.  From there, there are sets of very well constructed stairs down to the river itself.

IMG_4112

On the way down the stairs, there are 3 viewing platforms that provide great views out over the river both upstream and down.  It’s really out in the middle of nowhere so this is a great spot to get away from it all.  The only thing we hear is the birds chirping.  I suppose there may be bears in the woods and perhaps a cougar but in all the years we’ve been coming here, we’ve never seen either.

IMG_4116

Paulette was off to a dinner with her Sorority friends last night.  I was simply glad to stay home, put my feet up and watch a bit of a few hockey and basketball games on TV.  I know the grass was still growing as I was polishing the 5’er so it’s going to be quite a while before I begin to catch up on my jobs around here.  Plus, we have another fairly major home remodel job on the horizon.  Stay tuned.

Have a great Thursday, and thanks again for visiting!

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Answering A Few Questions On Exterior RV Care

First, I’m no expert on waxing, polishing, cleaning and maintaining exteriors of RV’s.  Paulette might add I’m no expert on cleaning anything – period!!  However, that aside, a few readers have asked me in recent days what I use to clean our 5’er.  That’s probably because I posted a blog a few days ago about washing our rig and mentioning that my next job was going to be a complete wax.

There are a bewildering number of cleaning products availablewaxes

In the past, I’ve usually just gone to a store like Canadian Tire and looked at all the hundreds of different types of cleaners and waxes made by Mother, Simoniz, Meguire and many others.  RV stores, like Camping World, they had lots of stuff lordcotoo from Thetford, Gel Gloss and others.  What’s a guy to do??

A few days ago, I wandered into a Lordco auto supply store - the  largest distributor of automotive parts and accessories throughout British Columbia. 

I found a guy working there who seemed to know what he was talking about when it came to cleaning and waxing vehicles. When I told him what I wanted, he took me right over to their Marine/RV section – who even knew an auto supply store had a Marine/RV section?

3-step cleaning system is on sale for $24 at Amazon (reg. $36)meguiars-marinerv-fiberglass-restoration-system-600x600

There, he showed me some cleaners and waxes that were specially formulated for fiberglass and gel coat finishes not just vehicles made of metal.  To do a complete, thorough job on our 5’er, which is what I wanted, he recommend a 3-step Fiberglass restoration system from Meguire – Oxidation Remover, High-Gloss Polish and a Pure Wax.  I decided to give it a try.

meguiars #49

Gel coat finishes on RV’s oxidizes just like auto finishes.  Salt water and sun can really accelerate the oxidation process which results in in a dull, chalky haze that really hides the color of RVs.

After months of the hot sun beating down on our 3 year old Big Country 5’er, I noticed a few areas near the front cap, rear cap and bumper that had suffered a bit from oxidation.

My first job was to try and get rid of the hazy, dull oxidation. I used the Meguiars Marine and RV Mirror Glaze #49 Oxidation Remover and was very pleased with the results. This stuff cut right through the oxidation and it left the gel coat finish looking great. It was easy to apply and buff off too.

meguiars #45

The sides of our 5’er were just fine with no real oxidation I could see so I thought I’d continue with Step 2 on the sections where I’d used the Oxidation Remover.

This polish was applied pretty much the same as in Step 1.  I rubbed the polish into the surface with a dry microfiber towel and used a clean towel to buff off the haze.  It was pretty easy too.

According to Meguire’s this liquid polish penetrates the porous gel coat finish of an RV and really helps to restore the original color.  I just liked the way it looked when I finished a section.  The surface was shiny and smooth!  My next job will be to apply a coat of this High Gloss Polish to the entire rig.

meguiars #56

The final step for me in restoring our 5’er to as close to showroom condition as possible will be applying a good coat of Meguiar’s Mirror Glaze #56 Boat/ RV Pure Wax.

This wax is made of pure Brazilian carnauba wax, silicones, polymers, and resins that promise to to provide extraordinary gloss and long-lasting protection.  I take it that means at least a year!

Yesterday, I only tried this Pure Wax on one small section and it sure does a nice job – silky smooth and glossy. 

This little gizmo should help a lot with waxing and polishing simoniz

In thinking about all this work some more, I figured all this elbow grease could take me most of the summer.  This called for a new gizmo so off I went to Canadian Tire.  I was in luck as they had a Simoniz 8” Random Orbit Polisher Kit on sale for only $29!!  I’ll just use it for buffing probably so it’s going to save me hours of time.  Paulette?  She just rolled her eyes and said “good deal”!!

Cuban Resorts are beautiful and a popular destination for Canucks00_0I_H6_VRA_SandalsHicacos_Aerial-large

Maggie and her fiancĂ© are off to Cuba in a few days for a week’s vacation at an all-inclusive beach resort.  More and more Canadians are opting to travel to Cuba for some fun in the sun as it has simply awesome beaches, it’s quiet and safe and even the resort food is beginning to match what’s available in other Caribbean hotspots and Mexico. I often wonder what Cuba will be like when U.S. citizens are finally free to travel there.  How will Cuba change?

Have a great Wednesday, and thanks again for visiting!

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Paulette’s Blog Transition And Getting Jobs Done

We are now back to being a ‘one daily blogger’ family as Paulette has decided to take a ‘Blogging Break’.  She announced this change followersin her blog yesterday morning saying “I’m not sure for how long but just need a little time to recharge the ol’ blogging batteries.”  Well said!

I never tried to persuade Paulette one way or the other as blogging is entirely up to each individual.

I’m going to miss Paulette’s daily blog though and I’m glad we were never in any kind of competition – I would have been slaughtered, just look at those Followers’ numbers!! 

Gone for now, but not forgotten.  Hopefully, to return again.P1110539

While on the topic of quitting blogging, Is there anything more self-serving and annoying than bloggers forever crying wolf about quitting blogging?  I don’t think so.  I really respect and admire bloggers who, after years of blogging, choose to write a simple farewell blog.  It’s really all that’s needed. 

2013-04-22

It was another nice sunny day here so I made my mind up early that this would be the day I’d get around to washing our fifth-wheel.  It was a little cool first thing in the morning so I waited until late morning for the sun to warm things up a bit.  Even though I’m a fan of The Solution for regular washing and care of our 5’er, after a long trip there’s nothing like sudsy, soap and water to get off all the road grime and dirt.  If nothing else, it makes me feel better anyway.

Start of the trail leading up Cobble Hill Mountain IMG_4096

Paulette was off to her Heritage Quilting Group Monday morning and was back home just after lunch.  Not long after we loaded Molly and Rylie in the car and headed off to hike up Cobble Hill Mountain.  This was our first visit to Cobble Hill Mountain since returning home from Palm Springs a week and half ago.

IMG_4097

It was another beautiful afternoon and it was great to be back in the middle of a forest again.  It’s also been a while since we’ve had to hike up any fairly steep inclines so we both realize we have some work to do in getting back in shape.

IMG_4102

Yesterday, we only hiked up as far as the Water Tower which is only about a third of the way to the top.  We’ll keep building up our hiking legs and before too long I’m sure we’ll go right up to the top.

The end of the trail – back at the bottomIMG_4103

Now that the 5’ers all washed and clean, I want to put a good coat of wax on it.  After that, I’ll just use The Solution to keep it clean and shiny until we get back down to Palm Springs in early January.  I’m not sure if I’ll start that job Tuesday or not.  I guess it’ll depend on how energetic I feel and/or whatever else comes up instead.

Rene and Jeanette (RV Voyageurs) featured in RV West MagazineJeanetteRene630

Fellow bloggers and good friends, Rene and Jeanette, have hit the big time after being featured in April’s RV West Magazine.  It’s a good article in which they provide a lot of information on their RVing experience, advice and future travel plans.  Congrats, Rene and Jeanette, the next time I see you, I’ll have to get your autographs!

Have a great Tuesday, and thanks again for visiting!