Fall in Cache Valley, Utah

As I was leaving Cache Valley to do some training in the Bay area, I noticed the changing leaf colors on Sardine pass. They are beautiful this time of year. The temperatures are getting around freezing at night and therefore the leaves are on their way out.

The first picture is overlooking the golf course going into Sherwood Hills Resort. Does that make you homesick, Darcy??

Check it out!!!

Changing Cars

Time to blog again and let everyone know what is happening with us. We are changing members of our car family. I bought a 1941 Chevy which is exactly like the first car I owned after I turned 16. I bought it over eBay and it is located in Southern Colorado. It will be delivered to me on Aug. 6th. I am excited to see it and check it out completely. I am enclosing a couple of pictures. Check it out.

To make room in my garage, I have sold my Corvair. It is going to California next week on a transport to Los Angeles to a guy I met when I was doing defensive driver training there. I am including a couple of pictures. Check them out.

I also bought a Blazer in Denver over eBay, I will pick it up on Aug. 6 when we go to Denver to see Kathy's mother and nephew. We will drive it home on the 11th of Aug. Here are a couple pictures of the Blazer. Check it out.

San Ramon Trip

I guess it is time to update the blog again. I was doing defensive driver training in San Ramon this week. Kathy went with me. We had a little time on Tuesday night so we took a quick trip to Concord and Antioch. We went by the houses where we used to live and took pictures of them (check them out). We also stopped and visited the Ponces who are friends from when we used to live in Antioch. I couldn't believe the houses, condos and appartments that have been built in both Antioch and San Ramon. I don't where all the people are coming from. Buying or renting a condon in San Ramon isn't a cheap thing. A guy at Chevron told me they will be hiring 6000 new employees this year and 6000 in 2008. I guess that is where they are coming from.

I didn't have time to go by my house in Concord and take a picture of it. I will do that in June when I am there.

Gramie Jameson's car to Denver

Still have no pictures to post but have to tell about the trip from Brownsville to Denver. I was working in Houston so I volunteered to drive Gramie Jameson's car to Denver for her. She is moving and needed her car in Denver.
I got off work on Thursday and flew to Harlingen. Gramie met me there with her car and her neighbors to take her back to Brownsville. It was about 8:30 when I got there because my plane was a couple of hours late. I had made arrangements to stay all night in Kingsville which was a couple of hours up the road. I made it there okay but it was late.
Next morning as I started to hit the road, I found I had a flat tire. I went to a service station and put in some air. Not wanting to be in the middle of Texas with a flat tire, I took it to Goodyear to get it fixed. They found a spike in it and the spike had damaged the tire beyond repair. I had to buy a new tire.
While the car was on the lift, they found a lot of play in both front wheels and told me the wheel bearings needed to be replaced. They also told me the rear brakes were about 98% gone and should be replaced. I called Gramie and she gave me the OK to get the repairs done.
The quickly fixed the rear brakes but could not get the ball joints out to access the bearings in the front wheels. They worked on it for a couple of hours and finally said they couldn't do it. They thought whoever had put ball joints in had put in the wrong ones and they were afraid to mess with it. So they decided to put it all back together and send me on my way and hope nothing happened until I could get it to Denver and get it fixed. While putting the front wheels back together, they found the problem to be nothing more than the bearings were not properly adjusted. They adjusted them and I was on my way. I had lost 4 hours. I had hotel arrangements made for Amarillo. I changed them to Lubbock which was closer.
I stopped in San Antonio to get gas. Gramie's car has this thing that it will lock the doors after they have been shut for so many seconds. I am at the back of the car putting in gas when I hear the car lock and yes, the keys were in the ignition. I had to wait almost an hour for a lock smith to come and unlock it. He unlocked it faster with his "slim jim" than I could with a key.
The rest of the trip went pretty well with the exception of 45 to 50 mile an hour winds blowing against the car between Amarillo and Raton. If the winds would have been from the back of the car, I would have had to put my foot on the brake to keep from speeding.
All is well that ends well?

Trip back to Utah

We have no pictures to post or anything exciting to report about our trip back to Utah. We stopped several times and put Abbey (the cat) in the litter box to do her thing and she would just lay in it like it was her bed. We think she liked it because it had a cover and she felt protected. Sooooo, we just left her in there. We would stop to get gas, give her food and water, and clean the box. Worked great!! We made the trip in one day - 15 hours lapse time.

3 Days in El Segundo, California

I am contracting to do Defensive Driver Refresher Training for Chevron's 900 vanpool drivers. This last week I was in El Segundo at the refinery. The El Segundo refinery is about 10 minutes South of LAX. Kathy went with me and spent time reading, making stocking hats, watching movies and kicking back while I was doing the training. After I finished for the day, we went out and had a meal and checked out the ocean in Mahatten Beach (about 15 minutes from the hotel where we were staying). We had a good time and enjoyed the food and ocean. Check it out!!

Easter Dinner

We had Easter dinner with Darcy and Justin. Kathy and Darcy prepared a 4 course dinner that we all enjoyed. We had the hors d'oeuvres course (the deviled eggs seen in the next blog), the salad course, the main course, and the dessert, of course. Check it out!