Sunday, April 26, 2015

We are in New Bern, North Carolina, at my dad’s.  We said our final goodbyes to my mother yesterday.  Three of her siblings were able to come with their spouses, and her children and grandchildren were here.  It was nice to be able to gather all together.

We left our trailer in San Jose at 6:30 in the morning last Thursday and arrived at Dad’s about midnight.  It was rather interesting flying across the country from dawn to dusk.  The clouds that had been gathering west of the coastal range on Monday had crept over the hills during the night and blanketed the valley.  There hasn’t been any rain lately so the hills are turning from green to gold.  The drought is real.

We flew first to LA, where the US Air terminal is a real mess.  Then we headed east.  I dozed and read and looked out the window, watching the parched desert pass below.  I missed seeing the Grand Canyon, but caught part of the Painted Desert landscape that reminded me of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.  You can see the valleys carved by ancient and not so ancient rivers.  In the desert, straight lines are roads, squiggly lines are streams.  If there are trees, they line the streams and the eastern slopes of hills.  As we fly further east, there are circles in the desert, evidence of irrigation, but they still look dry and unplanted.  The farther east we go, I begin to see some of the circles are green and then more and more green and fewer brown.  Soon there are no brown circles and then we have green fields that apparently need no irrigation.

Then the ground was obscured by a bank of clouds that extended as far as I could see.   I missed seeing the Mississippi, but spotted some of the Tennessee Valley lakes as the daylight began to fade and night approached.  Lights came on and the landscape twinkled with lights, much like the starry skies we’ve seen out west. 

It’s been a busy weekend and we have a busy day to go before we head back to California on Tuesday.  But it will be nice to get back to our travels.

Deb

Monday, April 20, 2015

Shortly after I finished this post, we got word that my mother had passed away in her sleep.  She had been in a nursing home since October.  We’ll be flying to New Bern for her funeral.

We are back in Morgan Hill, south of San Jose, California.  We had a great two weeks back in Indiana, seeing friends and doctors and celebrating Easter with our local family.  This year we got to see a second generation of kids hunt Easter eggs in our yard.  Here’s the crew from 23 years ago:

The youngest in that picture, Jeremy, got to hide the eggs this year for the new generation.

And here’s the crew from this year:

Good food, good friends, good fun.

We got back to Morgan Hill on Tuesday.  Obi was happy to see us and the trailer was as we left it. 

But the best news of that day was from Natasha.  She was sworn in as a US Citizen!

We are so proud of her!  Mike was able to go with her to the ceremony; I wish we could have been there, but we can’t do everything.

Originally, we were going to see Wes on Saturday and leave on Sunday, but then we got started on a project that kind of kept expanding. 

We had been told to take measures to darken our bedroom for Alaska, as we will have 20 hours of daylight when we are there.  I had bought some blackout liner to make drapes, but then we had a thought.  Nightstands are lacking in most trailers and we had rigged up something in the windows on either side of the bed to hold Kleenex, books, etc. and mounted cup holders for drinks.  We had tossed around changing that, along with the drapes and valances.  We also weren’t terribly fond of the head board.  Here’s a picture of what we were dealing with:

And here’s what we have now:

The panels over the windows are removable, but since we haven’t used them in the year and a half we’ve had the trailer, they won’t be removed often.

We still need to attach cup holders and organizers, but it will be much nicer than before.  Staying here in Morgan Hill meant we were close to Home Depot and Ace Hardware for the supplies we needed.  The wood is actually prefinished end panels and cabinet fillers from an oak cabinet line Home Depot has.  The finish is close to what is already in the trailer.

As soon as we finish this project, we need to head north.  We want to be in Bellingham by May 5^th or 6^th and then it will be on to Alaska!

Deb

Thursday, April 2, 2015

We are back home in Indiana temporarily.  We flew home from San Jose on Tuesday.  Obi is staying in a kennel and the trailer is at an RV park.  We’re here for the family Easter gathering and doctor, dentist and hair appointments.

When I last wrote, we were at Moss Landing north of Monterey.  We left there and moved to Pinnacles National Park.  It’s the newest national park, although it was designated as a national monument by Teddy Roosevelt.  When we asked what the difference was, the ranger responded that they were supposed to get more funding, but that wasn’t happening, but they did have a bigger mandate to work on wildlife and natural plants.  Which may be why the entire national park is surrounded by heavy fencing to keep out a wild pig species not native to the area.

Although only about 2 hours from Monterey and San Jose, Pinnacles is without cell service, so we had no phone or internet for 2 days.  But we had electricity and satellite TV, so not completely cut off.  Which was good, as when we were out, we started seeing a lot of jet trails in the sky.  I think we saw about 10 in 15 minutes.  I turned on CNN immediately when we got back to the trailer, just to make sure nothing momentous had happened.  Nothing had; there are just a lot of military facilities in California.  But it’s a strange feeling sometimes to be totally cut off these days.

The governor of California recently declared a water emergency.  As you look around the scenery, you realize it’s a serious problem.  While the hills right now are green from the spring rain, most creeks are completely dry.  Some are bare dirt and rocks, while others have some weeds going indicating they’ve had some water.  While California may provide most of our fruits and vegetables, almost all of it is irrigated.  And we’ve seen how low Lake Mead in Nevada is; there’s not much water in reserve.

And basically, anything green is being watered.  Big changes will need to happen.

We spent last Saturday with Wes and Trent working on Wes and Leigh’s house.  They bought a house built in 1904 that has survived two major earthquakes, without being firmly attached to the foundation.  Wes has spent a lot of time getting appropriate permits and engineering advice.  He’s disconnected of all the original knob and tube electricity and the electric is up to code, where it exists.  He hasn’t finished rewiring yet.

Our job on Saturday was to cut rebar and wire it into reinforcing forms to go into the concrete pillars that will be poured in the basement.  Wes and Trent were finishing up the holes for the bases of the pillars.  It was fun to work with the guys and see the effort they are putting into the project.  It will be a lovely house in a lovely neighborhood (most neighboring houses have been restored) when they are done.

Steve and I used to tackle renovation projects, although nothing on this scale.  But I looked at this house and realized I just don’t have it in me anymore.  We made changes to the trailer and have a few more to do, but they are minor.  I applaud Wes and Leigh for taking this on and their family, especially Trent and their father, Tom, for all their efforts.  I hope we’ll be able to come back next spring and help some more.

I apologize for the lack of pictures today.  I haven’t taken many since my last post and my cord to connect my phone is upstairs, so I’ll just get this posted as is.

Take care, everyone.

Deb

March 23, 2015

We are at Moss Landing, CA, just north of Monterrey on Highway 1.  This is a tiny seaside community catering to all the boats harbored here (600 boat slips).  There are two rivers that join before they hit the ocean, creating lots of room for boats.  As a result, there are many restaurants within walking distance of the harbor.  Our RV park is tucked in behind one of the dock areas.  It’s an Express KOA, which in this case means no playground, cabins, or tent areas.  We do have full hookups (electricity, water and sewer) and are across from the laundry, which was convenient, as it was time for that chore.

Our back window view is not great:

The park is well kept and the sites are wide, making it relatively easy to park.  But we did have about a half dozen people checking out our parking technique.  It’s also about 2 blocks from the beach.  And a walk through a gate put me in the dock area where I watched a sea otter entertain two observers on the bridge near by.  And as I’m writing this, I’m listening to the sea otters bark.  At least that’s what I assume they are.

We spent Saturday and Sunday doing chores and watching the NCAA.  Today, we headed back down Highway 1 to the restaurant where we had lunch last week.  Highway 1 between San Simeon and Monterrey is not an ideal road to pull a trailer on, so we did the southern portion from San Simeon last Thursday and did the northern portion today.

On the way down to the restaurant, we stopped a few times for photos.

 Note the arch in the cliff at the bottom and the house at the top.

Bixby Creek Bridge

At the restaurant, we enjoyed the view and the food.  On the way back to the truck we spotted this black headed blue jay, known as Stellar’s Jay.

Then we started on our adventure.  There is a 12 mile section of the old coast road along here that’s supposed to have stunning views and old redwoods.  Steve wanted to take it and since we have a 4 wheel drive truck, we did.

The views were fine, but we were a long way from the ocean, so not spectacular. This is cattle country and we were driving through the El Sur Ranch on the old right of way.  There were cattle grazing in open areas.  We also saw fields of California poppies.

And then we found the redwoods.  Tall trees that started in the ravines below us and reached the sky well over our heads.

We drove through a number of groves and were following a stream when we came to a narrow point in the road.  I got out to take a picture of Steve driving between the trees.

There were signs that some drivers had gotten too close at some point. 

After about an hour and a half (remember this was a 12 mile drive) of riding over washboard roads and gulches dug by the latest rain, we spotted the Bixby Creek Bridge, which is where the old coast road joins the current Highway 1.  Our adventure was ending.

Highway 1 was completed in 1937.  I hope the old coast road was maintained better in its day, but even so, I can’t imagine driving livestock or other products over that road.

After that, I needed a break, so we stopped at the next restaurant and had dessert.  As we were leaving, our waiter offered to take our picture and told us where to stand.  He has a good eye.

We extend our sympathies to our Midwest friends who got more snow last night.  I’m sure spring will come soon!

Deb