Never a Wrong Turn (Ever)

We're done and comfortably happy!

2013-02-22T09:44:00.000-08:00

Living room. A far cry from the original!

Our house is finished and we have moved in. Actually we moved to the house in December, but I am now just getting around to posting the final pictures.

Kitchen, complete with grandchildren pictures on the frig!

The details are amazing. We had a limited budget so our contractor added many little touches that create a home!

Custom molding for the cabinets.

Dining area.

Office area.

Shower.

Bathroom necessities.

Bathroom luxury!

Bedroom.

It is hard for me to believe that our contractors were able to take the leaky, rotted, moldy and bug infested mess that we purchased and turn it into this very comfortable home. We are so grateful to them and to the universe for making this opportunity possible.

Now I want to live here!

2012-11-18T16:25:00.001-08:00

Mike and I left town for four days and when we returned, our house had such a nice, warm, homey feel. Floyd and Dusty had installed lots of flooring and started placing kitchen cabinets.

Lower cabinets in place.

I will cook with a view.

We are using the same cabinet style in the bathroom.

I can now imagine the clawfoot tub sitting in this corner.

Shower tiles are almost done. Just need the floor.

And the floors are beautiful!

Beautiful in the bedrooms.

and beautiful in the dining/living area!

I can really see this being our home now. It feels so warm and I just want to move in NOW!

Exciting progress!

2012-11-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

The front of the house and wide stairs.

Now that most of the preparation work is done, exciting things are happening. First, the deck is done except for sealing. It is the most beautiful deck in all of Washington, I am sure. And it includes a wide staircase that doesn't block the view when short people sit down. During any warm weather, the deck will be our living room! Eventually we will get the surrounding mess cleaned up, but we are learning that progress takes patience.

View from the side of the house.

And the shower and bathroom are beautiful too! Even though their are no fixtures. There is a hole in that bathroom that one could use like a Chinese toilet.

Experts at work.

Growing shower. The top will be covered with more tile and will not be green.

Bathroom lights.

The tiling is near completion, so next week we should have some fixtures! The electricians have installed lights and switches and we have painted the walls. It gives the house a wonderful warm homey feel that hasn't been in this house for a long time!

Dining lights in the yellow dining area.

This light has been called a female body part.

The gas fireplace has been installed in the uncompleted mantel, but it is covered so that we wouldn't paint all over it. AND the floor is covered with boxes of hickory flooring. It is acclimating. We were told to keep it warm in at least 60 degree air. We now also have bedroom heaters that help keep it warm. I have asked it if it feels comfortable in the house, but I got no answer. I asked it if it was warm enough. Again no answer. Maybe after it is acclimated, it will wake up and talk to me!

Don't bang your head on my wall!

2012-10-30T17:45:00.002-07:00

Now the walls are really up! Lots of sheet rock screwed in, and lots of mud spread and sanded. And sanded again! And now, you cannot see the view :( At all! Plastic does not make good windows!

Can you see how the walls are deliciously smooth?

You can see the dust in the air!

Multicolored bathroom.

Where is the time capsule?

Noah and Luke helped prepare a time capsule to go in the wall. They drew pictures of themselves which they put in and then we added photographs of them and our other grandchildren. When will it be found? I hope not in my lifetime!

OK Mike, dust angels just aren't the same as snow angels!

Outside the view is still there. I hope that it doesn't wash away!

The grass loves the rain! Grow grass grow!

Would you go to bed with this?

Burr! It's getting cold outside!

2012-10-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

The weather is turning cold and we realized that a home without insulation is probably not a good idea! Oh, and by the way, it will not meet building code requirements! Oh, and by the way, it is in the plans we submitted to get our building permit. So we have added insulation. Did you know that on some walls you need a different color of insulation? Me neither!

It is such an attractive and convenient way to hold the ceiling up.

Living room

There is a lot of screwing around in the house.

Of course this is the bathroom.

Bedroom.

Other bedroom.

Getting ready for walls.

The addition of the insulation blocks views between rooms and defines the living spaces. We wanted a small house, and we got a small house.

It must be August - the septic tank is here!

2012-09-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

Real progress!

2012-09-08T20:43:00.003-07:00

We have been working hard and so have the roofers, plumbers, carpenters and electrician. After returning two tub faucets and one sink faucet, I think the third try at finding a faucet that will work for the tub will hopefully work. .

Mike and I have been wildly painting and have three sides of the house done. And our arms and legs and faces etc. are painted also. After all of our experiments with blues, greens, purple etc. we decided to paint the house yellow. It is a more dynamic yellow than the old paint, but yellow none the less.

The deck has begun and the stairs are going to be awesome. Where there are stairs, there is no railing to block our view while sitting down.

Two shades of yellow.

And last but not least - we have a new roof. Because the roofer went on vacation, we spent about three weeks without a roof. And we were lucky in that we were in the middle of one of the area's longest periods of rainless days in history. Rain is predicted tomorrow and we are covered!

Progress?

2012-08-29T17:53:00.000-07:00

I think we are making progress. We have a building permit and can build. So we have un-built the walls.
And, we un-built the deck.

And we pulled off the roof!

So, we seem to be making great progress! The good news though is that we have added insulation.

Isn't insulation supposed to be on the bedroom floor?

We have new wires.

They just are not connected to anything!

And, what is very exciting is that we have new wood that does not smell like rot and mold, and sub-floors that you cannot put your foot through.

We haven't un-built the view!

Really, we are making progress, but we are obviously not finished!

Time for a change

2012-08-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life just sneaks up on you. We learned through our winter in California that traveling is just too hard on Mike. He needs someplace permanent to stay and settle down. I would love to keep traveling, but I love Mike much more, so we have returned to Whidbey Island. We started looking for a small home on no more than 1/2 of an acre. First we found a little house on Deer Lake. We were getting pretty excited when we learned that the septic system had failed and it would cost $20,000 to build a new one. We were disappointed, but returned to looking at real estate. We found another property, with a small house and a great view and access to the sound. We made an offer on April 27th. It was a "short" sale, but the listing said that the price was "bank approved" and that there would be no delays. In bank talk, that means it takes forever. It took three weeks to even get the bank to look at the offer! Then we had a nightmare working with one bank. We kept hearing that we could do it, we just need one more thing. And we were told that the appraisal would be a drive by, but the drive-by turned into a very thorough inspection with a long list of "must dos". Again, we worked and worked. We obtained two estimates on everything in the long list. We provided proof of our blood types and genetic makeup. But in the end, when the bank insisted on a building permit before closing, and the town said we couldn't even apply until we could prove ownership of the property, we threw in the towel - for about 10 hours; just long enough for all the contractors we planned on using to take us out of their schedule. And then we found another bank that specializes in construction loans, and we closed on July 30th. We have moved our trailer to the property, but will continue to live in the trailer while the major remodeling takes place.

We took several "before" pictures, showing that it is a small house, (925 square feet) and that it needs a lot of work.

We also took pictures to show why we thought all the work was worth it! Great view and beach just 1/2 block away! Since we have moved here (yes, only one week) I have walked on the beach every day.

But I don't want to minimize the work to be done.

This is our pet mushroom, growing in the laundry room.

Beautiful modern kitchen with lots of cabinet space.

Bathroom.

Living room with stylish curtains.

One of two lovely bedrooms with the latest in curtains.

What the pictures don't show is the antique old torch down roof that is leaking and allowing mold and mushrooms to grow. AND the SMELL is BIG. We have to admit, it is scary to take on this project. It takes blind faith (or extreme stupidity) to keep going.

Jade Cove

2012-03-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

Looking down into the cove - you can see the trail down.

Our compatriot, park aide, surfer, and jade finder extraordinaire, Dylan, has shown us many beautiful pieces of jade he has found on the beaches near here. He also told us about Jade Cove. Jade cove is the purported best place to find jade in this area. He told us the trail down was a “little climb” and we went for it. After all, the cove is full of jade. So we slowly made our way down the steep trail, all the way to 30 feet above the bottom. And then, we grabbed hold of the rope attached to the cliffs, wrapped it around our hands and hopped, repelled, and slithered our way down to the bottom. We made it, and then we looked up, and wondered how the hell were we going to get back up.

The cove is full of rocks

And more rocks.

We scrounged through the rocks, and rocks and more rocks. We found lots of green rocks. Can they all be jade? We talked to other jade searchers. We still didn’t know if we had jade. So we just kept looking and filling our pockets with rocks. I did notice some young women sitting above the last 30 feet, waiting for their comrades and refusing to go down the last drop. Did they know something we didn’t? It did raise our anxiety level a tad!

Once we had both gained about 20 pounds in rocks, we decided that it was time to climb out. Mike, man with a worn out painful shoulder went first. And then I climbed out. Really, it was pretty easy, but we both kept thinking , just what would happen if we slipped. There may be a reason why no other people our age climbed down there. We haven’t been back.

Active jade hunter

Halfway up

At the top of the rope!

So we took our precious findings back to camp to show Dylan. He very tactfully went through our collection and showed us what was “false jade”; a soft soapstone type of green rock, and what was jade. It turns out Jade is very hard and can’t be scratched with steel. The false jade pile was 39.99 pounds and the real jade, was one piece, ¼ inch in diameter.

We have since learned that Sand Dollar Beach also has jade, and it has a real trail all the way to the beach. Dylan finds beautiful pieces almost every day when he goes to surf. And we find lots of pretty green rocks. Soft rocks.

Elephant seals and serpentine roads

2012-03-11T13:35:00.003-07:00

Parts of this coast look like Ireland

Herds of Elephant Seals

Light house in the distance

Fat baby

A few miles north of San Simeon, Elephant Seals slither out of the water and cover a few beaches from December through March every year. After they arrive, the females begin giving birth to the pups they have nurtured for 11 ½ months. When the pups are born they are very wrinkly, with skin enough to cover the fifty pounds they will gain in the first two weeks. The mothers feed them for a month or more, and then breed again for next year. Talk about being barefoot and pregnant all the time! While they breed right away, they have a mechanism that delays the actual pregnancy until after the female has been able to gain some weight. I envy female seals. No one ever tells them they are overweight. Once a year they become perilously skinny and have to eat and eat! I bet they could eat all the chocolate they want!

Males are often 16 to 17 feet long and weight 4000 to 5000 pounds. The book in the Lime Kiln State Park office on marine mammals states, “They can be approached closely, usually neither fleeing nor attacking unless unduly disturbed.” I have to wonder, how does a seal define “unduly disturbed”? Can I tickle its strange proboscis? Can I go 20 feet from the male and tell him he is really ugly? What happens if I do “unduly disturb” him and he attacks? I may be overweight, but I am nowhere near 4000 pounds! I think I would be unduly disturbed if I had to flee an elephant seal! We saw some males challenging each other and let me tell you, they move fast!

Madona and child

New baby with wrinkled skin

Resting

Unfortunately, these pictures don’t really give you the complete affect of this gathering of blubbery breeders. You can’t hear the males roaring at each other as they build their harems and challenge each other. You can’t hear the females that scream like a woman in danger. And you can’t smell their sweet fishy breath, or the fact that there are no treated outhouses on the beach. Even so, thousands of tourists come every year to watch, and they are fascinating, partly because they are just so strange looking. Happily, there are signs everywhere stating that they are wild animals and should not be approached. I was not unduly disturbed.

Don't worry - there is a guard rail

Worry now - there is no guard rail

Highway 1 is like no other road I have ever driven. The road is perched on cliffs and varies from one hundred to several hundred feet above the sea and rocks below. The posted speed limit is 55 miles per hour, but that speed is rarely possible. You weave through corner after corner slowing to 25 mph and then up to 40 mph and back to twenty. And the corners! You don’t want to miss a corner. Yes, there are guard rails, but do you really trust them to keep you from careening down the cliffs? The worst part about going over the edge would be that there is too much time between leaving the road and hitting the rocks. All that thinking that you could do!

That is the road in the distance

You pass through rock slide after rock slide in the process of repair, or still scarred from recent repairs. We have been warned that sometimes there are slides to the north and south, cutting the park off from civilization. (No worries, there is a small road that heads straight up and over the mountains. However, we would never be able to take the trailer over that road!) The maintenance costs must be horrendous. Warning: don’t look up to see how many rocks are left to fall! If you do, your heart will jump into your throat and pop out of your eyeballs!

All in all, this area of California is an enchanted land that I had no idea really existed. It is rugged, it is isolated and it is magical!

Lime Kiln State Park

2012-03-06T17:04:00.000-08:00

Lime Kiln Creek flowing into the ocean

Hills behind the park

OK – we arrived at Lime Kiln State Park almost a month ago and now I am finally posting about it. I admit I have been slow, but I have reasons – yes real reasons! When we arranged to campground host here, we knew that cell phone reception would be nonexistent, but we were promised a telephone line. But by the time we got here, the ranger who arranged our volunteer positions was gone, the park was closed and we were on our own. We moved into the host campsite, and then tried to connect our phone. And we heard nothing on the other end. Two days later a ranger helped us and he heard nothing. We contacted AT & T and an employee came to the park with his truck, checked the lines and told us that the main line had been cut by a road construction crew a mile north and that it would take a week or two to repair. Then we heard as much from AT & T as we heard in the telephone – aka, nothing. Three weeks later, AT & T employees and their trucks were stopped at a store two miles north where we can make emergency telephone calls. The clerk reminded them that we hadn’t had service all month. So they came to the park, checked the lines and said that the problem was with the line in the road construction location. They said it would be another week or two before it is repaired. And we have heard nothing more. We use phone connection to get internet, so the only way we have been able to connect in February, has been to drive 5 miles north to a pull off on the highway that locals call “cell phone point”. The good news is that I often see gray whales feeding from the point.

The day after we arrived, two park staff came to train us on running the generator system and the water system. They also handed us a poster of a man which told us to call police if we saw him. The next day we saw him. He walked into the park asking to take a shower, even though the park was still closed. We didn’t yet know about cell phone point. We did know that we had no phone, so we drove 35 miles to the ranger office to make a report. We reported, and were also provided with a radio for emergencies. We also learned that a park aide had just been hired to join us in two days, which was wonderful news. We haven’t seen the poster man again. We have settled into a regular routine with the aide. We have many more duties than we had at Saddleback Butte, but we still have lots of time to enjoy the park and the surrounding area. We reopened the park for President’s Day weekend, and were completely full. It had never crossed my mind that in warmer climates people would consider a weekend in February as a good camping opportunity.

The park is stunningly beautiful. We have a beach with a stream running into the ocean. One cliff has a very clear face in it. One ranger’s spouse has called it Bob Hope. I see more of a dog in the rocks. What do you see? The surf is very powerful here and I would be afraid to swim here. We are in a canyon that follows the stream up to a waterfall and to 4 old lime kilns built in the 1880s to process lime out of the rock. When we go to bed, we hear the surf and the stream running by. We are surrounded by coastal redwoods and see whales, sea otters, dolphins, elephant seals, golden eagles, California condors and beautiful scenery everywhere.

Whale watchers.

Pussy willows

Yucca plants

Yucca, yucca!

Lime Kiln State Park is very remote. The closest real grocery is 40 miles away in Cambria. The road is very curvy and follows the coast from high up on cliffs. You cannot drive it fast or while daydreaming about other things. You do not want to miss the corners. It is constantly plagued with rock slides. And it is one of the most scenic drives I have every experienced! It should be on everybody’s bucket list!

Path to the falls and kilns

In the 1880s four big kilns were built here to process lime out of the cliffs. A trail from camp leads to the still existing kilns 1/2 mile from camp. During the few years that they were operational, 3000 barrels were moved by a pulley system from the top of the man rock to ships off shore that then transported the lime to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Can you see a dog in the rocks?

Vanna of the kilns

Redwood growing out of the top of a kiln

Shamrocks cover the forest floor

The banana slugs here are very bright yellow!

Even the spiders are pretty.

Peeker!

Lots of trilliums are blooming.

Vanna of the waterfall.

I love it here and feel so privileged to have this experience. So you can imagine my utter exasperation when I learned that Lime Kiln State Park is on the list of 70 parks that California will close July 1, 2012 in order to help balance the budget. I could go on and on about how wrong I think this decision is, but I will spare you. Just get here soon if you can!

This redwood is huge!

This redwood burl is big enough to hold the glass top for a table that fills the dining room, living room, bedrooms, kitchen and bathrooms!

Top of the falls

Lower portion of the falls

The waterfalls are about 3/4 of a mile hike from camp. They are over 100 feet tall and are really quite beautiful.

The park suffered through a forest fire in 2008, and is recovering beautifully. Fire fighters thought that they had put it out and left, only to have the fire reignite and spread over a large area.

I will post more about the surrounding areas soon, I promise, but I must now leave cell phone point and drive back to camp. Tootle loo!

Pismo Beach

2012-02-27T20:49:00.001-08:00

Because we have not had any internet access, I am posting this almost 3 weeks after visiting Pismo Beach.

This mountain will dsiappear soon!

Dirt bike trails everywhere.

We left Saddleback Butte and headed towards Bakersfield, CA to spend one night. We drove through lots more hilly desert with sagebrush, a few Joshua trees and many dirt bike trails. Every unoccupied hill has tracks from dirt bikes. As we left the Antelope Valley, the hills were covered with thousands of wind mills spinning in the wind. As soon as we started our decent into the central valley thick smog engulfed us. I think that the folks in Bakersfield are so used to the haze that; they don’t realize that the sky is actually blue. The next morning we took care of some warranty work on the trailer and headed for Pismo Beach.

We drove through green hills and valleys until we saw the ocean. We stayed at a resort with a mineral hot springs and enjoyed many long soaks in the hot water. We were told that people come from all over the world to soak in the healing waters. But I am not healed! I still have a sick sense of humor and distressing mental illness!Maybe because I didn’t put my head under water for long enough. Spring is springing here and the pollen is everywhere.

Pollen in puddles

We had to go see the overwintering Monarch butterflies. I just couldn’t miss them! When I was a child my English teacher great aunt sent me a book about Monarchs and then wanted to test me on it. How could I let her down and miss the butterflies! The butterflies cluster around eucalyptus trees. Before I even got to where the butterflies were, I became fascinated with the colors of the eucalyptus bark. (I told you I have mental illness!) I love the blue-grays and browns paired together. If I ever again decorate a house, I think I want to paint the walls in bark colors. The butterflies were also beautiful.

Beautiful bark!

Monarch butterflies

And of course we had to walk on the beach. The temperature was in the 60s, but the wind was whipping through the sand and our clothes. I think I need bird feathers.

Behind the beach are miles of sand dunes. ATVs are very popular here too!

Fishing

Catching

Even through our walk was very chilly, it was also magnificently beautiful. And we went back to the mineral pool to warm up!

Rock Hounding Expedition

2012-01-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

Today's view is like yesterday's view and the day before, and the day before . .. Today's weather is like yesterday's weather and the day before and the day before . .. It is time for an outing! So I looked on the Internet for interesting day trips. We could go skiing on a nearby mountain where the snow is man made. That would be a wonderful activity for two old folks who both had back surgery last summer! Or we could go dirt biking; that is popular around here - and of course we wouldn't fall! The main hiking trails are here in the park. What should we do? Well, rock hounding is safe - just walking around. A local lapidary club posted some good sights and we selected one near Victorville that is reported to have Black Jade and Verd Antique Marble. Of course I didn't think to look at samples of these rocks before we left.

I want to go!

We drove down eight miles of dirt road to enter the famed rock hounding area. We didn't see any other hounders running around, but there were hundreds or thousands of ATV riders and dirt bikers roaring about. Hundreds of RVs were parked in groups on the desert, with many options for riding parked nearby. And the wind carried the constant sound of vroom, vroom. Young riders came dangerously close to hitting us as they crossed the road, and there were trails EVERYWHERE!.

The countryside was much like the country here at Saddleback, but with no monitoring or regulations.

We arrived at the purported hounding area and we looked for rocks. There were lots of rocks all around just like at Saddleback. But we kept walking up a hill toward some outcroppings, thinking those might be different rocks.

Black Jade or Verd Antique Marble? I don't know!

Verd Antique Marble? Or just an interesting rock?

Same rock turned over.

We did find many interesting rocks. Some were even black and green. Did we find what we were looking for? We don't know! Floyd - we need your help!

Signs of Spring!

Do not bump!

More cactus.

Yucca.

Shotgun shells.

Everywhere we stopped their were signs of target practice without any clean up efforts. In one area, there were even signs that various items had bee blown up. We had happened on a red-neck haven!

Clay pigeon remains.

Dust from the day of off road vehicles!

In summary, we had fun, we saw new country and we got away from the same scene day after day . . . . . sort

All the way to the top!

2012-01-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

We've been looking at it for days and wondering, could we really climb it. When one of the rangers talked to us about it, it was obvious that she didn't think we could. It is only two miles to the top. We had to try!

Can we really do it?

Aged climber!

Golden Eagle

We climbed and climbed. Actually the path was more difficult than the climbing. It is dry, soft sand, much like walking on the dry top of the beach, only there is no wet sand to move down to. In fact, nothing is wet. Not a drop nowhere!

View halfway up.

We did take our time as we climbed and climbed. We weren't sure which hump was really the top but the trail was well marked. It took us an hour and a half to get to the top. We sat and ate our lunch as we contemplated the view. This vast valley, named Antelope Valley is crisscrossed with lines that are not roads. The lines are straight and go on forever. Perhaps they mark sections of land. There are many for sale signs along the road. I bet you could get lots of land cheap! Come on down!

The trail up in the distance.

A green plant is so unusual that you have to take a picture of it. This one looks like swss chard!

Looking Southeast.

Looking Northwest.

Northwest from the top.

Looking South from the top.

It seemed a little funny, that after our hour and a half up, it only took us a half-hour to get back down. We passed by a truck hidden by tumbleweeds and a little bit further, Louie decided he was finished. It took some coaxing to get him the final 1/10 of a mile back to camp.

Where is the truck?

Tired hikers close to home.

And we made it back home.

We all made it back, even Louie. He stopped for a quick drink of water, then walked into the trailer and made a bee-line for the dirty clothes basket where he put himself to bed. I don't know if he was more tired from the walking or from smelling all sorts of scat and marking every bush.

Saddleback Butte State Park

2012-01-04T15:33:00.000-08:00

We have arrived and settled in at Saddleback Butte State Park where we are campground hosting until the middle of February. Saddleback Butte has a day use center, campground and many trails up and around the butte. It is about 15 miles outside of Lancaster, CA and sits about 2600 feet above sea level. The park is known for its Joshua trees, hiking trails and wildlife.

view from camp

Joshua trees are not actually trees, but are a type of lily. They have bark and very stiff, pokey leaves. They flower in the spring, but not every year, depending on how much rain they have had that year. This year will probably not produce a lot of flowers, unless it starts raining sometime soon. Birds nest in the branches, Yucca Night Lizards and Kangaroo Rats live in the dead branches and leaves that have fallen down. Woodpeckers dig holes in the trees and live in them, and also clean out many termites from the bark. The night snake feeds on the lizards and a moth feeds on the seeds etc. etc. etc. And they hurt when you bang your head into the leaves! One hangs down in our camp to about head level and is very easy to forget about!

Camp

Joshua "lily"

Old flower stem.

When they do flower, it must be spectacular as the flower stems are a foot long!

Apartment living.

Very sharp leaves!

Baby tree.

The "lilies" were named by Mormon settlers who thought that the branches look like raised arms welcoming them to the promised land. Scientists used to believe that the large ones were very old, estimating that they grew 1/2 inch per year. More recently, they have determined that their growth varies from year to year and can be anywhere between 1/2 inch to ten inches. No one really knows how old they are. Joshua trees only grow in the Mojave Desert and are becoming fewer and fewer as development encroaches on the desert. New ones can either sprout from existing roots or seeds.

Creosote leaves.

More creosote leaves.

Creosote bushes are also very prevalent. They are hardy desert creatures with tap roots 200 feet deep and many other roots which spread out in a wide pattern to get water while depriving other plants of water. Very little lives within a few feet of the bushes.

Saddleback Butte

There are actually four or five buttes in this area. They are formed because the San Andreas fault lies 12 miles from here. One earth plate is pushing under another and at times, when the pushing is intense, heat forms in the crust and pushes ground up, causing buttes. Can you guess how the mountains on the other side of the fault formed?

San Gabriel Mountains. The San Andreas fault is at the base of the Mountains.

Tumbleweeds are prevalent!

Louie is having the time of his life, and he will not be a white dog while we are here. He digs one hole, and then digs another near it that fills up the first hole while he is digging!

Sideways digging.

Resting.

The temperature at night has been between 20 and 30 degrees. By 9 am, it is comfortable to sit in the sun with a sweater, and afternoon temperatures have been in the upper 60s and lower 70s, that is until 4 pm when it begins the downward slide into winter again. Every morning and every evening we walk a mile to the visitor center, which is no longer open, and the day use area and open/close the park gates. We raise and lower 2 flags. We pick up litter if anyone has been here. The most campers we have had in one night is 3 groups. Obviously litter isn't a big issue. We will walk the trails to collect litter occasionally. Often, we just sit in the sun. I LOVE morning coffee in the sun!

Lancaster is not known for its friendliness! The east side (closer side) appears to be fairly low income. We shopped at a Walmart there that has the crankiest staff ever! We also shopped at a Hispanic market that had a wonderful meat section. Nothing was in styrofoam containers, but displayed in large hunks of whatever, and cut to order. All the normal meats were there and also large sections of all sorts of pig pieces, including ears, snouts, feet, legs and heads. One large cow head was also available. Lots of tripe and tongue were artfully arranged and they had mixes of fajita combinations already marinated which turned out to be delicious. I will shop there again! Unfortunately, to me, Lancaster appears to be a place where one grouchy person upset another person who upset another person, and it has gone on so long that everyone expects rudeness and anger all the time.

Central California

2012-01-03T21:39:00.000-08:00

We left Hayward, CA on December 28th to head towards our first campground host committment. We drove through the central valley of California where we saw rice, grapes, lettuce, almonds, oranges and many other things growing in very dirty air. The valley had poor air quality warnings posted, and the warnings were not wrong. Everything was so hazy it was hard to see details and even harder to breathe. I have to wonder what polution does to the food that grows in it. What and how much of what are we taking into our bodies from the air?

When we got to Bakersfield at the Southern end of the valley, we turned east to head into moutains. The moutains were only about ten miles away, but we literally could not see them from Bakersfield through the haze.

Haze looking out of the canyon towards the valley

More haze.

We drove from Bakersfield into a canyon to get to the Kern River. The road was very curvy and the rocks hung out over the road in many places just waiting to peel open our trailer. We avoided catastrophy by only inches and escaped unpeeled!

I am sure some rocks were just waiting to fall on us!

We passed by Lake Isabella which is a resevoir formed by the Kern River. We continued up the river until we came to a campground near Kernville. We were able to camp right by the river and enjoy evening fires. After dark, coyotes and owls lurked only feet away from camp waiting for our dog or cat to serve as dessert. They weren't picky - they would have taken either one or both. But they went to bed without any dessert from us.

O'Brien hot springs.

We relaxed in hot springs along the Kern River. When we arrived about 15 twenty-or-so year olds were soaking and using a rope swing to jump into the river. The river is freezing cold. Why is it that when one reaches 30, one learns finally, that cold water is no fun? I know a few sick individuals still participate in an annual polar bear plunge, but no matter how big, mean or rich you are, you won't get me anywhere near cold water! We loved the warmer water. And I must pay homage to the "mistress of the hotsprings". One woman cleans the pools every Wednesday. She maintains the trails, including building and repairing stairs down to the pools. She isn't paid, court ordered or forced to do so, she just does, because.

After leaving the Kern River Canyon, we entered desert country. We began to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into as we headed to our desert campground. The immensity of the desert can be overwhelming when you are facing six weeks in a campground you have never seen! But, we have committed. Saddleback Butte or bust!

Christmas on the road

2011-12-30T17:39:00.000-08:00

We left Washington on December 19th, and headed south. We stopped for the night in Kelso, Washington, and it was cold. We stopped for the night near Ashland, Oregon, and it was colder yet! We stopped for the night in Red Bluff, California, and it was getting warmer. We arrived at Mike's parent's house in the cool 60s. All we had to do was turn into a narrow drive wayand get past the gate and fence. And then park. An hour later, we were ready to hunker down for Christmas. Mike's mother moved into an adult care facility in September, and this was his father's first Christmas without her in 65 years. I cooked a turkey dinner for Christmas eve, and Mike's brother and niece joined us. We ate the leftovers for 4 more days!

Christmas Eve dinner

On Christmas morning, Mike and I opened our presents to each other and gave presents to his dad.

And then we went to Mike's sister's house for an amazing brunch and visiting with family and dogs. (There were five dogs present, including our Louie!)

Party animals

The next day, Marty, Marisa and Lola joined us visiting Mike's mom and had lunch with us in our "home". Lola has grown since we saw her in October!

Of course we gave Lola a doll!

The doll and Lola have pockets

When we first arrived, Louie was terrified of the big dogs in the pasture, and barked at them from behind my legs. Later he watched and watched from behind the fence, and by the time we were ready to leave, he was sitting IN the pasture for hours on end, watching those big dogs.

3 big dogs and Louie

We enjoyed our time with family, but on the 28th pulled our long trailer out of the driveway and headed south. On to more adventures!

Our ridiculous Christmas Letter

2011-12-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

The 2011 Tall Tales of Mike and Chris

Every winter, as the weather gets cold and the days get short, you hear, go south for the winter, it will be warm. So in 2011 we did. We started out by heading back to North Carolina to my sister, Gale’s home, where we had left our trailer and our dog, Bernie. We thought North Carolina was in the south, but we were fooled. It snowed and snowed! So we high-tailed it out of there and found snow in South Carolina. Then we headed to Georgia’s Jeckyl Island where it was cold, but did not snow. We won’t describe the misery of frozen sewage tanks and water pipes every morning no matter how many faucets we left dripping. (Hair dryers came in very handy!) In Savannah, it got a little warmer, but it wasn’t until we were halfway down Florida that we finally hit 70 degrees.

We loved the beauty of the trip south! We enjoyed visiting with Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dick during their annual trip to Jeckyl Island, and we were overwhelmed by the Everglades! So many amazing animals including crocodiles, alligators, panthers, pygmy rattlers right in the camp and birds of every amazing color and design possible.

Unfortunately, while driving through northwestern Florida we stopped in a business parking lot to make lunch. Immediately, two men in a truck wanted to know what we were doing. Then we noticed that the business had no name and the tall fences circling the buildings were topped with vicious biting barbed wire. As our stomachs sank, we realized we had found a secret CIA outpost and that we would have made a better choice if we had eaten lunch on the hills of red ants! Every time we turned around after that, nondescript cars were following us! We headed north and visited with Amie, Tony and the boys during their trip to visit with Tony’s father and step-mother in Mobile, Alabama. We enjoyed wonderful hospitality and got to see our very first Mardi Gras parade complete

Moon Pie dance!

with flying stuffed animals and moon pies. We toured the USS Alabama with the Parkers, but sometimes when I turned around, I saw men ducking out of sight. We worried that they were possibly after the Parkers now that we had been seen together. The agents followed us to Huntsville where we visited with Aunt Joan and cousin Linda. The agents followed us through Arkansas where we soaked in elaborate ancient soaking pools in Hot Springs, AK and while we dug in the dirt at Diamond Mine State Park.( I think they stole the diamonds we should have found.) They followed us through Texas and into New Mexico and all the way down into the Carlsbad Caverns. I think the agents even enjoyed seeing the petroglyphs at Three Rivers Petroglyph National Recreational Site. But then rabid terrorists required attention and the agents needed to go. They arranged for our demise by having a lady (agent also) crash into us. These were old agents who forgot about airbags. We survived and only needed a little fixing. AND now we have matching surgery scars on our backs. Not every couple can say that!!!

We flew back to Washington nursing our wounds and moved back into our house. We started mowing and cleaning, pulling weeds and cleaning, and Mike put a new roof on the house. Then we mowed again and cleaned again and pulled more weeds. And we missed our old trailer lifestyle. We listed our house for sale. In 2 and ½ months, 2 people came through the house. But our frustration paid off! We were able to do a lease option to buy with a very nice couple. And buy a new trailer and truck.

We are set to campground host at Saddleback Butte and Big Sur in California and Salt Water State Park and Deception Pass in Washington. We are very excited and can’t wait to start in January.

While we were traveling, our grandchildren continued to grow. Noah is 6 and attending first grade. Luke is 4 and attending preschool. They are both swimming and taking karate.

Lola will be two in February. We were able to visit with her in October and loved seeing her run and run in the park. Amie and Tony are working very hard and running marathons. They have been able to enjoy great vacations, including Thanksgiving in Mexico.

Marty, Taylor and Lola reside in Foster City California where Marty is employed at a Toyota dealership and Taylor is a stay at home mother. Bobby and Alison have recently announced that they are expecting a baby in June.

We were so excited that we immediately arranged a campground host position two miles from them for May and June. Marisa is living in San Francisco and traveling all over the country and beyond to give presentations to rooms full of doctors. She has been able to travel for fun as well. We are very proud of all our children, their spouses and children. We are very blessed.

We hope that you have a wonderful holiday season filled with peace, love, laughter and joy!

Love,

Mike and Chris

Back at it again!

2011-11-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are crazy! Yes, we are insane! But we so missed the full-time RVing lifestyle. So after we have both undergone spinal fusion surgeries (we have matching scars) physical therapy, chiropractic care, massage and accupuncture, we are at it again! We have leased our house with an option to buy for three years, purchased a truck capable of pulling a trailer and a brand new trailer. We have moved into the trailer and have it parked for a few weeks at a friend's property. In January, we will be campground hosting at Saddleback Butte State Park in California. And in the warmer months, will be campground hosting in Washington. So, we get up in the morning. Clean the home, and 15 minutes later have the day left to . . . . . .. . . . . whatever. Play, paint, walk, contemplate our navels, read - you name it.

A dramatic end to an incredible journey.

2011-03-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

On the morning of March 16th we left camp early headed to Santa Fe to view museums and art galleries. At 10:00, Louie was hanging out with Mike and looking around. Then he went to sleep on the backseat. I am so glad he was in back!

At 10:15 we were crossing an overpass over Interstate 40 at Cline's Corner (former site of Route 66) and first a white SUV turned in front of us to enter the freeway so close to us that Mike laid on the horn. We were almost ready to say "whew" when we noticed the black SUV behind the white one was going to cross in front of us very close behind the black one. Mike said, "I'm not going to be able to miss her" and we crashed into her right rear quarter panel. Without steering, we would have gone into oncoming traffic, but Mike steered us straight down the hill on the other side of the road, through the guardrail and avoided rolling us down the hill. Great driving Mike!

We were tossed around and have some soft tissue injury and bruises. I had black lips for a few days from the airbag. The woman we hit has a sprained wrist. Considering that we were going between 50 and 60 miles an hour, we are all incredibly lucky to walk away. We were all taken by ambulance to Albuquerque about 50 miles away to be checked out. One can see the truck is obviously totaled. The trailer frame, despite all my research on strong frames, buckled and had to be trailered rather than towed to the wrecking yard. Louie was taken to an animal shelter to be cared for. He was not hurt at all. The local sheriff witnessed the accident. We couldn't have a more credible witness and he determined that the accident was 100% the other driver's fault.

We spent three nights in an Albuquerque hotel. We went to the wrecking yard to collect our belongings, but were given only two hours by the yard supervisor so were not able to get everything. We shipped home what we could get, and flew home.

However, our house is still leased out. We have been staying with wonderful friends, and beginning in April are renting a beach cabin on Whidbey Island until our tenants can find another place to live. We are still in shock over the unexpected end to the journey. We are trying hard to adjust and to remember how very lucky we are to be alive and healthy!

The offending vehicle.

We will have to take another trip to see Santa Fe, Taos, Arizona and Death Valley!

Three Rivers Petroglyph National Recreation Site

2011-03-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

We traveled through the Lincoln National Forest crossing over hills of dwarfed pines, oak scrub and cactus. We headed north on Highway 54 running parallel to the White Sands Missile Range. We kept our heads ducked and did not run into any errant missiles. In many places, you could see the band of white sand next to the Jornado Del Muerto (mountains) range. We arrived at the National Recreational Site in the early afternoon and had plenty of time to explore.

More than 21,000 glyphs of birds, humans, animals, fish, insects and plants, as well as numerous geometric and abstract designs are scattered over the northern Chihuahuan Desert. The petroglyphs at Three Rivers, dating back to between about 900 and 1400 AD, were created by Jornada Mogollon people who used stone tools to remove the dark patina on the exterior of the rock. A small pueblo ruin is nearby . Anthropologists believe that this location was a crossroads for tribes that would leave messages for each other and tell stories with the petroglyphs.

The road was straight, straight and straight.

Valley view from the campground. White Sands is near the mountains in the distance.

We chose to follow the no dogs on the trails rule.

Is this an older version of the cuts of meat diagram in many cookbooks?

Man with beer belly.

In several places people have chipped away the petroglyphs.

Vana of the petroglyphs!

An obvious eagle.

When studying children's art in college, I learned that all children go through a progression of objects before people and then the same progress with people. This circle with a cross in it is one of the shapes drawn by children before they draw people.

Roadrunner?

Reconstructed footprint of an older home.

This house is a little newer.

This is the newest type of house found on site.

The campground had only two RV sites and a few unoccupied tent sites. The evening was warm and we were able to enjoy a long and dramatic sunset. After dark, the stars were just as spectacular. And it was soooo very quiet!

Carlsbad Caverns

2011-03-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is in South East New Mexico up in the desert hills. You drive up a winding road through sage brush and cacti in a landscape that says nothing about caves. The main cave that visitors see is only one of several caves in the area. One immense cave was only discovered in the 1980s and is still being explored by the professionals and not yet open to the public. The most known cave has the visitor center on top, and then you take an elevator 750 feet underground. Mike and I were worried about claustrophobia, but the cave is so immense that we did not feel closed in at all, though by the time we got up, Mike was ready to see the sky! I usually try to walk at least two miles a day and this day I accomplished that completely underground.

Most caves are formed by air bubbles trapped in rock formations. Not so for Carlsbad caverns. These were formed by water underground with a high acid content. Then, once the caves were formed, thousands of years of drips have formed many of the "decorations" in the caves.

Landscape approaching the cave entrance.

Inside caverns.

This is hanging down from the ceiling.

This column is about 15 feet tall.

This hole goes to a lower chamber that was explored in the 1920s. Those explorers left behind this ladder.

All of the pools we saw had incredibly clear water.

I think that these are aliens standing by a pool.

Everyone would stop and snicker at this formation. I wonder why!

These stalactites are about 8 feet long. I think they look like Rapunzel's hair.

Monster teeth.

Walrus?

The view from the parking lot looking towards Texas.

I am enchanted by the cactus blossoms. I think if we could stay a month longer, we would see lots of blossoms.

If you ever get a chance to see these caves, don't pass it up. They are amazing. I am reading a book by Nevada Barr named Blind Decent. Ms. Barr is a former National Park Ranger and writes mysteries that take place in national parks. This one takes place in a cave in the Carlsbad National Park. After being in the cave, it is fascinating to read about the challenges of exploring a new cave and read her descriptions of the cave formations. She has many books. If you are going to a National Park, look for one of her books dealing with that park. I guarantee it will be a fun read!

Central to West Texas

2011-03-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

We bypassed Dallas driving the interstate south of the city. I must confess, that I couldn't resist a certain finger jester as I thought about George Bush residing in the City. I even hope he felt a moment of extreme discomfort. Not kind, I know, but neither is he!

Oil isn't the only energy resource in Texas. We saw miles and miles of these wind turbines.

Cacti were everywhere. And there are rumors that snakes come out in the Spring, so we were very careful where we walked! Which is worse? Cactus spines or snakes?

The rocks are all covered with a layer of dried dead water slime type plants.

While Texas allows fishing in their state parks from the shore without a license, there was really nowhere that looked promising.

After Caddo Lake and East Texas, we were overwhelmed with the miles and miles of dry flat ground. Cows grazed on sparse dead grass around oil wells and dust blew everywhere. We often guess at the fire danger when we see the signs in the distance. We of course guessed that it would be high in West Texas and were wrong. The signs posted it as moderate. I cannot imagine what high fire danger looks like here! We camped at Colorado City State Park on a reservoir. It appears quite different on the map than in reality. One side of the reservoir has a large noisy power plant and the other side is a state park. The reservoir is only about one-third full. We know that the rainy season here is August and September so maybe this is normal for this time of year but it sure seemed like a very low water level!

There is some water.

But the water is a long ways from the "beach".

Bobcat track.

We had to test it! Mistletoe does work in March.

There were many of these facilities. The appear to be some sort of oil settling pond.

There are several places that are still actively drilling for oil.

Roadrunner track. Though rangers kept telling me they were around, I never saw one.

Typical of much of the countryside.

We took several back roads that went straight, straight, straight through the desert. I was constantly reminded of old John Wayne movies and the depiction of the countryside as challenging and unfriendly (like enemy). Two of the places that we camped, Louie could not walk on the ground without getting painful, sharp spurs in his paws. Now I do believe that the people who settled this country were tough . Or desperate. Or misguided! They didn't know then that they would be rewarded with oil. There is a reason there are no mansions located besides the wells out here!

For Laura

East Texas

2011-03-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

We traveled across the northeast corner of Louisiana and into Texas. The terrain was rolling hills, covered with oil fields and cows. I don't know why, but next to wells pumping furiously, would be ramshackle houses and single wide trailers. Are the mineral rights sold separately from the land, or are these people tending the wells for distant owners? I don't know, but I sure didn't see mansions and evidence of oil money in the Texas countryside. I mumbled secret prayers that the wells would suddenly pump much more oil so that gas prices would come down. I would send the profits to the local impoverished population, but I have to admit it was a selfish desire for lower gas prices that motivated my prayers.

Oil field.

Uncertain is a very small town, but if all of us who are really uncertain moved there it would be the largest city in the country!

We stayed at Caddo Lake campground. It was a beautifully otherworldish. Cypress trees grew out of the water and Spanish moss decorated them like tinsel on old fashioned Christmas trees. Turtles lined logs at every opportunity for sun, though most of the time it was cloudy. We stayed an extra day waiting for sun so that I could paint in the ambiance of bayou, but when the sun came out, so did the wind. I will have to paint that picture from photographs!

Turtles basking in the overcast.

While we were staying at Caddo Lake, we noticed that Louie kept staring at a 6 inch circumference white plastic pipe sticking out of the ground next to our camp. He was acting like Bernie, who because he didn't see well, would assume that inanimate objects were dangerous intruders. Finally, after a couple of days we investigated and found a possum face down in the pipe unable to move. It was slightly alive and we took the coward's way out. We told the rangers and let them deal with this wild animal!

Gargantuan ranches covered the East Texas countryside.

You know you are leaving East Texas when the land becomes flat and the roads are straight.