Family Time

Yay! Niece Pam fixed Word for me while I was at DOM so when I open the program I get a blank page. How I managed to make it so it didn’t is a long story. DOM is another story that I will explain later. The other good news is that it does happen very often for us in this lifestyle that we are in exactly the right place for the weather and today is one of them. We are back at brother Dick’s house near Brainerd, MN and today it is breezy and cool with a high predicted about 80. I saw on the news yesterday that my friends back in Springfield are suffering with highs in the 100s. I wish you were all here and I would rent a big pontoon boat and take you out on the lake of your choosing for a party but, don’t forget your bug repellent and you may need a light jacket this evening.

The rainbow after the big storm
on July 12 in Brainerd. Camp Host
provided good shelter.

The last time I wrote was on July 10 and we had just arrived here. Since then we have had numerous family dinners, took a vacation to the Atlantic Ocean with the kids and I went to the sister’s retreat known as DOM while Don went to the cities to help nephew Andrew and his wife move to a new house. Before we took our vacation, I picked up sister Elaine in Elk River and brought her back to spend a weekend in Brainerd. Good thing because she couldn’t come to DOM with all that is going on in her life right now and moving her firstborn to his first house. We took her home and then stayed a couple of days with brother Ludwig in Minneapolis before we flew off for our vacation.

On July 16, we flew to Philadelphia where Kelly met us and we joined Peggy, Greg and Edie for one night of camping on Assateague Island at the National Seashore where the wild horses roam free. It is off the coast of Maryland. We all slept in tents, cooked hot dogs on the fire and listened to the ocean on the other side of the dunes while we slept. We saw the night sky with an amazing number of stars and walked through deep sand down to the beach with waves crashing on it. We saw herds of wild horses grazing along the roadsides and evidence of horses all over the place. We followed park suggestions and put our food in the car overnight so as not to attract horses into our campsite as that is not really a good thing to have happen. And we played with Edie. Thanks to Kelly for making this all happen for us. She was able to get one night there.

Edie & Aunt Kelly with Daddy in the wave

When we left Assateague, we went up the coast to Ocean City MD where we had reserved a condo at the Marigot Beach Suites. Here we enjoyed beach living and playing with Edie at the ocean to our hearts content. Everyone turned a darker shade of tan even though we went through 3 tubes of sunscreen. We ate wonderful meals together and laughed a lot. We flew back to Minneapolis on July 21 and came up to Brainerd the next day.

DOM at the Rose Garden

We had time to get our laundry done and eat some more family meals before DOM and Andrew’s move. Now I will explain DOM which stands for Daughters of Marjorie. Marjorie is the saintly woman who gave birth to me and my 12 siblings. Besides my 3 sisters (Jean, Kay and Elaine) and myself, anyone can be a DOM who is a woman over 18 and descended from Marjorie or has the fortune (some might question this) of being married to any man who is descended from Marjorie. That currently amounts to 18 potential members though since participation is voluntary some have opted out though everyone is always welcome to opt in.  During the last 19 years that I lived in Springfield, people traveled from Minnesota and we normally gathered in April which tends to be a good time to be in Illinois.. weather-wise. There were times when we had as many as 10 people gather for the weekend which starts on Friday afternoon and ends on Monday morning. This year there were just 5 of us and this was the first year that Elaine was unable to attend. See my earlier comment about her busy life. Jean, Kay and I met at my brother Mark’s restaurant, Wings Café at the Brainerd Airport for lunch before heading up north to DOM. This year and last, we’ve met in Jean’s daughters, Pam and Deb’s ancestral home in a small town just south of Duluth, thus the field trip to the Rose Gardens overlooking Lake Superior. Kay came up from the Cities a day early so I got to spend some time with her both before and after the weekend.

Best Camp Host Ever

Which reminds me to write about my brother Dick who we have nominated and selected as the Best Camp Host of The Year. His election was sealed when he made a pork roast on his Weber grill for dinner while Kay was here. He has very generously allowed us to upgrade the wiring in his garage, tap into his well water and leave tire tracks in the yard all the while letting us enjoy meals and keeping us company at his outdoor table in the front yard. Thank You Dick!

This morning, Don went with brother Mark fishing leaving me in the camper by myself. Welcome solitude for me. Dick is off on a sailing trip with his brother-in-law on Lake Superior and will be back later today. Tonight I am looking forward to fresh pan fish for dinner.

We’ll be taking it easy here until Sunday when we leave the camper again and head to Minneapolis to babysit on Monday and Tuesday. We’ll come back on Wednesday to get it and move down to Clearwater where we hope to spend a night with an old friend before heading to the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival at El Rancho Manana near Richmond, MN. This will mark the anniversary of our first use of our camper when we took it to the festival the day after we brought it back from Greenbay (8/7/14). We were very green then. After the festival, we plan to stay a month at the Mississippi Riverwood RV Park in Otsego, MN. It is near Elk River, MN where we will be just down the road from Elaine. After that we plan to go to the Jug Band Boogie at Deer Lake Charlies near Effie, Minnesota where we will see brother Ludwig play the mandolin and maybe the banjo before we head south on I-35 on about September 16. Anyway, that’s our plan.

Summer Honey

 Today our plan is to leave Fargo and head down to brother Dick’s in Brainerd, MN. As I prepared to write, I checked on my last post to see where I left off. We were at the Cummin’s RV repair shop in Eugene, OR. Don’s cousin Susan is right. I should write more often. It’s like preparing for a term paper. I have to do extensive research in order to accurately report on where and when things happened. So I have my calendar, phone and log I keep around me as I write.

As it turned out we didn’t leave Eugene on the 17^th as planned but spent another night and didn’t get the Aqua Hot fixed though they came up with the same diagnoses that we did. We do have an expensive fix and they didn’t have the parts so we’ll find a place in Minnesota while we are there. So we finally left Eugene.

We came up I5 to Portland and then turned to come East on I84. We saw Mount Hood in the distance and kept on driving along the Columbia River until we crossed it and headed into Washington on I82 near Kennnewick. We stopped in Connell for the night at Coyote Run RV Park. That was a good place for an overnight stop. It was close to the interstate, easy on and off and well maintained. There isn’t much to do or see there so we didn't mind leaving early the next day. That part of Washington is hot and dry this time of year.

We headed up to Spokane where we spent a couple of days at the Spokane County Fairgrounds. The Spokane Indian’s baseball diamond was block away from the campground, so we took in the home opener with 7000 Spokanians on a beautiful summer night… standing room only tickets. So we found room to stand in a walkway overlooking 3^rd base. A nice usher pointed to a place beyond right field with the sun shining directly in and informed us that was the place for standing room ticket holders. So we moved closer to home plate with a different usher. She asked if we needed help finding our seat. We assured her we didn’t and moved a little away from her. We decided to take a break from the game and went to the concession stand for dinner… $1.00 each for hot dogs and ice cream sandwiches. We returned and found a good place to stand near our second usher. We smiled at her when she came by and continued to watch the game. Finally, a nice couple was leaving and offered us their seats up behind the 3^rd base line. Unfortunately, the Indians were losing so we left early in the 8^th inning along with most of the other spectators and walked back to the camper. The next day was my birthday so I got to choose what we would do. We loaded up our bikes and headed out to find the bike trail. After getting us thoroughly lost trying to find a state park, we went into the city center and started our ride there. We rode along the river and saw Spokane at its best. Don cooked some salmon on the grill and we found a table in the shade where we enjoyed our dinner. We had the campground to ourselves and later that night I sat on the front steps of the camper in my pajamas and watched fireworks from the baseball diamond. On Sunday morning we met friend Nancy Bartmess for breakfast and caught up with her. We made secret plans to meet in Excelsior Springs, MO sometime in September and do some work. Nancy moved here from Springfield several years ago to be near her daughter who has very generously given Nancy 2 beautiful grandchildren. She was part of our

bicycle group, the NOBES.

Spokane is a beautiful city and very confusing to navigate around because of the river that winds through it. 

After breakfast we returned to the fairgrounds, hooked up the car and continued our eastward journey. We stayed the night at Wal-Mart in Post Falls, ID just west of Coeur d’Alene, ID. We took the car into that beautiful city and enjoyed a walk along the lake where city residents were enjoying the beaches. Wal-Mart was not a good stop as we couldn’t put out our slides and cook out as we wished. I guess we didn’t think that through very well.

We posted a picture of me at the center of the universe in Wallace, ID. It's always nice to be there once. We continued east stopping in Missoula, MT where we stayed at a Harvest Host Venue, Big Sky Brewery. Once we were set up, I suggested that we go in the tap room and let them know we were here and see if we could get a tour of the brewery. Well, it turns out that the taproom offers 4 free samples of the beer they have on tap. So we each had four 4 oz. samples. There was no brewery tour at a time that worked for us so we took a short self guided tour. While we leaned on the bar, we enjoyed talking to a couple who liked to RV but didn’t know about harvest hosts, another young man came in to get his growler refilled and we visited with him a while. After we took our self-guided tour, we returned to finish our samples. We met a couple who had retired from the forest service. We don’t know what we said but they suddenly had to leave. We bought a case of beer including my favorite, Summer Honey, Don’s favorite Trout Slayer and some Moose Drool which brother Ludwig had when we were in Texas. We thought we’d bring the beer to Minnesota and have something special to share with family members. Turns out that Big Sky Brewery distributes this far and no one was impressed. That’s okay because that means I get all the Summer Honey. By the time we left the taproom we had very little time to tour Missoula. We were both a little testy as we had forgotten to eat any lunch. We drove around and Don showed me the neighborhood that he remembers visiting his uncle who used to live there. We were unable to make connection with his cousin who lives there. So that was it for Missoula.

The next day we headed through the mountains past the Three Forks of the Missouri River down into the Yellowstone River Valley. I realized at some point that we had come by many places of the Lewis and Clark trail so I found the book Sacajawea and downloaded it on my NOOK so I could reread this saga about that amazing woman. We were back into familiar territory with familiar faces. That was good. I hadn’t realized how good it would feel to know our way around and see people we’ve known forever. We stopped for a night in Columbus and camped by the river. That is where we took the picture from our window of the River. This is the town in which Don’s mother grew up and his Aunt Ruth, aged 97 still lives. She is Cousin Susan’s (from San Francisco) mother. We stopped to see Aunt Ruth to let her know we would be back in Columbus in a few days and headed over to Billings. On the way to Billings I received a message from Niece Kelsey letting us know that she was in Montana. That was a delightful surprise. We told her where we were headed and she said she’d be there in a couple of hours. We had picked the Billings KOA for a night because we thought it had full hook-ups and we could do laundry. While this is a very nice KOA with lots of amenities and very well maintained, it turned out there was no sewer connection (hence no laundry) and the sites were very small and it was the most expensive overnight we have spent anywhere, even the KOA near LA. It is also the first of all the KOA’s.

Kelsey arrived in her Miata convertible shortly after we were set up and we were happy to feed her some lunch. Don’s brother Bill and his wife Carol came over for steak and salmon dinner. Kelsey was very kind to grill the meet while Don and Bill told stories. It was a beautiful evening.  The next day when Kelsey took off, she clipped a couple of pieces from her jade plant, put it in a plastic cup in the cup holder in her Miata and took off for the Bear Tooth Pass on through Yellowstone Park on her way to her friends in Wyoming.

We stayed 2 more days in Billings at Bill’s friend’s place across from the KOA. He was kind to let us boondock in his field for 2 days. We drove to Don’s hometown, Laurel to do our laundry and stopped to see his cousin Larry in Park City and enjoyed a visit with them. While we were in Montana, the temperature each day was a little higher than the previous day. By the time we left the state, the temperature was near 100 degrees. We went back to Columbus for a couple of days and stayed one night by the river and decided to move to a campground where we could have electrical hookup and run our air conditioner to our heart’s content. We took one of those days to go up to the mountains and look for cooler air. We walked partway up the Mystic Lake trail and reminisced about all the times we have been there beginning in 1972 when we went up with brother Ludwig, then girlfriend Peggy and brother Jim; again in the 80’s with brother Paul, in 1992 with our children and their friends and 10 years ago with the Trip of the Shiny Dime. We returned to Columbus and had dinner with Aunt Ruth, Cousin Susan, her friend Bill, Cousin Mary and her husband in the house in which Don’s grandmother lived when he was a boy. The whole crew came by to see our camper before we left on June 29.

 

We followed the Yellowstone River for many miles and finally left it behind when it veered north to catch the Missouri on its long trip the Gulf of Mexico. We spent a night at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and kept on going arriving in Fargo on June 30.  We had many meals with my Brother ^th of July we drove back to Minneapolis in our car to go to a party at Greg and Peggy’s where we got to see several more family members. I will post a picture rather than name them all. We also enjoyed playing with Edie. We stayed at brother Ludwig’s house and then drove back to Fargo to see Doug and Georgene one more time. On our way out of Fargo we made one obligatory tourist stop and took a picture of the infamous wood chipper from the movie named for this city.

Doug and his wife Georgene and he showed us his office in the federal courthouse and introduced us to his boss, the judge. Kelly was in Minneapolis last week and drove up to Fargo to spend a day with us. While she was there, we had dinner with our Niece Jenny and her family. We’ve been eating a lot of meals with family lately and not doing nearly enough hiking and biking. For the 4

We are no longer tourists but are now officially visiting family and catching up with Minnesota folk. I’m writing this it is a couple of days since I started.  Now we are by the Mississippi River far upstream from where the Missouri joins it down in St. Louis. We moved over to Brainerd and are parked next to Brother Dick’s house. We’ve eaten a few more family meals here and have left messages and are waiting to hear back. I have one message answered and have plans to have lunch with My Aunt Ruth on Saturday. She also has a daughter, my cousin Susan who has a husband named Bill not to be confused with Don’s Aunt Ruth, his cousin Susan and her partner Bill.

Today I went to Costco optometry department to see about getting new glasses. I went up to the counter to ask about getting into see the optometrist. A pretty red-haired young woman with bright mischievous eyes and my cousin Tim’s smile said, “You’re my cousin! You are one of the Nesheims.” I looked at her and said, “You are Tim’s daughter.” I happened to be wearing an old tee-shirt from an event that she recognized. Don visited with her and told stories while I had my eyes examined. Unfortunately, by the time I was done she had to clock out and I didn’t get to order my glasses from her.  

Leaving California

So today, June 16 we are staying in the parking lot of Northwest Cummins RV Repair in Coburg, Oregon just north of Eugene. Here we will have some recalls fixed and maybe even the Aqua Hot. Our wheel that was damaged at the toll booth has a hubcap and looks like new again.

I haven’t written since we arrived at Santa Rosa where we spent a few days. As I’m beginning to recall where we’ve been and the sequence of what we’ve done, I have to look at the calendar and my pictures to get it organized. It’s important that I do this, not just so my story is more or less accurate but also to help get my mind organized. Writing this blog helps me to feel like I’m still connected to all of you friends and family for whom I write. This is important because I miss so many of you. When I get some feedback and know that some of you are reading this it really helps me feel connected. So don’t be shy about letting me know. What is strange is that when I talk to some of you and I don’t know if you’ve read the blog and I start talking about what we’ve been doing, I think maybe I’m telling you something you already know.

When we leave here later today or tomorrow depending on when the work is done on the coach, we’ll be starting to head east and back towards home, wherever that is. Sometimes, now when someone asks where we are from I just say, “the Midwest”. That pretty much covers it.

Anyway, we spent a few days in Santa Rosa, California where we stayed at the Event Center. While we were there, we took a drive over to the coast to spend some more time at the Pacific Ocean. The shore here is more rugged and wild, chilly and windy. Santa Rosa is in the Sonoma River Valley which is known for its wines, so we took a wine tour and bought a couple bottles of wine. We actually went to the Russian River Valley which is also known for its wines. It seems like a lot of river valleys around here are known for their wines.

We left Santa Rosa on June 1 and headed farther in-land because as long as we were anywhere near the Pacific Ocean, we weren’t going to be warm. We stayed for 2 nights at a Harvest Host venue, Giusti Family Farm which is where we were parked next to the chickens and enjoyed the beautiful sunset. Our hosts, Sandy and Richard Giusti invited us into their home where we enjoyed dinner and made to feel part of their family. They gave us a tour of the county where we learned about how they irrigate and grow crops in this part of the Central Valley. Their land is bounded on one side by the Sacramento River and the other side by the Nevada River.  Their primary crop is rice and at this time of year the fields are very green and flooded with water. When they are finished, the unused water is returned to the river. They also have fields of tomatoes and garbanzo beans which were nearly ready to harvest. This was a wonderful stop, and we found the warmth we were looking for.

We then headed north and stayed for 2 nights in Redding, California at the Win River Casino RV Park.  It was here that we found one of the best bicycle trails in the country. We started at the famous Sun Dial Bridge and rode along the Sacramento River and crossed the river on The Hanging Bridge that was built just for bicyclists and pedestrians. This was a beautiful ride. The temperature in Redding was headed into the triple digits, so we headed north and spent a night at another casino (Seven Feathers) in Canyonville, OR. We enjoyed a beautiful trip up I5 past Mount Shasta on our way into Oregon.

Oregon…. Hills and trees… logging trucks coming and going… beautiful rivers speeding downhill to the ocean. U-Pick blueberries not yet ready to pick L… a chilly rugged coast with sand dunes and lighthouses… hay fields with cattle… beautiful flowers. I’ll put up some pictures. We spent 10 days at the SKP Timber Valley RV Park in Sutherlin, OR. The weather was pretty hot the first couple of days there, so we took a couple of trips over to the coast where we had to wear sweatshirts. We saw dunes and lighthouses and Shore Acres State Park that was created from land developed by a wealthy lumber tycoon early in the last century who developed exotic flower gardens and landscaping that is still being maintained today. That is where I got pictures of beautiful flowers. We took our bikes to Cottage Grove where we rode their bike trails to see covered bridges. On Saturday evening we took a short trip to Myrtle Creek to the Grand Victorian Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre for excellent prime rib and a production of “Murder at the Moose Hyde Lodge”. This was a local production in a small town with a group who clearly enjoyed entertaining us. We took a few days there to clean up the camper, do laundry, make another batch of granola and shop for some groceries. We left Timber Valley yesterday and came here to Eugene to get the camper fixed.

I am finishing writing these 12 hours after I started it. Since this morning, we got the recalls fixed and they began diagnosing the Aqua Hot. We’ll spend another night in the parking lot so they can hopefully at least figure out the problem if not fix it. So today, we went and got to know Eugene where Greg and Kelly spent some time back in 1997. As we traveled around town today, I imagined them here as some very young adults making their way. We had breakfast at the New Day Bakery and checked out the sports venues of the Oregon Ducks. But mostly we looked in vain for a Ducks postcard for Grandpa to send to Edie.

California 4

I started writing this thing yesterday and then stopped because I was getting really boring listing in order the places, we’ve been. Today we moved north out of the San Francisco area and are now at the Sonoma County Event Center RV Park in Santa Rosa, CA. Event Center is the new name for the county fairgrounds. We stayed in the San Mateo County Event Center (SMCEC) just south of San Francisco for the last 5 days. We stayed an extra day there because we had to fix the front wheel on the camper that was damaged at the toll booth on our way across the bay. I am way ahead of myself because before we even came to the bay area we spent 3 weeks up near Yosemite National Park.  This is what I wrote yesterday.

Yosemite to San Francisco with no flowers in my hair though I thought about stealing some flowers from the Golden Gate park just for a picture. But first I want to talk about Yosemite, the most

beautiful place that we’ve seen so far. We stayed for about 3 weeks at the SKP Park Sierra up near Coarsegold, CA about 40 miles south of the Park. We put a lot of miles on our little car while we were there making several trips into Yosemite; one to Mariposa Grove to see the giant Sequoia’s, another ride from Coulterville through the park returning through the south gate where we stopped at Bridalveil Falls; a trip into the valley to see the famous views of Half Dome, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls from the Valley floor, up to Glacier Point  and a 1.4 mile hike up (and I do mean UP) to Sentinal Dome to see the famous valley from the top, a 4.5 mile hike around the Wawona Meadow and another hike up to Chilnualna Falls. We took a break from Yosemite and spent a day going to Sequoia National Park. It was there that we got the beautiful pictures of the trees with fog and snow.

Our plans were to move to another park when Ken and Lori joined us, but when we learned they were renting an RV instead of tent camping, we decided to stay where we were. Then Ken and Lori came with their friends Ed and Reiko with their 2-year-old, Alex (AKA Action) for a few days. A bunch more miles while we followed them on a different route to the Park through Mariposa following the Merced River up into Yosemite Valley for some more amazingly beautiful views of the park. We lost track of our fellow travelers that day so we walked around the Valley again and then returned home. There was no way to contact them

as cell service was not available up there. Ed and Reiko took the camper home a day early having decided that was all the camping that Action could handle. On our last day there, we took Ken and Lori back up to Glacier Point in hopes of sharing those views with them. It poured down rain and we were in the clouds so the view was nonexistent though we could hear Nevada and Vernal Falls if we listened carefully. When the snow began to accumulate on the roof of the car, we decided to head down the narrow switchbacks to lower ground. We repeated the hike around Wawona Meadow. I have to say that we had enough winding roads going up and down mountains to last us for a while. I will post some pictures.

 

We stopped at a Harvest Hosts venue, Gnekow Family Winery halfway to San Francisco for a night with Ken and Lori. There was not much going on at the winery as they had no water because of a broken pipe. We were treated to a wine tasting and purchased some bottles of wine. It was a beautiful sunny day so we walked around the winery and a neighboring organic dairy before we set up our Smokey Joe and barbequed some chicken.

So last Saturday, we made our way to San Francisco or more accurately, San Mateo. That is where we encountered the toll booth on the Dumbarton Bridge. Facebook friends have probably already heard about the impossibility of getting this rig through a normal toll booth. We had to learn the hard way. It wasn’t as simple as backing up and going to another booth. We couldn’t back up because we were towing the car. And we couldn’t get out of the camper to unhook the car because we were about 6 inches from a concrete barricade and couldn’t open the door. We couldn’t explain the problem to the toll booth attendant because he did not speak English well enough for us to communicate this to him. Another attendant attempted to give us advice and eventually called the tow truck. The tow truck driver was able to catch me exiting through the window while Don and Kenny held my arms and lowered me the 10 feet to the ground. Then with the tow truck driver’s assistance, I was able to get the car unhooked and get the hitch stowed on the back of the bus. It seemed like a very long time, but it was probably about half an hour for the whole thing.  That is why we spent an extra day in the parking lot of SMCEC fixing the wheel on the RV.

Early on in our travels, I informed Don that I was not interested in becoming a diesel mechanic or an RV repair person and would just as soon pay someone to fix our camper. Well, that was easy to say. If we decided to take this small repair to a shop, we would be waiting for days to get it fixed. We had an appointment that we set up weeks ago to get the Aqua Hot fixed near San Francisco. When we canceled it yesterday because we couldn’t drive until we fixed the wheel, they said it would be June 10 before they could get us in. That repair will be a while. We have an appointment set up in Eugene, OR for our hubcap and lug nut covers in a couple of weeks. So now I know how to siphon the oil out of that oil cap thingy and replace the thingy. That part was available at NAPA Auto Parts. Next project is to rewire the driver’s seat since I swiveled the seat around the wrong way and disconnected the wires. This isn’t the first time this wiring has to be done. The previous owners already made this repair once.

Saturday night we had dinner with Don’s cousin Susan at her house with her friend Bill. After dinner, they came over to the camper while Don and Susan continued to reminisce about growing up in Montana. Susan moved to this area in 1969 as a computer programmer for IBM and continues to work in the industry though she left IBM and programming many years ago. Her career has spanned the technological revolution. Her mother (Don’s mother’s sister) still lives in Montana. We will stop to see her when we are there.

On Sunday, Don and I set out to explore San Francisco. Fortunately, we wore sweatshirts and windbreakers as it was cold. An article in the paper said that fishing boats at Fisherman’s Wharf would do boat tours to the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. We decided to use mass transit


and took the train into the city and the bus to the Wharf. Sure enough a young man was selling a boat tour and we joined in. It was a chilly overcast day but riding on the front of the boat with the theme song to Gilligan’s Island and If You Come to San Francisco blaring from the speakers just seemed right though I did wonder about whatever happened to that “new generation”.  Our tour guide was entertaining, and he is the one who took the picture of us with the bridge in the background. We walked around the wharf and stopped to sit on a bench where we met a Canadian couple who said they are interested in reading my blog. Here is a hello to you if you are reading this. We found our way to the Victorian Houses by Alamo Park (the painted ladies). Picture included. I think most of the pictures I’ve taken this week are the same as you see in tourist brochures. But that is the way it is.

On Monday afternoon, we drove into San Francisco and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, had dinner on Fisherman’s Wharf and then drove over to see the crookedest road in the world (Lombard Street). More iconic pictures.

So yesterday we moved out of our camp site at SMCEC and saw the oil leaking out of the wheel that Don thought he repaired. That is why we spent the day there and this morning found our way out of the area and properly used the toll booth on the Richmond Bridge. Now we are in wine country and not far from the Pacific Coast.

Something that bothers me is this. Don’s cousin Susan informed me that from here on north in California people do not refer to the highways as “the 101” or “the 5”. They are more like normal people and just use the highway name as in “Take 101 north to….”  So, I guess that is what I will do.

California 3

Half way through May and we are still here at SKP Park Sierra up near Yosemite National Park. We’ve been here since May 5^th and will stay until the end of next week. I haven’t written about our stay at Pismo Beach. Readers need to know about that beautiful place for sure. Holiday RV Park where we stayed at was not so beautiful. It is just a big parking lot with campers lined up with just enough room to walk around and hook up to water and electricity. But across the road and behind the other RV park is the Pacific Ocean in all it’s splendor. We spent many hours walking and exploring around there listening to the waves crash, watching surfers, feeling the wind and spray, and even standing back and out of the way witnessing a wedding on the beach. I will post pictures.

I’ve been reading a book by John Muir, My First Summer In The Sierra. All he had was a gift for describing in words what he saw and felt, along with a sketch pad. If he would have had a smart phone would he have just posted pictures instead of vividly describing what he saw and experienced and deprived us of sharing his experience so vividly? I will post pictures

Our first day there, after we set up the camper, we drove south down the 1 and discovered the Oceano Dunes Natural Preserve.  As we drove down the road leading to the ocean we had no idea what we would see. The road narrowed and in places the sand was drifting across the road. We came upon a front loader clearing sand off the road. There were huge hills of sand and we finally came in view of a parking lot and then saw the ocean. There were warnings about the dangerous surf. The wind was blowing up off the ocean and the waves were crashing onto the beach. There were a couple of people standing in the shallow water throwing out fishing lines. Other than that we were the only ones there. We talked to a park ranger for a while and learned that it is a very popular fishing spot and on weekends there are many people from the big cities that come to fish. We spent some time just walking over the sand dune down to the ocean and then along the beach. Don was particularly interested in the sand mining operation which has existed for a 100 years and they never run out of sand. I will post pictures.

The following days we checked out the beaches nearer to where we were staying. These were safer beaches for swimming and surfing and were much busier. We enjoyed long walks in Pismo Beach and then to the north around Avila Beach San Luis Obispo Bay. We drove through a development of very lavish homes and came to a parking area near a trail head. We walked about a half a mile over a hill and came to a parking lot overlooking a beach and some caves at the bottom of a steep hill. We went partway down to a a natural arch overlooking the ocean. There we talked to some folks who told us about another beach a little farther north and that is where we went for an ice cream cone and were able to observe the wedding. While we watched the wedding preparations from a discreet distance, we talked to some folks from Scotland who had exchanged their home with a local family for the week. After that they were going up to Oregon for another exchange. Many ways to enjoy traveling.

Ken and Lori will be joining us here next Monday so we will stay for another week. Since we have been here for a while, we’ve had some time to explore. We’ve seen big trees and snow in the mountains, hiked a steep trail to the top of a mountain for some amazing views of Yosemite Valley. I’ve been trying to learn the names of some of the trees and have met some different birds. We have met the Western Scrub Jay and Acorn Woodpecker here in the RV park. I think I can identify the Silver Fir, Sugar Pine and The Giant Sequoia. Later, I will post pictures.

California - 2

So, it’s been a while since I took the time to do any writing. Time keeps slipping away. We have dwibbled away the entire month of April here in California. When I left off last, we were still at Jojoba Hills and I was preparing for my trip to Minnesota.

I flew out of Palm Springs for 4 days at Greg and Peggy’s where I played with Edie and enjoyed some spring days. We went for bike rides and went to the beach where it was warm enough for Edie to play in the water. I was there for the opening day at Sea Salt Eatery at Minnehaha Park. Greg, Edie and I arrived early to get a place in line so that when Peggy got off work she could meet us there. It was a fine way to spend a splendid spring day. If you ever get to Minneapolis, I highly recommend this place. We arrived early and still waited in line for half an hour. Two hours later we left and the line was still circling the building. No one seemed to mind the wait since they could get a glass of beer and the weather was fine. Minnesotans really know to appreciate an exquisite April day. (I was overusing the word ‘fine’ to describe the weather so I went to the thesaurus to look for other words).  Lovely, splendid, gilt-edged…. All work to describe the weather that day. I also was lucky to catch Sister Kay at home on Saturday and we enjoyed lunch together at Byerly’s Grill. That night Edie and I enjoyed a mac & cheese dinner with broccoli and played wildly imaginative games of getting bats out of the house and rescuing baby dolls while her parents enjoyed a night out. My trip ended with dinner at Greg’s with brother Ludwig, sister Kay and nephew Kenny and and niece by marriage Lori. The weather changed and it was cool and rainy. Time to go home to California and Don.

Our camper has a top of the line system for providing heat and hot water called Aqua Hot. It runs on either electricity or diesel fuel (or both) depending on what is available to us. Before I left on vacation, it started not working. It flashes a series of codes to let us know what needs to be fixed. Don replaced the diesel nozzle and thought that fixed it but then it started a different code. While I was in Minnesota he continued to work on the project. It was flashing a different code so he ordered a high-temperature thermostat to replace one of those and was waiting for that part to be delivered. I had informed Don in no uncertain terms that I was not interested in becoming an Aqua Hot technician and thought that we should pay someone who was trained. As it turns out that might not be feasible as technicians are few and far between and the shop we were near was scheduled for weeks out and would need us to drop off our house for a few days… not very practical. So we continue to work on that for now.

We left Jojoba Hills on April 22^nd and boondocked (dry-camped) for 2 nights at a site we found through our membership at Harvest Hosts, Falkner’s Winery near Temecula. That was a beautiful place to stay. We met a woman named Maureen who lives fulltime in an RV and travels around. Maureen and I went to the wine-tasting. She had a glass of sangria while I did a wine-tasting and sampled 4 different kinds of red wine. While we were there, we picked up the Aqua Hot part and installed it. That didn’t solve the problem but we continued down the road. Fortunately the weather isn’t cold and with electricity we can have adequate hot water as long as we both don’t take long showers.

We left Falkners on April 24^th and came north getting around Los Angeles. We stayed for 2 nights in Pomona at the KOA. It was cool and rainy… actually misty. It never really rains here anymore. On Saturday we took the train into LA and used subways and buses to get around. We went to Hollywood and walked down Hollywood boulevard reading the names of stars under our feet. We saw lots of strange things and ate cream puffs for lunch at Papa Beards. Then we took a bus over to Beverly Hills where we walked down Rodeo Drive looking at lovely houses and expensive shops. We then took the bus and subway back to Union Station for the train trip back to Pomona. I will try to upload some pictures.

On Sunday, we came to the place where we are now, Valencia Travel Village near Santa Clarita. My friend Hillary lives there. Back in the 1980’s when Ronald Reagan was president, I worked with Hillary for the Illinois Legislature. She did science research when I was working for the Printing Unit. We had dinner with Hillary at the Newhall Refinery on the sidewalk and caught up on news. Amazingly, Hillary and I don’t look much different than we did in our 30’s and we had no problem recognizing each other. On Monday, we stayed around here. I made some granola, did laundry and cleaned up the place. Don continued to work on the Aqua Hot. An Allegro Bus pulled in next to us and we met a couple who have been on the road since 2008 and have had lots of experience with Aqua Hot.  Dennis and Elsa (see their blog at lettersfromabus.com) are their names. Dennis and Don talked Aqua Hot for a while and Dennis talked about their 8 months trouble shooting ultimately replacing the motor for $2500 which solved the problem and it has run fine ever since.  He had the name of a service tech in California that he gave to Don. Don went and got an Ohmmeter and tested circuits and so on. Last night he put the thing back together and put away the tools. It continues to flash the same code.

On Tuesday we took a drive into Santa Monica by way of Mullhollen Drive and were rewarded with even more fantastic vistas which California continues to provide. We walked down the Santa Monica pier and spent some time on the beach. We then began driving north down the 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). In California no one says Interstate 10 or Highway 126. It is the 10 or the 126. I am learning to speak the language. We stopped at Malibu beach for lunch at Paradise Cove overlooking the ocean. Since the misting stopped on Sunday, the weather has been unseasonably warm and sunny.We continued our drive and came upon several RV's that were camped along the beach at a state park. We stopped to talk to a young couple who were outside unraveling their kite string. They were there celebrating their 18th anniversary and said that they had been watching whales go by as they are migrating up to Alaska right now. We sttayed for a while in hopes of seeing a whale but were not so lucky. It didn't really matter sas it

The reason I brought up Ronald Reagan earlier is because yesterday in honor of Friend Dwight, we drove up to Simi Valley to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum. We expected to learn an alternative version of late 20^th century history and were not disappointed. As you can see by the picture that I hope to include, I was totally smitten by this movie star President. He saved the country from the depths of recession and inflation by cutting taxes and shifting government spending to the military.

Today, we are moving the camper to Pismo Beach for a couple of days and after that we will start moving towards Yosemite. More about that later.