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Showing posts from January, 2010

Getting ready to leave Menifee

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Enjoyed our short stay here at Menifee as usual. Love all the water birds and canals! Not quite the same as Florida but closest thing we have seen to it out here in the West. The weather cooperated whole time so although cooled down at night, we had nice sunshine during the days. Tomorrow morning we hit the road for 2 days of dry camping before going into Apache Junction. Just had word we may not be able to get into Casa Grande so may have to come up with alternative plan.. um... Yesterday, drove down to visit with sister Mary and we had a good time gabbing at each other. Happy to see her doing so well.

Enjoying the sunshine

The sun is up and weather wonderfully warm (albeit only 62)!  Great to be able to go outside without all the heavy winter coats and clothes!

Wilderness Lakes TTN, Menifee, CA

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This is one of our favorite parks in this south west and we are happy to be back. We arrived on a clear sunny day and the sunshine was much welcomed after the storms and terrible weather we have been wading through to get here! One reason we enjoy this park so much is the water birds... sorry to say we have not seen our great egret yet or snowy egret for that matter either. Only this young night heron and many, many coots, ducks and geese! Our bird feeders have been attacked with relish and we even had a visit from hummer! Love those little birds!

Traffic Jam on Hwy 138 near Littlerock, CA

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Being full timers the last thing we want to have to condend with is the powdery white stuff commonly known as SNOW! It is cold and wet and has been known to be the cause of many terrible automobile accidents.... so when the white stuff came down like pouring rain on Friday, we were not terrible happy. However, we waited for the dry sunshine to come back and then headed south towards Riverside County. Traveling across Hwy 138 which is a two lane road most of the way and desert and deserted most of the time too, we encountered this horrific traffic jam (thankfully) going in the opposite direction! All of these people heading out to play in the cold wet white stuff. How funny... we laughed and laughed but then I grew up in Southern California and never really saw any of it either until I was older. The traffic was bumper to bumper for miles from the freeway offramp on Hwy 15 and according to the news took people 6 hours in some places to get where they were going! Imagine.. Glad we were g

Red Tailed Hawk

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One of our favorite things to do is to enjoy all the birds we see from place to place. The past ten years there has been a pair of red tailed hawks and we see they are still there at the Soledad TTN in Acton, CA. Wonderful to see them so close up. Of course we have seen their leavings too and that is not always a pretty site. This time however I was able to walk right up under the tree this one was sitting in to get his picture. He looked down at me but didn't move... wonderful treat!

What is all this liquid sunshine?

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After days of awful storms we awoke this morning to lovely clear blue skies and cold... I can deal with the cold when it is so beautiful out it takes your breath away! Happy to see all the litte feathered creatures have made it thru the storms and busy gathering what seed they can from the ground. The scrub jays have found us and it's so much fun feeding them peanuts! They are so quick and fun to watch. The liquid sunshine may be needed badly down here but we are in search of the dry sunshine and happy to see it has come out today!

Family gathering

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Had a wonderful time visiting with Uncle Jim and Aunt Tootie and cousin Vicki and her son Stephen. They have such wonderful wit and such a good attitude. Uncle Jim will be 95 this summer and Aunt Tootie just celebrated her 84th birthday. They are both doing great and lunch was wonderful. Even called Jim's daughter Judy in AZ to include her in our luncheon.

Run while you can

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Although we have not had TV for a few weeks now we do have a weather radio with news of a big storm heading towards southern California. Okay, so we are self contained and we are in a good park with everything we need and would be fine even if power went off. BUT wind is something that should never be taken lightly in boat or motorhome or trailer. We had gusts of wind where we could not talk to each other due to noise! Pretty bad. This old oak tree came apart in the road and there was a trailer in storage that was blown over on it's side. Ok, so although we were not scheduled to leave this park for another day we thought, what the heck, there's a lull in the action and now may be a good time to get out of here. So, we packed up and brother John did same and off we went to Soledad TTN in Acton, CA. Did not arrive until dark but weather was ok.

Visit to Santa Barbara

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One of our favorite places is the Santa Barbara area especially on a nice sunny day in spring! The town is surrounded by Pacific Ocean and wonderful mountains that can be quite green scattered with wonderful wild flowers... This town is hoping to keep it's quaint little town atmosphere by keeping some of the chain stores out and so far it has been successful. No trip to town would be complete without visiting busy marina. Watched this skow unloading its garbage? Not too sure what is in this bundle but no seabirds hanging around so don't think it's fish... interesting process. Storm is threatening to come in and water was splashing over the breakwater..

Cemetery browsing....

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Our other nice weather day while in Morgan Hill was spent visiting cemetries and looking for family gone before.... We started out at Golden Gate National Cemetery. Lovely cemetery with all those white marble tombstones. Spent hours there and enjoyed it very much. Then on to a few others in the area. Big find for the day was our last stop at the Italian Cemtery. This place we so organized and well managed. We were very much impressed. Rows and rows of graves in huge granite vaults but the grounds were so well marked and the landscaping was unusual for this type of place. Very nice manager there who was extremely helpful too.

Family visit - Morgan Hill, CA

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Did not spend much time in Morgan Hill however we were very happy to have son Earl come and visit with the two grandchildren. Karl is 21 now and Amanda 17! The bad weather held off the day of our visit so we did not have to go out in rain and wind, however it did come in with a whoosh that night. Goodness the wind and rain were really something... Happy to report is seemed to be a 1 day thing but woke us up in night with its howling!

Continuing South...

Left Russian River; Cloverdale this morning and traveled Hwy 101 to San Rafael Bridge then on to Morgan Hill 1000 trails park. This park has dozens of wild turkeys that wander through the grounds along with a nice variety of birds. Not much going on around here this time of year but we plan to see son Earl while here and do a little needed shopping and such. Paid $2.98 for diesel at Safeway in town. Prices aren't getting any cheaper as we travel south but found this one listed on-line. Foggy/cloudy and mild (mid 50's).

Luther Burbank House and Grounds

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Our trip to Santa Rosa also took us over to see the grounds at the Luther Burbank grounds. Although this is supposed to be lovely grounds (he was a botonist); it is winter after all and nothing was in bloom. The house was not open nor the greenhouse or carriage house. We roamed the property and enjoyed it just the same. I loved seeing the giant oak tree and coastal redwoods... The town has grown up around the place so although he had purchased 4 acres back in early 1900's there is precious little of that left now.

Charles Shulz museum, Santa Rosa, CA

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Currently at Russian River TTN. This is a nice park right on the river off Hwy 101 just north of Cloverdale. Had to take a ride into Santa Rosa for blood draw so while in town took a visit to the Charles Shulz Museum. Actually the museum wasn't open yet so visited the area around it; gift shop and ice arena. There are figurines around town too which we enjoyed seeing. You would think Earlymun liked Snoopy by this kiss... A fun time and found a few other folks doing the same...

Redwoods National Park, Northern California

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Although it has not been too awfully long since we were in the Redwoods (April 2009); we stopped again for 2 nights. Stayed at Giant Redwoods RV park in Myers Flat. They are a full service park with wifi in rig and although connection was slow it was still free and available. TV not worth anything there with antenna but we didn't care. Took drive along Avenue of the Giants and stopped in Burlington campground (we have many fond memories from camping here) and then on up to 2 other hikes. Did Chandler Grove this time and Drury/Cheney Grove (2mi.) Very nice and easy and so quiet and serene. Visiting these trees are like visiting old friends. Just a wonderful place to see and enjoy. The clover at the Drury grove was all over the place and so pretty. Imagine if it had been a clear sunny day the shafts of sunlight through the trees would have been like icing on the cake.

Visit with old friends - stop in Arcata, CA

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One of our fairly regular stops traveling north to south and south to north is along the coastal highway (so scenic and NO mountain passes)... Earl has an old high school friend in Arcata, Ca just north of Eureka. Always fun to stop and visit with Jess and his wife Pat. They just recently purchased this new smart car and have 8 chickens. They were generous to make a gift of 2 dozen wonderful fresh eggs. All green and brown and all different sizes. Wonderful visit as always.

Port Orford, Oregon - Port of Port Orford

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Earl looked at SKP listing and found low cost camping at pier in Port Orford.. so he called a head of time and checked with them and sure enough we were welcome (dry camping - $10 .00 a night). So off we went from Whalers Rest not knowing exactly what to expect but found the greatest place. Seemed like a quite place when we arrived yesterday afternoon so found a spot next to a pile of crab pots and a large boat trailer parking spot and we settled right in. Walked about the pier gawking at the storm crashing on the rocks around us. Not to windy or cold but the water was churned up and putting on quite a show. This morning woke up to a lot of activity with boat arriving one after another all waiting to be lowered into the water from the crane (no driveable boat launch). Felt a little guilty taking up a boat trailer parking spot so we did not fool around... hit the road right after breakfast. Noticed a few of the sea lions (apparently from San Francisco) out in the water today and o

B I G N E W S!!!

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A big surprise on New Year's Eve to learn my baby has tied the knot in Reno, NV. She is now Mrs. Kenneth Alan Wolfe! Knew they were thinking of taking the plunge before year end but that was all we knew. Guess it was an impulsive thing move after months of discussion between themselves. In any case, we wish them all the very best and will have to wait to see how they make out with their new project. They have leased a store to open a new pharmacy. He is a pharmacist by trade and for now she plans to keep with her career as dental hygenist. Can hardly believe we have a new son-in-law but happy for them both.