The Road to Hell!

Location, At Home, CA

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  My intention is to update this blog more often but it just doesn’t happen. So… I guess I am on the “Road to Hell.”

I have completed a few of my “to-do” items this week with only the major job of washing and waxing the RV left to do.

Yesterday we went down to Newberry Park to play with the babies for the day. What fun!!! They are so cute. They will be crawling soon.

Both vehicles have been in the shop this week. The car had a loose caliper on one wheel and the brake pads weren’t seated properly. I made a racket when you hit a bump. The brakes still worked but I don’t know why.

The truck had normal maintenance items to be done. It should be ready to roll in two weeks.

Speaking of rolling, I have been watching the temperatures in Las Vegas and have decided to bypass “sin city” for this trip. Just too hot!

Instead, we will take a back road through Tehachapi and then up Hwy 395 to Carson City, NV before heading east on I-80 to Wells, NV. That stretch will be hot also but there is no way to avoid it. From Wells we will head North to Twin Falls, ID, Salmon, ID, Missoula, MT and then to Glacier Nation Park. This will all be new country for us from Twin Falls on.

We are off to Walnut Creek on Sunday to lie in Cindy and Gary’s pool for a few days. Looking forward to that. The following weekend friends will stay with us while attending a wedding and at the same time Clyda has her 50^th class reunion.

Fifty years! WOW. Fifty years ago Clyda and I had just met prior to her graduation. Doesn’t seem that long ago.

Here are a few flowers blooming in our backyard right now.

Nearing the end

Location, Glass Creek, CA

Keeping track of what happened each day has been difficult this past week. One day we had lunch at the Silver Lake Resort and then drove up the road to Mono Pass and walked up the ridge to look down into Walker Lake. It was a very warm day so we didn’t walk very far.

On Friday the 4th of July we drove to Mammoth Lakes about 9:30 in the morning and parked near the grocery store so we would have a good seat for the 4th of July parade. We went to the “Friends of the Library” book sale in the bank parking lot. As usual, we bought lots of books. This sale had been scheduled for the Memorial Day weekend but a late season snow had cancelled the sale.

The parade started at 11 AM and included the usual small town groups. It was very nice. After the parade we took our chairs and walked to a nearby park for a “pops” concert. We had brought our lunch and ate it while waiting for the music to start. It was a very nice concert which concluded with patriotic songs.

On Sunday we drove to Lake George and hiked up the trail to Barret and TJ Lakes. It was a nice hike of around 1 mile round trip and an elevation gain of 2-300 feet.

It has been very hot the last few days and will continue hot this week.

We have been monitoring the fire situation in California as a fire started near our home. Some people were evacuated and power was lost several times as the fire burned near a major power line. The fire came within a mile of our house but our son Craig kept and eye on everything. The ash and smoke was the biggest problem and I am sure it will be a continuing problem every time the wind blows.

Ron and Becky left for home this morning and I guess we will head that way tomorrow with a stop in Tehachapi to help Budd pull some wires. We should be home on Friday.

Here are some photos from our McGee Creek hike.





Flowers along the trail to McGee Creek.

Bathroom almost done

Location, At Home

Posting two days in a row is a record for me recently. Not much happened today. I caulked the baseboards in the bathroom after I pulled off the painting tape and cleaned the caulk around the tub. The only thing left to do is replace the escutcheons around the shower head piping and the water inlet line to the toilet. These things just seem to last only a few years before they corrode.

I made a trip to Home Depot for the escutcheons and also to check on cedar stain for the fence boards. Still no luck in finding water based stain like we used last time. There only seems to be oil based stains which have darkened over time and look dirty.

I want to post some pictures of flowers from our trip to Portland and one from our yard.

The first is a variegated blue hybrid iris which was in a parkway in front of a ladies house in Portland. She loved showing them to us. I have never seen one like this.



This is a “root beer” colored hybrid iris.



Beautiful red rhododendrons.



A Leonotis or lion’s tail in our back yard. This is a volunteer which has just taken over. I have two more in front of the house which haven’t done as well but in a fairness, the ground is rocky and mostly clay. When paired with purple sage plants they are most striking.



I want to thank our friend Debbie in Portland for the copy of Clyda and I at the beach a few years ago. I decided to use it to replace the photo in the blog.
Thanks Debbie, I hope you don't mind.

Fish and Flowers

Location, At Home

Son Craig was fishing at Lake Cachuma with a friend and they caught some nice trout. Here are two that he caught this morning. Look at the size of them!!! They are as long as the griddle. I slow cooked them in butter for dinner tonight. They were outstanding!!!!


The flowers in our yard have gone crazy the last few days. It is amazing what a few days of heat will do. This cactus is just covered.


This one is a very pretty orange.


Here is a blue Bearded Iris.


How about an orange Bearded Iris.

Wild Flowers

Location, At Home

We came home from a week of camping at Lake Cachuma. The campground was full over the weekend but really emptied out Monday and Tuesday. We drove to Figuroa Mountain on Sunday and again on Tuesday to see the wild flowers. Sunday’s trip was made via Happy Canyon Road which is open but only dirt for some distance. Meeting lots of other people out looking at the flowers caused some close encounters between vehicles. On Monday there were few other people on the road so we took advantage of that by going up Figuroa Mountain Road to the Figuroa Lookout and picnic area. Lots of trees near the mountain top appear to be damaged from a late heavy snow. Some of the damage has been cleaned up by Forest Service crews.



The wild flowers on Figuroa Mountain Road near the top were spectacular. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. The purple flowers are lupines and the orange are California poppies.