The GPS lives

Location, At home, CA

We arrived home about 3:15 yesterday and immediately started the unloading process and the laundry. By 7 PM we were ready to quit for the day and have some dinner but the fridge was bare so we drove to the local Cal Taco for Mexican food. It was adequate but filled the need.

This morning after church I washed Clyda’s car which was badly needed from all the ash which had accumulated on it. I need to wax it also but that needs to wait until I get the truck washed tomorrow.

I have the camera ready to mail to Canon per their instructions. Apparently my problem is well known and they say they will fix it for free on their website. After talking to one of their people I received three emails with instructions for mailing and a pre-printed UPS label. So off it goes tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t take to long as the Grandkids arrive the middle of August. It would really be a bummer to not have a camera while they are here. I have also been thinking about a new SLR digital camera but the cost is hard to justify right now.

Oh, by the way, the GPS lives. I had it on charge for the trip home and decided to see if that would bring it back to life. I tried turning it on in Santa Paula and wonder of wonders it came back to life and worked all the way home. I had stored t in my truck center console and I think it got too hot and drained the battery. The program went into some kind of recovery mode but came back after a good charge. I am sure I didn’t help the battery by storing it in the heat.

A little retrospective is in order concerning the “Gap” fire burning in our coastal mountains. This has been a widely publicized fire with national attention because of the large number of houses close to the fire area. This fire still burns and about 1000 firefighters are on the line. The local high school has been set up as a relief area for food and rest for all the firefighters and looks like a disorganized mess to the untrained eye. There are cooking facilities, Uhaul trucks, RV’s for sleeping, tents pitched every where for crews to sleep in even on the tennis courts, and stacks of supplies piled every where. All organized chaos. Or so it seems.

For the past several years as we have been traveling in our RV we have been fortunate to “miss” most if not all the major natural disasters in our area. Winter rains have produced floods which a few years ago cut off all roads to our part of the California coast, and we were gone. Last years “Zaca” fire burned for months back of our coastal mountains and rained ash on everything but we were on our 4 months trip around the USA and missed it. This fire also produced a lot of ash along with power outages as the fire burned near major power lines but we were gone. Our son Craig has had to endure the hardships of dealing with all this each time something happens and for that we are grateful. We do get to cleanup some of the mess from the ash and I am sure we will be dealing with it every time the wind blows. This winter there will also be mud flows from the burned area but maybe we will be gone again. One can only hope.

Eating well in Tehachapi

Location, Tehachapi, CA

We left Glass Creek on Tuesday morning and stopped in Bishop at Schat’s Bakery to pick up Mule Bread and a cherry breakfast roll to take to Budd and Brenda’s. We also got a large cinnamon roll to eat.

We stopped at Independence at the new Indian Casino north of town for fuel. Diesel was $5.059 per gallon. Cheapest around. Thanks to Ron and Becky for telling us this as they rolled south on Monday.

We arrived in Tehachapi and parked in our usual spot. The same place we were two weeks ago on our way north.

On Wednesday we pulled wires through a PVC conduit so Budd now has separate 30 amp electricity where he parks his RV and also separate where I park.

The weather has been hot, about 92 degrees most days but cools down at night. We have not spent a lot of time outdoors. We checked out the farmers market yesterday after having an ice cream at Coldstone. It hit the spot!

Every morning we pick Armenian pickles from Budd’s garden and also the neighbor’s garden. We pick boysenberries, zucchini, yellow squash, peas, and beets. We have made an Asian pickle recipe with the cucumbers which is very good and also had vinegar pickles for lunch. Last night we had Harvard beets fresh from the garden for dinner. Tonight we are having zucchini pancakes. Needless to say, we eat well.

We will go home tomorrow. We have been waiting for the smoke and ash to clear out from the California coast before returning home. We do have smoke and haze here from the Piute fire north of us but no ash.

No pictures again as our camera quit. I called Canon and it looks like they will repair it for free as the problem was known to them. I will mail it when we get home.

My GPS also quit. it is dead. I emailed a request to Magellan but have not received a response. I bought it at Costco so guess I will take it back to them and see what they say.

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.

Eastern Sierra camping

Location, Glass Creek, CA

Ok, so it has been a long time since my last entry so this will be a long posting. We packed up the RV and headed for Glass Creek on Saturday, June 21st by a round-about way. We drove to Nipomo, CA and parked in Ron and Becky’s driveway. It was really hot, about mid 90’s, so we stayed inside until late afternoon when we could venture out and enjoy the patio. They fed us a nice salmon dinner.

On Sunday morning we both left early for the drive to Tehachapi via Hwy 166 from Santa Maria. I had never driven this route before but knew it was somewhat hilly and would also be hot. Other than no passing areas on the road, the trip was fine. We stopped in Maricopa for lunch at a vacant lot. We continued east for several miles then north on Old River Road to Hwy 203, the East Bear Mountain Blvd which goes through a couple of little towns before climbing rather sharply to join with Hwy 58 which took us to Tehachapi.

We parked in our ex-neighbors Budd and Brenda’s yard which has room and electricity for 3 RV’s. This makes a nice stop and breaks up the trip into easy drives each day. It was quit warm so the afternoon was spent on the patio in the shade. Brenda fed us a nice dinner and we all retired early.

By 9 the next morning we were ready to head north after a stop for fuel. Our trip was via Hwy 58 to Mohave then north on Hwy 14. Just south of Bishop I blew a trailer tire on the driver’s side front. Fortunately the shoulder was wide enough to pull off where it happened. The tire was quickly changed with Budd’s help and we were soon back on the road. This tire like the blowout in January took the side wall out.

We had planned to stop in Bishop for lunch at Schat’s Bakery and did do that although a bit late. There is RV parking across from Schat’s near the ball field. The lot was quit full when we arrived and the line for sandwiches was even longer inside. We all ordered and ate outside under umbrellas. It was very good as usual.

I walked across the street from the bakery to the Visitors Center and looked up a tire dealer in the phone book. Only one listed so that made the choice easy. After a call to them to confirm that they did indeed have the tires I needed I pulled next to their shop. The ladies to Ron and Becky’s tow car and headed for shopping at K-mart in Bishop then to Glass Creek Ron also left with his RV while Budd stayed behind just in case there were problems. An hour or so later and lighter in the pocketbook by $800, I had 5 new Special Trailer tires.

Budd and I finished the drive to Glass Creek where the ladies were sitting in a camp space but the resident campground host was reluctant to let us camp in the usual spot. (More on that later). Clyda had a call from our neighbors Paul and Kathy who were in Bishop and arrived shortly so that makes 4 couples camping together. Good times.

I will put our next several days into categories which will be easier to read I think.

Hikes:

On Wednesday we drove to Bodie, the mining Ghost town, north of Lee Vining. We arrived near lunch time so drove to the picnic area for lunch which we had brought with us. After lunch we toured the town which is in a state of arrested decay. Buildings are stabilized as needed to preserve them. Mostly, buildings have had new roofs added to keep out the weather. As we were preparing to leave I wanted to take a group photo using the timer on my camera. The pictures were awful. All washed out as if over exposed. Bad News!!! My camera quit working and no amount of fixes worked. Bummer!

A valley of wild iris on the road to Bodie.


The Standard mill at Bodie.


Scenes of Bodie.


Of course we had to stop in Lee Vining for ice cream on the way home. It has become sort of our “thing to do” while camping together.

On Thursday we elected to hike around Convict Lake south of Mammoth. This also has become a required thing to do each time we camp here. We always follow it with lunch at the Convict lake Resort served outside under the Aspen trees. Lunch is a little upscale but well worth the price. We justify it by doing the hike first. This year the wild flowers are magnificent. Someone told us that these two weeks will be the best time for flowers this year.

On Friday only Budd and I elected to hike Mammoth Pass from Horseshoe Lake to Reds Meadow Pack Station via Mc Cloed Lake. Becky and Clyda drove us to the trailhead and we started hiking about 10 AM. The trail begins with a moderate climb to Mc Cleod which we reached in 15 minutes after detouring around some snow banks covering the trail. The lake is very full and some of the shore areas are under water. After spending a few minutes admiring the view, we headed for the connector trail to the Mammoth Pass trail. 10 minutes walk put us on the Mammoth Pass trail which continued up a slight rise until it started gently down through the trees. This trail has had few hikers yet this year judging from the few foot prints. This made for very nice footing as we hiked. We encountered more snow as we headed downhill but not enough to slow us down except for pictures. As we descended we entered the burn area from the 1991 Rainbow fire which burned 77,000 acres. Most of the trees are now broke off and falling down which makes for an unusual sight. The trail got steeper as we descended and also was looser footing as it is all pumice. We had lots of wild flowers in this area. We arrived at Reds Meadow just as the noon bell was being rung. We washed up then had lunch at the restaurant. Lunch was hamburgers followed by cherry pie ala mode which made the hike worth while. After lunch we walked to Reds Meadow campground nearby and looked at the hot springs bath house. No one was using it at the time which is unusual. I was wishing I had brought my towel along as this is a nice warm bath we have partaken of in the past.

We walked on to Socher Lake where the trail ended at a rock wall. We had to climb up a goat trail to get to the real hiking path and the bus stop at the road. A few minutes wait and a bus came by and took us back up to Mammoth Mountain Inn where Becky and Clyda were having a glass of wine at the Yodeler restaurant.

This was a very nice hike.

Saturday we drove south to McGee Creek and hiked up the McGee Creek trail for a couple hours. The main reason for doing this hike was the wild flowers. Someone we had met told us about them. They truly were varied in variety and spectacular in colors. We hiked to where the stream from the falls runs across the trail. The hike to the falls was about another hour so we elected not to do that. We also turned around because other hikers told us the mosquitoes and no-see-ums were bad further up. After arriving back at the parking lot, we ate lunch at a picnic table.

Other activities:

On the days we didn’t hike we stayed around camp, took trash to the rest stop, got water at the rest stop south of us and played Mexican Train dominos. We also played “washers” with a set Budd had brought. A lot of reading was done by the group also.

Camping at Glass Creek:

We have enjoyed camping here at Glass Creek for many years and especially like the free and open camping. With no specific sites, we could arrange our camp as we wished to accommodate anyone who joined our group. Sad to say, that has come to an end. With a Forest Service Volunteer on site, camping has now been restricted to specific areas. Much of the previous camping space has been cordoned off with rocks and brush or logs. The camp host tells you where you can and cannot camp. Supposedly, the number of campers has been restricted to 50 units. The chances of finding a camping site are now iffy after driving all day and expecting a camp site. You are just taking a chance that there will be a spot for you. The official reason for the restrictions is that the traffic over the tree roots is causing the trees to die. It is true that many trees have died and have been cut down. A total of 1200 new trees have been planted this year with only 1 in 20 expected to survive. It remains to be seen how all this will play out over time.

Also, the OHV (off highway vehicle) people have taken over the campground and most campers are now towing trailers with motorcycles, or ATV’s and I even saw one trailer with two of the 4 wheel “mules” come into the campground. Later the “mules” were driven around the camp tearing up the dirt with very aggressive tires. Doesn’t make sense to me why people feel the need to do this.

Departures:

Budd and Brenda left on Monday for home and Paul and Kathy left on Wednesday and will stop at Budd and Brenda’s for a few days before going home.

Staining fence boards, finally

Location, At Home

On Saturday we drove to Ventura and on the way stopped at a few places to check on fence stain. Still no luck finding what I want. We also stopped at two quilt shops for Clyda but she didn’t find what she was looking for either.

We picked up flowers in Ventura and put them on her parent’s grave and her aunt and uncles grave at the cemetery.

We met Roger for lunch at Brophy Brothers seafood restaurant at the Ventura harbor. We beat the lunch crowd and I had a nice plate of Calamari rings.

Clyda shopped at Macy’s while I browsed Barnes and Noble for an hour. I didn’t find anything I really needed so we drove home.

I watched a lot of golf this weekend. The US Open was just too good of a match to pass up. I only saw the last three holes of the playoff round on Monday plus the sudden death hole. Quit a match.

Tuesday I found the stain I am going to use on the fence. It isn’t exactly what we used 3 years ago but I think it will work just fine.

I started staining fence boards today. The weather is quit warm so the boards should dry fast. This will be a several day job as I only have so much room to lay the boards out to do the staining.

My stack of boards to stain. They have been drying here since January.



One side stained.

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.

Trip to Washington

Location, At Home

I am really behind with this blog as it has been almost 2 weeks since the last entry.

So, what has been happening since the last entry? Well, the bathroom is all painted and yes, I did need to get a can of Orange Peel spray and touch up the texture coat. I applied a coat of primer over that, then two coats of Glacier Bay satin enamel to finish. The color is between a green and a blue. Just like glacier ice looks like as the light changes. This all got completed before we left for Washington on Tuesday the 3rd of June. I also got most of the RV waxed. All but a small portion of the rear cap.

We left at 11 AM on Tuesday on Horizon Air which is a feeder line for Alaska Airlines. They fly CRJ-700 commuter jets. Nice aircraft with leather seats and they do serve snacks with juice or wine and Micro brew beer. In this day when few airlines do extras, Horizon gets my vote.

Clyda took this picture as we were boarding the airplane. The irony is that Michael has been accepted for school at Washington State University so we thought the plane decals were fitting for our trip.



We spent 2 days with Debbie and Thomas (friends of our son Tim) our friends also, in Portland, OR. The weather was rainy and cold but we managed to see the Rose Garden, downtown Portland, the river walk area and the new gondola. We also went wine tasting in the Yamhill valley and looked at a house Debbie wants to buy. Thomas was a gracious host and took us to two of the restaurants in the chain he works for. Fabulous food! Thanks Thomas and Debbie.

On Thursday afternoon, Debbie drove us to the airport and we caught the Horizon shuttle to Seattle. Our flight departed late but it is only a 55 minutes flight so that was ok. After spending an hour getting our rental car, being shuttled to the car agency, etc, we got on the road about 6 PM. It was probably better that we were late so the commute traffic could thin out. After driving for an hour we stopped for dinner at a nice restaurant called Maxwell’s in Marysville.

Another hour’s drive found us at our destination in Lynden, WA at Clyda’s sister Candi and her husband Mark. We were in Lynden last summer for three weeks with the RV. The real reason for this trip was to celebrate nephew Michael’s graduation from high school on Friday.

The weather was cold and showery all the time we were in Lynden but it was not raining for graduation which was good as everyone stood outside the gym afterwards to meet and greet friends. Lots of folks show up for graduation and the gym was packed. Along with Mark and Candi and Clyda and I were Marks parents John and Mryla from CA and Michaels sister Dawn who is a student at Seattle University studying ultra sound. More on this later.

Michael is an honor student and a member of the National Honor Society, a wood worker who has built several end tables and book shelves for his mother, has helped build a portable building as part of his school work and helped a friend build a house on Lummi Island. We did get Michael properly graduated. I don’t think he stopped smiling all day.



Michael will spend his first year in general studies at WSU (Wazoo) and hopes to enter the Architectural program starting his sophomore year.

Dawn has been going to school for 3 years and last fall was admitted to the Ultra Sound program at Seattle University. She was a last minute admit so had to scramble to find housing, get her grants and loans arranged and move to Seattle all within a few days. She is on the Deans List and loving the program. After a 4 week summer school she will be working a one year residency at the hospital in Bellingham. We are very proud of both Dawn and Michael and all they have accomplished the last few years.

The remainder of the trip was spent visiting and eating. Mark smoked ribs, chicken and salmon while we were there and was it ever good. Thanks Mark and Candi for a great week.

The return home wasn’t quit as nice as the alarm went off at 3 AM yesterday. We were out the door by 3:15 and arrived at the car rental lot by 5:30 after filling the car with gas. I should mention that the rental car was a Suzuki crossover (small SUV) which is the same design as Clyda’s Equinox. GM owned part of Suzuki until a few years ago so I guess they used a common design. We were back at the airport and through security by 6 AM. After a nice breakfast at Anthony’s Fish House, (thanks for the recommendation, Mark) we boarded about 7:45 and departed about 8:15 for a 2 hour 20 minute flight.

We arrived home to fog but at least it was warmer than Oregon or Washington. Neighbor Paul picked us up and we were back at the house by 11 AM.

After a nap, I picked boysenberries and later went to the Elks lodge for dinner. I watched the last half of the NBA finals. The Lakers managed to pull out a victory.

Today I worked in the bathroom putting all the hardware back on the walls and installing a GFCI outlet and new switches for the lights and fan. The outlet is wired to an outlet on the same wall in our bedroom so that is on the GFCI circuit also. I replaced the tub controls with new hardware which looks really nice.

I painted the baseboard and touched up a spot over the tub and painted the heat register to match the walls. After the paint dries I need to caulk along the baseboard and around the sink back splash and around the back of the tub. The caulk isn’t bad around the tub but it does need freshening up to match the rest of the room. It is amazing how much time I spent in this little room. There is no such thing as a quick paint job when all the other items are factored in.