A Happy New Years blog

You may have noticed no Christmas cards from the Goleta Seidel’s this year. We have been busy traveling since mid November and Christmas cards were not on our to-do list at that time. So, how about a New Years letter instead?

Our friends Cindy and Gary invited us to go to Kauai in mid November for a week. Who can pass that kind of invite up! Here are some photos.

On of the infamous Kauai Chickens who roam the island

We also stayed in Walnut Creek after we returned from Kauai for Thanksgiving. I think that makes 3 years in a row for us to do that.

In early December we did a 4 day cruise on Royal Princess with Tim and DeeDee. What fun for just 4 days.

Royal Princess from Catalina Island

Royal Princess in Ensenada, MX

Clyda and DeeDee having Bellini's at the Bellini Bar

We came home on a Monday and on Friday Gary and Cindy picked us up and we drove to Del Mar for one night before boarding Holland America’s Oosterdam for a 7 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We had great weather for the whole trip with temperatures in the high 70’s during our shore excursions.

Oosterdam in Puerto Vallarta

Street scene in Puerto Vallarta

Restaurant on the Malecon, Puerto Vallarta. Good food and Margaritas

Entrance to Cathedral, Mazatlan

Cabo San Lucas harbor

Ship Christmas tree

We returned to Del Mar and stayed there for Christmas with Cindy and Gary’s family. We spent part of the time in the Del Mar Hilton which was nice.

Decorated palm trees in Del Mar

We came home the day after Christmas in all the traffic caused by the closure of all the highways going North out of Los Angeles because of snow and ice. All traffic was routed along the coastal route, highway 101. It took us 10 hours to make the trip. Talk about slow crawling traffic. The last 40 miles took us 4 hours.

We were home for New Years but will be leaving shortly for our annual winter desert trip.

Happy New Years to all!

Seriously! A blog post?

Seriously! It’s been how many months since I last posted?

Yeah, last July I guess. Bummer, all those good summer adventures long gone. Lets see if I can hit the high lights at least.

Clyda is doing well with her ankle replacement. She still has pain but feels it is at least stable. Pain will probably disappear over time. As he DR says when she complains, “Has it been a year yet?”

We have done a couple of trips this summer including an RV trip to Pismo Beach camping with Budd and Brenda, 4 days with Cindy and Gary in Walnut Creek as a last hurrah before summer ends, and then a flight to Bellingham, WA to celebrate our Great Nieces 4^th birthday the beginning of Oct. Nothing like a 4 year old celebrating her birthday! It was a great trip.

Tim came in the middle of Oct and spent a week here before he and I drove to Las Vegas to begin our 3 week fall trip. We visited a lot of new areas around Las Vegas some of which were on unpaved roads, the best kind really. We followed that up by going to Death Valley for our annual encampment. 

We continued our campaign of collecting Mylar balloons wherever we find them in the desert. This year we collected 47. We post the results on our Facebook page at Desert Balloon Recovery Crew and turn in the balloons themselves to the National Park Service where they plot the GPS pickup points for all balloons found within Death Valley National park.  

Clyda and I joined our friends Cindy and Gary in Walnut Creek for one night before flying to Kauai for a week at their timeshare in November. A good week but lots of wind which really didn’t hamper our activities except on the day we left when a wind and rain storm caused us to change our plans. All was well however. On arriving back at Walnut Creek we stayed and had Thanksgiving as we have had for the last 3 years at Cindy and Gary’s Son and Daughter-in-laws house. We appreciate being “part of the family.”

We leave tomorrow for a 4-day Coastal Cruise out of Los Angeles. We are joined on this trip by friends from the Elks Club. It was one of those spur of the moment decisions as in “Look at this Price, - lets do it.”

December is a busy month for us as we do another week long cruise as soon as we finish the 4-day cruise. This one is to the Mexican Riviera again with Cindy and Gary. We will remain in San Diego with them for Christmas at their daughters house.

Sorry, no photos today as I am doing this at the last minute while packing.

Who knew?

While in Houston last month I had mentioned that we did some Geo-caching in cemeteries, one of which was the Glenwood Cemetery where Howard Hughes is buried. He is in a plot along with his mother and father. The plot is well fenced but I managed to get a photo or two.

Gardening has been the continuing project for the last month. That and Clyda’s recovery from her ankle replacement. More on that later.

I am over run with vegetables from the garden. I am getting salad cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, pole beans, peas, yellow squash, zucchini, and beets. To come yet are tomatoes, and carrots. Because of the abundance, I give away as much as people will take and I give recipes with the harvest as well.

However, I have a few things I have kept for myself. For instance, I am getting pickling cucumbers so I have made open jar pickles which I then put in quart jars and keep in the refrigerator. I do the same with the beets I pickle. I will also make some pickled beans called “Dilly Beans” as soon as the bean crop increases. I have been picking peas but so has some critter as I find empty bean pods in the garden. I still get enough for us.

I also took an empty pickled beet jar and am pickling a few hard boiled eggs in the leftover beet juice. They always look so nice when you slice them.

My salad cucumbers took a hit from the dog yesterday as she was chasing a lizard among the vines. I am afraid I may need to pull up those vines. Not to fear though, my neighbor planted what was marked as 11 watermelon plants from the nursery but turned out to be cucumbers. I think he will have enough for all of us. I also get Romaine lettuce from him so I haven’t bought lettuce in some time.

I make cucumber salad with vinegar and have that with my lunch. It reminds me of my youth back on the farm when salad meant vinegar cucumbers or cucumbers in sour cream. We also had lots of cucs back on the farm. It was our main salad during the summer.

I am finding lots of new, good looking recipes on-line to use up this abundant crop.

Clyda has been doing well in her rehab but has yet to put any weight on her foot. She gets around using a knee scooter and has ventured outside to the patios. Today she even went to her knitting group for a few hours. Having had a knee replacement causes it to be painful to spend much time on that scooter however. She started out with a partial cast for 2 weeks then had a hard cast for two weeks and now just a nylon boot which she can remove for showering, etc. She finds it much better than the hard cast as it can be off for part of the day if she isn’t moving around.

Our life revolves around her rehab and the garden as you can see.

Where to begin?

After we came back from camping at Morro Bay my time was taken up by gardening and other projects around the house. I had acquired a pickup load of pallets from which motorcycles had been packaged on for shipment to the local dealer. I wanted them for campfire wood but in the process of dismantling them I found that by adding a few boards I now had sections of fencing to keep the dog out of my garden. Not very elegant but it served the purpose.

After Memorial Day we flew to Houston to attend our Grand-daughter Ivy’s high school graduation. We are very proud of this young lady as she graduated ninth in a class of 855 students. She was accepted at UC Berkeley in San Francisco as well as other schools but because of the high out of state tuition costs decided to attend the University of Texas at Austin in the fall. Her major is physics.

Grandson Matthew completed his second year of college at Texas A & M where his major is Aero Space Engineering.

We had a nice 5 day visit with Tim and family, got in some Geo-caching and visited a lavender farm, a local winery, and a sausage factory. Much of the ego-caching was at cemeteries which was interesting. We also re-visited Rose Hill Cemetery on Seidel Cemetery Road in Tomball, TX. We had visited this cemetery when Matthew was very little. Walking among the headstones is like walking through the Cemetery in Dorchester, WI as many of the family names are the same. If I was dropped in either cemetery, I couldn’t tell you which one I was in.

On Tuesday June 11^th Clyda had ankle replacement surgery of her right ankle. That is the same ankle she broke in 2008. A year later when she had some of the hardware removed, the surgeon told her that “Some day you will need a replacement” because of the arthritis. This same surgeon did the replacement last Tuesday. For the surgery she was given two nerve blocks. The anesthesiologist really liked the second block and said it may last as much as 96 hours. Basically, Clyda was pain free until late yesterday (Friday) because of the blocks.

She is using a walker to hop on one leg to and from the bathroom. That is hard on the arms as all the weight is on her arms. We do have a knee stroller for her to use but our house is so small that it is not usable in the bathroom. For longer trips we have a wheel chair. I made multiple trips to the Visiting Nurses Loan Closet to pick up all these items as the reality set in of what she would be capable of doing.

She will be non-weight bearing for 4 to 6 weeks before physical therapy can begin. It will be a long summer.

My 10 days working for Ranchero Visitadores is over.

We had a good 10 days with only a few mishaps among all the riders but none at our gate. We did get a little rain one day but it only lasted about 20 minutes. The road did get a little sloppy but only one brave soul drove out during that time so the road dried quickly after the rain quit.

Rain was predicted on Friday as we were packing up to leave so we had taken down as much as we could Thursday evening. By Friday morning we had little to do. After son Craig arrived with Clyda and a trailer, we loaded all the things I didn’t need for 5 more days of camping into the trailer and sent it home with Craig. There was a loud clap of thunder and we all said “lets get out of here” before the road got sloppy. Just as we hit the blacktop the rain came down including some small hail. It rained all the way to Santa Maria but not hard. Just a passing shower.

We drove to Morro Bay and camped at Morro Strand RV Park for the next 5 days. We had sunny days which is a rarity for Morro Bay so we did enjoy that. We camped with Jim who worked Rancheros with me and another couple we had met last year at Lake Lopez. Jerry and Terry had boarded the Celebrity Summit last fall for a 2 week trip the day we left the Summit after our 2 weeks on board. It was nice to compare notes about our experiences.

Here are a few photos from Visitadores and Morro Bay.

Cooking corn for lunch in the fire pit.

Jim and Budd.

View at Morro Bay looking up the coast.

 Elephant Seals on the beach North of San Simeon.

It is a very popular tourist attraction.

 These seals cover a beach over a mile long.

It looks like mosaic rocks from a distance instead of seals.

A "raft" of sea otters in Morro Bay.

Another long gap in my postings but so it goes.

We arrived home from Quartzsite on March 1^st after an overnight stop in Boron, CA at Arabian RV Park. This is about half way home for us. It also allowed us to have dinner at Domingo’s Mexican Restaurant in Boron which had just reopened 3 weeks earlier after being closed for several years. I know that a lot of road warriors are glad to see it open again. While there, check out all the new military photos Domingo has posted and especially ask him about his ride in an Air Force F16.

Of course, coming back from a few months on the road we hit the ground running. There is lots of small jobs to do on the new RV plus weed pulling in the yard. Boy, have we pulled weeds. Every week our green waste container as well as the neighbors is full. But, it has been worth it as the yard looks much better especially after all the rain.

I have been putting together a raised garden bed which has been on my wish list for years. However, making it out of redwood just wasn’t practical so I decided that in my old age, using fir would do just as well as it may still outlast me. The bed is 4 x 12 and 12 inches high. When I planned this I did not take into account how much dirt and mulch it would take to fill it. Therein lies my problem. Where to get good topsoil without stripping my garden of it and what is it going to cost me if I need to buy it. I need about 30 cu ft. I also need 15 cu ft of compost and 5 cu ft of potting soil. I also have several smaller beds that need the same materials.

Bed built upside down so I could add hardware cloth to keep gophers out.

Right side up with newspaper under the hardware cloth to keep soil moist.

California poppies taking over my garden.

I have the bed ready for my pole beans and peas and today I put up the trellis’s so they can climb up.

The RV has had its problems. Unknown to me was the condition of the upper slide seals. With one of our last rain storms after we returned home, water came in and soaked the rugs. It took a week using heaters and fans to dry it out after I had used a wet vacuum and got up what water I could. I also used a lot of old bath towels to soak up the excess. After it had dried, I spread a layer of Baking Soda on the carpet and brushed it in with my hand and left it for a couple of weeks. This was so there would be no oder from the rugs being wet. I have done this successfully a number of times when we have had leaks and it seems to work.

Ten days ago I took the RV to A-RV in Nipomo, CA to have the slide seals replaced and to have the front and rear cap seals checked. Yesterday I picked up the RV so now I hope I am ready for camping again with no leaks.

Now I need to get ready for Ranchero Visitadores which for me starts on Monday April 29^th when I go up and mow the grass in the area we set up our camp in. When Clyda and I took the RV to Nipomo we stopped off at our Visitadores camp site on our way back home to see how high the grass was and to make sure nothing else was amiss at the site. Well, “belly high” on a cow would describe the grass so I called the Ranch foreman and asked if he could run a mower through there before I go up on the 29^th. His smart alec answer was he would send me 2 goats to take care of the grass. There is no way my back yard mower would cut that grass. I don’t mind spending a few hours running a mower around the lot but not all day at it either. So we’ll see if he follows through.

Before the 29^th I need to go through all of the equipment I take with me, such as stoves, tilt up canopy, signs, etc, to make sure all is in readiness. I have lists of everything I should need so just need to refer to them. All of the food is already on order so that is done.

After I am through with Rancheros we always go camping somewhere. Last year we were at Lake Lopez with a large group and this year a few of us are going to Morro Bay for 4 days. As long as the RV is out of the yard I want to use it. Son Craig brings Clyda and a trailer up to the camp when I finish. That way Clyda can ride with me to Morro Bay and Craig can take all of my excess camping stuff back home.

Clyda has a quick trip to Lynden, WA planned for right after Easter to visit a niece and nephew who have new babies we have not seen. BIL Mark invited her to stay with he and Tammy which is very thoughtful of them.

At the end of May we have a trip to Houston planned for our Granddaughters high school graduation. She is trying to decide on which college to attend. She has been accepted at a few already, a couple which are very prestigious places.

Granddaughters Birthday.

Today is granddaughter Ivy’s 18^th birthday. We were in Houston 18 years ago for her birth. Happy Birthday Ivy.

We have left Yuma after a week of site seeing, shopping at Arizona Marketplace, (a mostly covered swap meet) several times, a movie when it rained one day, shopping at Wall-Mart next door to the RV Park, and seeing several local sites.

We spent one windy afternoon at The Museum of History in Granite at Felicity, California, West of Yuma. This is a really neat place developed by a Frenchman Jacques-Andre Istel who served in the U.S, Marine Corp. He liked the area so much he bought land, LOTS of land and created a place where information could be etched in large granite panels. He is also the Mayer of Felicity. We met him when we entered the visitor center. It was his 90^th birthday.

We viewed some of the panels but it was so windy we left the remainder for another time.

We had lunch at Lutes Casino in Old Town Yuma which really isn’t a casino but has an eclectic collection of old memorabilia and serves food. It is a must see if in Yuma.

We left enough unseen sites that we need to go back next year,

On Monday the 18^th we left Yuma a drove back to Quartzsite but this time camped in La Posa South with our neighbors Paul and Kathy who had arrived the day before. We had a nice visit and left the next morning to take the trailer to Blythe, California to have it registered. In California the DMV has to check the VIN number when they register a trailer. So to Blythe we went. We really can’t do this at home as there is no room for a trailer at the DMV and we would be there all day. Much easier in Blythe but it still took us 2 hours to get it done.

On the way back from Blythe we stopped at a public scales just inside the Arizona border to weigh both the truck and trailer. I know how much the truck weighs but wanted to make sure I don’t overload this trailer as it has lite weight springs and wheels. With that being done, I think we are ok in the weight department if we watch what we put in the trailer.

Right now we are over weight as we had left some stuff at Jack and Judy’s which we loaded up to take home.

Speaking of Jack and Judy, we are back at their place to pick up said stuff and head for home via Lake Havasu City where we will join our Oregon friends Dick and Barbara for a few days before heading West.

Yesterday I got the necessary fittings, etc to hookup the propane heater. It really is nice to have that working again. We had been using a small electric heater supplemented by the RV furnace when needed. And lately we did need it as the weather has been cold and rainy. 

Heater in its place of honor in the RV.

Yesterday after the rain we saw lots of snow on local mountains, not something usually seen here. Today was nice with sunshine.