Happy 4th of July!

We arrived in Lynden last Thursday morning after spending the night at the Expo Center Fairgrounds in Monroe, WA. Not my best choice of places to stay but it was on our route. We always bypass Seattle if we can by driving on 2 lane roads through small towns to the East of the city. This is much slower but less frantic than big city driving especially as we can’t keep up with the speed of traffic that most folks want to drive at.

Our first order of business was to pick up a Fed Ex package from our brother-in-laws house. It contained escrow papers for the sale of property in Las Vegas and the purchase of another Las Vegas property. We knew this was in the works but had hoped to complete the sales while at home where all pertinent info is available. However, as I said to someone, “it seems that most of our real estate sales have been done while we are traveling” so this one is no different.

After filling out all the sections required of us we went to the bank to have several sections notarized. Eventually after a few phone calls for clarification of some fine points we mailed the package back to the sender.

The weather here has been variable. It started out nice with big fluffy clouds mixed with sun but has deteriorated to overcast mixed with light rain showers. Not a good recipe for the 4^th of July.

Our BIL Mark has been a most gracious host. He has BBQ’ed the last two nights for us and his daughter Dawn and husband Mat. Last night was excellent smoked salmon, his specialty.

We have been spending most days at Mark’s house as Dawn and her 9 month old daughter Samantha spend the days there also. Samantha is a joy to be around. She is curious as only 9 month old’s can be. Of course, everything goes in her mouth first so it keeps us on our toes to keep everything picked up that she shouldn’t have. 

Dawn & Samantha

Samantha with the 4th of July outfit Clyda bought for her. 

 Look at that red hair!

Saturday Mark and I worked on his garage door project which involves sanding down the door panels which are varnished wood with raised panels. We have one more to do which we hope to get done next Saturday.

If the weather improves we will drive to the coast a Blaine, WA for the fireworks display. If not, we may watch it on TV or see it here from our campground as some folks living near here fire off some really big fireworks each year.

Through the fire zone.

Just a short note to tell everyone that we made it out of the fire zone at Lee Vining this morning. We left the campground at 7:30 and had to wait about 20 minutes for the pilot car. They escorted us to the north end of Mono Lake.

It must have been a really interesting day on Friday at Mono Lodge as the fire burned right up to the back of the motel. Hand crews with shovels were still digging up hot spots as we went by this morning.

Edison brought in a large load of power poles last night and they had a very large number of trucks staging along the highway at Mono Lodge this morning. Hard to tell where they lost poles as we went by.

Other than it being a long day, 300 miles, and hot, in the nineties, we are fine. Tomorrow is another 270 mile day to Redmond, OR.

Every RV’er knows that not all plans go as scheduled.

Our plans certainly haven’t. We have gone from the frying pan into the fire or I should say, from one fire to another fire.

We left one fire at home only to get stopped by another fire in the Eastern Sierra.

We left home at 6:10 AM on Thursday to get ahead of the morning rush hour traffic. We stopped in Fillmore for an Egg McMuffin and that put us going up I-5, the “Grapevine” when the temp was only 72 degrees and little traffic. Perfect! We stopped in Mojave for fuel and then carried on North on Hwy 395.

Our original destination was the Elks Club in Ridgecrest but the temperature was predicted to be 108 degrees so we abandoned that in favor of Boulder Creek RV Park South of Lone Pine. However, when we got that far we decided it was too early to stop so continued on to Brown’s Town at Bishop, CA.

The temperature here was 103 so we stayed inside with the AC on the remainder of the afternoon. It did cool off overnight so sleeping was ok.

Sierra Nevada Mountains from Bishop.

The next morning we fueled up in Bishop and Clyda said she saw a sign that Hwy 395 was closed at Lee Vining due to a fire. I immediately got on my phone and confirmed that yes, there was a fire and yes, the road was closed. Our plan was to go to Glass Creek at Mammoth anyway so that would be a good place to wait out the road closure if we could get in.

We arrived about 10:30 and the place looked pretty full. As we drove around a guy stopped us and said only one site was open if we wanted it. So, we took it. We were lucky as more rigs showed up and there were no open sites. The bad news is that the campground was full of off road vehicles of all kinds along with their big motor homes and long trailers. It is not a very nice place anymore and doubt if we will every stop there again.

As the highway continued to closed we decided to take a picnic lunch and go to June Lake for the day. When we arrived at June Lake Junction it appeared from the traffic that the road may be open so I stopped and asked a waitress if in fact the road was open and she replied “Yes.” So, we turned around and went back to the camp ground for the RV. After a quick lunch we hooked up and left.

When we got to the Hwy 120 turnoff to Benson a sign said “Hwy 395 closed.” Now what do we do. I kept on driving into Lee Vining and at the North end of town all traffic was stopped. We pulled off to the side and talked to a young couple walking back from where the road was closed by vehicles with flashing lights and they told us that “the road was closed by a rock slide from the fire until Cal-Trans could install a K-rail to contain the slide and who knew how long that would be.”

So we made a u-turn and stopped along the road while we decided “whats next?” I just so happens that Mono Vista RV park was right there so we pulled in and secured a site for the night. This park was on our original schedule when we first planned this trip but got dropped when our plans changed. I guess it was meant to be.

Fire visible from our campground.

We are right next to the fire and also within view of the road closure. And hour after we got here they opened the road one lane at a time with escort. So, we relaxed along with every one else in the same situation and will leave early in the morning for our next stop, by passing Carson City, NV and going on to Likely, CA which will put us back on schedule.

Trip planning and a nearby fire.

While not quit a month since my last post, still long enough I guess.

I have been working and planning for our trip to Lynden, Washington starting next Thursday the 23^rd. I do a little each day.

We will make the trip in 8 days with little time for sight seeing. It really doesn’t matter as we have made this same trip many times before. A few of the nightly stops will be different this time but I will report on those as we travel.

Now however, we have a large fire burning to the West of us on the coastal range. It started 3 days ago and has grown each day since. It has been named the Sherpa Fire after the ranch where it started. During the day the winds blow from West to East along the coast but at night they shift to the South and blow down over the mountains (called sundowner winds) causing the fire to cross Highway 101. In places the center medium has burned and the highway has been closed for the last 2 nights when this happens. Probably will be closed again tonight. The sundowner winds have been 35 to 45 MPH which plays havoc with attempts to control the fire. There are some pretty dramatic photos on line of the fire at night. Check Google Images and Sherpa Fire for those.

So far the only building to burn was the pump station for the State Park at El Capitan which was located way up a canyon. We have several friends living on ranches in the fire area and are in contact with them. It has been reported on TV that there have been losses to avocados, lemons, and olive groves.

We are about 10 miles from the fire I would guess and the standby evacuation line is a road about 3 miles West of us. If they move it closer to us, a lot of houses are in danger not only ours. If we are forced to evacuate we will take the RV and move to one of the staging areas set up for that and wait it out.

 

Smoke as seen from our backyard yesterday(sorry for the pole).

For now we keep the house closed up to keep the smell of smoke out and also the ash that falls. It hasn’t been too bad so far. However it is supposed to get into the 90’s here on Monday which will mean using fans to keep cool.

Have a great Memorial weekend.

It has been a month since I last posted but what can I say, I have been busy.

I did my usual 10 days gate guarding for Rancheros Visitadores. It was my 19^th year of doing this although I actually started 21 years ago. I missed two years because of trips out of the country.

This year went by fast for some reason. My usual 2 cohorts, Jim and Harry might have had something to do with that. We do make a good team.

While at the gate we had one afternoon of rain. About ¾ of an inch it looked like. That caused a few problems with both the road condition and moving cattle in from a nearby ranch. Eventually it was decided to unload the cattle into a corral by the gate as the truck couldn’t get to the corrals in the back country. Later the cattle were turned out into the pasture over night so they could graze. The next morning they were rounded up and driven into the back country.

 

Double deck and double trailer.

After our job was done on Friday, Jim and I drove to the Santa Maria Elks Club RV Park where we were later joined by 3 other camping friends and our spouses for 5 days of relaxation, wine tasting and good food.

We ate at the Elks Club Friday night BBQ where you select and cook your own steak which was very good. On Tuesday we went wine tasting at Rancho Sisquoc followed by a picnic lunch on their patio. Tuesday night we ate at the Far Western Tavern in Orcutt. A very new and modern version of the old steak house in Guadalupe. It was all very good.

Last Thursday I delivered the RV to a repair shop in Ventura to get the slides adjusted prior to our upcoming trip in June. I hope they don’t take too long to get this done as I have a few other repairs to do before we head North.

On Monday neighbor Paul and I cut down the very large twisted juniper tree between our driveways. The juniper did block some of the view of our RV from the street but the roots are under Paul’s new paver driveway and we didn’t want them displacing any pavers.

After cutting it down with a chain saw and electric pole saw we ran all the small branches through the chipper which resulted in 5 large garbage cans of mulch. I will use this on garden pathways to help keep the weeds down. The remaining wood I stacked in the back yard to use as camping firewood.

I have spent way too much time on the computer working out trip routes and plans with friends and also with son Tim who will be here with grandson Matthew and granddaughter Ivy the end of July. I think I have a handle on all of that for now.

Very windy days.

Fresh eggs.

Son Craig takes care of a friends chickens when the friend is away from his house. We reap the benefit of that by having a nice supply of organic eggs. By the color I imagine the chickens are of all colors. The size of the eggs vary also so some must be smaller than the others. It makes no difference as they all taste good. Did I say free!

Not much of interest going on here. What we need most is rain but I guess that is done for this year. Bummer!

We have been working in the yard as usual. Always weeds to pull. I did put the cover on the gazebo on our back patio. I hope it lasts for one more summer.

I am working through my list of to-do items for the RV in preparation for the 10 days I am at Ranchero Visitadores starting a week from tomorrow. I have my menus planned, my food list made, and equipment list updated.

I have checked all the wheel bearings and added some new grease to all 4 wheels. The batteries have been checked and are good to go. I flushed the water heater and replaced the sacrificial anode. The water tank is full and I have started to put a few items in the RV as I come across them. Most things will need to wait until next week to load. I fill the RV and the truck to the max.

We have had wind for days now. Today was really bad. It really is drying out the hills fast. They had been so nice and green. It’s back to the golden hills of California I am afraid.

The time sure goes fast.

After we got home, it was time to tackle the weeds in the garden, again. Rain while we were gone meant more weeds. I did a quick mow job in the garden and Craig mowed the lawn. The next morning I found the lawn mower sitting by the shed with the starter cord hanging out all the way. Oh-oh. I tried taking it apart but had little luck with that. Craig looked at it and said it was worn out. I went off to do something else and a few minutes later I heard the mower start. He had just wrapped the cord around the starter pulley and gave it a tug. It started and that’s the way we have been using it.

I really don’t want to buy a new mower as this one has a Honda engine on it and Craig got it for free. It was sitting on the curb with a free sign on it. He tinkered with it and got it running and we have used it for several years.

I actually am looking at a battery powered mower from Amazon. It comes with 2 lithium batteries and has 2 mower blades. I actually saw one advertised on TV today. I hate small gas engine power equipment. I have always said that my goal in life was to get rid of all my gas powered equipment. This may be the time to start. To that end, I did my lawn edging with an old fashioned hand powered edger this week. More work but less hassle and no sprinkler heads sheared off.

We did not do all work and no play this week as we visited friends who are embarking on a new adventure. Well, new to them anyway. They bought a motor home and will give work camping a try this summer. We wish them good luck!

I found myself glued to my computer chair this week. I have so much family history to enter in my Family Tree Maker software that it will take me years to complete it. So, I started with Clyda’s family. Mainly because of the data I had from her sister’s passing and it seemed like a good place to start while everything was fresh in my mind.

I have all the pertinent data entered but there is much data still to check and all of the family stories to be added. I am sending off what I have to Clyda’s cousin to do some of the checking as much of the data came from him originally a few years ago.

Also, I have been corresponding by email with a friend on local history of the area in Wisconsin where I grew up. He has access to all the old newspapers from that area from which to draw on for stories and to check facts. I am using a local history book created for the Centennial years of 1874-1974 for that area. My parents had gotten a copy for me and it has been an invaluable source of local history. The one flaw in the history is that it may not have had all the facts thoroughly checked.

I made the comment that I wish my father was alive as he could have answered many of my questions as he had lived in that era. It has been fun to add the few facts that I remember from my father and from my days living there as a kid. The problem we are having is identifying places mentioned in the Centennial book as no one is still alive who can verify the data. To that end I have been looking at old plat maps which tell me who lived on what piece of land in the time period we are working on. A puzzle for sure but rewarding never the less.

Sorry no photos, as I need to move some from my phone that I took on the way home from Washington before I can put them in the blog. I forget to do that when I have time and only think of it when I do the blog.