Serene Wandering

We have been staying at a 55+ snowbird park in Casa Grande, Arizona – Foothills West.  We first heard about this park from Darrell and Dona, camp hosts at Lake Cascade, an Idaho state park.   They told us we should come visit this park when we came south and they were right.  We have had a fun week meeting lots of people – most are here escaping Minnesota and Wisconsin winters – who come back year after year.  Darrell and Dona split their time between Cascade and Casa Grande.

Snowbirds seem to have a great time!  We could see that my cousin, Audrey, really enjoys her time at a snowbird park in Yuma.    Her park is much larger and has tons of activities.  This one is much smaller, about 180 sites, and has some activities, but it seems like the relationships are primary.   And, kindly, they have also been welcoming to us – and we are noticeable – as there are only 4 “transient” sites in the park.

One of the people we met, Ron,  invited us to go to Cowboy Church.  We almost always enjoy going to church, but this was a uniquely outstanding experience.  The band had two guitars, a bass guitar, a fiddle, a keyboard, drums and an accordion.  When they started singing “Ghost Riders in the Sky” we thought it was interesting, but that was just to make sure the melody was familiar.  Soon we were singing Amazing Grace to the tune of Ghost Riders In the Sky.

The pastor had a very good message that he delivered from behind this unique pulpit!

We also saw the Cowboy interpretation of the 10 commandments!

We visited the signature landmark in the area, The Casa Grande Ruins.

This site was discovered in 1694 by Spanish missionaries who named it Casa Grande, the Great House.   It was four stories tall and 60 feet long.

Openings corresponded with the summer solstice and other moon positions.  Wooden supports for the ceilings and floors came from 60 miles away.

Centuries of weather and neglect have taken a toll on the Great House. In 1892 it became our country’s first archeological reserve. The current roof has been in place since 1932. Additional steps are also being taken to preserve as much of the remaining building as possible.

A resident owl keeps watch!

The ancient peoples in this area (1100-1450) established hundreds of miles of irrigation ditches from the Gila and Salt Rivers and were able to live here year round. They had secure enough lives that they were able to spend time and effort beyond subsistence. They made pottery and jewelry for trading.  They also had a ball court (scooped oval area) similar to those used by the Aztecs.

We also visited the Caywood Cotton Farm, again entering a world we knew nothing about!   Prices have been down for cotton in recent years, (they blame a glut of Chinese cotton) and with reduced water due to the drought, it is definitely a balancing act to decide what to grow.   This small family farm is staying afloat by growing more alfalfa and less cotton (and dad is also a fireman).

We learned some interesting things about growing cotton.   It is state law that they use genetically enhanced seed to reduce the risk of insect infestation.   We have been in so many areas that are resisting GMOs that this was interesting to us.  They are also required to turn under their plants after harvest, again to reduce the risk of infestation.

Inside the cotton boll, the fibers grow and eventually split open and the cotton bursts out.

This immature boll was broken open to show the developing cotton.

There are two types of cotton grown in Arizona, upland and pima.   Pima is generally stronger, but most grow upland.  It was unclear why the area has moved more toward growing upland cotton.  They require separate gins, which seem to be run as cooperatives.

The term “fair to middling” has its roots in growing cotton.   Fair cotton is the best quality, middling is good, and low is ordinary.   How interesting that the term “fair to middling” generally means “not good, not bad”  when that isn’t what the cotton equivalent means at all.

Once processed, a bale of cotton weighs about 480 pounds.  A typical bale will make 325 pairs of jeans or 3000 diapers.

Beyond the cotton itself, the seed is also important.  It produces an oil that was the primary oil used for cooking until the 1940s.  Crisco (crystallized cottonseed oil) was one of the first products made using cotton seed oil.

The current uses for cotton seeds are very broad.   Just to name a very few…  kernels are used for fertilizer, feed, refined oils, soaps, cosmetics and insecticides.  The hulls are used in bran, rubbers and plastics.  The linters are used in food casings, dynamite, rocket propellant and currency.

Again, a world we knew nothing about!  We are delighted to be able to learn something new almost every day.

This may be the first time I’ve written a second blog post from the same campground – but two weeks is the longest we’ve stayed anywhere in the trailer (other than Boise).  We are still in northern Arizona and have spent some time on the landmark road, Route 66.

We enjoyed trying to make our way around Northern Arizona University. It has changed so much since we were a lumberjack and lumberjill from 1977 – 1981. We were able to find our old classroom buildings and our old dorms, but our first apartment in married housing didn’t look familiar. They have either remodeled or re-numbered the building since we lived there.

We visited the Riordan Mansion State Historical Park which surprised us by being right off campus.  We never knew it was there! When we were students at NAU some family members still lived there and it was not yet a historical park.

Two Riordan brothers married sisters and were part of the Flagstaff upper crust.  The families lived in a mansion that was two mirror image houses connected by an entertainment cabin in the middle.  It was designed by the same architect that designed the El Tovar Lodge on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

We enjoyed spending time with college friends Connie and Nick.  Connie and I were dorm resident advisors together.  They are two of the few people from NAU that we are still in contact with 34 years later.

We enjoyed lunch at a Route 66 landmark restaurant, Miz Zip’s.  Arizona Highways magazine said it was famous for pies, and the pie was certainly good, but it was the bleu cheese dressing that was outstanding! They make it in-house and the owner shared the ingredients she uses – I just have to figure out how to modify it down as I don’t need a gallon at a time.

The Blazin’ M Ranch in Cottonwood was a great place for a cowboy show and dinner.

Yes, it is touristy, and cheesy – but also a real good time!

Another day we explored the Tuzigoot National Monument.  This is yet another site of dwellings occupied between 1100 and 1300. These ruins were unearthed in 1934 and are very exposed on the top of a hill. Unlike other ruins in the area, the park service is very actively trying to fortify the walls to maintain them.

We traveled a short distance to Jerome, Arizona. It is an old mining town, with a colorful past, that once boasted 15,000 people.  It is now an occupied “ghost town” with hotels, bed and breakfasts, restaurants etc.  Notice the J for Jerome on the mountain above and then on the picture below to orient yourself.

This 3D exhibit shows the town above ground and the very extensive mining underneath. The town was actually sliding down the mountain  bit by bit due to blasting.  Extensive mining stopped in 1954 and the town has been more stable since. I hope it isn’t on a fault line for earthquakes.  It seems like the mountain  would collapse like a house of cards.

There was so much copper pulled out of this area that, for 2 years, Arizona actually issued copper license plates.

While in Jerome we ate lunch in the building that held the oldest restaurant in Arizona – established in 1898.  The English Kitchen operated continuously from 1898 to 2007.  It also had an opium den in the basement, but no worries – the last remnants of the opium den were removed in the 1980s!  In 2011,  a BBQ restaurant moved into the historic space.

In Camp Verde, we went to Fort Verde Historical Park. It was built to protect area settlers during the Indian Wars. On the day we were there,  groups were doing reenactments. A physicians “assistant” showed us period medical tools and told us that during the civil war 87% of injured soldiers died from their wounds. In World War II that number was reduced to 4%. During Vietnam, 1% of injured soldiers died from their wounds.  Quite an improvement!

There were also Buffalo Soldier re-enactors. The name Buffalo Soldiers was coined by the Indians who saw men with dark skin and curly hair that fought as fiercely as a wounded buffalo. The Buffalo Soldiers were generally former slaves, who fought for the north, and remained in the army. By all accounts, the Buffalo Soldiers performed very well.   They surveyed and built a lot of the roads during western expansion. Buffalo soldiers also had responsibility for trying to guard and protect the early national parks. That was a difficult task because those who always had access to the lands objected to negro soldiers telling them they couldn’t hunt and graze on the lands as before.  That was years before the park service was established.

Other quick hits from our stay –

For the first time on the road, I ordered a Bountiful Baskets share. I did this frequently in Boise but had gotten out of the habit. I find that produce in these small towns is often very limited, marginal quality, and expensive so I was delighted with a produce haul.

Also for the first time, we ran into a couple at this park that we had camped next to in a previous campground.  Remember the “creepy place”?   They were the best thing about that campground!  People say that happens all the time in this lifestyle, but this was our first, very cool, experience.

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Randy had another engineering project – adding a component to our new truck radio so that the steering wheel controls would work again. I came out, took the picture, and went back in – too many wires and possibilities for it to never work again.  When he put it back together, the controls and the radio worked!

We sold the troublesome washer/dryer combo that just didn’t dry well enough anymore to keep me happy. We gave full disclosure about its shortcomings to the buyers but they thought it would be better than not having one at all. We have an appointment next week to get the Italian vented model installed and good riddance to the ventless one made in China.

We are experiencing another mail snafu – aargh! The mail was suppose to be sent on Saturday so we would get it on Tuesday or Wednesday – before we would leave on  Thursday.  When it didn’t come on Tuesday we called and they hadn’t sent it until that day.   Supposedly it should be here Thursday morning – the day we are scheduled to leave.   The UPS Store probably does a very good job at what its primary business is, but isn’t doing a good job at mail forwarding!  We’ll be looking for alternatives.

Next stop – Casa Grande – hopefully tomorrow…

Update:  No mail so  staying another night….Randy had a heart to heart with the UPS store manager.   Hopefully things will improve.

We rode the Verde Canyon Railroad today and their motto is, “It’s the Journey, Not the Destination.” A leisurely train ride is certainly convincing.  We enjoyed being able to be in our rail car or outside as we preferred.

The tracks followed the Verde River – going through barren lands and a red rock canyon.

An interesting site was mistletoe (think Christmas) growing in otherwise dormant trees. Mistletoe is a parasite – I may never think of it quite the same way again.

We heard narration about our journey interspersed with all the songs ever written that have anything to do with trains.  We heard  “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” to “Midnight Train to Georgia” to “Love Train” and everything in between. It was quite enjoyable.

On the Destination side of the equation, we went to one of the best – the Grand Canyon!

Even though we’ve seen it several times before,  it is always impressive.  Our first outing in 1977, before we were a couple, was to the Grand Canyon.

We also explored the areas around Montezuma’s Castle and Montezuma’s Well.  The naming of these monuments seems unfortunate as the ancient peoples, the Sinagua,  were here and gone (700 – 1400 AD) long before the Spanish came.   Early settlers thought the dwellings had Aztec origins, but that is not so. This  “castle” was a five story dwelling with 20 rooms and was occupied between 1100 and 1300 AD.

The “well” is an oasis and is formed by continuously flowing springs.  It does not have any fish, but this little pond does have five species that are found no where else in the world. These include a tiny shrimp, a snail, a water scorpion, a leech and a one cell plant called a diatom. Leeches are the primary predators in the water.

More dwellings and remnants of  limestone irrigation ditches are viewable in the well area.

We don’t have an answer to journey or destination – we are blessed to be enjoying both!

We love our current location,  Usery Mountain Regional Park, just east of Mesa, Arizona.  We loved it from the moment we drove in the park entrance.  The question is, will we be back for more than just a casual visit?  We have thought a lot about the pros and the cons…

The pros –

1. Randy’s brother Tim and our sister-in-law Yvette live about a half hour away in Chandler.  We have been able to see them a couple of times this week including when they came out to our camp with our nephew, Sean and his significant others Lisa and Leilani.

2. The desert is beautiful.  It has rained quite a bit recently so we are seeing it at its best – wildflowers may be blooming soon!   The sunsets are great.

3.  There is so much to learn about the desert.  Randy grew up in Tucson so he knew quite a bit already but I know very little about the desert.  I  have enjoyed the nature trails and host talks and have loved learning about desert plants and animals.

For example:  Palo verde trees have little tiny leaves so as not to give off precious moisture, thus the branches are green to continue photosynthesis.

Saguaros weigh 150-200 pounds per foot and have a wooden skeleton.  When an entry point is made in a cactus, the gila woodpecker carves out a hole.  The cactus forms a hard internal scab which becomes a nest for any variety of birds.

Generally, the arms don’t seem to grow other arms but it occasionally happens. If the arms turn down,  it is because there is cell damage because of an extended frost.

The cactus on the left is a saguaro, the one on the back right is a Verizon cell tower :).

4.  There are miles of “wash” trails that we have enjoyed wandering.

There are also 30 miles of established trails.  We hiked the 1.5 miles (mostly up)  to Wind Cave.  It is in the dark area, on the right side of the yellow band of rock, on Pass Mountain.

The “cave” itself probably wasn’t worth the trip….

but,  the bee hive attached to the top wall was quite interesting.

Randy went up another half mile but I was content to wait.  The 1.5 miles going down from Wind Cave was so much nicer!

Descending, we had a good view of the Phoenix sign.  It was made during the 1950s to direct airplanes – before radar.  If it were standing on end, it is the size of the empire state building.

5.  The camp hosts here seem to return year after year and the park  has a great sense of community – something we have found we miss in this lifestyle.  We have enjoyed spending time with camp hosts Georgia and Randy, full timers from Iowa.

6.  Usery Mountain Regional Park seems to be perfectly located.  It is 3-4 miles out in the desert, but Mesa is close and everything is available.  Of course, Phoenix is just beyond that so more than everything is available.

The cons:

1.  Packrats!  We noticed, on our first evening walk, that many people had rope lights around the base of their trailers and either rope lights or trouble lights in their vehicle engine compartments.  The next morning Randy talked with two neighbors who had packrat damage in their truck engines – so off he went to Home Depot!  $150 later, we had packrat lights.   If you know Randy well, you know he hated putting up Christmas lights.  Now we have ground lights for our trailer – supposedly they work for deterring mice as well.  Six nights into our seven night stay – no damage…

This is a packrat nest.  Several are visible in our walk range.  The packrats pile pieces of cholo cactus on their nest for protection.  If you see cholo in your engine – that is bad!  Although packrats are disgusting, they really aren’t that much of a deterrent to returning.

2.  Our real concern is commitment, or rather over-commitment.  We are already scheduled for other park hosting situations this summer (that we are excited about) and don’t want to plan ourselves so far out that we lose all flexibility.  Plus, most of the hosts here stay a full 5-6 months and we aren’t ready to commit to that length of stay.

So, will we be back?   We don’t know yet.  We met with the park manager today so that he had faces to go with our possible application.  His needs and our willingness may or may not ever match, but it is something we’ll think about.

Some other Usery Mountain highlights…

Randy got to learn how to fix our ice-maker that stopped working abruptly!  It seems as though there is always something for him to fix so his engineering skills won’t get too rusty.

My mom noticed that Elko hasn’t gotten much press lately so here he is being his adorable self – showing off how smart he is to use a rock to prop up his fetch toy, to turn it into a chew toy.

We found a hummingbird feeder that we can attach to our window – just one more example of the multitude of life in the desert!

This isn’t an Arizona weather report.  This is a shout out for the US Postal Service.  Rain or shine, snow or sleet, we deliver your mail!   When you go out to pick up your reliably delivered mail today, be sure to appreciate that service! (Full disclosure – our daughter, Natasha, is a postal carrier, but that isn’t why we are cheering the USPS.)

Before leaving Boise, we obtained a mail box at a local UPS store and began transferring our mailing address to that box.  When we are in a place that will accept camper mail, we call the UPS store and ask them to forward our mail.   The process has worked very well – until a couple weeks ago.

Two stops ago, we requested our mail.  It came and we opened the large envelope with great anticipation – that happens when you only get mail every 2-3 weeks.   We were very disappointed when every piece of mail belonged to another box holder.  We called the UPS store to report the mistake and they assumed they had been doing two at a time and our mail had mistakenly gone to someone who was having mail forwarded to Yuma.   They called the other people involved, and we waited, and waited and waited…    Eventually they heard from the other people that they had not received any mail.  Our UPS store then decided that our mail had stayed in our box in Boise all along.   We were skeptical, but returned the mail that didn’t belong to us and asked that our mail be sent to Ehrenburg, AZ.

Monday, there was no mail.  The same on Tuesday and Wednesday.  On Thursday, still no mail, which was a problem since we were preparing to leave on Friday morning.  We called the UPS store and asked them to do a trace.  The manager read the letter over the phone confirming that mail was delivered to Randy and Serene Williams on Monday.

Sure enough our mail, disguised as mail for the Williams, had been in the camper box designated “last name beginning with W” since Monday.  To be fair, or charitable, I have been renamed Serena Williams before.  Certainly not because of appearance or athletic ability, but several times over the years, Serene Matthews has become Serena Williams.    We did enjoy our mail, when we finally got it.  (Yes, that is an orange tree out the window – we enjoyed those too!)

The other enjoyable event on this stop was a drive down to Yuma to see cousin Audrey.

Audrey spends six months a year at an RV community in Yuma and has a great time.  Her park has many activities, a golf course, a restaurant and is very appealing.   Audrey drives around in her golf cart and has many friends there.  We think we might come and hang out for a month if we are in the southwest next winter.

Going to  Yuma, we drove by the entrance to Yuma Proving Ground.  This is a military facility where my father was stationed beginning in the summer of 1977.  (From there, I attended Northern Arizona University, met Randy etc. etc.)   When living there we would occasionally see a few wild horses in the desert and I told Randy about them on the drive south.  On the way north,  we were fortunate to see a small group near the road.

We also went to Quartzite, Arizona – a little town that is infamous in the RV community.  Hundreds of thousands of RVs and RVers amass on Quartzite each January for a loose gathering.  We came into the area after the event was officially concluded but still saw thousands of RVs parked out in the desert.   It is one of those things that people say you should do at least once.  Randy thinks so, but I’m not so sure.  He may be out of luck since I do most of the planning!

While in Quartzite we went to the one (and only) attraction listed on Trip Advisor.  It is a memorial to Hi Jolly  and the military’s experiment with a camel corps in Arizona during the mid 1800s.

There was one particular camel named the Red Ghost.  As soon as I read the board, I recalled a podcast that I had listened to about the Red Ghost and had to call Natasha right away.   We both listen to the podcast What You Missed in History Class, and she too remembered the Red Ghost episode.  Randy and I listened to the podcast again on our drive back to the trailer.   If you would like to access the story of the Red Ghost it can be found at:

http://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/the-red-ghost-of-arizona-and-the-u-s-camel-corps/

We plan to spend the next two months in Arizona.   It was nice to be able to add another sticker to our map!

Given that we will be close to Phoenix on Sunday, I suggested to Randy that we might want to get tickets for the Super Bowl – especially since the team I like, the Seahawks are playing a team he likes, the Patriots.  He agreed that we should look and see.  Tickets on the secondary market were $8500 a piece!  No Superbowl tickets  for us!    Go Seahawks!

One potato, two potato, three potato, four…five Montana, six Montana, seven Montana, more.

Here in our Palm Desert RV park, we have seen lots of  “Famous Potatoes”  license plates – the most we’ve seen in one place since… Idaho!  We have met people from Pocatello and Orofino and seen designations from familiar and unfamiliar counties.  This is where Idahoans come for the winter!

We have also seen more Montana Fifth Wheels than ever before.  We knew, when we bought ours, that Montana had been the highest selling Fifth Wheel for 11 years, and now we’ve seen them!  Dozens, just like us.

Randy spent quite a bit of time on a project for our Montana.  He was trying to get our sewer hoses out of the “basement” area and stored in this mounted vinyl fence post.  What should have been a fairly easy task, was complicated by compact space and limited tools.  It took some design engineering, 1 trip to Lowes and 3 trips to the hardware store, but mission accomplished!

We have enjoyed our stay here at the Palm Springs Resort, in Palm Desert.  The resort itself is set amongst date trees and citrus trees.     Most of the citrus trees were grapefruit, which we do not like, but Randy did pick some oranges.  Fruit is available and free for personal use.

Although our site was a little more open, sometimes it is quite a task to fit trailers into the spaces between the date palms.

We enjoyed playing pickle ball again.  The resort even held a training session for beginners.  Our teacher was quite the task master, but we learned quite a bit.  We also enjoyed the hot tub and wonderful weather.  Randy did not golf any of the famous courses in the area –  he is just not into golfing lately.

We visited Joshua Tree National Park.  Joshua Trees are a species of yucca and were named by Mormon pioneers.  The trees gave them a visual reminder of Joshua 8:18.  Then the Lord said to Joshua “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand for into your hand I will deliver the city.”  The trees appeared to be standing, arms raised with pointed ends like a javelin.

The park is the transition zone between the Colorado (Sonoran) and Mohave Deserts, each with their own ecosystem.  In addition to the Joshua Trees, we enjoyed the Chollo Garden and Skull Rock.

The Salton Sea, formed by a flooding and runaway Colorado River in 1905-6 is in the background.  The river flooded into a desert basin about 275 feet below sea level (the Salton Sink) and the Salton Sea, a shallow lake 35 miles across, was created.

We also enjoyed the Palm Spring Arial Tramway, the largest rotating tram in the world.  One of three rotating trams, the others in Switzerland and South Africa, the car does two slow complete rotations on its  ascent and descent allowing you to see a 360 degree view.

It begins at 2643 feet in a desert environment and transitions to an artic/alpine zone at 8516 feet. We went from 80 degrees to 36 degrees in ten minutes.

At the top you are in San Jacinto State Park which has wilderness area, hiking, rock climbing and primitive camping.  We came dressed for cold weather but didn’t come with the appropriate shoes to hike on icey trails.  That was tricky!

As always, we only scratched the surface of all there is to do in the area, and in California as a whole.  We have very much enjoyed our travels in California, but now, it is on to Arizona!

No body contact with the water.  Can you imagine a reservoir that has animals living in and around it and allows boating – but does not allow human bodies to have contact with the water?  We were surprised to see the sign below as we prepared to embark on our Wildlife Cruise on Lake Cachuma. (Lake Cachuma is at 28% capacity and has not been full since March, 2011.)

The ranger explained that Lake Cachuma holds drinking water for area communities and no humans are allowed to have contact with the water.  Although interesting, it didn’t effect our pontoon boat cruise.   We had seats that turned 360 degrees, for great viewing of the multitude of wildlife. We saw racing grebes, bald eagles and a golden eagle.

We saw deer, red tail hawks,  and a peregrine falcon.

We saw white pelicans and learned that white pelicans live near fresh water and brown pelicans live near salt water.

We also learned that, in general, if the male and female birds look the same, then they are both involved in baby feeding/rearing. We really aren’t bird people but had a wonderful time being on the water and learning a bit about birds.

We also saw a floating outhouse, the SS Relief.

The “no body contact with the water” rule is not isolated to that one reservoir.  Although we don’t know how prevalent the rule is, we did see it in reference to a second lake. Diamond Valley Lake is a man made reservoir designed to hold an 8 month emergency water supply for Los Angeles. We thought this chart about drought levels was sadly interesting.

Archaeologists, paleontologists and construction operators worked together during the building of Diamond Valley Lake. When blasting or earth moving equipment would reveal something of interest, the archaeologists would move in to map and gather the artifacts. There were artifacts from European settlers beginning in the 1800s and from native peoples prior to that. As the depth increased, the paleontologists became involved. The Western Science Center has fossil bones found during the dig.  They have bones for a mammoth named Xena, and also for Max, the largest mastodon found in the US. They have 60% of Little Stevie’s bones, also a mastodon, making him the most complete skeleton ever recovered.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Rancho Oso near Santa Barbara. Rancho Oso is a working horse ranch offering rides and training etc. but also has an RV park. We loved the rural feel. We were able to hike to a waterfall that  had a little water coming down.

We traveled to the Danish town of Solvang and went to Mission Santa Inez, founded in 1804. It was the nineteenth of the 21 California missions established by Franciscan priests between 1769 to 1823.

It has quite a collection of artwork, paintings, statues, vestments, manuscripts, and artifacts.

I loved the old sheet music.

We had dinner at a restaurant that specializes in Split Pea Soup!  Last fall when we were driving California highways, we saw billboards advertising Famous Pea Soup at Anderson restaurants and thought that was so strange. When we discovered we were close to one of their two restaurants, I thought we had to check it out. The pea soup was yummy, as advertised.

Another day we ate at the Cold Spring Tavern.  It is an old stagecoach stop from the mid 1800s, and appears as though it hasn’t been updated much.  It is very trendy and reservations are required for dinner, but we went for lunch.  It was quite dark inside during the day, I can’t imagine what it would be like later.  Definitely mood lighting!

We also visited Chumash Painted Cave State Park near Santa Barbara.

Lest you think it is all fun and games, the area around our current park near Menifee, California is a lot less interesting!  Most of the above activities were near Rancho Oso/Santa Barbara.

This stay was highlighted by the Diamond Valley Lake/Western Science Center and meeting other folks in the campground.  When we first arrived, as we were driving around looking for a place to park our trailer, we met another couple on their way out.  Randy said “I know you.” He reads blogs and watches videos put out by other RVers.  The couple we met are responsible for http://www.rvlove.com  and he recognized them from their videos.  It was an enjoyable chat.

We also were invited to Happy Hour by our neighbors in the RV Park.  They are 4 couples who travel together from Independence, Oregon.  Boise State football fans might know that former quarterback, Grant Hedrick, comes from Independence, Oregon so that was a nice connection.

We also enjoyed one of our favorite campground Sunday Worship Services.  Most Thousand Trails Parks have Sunday services on site, and this was an especially good one.

Otherwise, this stop has been more mundane:  trips to Costco and the grocery store, washing the trailer outside, cleaning it inside, and trying to figure out why our washer/dryer no longer dries efficiently.  Unfortunately, we also spent time trying to figure out if the two “things” I found under the sink, that look like they might be mouse droppings, were left over from our mouse last fall, or if we have a new tagalong.  The jury is still out on that one….Mouse prevention went into a higher gear again!

Tomorrow we move to Palm Springs, our last stop in California.  I’m wondering what other uniquely Californian discoveries we will find.

A common RVing term is to refer to a regular home as “sticks and bricks.” We no longer have a “sticks and bricks”, having sold it in May, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate a good home. We’ve seen two of them in the past week!

While staying near San Jose, California, we toured the Winchester Mystery House. This house has 160 rooms and we saw 110. We also saw stairs that went into the ceiling, doors that opened to nowhere, switchback stairs and on and on. The mystery is – why is the house so odd?

The prevailing theory is that Sarah Winchester, widow of the Winchester Rifle family heir, was very concerned about spirits and often held seances.  She was told by a  medium that she would be pursued by the spirits of those who fell victim to Winchester guns. She believed that she needed to find and continue to build onto a house to confuse the spirits that would try to find her. She started with an 8 room farmhouse outside of San Jose and construction continued 24/7 for 38 years, stopping only at her death in 1922. Obviously, she was perceived as being somewhat eccentric.

But, she was also very business savvy. She had plenty of money given her 1880’s $20,000,000 inheritance and $1000 per day stipend for life.  Yet  she operated 160 acres of land in orchards, selling prunes, so the estate was self sustaining. She had many innovative systems in her home and on her farm.

At 160 rooms and 24,000 square feet of mazed rooms and hallways, the Winchester House is dwarfed by the second “sticks and bricks” we toured!

Actually the Hearst Castle can’t rightly be called “sticks and bricks.” Due to earthquake concerns along the central California coast, the Hearst Castle is made almost entirely of reinforced concrete.

William Randolph Hearst’s family had camped on the hilltop overlooking the ocean for years and it was his favorite spot in the world. The family ranch stretched for thousands of acres along the coast up into the hills. As an adult, he had wanted to build “a little something” up there but his mother would not allow it because she felt he might over do it. She knew her son.

After his mother’s death, he contracted with a female architect in San Francisco and they worked together on the estate for 28 years.  Building and furnishing continued until his death at age 88, and yet some still remains undone.

As a child Willie Hurst traveled with his mother to Europe and spent 18 months experiencing all the culture they could absorb. Much of his fascination with art and architecture began with that trip.  The architecture of the castle and grounds is described as Mediterranean Gothic and the home is furnished with European art, much of which was purchased after World War II.  One tour guide said that while Hearst encouraged people to “buy American”, he was buying half of Europe.

Of course, with his publishing and movie empire, the castle hosted all the important people of the day.

The home, furnishings and grounds are now part of the California State Park system. The acres around the home are still a working Hearst Ranch. It was a fascinating way to spend a day.

A few miles down the coast from the Hearst Castle is a rookery for elephant seals. There were 100s! It is calving season so there were quite a few babies. We definitely enjoyed that stop.

Another activity we enjoyed in this area of the coast was connecting up with friends from Boise.  Friends Greg and Jackie were in the area for a vacation and invited us for dinner. We were then able to meet their friends, Joyce and Debra.

It is so great to see people from home while we are on the road!

We have been popping “In-N-Out” of campgrounds in California as we work our way south.  We have finally found some weather that isn’t cold, but it is not yet warm either.   We traveled along the Avenue of the Giants and were entertained by our GPS that could not track elevation in the midst of the big redwood trees.  

We stayed 4 nights in the vicinity of Santa Rosa and the highlight was visiting the Charles M. Schultz Museum. We learned many things about Charles “Sparky” Schultz and the comic strip Peanuts.   Sparky Schultz originally named his strip ‘Lil Folks but the syndicators changed it to Peanuts  and he never liked it!  We were amazed that he had total control over nearly every aspect of the strip and the characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang, but not over the name of the strip. The appearance of the main characters changed over time. The classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas, was written over a weekend and was groundbreaking in that Sparky felt strongly they should use the Luke scriptures – telling of the birth of Jesus – in the show, something that had not been done before. Also, they used children for the voices for all characters (except Snoopy) and that was also new.   All involved questioned whether the show was any good and how it would be received.  Obviously, the rest is history!

We also learned that health concerns prompted the retirement of Sparky Schultz. There were 6-8 weeks of strips in the queue when he retired. He died in his sleep the night before this last strip appeared.

While in the campground, Randy noticed we had a trailer tire with significant wear. As you can’t mess around with tires in this life style, finding and getting two new tires became a priority!

Tires installed, we made another trek south.  We are currently near San Jose, at Morgan Hill, and yesterday was a busy day! Randy had extreme frustration while trying to add a tail gate assist on our truck to keep the tail gate from crashing down when opening. He used to have all the tools in our old garage but doesn’t have them any longer :(.  Notice the wooden spoon, the gorilla tape, the Super glue and the petroleum jelly – all supplemental tools for this project.  It was reminiscent of the movie Apollo 13 when there was a crisis and all the available supplies were laid out on the table so the engineers could figure a solution.  It took both of us to figure out ways to attack the various challenges, but it was eventually accomplished. A 20 minute task took 3 hours.

Then we headed towards Monterey.   En route we stopped at our first ever, In-N-Out Burger joint. We had both heard of this icon fast food restaurant for years so it was time to experience it for ourselves. At first glance, the area was busy and there were 30 cars in the drive-through. The inside was hopping as well. The simple menu was interesting, but we ordered and waited, and waited, and waited.  It was way too busy to be fast food! Fortunately while we waited we talked with the couples near us (sharing tables again!) who were amazed we were In-N-Out newbies. They told us there is a “secret menu” to expand the choices – such as ordering burgers “animal style”.  Animal style means they add some mustard to the meat before cooking it.

We are pleased to report that the burgers and fries were very good, but the really enjoyable aspect of the stop were the nice people sitting on both sides of us.

After lunch, we drove to the coast to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. TripAdvisor calls it the #1 Aquarium in the world and we can believe it! We saw so many beautiful creatures, some of which we’ve never heard of before. Our favorite section was for Jelly Fish. There were large, small, colored, white, electric neon and so very delicate. The pictures could go on and on! Randy has known of this aquarium for years because it was originally funded by the Dave and Lucille Packard Foundation, of Hewlett-Packard renown. One daughter is still actively involved with the foundation. Because the aquarium was fully funded, they have not had to spend efforts fund raising. They have instead been able to focus on providing exemplary care for their 40,000 animal “guests,” research and education. We learned about the feeding regimen for the animals and how they track to make sure each animal is getting their share. When different species are in the same tank, they train different species to come to feeders for their specific diet. The Aquarium offers free field trips to school groups. As we were leaving, and heading down Cannery Row, there were about one hundred 4th graders lined up for a school “overnight” field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. How cool is that!

We enjoyed Christmas week in Boise!  We enjoyed staying with Natasha, Seth and Archer and being able to spend lots of time with them.  We also celebrated Archer’s first birthday with  Seth’s family, and my parents who came over from Vancouver.

We squeezed in breakfasts, lunches and dinners with most of our close friends in Boise and are so appreciative that you had time for us during our short week.

On our last morning in town we saw this sign and wondered if someone put it there just for us!

Unfortunately our time was short because we really needed to head south! Snowy roads and cold temperatures aren’t ideal when you live in a trailer!  We needed to pick up our home near Vancouver and get going!

We traveled from Boise to Vancouver during a weather “window” that didn’t really exist. There were at least 100, maybe 200,  semi-trucks along I-84 between LaGrande and Pendleton putting on or taking off chains.

We made it safely down the other side but were very glad we just had our truck for this part of the trip.

We picked up our trailer, re-provisioned the kitchen, and headed to the Oregon coast.  It wasn’t our plan to head south via the Pacific Coast Highway 101, but the temps on the coast were at least 10 degrees warmer (low 30s at night instead of teens and 20s).  We didn’t want to worry about freezing pipes, and wanted to be a little warmer ourselves!  The combination of electric heat, propane furnace and an electric blanket has worked well enough. Yet, we will try to avoid having the trailer this far north, this late in the year, in the future.

Watching gas and diesel prices along the coast was interesting.  We hadn’t seen diesel cost less than gasoline in ages, and certainly not at this low price!  Interestingly enough, 200 yards down the highway, diesel was $3.49!  Prices have really been all over the place.

We spent just one night at each of our first two stops because the goal was just to get south.  This stop, at Port Orford, is for two nights.  Port Orford is the oldest townsite on the Oregon Coast and the most westerly point in the lower 48.  Cape Blanco State Park has the oldest and highest operating lighthouse in the state.  We are staying at a small RV park in town.   Camp Blanco, is very tidy and we liked the cute little doggie spot.

Yesterday afternoon was dedicated to watching Boise State win the Fiesta Bowl -yeah Broncos!  Today we did a little exploring and spent some time at the beach.  The weather wasn’t quite as nice as our time at the Mexico beach, but the view was gorgeous!

Tomorrow we stay on 101 and head into California where we will be for most of the next month.