Desert hounds

finally got to use the windbraker I bought in Neenah.  In Wisconsin, I got back in the habit of walking daily and towards what ended up being the end of our stay (though I didn’t know it at the time) I hit St. Vinny’s for a windbraker as the wind was simply ignoring the sweatshirt and short sleeved shirt I was wearing and chilled me to the bone.  Some Californians think that they can wear California attire in snow and have to learn the hard way.  I had a beautiful walk this morning in the desert hills around Calico.  This is apparently an OHV park and they left lots of nice trails to hike.  The boys are having such an incredible time riding (bikes) the trails that we’ve decided to stay another night so they can enjoy the desert rocks, hills, trails and ghost town.  

I wrote this entire update in my head this morning during my walk but unfortunately, it blew away in the wind.  I can’t remember a word.

It is absolutely gorgeous here in the desert.  There is so much greenery (for the desert) that some of the mountains are green.  Surrounding our campsite we have "green mountain" and "red mountains".  They probably have names, but that’s what I call them.  Today dawned partly cloudy and while I had a glorious walk in the mountains, by the time Jamie was ready to ride it was blowing cold wind and raining.

 The kids and I headed for the ghost town and stayed away from the tourist area til the end.  We wanted to get some gifts; Jesse got a mood ring; Pike amethyst crystal and polished stone and the girls got "jewels" ("probably colored plastic", mused Pike).  We drove into Barstow and got firewood and the boys were in their glory with A REAL FIRE!!!  They’ve been wanting a fire for weeks, but it has been too rainy.  Here in the desert there is no downed wood, so we bought ours. 

 Everyone is having so much fun walking the hills, riding in the desert and playing in the sand that we decided to spend another night.  We were worried it would be crowded, but here in our isolated hilltop we only got 2 other guests.  No hookups tends to keep everyone away. 

We found the oranges

Orange grove upon orange grove upon orange grove.  As Sissy said, "we found one of Pikey’s heavens".  We had a lovely drive down a street paralleling SR65 and when it ended headed over to 65 which parallels Hwy 99.  Nothing like taking the scenic route.  We managed to get out by 8:30 and we thought sure we’d end up in El Centro for the night.  Instead…

Jamie has been obsessing about our "need" for a generator.  We spent a week in the Bay Area and I thought the fancy was gone until we left Porterville.  Somehow the miles of orange groves must have cause him to certify his need for a generator, so off to Bakersfield we headed and bought one.  We got the highly recommended (by the rv forum folk) Honda EU2000i.  Unfortunately, we got the owner’s manual for the 3000i.  We’re hoping there isn’t much difference.

We tried to find a campsite in Tehachapi (where the city was surrounded by snow capped mountains) but managed to get completely lost looking for the county park.  We prefer county parks because the prices are right; they are generally empty and we like it empty.

Back to SR58 we headed and we had planned to head down SR14 through Lancaster; over SR18 to SR138 (now my mind is getting fuzzy and all the SR’s are getting mixed up) to Palm Springs and eventually the West side of the Salton Sea (lake?) before heading down to El Cajon.  I had hoped to camp just outside Yucca Valley (I think) in the foothills and in a pretty sounding (very small towns; desert mountain foothills; I didn’t think we could go wrong) county park.

 About 4 miles before the 14 and 58 intersection, Jamie decided that we’d head  to Calico Ghost Town (it is also a regional park) and camp there.  Unfortunately, that also necessitated a 2 hour travel through a traffic jam (2 miles in 2 hours) in the mass exodus from Bakersfield to Las Vegas to celebrate the new years (we found all this out from the ranger at Calico).  AND, most importantly, the traffic jam meant we got into the campground in the dark.  I HATE trying to manuver (especially back up) in the dark.  Once you pass an obstacle, it is dark and you simply cannot see it; so you’re always backing up blind.  We’re dry camping (no hookups) and for this pleasure, we’re paying $18/night.  Hard to believe…  If it were not raining, we’d simply head into the desert and dry camp for free.  After my last encounter with spinning wheels in mud, I have no desire to repeat the affair in wet sand.

So, round and round the campground we went; backing up in two turnaround cul-de-sac type loop ends as they were too short and I had to go back and forth trying to get the hell out of there.  Did I mention I HATE to backup at night?

The ranger (after happily taking taking our hard earned $18) told us that they’ve had 3 inches of wet sloppy snow and 2 inches of rain the past couple weeks, which is 3 inches more wetness than they get in a normal year.  It sounds like our decision to do the deserts in the Spring will be well rewarded, with grasses and flowers not seen for ten years or more.

I’ve got some gorgeous pics, but they will probably have to wait til tomorrow.  I’m currently dialed up via a public phone!

Chowchilla, Oranges and Pommegranates

Avenue 24 1/2 in Chowchilla reminded me of Nebraska.  We were in the absolute middle of nowhere on a state road.  On the outskirts of a very small town we saw a sign for "527th Street".  We were amazed; where did such a small town get 527 streets when the entire state didn’t even have that many exits.  We were further fulmnoxed when we quickly came upon 832st Street.  Just didn’t figure. 
I had hoped to wake to sunrise over the lake but it was misty and raining.  We had been told to expect them, but the duck hunters shots still surprised me.  Instead of backtracking to 99 via 120, we took a county road (J14) down to Hwy 99.  We got a lot of glimpses of almond trees waiting for spring and lots of trailers.  It seemed that each and every residence was either a mobile home, trailer or had a 5th wheel or travel trailer in the yard.

I think we’ve found the snowbirds!  We are being passed (cause we drive at about 50-55mph) by multiple 5′ers and Class A+toad’s.  (here’s a translation: the fifth wheel or 5′er is towed by a truck and has the hitch in the back of the truck.  A Class A is a bus-type RV and the toad is the vehicle they are towing.  Dunno why it is called a toad, but I’m pretty sure someone will enlighten me.  Probably a play on words "TOWED vehicle" and "toad".)  So far we’ve seen two travel trailers going our way and one going north.

I got my first thank you from an RV today; I flashed my lights to let the Class A know they could change into my lane and they had the weirdest "thank you"; they flashed left and right turn signals twice.  Jamie and I cracked up over that one.  The Semi’s will generally either ignore me; not see my signal or flash their lights on and off or their flashers.  We also saw the most amazingly horrific combination today; a pickup truck (maybe a 1/2 ton but I sure hope it was at least a 1 ton) and come to think of it, it could have been a dually,  They were towing a CONTAINER.  You know, the containers that semi’s haul!  They had jury rigged some lights that didn’t work and the container was swaying so hard behind that truck that I was frightenend to follow it.  It passed me and I didn’t want to speed up to pass it and keep it away from me (cause I didn’t want to get whipped by the container) and I sure didn’t want to follow it and have to stop and avoid the accident sure to happen.  I hung way back and 3 or 4 trucks up the road ahead, I could still see it swaying all over the road.  It was so frightening to watch I really just wanted to pull over and let a couple miles go by.  We haven’t seen it yet, so either the tail never wagged the dog into oblivion or it pulled off.

We’re staying in Porterville tonight; well, south of Porterville in nowheresville and just before dark we found pommegranate trees.  Pike, as only Pikey could, found orange trees and picked some of those.  We’re having pomms and oranges with turkey chili to stave off the cold.  Tomorrow we head for the border (El Centro) and the day after we hope to be in San Felipe (unless we get distracted by something or are held up at the border).  We only drove for 4 hours today but started at noon; tomorrow we hope to get back to our old habit of getting up with the sunrise and stopping early so the kids have lots more time to play in the afternoon.  They seem to need play all day, but especially moreso at evening than morning.

Mudholes

Here’s where we almost spent the night.  We had headed for Sonora Pass on 108 but just outside of Oakdale, we found that the pass was closed.  We should have called ahead or checked online before leaving, but I missed that 8th grade boy’s course.  We headed back to Oakdale to look for a campground that we thought wouldn’t be able to accomodate our trailer (as the 2003 book said no longer than 30ft vehicles) but were pleasantly surprised to find we would fit.  Since we haven’t yet dumped our tanks (crapper, etc.) we decided to dump first and then get a campsite.  We figured we’d be the only campers based on the campgrounds we patronized on our journey West.  I"ll bet you know where I’m going with this…  So, off to the dumper we headed and as we found with the one other dump station, the slot is incredibly narrow.  I got the trailer in by backing up a few times to avoid going over a curb and into a sign and thought the worst was over.  I think you might know where THIS is headed also…  :) 

Somehow, one (or more) of the valves had been opened, so when we took the cap off the sewer pipe (to attach the hose leading to the drain) raw sewage started leaking out.  Ugh.  Luckilly, the makers had probably anticipated this and made the drain sloping on all four sides so it all drained into the drain.  It was also raining so I guess that helped a bit also.  The rest of the dump went without incident and we hurried everyone back into the van (I gave the kids a snack in the trailer while we dumped) and started pulling out.  There was VERY little room to pull out and instead of the dreaded backup, I decided to pull onto grass; I figured that I’d be using only a little of it, and it looked like thick grass.  I misjudged.  We got stuck.  I had one tire on cement (rear driver) and the rest in the grass.  Rear passenger was up to the rim spinning.  Jamie saved the day and drew upon his experience in digging the Westy out of similar situations.  He dug out behind the rear wheel and layed down leveling blocks.  I backed up (jacknifing) and managed to somehow, backup; go forward, back up, go forward; get 3 wheels on the cement and finally somehow (I’m still not sure how) got out.
Weeesh!

We found a lovely campsite next to the lake but were surprised to find the campsite nearly full with Class A’s, Trailers and Fifth Wheels.  I had to drive around 2 or 3 times to find and get into our spot, but breakfast should show us a gorgeous view.  We’ll see…

We now have running water (finally flushed the antifreeze) and HOT running water.  What a luxury!  We’re not camping - we’re hotelling on wheels!  Tomorrow we head down to 99 on J14 (instead of retracing our route back to 99 on 120) and head for Baja.  We decided to bypass Death Valley and try to hit it on the way back.  I’d rather go in the Spring and visit Joshua Tree also than go south; go east; go really north; visit Death Valley and then head south again to Baja.  We hope to do 150-200 miles a day and really enjoy the trip instead of pushing4e the miles out.

Each time we sojourn at my sister’s house (I have to remember to look up "sojourn" once I get online and make sure I used it correctly) I hit a thriftstore and stock up on books.  I then read voraciously and leave them with her.  She loves it.  :)  I recently found an after Christmas sale and Barnes and Noble (and also updated my educator discount card) with the same prices as Thriftown.  I purchased Bill Bryson’s "In a Sunburned Country" and it was an absolute delight.  Dispatches from his travels in Australia; it is witty, funny, serious and thought-provoking.  I highly recommend it and will ask my sister to forward it to Gen in Australia and Harriet in Tasmania (two friends of mine from MotherSpirit) so they can enjoy it even more than I could.  My only complaint is that after reading his prose, mine seems so terribly stilted by comparison.  I also picked up "A People’s Guide to Mexico" for full price (minus the 20% educators discount) and can’t wait to delve into that.
Sigh…  11:30pm and the girls are still going strong. 

baja bound

It looks like the long wait is about to be over.  We have culled as much as possible from the trailer (shhhh…the girls don’t know I halved their toy collection) and will remove the last bench from the van and store it all in a bit.  Right now kids are delaying our storage plans by eating.  Do they never stop eating?  You’d think it would be simple; put food out and they eat, but it generally works like this.  Ask if they’re hungry.  All say no, or maybe one says yes.  You make food for one/yourself and then more are hungry.  Make food for the rest.  Clean up.  Get ready to go.  One of the four will then announce that they are hungry.  Feed.  Now the ones who ate earlier will probably be hungry again.  Repeat cycle.  Once you get in the car and head out you’ll realize that YOU never got YOUR food.  Happens each and every time. 

I’ve been night-weaning Ellen over the past month.  It seems to be going well and she sure is sleeping more (which means that I am also).  She doesn’t seem to be making up for it during the day, so I think she is ready.  She really was simply using it to go back to sleep and since it seems to be going without trauma, I’m pretty sure she is ready.  I sure as hell know that *I* am.

Today I’m securing Mexican Auto Insurance and tomorrow will hit AAA before we hit the road.  We’ll stop somewhere tomorrow night; then Death Valley for a few days and then we’ll head down to San Felipe and my folks.  We think we’ll be in Baja on the 31st.  We’ll see.
I’ve been saving up a post about the return of my libido (HEY!  It’s been 10 years!) but am uneasy knowing that Andrew (friend of the boys) and my folks read this.  Suffice to say that Wisconsin was NOT an anomaly.  AND it seems to be catching as reported by my sister…  All you gals at  MotherSpirit know that for which I speak…

Red and Green and Chocolate all over

I power shopped last night.  I went to a Hobby store for my BIL’s present (from my sister); Target, Trader Joes, Longs, Safeway and a candy store from 4pm to 6pm.  The last three were in search of chocolate coins to put in the kids shoes.  When Mariluz and Jon (Jamie’s brother and SIL) stayed for Christmas one year they started a tradition of chocolate coins hidden in shoes.  Everyone plays; adult shoes, baby shoes, sandals, etc.  I always buy them at Trader Joes, but wouldn’t you know it; TJ’s, Safeway, Longs, Berkeley Bowl were all out.  Luckilly, I stumbled upon a candy store and they had poker chips (perfect after our trip to Crazytown) and coins.  Catie was introduced to this tradition this morning and I think it might be a keeper. 

I found out that Pike and Jesse know who Santa is.  I have never perpetuated the myth; all their Santa knowledge has come friends and commercialization.  They have been talking up Santa big time the past week to the girls and I went to great pains to have Jamie sign all the gifts and bought special wrapping paper for the "Santa" gifts.  We put all the gifts under Chrissy’s tree last night save one each from Santa which we placed close to each sleeping child last night.  After they opened their gifts (NEW shoes - not used ones from Thriftown!!!) Pike gave me a hug and thanked me.  I was surprised and said that Santa had brought the gifts.  He then informed me, "Mom, I know you bought them; I’m too old to think it was Santa".  I was so touched that he and his brother (I had to verify with him that Jesse too knows) kept the magic alive for their sisters even though I’ve never talked to them about Santa or tried to make them think he exists.  Touched and conflicted.  I don’t like perpetuating the myth (though some would argue he is not a myth) and abhor the commercialization of Solstice (which, IMO is the true celebration - that Christmas is a bastardization of Solstice), but it is cute to see the magic.

Joe and John have arrived for dinner, Ellen is sleeping, and gluttony awaits!

our children are officially born

Well, what HAVEN’T we done in the past few days?  We replaced 4 birth certificates (we’re still waiting for Jamie’s and mine; apparently they are loving the snow so much in the FedEx terminal in Indianapolis that they’re taking a nice little vacation there), Christmas presents for the kids and Catie and Becky (shhhhhh… don’t tell them), two trips to the Post Office, talked to our Westy therapist about the Westy’s issues with starting up, dropped off stuff in the storage unit, spent an entire afternoon (went in at lunch and came out at dark) ripping apart boxes in the storage unit looking for the *#@% birth certificates, picked up Jamie’s Baja bike (YEA!!! it got through customs), well, hell - what HAVE we been doing?  Sitting on our asses, apparently.  Doesn’t look like much, but we’re gone all day doing "stuff".  Jamie and I were moaning that we had anticipated driving from from 6am til 1pm and stopping for the day. Then he would go for a bike ride and I would go for a walk.  I keep hoping that in Baja it will come true, but for now, we’re doing errands all freaking day long; tying up loose ends and replacing things that we never should be replacing.  I just hope that the file with the documents (cause there was much MORE than simply birth certificates in it) is not in the hands of someone unscrupulous.  I’m thinking it is either in the storage unit or at Grandma Elinor’s house.  Tough call.

It is incredibly nice to see the weather we just barely managed to avoid playing out in the midwest ON THE TV.  I’m SO glad we got out before we got stuck there.  No offense to the midwestonians (is that a word?) but dayum, I’ll take birkenstocks and short sleeved shirts to stuck for 7 hours in the snow on the freeway any day.

My sister reports that before my folks went down to Mexico they too managed to loose their "packet" which held their vehicle title, birth certificates, passports; you get the idea.  They had to replace the entire packet and happily found it many months later; stuffed somewhere in their RV.  We’ve torn apart the trailer and van and can’t believe it could be anywhere other than the storage unit or somewhere in the midwest.  So, the rule of thumb seems to be 1) sell your house, 2) buy a RV type vehicle to live in, 3) make plans to travel to Mexico, 4) loose all your documentation, 5) replace all your documentation, 6)  find your original packet of documentation.  Maybe we should have planned to travel to Canada first.

It is amazingly simple to get a birth certificate; you need very simple, easy to obtain (to me, anyway) information; pay your fee and go off your merry way.  Mostly names and DOB.  Scary.
Tomorrow we’re off for some masochism at Berkeley Bowl (really, anyone who willingly makes a trip to the Bowl (it is a grocery store) the day before a holiday, must enjoy pain, frustration and exhaustion), yet another trip to the Post Office, Target (for stocking stuffers and the girls’ presents), Thriftown for shoes for Pike (I found out he needs larger shoes when he started taking Jesse’s shoes because they didn’t smash his foot), but honestly, we probably won’t get to Thriftown.
Hey, did you know that Hearthsong is no longer a brick and mortar store?  We headed to our favorite new toy store (because our favorite is a used toy store; Toy Go Round) only to find it had been converted to a new name.  Hearthsong only does catalog and online business now.  Huh.
Well, I think I’ve dumped about 1/2 the crap floating about my brain, so I’ll stop for now.

back to crazytown

Andrew has a hockey tournament in Reno this weekend, so naturally, our family will be up there too.  We were supposed to leave for Mexico today but are stymied by two factors.  Jamie’s bike (please, don’t ask me why a man with 27 bikes needs yet ANOTHER bike - specifically for Baja; I mean, don’t they make bikes that work in both the US and Baja?  You’d think that a bike which works absolutely perfectly in California would work just as perfectly in Baja, but apparently, that isn’t the case.) that he ordered a MONTH ago hasn’t yet made it through customs.  Apparently, Bianchi gave the first bike he ordered to another shop and the second bike he ordered is taking its own sweet time getting into California.  We’re supposed to find out Tuesday if/when the bike will get it.  If not Tuesday then Wednesday.  If not Wednesday then Thursday.  You get the picture.  And then there is a big holiday at the end of the week, so pretty much if it doesn’t get through customs by Thursday we probably won’t see it til next week and you know how that story goes.  I also managed to mislay the birth certificate folder that I specifically kept OUT of storage.  I thought I gave it to my sister to file away, but perhaps I simply thought I SHOULD do that and never got around to it.  Who knows.  I’m sure we’ll find it someday when we clean out the storage container.  So we need to wait for the damn bike that is apparently the ONLY bike which works in Baja and I need to get all the kids’ birth certificates (assuming they need them - I’m going to check to see if health cards or something else might work) before we leave.

I ended up not backing the trailer into my sister’s back yard; we got there after dark (and I learned my lesson somewhere in the midwest not to manuver in the dark) and parked just off the street next to her house.  It is working out well so we’ve decided to leave it there.  I just worry ocassionally about someone hitting it after blasting around the corner.

So, off to Crazytown we go, blanketed by fog in the Delta and unencoumbered by the 9000lb anchor on our tail.  We’ll stay at the Hilton ($39/night) with Andrew’s family and play in the snow tomorrow.  Should be fun for the kids.  We adults will need one of those ice-fishing huts I saw at Fleet Farm in Wisconsin with heaters and massive mugs of whiskey and something hot to drink.  (with massive amounts of whiskey, I can’t imagine that it would matter what the hot item was)

High Falutin Hotels Sux

December 19, 2004 in

Why is it that the high falutin hotels charge you up the wazoo for services that the small chains don’t?  Reno Hilton wants $11/12 hours for Internet access, $1.00 for free (800) calls and $1.00 for each local call.  Their swimming pool is closed and their lobby is not smoke free.  Comfort Inns, on the other hand, have free wireless or broadband, free local calls, indoor swimming pools (in 9000 miles we’ve only encountered one Comfort Inn with a closed hot tub), free deluxe (ranging from eggs and sausage to cereal and fruit) breakfast AND no smoke.  If the kids didn’t necessitate an indoor pool (since we’re traveling in winter) we’d be at Motel 6 every night.  These high priced chains suck.  Course, we’re only paying $39 tonight at the Hilton…
I’m updating this on 12-23, and the picture above is from the "ice cave" we found whilst sledding up at the snow.  You know, the snow trip that we took so the kids could play with Andrew and spent about 30 minutes with him at the hotel and that was it.  Nice trip though…

computer problems

Somehow, between Ellen running around the hotel at 7am with sticky jelly fingers; the boys clammering for just "one more" swim in the pool and Sissy desperate not to be seperated from Jamie, even for a second; even for a trip to the BATHROOM, I managed to leave my laptop battery charger/AC adapter at Comfort Inn in Elko.  My laptop has a really neat feature; it lets you know when battery power is low, but when it is critical, it simply hibernates (and you can’t wake it up) and once you get AC to it, you get about a thousand messages that battery power is "critical".  Gee…thanks.

So…I’ve been typing on a MAC and now on my sister’s PC and golly, I really miss that little laptop.  Ebay was kind enough to send all my paypal winners to a non-existant paypal address, so I’ve been trying to walk all them through cancelling their payment and sending it to the correct Paypal account.  It’s been REALLY fun with the guy from Italy.  When we went back to Wisconsin, Jamie picked through all his old toys, we checked prices on Ebay and auctioned a few.  Who woudda known that broken, dirty, Billy Blastoff toys were worth $200+? 

We had a great time with Andrew, Sara, Deb and Jeff and headed down to my sister’s house in Fremont at the height of rush hour.  We arrived after dark so I wasn’t up to backing the trailer into her yard and after a good 1/2 bottle of wine, I was calm enough to talk.  I really feel for the semi drivers.  Cars just won’t give a large vehicle the time of day.  I really hate driving in traffic and vow to drink the wine BEFORE I drive next time.  I think I’ll be MUCH calmer! 

I have a sh*tload of photos on the laptop waiting for the Internet, but until the postman arrives tomorrow, you’ll just have to wait, Grandma and Grandpa (who, are probably the only ones reading).

jiggity jig

Something is DEFINATELY wrong with our GD (sorry, Andrew; that’s the best I can do to stifle myself) internal clocks.  We went to bed around 11pm thinking it was around 9pm and woke up at SEVEN FREAKING O CLOCK IN THE FREAKING MORNING!!!!  Why are our going-to-bed clocks on Pacific Time and our getting-up clocks on Midwest time???

It was so nice to see Deb and Jeff (and Andrew and Sara).  Andrew rushed out of his house (I assume the MONSTER diesel engine (that’s a 7.3L PSD for the diesel-heads) alerted him to our arrival) and danced around on the sidewalk while the boys chanted, "can we get out mom?  can we get out mom?  PLEASE CAN WE GET OUT MOM???).  I think all four kids were inside the house before the trailer and car were parked.  I’m sure the engine was still idling.  Ellen walked into the house like she owned the place and set right to play.  She LOVES Sara’s kitchen toys and the wax pastries.  Deb made us a scrumptious dinner of whole wheat pasta with tomato and meat sauce and spring mix salad.  Dayum, I missed good California organic spring mix!

Today we’re finishing up errands; getting health insurance crap settled; unloading the massive amount of crap we have in the trailer (even Jamie culled some of his clothing) and getting bikes out of storage.  I’m hoping we’ll be a few hundred pounds lighter (especially when we get rid of the Class 3 hitch receiver (HEY!  anyone need a Class 3 hitch?  We might even be able to deliver it!!!  I’m not kidding - it is listed on Hitchtrader)) when we hit the road again.

It was downright scary driving through the congestion (in comparison to the 5 million miles we logged this past month) of Sacramento and the Bay Area.  I’m so glad to have dropped the trailer and be able to make a U-turn.  Those towing mirrors (Velvac I got from Ebay) are still a little scary though.  I squeaked up Poinsett when I went back to check out our old house (and the garden is simply FULL of weeds…).

Early birds

For some reason known only to our crazy bodies, both Jamie and I awoke at 5am.  You’d think that with an early start like that we’d be on the road by 7 with no problem.  You’d be wrong.  7:09 and I’m still waiting for the kids to stop eating…  We head for the Sierras today; to find a place to let the kids play in the snow.

Heading across Nevada; mile after mile of flat highway surrounded by desert and glorious mountains, we found the Rye Dam State Recreational area.  The kids played in mud and ice; we all attempted to throw rocks through the ice and enjoyed the area.  Unfortunately there were no hookups in the campground and we still aren’t comfortable pushing our batteries to provide furnace for us below freezing, so we couldn’t stay.  Everyone decided that they would rather push on to Deb’s house rather than play in the snow, so we pushed on past Crazytown (Reno) and through the Sierras.  The Sierras are so very different from any other mountain range and Jamie and I knew we were home.  We made it over Donner Summit before sundown and are making great time.  We had expected to be doing about 35 or 40 over the grades, but climbing up to 5000 ft in Nebraska and Wyoming made the grade almost inconsequential.

We got to Deb’s (and Jeff’s ) at 8pm and Andrew RAN out of the house while I backed the trailer into a good spot.  We’re here til Friday when we go down to Auntie Chrissy’s (and Uncle Chet’s ) for two nights.  We are planning to head to Baja on the Sunday (whatever day that turns out to be) to meet my folks in San Felipe for Christmas.  Now that we’re not trying to outrun storms we have no schedule other than to be with Grandpa and Grandma on Christmas.

the mountains call us home - Nevada and Utah

Once again, we spent the night at a hotel.  The kids went into the water at 4pm and didn’t get out until 9pm.   The boys ran out to the hillside behind the hotel (in wet suits and bare feet) and brought snowballs into the pool area to watch them melt. 

We had some firsts yesterday; we passed two semis (going up grades) and Jamie backed up the trailer.  Pretty soon I’ll be out of a job (as the sole trailer backerupper).  We hit some serious grades between Laramie and Evanston (WY) but while they were quite steep going East, they were (by comparison) much gentler going West.

I was up at 5:30 this am to nurse Ellen and as I’d decided to get up at 6, simply stayed up and got us packed up.  Kids breakfasted on "crap cheerios", muffins, toast, waffles, juice, pastries, coffee for the boys and bagels with cream cheese.  Nope, not an ounce of protein in a 40 square mile radius. 
Coming out of Wyoming into Utah I was surprised to find the summit (just east of Park City) was 7000ft.  I’d thought that Evanston was 4000ft and didn’t think I’d climbed much at all.  The snow was DEEP in Park City and it is a beautiful city.  A small valley with many little mountains and everything was covered in snow.  Both Jamie and I sank deeper in our seats, relaxed and soaked in "home".  I can’t believe how much the mountains call me; I feel so at home when surrounded by them.  Unfortunately, the bliss didn’t last as the downgrades out of Park City into Salt Lake City were rather frightening to me.  I emulated the semis; kept my flashers on and kept it around 50mph.  It was only 6% grade, but it seemed to go on forever.

I’m always so disappointed with northern Utah and SLC.  SLC is surrounded by smog and once you get out of the smog, you’re treated to haze.  It sure would be a pretty state if the smog and haze ever lifted.  I wonder if this is a winter condition and it lifts in the Spring?

We are so incredibly lucky in millions of ways, but I am continually amazed and appreciative of what incredible kids we have.  I was hitching up the trailer in the hotel parking lot (we actually parked with the truckers who were mainly interested in the porn shop next door ) while Jamie managed breakfast at the hotel.  Comfort Inn ALWAYS more than pays for itself with the pool use and expanded breakfast.  When I came back into the hotel, an older lady was talking to Jamie and telling him how lucky he was and what a beautiful family he had and how "good" the kids were.  While I really hate the "good" compliment (because it implies that any other behavior is "bad" and really, it isn’t; it is simply behavior) it was nice to be validated.  Course, as Jamie pointed out; HE was complimented on HIS family.  I don’t know why I never get these comments but he reports getting them all the time.  THe kids do really well in the car, pretending they are "Becky" or imagining what Becky might be doing or imagining what would happen if Becky did X or playing an infinite number of games.  They rarely fight and keep each other quite entertained.

Well, another first; we were trying to stretch out our stops and after stopping to let the kids play (and adults make coffee) we hit the road again, only to find (after about 30 miles) that Pike had left "pooh" behind.  Back we go but the timing is incredibly bad.  With gas stations very few and far between, we might be walking back to find Pooh. 

Eastern Nevada is simply stunning with brilliant blue sky; snow tipped mountain peaks and ranges creating valleys to rival that of Death Valley.  I don’t see a name on our AAA map, but the valley between Pilot Peak and the Pequor Mountain range rivals Death Valley, but is simply the appetizer for the western side of the Pequor’s.  Snow capped mountains as far as you can see; these vistas literally define Nevada.

We are coming home.  Mountain range follows mountain range; rolling and flat sagebrush desert fills the gaps between ranges.  I never realized how much the mountains satiate me.  The poor cattle however; how do they live on sagebrush?

Midday we decided to try to find a ghost town called Cobre.  We didn’t find the ghost town, but we had fun in the desert.

rolling trailers, wyoming

I forgot about breakfast at the Express Inn (we stayed here on the way East).  It sucks about as bad as it gets (or I haven’t been around much).  White bread, high fructose colored "fruit" jelly, pastries, moldy orange juice and apple juice.  You don’t want to know what I thought of their coffee.   
We used the opportunity of hotel to check on Ebay and the Weather channel.  Man I LOVE that channel!  Now that we’re in weather, and travelling, it is fascinating to see what is coming down the pipe (Canada, right?).  Wisconsin (which we left only a few days ago) got hammered (well, to our Californian experience) with snow and the Great Lakes area will continue to be hammered for the next couple days.  The Pacific Northwest (hello, Heather and Stacy!) is getting hammered with rain.  The south is bracing for another period of unseasonable cold while South Dakota and Nebraska are enjoying unseasonable lack of snow and warmth.  We’re getting the exact weather we need in each state.  Well, up til now.  It is supposed to snow in Wyoming today (Jamie kept yelling at the TV weatherman, "it CAN’T snow!  It is 50 degrees out!!").  We’ve been outrunning the clouds all day and have had beautiful weather.  Honestly, we couldn’t ask for any better.  (well, warmth would be nice) 

Coming from weeks in the Midwest, we had a real appreciation for the mountains in Wyoming (though we simply skirted the Rockies and only hit summits of 9000ft or lower).  The rock formations, GREEN!!! trees, frozen creeks and ponds in the winter morning sun were simply gorgeous. It really does take some time in the Midwest to appreciate it though.  Coming out of the mountains around Laramie we stumbled up two wrecks that shook me.  A travel trailer and TV (didn’t see if it was a truck or van) on their sides; the bottoms of both vehicles facing the road.  Just before that wreck a temporary sign had been posted warning of high winds.  Still shaking from that wreck we immediately came upon a semi truck in the same position.  I felt no wind (one of the reasons I wanted to leave early) but slowed down to 45mph just waiting for a gust of wind to hit.  Late last night Cheyenne had been hit with incredible gusts of wind and we experienced bad wind (tail, cross and head) traveling in Nebraska yesterday, so these wrecks must have been the result of those winds.  Damn scary.  Jamie (some 200 miles later; he was still recovering from some bad coffee) thought it would be funny to take a picture of the trailer and pass it off as us.  He’s a very bad boy. 

Why in HELL does Flying J instruct RV’s to go to areas that they simply can’t pull through?  This is the 2nd GD flying J I’ve had to back out of.  Yeah.  Back a freaking travel trailer out, past the pump (which they ALWAYS put on a curved island), past the driveway, past all the cars going in and out of their pumps.  ARGH!!!

What is it about Wyoming and semi’s?  West of Green Springs, we saw our second flipped semi of the day.  Dayum, I hope it is the last.

Jamie FINALLY gets his Cabella's fix

All through Nebraska we saw enormous flocks of geese (and duck?) at any and every pond.  It didn’t seem to matter that the ponds were frozen or half frozen; there they stood and sat and ate.  I’ve read about migrations, but it was amazing to see the quantity in person.  We’ve passed many Cabella stores (much to Jamie’s chagrin) so I took the opportunity to indulge him when I saw a half-frozen pond and CAbella’s after getting gas.  Up close and personal, we found one of the byproducts of thousands of geese; millions of turds.  There was not an inch of land around that pond that wasn’t covered with goose turd.

Jamie shopped; the kids had tumbleweed races across the ice; the kids got to go onto the ice (and STAND ON IT!!!) and the geese took off and landed.  It was an unseasonal 65 degrees and everything felt perfect.

KOA sucks rotten donkey turds

I’ve never had a pleasant experience with a KOA campsite.  Strangely enough, neither has jamie.  I think you can figure out where this is headed…

We pulled into Cheyenne after a LONG day of driving (350 miles and a couple long stops) and had a choice of two campsites.  KOA or one way off the beaten track that looked like it might be a trailer park and not a campground.  KOA boasted of a central modem and since we needed to check some Ebay auctions, I pulled in.  It looked pretty small for a KOA but there were about 5 other rigs there so I decided to go ahead.  The roads were incredibly narrow (especially since they catered to RV’s) and I did my best winding around them.  We had almost decided to stay and were pulled into a site when the proprieteress drove up in her golf cart (we won’t speculate why she NEEDED a golf cart when the entire site was under an acre) and accused me of knocking down the site sign.  I simply couldn’t take her seriously and laughing replied, "I didn’t see a site sign; where was it?".  She replied that they get knocked down "all year long" by people using the campsite and I couldn’t help pointing out the obvious, "sounds to me like you need to move them somewhere else".  She was absolutely PISSED (I mean, really; what did she expect us to do?  fork over $1000 for her new plastic sign) and zipped over to hubby while we meandered to the exit (managing somehow not to know over any other signs).  He blocked our path with his golf cart (really, these people NEED to get out and WALK) and breathed his stanky cigarrette breath all over me.  He agreed that people knock down their signs all year long and added, "and we make them pay for it."   Sounds like a great little scam to me.  I polietly instead suggested he relocate his sign and that the kids and I (since Jamie was sick) would head over and put his sign back in the ground.  He declined and told us to get out of his campground. 

So be forewarned; if you try to camp at the Cheyenne KOA, when not taking payment for site rental, you can donate to their "replace a sign" fund.

The evening ended happily for all; we had pizza at the Express Inn ($44/night), the kids swam in the pool and we got online.  Life is good.

missouri river dog bats

After we got our errands done yesterday, we picked up the trailer from Spaders and headed to the campground.  Each and every site was a pullthrough; it could have not been more different from our adventure in the woods.  It was a relief to pull into our spot and not have to worry about trees.

We crossed the Missouri River today and managed to stay off the Interstates (except for a small jaunt on I90 out of Sioux Falls).  When Jamie and his brother did their cross country bike trip, they were constantly besieged by dogs.  Once thy hit the Missouri River, they were able to pick out perfectly sized pieces of driftwood.  They called this driftwood, "Missouri River dog bats" and used them to bat away the dogs.  We stopped at the Missouri River for brunch (turkey chili I’d made in Neenah) and let the kids roam a bit.  No-one wanted to roam.  It was too damn cold.  True to their nature, however, right as we were getting ready to go, the boys decided that they had to get down to the river and throw some wood or rocks into it.

We found the beef today; in South Dakota and Nebraska.  I have never seen so much cattle in the entire time I’ve lived in California as we did today in Nebraska.  It was a scenic (in a flat earth punctuated only with skyscraper-sized grain silos kind of way) day driving down from Sioux Falls.  We took 81 south from South Dakota and traversed Nebraska from north to south.  The wind pushed us from South Dakota all the way to I80 (Grand Island for those keeping score).  It was wonderful to have a tailwind and we rode through the cattle land at 60mph, the cross and head winds on 30 and I90 killed.

We got up late this morning; we have no clocks in the trailer, so I simply try to get out when the sky is light.  In Sioux Falls, that happens to be 8am.  Jamie bravely decided to hitch up the trailer himself this morning and he did a GREAT job.  I was really proud of him.  I got a lot of practice backing the trailer up yesterday and now I’m really comfortable doing it.  I battled cross winds along I90 and got blown all over and then got used to it. 

We got a lovely tailwind going south and cruised at 60mph.  Lion King musical soundtrack blaring from the speakers and jeez; those boys know each and every syllable of each and every song.  They even know the speaking parts between the songs.  We stopped at Kearney today and are camped at a nice little State rec area next to I80.  Lots and lots of empty spaces; we’re the only ones here.  Since Mom and Dad love to share their sunset photos, I’ve included one from Kearney, Nebraska.

sausage soup

Each and every Comfort Inn we’ve stayed at has had some type of breakfast.  Either cereal and juice (and coffee) or breadstuffs and fruit or eggs, sausage and breadstuffs.  This morning I was bemoaning the lack of protein for breakfast and Jamie told me that they had "sausage soup".  I was really interested to see what sausage soup would consist of, so I checked inside the container; it looked like cream of brown lump concoction.  Right next to it was a basket of square biscuits.  "Honey", I said, "that’s not sausage soup; it is gravy for biscuits and gravy."  It’s been about an hour, and I’m still laughing over sausage soup…

I90 has some ROUGH road in eastern MN.  You know those little dogs you put on your dash and the head bobs upanddown and upanddown and upanddown?  We’ve got four.  All four kids are asleep and their heads are all bobbing like those little dogs on the dashboard…

We were lucky enough to have done very minimal damage to the trailer.  Service department at Spaders reports that we can take it to a fiberglass place if we want, but it isn’t necessary.  I got grease on the hitch ball and the shank ends of the Reese dual cams (only the rvdotnet people will probably understand that last sentence) and got three of our four axles weighed.  I can’t believe we put 2000lb of stuff in the trailer, but apparently, we have.

We are no longer California drivers; we both now have South Dakota licenses.  In retrospect, since I only registered the trailer in my name, Jamie could have kept his CA license.  Shhhh…don’t tell him the trailer isn’t registered in his name; he thinks it is.  After the DL’s and trailer registration (which was short and sweet, even though they didn’t have all the necessary documentation to register the trailer) we headed to Alternative Resources to pick up our "mail", which consisted of a bunch of letters, no Flying J card, my contacts (mailed by Costco in CA), a mirror for the Westy that was supposed to have been shipped to CA; not SD; no Ford shop repair manual on DVD (won on Ebay back in mid November), and a box so incredibly large that it needed a dolly to take it out to the car; our Velvac towing mirrors (also courtesy of Ebay).  Damn, I sure hope they didn’t include the car in that box; it is absolutely enormous.

It is really very very cold here in Sioux Falls.  Diesel has decreased from $2.45 in CA to $2.08 in Wisconsin to now $1.93 in SD.  I believe the price was about the same in Minnesota. We’re going to have severe sticker shock when we get back home.  We thought we might be able to hit the road after our errands, but we still need to get chains and we all went without eating til dinner, so we’re currently at Empire Mall letting the kids get some energy out and do some window shopping.  Actually, that last part is for Jamie.  The man LOVES to shop.  I’d meant to call Eric James (from the RVdotNET  website) but time got away from us.

just one adventure after another

We spent the day yesterday cleaning and organizing Jamie’s toys. We tried to leave Grandma Elinor’s house cleaner than when we found it; we dusted and polished and cleaned. Late in the afternoon we headed out for some shopping and the exhaustion hit me. I’d been staying up too late and was dead tired. One cup of coffee and many peanut M&M’s later, however, I was raring to go and once we’d finished the 3000 loads of laundry and cleaning I couldn’t help getting sucked into some Lifetime movie and stayed up til 2:30. Apparently, my body LOVES sleep deprivation, because I was up at 6:45, nursed Ellen back to sleep and then packed up the rest of the house, hitched up the trailer (by myself - really, it was quite easy; since I couldn’t see the hitch ball, I simply popped in and out of the car a lot) and made two pots of coffee. The only reason I’m awake now is because I’m typing this; otherwise I’d be napping. We finally made it out of Neenah by 10am (I had been aiming for 8am, but we had some trouble figuring out the Reese dual cams (until we realized we needed to jack up the tongue).

Course, by then, the kids were up and after nursing Ellen I gave everyone breakfast whilst Jamie finished up connecting the dual cam spring arms.  We’re not sure the dual cams are adjusted correctly; we’re feeling much more sway than we did on our trip down from the UP. I’m hoping to have Spaders in Sioux Falls take a look tomorrow. (actually, when we stopped at the crossing of the Mississippi, I adjusted the links and now we’re riding better than ever) We should have good weather til Sunday; 40’s and 50’s, dry and cloudy or sunny from WI to WY.

We’re taking 21 over to I90 today; taking it slow and enjoying the farmland.  We hope to stay in or near Blue Earth MN tonight, but we’ll see how it goes.  We stocked up on Bison and Elk in WI; we have locally grown and preparred; kippered bison, bison summer sausage, elk and garlic sausage, elk patties and ground buffalo (bison). I also got quite a bit of Applewood (no nitrates) turkey bacon. I was incredibly surprised at the organic selection at Copps food stores in Neenah and Appleton.
THe girls have been playing with the sticker booklets that Ellen, Maca and Jeff gave them pretty much constantly since Neenah. We’re almost to La Crosse (155 miles and 3+ hours later) so that shows how much they are enjoying them. Thanks again, so much, Ellen, Maca and Jeff, for the blankets, presents and the dinner.

Well, whaddayknow we had ANOTHER adventure!!! We hit Albert Lea, MN about 6pm and had decided to stay at the Days Inn instead of the county park so the kids could swim and I didn’t want to try to camp (with no pull throughs) in the dark. We tried the Days Inn and found the hot tub was on the blink and that they would not honor the AAA advertised rate.

Since the park was close-by we decided to simply go there. We did ok; it was very dark and the (not paved) road started twisting and turning throughout the campsite. I hit a spot that looked tight and was inching along when I ran the trailer against a tree. With Jamie’s help (if Ellen hadn’t been screaming I would have taken a picture) I managed to back the trailer up into an adjacent spot as I simply could not go forward. I had a tree on the drivers side blocking the trailer and a tree on the passenger side blocking the van. I don’t know how, but with him spotting trees for me, I backed up the twisty road; into a slot; back into the road again (a 3pt turn) and back down the road I drove in on.
Oh My Freaking Gawd, my heart is still pounding. It looks to be simple cosmetic damage, but we’ll have to wait for the sun to see for certain. So…back down the unpaved road we go, looking for a spot with electrical hookups. I pull into one but it is too short. Ellen has not stopped crying and screaming since I first got stuck and we decide to bag it.

Once again we are welcomed by Comfort Inn. They have a large indoor pool; a hot tub; very very large rooms, expanded breakfast (waffles, juice, fruit, etc.) at $60. The kids are swimming; I’m coming down; Jamie has coffee; I’m typing this from their free wireless; life is good again.

i'm dreaming of a white christmas...

course the "white" in our Christmas will be ocean foam…

Once, when Sissy (now 5) was 3 months old, Jamie and I decided (on a whim) to take a month and go camping.  It was December, the boys were 5 and 3 and we rented a Class C and headed, via little side roads and a small stretch of interstate in Nevada, to Texas.  We started with a hop over to Markleeville (Apline County CA) where we soaked at the hot springs (well, Sissy, being 3mo didn’t soak much) and proceeded to the campground.  There was a GOOD amont of snow on the ground; you couldn’t see the road in the campground but there was an indentation, so you knew where it probably was located.

Surprisingly , we were the only campers in the park.  After dark, however (which really wasn’t that late, as the sun set around 5pm) a truck and trailer (of some type) pulled in and parked 2 sites away from ours.  We thought nothing of it and eventually headed to bed.  About 2am, the LP alarm sounded.  We figured it was a fluke, thanked the gods and godesses that the kids didn’t wake up and went back to sleep.  About 10 seconds (so it seemed) later, it went off again.  We were thoroughly freaked and sleep deprived but our veins were full of adrenaline, so we decided to break camp.  It was about 4 degrees (Farenheit).  I started out of the campsite (kids still sleeping) and found that the truck was blocking the road.  Somehow, I managed to get us out of the campground without getting stuck OR hitting the damn enormous, gigantic truck. 

We drove to Death Valley that day and spent some glorous time in the valley.  We drove the byways and little roads and only once more did I drive in snow, but little by little we made it to Texas.  We spent Christmas on the sand (literally; I don’t remember the beach, but we and an Airstream were the only ones boondocked (though I didn’t know the term then) there.   We decorated a ladder as a Christmas tree and had a wonderful time.

I’m hoping for the same (minus the LP detector alarm malfunction) this Christmas and it looks like we’ll be with my folks, who are currently camping in their Lazy Daze in San Felipe (Baja Mexico). We’ve stayed quite a bit longer in Wisconsin than planned; we wanted to have a mini-Christmas celebration with Ellen and try to convince Maca to come to Mexico with us, but although the celebration was wonderful, Maca won’t budge.  We’ll clean Grandma Elinor’s house (where we’re staying right now) and pack up tomorrow and head out Wednesday.

Some more pictures from Ellie’s Christmas in early December for the Californians who think it is Christmas just because it snowed. 

ordinary people

We’re all falling into a routine.  We fall out of bed about 10am, I go for a walk, jamie stays home and makes breakfast, I come home from my walk and Jamie goes out for a bit.  After the kids eat they play.  They play all day.  The boys found some of JAMie’s old soldiers and shoot them with rubberbands.  The girls pretend they are Becky or animals.  Right now they’re sitting at MIL’s kitchen table, pretending they are kittens; lapping granola and milk out of seperate bowls.  One of the many mysteries in my life (because honestly, kids present many mysteries) is how, a full 2 weeks after leaving CA, the kids can still be on California time.  THey go all day, have to be coaxed into bed by 11pm - 12am and get up at 10am.  I’ve adjusted my body clock to the midwest, but apparently, no such switch for the kids. 

Pike accompanied me on my walk yesterday and I think I know what it is like to have a puppy.  It was about 3000 degrees below zero (but, in comparison, it must have been only -2000 because it was even colder this am) and he ran here and there, chasing sticks, gathering sticks, throwing rocks at ice, picking up sheets of frozen ice (does it come any other way?), throwing sheets of ice in the road and watching them shatter (the reason they do this, btw, is because it is "just like shattering glass") and panting.  We had some conversation inbetween (condensation, evaporation and absorption) but he managed to tire himself out so much I doubt it will happen again. 

Jamie is doing some retail therapy today; he is so depressed from not being able to ride his bike (too damn cold, ever since we left CA).  Ellen is taking an early nap (well, who knows; especially if she’s on CA time) and the rest are playing hide and seek.  They never seem to tire of hide and seek and it is one of the few games that they include Sissy in.

I’m currently looking for a stovetop espresso maker for Jamie; I’ve got my eye on one on Ebay, but I’d rather just get one and be done with it.  I’ve figured out that I don’t want the basic one because I’ve had those and they leak.  Unfortunately there seems to be a glut of others on the market and I’ve no idea which would suit him.  I’m sure SOMEONE out there has a clue.

once i had a secret love...

I am having an illicit love affair with my MIL’s knife.  I was getting ready to make chili and chicken soup (not in the same pot, mind you) and found a beauty of a knife buried in her knife drawer.  Almost like she was trying to hide it; knowing that the user would want nothing more than to carry it home to love and enjoy.  It is heavier than any knife I’ve used and sharp - wonderfully sharp.  There is simply nothing more satisfying than slicing through half an onion as easy as warm butter.

I’ve had Doris Day on the brain today; course the title of this entry might have something to do with that.  Chrissy, my California sister, and I have always loved her movies.

We spent the afternoon at the farm and froze each and every appendage.  The girls rode Cisco; the boys played in the haybarn and broke sheets of ice and everyone played with the dogs.  Just before it started to snow (first snow this year for this area) they all piled into the tractor and threw hay out in the pastures.  Right now, Ellen and Sissy are handfeeding the dogs.  They didn’t like the fact that the dogfood was sitting in a bowl uneaten and decided to take handfulls over to each dog (Pepper, Andy, Spanky Roo, Velcro, Monkey Jumbo).  We’re popping corn from Ardenwood farm (Fremont CA) in paper bags; enlightening the Wisconsin folk on how to pop corn without using the premade bags from the store.

Cute picture of the day is Daddy and 3 of the 4 getting ready to "throw" hay.  Or maybe it is Sissy falling in love.  Or maybe it is Ellen squared riding Cisco…

Neenah, Wisconsin

We’re staying here in Neenah for a while; visiting Jamie’s relatives and waiting for snow to pass (it is supposed to snow tomorrow and the next day).  We’ll probably leave for Sioux Falls on Sunday, where we’ll pick up mail (first time in ages), get SD driver’s licenses (going to miss the CA ones) and register the trailer.  We need to come up with a name for the trailer.  I’ve secretly been calling the Ford the "behemoth" because it is simply monsterous compared to our VW Vans.  I guess we need a name for the Ford also…