Days 3 - 6 Morgan Hill

I LOVE Thousand Trails in Morgan hill. When we drove past the gate at the entrance I just choked with emotion. So absolutely gorgeous. The whole place is jammed with cottonwoods, oaks, and gobs of varieties I can't name. All of them are changing colors right now and the sun filtering through the leaves was just breathtaking. Shasta must have some memory of it because she started squeaking in the back and Wilson started looking around like he was saying, what? We had time to set up and clean up (dog hair) before anyone else got there and we were able to find a spot that had an empty space right next to us in a pull through so Rhonda and her family could be facing us next door! Scott followed them in and spent a couple of days before he had to get back to school & work. Robyn and her boys arrived late that afternoon. What a wonderful feeling to be surrounded by family. I wish that Shannon, Tim and Grammie could have been there too. That would have made it PERFECT. We played horseshoes, miniature golf, shuffleboard, ping pong and just hanging around catching up with each other. So happy we had those three days without someone having to get to work or some other obligation. Happy trails. Off to Scotts Valley!

Day Two on the Road

Day two started off with two VERY GOOD DOGGIES! Truly, I am amazed. As soon as we took off they both jumped up on the couch (dang it) and layed down. Not even a peep out of either of them. Whew. Most of the trip today was miles and Miles of not much, however, I really have learned to see the beauty of the desert. The mountains turn shades of purple and in one case through the Mojave National Preserve there was a white mountain. What little foilage there was, is still pretty green, until Barstow that is. Got a nice picture of the Colorado River coming into California. Always nice to see some WATER! Beautiful huh? I really liked the area towards the summit of the Tehachapi mountains. Lots of trees! Here's a picture of a swarm of windmills in the Tehachapi's. When we came down off the mountain we could see to the south a fog of smoke from the fires near L.A. How fun to see all of the acres of orange trees coming in to Bakersfield. Gets us all excited about fresh fruits and vegetables! We checked in to Bakersfield RV Park around 3:30. Not as nice a place as in Kingman for sure. When we first got there we could hear train whistles and it reminded me of when I was young and heard them all the time in San Mateo. Was good to reminise until it happened every 30 minutes all night long. Wilson's eyes are all crunched closed.

Day One on the Road

So here we are on day one driving north on Highway 90 getting ready to turn WEST on I-10. It only took Willy about 10 miles to stop trying to jump over the baby gate we put up to keep those wild animals away from the driving area. He is curled up on the couch, which I didn’t want to let him do, but he was making me crazy so I let him… Shasta is still squeaking and it makes me wonder if she does that in the back of the truck all the time too.
We’re excited to finally be on the road! We only had one day to go shopping and get everything packed into the rv. Why you ask?
Two days ago the Tubster was back in the shop. We were pulling the slides back in and realized that one in the bedroom was not closing all the way. Another drive to Whetstone to RV City revealed a problem that has been going on for a long time. The previous owners replaced the original mattress with a wonderful, high end mattress that, albeit heavenly, it doesn’t fit. Over a period of time the slide has become geehawky. The solution was to put a lock that we have to put on and take off on the top of the slide to keep it from moving around while we’re driving.
We just drove through the Joshua Tree Forest Parkway. Who knew you could have a whole forest of Joshua trees??? Coming out of the forest (I say that in jest) we head up the mountains. The road is awesome! Lots of saquaros up here.
Ron is doing such a great job driving. We had some construction through Phoenix and little dinky little lanes and he drove it like he’d been doing it forever. One reason might be that in the dvd about driving an rv, it talks about lining the rv up with a long line and marking the dashboard with a piece of tape so you’ll always know where the lane line is. Works like a charm! Probably another 90 miles or so to Kingman, our first stop of the trip.
Our first night away from home is spent at a nice little rv park called Blake Ranch and is about 12 miles out of Kingman right off the road. There's trees at every campsite and the place is covered in pea gravel (thank you, thank you!). We had to vacuum before we could even get set up. Guess the hairballs were so nervous they just dropped hair. There is a little doggie park here and has proved a great benefit to us! Early to bed tonight!

Getting Ready

We have been working hard on getting ready for our big adventure back home to Santa Cruz. So much to do and only 6 days left to do it! As far as the business goes, all of the projects need to be completed, invoices mailed out, and media bills paid. We've been busy thinking of new business we might find in CA as well and trying to schedule those contacts between spending much needed time with our wonderful families and friends. We've downloaded checklist after checklist from RV sites online to make sure we don't forget anything. I'd love to be able to run something out to our big, bad house on wheels whenever I think of something, but she's in the shop having some things repaired...oh, I guess I forgot to tell you...the awning...the first or second day we had the monster home we opened up the awning just to practice working it properly, went in the house and didn't give it another thought. Meanwhile, one of our biggest monsoon showers of the season rolled through and when I happened outside I saw to my horror that the awning was like a huge balloon drooping down full of water! When we tried to help the water out over the edge, the awning arm bent, and while it would still operate it had to be helped to close. Then...while we were at St. David after visiting the dump station for our return home, there is a skinny little bridge you have to drive over that is preceeded by a rather short turn to get on the bridge. Just before the bridge is a large steel bollard that thankfully prevents people like us from ending up in the creek three feet down. Yep, we had a nice dent in the bottom of the coach from hitting that bollard. Yes, I was outside "guiding" him across and I saw that it was going to hit. What I learned is that just banging on the side of the RV is not a good way to tell him to stop. Fast forward to this weekend when we'll be at the high school "practicing" our turns. Ron found a wonderful DVD, http://www.amazon.com/Class-Motorhome-101-RV-DVD/dp/B00017USO0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1223568632&sr=1-2, that explains everything we did wrong. So much we don't know and the salespeople don't tell you! How to adjust your mirrors, finding the pivot point in those mirrors, tail swing, negotiating turns. We'll probably watch that DVD about a bazillion times before we leave!

Tough Week!

Boy it's been a tough week. With all of the talk of financial crisis and what it might mean to everyone's life, all the back-biting and finger pointing of politics, and the uncertainty of the outcome of the presidential elections, I'm whipped! I admit that I have allowed the fear of this week's headlines to freak me out! I'm having trouble staying focused on anything else as well as waking up in the middle of the night and laying there for hours torturing myself with doomsday visions. Let's face it, I'm exhausted! I heard someone (I think Bill O'Reilly) say yesterday, "Do something fun this weekend; relax." In light of the stress of the entire week, I think it's a great idea. Curl up with a good book. Go to the beach. Work on a project that makes you happy. Eat chocolate. Laugh with friends.

Myself, I think I'll go to my happy place. Yeah, that's the one...

Feel the cool breeze and smell the fresh, clean ocean air! I'll just lay here for a few minutes with my glass of iced tea in one hand, and pet Shasta, who has nestled up next to me in the shade of the beach umbrella, with the other, close my eyes, and listen to the waves lapping the shore and the gulls calling to one another. Yeah, this is great...

Eeeewwwww! Ah geez! I didn't see him coming! Wilson licked me on the lips!!!!

Pics from St. David

Isn't it pretty? So peaceful. And green. An oasis in the desert, right? We camp right on the water's edge. Yeah, mosquito heaven but we sprayed from head to toe every day. We've had to do that at home too since it was such a wet summer. After reading up on the campground at St. David, I found out there are 265 sites. Doesn't look that big when you're there. I love all the ducks. They look like they're smiling all the time. I can't help but smile back.

St. David

Welcome to our maiden voyage in our building on wheels! We're sitting in a pretty little resort in St. David, AZ. It's about 35 miles from our house. Just far enough to feel like we've "gotten away" but close enough that we can do it in a weekend.
St. David sits atop Artisian wells so it's like an oasis in the middle of the desert. Many properties have ponds and there are huge Cottonwoods everywhere. There is a beautiful monastery in town that is very lush and canopied with trees where they have an arts and crafts fair every year. We like to go just to walk around the grounds. Here at the St. David campgrounds there are probably 150 campsites. On the lower level, where we like to stay, there are two "lakes" full of fish, about 20 ducks, and a couple of geese. The ducks and geese have no fear of people or dogs and for some strange reason, thankfully, our dogs don't have much interest in them. There are probably only 7 or 8 campers on this level but when we walked the dogs to the upper level we were very surprised to see LOTS of RVs up there. Full hook ups there. :) But it's like camping in a parking lot up there...not for us. This time of year we get snowbirds from all over the country and because of the price of gas we were happy to see that we are not the only crazy people in RVs.
When we left home on Friday, we crated Willy since he can be such a spaz about this house moving. After about 20 miles we let him out and although he acted like he was going to have a heart attack and was shaking like a leaf, his laid down next to Shasta for the duration of the ride.
This trip was also to figure out how we were going to get on the internet and send/receive email on the road. Poor Ron worked for a day and a half to figure it out and obviously he did. So now when we leave town next month for Santa Cruz we'll still be hooked up! Just need to figure out how to download pictures while away from home. I'll try to post some Monday when we get home.
Gotta go...Ron's turn at the computer. :)