Lodi, Calif. and on to Bakersfield

Friday and Saturday found us in Lodi (again) - we stayed at the same RV park as last year. After we got settled we drove 1 1/2 hours to Cotati (near Petaluma - which is a half hour from San Francisco!) Had dinner Friday night with 5 of Ernie's cousins at a restaurant that is still in the country and was an old stage coach stop. Next afternoon drove back to Cotati and out to dinner again with 2 of his cousins. Then back to their house to look at old family photos.
Left Lodi this morning and we are staying outside of Bakersfield, Calif. in an RV park that is surrounded by orange trees. Of course Ernie got an orange picker instrument from the office and he picked about 2 dozen oranges fresh off the tree - yum. It was up to 70 degrees today at one point.
Our drive today was very pretty thru central California's agricultural valley. The hills were a beautiful green with lots of livestock grazing. Some fruit trees were beginning to flower out in preparation for the work ahead.
We left I-5 today and are on our way east towards AZ. Ernie may add a little more to this and hope to put in a few pictures too. (Kodak moments for Diane)
My 2 cents worth: Weather is getting near perfect for me. It should be in the mid to upper 70's tomorrow. The shoes and long pants are going into retirement at least until we get back. Time to break out the Hawaiian shirts and sandals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ernie

California here we are!

We are in Redding California listening to the pitter patter of raindrops on the roof of the motor home. We rolled out of Coburg right on schedule at 9:00 a.m. I decided to fuel up before we got on I-5, so it was almost 9:30 before we got going. Since you can't pump your own fuel in Oregon, and there was only 1 attendant at a busy station, it took almost a half hour!
It was windy but dry for the first 2-3 hours, then in the Siskyou's by Mt. Shasta it started to rain. Seems as if we were right in the clouds going up and over several mountain passes. On the bright side there was only a little snow on the side of the road. The coldest temperature was 38 degrees at the ski area. We got here a little after 4:00 p,m, Tomorrow evening we will be somewhere in the Bay Area.
The long range weather forecast for Apache Junction calls for temperatures in the mid to upper 70's!! That's warm enough for Joyce, and not too hot for me. And since one of us forgot to bring a rain jacket, Joyce can't get out for a walk.
Stand by for more from near "the city by the bay.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Ernie

It's always something

It seems like it never fails that something goes wrong at the beginning of another chapter of "The Big Adventure." This time it wasn't the Motorhome, but the house. It seems that the programmable timer for the front porch lights that I installed about a month ago decided to die last night around midnight. I spent about 2 hours resetting and reprogramming only to have it fail each time. So this morning at about 6:30, I was at the Home Depot making an exchange! Got the new timer installed and programed, we got the motorhome loaded up and hit the road at 10:00 a.m. We made it to a campground in Coburg Oregon at 4:30 p.m. Tomorrow the plan is to make it to Redding California. We are trying to travel 250 to 300 miles per day. That way we don't have to try to get on the road at the crack of dawn, and we can still make our destination before dark. We should make our destination in Apache Junction either on Tuesday or Wednesday. It just depends on how much time we spend visiting on the way.
We're really glad that we got the furnace in the motorhome fixed yesterday as the temperature didn't make it to 50 today, and tomorrow doesn't look any better. Now I just need to keep an eye on the propane tank so we don't run out.
We haven't had anything to take pictures of yet, but when we do we will post some.
I think it's time to hit the shower and get some sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ernie

Ready to Hit the Road!

We have spent the last week or so getting ready to head south to the desert country of Arizona. We decided to head out on Wednesday rather than Tuesday. The front furnace in the motorhome will not stay lit, so I am going to take it in to get fixed on Tuesday. The weather conditions down south are such that the furnace wil be needed in the late night and early mornings. But, right now it's about 15 degrees warmer than at home.
Kristin left this morning for a 4 month job at a kids camp in Austin Texas. From there she plans to go to another camp in Colorado for the summer. Hairold T. Cat is spending the next 10 weeks or so at Keith and Sheilas in Stanwood. He hasn't bitten anybody yet, and is starting to settle in. He was pretty ticked off when I brought him up on Saturday!
We should have a straight shot down I-5 to southern California as the warm weather appears to have eliminated the threat of snow in the Siskyous. We plan to spend an extra day in the bay area visiting relatives on my fathers side. Then we may spend an extra day at the California/ Nevada line with some friends who are spending some time there from Montana. We haven't seen them since we spent a year (94/95) in Billings. We may not get in to Apache Junction until Wednesday the 17th, but wer'e not in any rush. That still will give us about 2 weeks before our first baseball game. So for anybody who reads this, it's time to start paying attention as we will be updating at least on a weekly basis.
Ernie

Long Time No Blog

Christmas cookies ala Kristin
Horses and sleigh at Leavenworth
Brynn, Kristin, & Josh at Leavenworth
Kids sledding at Leavenworth
Joyce, Kristin, Ernie, Brynn, and Josh at home for Christmas
Ready to head out for a Christmas party
Snoqualmie Falls during the freeze

I can't believe that I let this slip for almost 2 months, but I did! Ther really hasn't been much to write about. We've finally gotten past the holidays and are heading toward the time to head south(4 weeks from today).Our weather has been a vast improvement over last year, with only about 1 week of freezing weather. We have even seen more sunny days than normal this winter. And we only saw a few snowflakes once, but they didn't cause any problems.
All of the Christmas decorations are back in their storage boxes and tucked away until next season. The grass isn't growing, and there are no flowers in the pots. I do need to get out and do some serious pruning before we leave, but I'm a little apprehensive after last years slip and near impaling while pruning. I've still got a bit of a scar from that one. I find that when I create some small injury that it takes a long time to go away!! Hence I am hesitant to tackle too much knowing that we "hit the road" on the 8th of February.
Joyce has now been officially unemployed for about 6 months, and is looking forwrd to not going back to work any time in the near future (if at all). I don't think that the word "retired" has the negative conotation that it did a year ago. She is looking forward to our adventure to the Arizona desert as much as I am. We will be staying for 2 months this time, and will probably take a week for travel in each direction. I have relatives in the Bay Area that we will probably spend a day with on the way down. While there, we will have our friends Ron and Diane from Oklahoma out for a week of Baseball and sightseeing. We also have friends that will be in the Yuma area for a week, and we plan on getting together with them for a day or so. And it should be in the 70's and 80's!!
Well, that's about enough for me, but I believe that Joyce will be adding her thoughts in the next day or so. We will also be adding some pictures.
Later, Ernie

Closing in on December

Here we are in the last week of November already! The leaves are almost all off of the trees (and my roof). The weather has been it's normal wet self with a little extra wind thrown in. Yesterday we had an early Thanksgiving dinner with Josh & Brynn here at our house as they both work on Thursday. So on Thursday, Joyce, Kristin and I will be going to our friends Dick & Linda for dinner.
The fact that yesterday was the 46th anniversary of the most significant history altering day of my life, almost slipped past me. It was around mid day when the light came on as to the date. Seems like only yesterday.
On a cheerier note, we are getting closer to our venture to the dessert southwest. The motorhome is all cleaned up, waxed and covered up. About 2 months from now all we need to do is take off the cover, load it up, fill the gas tank and point it south. We may take our time heading to Arizona. We are scheduled to be there the middle of February.
Kristin has taken a job at a camp in Texas teaching environmental education that starts in the middle of February for four months. Then she is scheduled for a camp in Colorado for the summer. So she will be away for the better part of next year.
The house is getting bigger!
I'm sure that I have probably left out some significant news, but this is all for now.................................Ernie

Reality Sucks

As I sit here and write this, I think that last week at this time we were enjoying temperatures in the mid 80's and sunshine. We were watching the big waves (complete with surfers) at Sunset Beach on Oahu's North Shore. Now it's in the mid 50's, the wind is blowing, and the rain is falling! I did manage to get up on the roof today to remove the leaves. In another 2 or 3 weeks they should all be gone. The joy of trees. We did have a couple of good weather days this week, and I did manage to get about 3/4 of the motorhome waxed. With a little bit of luck, I will be able to finish it up on Sunday, then get the cover on so we'll be ready to go in February. I am pleasently surprised at how good it looks with a fresh wax job. It's 8 years old now, but it looks almost as good as new. We will have our friends from Tulsa (Ron & Diane) visiting in Arizona for a week in March to hang out with and take in some spring training baseball. We are all looking forward to that. I wasn't too happy with the World Series outcome, but there is some talk that Hideki Matsui could end up a Mariner next year. That could be interesting.
So for now there is not much going on. The next trip (Arizona) is all planned out, and no concrete decisions on "what to do next". We are looking at a week in New Mexico possibly late summer at the World Mark Resort in Taos. I think that we would both like to pull off another "big adventure" motorhome trip. We could incorporate New Mexico into that. We shall see. It's going to be a long, cold, wet winter with lots of time to plan!!
Until next time, one last ALOHA! Ernie