Day 129 – I’m afraid it’s time again for us to play catch up with the blog. It’s so much easier to keep up with it on a daily basis, but we just haven’t been able to do that. Today is January 24 and we are one week behind. Our apologies. We did not drop off the face of the earth. We’ve just had a very busy schedule. We haven’t even had time to take a bunch of pictures, therefore both Rob & I will keep it short until we get back on schedule with the blog.
Golden Shore RV Resort
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Day 128 – I don’t know if we’ll get these last couple of days-worth of blog out tonight or not. But I am almost caught up. Rob has lots of pictures from today that he’s still working on.
Monday, January 15, 2018
Day 127 – Beginning of Week 19. The girls have not yet adjusted to this campground. It normally doesn’t take this long at all. They’re jumpy & it’s fairly noisy here which doesn’t help. We need to spend some more quality time with them.
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Day 126 – We’re running a bit behind with the blog here in L.A. Sorry about that! It’s been really busy & our schedule is full. Right now it’s close to 10 p.m. on Tuesday evening & we’re playing catch-up. I’ll try to keep it short & sweet.
Saturday, January 13, 2018
AHOY, MATEY!
Day 125 – Yawn! Darn noisy last night between the traffic on nearby highways, motorcycles, sirens from police cars, trains passing by, and the continual honking of a car’s burglar alarm. The RV Park itself is pretty nice, but the location is in a busy city. It’s the only game in town and is close to friends & relatives. Its location is excellent for doing all kinds of things in the L.A. & Orange County areas. It’s been a few days, and I’m afraid the cats still aren’t too happy here. This could be our fault because we tend to go to quiet places without a lot of people, kids, & dogs, and away from traffic noise. Plus they are used to the quiet neighborhood at home. They don’t receive many visitors and in the next several days, they’ll have lots of visitors. We hope they don’t end up with ulcers!
Friday, January 12, 2018
Day 124 – Got up this morning to a layer of haze, 52 degrees. Inland it was smog; by the Ocean it was fog. We took care of some chores, did laundry & stuff like that, and spent the morning with the kitties – they LOVE clean laundry.
Gracie, Luna and Pixie helping with the laundry
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Day 123 – Beginning of the fifth month of this trip. We’ll be staying in Long Beach for two weeks, a lot longer than we usually stay in one place (except our land in Maine). Our main reason for taking this trip was to visit Rob’s mom and to see dear friends & our relatives on the way to, and from, southern CA. We haven’t decided where we’re going next yet. It will almost completely depend on the weather conditions in winter. Do we go south & east through the desert to avoid the Rocky Mountains & the snow? Or do we go north, then east somehow to get around the bad weather. We’d probably prefer to go north back to the trees, but the weather may not permit it. We need to pass through Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland before getting back to NY in early May. Wish we had a crystal ball! (If anyone out there who may be reading this, has any ideas or experience in this area, please drop us an e-mail or respond to this blog.)
RECAP – End of Month 4, Trip #3
Well, here we are in southern California & slightly beyond the middle point of our trip. One month ago, we were still in northern California, camping below Fort Bragg near Mendocino. We were getting ready to move further south along the rugged northern CA coast to Gualala. Small towns, redwood forests sometimes, but almost always a lush forest of some kind. Cliffs over crashing waves along empty beaches. Rivers meeting the Ocean & spectacular scenery. Oh yeah, wine country & fabulous bakeries, we mustn’t forget that! During the month, we enjoyed more of the same, visited with a cousin in Bodega Bay and another one & her husband in San Jose, we lost a beloved uncle, and we each celebrated birthdays, Christmas, and the New Year. We eventually travelled back inland to avoid the winding roads at cliff’s edge and discovered, much to our surprise, that the Central Valley below Sacramento was really pretty in a different way, and that birds of a feather, flock together. We’ve encountered forest fires and their aftermath, the mudslides, torrential rainstorms & long periods of dryness, scenery going from mostly green to mostly brown, and warmer, but still comfortable, temperatures. Most noticable as we travelled south was the increase in traffic, smog, & the amount of people due to the size of cities & their sprawl outwards. It does take you twice or three times as long to travel from one place to another. Rolling hills change from green to brown to covered-with-houses. Ocean views change from cliffs and wildness to busy beaches and fancy homes. The air is not as clean. Noise is an issue. But we lived here for many years and we must say in all fairness, that anything you need is available to you. You want a health food store? A fish restaurant? A museum or an aquarium or a botanical garden? There’s plenty to do in the cities. You just have to fight the crowds to do what you need to do. We will adjust. The temperatures are ideal for us. This is winter? At home there’s many inches of snow & ice-cold temperatures. Anyway, we’ve seen orchards that make us want to stop and pick an orange off a tree. We are going whale watching on Saturday! We have favorite restaurants to visit and friends & family to see. The month upcoming will be different for the first half here in Long Beach, but we’re open to new experiences. We’ve travelled 843 miles in the RV last month, lots more miles if we add what we travelled in the car, too. Went much farther this month in order to reach So. CA by January 9. We stayed 12 different campgrounds. We enjoyed seeing the relatives & enjoyed our time at wildlife refuges photographing and stalking the birds. Want to clear your head and worry less? Spend some time following Sandhill Cranes…..
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
GOOD LUCK, CAROL! THINKING OF YOU……
Day 122 – Bright sunny day today, 58 degrees when we got up. We were shocked to find out about the continuing devastation in Montecito. We’d just driven by there. As of this afternoon, 13 people had died, 100 homes had been destroyed or badly damaged, and many people were missing. Montecito is south of Santa Barbara & had been near the Thomas fire but not directly in the hills below it & not directly affected by it, until now. It’s really a shame……
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
THE RAVAGES OF FIRE, Part 2.
Day 121 – We awoke this morning to the news that Highway 101 had just been closed from Santa Barbara to just north of us, 30 miles total. Mudslides. We’re lucky we came down here yesterday! Still raining on & off, and windy. We are worried the roads will be closed here or south & east of here when we attempt to get to the 405 Freeway on the 101. The Thomas fire was massive & we’ll probably pass more burned areas from it. Also, there was the fire in L.A. near the Getty Museum at around the same time, the Skirball Fire. We hear there have been mudslides in that area along the 405. It’s also pretty windy this morning. Mudslides? We hope not. Huge traffic jams on the 405 heading south thru the valley? Yes, according to the latest travel map. Another interesting drive for us today.
The 101 was closed for 30 miles from mud slides a little more than 12 hours after we passed through!