Heading home...

Today saw a mixture of emotions.  First of all, we left our daughter, son-in-law and three grandsons behind this morning about 10 AM.  That is always difficult, but it was made the more so because we had to leave 2 week old Malachi behind.  We arrived when he was exactly a week old; today he is 16 days.  What a difference 9 days made! He changed so much before our very eyes.  What a thrill.

The upside of this farewell party is that we will be returning in a month to work with Josiah, the 10 year-old, on his Junior Achievement BizTown project. The older two boys are also coming to our house for their spring break in March. The other upside is that we love road trips.



















So, we made the dreaded drive through the Los Angeles area, skirting the central area to the east. That put us out of the worst of the traffic, and we sailed on up what the locals call "the 5" and over the mountains to Grapevine.  Then we tried something new.  We headed up CA99 to Bakersfield and we are currently set up at the Bakersfield RV resort. It's pretty swanky with level gravel sites, patios and a restaurant and lounge that will deliver food to your RV space! So, New Year's Eve begins for us with the Orange Bowl game on TV and the prospect of another bowl game to come, and maybe, "room" service for dinner.

 Jill spotted the Good Year blimp hovering over the Rose Bowl

Here's our next door neighbor.

So, stay tuned for further New Year's weekend festivities as we continue north toward home. Oh, and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This makes driving the L.A. freeways all worthwhile

In all the excitement of arriving in San Diego yesterday, I forgot to post an update here.  Our drive yesterday included the dreaded passage through Los Angeles.  The weather was alternately windy and rainy, but we didn't have both together for much of the drive.  It is the intense traffic and the beat up pavement on the freeways that make this stretch so tiring and challenging.

The good news is that we arrived safely and are enjoying our visit with the kids and grandkids.  Here are a few photos:

 That's Gramma Jill; obviously not enjoying herself.

 Big brother Josiah thinks Malachi is "awesome."

Mama Laura is the queen of baby wearing.

Daddy Tim in a father and son moment with Malachi. 

At the risk of sounding like a blithering grandpa, I must say that Malachi is one good looking kid! Sorry, I have to leave now, I think I may get my chance to hold the little guy soon.

OK, it's official...

...I hate driving into a 20 mph headwind more than I hate driving in rain.  We had a lovely stay at The Aurora RV park on Clear Lake.  The only sounds we heard in the night were the gentle lapping of the lake on the shore and some light rain showers on the roof. I think I almost got caught up on my sleep deficit from the previous night.

By the time we left The Aurora, it was pretty steadily raining.  We drove along the north shore of the lake, which is spectacular and reminded me of my youthful days spent on the shores of Hood Canal, in Washington State.  When we got to the east end of the lake, we were sad to have the scenery change to a lot of charred trees from the wild fires of last summer.  We wound through the hills which are eerily beautiful, made the more so by a lot of charred remains of trees scattered everywhere.

Eventually, we made it to the valley floor and discovered that, true to forecast, there was a strong southerly wind blowing. We were headed east at this time, so it was a strong cross wind.  In case you hadn't noticed, Topper has a lot of unreefable sail area that was presented to that wind. I told myself things would be better when we were headed into the wind...WRONG!!  Heading south on I5, we found the head wind most daunting.  In order to avoid blowing the camper off the truck and to conserve fuel, I drove at 55 mph.  Even the semis were passing us.

This went on until we were well south of the bay area.  There was a little rain from time to time, but if I had to choose, give me rain every time over a headwind. Eventually, the wind abated and we made it to the Almond Tree RV Park in Coalinga.  It is a nice enough park, kind of in the middle of nowhere, with an older, nicer section mainly occupied by residents, and a newer plainer section for us transients.  But the space is level and has all the amenities we need, and it will do very nicely, thank you.  And the wind is NOT blowing. Did I mention there is no wind?

Tomorrow, we take on the Grapevine over the mountains into Los Angeles and the transit to San Diego. Wish us luck.

It's nice in Nice

If you read my morning post, you will know that we spent a less than pleasant night last night in Crescent City.  That was not Crescent City's fault. It was the weather, plain and simple.

So, we got out of Dodge about 7:45AM, stopped at Wally World to pick up a space heater to replace the one we left at home, and hit the road.

The driving was...interesting.  At times we were broadsided by the high winds that had kept us awake all night. At other times we were pelted with heavy rain.  At other times, we enjoyed both simultaneously.  Add that to driving the beautiful but narrow and winding road that traverses the Redwood Forest, and you get a challenging but satisfying day of driving.

We are currently ensconced in our home-away-from-home in Nice, CA at The Aurora RV park. We last visited here in August when it was dreadfully hot, but the lake (Clear Lake) was gorgeous.  So we were interested to see the lake in December for comparison.  It is not dreadfully hot. It is not hot at all. It is 52 degrees and foggy. Don't believe me?

Here is the view from our camper door.

This is a view more to the west.

The little black dots on the water are birds.  Mostly grebes, 

I think. There are literally dozens of them.

For comparison, here are a couple of pictures we took in August. 

One of the things we encountered on the drive was a lot of rivers to cross.  Most of them were near flood stage; a far cry from the pathetic dribbles that characterized most of them in August.  That is, until we got on CA20 toward Nice. The first thing we noticed on CA20 was that Lake Mendocino (in Lake County) is still nearly dry. In addition, the streams we saw on this route were trickling, not roaring like the others we saw in Del Norte and Humboldt counties. In addition, Clear Lake is not noticeably higher than it was in August. Go figure. We have just been greatly encouraged by the return of rain and snow to northern California.

Tomorrow, it's on to Coalinga in the San Joaquin Valley.  I expect that drive to be less challenging and less beautiful. Come back and see if I get surprised!!

It was a dark and stormy night...

...and the wind howled, and the rain poured, and Topper swayed and bucked.  I'm not too sure what Red Ryder was doing. I was too busy hanging on for dear life.  Amazingly enough, I actually slept a few minutes, here and there.

Remember the photo from yesterday's post of the idyllic view out Topper's back door?  Well, where the H..E..Double 5 Irons did this storm come from? When we finished dinner, there were practically no clouds in the sky, and the wind was calm.  Right now, I am having difficulty hitting the right keys on my laptop, because we are bobbing around so much. 

Reminds me of a couple of times in my boating days, when wind and waves made the boat rock and roll during the night. But we are firmly planted on solid ground...at least we were before the sun went down.  Hmmm...I wonder how Noah felt during those forty days and nights. That couldn't have been fun. And what's more, we didn't bring the dogs along. Can you imagine an ark full of two of every kind of animal, and all of them panicked and clucking and bleating and barking and meowing and mooing and neighing and trumpeting and roaring and generally caterwauling at the top of their lungs? Wow!

To be quite frank, this storm was predicted, and we could have found a place to stay further inland, instead of right on the edge of the bay. I just didn't think, given the observable weather conditions, that it could get this bad in a matter of hours. Chalk that one up to experience.

So, today's trip plan is to drive through the redwoods and end up in Nice, which is quite a ways inland from the coast. Rain is forecast, but with luck those big old trees, some of which have been standing for millennia, will protect us some from the wind...if they don't fall down on us.  Nah, they wouldn't do that after millennia.

I just need to keep thinking, "When we get to San Diego, we get to meet our new grandson, Malachi!"
That and lots and lots of praying... Stay tuned for further developments. 

A room with a view

On our way to San Diego, we have made it to Crescent City.  The day provided amazingly easy driving, with lots of sunshine and just a few light rain showers.  Here is the view from Topper's back door.

This trip is dual purpose.  We are planning to spend Christmas with our daughter and her family.  But first and foremost we are anxious to meet our new grandson, Malachi.  He was born on Wednesday, and if you want an unbiased opinion, he is gorgeous.  See if you don't agree:

Tomorrow it is on to Nice, CA (no, not nice, Nice, like in France).  We stayed there in August on our way to celebrate our other grandsons' (Malachi's brothers) birthdays. The RV park sits on the shore of Clear Lake, which was very low on water in August. It will be interesting to see how much it has filled up with the latest rains that have hit northern California.  Stop back to see what we find.