Blog on Hold

Since we will be spending the next 5 months in Apache Junction, I have decided that this is a good time to put this blog on hold. I will resume with our lives on the road once we leave AJ for travels in April, 2009.

Love to all of you and thanks for all of your support in my first adventure in blog writing. It has been a fun way for us to share with you our adventures and to show you some of our pictures as we travel.

Stay healthy, be safe.

Linda and Barb

October 30, 2008: Valley Center, Julian, & Palm Desert

It has been a month since we have written and what at month it has been.
When we left Acton, we traveled to Valley Center, CA where we spent 3 days visiting with our friends, Nancy and Val. It was good to see friends that we had not seen since we left Apache Junction back in April.

From there we went to Julian, Ca where we have another one of our membership parks. We have been to Julian before and really like the area. Julian is know for its apples and everything there is apple pies and apple cider. We, natually, had to taste everything. In fact, we even purchased an apple pie that was frozen and had not been baked yet. So when we make it, we will have freshly baked apple pie. Julian is up in the mountains about 40 miles from San Diego. During our 2 week stay there, Barb flew to St. Louis for a week to visit her mom.

From Julian, we traveled to Palm Desert, which is just east of Palm Springs. Our plan was to spend 10 days here and then head home to Apache Junction, getting there around Oct. 23. But the unexpected happened. On Oct. 10, we were running errands and crossing an intersection with the green light, a woman ran the red light and crashed into us. She was going about 50-60 miles per hour. The blessing is that we are alive and healing. Without going into all of the details, let me just say that we have stayed here in Palm Desert to follow up with doctor appointments and to deal with insurance company and paperwork stuff.

We leave today, Oct 30, to drive home to Apache Junction. It is a 300 mile drive and we will take two days to complete the trip. We will stay in Quartzite for the night. Quartzite is known for it huge flea markets during the months of Jan & Feb. But it will probably be very quiet and empty tonight.

Love and hugs to all of you. Stay healthy and safe,

Linda and Barb

Getty Center

Special exhibit of Bernini sculptures


View of the magnificient gardens. We walked down towards the maze below and discovered that plants in the maze were surrounded by water.

Barb standing in front of Getty Center with her brother Doug

Art sculpture in front of main entrance


One of the many floral displays in the center's gardens


View from below of flowering tree and one of the center's most unusual buildings

Hearst Castle

Barb standing in front of the visitor center

Steps to main entrance of the castle

The outdoor swimming pool

The indoor swimming pool

One of the many statues around swimming pool and in courtyards

Flower from the small ponds with lily pads

Pictures from Hearst Castle & Getty Center

We visited Hearst Castle while in Pismo Beach and the Getty Center while in Acton.

Internet connections for us have been slow in these areas so I will be posting the pictures at a later date.

We get our internet service from a mobile broadband card through Sprint and depending on how far into the hills we are, our internet service speeds varies. Right now, I am able to get on the internet to view e-mail, etc. but not to upload or download pictures.

Oops, time has gotten away from me !

Here it is Sept 23 and I have not written since Aug 26. We have been busy visiting friends and family.

When we left Rancho Oso, we drove directly to Acton, Ca, which is about an hours drive from Las Angeles.

The next day, I flew from LAX to Montgomery, AL to visit with Susan, my eldest daughter, and her family. I had not seen them in over a year. They are military and have been stationed in Europe for the past 3-4 years and we last saw them for any real period of time when Barb and I went to Brussels in Dec 2006. We also saw them in Nov 2007 but just for a short time.

So it was really great to see my grandkids, Nicolas and Caroline.

I spent time going to their activities of gymnastics and baseball, played Wii games with them, sang in a Rock Band as a part of X box, and saw the school work they were doing. It felt really good to see them and I am so glad they are back in the states again. I spent a week with them.

While we were in Acton, we also had a chance to visit with our family who live in LA. Barb saw her niece , Jennifer , while I was gone. When I returned we met her brother , Doug, at the Getty Center. We had never been there. We were quite surprised at the gardens and buildings. It was a beautiful day so we spent much of the time walking around the outside and looking of the views. The center is high up a hill and so from every spot there is viewing of the LA surroundings.

We also visiting with my cousin, Linda, and my Aunt Anne and my other cousins.

When we left Acton, we headed for Valley Center, Ca, where we met our friends. We spent 3 days with them going to wine country and to the casinos. And from there we came to our current spot of Julian, Ca. We will be here for two weeks. Barb leaves tomorrow for a week to fly to St. Louis to see her mom and I will stay here, and, as usual, catch up on my To Do list.

So that is a quick catch up on our last two weeks. It has been fun and busy. Bailey is beginning to get used to our leaving him during the day, but he is not happy about it. So when we return, we need to spend time playing with him and taking him for walks. He is definitely well spoiled and we are loving it and him.

Love and hugs to all of you,

Linda and Barb

A Week of Projects

So we have been here for a week and have only left the campground for one day. Each morning we would get up, have our cup of coffee and decide to start a small project and then drive into Solvang or Santa Ynez or Solvang. Wrong !!

First of all, we have discovered a new coffee brand. We have been Starbucks coffee drinkers for several years and have purchased it at Costco or SamsClub. As like everything else, the prices have been going up !!! The 3 lb bag became a 39 oz bag and the price has gone from &14.99 to $21.99. So for the past year we have started trying different brands. We tried Seattle Coffee and went back to Starbucks. Then we tried Kirkland's (Costco's brand) which was supposedly made by Starbucks and could not even finish the package. And so back to Starbucks again. Two weeks ago, when we saw Starbucks was at $21.99, we decided to try San Francisco Coffee. And we like it. It has a different aroma and flavor than Starbucks but it is really quite good. Now our only problem is whether or not we need to be in the San Francisco or even California to buy it. Time will tell.

Now back to our week. We had two blinds that had broken cords that need restringing. I have put off doing that for about 6 months. A couple of days ago, I decided it was time. So Barb worked outside cleaning the MH with Bailey, and I spread the blind out on the floor. I must mention that the most difficult part of this was getting the blind down. It is bolted into the cornice and the screws and nails that hold the cornice up are difficult to find. Plus the cornice is wedged into the bottom of the cabinets............well, we finally got it down and I started restringing. That requires 4 strings in criss cross pattern following a diagram from the blinds people. Well, this anticipated one hour project took the entire day. And Barb wiped down the entire motorhome. NO OUTING ON THIS DAY !

Each day has been like that with a different project that was to be just in the morning but took the entire day. Our only outing was to Santa Ynez to get our mail.

Since Solvang is only 3 miles from Santa Ynez, we decided to drive there to have their famous
Danish pancakes. And to purchase the Danish sausages. Each order has two pancakes that are larger than the size of the plate. More than we can eat for lunch so we take half home and have the pancakes and sausage for dinner. What a feast.

After lunch we stopped at the casino, registered for one of their member cards and got $50 in free play. After about an hour we walked away with $40. So with money in our pockets we went to the Gainey winery and had a wine tasting. By then it was after 5:00 pm so we headed home.

So this week we had a great outing for one day and accomplished all of the items on our list the other 6 days.

Today we go grocery shopping !!!

Love and hugs,
Barb and Linda

Rancho Oso

We left Pismo Beach on Sunday and are now all set up at Rancho Oso, which is about 1/2 way between Santa Barbara on the south and Solvang on the north. We were at this park as we traveled north. We were quite pleased to be able to get the same campsite back that looks to the hills out our front window. The park is on levels and we are on the top, furthest from the pool, the store, and the lodges, and further away from all of the activities in the park when it is crowded.

We will be here for two weeks (until Sept 2)and have no definite plans for activities. I am sure we will drive into Santa Barbara to get more of our ocean fix as well as to get fresh farmer's market fruits and vegetables. And I am also sure we will drive towards Solvang and Los Olivos to visit the many wineries in the area.

So love and hugs to all of you,
Barb and Linda

Pictures from Pismo Beach Area

Barb just loves to stand and watch the waves.
And I love to watch the pelicans and try to get photos of them in flight.













If you double click on this photo and look closely at the rock in the center, you will see that the top is inhabited by pelicans.
A perfect landing !

Love and hugs,

Linda and Barb

We Are Back in Pismo Beach

We left Morgan Hill yesterday, August 10. Our time there was pretty much uneventful in terms of activities. Seems like we always have lists of stuff to do and we spent most of the time trying to shorten the list. Good progress!!!

Our location in Pismo Beach is about one block from the ocean. We will be staying a week here and plan to just walk in the sand and the boardwalk and watch the waves and birds.


View Larger Map

Our campground is right where Le Sage is indicated. So each morning when I walk Bailey we get to go to the beach to watch the waves.

Love to all of you,
Linda and Barb

Morgan Hill

We are now in the Morgan Hill Thousand Trails park.


View Larger Map


We left San Benito on July 18 and drove 44 miles to get here. Our main reason for being here is that it is close to San Jose and Barb was able to fly to St. Louis to see her mom. She left on Tuesday, 21st, and will return tomorrow.


But our good fortune is that Clare and Jay live in San Francisco and we had hopes of visiting them. Doug and Michel were also in San Francisco to visit Clare and Jay. Jay proposed the idea of us all meeting for dinner on the evening that we arrived. Since it took us until almost five o'clock to set up, they volunteered to drive to Morgan Hill. We had a wonderful dinner at a small Italian restuarant here. I would rate the food a 5 and the ambience a 3. In other words, the food was great, but the restuarant was very noisy from other table conversations. We managed to talk and catch up on everything and so it was a great evening.

We will be here until next Sunday and then we head back to San Benito again.

Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb

This Isn't Just Any Old Kitty Cat

Our last day at San Benito, I was in the car and Barb was just stepping out of the motorhome, and this very "friendly" pussycat just strolled from behind our rig to the tree on our site. He spied a hole that a squirrel had been digging for the past couple of days and my guess is that the squirrel was in it at this time.

He spent about 15 minutes just looking in this hole waiting for the squirrel and then finally just wandered off. He was no more than 10 feet from us, but his interest was not in us. So I just kept taking pictures.

You can enlarge the pictures by double clicking on them.

This was definitely a WOW experience !!!

Monterey: Fisherman's Wharf

Washing and Waxing the Rig

Our big project while in San Benito was to get the rig washed and waxed. When it was new , we paid close to $150 to have someone do it. Then we decided that we could wash and wax it ourselves and it would be a much better job.



We have washed it many times but have not waxed it for almost two years.
We spread the job out over 4 days, just doing a section each morning until about noon when it started to get hot.


Well, that job is done for now.

Some of The Visitors to our Campsite

Each day when we sit out and have our coffee, we get visits from different wildlife.

We thought you might enjoy some of the pictures.

Monterey: 17 Mile Drive

As you can see, it was a very foggy day.