December 23rd
I’m writing this on the Eve of Christmas Eve 2016. We are in Apple Valley, CA at the home of Mike’s stepdaughter and her husband and daughter. We’re going to be here for a few more days spending Christmas with family for a change…kinda cool. As a matter of fact Mike’s stepson and his wife and son came over today for a visit so we really got to see more family than we bargained for, which was a nice surprise. I’ll start the next email with photos from here and beyond.
I wanted to get this out as a kind of holiday greeting as well as the first of however many emails I send on this trip we’re currently undertaking. It’s been a bit of a challenge lately as the weather is terrible and we’ve had our difficulties as you will see if you bother to read this whole tale. But for now I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Year’s
And now….what we’ve been up to since we left Kauai on the red eye to Seattle on November 17th. Cat and all. It was to be the first time we'd spent any significant holiday time with family for years. Rachel had flown up from LA the night before our arrival and she picked us up at the airport. She was able to stay for the entire week we were there so it was great to have everyone home for the holiday.
As usual we have a zillion things to do when we arrive at our little camper house. Have to get the oil changed and buy lots of supplies. In addition, we usually have a bunch of things that have been sent to Krysten's for installation or whatever. And we had an appointment at Paulsbo RV to get the camper's systems checked out and had to drive to Puyallup to get the propane tanks recertified. Busy busy.
We were able to find time to go spend one evening with Joyce and go eat at our favorite place, Vince's. Yummy pizza and the best Carbonara ever. She gave me my completed scarf that she had spent the entire cruise we were on recently knitting. Very pretty and useful with the chilly weather.
We had Thanksgiving dinner at Krysten's and Mike was responsible for the turkey. Lots of people there....my sister Janis, my Mom, my cousin Carolyn surprised us, Dan's kids and friends and his granddaughter Lexi. It was great fun. Dan's daughter, Carly, did a ton of the cooking and everything turned out great. My friend Carol from the San Francisco Bay area and her husband came over for a visit as well. They were visiting Washington to spend Thanksgiving with family and took the time to come visit.
We left the next day for Paulsbo to visit Bruce and Jocelyn. Had a great couple of nights there eating and drinking really good wine. Bruce is quite the chef and he even made some bacon while we were there and boy is it good. Have a bit in our freezer for future use as well. We were to see them again in a couple weeks in California for our Hui Reunion.
We spent one night at an RV spot in Vancouver, WA and drove the next day to Dallas, OR to have lunch with my old pal Brian. He's now the mayor of Dallas and probably a darn good one too. It was wonderful to see him again and we were just sad that we couldn't spend more time and see their beautifully remodeled home but his wife was ill. Next time, we did see photos.
We drove out to the coast to Lincoln City and stayed at a RV resort right near the Casino. We had planned to go down and see the place and even have dinner but Mike didn't feel well and I have a pinched nerve that makes it difficult to walk. So, like the old farts we are, we just stayed in and had tacos.
The weather is chilly and rainy at this point, but we did have quite a few sunny days on our way down the beautiful Oregon Coast. We spent one night at Seal Rock RV Park and actually went out for a walk on the beach and had a sunset. Beautiful. Enjoyed eating at Mo's for chowder twice. Stayed a night near Florence so the second Mo's was easily accomplished the next day. Drove out to a lighthouse, enjoyed crab at the Crab Shack in beautiful Bandon, stopped and got photos at Wendy's favorite beach, Heceta Head and Lighthouse. All in all the weather was not bad but it's cold.
We arrived in California, visited Trinity which is a lovely little place and had lunch there. We crossed over towards Redding just north of Eureka and stayed one night in Weaverville. The next day we were excited to get to Redding and In and Out Burger for lunch. Didn't happen.
About twenty miles West of Redding we were on our way down a fairly steep grade from a pass when we heard something from our truck hit the pavement and the engine quit immediately. Mike says "I can't steer....no brakes either!" Thankfully that wasn't the case but he really had to work at it to get us pulled over and stopped. Did I mention that we were on a curve? Anyway, turns out that the lower alternator (we have two) on the truck engine lost it's pulley and the serpentine belt came off and no engine. We were lucky to be parked in a fairly safe place but no phone service. We got help from a nice couple that stopped and used their phone to call AAA. Long story short, we finally got towed to a repair shop and since it was Sunday we just spent the night there on the street. Next morning the shop folks were very nice and got a new alternator ordered from Sacramento. It was to arrive at 2:30 and it would be a quick fix. Well, it came at 3:30 but we were out of there by 4:30 or so. Could have been way worse.
We checked into our RV spot and then drove to the local WalMart, Costco and, finally In and Out Burger. A day late and hundreds of dollars short. Exhausting day and it was so nice to get parked for the night.
We had planned on calling Mike's brother, Maynard, in northern CA and go visit for a night or two but with our truck troubles we weren't able to do as planned. Usually we don't have any set agenda but we had reservations to meet our old friends from when we first met in Hawaii at the Black Oak Casino in Tuolumne, CA. So we had to keep moving.
We were looking forward to seeing Karen who used to be our kitty's owner in Grass Valley. We had a super visit with her and two of her lady friends but especially with Aja's family members, Phoenix, her son, Miss Kiss, her granddaughter, and BC who is an ex-husband of sorts. Aja was invited to come in and hang out with them but mostly she didn't like them any more than they liked her. That's why she's ours because I think Karen would have kept her if she got along with the rest of the herd.
Next day Karen drove us on a tour through Grass Valley and Nevada City where we had a great lunch. It was a really good visit.
Next stop was only about forty minutes away in Applegate where our friends Tom and Celeste are now living. They moved last summer from Oceanside so this was our first visit to their new home. We really always enjoy them so much and this time was no exception. They even invited Aja in though they have two cats. We managed to keep them separated a bit and it went pretty well. We had a great visit which included wine tasting and buying, a trip to the dollar store and a Mountain Mike's Pizza. Their new home is lovely and in a country setting complete with deer and wild turkeys.
Our Hui reunion was next and we drove over ninety miles on curvy highway 49 in the pouring down rain. There was water everywhere. Not a fun drive. But we made it to the casino before dark and the fun began. Bruce and Jocelyn had flown down from Washington, Debbie had flown in the San Francisco from Florida where Emmy and Eric picked her up and we all converged as planned. It was a ton of fun seeing this bunch together again.
We had a very nice dinner at the fine dining restaurant, Seven Sisters, the first night. Next day was brunch with champagne and various afternoon activities. Jocelyn wanted to pan for gold so they went off to Sonora, Emmy and I watched the Seahawks get badly beaten, and were later joined by Debbie and Mike. We had a room for that one night and the party was there. We had photos and video of some of our wild times from fifteen years and we laughed until we hurt. Really fun. We had a very special time together way back then with lots of other people that we're not really in touch with any longer but they are not forgotten.
We'd planned to go to a hard cider place along with some of the group on our way down to stay at Mike's brother Roger's place, however we had a weird noise happening from the truck and instead spent a couple hours at a repair shop. They couldn't find what was making the noise but did find a very loose bolt on some front end thingie that has to do with steering. So it was good that got caught. Maybe our noise isn't serious....hope not. It's a sort of vibration. More to come on that unfortunately.
Made our way to Roger and Cheryl's house. It's always nice to visit there and I know Mike enjoys seeing his brother. They went out for coffee with another friend earlier and just now spent a few hours installing our solar panel permanently to our camper roof. We stayed a few days and then headed to Manteca for a funeral. An old friend of Mike's brother had died and we were glad to be there to see Greg and later visit at his home in Stockton.
We stayed the night right near the Stockton Sailing Club and then we met our friends Carol and Gerry who live a couple hours away, for lunch. Same friends who went to the trouble to visit us at Krysten’s on Thanksgiving! Troopers. They have gone out of their way several times to meet up with us in the last few years.
Then later that afternoon we made our way to Mike’s friend from long ago, Marty’s, and had a great time visiting and eating and wine tasting in nearby Lodi. We visited with Marty and his wife Terri a few years back so we were looking forward to their wonderful hospitality and conversation once again. Bought some more great wine to enjoy on our way.
We took two days to get close to the Los Angeles area at Castaic where Rachel was able to come visit us for the evening. We had a great time talking and catching up on what is going on in her world…..lots of fun stuff. Saw a beautiful sunset and went out for Sushi. Funny photo of her and Aja. Rachel was heading back to Seattle for Christmas in a day or so.
Meanwhile, we’re having this funny noise coming from the truck somewhere. Really getting us worried…..kind of a grinding vibration noise. We get to Apple Valley to Jay and Leah’s where we are now and it’s time to take care of things. Jay knows a mechanic that figures out at least where the problem is coming from so we need to unload the camper so he can work on the truck. They have a long flat driveway so this is the perfect place to do so. The problem with the truck seems to be in the drive train and/or rear end differential. We’ll know more tomorrow.
You may remember I mentioned back in Oregon that I had a pinched nerve? Well, Leah sent me to her Chiropractor and I think he’s doing me some good. I’ve been totally miserable with this painful pinched nerve and have gone to Urgent Care in Washington and to Emergency in California and now the Chiropractor since we left home. Can you hear me screaming in pain? It’s been terrible.
But we’re safe and being taken care of by dear family and eating ourselves into a coma so things could be way worse. Hopefully my back will get better, hopefully they can fix our truck sometime soon and hopefully the Seahawks will win tomorrow. Things in life can go way worse than this. We feel lucky to be here and are really enjoying spending time with Leah and Jay and their daughter Aneesa. Oh, the dog, Spaghetti, and the cat as well. Aja has not had the privilege of meeting either one. We’ll try to keep it that way.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY,
Love,
Gayle and Mike
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