May 7-11: Brite Lake

May 9, 2011
Brite Lake, Tehachapi, CA

I was going to call this post “We’ve never been up here before”, but we’ll probably be saying that numerous times over the course of this year’s travels.

Monday, we said “goodbye” to the Antelope Valley (no, we’ve never seen an antelope there) and left Lancaster.  Unlike the first portion of our trip, where we’ve visited places we’re familiar with, we started exploring new territory.  It was less than 60 miles of travel, but we were soon heading upwards in elevation to Tehachapi.  Our route took us north on CA-14 to the little town of Mojave, then east on CA-58.  All good roads and about 2,000 feet of elevation gain.

Brite Lake (their spelling, not mine) is a small man-made reservoir that’s part of the local water supply system.  It’s owned by the local water authority, which has seen fit to open it up for fishing (no swimming) and boating (electric motors only).  They’ve created a rustic campground with 18 RV spaces and 20+ tent spots.  We cheated a bit, having taken a ride up here last Sunday while we were parked in Lancaster to scope things out.  I wanted to make sure we’d be able to get in and out, as Google Earth can only tell us so much.

So far, so good, though.  We found a route that didn’t require us to go through Beautiful Downtown Tehachapi, and we were able to drive the 5 miles out of town to get here without any incidents.  Plus, a 50 Amp water/electric site is only $20 a night. Good deal!

We picked a site and realized that it wasn’t as level as it looked, so moved one site over.  After self-registering through Thursday, we deployed the dog pens and lawn chairs and settled in for a relaxing stay.  It didn’t take us too long to realize that we’d better stay another day because we have good satellite reception and most TV shows are nearing their season finales (isn’t that a crappy reason to arrange a travel schedule?).

We took a quick trip into town yesterday to hit the Albertson’s, but otherwise we’ve been relaxing.  I took a walk around the lake yesterday and was surprised to find it only 1.8 miles.  Today, I looped around and then back and got in my “normal” 3.5 miles.

There are quite a few birds here, from little starlings or wrens to ducks and geese to a pair of large hawks.  There’s even a crane that’s been hanging around for the past two days.  There are also quite a few ground squirrels living in dens all over the place.  We can tell that some of the campsites don’t get a huge amount of use by the way the vermin have taken over, with den entrances and exits strategically placed near the power pedestals and water spigots.

Yesterday, while I was walking, the crane flew up from the lake and landed in the grass near a squirrel den.  It was funny to see their standoff for a few minutes.  I’m not sure which one was more surprised.  I couldn’t get closer without disturbing them, so I just continued on.

Somewhere over the years, the facility had a woodcarver-in-residence.  There are wooden sculptures all over the property, ranging from totems by the entrance to the Park to pieces that match the names of each “street” (like “Coyote Run” and “Squirrel Lane”).  The “art” near the dump station is especially amusing.  We have some pictures but will get more at a better time of day before we leave.

Overall, we like it here.  Being about 4,500 feet in elevation, it’s been cooler than Lancaster/California City to the east or Bakersfield to the west.  We’ll continue to enjoy this area for the rest of the week, as we’re heading toward Sacramento on Saturday.

May 4-6: Visiting Geri’s sister and nephew

May 6, 2012
Lancaster and California City, California

The next stop on our trip was to see Geri’s sister, Kathy, and nephew, Rick.  Last fall, Rick arranged to move Kathy from Lompoc to California City so she could be closer and he could oversee her care more effectively.  Kathy’s been in a care facility for several years due to Alzheimer’s, and she requires round-the-clock monitoring.  Suffice it to say that she continues to slowly deteriorate from this awful disease.

Having done some research, we knew that our options for a good RV Park in/near California City were limited.  OK; that’s being charitable.  There isn’t a good option.  Accordingly, we decided to stay a little farther away in Lancaster.  We’ve been to the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds before for rallies (actually, that’s where we met Wayne & Eva back in 2006), and we knew there was an on-site RV Park.

We left Indio mid-morning on Friday and were parked in Lancaster around 2:00 PM.  Since it was generally all uphill into a strong wind, we got awful fuel economy, but it was only a short leg of the journey.  We even had a chance to see the “super moon” rise over the campground.  I did have a small scare as we got ready to self-register: I couldn’t remember if I’d packed the checkbooks (no credit cards allowed here).  Fortunately, they were right where they were supposed to be.

Having passed both a Costco and a Super Wally on the way up CA-14, right before we got off for the Fairgrounds, we decided that it was a good time to clean up the grocery list.  We didn’t need a lot, but the Costco Rotisserie Chicken and Mashed Potatoes came in handy for dinner on Friday and Sunday.

We’ve been using an iOS/Android app called “GroceryIQ”, and it’s actually working out well.  Each of us can update the list from our PCs, iPads, or phones and the app uses cloud storage to make updates appear everywhere.  I use it on the phone to check things off as we shop.  It doesn’t keep us from buying things not on the list (neither did a paper list), but at least we’ve stopped forgetting to bring the list when we go to the store.

Saturday, we headed up to California City.  We found Kathy’s care facility and were a little surprised that it was a single-family house.  Yep; she’s the only “patient” cared for by a long-time nurse in her own home.  Kathy got really excited when we came in, and again when Rick arrived.  Unfortunately “excited” does not necessarily mean coherent, but it was great that she knows people.  We brought more old pictures on the iPad, and she was intrigued by those.

After a visit, I headed back to Lancaster to pick up the pups and Geri and Rick took Kathy to Rick’s house.  He put on a nice barbecue (chicken and tri-tip) and we had a good visit with his family (Loretta, Ricky and Crystal).  Kathy got agitated after a while, but they had calming medication on hand and it soon passed.  Rick took her back to the care facility at the same time we were heading out for the 45 minute drive back to Lancaster.

Near the Fairgrounds where we were parked in Lancaster, I found a “Musical Road”.  OK, I missed the turn toward the Park and saw the Musical Road before I could make a U-turn.  It’s an interesting little stretch of highway where one lane has hundreds of grooves cut across it.  Apparently, by adjusting the width, depth, or inter-groove spacing, different sounds can be created given a constant speed (55 MPH was the speed limit).  The length of each note is fashioned by the number of grooves in a “tone”.  It’s similar in concept to the “rumble strips” found along many highways these days to alert drivers that they’re out of their lane, except with a touch more creativity attached.  I remember seeing something like this in a car commercial once, but didn’t realize we’d find one so close to a stop-over.

We managed to drive over it a couple of times while we were in Lancaster, just for grins.  On Sunday, I took a walk over to it on one of my “exercise jaunts” (about 3.5 miles, round trip), and took a few pictures.  I tried getting a video of a car passing, but the sound was too muffled.  We did another pass in the Rover, but the sound is kind of faint there as well.

Since we’ve become the masters of travel flexibility, we decided to stay in Lancaster another night.  This gave us all day Sunday to catch up on bills and emails, and I started composing for the Blog.  I have an app on the iPad that should help with that, and it’ll be easier once I have an easy way to get pictures from the phone to the iPad (can you say iPhone 5 anyone?).  In the meantime, I’m regretting the purchase of the iMac back in November.  Not regretting having a Mac, mind you; just thinking I should have gotten the Macbook Pro that I’ll probably end up with once the next versions of those are released.  I love the iMac, but a 27” monitor/all-in-one is a bit of a stretch for the close quarters in the coach.  I rigged up a prototype of a desk-like setup that’s working OK so far, so all’s right with the world...

April 30-May 3: Great visit with friends in Indio

May 4, 2012

Indio, CA

We left Arizona on schedule Monday morning, right around 10:30 AM.  It was a beautiful day for a drive, other than being on the warm side in the mid-to-upper-90s.  We put the generator and roof air conditioners on well before we left, and we were quite comfortable all the way.

Since we’re headed to visit Geri’s sister up in California City, we made our first stop in Indio, California, to visit with friends there.  Wayne and Eva are always wonderful hosts and team up with their next-door neighbors, Will and Diane, to make us feel right at home.  We arrived around 4:00 PM and were soon parked and relaxing in style.

We teamed up to share the dinner duties: Eva made a great Beef Stew on Monday, we made Rack of Lamb with Mushroom Risotto on Tuesday, and Diane did Chicken Kabobs with Grilled Vegetables on Wednesday.  Wayne arranged for a special treat on Wednesday, getting some neat baked goods from a local purveyor for dessert.

 

Eva was under the weather on Tuesday and we needed a bit of extra time to plan our next moves, so we ended up staying an extra day through Thursday.  Since we were all cooked out, we simply went to the local “Burgers and Beer” sports bar for a quick dinner.

Wayne and Eva introduced Geri to the fruit smoothies they’ve been having for breakfast for a while now, and we’re now converts.  That’s one way to get me to eat bananas, I suppose (I can tolerate the flavor but not the texture).

All in all, it was another great visit.  Since our routes may cross later in the summer, we may have a chance to catch up when we cruise south along the Oregon Coast.

March-April, 2012: Winding up the winter stay

April 29, 2012

Peoria, AZ

So, where did the time go?  Who knows?  Since this happens to us every spring, I don’t worry about it much anymore.  The bottom line is that the Blog suffers from a lack of content (and attention) when we’re parked for the winter.  Life is much more worthy of comment when we’re on the road, it seems.

It’s definitely turned warmer over the past month.  We had our first 90° day on March 24th, and then a burst of 100°+ days in mid-April.  Whew!  Time to get on the road!

So, the last few weeks have been all about winding up our winter stay.  We’ve been eating off the freezer contents for a while now, knowing we’ll have much less space in the coach for bulk purchases.  We’ve been bringing quite a bit of the clothes and pantry items over to the storage area and have over half of the loading done early (with very few “why did we put that in the coach too soon” moments).  I managed to get the majority of the maintenance on the coach done: oil/oil filter/fuel filter changes for the engine and generator, furnace maintenance.  I’ve had it over to the house the past couple of days and managed to sanitize the water system, change all the water filters, and wash the exterior.

Now, we’re just about ready to hit the road.  We’re a little disappointed we won’t be seeing all the family and friends “back east” this summer, but we’re going to save some of the diesel fund and stay on the west coast.  We’ll end up in Vancouver and the Okanagan in British Columbia, and then head back down the coast, exploring some new areas and stopping at some of our favorites as well.

Back to “normal”, whatever that is...

March 11, 2012

Peoria, AZ

Late in the day yesterday, things turned windy.  Coupled with a brush fire about 45 miles away, we were treated to an interesting sky.  Nothing like the haboobs of the summer monsoon season, but interesting nonetheless.

Later in the week, things settled back into a “normal” groove.  Being retirees, we hit the grocery stores on Wednesday (first Wednesday of the month) to take advantage of the 10% “senior discount”.  We did pretty well for amateurs at this whole “thrifty” thing, once again making the freezer an exercise in the art of vacuum sealing and precise packing.  If we were more into the whole meal planning thing, we’d probably be able to shop once a month and save even more, but where’s the fun in that?

We do miss having the auxiliary freezer out in the garage.  It bit the dust over the summer, failing to cool at all when plugged in in November.  It went the way of all good things when the City had its “bulky waste pickup” in February.  We’ve held off on a replacement since we’ve made it this far through our visit here, but we’ll probably pull the trigger on a small standalone freezer as soon as we get back in the fall.

Thursday I baked bread and Friday, well, I baked bread.  The former was a bread machine batch and the latter a large amount of ciabatta.  I put up the ciabatta starter last week, so it was ready to go.  It takes pretty much all day to create ciabatta with the initial mixing, first and second rises, and eventually the baking, but it’s well worth it.  The dough recipe is enough for two large loaves and about a dozen rolls.  Mmmm...

Friday was also “test kitchen day”.  I tried a new recipe for Lamb Bolognese, plus took a shot at making fresh pasta from scratch.  The sauce came out reasonably well, although we’ll probably doctor it up a bit the next time around, adding more tomato product and less of a “pinch” of pepper flakes.  The pasta required a little experimentation to get the semolina-all purpose ratio right, adjust for the dry climate here, and get the kneading down.  I’m a little worried about the Kitchen-Aid mixer, since it didn’t knead well, but I gotta say that the pasta roller is the bomb!  I made some tagliatelle, linguine, and fettuccine.  Some needed to be rolled thinner, but the pups didn’t seem to mind.

Yesterday was Geri’s turn in the kitchen.  Yes, we have enough experience to know that our kitchen is only large enough for one cook at a time.  It’s not that we bother each other; it’s just designed for one.  I spent the afternoon over at the coach, puttering around a bit and fine-tuning my list of “things to do before we hit the road”.

Anyway, she made a recipe she found online (as opposed to TV’s Food Network or Cooking Channel for a change) for Taco Pizza.  We have several recipes that substitute “Mexican” ingredients in traditional formats (Lasagna, Shepard’s Pie), and this was no different.  In reviewing it later, we concluded that it was designed for rookie cooks, though, substituting store-bought rolls flattened out in place of real pizza dough.  Since she’s the queen of homemade pizza, we’ll try it again with “real” dough.  It did go quite nicely with a pitcher of “George-a-ritas”, though.

Today, we relaxed for the most part, enjoying another beautiful day in the desert.  We slept in (actually even the pups slept late), Geri made me a fantastic Sunday Brunch this morning, enough to hold us through the whole day.  Some time in the study, a little napski on the patio in the afternoon, good selections from iTunes through the speakers all day; what more could you ask for?

Bicycles and Baseball

March 6, 2012

Camelback Ranch, Glendale, AZ

Does it get any better?

Now that “winter” (well, meteorological winter, according to the TV weather people) is over, the return to nice temperatures means we can get the bikes out and ride around a bit.  We can’t really complain much at all, since this year’s La Niña weather pattern has meant a mild and dry winter -- as opposed to last year’s cold!

I’ve tried to maintain a one hour ride three times a week pace, although it doesn’t always happen.  Geri needs to work up to a sensible schedule for her.  And, every once in a while, we’ll plunk the pups into the baskets and take them for a ride as well.  They aren’t particularly comfortable there, and we’ve added small leashes that keep them attached to the basket, but I’m still afraid they’ll try to jump out, especially if we happen upon another pup on a walk.  But, they seem none the worse for wear after short rides.

Today, we took in a spring training “Cactus League” game.  It was good to do this again after a couple of years away from the month-long “season”.  There are several new stadiums in the area, and the whole league has consolidated into the Valley of the Sun around Phoenix (the Diamondbacks used to train near Tucson).  We’ve been to our local park here in Peoria a few times over the years but this year we decided to branch out.

Using StubHub, I was able to pick up some pretty nice seats at Camelback Ranch in Glendale.  This new park (opened in 2010, I think) is about as far away from home as the Peoria park, just in the other direction.  Actually, we drive right by it every time we go to the Vet over in Litchfield Park.  It’s the Spring Training home of the White Sox and the Dodgers.  All of the parks are shared facilities between two teams, generally one from each League (American and National).

I chose a Dodgers game because they were playing the San Francisco Giants.  Not that we’re huge fans of either team (I’ve never forgiven the Dodgers for abandoning Brooklyn, and I was only 2 at the time), but Shawn Sanford, grandson of our friends Barbara & Jim, was invited to Spring Training.  We didn’t get to see him pitch, but we did see him after the game, which the Giants won.  This was a good thing, I suppose, since we were seated in the Giants rooting section, right behind the visitor’s dugout.

Spring Training brings the fourth of the big waves of snowbirds to the Phoenix area.  The first wave (which I suppose we’re part of) arrives as soon as it gets chilly “back home”.  This is usually in early November.  The second and third waves follow the Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years holidays, respectively, for people who can take a little cold but want to be “home for the holidays”.  During January and February, you can tell the percentage of out-of-state plates has increased.  In March, there’s another bump in the population, and you notice more license plate frames and stickers on cars with team logos.  In early April, there’s a big exodus, as the baseball crowd usually only comes for the month, often following their team around the valley and going to most every game.  I have no idea how they can afford this, since prices rival big-league parks.  By late April, only the locals are left.  At least I think that’s the case, because we’re usually gone by then, too.

It’s all about the women...

March 2, 2012

Peoria, AZ

Nothing wrong with that!  The past few weeks have been about Geri and Maya Lynn.  Geri’s great and Maya’s better -- now.

To begin with, we celebrated our anniversary and Geri’s birthday on the 16th and 17th, respectively.  It was relatively low-key this year, especially since her key present (deferred all the way from Christmas, for crying out loud) -- a new recliner -- has finally been selected but is being built and won’t be here until late-March.  I can sense a whole living room do-over in my future at some point, but that’s OK...

Anyway, we did a little birthday lunch at Olive Garden and were invited for a nice dinner at Ana & Larry’s, so we did get a little celebrating in.  A bouquet arrived from Connecticut, and all was well with the world.

No sooner was the celebrating over than our attention turned to Maya Lynn, our 8-year old Silkie Terrier.  She had a tumor in her right rear flank, and it had to come out as the biopsy showed evidence of Stage 2 MAST Cell activity.  It started out about 1cm in size, but a round of steroidal treatment shrunk it to about half the initial size.  Surgery was scheduled for February 20th, as soon as she finished with the Prednisolone (easier metabolized form of Prednisone) treatment.

As is common in veterinary medicine, once they have you “in the shop”, anything on the “watch list” is fair game.  In Maya's case, she had a couple of skin cysts that needed to be frozen off and hadn’t ever had a “dental” under anesthesia, so she was in for a full day.  We dropped her off at 7:30 AM (aka “oh-dark-thirty” for those of us who aren’t early risers).

We went to pick her up around 4:00 PM, with some degree of trepidation.  Geri remembers well how weak and wobbly she was after she came home from being “fixed” at six months.  Of course, that story always seems to involve references to me being away on a business trip at the time...

Anyway, you wouldn’t have known she had surgery when we picked her up.  She was wide awake and pulling on the leash to get to us, and then get to the door.  They said she did well except for fighting the anesthesia like a trouper.  In addition to the planned procedures, she ended up having a few loose teeth removed.  All in all, everything looked OK, pending pathology reports.

We got her meds (antibiotic and pain) and headed for home.  The first few days were a bit of a struggle, since she needed to leave the incision areas alone of course.  She didn’t take well to the “cone of shame”, just sitting in one place and crying at length.  She also didn’t take well to the combination of the meds, making night time not sleep time - for anyone.  If Maya’s up, everyone’s up!

After a couple of days (and sleepless nights), things settled down.  We went back this week to have stitches and staples removed (actually twice, since they missed a staple the first time), and she’s healed up well.  We’ll give it another week or so before getting her to the groomer, but otherwise she’s good to go!