Monday, March 16, 2015

I am still in the Santa Barbara area and am spending my time with Marge and Bill.  I moved Myrtle up into the hills to the east of Santa Barbara and am staying at Rancho Oso, which was originally a huge land grant from the Spanish king.  It is located in Las Padres National Forest, in the Santa Ynez recreational area.  The ranch is much smaller now, and has an RV area with full hookups, and cabins, covered wagons, and a teepee to rent.  They also have a couple of tent camp areas that are lovely.   There are large horse pastures where you can keep your horse or rent one of theirs.  For recreation there is every thing from a swimming pool and putt putt golf to trails to ride or walk.  Last year when I stayed here I camped next to a couple on motorcycles who were exploring back roads in the area and finding all kinds of interesting places.

Yesterday morning Susan and Rick (Marge's daughter and her husband) picked me up at Rancho Oso so that I could leave Myrtle and Livy camped while I drive Marge's car back and forth.  It is easier than moving Myrtle every day, and sure saves gas!

I took a couple of pictures yesterday from the RV area, which consists of sites on tiered steps up a good-sized hill.  Every site has a great view and each is a bit different.

Looking right down the hill from Myrtle's current site
you can see the tree we camped under last year.

You can see from the picture how green the area is.  The green is misleading.  The area is into the midst of a very long drought--can't remember if we are in the 7th or 8th year.  Santa Barbara had a massive rainstorm a few weeks ago--7 inches.  Consequently everything is growing madly, flowering and going to seed while it has enough moisture.  I'll take time to get some flower pictures in the next morning or two.  I get up there at night in the dark.

Even the most barren spots on the farther hills,
the results of past fires, are somewhat green.

I woke up this morning just as the sun was rising, pulled up the shade for the window over my bed, and saw a gorgeous sky.  I took a picture through the window screen because I was too sleepy to think of opening the screen.  Then went right back to sleep!

A bit strange, but you get the idea.  The silver shape
in the foreground is the Airstream-type trailer next door.

The weather here has been record breaking.  Saturday set a record at 88 degrees, and yesterday set a new record at 95 degrees.  This is the first time they have had so many days above 90 degrees so early in the year.

Marge is gradually getting healthier.  She is at the hairdresser's this morning having her hair done.  We'll see how tired she is when she gets back.  She is frustrated at her lack of "oomph!" The Encino Royale singers are doing a concert for the community St. Patrick's day celebration at 5 this evening.  Marge isn't sure she is going to be able to sing--we'll see how it goes.

That's the news.  I'm keeping my computer at Marge and Bill's because my signal is so weak at Rancho Oso.  I can talk on my phone up there only if I sit on my bed next to the window!  I'll talk at you all later!

Friday March 15, 2015

I am in Goleta at the home of Marge and Bill Livingstone.  Marge is my step mom, for those who don't know, and Bill is her wonderful husband. They live in a great retirement community centered around a golf course and club house with swimming pool.   I arrived in the early afternoon on Thursday, and got permission to park Myrtle on the community's street for the night.

Goleta is a little town on the western edge of Santa Barbara--remember that the coast goes east-west in this part of southern California.  I always have to remind myself that we're not north of Santa Barbara.

Marge is recovering from pneumonia slowly but surely.  She spent a couple of days in the hospital earlier this week and had a checkup with her doctor this morning.  She still doesn't feel great and tires easily, but is on the mend.

I took a couple of pictures this morning.  This first is Bill and Marge's patio overlooking the golf course.  They have a couple of new chairs that are very comfy.  But it is 85 degrees out there in the sun right now, so we're all indoors admiring the view.

Bill and Marge's condo looks across the golf course to the clubhouse.  The blur is my fingertip--sorry!  My connection here is so weak that it takes 6 minutes to upload each picture.  I'm not doing another shot!

I have a picture from yesterday of the RV park on the south end of King City (Cuidad del Rey, I think).  I stayed there Wednesday night and enjoyed the neighbors I met.  The town is south of Salinas in the Salinas Valley.  The valley is very green, so the small amounts of rain have done some good.  That's Myrtle's new bike rack on the right of the picture.  The morning had a high fog, so you can't get a glimpse of the surrounding mountains.

Finally, a picture of the park in Corning--Heritage Park--where I stayed Tuesday night.  We were having a light misty rain, so you are not seeing sunny California here either!

I will move Myrtle up into the hills above Santa Barbara this afternoon to spend 6 days camping at Rancho Oso.  I stayed there last year in April and it is a lovely spot with great views.  I think I may see wildflowers blooming, although I noticed that all of the azaleas down here in Goleta are done blooming so I might be too late!

Oh!  I told Gina last night about the unscheduled experiment on gas economy that I ran as I drove south.  I've been filling Myrtle's gas tank each morning.  Wednesday as I drove down I-5 from Corning I was averaging right around 67 mph.  I turned off I-5 at Santa Nella and stopped for lunch (great In n Out burger joint there!).  I checked to see what kind of gas milage I was getting--8.3 MPG!  So I slowed down for the rest of the day as I drove over Pacheco Pass and south down highway 101.  By the end of the day my MPG was up to 9.2.  So Thursday, as I continued down 101 I kept my speed at 57 or 58 mph.  When I arrived in Goleta my MPG was 11.3.  So increasing Myrtle's speed 10 miles per hour cost me 2 miles per gallon.  When I'm burning more than 30 gallons of gas a day that means I cover 60 miles less on that tank of gas!  No more hurry-up-and-get-there driving for me.

That's most of the news for today.  I'll catch up with all of you later.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

I fell down on the job last night.  After a couple of long days of driving I took the night off.  I sat and talked to neighbors in the RV park here in King City, met a cat who looks like Garfield and 4 dogs, had a pork chop and salad for dinner, read for an hour, and slept for about 9 hours!  My step-mom Marge is home after a few days in the hospital with pneumonia, so I am looking forward to arriving at her home in Goleta this afternoon.  I'll take some pictures here before I leave, and catch you all up this evening!

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Today was mostly driving, with a cloud-covered sky and somewhat gusty winds. I'm in Corning California tonight, which is about 15 miles south of Red Bluff (which is slightly south of Redding).  I'm staying at Heritage Park--not more than a few blocks off I-5, but very quiet anyway.  All sites are pull-throughs, and there are shade trees at both ends of each driveway.  I sent myself a picture from my cell phone, but it has not come through to my computer email yet.

Driving through southern Oregon in spring brought back a lot of memories of Easter trips down to visit Grandma and Grandpa Isakson.  I saw new lambs and calves in the fields and tree leaves just starting to open.  As I came south through northern California the leaves on the trees got bigger and bigger.  Still lots of trees in bloom too--almond and olive, I think.

It is currently (6pm) 71 degrees in Corning despite the overcast sky.  Wednesday is predicted to be cloudy and cooler, but Thursday and Friday should be sunny and 78 degrees.  I'm hoping that I will drive into that sun more quickly as I head south tomorrow.

Livy had a very good day today.  No vomiting, and only one session of announcing that it was time to stop NOW!  I was ready to stop for lunch so our schedules agreed.  

We both took a walk around and I ate lunch while talking to a couple who live on Vancouver Island and are traveling with a 5th-wheel.  This is their first RV trip, so they were surprised at their truck's complaints coming over the Siskiyou Summit.

I have a reservation in King City tomorrow night. I'm hoping for sun!  I'll get an early start tomorrow.  Talk to you all tomorrow.

Monday March 9, 2015

I'm trekking with Myrtle again.  My cat Olivia (Livy) and I are camping in my motorhome Myrtle on our way down to Santa Barbara to see family.  We spent yesterday afternoon and evening enjoying beautiful 73 degree weather in Vancouver Washington with friends Kathryn and Alan Murphy.  This morning Kathryn and I took a brisk walk with Foyle, their Search and Rescue Poodle.  Still beautiful sunshine, but very nippy!

Livy is now wearing a Thundershirt when we go anywhere in a motor vehicle.  She has decided that she has to throw up at the beginning of each driving day, so the Thundershirt (which is sort of like a body hug) is supposed to comfort her.  She does not have breakfast when we are going to drive. When we left home yesterday she threw up very halfheartedly.  This morning she climbed up on the table while I was cooking myself an egg, and demanded her breakfast.
When I told her no breakfast she stared me in the eye and immediately vomited on the table. This cat clearly understands English, and knows that no breakfast means we're going to drive today.  She muttered about having to go into the Thundershirt after my breakfast, but was fine the rest of the day.

We had a nice drive down through Oregon, stopping at every other rest area so that we can both get out and walk around. Tonight we're staying in Twin Rivers Vacation Park on the Umquah River to the west of Roseburg Oregon. 

I took this picture about 5:30 pm so the sun is dropping behind the coast mountain range, but it is a very quiet, pretty campground with lots of grassy space.  There are several great places to walk--along the river or through the Master Gardener's garden across the road leading into the campground.

Tomorrow I want to get an early start so that I spend tomorrow night in a campground near Corning California (south of Redding and Red Bluff).  I just got word that my step mom is in a Santa Barbara hospital with what sounds like a light case of pneumonia (if there is such a thing).  I plan to be in Santa Barbara by Thursday and with luck she may be home by then.  Wishes, prayers, and meditations are appreciated!

Monday September 8, '14

We had a wonderful couple of days on the south side of Mt. St. Helens.  We stayed at Lone Fir in the town of Cougar, across the road from a beautiful lake.  The campground is a nice RV resort with motel rooms, cabins, RV and tent sites, a pool, laundry facilities, and a cafe.  We just flaked out when we arrived Saturday afternoon.  We got the lawn chairs out, set up a little table, split a large bottle of great beer--Hefe (ginger, honey, and wheat)--and watched the recreating world pass by.  Boats of all varieties, and RVs of all varieties.  The resort holds the climbing register for people who plan to climb St Helens (climbers must go up the south face) so we got to check out some climbers too.

Sunday we spent the day seeing some of the interesting sites on the south side of the mountain.  We drove east and up in elevation and started at the Ape Caves, which are lave tubes formed when the hot lava ran down the mountain through a tube of cooling, solid lava.  You are required to be carrying lights and have a warm jacket.  The National Forest Service will loan you a Coleman lantern with a 2-hour propane tank.  And they give you a few strike-anywhere matches.

Cher and I had head lamps and a hand-cranked flashlight (thanks, Gina!) and we figured we were in great shape.  We started down the metal (see-through tread) stairs, which started out by dropping us down about 25 feet before we arrived at a ledge of stone.  We crossed the really uneven stone, turned on our headlamps, and started down the next section of stairs.  By the time we got to the bottom of the cave it was pretty dark!  We went downhill in the lava tube instead of uphill, because it was supposed to be the easier route.  Didn't take long before we were in total darkness!  We realized that two headlamps and a crank-up flashlight were not going to cut it!  Besides, despite the claims, the floor was very rough going and neither of us were prepared for that shoe-wise.  We stopped to take a bunch of pictures and headed back up-slope for the climb up to ground level.  We were both so glad we had seen some of the cave--and rather proud of ourselves!

Here we are emerging from Ape Cave.  Yes, we are proud of ourselves!  Notice Cher's new Dansko clogs--they did a good job!

A strange vein of some mineral that filled up a crack in a side wall.

This is looking straight up inside where it was very dark.  The tube has very interesting curves in the roof as though several flows of lava went through it.

From Ape Caves we continued east around the south side of St Helens to see an area that received lahar flows (2004 to 2008, I think) and stopped several times to look and take pictures.

You can see the deposited rock and ash through the vegetation.
Plant growth is slow but sure.  The area is very stark but very beautiful!

In this closer shot you can see the outflow plain and the browny-green
very low growing plant life it supports.

Our road passed a mostly dry river bed that had cut down through a series of layers of ash.  Here's a shot of that too!

You can see the exposed rock in the bed of the river.
And how young most of the trees are!

The layers of ash stand out pretty clearly.

We drove to the end of the road to see the overlook of Lava Canyon but were unable to get into the parking lot due to the jammed up parking of an RV and a van with a large bike rack.  We backed out, turned around in the parking lot's entrance, and headed back toward Lone Fir and home for the afternoon.

On the way "home" we stopped at the dam on Lake Merwin to take a look at the lake  and the dam.  Water is released by the dam into a channel where the water again drops through a set of turbines to generate electricity.

You can see the dam on the right side of the picture.

Today, Monday, we drove east and south from Cougar and followed the Wind River down a web of back roads to the little town of Carson in the scenic area of the Columbia River Gorge.  We drove east along the Washington side of the Columbia River to the area of Maryhill, where hiway 97 crosses the Columbia into Oregon.  We are staying at Peach Beach, which is a great RV camp in a Working peach orchard right on the banks of the river.  After dinner tonight we walked about 50 yards down a little slope to the river bank for  sunset and moonrise.

Moon rise, up the Columbia River.

Sunset looking down the Columbia.  The lights are the bridge across the river going south to Oregon.

Good night all!  We're off to Maryhill Museum and the Yakima Nation Cultural Center and RV park tomorrow!



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September 6, '14

Myrtle, Livy, and I am camping with my friend Cher down on the flanks of Mt. St. Helens.  We just spent two days on the north side, completely out of any internet or cell phone connection, so we are sitting in a parking lot next to I-5 to do a quick catch up before we head down to the south side of St. Helens for a few days.

We started the trip from my home in Duvall at about 9:30 am on Thursday and took some back highways down to catch I-5 in Tacoma.  By lunch we were at the hiway 504 turnoff.  After a quick lunch we headed up to our Kid Valley RV Camp to claim our reserved campsite, then drove up to the Johnson Observatory to see the results of the eruptions that began May 18, 1980.  We spent a couple of hours taking pictures, listening to ranger talks, and viewing the film about the eruption.  I noticed that the stream beds in the outflow plain below the caldera are deeper than they were 4 years ago, the last time I visited.

The calder from Johnson Observatory at 3 pm

The same view at 6 pm

The outflow plain where rocks, water, ash, and mud flowed out of the side of the mountain.

We could see a corner of Spirit Lake around to the north east, but only when the ranger pointed it out.  The floor of the lake is now 140 feet higher than it used to be.  the lake is half as deep and covers twice the area it covered before the eruption.

On Friday the 5th we drove part of the highway back toward Johnson Observatory and visited the visitor centers and overlooks.  We got some great views of the Toutle River valley and some interesting information about what happened and when.  We also did a little shopping--we were pretty restrained.

This looks down the Toutle River Valley.  The tree with the cones is a
 Noble Fir--thousands were planted within a few years following the eruption. 

Looking up the Toutle River Valley.  Over my shoulder you can see St Helens is
wearing a bit of thin cloud this morning.  Thanks for the picture, Cher!

A telephoto shot of the valley and mountain.  You can see that the river wanders all over the valley, changing channels frequently.

Friday night we ate dinner at Patty's Place, a great old log building in beautiful condition that is just a short walk from out RV park.  We sat on the back deck, looking out on the Toutle Valley at a bend in the river.  I only had my phone with me, so I'll have to email the picture to myself to get it into the blog--later.

Cher made her second full day of RVing with great delight.  She had we take a picture of her with her headlamp (flashlight that is attached to an elastic band around your head and sits in the middle of your forhead).  She is sending that picture to her folks, and I'm sure she won't let me have a copy--and I'm sure she'd kill me if I shared it!

As I said, today we are heading down I-5 to take hiway 503 to the south side of the mountain.  We will stay at Lone Fir RV Resort, where climbers register for the climb to the summit.  We will spend a couple of days exploring the Ape Cave lava tube and a lahar (mud-flow) overlook.  Then we are heading south down through the Cascades along Wind River to the Columbia River Gorge.  Hopefully we will be able to connect with the net again when we are out of the mountains.