Road Wagon Trip 2010

Off Again

2011-04-16T23:47:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready for another trip. We enjoyed a drink with Harvey tonight before getting ready to leave.

Home Again

2010-02-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

For all of those who followed the blog, thanks it was great fun knowing people were watching. We are home! Arrived home Saturday night. It was a wonderful trip but it really nice being back home. Have printed a few pictures and they are really fun.

On the road again

2010-02-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

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We found a great auto mechanic in Carmel and he fixed the van up with a new distributor and it is running great so far. We are both ready to be back on the boat so heading north directly. Had a nice time in Monterey while waiting for the van. Got a great picture there. We went to Capitola yesterday south of Santa Cruz and camped. It is a cute little seaside town.
See you all soon.

The Adventure Continues

2010-02-01T20:29:00.001-08:00

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First let me correct the last blog. I said we went through the oil fields in Modesto but I meant Maricopa. We spent last night in Cambria and today headed up Hwy 1 north. We were doing just fine and were about 40 miles south of Big Sur when the truck started having problems. It was going along fine and then it just died. Now here is where Jimmy and my idea of adventure takes a divergent path. When we are on Hwy 1 south and north of nowhere and there is no cell phone service for miles and it is all hills around us and the truck is dead some how my sense of "Adventure" and Jimmy's takes a different path. While my sweet, patient, never riled husband takes it all in stride I am very not a happy camper. As our friend Denny says "It all works out" We were able to nurse the truck to the Big Sur campground where they had a payphone. We called AAA and after a few hours they came and towed us to Carmel. We rented a car and found a nice hotel in Seaside, CA to stay in. On a bright side lucky it didn't happen yesterday when we were in the mountains and we never would have made it to a payphone. So other than spending a little extra money all is well. Not sure how long it will take to fix the truck. Jimmy and the garage guy think it might be the distributor.
We did stop and see the elephant seals before the van quit working and if you check out the pictures you can see some great pictures and movies of them. If you have never seen them it is an amazing site. Hundreds of them on the beach with newborn babies. They are only here in the winter when the breed and have their babies. The males weigh up to 5000 lbs!

Lake Casita to Cambria

2010-01-31T20:08:00.000-08:00

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We spent last night at a beautiful place called Lake Casitias Recreation Area. We had a nice campsite on the creek. This morning we decided to take Hwy 33 from Ojai (east of Santa Barbara) to Modesto. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains. Since the road was very narrow and curvy and in some places icy, Jimmy didn't want to stop much so most of the pictures you will see are shot while the car was moving. We ended up in Modesto and after driving through all the oil rig farms we took Hwy 46 up through the wine country near Paso Robles and into Cambria. That drive was just beautiful! Again a lot of pictures shot from window while moving but it was so pretty they came out nice anyway. Tonight we are in a hotel in Cambria a super cute town a few miles from Hearst Castle. Weather has been great but rain in the forecast.

Ocean Mesa

2010-01-29T18:49:00.000-08:00

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We spent three nights at wonderful Ocean Mesa Campground just next to El Capitan Canyon. El Capitan offers cabins and safari tents you can rent and has a small store and restaurant. It is a wonderful place with a creek and trees right across from the ocean. They opened the Ocean Mesa campground right next store a few years ago. It is a first class campground with pool and hot tub, great showers and beautiful views of the ocean.
We rode our bikes to the state parks around here, El Capitan and El Refugio. The ride to El Refugio was very hilly. On the way back we tried to take a shortcut along the beach but the road had been washed out and we had to turn around and ride the hills back. We did see a stretch of beach that had about 300 pelicans on it. I tried to take a picture but the sun was in the wrong place. Look close at the pictures and you can see what looks to be a bunch of rocks that is really many pelicans.
Yesterday we had almost the whole campground to ourselves. Only one other person was camped here. They left later and we had the whole place. It was like having our own private pool and hot tub.
Also check out the picture of Jimmy up in the tree picking avocados. They manager here said to help ourselves. I was a bit worried he might fall out.
Not sure where we are headed tomorrow. We will be sad to leave but a few more people have checked in it being Friday.
Hugs to all

Joshua Tree

2010-01-27T22:11:00.000-08:00

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We left Sedona and headed towards Palm Springs. We were going to spend the night in a hotel in La Quinta about 25 miles from Palm Springs where our friends are buying a winter home but it was the Bob Hope Classic and all the hotels were full. We found a RV park a few miles west of there and spent the night for $23.00. In the morning we headed to Joshua Tree. We stayed there last year and were thinking maybe we didn't want to go back since we had such a great time last year not sure we could top it. We were wrong. We got our same campsite (the best we think in the park) and had no neighbors around us. It had snowed last week so there was a bit of snow on the ground and the sky was perfect blue. We had an amazing time. We stayed two nights and took a couple of short hikes. It rained last night just as Jimmy's campfire was done.
This morning we left and headed to a campground north of Santa Barbara.
Be sure and check out the Joshua Tree pictures. The one below is one of my favorites.

Snow in Sedona

2010-01-23T21:08:00.000-08:00

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Well it finally cleared up a little today so Jimmy and I could take a drive and I got some nice pictures of the rocks with snow on them. It was so beautiful out. The rocks looked like they were sprinkled with powdered sugar. It snowed and rained on and off most of the day but tomorrow is as Jimmy says "a weather window" so we will head west. Not sure where we are headed. If the weather looks like it will hold we may try to get to Joshua Tree for a few days.
Click on the link above. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

State Of Emergency

2010-01-22T14:35:00.000-08:00

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Got a few pictures from the car.
Not sure how we went from sunny skies and girls in bathing suits playing volley ball to having everywhere we go declared a "state of emergency." We are stuck in Sedona right now where it is snowing like crazy. Three counties in CA and all of Arizona has been declared a state of emergency. We are trying to decide where to go next. I am thinking home might be next.

Rain Everywhere

2010-01-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

It is just like home wherever we go. Maybe we should have just stayed there????????? We left San Diego before the second storm hit and headed east. We spent a very rainy night in a hotel in Yuma, AZ. The forecast was for crummy weather everywhere around us so we decided to at least go somewhere pretty and wait out the storm. We are in Sedona, AZ now. Rainy and windy forecast for all day. We went to an information center to check on where to camp or hotel and the guy offered us a free room and $50.00 dinner certificate if we went to a timeshare presentation today. Since we don't have anything else to do we said sure. We have a very large nice room with sitting area and full kitchen. Jimmy just went to see how much it would cost to stay here until Sunday, since the weather won't be better till then. We are going to be able to stay here for three more nights for $74.00 a night. Not bad for such a nice place. We are headed out to the timeshare presentation right now. Will post later.

Rain in San Diego

2010-01-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

What happened to paradise??? Just when I was getting cocky about the weather we got a huge rain storm with a ton of wind. Felt just like home. They got almost an inch of rain in about three hours. Jimmy and I had decided to stay in San Diego one more day so we took the bus downtown and then out to La Jolla. We had a great time but were heading towards the bus stop when we just missed the bus, We thought, lets just grab one going the other direction it has to turn around and come back. Big mistake. The bus went a long way before we decided we better get off and go in the right direction. By then we were both dripping wet. By the time we caught the right bus I had to go the bathroom so bad I made Jimmy get off at the VA hospital stop so I could use the bathroom. That of course meant waiting in the rain again for the next bus. We finally got back to the campground soaking wet. My cold is not very happy now! We had left the hatch open by accident in the van so the floor was wet. Jimmy couldn't have a campfire since the ground was so wet. We consoled ourselves by having a pizza delivered and doing the laundry so we had dry clothes. Another storm is due tonight and the next few day are suppose to be the same. We are going to try and head east tomorrow.
Miss everybody!

Sunny San Diego

2010-01-17T16:53:00.000-08:00

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Imagine sunny skies, girls in bikinis playing volleyball, surfers, children swimming, and people sailing in t-shirts and shorts. Yes it is still January but here in San Diego it all looks a lot like summer. I am still nursing a chest cold but some how it seems better when its sunny. We have been doing a lot of biking and exploring both on our bikes and riding the bus and trolley cars. We have been to Balboa Park, Old Town, Downtown, the beach, Coronado Island and all around Campland where we are staying. We biked to the municipal golf course yesterday and hit a bucket of golf balls. Weill Jimmy hit them I just whacked at the ground mostly. I hadn't seen him play golf but he is pretty good at hitting the ball a long ways. Today the San Diego Chargers played the New York Jets and almost everyone here is a Charger fan and watching the game.
Alas our good time here is coming to an end. We now have a neighbor camped right next store and it is suppose to rain tonight. We will pack up and head east somewhere tomorrow. Not sure where we will end up.
Click on the link above for pictures of San Diego.

San Diego

2010-01-14T21:23:00.000-08:00

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We pulled into San Diego on Wednesday. The campground we had planned to go turned out to be way to far from town and the hotel we found that was suppose to be brand new looked pretty bad. Jimmy asked me what I wanted to do next and having a horrible chest cold and not caring too much about anything else except sleeping I said maybe we should just skip San Diego and head east. Jimmy suggested going over more by the water and we accidentally stumbled into a great campground called Campland. It is a RV park but has very nice spots and we are lucky enough to not have anyone next to, behind, or in front of us so it is pretty private. They have nice clean bathrooms and showers, a pool, hot tub, laundry, store and restaurant. It is close enough we can ride our bikes to other stores and restaurants. Today we took the bus to the Old Town and then after caught the trolley to downtown. We rode the ferry to Coronado Island to see the Del Hotel. Jimmy booked us in here until Monday and it is really nice to not have to move around for a few days. There are a few good pictures of Old Town on the link as well as some pictures of the waterfront. Jimmy is out talking to neighbors now and I am heading to bed to try and get rid of this cold.

Back in Power

2010-01-13T18:03:00.000-08:00

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We moved to another campsite at Carpenteria and it did not have power. We enjoyed Jimmy's birthday by riding our bikes around town and then having a great inexpensive Mexican dinner that some nice people we met, Jenny and Dennis, told us about. The site in Carpenteria was beautiful, right on the beach but the bathrooms were old and dirty.
We left the next morning and drove to Dana Point where we stayed at a very nice campground but again no power. California has some great campgrounds but they have been neglected and you end up paying a lot of money ($60.00 at Dana Point) for a campsite with no power. We rode our bikes around Dana Point and then had dinner in the van. I am fighting a bad chest cold so didn't hang out long with Jimmy at his campfire. I did get some nice pictures of sunsets and also some ships in Dana Point.

Rancho Oso

2010-01-13T17:49:00.001-08:00

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I haven't updated the blog in awhile because we have been without campsite power. We left Pismo Beach and went to a Thousand Trails campsite we had made reservations at. It was called Rancho Oso and it was north of Santa Barbara in the mountains near a town called Solvang. We did not know at the time we booked it but it was a horse ranch. It is in the hills and very beautiful there. We had power but no internet or cell service so we couldn't update the blog. Check out the picture of the huge pig we saw there.

2010-01-08T16:42:00.000-08:00

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We spent another night in a campground near Oceano right outside Pismo Beach. We rode our bikes into downtown Pismo Beach today and to the pier. I got some great pictures of a pelican. At first I thought he was not real he was so big. Be sure and click on the link to look at pictures of him. We had lunch at a place that was suppose to have the best clam chowder in the state. It was very good. We then rode to some outlet stores nearby town because, and let me apologize to all of you before saying, I was too hot! I had worn a long sleeve shirt and it was roasting. I know it is pretty cruel considering Seattle weather. The average temperature annually here is 70! Maybe we should stay here? Jimmy never even complained about a long bike ride, especially going up hill when his bike wouldn't shift. You can see a picture of him in the water with shorts on.
The Monarch butterflies are in town from Nov-February and we stopped and saw thousands of them in the Eucalyptus trees in the state park. We will head south tomorrow for a campground SE of Solvang. Miss all of you. We keep looking in the rear view mirror in case of any of our friends are there but so far no luck!

Santa Cruz to Pismo Beach

2010-01-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

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The link above will take you to the very amateur movie I took with my camera of the elephant seal coming up on the beach. Look for the album with the elephant seal on the front titled movie and double click on it. It should open up for a short clip before I got stupid. The first part is worth seeing anyway. They are very cool to watch. There were thousands of them on the beach.

Tonight we are in a campground just south of Pismo Beach.

Salsalito

2010-01-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

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Picture link above.

Jimmy and I decided to stay an extra day at the San Fran RV park since it was so nice. We meant some great people in the RV across from us, Terry and Ray, from Australia traveling across America. They were headed to SF the next day so the four of us shared a cab to the BART station and rode into the city together. They headed off to explore the wharf and we headed on the ferry to Salsalito.. We wandered around town and had a nice lunch then headed back to the ferry. This picture is of me saying hi to "Diamond" the dachshund just before the guy asked me if I wanted to hold her. I politely said no but he threw her in my arms where she immediately started growling. I was a bit worried but he assured me she wouldn't bite. A second later Diamond barred her teeth and went for my hand. Just in time I pulled it away and threw the dog back at him. Between dogs and seagulls I clearly need to be more careful .

San Francisco

2010-01-03T22:06:00.000-08:00

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Happy Christmas to us. We gave ourselves a late Christmas present by staying in Berkeley, CA at the Carleton Hotel. We mistakenly thought they would have a shuttle to the Bart station but not so lucky. It is a beautiful old building full of charm and character and with a great pool and spa. We took a $7.00 cab ride to BART and rode into Powell street in San Francisco. We sat outside and had coffee at Union square. It was a warm sunny day and we rode the cable car to Nob Hill, Lombard St, and Chinatown. We bought shrimp cocktails at Fisherman's Terminal. We were walking across the street with the food to eat when I was attacked by a very hungry seagull that managed to take half my cocktail and the sauce that went with it before I even knew what happened. We took the tour bus across the Golden Gate Bridge and back then toured Persidio. I had hoped to find the apartment where I lived when I was 12 but we couldn't find it. Most likely it is not there anymore. . We met up with our friends Joe and Valerie for a few minutes but Joe wasn't feeling too well so they gave us a ride from West Oakland back to the hotel. We hope to catch them on our trip home. Not sure where we are headed tomorrow. Be sure and click on the link for pictures.

New Years Eve

2010-01-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

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Happy New Year everyone! If you click on the link above it should take you to the picture gallery. Click on the album called Humbug Mountain when you get there and you can see some of the pictures from the campground.We left Lincoln City heading south to Brooking, Oregon. It was really windy and Jimmy was having a hard time keeping the van straight on the road. We stopped at an information center in Pt. Orford and I could barely get out of the van. The man in the information center told us they had gust of 85mph. He also said to be careful because the next stretch of road was very dangerous for winds. We started off but Jimmy looked a bit worried and he always say "You worry when I worry" so I did. We spotted a cute pretty empty campground a few miles later and Jimmy said "prudent seamanship is any port in storm" so Oh Humbug State Park it was. Turned out to be a good spot but it blew so hard all night with blinding rain we didn't go far. We tried to walk down to the ocean to watch the waves but when we got even close the sand was blowing so hard into our eyes and face we had to go back.
New Years Day we headed south on Hwy 101. The weather is much better. Little drizzle and light winds. Tonight we are in the RV Park that is where theBenbow Inn we stayed at a year ago is. We may stay at the Inn tomorrow depending on the weather.

First Night Out

2009-12-30T17:44:00.000-08:00

We are spending our first night out in the first RV Park we have ever stayed in. We are at the Premier RV Site in Lincoln City. The sites are paved and very nice and the facilities are clean and very nice. It is a great spot for an overnight stay or a place to stay while exploring the town. If I hadn't already made reservations at Brookings for tomorrow we would stay here another day. Hope everyone has a Wonderful New Year!!

On our Way

2009-12-30T10:02:00.000-08:00

Up early, finished last minute packing and on the road at 8:30 a.m. Said goodbye to our good friends at Lockhaven and headed out. First stop will be in Cannon Beach where we will have a visit with our friends Sam and Kris. This year we are going to try something a little different. Last time we had to be in Florida for the space shuttle launch so we were on a tight time frame. This time we are hoping to stay in places for at least a week at a time if we like it wherever we are.
Stay tuned.....

From Road Wagon Trip 2010

Road Wagon Trip 2010

2009-12-29T15:05:00.001-08:00

Van getting last minute check up and we should be on the way tomorrow hopefully. I have added a weather gadget on this blog page. If you go to it and edit the city we are in at the time you will be able to see the weather there. For some reason it defaults to New York and no we are not going there. At least not till winter is over unless I can convince Jimmy to get on the train:)

We are home

2009-04-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone following the blog. We are home! We put 14,738 miles on the van in a little less than four months ( that is almost halfway around the earth if you do the math). Sitting in a little restaurant in Bakerfield, CA we both looked at each other and at the same time said "Are you ready to head home, I am." We were both missing the boat and the water. We had a amazing, wonderful trip with lots of adventures. Now we will fix a few mechanical things on the truck and hopefully get it painted sometime soon. We will start boat projects and plan on taking a few week long trips in the boat. We will also camp a bit again in the van this summer or early fall. Thanks everyone who shared in the adventures with us.

Sick Van

2009-04-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

We drove from Parker, AZ to Lake Havasu, AZ. It was a long hilly drive and the van was not acting the way Jimmy thought it should be. He decided we should stop in Lake Havasu to see if we could get it fixed. It turns out when we had the problem with the distributor in Orlando they fixed it incorrectly so we have had problems ever since. We found a great guy who works on these things in Lake Havasu and he is keeping it for a few days and we are staying in a hotel. We rented a car today and drove to Laughin, Nevada. We found a bowling alley in one of the casinos and now Jimmy thinks we have a new hobby:) We hope to get the van tomorrow and head north.

Flagstaff

2009-04-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

We left Santa Fe in the snow. We have driven 10,000 miles to avoid cold weather but I guess it has caught up with us. We decided since it was snowing and the van wasn't doing so well to not go to the Grand Canyon and headed towards Prescott. Once we were south of Flagstaff a bit the snow stopped and we had a beautiful drive going through Sedona and south on highway 89. We stopped in Prescott for a bit and then went to find a campground. The campgrounds were still full of snow so we kept driving. It was a long drive through some pretty tall mountains. We ended up in Parker, AZ on the Colorado River in a campground. It was 86 degrees when we got there at about 4pm.

Santa Fe

2009-04-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

We made it to Santa Fe Friday morning. We are staying in a hotel tonight and both nursing colds. We went into Santa Fe Plaza today and had lunch and looked around. Tomorrow we have a long drive heading towards Flagstaff Arizona.

Santa Rosa Lake

2009-04-10T17:16:00.000-07:00

Santa Rosa

2009-04-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

We drove from Amarillo to Santa Rosa. We had hoped to get to Santa Fe but it was still very windy and Jimmy was ready to get off the road. We found another great campground called Santa Rosa Lake. It was really windy but pretty. The wind was still gusting about 60 so we spent a great deal of time in the van. I finally convinced Jimmy to take a walk.

Amarillo, Texas

2009-04-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

We said goodbye to Denny and headed west. The wind was blowing 30-40 with 60 knot gusts. We planned on getting to Santa Fe but it was just to hard driving in that kind of wind. We found a great state park called Palo Dura just outside Amarillo, unfortunatly we got there at 6:20 and they closed at 6:00. We stayed in the overflow site. It was ok, no power or anything but nice enough. The next morning we went into the park and checked out the campsites. Here are a few pictures from there. They call it the Grand Canyon of Texas.

On the Road Again (Almost)

2009-04-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that staying at Denny's is like a 5 star hotel with great company we are anxious to be on the road and Denny is probably ready for us to leave. The van is not cooperating. We drove to Atoka on Monday to see where Jimmy's dad grew up. It was a nice day and a nice drive till we got there and found the transmission oil was leaking. We took it to a Chevy dealer there who after a few hours said it was fixed but when we got back to Tulsa it was leaking again. We took it to the transmission place yesterday and they said it is fixed but today it is back at another Chevy dealer getting another problem fixed. I am hoping it is not in the intensive care ward and will be ready tomorrow (Wednesday) and we will head towards home slowly. Today we went to see downtown Tulsa. Jimmy is very good at "doing very little slowly" and Denny is good at "wasting time efficiently". I am not good at either of those things.

In Tulsa

2009-04-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

Left Seattle on Tues. and flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma to meet up with Jimmy who has been staying with our good friend Denny. As you can see from these pictures Denny and Jimmy have been living a very stressful lifestyle while I have been gone. They have very difficult decisions each day like what to have for lunch, where to eat it, when to get the hot tub ready, red or white wine first and watching American Idol. Good I am here to help. Denny has a beautiful home, pool and hot tub and is a wonderful host! We will be very sorry to leave. I think Jimmy is trying to move in for good. You can see he also enjoyed playing soccer with Denny's son and daughter. Not as young as he used to be though:)

2009-03-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry for all of you following my blog that there have not been any posts for a few days. I flew home on Friday to see my dad who has been very ill. Unfortunately he passed away while I was in route. It is a blessing for him since he is not suffering anymore and will not have to be in a nursing home which he did not want more than anything. He suffered from Parkinson's disease which had been getting very debilitating the last few years.
I am home now until Sat. or Sunday when I will fly back to catch up with Jimmy who is in Tulsa, Oklahoma visiting our good friend Denny. I will keep you updated where we are headed next week.

2009-03-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

We stopped at a rest area just outside Knoxville, TN and Jimmy said "Look there is guy that looks like Santa." Then he said "Look, there are a bunch more. " It turns out there were two bus loads of them. There were 600 santas that had been at a parade in Gatlinberg, TN. They come from all over the world.

Charleston

2009-03-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

We went to Charleston, SC and I took a bunch of pictures of the great houses in the Historic downtown. It is a really beautiful town. Will post more pictures later. We went to a town near Macon to see an old friend of mine and then had some work done on the van. The hood wouldn't open and the heater core needed to be replaced so the van spent the night in the Chevy dealer hospital.

St. Patricks Day Parade

2009-03-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Savannah has the 2nd biggest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the world! It was quite the party. We didn't know it was even going on so we were really lucky to be there.

More St. Pat's Pics

2009-03-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

Savannah Georgia

2009-03-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Savannah and checked into a hotel. When we checked in they asked if we were there for the party. We asked "what party"? Turns out Savannah has a huge celebration for St. Patricks day. It was so much fun! There are a ton of people in town, live music everywhere, and everyone wearing their green. Guess we were lucky again to find a place to stay.

More launch pictures

2009-03-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures from the Space Center and the launch site.

Space Shuttle Launch

2009-03-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

YEAH! Finally we got to see the launch! It was really worth the wait. The whole experience of the Kennedy Space Center tour along with seeing it at the Astronaut Hall of Fame was just amazing. These pictures don't capture it all but you might get a little bit of an idea how cool it was. There were about 10,000 people at the launch. It took us about an hour before we could even leave the parking lot and then an hour and half of sitting in traffic. We slept at a rest stop and in the morning we left Florida and the great weather and the best state parks in the US.

Launch

2009-03-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Well we re still hanging in waiting for the news on the launch. We found a hotel using my points and $45.00 and are staying at a nice hotel at the airport. We hope the launch still goes on Sunday but will know more tomorrow. Here is a picture from our tour on Tues. of the Kennedy Space Center. It was an amazing really interesting place. This picture is the shuttle (the one we are waiting to see launch) out ready to go. The other picture is of the five nozzles that boost the rocket up that were in the museum from a prior launch. Even if we don't get to see the launch it was really great to see the museum.

Launch

2009-03-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

We almost made it. We went to the launch site, parked the car, took our lawn chairs out to the place where we were going to watch. It was about 2:30 and everyone was getting excited to watch the launch. Then it was over. The launch was postponed again. Now we are in a real pickle. Do we stay or leave? They think it may go on Sunday but it is spring break here now and campgrounds are again impossible. If we leave and it goes on Sunday we will be very disappointed. Stay tuned we should figure it out soon.

St. Augustine

2009-03-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

Ok for everyone who has been waiting for blog updates here are a ton of pictures. These are from St. Augustine and the bridge on the way to Jacksonville. For links on St. Augustine and especially the Flagler College check out http://www.oldcity.com/history-information.cfm. Check out the posts below this one for more info and pictures about our trip there and don't forget to click on the pictures to make them bigger. Miss everyone in WA. Stay warm!

St. Augustine

2009-03-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of fun pictures. Jimmy played at a pub (Ann OMalleys) and did great.

More St. Augustine Pics

2009-03-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some more of my favorite pictures from around St. Augustine.

St Augustine

2009-03-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

We spent four nights camped at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine. The city is my most favorite so far and the campground one of the best we have been in. The weather was quite cold when we first got here ( you can see Jimmy and me in jackets in one of the pictures). We took the little Ripley train tour and the Ghost Tour in the evening. It was fun and pretty interesting. Lots of history in this town which is the oldest European settlement in the US. The picture in top right is one of only two replicas in the world. The rest of the pictures are all around the cute town of St. Augustine. The weather warmed up by the third day of camping there and we rented a catamaran for an hour and sailed up the channel. It was nice to be sailing again especially in shorts and t-shirt. Friday night we went to the beach and watched a satellite launch from the Cape. It was pretty cool. Looked like a comet. We could only get four nights in a row here so we left on Sat. and drove up north of Jacksonville for one night. Now we are back for one night at Anastasia again then two in Daytona and off to watch the space shuttle launch on the 11th. Finally!

Daytona

2009-03-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures from the Daytona speedway. They had a traveling war memorial wall like they have in Washington DC. You can see it in the picture with all the flags. All the names of the dead soliders from the Vietnam War are listed. Very moving. The cute man in the picture bottom right is 92 and served in the war. He was so proud to have been given an award by the Daytona people and the jacket he is wearing. Bottom left is the square for Dale Earnhart above Jimmy is standing in the speedway. Top right is the marina across from the Ponce De Leon lighthouse which is 175 feet tall. No Jimmy did not climb to the top. Don't forget to click on picture to make them bigger.

Tomoka State Park

2009-03-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of the road into our campground outside Daytona Beach. It is a beautiful park and the drive to it was really nice.

Daytona Bike Week

2009-03-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

First it was the Super Bowl, then the Daytona 500, then the shuttle launch, then Valentines Day and a holiday weekend. After trying to find campsites during all these popular events we pulled into Daytona along with thousands of people on motorcycles. Luckily we had found a campground and had reservations. Kudos to Jimmy for driving our big van through the streets with bikes darting in and out everywhere. It was quite fun though and we went into Main street and looked at all the amazing bikes and of course so Jimmy could watch the wet t-shirt contest! Yesterday was quite warm getting around 79-80 and stayed warm most of the night. When we got up it was raining and windy and the temperature tonight is only about 39. Quite a change. Be sure and click on the collage and see some of these bikes especially the one with the tigers painted on it.

It's a Small World After All

2009-02-25T19:21:00.001-08:00

We spent one day at St. Sebastian campground. That was all we could get. It was a nice place although the sites were small. In this picture a lady was fishing and somehow this pelican got caught. They reeled him in and the man held him and took the hook out. I tried to get a good picture but the bird was moving so much and I snapped it very fast so it is a bit blurry but you can get an idea of how big he was.

After much frustration trying to find a campground Jimmy suggested maybe we should try to find a good deal on a four or five day Disney World hotel. I checked and was surprised to find that Disney World has its own campground. We booked four nights five days there to kill some time waiting for the decision on the Space Shuttle launch (which now looks like maybe the 12th of March). Yes it was a bit pricey for a campground but it is Disney first class. The sites are large and private (just like a state park) and the facilities are like a five star hotel. Best showers ever! All transportation on the site is free and there is a lot of free entertainment. The first night here we took the free bus to the beach and watched the fireworks from Disney World. The next day we took the free boat ride to Disney Downtown (also free) and walked around and enjoyed the shops. They have live entertainment there every night. Last night we went to the kids campfire and watched Chip and Dale and the kids entertainer (of course Jimmy and I are just big kids anyway). We have been having a great time.
We splurged today and went to Universal Studios. Unlike anything on the Disney World park this was not easy to get to. We took a free boat to Disney World then the free monorail to the bus. Then three (not free) buses to get to Universal. It was quite expensive to get in and a bit disappointing since they had a lot of closed exhibits and more food places than anything. We did see some fun exhibits, caught a few good rides, and saw this great Blues Brothers Band.

We leave here on Friday and head to Tomoka State Park north of Daytona. We will decide then if we are going to try and wait for the Space shuttle or not.

Campsite Visitors

2009-02-20T15:18:00.000-08:00

Wildlife Camping

2009-02-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

We camped south of Ocala in a park called Lake Griffin for a couple of days. It is a very nice small park not too far from Orlando. We had to make reservations and use two different campsites because it is so busy here. People make reservations a year ahead! We then went south to Kissimee State Park. Before I even got out of the van, Jimmy told me to get my camera. I looked out of the van and there were three turkeys wandering thru. A few minutes later we had a armadillo in the campsite and then a sandhill crane came so close I thought he was going to come in the van. Three deer wandered thru later. What a great place. Big huge campsites, very private. We only could stay two days but it was great!

Jimmy's new hat

2009-02-12T17:48:00.000-08:00

Jimmy bought himself this cowboy hat in Key West. Not sure who it looks better on:)

Postscript from Jimmy

2009-02-12T17:09:00.000-08:00

Jimmy does not have a campfire tonight so sitting in the ultimate dock chair looking at the blue flames of our new $25. barbecue he is trying to draw parallels. Even though it is just past a full moon he can't see it because of the halide vapor lights right next store. First of all we do have our large yachts also know as Phaetons , Ambassadors, Excursions, oh yeah, and a Bayliner or two. There seems to be three classes of land yachting. The big boys, the middle people, and people like us. This is our first excursion that is anywhere close to a RV park. Our neighbors are right next store maybe 25 feet away which a a lot further away than in a marina but as it turns out they are very nice people and are whats known as ,in the trade, "full timers". This is another category of land yachting. You have your full timers, your snowbirds, and your travelers. At the bottom of the pecking order are kids having a good time before starting careers usually in tents or old beat up small vans and maybe a VEE WEE or two. Currently Jimmy is working on a song for the next album called "I'm now a High Plains Sailor". Hopefully Chevrolet will pick it up and then we will get a top of the pecking order motor vessel and a G3.
This picture is Jimmy playing with some really nice people in motorhomes down the way.

WARNING FOR WASHINGTON RESIDENTS

2009-02-12T16:59:00.000-08:00

Just a warning before you look at the pictures in the blog below we want to apologize in advance. We know it has been cold there and we feel just a tiny bit guilty putting these pictures on:) The warm weather does come with a few problems. It is very warm at night in the van for sleeping! Oh well I guess you have to take the good with the bad. Stay warm everyone!!
ps: This tortoise was on the side of the road by our campground.

Sunny and beautiful

2009-02-12T16:51:00.000-08:00

It was in the 80's today and very warm(that is me in the water:) We drove over to the ocean and found a really nice spot where we went swimming. The water was around 70 degrees. It was so amazing to be swimming in warm ocean water. Has been a long time since I was able to do that. Tomorrow we have to leave since the campground is booked for the weekend. We will be heading a bit north. We have our tickets for the space shuttle launch to watch from the Astronaut Hall of Fame which is as close as you can get off site from the Kennedy Site. We have a hotel reserved in Melbourne around 60 miles away for the night before and will go to the Space Center tour on the 22nd and then wait for the launch which is at 3:31 in the morning. Hope it doesn't get delayed again.

Ft Pierce

2009-02-12T14:37:00.001-08:00

We left John Dickinson State Park and drove to Lake Okeecobee, which according to the travel stuff is the second largest fresh water lake in the US. We hoped to camp there but no luck. Huge lake though.

Things are starting to get really tough with the Daytona 500 this weekend and the shuttle launch the following weekend everything is really booked up. We tried to find another state park but ended up in a county park called Savannah near Ft. Pierce, FL. Ft. Pierce is a very cute town and we had fun walking around. A band was playing and these people in this picture were taking it all in. Sort of felt like we were in the movie Cocoon. Kind of nice being the youngest people around for a change. It is a bit weird in this campground. It is the least private we have been in and I have been trying to figure out why is seems so different than being in the boat in a crowded marina. Still feels much less private here to me. Maybe it is the pink flamingos and lights the guy across the way has in his site????

Hollywood, Florida

2009-02-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

After leaving Key West we had a bit of trouble finding a campground. We ended up at a hotel in Hollywood, Florida which is where people can catch a cruise ship going to the Bahamas. The hotel was full of people coming and going on the cruises. It was very cheap. You could take a day cruise for $39.00 a person or overnight with a stay at the Westin for $180.00 including two full course buffets. Not our thing though.
We left Hollywood and were able to get a campsite in Jonathan Dickinson State Park. They have two campgrounds within one park. The one that was by the river was full so we took a spot in the upper lot. It turned out to be a pretty nice place. It was really close to the town of Jupiter Island where lots of actors and Tiger Woods have mansions on the Atlantic or Intercoastal Waterway. Beautiful places! We spent two days at the campground and exploring the area.

Few More Pics

2009-02-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

Jimmy's interviews for the Castaway Band

2009-02-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

Jimmy's new member of the Castaway Band):

Key West

2009-02-08T18:19:00.000-08:00

I am beginning to know what it feels like to be a rock star( without the fame or fortune). Moving and being in a different place almost every day is a bit tiring at times but we are having such a great time. The shuttle launch is now Feb. 22nd so we have about a week to hang out now before making sure we will be there in time to get a good spot to watch it from. The Daytona 500 is next weekend so we must steer clear of there for awhile.

We left the Everglades (very cool place) and drove down to the Florida Keys. We spent a night Islamorda and sat outside (even though it was a bit chilly) and had drinks and dinner next to the beautiful beach. We stopped at Marathon at the Dolphin Research Center to see the dolphins. We both had swam with them before so we didn't do that but we had to see them. Seeing them is good for your soul. Dolphins have to be the coolest animals on the planet. Teresa, one of the dophins that is there is almost 50 years old. The pic here is one of the younger dolphins. Then we went on to Key West. It has been 10 years since we were there but it really hadn't changed much. We stayed a block off Duvall (the main street) which was great so we could walk everywhere without driving the van around town. We had so much fun and of course lots of mixed frozen drinks. At sunset we went to Mallory Square where they have lots of street performers. Great music at Sloppy Joe's and around town.

We tried to camp but the state parks near the Keys were all totally booked up. We hadn't stayed in a private RV park yet so decided to check one out on the way up from Key West. It was a nice place but you just get a pad with water and power and they were $60.00 or $100.00 near the water. Bit crazy we thought. We are hoping to find a nice campground for the next week or so. Would be nice to stay in the same one for at least a few days.

Everglades

2009-02-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

Everglades

2009-02-06T17:39:00.000-08:00

Feeling much better we headed east along highway 41 thru the north part of the Everglades. Jimmy spotted the alligators in the picture along the side of the highway. Later we saw firefighters near this site fighting a wildfire. We also saw many birds and wildlife. It was really pretty. We ended up Islamorada, Fl south of Key Largo for the night.

Tarpon Springs

2009-02-06T17:24:00.000-08:00

We went to Tarpon Springs home of the sponge fisherman. Lots of
Greek influence with restaurants and shops. We had a great Greek salad for lunch and then headed south to a campground some people we met in Manatee Springs had told us about. It was called De Soto County campground and we made it there just in time before closing. It was a great place! A little pricey at $35.oo a site but right on the water with washer and dryer facilities and great restroom. One thing about Florida campgrounds is that the showers are all free and for the most part great. No worries about quarters like in the marinas. It was pretty cold with the wind really blowing and temperatures around 34. Felt a bit like being at home. In the morning the sky was clear but still cold.
We headed south and made it to a campground at the northern end of the Everglades. It was called Collier Seminole. By the time we got there (around 5) the sign said "full". I was coming down with the flu and feeling horrible around then. I told Jimmy to go to the gate and ask if maybe they had any sites. Big mistake! The man said they had a few sites left and to go check them out. We drove into the park and found the only sites left were in a huge field with campsites and motor homes parked right next to each other. All I wanted to do was to go to bed in a private campsite but now it seemed I would be right next to a hundred other campers. Felt a bit like a KOA. Jimmy went in to pay and I sat in the car with a migraine headache, sore throat and fever and cried. As always my hero husband saved the day. He came back go tin the car and headed to a spot we hadn't checked. "Where are you going I asked?" "Oh I found another spot we missed," he grinned. We drove to a really nice spot with trees on both side and very private. I was thrilled. I promptly fell asleep and felt much better the next morning. The top picture is the spot we would have been and the bottom one where we ended up.

Note

2009-02-03T20:17:00.000-08:00

Don't forget you can click on any of the collage pictures to make them bigger and easier to see.
Thanks for following our trip. We are having a great time. The space schedule launch has been delayed to at least Feb. 19th so we may head down to the Florida Keys next. Keep you posted.
Brenda & Jimmy

Catching Up

2009-02-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

We have been to a few places since I last posted. We really enjoyed Pensacola. A very fun, pretty, and friendly town. We went to the Pensacola Naval Air Museum on our way out of town. It was very cool and totally free. Located on the navy base where the Blue Angels train it was quite a place. There are a few pictures below but I was a bit overwhelmed there was just too much there to capture. We then went to a beautiful State Park called Grayton Beach. The sign not to feed the alligators was right behind our campsite. We didn't see any alligators while there however. The sand on the beaches was so white it looked like snow. I have posted some of them below.
On to see the manatees. We stopped at Manatee State Park where they were supposed to be but none were spotted. The park was really interesting. It felt a bit like middle earth with trees cutoff and moss hanging down and hundreds of vultures. You can see them in the trees in the picutres below.
Still in search of the real manatee we went to the Homosassa State Park. You ride in a boat down the river to the park where they have manatees and other animals. Manatees are amazing. They are at least 10 feet long and can weigh 1000-3000 lbs. The are totally vegetarian and very friendly. It was hard to capture the pictures since they come up for air very quickly but I did get a few you can see below.
Tonight we are in Tarpon Springs. We arrived late but will explore tomorrow.

Very Cute Manatee

2009-02-03T15:52:00.000-08:00

Manatee State Park

2009-02-03T15:51:00.000-08:00

Grayton Beach State Park

2009-02-03T15:50:00.000-08:00

Pensacola Naval Air Museum- Free and very cool

2009-02-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

Up to date

2009-01-29T22:28:00.000-08:00

Just had to post a few fun pictures. Below this post you will find two of my favorite pics from New Mexico, a collage of pics from Avery Island in Baton Rouge and the fun pelicans around Pensacola. Sorry they are not in the order we have seen them but they are fun to look at.

Fun Pics

2009-01-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

Avery Island

2009-01-29T22:21:00.000-08:00

Pelicans

2009-01-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

Pensacola

2009-01-29T19:45:00.000-08:00

We came into Pensacola a little later than intended. We drove in the dark for about an hour to get to the Big Lagoon Campground and found it closed at sunset. We still plan on going there tomorrow. Today we checked out this very friendly town. Everyone we have met or talked to has been so friendly. It is a really nice place with beautiful beaches. I took the opportunity of being here an extra day to get myself a badly needed haircut. We had lunch at a great place in historic downtown. It is called Hub Staceys and they had great sandwiches! Everywhere in Pensacola we saw these pelicans sort of like the pigs we used to have in Seattle.

Sorry Adam

2009-01-27T20:18:00.000-08:00

Notice the sign!
Jimmy made me post this Adam:)

Avery Island

2009-01-27T20:05:00.000-08:00

Louisiana

2009-01-27T19:52:00.000-08:00

We drove east to Avery Island in Louisiana. It is the place where Tabasco Sauce is made. It is also a beautiful park with alligators, turtles, birds, and wonderful trees. You can see some of the beautiful moss hanging on the trees. It was really warm (about 78) and very humid. It felt great! Tomorrow is suppose to cool off alot. We are staying in Baton Rouge which we found out from our tour of the Tabasco plant today means "the little red stick" That is what the people use to tell when the peppers are the right color red to pick. We are still undecided whether to go to New Orleans or not. Everyone we have talked to said it is still pretty awful except for the French Quarter. After seeing Galveston we are not sure we want to go there unless we had time to help the people. We may stop on the way home.
Hope all is well with all of you our friends and family. Happy birthday to Aitan sorry we won't make it home for your party. Hope to see you in Australia next year.

Texas

2009-01-27T19:40:00.001-08:00

We left Lake Corpus Christi and drove to Galveston. We had hoped to stay there on the beach and camp somewhere but when we arrived we found so much devastation from the last hurricane. Boats still were littered in the street and on their sides. The beach is totally destroyed and litter and debris is everywhere. Most of the hotels are closed and the restaurants are all closed. It was so depressing and sad! We left there and drove to Beaumont Texas and were hoping to stay there but everywhere was booked up from oil convention meeting. After driving for 12 hours Jimmy was ready to stay anywhere. We got off the freeway in Lake Charles, Louisiana and saw a huge building. It was the Lauberge Casino. Check it out at this website http://www.ldlcasino.com/Hotel-Specials.aspx. We parked and went in. It was amazing! A beautiful spotless place. We checked on the rooms and were ready to stay there just to relax after driving all day but the 1000 rooms were all booked. So much for the "bad economy". We ended up staying for free in the RV parking lot at the end of the casino parking lot. It was fun. We went in and had muffins and coffee in the morning. As you can see it was pretty foggy in the morning but ended up being about 80 by afternoon.

Few San Antonio Pics

2009-01-27T19:40:00.000-08:00

From El Paso East

2009-01-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

Sorry have been out of touch for a few days. We spent a crummy night at the Embassy Suites in El Paso. The air conditioning quit working and when I was so hot I was driving Jimmy crazy complaining I called maintenance who came up confirmed it was broken and fixed it. Then first thing in the morning the toilet overflowed. Now I was pretty upset especially when they came and fixed it and were suppose to send someone up to clean up but they never showed up. So we forgot the morning showers and checked out. I did complain and they took part of the bill off so that was good at least.
We drove from El Paso to Sonorra a small town about 11/2 hours from San Antonio. Then the next day we drove to San Antonio. We had a great time walking around the Riverwalk and going to the Alamo. Jimmy had never been there so it was very fun. We decided not to go to Austin since we were running short on time to be in Florida by the 12th for the shuttle launch. We decided to come back to Austin sometime when we could do the whole music scene justice by staying for a week or so.
From San Antonio we drove to Lake Corpus Christi where we stayed at the campground you see in this picture. After dark Jimmy spotted five or six javelinas. You can read about them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peccary. They are like a big pig but you don't want to pet them they can be very mean. Jimmy shinned the flashlight on them and they left.

Guadalupe Mountains

2009-01-23T20:56:00.000-08:00

Carlsbad Cavern

2009-01-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

Roswell Bottomless Lake

2009-01-23T20:46:00.001-08:00

On the Road Again

2009-01-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

After cleaning up our storage units and making sure everything was dry and back where it belonged we left the fog and cold Seattle weather and flew back to Albuquerque. Our friend, Bill, picked us up at the airport and after picking up his wife Dottie, we all went out for a great Mexican dinner. We spent the night with them at their house in Albuquerque. We were so surprised when we opened the van to find that the sun shinning in through the window had melted the trim on the refrigerator door as well as warping it a bit. The front of the frig is black plastic and it must have gotten to hot. Hard to believe! On Thurs. we took the van a few blocks from Bill's house and had four new tires put on, the power steering belt tightened, and an oil change. The van is very happy now. We decided to skip Santa Fe since we have no place to put the beautiful artwork we would have found in the galleries there and headed south to Roswell stopping at Bottomless Lake Campground. It was a nice stop.
Friday we drove from Roswell to the Carlsbad Caverns. They were just amazing. I took some pictures (you can see in the next blog. Click on them to make bigger) but you can't capture the beauty and size of it even if you had the best camera. It was one of the most amazing places I have seen. We took a bit of a detour and drove west instead of south or east so we could go through the Guadalupe National Park. That was also beautiful although not great camping. We are spending the night in El Paso and then will try to drive to San Antonio (at least 9 hours).

Detour

2009-01-14T16:45:00.000-08:00

We had to pull up anchor and make a slight detour to our trip. We got a call from Brian at our marina on Monday morning that a pipe had broken and water had flooded all the storage units. We decided to fly home and take care of things. We were lucky enough to have been heading from Las Cruces to Albuquerque that day to see our friend Bill. We were able to park the van at his house and put some of our stuff in his place. He took us to the airport and we got in late Monday night. Our friend Sam picked us up at the airport. We have cleaned up the stoarge unit with the help of Adam and Sam and will put things back on Saturday and leave to to the vgo backan on Wed.

Few Good Pictures

2009-01-10T17:56:00.000-08:00

Truckin South

2009-01-10T17:21:00.001-08:00

We left Yuma, AZ in t-shirts and headed east. The best mate navigator found a great campground called Patagonia Lake which is near Nogales. We headed for it but in our usual fashion arrived after dark. Luckily the GPS lady via my Verizon phone led us right to the place. We found a nice camping spot. Jimmy immediately made a campfire (his favorite thing) and we enjoyed that for a few hours before retiring to our cozy roadwagon beds. We had called Jimmy's brother in law, Mike, and found out his brother lived close to where we were. When we called Carew, we found out he could almost see our campfire from his house. He and his wife Dawnie and their darling son Cutter were in Phoenix but due back the next day so we made arrangements to meet them at their house the next day. While we waited for them to return home we took a ride to Tombstone and Bisbee and went to the Boot Hill Cemetary and saw where the gunfight at the OK Carroll was. We headed back to Carew's house but this time the GPS got us totally lost. We finally had to call him and he came and found us and we followed him out to his house. They have a wonderful place with the most amazing view! They made a wonderful dinner for us and we had a great time visiting. After a nice breakfast with them on Sat. morning we said our goodbyes. Their little boy (age 2) Cutter said "Bye big dude" to Jimmy who had been calling him "little dude". We went to the Mission San Xavier built from 1783-1797. More info on it at http://www.sanxaviermission.org/History.html After that we went to the Sonara Desert Museum which is beautiful. I had to put sunscreen (available in their bathrooms) on. Sorry Seattlelites:) We are camped close to the desert museum at a state park campground tonight. A few minutes ago a coyote went through the site next to us. I tried to catch his pic but he was too fast. Tomorrow, Jimmy's birthday, we head east to Las Cruces.

Joshua Tree and Friends in CA

2009-01-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

Joshua Tree

2009-01-07T19:42:00.001-08:00

We passed through Solvang, CA and I got some great pictures of Ostrich in a huge field.
Thanks to a tip from our good friend, David White, we drove from Palm Springs to the Joshua Tree National Park. We found an amazing campsite among huge rocks. It was so beautiful! The weather was really warm. ,During the day we walked around with just t-shirts. Evening was cold but we had a great campfire. We met some nice people from Chico, Wally and Miley camped behind us. Wally brought a huge pot of popcorn to share with us and we all sat around the campfire. Very fun!. Tonight we pulled into Yuma, AZ at exactly 3:10. Must be that Clint Eastwood guy driving the road wagon. It was about 70 here. We had a great walk about.

Elephant Seals and Carmel

2009-01-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

Elephant Seals

2009-01-04T20:31:00.000-08:00

We stayed in Seaside north of Monterey, CA. and then the next day drove to Carmel. It was like Spring. We walked around with just shirts and a sweater, no coats. It was wonderful. I took several pictures as you can see. Thought I might be able to make some coasters with them someday. We spent several hours there and then headed south down the coast. We spent the night at the Big Sur campground. We had a nice spot by the river but it was a bit muddy from rain a few days before. Jimmy made a big campfire and we turned the heater on in the van and we were nice and warm. Sunday (today) we drove down highway 1 to Pismo Beach where we met up with our friends Chris and Myra who had been in Palm Springs and are headed North. On the way to Pismo Beach we stopped along the highway and saw the elephant seals. Elephant seals come ashore and form colonies only a few months each years to breed and molt. The rest of the time they swim thousands of miles and dive down up to 2000 feet looking for food. They can weigh up to 5000 pounds! We got there just as this one (in the picture) had given birth to the baby. It was so amazing to see them. There were about 273 on the beach while we were there.
We are having a great time! Not sure where we are headed tomorrow yet.

Fun with Valerie and Joe

2009-01-02T22:36:00.000-08:00

San Francisco

2009-01-02T22:23:00.000-08:00

We spent New Year's Day in Alameda with our friend Joe and his wonderful wife Valerie. They live on their 38' sailboat there. They took us to lunch at a great Mexican restaurant and then we all went down to Fisherman's Terminal. We had a great time! We spent our first night in the van in their parking lot at the marina. They gave us the key to the bathrooms and it was almost like being at home:) The van was very comfy.
Joe let Jimmy borrow a torque driver and he removed the cowling grill and was able to squirt WD 40 in and he fixed the wiper squeak! Yeah. Now we have to figure out why my 12 Volt battery charger for my cell keeps blowing a fuse. I bought a new one today and it did the same thing.
Tonight we are in Seaside north of Monterey and will go to Carmel tomorrow. We are meeting our friends Chris and Myra on Sunday in San Luis Obispo. The weather here tonight is very windy and cool.
The pictures are from our trip to San Fran. The man behind the bush is called the bush man and he jumps out from behind the bushes and scares the heck out of people walking by. Luckily Joe and Valerie had warned us about him.

New Year's Eve

2008-12-31T23:42:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!
We left our wonderful hotel room in Garberville and headed south on highway 101 and then over to 1. We quickly found out as Jimmy kept saying "This ain't no corvette." that the van is a bit harder to take those switchback roads. It was foggy in the morning and our windshild wiper is still squeaking driving us both crazy. Jimmy has tried a number of tricks including two sets of new ones but it still persist. Luckily by afternoon the sun came out. The redwood trees are stunning and the coast was beautiful but by the time we got to the Golden Gate Bridge we were both tired. Unfortunatly my cell phone battery charger died after blowing the fuse for the lighter, cd player and overhead lights the other day. By the time we got to the bridge where we needed the GPS Nav help my battery was almost dead which resulted in Jimmy getting off the freeway too soon. We had the GPS lady on for long enough to help us get back to where we should have been after going thru the busy streets of San Fran we were trying to avoid. We had booked a hotel with my Starwood guest points at the Sheraton by the airport but when we got there it was pretty dirty and tacky. I didn't want to waste my points on that especially on New Years so we left and used them at the Westin. By the time we checked in it was after eight and the restaurant was closed. Not wanting to go out again we ordered a pizza from room service, ate it watched TV and now Jimmy is passed out snoring. Good we celebrated New Years last night! Tomorrow we will meet with a friend who lives here and then try to stay at a campground or RV place in the van. Here are a few picutres I took yesterday and today.

Warm weather

2008-12-30T21:13:00.000-08:00

We left Roseburg this morning around 9am after a quick complimentary breakfast at the hotel. We drove thru Grants Pass and then headed west on 199 to the coast. The weather was cloudy and windy until we crossed the border into California. Then just as our friend Sam had told us the sun came out and it was beautiful. It feels a bit like Spring here. The coast is beautiful. We were planning on camping in the van tonight but decided to do New Years early and are staying at a beautiful place very reminiscent of what we would stay in if in Europe. I am thrilled! We are at the Benbow Inn in Garberville, CA. Jimmy cracked open the bottle of Dom Perrignon 1993 we got for a wedding present 8 years ago. The man has patience. He has been saving it for a special occasion. Tomorrow we will try and hook up with a friend near San Francisco. Happy New Year to everyone!

We Leave Seattle!

2008-12-29T20:19:00.000-08:00

We left the Lockhaven parking lot at 8:20 this morning eager and ready for our trip. We said goodbye to our wonderful neighbors who wished us well. At 8:25 we were back in the parking lot since the trusty navigator forgot the AAA Travel Guides and maps. We loaded up again and then Jimmy spent a few minutes trying to get the windshild wipers to quit squeaking (which didn't work to well).
Our first day was a very wet, windy one. Jimmy had to really concentrate just to keep the van on the road. We arrived in Roseburg around 4:00 and decided to spend the night. Since it was so cold, wet, and windy our first night is being spent in a nice motel room. Tomorrow we most likely will head for the California coast.

Happy Christmas

2008-12-24T14:53:00.000-08:00

To all our friends and family--HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Stuck in Seattle

2008-12-23T10:58:00.001-08:00

Well as you can see from this picture the road wagon is not going anywhere yet. We are now hoping that we can leave maybe this Sunday or Monday. Keep you posted. Stay warm wherever you are.

2008-12-18T19:17:00.001-08:00

Snow, snow, snow. Seattle is cold! I guess our road trip might have to be delayed until after Christmas after all. We are thinking Christmas Day might be the day to leave. We are packing though and will be ready when the weather says go.