Bay Area

We had a good time in the Bay Area with Ira and Cathie. Saw Stef's friend Anna and her husband and beautiful baby. I may post pictures later. Right now we are in the southern California desert and there is no cell phone coverage in our campsite. We took the scooters and went about 4 miles and found another park where we had coverage.

The desert is beautiful and dry. The weather is very warm during the day and chilly at night. Bob got so tired driving here on Sunday. We made it from the Bay Area to just outside of San Bernadino. We just stopped in a rest area and got up early the next morning and took the back roads. We got to the campsite too early so we dropped off the trailer and went about 50 miles to the nearest town to buy groceries for dinner. Then we came back and it took about 1 1/2 hours to set up camp. We got all set up and went into the hot therapy pool. It was delightful! After we came out Bob was not feeling too good - I think too much therapy pool. We had dinner and barely made it to 8 pm before we fell asleep. It was a really good idea for us to take a few days and just rest before starting across the country.

Today we will just take it easy. A picnic at a cute park that has cell phone access and then back to the campsite for hikes and swimming. We stay here for a week. Lots of hiking and swimming in our futre.

It took us long enough to set up that I think we will try to stay for a few days and at each campsite and then do day hikes. We will see how that works.

Hanging out in the Bay Area

We are now here in the Bay Area with Ira and Cathie. We have spent a lot of time catching up and comparing grandbaby pictures and stories. It has stopped raining and the sky is blue and the temp is about 60 degreees. Very comfortable. The trailer and the pickup are parked in the parking lot and look like they are pretty safe. Last night we went out for dinner and had some really great Thai food. Just hanging out today and then leave tomorrow for Agua Caliente. I feel very mellow and laid back and am thoroughly enjoying having no appointments or responsibilities.

Bob wants everyone to know that I am still forcing him to exercise. In fact, yesterday at the campground I made him do it in what he calls rain. It was actually a very light mist, but we did get wet. It was funny watching people watch us. Maybe we will start a new trend?

We have started!

We have started. We took off and tried to think of everything. Of course, there is one thing that we already realized we forgot. (The battery for Bob's bike. He will have a hard time biking without it.) I am going to ask Scott to Fed Ex it to nephew's house. Hope that works.

You can see the picture of us as we were ready to leave. I had to ask Bob to get out of the truck in order to take the picture. The weather through Oregon was great. We went over the Siskiyou summit in bright sunshine. Then in about Yreka California it started to pour. It was not looking comfortable and we discussed whether we should stop or just keep driving. We decided not to camp in Redding because it was still too rainy and cold. We drove another 30 miles to Red Bluff and found a great campground just off the freeway. It is only drizzling now and a little chilly. We have not even unhooked the trailer. Bob is currently warming the chili that we brought with us. We will eat in a bit and then amuse ourselves. Bob wants to get an early start tomorrow and get into the Bay Area.

The trip down here is one that Bob and I have taken many times. The beauty of the Rogue Valley always amazes me. The starkness of Northern California is also amazing. I am glad that we are out of the mountains and ready to move through the valley.

We could leave today

Bob got the batteries all hooked up and charging. It took a while and we were both very happy that he did it here rather than on the road. I spent the day taking stuff out to Hank and Fanny and loading it up. It all fits! It even seems to be organized and easily accessible. We even stocked the refrigerator.

Last night nephew Ira called and asked that Bob and I stay for two days, rather than just one. I called San Diego county to change our reservation for Agua Caliente and they were wonderful. We also decided to stay there a little longer - for a whole week. I think Bob really wants to be in the warm and make sure that Fanny and Hank are working before we actually start going East. Since we have plenty of time, no problem.

We are so ready that we could leave today, but we are going to wait until Tomorrow!!!!

With all of the advance planning?

OK. So one of the things on Bob's to do list was to check the batteries on the trailer. He did so on Saturday and, after much discussion, we decided that we would get new batteries. Is anyone surprised that they do not make batteries in the same size as the ones that we have on the trailer? Of course not. Bob had to buy two larger size batteries. They are not just more powerful, but are also bigger dimensions. The battery boxes (I didn't even know there was such a thing like that until yesterday) that we had on the trailer holding the old batteries, were not big enough. Bob called the local auto parts store and they said that "sure" that had the larger size battery boxes. They did have ONE. Of course, we need two. They said they could get it delivered. I am not very trusting and said that we would go pick it up. They called another store and verified that they had the oversize battery boxes. We waited patiently while they actually verified that they had the oversize boxes. We drove across town in what is getting close to rush hour traffic. We get to the store and it is not the oversize battery box, but the regular size. They don't even apologize. URGGGG.

We stopped at another auto parts store on the way home and they did not have the larger boxes, but they said that one of their other stores had two. This store was right across the street from the first store that we went to. (URGGGGG). They did have two and so after driving around for about three hours we finally got the battery boxes and it was too dark to install them. Hopefully the weather will still be nice today and Bob can do whatever he needs to do the modify these and install the new batteries. Good that we did not wait until the last minute to check the batteries.

The rest of the plan for today is to stock the refrigerator in the trailer and finish putting things in drawers - and maybe even label the drawers so that we can find things later. Then on Wednesday we can take care of all the things that we didn't think about and maybe spend some final quality time with daughter and grandson.

Getting closer

It is starting to get closer. Today the weather was pretty nice, so Bob and I loaded the scooters on to the back of Hank (the Ford pickup). Bob had the idea that we should load then in with the front facing the end of the pickup. then he thought that the wind would not bother the back boxes so much. But, they just don't fit that way. So we loaded one, then unloaded it and reloaded it. We were pretty tired when we finished. It will get easier as we get better at this - I hope. We also loaded the chests that go in between the scooters and Bob chained them down and locked them in place. My only concern is that it will be such trouble to unload the scooters that we will not do it very often. I hope that won't be true.

Tomorrow we will go shopping for new batteries for the trailer. The old ones are getting weak and neither of us want to take a chance. Tomorrow we will also clean our house and do laundry - which means that we will be really close to being fully packed. It is getting closer.

Less than a week to go

It is hard to believe that we have less than a week to go before we leave. We have filed our taxes, we have gotten both Hank and Fanny serviced, Bob and I have gone to the doctor and gotten our prescriptions renewed and our bodies checked. (The really good news is that Bob has a clean bill of health. In fact the doc said that he had not seen Bob in such good shape since he started seeing him 20 years ago. I am sure that is all due to the exercising that he is doing at my insistence.) We have stocked all of the nonperishable food and found a place for it. I have taken all of the clothes and determined that we have room for everything. I have purchased a data thingy (highly technical term for being able to access the Internet on the road) and have installed it and determined that it works. We have verified that our prescription insurance will allow us to fill enough for 90 days so that we don't have to stop so often. We have gathered books, audio books, and (thanks to Libbi) some DVDs of TV shows. We still have a running to do list and the things on it now are things like "cancel Oregonian", "buy printer paper", "select wines to take." Periodically we think of something like we will not have a pencil sharpener, so we go and buy a pencil sharpener and stow it. We are almost ready.

I spent some time remembering how to download pictures on to the computer. I was even able to download a movie (of grandson of course) and post it on Facebook. I spent some time working with my MP3 player so that I could download pod casts. (I love NPR and have downloaded a list of every NPR station in the US, but I know that there will be some places where I cannot get NPR, so I will have some downloads ready to go.) I could download just fine, but it took my daughter to tell me where to find them. Thanks Stef.

We have had at least one interesting surprise. I have lost 17 pounds so far - only 5 pounds to go to my goal. That is not a surprise because I have been working pretty hard at doing that. The surprise is that although Bob has been eating pretty good including seconds on dinner and dessert every night he is also losing weight. (Must be the exercise - am I sounding a little repetitive here?) Yesterday he was amazed that he had lost 10 pounds - but even more amazed that his jeans and his underwear are now too big. So we went to Penney's today and bought some more underwear. (He can wear a belt on his jeans and we can find a place to buy smaller jeans if we need to do so.)

Also, because we will be spending a lot of time in the south, I figure we will see a lot of Civil War sites. I did learn about the Civil War in school (it seems like over and over again) but I remembered very little. So I bought a very large book (1000 pages) that is the history of the Civil War, including the politics at the time. (That could be the subject of an entire separate blog - politics during the Civil War period I mean). But I have now finished all 1000 pages and at least will have some sense of what I am looking at when I get to South Carolina or Virginia- like what is the significance of Antietam?

Scott will be staying in our house. He has moved some of his stuff in already - lots of plants in a house that does not get really good sunlight, but we found places for them. He came on Wednesday with his mom - who seems really nice. He will move in on Monday so that we have a few days with him to show him where everything is. It is amazing how many things I am thinking I have to tell him - like the disposal is pretty touchy, please don't scour my good frying pan, the shower works best if you have a low water pressure, don't use harsh detergents in my washing machine. I know he will do fine.

The weather looks like it is going to be cooperative - as much as it can be in February in Oregon. We are planning on leaving about 8:30 or 9 am in order to be across the Siskyou mountain summit by early afternoon. Actually, that is how we decided when we would leave. We calculated how far (300 miles) and average speed of 50 mph and figured that we wanted to be over the pass at about 2 or 3 pm. So, we settled on leaving at 8:30 or 9. (Bob may get really antsy and try to leave earlier - he gets that way when we are ready to go.)

We have memberships in a number of different camping clubs including Good Sam and KOA so that we can get discounts on the road. We have a wonderful resource called Woodall's which lists every campground in North America and describes the place - plus gives phone numbers. I am trying to be loose about this, but Bob keeps asking questions such as where do you want to stay the first night. So we went to Woodall's and found a number of good campgrounds in Redding California. It looks like we will spend the first night there and then head for the Bay Area and a visit with my nephew and his wife. We had hoped to visit their son and his wife and new baby, but the son has moved over the past week and now lives at Big Bear Lake. The elevation is about 7000 ft. It is really cold up there and they had a pretty good snow storm this week. In addition, we already know that Bob's lungs don't do well at high elevations. So, I am not sure that we will be able to see them. We will try. But I am really looking forward to seeing my nephew Ira - who just moved to the Bay Area.

We now have reservations at Agua Caliente, a campground in southern California, just above the Mexican border. We will get there on Sunday, 2/14, and stay for at least four days. Maybe longer if we are having a great time. Bob and I went there several years ago on a trip with my sister. The pool is a giant hot tub and very invigorating. There are lots of paths into the desert and places to explore. It will be a nice place to melt away the cobwebs and duck feet and get ready for the trek. The last time we were there the area had no cell phone access, so while we are there we will have to drive several miles into Julian, California to get calls and log into the Internet. But I think we can cope with that.

We are having dinner with good friends tonight. Then daughter, son-in-law and grandson, (and son-in-law's dad) are coming tomorrow for dinner. Grandson is almost a year and Bob and I will miss his first birthday. So we are adjusting the date and having a birthday party for him almost a month early. (I don't think it will scar him, but he might be surprised as he gets older and sees the various pictures of his "birthday party.")

Then we wait until Wednesday because that is the first day that we can refill our prescriptions. We should have the trailer all hooked up on Wednesday night and ready to go early Thursday morning.

Wow. This is getting really long so I will stop now. I will try not to wait so long before writing again. Happy trails.