Family

We have had a fun couple of days visiting with family; first with my cousin Sandy and her husband Ken in Sherman Oaks, and then with Dad and Ilene in Tustin.

Ken and Sandy's pond (especially for you Betty!)

The Birthday Boy.

And now, for candid photos of the nightly movie watchers, who do not know I am taking pictures while typing.  We are watching "Land of the Pharoahs"...directed by Howard Hawkes and co-written by William Faulkner (yes, that Faulkner from American Lit class). Starring Joan Collins in some oddly dark makeup. And the largest cast of thousands known to Internet Movie Data Base - 9,487.

Lastly, coming home from shopping this morning (Nordstrom Rack, two Eileen Fisher linen sweaters for 60% off--yay!) we saw what we initially thought was a car fire, until it started growing larger and is now a 1300 acre brush fire in the local canyons.  Apparently, it was reported just about the time we first saw it.  No danger here at the house, just a scary thing for those fighting it or living nearby.  Just heard there are now evacuations for the Silverado Canyon homes. Temps are in the 90's, going over 100 tomorrow.  And Colorado Springs, where we started this adventure a month ago, had snow flurries this morning.  Sigh, I hope nobody loses their home and that the fire is contained soon.

Friends and Fun

We have been fortunate the past few days to see our friends from years past; the Ewings last Thursday, the Frommelts and Hedins over the weekend at Tailhook, the Steadman family yesterday in Palo Alto and the Sheehans today in Moss Landing (near Monterrey).

As with most gatherings of friends, there is not nearly enough time to discuss all that warrants discussion, but it is and was a wonderful time with everyone.  We sorely miss their daily presence, but are so glad we have been able to meet up on our travels.

Tailhook Tidbit

We had a very fun evening with the pilots, groupies, family and friends last night.

Typical conversation:

Now here is a quiz for you....examine the picture below

Tell me, who do you think is the ace fighter pilot and who is the multimillionaire ?

Waiting....

The older gentleman on the left is Diz Laird, WWII Ace and the only one known to have shot down both German and Japanese planes in that war.

The 32 year old on the right is Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Draken Industries and United Bank Card.

It was that kind of a night.

Tailhook

We are here in Sparks, NV at the Tailhook convention.  Yes, it still exists, albeit in milder and less public form than the scandalous Las Vegas excess of the 90's.   Tom's comment was "you know, when I was a young guy at these things I used to wonder who all these old guys were.  Now I AM one of the old guys."   And the biggest hoo-haw is who can fly the simulator better than the other.  Of course, there is still Vendor's Row, with all the 'necessary' souvenirs for sale and give away.

Tom, so far, has two shirts, one hat, a bottle of some sort of after-burner style hot sauce and a beloved A-4 bumper sticker and at least one pen.

I earlier promised you a few more photos of Glass Beach from Tom's camera, so here they are

The Gold Rush

After two days in Yosemite (without cell phone, wifi, blog access, or Facebook, much to the consternation of family and friends) we bounced out of the campground at 6:55 am, ready to tackle the roads yet again.  You see we had to go back down the Priest Grade (see prior post) that we went up two days earlier and reverse course over the 75 mile/2hour drive just to get to CA 49.  But this was going to be worth it, because the aptly named route 49 is the road that travels 90+ miles through California Gold Rush Country, 49ers, placer claims, pan for gold and all that fun stuff.  We admit, we checked out the AAA tour books to know where to stop first.....

And did not find any of it.  Oh, we stopped at the first three places the books guided us to, only to be told the "museum was closed", the guide "cannot be reached", and "it's the beginning of the slow season".  Really?  Three days after Labor Day which had you all booked up and now you can't bother with the tourists?  Well, OK, we'll just go to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park, then.  Which we did, to find the parking lot torn up and a school bus of bored teenagers sitting around under the trees waiting for...someone.

Here is the recreated Sutter's Mill

The day was not a total bust, however as we did find lots and lots and lots of GOLD.   In the form of gold colored signs that warned us of

Steep grades of up to 13%

And winding roads

And they were not kidding today, again, either.  This was the typical view for the 150 miles on which we averaged about 36 miles per hour. Really.  When we were getting close to our destination, a song came on the radio.  It was Sheryl Crow singing "Everyday is a Winding Road".  Yes, we have discovered the Theme Song for this road trip, I do believe.

We are now happily camped in Auburn, CA on route 49.  We have wifi, cell coverage, air conditioning, laundry facilities, a pool and a hot tub.  And rose bushes out my window.  I can handle that.

One final note: with all the sporadic contact ability, I am having to post where and when I can.  Sometimes that means two or three posts on one day followed by silence for a couple of days.  I apologize for that, but it is an adventure, right?

Yosemite

While at Fort Bragg, Tom was doing his usual safety check on the Beach House and discovered that our front right tire is wearing unevenly.  So our first order of business was to have that checked out on Tuesday after Labor Day.  So it was up and over the mountains on yet another twisty, winding road, posted as 55 mph but really not possible in an RV at more than about 35 mph.  

Except for logging trucks, but they take up both lanes on the corners, which is about every 100 yards.  One hour to drive the 36 miles over the mountains to Ukiah.   Then a stop at the tire place, where we confirmed it is likely a camber problem, not an alignment issue.  

So after that delay, we hit the road for Yosemite.  More country highway at this point, and we went through Napa and Sonoma.  No visible evidence of the earthquake in the towns we went through, but we did not go into down town Napa.   We made good time until we got to Priest Grade.  Here is an image I borrowed from the internet:

Yep, more twisting and winding roads.  It took us two and a half hours to travel about 90 miles, but the good thing about that was at the end of it we had this view. 

And our wooded campsite had this

We were so exhausted after the long day of just getting there that we turned in early and conked out around 8:30.

The next day we decided to simply drive the scooter around the valley and take in some of our favorite sights.

This is looking back down the valley towards El Capitan, the largest granite monolith in the world.

We sat out on the patio at the Awahnee Hotel and this deer family showed up to mow the lawn.

Check out the still visible spots on the fawns.

It was a good day to sit and do not much but look at the grandeur.  It was also hot, about 92, which made us very happy to sit in the shade, watch the birds and the grass sway and eat an ice cream bar from the deli.

Glass Beach Fort Bragg

We spent the other half of Labor Day weekend driving down Highways 101 and 1 to Fort Bragg.  Our main goal here was to see Glass Beach, where the sand is literally chunks of glass that have been smoothed and polished by the waves crashing on the rocks.  Not a sharp edge anywhere, but the beach is jewels of colored glass.  All this beauty is, and was, trash.  Many years ago, the town used these cliffs as their town dump!  The glass and a few bits of brick and pottery are what remain.

Tom took the best pictures, and I will try to upload his at a later point... But this is what I have now.

From down low, you can see all the jewel colors.

From this far up, it doesn't look like much, does it?  That is Tom on the lower left searching at low tide.

This is my photo of a squirrel's Beach House.  Right in the bluffs crawling up from Glass Beach.