Hesperia to Sedona

We left Hesperia at about 9:30 this morning and drove through many miles of desert. I guess some people find beauty in the desert, but after awhile we found it to be a tad monotonous. We can’t really fathom why anyone would choose to live in Needles California. (No offense, Needles.)

After driving through the rest of California along I-40, we finally reached Arizona. We’ve heard a lot about the In-N-Out burgers, and when we got to Kingman, we finally tried them. They're good! Fries weren’t bad either, although I’ve had better. (One of my favorite places for fries is the Linn City Pub in West Linn, Oregon.)

We drove awhile longer and ended our day in Sedona. Wow! Spectacular scenery. We stayed in the very quaint little Sedona Motel, and had dinner at Elote – an amazing Mexican place just down the road. I had the lamb adobo and a prickly-pear margarita, Rick tried the pork cheeks. Both meals were delicious.

Tomorrow – the Grand Canyon!!

Day Three – Benicia to Hesperia

Drove to Benicia after dinner on Monday and spent the night at another Holiday Inn Express. We woke up early under sunny skies and went to have breakfast with my cousins Elaine and Janet, along with 3 of their children.

We dined at the 1^st Street Café in downtown Benicia. What a lovely town, and a great little restaurant. We all had a great visit catching up, talking about our departed loved ones, and what’s going on in our lives now. Janet, the older sister, is studying to be a paralegal, Elaine, the younger sister, is a dental hygienist. I’m thinking they have a very proud mama.

After breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and hit the road. Drove as far as Hesperia California, bought some microwave dinners at Target and spent the rest of the evening doing laundry. Not too exciting, but we sure are happy to have clean clothes again!

The Road Not Taken

Subtitle: I Love My GPS

In our case, that road would be Interstate 80 from Reno to Sacramento.

So we found ourselves in Redding California, heading to Sacramento for dinner with my cousin Amy and her two adorable daughters. Well, since Redding is only about 160 miles from Sacramento, we had some time to kill. So we decided to make a quick side trip to RENO! Haven’t been there in years! It was a lovely drive with fabulous twisty roads and beautiful scenery. Just a few hours later and we were in the Biggest Little City in the World. Gosh were we surprised. Reno just isn’t the fun, happen’ city we remembered. It’s dirty, smelly, run down, and just overall depressing. But at least there was one bright spot – the Thai Corner Café was great. Friendly service, nice décor, and yummy food. We shared drunken noodles and Pa Nang curry.

Since Reno was such a bust, we decided to head back to Sacramento early – or so we though. I remembered checking GoogleMaps the night before and seeing that we could take I-80 all the way to Sacramento in just a little more than 2 hours. But since I didn’t print that map, or commit the route to memory, we plugged in our Tom Tom GPS and began the long long journey. For some unfathomable reason, the GPS guided us to Carson City, South Tahoe, along Pioneer Trail Road, Highways 397 and 50, up mountains, down mountains, past Incline Village, and finally, more than 3 hours later, we reached our destination. (Glad we left early!) So do I really love my GPS? Unequivocally YES. If we had taken the usual Interstate route we would have missed some truly spectacular scenery – mountains, lakes, rivers, rock formations, along with some beautiful flowers and spectacular trees. I could even overlook the aggravation caused by the total jerk driver that was revving his engine, changing lanes erratically, cutting people off, and generating a host of obscene gestures and verbal insults from other drivers. Don’t know what his problem was, but he needs to slow down and enjoy the journey. (Sometimes we all need to do that.)

We arrived at our destination in plenty of time to enjoy a delightful dinner with my cousin and her two charming daughters. The oldest is 7 going –on 15, the youngest is 5 going-on, well, 5. There are both adorable. They actually seemed to enjoy visiting with us as much as we enjoyed visiting with them. My cousin is a sweetheart, and apparently has a plethora of patience. She teaches fourteen 2 year olds every day at a Montessori school. (Oh please – just shoot me now!)

My take-aways from today: Skip Reno, but consider Lake Tahoe for future vacations and be sure to visit my cousin and her family the next time we’re in the central California area.

On the Road Again - Day One

So long, Oregon!

We left Clackamas Oregon bright and early this morning and drove to Salem for one last visit with the kids & grandkids. Were there by 9 a.m. and took advantage of the morning light with a quick photo shoot. We sure looked cute in our matching purple shirts. OK, they didn’t really match, but they were all purple.

We hit the road by about 10 a.m. and drove as far as Grants Pass (with the top down) where we stopped for gas and lunch. Lunch was at a place called the Black Bear Diner. Good food. Good prices. Good service. Can’t ask for much more. I must admit, they did take the “black bear” theme a little over the top. There were bears everywhere! We also discovered that folks in Grants Pass are real friendly. Had several folks greet us in the parking lot on the way in and out. And the gas station attendant was quite chatty, too.

We planned to drive as far as Yreka, but by the time we got there it was only about 3 p.m., so we continued on to Redding. Got to Redding about 5 p.m. and decided to call it quits. Had to stop somewhere between GP & Redding to put the top up on the car – it was just too hot. Even with a hat on, I was worried about getting a sunburn. So here we are. It’s 100 degrees out, so we’re just going to hang in the hotel room and eat take-out. We’ll be back at it in the AM.

On the Road Again

OK, I re-read my last post from 2 months ago, and I just had to laugh. I indicated that we were having our cable installed and I would be able to post more regularly. Ha! The cable installation happened, but obviously the posting didn't.

In the last two months the weather has continued to get warmer. In fact, Houston had record setting temperatures in June. There were 7 days of at least 100 degrees, and the even the not so hot days were still in the 90's. Needless to say, our pool has been getting a lot of action!

We continue to work on the house -- still lots of painting to do. We'd like to work in the yard a bit, but that will have to wait for cooler weather.

So this seemed like a good time to "get outta town" for awhile. We flew to PDX on July 3rd, then drove to Lincoln City in that cute little sports car we left behind when we moved away. The weather in Oregon has been fantastic, and we've already logged quite a few miles with the top down.

Our daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids were already at the beach waiting for our arrival. It was so nice to seem them -- and hug them! They stayed a few days, and we stayed a couple more - reading and relaxing, before coming back to P-town.

We spent a couple of days visiting old friends, and are ready to hit the road again. We're heading south, stopping first in Salem to see the kids again and have some pics taken. We'll continue our southerly trek through California, stopping to visit some cousins along the way. Then it's on to Arizona for our first visit ever to the Grand Canyon! We figure we should be home in plenty of time to enjoy the unrelenting August heat and humidity in its entirety. Oh boy!

Mocking Birds and Moody Blues!

Since we arrived in Spring a week ago, we’ve got a lot done. We’ve painted, tore out shelves and installed new cabinets in the laundry room, cleaned, fixed the dishwasher, bought a refrigerator, replaced some burned out light bulbs (the hard to reach kind), and installed a shower curtain and rod. There are only about 40 items left on our “TO DO” list. It seems like every time we step out the door it costs another $100 or so in paint and home improvement supplies.

So far, the weather has been wonderful. It was in the 90’s one day, but has mostly been in the 70’s and 80’s. It’s rained a couple of times, but only at night. And the humidity has been quite low, making the air temp very comfortable.
There were several things we were warned about before we moved here. First, the weather. We know, the awful, hot, humid, sticky, summer is just around the corner. I think that’s what it will take to get Rick in the pool. Me on the other hand, I’ve already been in a couple of times. It’s not heated, but it doesn’t need to be. Another thing we were warned about are the cockroaches. So far, we haven’t seen any live ones in the house. There were a few dead ones before we moved in, but they were quickly dispatched. And then there are the fire ants. We’ve been told they’re very aggressive, they bite, and the bites sting and itch like crazy. We’ve seen some evidence of fire ants around the yard, but I don’t think any have bitten me yet. (However, I do have a couple of mosquito bites.)

What nobody told us about are the mocking birds. They are the state bird of Texas. You can guess why they’re called mocking birds. Yep, they can imitate many different sounds. They are abundant, and they are noisy! We’ve been sleeping with our window open, and they usually start their racket at around 4 a.m. Rick insists there are some that sound like a car engine starting. The ones that annoy me beyond measure are the pair that sounds like a whimpering dog!

We’ve had some good meals here. We ate at Tommy Bahama’s on Friday right before we went to the Moody Blues concert. I had the Tahitian Tuna Salad: Blackened Ahi seared rare with baby arugula, carrots, sweet soy glaze, tamarind vinaigrette, wasabi aioli, wonton strips & sesame seeds. It was yummy. Rick had beef. (He’s so predictable!) The concert was held at a lovely outdoor amphitheater in The Woodlands. We thought we’d be sitting on the grass, so I brought along an old fabric shower curtain to sit on. As it turned out, we got VIP seats, so didn’t have to sit on the grass after all. It got a little chilly that night, so my girlfriend and I ended up wrapping ourselves in the shower curtain. We looked silly, but we were warm. The music was wonderful and very nostalgic. (There sure were a lot of OLD people there – including the band!)

We’ve also had some yummy meals at home, too. Our local grocery store sells fresh cooked crayfish – one of our favorites. A big pot of those and a couple of beers make a darned fine meal! (Don't know what that line is across the middle of the picture. Cell phone camera error.)

We’re having our cable installed on Thursday. Then I won’t have to “borrow” my WiFi connection from the neighbors anymore and will be able to post more regularly. That is assuming I’m not dead-dog-tired from crossing items off my TO DO list. OK, back to the list….

SPRING TEXAS

Oh Happy Day!

We’ve finally reached our destination. Hooray! The last few miles just breezed by. It would be nice to kick back and relax by the pool, but there’s still so much to do. So far, we’ve unloaded and returned the U-Haul ; unloaded my car; unloaded the pickup; fixed the garbage disposal; fixed the dishwasher; bought a fridge, a trash can, and other assorted items, and had dinner with our friend Nancy and her family. The gas is supposed to be turned on and the fridge delivered today. I’ll be happy to skip the COLD showers. Although it was warm enough yesterday that I didn’t really mind all that much. The weather is lovely. Mid 80’s with a slight overcast, gentle wind and only a little bit humid.

Along with lots of unpacking (it’s challenging to figure out where everything will go), I think we’re going to buy some cabinets for the laundry room, and since our washer & dryer isn’t here yet, we need to find a Laundromat, too. I haven’t been to one of those in years!

Time to get busy! But first, check out my hot pool boy. :-)