March 21, 2002
Today is the next to last day of the 2002 Spring Escapade here in San Bernardino, CA. We got here Sunday the 17th, and leave tomorrow. But before I share what fun we've had this past week, let's get caught up a bit.
On the left, a picture of "almost-stuck-in-the-mud" again. River bottom land, actually a few feet below sea level, with a levy holding the river back being the access road to Isleton where we're parked. Sort of across the freeway from Lodi. We were staying here on our week out of the TTN system. I took the picture mostly to be used on the flyers I've been handing out to prospective buyers. I made 4 flyers, and have three left. Hummmmm. On the right is Lake Minden where we stayed for so many weeks this past year visiting my mom. This morning as we were walking around the lake we tried to get pictures of the flock of white pelicans that had descended on the lake and were feeding on the fish around the swimming float. The water level was quite low, and the fish had no place to hide other than under the float, but it wasn't quite enough. There were probably only a hundred pelicans at most, but none of them went away hungry. Made me jealous. Been so long since we've been fishing, we'll have to learn all over again.
More of the pelicans and then son Rick and his wife Lynn (doesn't she have a delicious smile?). We were getting goofy, as they'd just been subjected to their first (and we hope not last) session of Mexican Train. This was the day before we left the Sacramento area to head for Santa Cruz.
We stayed at this wonderful park at the invitation of friend John Christman. Thanks John. He even let me use his DSL line--I'm ruined forever. It's so much quicker than the best dialup line I've ever had, that there's just no comparison. That's Moby Dick peeking under the nose of the Road Abode, and Barb's perched on the steps. I think we'd just gotten back from our morning walk or were about to leave on it. Some time later that day we took mom's ashes to be buried under a plaque which will be placed in the family plot in the historic Evergreen Cemetery in Santa Cruz. And after that it was off to the beach. Barb's looking at some kind of operation which I thought might be dredging to keep the channel open. We'd parked to walk out to the lighthouse. Wrong! This little channel was between us and the lighthouse.
To the left was the beach, and to the right was the reason for the channel. Pretty good sized marina by any standards. Wind was blowing and it was chilly; also, Thursdays have never been a real big beach day. At least that's what we thought was keeping the people away.
A short drive later plus a short walk, we're at the lighthouse. On the left, Barb is sitting on what appeared to me to be un-used tank-traps from WWII. I could be wrong, of course (and often am), but they looked like that to me. Sort of like a set of Jacks that the Jolly Green Giant would have played with. Not RV jacks, but the kind you play with a small rubber ball. Ah, never mind.
Now these guys (they were all males) aren't idiots trying to commit suicide on the cement. We were sitting at the end of the jetty, and just to our left was the opening of the channel to the marina. From the standpoint of someone who has lived in Hawaii, these waves are pretty puny, but these 1/2 dozen guys sure enjoyed them.
Because I'd tried to learn to surf while living in Hawaii, and got nothing but bruises, skinned elbows and knees, and countless shatterings of my ego, I had to admire the efforts of those wet-suited fellows. On the left is a shot of fellow body surfing with a board. Now I'm sure there's a more sophisticated term for it, but he had a much smaller board, quite rounded, that he'd fling his body on and ride it not unlike a snow sled. Moving on, on the right is where we parked in Boron, CA, on our way to San Bernardino from Santa Cruz. Rather rustic little place, wonderfully helpful man and his wife running it. Wind blowing at well over 45MPH when we got there, temp's in the low 40's. Miserable night to do laundry in, but since we'd be dry camping for the week at the Escapade (RV rally for members of the Escapees RV club), we wanted to take advantage of the facilities and hookups. Filled the fresh water tank and emptied the waste water tanks. That night we "rock 'n rolled" all night. Reminiscent of the year or so we lived aboard, and the many nights cruising when we'd be rocked to sleep.
AHA! Here we are at the Escapade. And because of good luck, we found somebody shorter than Barb. On the left with Barb is Kay Peterson. Kay and her husband Joe started the Escapees RV club in 196? (67 maybe). They are very special people in the RV world, and were recently inducted into the RV Hall of Fame. The first couple to ever be given that honor. They've written several great RV'ing books, have pretty much seen it all and done it all, and are still sharing and caring about others. I could go on and on, but go to www.escapees.com and see for yourself what it's all about. On the right is one of the many seminars given on how to do what we're doing, and how to do it better, less expensively, and with more joy (is that possible?).
On the left is Barb trying to spend all our money at the craft sale (we're not going to mention the new "Toughbook" computer I bought with its mini-mouse and 4 port USB hub that stores in the PCMCIA slot) and on the right is the dais for our Elks B.O.F. meeting. Now, the Escapees have "sub-groups" or affinity groups called Birds Of a Feather--B.O.F. Since I'm an Elk, and there are a bunch of us, we get together when we can and get newsletters about parking, various events across the country, and other things like that. Check out the website and you'll see what I mean. And if you're serious about RV'ing, even as a "Wannabee" you owe it to yourself to join the Escapees. It'll be the best investment you can make in this lifestyle.
Tonight is the dance party, tomorrow at 7AM is the "Hitch-up breakfast," and then it's off to the International dealer to get new oil for both Moby Dick and the generator. If you're reading this, it means that we made it to the TTN park in Palm Springs (actually Palm Desert), and I've managed to get online for a bit.