Going Home

September 26, 2015

I want to give my maternal human some love.  I will sit on her chest while she sleeps.  I will rub her face and move my paws on her.  Purr purr purr... Oh look out the window at that!  Gotta run!

Woke up to a herd of deer behind Hannah.  Rudy didn't know what to make of those 'big dogs'. 

Today we are going home.  Up early to hit the road.  We readied Hannah and headed on the back roads.  It is quite pretty here, but DRY.  Rolling brown hills dotted with thirsty oaks take us to 101 south.  Lots of wineries and grapevines going home.

All in all, Hannah is in pretty good shape.  She needs a new this, and a tweak of that, but she will live to see more trips.

There is nothing like going, and there is nothing like going home.  Rudy was quite excited to see his yard.  Let the cleanup begin...

A hike in the Pinnacles

September 25, 2015

My maternal human calls them kwale.  I call them toys and I want one!

This morning, we are going to take one of the hikes in the park.  We decide not to disconnect the truck, and get the bikes off the rack.  I have to question why we did this.  We have never been here before, we have no idea what the roads are like, and we have no idea where we are hiking.  And Spouse, the fidgetmeister, has to add another thing to his Zombie Apocalypse  Backpack.   Oh, then another thing,  and one more thing.  Finally, off we go.  We had heard it was only a couple of miles to the Pinnacles so how bad can this be?

The road is a nice black top road with easy hills.  Oaks provide some shade, but it is only 8:30 and still quite cool.  We see signs to the trail heads and decided to go for the Old Pinnacles trailhead almost 2 miles away.  Piece of cake.  We lock up our bikes and start the hiking to Balconies Cave.  The trail is somewhat easy.  It weaves through dry arroyos and oak trees.  It is very thirsty here.  What looks like walnut trees still have fruit, but every leaf has dried up.  The trail narrows a bit and we pass through several more small arroyos.  In the spring, this would mean we would get wet most likely crossing.  After about 2 miles we see an intersection of trail where the Cliffs trail meets the Cave trail.  We met some people on the trail that said to do it, so after the cave, we figured we would.

Until now (about 2.7 miles), the trail has been fairly easy.  Now comes the fun part.  Out with the flashlights and into the cave.  Here, we have to channel our inner monkey and do some climbing up rocks, under boulders, and around slabs.  It gets narrow is spots.  It isn't clear if there is another way out but I see a few vague white arrows pointing the way, so I correctly assume that we go out a different way then we came in.  It was a whole lot of fun.  We then got on the Cliff ridge trail.  There is a lot of climbing, and the sun is getting real hot.  There is not a lot of shade. Here we get some pretty impressive vistas of the canyons and the rocky pinnacles.  We should see a condor to top it all off, but that didn't happen.  Beneath the shade of a huge boulder, we sat on a rockface and enjoyed our lunch drinking in the view.  It is sometimes difficult getting Spouse to move once he stops to rest.  I got out my handy crowbar, pried him up and we continued...  I am starting to hear the grumbles... 'Are we there yet?".  There is more shade now then there was this morning (thankfully).  It is very warm, in the 90s.   Spouse is lagging a bit behind me but we make it back to the bikes.  Oh goody, we get to ride back to Hannah after our 6 1/2 mile hike!

There is not as much shade as there was this morning and the black top is hot!  Good thing we only have a couple of miles to go.  Did I mention it was hot?  We got back to Hannah and thought about completing our triathlon by swimming in the pool here.  But that would require walking...  the water part of our triathlon was a good shower!

Note to the Pinnacles campground peeps:  when you label your electric box with 50 amps, how about actually supplying the 50 amps!  Don't get pissed when we go to your main to find out what is happening only to discover you are supplying only 30 amps.  On 30 amps, we KNOW we cannot run the air conditioner AND the microwave at the same time.  At 50 amps, we can.  Boneheads...  It is hot!

On to Pinnacles

September 24, 2015       

Where are my humans?  Sometimes, I look out the windows and wait for my humans.  When I see them coming, I jump down and run to the door.  I know they want to let ME-OWT!  Me-OWT!  ME-OWT!

Whenever we stay at Rick and Sue's, my walk is down their half mile driveway, across the road and onto the Thoroughbred Loop, which is home to beautiful horse properties on rolling hills.  I have seen deer and wild turkeys here on my numerous walks.  Today, no wildlife, but it is still as pretty as ever.

When I get back, Rudy is really wanting outside.  He cannot be outside here unsupervised as the coyotes are acting like they own the place.  Harl, the caretaker of the property is doing some preventative actions, but no need to risk our little beast.  And since Sue has to get ready for her trip, I wanted to get to the big house to visit, so Rudy had to hang inside.  I did take him out for a bit yesterday.  He did not know what to make of the horses, and the horses stared at him like he was an alien from another planet!

After a great morning visit, we readied Hannah and decided to go to Pinnacles National Monument, for one last adventure.  Pinnacles is between I5 and hwy 101 in the middle of nowhere south of Salinas.  We head down hwy 49 to I80 west.  Ugh, road construction.  Those k-rails look awfully close!  Then I5 south.  When we get to Stockton (hi Lynn Wheldon, too bad we didn't know we would be here or we would have arranged a visit), anyhow, in Stockton, EVERY truck that was operating in California was on this stretch of the road.  If that wasn't bad enough, there was more road construction, so we were stuck between a huge semi and a k-rail.  I was holding my breath as if that would make us skinnier!  I was also leaning to the inside of the truck, as if that would make any difference!

We ran the gauntlet and stopped for lunch at Santa Nella, then headed west on 33 to 152.  And around through Hollister south.  The hills are brown and thirsty, but occasionally, the grapevines and wineries pop up.

Can you believe it is 97 degrees?  We haven't seen that in...  how long?  too long to remember!  I know... wah wah wah!

We got a site at the Pinnacles campground.  Deer are cruising through eating human leftovers.  Wild turkeys too.  Pinnacles is a recent addition to the National Park System.  There are two entrances, one east, one west.  I asked Spouse which one had the campground.  He said west.  Good thing I called as the east is where the campground is.  There is no road all the way through the park, so if we were to come in at the west entrance, we would have had to drive down a gazillion miles, then over, then back up.  Even though it may only be a few miles as the crow flies, driving miles would probably close to 100 miles!

Likely to go to Rick and Sue's

September 23, 2015

I love to roll in dirt.  This is a good dirt place!  And I get some leaves on me too!  Aren't I cute?

This morning's walk was on a nature trail around and through the golf course.  It is high desert scrub with some ponderosa pines.  This used to be a hunting ground and there are makeshift blinds made to protect the hunters.  A few giant jack rabbits bounded across the trail.  There are also a whole lot of 'iniuks' (or inukyuks, depending on the indian tribe).  These are configurations of stacked rocks meant to bestow safe passage.  There were some real creative iniuks, like some people had a competition to see who could do the best.  It provided some nice entertainment.

After our walk, we readied Hannah for the road.  We headed south on hwy 395.  The road soon turned to desert scrub.  After a brief stop in Susanville, we decided to head down to our friends, Rick and Sue's in Grass Valley.  There are lots of pretty little side roads we could take, but having been on them before, we opted for the quicker route:  395 down to Reno, then to 80 over the beautiful Donner Pass, then 20 through the forest into GV. 

We met Rick and Sue in 1982 - before we were married.  At that time, it was cheaper to ski Innsbruck, Austria than it was to ski in Colorado, so we met on the plane going to Germany.  We hung around for a week in Germany, Austria and Italy and we have been good buddies ever since.  We watched their kids grow, get married and have their own kids.  They are our extended family.  And since Sue is leaving for a couple weeks to go to Europe, we figured we better get there today.  They have a huge piece of property so we put Hannah at the barn, where we could level her, get electricity and open her up.

With some people, you can pick up right where you left off, even if it was years ago.  Yak, yak, yak!  Great visit.

Logging and golf, a natural combination - who put that tree there anyway?

September 22, 1015

Blue jays, and chipmunks and squirrels, oh my!  Blue jays, and chipmunks and squirrels, oh my!  Blue jays, and chipmunks and squirrels, oh my!

Brrrr, it was cold this morning.  We saw a sign for a trail leading to a logging museum, so this morning's walk was through the woods, along the rushing Williamson River and to the museum.  Since it was early, we figured it would be closed, but it is all outside so it is available any time.  All sorts of machinery from over a hundred years ago, until modern times is on display.  There are old cabins from logging camps.  I looked inside one and saw a gazillion rodent droppings - hanta virus at its peak!  I looked and moved on while Spouse reads every sign... every sign...  I left him in loggerland while I finished my walk.

We then readied Hannah for the day.  Rudy has been going crazy with the wildlife here.  He has kitty ADD - should he focus on the blue jay?  or the squirrel?  or the chipmunk?????  Oh they come so close to him...   I think he was cranky when we put him in the truck to leave!

We headed south on hwy 97 towards Klamath Lake.  Lots of wooded hills along the way.  The lake is huge.  We pass through the town then head south on 39, which turns into 139 once we pass into California.  The hills still have fir trees, but the grass is brown.  There is some desert scrub and some marshland, and in the distance, there are piney mountains.  We take hwy 299 towards Altura, then south on hwy 395 to the town of Likely.

My friend Vicky told us about an RV park here with a golf course and where the stars are out at night.  The moon is too bright to see the milky way, but we did play golf!  We got here around 2pm, the sun was out, so why not!

It is a tough course, and long.  The greens are spongy so they can be really slow, until you finally hit the ball hard enough to get to the hole, then it will go way past the hole.  The fairways were spongy too.  We didn't get much roll at all on the ball... that is until you don't want the roll...  There were lots of hazards, especially on two of the looong par 5s, where right in the middle, you had to lay up or drink.  Here you need every bit of club in your bag to get to the green, and you have to lay up right in the middle.  We are talking 600 yards here...  Of course the deer and the snake were nice distractions!

Back to Hannah for some Rudy time and my vodka tonic.  Oh Rudy, do you have to roll in the dirt like that?

Hannah does a gumby move

September 21, 2015

My humans are outside.  They are sitting by a box that flickers yellow and sparks.  I want to be with them so I am putting my claws through the screen door.  Come get me!  Oh!  Here the maternal human comes!  What?  She closed the big door so I can't see at all!  How could she do that?  I am so cute!

We are staying at River Bend county park, just a tad west of Cascadia.  It is a beautiful woodsy park that is a great hybrid between tent camping and RV'ing.  Our site has electricity and water (no sewer).  There is a concrete pad for the picnic table and fire pit.  Then there are woodsy trees surrounding the site.  Each site is very private and they are all quite large.  There is a hiking trail that goes through the woods near the Santiam River.  The river is low, as they too are in a drought here.  So many of the trees are covered in moss from trunk to every limb.  I can hear the frogs chirping.  Supposedly, there are some very rare frogs here.

We continue east on hwy 20 on the 'over the rivers and thru the woods' scenic byway.  We are crossing over the Cascades again.  It is an easy mountain road, no hairpin turns or steep drop offs.  The granite mountains are lined with fir trees, and again, the undergrowth is screaming with the fall colors.  We are following the Santiam River.  We see little campgrounds and decide to check one out. 

Note to self:  when towing Hannah, make sure there is room to turn around...  We turn down the road toward the campground.  It is a dirt road, kind of bumpy.  It is narrow.  We cross over a bridge.  We were barely able to make the turn with Hannah, clearing the bridge posts by about an inch or two.  What are we thinking?  There is a sign that says the upper campground is not for large RVs, so let's not go that way.  The only problem is that the lower campground is not for large RVs either!  But we are here now, and we have no choice.  There is a tiny loop we follow.  Spouse had to move the truck up on the side of a hill to navigate the turn, and I am sure Hannah did some Gumby moves to get around the trees.  No way should we be able to make this turn, but somehow we did.  We made it back over the bridge, holding our breath the entire way, then back up to the highway.  Let's not do that again!

Continuing over the Cascades, we come upon a huge swath of mountains decimated by a wildfire.  Miles and miles of burnt sticks cover the mountains.  The Deschutes River is now in full view.  We pass through the town of Sisters, and head on to Bend for lunch.  When we stop, we put Rudy in Hannah.  I couldn't believe that Spouse had left his water bowl on the counter and with all the bumps and turns, the water was still on the counter!  Yet in the cabinet with the dishes, every cup was on end, and they were strapped in place!  Go figure!

We headed south on 97 toward Klamath Falls, settling in at Collier State park.  It is another woodsy campground where we can use the rest of the firewood we have been schlepping around since we were in Stanley about 4 weeks ago!  Rudy loves it here.  He has his eyes on the chipmunks and squirrels.  The blue jay looks appealing too...

Wining with friends

September 20, 2015

Oh goody!  We are going back into the little house that moves.  That means I get something else to play in!

My morning walk took me in the opposite direction from yesterday's walk.  Still lots of hills, but more open.  A little pond is on one side.  The pond itself is not visible, but the reeds and cattails are.

We bid our farewells to Bob and Jen and the kids, and started south on I5 to Salem.  We have some friends that are working in a winery near here for the fall harvest.  They do it every year.  Which winery was it...  they are not answering their phone...  Lemme call the winery and see if they know them.  First call, found it!  Ok, let's head to the Airlie Winery. 

We head west out of Salem on some little road through beautiful farmland.  Rolling hills in the foreground with pine laden hills in the background.  Some of the fields are freshly plowed.  There are orchards, and Christmas tree farms.  We go through a few tiny towns, the back into the farmland.  A turn here, then there.  We finally see grapevines.  There are quite a few wineries out here and we finally find Airlie, and our friends Jake and Lynn.

We met Jake and Lynn last year in Nova Scotia.  They stopped at our house right before we left on this trip and now we are here.  They gave us a behind the scenes tour of the winery.  The grapes are being pressed (no Lucy or Ethel in this press).  We saw the keg room, the storage bins, the vats, the hoses, etc.  Quite a science.  Then, of course, a sample was needed...

Most of the worker bees actually making the wine are volunteers that come here every year.  Lynn used to work with the owner way back when.  That is how they came to be here.  There is quite a comraderie among them.  We shared lunch then head out.

More small roads till we hit Corvalis.  Then we headed east to hwy 20.  We ended up in a little town right past the town of Sweet Home.  Beautiful campground on a river.  And we get to light a campfire!  We have been schlepping around firewood since we were in Stanley about 4 weeks ago.  Since then, there has been a ban on campfires because of all the wildfires.  Now we get to pyro it up!

Question:  Why is it when you are talking on the phone (bluetooth) in your car, that the GPS has to spew all sort of directions?  Then repeat them again and again...  It never happens unless the phone is in use.  Why is that? 

Veggies, Mansions and good food

September 19, 2015

Where is my paternal human taking me?  It is far away, I don't like it.  Oh no!  We are with the little humans again!  I will let them pet me but I don't like this!  I wanna go home!  MRRROOOOOWWWW!  Oh, good!  He is taking me home!

My morning walk took me to the trail right near Bob's house.  It is very hilly.  The only level steps are when you are going from up to down, or vice versa.  It is pretty, lots of open space.  I come upon an orchard of hollyberry trees getting ready for a Christmas harvest.  Then comes the switchback - a la Nob Hill in San Francisco.  Tomorrow, I will go the other way.

Bob had a morning class and took their only car.  That means, if we wanted to go pick veggies on the local farm, we would have to unhitch Hannah from the truck.  Is she level enough?  If she slid forward or backward, it would be real ugly.  We blocked her tires every which way from Sunday, then held our breath as Spouse pulled away.  She held, and we were free.  Keep in mind that since we are parked on the street, we are not opening Hannah's sliders.  It gets a bit challenging moving around like that!  We could have stayed in the house, but we figured Rudy was more comfortable here so we stayed in little Hannah!

We piled into the truck and headed to the farm.  Ellie is a ball of energy running up to Mr. Ed the farmer.  Mr. Ed, Mr. Ed, hi Mr. Ed!  Hayden is a little more reserved.  We picked what we needed, the kids played and fought like kids do. 

In the afternoon, with Bob back, we headed to Pittock Mansion.  The mansion was once grand, fell into disrepair, and the good people of Portland rescued and restored it.  It was too late to go in the mansion, but the grounds are beautiful.  We sit atop Portland with Mt. Hood in the background.  Roses, zinnias, impatiens and all sorts of other flowers blast out colors.  There are hiking trails through the woods.  Jennifer and I headed down.  The guys and Ellie were slow to follow.  Soon they were telling us they went far enough, it is too much downhill and they knew they would have to do the uphill.  Whiners!  WE then hiked back up.

Thai food for dinner!  MMMMMM....

Then came the moment of truth... We have to hook Hannah up again.  With our landing leg mechanism not being what it should, we can barely lift Hannah enough to hook up.  Sometimes, she gets pushed back a little when we hook up.  If that happens on this hill, Hannah is going for a ride without a driver!  Bob and Jen will get to know their neighbors in a way they never anticipated!  But Spouse rose to the occasion and hooked her up 'without a hitch', so to speak!  Now, we are ready to head out tomorrow morning.

Visiting Bob, Jen, Hayden and Ellie

September 18, 2015

Who are these little humans?  I'm not sure I like them.  I will begrudgingly let them pet me, but I am ready to run.

My morning walk started down the street and the next thing I know, I am in farm country.  Beautiful rolling hills with crops, horses and cattle are in the foreground, with mountains in the background.  When the shoulder got too small to walk safely, I turned around and walked other streets, stumbling on a Costco!  Oh Spouse... no sales tax... off he went.

We decided to head back to Bob and Jen's and scout out a place for Hannah.  At worst, we could always stay in a Wal-Mart.  We looked left, we looked right.  Then we looked up the hill.  That looked fairly level.  And wouldn't you know, the truck and Hannah fit perfectly between the driveways.  We found a home!  Let the visit begin!

Bob is my sister Stephanie's son.  Jennifer is his wife.  Hayden is the 7 year old son, and Ellie is the almost 4 year old girl.  Talk talk talk talk talk.  Let's go get Hayden from school.  Talk talk talk talk talk.  Oh, eat.  I made cookies with my two little assistants.  Talk talk talk talk talk, eat.  Better go let Rudy have some walk time.  He isn't real keen on the kids.

Visiting Albert

September 17, 2015                       

What?  It is wet out here!  I can go back inside now.

It rained a good part of the night, and it was raining this morning.  No walk this morning, a rare thing for me.  We readied Hannah for departure.  Today, we have 164 miles to my nephew's house in Beaverton, Oregon, near Portland.

The rain came and went, came and went.  It was dry.  It was wet.  Never saw Mt. Ranier or Mt. St. Helens through the clouds.  It wasn't far, but it sure took a long time.  We thought we would see if we could park Hannah at their house... That is a negatory... too hilly.  We had a short visit (we were not planning on visiting today anyway) then attempted to find an RV park.   We figured we would stay 3 nights...  we call the first one... full, the next one... full, the next and the next... all full.  What the heck is going on?  We are now calling parks 25-30 miles away and they are all full!  We did find one with an opening for tonite only, so we jumped on it.    As it turns out, it is close to my friend Albert, who we are visiting tonite.  Albert and I have been buds since the 70's.

To Wilsonville we go.  We meet Albert at McMenamins.  McMenamins purchases old historic buildings that have gone into distress, and they refurbish them.  Each one is unique.  In Wilsonville, it is in an old church.  Pub food, steaks and fish give a well rounded menu.  Outside is a small ampitheater with firepits and a band.  For us, it was Tin Silver, kind of celtic folk.  Good music, good company.  I always love seeing Albie.

Visiting more peeps

September 16, 2015

ME-OWT!  ME-OWT!

Today is dedicated to more visiting.  The niece of my friend Vicky is living up here so we decided to surprise her with a visit.  Amy works at the Barnes and Noble in Silverdale, which is just a few miles from where we are having dinner with my friend Mary.  So, Spouse and I go in looking for Amy.

Amy saw Spouse and had to do a double take.  Like, is that Doug?  Here?  Then she saw me and realized that it was us.  After the shock wore off, we did some chit chat, but she was working so she did not have much time.  We gave her our hugs and figured we might stop by later after dinner at Mary's.

Mary and I worked together in prehistoric times, you know; before the earth cooled.  She and her husband Mike live in Bremerton.  Mike is a fabulous cook and dinner was delicious.  4 hours flew by but it was fun catching up.

Then back to Amy's for a visit with the spouse and kids.  Amy was always an animal person.  Once we had found a bunny in the park, so we took it and gave it to Amy.  Before long, there were bunnies all over the neighborhood. In a somewhat cruel twist of fate, Amy's son Donovan is highly allergic to animals.  Amy being Amy, she knows how to pick critters that they can have without causing stress, so there are fish, turtles and a chinchilla.

For a spontaneous thing, it sure was nice.  I cannot believe how much Amy looks like her mother (who died in a tragic accident about 16 years ago).  And Amy's daughter Kaida is a mini-Amy.  And Kaida is just as precocious as Amy was at that age.  Lots of cuteness.

On the way home, Spouse's hunt for fuel took over.  If he would have waited just another mile, he could have save 10 cents per gallon.  Oh the pain...

And about those roundabouts... they are traffic nightmares.  Whoever dreamed them up needs to be slathered in honey and thrown in an ant hole!

Visiting Spouse's Peeps

September 15, 2015

My humans are allowing other humans to sit in my chair.  I will sit on them and if they pet me, they can stay.

This morning's walk was a familiar one.  Since we have stayed here before, it kind of feels like home.  I head over to the Cushman Trail, which is a hiking/biking trail.  The trail is lined with maples, some firs and lots of berry brambles.  It has nice hills and is one of my favorite walks.  The berries are pretty much all dried up.  There are a few that are not ripe yet, but I tame my inner bear and leave them be.  I pass the beautiful old cedar tree and at the top of the next rise is a panoramic view of the Puget Sound.  I notice that the trail has been extended since our last visit.  It probably goes for about 10 miles now.  I do about a 4 mile round trip.

Our friend Bill came over for a visit.  He sat in Rudy's chair.  Rudy had to lay on him for a bit.  It is always nice to catch up with old friends.  We are meeting again for dinner with his wife, and some more of Spouse's friends from work.

At dinner, Huey and Mary, then Bill and Lucy and us gabbed for a couple of hours.  We all came back to Hannah.  Lucy sat in Rudy's chair.  Rudy sat on Lucy's lap.  He is not quite as relaxed with her as he is with us, otherwise we would be hurt!  Nice visit.