September 6, 2022 The long road home

 

September 6, 2022  Going Home

My humans let me walk around a lot.  I am bored.

I heard Sunny and Crew leave for work at 4am.  When the sun started coming up, I did my walk, before the heat set in.  We readied Hannah for the ride home.

Lots of rural roads before we hit hwy 99.  Whether you take I5 or 99, the ride home sucks.  Lots of trucks and it is hot.  Going through Bakersfield it was 117…  and I had to stop to use Hannah’s bathroom…  oh my that was treacherous!

There had been a fire in Castaic.  The southland 5 lanes were open, but not all the northbound lanes.  As we soared by, we agonized for those gazillions of cars and trucks that were trying to make their way north.  Miles and miles and miles… even the side streets were jammed.  Oh my…

As usual, when we pull up to the house, Rudy starts bobbing his head with excitement.  MEOWT.  Ok baby… go have fun…

Now comes the real work…

At this point Spouse’s son-in-law John wants Hannah as a hunting retreat.  This would be such a fitting retirement for her…  Will keep you posted…  Until then… c u next time!

September 5, 2022 Crew and Sunny

 

September 5, 2022 Visiting in Crew and Sunny

My humans let me walk some, but it is hot.  I must rest.

My walk took me on a loop on the roads around Crew’s house.  It is very rural.  Although it is dry and yellow like most of California, it is a beautiful walk among homes on large properties.  There are rolling hills and pretty views.  The loop is about 1 ½ miles so I walked it back and forth.  It is amazing what you see walking in the opposite direction.  In all that time, only one car passed me.

California is having a heat wave, and it is about 105 here.  So far, our air conditioner is holding on as long as we have the fridge using gas instead of electricity.  Since Crew and Sunny have no dining room table yet, we have been playing Skipbo in Hannah so we NEED that air conditioner!

We went with Crew to the grocery store in Ione.  Turn left here for a few miles of rolling hills, then turn right for some more, then left, then right and finally, about 20 minutes later, we are in the tiny town.  Needless to say, this is not a trip you make often!

Sunny is Hmong. The Hmong people are essentially people without a country.  They are mountain people of southeast Asia, most closely related to Vietnam or maybe Thailand.  She is first generation American, but she has been raised with a lot of the Hmong culture.  She speaks fluent Hmong but is definitely a cute American girl!

She prepared a batch of pho that was delicious. Mmmmm…. She is definitely a keeper!

September 4, 2022 Hello goodbye hello goodbye

 

September 4, 2022  Moving on to Crew and Sunny

My feline friend came over to play with me.  I am not sure about him.  I showed him my paws, but just a little bit.  I let him sniff me and I sniffed him.  I am not sure about him, but I think he is ok, maybe.

I loved my morning walk around the Thoroughbred Loop.  I think I ate all the ripe berries that could be eaten without risking life and limb.  It was quite cool overnight, but by the end of my walk, it was warming up.

We readied Hannah.  One of the little kitties came over to play with Rudy.  They want to play so much, but Rudy isn’t sure.  He gave the tiniest of swats, not aggressive at all and they were able to sniff each other.  They go under Hannah so we can’t see exactly what happens as they hide behind the tires.  I guess what happens beneath Hannah stays beneath Hannah!

Back at the house, we say our goodbyes to Rick and Sue.  It is a bit of a hard visit as Rick has multiple sclerosis.  He was diagnosed over 30 years ago and the disease progressed pretty slowly for years.  But now he is basically confined to a wheelchair, and cannot interact like he has over the years.  I felt bad when Spouse cracked a joke and Rick laughed while he was chewing and nearly choked.  But he was ok and enjoyed the laugh, which was good to see.  Fortunately, he has a beautiful property that can house the caregivers that really take good care of him, and allows Sue some ‘me’ time. 

For us, we are heading to visit our nephew Crew and his wife Sunny.  They bought a home in the town of Ione.  Although we could have taken the scenic hwy. 49 down, it is pretty windy, it is a holiday weekend and we decided to take I80 to 99, then to Liberty Rd… which takes you past Lake Comanche into the middle of nowhere. 

The house has a long driveway, and electricity – perfect fit!  It is 100 degrees, and we can run our air conditioner in Hannah.  Their house is quite nice, it is new with no landscaping or fencing, so they have lots to look forward to.

We are teaching them Skipbo… let’s all sharpen our fangs…

September 3, 2022 More Visiting

 

September 3, 2022  More Visiting

I got to sniff a bunch of stuff today.  My human let me walk around a lot.  But those other felines kind of followed me. 

My morning walk around the Thoroughbred Loop was as beautiful as ever.  On the way back toward the house, 3 deer crossed my path.  Just another day in the Bain Animal Kingdom.  OH… look at that bear scat on the road…

We had to do a little yard work today.  For us to get Hannah out safely, we needed to trim a few trees that were dangling a bit too low.  The barn kitties gave us a little hand, and Rudy watched quite intensely.  Hopefully we did enough.  We will be leaving tomorrow.

In the meantime, more visiting.  Sue gave us a ride in the golf cart around the property.  It is 46 acres, lots to see.  The caretakers are building a chicken coop.  That won’t attract any bears, right? Hmm… bear tracks around the pond…

Visiting, playing Skipbo, eating, drinking…  It is pretty darn nice here! 

It has been warm during the day, but quite cool during the night.  Great for sleeping.  If we close the rig windows in the morning, it doesn’t get too hot during the day.  We don’t even have to use the air conditioner.

September 2, 2022 Wild Animal Kingdom

 

September 2, 2022  Wild Animal Kingdom

There are other felines here.  My humans let me sit outside and they came up to me.  They were not mean but I had to show them that my paws are bigger than their paws.  Then a canine came up to me.  I had to hiss and show him my paws.

When we stay at the Bain House, my walk is around the Thoroughbred Loop.  Spouse does part of it with me.  We head down the road from the house.  It is a dirt road all the way to the main street, about a half mile.  Two coyotes run through the brush.  We cross McCourtney Rd and start the loop.  The 6B ranch is looking mighty dry, like most of California.  No horses are in the pasture.  The entire loop is large horse properties with pretty pastures and lots of pine trees.  The geese that roost on Rick and Sue’s pond at night hang out at one of the pastures over here during the day.  I cannot pass up the blackberry brambles.  I eat a few… then a few more… ok, let’s face it… I shoved a bunch down my pie hole!  MMMM Good!  While Spouse turns back about half way, I follow the loop all the way back to McCourtney Rd, then retrace my steps back.  It is about a 3 ½ mile trip door to door.  It is one of my favorite walks.

Back at the house, Scooter the big horse, and Daisy the miniature greet me with little whinnies.  They are thinking I have treats for them now doubt. They have only had Daisy for about a year.  Their other mini-horse got taken down by a bear.  They found her, and asked a trapper about the evidence and he said it was definitely a bear.  Long story

short… let’s just say bear steaks were had by all real soon after.  Since then, they move the horses to the upper pasture at night and haven’t had a problem.  This is the first time this has happened in the 35 years they have been here.  And Scooter and Daisy are inseparable, it is so cute.  But there are bear tracks around the pond…  I hear the theme music from Jaws…

Sue knows there is a bobcat at the south side of their pond that has kittens every year.  And on the upper property is a fox family.  Her help, that live on the property have two kittens, about 8 months old.  They keep them in at night, but I doubt they will last real long.  They are sweet and were very curious about Rudy.  When they got close to him, Rudy gave them a little hiss, and a gentle swat to show who was boss.  And when Charlie the maltipoo ran up to Rudy, he gently showed off his polydactl paws!

And then we visited.  We have known the Bains for 40 years, and had some catching up to do.

September 1, 2022 Why, oh why did he say it?

September 1, 2022 The Fates Exact Revenge

I am popular.  Humans flock to me and I let them touch me.  Canines bark at me, and I don’t let THEM touch me.  It is exhausting being so attractive.

When we first started talking about retiring Hannah, Spouse talked about all the work he has done on her.  Then he said this…  help us now… ‘I’ve pretty much gone through her, so there is not much that could go wrong now’.

Are you kidding?  How could he do that!  He threw down the gauntlet and the fates heard it, I am sure.  I did not respond.  Maybe if I don’t acknowledge this dare, it didn’t happen, right?  Like if I cover my eyes with my hands, then you can’t see me, right?  What was he thinking?

Several days pass…  then this morning…  Spouse opens the refrigerator and the door falls off in his hand and onto his foot, spilling all the contents across the floor.  Of all the things that could go wrong, this was not even on my radar.  Fortunately, no damage to his foot, and although there was a little spillage, nothing broke.  As Spouse stood there dumbfounded, I did what I could do to help… I took a picture and texted to my RV homies!  Hmm, make sure I have no typos on my text – tick tock tick tock…  oops… fat finger, let me retype that… Finally, I helped him pick up the carnage.

Now that he was awake, what are we going to do now?  Youtube videos gave Spouse some ideas.  While we were picking up the mess, we found a screw here, a nut there.  Then Mr. Fix-up put on his cape with the big FU (fix up) and left for Walmart for some epoxy.

While he is gone, I get some walking in.  Totally uneventful.  When I got back he had epoxied the damaged hinge, and now we had to let it cure.  We put some of the fridge contents in the mini fridge my spouse keeps in the truck.  I cooked breakfast and it was so nice just reaching inside the fridge without dealing with the door.  After the epoxy was cured to Spouse’s satisfaction, he applied Gorilla tape to make it extra secure.  The moment of truth came when we actually got the door in place and was able to screw it in.  Will it last?  Who knows, but it did make some decisions for us.  We had talked about staying in Reno a few days to visit people.  But given that our days feel numbered, we skipped that and headed straight to Grass Valley to visit Rick and Sue.

Taking hwy. 50 to I80 west… OMG so boring, it actually hurts the eyes.  Then we pass into California and start over the beautiful Donner Pass.  Mountains, pines, the Truckee River and Donner Lake guide us along to hwy. 20, which is basically a two lane road through a thick pine forest.  Alas we arrive at the Bain house.

Rick and Sue have a large property, and we have stayed by the barn before.  This time we thought we would come in from a different angle…  I must apologize to our truck and to Hannah… this won’t happen again…

Time for a cocktail!

August 31, 2022 Inching West through Nevada

 

August 31, 2022  Inching West through the middle of Nevada

I was sitting outside with my paternal human and he walked away and left me all by myself.  Sometimes, I am ok with this but there are canines here!  DON’T LEAVE ME!  MOMMY LET ME IN!

My morning walk took me around the town of Baker.  It is a desert town where all the side streets are dirt.  On the road going up to Great Basin is an old rail car that has been converted to a home.  It is on about ½ acre, maybe more as it has a couple of outbuildings.  It is for sale at $599k.  The rail car is 498 square feet…  on a weed patch with a few fruit trees.  There are art sculptures around the property made from scraps of whatever – bottles, bike tires, etc.  It is quite creative.  But, $599 k?  Are you kidding?

I have to apologize to the state of Nevada.  I have said some pretty harsh things, like how ugly the terrain is.  There is a whole lot of ugly desert terrain here.  That terrain totally pegs the boor-o-meter.  That terrain could be used as a sleep aid for insomniacs around the world.

However… there is some terrain that is actually ok, so let’s give credit where credit is due.  There are rolling hills with desert sage, pinion trees and ponderosa pines that are actually interesting to look at.  Maybe not for so many miles but it isn’t bad.  Occasionally you see cattle grazing on some green.  That is ok… We saw a huge sand dune that was kind of cool… broke up the Nevada Brown with some light ecru. 

But, give me the night sky like you did last night outside of Great Basin and I will be much nicer to you. Not only did we see stars, but we saw STARS!  The milky way, satellites, shooting stars and then even more stars!  It was an amazing sky.

We are taking hwy. 50 which is known as the loneliest highway in the country.  It is a great alternative to I80.  It is actually fewer miles to Reno and the speed limit is 65-70 except through towns, of which there are few.  And we saw very few cars… we owned the road and that was really nice.

At one point, we thought of stopping at the town of Austin.  But we blinked and we missed it so we ended up in Fallon.  Inching closer to home…