September 10 My Walk is in the Toilet

 

Tuesday September 10, 2024 The toilet vs. Wilder Ranch

My maternal human poked me again, but then she rubbed my muzzle with her muzzle.  I think she likes me.  I did the muzzle bump in the night.  I ran my purr box too.  She pushed me away.  I wonder why?

It is so tranquil at this RV park.  It is a little bit hard to get moving in the morning.  I did my knee rehab, then got ready for my walk.  Went to the bathroom… flushed the toilet…  and it wouldn’t stop flushing!  The valve is filling the toilet with water!  NOOOOO!

Spouse turned off the water to Artee.  We do not have a sewer hookup in this site so we can’t be filling our tanks.  Under normal circumstances, it should be easy to go a full week without emptying our tanks.  But we can’t let the water run.  If this would have happened in the middle of the night, we would not have noticed the water running and it would have been a major flood!  YIKES!

Dr. Brown started the diagnostics.  To get the model info, we had to use a mirror.  This is good… Spouse is dyslexic using a mirror.  Do you think he will get this right???  Utube… hmm, couldn’t find the model number.  Call a mobile repair… no cell service.  Hmm… RV repair in Santa Cruz…  Finally, Spouse realizes the cost of a new toilet is probably cheaper than a mobile repair.  So, my walk is scrapped and we head to SC.  He had the model number wrong…  surprise!  But they could figure out the model from his transposed numbers.  The toilet will not be here til tomorrow.  In the meantime, we have to turn the water off.  We can turn the water pump on sparingly, especially during the middle of the night.  But we must be careful.  Argh…

Well, we intended to do a bike ride at Wilder Ranch State Park.  If we had known where the RV shop was, we could have had all our bike stuff in the truck and left from there.  Instead, we had to head back.  We decided to follow our phone’s mapping up highway 9.  Beautiful, winding road.  Thankfully we were not towing!  But we did see that we could enter our RV park from that direction, after all, just using a different road… that the GPS wouldn’t tell us about.  Both GPS devices kept it secret.  I hate them, and I hate that we need them!

Back at Artee, we ate, then packed up the truck with our bike stuff and headed to our bike ride.  

Wilder Ranch State Park runs along the ocean.  Wind swept coastal grasses cover the terrain as we stand on beautiful bluffs overlooking Monterrey Bay.  We can see all the way over to Monterrey as it is clear.  It is sunny, but quite cool.  I only needed one layer of clothes. Each cove has something to offer.  Some have billions of sea lions.  Others have pelicans.  Then there is a gorgeous sandy beach.  The trail is a nice wide trail… until it isn’t.  It turns into a tiny rutted trail.  I had trouble navigating it, even taking a fall when my pedal hit the ground.  I showed those berry brambles who was boss…  Some other bikers told us to come onto the farm road as it is easier.  We jumped on that!  Riding past the onions and brussel sprouts, the trail then turned into another rutted road, this time with 2 ruts.  We followed it for another mile or so before as it was a bit easier to navigate, but I was spending all my time watching the road, not looking at the scenery.  So we turned around.  The road goes on for another 30 miles, but we had gone far enough.

We loaded the bikes and headed home… to Artee… with its limited water usage… I had to shower in the RV bathroom…  Hopefully, the toilet comes in tomorrow, otherwise…  

Rudy tested normal today for his diabetes.  I gave him lots of kisses.

September 9 Ahh, the redwoods!

 

Monday, September 9, 2024  Redwoods make me sleepy

My maternal human poked me again!  I am not happy!  My paternal human poked me too!  I am hungry.

With the redwoods towering above us, it is a bit hard to tell if it is morning.  The clock says it is, so it wouldn’t lie, right?  After my knee rehab, we decided to explore in the forest.  There are quite a few trails right out of the RV park.  We follow the small trails to a wider trail which takes us to the railroad tracks and a bridge crossing a river.  Someone told us to cross the tracks, and like fools, we did.  It is not easy walking across that high up, especially when you see a nice easy foot bridge just below.  The trains don’t run mid week, but it was still a bad idea.  We ditched the tracks for the comfy foot trails that took us into Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. 

Massive redwoods tower above with their enormous trunks.  They all have stories to tell.  Some have scars from lightening hits.  Some have incredible burls.  There are also alders, sycamores, ferns and berry brambles.  I did NOT need my sunglasses nor my visor!  We worked our way to the Visitor Center.  Back on the trail, we headed back… not on the railroad tracks. The thing here… there are no markings on the various foot paths.  Hmm, I recognize that one…  I don’t think we came this way… wait?  I think that’s the trail.  We ultimately made it back.  We basically skipped breakfast and went right to lunch!

We decided to explore Santa Cruz a bit.  We will be riding bikes at Wilder Ranch State Park tomorrow and we checked that out.  We walked the wharf with all of its shops and barking seals.  The ocean wind is COLD!  I know you all are sweltering down there, but it is cold here!  The scenery is amazingly like Santa Barbara.

Then we headed back.  Yes, the GPS bitch kicked in.  But I am now using my phone as a back up.  Yes, she tried to send us on the wild goose chase back in Felton.  We didn’t fall for it this time!  HAH!  Take that!

When we got back, we figured we would transfer the bike rack from Artee to the truck.  Essence of clusterf@%k kicked in once again…  As we disassembled the bike rack, Spouse notice there was a missing handle.  Is that what we scraped yesterday???  Better go check the turnaround.  We hopped in the truck and sped to the place we scraped.  Nothing to be found… yet.  We will have more opportunities as Spouse was in such a hurry to find this handle that he forgot that he had placed pieces of the rack on the trucks bumper…  Let’s just say we made the round trip to the turnaround place several times.  We did find our lock that fell off, but nothing else.  The rack is good to go, just not as tight when on the truck. 

Rudy’s diabetic numbers are high once again.  I have a feeling it is like a woman with a diabetic pregnancy.  His numbers were totally normal before we left, but once on the road, they jumped up.  We gave him insulin for the first time in over 4 months.  We did not bring enough supplies if his numbers continue for too long.

Another beer, vodka tonic!

September 8 - A day of clusterf%$ks

Sunday, September 8  What a day of Clusterf#ks!

My maternal human is poking my paw again.  She used to do it a lot, then only once in a while, but she is doing it more.  I hope my paternal human does not poke me too.

Instead of walking the mile plus to the Cerro San Luis trailhead, Spouse and I drove over to it, so that we could hike one of the loops in its entirety. I promised Spouse it would be the lower loop so that he would want to do it!

We started up again, then cut over to the Lemon Grove Loop.  It is a foot path, but we did see a few courageous mountain bikers on it.  No room for error there.  It travels along the rolling hillside.  We can view the freeway and the backs of the buildings alongside seeing into some personal lives there!  The trail winds, has some reasonable ups and downs.  I had photographed the map so I could refer to it.  Invariably, maps do not show all the little cutovers and trails.  Since this trail is shared with cattle (and their cowpies!), some of these offshoots could be cattle trails for all we know.  We follow as best we can.

We see deer tracks in the dirt, climb over a few small rock outcroppings, thankful that we are not on our bikes.  Since the trail was not very clear, we asked a hiker for info.  She was the spitting image of my nephew’s wife Jennifer, not just in looks, but in her voice and mannerisms.  Spouse and I were in awe of the similarities!  The trail continued through some oaks, and through a eucalyptus forest, then through a lemon grove.  Go figure, there would be a lemon grove in the Lemon Grove Loop.  Who would have thought of that…

It looped around and brought us to where we ended up with our bikes.  Cow #45 shared the trail with us.  Wasn’t Trump #45??  We finished the loop, then headed back to get ready to hit the road.

This is where the fun begins…

We pack Artee up, throw Rudy in the truck, then go to hook up to the truck.  Spouse tried, then he tried. Forward and back, up and down.  A full HOUR later, he noticed a spring had popped off the hitch.  He got it off the truck bed, put it in  place, and the miracle happened!  We could hook up!

Then, he pulls over to dump our tanks.  The black tank kept dumping and draining and draining and draining…  Until Spouse notice that the hose he used to flush it was still turned on.  Duh…  So much for an early start…

Finally, on to 101 north, it isn’t 30 minutes before Spouse has to pee.  He slows to pull over and the brakes (which he just had worked on) were violently vibrating.  He peed, and he started using more of his exhaust brake.  Another 30 minutes, another pee.  He probably made it an hour before another pee.  And one more time for fun.  The brakes seemed better but we are on alert.  Are we going to need a repair?  Not sure.

Driving up 101, there is tons of farmland.  Patches of green, gray green, and look at that, that looks like cauliflower.  Wonder what that stuff over there is?  But we are sure feeding a lot of people with all this.  We pass through Castroville, home of the fried artichoke hearts. 

There is a major heat wave down south, yet as we pass Moss Landing near Monterrey, it is overcast with patches of fog, temperatures in the low 60’s.  There is quite a bit of traffic heading north.  We keep our distance, but our brakes seem to be ok for now.

When we get to Santa Cruz, we head north on hwy. 17 heading, then onto 9 heading to Felton.  Then the GPS pranksters kicked in.  Hwy 9 is a small road that winds through a redwood forest.  The GPS bitch has us turn right on Laurel.  Hmm… pretty small street but since there is an RV park here, it must be ok, right?  Left on this street… really?  right on the next street?  She is kidding right?  These streets are way too small for anybody towing anything let alone the size of Artee.  Finally, we refused to take the bait.  We were stuck.  We knew we could not go straight, turning right was not going to happen.  Backing up was a nauseating possibility.  Some guys in a car waiting for us to get out of the way told us we might be able to use the turnaround at the bottom of the road on our left.  Spouse walked down and checked it out.  It would be tight, but our only viable option.  We kissed a few twiggy branches but were able to make the turn.  We found a road with a double yellow line so we knew it was big enough, and headed back towards hwy 9.  I got out my phone and found the RV park.  WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE TURNED!  The park is right off of hwy 9.  Spouse now hates the GPS bitch too!

So now… right on hwy 9.  As I tell Spouse to turn left, he passes the entrance.  Oy…  we are on a tiny windy road.  There is no place to turn around.  After about 3 miles going 15 mph, winding and holding our breath, we find a spot that is big enough and make the uturn.  Then we get to tow Artee back down the tiny windy road.  We get to the turn, but it is at such an angle, there is no way our truck could turn down the road, let alone our truck with Artee.  So…  we go about a mile and Spouse makes a turn on a hilly street.  Didn’t like the scraping I heard along the street, but we were able to finally get to the Cotillion Gardens RV park.

But wait, there is more…  We get to our site (I had booked it online and it was supposedly our size).  Technically, it was our size… that is if you didn’t mind not being level both left/right, and front/back.  We might be able to unhook, but we would never be able to hook up again.  Back to the office… fortunately, there were a couple other sites available and one fit us just fine.  We are all alone in this area so it is perfect.  The redwoods tower above us.

The last clusterf?#k…  I tested Rudy for his diabetes.  His numbers have been low for the last 4 months, but they are getting higher.  Looks like he might need to go back on insulin.  Will test him tomorrow to see the trend.

Vodka tonic, beer.  

Sept 7 Leisure Day (aka don't want to travel on a Saturday)

 

Saturday, September 7  Leisure Day

My paternal human walked me today, then left me on my leash outside so I can observe.  I wandered and got stuck.  My maternal human had to untangle me.  MEOW!

My morning walk took me back to Cerro San Luis.  I hiked a lower trail for a while.  I did see a few bikes on it, but it is narrow, with a few places that would require rock crawling.  The mornings are cool, which make it nice for walking.

When I got back, Spouse and I walked over to the cemetery next to the Elks.  It is a very old cemetery.  Many people born in the early 1800s are buried here.  Think of that… before California was a state, before the Civil War.  Some of these graves are over 100 years old.  The cemetery isn’t very well cared for.  Can’t imagine who is paying the bills for all these graves so it is not surprising it is a bit overgrown.  But very interesting.

Today was a day for errands.  We leave tomorrow for Felton, up by Santa Cruz.  We have a full tank and plenty of food.  Onward we go.

Sept 6, 2024 Morro Bay, the Sequel

 

Friday, September 6  Morro Bay, the Sequel

Humans, are you awake?  My water fell over and I need more.  Humans????

Today, we wanted an early start as we were going to attempt to bike the Cerro San Luis volcano.  I pointed it out to Spouse the day before.  I knew it would be ambitious but Spouse said if we don’t like it, we can turn around.  Right?

We leave before 7:30.   We have to start out on city streets for the half mile to the Madonna Inn.  Surviving that, we go to the start of the bike trail.  It is odd that they don’t have a bike ramp to get on the trail.  We had to lift our bikes over the curb.  As we progress, it feels like a warm scirocco is sweeping off the volcano into our faces.  We get to the trailhead and maneuver our bikes past the gates.  I show Spouse the map.  Then we start up the trail. 

                                                

I hiked part of this trail so I knew it was wide.  It is essentially a fire road, at least when you are walking it.  Spouse saw a smaller trail off the side and grumped that he is not doing that trail, which wasn’t part of the plan but I could see the grumptitude starting to ooze.  With ebikes, we definitely needed lots of pedal assist.  At some points, it was kind of like a motocross with little bumps up then down.  And it was getting steep.  My seat started moving so I stopped to fix it.  BAD MOVE!  It was too steep to get started again.  The wheels just spun out.  We were about 50 feet from a bench, so we walked our bikes to the bench and rested.  Spouse’s grumptitude was in full display!  But we said, if we didn’t like it, we would turn around.  You don’t know unless you try.  It was pretty steep going down.  I gave Spouse a whole lot of room to get ahead of me, but somehow we survived. 

Since we were near the grocery store, we pedaled over.  It was about 20 degrees cooler, for all of about 10 minutes.  We then decided to pedal over to a bike trail on the other side of the Elks.  Last year, there were a lot of homeless camps.  This time, only two.  The trail follows a creek for about 2 miles.  Then we returned home.

We cleaned up, then headed back to Morro Bay with the Boals to visit Carol.  Carol was the person that introduced me to Spouse.  The rest is history!

 We walked the rock again.  Lots of otters out today.  They tangle themselves in the kelp so they can rest without drifting.  They are the cutest little beings!  At the end of the rock is a forest of ‘inukyuks’, which are towers of stacked rocks that signify safe passing.  They have other names and spellings, but that is the best I can do.

We stopped for some steamed clams, then headed back to the Elks.  It is a ‘cook your own steak or salmon’ night at the Elks, so we obliged!  A nice visit with the Boals’ friend Dierdre was part of the fun.

Sept 5, 2024 Morro Bay and the Heat Wave

 

Thursday, September 5  Morro Bay and the Heat Wave

Me-owt!  My humans must take me outside so I can sniff.  I like it here.  Lots to look at, but someone has a dog.  Why?

California is experiencing the most intense heat wave of the year.  Back home, temperatures are triple digits.  My friend Vicky spritzed my orchids so they wouldn’t wilt into oblivion.  I love having good homies!

Here, the morning was quite cool.  Spouse started on my walk with me, but I dumped him at the Madonna Inn where I picked up the bike trail.  While the freeway is on one side, the beautiful rolling hills are on the other.  The trail leads to a trailhead of the Cerro San Luis volcano.  There are quite a few hiking trails, some of them look quite steep, but since the walk here is already over a mile one way, I can only do so much of the trail.  But tomorrow, maybe we can try it on our bikes.

When I get back, we decided to visit our friend Carol in Morro Bay.  Only Spouse did not tell me he hadn’t coordinated with her.  So, we get there and she isn’t home.  Shocking, right?  Oh well, we went over and walked to Morro Rock.  It is quite cool, I actually needed sleeves.  But it was sunny and beautiful.  An otter showed me how it eats it food, with its adorable paws and loud jaws!  Lots of bird life, harbor seals, baitfish, and of course… humans.

On our way back, Spouse wanted to stop at a Target.  Why is this significant, you know, like big deal?  Well, we had to rely on the GPS.  Little did we know…  we were less than a half of mile from the store, on the same street, but that bitch on the GPS had us turn left, go to the freeway for 1 ½ miles, and exit on the same street that we were originally on to get there.  Really?  ARGH!

Back at the Elks, our friends Brian and Kathy arrived with their new rig.  We had to check it out.  They are downsizing so this was a shakedown trip.  Spouse is talking downsizing as it is getting too much to tow Artee and keep her up.  But not quite yet.

I am having all sorts of trouble downloading pix.  Hopefully, I will figure it out.

 

Wednesday, September 4, 2024   Getting Started

My humans have the big house that moves now.  I inspected it.  I know that means we are going somewhere.  I used to go outside and hide when I knew we were going, but my humans make me stay inside now.  I will hide real good inside.

It has been a rather busy year for me healthwise.  I injured my knee skiing so I needed to have my ACL repaired.  It is quite a surgery where the graft a cadaver tendon in place.  Then I get 6-9 months of rehab.  Physical therapy started at twice a week for 3 months, then once a week.  I had the surgery 5/9.  The reason I had to wait til May is I needed a hysterectomy first.  I sooo know how to have fun. 

But alas, I have some time and we are hitting the road.  Our intent is to go north.  We will start in San Luis Obispo to visit friends, continue to the redwoods in Santa Cruz, then north of SF, we will go along the coast.  It has been a lot of years since we went that way, so why not.

We got Artee all packed up.  Rudy always supervises.  As we are loading things, he perches on some piece of furniture and does what a cat does…  nap.

But then, it is time to go.  Where is Rudy?  We locked him in.  Did he escape? Aha!  He is under our bed.  As I grab, he holds on to the carpet and we have a bit of a tug of war.  He is one strong pussy cat!  I ultimately win, and plop him in the truck where he curls up comfortably on the center console. 

On to the 101 north, through the perpetual construction.  It is an easy drive up to San Luis Obispo.  We are staying at the Elks.  We have friends in Morro Bay we will be visiting…  until we get a text that our friend Laurie slipped in a drainage ditch while playing golf and totally trashed her knee.  She couldn’t walk and needed to go to urgent care.  My concern… did she make the putt?  Well, she will be spending some time with her leg elevated and probably a surgery…  oh well.

We arrive and set up.  Rudy likes it here.  He wants us to take him for a walk.  He must sniff everything.

A night of relaxation.  Spouse has downloaded some movies.  We will watch one tonight.