Thursday, October 30, through Wednesday, November 5, 2014: Relaxing in Paicines:

It was only a 103-mile trip to Paicines (pie-scene-us) but it seemed to take a long time because we had to wind through very hilly---some of it quite lovely---terrain.  Paicines is a very small town near Hollister, California, and is the gateway to Pinnacles National Park.  We stayed in Paicines at the San Benito Thousand Trails RV Preserve 3 1/2 years ago, and that's where we are now.  

It's a large, very rural park with lots of large, old trees (mostly oak), not too many campers, and a very serene atmosphere.  There's not much to do during our week here, so it will be a nice respite.

It rained all day Friday, so it was definitely a day to play inside.  We were able to get a lot of paperwork done.  The rain let up Saturday morning and we headed for Salinas so Becky could go to Lenscrafters to get her eyes examined.  It's a 40-mile trip if you take the regular roads.  But our GPS is so determined to save us mileage that it routed us on a county road that was in absolutely the worst condition of any road we've ever taken---

until we switched out of San Benito County into Monterey County.  (Salinas is the county seat.)  Then the road was just fine.  Altogether, the GPS saved us two whole miles.  It definitely was not worth it. 

The stop at Lenscrafters stretched out to three hours because Becky had her eyes dilated.  I got to drive home, after which I actually raked up five bags full of leaves on our site. 

Saturday night I watched football.  I was happy, though surprised, that UCLA beat Arizona, and I was disappointed that Utah lost to Arizona State.
 

Monday was the day we set aside to visit Pinnacles National Park, the 59^th and newest national park.  Containing 26,000 acres located along the San Andreas Fault, the park was designated a national monument in 1908 and not upgraded to a national park until 2013. 

Its rock formations are gigantic and spectacular, having resulted from volcanic explosions 23 million years ago.  The pinnacles in the name are the result of erosion over the intervening years.  It was a 27-mile trip from our RV park to the parking lot at the base of the 2.2-mile trail up to (and back from) the Bear Gulch Caves.  The caves are not really caves; they are just small spaces between the boulders that have cascaded down the mountainside. 

At one point I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get through one of the openings.  It was a challenging hike (for me, not for Becky) but very rewarding.  On that hike, we came across a fellow with a weird thing attached to his back and projecting about two feet above his head.  It turned out he was a Google Maps photographer.  It’s an interesting park, well worth the trip.  And Becky got the 42^nd stamp in her National Park Passport book.  There are only 17 parks we have not visited.

Tuesday was election day, of course, and, after killing time watching the so-so Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow (aka Live. Die. Repeat.) from the redbox before the polls closed, we watched the returns with relish.

Some weeks ago, I noticed that the "leash" that attached our gas cap to the truck had broken.  It was annoying, so on Wednesday we stopped at a wrecking yard in Hollister and I got a new cap with a leash attached.  I don't know when I'll install it, but at least I have it.  On the way back to our RV park, we noticed that the name of the main highway (California 25) was now "Pinnacles National Park Highway" as it passed through Hollister.

We then stopped for diesel at the Safeway gas station, and, because we had earned so many "points" spending money at Safeway that week, we saved $25.00 on the fill-up.  Yea! 

That ended our stay in the Paicines area.
 

Tuesday, October 21, through Wednesday, October 29, 2014: The Mid-California Wine Country:

We left Williams at 10:30 Tuesday morning, having spent the early part of the day doing the final cleaning (vacuuming all the floors and mopping the marble ones) at the house. 

The 178-mile trip to Fender's RV Resort in Needles, California, was uneventful (though boring, as usual).  This was our first time at Fender's.  It's a small, odd, old place, with a few pull-thrus, a few back-ins, a few pull-ins, and a 10-unit motel, on the premises, which faced the Colorado River. But it was fine, and the managers (Paul and Dail McCracken) were very friendly.

The next morning, we headed for the outskirts of California City in the Antelope Valley.  (Mojave is the nearest city.)  This time the trip was more interesting, just because of different scenery, and we covered the 216 miles with ease.  We are staying at the Sierra Trails RV Park.  This is also our first time here, and it's another odd old place but, again, it's just fine for a one-night stay. 

We decided to go to the center of California City to see what the place was like.  On the way, we stopped for dinner at Gloria's Mexican Restaurant.  I had been hallucinating about Mexican food, and this place was wonderful.  According to Trip Advisor, it is the best of the 17 restaurants in California City.  I can't disagree.  I had two double Margaritas and that set me up for the evening. 

Before we got to downtown, we learned that the city was the brainchild of a real estate developer and sociology professor at Columbia named Nathan Mendelsohn, who purchased 80,000 acres of raw land adjacent to Edwards Air Force Base in 1958 and designed a "model" city to grow there.  It was supposed to become as large as Los Angeles.  It hasn't got there, yet. 

There  are only 14,000 residents (nearly double what it was in 2000, and it's still growing---a little.  The good thing is that the design of the central city, which included a huge park and great public facilities, was actually built.  And remains.  Much of the rest of the city is a bit run down and depressingly '60ish.  The biggest employer is---no surprise---Edwards Air Force Base.  Second is a nearby prison.  And Hyundai just built a "proving ground" in California City.

Thursday morning, we left at 11:00 for the 164-mile trip to Paso Robles.  We arrived without incident and settled into our space at the Wine Country RV Park, where we are booked for a week. 

We've been here before and it's a very nice (expensive) place.  But it's spaces are very narrow and not very long.  They also are not even close to being level---either front-to-back or side-to-side.  Our slideouts extend beyond the paved area on both sides and we have to park our truck somewhere else.  Somehow, we'll survive.  It's nice to stay somewhere more than one night.

Friday was a very frustrating day.  We learned early that our printer had died.  It's quite old and we have thought for some time that we would need to replace it at any moment.  Friday was the moment.  And we liked the idea of having one that was wireless.  At the same time we figured out that one of the goodies that came with our new rig 3+ years ago actually included a DVD player (and built-in sound system) that would work with our TV if we wired it up.  (We've used it only to listen to Sirius Radio.)  We went to Staples to replace the printer

and then went to the Wal-Mart next door to get an HDMI cord to connect the DVD player.

While Becky installed the new printer (which is larger than our old one and only fits conveniently in the bedroom closet) I went about trying to connect the DVD player.  It was more difficult than one would expect and we ended up having to take out our faux fireplace, a window screen, and open a window to gain enough access to connect the damn thing to our TV set, before discovering that the DVD player did not seem to work anyway. 

I spent two hours on the Internet trying to get advice about the DVD player and finally gave up.  It also took Becky that long to divine the secrets of making the new printer work.  Ultimately, she was more successful than I was.

At 3:00 in the afternoon, we attended a wine tasting from Burbank Ranch, a local winery, at our RV park.  Since it was free, of course everyone at the park was there.  The wine was certainly drinkable, but comparatively way too expensive, so we didn't buy anything. 

That evening, we barbecued filets mignon for dinner and had a bottle of wine from our "nice" collection.  Both were delicious. 

Saturday was looking like it would be a lazy day, and I decided to have a pedicure.  Many years ago I dropped a TV set on one of my feet and not only broke one of my toes but deformed the nail such that I need to get a pedicure periodically just to make the toe presentable.  Saturday was the day. 

My pedicure was the day's highlight until much later when Utah scored a touchdown with 8 seconds left in the game to beat USC.  (Earlier, UCLA took two overtimes to beat Colorado, the worst team in the Pac-12.)

Our late lunch/early dinner was from Panda Express.  As usual, it was the best!  We then watched Ivory Tower, a documentary from the redbox about the rapidly escalating cost and the declining benefit of a traditional college education, which was enlightening and scary.

We headed for the Denner Winery on Sunday morning.  We had an 11:00 appointment for a wine tasting.  This dazzling place is so exclusive it normally requires appointments; walk-ins are not welcome---ever.

Our special entrée was that Joyce Wells, an old Xanterra friend of ours, works there.  Not only were we allowed in, we were comped the normal fee.  Joyce was off on Sunday, but we were treated very well.  Naturally, we had to buy two bottles of their delicious (and pricey) wine before we left.  But, it was fun. 

After leaving Denner, we headed for the Justin Winery.  We joined its wine club three years ago and actually stayed there 2 1/2 years ago.  In the meantime, the public area of the place has been completely redone and expanded.  It's beautiful, but not as homey. 

We went there on Sunday specifically to pick up our "fall/winter" six-bottle wine club selection that became available a week or so ago.  We had to taste a few more, of course, while we were there.  We ended up buying a seventh bottle (which we drank Sunday evening). 

Becky picked up two movies from the redbox---Million Dollar Arm and something else whose name I never knew.  I didn't watch either one.  The centerpiece of our dinner was a chicken we bought at the Von's.

Monday and Tuesday were wine-tasting free.  We reverted to our more normal routine.  I bought a new pair of tennis shoes, we took the dogs to a huge dog park, etc. 

Wednesday morning, Joyce Wells and her husband, Don, picked us up for a day of exploring the parts of "Paso" (as the locals call it) the tourists don't generally see.  We started at the Cass Winery for a delicious lunch and nice tastings.  Since Joyce is "in the business" we got royal treatment.

After a very long lunch and a very talkative reunion with Joyce and Don, whom we hadn't seen in three years, we went back to our rig to give the dogs a short walk, then went to Joyce and Don's home to meet their new golden retriever puppy, Bella, then on to another winery, Onx.

Onx is a relatively new winery, its tastings are by appointment only, and take place in the vineyard. 

We were driven to a picnic spot under a tree, where a delightful young girl named Anny provided the tastings.  In due course, we were joined by Ann, who is the sales and marketing manager at Onx.  She and Joyce worked together at Denner.  We had a great time learning about her personal history and the history of Onz.

We then returned to our RV park and said goodbye to Joyce and Don.  We settled in for the evening, and watched Chef from the redbox.  We had seen it on the plane returning from France in September, and enjoyed it so much we wanted to see it again.  It was just as much fun the second time around.

That ended our time in Paso.  Thursday, we will saddle up and head further up into California.   

Friday, October 10, through Monday, October 20, 2014: Wrapping It Up In Williams:

The dogs woke me up at 6:00 Friday morning, and we began another routine day.  On their morning walk, I met our next door neighbor Jim (on his morning walk) for the first time.  He had already met Becky, Ramsey, and Kelsey.  After the three of us had breakfast, I started on the day's work schedule---which included another trip to Flagstaff for parts and supplies, and a Jiffy Lube.  Very productive. 

Before heading home, I stopped at the Chinese restaurant for hot and sour soup, which I brought home for lunch.   Delicious, as usual.  I spent the rest of the day utilizing the stuff I had just bought.  I thawed some shrimp for dinner.  Yum!

Becky had a good visit to Los Angeles.  She visited her father in Pasadena on Friday.  He looked good but said that he was not feeling well.  It was only a 25 minute visit.  The Jonathan Beach Club was the venue for lunch on Saturday with Paula Browne and Shelley Gibson.  It was a belated celebration of Paula's milestone birthday.  It was the first time the three of them had been together since 1996!

Saturday was home projects, again.  The major project (taking three hours) was hanging a new Venetian blind in one of the bedrooms.  I am too cheap to have a custom one made for me, so I had to shorten by 18 inches the vertical length of the one I had bought at Home Depot.

Saturday night I watched the Arizona lose to USC.  Arizona could have easily won it at the end, but a very makeable field goal went awry.  So sad.

I set the alarm for 3:00AM so I could meet the 3:50 Amtrak train from Los Angeles.  I had arranged to pick up Becky at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, where the shuttle drops off all Amtrak passengers, but I got to the hotel in time to ride along on the shuttle to the "station" (which is not really a station, just a clearing in the middle of the forest).  Becky got on the shuttle, not expecting to see me.  It would have been cuter if it had not been 3:50 in the morning.

Sunday was basically a day of relaxation for all four of us.

Monday and Tuesday were more of our current routine---projects, sorting stuff, hanging pictures, etc.  One diversion on Tuesday had to do with flags.  Many years ago, we started collecting tiny flags of countries we visited.  We did not always get a flag, so Tuesday it was my job to inventory our flag collection to see which ones we were missing.  It turns out we have 27 flags, but there are 27 we don't have.  It amazed me to realize we have actually been in 54 countries.  I had no idea.

The Tuesday redbox movie was God's Not Dead, starring Kevin Sorbo (of Hercules fame).   For a film promoting religion, which are usually very stilted, it was actually quite well done.

Wednesday we headed back to Flagstaff to have lunch (at Pato Thai, our favorite) with Patrice Giordano and her husband, Bruce Bourne.  Patrice is the aunt of Jim Giordano, a former co-worker with Becky at Union Bank, with whom Becky has kept up an active communication.  Patrice and Bruce are originally from southern California, but have lived in Flagstaff for more than 20 years.  They are interesting people and we had a good time with them. 

Before and after lunch, we ran some errands and ultimately ended up at Goodwill, where we picked up a few more goodies for the house. 

Since the installation of the new Venetian blind, I have been looking for a place to get rid of the old one.  It's 6 feet long so it doesn't fit in the usual trash bins.  I hit on a sneaky idea:  Donate it to Goodwill, and let them figure out whether to fix it or trash it.  It was in the back of the truck.  Mission accomplished!

The Thursday redbox movie was The Fault in our Stars, starring this year's new sensation, Shailene Woodley.  She really is quite good, and the movie, though too long and containing the unnecessary and confusing involvement of Willem Dafoe, was actually very well done.

We are scheduled to leave on Tuesday, the 21^st, for California---for the winter.  So, all day, every day, except when we’re watching redbox movies and Fox News (and a little football), we are now making final changes to the house and starting to take stuff back to the rig.  It’s amazing how much we transported into the house and now have to return to the rig.  Part of the preparation to leave was arranging for Carmen Rice, a local woman, to come into the house periodically to see if anything is out of place.  We know she can’t prevent any damage, but it’s comforting to know someone is at least on the lookout.

On Monday, I went to the post office to verify that our mail forwarding order had been received and processed.  I also stopped at the police department to alert them to our leaving.  They actually have a “watch list” of homes where the snowbirds have left for the winter.  We also set the thermostats at 55, to prevent any freezing inside the house.  We will turn off the water at the street before we leave, and drain what we can from the pipes, but you never know.  Having stripped all of the beds and moved everything of immediate use out of the house, we spent Monday night in the rig.  Our last night in Williams was not very exciting.  We were exhausted.

Friday, September 26, through Thursday, October 9, 2014: The Transition:

The next few days will be spent picking up our “stuff” that has been in storage ever since we left Pasadena in March, 2003, headed for Zion National Park and our first jobs in our semi-retirement.  We picked up the U-Haul cargo trailer at the Williams Super Storage at 8:00 Friday morning, then met our broker, Danielle, at the house for the ceremonial removal of the ”for sale” sign. 

The sign doesn't  usually come down until the escrow closes, but we leaned on Danielle and she relented.  Her dog, Jackson, joined us for the ceremony.  The picture was taken by  Danielle's sister Jeanette, who is visiting Danielle for a while.

We then left Williams at about 9:30, headed for the La Quinta Inn in Hesperia---where we had stayed a few weeks ago on our way back from France.  We had no problems getting there, but it’s clear that, once you get past Kingman, Arizona, the I-40 corridor is borrrrrrring.  Becky walked four blocks to the Panda Express (her Fitbit hadn’t “celebrated” yet that day) and picked up our dinner. 

As usual, it was delicious.  We left Hesperia early Saturday morning after another free breakfast (they’re very popular these days) and headed for our friend Barbara Coad’s house in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles to pick up some stuff that had been stored in a room adjacent to Barbara's garage for nearly twelve years.  Included were two green leather lounge chairs with ottomans, a faux fichus tree, a stool, a desk and chair, and an end table and lamp we bought in Denver for an exorbitant amount thanks to our decorator, Patra Attig, who promised we would never regret it.  She was right.  It is a lovely set, and it brings back nice memories.  But for some grime on the lounge chairs, the stuff was in good condition. 

From Barbara’s, we drove down to Murrieta, where we stayed at the Comfort Inn.  Nice place.  The reason for this diversion was to attend a dinner/concert outdoors at the Thornton Winery in Temecula, with Honoria Vivell, Richard Petrie, Kathy Sage, and Kathy''s husband, Peter Shapiro.  The event had been on all of our calendars since April.  (Honoria and Richard are now engaged.  Their wedding is set for next July 5, the day after Independence Day.  Is there any significance to that?) 

Because of the horrendous weekend traffic on I-15 getting to Murrieta, which we expected, we had no time once we arrived at the hotel to do anything but change clothes and head for Thornton.  The dinner was very nice and our waiter, Christopher, was the same waiter we had the last time we ate at Thornton.  He did a terrific job.  The concert was billed as simply “jazz” so I had no idea we would be entertained by a group comprised of four saxophones headed by Dave Koz (of whom I had never heard, but I am apparently the only one in this hemisphere who can say that) with two guitars, a drummer, and a keyboard to round out the ensemble.  The group was very entertaining.  Interesting to me, they spent a lot of time reviving popular numbers of groups from the ‘60s and ‘70s, which the crowd loved, but when they played their own music I thought their sound was sensational.

Sunday morning, we headed for Las Vegas early, after a quick (free) breakfast in the hotel.  After loading the stuff at Barbara’s, we were concerned that we might not be able to fit in the trailer all of the stuff in our Las Vegas storage unit.  We actually made it with a little room to spare, so we went on the search for a few items of furniture we knew we needed. 

We spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Henderson, which was nicer than I expected.  Our dinner that night was a collection of snacks that Becky picked up.  Yum.

Monday morning, we finished our furniture search and headed for home.  After covering 1,090 miles during the weekend, we got to Williams in time to empty the trailer into the garage, which was a bit premature since the escrow was not set to close until the following morning, and to drop off the trailer before the end of that rental day. 

Duane (the manager) at the U-Haul place actually stayed open a half-hour later for us.  Nice guy.  People are like that here in Williams.  I had tried to rent a hand truck with the trailer on Friday, but they were out of them so Duane, let me borrow his.  When I returned the trailer, I had forgotten the hand truck, which was in the back of our truck.  Duane said, “No problem,” I could bring it in the next morning.  I returned it the next morning, along with a bag of doughnuts.  Duane is now my best friend.    

Tuesday morning, the escrow closed and we moved our rig out of the RV park (after being there more than 3 ½ months), parked it at the side of the house, and started the backbreaking process of moving all of our stuff in from both the garage and the trailer.  What fun!  Some of the stuff we had not even unpacked from the 1999 move from Denver to Pasadena.  It was nice to see our little treasures again.   

Our friends Don and Elaine LaMarr stopped by to see our new home on their way home from a stay in the Manager’s Suite at the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon.  The escrow had barely closed and we already had our first visitors.  How exciting is that?

We were due to have DirecTV install a system in the house, starting at noon, but somehow the order did not include our address. We finally ironed it out and Brian arrived at 3:30.  He zipped through the installation and we were operational by 6:00PM.  Thank you, Brian. 

On Wednesday, we went to Flagstaff to pick up the dogs from the Cinder Hills Kennels and to buy a bunch of stuff we needed now that we were actually in the home---including a wall-mount for the bedroom TV we had bought a week earlier.  I was convinced we needed a mount with a swivel arm so we could watch the bedroom TV from the adjacent sitting room.  The one we bought ended up not compatible with our TV, contrary to the salesman's assertion that it was universal, and, after some heated telephone conversations and much frustration, I decided we could live without the swivel arm. 

Late in the afternoon, we tried to move Becky’s desk from the garage into the house.  Impossible.  It was too heavy and cumbersome.  I went back the U-Haul place and asked Duane if I could borrow the hand truck again---for just 20 minutes.  Duane said, “Of course,” of course.  I actually returned it 20 minutes later.    

We returned to Flagstaff on Thursday for another buying spree.  After  I got a haircut (Lou's last one for the season; he's headed to Phoenix for the winter) I installed the new non-swivel arm we just bought and, although it’s not centered on the small wall opposite the bed, thanks to inadequate foresight in locating the studs in the wall when the house was built 15 years ago, we will survive.  If it becomes a real problem, I have already figured out how to solve it. 

Thursday afternoon, Becky introduced Ramsey and Kelsey to the doggy door from the laundry room out to the back yard.  I’m not sure either one of them had ever encountered one before.  Ramsey took to it immediately and went out several times.  I don‘t think he ever came back in through it, though.  Kelsey just went out and looked for a sunny place to relax.  She’s so cute.

Thursday night we celebrated with popcorn and wine for dinner.  Marvelous.  Friday was a marathon day of projects around the house.  I even re-engineered the wall-mount for our bedroom TV, so it is now centered on the wall.  I'm in hog heaven.   Even though Becky has temporarily forbidden the purchase of more tools, I can still do wonders with what I have.  Dinner was hummus and crab salad.  And wine.  Yes! 

The following week was more of the same work marathon.  I ran from project to project while Becky went through the process of emptying boxes and figuring out where to put things.  We finally attacked the cleaning of the green chairs.  They turned out much better than we had expected. 

On Monday and Wednesday, we made trips to Flagstaff for project parts and supplies.  We ate all our meals at home.

Thursday night, Becky boarded the Amtrak train, bound for Los Angeles---to celebrate the 60th birthday of her friend Paula Browne.  Becky will be staying at the downtown Jonathan Club but the celebration lunch will take place on Saturday at the Jonathan Beach Club.  I will continue to work on getting the house in the shape that will satisfy my various obsessions.  And I will take care of Ramsey and Kelsey, naturally.