Eureka!! - June 6, 2009

Eureka, California, a tourist town and fishing village. Also the name of a interesting but cancled weekly scifi show. And no, we did not find Sherrif Carter's underground house, Cafe Diem, or any sign of Global Dynamics.


What we did find were lot's of young people, apparently homeless, looking through trash cans for aluminum cans to turn in for a cash refund. Thinking back on it, we saw quite a few people there that seem to have fallen on hard times.

We saw this neat old house off in the distance. Off we went to see it up close. Turns out it's a private club. Members only. So we didn't get to investigate up close.

Schmoozing with the Redwoods - June 5, 2009 (Cont'd)

Today we drove the "Avenue of the Giants". It's an old curvy narrow section of California Highway 101 that goes right through the Redwood groves. In many places you have to steer towards the center of the highway to avoid the trees right at the edge of the pavement.


We went on several hikes to get out into the forest and surround ourselves with the trees. Here's a picture of EJ next to two giants to give you some perspective for the size of the redwoods. Actually these are Coastal Redwoods and they only grow around the 2000 foot level within 40 miles of the coast. They need the coastal fog in the summer to meet their water needs as there is very little rain at that time of the year.


At the visitor center Frank found a 1920's camper that was built out of a redwood log. It was installed on a Nash-Quad truck chassis.


And finally, Frank did NOT fall over backwards taking this picture of the top of a redwood.

Update from "off the grid" Putnam's - June 5, 2009

Well, we are not in Texas as last reported. Frank's dad's surgery is not scheduled until June 22, so we had a few weeks to continue on our original route. We spent 5 days with EJ's brother and sister-in-law and headed to the northern CA and the Redwoods on Wednesday.

As we mentioned earlier, our little laptop suffered what turned out to be terminal damage on the roads of Lousiana. We ended up buying a new laptop (hereby named Nomad2) at the Costco in Sand City, Ca. We've spent several days setting it up with new software and learning the new Vista operating system. Old dogs don't like learning new tricks.

We decided since we are so far behind on updating the blog that we would let you know where we are now and plan to fill in the rest later. It's amazing how fast the time goes by. We're having a great time.

Today we're headed for "Avenue of the Giants" then Eureka where we'll probably spend the night. From there we'll begin our eastward trek to Yellowstone.

San Francisco - Our nerves are shot - June 4, 2009

After spending a wonderfully quiet and peaceful night at the Uvas Pine RV Park south of San Jose we hit the road, the 101 to be specific, and continued heading north. Our goal today was to see the Golden Gate Bridge and get past San Francisco. Around 1:30 the traffic started getting really heavy and we had our first dose of gridlock. All traffic had come to a complete stop...somebody had dropped a case of styrofoam cups on the highway. Apparently a 3,000 pound vehicle is no match for a styrofoam cup as it brought all 4 lanes of traffic to a complete halt.

We approached the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB) from the north as we had gotten on the 880, 580 and so on and worked our way around the east and north sides of the bay. As we approached the GGB we could not figure out how to get to the GGB park without crossing the bridge and turning around. We're finding the signage in California to be less than helpful for out of towners.

Using Streets and Trips software we managed to work our way to Fort Baker which is at the bottom of the GGB. It turns out the fort had been a cannon emplacement during WWII. It's called Battery Yates at Fort Baker.

After we left there we went through Sausalito to look at the house boats. There are literally hundreds of them. They range from million dollar homes to derilicts and is quite a community.

Then it was back out onto 101 to continue north. Traffic was bumper to bumper with instant slowdowns for no apparent reason. This continued on until 4:45 when we were far enough north of Santa Rosa to leave it all behind us. Some observations...more people were getting on 101 than getting off and when the traffic subsided it was instantaneous. We never did figure out where all those cars went.
The rest of the drive to Leggett was great. Driving through the forests, the hills and best of all, hardly any traffic. We arrived at our destination about 7:15 at the Redwood River Resort. Cool and damp, but really beautiful.

Pacific Ocean here we come

Internet connections are harder to come by than we thought. Maybe we should have invested in that ATT air card after all. No pictures today, just a quick update to let you know where we are.

Last night we stayed in Bakersfield, California and today we'll reach San Simeon State Park. Tomorrow we'll visit Hearst Castle and tomorrow night we should reach EJ's brother's house in Monterey.

We'll be taking a detour back to San Angelo next week as Frank's Dad will be having a knee operation and could use some help while he's recovering. Where the trip goes after that we're not sure. We'll be in San Angelo, Texas a week from tonight.

It's 102 degrees !! - May 15

We know the folks back in Florida are probably laughing their heads off in their mid 70 degree weather while we're roasting out here. However, we haven't had 10+ inches of rain either.

Headed out for Tucson and stopped by White Sands National Park. What a neat place, huge sand dunes made of gypsum. We took one of the nature walks on a boardwalk through the dunes. Way to hot, but very interesting. There were school buses of kids and they were climbing the dunes and sledding down on carboard or coasters. Looked like they were having a blast.

We made it to EJ's niece and nephew's place in Tucson and had a great visit. It normally should have been in the low 90's,but it was 102 degrees when we got there. It's amazing how it cooled off once the sun went down. It was the first night we were able to sleep without the AC. We had the windows open and a fan going and slept great. It was 68 degrees the next morning. What a difference.

Alamogordo Here We Come - May 14

Had breakfast with Bill and Jean (Frank's Mom and Dad) and left around 10am. Basic Texas landscape as we head west. Flat, some cattle, a few derricks and dry. Stopped in Artesia, NM for a stretch break and found a neat park with bronze statutes and information about the oil business in town.






It's been in the 90's so we decided to take the high road up thru Cloudcroft NM. Got up to 8650' and 70 degrees,what a relief. Not long lived as we went back down to Alamogordo, NM and 92 degrees at 4400'.



Found a great state park (Oliver Lee Memorial State Park) with mountains on one side and valley desert the other. Very peaceful and lots of stars.

The Folks and the Mystery Flower - May 10 - May 14

First a little housekeeping as we used to say before every JEA meeting. It's been awhile since we have updated, so now we're catching up! Hope everyone is doing well. I think we are finally getting used to the time difference. We had one day where we went through 2 time zones and gained two hours. By the way if you want to get a better look at the attached pictures, you can click on them and get a bigger view. On with the news...

We arrived in San Angelo on Sunday, May 10, Mother's Day scoring extra points for both of us. Frank's Dad had called earlier in the day and suggested we not eat anything 4 hours prior to arriving since they had a big chicken dinner waiting. And it was good.

We set up Roadie out in the parking lot next to a power pole and dubbed it the "Rio Concho River Resort". It had everything we needed, showers, restrooms and even a restaurant on site. The first day we were there the temperatures were in the mid 70's but it went up every day after that.

We had a good visit. Frank did some computer work for his Dad, we ran errands and we ate. Every day we were there we had at least one buffet meal. And you know us, if it's on the buffet, we gonna try and eat it. Another interesting aside, Frank's Dad is on Facebook and we're not. Hmmmm....we'll have to ponder on that.

And being Putnams, we don't like missing a happy hour, so every day at 4PM we would migrate to Nick's apartment, one of Frank's Dad's friends, to have our adult libations. Being invited to attend was a special honor.



Early in the mornings (well early for us, 9am-ish) we took walks along the Rio Concho River. San Angelo has really developed a nice system of parks along the river which includes a walkway in excess of 4 miles. One morning we spotted what we thought was a piece of brightly colored trash or maybe a flower someone had stuck in a bush along the river's edge. As we got closer it turned out to be a flower and it was attached to the plant. The plants have straight branches ith large thorns every few inches and leaves that are opposing and oblong. There is only one flower per bush/plant. We took pictures and showed them around but nobody seemed to know what these flowers/plants were. One person even speculated that they were tied to the stalks for a wedding. However the flowers were growing from the stalk and not tied on debunking that suggestion. Maybe one of you can identify them?

And one final shot. Along the path we passed beneath a bridge and were treated with a view of a colony of swifts (that's my best guess) making mud nests on the side of the bridge.

Dr Pepper

Our wanderings took us to Dublin, Texas home to the last Dr Pepper bottling plant to use the original Dr Pepper formula. No artificial sweetners for these guys, we're talking pure unadulterated sugar.

Dublin, Texas

They only use the original Dr Pepper bottles here. That is to say, these bottles are no longer made. They are found at garage sales, flea markets and who knows where.

Last Day on the Interstates

Well it sounds good whether or not we stick to it. For those of you that followed the 2007 edition of this blog know of our dislike for interstates. However, this time I must grudgingly admit that they haven't been unbearable. Traffic has been lighter that expected, we guess due to the economy. We haven't seen many motorhomes, people haven't been driving too crazy, and the truck traffic has been OK.

After DeFuniak, our first diversion was Gulfport/Biloxi to check and make sure Barry was spending our tax dollars correctly.

The Armed Forces Retirement Home was rendered uninhabitable as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Some residents moved to DC to a similar facility. Others had to fend for themselves in other cities and towns.

This facility is supposed to be completed in October 2010 so those folks can begin to move back home.

Then, our second diversion was Bay St. Louis. The gambling bug had bitten EJ and the itch had to be scratched.

True to form we made our contribution to the Casino establishment and continued on our way.

Our next stop was a Louisiana campground/resort/golfcourse named Percy Quinn State Park. We apparently had brain fade forgetting it was Friday night and all those frustrated golfers were aching for another chance to avenge their bloated scores. That's a long winded way of saying that the campground was full. That's only the second time the last 7 or 8 years of camping that we've encountered a full campground.

Continuing our policy of being flexible, we went for plan "B". Walmart here we come. No, wait a minute, that's plan "C". Using our limited library of campground locations that we carry with us in Roadie we found another state park just over the Mississippi state line called Bogue Chitto Water Park. We weren't sure what we were in for but it was late and part of the purpose of this trip is to embrace adventure. So adventure here we come.

As it turns out after we passed all of the canoe/kayak/tubing businesses that lined the road to the park entrance it turned out to be a pleasant experience. Not to say we would ever venture there again, but we had a good time.

Meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole and a bottle of wine from the cellar.
Who said you had to rough it when camping?

At the site next to ours a couple rode in on a Honda GoldWing pulling an amazing trailer.

This little baby turned into...

THIS !!!

They had large rotating fan, two lawn chairs, an awning, stove, coffee pot and awning lights. And for friend Larry who is probably wondering how to hook up one of these babies up to his Miata here is the contact information.

There is even a phone number so you can order one today.

OK, OK, I couldn't stand it. One last Interstate rant. The Interstates in Louisiana are the pits and that's putting it politely. From New Orleans west, up I-55 to Mississippi the Interstates were so rough that it broke the laptop we use for our GPS system. The constant pounding stripped one of the screws that holds the front and back pieces together that contains the LCD screen. With the judicious application of duct tape we hope that it survives the rest of the adventure. It never fails to amaze us how Louisiana manages to pick contractors that can't build a smooth Interstate Highway.

The Wine Leg

We didn't get away from Jacksonville until late on Thursday. We left Fox Valley around 2PM and immediately stopped for lunch and then gas. But being retired means being flexible and we flexed. It was obvious we would not make DeFuniak Springs that day so being flexible, we said "OK" "We'll stop there on Friday instead".

It worked out well as it gave us the opportunity to revisit one of the highlights of Florida, that being it's tallest waterfall. We decided to overnight at Falling Waters State Park to be able to view this marvel.

This looks promising, but we are actually standing in a sinkhole.

The reason it's the tallest in Florida is because the falls end at the bottom of a cylindrical hole thus accounting for the claimed 74 foot water drop. Still it was fun to see.

The next day we were off to Chatauqua Winery to replenish the wine cellar in Roadie. We started out empty and needed to fill it for the trip out West. We knew pretty much what we wanted but still had to sample a few types to ensure the right selections.

The sign is visible from I-10. They bottle great muscadine wines.

D-day! It's time to hit the road.

D-day!! Today is the day we hit the road. Roadie is loaded and we're shutting down the house for our absence. We have to remember to turn down the thermostat, cover all the furniture, shut off the water, unplug all the electronics, and so on. That will take several hours on it's own.

The great cat experiment didn't work so our good friends Ron and Dale have offered to take care of them while we're gone. The great cat experiment consisted of two trial runs of camping with cats. The cats didn't think much of the experiment, so they get to stay home by themselves.

Cats voicing their opinions about camping.

Friend Jeanne will be handling our mail for us while we're gone, ever vigilant for that wayward bill we've forgotten about.

Roadie is ready and it's time to hit the road. First stop is DeFuniak Springs to restock the wine cabinet in Roadie.

Roadie is raring to go!

The Trip - Spring/Summer 2009

It's two nights before we're supposed to leave. We have so much left to do I don't know how we'll fit it all in tomorrow, but we'll manage.