Colorado Here I Come

Yesterday another day with DoDDS friends that we taught with in Wiesbaden – the Thomsons.  Lynn was Chris’ kindergarten teacher.  They live in Elk Grove and drove us into Sacramento for a tour of the old historic part of town.
We enjoyed award-winning authentic Italian at the Il Fornaio with fresh pastas, grilled fish, fresh-from-the-oven baked breads and Tiramisu for dessert.  It’s in the Wells Fargo Building with an original Wells Fargo stage coach at the entrance.  Today I drove all the way.  We are driving down 99 instead of 5 like we did on the way up.  Like this road much better.  We met at least 300 RVs going back North – guess all those “snowbirds” that spent the winter in Arizona are headed back to Washington, Oregon and Canada.

We drove through thousands of acres of grape vineyards – saw a sign that said it was the largest Raisin Growers Coop – sure was glad because otherwise lots of Americans are going to be drinking much too much wine.  We are staying in a beautiful park – it’s  in the middle of an orange grove and they have put water, sewer, cable and electric hook-ups throughout the grove so it has lots of privacy because the RVs are all scattered among the grove.  It is sure one that is a “keeper” that we will file away for our next trip through this area.

Today is our daughter Mikki’s birthday – Mik, you have brought us so much joy.  We love you!

We are experiencing joyful times renewing friendships and reminiscing of times past with relatives and friends that we haven’t seen for many years.  We are parked in Manteca, CA which is in the middle of wonderful fields of almond trees, and fruit and vegetables.  Yesterday there were signs and stands advertising and selling  “fat strawberries”.  With all we’ve eaten on this trip, I was afraid to buy anything with the word FAT in it.  The photos are of Bob & Carol Petersen who stood up for us at our wedding 49 years ago.  We haven’t seen them for about 46 years.  The other photo is with my cousin, Opal Irene.  She used to babysit me and every time I see her I hope I have some of those good genes that keep me looking as good as she always does since she’s 13 years older than I am.  She owns an Oriental Antique Furniture shop in Folsum and it is always so fun to get to  check out all the antiques.  We are already making plans to stay longer up in this area next time.

It’s raining today so we are waiting for it to clear up hoping Richard can play golf.  The goal was to play in every state and with the changes in San Jose caused by the volcano and the kids in Europe he didn’t get to play with Mike (our son-in-law) as planned.

Had a wonderful fun day visiting with our friend Colleen.  We used to teach together in Germany before she left to become a flight attendant for American Airlines.  Was great catching up on where our paths of life have been leading us, while eating great Japanese food.  It was rather humorous – we seemed to be about the only people there that weren’t Asian.  Then after standing in a long line to get our Japanese food, found it was all being cooked by Caucasian Boy Scouts – but it was very good.

Bought Richard a Bonsai tree – now we just have to keep it protected until we get back home.

Colleen Johnson @ Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival

This week was a good reminder of why God gave us children in our younger years – these three grandkids are so good and really precious but it’s hard to keep up with them – glad there are two of us.   But Mikki had it so well planned (at least she thought so!)  They were to arrived last Saturday  in San Francisco and all we had left to do is go pick them up.

Here’s latest news report  - “Hundreds of thousands of passengers around the world remain stranded for a 6th day as European flights were grounded.  The shutdowns are expected to continue for at least another several days.” Their flight was cancelled – at this point they hope to get out a week late and arrive next Sunday.  I told her to just enjoy another week of Europe but it’s really hard for her since this is first time she’s left the kids for extended period plus being a teacher she really needed to be back to work Monday – now if she’s lucky she’ll get back for work the following week.

This blog would be so cute if I could put up the delightful photos of the grandkids but for their safety, I’m not posting any their photos.  I guess I’ll take photos of the fantastic flowers around here – everything is in bloom and it is so beautiful.

OOPS!!  Be careful what you pray for - we had prayed for a way to spend more time and develop closer relationships with our grandchildren.  Mikki just called from Belgiuim and all flights again cancelled – their earliest hope to come back is next Sunday and that’s not a sure thing.  They can’t rent cars and take them out of the country and the trains are all booked – no way back and Sunday isn’t even a sure thing.  Both of them are missing an extra unplanned week (or more) of work.  The HS next to hers here in San Jose has their entire school band in Europe and can’t get back – how would you like to be the sponsor for that?  Also it’s STAR testing week for all students here in California.  We are just happy to be with the kids and glad our schedule is flexible enough that we can help them.

Finally, arrived in San Jose -  3,300 miles in the RV since leaving home.  Had dinner with the kids before they got on the plane this a.m. leaving for Europe to celebrate their 15th anniversary.  What a joy for us to stay with the 3 grandkids ages 12, 9 and 5.  Our daughter had the week planned -she’s a teacher and it looks like lesson plans for school.  Names and addresses of everything we could possibly need to find and bags all labeled with everything we needed for every outing and enough food cooked that we will all need to go to Weight Watchers if we eat it.

We have parked our RV at the Elks lodge which is just about 3 miles from her house.  Several interesting things along the way.  We woke up at our last stop when we heard hot air balloons floating above us – what a beautiful sight to wake up to.  We drove through some fantastic farmland with every kind of fruit and vegetable.  Then it was very sad to drive through miles and miles of orchards, vineyards and what was once growing vegetables and fruit – it was now desert with signs posted saying “Congress created this desert” and “Elect anyone except Pelosi”.  This was apparently the land where they shut all the water off in order to save some kind of “minnow”.

We drove into a very little town where we everyone was Hispanic,  having a beer after working in the fields all day.  We are trying to either cook all of our own food or eat local (not chains that we can eat in at home).  We had only $25. since we hadn’t been to an ATM and there wasn’t one in this very little town.  The town was filled with big white trucks with Porta-Potties on them to take out to the fields for the workers.  We ordered 2 plates of enchiladas ($6.00 each on the menu) – and water.  The bill came and it was $24.00.  When we asked why, the response was “the menu is 7 years old – the price is now $11.00 each for the enchiladas and $1.00 each for the water) – Richard  just paid it with a smile and we walked out with $1.00 in our pockets.  We wanted experiences and that’s what we are getting.

The photo with the pink hat is one I bought in LA with a beautiful beach dress and this hat matches.  Richard was wearing a baseball cap that I hate and the wind was blowing so I decided I could look as “tacky” as he did.  I’m sure it made the truck drivers smile.

Better get busy with the kids – one is out on a “playdate” and Richard is putting models together with the other two.

We are so blessed!!  Life continues to be so good and our children, grandchildren and friends such a joy.

We were married in Riverside 49 years ago – haven’t been back to visit for at least 30 years.  In selecting sites for where we stay we are members of Thousand Trails and the parks are in mountains, woods, near lakes and generally out of town.  This is by far our preference, however, this one was next door to two huge dairy farms and the wind was coming from the wrong direction.  Besides the smell, we swatted flies all the way to San Jose.

We called friends that we hadn’t seen for more than 30 years and they arranged for a group of us to get together that had all been friends 50 years ago.  Was a great day of reminiscing about the “good ole days”  We drove to Huntington Beach where we used to go as “kids” and had lunch sitting by the water.  How different our paths of life have been.  The one couple has lived in the same house for 50 years and we’ve lived in more than 35 houses.

One photo shows the exact location where we were married – it is now used for the youth of the church and the band was gracious enough to move so we could take a photo standing on the spot where this wonderful “adventure” began.  The photo of the gray house is the one we bought the day before we married – 4 bedroom, 3 bath and planned to live there all our lives.  Later sold it for $12,500.  The couple standing with us in front of the fireplace baby sat for our oldest daughter when she was 2 and 3 years old in the early 60s.

If you are getting tired of seeing me in the multi-colored sweatshirt jacket, I’m wearing it because I’m always COLD out here.  My son called me Joseph with the amazing technicolor dreamcoat.

Another “Catch-Up” blog.

San Diego was wonderful because my sister Terri is there for a few months staying with her son and wife (Dee and Chad).  We drove 100 miles to put the RV up in Riverside and to go to Easter church service in the church where we were married 49 years ago.  Then we drove  back down to San Diego as we were invited to a big Island Fiesta (after living 10 years in Guam you become part of the Guam /Palau/Island family).  It was at our “niece-in-law’s auntie’s house, but it felt as though we had always known them.  They have the most spectacular house I’ve ever been in (with very gracious owners) and I was standing on a platform above their pool when the earthquake hit.  I thought it was just an unstable platform until I saw the water in the pool swishing from side to side, then everyone came running out of the house.

The following day I went into downtown LA with Terri and sat with her while she had her Chemo treatment – she’s my hero – what a great spirit she has and so positive!  Afterward we treated ourselves to mango yogurt and went down to the garment district.  It reminded me of all the shopping we did in Korea.  Afterward, she came out to visit us at our RV.  Wanted her to see that just because we are “Happy Hobos”, we aren’t living like “trailer trash”.  What a great day and how thankful I am for both my sisters!

April 10th – Catching up with the blogging – we were staying at beautiful sites out in woods and the internet was too slow to upload photos.

I’m posting this so Richard can see the photos.  He drove this route and I don’t think he got to see the scenery because the driving was so tough – as for my side, it was straight down the canyon most of the time.  Enjoy the wonderful photos of America.  Everyday continues to be exciting and joyous.  Some of you may not know that when we got married at age 20, we were so poor that my parents loaned us a little camper (the kind that goes on top of a pick-up) and that’s how we spent our honeymoon – driving from California to Grandby and GrandLake,

Colorado.  It continues to be as wonderful now as it was then – something new around each bend.  I was reading in an RV journal this week about the secret to RVing.  “What matters,” he said as he looked deep into my eyes, “is the moment.” “It’s the quality of time you spend with the people you love the most. An RVer enjoys the moment for all it has to offer, and when the moment’s gone, … the RVer keeps moving in search of the next adventure and the next special moment.” That just explained what each day has been for us.  I hope you are enjoying the journey along with us – my plan is to put it in book form for us when I get home so when we are “old and decrepit” we will be able to look back at our memories.  The photos are of the California Imperial Sand Dunes, the rocky hills on the way to Jamul and the wall along the Mexican border.  (Any photos you want to see better you can double click on to enlarge)

For my DoDDS friends I want to make sure you see the photos of the Ulrichs and Candi Smith that we visited in Phoenix.  From there we drove to Jamul, CA.   We have beautiful photos of the trip but it was our first experience driving on hairpin curves and up the mountains.  We now know we can make our trips to Alaska and the mountains of Colorado.  However, I wouldn’t have chosen the camping place if I’d had any idea how tough the drive would be.  Today we were in Temecula when the earthquake hit.  I was standing by a pool when the water started splashing out of it.  We wanted adventure – we are certainly getting it.