Christmas – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

December 2020

The sun is shining brilliantly through the office windows. After a morning thick with heavy fog, it seems almost a miracle. Maybe that is what we need. A miracle to come after the difficulties of the day before this one. We need some sunlight to shine on us. On all of us. Some optimism, a reason to hope for a better year ahead. I have struggled with trying to write this post. It is easy to write about travels and camping trips, fish and chips at the coast, rain on the roof of the MoHo. It is easy to be in the moment when traveling, maybe that is why we love it so much.

The rare sunny afternoon at Sunset House in December

The break in fog and rain gave us a chance to rake and haul the last of the oak leaves

It isn’t so easy to write about family gatherings, holidays that have been quite different than past years. December darkness, more days of deep fog and dark skies than I remember even in Grants Pass. We wake in the morning and it is dark, with light penetrating the fog only after 7:30 or so. By 3:30 we are surprised to see the darkness descending again and by 5:15 it is pitch dark.

This is actually a bit better than it was two weeks ago when it was pitch dark at 5. Solstice has come and gone and the days are getting longer, miniscule second by second. I guess that is why a day like this, when the sun bursts through illuminating every tiny green blade of grass with a golden halo it seems like a miracle.

The Christmas season for us started even before Thanksgiving when I put up the outside Christmas lights. Once again, we had help from Grandson Matthew, young and agile enough to climb our tall roof and line the edges of the gutters and the roof shingles all the way around the house. Even though our home is just one story, the western side of the house is more than 18 feet off the ground, thanks to our sloping lot. I know I wouldn’t manage to get up on the roof and even though Mo was a famed roof climber not so long ago, she isn’t about to climb up there either. If Matthew moves away we are in big trouble.

Here in Southern Oregon our restaurants opened enough that one of our favorites, The Twisted Cork, advertised a special Sunday brunch, reservations only, limited indoor seating. We were excited, made reservations for a birthday celebration downtown with friends Maryruth and Gerald, who celebrate December birthdays, and Daughter Deborah and Grandson Matthew to join us for the party limited to six guests. Sadly that all fell apart when the numbers in our county began rising and once again dining was limited to outdoor seating only. The Twisted Cork decided that with the cold and very wet weather, it was too much, and cancelled the party.

Mo and I decided the heck with that and I called Deborah and said, “Let’s do our own brunch for Maryruth and Gerald!” Daughter Melody also drove south from Eugene for a Christmas time visit. Her honey Robert had to travel for two weeks, returning before Christmas so she decided to quarantine at home for Christmas Day rather than taking a chance on Robert carrying the virus with him from Texas on an airplane. We had our little bubble of six and Deborah and I had fun trying to make the Sunday brunch as decadent as possible.

We made real eggs benedict, and had lots of fruit and fruit dip choices, and Deborah made homemade pastries and we had lots of very cold champagne to wash it down. It was such a simple but lovely way to spend a day with our friends. In fact, we all decided that it was much more fun that it would have been in the restaurant.

The next week before Christmas we made a date with Maryruth and Gerald to drive around town to see all the Christmas lights. It was great fun, and there were some truly fabulous light shows to enjoy. I must say that the winner, a computerized laser light show with music to match, left me unmoved. It wasn’t very Christmasy, and while quite loud and glitzy, it didn’t feel right.

We discovered that the people in cars piling up all around in the tiny cul de sac where the lights were blaring didn’t agree with us. It was incredibly popular. We tried to follow the newspaper printed maps, tried to use google, but the four of us wore out before we could see all the various neighborhoods that were recommended.

Grants Pass isn’t very big, but it was too big for us to cover it all that night. Maryruth and I both grew up in Southern California, with amazing memories of Christmas Tree Lane and Story Book Lane in Pasadena, and the most amazing Christmas light neighborhood ever in a high end housing development that at the time was called Hastings Ranch. Every single street was decorated with a matching theme for each one, It was something to see and one of my best kid memories. Maryruth felt exactly the same way. Still, we loved our lighted evening in Grants Pass and topped it off with hot chocolate from the downtown Dutch Brothers, just a block from where the chain was first established.

When Christmas actually came, Mo and I were perfectly content to enjoy Christmas Eve with just the two of us and probably the very best clam chowder I have ever made. It’s a tradition for us, the closest I am willing to get to my childhood Christmas Eve oyster stew, which thank goodness I was never forced to eat. We topped off our evening with another drive around Grants Pass, finding the neighborhoods that we had previously missed and noticing with surprise how many homes were surrounded by many cars as people were gathering for the holiday in spite of the warnings.

On Christmas Day I invited Maryruth and Gerald and Deborah again for Christmas ham, another tradition that we seem to repeat each year. I buy ham once a year, either Christmas or Easter, and the leftovers in the freezer are enough for some bean soup and scalloped potatoes and ham throughout the year. We sat around in the living room together with whatever YouTube channel was Christmasy and enjoyed the company until early evening when Deborah decided to brave the heavy rain to drive the hour long trip back to Shady Cove and Maryruth and Gerald retreated the short mile back to their home.

The day after Christmas, with no more company to come for a meal, we pulled out another great puzzle. The Paint the Town series by Eric Dowdle is great fun, and he even has a PBS show about each town that he visits. It only took us a bit less than 3 days to find all the little people and figure out the many high rise buildings in the beautiful Portland puzzle.

New Years Eve was even more quiet than Christmas, with no visits and no real celebrations except for the local fireworks and gunshots that in our somewhat rural neighborhood started up around 9 and kept going until long after midnight. I think I woke up for a minute or two at 12, and thought about the New Year to come. The calendar is such a man made thing, and the days just shift as they will do. Who knows if the energy of a year changes just because a man made number has changed, but this afternoon in the sunlight I can feel a bit of hope. Vaccines are coming…eventually.

One more Christmas behind us and look at that sunshine

Our travels for the coming year have already shifted in spite of the hope of 2021 being a bit more free than 2020 was. We had planned to travel south to California for our annual desert trip toward the end of January, but have put that plan on hold. I just can’t get really excited about traveling through California yet. I called Catalina Spa and learned that the pools are open but the spa and showers are closed as are most of the other amenities. With restaurants and movies and such being closed in Southern California, and COVID numbers off the charts, the trip just didn’t seem very smart. We will wait, and maybe travel south in March. If things in California haven’t improved by then, we may slide south through Nevada into wild places in the desert where we can boondock without worrying much about running into too many people.

Our other big travel plans included a May cruise to Scotland, cancelled last year but still on the books to depart from London on May 22. We will wait for Oceania to cancel this one before we make any big decisions about it, but something tells me our cruise to Scotland will not happen again this year. It takes a long time for cruise ships to get going again, if they ever do. I spoke with my doctor this week during a virtual checkup and was told that I shouldn’t expect to get a vaccination for weeks and possibly months in this part of Oregon. Each state has their own priorities, and for Oregon it is health care workers with folks over 75 a bit farther down on the list. I guess, just like 2020, 2021 is still a wait and see year.

December Days

Current Location: Rocky Point Oregon 45 degrees F at 5pm

We have no snow, not a bit to be found unless we drive to 7,000 feet elevation or more into the Cascades above us. Through the clouds, sometimes there is a break, and I can see a dusting on the trees on Pelican Butte and Mt Harriman in the Mountain Lakes Wilderness.

This year not a speck of snow

Makes it easy to put up Christmas lights, I must say. No slipping on the ice, crawling through big snow berms and such. Last year at this time Mo and I were shoveling and plowing in an unsuccessful attempt to stay ahead of the dumping white stuff. This year the lawns are still green.

Last year on the same date, and yes…there is Abby

In the past few years, however, it seems that winter comes later and later, with not much to speak of until after Christmas. Still, it is obvious that winter is upon us. The days are short and dark, and when the sun does appear it is very low in the sky.

Christmas quilts and decorations (25 of 25)

Christmas quilts and decorations (21 of 25)

Christmas quilts and decorations (23 of 25)

After a week at home, while I finished up the three kid Christmas quilts, we took off again for Grants Pass and the Cottage. Mo’s brother Dan came down to spend a couple of days with us to help Mo with some more of the electrical work. Mo also managed to get the newly moved bathtub to finally drain properly. Long story and boring, but enough to say that the tub now drains and the breakers no longer flip off at the slightest provocation. They even got a new box to the old tool shed ready for plenty of amps to eventually make it out to the RV shed.

It was a simple time for me, and I worked inside on Christmas projects while Mo and Dan rumbled around in the rain and mud. Got some nice visiting in with daughter Deborah in the evenings when she got home from work, and managed to keep everyone well fed.

On our way home back to Rocky Point, we decided to take the old road through Gold Hill toward Sams Valley instead of our usual interstate trek back to Highway 140. We ambled through Gold Hill and had a spontaneous hot dog lunch at a little stand along the main street. Then as we continued east, we saw signs for Ti’lomihk Falls on the Rogue River.

We parked just in time to watch a rafter and a paddleboarder go down the rapids. The interpretive signs at the park were wonderful, but I neglected to get a photo of them. This website explains what we learned about the “stone chair” that was central to the ceremony to honor the first salmon of the season for the Talkelma tribe. ON the website is the story of the planned whitewater park, and a video of Grandmother Agness Baker Pilgrim, one of the oldest surviving members of the tribe, speaking of the salmon ceremony and the stone chair.

Yesterday was the annual Rocky Point Ladies Luncheon. The luncheon is a tradition that has been going on for several years, and in the past was held at the local social club building, with some women decorating tables and the men cooking and serving. Stuff happens, things change, but a sweet lady here in Rocky Point, Gina, didn’t want to let it slip away so she set up our luncheon in a brand new venue.

I was a bit recalcitrant about it…at first, i didn’t even want to go if it was just going to be lunch in a restaurant. Glad I changed my mind.

We have a new place to go in “town”. Our community does not have a post office or a school and only one tiny store a few miles east on 140, but we do have a fire station. That volunteer fire department generates a lot of community support. But as far as a real town goes, we don’t have one here. But now we do have a “resort”. Ladies Luncheon at Harriman Resort (56 of 60)

Like Rocky Point Resort, and Point Comfort, Harriman Springs has been a presence here for many years. When Mo first started coming to Rocky Point in the late 80’s she would have lunch at the little marina store and cafe that was on the edge of the spring. Things changed, the little marina closed. Recently, the owner of the land adjacent to the spring decided to upgrade the property and build what he hopes will be a world class resort. Ladies Luncheon at Harriman Resort (53 of 60)

If the quality of the restaurant is any indication, he is going to succeed. We have all been waiting impatiently for the restaurant to open, watching along on Facebook on their page, and checking in now and then to see how things are progressing.

Yesterday, we got to see the new restaurant in action, with a truly delightful luncheon put on for our community ladies. Lyman, the executive chef is duly proud of what he is doing with the menu, and we were the lucky recipients of his creations, with a special party before the place is actually open. It was as much fun as the previous years, and a lot less work. I missed decorating the tables, and the men cooking, but oh my…the food was delectable the conversations were great and the views were beautiful. I even wore those six inch high heels I bought for Jeanne’s wedding! Love having any excuse to dress up, especially when I don’t have to walk too far.

Oh my…the mess of it!

I am putting up the rest of the house decorations, and retreating to my computer for the next couple of weeks in an attempt to complete the gargantuan scanning project that I started last Spring. Sheesh! It is taking forever…and not a small amount of time is spent scratching my head trying to figure out which year that was. Photos for the kids, scanned and put on an external drive. I decided it was way better than trying to get them all printed and given to each of them. That would have been impossible. It has been fun, though, and I have enjoyed perusing the past and writing small summaries of the years so the kids know where they were when.

A scanned photo of my 4 kids and me at Christmas 1973

Deborah behind me, Deanna left, Melody middle, and John right.

I think when that job is done, I can simply sit and enjoy Christmas.

Christmas 2013

In Rocky Point, Oregon on sunny day with only a bit of snow left around here and there

Christmas was lovely this year, with some good times with Deborah on Christmas Eve, and then celebration on Christmas morning when daughter Melody and my local grandkids, Axel and Xavier, joined us for breakfast and dinner. Not often we try to do both traditions on the same Christmas day, but somehow this year we wanted the eggs benedict breakfast AND the Christmas dinner.

In spite of the goodies in between those two great meals, we still managed to have a wonderful time eating a succulent pork roast dinner by 3PM without too much trouble. It helped that we skipped dessert after dinner, opting instead to sip Deb’s great dessert wine from the local Troon Vineyard in the Applegate Valley.

Family gifts were a part of the tradition, with some homemade stuff from mom and some incredibly lovely and thoughtful presents for Mo and I from the family as well. We had fun. The sun was shining, and with the snow melting the icy driveway kept us from going on the traditional walk or the other tradition, sledding. Kevin was in California working, so he and Melody talked via text and video, and of course the phones were ringing off and on during the day while we talked with distant loved family members. Truckers Deanna and Keith even made it home to Washington to spend Christmas afternoon with son Steven.

My sister Sal got a reprieve from trucking with a visit home to her loved ones in California, including her daughter Savannah, who managed to get south to sunny California for the holidays. She is a sophomore now at Oregon State and studying zoology, so Christmas break is definitely appreciated.

It was a simple day with lots of love and hugs all round, and another chance to appreciate the uniqueness of every single one of us. Nothing simple or ordinary about any family, I am sure, but somehow the holidays remind us of our bonds and our lives and what we love and what we share. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Today instead of doing the shopping thing that many are doing, Mo and I are backing up files, packing up the last of what is needed for our trip, and checking off the list items with relish. All is good for departure, and I am definitely ready for some desert time.

Christmas soon and then we are outta here!

Rocky Point Oregon high today was 36 and some of the snow is melting

In the midst of doing all the Christmasy things, I am packing for three months on the road. I am feeling just a little bit schizo, since my two deep desires are warring with each other. I want to do Christmas up well, but on the other hand, with our departure day looming so close, I am ready to get rolling, to leave the everydayness behind. I actually dreamed about eating juicy sweet oranges from the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield and I could taste them as if it were real.

I also dreamed about being in turquoise water swimming and watching turtles floating beneath me. Must be sunlight deprived I guess, and ready for some light and some warmth. Christmas lights are great, and at this time of year I have a LOT of lights on all the time everywhere, but nothing beats the real thing.

Still, in the mean time, I have been doing the traditions. I once again did a table for the annual Rocky Point Ladies Luncheon and enjoyed the wine and good food and laughter with local friends. The local men cook and serve and pour wine and the ladies eat and enjoy. It is a sweet community tradition, and though we don’t even have a post office out here in Rocky Point, we do have a great community. See Deb there in the middle of the group photo? It was a real treat to have her living close enough to join us at the luncheon.

Our only real snowfall this season was early in the month so Mo and I haven’t had to spend a lot of time plowing and shoveling. Instead, I have been tied to the sewing machine, and actually managed to get Deanna’s quilt bound and shipped, and finished some Christmas presents for my other daughters.

Mo and I traveled over to Grants Pass a couple of times, just a bit nervous about the 6 degree temperatures that Deb reported to us, but the MoHo was just fine with the small heater we left running. Deb didn’t have cold water in the cottage kitchen for a few days, but those kinds of temperatures are almost unheard of in Grants Pass, so hopefully that won’t be happening again very soon. The MoHo shed is big and built well, but still, without any heat, it is amazing how warm it stays inside.

With each trip we take a bit of “stuff” over for the big trip. The bikes and kayaks are there, and our single cruise suitcase that will have to be hauled around in the Tracker until we reach New Orleans. I keep wishing I could pick Erin’s brain about how they packed for their three months of travel in all sorts of conditions, but I guess that will have to wait till I am in Port Aransas and actually visiting with her in person. It feels a bit like being a full timer, but in a much smaller rig. I really don’t need three months of clothes. Mo reminds me that of course there will be laundry facilities along the way. I am laughing at myself here a lot, at how silly it is to try to pack for three months. People pack for a lifetime of full-timing with much less angst, I am sure. Hard to believe that Mo and I fit a week’s worth of cruising stuff in one suitcase….minus the snorkels however, they are in a mesh bag tied to the suitcase. No airplanes to restrict us this time.

We drove over the mountain to the cottage again last Saturday to spend an afternoon attending to travel preparations and details and to spend some time with Daughter Deb. Grants Pass is such a lovely small town, and it actually has a really cute “downtown”. I am glad that we settled on property there rather than over in Brookings where we looked originally. Brookings has the ocean, but it doesn’t have any kind of real downtown. Deb treated Mo and I to dinner at a well known established restaurant, overlooking the Rogue River, called Rivers Edge. It was a lovely experience in a lovely place and we all had a great time. After dinner we went downtown to view the charming musical lighted panels that line the streets. They are a different take on town Christmas lights and are so much fun.

The weather cooperated with no rain and temperatures in the low 30’s rather than single digits. Nice for walking, but also nice to have the car close by to warm up. We then went down to the park to check out more lights and then home to the cozy MoHo.

Jeremy was in full old-cat-mode and we got a taste of how this next three months will be a bit challenging. Fun, but challenging. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can’t imagine how I thought I could leave him behind. Although at 4am when he gets all talkative and needy I wonder at my sanity. Anyone who thinks cats are independent hasn’t lived with a cat for 17 years. Old cats are needy, needy, needy!

Tomorrow Deb will be here for Christmas Eve cooking time together, and on Christmas Day Melody and the kids will show up early enough in the morning to have our traditional eggs benedict Christmas breakfast. I am planning on a classic pork roast, bone in, with a sweet salty crusty rub. I love my Cooks Illustrated magazine recipes. Something as simple as a pork roast has a four page fine print article on the science and chemistry of making a truly tender, tasty roast. I did it once before so I know it works! Downtown Grants Pass at Christmas

On Thursday morning I will start putting away the Christmas decorations and packing up the last of the clothes and food for our trip. Back up the computer, back up quicken, make sure we have ALL the cords and chargers for all the electronics, the batteries and chargers and cases for the cameras, so much stuff to remember! Sheesh! I did remember recently that I will not be in the wilderness for the entire three months. I can buy something if I forget it, right? Still….I am making way too many lists and then trying to remember where I put them. I think that is why I am so ready to be gone. Once we leave, all the details slip into place and a sort of peace settles in.

I can’t wait.

Home in December

Rocky Point, Oregon 25 degrees F and partly cloudy with a high predicted of 40F

When we planned our winter trip south, we knew that December in this part of Oregon can be cold, snowy, and wintry. Still, I wanted to be home at Christmas in spite of the weather. Daughter Deb is close enough now that she can come over the mountain to share the holidays with us, and Melody and her family always come out for Christmas as well, with just a 25 mile trek from Klamath Falls to mom’s house in the woods. We have some great family traditions, one of which includes sledding down our hill on Christmas day.

There have been times when there was no snow, but not often. Last year the snow started in November and I counted 13 consecutive days of plowing and blowing as the snow dumped on us. This year November was sunny and the grass was still green. Then WHAM, that Big Chill that gripped the nation landed in Oregon as well, and our temperatures were as low as 20 degrees below Zero F. We broke all time records for cold for any day in Klamath Falls with readings of almost 30 below. Yup, you read that right. 30 miles north of the California border and it was -28F.

The good part about this cold spell however, was that it was just too cold to snow very much. Around the 5th of December, the snow started falling and Mo and I plowed and shoveled for two days, unable to keep up with the dumping white stuff. Then the true cold hit, the skies turned bluebird blue, and the snow froze in place, clean and dry after all our snow management. With temps that cold, there wasn’t much ice in our driveway and on our road, and we haven’t had to plow since then. The rest of the area wasn’t so lucky, however.

Daughter Deb over in Grants Pass spent a few days without water when the pipes froze. Grants Pass and the Rogue Valley are not used to that kind of weather, and there were hundreds of accidents on the local roads and freeways and most of the schools have been closed for more than 5 days now. We didn’t winterize the MoHo but left a heater running inside and the RV shed is completely enclosed, so we think all is OK. Our reason for buying the Grants Pass property had to do with lowest winter temps being an occasional bout with the teens and most of the time above 30F or so.

Daughter Deanna was right in the midst of the worst ice storm, just 30 miles from Dallas, where she and her husband spent 13 hours trapped in their semi on one of those “fake” hills at an overpass that no vehicle could manage. Deanna said someone would try and they all would slide backwards. Traffic was backed up for 40 miles or something like that. They finally got out of the mess to deliver in Memphis, run down to Miami to pick up some other kinds of fancy engines, and take off for Manitoba, where the cold was just normal Manitoba cold and not impossible to navigate.

Here at home, I managed to work on quilt projects for Christmas presents, and finally got the house decorated. I do love decorating for holidays, but for some reason it was a bit hard to get into it this year. I was dragging my feet. Possibly because I knew we were leaving just two days after Christmas, not to return until April. I definitely want to get it all packed up and put away before we leave, and of course I know there will be a bit of crunch time in that short two days as we finalize our packing for three months on the road.

Still, on Wednesday this week, I finally went out to the very cold garage (it was still around zero F, and Mo and I brought down the Christmas bins and I started unpacking and deciding what to use, what to skip. This year I will skip the Christmas villages, and those bins remain untouched. I decided to decorate the perfect little Christmas tree this year with the heirloom little pieces that have been with both of us for more years than I care to count instead of my fancy fruits and shiny globes that I bought for my Klamath Falls home when I moved there 11 years ago. The snowmen came out, and I laughed with Mo, saying “No matter how old and worn out I get, I’ll always be able to manage the snowmen, even if I don’t do anything else!”

Last night I finished up the lights on the porch, and in spite of the lack of enthusiasm I felt during the process, as I stood out in the snow looking at our cozy house I was so glad I had made the effort. Somehow it finally feels like Christmastime. Today I’ll go down to our Rocky Point community place and set a pretty table for eight for the ladies luncheon held here every year. The kids will come for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and the house will look like a Mom’s house is supposed to look. I’ll start baking cookies and make some fudge, listen to some Christmas music and be grateful that we decided to stay home once again for Christmas.

This year I even made the effort to do Christmas cards and the Christmas letter. I saw on the news not long ago how this old tradition is rapidly dying as we all seem to be communicating in different ways with social media and the internet. I decided that the letter and a sheet of photos was still a nice gesture. I still have old Christmas letters from lots of friends who used to send them. Mo gets lots of cards every year, I get very few. I do think I have friends, but maybe our friends are different kinds of people. Hers are more traditional, mine are all over the map. All over the map kinds of people tend to not send Christmas cards. So what am I, all over the map or traditional??!!

Who knows if we will be here every year. Sometimes we might like to take a break and travel somewhere warm BEFORE that winter snow and cold hits Rocky Point. Each time I have done that, however, my heart misses the old traditions of Christmas and my family, at least as many of my family that I can gather in one place at one time. Mo would much prefer to be elsewhere at this time of year, and when I first knew her, she would almost always be off somewhere in December, avoiding all the Christmas hubbub, calling me from Spain, or Costa Rica or some other exotic location. I am glad that she is tolerant of my need for family times and patiently waits for two days after Christmas to escape.