family – Page 8 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

It’s all about Red

At the moment, however, everything seems black and white and shades of gray with a little bit of brown and green thrown in here and there. January is gone and February has returned, as it usually does every year. In spite of my usual feelings about dreary February, this year seems different somehow. Maybe because our winter has been so mild, or maybe because I seem to have surrounded myself with RED.

Mo was away for two weeks, doing her annual dog sitting for brother Dan near Portland and I kept myself busy with three weeks of soil survey work to make up for the last trip and filled in the spaces with knitting, sewing, quilting, and baking. Even with the lack of snow, the temperatures still call for keeping the fire going and an occasional shoveling project to keep the driveway clear. With Mo gone, I really hoped to be spared any big snowstorms since I don’t drive the tractor and wouldn’t have a clue how to plow our road. Abby stayed with me for company and that soft little feeling of safety at night that seems to go along with having a dog by your side. She was good company.

Back in December, we happened on a great sofa sale and the delivery happened while Mo was away. Our old sofa (not THAT old actually) was big and sloppy, perfect for the huge living room we had back in the California mobile, but here in our cozy house it was just too massive. Once again, Melody and Kevin were the happy recipients of our hand-me-downs and we filled the living room with a perfect brick red sofa and loveseat. Still comfortable, but scaled more to our style, our bodies, and our room. Kevin is thrilled to have the huge sofa with two recliners added to his living room, and now they have enough seating for all the dogs, cats, teenagers, and adults that hang out at their house. I love the color of the sofa, not really red, but a brick color that is almost impossible to capture in a photo, and believe me I tried!

On a Saturday weekend I drove the hour and fifteen minutes to the well known and fabulous quilt shop in Merrill, called the Tater Patch. What a delight for the senses! I picked up some red and pink and white fabric to go with what I already had and managed to find a heart quilt block on the internet. I filled more gray days with brilliant fabric, following internet tutorials, and dropped in to the small neighborhood quilt shop as well for instruction and encouragement. I even managed to hand quilt the hearts and just finished the binding yesterday after Mo returned home. When I tired of quilting, I picked up the sweater I am knitting for Deanna, making progress, but just bit slower since I discovered playing with fabric and cutting it all up and sewing it all back together. Nutty pastime!

More red.

On the previous Monday, daughter Melody had three days off in a row, an almost unheard of delight. She cleaned house like crazy for two days and on the third day she piled into the car with my granddaughter and a LOT of baking supplies and headed for Rocky Point. We spent the day making an incredibly decadent cake she had seen on the internet last year called, “Lincoln’s Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cake”. The cake is filled with an entire cheesecake between two layers of rich red velvet and frosted with cream cheese frosting decorated with white and milk chocolate. Sinful!! I cut a slice, cut another one for Jean the local quilting lady to thank her for her help, and sent the rest home to the previously mentioned houseful of big men, teenaged boys, and assorted others. Good thing! That cake could destroy a month of dieting in one day!

More red.

Speaking of teenagers, my youngest grandson turned 13 last week. Another day in town searching for just the right thing yielded a sporty athletic jacket that seemed to hit the spot. How in the world do you have a clue what to give a boy turning 13 that isn’t a video game or money! I was sure to include the gift receipt with the jacket, but it wasn’t needed.

I’m happy to have Mo back home. Somehow her way of having a regular routine keeps me happy in a way that I don’t manage myself. I wander aimlessly, doing things at all different hours of the day and night, eating strange things at the wrong time, and waking up at four am to sew with no one else to consider. Dogs and people like routine I think. Abby and I are both happy to get up like normal humans around 6am, and eat dinner in the evening, and go to the hot tub at the same time most nights.

I have been reading about folks traveling in Texas, at Quartzite, in the desert southwest, and down in Florida. Much as I love the desert, those Florida beaches and crystalline rivers are calling me hard for next winter. I really do hope we can be there. In the mean time, we are planning a coast trip again, this time traveling north as far as we feel like going, and fully expecting rain and storms. The Oregon Coast can be so gorgeous and dramatic during stormy whale season. Should be fun, and we will leave the first of March.

We are also planning the mid-summer trip to Colorado for Mo’s family reunion near her sister’s home in Denver and just got excited when we looked at the map and realized that we could leave via the northern route and finally get the MoHo to the Black Hills and fill in that South Dakota hole on our map. Should be a fun trip. Again, we don’t want to be gone for more than two weeks or so because this year for sure we are going to camp at some of the fabulous places right here in our own beautiful Oregon. I still remember Laurie talking about the beauty of Joseph Oregon, and that is on the summer list as well.

Christmas

I am writing this post from the comfy MoHo sofa waiting for the frozen water hose to melt. Of course, we are in California and it dropped to 25 degrees last night. Silly us. We saw rumors of freezing temperatures but kind of ignored them. Couldn’t be THAT bad, right? We are on the road again, but instead of writing about the trip (that will come in the next post), I wanted to write about Christmas. As the years go by, how would I ever remember where we were and what we did if I missed blogging it?!

For the first time I can remember, there was no snow in Rocky Point for Christmas. We had a month of gorgeous sunny clear days, short as they were, and cold temperatures, but not a single day of plowing or shoveling. It made for a good month for me to spend time decorating the house inside and out. Two comments from the day made it all worth while. My youngest said, “Thanks Mom, it finally feels like Christmas to me”. And my oldest said, “Thanks Mom for a true “mom” Christmas”.

The lack of snow made travel easier for everyone, and Deb and my grandson Matthew drove down from Portland on Friday without a hitch. It was wonderful having two nights with them here before Christmas, with time to just hang out together, eat good food, watch a sweet little movie, and have time to talk. Then on Christmas morning the rest of the local family, with Melody and Kevin, grandkids Hillary and Elric, and my sister Sally and my niece Savannah arrived early for our traditional family breakfast of eggs benedict.

The house was warm and festive with family all together laughing and talking and sharing stories. Something that happens all to rarely it seems, so I treasured every single moment of the entire day. After breakfast we opened packages and a highlight for me was the soft sculpture coyote that my granddaughter Hillary made for me. She couldn’t find a pattern so she just designed her own, personally designed and hand sewn. Hillary is an artist who spends much of her time drawing, so somehow she had the ability to picture something two dimensional turning into something three dimensional. Amazing to me, since I am the one that always had trouble with those shapes tests! Vocabulary and reading skills off the charts for me and forget the mechanical stuff! I failed miserably.

Since there was no snow, we settled on another family walk through the Rocky Point neighborhoods, amazed at the 40 degree temperatures and light skies. I hear that winter is coming with a vengeance this week, but lucky us, we missed it! Most of the family left just before dark on Christmas Day, but Deb and Matt waited to leave for Portland until Monday morning, just in time for Mo and I to pack up the baby car and leave Rocky Point behind for two weeks of traveling.

Of course, most of you know to hover over photos to see captions and click to enlarge the picture. For family who want to see the rest of the photos, click here for the web album on Picasa. It seems that these albums are also viewable on Google Plus for plus users as well. I made them visible to anyone interested.

Once all the Christmas hoop-de-do died down, I had some time to read some of the blogs and see all the wonderful Christmas posts from everyone. Beautiful. A belated Christmas to everyone and thanks for being part of my world.

Thanksgiving

Here in Rocky Point Black Friday is actually black. The sun has yet to rise, and I have no plans whatsoever to tackle all that crazy shopping that is going on out there in the world today. I woke with the disquieting feeling that I was terribly behind for who knows what reason. Yesterday was a beautiful day, one of the smallest Thanksgiving dinners I have ever hosted, though not as small as many full-time folks who managed a great dinner for two from the compact kitchens of their rigs.

My children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are scattered across the country, and as the years go by it gets harder and harder to get everyone together for the holidays. For many years I managed huge dinners shared with extended family and friends. Times change, and the delights of a small, intimate dinner can be wonderful as well, as I discovered yesterday with my celebration for five.

I cooked ahead with the same fervor I would have if serving fifteen, but with much less food. The morning was beautiful with sunlight and light winds blowing the pines around, temperatures in the 40’s. Melody and her family thought we would be sledding as usual on Thanksgiving Day, instead there were only a very few residual piles of snow at the base of steep roofs and the lawn showing beautiful green grass. NOT a usual occurrence in November in Rocky Point.

Communication was different as well. Although the phone was busy for much of the day, with long distance visits from my kids and friends, I also read emails, read blog posts from full time travelers, saw photos of pies and turkeys from all over the country on Facebook and Google+. Our communication is different but some things never change. The smell of the turkey as it roasts, the delight of pies on the table, and the warmth of family hugs as the front door opens to the brisk fall air and coats and shoes are shed at the door.

We sat together holding hands before our meal, each saying what we are most thankful for, a long time tradition for us. Some roll their eyes at this, others embrace it fully. My 18 year old granddaughter said “Grandma, I practiced for this”, and then proceeded to voice her thanks in words that made me cry.

With no snow for sledding, we instead took “the family walk” between dinner and pie, also a long time tradition for our family. Just enough to convince us that we were indeed working off all those pie calories, and of course we knew better but it didn’t matter in the least. It was a lovely day and I am so grateful that in the midst of busy life and busy world, there is always family and shared traditions.

Back to that feeling of being terribly behind? I need to work today, finalize the last few weeks for the California survey before I move to the next few weeks working for Oregon again. I hope to take down all the fall decorations. The brilliant fall colors have brightened the house for the last two months, and I love them, but Christmas is coming. I need to get out the Christmas stuff. My quilt is waiting to be finished, the fabric for a dress I want to make is crying to be cut.

Instead, tomorrow, Mo and I must travel to Northern California once again for a memorial for Mo’s fabulous Uncle Don, who passed away recently. Sad to lose such an amazing man, WWII and Korean Conflict pilot who actually passed away on Veteran’s Day. We will visit my sweet mother-in-law who lives in the same area and return on Sunday. Hopefully I will find time to pack Sunday afternoon for my trip to Florida on Tuesday. Once again I will be off to Ocala, to spend some time with my long time friend Bel. In between all this, on Monday, I get to visit the dermatologist for one of those fun outcomes to a youth spent in Southern California sun and a lifetime of an outdoor career.

Writing has slipped again. I suppose I may never actually manage the day by day, blow by blow description of our last cruise to New England. Instead, I hope to actually write about the last three weeks that included a fabulous visit with my life-time friend Maryruth in Oroville, California. I drove past Shasta on a gorgeous sunny day and spent four wonderful days to a girly weekend of spa and our favorite hand and foot game. I started that blog post yesterday, and when I opened up LiveWriter this morning decided instead that I needed to write about Thanksgiving, before it slips into that accumulated list of life moments that are as yet unwritten.

October Heaven

As much as I love the delight of Spring, I don’t think there is any time of year in Rocky Point more beautiful than early fall. Our springs can be wet and cold, and when they warm a bit, the mosquitoes tend to visit. Mosquitoes bring bats of course, a good thing, except a bit unnerving when they swoop down from the eaves while we are in the hot tub. As summer progresses, the frogs proliferate like the proverbial rabbits, tiny little green guys lining up on door sills, and sometimes sneaking into the hot tub for one last too warm swim.

When October comes, however, all is still. The leaves haven’t yet turned, flowers still in bloom, mosquitoes have gone to sleep and frogs are thinning out. Morning sunlight filters through the trees lighting up the now lush grass. It takes much of a summer for Mo to get that grass as thick and lush as she likes, with careful attention to dry spots, brown spots, moss, and edges. She is the lawn person, and am mostly the flower person. It works well.

I wait very impatiently for October 1st, refusing to put up any kind of fall or Halloween decorating before then. Then down come the bins, out comes all the fun stuff, the fall harvest flags go up, and we start building morning and sometimes evening fires. I love the smell of the juniper when it catches, and the feel of that warm glow. Jeremy loves it as well, lounging in front of the flames stretched to his full length to absorb all the warmth. The knitting comes out, homemade stock for soup on the stove, and the evenings are dark before 7.

Of course before this auspicious day, I had many things to do to fill up the last great week of September. My grandson, first daughter Deborah’s son Matthew, got married last weekend and I was able to fly to Colorado to share in the wedding. It was a lovely occasion, held at the only golf course in Sterling, with a sweet ceremony and a sit down supper and dancing afterward. Jessi’s family all live in Colorado, but our family is a bit more scattered and all weren’t able to be there. As always, weddings are such emotional times, with moments of gaiety and moments of nostalgia all wrapped up together in the tradition.

Deb and I had a day long layover in Denver and decided to spent it with Mo’s sister Edna. We visited at home with a chance to once again have lunch with dear Lucille, now 103 years old.

Then Edna, Deb and I checked out the Bear Creek Regional Park, a lovely campground not far from Edna’s home where she is planning a big family reunion next summer. It looks like it will be a perfect spot as long as Colorado doesn’t hit all of us with really hot summer temperatures. There are miles of biking and hiking trails, some shady escapes from the heat, although not actually in the campground itself. There is a swimming beach, and three reservoirs for kayaking and dog swimming. The group site holds 5 rigs with electric hookups and room for tents as well for only $70 per night for all. In addition, for family without RV’s there are two very lovely comfortable yurts, one in beautiful shade.

After exploring the park, the three of us drove 15 minutes farther east to Morrison and the southern entrance to Red Rocks Amphitheater. It was Deb’s first time to see the historic venue and she was enthralled. As a lover of music, she really enjoyed all the posters and history of so many great artists who have played there in the past. We enjoyed the gorgeous view of Denver from high above the stage, and especially enjoyed reading about the history of Red Rocks. Again, this is a place that would not exist without the efforts of FDR and the CCC who built the amphitheater around the existing natural stage of red rock. In the early teens, musicians would play there and the visitor center has some truly great photos of those old performances. The geology of the place is magnificent, with the great unconformity of the Rocky Mountains in full view here below Dinosaur Ridge. As a lover of the wild red sandstones of Utah, I thrilled at the color and beauty of this place carved from the same stuff.

Our flight back to Portland was uneventful, even though we arrived close to midnight and Deborah had to work the next day. I drove south on the 5, thinking of Russ and Donna, but they were off somewhere else having a wonderful time in Therapy so I didn’t stop in Eugene.

Then Tuesday morning Mo’s brother Roger and his wife Nancy came down from Lone Pine to share a few days with us at Rocky Point. They just bought a brand new motorhome, a 2012 Winnebago Aspect, 28 feet, with a full down queen sized bed, something I do envy! They decided to leave it behind and take advantage of our little cabin instead. The cabin is really comfortable, with cozy furniture, lots of farm and ranch antiques about, a very good little wood stove, hot water showers, and a composting toilet. My favorite part of the cabin is the light, huge windows on the east bringing in morning sunlight in a way I don’t get here in the main house. It’s lovely, and it’s always nice when folks choose to stay in the cabin.

We spent one day kayaking Recreation Creek, and the next day paddled south into Harriman Creek to the springs and back. It was perfect weather for being out in the boats and we had a great time.

After our morning kayak on Thursday, we all decided that a trip to Lava Beds National Monument was in order. Time for a bit of caving! I was game, although going down into caves isn’t particularly on my list of important life events. Even in Carlsbad Caverns I didn’t feel particularly comfortable. I was awed by the beauty and the formations, but still just didn’t want to be down there. Caves are a place for unearthly beings. Spirits and ghosts and who knows what. Bats and white crawly things and dampness. Ugh. Oh, right, I am a scientist, who supposedly doesn’t believe in spirits and ghosts. Ask me again when I am in a cave sometime, which won’t be in the near future!

Still it was a fun trip. Lava Beds is a quiet park, in the middle of almost nowhere beyond the Lower Klamath and Tulelake Wildlife Refuges and resting below our favorite Mountain Lake Highlands from which it emerged. Lava has flowed here for thousands of years, last time was less than 800 years ago, so the area is fresh and hot with jagged a’a lava. There are many lava caves, some as yet little explored, and only one that has light. We chose instead to follow the cave loop and see how many caves we could see in the time we had left on this afternoon.

After checking for our possibility of carrying bat disease, the ranger gave us a brochure that listed all the caves, with check marks for “can walk upright” “Must duck walk in some part” “Must crawl in some part” and the length of the cave. We started with Thunderbolt, and the very scary, very uneven trail descended some steep steps before crawling off into blackness and low hanging rock guaranteed to give you a serious head bump if you stood up too quickly. Deep into the tunnel, we did the thing all cave tours do and turned off our flashlights. That lasted just a few seconds before we all creeped out and turned our lights back on!

The next few caves that we explored weren’t quite as deep and black, but I still wasn’t exactly having fun and was glad when we emerged from the last cave of the day. Even with my heebie jeebies, it was still fun to go exploring and a great thing to do with company who have never been to Lava Beds. I guess if I have company again who want to see the park, I will have to go down in the caves once more. Ugh. We topped off our visit with a trip up to Lake of the Woods for a great dinner before the restaurant closes for the season.

I love having company, and I love when I have no company. Quiet days with a bit of gardening, some knitting, catching up on the DVR recordings, no deadlines, nowhere to be. Next week will be full again, I will work another 40 hours and hopefully the guys staining the house will eventually complete the prep and get to the actual staining! Toward the end of the week, another round of excitement will come to Rocky Point with a visit from Laurie and Odel! Yippee and Hooray! We are really hoping for a few more perfect kayak days to take them out on the creek, for what I think will be their first time kayaking.

Day 2 July 7 A Short Drive to Toppenish

We woke to another gorgeous morning on the river and walked up to the beach to let Abby take in a morning swim. I was excited about the day ahead. We had only little more than an hour’s drive north on 97 to reach the town of Toppenish, Washington, not far from where my daughter and her husband are doing some home time. They have a big rig and haul jet engines around the country, but spend home time every few months with his mom in Mabton, a short jaunt from Toppenish. Since much of their hauling is on the east side of the country, or to Alaska and Canada, I don’t get to see her very often.

Mount Adams to the west of Highway 97

The Yakama Nation has a casino and a great RV park in the small town of Toppenish, and we easily snagged a nice spot at the edge of the park with full hookups and a tree shading the grass if not the motorhome.

By 11 AM, Deanna drove up to visit, and we hugged and laughed and decided that the two of us should go check out the town while Mo relaxed in the cool shad with the animals.

Deanna did professional wedding and portrait photography for a time, and has some very serious lenses and equipment in her collection. She brought a couple along to share with me and we spent much of the day playing with my new camera and testing out my lenses and then using some of hers on my camera. Yup. I am taking HER lenses to Alaska. There is no comparison. My lens is a Nikkor, but made in China. Hers is three times as heavy, twice as big, and was made in Japan. She has a monopod to hold up the lens, and we spent a lot of time fiddling around with the process of changes lenses, using the monopod, using my tripod, and fiddling with settings.

I had no idea that the town of Toppenish had murals, much less that it was famous for them. Mo and I enjoyed the murals of Eureka, but you had to have a map to find them. In Toppenish they are everywhere! All you need to do is walk down the street and look in any direction and there they are. The quality is amazing, truly beautiful art. Here is a link to the many photos I took of The Murals of Toppenish.

Deanna and I punctuated our hot afternoon walk with a visit to the local soda fountain, complete with a bar and stools. The root beer floats were made with truly good root beer and hard vanilla ice cream, served with an extra small glass of root beer to add as you wanted. Amazing.

After exploring the town we drove back to camp to pick up Mo for a drive east to Mabton where Deanna’s husband Keith was ready with the bbq going. It was a treat to see Keith’s mom, Ruth, 89 years young and fit as a fiddle. Ruth was raised in this valley, and Deanna drove us past the old farm that belonged to Ruth’s grandfather who relocated here from Iowa. Keith was raised here as well, and it was a good childhood, filled with rivers and frogs and farm chores in the summers at Grandpa’s farm.

It was interesting to hear some of the issues that are plaguing the valley now, with gang activity and shootings and such. Driving through the placid agricultural land, there was no indication of any of this unless you looked closely at bridges to see the tagging on every surface. Sad. Many people live here, the Yakama people are here, many immigrants and migrants working the extensive fields, and farmers like Deanna’s in-laws who have been in this valley for more than 100 years. It’s a rich mix of cultures, with some clashes of course.

We sat in Ruth’s front yard enjoying the stiff breezes while trying to keep our hamburger buns from blowing away and laughing and telling family stories. Deanna and I had so much fun playing again with the cameras, and Keith and Ruth and Mo were patient and long suffering as we ran around the yard laughing and snapping long into the evening. Hopefully all the practice will serve me well as I travel north. Keith also had several thoughts on our trip. He lived in Alaska working for the park at Denali for several months as a young man, and he and Deanna have driven the highway several times in their big truck. Of course, they did it in the winter on ice and in early May when the tourists were few and far between. I have my own version of an ice road trucker! My tiny sweet daughter!!

Mo and I drove back to camp in the setting sun: (explain to me why we are always driving due west at sunset??!!) Jeremy was happy to see us return. He was waiting in the front window watching for the car. He is sooo funny. The minute we get home he jumps up and eats and then uses the potty. I often wonder if he eats or drinks at all when we are gone.

Next: Day 3 July 8 North to Oroville WA

A link to the rest of the photos is here