friends – Page 11 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Summer Solstice

The longest day of the year, the shortest night, the beginning of summer, time to celebrate. I love to celebrate the turning of the seasons, the changing of the light. I ring bells at Winter Solstice, with that wonderful feeling that winter light will be lengthening and summer returning. In the midst of the summer solstice is the thought that already the sun is turning away. Strange thought when summer has only just begun to warm the forest here and the trees are only now fully leafing out. The weather on this first day of summer did not disappoint us, with the hottest temperatures of the year so far. It was a gorgeous, crystal clear, beautiful, 80 plus degrees today, and I think I could see the tomatoes growing taller as I watched them.

We didn’t do a Solstice party, but we did have a bonfire last Sunday night. With the formal notification of the beginning of fire season, the last day for outdoor burning was June 20, so we invited the neighbors and built the last big outdoor fire of the season. Wes and Gayle live most of the time in Arizona, relocated there after many years in Oregon. Their place here is a lovely mountain home, just across the road from our house, and it’s nice when they return for the summer. They waited a bit this year because of our cool temperatures, so we were glad to see them come back in time for some neighborly visits before we leave for Alaska. Of course, it’s also nice that they are here since Wes is our resident summer lawn mowing person and house care-giver while we are gone. Wes has no grass to mow next door and seems to get a kick out of riding around on Mo’s mower. At least that is what he says. Personally, I just think he is a truly kind and generous neighbor! Gayle has treated us to many lovely meals, both here in Oregon and when we have visited them in Arizona in the winter.

When I invited them over, I said to come for hot dogs and a meal composed entirely of non-home-cooked food. Most of the time I love to cook, but lately with the extra work weeks taking most of my time, not so much. Our get-together was more about a chance to have a fire and enjoy the outdoors than it was about eating. We did have a good time, in spite of the store bought picnic, and the hot dogs roasted over the fire on a pitchfork hit the spot. I even found humongous marshmallows, big as a fist, labeled appropriately “campfire marshmallows”. I laughed so hard when we tried to eat them, they were HUGE and sticky and Gayle needed a fork and a plate to deal with just one.

In the past couple of weeks we had 7 cords of juniper delivered, huge rounds that Mo splits with the hydraulic splitter. It’s a hard, hot, and nasty job, and this time she has avoided huge divots in her legs created by flying chunks of wood with the soccer shin guards I got her for Christmas. Mo does all the splitting and we share the stacking chores. The loads come 3.5 cords at a time, and it took us three days to do the first load. Today we started on the second. The juniper is reasonably priced firewood, but it is full of huge knots, one of the reasons it looks so beautiful in woodcrafts. Juniper is encroaching on the native grasslands in Oregon, and the juniper eradication program is making an attempt to take it back a notch. The result is lots of big, dry juniper, needing a home for the winter. We are happy to oblige. I love it. It crackles and snaps, not a problem in our enclosed stove, and it burns hot and long. Mo loves it less, see previous entry regarding shin divots. Today she said something to the effect that we had enough juniper for a couple of years and next time we were going to order it split. She thinks the cost of split wood might not be as much as a busted splitter.

Mo fed our campfire with some of the huge rounds that were impossible to split to a reasonable size. I brought out the fancy Thermocell mosquito repellent device, along with the Off Clip-On device and tried to keep the biting monsters at bay. Wes was about ready to head back for Arizona, since even with the fire smoke and all the devices, the mosquitoes still were trying to have us for dinner. Must have something to do with the nice days warming up and everything is hatching beautifully.

The weekend of the 12th was the big graduation weekend in Klamath, and town was filled to the brim with celebrants, including my niece Savannah. My granddaughter Hillary will also be graduating in a few weeks from Klamath Union High School. Hard to believe that little baby girl is through with high school.

On Friday, the 10th, my friend Maryruth ( we are getting close to 50 years of friendship) and her husband, son, and daughter-in-law returned from an Albany graduation via Rocky Point. Mo and I turned over the big house bedrooms to them and spent the night in the guest cabin with Abby and Jeremy. It was a great way to be sure that the cat didn’t do his friendly cat thing and scratch at the guest room door till they opened it and purr all night on Maryruth’s chest. The cabin is a real treat, with morning sunlight and a warm little wood stove for the night chill.

I cooked a real supper for them, no store bought stuff this time, plank grilled salmon with lemon hollandaise, fresh asparagus, and salad from our greenhouse garden. I even made an old fashioned apple dump cake for dessert. Yum.

One of the great old traditions of Rocky Point are the amazing little steamboats that come here every year. Not your average big boat, but beautifully built little water crafts that are operated by true wood-fired steam engines. We heard the toots from the house and decided we definitely needed to run down to the lake to check them out. We also wanted to check out the newly remodeled resort. Rumor had it that there was a new bar adjacent to the existing restaurant, so we were happy to find out the rumor was correct. After walking along the dock to admire the steamboats, we enjoyed the beautiful view of Pelican Bay from the restaurant for just the price of a round of drinks. It’s wonderful to have friends stop in and visit. It’s also nice to have a special little place close by to have a nice dinner with a gorgeous view. Note to self: dinner at Rocky Point Resort soon!

…

Family and Friends in the Desert

Our first preference for a destination wouldn’t necessarily be the big cities of Tucson and Phoenix. We both love the wide open vistas of the desert, preferably without telephone poles and skyscrapers, and miles and miles of traffic. However, another advantage of traveling in an RV is the opportunity to spend time with friends and family that we might not manage otherwise. Hence our decision to spend quite a bit of time both in Tucson and in Phoenix.

In addition to our friends in Sahuarita, we spent another day with a long time friend of Mo’s in Green Valley. Joan lives in another large gated retirement community with winding streets, a dog park, a community center, swimming pool, and lots of amenities nearby in Green Valley. Joan’s home is big and cool and with her recently glassed in patio, was a great place to leave Abby and her dog Rusty while we spent the day visiting the historic town of Tubac, just a few miles south.

Tubac was at one time a Presidio, and there is a nice state park in addition to several charming guest houses and a ton of interesting shopping choices. It was a bit like going to Mexico without having to go to Mexico, and some great art thrown in. We looked around town, enjoying the colorful pots and garden art, and exploring the Art Museum. Lunch was relaxed until Joan checked her messages and found out that Abby had been barking incessantly since we left and the neighbors were in a bit of a snit. Bummer. Abby is so good in so many ways, but the separation anxiety makes it hard to leave her anywhere except with a dog sitter who is paid to sit with her. We skipped the rest of our shopping excursion and rushed back home.

Once there, Abby was a perfect lady, lying quietly at Mo’s feet as if nothing was wrong at all. She is a perfect house guest, even if Mo isn’t there, she will be quiet and calm with whomever is caring for her. Only the slobbered up windows gave any indication that anything was ever wrong at all. We took the dogs to the dog park for some fun and then came back to Joan’s house for another lovely supper and more conversation around the dinner table. Once again, it was a long dark ride back to Tucson and home and the patiently waiting cat.

Early Wednesday morning we were back on the road heading for Phoenix. We did look into the Luke AFB Military Family Camp, but it certainly didn’t have the reputation of our previous digs at Davis-Monthan. The instructions said “choose a site and be sure the electricity is operating before you check in”. Another review referred to the constant barrage of fighter jet aircraft noise day and night. With temperatures in the 90’s this week, we definitely couldn’t boondock, so dipped into our Streets and Trips program to see what might be available north in Phoenix.

Just a few miles from one set of relatives, we found the Royal Palm Mobile Home and RV Resort. When it says “mobile home’ and ‘”resort” in the same line we usually figure we are in for one of those places that wants to sell a lot. Since it was a CampClub listed park, however, we called anyway. Sure enough, they had a spot with full hookups, 16 bucks a day. Electricity! Of course, the WiFi was extra, and I never did get it to work, and the owner gave me some sort of complex story about why they didn’t have cable tv, but it didn’t matter much because we were there to visit relatives, not relax in a city center kind of RV park. When we finally checked out the pool on our morning walk this morning before leaving, we decided it was pretty small for a park as big as this. It was also pretty darn warm!

We landed in early afternoon, immediately turned on the air conditioning and called the relatives to schedule a convenient time to visit. Once arrangements were made for the following day, we used the iPhone to check out what to do in Phoenix. Found another website, “The Fifteen Things to do While In Phoenix” and when we got to number 7, drive the Apache Highway, both of us said, “Yup, that’s it”. We could take the dog, be in the cool car, and still get out to see something interesting. I’ll write about that part of the day in a separate blog, because it was an incredible treat, and I took lots of photos. We didn’t get back to the park until late, and with a sandwich for supper we fell asleep with the windows open and the Fantastic Fan on full blast.

The next morning we first visited Mo’s cousin Jim, who with his wife Linda has lived in the Phoenix area since 1994. They love living here and love the convenience of their location in the city. Their home was at the base of a mountainous park nearby, and within a lovely resort now owned by the Hilton. Linda served us a great breakfast, and then Jim treated us (mostly me) to his technical savvy about all things computer related. He also showed many of his great photos taken with a Nikon D-60 on his huge flat screen very high def TV. Nice morning. Jim is very much into the family genealogy and we got a great tour through some family history and stories.

Mid-day, we had just enough time to get across Phoenix to Sun City Grand near Surprise to visit Mo’s Uncle Albert and his wife Caroline. They live in a sprawling, very elegant, Del Webb community with 4 18 hole golf courses, a huge recreation center, and a club for just about anything in the world you could want to do. Their home was all soft white and pristine, with wide open views of the golf course. Caroline served us lunch while Uncle Al continued the stories of the Ross family history. Mo’s mother was from a family of ten kids, and Uncle Al was one of the younger uncles. Mo has lots of great memories of the many uncles teaching her to play basketball, taking her fishing, and doing all sorts of fun things along the mighty Columbia River where she grew up.

We looked at many more historic family photos from the homestead in North Dakota, the cemeteries we visited last summer, and the family homes in St Helens, Oregon. What a family, and what a history! Of course, the wild ones, the skeletons in the closet were the most fun, with Billy Bob, hanged for horse stealing, being a star. Many of the uncles and cousins have history as military airmen and some have been commercial pilots. Mechanical skill seems to run in the family, so Mo comes by it naturally. Gee, with all those uncles and brothers, it’s no wonder.

Uncle Al kept us entertained until late in the afternoon, when Cousin Jim called and wanted to confirm an early evening date for drinks and supper at Aunt Chilada’s, near their home. We didn’t even have time to stop in to the MoHo to say hi to Jeremy, and just drove through the crazy traffic back across the city once more. Supper was also great, with lots more stories and laughs.

It was long after dark when we finally returned to our park and the patient cat sitting in the window wondering when we might settle down again. The last of the “visiting” is over now, and we are traveling north toward Laughlin before once again winding our way into some wild open desert landscape. Visiting is nice, it’s great to get to see relatives and friends, but it’s time for some companionable silence and wide open vistas, for sure!

Company in the cabin

One of the delights of my last few years as a soil survey project leader was the chance to make some really great friends. After six years in the Air Force, and lots of other experiences, Chris arrived in Sonora in early 2009, an energetic, incredibly brilliant, funny, sweet young man, ready and willing to learn to be a good soil mapper. It was fun teaching him all the inside stuff about field soil survey that I knew, and by the time I retired last year, I had not only a great employee, but a true friend.

Another delight I enjoy by sharing a home with Mo, is the pleasure of the guest cabin just next door to the big house. The cabin was the first thing on the property when Mo acquired it many years ago and is still a great little cozy spot to hang out. Complete with running water in the summer, a composting toilet, and a great wood stove, it’s a lot more fun for guests than hanging out on the living room sofa or in the guest room with the bath across the hall. Chris loves the snow and loves to come and visit so we welcomed him with his friend Karen for the weekend.

They arrived on Friday night armed with salmon that Chris smoked, along with all the ingredients for a great Smoked Salmon Chowder. Gotta love friends that come with dinner and Chris is a great cook. Many of the co-worker bar-b-que’s at my house in Jamestown were enhanced by some of Chris’s amazing grill roasted rosemary potatoes.

You know how cold it has been here, with all the deep snow, so Chris and Karen came prepared with snowshoes ready to tackle the deep high snows at Crater Lake. Ever heard of a January thaw? We got it big time this weekend with long warm hard rains on the deep snows, making a great big mess of everything. Even at 8,000 plus feet at Crater Lake the snow was mushy and almost impossible to slog through. Instead our friends spent more time in the big house with us, watching football, while Karen and I knitted, and playing killer Racehorse dominos.

On Sunday afternoon, Chris and Karen went ice skating at our local ice arena at the Running Y Resort. It was a first for Chris and the movies were truly funny. Mo made her famous waffles on Saturday, I cooked some sour cream apple pies and a Guiness Irish stew, and Chris and Karen made fat, juicy breakfast burritos for us on Sunday morning.

I noticed that a lot of the RV bloggers down in Desert Hot Springs are having great times catching up with fellow RV’rs and it sounds like a ton of fun. Having company now and then is a lovely reprieve from the cold, dreary days of winter, especially when the company is as wonderful as my friend Chris.

Ocala

Ocala_Bel (13) Something magical happens to me when I am in Ocala. Even though the population of the city is close to 100K it still feels like a small town. Often when I come here, the weather is wonderful, an incredible respite from cold and snow. This time I seem to have hit the coldest possible weather, with predictions for the low 20’s tonight and even colder temperatures possible in the next couple of days, with highs in the 40’s. I am leaving on Wednesday from Tampa, and the temperatures predicted for Thursday are back in the 70’s. Ah well. I am not really here for a vacation, I am here for my friend.

…

In the five days that I have here, I hoped to be some help to my friend who has been dealing with some health issues. So I am here, driving her to the grocery store, taking her to the parade, where she did a great job walking from the side street parking to the main drag in Ocala. Yesterday I took her for a drive through the gorgeous back roads along 225A, the secret pathway through miles and miles of horse farms with homes almost as big as the incredible stables, with driveway gatehouses that could house a homeless family or two.

…

But back to that ‘thing’ that happens here in Ocala. The Ocala parade consisted of almost three hours of floats full of kids involved in every possible activity available, with gymnasts, and dancers, and singers, high school and middle school bands, and so many “miss whatever’s” they needed a dozen cars to carry them all. Ocala calls itself the horse capital of the south, and there was no lack of fabulous horses and horsemanship exhibited in the parade. Small town stuff at it’s best.

Somehow, here in this town, I find myself slowing to a crawl. I listen to birds and watch the light play on the leaves. I watch the skies change from gray to sunny back to gray and sit on the porch watching the rain. Ocala really isn’t a destination, there isn’t much here for a traveler passing through, there is bad traffic down on “200”, there is crime and racism, and grinding poverty amidst huge wealth. Just a few minutes north of Ocala is Anthony, a bucolic land of open space and huge oak trees where John Travolta and his wife have built their home and life. John drops into the local Publix now and then and Bel sees him at the meat counter. And everywhere, the trees. Huge live oaks dripping with moss, and spindly elms so thick you can’t walk, and everything in between. I love the trees in this part of Florida.

Today a neighbor of Bel’s invited us to a Christmas Chorale at her church on the “other side of town”. Another neighbor stopped by yesterday with a small new space heater, worried about her in the cold.

I thought maybe while I was here I could write about Silver Springs with all the Christmas lights, or possibly go out to Juniper Springs in the Ocala National Forest and write about the Technicolor turquoise waters, trying to find adjectives to describe them. Instead I am lying low, listening to Bel talk about her life, watching the 3 TV stations available, going to church, watching the birds, and playing with the cats.

Sharing time with friends in Oroville

Our time on the water, on rivers and beaches, came to an end on Thursday with the beginning of our inland route to Redding. Garmin Girl really wanted us to travel south on 101, cross the Bay Area near Vallejo, and then go north again on I-5. Ugh. We turned her off, and headed north again and over the mountains toward the northern part of the great wide Sacramento Valley.

Sonoma County was beautiful, and in the slanting fall sunlight, the vineyards were many shades of red and gold. I tried for photos, but traveling was the order of the day and I can’t seem to manage much from the windshield. We stayed on 101 to Ukiah, a town I repeatedly get mixed up with Yreka and Eureka, although now I should have them straight in my head. Arcata is another one in the mix, that I now have some experience with so should remember.

Ukiah was a pleasant small town along the freeway, with a bit of a rural feeling to it except for the big shopping center with a Target and an Applebee’s. Mo and I both had the thought of a big juicy hamburger at about the same time. It’s amazing how we can drive in companionable silence for a long time and suddenly we’re both saying, “Gee, what do you think of a burger?” We got to Applebee’s just in time, about half an hour before lunch, before the crowds started filling up all available seats. To our delight, it was Veteran’s Day and they were giving free meals to all veterans. Mo pulled out her military ID and we had the best burgers we have had in a long time.

The afternoon was sunny and pleasant, and in no time we pulled into my friend’s driveway in Oroville. Maryruth has been my friend since 1963, (that is 47 years if anyone is counting!) and she and her husband of the last 23 years or so have a nice spread on the hills above town with plenty of space for us to park for a couple of nights and enjoy some visiting time before we continue north.

Maryruth and I met across the fence one day back in Arcadia, California where I lived as a very young mother. Maryruth also was a young mother of three, and we discovered over that back fence on an October afternoon, that her youngest and my oldest were just three days apart. Some friendships are so integral to your soul that they withstand all that life and time can bring. We shared births, and deaths, divorces, incredible tragedies, and delightful adventures. We shared a home for more than a year when we each had three children, yes, that was six children in our home, ages 1,2 3, and 3, 4, and 5. We were welfare mom’s for a short time, husbandless, hard working, and incredibly poor. Life brought a lot to us, but most of all it brought our love and support of each other through it all. I am incredibly lucky to have her as my lifetime friend.

Gerald, her husband, is a sweet man, who totally adores Maryruth and is generous and kind. While he worked outside on his gardens, and Mo washed the MoHo and caught upon the news, Maryruth and I played Hand and Foot and enjoyed just hanging out together. Maryruth is also an incredible cook, and she had breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all planned for the entire time we were there. I had to beg for mercy, and talked her out of the lunch. Two big meals a day is all we can manage, and we had to give up one or the other. The marinated salmon won out and we had a great dinner, played more cards, and slept through a movie on the big comfy sofas. It was a nice way to end our trip.

On Saturday morning we packed up and headed north to Redding to settle in to the Redding RV Park, right next to I-5. We didn’t want to try to find the RV storage, empty out the rig, and then still drive home that night. Camp Club USA made the stay worthwhile, even if there was Interstate noise all night and the WiFi didn’t work for beans. Mo settled in for a bit while I drove back south to visit my ex mom in law in Red Bluff before returning to Redding for supper and a very early bedtime.

The Sunday morning sunrise out the back window was gorgeous, and the noise didn’t penetrate our little haven. It was a bit laughable trying to get all our “stuff” that we normally just carry in the MoHo to fit into the baby car for the trip home. We didn’t want to leave any kind of food, even dry packaged food seems to be a haven for mice, and we also had all our clothes, kayak paddles and PFD’s, books, bathroom stuff, and the ever present cords, batteries, computers, and phones. Of course, we also had the dog and cat. The baby car is just a little Tracker, lightweight and small, great for pulling, but a bit tight for traveling 150 miles back over the pass to home.

We found the RV storage without any trouble, but once there had a few moments of worry, wondering if we could actually fit into that tight space. Mo backed her in, carefully, and with only a few inches on either side of the rig, it was a bit dicey. Once inside, however, everything was fine. She hooked up the battery keeper and we pulled down the big door and breathed a sigh of relief.

I’m not sure when we will get back out again. I have to catch up on work, and Thanksgiving is coming along as well, with plans for a big family dinner. But it’s good to know that when the whim strikes, we can jump in the baby car and go get our rig and find a warm, sunny escape from the snow. The deserts are calling me, especially when I keep reading Al’s blog about the dark skies of the southwest. I would imagine that will be the next adventure.