Just to catch up to date

stay tuned for more living

We are laying low today...checking weather (wind, rain, snow) and best route to Orem, Utah.  Very excited to see the kids!

EasterSunday, 2014 near Fernley, Nevada

What a beautiful day we had on Easter Sunday 2014.  We are staying in a little town just East of Reno, Nevada called Fernley.  We went to church in town and the music, message and lessons were all Christ centered.  I came away from church with a resolve to live my life with more gratitude.



 After church we packed a picnic lunch and headed out to Lahontan Recreation Area.  We were the only people in the entire picnic area!

After lunch we took a ride to the historic Fort Churchill.  Captain Joseph Stewart and his Carson River Expedition were ordered to establish a post on the Carson River.  Starting Iin July, 1860, tens of thousands of dollars were spent to construct Fort Churchill, the desert outpost that guarded the Pony Express run and other mail routes.  Hundreds of soldiers were based here between expeditions against the Indians.  

The fort was named in honor of Sylvester Churchill, the Inspector General of the US Army.  It was built as a permanent installation.  Adobe buildings were erected on stone foundations in the form of a square, facing a central parade ground.  The Civil War made the fort an important supply depot for the Nevada Military District and as a base for troops patrolling the overland routes.

The Fort was abandoned in 1869, and the adobe buildings were auctioned for only $750.  In 1884 the remains of soldiers buried in the post cemetery were moved to Carson City.  The remaining graves are those of the Buckland family, pioneer ranchers who sold supplies to the fort.  They lost several children who only lived very short lives.

A day in the life!

Ken is working on taking all of the decals off of our RV.  They are kind of faded,  and he can NOT sit still.  While he was working on the outside, I organized my craft cupboard. FUN!

Here is a picture of the storage cupboard Ken built in the space formerly occupied by a pocket door.  I love this man!

No where to go and all day to get there!

I really feel retired!  Maybe the fact that we have no home to return to has something to do with it!  Everyday is a new adventure.  People to meet.  Places to go.  Things to see. I definitely feel more creative, and it's easier to make time to work on art projects.  I am also trying to master my digital gadgets.   Before long you hopefully will be able to see pictures on my blog.  I also want to master transferring pictures from my phone to my tablet and downloading music to my phone.  I realize this is stuff that my 7 year-old grandson can probably do, I have never taken the time to learn it.  I have nothing but time now!  Stay tuned for more learning.

Week Two under our belt

We decided to take the RV into a dealer to have them take a look at our brakes before we start out over the mountains.  They kept it for four days,  We are confident the brakes are new and properly adjusted.  It was well worth our peace of mind.  On the plus side, it gave us four more days to hang out with Ken and Sarah and Jack.  We spent a day in San Luis Obispo, a day in Morro Bay and a day at Montana de Oro.  We know why Ken and Sarah love living in the Central Coast area.  On Thursday night we hit the SLO Farmers Market for dinner and shopping,  It was a great end to our stay.  We left Los Osos on Friday morning and headed north to Lodi.  What a great little town.  We are surrounded by grape vines and wineries.  The park we are staying at has beautiful sites with full hook ups.  On Friday night we hung out at the park.  Saturday we went into town early in the morning and spent the morning looking in all of the quaint shops.  It was a beautiful day, and it was fun talking to all of the shop keepers.  We went into a hardware restoration shop and found a magnifying mirror on a retractable arm.  Ken installed it in our bathroom.  We got our fix of Mexican food in Lodi and finished off our day at an art show held in a local winery.  It was very inspiring.  We went to church at the Lodi 1st ward and were able to attend their stake conference.  The music and speakers were incredible.  I left church feeling very glad I went, but also realizing how much I miss my ward family.    We had a chill afternoon organizing stuff in the RV and finally feel like there is a place for everything and everything in its place!  We talked to Ken and John tonight, and made plans to be in Utah right after Easter.  Today we are heading to Reno.

Have I mastered the art of posting pictures to my blog?

We took a hike out at Montana de Oro this afternoon

Our Road Trip Begins

okay April 1 (departure day) has finally arrived.  We spent the first quarter of the year winding down our life as we know it.  I read a couple of books about being a minimalist    and that really helped me to separate myself from many of my possessions. We had a garage sale with my friend Diann in early February, and I was amazed at how much stuff sold.  One woman's "trash" is definitely another woman's " treasure."   A lot of my friends and former customers came by to chat and shop.  It really made me feel good to see so many people thrilled with their purchases, and it didn't hurt at all.
We donated everything that didn't sell, and then the packing began.  I started in my art room.  I am envisioning a wonderful art studio in my future, so everything that I wanted to store went into boxes marked STUDIO.  Everything that I felt I would need on the road went into the RV.  Ken allocated me sufficient space and even removed a pocket door and exchanged it for a  storage unit as large as a door and about 6 inches deep.  I can store a lot of stuff on that baby!  The neighborhood we lived in was big on Estate Sales, so we held one of those on March 14 and 15.  Watching the big stuff walk out the door was easier than I thought it might be.  The day before we left we were down to a blow up mattress (with a not-so-slow leak) and our computer set up on the door taken out of the RV set up on two saw horses!

On Tuesday morning, April first, we got up early to load our final stuff in the RV and get checked out of the HOA.  Fortunately, Ken noticed a screw in the side of the left rear tire on the truck.  A set-back for sure, but what a blessing to discover it before we were driving on the freeway hauling a 30 ft RV.  We quickly loaded up, went back to the storage lot to unhook.  I stayed behind to make some order of the chaos while Ken got some new tires.  Back to the house to finish cleaning out the garage, drop our cleaning supplies, vacuum cleaner and floor scrubber with a friend from church, and we are finally ready to go at 3 p.m.  A far cry from our 11 o'clock planned departure, but we are feeling good about our clean house and new tires.  Let the journey begin.

Knowing that we are going to get stuck in LA rush-hour traffic, we stop for a bite to eat at our favorite Philly Steak Sandwich place on Oceanside Boulevard.  3:50 we hit the road.  It wasn't too long before the rain came.  It was slow going all of the way to Woodland Hills.  Between Camarillo and Oxnard we noticed three cars and a motorcycle all pulled over to the side of the road with tow trucks getting flat tires fixed.  It seemed very unusual.  Next thing we know, a motorist in the center lane is rolling down his window and pointing to our RV.  We have a flat tire on the RV.  Luckily we were right near an exit ramp and were able to pull into a shopping center parking lot.  Thank goodness for our Good Sam insurance.  We make a quick call and within 35 minutes Roy's Towing shows up to change our tire.  It's now dark and cold.  We get back on our way about 9:00 p.m.  The gas gage is heading towards empty so Ken asks me to use our RV GPS device to find a gas station with easy off/easy on in Santa Barbara.  I find an exit that looks like it has 7 gas stations and we travel on.  Santa Barbara has a lot of one way streets.  The one station that is on the side of the freeway that we are on does not have access from our side of the street.  So, in the dark, in the rain, we wend our way around the block so we can come in from the  correct side.  We get gas and before driving through to leave, Ken happens to look up and notices that the edge of the air conditioning unit is right at the edge of the awning covering the gas pumps.  We will not fit under it without tearing the AC off the RV.  Another blessing.  If he didn'look up, bye bye air conditioning.  We have to back up into the street that we entered in, swing wide and get back on to the main street.  Could anything else happen to us today?

One more hour up the road in the rain and the wind, we finally come to our exit in Buellton.   By this time the office at the RV park that we have reservations at is closed.  We hope we can find our spot.  The resort has left a welcome packet and a map to our site.  It is about 11 o'clock at night.  The directions are good, the sites have lighted numbers on them.  We are feeling pretty good, except for that big tree on the left edge of our site.  We swing wide, but not wide enough.  Now we have to back up in the dark, in the rain and we are surrounded by all kinds of motor homes and RVs with sleeping campers in them.

In our attempt to back out, we cut the angle too sharp and BANG!! the edge of the RV broke out the back window of the truck.  REALLY??  Oh wait, there is more.  We finally get situated in our site (it is still rainy, windy and cold), level the rig and chock the tires.  We come in out of the rain and go to push out the slide out and the tree is too close to fully extend.  We just pulled it back in and went to bed.  We had had enough adventure for one day!  We were sure things would look better in the morning, and they did!  We moved straight across the road to a space with no trees, and life was once again good!

with that all behind us, we managed to get the window replaced and a new spare tire and were able to enjoy a few beautiful days in Buellton and Solvang.

On  Friday we headed to Los Osos to spend the weekend with Ken and Sarah.  We hung out, watched General Conference, cooked, talked, played charades, and just enjoyed spending time with Ken, Sarah and Jack.
We are going to hang out at Montana de Oro for one more day then head up to the mountains.  Stay tuned for more living.