Visalia-Tulare visit with family

We got into Visalia, in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, on Thursday afternoon (Feb 23rd) and got set up in the KOA campground here.  It's pretty open and grassy - which is ok for Tawny, but Sam prefers more trees and bushes so he can spy on the other campers and dogs...  He spent most of his time sitting on the stairs of the trailer, waiting to run inside if a dog came by.

Monica and John

We had swedish coffee and yellow pea soup with cousin Monica, then did some stock up shopping at Winco, Costco and Vallarta markets.  It's great to be unhooked from the trailer and able to run around in the truck!!

Dawn, Ingrid and her mom, Monica

We got together with cousin Ingrid and her family for dinner at Vejar's Mexican restaurant in Tulare on Friday night (Feb 24th). She just finished making all 11 gowns for a wedding this weekend so she was in a very celebratory mood! We had a lovely visit with the whole family - Ingrid and Terry (who are celebrating their 30th anniversary this spring) and their 3 sons, Kyler, Kamryn (and Katie) and Clint (and Mel).

Ingrid and her son, Kyler

The whole McClure-Shipley clan!

We're going over to Monica's for swedish pancakes this Saturday morning (Feb 25th) then we're heading south, bound for Los Angeles... with a trailer and cats!!!  Yikes.

Coarsegold,CA

Monday (Feb 20th) we ventured from Saratoga to Coarsegold, just south of Yosemite Park.  The East-West connector from Hwy 101 to Hwy 99 across Pacheco Pass was a bit dicey in spots.  It was closed west of Gilroy, but we were headed east of Gilroy, so that was fortunate.




The traffic crawled in two different spots where the highway had flooded; the second of which looked like there was major erosion going on in the shoulders already.  Nevertheless, the road stayed open and we made it to Coarsegold in late afternoon.

The RV park we're staying in (Yosemite South)
used to be a KOA campground but has now changed hands and the new owners are doing a ton of work to it.  It is absolutely gorgeous with lots of grassy and natural areas, as well as lots of trees and bushes which makes for great bird watching and cat waling.

Tawny, being really brave!!!

Sam, surveying the landscape...

Tawny is completely over her fear of the outdoors and has spent many hours outside over the past couple of days.  She's in her element here with birds running around under the bushes, and cabins and decks to look under and sniff.  Sam, likewise, is really enjoying the expanse and variety of the surroundings here.  He's really adventuresome and has spent much more time outside here than anywhere else.  The weather has cooperated as well.  We've noticed the pattern: mornings are cool but sunny, the clouds start to gather about noon and we've had rain in the afternoons most days, then it clears up and the evenings are beautiful.  It is very green here!  That lovely "spring" green that I love.

We had a couple of very nice visits with our friends, Leo and Silvia, who live up in the hills above Coarsegold.  We do seem to have a lot of friends and family in "hills" from El Dorado Hills to Saratoga and Coarsegold... We had a dinner with Silvia and Leo at their house, and another with them in our trailer.

The master chef, Silvia, at work!!

Silvia's creation.... non-dairy!!!  yum!!

John, Silvia and Leo

Leo, Silvia and John, in our trailer

What a treat for us to host a "dinner party" in our travel home.  Leo and Silvia are in the process of selling their home and moving back to Visalia, where they first lived after moving from Calgary 7 years ago.  We hope we find as nice a place to stay in Visalia as we did in Coarsegold when next we visit.

Silvia and John in our trailer

And now we're headed to Tulare.  The sun is shining, the almond orchards are in full bloom, and the hills are green.  It's a beautiful day.

Almond trees in bloom

Ahhhh,... green....

Saratoga area Visit

Sammy, looking out over the creek at Saratoga Springs

Thurs (Feb 16^th) – We parked at Saratoga Springs Picnic and RV Park for the weekend.  It was quite rainy but nice to be so close to the hills and in such a beautiful setting.  The campground was full, which was quite different than the last time we were here in 2010 – which was even the same time of year!  We were the only ones in the campground that trip.  It seems to me that most people are here for the long-term and working in the area.  Many had quite permanent looking set ups.  The small creek that we remembered running through the property is muddy and more like a raging stream than a small creek, but it was never in danger of flooding while we were here, so that was GOOD!  It was quite loud, however, which definitely affected the comfort zone of the cats. 

Sam, out for a walk with his Dad

Sam went out briefly every day, but Tawny didn’t set foot outside once after the initial jaunt between the truck and trailer when we first arrived. She got spooked earlier that day at Jim & Lisa’s place.  John was trying to back the trailer down the driveway, and I had both cats out for a walk.  The wind picked up and Tawny took off, on one of her “I’m Going to China” bolts.  She just picks a trajectory and heads that way until one of three things happen:  a) she hits a dead end (whereupon she stops); b) someone steps on her leash (whereupon she stops); or c) presumably she ends up in China (which thankfully has never happened).  This time, she ran up against a water reservoir on my family’s property that blocked her path so she sat and waited for someone to find her.  The thing about Tawny is that she is completely camouflaged in 95% of all outdoor environments, so the trick is to look for the 10-foot neon hot pink string that's attached to her leash, and hope that there’s still a cat attached to the leash. After 45 minutes of crawling around on my hands and knees through manzanita bushes, I found the string, and thankfully, Tawny too.  It took some coaxing to get her back to where we could pick her up and carry her, but we did and she was relieved to be in the truck and on our way (ditto for us!).  So when we got to Saratoga Springs, I did NOT let go of her when she leapt out of the truck and headed for China. This time, however, she spotted the trailer and decided she wanted in the trailer more than another China adventure. She didn’t go outside again for four days…

It was raining pretty heavily that Thursday night (Feb 16^th). We got set up and turned on our heaters and candles to warm the place up.  Nora and Dana came to our trailer with snacks, and we had a very nice visit, hanging out with the cats.

Ray and I at Nora's house

Friday (Feb 17^th) it was still raining heavily, so we aborted our planned hike with Nora and Dana, instead opting to just sit in their living room with the fireplace going, and had a lovely visit.  Nora’s son, Ray Monahan – a long time friend (since Kindergarten!) came over for dinner and brought lovely bubbly and roses.  He’s a sweetie and it was nice to see and reconnect with him.

Tawny with the lovely roses Ray gave me

The magnolia trees are in full bloom in Saratoga

Nora & I overlooking San Jose area

The "Birdhouse" tree we found at Montalvo

Saturday (Feb 18^th) we all went for a long hike/walk up to the Montalvo Music and Art Centre above Saratoga Village in the afternoon, then drove to San Jose after dinner for a live theatre production of “Disgusted”, a play about the challenges of being a Muslim-American in today’s post-911 American society. 

Nora and Dana at the entrance to Saratoga Village

Sunday (Feb 19^th) we hiked over to Hakone Gardens, a beautiful Japanese Garden designed by the gardener to the Emperor of Japan, and built in the early 1900’s above the highway that goes out to where we were parked in Saratoga Springs.  Both Saturday and Sunday, the weather held enough for us to get our walks in, but it was very cool and misty-rainy in general.  Nora made a lovely citrus roasted chicken and root vegetables dinner on Sunday that suited the weather perfectly, and capped off a very nice weekend in the Saratoga area.

These look like yellow "ocean spray"; they're in bloom all over Saratoga!

Nora & I at Hakone Gardens

Camelia bushes in full bloom at Hakone Gardens

Nora & Dana

Hunter (aka "BB" for Buddha Belly)

There is a lot of flooding all over California, and it's not just the mudslides forcing road closures that are affecting us... we went 4 days in Saratoga without cell service at our campground, and have not had internet service since then.  Blogging is difficult when there is no internet!  I'm going to publish this as is and add pics later when I find a strong internet connection... the challenges of technology...

On our way to Yosemite area - highway flooded; note the water running off!

Birthday and Valentine's Celebrations!

We've had a couple of parties in El Dorado Hills since we got here!  Actually, just one big one that's gone on for 3 days! :)  Such a lot of fun we've had...

David with Lisa and Jim

David left on Sunday morning to catch his flight back to Calgary, then cousin Tiffani and Kerry came up from Elk Grove and we made Blue Apron tapas all afternoon and had a ton of fun in the kitchen.

Tiffani, making sure Lisa is following the recipe instructions!

Tiff and Kerry

The Birthday Girl!! (and the 3 Cabellaros!)

John and Lisa

 Aunt Lisa's 70th birthday was Monday (Feb 13th) and we went out for Mexican food in Folsom, did some shopping, and had a lovely day, capping the evening off by watching Jersey Boys. What a great movie...

 The cats have been enjoying the lack of snow (!) and the abundance of other cats around.  There are about 15 feral cats on the property, so lots for them to watch (and sniff!)... the cat walks are lengthy and it's great to see them so alert and engaged after spending so much time in the truck and trailer the last several days.  They've certainly had time to catch up on their sleep and re-energize!

John's becoming well known for his festive toe socks!

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and we spent the day visiting and enjoying the beautiful weather (and lots of bubbly!)  John made his world-famous heart-shaped pizza for dinner, and we had another great day...

Road Closed!

We left Jordan Valley about 9 am on Saturday (Feb 11th) and drove southwest through Oregon and Nevada to Reno.  It was Day 3 of keeping up with the road closures!  Before we left Calgary, the TransCanada was closed around Golden due to avalanches, which was part of the reason we came down through Montana versus Washington. Then of course Highway 93 was closed yesterday at the Nevada border so we went west to Oregon then south.  Well.... today both I50 and I80 were closed around Reno and Tahoe due to rock and mud slides respectively.  Ummm... it's becoming a case of: "you can't get there from here"...  How else do you get across the Sierra Nevadas in northern California?

The RV Park we stayed in last night did not have cell or internet service, so we didn't find out about these closures until we were pretty much committed to taking I80 through Nevada.  To go around would have added at least another full day, maybe more, and we really didn't want to do that either.  I kept checking the websites and though I50 was still closed ("indefinitely"), I80 reopened with one lane traffic, so we went that way.  It took us over an hour to go 10-1/2 kms just across the Nevada-California border, but the road was open, and the traffic was moving.  That was progress. The cats are being very good about all these hours in the truck...

We got to El Dorado Hills about 8 pm and it was a very nice surprise to see my brother, David, there!  He flew down to surprise our Aunt Lisa for her 70th birthday, and I had a nice visit with him too.

We're on the road!

We finally left home about 1:00 pm on Thursday, Feb 9th, 2017, and immediately got stuck in a snow pile left by shoveling alongside the house.  John had to shovel and gravel under the wheels of the truck and trailer so we could be on our way.  John likes to say: "I didn't get stuck getting the trailer out of the driveway; I got stuck picking Dawn up..."

The wind was horrendous south of Calgary.  Gas mileage on the truck was among the lowest we've seen in our travels. The cats did NOT want anything to do with kitty walks. We stopped to refuel at Fort McLeod and clipped the gas pump trying to get out of there. Oops. John gave them our contact info and we were back on the road. The cat walk and dinner stop planned for Milk River was aborted due to gale force winds and treacherously icy streets and sidewalks. Consequently, we surrendered all our dinner vegetables at the U.S. border about half an hour later.  The wind continued for a couple of hours as we progressed south in Montana, but disappeared for the most part by the time we got to Great Falls.  We drove through the night, switching drivers about every 3 hours.  Roads were not great but ok.  Thank goodness for audio books!  We got into Twin Falls, ID about 8 am Friday.  We stopped at Costco parking lot (the store was not open yet) for a cat walk and breakfast (which was Minestrone soup as that sounded better than cereal!) :)  The trailer is COLD.

We headed south from Twin Falls, but didn't get very far.  Highway 93 was closed from Jackpot (Idaho-Nevada border) to Wells, NV due to a dam burst and mud slides/flooding. Okay then!  Back we went, and headed west from Twin Falls this time, towards Boise, then south into Oregon, and stopped about 3 pm for the day at Jordan Valley.  We found an RV park that was: open, had running water and electrical.  That was the whole list so we parked!  John filled the trailer with water, checked the lines, connected the electrical and we ran all our portable heaters and the furnace to warm the trailer up more quickly.  The cats actually went outside finally because there is hardly any snow here, and despite that it was only about 9 deg C outside, there is no wind (and did I mention no snow!).

We walked main street (which took about 10 minutes) and we found out there was a wedding here (could have been 2007 for all we knew, but the directional signs were still up) and the Western Family grocery store is no longer there, despite the building signage.  We found a Trading Post that had bananas and tomatoes, and a convenience store that had wine.  Good enough.  We made dinner, had a bottle of wine and went to bed at 8 pm.  We had been up almost 40 hours.