Mount Shasta Update - September 27, 2007 to October 3, 2007

It would be an understatement to say that Mount Shasta is a beautiful place.  We all fell in love with it, even Baylee!  There is something special about being cradled within such a majestic and powerful mountain.  We all spent our special time enjoying the many beautiful areas in Mt. Shasta City.  Joss took the kids up to the top of the Mountain in search of snow while Robert had a day off to bike to the town for some shopping and lunch.  Joss did not think it was cold enough to maintain any snow but the kids were determined to find it and told her to keep driving.  Just when they were about to give up, Joss said “We’ve come so far lets just keep going a bit more” and sure enough not one minute later they found SNOW!!  Not much, but who cares, it was SNOW!  The kids did a total happy dance, which was hilarious, and Joss caught it on film.  The kids played for a long time with the rocks while Joss took in the beauty of the place.  Robby was thrilled to see all the “rock art” on the mountain.  He worked at making a few of his own. (see photos sec.)  The next night we had a huge rain storm and even more SNOW on the mountain!  A few inches at least.  Robert took the kids back up to the top of the mountain for them all to play in the snow while this time Joss got to have some shopping time in town.  They all had a blast making snow men, snow balls, and Baylee just ran around in the snow.  We think she’s loving this colder weather. 

The fish hatchery was a big thrill for all of us.  We went back a few times.  We all had fun watching and feeding the fish.  As soon as the food pellets hit the water they go into their “we’re starving” act and will be jumping out of the water and all over each other to get one little pellet.  The people at the fishery told us they feed the fish eight times a day and the fish go into this act every single time.  Kind of like our kids. 

Joss’ favorite day was when we went to what we call the “Magical Forest.”  While searching for a Geocache, we were taken to a most beautiful part of Mt. Shasta that we probably would have never seen otherwise.  It had beautiful streams with quaint wood and branch bridges and plenty of sticks to keep the kids happy.  These are some of our favorite times when we can all relax, walk and truly enjoy the beauty of the land. Luckily the boys had just as much fun as we did throwing pinecones, sticks, rocks, leaves and more into the rivers and watching them flow down with the current. When the boys are happy and we are happy doing the same thing, those are special times.  The kids really got into collecting the trash at this location too.  Robby found a huge metal grate and carried it on a stick all the way out of the forest without one complaint.  We were so proud of him.

Another beautiful day was the day we spent at Mt. Shasta City park.  This park is amazing.  Within the park are the headwaters of the Sacramento River so the water is crystal clear and clean.  Everyone from the community comes here to fill their water jugs.  One lady was filling over 10 Sparkletts jugs!  She said she has a ranch and needs a lot for visitors and such.  We just filled our little jugs and enjoyed our first ever Official Mountain Spring water right from the source.  It was cold and delicious.  I think Robert wanted to bathe in it, he loved it so much.  Lucky for us, that is NOT allowed. 

The Mt. Shasta City Park is like a magical forest with a playground.  Robby led mom on a hike though the forest, over the bridges and logs and through swamps, while Robert and Sawyer stayed at the playground.  After the walk Robby and Sawyer made some new friends on the playground.  We met some really nice Shasta residents with many of the same life style similarities as us.  It was nice to feel “normal” for a change.  Up here it is quite the norm to co-sleep, home school, extended breastfeed or eat organic, all natural foods.  We felt quite comfortable in the conversations and understood the lingo of the other parents and they understood us too.  It made for a very nice afternoon.  Robby was thrilled to find another friend who likes the animated show “Avatar” and knew the “bending” moves.  They “bended” for a while before we had to go home for dinner. 

It’s hard to write about Mt. Shasta, in a way, because it is hard for us to put into words what it feels like here.  Many spiritual retreats take place here because of the feeling the area has. We all had a different experience up here but they were all very positive.  If you get a chance to visit, we highly recommend it.

Saturday, September 29th, 2007

On Thursday, the 27th we moved to Mt. Shasta City and are enjoying the grounding energy of the mountain towering over us .  It is a bit chilly here and we really weren’t ready for that.  Saturday morning Baylee took Robert for a walk and it was freezing, literally!  Not to worry however, Baylee was fine and put up with Robert’s teeth chattering admirably.  Remember, we were born and raised in Southern California where the temperature is usually cool to hot, but rarely FREEZING!  The kids are thrilled that we might actually get snow while we are here, and actually Friday night (on the Mountain) they did!  Joss took the boys and the Baylee up the Mountain in the truck while Robert biked his way around town on Saturday.  The view from above the tree line was amazing and the boys had a great time playing in the rocks and seeing snow.

Robert did some Geocaching around town, visited the fish hatchery, Sisson museum, lots of stores and had the best burger in his life at the Billy Goats Tavern.  It’s called “possibly the best burger in the world” in case you’re ever up this way, you have to stop here.  It’s about 2 minutes off Interstate 5 at exit 178.   Then he found his way to the Sacred Mountain Spa and got an incredible Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage from Melinda.  Before your burger, go to see Melinda, she is incredible, very nice and the spa is beautiful.

But what have we been up to for the past week you say?  Well read on…

We were in Plymouth, CA, which is southeast of Sacramento.  We went there to continue our Gold Country tour.  However, when you live on the road (especially with kids) you quickly find out you’re not always in charge of what happens.  Flexibility is the name of the game.  We often make “plans” but we also know that they can change quickly.  Some days out of the blue it’ll rain and our outdoor plans quickly get switched to something indoors.  The Saturday after we got to the park we planned a day of touring a local historical building, the Knight Foundry, in Sutter Creek.  It looked so cool, lots of tools and messy stuff for the kids but also some history lessons!  (We’re sneaky about getting in these little lessons whenever we can!)  However, when we got there we found out it was closed.  They are currently raising money to restore and open it again for tours.  We peeked in all the windows and it looked like someone had just closed up shop for the day.  Tools and machines were everywhere.  The kids and us were really bummed.  They had no idea what a foundry was but once we got there really wanted to see it.

So, change of plans.  We took some time to meander through an artist’s garden at the end of the street next to the foundry.  It was quite whimsical with the artist’s sculpture scattered all over the lush, green garden.  Benches on coil springs rocked back and forth as Robby surfed on them.  No one was home to collect money, but they had a sign saying they work on the “karma” system and that you could leave a check in the envelope and they listed the prices.  Very cool place that we would have not been able to see had we not been looking for the Foundry.

 

We decided to detour to the Sutter Creek Gold Mine Tour.  We knew it was underground so the rain wouldn’t stop it and they are open every day.  This tour turned out to be amazing.  Robert and Joss seemed to appreciate the tour a little more than the kids.  To go 1,850 feet into a working mine, 530 vertical feet underground, hard hats and all…very cool!  The cars we rode in were much like the cars on Disneyland’s Indiana Jones ride (which is one of our favorites, we went on it eight times on one of our first dates.)

We learned a lot on the tour and got to ask lots of questions.  We’ve all heard of the “canary in the coal mine” (the real thing, not the Devo song!)  We had no idea that the miners had to purchase their own canaries.  They had to pay a high price for them too.  Once the miners discovered the usefulness of the canary for saving their lives the price at the company store suddenly went up, way up!  Consequently, only some of the miners had canaries and they took very good care of them.  They cost close to half a month’s salary!  In one part of the tour we got to walk through where $45 million dollars of gold was mined out of quartz in part of the Mother Lode vein.  It was really fun and we all highly recommend it.

We also spent some time shopping in the very quaint shops in both Sutter Creek and Amador as well as lunching at the many old fashioned ice cream parlors.  Joss’ favorite was the Buffalo Chip Emporium in Amador.  They had great homemade rhubarb pie almost as good as Joss’ mom used to make.  Having loved the food at the Buffalo Inn in Upland, CA, we had to try out the Emporium!

When we got to the Far Horizons 49er RV Park in Plymouth (which we recommend) the kids quickly spotted a trailer with kid's bicycles.  “KIDS! Other kids to play with” was the rallying cry from the backseat. It didn’t take long for them to hook up either.  Bikes make instant friends don’t they?  It turns out that the family with the bikes is living at the park until John, the dad, retires in December and then they too are hitting the road full time just like us.  We ended up spending a few dinners getting to know the Leatherman family and sharing stories of what made us decide to live full time life on the road.  Their kids, Austin, 12 and Bridgette, 10 got along great with Robby and Sawyer.  They love to play tinker toys, cars and trucks and ride bikes.  After the dirth of kids in Los Banos, excuse me, Santa Nella and Columbia we spent a lot of time in the RV park so the kids could play with their new friends. 

We met another wonderful couple, Mel and Sandy Haeger, who are also planning to travel full time once they sell their house.   They have a Titanium fifth wheel trailer like us. They stopped us as we were driving in the first day!  Us Titanium owners have to stick together you know!  They are also living at the park until their house sells.  The last night we were there we had them all over for Rainbow trout dinner at our trailer.  It was great to get together with other families that share the same sense of adventure as us. 

Some people have asked how or when we do laundry.  This RV park had a really big and modern laundry room.  Joss did laundry on two of our days, 13 loads in all, wow!  But it did bring her back to her college days when she lived in an apartment and went to the laundry only once a month to do her clothes.  Much easier than this one at a time thing we do at home with only one washer and one dryer.  We’re manifesting at least two washers and two dryers in our next house!

A lot of people ask us why we haven’t gotten farther than central California by now?  A lot of reasons, but truth is, we’re just taking our time.  Like our friend Aunt Betsy reminded us, “It’s about the journey, not the destination.”  So true!  Another thing that we let slow us down is the kids.  They are still pretty young and don’t understand why we “have” to go to “another” museum/historical place/cave/park/etc.  They still nap now and then, they take longer to accomplish pretty much anything and, in fact, they really can’t be rushed with any positive results.  Some days they simply just want to stay home and play with their toys, bikes, friends or whatever.   Also, we take time to home school, read, write, art, math, science experiments, etc.  As much as the adults would like to “go go go” everyday, the kids aren’t up to that so, we go at a much slower pace.  We are in this for the long haul, we don’t want to get worn out in the first few months.  Another thing that seems to be slowing us down is THERE’S SO DARNED MUCH TO DO! If we like a place, we stay longer.  As Robby keeps reminding us “We aren’t on anyone else’s schedule, if we want to stay, we stay! If we want to go longer than a year, we go longer!”  From the mouths of babes, as they say!  So there you have it.  We are going at our pace and no one else’s.   We are truly lucky to be able to do this trip and even luckier to have no deadlines.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Just a quick not to say we've moved from Columbia, CA to Plymouth, CA. We're enjoying more of the Gold Country (including a really cool gold mine tour underground). We're working on a better way to share pictures so stay tuned. We'll update ya'll shortly...

Sunday, September 16th -20th, 2007

A big first for the kids today, Robert took them trout fishing.  Joss dropped them off at Springfield Trout Farms and stayed to take photos while they each caught their first fish.   While Robert, Baylee and the boys fished and had a picnic, Josslyn drove to nearby town, Sonora, for a little shopping and alone time.  When you live in an RV with your spouse and kids 24/7 it’s important to take that alone time whenever you can get it!  Joss found a really cool store that was a book/antique/ice cream parlor named Legends.  Doesn’t get any better then that for her, books and ice cream together, AWESOME!  She spent hours on the floor reading old musty books and only brought a few home!  Robert and the kids had a great time fishing.  They caught a total of ten rainbow trout.  They also got to learn how the trout farm runs, how they raise the fish from eggs and protect the fish from predators until the fish are big enough to be caught and eaten by US! The owner had some problems with river otters getting into the streams and getting their fish for free last year.  Since then the owner has put up screens over the streams to keep the local wild life from feasting for free.  The kids loved feeding the smaller fish as well as catching the big ones.  Some of the trout were 15 inches long.  Three of them pretty much filled up our little grill.  Robert froze some and cooked up the rest and we had a fabulous trout dinner.  The entire family agreed they were delicious.

Saturday, September 15th, 2007

After a day of rest and exploring our new RV Park Home we got the local papers out to figure out what we wanted to see.  First on the list of must see places, Columbia Historic State Park.  This is highly recommended if you have kids between the ages of 3 and 14.  Our kids are still talking about it and have even wanted to go back multiple times.  Here is all that we did; gold panning, stage coach ride (with robber), blacksmith shop, old fashioned wooden bowling, old tyme candy shop where they make it all from scratch, rock climbing on some pretty major rocks (they went back today just to climb on these rocks again), Columbia Jail (they locked dad inside of course), bakery, old time book store, grocery store and some fun shopping too.  All in one day.  We’ve been reading a lot about the Old West, mining and blacksmithing for our road-schooling, knowing that we were coming here.  It helped get the kids excited to see all this stuff in action themselves.  Robby couldn’t wait to see the blacksmith up close and working with the fire.  Sawyer’s favorite thing was the stage coach ride but without the scary robber!  Robby’s favorite thing was the wooden bowling.  We learned that many saloons back then had bowling.  Even some of the mines had bowling for the guys to blow off some steam while on a break or after work.  It was all made from wood, the lanes were much shorter and softball sized balls that you just roll, no holes in them.  It was perfect for kids, smaller balls, shorter ramps, KID SIZE!  A full day with tons of fun for all.

Friday, September 14th, 2007

Quick update: The mail has ARRIVED!!! Through no fault of the USPS, our first package was addressed incorrectly. The company resent it FedEx at n/c so we had both packages of mail (a month's worth) waiting for us in Gold Country (and no all the bills weren't paid on line as Robert had hoped!)

Thursday, September 13th, 2007 P.M

We left Santa Nella early (for us) and headed to Don’s RV in Ceres, CA, about an hours drive.  We dropped off the RV for some repairs (mainly the fridge) and drove to the nearest shopping area!  We had a day of errands, all taking turns staying in the truck with Baylee. At one point we got to take Baylee in with us to the pet store.  Boy she loved the smells in there! Even on the road we have normal days like this where we have to get shopping done.  Sometimes we do it all together and some times we split up.  When we go to a restaurant we have to find a nice shady place for Baylee by a window.  We watch her and if the window opens we will talk to her so she knows we are near by.  It’s all part of traveling with a pet.  The people at the restaurants are usually very understanding about it.  Later, we were done with our shopping but the trailer wasn’t done with it’s fixing so we found a local park to play at. We were very happily surprised when they called and said the trailer was done.  We picked it up, grabbed dinner and all in the same day we headed to our next destination, Columbia, CA, AKA Gold Country! 

We arrived safely and with nothing broken but at a very late 9 pm.  Getting into a hotel late isn’t a big deal but with an RV you still have to park it and hook everything up in the dark.  Not so easy sometimes.  This time our reserved spot was up a bit of a hill.  That means Robert had to back a 15,000 pound 42 foot trailer up a hill and get it in the spot without hitting anything.  Thank God for the manager Troy who was ready and willing to help.  He told Robert exactly which way to steer and directed us right into that spot on the hill.  He’s done this a few times before!  He was an angel to us on that dark, starry Columbia night.  Thank you Troy!!  While Robert set up the trailer, Joss got the kids in bed.  We all remarked about the amazing stars up here with no smog or city lights in the way.  It was quite beautiful.  Once again, a new home to explore tomorrow. We're at the 49er RV Park for the next few days.

Thursday, September 13th, 2007 A.M.

Eight nights in Santa Nella, our longest stay anywhere so far.  Joss still calls it Los Banos.  She and her friend Araceli had a good laugh the first day when Joss told her she was staying in Los Banos and Araceli said “that means the bathrooms!”  “Yes, Joss said, we are stuck in the toilets.”  We’ll as we came to find out Los Banos means “the baths.”  Many years ago there were natural mineral springs in this area and many people came to soak in them for health.  They named the town “The Baths” in Spanish or “Los Banos.”  Too bad people translate it to mean the bathrooms.  It WAS funnier that way anyway. 

We’ve been staying at the San Luis RV Resort right off Highway 152.  The new managers, Mark and Kathy are doing a really nice job of restoring the park to it’s old glory.  It’s very clean, everything worked well and the spots are plentiful.  If you’re heading up I-5 in an RV and need a place to stay the night (or eight), get off at Highway 152 and head West a couple miles.

Well our mail saga continues...still nothing!  While we’re still waiting for our first batch of mail since leaving, we took another crack at it and had a package sent Express Mail to General Delivery in the Gold Country.  We’re heading there today or tomorrow (depending upon when the dealer can look at our milk curdling refrigerator).  Please say lots of prayers to help us actually get to our next destination in Columbia, California.  With our trip the way it’s been going so far- we’ll need all the positive energy we can get!  Robert had the mail sent to the post office in Angels Camp, CA.  If the mail doesn’t get it there, the angels will!

Good News!  The truck is repaired and washed too.  In case you missed last weeks update, turns out there’s a known issue with the radiators and a weak crimp in the side tank.  Usually they just leak but ours blew!  It’s been a good lesson on patience and who knows how many other lessons.  I hope we passed some of them! 

After two days here, the dealer told us the radiator would be backordered until TUESDAY!!!!  WOW!  Joss made Robert get a rental car.  He came home with her comfort ride- a minivan.  She and the kids felt right at home.  We spent two days cleaning the trailer, bike riding and playing cards.  The kids love to bike ride but were getting bored with no other kids to ride with.  We were all ready to go see the beach.

Saturday, the whole family drove over the hill past the area we’d broken down and into new territory. Robert remembered the narrow gauge steam train ride in Felton from 15 or so years ago, just a few miles from Santa Cruz.  He was eager to take the kids on it.  We were happy when we read on their website that they allowed dogs.  The old steam train at Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad winds up a steep mountain of Redwoods to the top where we got to hike around a bit and see old railway stuff like water towers.  Sawyer was so excited that Baylee got to come with us he spent most of the trip on the floor of the open air train cuddling with her.  Robby was at first excited to be able to touch some of the redwoods that leaned so close to the train they have to actually move the track every 20 years so as not to injure the trees.  Then the bottle of water he’d downed in the car on the way over caught up to him half way to the top of the mountain.  All of the sudden he wasn’t having so much fun!  Everyone in our car noticed the look on his face, the gnashing of teeth and the crossing of legs.  They knew he could blow any minute.  We didn’t think he’d make it.  Luckily, he did, not to the bathrooms exactly, but close.  After that pee pee emergency was averted we enjoyed our hike around Bear Mountain.  Back at the depot, we explored the old western town they had set up.  Joss hit the gift shop and found some great road-schooling books on the Old West and Mining while Robert and the kids sauntered on over to the Ice Cream Shop for cones.  We enjoyed a beautiful day while experiencing a little of what it was like way back when.  Robert found an old typesetting machine (Linotype Model 8) like the one his dad used to when he opened up his typesetting business in 1952.  He explained to Robby and Sawyer how it worked with the molten lead.  As we mentioned, we got to take our dog with us all day.  She likes being with the family wherever we go. 

She is getting much better around other dogs. She still wants to eat them but she’s not as obvious or aggressive about it.  Good girl Baylee!! 

 

After the train we took the kids to play on the beach.  A little sand play is good for everyone.  Then Robert found a fabulous fish restaurant, Johnny’s, right on the Marina for dinner.  The kids watched from the window as some fishermen shoveled crushed ice into their ice chests getting ready for their next catch.  They watched the fishing boats come up to the dock and Sawyer even spotted a boat flying the Jolly Roger Flag, A PIRATE SHIP!  Boy was he excited, that’s all he talked about.  A wonderful dinner was the perfect way to finish off the day. 

Sunday was a day to catch up with old friends.  We met Joss’ Chi Omega Sister, Kristina Kolstad, for lunch.  She had all sorts of great information about Gold Country and got us excited about our next stop.  We all had fun in the East West Bookstore, a local Metaphysical Store, exploring all they had.  The kids loved to put the head phones on and listen to the selections.  Sawyer literally had three CD’s that he was determined to have us purchase for him.  He loves pretty music.

After we said goodbye to Kristina we headed on to Joss’ next college buddies house in Sunnyvale, Craig and Julie Markley.  Julie was a college friend from “another” sorority so I’m not allowed to divulge what that was (ZTA). She was a really nice person anyway! Joss and her hit it off right away while taking nutrition class together.  We’ve kept in touch over the years with Christmas cards and visits whenever we could.  We were thrilled that Julie had just given birth to their fourth child but FIRST GIRL and we would get to see her.  Robby and Sawyer had a blast with their three boys, Kyle, Seth and Ryan.  They jumped on their trampoline, played in the sandbox, rode scooters, played in their fort, fed their fish and just played, played and more playing.  They were begging us not to leave by bedtime.  Robby and Sawyer are adding a trampoline to their wish lists for the new house, right up there with tree house and secret underground tunnels.  Joss got some much needed girl talk and baby holding with Mom Julie and baby Mylie Diane.  It was a great visit, always too short.  We put the kids in their jammies and they slept most of the hour and a half ride home. 

On Tuesday, Joss loaded up the boys and drove to Monterey Bay to the Aquarium.  Robert and Baylee stayed home to get repairs done on the trailer.  Joss’ closet pole was first on the list.  (Got to have a place to hang all of those clothes!)

The Aquarium is AMAZING!  (Pictures to come) Robby’s favorite part were the cameras he could control to watch the fish under water.  The boys love anything they can manipulate.  Sawyer loved sitting in the room that had Plexiglas over the top and every minute or so huge amounts of water would come rushing over  the top of the room to recreate how the waves rush over the reef.  Joss had so many favorite parts, the very tall kelp forest that swayed back and forth with the waves was extremely meditative, even some of the fish looked as if they were hypnotized.  She swears she didn’t do it.  She also loved the jellyfish exhibit.  It was just a blue light in the background and the orange colored jellyfish floating around.   They all had fun watching one little pink and blue crab pick on a big huge crab and then run away from it.  It is a really beautiful, well thought out way to view things usually living under the ocean.  Joss was surprised to see such vibrant color on the crabs, anemones and other sea life.  We don’t usually get to see them up close and with such beautiful lighting.  Oh yeah, the Great White Shark that had been caught down in Malibu was pretty cool too!  When we returned, Robert had installed a galvanized steel pole with oak bracing in the closet, had heard from the dealer that the truck was done and had relocated most of the cabinet door latches so they’re easier to open.  Good job “Bob” the builder!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The truck is fixed!!! Yeah (and there was much celebration in the streets). We will be moving on tomorrow and updating you on the last 8 days and nights spent in Santa Nella.

Friday, September 7th, 2007

We thought we were in Los Banos (The Baths) California but it turns out we're in Santa Nella, CA. They're right next to each other. And we're going to be here for 6 days at least according to the Ford dealer! The radiator is back-ordered and they won't have one until Tuesday. We picked up a rental car today so we're heading into Santa Cruz/Monterey over the weekend.

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007

We missed our mail again! It was supposedly sent from Texas on 8/28 to Kings Canyon National Park but after a week, it still wasn't there. Jerry, the Postmaster in Kings Canyon said he'd forward it to our Chowchilla address. Here we are 5 days later and we're still waiting. Erin at the Chowchilla P.O. was very nice and said she'd call us when it showed up. We're starting to get a feel for the "olden" days when folks eagerly awaited the monthly mail train (or stage coach or ferry boat...you get the idea.) So we're heading out to the Santa Cruz/Monterey KOA, mail or no mail!

That was the plan anyway...fate had some other ideas! On Highway 152 heading West up the hill from Los Banos, the radiator blew and pumped gallons of coolant/water all over the truck and highway. We didn't know it was possible to tow the truck with the trailer hooked up, so Robert asked for one tow truck to take the trailer and us, on over the hill to an RV park in Hollister. The truck would be towed back down the hill to a Ford dealer. Well, turns out there aren't any towing companies within 60 miles that can tow a trailer as big as ours!!! After 3 hours, a kind operator from Ford Roadside Assistance told Robert there was a company close by that could take us as one unit to a local RV park. So here we are, San Luis RV Resort for now.

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007

We spent the Labor Day weekend at The Lakes RV Resort in Chowchilla, CA,relaxing, swimming, biking and even a little fishing. We are now packing up to head west to the beach tomorrow. We are planning on spending a few days in and around Santa Cruz. While in Chowchilla (more like ChowHeata') we've been able to charge up our batteries as well as the trailer after our adventure in the National Parks. And it turns out we didn't cook them after all, they're gonna make it. Yeah! We blew a few fuses but that's it. Whew! That was close.

We've had all the luxuries here at this RV park, full hook ups, cable, Internet, cell phone, heated pool, gated safe biking streets, very nice laundry and shower facilities and a lake with actual fish. Oh, and a fabulous local Mexican Restaurant, Pedro's Place, with great guacamole!

Robert and Joss each took a part day to go into Fresno (about 40 miles) for a day of shopping to restock supplies, including some much needed new clothes for Joss. LOL. Robert hit Camping World, Office Depot, Petsmart and Home Depot Store, while Joss hit Target, Party World, Kohl's and Whole Foods Market.

Our highlights for the weekend are many. We met some more friends at the pool while swimming and doing laundry at the same time. That's the way to do laundry! Robby and Sawyer made some great friends, Callie (7) and her brother Ethan (4). Joss had a good time talking with their mom, Amanda and baby sister Brynna. We all biked, swam, played with toys, crammed into Joss' kitchen for snacks, played cards and even fished together. They've been having a blast. The kids got a little teary eyed today because they knew it was their last day together. It's hard making friends and then always moving on again. We are grateful for email!

Ethan is already riding a two-wheeler bike. He motivated Sawyer (along with dad) to take his training wheels off. With some help from Robert, Mom and all the kids Sawyer is now riding a two-wheeler ALL BY HIMSELF! He is so proud and so are we. He was very brave. Even after falling many times he got up and worked at it again. Even Robby held Sawyer's seat to help him get started until he could do it himself. Robby proved to be a wonderful teacher for Sawyer. It was one of those proud parental moments for us.

( Click for a bigger view of this picture.)

Today we got up and went Geocaching together as a family. If you've never been Geocaching (or have never heard of it), check out the official website: www.geocaching.com. This is a hobby we used to do in Chino Hills all the time but haven't since we've been getting adjusted to trailer living. It was nice to get back to one of our favorite past times again. Each person in the family gets a "job". Robert drove and punched in the coordinates into the GPS (not at the same time, I promise). Joss held the Geobag (a backpack with the toys for trading, first aid kit, snacks), the GPS and directed Robert during the driving. Sawyer was in charge of the water bottles and Robby was in charge of holding Baylee's leash. Everyone helped to find the cache. The kids take turns holding the GPS and reading the position to the rest of the family.

The first Cache was near a vineyard. After we found the cache and logged it, we got to walk over to the grapes and let the kids see the vines the grapes grow on. Robby was amazed but Sawyer was more interested in the tractor that was near by. It was cool for the kids to see how they are grown, up close. Then the next cache took us near some other farms. Robert thought they were pistachio trees. It was beautiful to see all the different farms and types of fruit that is grown here in Central California.

Now with an agriculture "bug" in her bonnet, Joss looked up some facts about California Agriculture. California has been the top agricultural state every year since 1948. It generated over $24.8 billion dollars in 1999. Half of the state's money comes from fruit, tree nuts and vegetables.

Sawyer loved seeing all the trucks and tractors. Robby loves hunting for the "treasure". Robert and Joss both commented on how low all the rivers and lakes were due to lack of rain in California this year. Extremely low! Geocaching has turned out to be one of the best family hobbies for us. It gets us out hiking, all together, and takes us interesting places almost every time. Our third cache took us into town and conveniently very close to Pedro's Place, the great Mexican Restaurant we found the first day. We will sure miss those Avocados when we head East. For now we are eating them as much as we can.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

After the National Parks and the battery fiasco, we're now comfortably (thank God for air conditioning) ensconced at a very nice RV "resort", The Lakes in Chowchilla, CA. We have a beautiful level, concrete slab to park on, lush green grass for the dog to lay in, a man-made lake to look over and a cool, blue pool to dip in! We're going to stay for a few days and hope our mail catches up with us. We missed it in Kings Canyon so we're hoping they forward it to us here.

We plan on riding bikes, swimming, barbecuing, geocaching, eating Mexican food and playing lots of cards while here. Oh yeah, and charging our batteries! More to come...

Click for the August 2007 archives!!!