Month: August 2017

Yesterday was a very special day. Our precious granddaughter, Jessica, was married to her long-time boyfriend, Nathan Torres.

Jessica is the daughter of our son Tim and his wife Shanon. We are very close to her…probably more so than any of our other grandchildren. She’s a very special lady: beautiful, smart, dedicated, and loving. Jessica’s in her third year of nursing school at Cal Baptist University in Riverside.

Until recently, Nathan was also in college. But, he has decided to put his studies on hold and get a job so that Jessica doesn’t have to work while she finishes the grueling nursing program. The plan is that, once she graduates and starts earning good money, it will be Nathan’s turn to finish school.

It was a beautiful ceremony at a church in Rancho Cucamonga, complete with all the holy words, flowers, guys in tuxes and gals in pretty gowns.

Here’s son Tim reluctantly giving away the fruit of his loins.

“We do!”

Here’s the bride:

And the lucky groom:

It was a big event for both the Torres and Heim families. I met Nathan’s parents for the first time; very nice people! Check out that waxed, handlebar moustache…

All of my sons are from Charlie’s first marriage to Alexander Heim. So, the Heim relatives were plentiful at this event.

Here are me and my sons Tim, Jeff, and Jonathan:

Here’s Charlie and proud mother, Shanon:

Here’s a bunch of our grandkids and friends:

My sister Claudia and boyfriend Ted also came:

The reception was held at the Pomona Valley Mining Company. There were about 150 people there. Poor Tim had to shell out a bunch of dough for the event, which included a very nice buffet.

There were the usual festivities like the bouquet toss (by the bride) and the garter toss (by the groom). Amazingly, my granddaughter Bailey snatched the bouquet…

…and her brother, Dakota, soared high above the crowd to grab the garter.

I was hoping that grandson Joshua (Jessica’s older brother) would have snared the garter, because he has a very cute and nice girlfriend who is awaiting a proposal, I think.

My granddaughter Autumn brought her boyfriend Caleb from Montana:

Her mother Misty (and son Jonathan) were looking sharp:

As were son Jeff and his wife Carol:

Here’s Tim and Shanon (mother of the bride!) together with son Joshua and his girlfriend Kamilla:

Grandson Craig (Jessica’s younger brother) and his buddy Drake were “in the house”:

This is Jessica’s aunt April (with the big smile!) and her husband James (with the unique hairdo).

Aunt Carol and Jessica’s mom Shanon shed a few tears (but they were happy ones).

Some of the girls did a selfie in the bathroom:

Here’s Charlie with the guy who paid for the shindig, her son Tim.

And here’s proud grandpa Craig dancing with the star of the day, Mrs. Nathan Torres.

I love that girl!

 

 

 

 

We are home for a week, getting a bunch of things done while we wait for granddaughter Jessica’s wedding on Saturday.

Here’s the happy bride-to-be, in old photos. I’ll have lots of new ones next week!

Jessica is a third-year nursing student at Cal Baptist University in Riverside. She’s marrying her long-time boyfriend, Nathan Torres, on Saturday. It will be a big family event…everyone is coming, even the Montana contingent. Whooppee!

Of course, as soon as we got home and parked the RV in my driveway, we had a mechanical problem: the slides wouldn’t open or retract. The culprit: a fancy $3.00 circuit breaker fuse. Unfortunately, I had to have a mobile RV repair guy provide me with the answer for…$150.

I had a chance to visit my brother, Terry, at his home in Monterey Park on Monday. That’s where we grew up, and he’s always lived there. We went over some of Mom’s financial affairs (we’re the Trustees of her Living Will), and I took him out for lunch for his 71st birthday. I don’t have any good photos of him; he was younger in this one:

Terry did me a big favor this week. He and I used to do a lot of long-range fishing and we had a ton of gear. Most of what is left is in Terry’s garage, gathering dust. Charlie has a client firm (Segaar Company) which is run by three brothers, and they’ve bought a small yacht to use with clients and family. They have no fishing gear. Terry said, “Take what you want.” So, I selected five rod-reel set-ups, plus a tackle box full of goodies; probably $1,000 worth of stuff.

The next day, I took the RV to the Segaar Company property in Perris so that they could repair my undermount 2-burner range in the rig.

I gave them the fishing gear and they were stoked. It’s really nice to be able to help young people who are just getting to the point that they can have some fun with their small children and friends.

BTW, Greg and Daniel Segaar spent about four hours in my RV kitchen and made the range better than it was originally, with plenty of support within the cabinet structure. They thanked me for the fishing gear and I gave them a $100 spiff for taking the time to rescue Charlie and I.

It’s been nice to catch up on local happenings with our neighbors and friends. The Pace’s (across the street in our cul de sac) have put their house up for sale. They’re asking $510K, I believe. I hope they get it, because it will be a nice comp for our property.

Clark (Pace) has had a tough couple of years, financially. He’s begun to “moonlight” as a part-time sales guy at Giant RV. Although he’s still in training, and not an active salesman yet, he was pressed into service last weekend because Giant got really busy…and he sold one of their most expensive toy hauler trailers to a young couple, earning a nice commission. Hooray, Clark!

There’s a big “Recall the Board of Directors” campaign going on here in Bear Creek, led by my bowling and card-playing buddy, George Knapp. He used to be on the HOA Board, and is fed up (along with most residents) with the current crop of idiots who a supposedly looking after our community. I long since given up on the HOA concept, and will be happy to leave the festering boil when we sell our property here.

Our despicable neighbor “Sharon” is one of the HOA Board members, and she wasted no time upon our return to harass us for parking our RV in our driveway overnight (because it was broken down, Stupid!). Anyway, we’ll be happy to be rid of her when we sell our home, as will the Pace’s. Sharon has really spoiled our neighborhood, which was a very friendly place before she arrived about ten years ago.

Today, Charlie and I are getting our hair cut, and she is getting hers colored. It’s been awhile, and Charlie has a nice crop of gray atop her head. My hair is long and unmanageable, and is driving me nuts. I can hardly wait to thin it out… a lot!

The dogs are re-adjusting to the big house, and Baby is having a blast, running up and down the stairs (it’s a tri-level) with her toys. She’s fun to watch.

I visited my Mom today at her Board and Care facility here in Murrieta. She’s in hospice care, doing as well as can be expected for an 89 year-old lady with dementia. I brought her a $50 bouquet of roses and star lillies, and we sat on the couch, held hands and kissed, and watched TV for a couple of hours. She likes that. Mom doesn’t communicate very well anymore; she mumbles nonsensical “word salad”, for the most part. But, other than that, she seems to be doing OK, and appears to like the place and the nurse gals that take care of her.

It’ so sad that it’s all come to that. But, on the positive side, she’s lived a long and very full life, with much happiness. All of her children are still here and love her. I’m sure she knows that. I’m going to visit her each Thursday, and Claudia, Kellie, and Terry will drop by when they can, as well.

In other news, there was a rare solar eclipse this week. But, it was pretty much overshadowed in the news by more Trump shenanigans. The guy has really cast a pall over the country.

It is, of course, not a surprise when President Trump lies, completely makes things up, and denies that he ever said anything that he actually said. Accordingly, he’s backtracked on any number of key campaign promises.

For example, his Mexican Wall promise. He’d build it, and our amigos to the south would pay for it. Now, it seems, he wants us to build it with our own money, and he is willing to shut down the U.S. government until Congress puts the funding into the Federal Budget.

Mr. Trump, the candidate, also ridiculed former Presidents Bush and Obama for not extricating the U.S. from Afghanistan. We’ve been fighting there for sixteen years, with no progress, etc. This is one area of policy where I agreed with Donald Trump.

So, President Trump made a big speech to the American public this week…unveiling his “plan” to win in Afghanistan by sending 4,000 additional  troops there. Not surprisingly, his ingenious plan is the same one that Presidents Bush and Obama came up with.

 

 

In other news, my grandson Craig is now in high school. Here he is in an old photo:

He’s also continuing in his martial arts training, and is now a Yellow Belt. I asked him this morning if he’d run into Chubby, the high school kid that threatened him when he was in Intermediate school, and Craig said, “I’ve seen him, but no problem…yet.” Well, I hope that continues, but, if it doesn’t, I think this jerk is going to be surprised when my grandson crushes his nut sack.

 

 

 

Our last stop before we head home (to granddaughter Jessica’s wedding) is at Ocean Mesa RV Resort in Goleta, about 16 miles north of Santa Barbara.

As the saying goes, in real estate the key factor is “location, location, location”, and this is the only really nice RV park near the ocean in the Santa Barbara area. Accordingly, it is very expensive: $115 per night. We are also visiting in peak Summer season, at a beach resort, etc.

It’s a pretty place. Lots of trees, nice amenities, and you can see the ocean from the rig.

However, the beach is actually about a half-mile away, down some asphalt paths and access streets. It’s a beautiful State beach. The dogs would love it, but they’re prohibited here, just like they are on most California beaches. Too bad.

 

Speaking of the dogs, it’s been a not so good week. Our nine-month old puppy, Baby, developed a fever and got very lethargic. I took her to the vet as soon as we got into the Santa Barbara area. They couldn’t figure out what caused it, but give her a big re-hydration injection and put her on some antibiotics. She seems to be doing fine now (two days later)…back to her Energizer Bunny level of craziness. In this photo, taken last week, she is working over a young French Bulldog named “Pete”.

By the way, I don’t know if I mentioned it already, but Baby is extremely quick and agile…more than even Booger in her prime. When I was visiting the vet the other day, I met a lady in the waiting room, and we chatted up our dogs. She noticed Baby’s lithe body and long legs and asked if she was a mixed or pure bred Boston. I said, “Pure Bred, at least that’s what the papers said!” She theorized that, maybe, there was some Whippet in Baby’s bloodlines. Could be…who knows for sure?

Here’s a baby Whippet:

I read up some facts on the Whippet…it has the quickest acceleration of any dog in the world. Well, that’s interesting. All I’ve got to say on the subject is…you should see Baby run…WOW! And, she looks like this Whippet when she gallops:

Maybe we have a Boston Whippet.

Booger, our loveable purebred Boston Terrorizer, sadly seems to have gone deaf. We have been noticing this coming on for the past several months. For the longest time, we have felt that she was just getting old and cranky, and perhaps just didn’t want to hear and obey. But, really, that is not Booger…she’s all about being a good dog and being obedient.

Booger’s tall, pointy ears used to pivot around, like a horse’s, when she heard something behind her. They don’t do that anymore. Also, when we take her for a walk, the normal “C’mon, Booger!” order doesn’t work anymore…I have to jerk her leash to get her attention. So, after doing that a lot, and getting annoyed at her, Charlie and I have finally gotten it…she’s deaf, or mostly so.

That doesn’t change her in our minds, but we are going to have to take measures to ensure that our special needs dog lives a happy life.

We are cutting our visit here in Goleta a bit short in order to get the rig back home where we can get the undermount two-burner range re-mounted to the Corian countertop. (The range got discombobulated on the bumpy ride through the Bay Area.)

Luckily, one of my wife’s clients, Segaar Company, does this type of work, and we can get it done at their shop in Perris. Then, we will be back in business for the 9-week stay in Oceanside, beginning on Aug 28th.

Coming back to home base a few days early will also enable me to visit my brother, Terry, and my Mom, who is being hospiced in Murrieta. I haven’t seen either one of them since late May.

Speaking of home base, this is probably going to the year (2018, actually) when we sell our Bear Creek home. It’s time to move on to a single-story home…somewhere. We haven’t decided where yet, but we will have plenty of time to decide once we find a buyer, because we can live in our RV until we find just the right house…to rent, not buy. We want to have flexibility in our Golden Years.

So, even though we are busy planning our 2018 Road Trip, we might have to modify or cancel some of the trip if the house sells in the late Spring or early Summer.

Anyone who has known me for the past 60  years knows that I have been a pretty apolitical guy. I have my political thoughts (actually, I’m an Independent), but I haven’t gone out of my way to broadcast them. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs about politics, religion, etc., and it’s normally useless to argue with them about such things. So, I typically don’t bother.

I was a public servant for almost 30 years, and served, for most of it, as an executive officer under the Board of Supervisors of Riverside County. Although I was not an elected official, I certainly served under many “electeds” and tried my best to execute the policy leadership of those politicians. So, I understand politics and government…better than most of my friends, acquaintances, and relatives. I’ve lived it.

Perhaps this is why the Donald Trump story has so captivated me. It is the ultimate “fish out of water” saga, and it is unfolding right in front of me in living color. It is the biggest story of my lifetime, and that says a lot, because I lived through the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and President Nixon’s resignation.

I didn’t vote for Mr. Trump, but I was hopeful that, once he took office, he would put his Big Boy pants on, realize that he was involved in something bigger than himself, and evolve into the leader that the country so desperately needs at this time.

America has now endured over 210 days of the Trump presidency, and it is apparent that this experiment has failed. The man can’t get beyond himself, he doesn’t understand the concept of teamwork, and doesn’t really understand how government works or, more importantly, how democracy functions. It is one of the saddest things that I’ve ever seen, a President flailing about, drowning in his own self-created cesspool.

 

Donald Trump also doesn’t understand that, although his political “base” helped elect him, he is now the leader of all Americans, including the people who didn’t vote for him (the majority, actually) and didn’t vote at all. Trump’s mandate to govern was weak, from the start. His only hope to be an effective President was to try to broaden his appeal, which would have broadened his support in Congress.

He’s, effortlessly, accomplished the opposite, and doesn’t seem to understand that or…care.

This past week was, arguably, the low point of the Trump presidency, and that’s saying a lot. A big white supremacist rally was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, complete with Nazi flags and torches, threatening goons in camouflage outfits openly carrying pistols and automatic weapons, and morons shouting racist slogans from bullhorns. Thousands of protesters were on hand to let them know that their ugly shtick was un-American and not appreciated in Charlottesville. One of the white supremacist idiots decided to teach them a lesson by running his car into the crowd of protesters, killing one woman, and injuring a couple of dozen more.

It reminded me of something back in my time…the Kent State massacre of anti-war demonstrators in 1970: a defining moment in U.S. history.

President Trump’s initial response to this tragedy was to blame it on “many sides”, and to note that there were some “very fine people” in the white supremacist crowd.

Needless to say, a politician who kowtows to Nazis in America is…out of his friggin’ mind.

 

Political leaders of both parties rained down criticism upon the President, there were mass resignations from some of his advisory councils, and some of his closest advisors and supporters were apoplectic.

As is his nature, President Trump then doubled-down on his gaffe, trying to blame the whole mess on “people who would destroy our history and culture”…i.e. those who demand that memorials to Confederate generals be removed from public places. He then equated Robert E. Lee to George Washington, because they both owned slaves, missing the important point that General Washington helped create our democracy, while General Lee fought to dismember it in order to preserve a regional economy that was built on the backs of slaves.

Like I said, President Trump is flailing about, not understanding what he’s dealing with, embarrassing himself, his family, and his country. Rather than publicly demonstrating empathy with the victims of the tragedy, and showing leadership in trying to mend the Nation’s wounds, he…throws gasoline on the fire of racial hatred in America.

As someone said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

We have a crisis on our hands, folks. I’m not sure what will happen first: nuclear war with North Korea, or a second Civil War. We have a lot of angry people in this country, and it appears that we have a nincompoop Fascist leading them…and the rest of us!

I’ve never been a big fan of military juntas, but…Vice President Pence sure looks attractive right now.

I’d better keep my .45 cal locked and loaded…

Update: Some good news today. Steve Bannon, President Trump’s chief political strategist and right-wing bomb thrower, resigned today. It appears that recently-appointed White House Chief of Staff/ex-General Kelly has succeeded in removing one of the many cancers on the Presidential corpus.

As the saying goes, “What do you say about finding 1,000 lawyers at the bottom of the sea? It’s a good start.”

 

 

For the past several days, we have been at small RV park near Carmel-by-the-Sea. It’s off of Carmel Valley Road, a few miles from Highway 1, and is called Carmel-by-the-River RV Park.

It is very lush in this valley, probably because it is always foggy here…with the exception of maybe three hours each afternoon, when the temperature might skyrocket into the low 70’s.

The road to this out-of-the-way resort gets your attention, for sure. The park owners call Shulte Road “a mature country road”. It is all of that, with large trees lining the narrow one lane road, which has a few very tight turns, as well. I had to unhitch my tow car a mile away, because if another car or RV was coming in the opposite direction, it would be a disaster.

Eventually, you drop down a steep driveway into the park…

…and it’s very nice. Trees all about, nicely maintained facilities, and an excellent grass area for off-leash dog play. BTW, the owner’s two small dogs wander around the park, and there seems to be no concern if a guest allows his dogs to do the same.

 

Here’s Charlie enjoying some of the afternoon sunshine.

It ain’t cheap here; we’re paying, with Good Sam Discount, about $85 per night! Of course, location is everything. This RV park is only about 4 miles from Carmel Village, and a few more miles to Monterey. The world famous Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance auto event is running right now in the area, and the big antique car race will be just down Carmel Valley Road at Laguna Seca. We won’t be here, unfortunately.

Dang!

We went for a drive the other day through Carmel-by-the-Sea. It was packed with cars and well-dressed folk. We had intended to check out the leash-free dog beach, but the place was a madhouse. So, we decided to do 17-Mile Drive on the way into Monterey. It cost $10.25, we got disoriented, and ended up on the freeway. What the Hell! But, we’d seen it before, so Charlie said, “Let’s get out of here”, and that’s what we did.

We ended up at Fisherman’s Wharf…

…and had a nice lunch at Scales Restaurant. The Clam Chowder was superb, as it always is up here. Very thick and full of goodies. Complimentary plate of calimari, as well, to go with our main course. Overall, much better than I had expected in such a touristy place.

We’ve met some nice people here at the RV park. “Dave” is from Florida, and drives a beautiful, super-glitzy 40′ Prevost rig.

Dave and his wife come out here every year for the Concours (he’s a car guy). We chatted a few times and he’s given me some recommendations on West Coast RV parks. He absolutely loves our next stop (Ocean Mesa at El Capitan Beach); goes there every year. He also recommended Marin RV Park, which is a ferry ride across the bay from San Francisco. We’ve already followed-up and booked a week there in 2018.

Another guy we met, “Ted” was staying in the site right next to the dog park. He let his dogs play with ours. Baby had a ball running circles around Ted’s large boxer, who was pretty fast for a 100 pound dog. But, Baby is exceptionally fast…probably faster than Booger was in her youth. She runs like a gazelle, and has more moves than a monkey on a new rope. Incredible!

Here she is, resting after an afternoon toying with the Boxer.

If I had the money and the time, I would enroll her in some dog agility training. I think she “could be a Contender”.

Some sad news this week: our good friends/neighbors, the Pace’s, have put their home up for sale. We will miss them, for sure. But, for how long? Charlie and I have decided that this is the year to sell…so we will be following suit, putting our house on the market in the Spring. It’s time to move on to the next phase of our lives.

I have been working on a 2018 Road Trip itinerary. We will have a plan, but it could change if our house sells. If that happens, we will have to interrupt our trip and do some packing.

Anyway, our 2018 schedule, as of now, looks like this:

Santa Barbara, May 1-7

Pismo Beach, May 8-14

Los Banos, May 15

Red Bluff, May 16-18

Roseburg, OR May 19-21

Pacific City, OR May 22-27

Newport, OR May 28-June 3

Coos Bay, OR June 4-July 1

Grants Pass, OR July 2

Red Bluff, July 3-5

Napa, July 6-15

Marin, July 16-22

Santa Cruz, July 23-Aug 5

Pismo Beach, Aug 6-18

Santa Barbara, Aug 19-Sept 1

Murrieta, Sept 2-4

Oceanside, Sept 5-Nov 5

As you can see, we are staying relatively close to home, in case the house sells. And, we’re concentrating on the “cool” places; this year, we spent a whole month sweating in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, etc. No bueno.

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, just when I was thinking that we had our hands full in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and all kinds of tension worked up with Iran, China and Russia…President Trump has decided to up the ante by threatening to drop bombs in the Philippines and nuke the North Koreans. And, today, he even threatened to intervene militarily in Venezuela’s civil strife…via another goofy Tweet outburst.

(That’s a lot of sabre-rattling for a guy who dodged military service during the Vietnam War!)

And, to make sure that he gets nothing done legislatively back here in the U.S., he’s accelerated his campaign to embarrass the Senate Majority Leader…the very guy that will be key to shepherding the Trump agenda through Congress. You know, unimportant things like raising the debt ceiling, following through on tax reform, and building his giant wall on the Mexican border.

If Mr. Trump thinks repealing and replacing Obamacare was hard, wait until he tries to ramrod his goofy tax and budget ideas down Congress’ throat. These guys have to run for re-election next year.

And, remember Trump’s boasts about creating millions of new jobs? Well, it turns out that he does have a plan…but will Congress and American taxpayers support it?

When the President replaced his Chief of Staff with ex-General Kelly a couple of weeks ago, he now had a bunch of military guys running the show: ex-Generals Kelly, McMaster (NSA), and Mattis (Defense). It was was assumed that some discipline would finally emerge in the White House. Well, it certainly didn’t this week.

Instead, the vacationing President continued to shoot his mouth off, Tweeting whatever came to mind…without considering the policy implications and geopolitical ramifications.

The President is on another golf vacation this week. It was noted on the news today that Mr. Trump has spent more than 50 of his 200 days in office…on golf courses. This from a guy, while on the campaign trail, who said that he wouldn’t golf much if elected, because he’d be so busy “working his ass off for America”.

So, the idiot leader of North Korea decides to torment the President, and Trump falls for it, throwing a Tweeted conniption fit, threatening to bury the pipsqueak with a nuclear firestorm. Yeah, that’s what we want, a leader of this country who’s only statecraft seems to be threatening folks with our military might.

Of course, Kim Jong-Un then ordered preparations to launch four missiles at the U.S. base in Guam. Whereupon, the author of “The Art of the Deal” then doubled down with “Go ahead and try it; we’re locked and loaded!”

Is anyone else out there worried about this guy? He’s playing pretty fast and loose with our country’s and the world’s future. This game of chicken could trigger World War III.

Meanwhile, our Secretary of State, ex-Big Oil executive Rex Tillerson, is running about, trying to minimize the diplomatic mess that Big Mouth Trump seems to create every day. He’ll probably be the next guy to get the ax; the North Korea kerfluffle will be blamed on him.

Of course, there has been a lot of hysteria created by the White House lately as the Kremlingate investigations are drilling deeper and deeper, and the dirty laundry has begun to pile up. There must be some fire to go along with the smoke, because the Trump administration is pulling out all of the stops to distract Americans from that stench.

The childish pissing match with North Korea is probably the President’s idea to divert attention.

There have been a spate of alarmist “issues” raised in the past week or so: ISIS in the Philippines (“we should help out militarily”); a rigged election in Venezuela (“we might want to intervene”); opioid dependency (“declare a national emergency”); and, of course, the old stand-by, Hillary Clinton’s e-mails (“the real crime”).

Fox News and the National Enquirer have been doing their best to help with the distraction campaign. In particular, Sean Hannity of Fox News has been doing yeoman duty for Trump; it wouldn’t surprise me to see him named as White House Chief of Staff…when General Kelly gets fed up and throws in the towel.

Meanwhile, the lying about everything has almost totally permeated the Trump administration. Unbelievably, it has become the norm. Maybe that’s why so many staffers are jumping ship.

 

It’s what you get when a narcissistic, loudmouth amateur is put in charge of the Nation’s business. And, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Update: Didn’t take long for it to get worse. A while supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia yesterday, with the purpose of supporting President Trump (according to KKK Grand Wizard David Duke), resulted in the death of one protester and the injury of 19 others. This neo-Nazi doofus drove his car into a crowd of protesters.

What do we expect when we elect a guy who had the public support of the Ku Klux Klan, made hundreds of openly racist statements during his campaign, has two white supremacist advisors in the White House (Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka), and appointed, as Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, who was denied a Federal Judgeship years ago by the Senate for making comments like: “I thought the KKK boys were OK until I found out they smoked pot.”

Of course, this same guy will now be in charge of cracking down on his sick, redneck neighbors. Right!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I have mentioned before, this is one of our favorite RV parks. It is nestled in a redwood forest. The “old growth” giants were harvested over one hundred years ago, to build fancy Victorian homes in San Francisco; what’s left are the “volunteers” that sprung up from the downed trees and, at a growth rate of about 1 foot per year, are more than 100 feet high.

Across the river, within Henry Cowell State Park, there are lots of old growth trees which are up to 300′ high and 16′ in diameter. I used to hike with my brother in those woods when I was 12 years old.

Some of the trees cut 100 years ago were pretty old.

My sister Claudia and her boyfriend Ted visited this week. Here they are standing next to one of the old growth stumps in the RV park.

There were lots of families here…it’s the end of Summer. Kids were everywhere, doing the kinds of things that my brother Terry and I used to do here when we lived just up the street.

The San Lorenzo River is just over the cliff from that stump, and it is running pretty nicely this year. Lots of “beach time” for the kids.

The children liked our dogs. Here they are playing with them in the pen.

The dogs love this place. Lots of smells, stuff to investigate, and we were able to keep them off leash a lot of the time, hanging out with us. Here’s Charlie and Baby soaking up the clean air.

Charlie’s cousin Jim Duggan and his wife Barbara live a few miles away in Scott’s Valley. We visited a few times during the trip. They have a very homey residence; lots of photos and family memorabilia.

They also have a Bigfoot statue in their garden. I think Jim was impressed with the Bigfoot Museum in Felton, which we visited on our last trip here. It is owned by a guy who my brother and I went to school with over 50 years ago. He supposedly has SEEN a Bigfoot in the woods!

Not needing to know anything more about Yeti, Charlie and I spent a shopping day in Santa Cruz. First, we did the downtown walk, bought a few items, and then had lunch at El Palomar. Good food and drink.

The downtown area is populated by a number of bums, which is not surprising because it is a college town (UC Santa Cruz) and a big surf locale (Steamer Lane). And, it has the usual number of would-be musicians, panhandling for small change. But, no one was aggressive or annoying; they must have had a nice buzz on.

There’s actually a number of things to do around here. Santa Cruz has the oldest surviving boardwalk in California (circa 1907), complete with an amusement park. Located adjacent is Stagnaro’s Wharf (pier). Both of these sites were featured in the Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry movie, “Sudden Impact”. There’s also the Roaring Camp Railroad, which takes tourists through the old growth redwoods down to Santa Cruz and back. And, you’re only an hour’s drive from Monterey to the south or the Bay Area to the north.

And, of course, here in Felton is the Covered Bridge. It was built in 1892 and is the tallest covered bridge in the United States.

We didn’t get around to those things on this trip, however. We were busy with friends and work. The campfire was nice at night, however.

And, the weather was great…70’s in daytime, around 60 at night. Love it!

And, I didn’t contract any Poison Oak! Back in the day, I got a horrendous case when my bike and I fell into a bush. My Mom took me to the local doctor in Felton, where it was determined that I needed an antihistamine INJECTION. I ran out of this doctor’s office and up Highway 9, with my Mom and the doctor in pursuit.

BTW, our little puppy Baby is almost 9 months old now. She’s doing great. Here she is with her favorite friend…an antler bone.

We almost got out of Felton unscathed…but not quite. As we were pulling through our space on the way out, one of those great big Redwood stumps jumped out and scraped the right side of the rig, down by the storage bays. That’ll cost me another $Grand or so, I’m sure. Dammit!