Buzzing Around

Eel River Farm

We are back on the road again after a very hectic week with an africanized bee swarm that established residency in one of our trees.  The hive that they made was longer than my arm and about as thick as a toaster.  There wasn't much honey which is how the bee men knew they were africanized.  They apparently remove about seven hives a day in the spring and several a day in the fall.  But for us it involved a lot of clean up and pruning as they tried to reform even after the hive was removed and the bee people had to return and give them a second shot.  The worst part was that our dog Elsie got several bee stings and now is afraid to go into the backyard.  No photos, sorry.... we just could not get close enough to take a photo.  

Canadian Goose

While all of this was going on, I was getting some paintings prepared to enter the 6" Squared show in Costa Mesa.  I submitted four and was happy to hear that two of the paintings had been juried into the show.  So I got those ready and sent them off the day before we left for Lake Havasu.  We are headed towards Morro Bay where we will pick up my paintings from the PSWC Show.  

Havasu Falls RV Park

We usually stop off in Needles as our halfway point but it is such a desolate hole with the highest fuel prices in California, so this time we decided to try out a park in Lake Havasu, Arizona.  We stayed at Havasu Falls RV and it was mainly cement pads but it did have pull thrus which are perfect for an overnight stay.  

Mountain Valley RV Park, Tehachapi

Yesterday we drove on to Tehachapi where we will stay for three nights.  The rv park is situated right next to the glider airport and from our back window we can watch them take off and land.  The hills are golden brown now and the trees are turning up here on the mountain where the nights are down in the low 40's already.   Tomorrow we make the long drive to Morro Bay to pick up the paintings.  We are just taking the truck and making it an all day trip.  Then on to Tecopa Hot Springs where we hope to stay about a week soaking and relaxing (and maybe plein air painting).  

FROM GRAND CANYON TO LONG BEACH

We arrived in Long Beach on Thursday late afternoon after a long haul across the desert from Needles, California.  We had been expecting to stay in the Grand Canyon area for another day and night but the trailer park in Tusayan where we were camping, left us a note that we would have to move the rig to a different site because they had assigned our spot to someone coming in on Wednesday.  This was interesting only because the campground has about 100 sites, of which only 20 were filled.  So rather than argue the point, we decided to leave a day earlier.  
We had enjoyed our stay very much and on the last couple of days had taken the shuttle out to either end of the paved roads and had gotten another 500 photos of the canyon in the morning, evening, and in various weathers.  On our last night we had dinner at El Tovar during a tremendous thunder and lightning storm with copious amounts of drenching cold rain.  While we were there, we saw a lightning bolt strike the lightning rod of the hotel.  That is the closest we have ever been to lightning and I can say that if I never see it again, it will be OK.  Everyone who had been sitting out on the deck, immediately scrambled to get inside.  However, by the time we left, most of the weather had ambled away and I was able to get a photo of this elk fawn on our way out of the park.
We left early on Wednesday morning for Desert View RV Resort in Needles, CA and arrived around noon.  It was a beautiful park with lots of trees, plenty of room in the sites which were hedged on either side with Ficus trees.  We just kicked back and had a barbeque for dinner and then walked a few feet to the pool which we had all to ourselves for the evening.  

In the morning we were ready to leave early but the front legs of the 5th wheel would not raise due to a burned out fuse, so Allan headed off to town to get a replacement.  We were on our way finally about 8:45 a.m. and stopped in Barstow for refreshments and to walk the dogs.  We hit the traffic of Los Angeles about 2:00 p.m. and were in stop and go traffic for the remainder of the trip.  My phone gps map said that we had 26 miles to go and the time estimate was an hour and a half.  But we got to The Golden Shore RV Resort without incident and were able to back into our space easily enough  (see above).

 Although the front view is pretty plain, behind our rig is a green space which gives lots of room between our rig and those behind us.  Last night we took a walk outside our park and just behind us, outside the fence is a wetlands that the city of Long Beach established in 1997.   The land that you see in the distance is San Pedro and if you look closely, you can see someone's rv behind the rv park fence.  We are literally backed up to the harbor.  The people that you see in the wetlands are using nets to pick up floating plants and debris.  The restoration is on going.

 The wetlands were on our right as we walked out of the park and to our left was a park along the harbor which included a bike path that went under the San Pedro bridge, so we were able to walk all the way over to an area called Shoreline Village which is where all the shops and restaurants are located along the boat harbor.  We actually walked behind the Aquarium of the Pacific and to our right was the Queen Mary (photo at the top of the page.)  Today (Friday) we are doing some housekeeping, laundry, and a trip to TJ's/Sprouts.  After being in the National Park for a week, some of which was without electricity we needed to get the inside of the rv cleaned up.  We also tried to do without extra provisions while in the nat'l park because the prices were so high.  So today will be a catch up day.  Tomorrow the sightseeing can begin!

JUST ANOTHER HICCUP

It is Sunday morning and [take note] I am writing from the RV Park in Tusayan, just outside the entrance to the Grand Canyon Park.  

Yesterday we had a good day of taking photos around the area of Mather Point, although we were surrounded by tourists from home and abroad.  Everyone who passed us by seemed to be speaking French, Italian, German, Japanese, and even English with various kinds of accents.  As we offered to take photos for some folks who wanted both parties in the picture, we usually had to resort to hand signals to speak.  We hadn't experienced this degree of diversity since we camped in Yosemite years ago.   The photo is of Mather Point and as you can see it is very crowded near the edge where everyone is trying to achieve some sort of photographic immortality by capturing each other on film.  While Allan and I were there at the railing, I was shoved to the side by a foreign "gentleman" who needed to have his picture taken.  If there hadn't been a railing, I would now be scrambled on the canyon below.  

These young Japanese girls were going through numerous contortions in order to get all four of them in the same shot, until I came to their rescue and then had to take shots of them from each of four smartphones.   Although the scenery was breathtaking, sometimes it was the tourist antics which captured the spirit of the place.  They were all so thrilled to be there.  
After a short snack and nap back at the campsite, we decided to head back over to the rim near El Tovar in order to get some sunset photos.  

We got there and set up some chairs along the rim wall and took leisurely photos as the sun dropped behind the clouds and rain fell among the lightning strikes on the North Rim across the canyon.  We were sitting just adjacent to Hopi House and we took photos accompanied by live flute music provided by the volunteers at Hopi House.   The music was extremely beautiful and mirrored the natural surroundings with songs sounding like little birds and other songs that seemed to be synchronized with the movement of the clouds across the canyon sky.  
However, when we got back to the rv in the campground, our refrigerator warning light had come on and would not be cajoled into behaving.  Allan finally had to start the generator at 9:00 pm (which probably made all our neighbors hate us) in order to have the fridge operate again, but on A/C.  After a half hour, we decided to turn off the generator to spare our fellow campers and the fridge seemed to settle down, but we were awakened at 3 in the morning by a warning beep and flashing light coming from the fridge.  We had no choice but to turn it off and hope for the best come morning.  

By 5 in the morning Allan had decided to move to an rv park with hookups in order not to lose all of the food in the fridge.  So we hooked up the rv to the truck and were in the new campground by 6 this morning where I happily plugged in all of the chargers, turned on the fridge to a/c, and set the coffee perking.   As Allan took the registration card over to the office he got a photo of an elk in the rv park, I guess they prefer hookups too.

ROUGHING IT AT THE GRAND CANYON

 After 30 years, we thought we might make a return to the Grand Canyon.  We arrived on Thursday, as planned, but it was touch and go there for a little while.  On Tuesday evening, while we were still in Flagstaff, we got a phone call from our neighbor.  Our irrigation line was blowing off an elbow joint and although he had done a temporary replacement for it, we had already lost one home to an outside irrigation leak and we decided to be prudent and drive back to Apache Junction and take a look at the system for ourselves.  We finally arrived about 10:30 at night and sat outside for a bit, while the A/C was bringing down the inside heat of the house.  We got up at 5 a.m. and Allan decided to replace the system with our old manual system until we returned in August.  We both felt a little better when we hit the road back up to Flagstaff.  It turned out to be just a little hitch in our giddy-up and we were ready to drive to the Grand Canyon on Thursday.
We are staying in a national forest campground WITHOUT HOOKUPS OR SERVICES,   to see if we could dry camp.  Well.... saving water is no problem, and letting the yellow mellow is no problem, and using the 12 volt to read by is also no problem.  The problem is that all of our cameras, jetpack, computer, smart phone and ipad stuff needs to be recharged, every day.  I ended up recharging the smart phone in the truck while we were driving.  The rest is getting recharged via a Honda Generator which Allan has hooked up to our electric line to the rv.  Also, we are camped in a spot with partial shade.  Of course during the hottest part of the afternoon is when the shade is impartial and we get not one speck of it.  But we are managing.  Today we stopped by the Trailer RV Park in the national park itself and they gave me all the info for making reservations for the future.  We will definitely be doing that for the next trip.  We have found that we CAN manage, But Why Do We Want To.  Is it because we want to be in a rustic site where we can sit outside early in the morning and watch our drowsy camper across the way stagger over to a bush and water it (when there is a very clean restroom with pit toilets just 50 feet from where he is standing.  Or perhaps we want to be where we can hear the boom boom boom of the boom box somewhere at a campsite nearby.  Or maybe it is because we can sit outside and watch the blue jays and the nuthatches, although I suspect they also have those over at the Trailer RV Park in the national park.

 While we were walking the trail along the edge of the canyon over to El Tovar for breakfast, we stopped many times to take photos or just to contemplate the distance down or across the canyon.  At one point we realized we were not the only sightseers when we spotted this little feller, sitting calmly on the very edge, looking down for several minutes.  Just think, he gets to see this view every day of the year, what a lucky guy.
After his moments of contemplation, he turned around and scurried off, to take care of gathering nuts and all those other mundane duties of his daily life.

We continued our walk over to the El Tovar Lodge where we had a lovely breakfast, Allan had Prime Rib Hash, that was a first for him.   The photo does not even look like hash because the hash was not shredded like normal hash.  It was just hunks of prime rib and red skinned potatoes with grilled peppers and onions, and on top was an ancho chile cheese sauce.
Then we walked the rest of the trail out to Kolb Studio where we had a wonderful chat with the Studio Manager about the annual Plein Air event in September where Michael Chesley Johnson will again be included.  
When we returned to our rv around lunch time, the thunderheads were already building up and we made it just in time before the big fat drops started pelting down.  

LUNCH IN SEDONA

Although yesterday was our first day in Flagstaff, we had already made arrangements to meet Rita and her husband Steve in Sedona for lunch.  We headed down early so that we could check out the wonderful consignment shops in the morning.  As usual, here in Sedona, we hit pay dirt.  Allan found 5 Ralph Lauren shirts in barely worn condition for $6 each and a couple of tshirts.  I found a Ralph Lauren dressy top and black dress pants (perfect for the Masters Pageant later in LA), plus a pair of Banana Republic dress slacks.  When we got to the cash register, it turned out that all clothing was 1/2 off, so our final tab was $31.  We got some really fine clothes and the PAWS pet shelter got a little more money.  Good news for everyone.  We then headed off to the Oaxaca to meet Rita and Steve for lunch.  We had a great conversation about food, art, and travel.  We were also able to give Rita a return gift of two of our paintings for the painting she gave to us of our two dogs, which was in the Spring Sedona Show.

Elsie and Murray are now famous and we enjoy her painting so much as it is a reminder of when they were just year old pups.
They are such great travelers too.  They have really taken to the rv life and have already settled into their traveling routines.  Allan takes them for long walks every day and they are especially lucky in this rv park to have an off leash area to run around.  The people in this park have little signs all over the park to remind you of the rules and they even have a sign in the dog park.  
Today is a Flagstaff day... we will just check out the town a little and then stock up on some groceries for our week in the Grand Canyon.   We will probably have to have a nap this afternoon as the rig next to us is full of young men from Britain who talked under our bedroom window last night until after 2 a.m.   We are hoping they move on down the road today and are replaced by a quiet senior couple.  

FINALLY! ON THE ROAD AGAIN.

We are getting a late start this year and were elated to finally start the engine and drive away from Apache Junction with it's rising temperatures.  Yesterday we were reduced to loading the RV at 5:30 in the morning and quitting around 7 a.m. due to the heat.  Then we resumed the final loading last night around 9:30 p.m.  Not much fun getting ready to go, when the temperatures are climbing to 108 degrees.   Usually we leave in May, but this year we had a special trip planned to visit Laguna Beach and attend the Masters Pageant which we had never seen, despite having lived in Southern California for many years.  While we are there, we will also see the Laguna Arts Festival and visit the Irvine Museum which houses the largest collection of California Impressionist paintings in the world.  And we have some other places on our list of where we want to go while we are in the area.  

So.... here we are in Flagstaff at 7000 feet.  Much cooler here in the lower 90's and the temps should be dropping to the high 80's in the coming week.  We will be here at the J & H RV Park for 4 nights before we move over to Grand Canyon for a week.   Above is our new (used) Cardinal in its parking spot here in Flagstaff.  We have a pull thru space with a tree and a patio table.... and Murray and Elsie have a off leash dog park right on the premises.  So all is well.  

On The Road.... 2013

We are back on the road again.... with a new rig.  The Montana was just too big for us, now that we were not living in it.  We wanted to be in something that would be more versatile and we could use to stay in State or National Parks without trying to squeeze into tiny spaces with something 37 feet long and 4 slides wide.  So, we traded in the Montana Monster for a lovely Forest River Cardinal, which is just a few years older than the Montana, but wonder of all wonders, still has its decals in good condition.  We have just as much cabinet space inside, maybe more... and I now have a window on my side of the bed so we both can get fresh air at night.  Part of the trade in deal was that they would install a washer dryer unit for me and it works great, we have already tested it out.   We had a shake down cruise to Tucson to make sure all systems were fine and aside from a few little things that they fixed on warranty when we returned to Phoenix, the only thing that we had to deal with was a blowout of one tire on our way home.  We think the rig was probably sitting for a long time before it was sold, as it is in such good condition, it seems barely used. 

So all new tires.... and on to Cottonwood for the annual Sedona Pastel Show.  Lots of good entries this year and to the right is Karen and Laura taking a break from all the hammering.  After the show was hung, Karen, Gary, Allan and I went to the Barking Frog where we had a relaxing lunch.  No photos of our lunch at the Barking Frog, but earlier in the week Allan and I went to the Red Rock BarBQue

for some really great ribs and probably the best sides we have had at a barbeque place.  The baked beans were fresh, not the gloppy stuff that is usually served at rib joints.  The potato salad was also fresh and tasted wonderful.   We shared one order and it was more than enough for both of us. 
The day after the hanging of the show, we had a visitor from home.  Dorothy drove up to stay with us for two nights and we prowled around Old Town Cottonwood Friday evening, ending up at Concho's Mexican Restaurant.  Very relaxing and Dorothy and I helped Allan polish off his "Chunk of Flan" before heading back to the rv.   Saturday we headed up to Jerome in the morning to check out the galleries and the consignment stores and I am happy to say that Dorothy and I helped out the economy by making more than a few purchases including a couple of paintings by Cody DeLong, a local artist in this area. 

Later in the afternoon we went by the Reception at the Sedona Art Center to see who got all the awards for best pastel paintings and were very glad to see that Jean Hildebrandt got Best of Show.  (Left)  As usual, some of the judges picks would not have been our choices, but it was great to see so many people we knew at the reception and get to chat with many of them for a while.

 After the reception, we had reservations at the Golden Goose, ranked 6th in Sedona.... and it was good, but not great.  Dorothy picked all the best selections as it turned out with an excellent house salad dressing, an unusual presentation of salmon wrapped in hash browns with sautéed spinach on the side, and

even got the best dessert of key lime pie.  My linguini with shrimp was unremarkable and Allan said he should have gotten a steak instead of the beef tips in Hennessey sauce. 
Dorothy headed out on Sunday morning for home and we headed back over to Sedona to run some errands and get ready for our workshop with Christine Debrosky  on Wednesday.  A final note.....Allan has been taking the dogs to the dog park every day and here is a photo of a happy camper named Elsie who is chasing the ball. 

 

Sedona 2012

Camelot RV Park, Old Cottonwood

It's that time of the year again for the pastel show held at the Sedona Arts Center. Allan and I arrived on Wednesday in Cottonwood, where we will be staying for the two week duration of the show.   This is the first rv trip for Elsie and Murray and there were mixed reactions to traveling in the truck.  Elsie sat on the raised platform that we had made and looked out of the window for the next two hours.  Murray felt more secure down in his bed, but snuck a peek every once in a while. 

Elsie and Murray, First Truck Ride

Thursday was a big day for everyone as we had to take all of the paintings we had collected over to the Sedona Art Center to be hung.  But in the morning we took a walk from the rv park around the corner to the community dog park and Elsie and Murray had their first dog park experience.  The dog park was divided into three sections; small dogs, large dogs, and training dogs.  We headed into the small dog area where our puppies got to meet a younger, but larger boxer puppy named Zeus.  It took them about ten minutes to get the idea, but then everyone was rocketing around the yard playing chase.  When we took them on the following day, they couldn't wait to get in the gate and meet even more dogs.  Later on Thursday we headed over to the Art Center to be there when people dropped off their paintings and later hanging the paintings with Laura Black and Karen Budan.  It was a smaller show than usual but it was a nice selection of paintings and the show looked good when we left.  Today after coming back from the dog park we headed up to Jerome for lunch.  We ate at Quince's, which was recommended to us, but we both thought it was too pretentious to be classified as good mexican food.  However when we got back home I got a call from Laura at the art gallery to say that a painting had sold, and it was my "Apache Trail".    What great news. 

Rocket Dogs



On To Santa Fe

We picked up the rv from storage last Friday night and it took us four days of cleaning and packing to get ready for take-off. Here is the rv in front of our house (which has now been painted sage green and white) and the length of the rv takes up the entire width of the property. We said goodbye to our neighbors and headed off on Wednesday morning early. We took a new route up through Payson and although it was a little slower due to the up and down nature of the road, it was also very scenic and we were surprised to find that the Upper Mongollon Rim was forested with lakes and small meadows. We arrived in Holbrook right before lunch and since it was Wednesday, all the cafes in town were serving $1.00 tacos, so we had a few tacos and went rockhounding in some of the surrounding rock shops. We managed to find some nice petrified wood for our cactus garden back home and saw a very old roadster at one of the shops. The OK RV Park in Holbrook http://www.okrvpk-llc.com/ is a good place to pull in for the night with long pullthrus and FHU, but it is not a destination unless you are looking to do some serious rockhounding in the surrounding areas or you are hankering to see the Petrified Forest National Park. We were on the road bright and early the next day and arrived in Albuquerque at the Enchanted Trails RV Park. http://www.enchantedtrails.com/ We got the PA rate of $15.00 for the night but it was on an all dirt pull through site. In comparison, the Casino RV park on Hwy 25 has grass and walking paths around some small lakes with more modern FHU facilities. We arrived in Albuquerque in time for lunch, so we headed down to old town where we knew of a great carne adovado at the Cactus Cafe. They did not let us down and we had a wonderful table on the shaded patio. Friday morning we got a later start as we did not have far to go. We arrived in Santa Fe at the Trailer Ranch RV Resort www.trailerranch.com around eleven and got a beautiful site along the back wall in the shade. We set out all the patio furniture and just kicked back for the afternoon, reading and napping. Steak on the barbie for dinner. Today we did some grocery shopping; first at the farmers market where we picked up some chile/corn/cheese quiches and other baked goods for breakfasts later in the week. Then we headed over to Trader Joes to get yogurt and finally we stopped in at Sunflower where we found the rest of the items on our shopping list. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading, needlepointing, and napping. Four days on the road and we have done nothing but eat, read, and nap. Is this great or what? But lucky for all of you out there....we are gearing up to check out some of the local sights. Los Alamos, Bandelier National Monument, Santa Fe Plaza, and Canyon Drive are on our to see list. But for now....have to get ready for chicken on the barbie.

RV Parks from Albuquerque to Las Vegas

We headed out from Albuquerque on Monday, 6/1 and made it to Gallup, NM early in the afternoon. This view is from the front of our rv looking out into the desert while we were parked at the USA RV Park. http://www.usarvpark.com/ We always seem to use this park when we are traveling to and from Arizona/New Mexico. It is just 16 miles from the Arizona border and has nice pull throughs with reliable FHU's.
The following morning we headed off to the J&H RV Park in Flagstaff, AZ. Once again we arrived early, so we headed downtown for some lunch and grocery shopping. Also we stopped in where our crv was stored and payed them some more money to keep it until December. The J&H RV Park is really a well run park and has a wonderful off leash dog area and a dog wash station near the office. http://www.flagstaffrvparks.com/
On Wednesday we had a very long drive to Las Vegas caused by the fact that we did not take the rig over the dam, but went through Bullhead City and up the Nevada side of I-95. The grade up and then down to Bullhead City was hard on the truck and I doubt that we will go that way again. But we finally arrived at one of our favorite parks, the Oasis RV Resort with their pool and spa surrounded by palms. Really it is an Oasis in the desert for us. http://www.oasislasvegasrvresort.com/ We spent a couple of days washing clothes, rugs, and sheets. We also managed to visit Trader Joes to stock up on dog food for the boys as we will not be near another Trader Joes for months. We went to the strip one evening and had the buffet at the Bellagio and later thought that it was not as good as it had been in the past. Is this a function of old age or maybe it really was not very good. Anyway we took the cameras with us and got some interesting photos of people and buildings and interior spaces for later paintings.
On Saturday we headed off for Tonopah and only made it as far as Beatty when we discovered we had a flat tire on the rig. Oops. Lucky for us we had just arrived in Beatty, so we found an old run down tire shop where the owner put on our spare for $10.00. Allan gave him twice that we were so grateful he was there to help. He suggested we get some better tires on the rv as the ones we had were not up to the job. We have been intending to do that but we were trying to wait until we got to the NW. We stayed in Tonopah for the night at the Ramada Tonopah Station & RV Park. This is 30 amp E and water. Just a place to park and not much else.
But we were glad we stayed there as the weather turned nasty with high winds and rain in the afternoon and evening.

Today we headed out for Verdi, NV....just 2 miles from the CA border on I-80. All went well until we pulled into the rv park and looked at our tires. The spare was now going flat. Uh-oh. Not much to do on a Sunday so we unhooked again, pulled in our slides and went in search of air for the tire. Now we are back in Terribles Gold Ranch Casino & RV Park http://www.goldranchrvcasino.com/ and hooked back up. This is a beautiful park, but a little more expensive. There are walking trails which we took advantage of right away to work off some of the stress of the tire. Ginger was so thrilled to be out walking that she was leading the pack most of the time. Tomorrow we check our tire before we leave and hopefully it still has its air. And for those of you who are wondering about the Groovin' part of the title, it refers to the new ipod that we have hooked up to the truck speakers so we can listen to our music. Yep, singing to Joe Tex down the highway. Or a little Lyle Lovett. And yes, even a little Dolly Parton.

Back On The Road

Here we are in the Rancho Verde RV Park http://www.ranchoverdervpark.com/ up in Camp Verde, AZ. This is a small park with large spaces and plenty of trees. The sites are grassy with full hook-ups except for the sites down along the canal which are only W/E. We are able to walk the dogs around the perimeter of the park and down to the canal where we have seen ducks, doves, the ubiquitous grackle, and robins. We decided to spend the day "in camp" and you can just see Allan parked in his chaise lounge where he is sawing some zzz's. Everyone is friendly and several people have stopped by to chat. This will be a good place to stay while we explore the area and take our turn manning the show in Sedona on Tuesday.