The Grapes of Wrath "2008 style"

Visiting Scott's memorial yesterday still has me thinking about "life issue" thoughts. When we travel in the RV it is always an easy time to shift your thoughts and see life from other's perspectives. We see million dollar RV's "sail" past us on the highways. We see people who have unbelievable wealth and estates. We also see people living in hovels, old trailers near trash heaps and the homeless.

(click on the cartoon to be able to read it, then use your browser back arrow to return to the blog)

Our nation seems to have gone to the "temples of greed" and materialism and "worshipped" with all their heart, souls and minds and the "god's of these three have not served our country well. This little cartoon says a lot to me about out national "belief system" today.

Are you better off today then 8 years ago is a question the politicians like to throw to us. They know our values, and our pursuits seem to be nearly unamimously focused toward the material. And our answers serve to "blind us"to the better questions that we should ask ourselves.

Am I a better dad, husband, citizen, human being then I was 8 years ago? When I leave this planet with hindsight I will with greater clarity see what every visitor to a graveyard or mermorial park realizes are the true measure of greatness that last forever. How much of my energy, motivation, time and resources did I invest in my family, my loved ones, my friends, my neighbors and even in loving my enemies? Radical ideas, nah, about 2,000 years old. Politics and religion have only confused us regarding them. Some seem to pacify themselves that their religious beliefs exempt them from those questions. Some non-religious think their working for "issues" exempt them from those questions. Answering those questions with our choices is the only way they get answered.

Life is a journey....which way are you going?

Hopland to Sacramento part 2

After leaving the Santa Rosa area we drove through the wine country of Sonoma County and Napa County. It was very beautiful and we stopped for lunch at a winery just outside of Napa.

Then it was time to end this portion of our trip and head back to Sacramento to help Carrie recover and get ready to fly to San Diego this Friday to spend the weekend with our friends.

From Hopland to Sacramento...

We left Hopland mid-morning, and drove down memory lane, past the hospital where Jonathan was born, and past the house we used to live in, and past the pre-school and land, we use to own outside of Petaluma.

Caren's youngest brother, Scott or "scotty" as we called him, came and lived with us to rehab and get off of drugs during a dark period of his life. A few years later, he married and had a son and still lived in the Petaluma, Santa Rosa area, when he died of a sudden heart attack.

Caren and her sister Patti flew in and planned and provided a funeral that honored Scott. He was a "much loved" person and he was a great dad to his son scotty.

Caren wasn't able to wait to see the marker for him, that was placed a couple of weeks, after his funeral, so this was her opportunity to see it.

Just a few months after Scott's funeral his 30 year old "stepdaughter" was killed in a tragic auto accident and his wife had a plaque placed next to his to honor her.

Life is precious.

Caren and I have often said to each other "let's live this day as if it was our last together".......

Redwood's day part 3

I wish the day would have never ended. We walked and drove slowly through the Redwoods until we needed to turn back to make it to our campsite by dark.

That night we drove south to Redwood Valley and had dinner with Caren's brother Garry and his wife Randy, and their two children, Gabe, and Jeanae'. We really enjoyed seeing them and reminding their children that they wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for us. They had heard the story many times how we brought their mom and dad together. We had lived in this area 25 years ago and Garry moved up from L.A. to be close to us. It was a great dinner, at a great steakhouse and Coco enjoyed the leftovers afterward. Then we drove a little bit more to spend the night in Hopland, Ca.

Dog heaven....

Ok, I found a tree to pee on, but how do I get down?

The center marker indicates this tree began growing about 1300 years ago. That is a lot of time in "dog years".....

Going north to go south.....huh?

Our plan today is to drive 50 miles north and then turn around and drive those same 50 miles south. Oh, and by the way we will attempt to drive it as slowly as possible. Sound crazy? Not if you are planning on driving the Avenue of the Giants, one of the most scenic roads in the world.

About 30 miles into our northward trek we pulled over, parked the RV behind a log that was twice as big as the RV and then we walked into the magical forest that is a Redwood Grove. John Muir referred to a Redwood Grove as “God’s Catherdal”.

It was a wonderful walk, all three of us enjoyed it. It was a "sensory banquet" of sights, sounds, and smells that haven't changed in centuries.

High expectations, low fulfillment.....

Our plan for today was to drive from Lake Country to Leggett, California. Leggett begins a stretch of Costal Redwoods, that extend for 50 miles from Leggett to Fortuna. Then they begin again north of Eureka, and extend to the Oregon border.

We had reservations at the Redwood River Resort RV Resort north of Leggett. It is an affiliate park to my membership campground program. We purchased a membership in 2002, and I still had some credit left in that program, so our stay here would cost us nothing.

According to my campground book, it was a great place with TV cable hookups, hot tubs, and pools and a clubhouse with amenities. That wasn’t exactly what we got, but I will tell you about that a little later.

Our first stop for the day was at Lake Mendocino. We noticed the lake was very, very, low. When we lived near there, many enjoyable summer days were spent at the lake. So for old time’s sake, we let Coco run, as we walked near the lake edge.

Then 20 miles north, we stopped again, in Willits, and filled the gas tank, and did our grocery shopping at Safeway. Willits is a cute little town, and we were ready to make lunch, but I remembered there was a beautiful rest stop about 10 miles north of Willits.

So, we drove the ten additional miles before we stopped for lunch. They had a lovely pet walking area, so Caren and Coco walked through a little redwood grove, while I put away the groceries and made our lunch.

Then the final 30 miles was through beautiful pine forests and some oak, madrone, and Redwood trees.

We pulled into the Redwood River Resort and found out because it was off-season, the clubhouse was closed, no pool, no spa, and worst of all, for Caren, they didn’t have any cable TV hookups. I was able to get Internet connectivity occasionally with my Verizon Card, but it was very slow and not too reliable. It dropped off the Internet about every 10-15 minutes. We did have good cell phone reception, so Caren was able to talk to her family and Carrie as much as she wanted.

The campground was in a Redwood grove, but it was pretty run down, with some old trailers, some long-term module homes, and the bathrooms were under construction and didn’t look so great from the outside. They did have a lot of hot water, and I appreciated taking a long, long, hot shower, while Caren took hers in the RV.

After setting up and hooking up the RV, we took a fairly strenuous hike down a very steep path to the Eel River. They call it the “huff and puff” trail, because by the time you climb back up you are doing that a lot.

We thought Coco would be safe to let "off leash" because there was a steep bank on one side and the river on the other. She ran right into the river! It is a good thing she chose a shallow spot or the current would have taken her down stream. Back on the leash for the duration of this trip.

Dinner was early since there isn’t much else to do here. We are planning on watching a movie and getting a good night sleep, so we can head out fairly early in the morning.

Tomorrow, we are going to start driving north, and then turn around and drive south. I will explain that in the next blog.

Our dog has eaten out more then us....

We have only eaten out only 3 times on this trip in almost as many weeks. It was twice at buffets in Las Vegas, and once yesterday at the Cache Creek Indian Casino, north of Woodland, California. The Cache Creek Casino was beautiful and an excellent buffet. We really enjoyed it.

Then we traveled up State Route 16 to intersect with Hwy 20 on our way to Lake Country. It was a very winding, and very beautiful route. We followed the edge of Clearlake, (the largest lake in California) to its north shore.

We stopped for a nap in a school parking lot under the shade of a big tree on a warm Saturday afternoon.

Then we spent the night at Robinson Rancheria on the North Shore of Clearlake. We joined their “players club” for free, and got $20 in free slot play that Caren used on the penny slot machines.

I waited for awhile for a poker seat to open, but when she was done, we went out to the RV together and I made dinner.

The only TV station reception we had was one station, Trinity Broadcasting Network. They were showing a Bill Gaither Concert of which we have the DVD in the RV… lol, so we turned off the TV and put on a movie….. "The 13th Floor" was a very enjoyable movie.

Then we had a sound night sleep under the watchful eye of casino security.

The next morning I went in and used the restrooms, had a free cup of coffee and then we were back on the road again.

This time toward the Redwoods.