A gray day in Oregon...

With our head still full of the events that had happened earlier that morning we continued driving North on I5. We decided to keep on driving all the way up Oregon to spend the night in front of Caren’s dad’s home in North-East Salem.

Bill is in his mid eighties and has alzhiemers disorder. He is still is good physical shape, but unable to to care for himself.

Patti, Caren’s younger sister, and her husband Tracy, live there full-time to render 24/7 care to him. They do a great job taking care of him and his home.

That evening we all stayed up too late laughing and talking with them. Finally, we went out to the RV well past midnight.

The next day Caren, and her three sisters, went out together for lunch and a day of shopping.I took the RV for fuel and LPG and then pulled into a Pet Smart parking lot for most of the afternoon to read, use the computer, and take a nap. Caren was going to call me when the ladies inish up their day.

Mid-afternoon a cold dense fog settled over Salem and continued for almost 48 hours.Wow, was the weather depressing. I felt like I was trapped in a “half-life” game and the sun had been destroyed. They told me it is like that a lot in the winter in Oregon.I don’t think I could make it one winter in weather like that. They are a strong lot to be able to endure that kind of weather, that I find so depressing.

That evening we parked the RV by the side of Ed & Lindy’s (Caren’s eldest sister) home in central Salem. There we were able to plug into electricity. (That was a good thing because my solar collectors on the RV roof weren’t charging our batteries.)

We visited with Ed & Lindy that evening and went to bed pretty early after watching a video they let us borrow. We awoke the next morning to another gray day in Oregon.

Ambushed by God at Wal-Mart?

When we pulled into the Wal-Mart last night in Grants Pass we had not planned on spending the night. We were only 40 miles from our destination for the day, Canyonville RV park and a nice poker game at 7 Feathers Casino was my intended destination. I couldn’t play the night before because of the glass repair and our detour, so I did want to play tonight. It was still early, and neither of us felt tired yet. We were just going to eat dinner and then go on.

However, when we pulled into the Wal-Mart I said to Caren “I think we should stay here tonight”.

She encouraged me to drive on, but I found myself saying “no, I think we are supposed to stay here tonight…. Caren looked at me kind of strange and said “whatever”… I realized my insistence was too forceful for what she had just suggested as our orignal plan.

I saw about 4 other RV’s in the lot, one of them looked safe to me and I pulled up just behind them for our night stay.

The next morning I took Coco out for her morning walk. Caren usually does it, but she asked me to this morning. As I passed the RV that was parked in front of us, the side door flew open and I heard two ladies calling out in unison… “Dave, Dave Dillman, Dave Dillman…..

One of the ladies was Darlene a counselor I supervised in the L.A. area 16 years ago.

The other was Deanne another person who worked with us back then. Darlene had begun, even back then, specializing in treating people who had been SRA survivors and people who had multiple personality disorder.

It was, and continues to be a very controversial ministry and a “field” that is very difficult to work in. We arranged to meet them in a few minutes at breakfast at Shari’s restaurant to catch up on the last 16 years.

They both have been involved in “deliverance” ministries and prophetic ministries and were convinced that this meeting was orchestrated by God and had a divine purpose.

After I heard them talk and what they had to say to us, and furthermore upon reflecting on all the things that had to happen “just right” for this meeting to take place I more then agree that this encounter “transcends probability”.

(My window had to blow out, changing our route, I had to have a strong sense to stay there, I “focused” on their RV as one “safe” to be by, I had to walk coco that morning,… they had to have just fixed their broken shade by their kitchen table the day before or would not have seen me walk by….they stopped 5 minutes before their destination because they “believed” they had to stay there for the night…… this list can go on and on but I believe I have made my point…….

As Caren and I drove north away from this meeting our heads were spinning and we were discussing what we had heard and whether these things be true or not.

We pulled over at the side of the road about an hour later to conference call with a person we trust, who also has much experience in these arenas, Gary Goodell after telling him this little story and what we were told he laughed and said Congratulations, you have been ambushed by God.....

If you are willing to follow us further down this "rabbit hole" or matrix or whatever it is... keep reading... I will try to tell you further about it as we understand it....

In the shadow of Mount Shasta...

The Glass Shop in Corning called and woke us at the Heritage RV park in Corning, Ca about 8 a.m. this morning to tell us our glass window was in. After the repair of the window, we started back north on I5 past Red Bluff where our window exploded. (see last blog entry) to Cottonwood. It was Cottonwood, where our friend Gary Goodell pastored his first church. While I was filling with gas I called Gary and checked on how he was doing since his last heart attack.

He said he felt good, but weak, and was doing a lot of things a little slower.

We stopped for awhile in Redding, while I tried my luck at the poker tables at an Indian Casino. Caren stayed out in the RV just to relax. However, between my bad cards today, and the major construction that was going on near the RV, we decided to keep moving on down the road after less then an hour in Redding.

North of Redding and all the way to the Oregon border the horizon is dominated by the presence of Mount Shasta.

No wonder the Indians considered it “sacred”. It seems to just watch over the land for a couple of hundred miles in every direction.

Since we were in no particular hurry we decided to get off the freeway and drive through every little town from Redding to the border. We visited Shasta Lake, Dunsmuir, Mount Shasta City, Weed, Edgewood, Grenada and Yreka.

One of the nice things about RV travel is you don’t have to wait for a town to have dinner. We pulled into a beautiful rest stop with a view of Mount Shasta. Then I opened a can of soup, added left-over chicken and vegetables that were in the RV frig. Carried it out to a nice picnic table under some large pine trees and “Voila”, a nice inexpensive meal, in a beautiful setting, for less then $2 and no tipping!

A while later as the sun began to hide behind the mountains to the west, we pulled into Medford, Oregon and stopped at a Win-Co supermarket to load up for the next couple of days of food supplies.
Our original plan was to make it to a new Casino in Canyonville, Oregon for the night, but when we stopped in Grants Pass, to take a little break, Caren saw a number of other RV’ers spending the night at the Super-Walmart. So we pulled in, shut the curtains and crawled into bed together and watched a DVD until it was time to go to sleep on a cold night with a full moon high overhead

Life is fragile like glass

Life is fragile like glass, enjoy the view while you can.

I always took my RV driver door window for granted. I viewed much of the United States through it. I saw much of the great beauty of our country through it. I have seen poverty and lack through it. My window would go down at the flick of a button to give me fresh air, or up to keep out the rain or cold.

Yesterday that all changed. I was driving down a main street in a picturesque little town and my driver door window spontaneously exploded into a million little pieces. (Yep, it happens more then you think, check the Internet.)

So this morning instead of waking up at a Casino after an enjoyable evening playing poker I am sitting in a back alley in a little town while two guys are installing a new window in my RV door.

Life is fragile. I was reminded of how fast things change and there is no way you see the change or loss coming.

A few months ago, my little best friend, who never leaves my side darted into a quiet residential street at the exact moment someone was driving like he was at the Indy 500. My little friend was gone in an instant.

We moved from San Diego last Sunday and on the way driving to Sacramento my best friend Gary, who we had just hugged and left in San Diego had his second heart attack before we even finished our 10 hour trip. (Thank God he is ok and still with us.)

And yesterday while driving slowly through a little town on sunny beautiful day my window just explodes. It changed our trip, it changed our life, not greatly but another event could and might.

I am planning on enjoying my new window and being grateful for everything I can see through it whether I like the view or not.

I guess life is little bit like that. It is always present for us, I take it for granted. I forget it allows me to see things I like and some I don’t. But, like my window today, I am going to enjoy the view today regardless of what I see through it.

You never know when it may just explode and be gone.

I left my son in San Francisco...

We spent our first week in Sacramento. We are living with our daughter and son-in-law while we decide, where in Sacramento we want to live? Carrie is having some serious health issues and needs an operation in the next few weeks.
Caren has been a great nurse to her as Carrie has been “bedridden” for the past few weeks and is experiencing some major pains and discomforts.

Our son Jonathan took the train up Friday and spent the evening on the couch. Saturday morning we took him and went for a visit to San Francisco. San Francisco is one of our favorite cities in the world.

I don’t think we would enjoy living there, but we sure enjoy visiting it. We went to China Town and then spent the afternoon at Japan Town. We planned on eating at Benihanna’s but they didn’t open until 3 p.m. so we had an hour to visit the shops before dinner.

After dinner Jonathan had always wanted to see Haight & Ashbury Streets where the hippie movement of the 60’s began so we drove over there. There were still some old hippies there but most of the newer ones wear designer clothes…lol

Then it was on to the tourist stops of “driving down Lombard Street”, visiting Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf and the Embarcadero. Then it was just a short drive across the Bay Bridge to Emeryville where Jonathan boarded the train to head back to San Jose, where he lives.

Then the drive back to Sacramento for Caren and I, appreciating that we have great kids, who enjoy being with us, and we can be with them more now that we are living closer.

Leaving and breaking hearts...

Caren and I flew back to San Diego for a final week to pack up the house. I had flown before with CoCo who is being trained as a therapy dog. I had no problems boarding and flying with her. This time I was hassled by a baggage checker and then onboard after we were seated and getting ready for the door to be shut for takeoff.

Finally, we took off and arrived in San Diego an hour and a half later.

Leaving San Diego is hard, but we are looking forward to being close to our children.

We are growing to appreciate all that Sacramento has to offer. I didn't know until we arrived there it is nicknamed "City of the Trees". Fall is certainly a beautiful time in Sacramento with all the leaves turning many shades of fall colors.






One of the things I appreciate about Sacramento is we are only an hour drive away from many great camping spots to enjoy in our RV.



Finally, it was time to leave San Diego for good. We packed up a u-haul truck. We had planned on towing Caren's car, but at the last moment I decided to make one more trip back and drive her car up on another trip. I will tell you why later, but it had some financial benefit for us to do it that way.

After 10 hours of driving we were less then an hour from our destination, when we got a phone call that my best friend Gary had a heart attack! We had just hugged him goodbye, when we drove away from San Diego a few hours ago in the rental truck!

We almost turned around and drove the entire way back, but Janie his wife assurred us we was fine, resting comfortably in the hospital and would be ok.

It turns out he got out two days later, it was his second heart attack and he has suffered no permanent damage to his heart. I flew down a few days later to see him, and bring Caren's car up, and he picked me up at the airport!

When I saw Janie that night she said humorously... your leaving San Diego broke Gary's heart! It was good to be able to laugh with them.

Red Bluff and Exploding Windows

Today we were on a trip toward Oregon in our RV.

We had left Sacramento mid-afternoon driving up Highway 99. We planned on stopping in Red Bluff to buy some groceries and then spend the night at a casino in Redding.

In the middle of downtown Red Bluff, while I was looking for a grocery store, driving about 30 miles an hour on the main street of town, my driver side window exploded all over me.

For a moment, I thought we had been crashed into on my driver side, but I realized my mirror was ok and the driver-side window, which had been rolled up, was in a million little pieces all over me!

Fortunately, it was “safety glass” and there were no jagged slivers. I immediately pulled over and checked myself and then checked in with Caren and Coco, who were on the passenger side. Beside, being “shook up” we were all ok.

I stopped at an auto parts store and asked where I could get this fixed and was referred to an auto glass shop on the next block. They were closing for the day and were going away tomorrow and referred me to a place in Corning, California which was 20 miles out of the way, but we headed there anyway to spend the night after making sure the glass repair shop would be able to repair it in the morning.

We checked into Heritage Park RV park in Corning about a mile from the glass repair shop.

I searched the web and found out this has happened to others.

For no apparent reason a window can just explode. Who would have thought?

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.