21 Years of full-time RVing

Yep, this year marks our 21st anniversary of living and traveling full-time in a motorhome.  We've had two, a 91 Dolphin MH and the Country Coach we have now, purchased in 2001. Those first few years we did a lot of driving, trying to cram as many locations as possible in a period of a few days.  It was nothing for us to drive cross-country a couple of times a year.

In 1995 we had two grandchildren born, Daniel in Sun Valley, Idaho and Noelle in Redwood City, CA.  We were there for both!  Oh the joys of being mobile!

One of our bucket list locations was Zion National Park. The photo below was take on a walk along the Virgin river toward the Narrows. We stayed in the national park campgound, enjoyed summer days, barbecued dinners, and lots of walks.  We always put our awning up before we go in for the evening....accept for one night.  The day was balmy, no wind.  Not good as it turns out!

About 1 a.m. in the early morning hours we had a loud knock on our door.  It was the park ranger saying we had to evacuate immediately.  There had been a landslide and the Virgin River was rapidly reaching flood level.  We had a mess outside to put away, especially the awning put. We filed in with a bunch of other campers and followed the ranger up to higher ground.  The next day we found out the hotel was isolated by the slide and patrons were stranded.  Supplies were rapidly running out.

  Our cozy campsite at Zion before all hell broke loose.  Notice all the stuff that had to be put away at 1 a.m. when the ranger told us we had to evacuate,

What follows in a series of old photos taken from road trips we visited in the first few years. The pics should provide a lot of laughs.

At Arches National Park

At Capitol Reef, we think.  

At Bryce Canyon National Park

At Mount Rushmore

At Devil's Tower

Crater Lake

Campeche, MX

Admiring the electric in Campeche, MX

Howard climbs to the top of the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itsa

I however, did not make it to the top.  Too steep and scary!

Sunset cruise at Acapulco, MX

Rafting the Salmon River in Idaho with Bill and Carol

At Glacier National Park

Tunnels at Custer State Park, in South Dakota

Mount Rushmore

Hot springs by the Rio Grande, Big Bend NP

Hiking at Big Bend

The marina in Victoria,  British Columbia

Native dances in downtown Vancouver, BC

Liard River Hot Springs BC, on the road to Alaska

The London Bridge at Lake Havasu, Arizona

This is enough for now!  I will continue to work toward the present in future issues.  Many thanks to daughter, Terri, who spent a lot of time going through boxes of old photos and scanning them.

Our current location is the Elks Lodge in Port Townsend, very nice for $20 per night. We will be allowed to leave the motorhome here when we go on our cruise to Alaska on July 23rd.

The dog days of sailing...

NZ Emirates hydrofoils as it approaches the buoy!

Ever since 1851, when the narrow bow entry of the schooner America raised eyebrows among British competitors, extreme design innovations have always been an inherent part of America's Cup competitions.  But never before have innovations been more radical than in this, the 34th edition!

Team Oracle with a fog-shrouded Golden Gate

Following the 2010 America's Cup with USA's Oracle the winner, it was decided that future competitions would be sailed in catamarans to make the sport more attractive to television audiences.  This led to the new and revolutionary and also controversial design of the America's Cup 72 Class, with the addition of daggerboard foils.  The AC72s we saw practicing and racing this last week were not only blasting along at phenomenal speeds, but literally flying above the water's surface!

USA and NZ cross paths on a practice run

Two major incidences showed the potential danger these large catamarans face on the SF Bay.  Last October Oracle's AC 72 pitchpoled and capsized while being swept out under the Golden Gate Bridge during a strong ebb-tide.  Fortunately there were no injuries to the crew.  Recently, in May, Sweden's Artemis Racing team AC72 pitchpoled and broke apart resulting in the death of one crew member.

Classic Bird Boat on the Bay

All facts and controversy aside, our day trips were fuelled by a love for the art and fun of sailing and photo ops for yours truly.  Howard, a sailor at heart, raced the classic Bird Boat, Mavis, during the early 1960s.  When we first got together in 1989, Howard lived aboard his 35' sloop in Half Moon Bay, after years of sailing in Florida and the Bahamas.  We try to include sailing venues along with RV travels whenever possible, via friends or bareboat charters.  We find ourselves drifting off to trips in the recent past, sailing in the crystal clear, turquoise waters of the Caribbean, in Belize and Honduras, and aboard the Star Flyer for 21 days, sailing from Barbados through the Panama Canal to Costa Rica.  Then years past in Mexico's Sea of Cortes, the eastern Caribbean's Virgin Islands and even as far away as New Caledonia in the French South Pacific.



San Francisco's Crissy Field dog park offers an excuse to nap the grandlab, Annie, for a great day of sailing action,  swimming and chasing a ball.  The camera is hopelessly covered with the remains of a shaking wet dog and fervent hole digging sand.  We manage a deli-provided picnic sandwich amidst the action, both on shore and water.


We take advantage of the couple of weeks left in our Bay Area stay before departing the end of July for the Pacific Northwest, and onward, God willing.  Our days are filled with family time, day trips to easily accessible coastal hikes and inland vineyards, visits with local friends, and endless RV projects.  Oh, and the round of doctor visits...so far, so good!

Getting back to normal...

Our life is beginning to assume some degree of normalcy after two weeks of whirlwind events.  Hey we even did loads and loads of laundry today!  And after a couple of days of drippy rain and fog, the sun is once again shining here in Petaluma.  Read....a couple of days of drippy rain after we had cleaned and polished the RV! 

We even had a wedding anniversary, our 19th plus 6 prior years, the day after Mary's memorial service in Half Moon Bay.  We were driving back in the rain, dodging and weaving through the miles of construction and detours in San Francisco...yes, we were in the motorhome, and decided neither of us felt much like celebrating once we got parked at the Elk's. 


But serendipity intervened with a knock at our door and there stood traveling friends we hadn't seen for years, en route to their lot at the Timber Valley SKP Park in Sutherlin, OR.  They had been out wine tasting and brought over a delicious red blend from Quivira Vineyards with a side of cheeses and nuts. Let the celebration begin...

Normal for this time of year is making the rounds of the various doctors who try to whip us into shape here at our local Kaiser medical center, thus hopefully ensuring we're able to continue on this journey.  I seem to have more and frequent follow-ups since the endometrial cancer and surgery last November, so may need to find facilities in other parts of the country should our grand fall, winter, spring trip materialize.


A month ago we decided to get serious about losing the weight we'd put on during our trips to Roatan and San Carlos.  Our daughter Stephanie, who's now on a trip to Romania and Europe (check out her blog) told us about My Fitness Pal, a handy app to track food and exercise, plus set a calorie limit depending of how much weight you want to lose.  Also important for us is knowing how many carbs we consume, as well as calories.  So, for me, my calorie limit is 1200 and I have set my own carb limit at under 50.  Fiber carbs are free and of course, you back off any exercise or cardio you do each day.


Three miles of walking at 3 mph generates 220 minus calories (for my 5'2" frame).  I try to add on another 1.5 miles during the day, if I can, depending on what we plan to eat.  So we now plan ahead, weigh our portions, and record our food and exercise intake.  Keep in mind, we have had two weeks of celebrations where we did not meet our daily goals, but we quickly got back on track soon after.  Net results, a 3 lb. loss in 30 days.  I'll take that!

D-Day

The month is winding down here in San Carlos and our sunsets will soon be setting in the Tucson Mountains, another spectacular location. We have yet to go to the top of Gates Pass to catch the sunset, maybe next week. Adding to the list of things not done was getting up during the wee hours this morning to capture the setting full moon over the Sea of Cortez...not a very committed photographer am I!

Our minds are slowly wrapping around departure details, scoping out all the stuff we've tucked away in way too many nooks and crannies.  The actual packing event will start tomorrow as we've decided to leave a day early, on Sunday, thinking the traffic may be a bit lighter and the going around Hermosillo a little easier to maneuver. Not sure about the border crossing on Sunday; could go either way.

There are a lot of homes and property for sale and one day as we were driving out in the Nacapule Canyon we noticed an older subdivision of large RV sites that fell victim to the economical downturn.  Some had elaborate covered patios sporting fancy ceramic tile, with decks on top for ocean viewing, reached by wrought iron spiral staircases.  Full hookups were evident and outdoor bar and barbecue facilities were in place. Some were occupied, but most vacant, overgrown, and for sale.

The RV parking is on the other side of this covered patio

A Gringo development nearby

We had breakfast this morning at Rosa's Cantina, without a doubt one of the most popular places in town, and always packed with ex-pats, tourists, and locals.  The food is excellent and the fresh orange juice propelled us to Walmart to purchase our own citrus juicer, about $10, so we could make our own.

Breakfast as Rosa's

Fresh OJ with our new juicer

With sightseeing behind us, I've settled into some serious reading this last week.  First was Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, an obvious classic about the Civil War in Spain in the 1930s that I'd somehow missed over the years. Then for a change of pace, David Baldacci's The Hit, a page-turning thriller I couldn't put down.  Now I am absolutely enthralled with Isabel Allende's Maya's Notebook, just released in English.  Meanwhile, Howard is laughing out loud as he reads Catch 22, a satire of military madness with a San Carlos connection.  And then there's computer chess...

Our stay in Tucson will be limited to a few days.  We need to receive mail, get haircuts, visit with local friends, and start preparing the motorhome for the trip west to the Bay Area. We're anxious to get back to our kind of normal, though this has been a most wonderful month.

Montezuma's Revenge...figuratively speaking!

That would be our week 3 travel bug caused by itchy feet and staying too long in one location, not by the slice of chorizo and jalapeno pizza we consumed at the Ley's Supermarket cafe.  Though we have pretty much expended all our driving options within the limits of our tourist visa and settled into ordinary life, we haven't been overly anxious to get back to the motorhome, sadly being abused by the strong winds in Tucson and badly in need of some exercise. Well maybe a little anxious.

Pizza anyone?

We took the jeep to a car wash facility for a much needed cleaning after the off-road experience in search of Catch-22.  This consisted of a backyard lean-to, 2 entrepreneurial young guys equipped with a hose, soap, a couple of rags, a shop vac, and Armor All.  $10 with tip got us a shiny, clean car.  

Then off to the big city of Guaymas in search of a shop that could recharge the AC's 134r refrigerant.  Hmmm...this took some major multilingual sign language.  First we stopped at a taller mechanico, the taller the better.  Though he didn't have the necessary tools he was kind enough to make some calls and do an internet search and found us an aire acondicionado mecanico in Guaymas central.  A Google map was provided and we found Jorge's on the 2nd attempt at maneuvering the busy, narrow back streets. Once again, not exactly your typical American repair situation but oh so efficient and cheap.  Don't let the sign fool you.  Those are pesos so divide by 12!

Jorge's shop in Guaymas

This is hardly ordinary life as we know it though the sunsets and beach scenes and the fancy surroundings are quite nice.  We dearly love Mexico and San Carlos is a great town, but when our conversations become dominated by travel talk and then expanded to circumnavigating the country, with a lot of what ifs and how abouts thrown in, you know we're missing our gypsy lifestyle and little casa mobile!  We are both approaching milestone birthdays, albeit a decade apart, so we need to stay healthy; wealthy and wise would be nice too!  I know, I know..we can't keep doing this forever that's why we gotta keep going while we can. We're missing our family so May through July will be spent in the Bay area before any major trips materialize.  But in the meantime, here's a look at the last week or so.

The Saguaros are blooming

An island of Organ Pipes in Guaymas bay

A short hike into Canon de Nacapule to a small palm grove, sort of a mini Palm Canyon as in Anza Borrego

An odd symmetry along the Miramar waterfront (located between San Carlos & Guaymas)

A San Carlos landmark

A nice anchorage my sailing friends!

Mount Teta Kawi dominates the San Carlos Marina landscape

A whole bunch of conch shells at Bahia Delfin

A colorful collection of blankets and hamacas

Don't forget 12 to 1, pesos to dollar, makes for a cheap happy hour

A cloudy sunset is still beautiful

All sunsets are beautiful!