Blog #21
April 18 – 22
Okay, this is a long one and it’s only a few days. That said, last week, two important things happened that I failed to mention:
- I got Trader Joe’s Bags in CA!!!!
- I had an opportunity to do some beekeeping!
As some of you know, I used to keep bees. I had a great mentor (thank you Cliff Struhl) and started helping a friend begin her bee journey (hi Erin Cunningham!). In reality, Cliff also mentored Erin because I’m fairly new myself and was away at integral points last spring.
I’d been keeping bees for about four years and was having some success (one year I got 600 lbs of honey!), when we sold our house. I divested myself of chickens, guinea fowl and gave my 4 hives to Erin. I hope she has a huge honey haul this year to add to her farmstand life. She’s on instagram under RaspberryRidgeFarm
My BIL Johanes decided he wanted to try what is called a flow hive system a couple years ago. I was really looking forward to inspecting his hive which he assured me had lots of activity.
When I got there, we had lots to do with Passover and all the ethnic eating (see my last blog – and my scale!). I finally got a chance to look at the hive on Sunday. Sorry. No photos of me with Johanes’ man-sized bee suit, a smoker and hive tool. That would have been fun to share.
I opened the hive to see all the signs of a swarm. I felt terrible for Johanes but he is going to try again.
Driving to Santa Barbara
As you read in the last blog, we drove down to Santa Barbara on Monday. Tuesday morning was a work day for David. I managed to fit in a hike up a nearby mountain and then down to the El Capitan State Beach. It was almost magical to be able to ascend so high and get a great view of the local farm and the ocean beyond, and then actually reach the rolling waves lapping the beach within 30 minutes. David finally got to emerge from the Airstream and within 20 minutes, we were visiting with my niece Charlotte.
UCSB
Charlotte scouted out a parking lot for our big honking F250. It’s hard to park that thing in California. I don’t know what they did in the ‘50s with Cadillacs… We took a walk along the cliffs and ocean that outline the campus. Who has a campus right on the beach? Californians. Who has surfboard racks outside their dorms? Californians. Who has skateboard lanes on campus? Traffic circles for bikes? You guessed it.
My beautiful, intelligent niece Char walked us around the dunes, pointing out the non-native invasive plants (my nemesis!!) and the natives trying to peak through. We took the dogs with us and after 45 minutes, our geriatric Toby refused to move any further. He is 91 in human years so it’s more than understandable. David stayed behind and Charlotte got to show me even more of the campus.
It’s not like any campus in the East. No brick buildings or ivy-covered walls. Just cool, modern architecture and lots of pedestrian walkways and roads for the 23,000 students and additional faculty and admins. While she spent a lot of time with us, Charlotte had to get back to studying. I can’t believe she took a few hours out when she had a genetics midterm the next day. Then again, when you are a brilliant Bio-Chem major with a religion minor, you have the bandwith to be gracious and kind enough to take your East Coast relatives on a tour. Thanks Charlotte!! We miss you!!
More Santa Barbara
That afternoon, we took a peek at Hendry’s Beach. Gorgeous cliffs with areas for off leash dogs and on leash dogs. Oh, and wind surfers! Oh, and a dog wash for after the beach. These people think of everything.
We were supposed to see my college roommate Yumi that night, but things can look closer on the map than real life. It turned out that it was a 2-hour drive each way to find a place in the middle. I was so disappointed but at least we caught up on the phone. My other friend Jackie Sereboff lives in SB but works on Tuesday. We missed her too.
Instead of taking a detour to see Yumi, we used our time to take Rey to the urgent care vet. She was having a skin issue that she was over-licking. Three hours later, she had a new cone-of-shame, a shot of sedative and some antibiotics. I hated keeping David away from the views for hours, and in the truck since he couldn’t find parking spot for our monster truck. But her condition would only have gotten worse and good vets are hard to find so we went. And David had to stay with the truck because, did I mention, there was no place to park the honking F250?
Goodbye Cali
The next day we started our trip to Las Vegas. The drive was beautiful and interesting. Before we started though we had to leave Santa Barbara; not fun with our big rig. This part of California is made for small cars, not pick-ups and Airstreams. Driving down the coast on the 101, vistas included the ocean and cliffs that abutted the Pacific Coast Highway. There were RVs camped right on the PCH! You could see the off shore oil rigs on the horizon. Amazing.
We wended our way around Los Angeles and made it through orchards. You could see the oranges weighing down the branches in big orbs. Lemons and almonds were also ready for harvest. We stopped at a roadside stand and got strawberries and oranges that are ripened right on the plant. They were delicious.
We started climbing up through some mountains and got to the high desert. It was desolate and beautiful. The plains started opening up. We saw billboards for water truck deliveries but then we saw the California Aquifer in its blue green watery beauty. It was so out of place in the desert, but it feeds most of Southern California.
The mountains receded and the desert became more vast. It seemed flat but there was a long steady hill that clearly put trucks’ transmissions through their paces. You could see the 18-wheelers struggling. Then you dropped down into a valley with something that looked like 3 huge lights. It was actually a set of mirrors pointed up at 460-foot high tower with more mirrors on top. I never heard of this but it’s the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. Wow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility
Let Liberty (Sculpture Garden) Ring!
We stopped in Yermo, CA for the Liberty Sculpture Garden that was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal. My sister Linda alerted us to it and we had to go. It was founded by a Chinese Immigrant who creates 30-foot high art to show the importance of our freedoms demonstrate how they are hard won — and sometimes lost — in his native China. We heard about him because he created a statue of Xi JinPing with half his head as a coronavirus. The CCP heard about the statue and couldn’t abide its existence in the American desert. They sent spies to destroy. It’s bad enough that a totalitarian dictator can limit free expression in his own country, but when it starts happening around the world, we all have to fight this. Anyway, here are some photos.
Viva Las Vegas?
On to Nevada! Let the casinos begin! Most people really enjoy The Strip, but we’re not really into it. For us this was a stopover to see some old friends we haven’t dropped in on in years. We made it to our RV park much later than we planned and quickly unhitched the RV and headed to Kelly Kogut and CJ Weinschreider’s. I’ve known them both since college, but since then Kelly’s become a pediatric surgeon and had a practice for upteen years. CJ was a computer consultant with Anderson back in the day, but at some point became the primary caregiver to their two kids. They’re both very impressive, but we just had fun catching up, touring their garden and playing with all the dogs. Rey somehow made it around with her cone, but was definitely brought out of her funk at the chance to play with their young puppy and older dog. She looked longingly at their pool, but I think even Rey recognized that a swim with the cone-of-shame was a bad idea.
We talked all the way until CJ had to drive Kelly to the airport for a trip. We got back late and crashed.
The next morning David worked while I took the dogs for a walk and a tour. This is a big RV park with palms everywhere, a fountain at the entrance to the check in lobby, a family pool and adults only pool, putting green and many other amenities. Since it is such a draw to RVers, they also attract secondary services, like RV repair, black tank clean outs and mobile RV detailers and wash companies. I flagged down someone washing a larger vehicle and requested his services. They were able to fit us in before the noon check-out time. We really needed to get the salt from the ocean breezes off the aluminum before it corroded. The RV wash company offered a lambs wool applicator so it didn’t scratch our rig. We unscrewed our rock guards and the special protecting window in the front of the Airstream and they cleaned that too! Suffice it to say it as a better job than we would ever do ourselves and we were so happy with our shiny trailer. Too bad I didn’t get the truck washed too!
While that was going on, I hit a local Trader Joes and scored some Nevada bags! Who says you can’t win in Vegas?
I got back and we were ready to leave — until we talked to the people next door. The wind had picked up and was gusting in a way that was making me question the safety of driving. They confirmed our suspicions. After telling us stories of semi-trucks getting blown over on the route we were taking, we made a bee line over to the reservation desk and requested another night.
It’s Electric!: RV Learning
We had to move sites, but that was no problem — until we arrived and got an error code when plugging in the electric. The RV Park sent over electricians immediately, checked and tested everything, and even changed the plug on their post. We still got an error code on one of our devices but the other power monitor showed clean energy. Probably the hot and neutral were reversed but David has a lot of knowledge about this (he used to work with electrical contractors) and felt we were safe. If it had been wrong we would have blown up our air conditionera. We plugged in and everything went perfectly.We kept the truck and trailer hitched so we could leave early in the morning. Work, dinner, walk dogs, bed.
Leaving Las Vegas: Drive Day
This morning we woke at 6am and were on the road by 7. While we heard gusts all night, we only had a slight breeze in the morning. Most people probably dread long drive days, the kind where you are just trying to get from point A to point B. We planned our trip to have 6-ish hours of driving so we can stop to see the sights, or at least fill up and go to the bathroom without interfering with our schedule.
Went over some hills and then dropped down into the Hoover Dam area. The waterline at Lake Mead is obviously so much lower than normal. We climbed and descended the Black Mountains and dropped into a high desert with crenelated mountains in the distance. As we drove, the mountains seemed to get rockier and more distant. The flat area increased. We passed an Airstream that a tow van had just picked up. The top and front were crushed, clearly a victim of yesterday’s gusty winds. We said a prayer for the owners, whose tow vehicle had been long removed. I have an Airstream friend (hi Lynda Rozell!) who had an experience like this years ago. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
When David was off the phone, we listened to an app called HearHere. You may have seen ads for it with Kevin Costner as the spokesperson. It follows your location and gives you stories of the surrounding area. I found out that the first integrated casino in Las Vegas was established in 1955 and called Moulin Rouge. I heard how many towns along Route 66 started and/or took advantage of their location. Seligman made a fake town to attract tourists claiming an old jail and an Indian breakout and subsequent shootout with the Marshall. The history has so many inaccuracies and anachronisms as to be humorous as pointed out by the app. We stopped at a gas station (the prices keep dropping) and my jacket almost blew away while I was putting it on. We saw a raven surfing on the wind.
The Painted Desert on the Colorado Plateau is flat as far as the eye can see, but that may be because dust storms are hiding the distant topography. I heard there are buttes and mesas to see, but all we see is statues of T-Rexes, tumbleweeds, billboards, Petrified Forest directions and dusty haze. The settlers crossing this area in the 1800s must have thought, “What the Hell? Why are we doing this??”
By tonight we will enter a new state; Gallup, New Mexico is our intended destination where we’ll probably layover at a Cracker Barrel. The wind storm is gusting 50 mph winds. We’ll stop early to avoid the worst of the dust storm.
In case you’re wondering, the desert is not calling me. This is not our home.
The Long And Weinstein Road 