The Return

Whew! Annnnnnd we are back. Sorry for the gaping chasm of non posting there. Between saying goodbye to family and friends, driving 2500 miles and dealing with the laptop switcheroo I just dropped the bloggie ball there for awhile.

We had a nice farewell dinner with my parents and Gram. Here is the requisite family in front of the fireplace photo. You know you all have a series of these yourselves....



I am unsure why I forcibly shoved my Mother's head off to the side with my own huge head but she dealt with it very gracefully. I also have to share this one with you because I love the way my Mom is cupping Rudy's butt. You know somebody loves you when they cup you butt as seen here.... and also, you may enjoy seeing me looking toothier than a barracuda.




We let Rudy have one last romp in the frozen back yard. There's a cornfield out back and it was always full of Canada Geese. I am glad we made it through our stay without incident between dog and goose. I think we owe that to the fact that there was a polar ice shelf separating us from the field.




Our drive back west was without incident beside the fact that we had a dead battery when we went to pull out of my parents driveway to leave. That was funny timing. We had a tearful embrace with my Mom... did the wild waving goodbye from the driveway and climbed in, I then turned the key to the sound of a stone cold dead truck. We sat there stunned for a minute thinking that maybe our starter had gone out or that something major was wrong then we gradually realized it was just a dead battery. We charged it up and were on our way.

Let me tell ya... it is a long drive from Northern Illinois to the bay area of California via the southern route. You don't get any instant gratification anywhere along the route. Every state feels enormous. Well, maybe not Oklahoma.... but the rest are so wide open and vast that it really blows your mind. One highlight (funny word) of the drive was staying at The Big Texan Motel in Amarillo, Texas. You may have heard of the place on The Food Network or in a roadside attractions guide. They are famed for their 72 oz steak challenge. If you can finish the 4 pound slab of dead cow along with all the side items (baked potato etc) in under an hour you get the meal free and a cheesy certificate that commemorates your pinnacle moment as a pig. We were not interested in their steak dinners but more so the kitchy motel accommodations. Our room was made of rough wood paneling with not much to spruce it up besides a picture of a steer here and there and there was a Texas flag shower curtain in the weird little bathroom. We scored an old Bogart flick (Key Largo) on the TV and watched it until we konked out.



Just outside of Amarillo to the west you can pull off on the service road and walk out to see The Cadillac Ranch... or Car Henge. I have always wanted to stop and this time we did. We walked out and grabbed a few shots of the spray painted caddy's against the big old blue Texas sky.



We detoured up to Santa Fe for one day so we could visit with Michelle. We stayed right on our old street at Casa del Toro which is a bed and breakfast right down town. They have great rates and the rooms feel like you are staying in someones house. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling to Santa Fe. You can rent a small room on a frugal budget or a fancy decked out house from them and they are great people to deal with. It felt really funny to suddenly be back in the neighborhood we left behind seven months ago to hit the road in the Airstream again. We walked around downtown and ate at a few of our favorite old haunts. I do have to express my disappointment in the Plaza Diner for changing their cherry pie. It was formally on my list of favorite things in the whole wide world to eat and this time it sucked eggs. The food overall was not great.... what gives Plaza Diner? Anyway... we had a fun visit with Chelle. We got to see her new house and stop in at her husband's coffee shop and soak up some rays. I soaked up enough to burn the living crap out of my face.



At Downtown Subscription... two mean customers.



After Santa Fe we had to just haul ass back to Cali. We made it all the way to Needles, CA on the next day of driving and then all the way up Hwy 5 (boring, boring, boring drive) to Fairfield where the trailer was waiting for us yesterday. We arrived after dark and were totally fried from driving. We had to open the trailer door with our fingers and toes crossed that it was not going to be a mold festival inside. It wasn't. Our anti mold set up worked. I can now fully endorse those little humidity soaker upper things they sell at Walmart. We had about six of them in here along with baking soda in the fridge and freezer and it did the trick. Just to be on the safe side we cleaned everything again yesterday.... all the areas that had been a problem before. Billy even climbed up top and cleaned the fan hoods.



We are going to order a dehumidifier and run it at night in Mendocino just to be sure we keep on top of things. I am hoping that once we get up above the mid forties at night condensation will be less of a problem.

So we are glad to be back in California where spring is in full swing. We saw some fabulous displays of wildflowers along the highway yesterday....


Rudy is happy to be back in warmer temps (he did not love the cold in Illinois.) Although he did love eating popcorn and cheese with my Mom. One thing balances out the other.



I am so looking forward to Mendocino. We head up there this Thursday. We are unsure if we will be able to get online from our campsite but I will be posting pics as soon as I can! I am hoping the flowers are in bloom there just like this gorgeous rosemary bush here at the ranch.

Over the River and Through the Blizzard

A few of you may be wondering why we decided to drive through this.....



Why did we drive over 2,000 miles in January... in bad weather? Driving through ditches and risking it all eating Super Bean Burritos from Taco John's in Ogallala, NE? Well, let me give you an idea about what spurred us on. Take a gander at this...



See those two chics? That is my Mom and my Gram. Please note the double leopard print action. If you have ever wondered where I get "it" from.... I think this picture may begin to answer that question.

It had been almost a year and a half since we had been here to see my family. We decided to surprise my Gram. We did not tell her we were coming. Last night my Mom and I drove over to her apartment so I could jump out all "TAH DAHHHH!" As we were rounding the corner of the hall where her apartment is we ran headlong into her coming the other way down the hall toward us. So she ended up surprising us just as much as we were trying to get her. It was a goofy moment of hit and run happiness. When my Gram is excited and/or happy she tends to beat on you with balled up fists. So I got a pretty good ass whipping out in the hallway before we headed back to her room. I think this photo captures our emotional states on seeing each other again pretty well...



Let me just tell you that Alberta Biehl is one heck of a hot ticket. I am looking forward to stirring up some trouble with her over the next few weeks while we are here.

We are staying at my Mom's and she has been spoiling us with good eats since we arrived. After 6 days of gas station snacks and crappy fast food on the road it has been MUCH welcomed. We woke the first morning to parfait and fresh blueberry muffins. Tonight we had pizza with a made from scratch crust and piled high with veggies.




Rudy was beyond glad to be out of the truck and off the highway. We have been having a bit of a struggle with him being a puss about the cold here. He does not want to go out walking. We get to the end of the driveway and he stops and starts holding his paws up as though they are injured and giving the sad puppy face. I bought him some "dog booties" to protect his feet from the ice and cold but he won't have any of it. He lets me put them on his feet and then he hops around like a panicky rabbit with no equilibrium. He will either have to toughen up quick or master the use of the humans' toilet. I will let you know which choice he makes.

Takin' a Break. A Cold One.

And NO the break will not involve cracking open a crisp cool can of beer and laying back in a lawn chair to watch the sunset over the California hills. Our "cold one" will involve cracking into the world of sub zero wind chills and face freezing temperatures. We are not going to Siberia.... but close.... we are going to visit my hometown in Illinois. Since we have been enjoying the beautiful weather, beaches and scenery here in Cali for almost 6 months we thought what better way to shake it up than a road trip to Rockford in January and February?! Yee Haw!

We have not visited with my family for almost a year and a half so it is high time we make a pit stop. Even though the pit stop is over 2000 miles away. Lucky for us Hwy 80 is right outside our trailer door and it will take us about 1,950 of the necessary miles to get there. Now that is an easy route. I think we are going to head out this weekend (sans the trailer, it will stay here) and take about 4 days to drive across. As soon as we make it over the pass in Tahoe we kiss the warm weather goodbye! I love a good old school cross country peel out fully saturated with truck stop seediness, loud music on the highway and the novelty of staying in a hotel room. I can't wait to hit the road. Our route takes us through Nevada, Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa. We have seen most all of it before but not in winter.

We will spend about a month in Illinois before heading back out here to pull the trailer back down to Carmel Valley and ready ourselves for the Spring and Summer seasons there. Even though the economy is lower than snake shit Billy is hoping to get a foothold in the Carmel art market for the future. Rudy has not yet had his fill of Dog City and I have not had my fill of knowing that I am living within miles of Clint Eastwood.

We did make it through our date at the Airstream repair shop and hopefully our leak is fixed. They caulked it up and tightened everything down. We also found out there was a recall on a part in our Dometic refrigerator and they replaced that. If you have a newer AS you should check to see if your fridge needs the fix too. It is an easy fix... only takes about 5 minutes for the tech to do it. We are going to deal with the bed platform ourselves. I did not have the patience or energy to battle out trying to get the thing replaced at the dealership. We are going to clean the whole area again and leave it set up with dehumidifiers while we are gone to totally dry it out. If the problem arises again we will have to replace the wood. And we do plan to get the mattress up and off the platform with either a box spring or some kind of foam insulation. So hopefully it will be all set.

I am off to begin the packing process. Let's see.... Eskimo Parka? Check. Ice Scraper? Check! Moon Boots? Dammit. Anyone have a pair they can loan me?