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.

A HUGE Post about all SORTS of Stuff

We are not even half way across the distance we have to cover on our drive from California to Illinois. We have driven in rain, sleet, snow, fog, hail and wind. The road has been icy and the road has been long when you take the conditions into consideration. Of course all of this could have been avoided if we had just waited a few days before departing but I was ready to go so we went. We drove smack into a storm system working it's way west right over our heads. We spent the first night in Winnemucca, NV which of course is familiar from the Johnny Cash song "I've Been Everywhere." Although the road in Winnemucca was not so much dusty while we were there as it was slushy. From there we drove across Utah in all sorts of weird conditions. The sky was gorgeous as is the county in that state once we got past the worst of the snow in the Wasatch Mountains. The conditions on 80 were pretty crappy and lots of folks were in the ditch on the grades heading up the mountains.



Up near Park City where they hosted the Olympic Games a few years back the scenery was gorgeous.


We eventually drove out of the snow and I was thrilled to get to see The Bonneville Salt Flats. We just watched the film "The World's Fastest Indian" the other night (which is centered around the place) so it was uncanny timing to drive through the flats. Before seeing the movie I had never even heard of the place. This is an image from the rest stop and not the actual park area. I just love the patterns and atmosphere of this shot. The flats are on the other side of the highway and are actually under water right now. The movie is a gem by the way... rent it if you have never seen it.



Once we hit the area near Big Basin (a huge vast valley floor) the sky opened up and was amazing. The clouds made the surrounding mountains look tiny.



There are some really quaint looking ranches tucked into the valley along the edge of the mountains.




As we neared Salt Lake City the rain and sleet started in as well and really heavy fog. It made for some great shots. This is some sort of factory in the distance but it looks like a white castle through the camera lens, almost like something out of one of the Lord of the Rings flicks.



Here is a freight train running on watery tracks near The Great Salt Lake. The weather was getting pretty nasty by this point.



Lovely mountain reflections...



County Hwy scenes as seen from the interstate...



Fog encroaching on the mountainside...



While driving through Salt Lake City we saw some fellow Airstreamers who were really taking the bull by the horns driving in their motor coach in the sleet. I hope they are headed south!



Yesterday really ended with a bang. We were still driving after dark and had decided to pull off in Evanston, Wyoming for the night. We were about a mile from the exit for Evanston lodging when we took a nose dive off the highway down into the ditch. It came out of nowhere and was one of those surreal moments in an automobile when time slows up and you just have to sit there and wait for the "out of control" moment to be over. We slid off smooth as silk and then rumbled down the steep embankment into about 8 inches of snow in the ditch below. Upon coming to a stop I said "Well, here we are now with all our stuff down here." I pretty much figured we were screwed. We had gone a good 30 feet off the road and the bank was steep. We were already in 4 wheel drive and the truck would not budge. Shit. We called AAA and they said they would send someone out with a truck to get us out within 45 minutes. My biggest worry while sitting down there was that someone else would slide off the road the same way we did and crash into us. That would have been really ugly. A state trooper pulled off to check on us. We chatted with him for a few minutes which was an odd activity to suddenly be involved in. He left and then about a half an hour passed before a truck pulled off and a guy worked his way down the bank to us. Billy rolled down his window and the guy asked "What are you doing?" I found this to be a pretty humorous question considering the circumstances. We explained our position and he said. "You can drive out of here. You're not even in 4 wheel drive." "Huh? Wha?" was our response. He reached down and fiddled with the front wheels and then arose and said "Go. Drive. I will watch you from here." So yeah.... then we DROVE OUT OF THE DITCH. It was SO STUPID. We felt all at once wildly triumphant and stupendously stupid. Oddly enough the tow truck drove up right then and watched the whole thing take place and then followed us a ways down the highway flashing his lights at us. I took the flashing to mean "Thanks a lot you assholes for needlessly dragging me out of my warm house on a sub zero Saturday night."

In a nutshell... we apparently have no idea how to activate the 4 wheel drive on our truck. Anyway... now we do. We spent almost 45 minutes in the ditch for no reason at all other than our own lack of knowledge of our vehicle. So cool. Sooooo cool.




I still can't believe how amazing it felt to just drive outta there. It was totally ridiculous. We are now wondering if we could have just driven right out of the Monument Valley incident as well. I am willing to bet that we were not in 4 wheel drive that day either. As my friend Michelle said... we are getting really good at driving around the country pretending to get stuck.

We made it in to Evanston and that is where we still are right now today. We decided to hang tight for a day and let the storm move on ahead instead of driving right back into the heart of it today. I had to go downtown to mail some stuff earlier and took the opportunity to wander around the alleys shooting some of my favorite style of photos. I love the texture and color in old beat up buildings in small western towns like this. It was freezing cold but I grabbed a few cool shots. I will leave you on that note. We hit the road again tomorrow to make for somewhere on the far East side of Nebraska. I will report in again from our hotel there.

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?