7/25/10 The time has slipped away since my last post! Today was our first day back at Park Sierra and it was HOT here. Usually we don't like air conditioning but today we had ours on almost all afternoon. Tomorrow we go to Kaiser to start the lab tests and pre-surgery appointments. Friday I have carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand.
During our last week at Mike & Marilyn's we had fairly hot weather there too. We used the time to wash and wax our RV and once that was done, we rewarded ourselves with a nice afternoon canoeing on the lake. In case you can't tell, that is Mary & Elaine in the canoe:

July 16 Pat & Linda Jenkins drove down from Canada to visit all of us. They are also RVers but this time they just stayed in a bedroom in the house. It was great to see them, they brought us some cans of escargot from the dollar store, and we all had lots of fun together. Of course, we had Happy Hours and delicious dinners together. Here is a picture of dinner on the deck:

After we left Mike & Marilyn's, we stopped at Tom & Pat Bryant's farm near Canyonville. Here is a picture of them:

They have been working on their farm for about 8 years and have done such nice things with it. Here is a picture of the view from their house:

Every time we visit them they have more animals. This time they had a new hen house and about 20 chickens. There were more but a big raccoon has been breaking into the hen house at night and killing some of the chickens. Elaine helped gather the eggs. When she was growing up on a farm in Illinois, she used to raise chickens too, and at one time had hundreds of them. There were also some young ducks:

They always have lots of goats, and here is a picture of some of them who jumped up on the fence:

When they got goats and sheep, they had to get guardian dogs to protect them from predators such as cougars. Here are the two guardian dogs, Dutch and Char:

The most fun addition to their menagerie are the two pigs, Frank and Furter. When Elaine squirted water on them with the hose, they got so excited and ran all around. They also love it when the water makes a mud hole for them, because it helps keep them cool.

We were able to meet Pat's mother, Irene, who now lives in a little house on their property. Pat is taking very good care of her and she is also on hospice.
Our next stop was to visit Carol and Byron Hall, some of our cruise buddies. They have a place about 10 miles from Grants Pass. It was quite a tight fit to get through their gate, but they even had an RV hookup because they used it themselves when they were building their house and lived in a 5th wheel. They fed us a delicious dinner and we enjoyed catching up on all their news. Carol has had quite a few unexpected health challenges since we were all on the Spring transatlantic cruise to England together last April, but she is fine now. Actually, she looks great because she has lost over 20 pounds! Here is a picture of them:

While they were fixing dinner, we were able to see the little grey fox who comes often looking for a handout. All I had was my phone camera, but here is his picture:

My brother Jerry, and his wife, Diann, live at Lake Wildwood, so we stopped there next. They have a lovely home on the golf course, and Jerry fixed us a nice dinner.
Haven't seen them since our wedding, almost 2 years ago, so it was good to be there. They have recently acquired an Itasca RV so we conned him into showing it to us. It is a class C, which works well for their trips, and we know they will have some fun adventures in it. Here are the 2 siblings in front of it:

Our last stop on the way back was in Fremont where we had a quick visit with Elaine's daughter, Tarra. We picked up an old dresser from her to take down to Darran's. It was much cooler there, because of its proximity to the San Francisco Bay. We enjoyed it! While we were there, Darran called because he and Marielle had just returned from Ireland. The exciting news is that they got engaged while they were over there. We are very happy for them because we believe that they are perfectly suited for each other and will be very happy together.

7/14/10 A rather hot day here at Agency Lake, but we spent the whole day in Klamath Falls, shopping with Marilyn & Mike. This morning Kit and Nancy Carter, fellow Boomers who had been staying here for a few days in their RV, left. It was fun to have them here and also to get to know them better. Here is a picture of the 6 of us having dinner together:

They called on the very day that we were returning from our camping trip over at Farewell Bend NPS park on the Rogue River. It was a very nice park with lots of trees and unfortunately, quite a few mosquitoes. We had a scenic spot right on the river. This is a view of the river from the spot where we had our chairs:

And here is Elaine sitting in our chairs with our rigs in the background:

Almost as soon as we got set up, we started having visits from a couple of golden mantle ground squirrels, commonly called chipmunks. It was fairly obvious that people had been feeding them because they were totally fearless and kept approaching us, even though Elaine kept yelling at them and chasing them away. She has a serious rodent phobia and it extends to all small, furry creatures, even when they are cute chipmunks. Here is a picture of one of our visitors:

They were pretty smart and usually only showed up when we had food outside. One night at dinner one of them kept jumping up right next to me on the picnic table bench, that's how fearless they were.
Here is a picture of Mike & Marilyn at the campsite:

They just love camping and especially campfires, so they brought lots of wood. We also did lots of walking and we weren't very far from an area called the Rogue Gorge. Here the river drops through a series of rapids and then a steep rocky gorge. There are four viewing areas and we took a few pictures. This is the rapids:

And here is where the water drops at the beginning of the gorge:

We have been trying to get a few chores done during our visit here so we have washed the RV since we returned, and also waxed the roof. Now we have to try to finish the rest before the next batch of visitors. On Friday we are expecting Linda and Pat Jenkins to arrive. They are Boomer friends who live in Canada, and we haven't seen them for a long time, so we are excited about their visit. Tomorrow is supposed to be the hottest day since we arrived - 90 degrees. Don't know how much RV waxing will get done in that temperature!

7/5/10 Hope you all had a very Happy 4th!!! We joined Mike & Marilyn on their deck overlooking the lake for a hamburger BBQ. Here is a picture of the celebration:

It has been so pleasant to be here because the weather has been just about perfect: sunny and between 75 and 80. Those are good temps for the activities we have been doing: walking 3-5 miles a day in the nearby wetlands preserve, deep cleaning in our rig, and doing some rig repairs and improvements. The fact that I can walk that many miles indicates that my toe is healing quite well. I dropped the vacuum cleaner on it today, which really got my attention.
Mike and Marilyn have also been doing projects after our joint walks. Then we all have Happy Hour on their deck at 4:30 and dinner together afterward. One day Mike showed me that a little bat had decided to sleep in the corner above their front door. I took a picture of it:

Then Mike said to poke it with a broom stick to get it to spread its wings for a better picture, which I did. But he got pissed at me, made a rude hissing noise, and flew away before I could get a better picture. The other wildlife we have been seeing, besides lots of birds, are river otters which have dens in the banks along the path at the wetlands preserve where we walk. One day we saw 4 of them on land but we have only seen one in the water. If we are quiet on the walks, we usually see at least two. They never hold still long enough for a picture, however.
Tomorrow we are going to a campground near the Rogue River for a week, and Mike and Marilyn are joining us in their RV. Mike says there is no phone or internet service there, so it will be "rustic" camping for us! I will update this blog, hopefully with some pictures, when we get back.

6/29/10 Hello from Agency Lake, Oregon. This is the small lake just above Klamath Lake and about 25 miles north of Klamath Falls. Our friends Mike & Marilyn live here and we are parked on the side of their driveway so we have a good view of the lake. They have incredible lake views from their deck:

And here is a picture of friends at Happy Hour on their deck:

We have been here 2 days and every day we go for walks at the wildlife refuge just down the road. Besides the Wood River going through it, there are lots of wetlands which attract many types of birds, and there are green plants everywhere surrounded by a ring of mountains, some of which have snow on the top still.

And here is a small heron which we saw today sitting on a rock at the edge of the water:

Our last post was from Park Sierra, where we were waiting for my foot to heal after having toe surgery. Our last social gathering there was a celebration because Tom & Judy Tillery were back in the park for a visit, and I promised to put a picture of them in this entry. They are so cute and it is difficult to imagine that they are about to have their 50th wedding anniversary!

The evening turned cool and we had some papers we needed to burn so the group moved out to the fire pit to end the evening:

One of the fun things about being at Park Sierra this time was all the social gatherings with good friends, some of whom were also "stuck" in the park because of medical issues.
My foot was healing fine so we were able to head for the Bay Area. One day we met our old friends, Mitz Alverson & Bev Porter for a nice visit and a tasty lunch. It was great to see them and catch up on all their news. I used to play softball on the same team with them, and Mitz and I coached at different high schools and our teams used to compete against each other quite often.

Because of our long trip last year, we hadn't seen Elaine's daughter, Tarra, and her family for about a year and a half. She and her husband, Alonzo, live in one of our rental houses in Fremont. On New Year's Day a pipe broke in the bathroom wall and there was quite a bit of water damage, which they have had to repair. Because they did all the work, they were able to use the insurance money to fix everything and do some upgrades. Here is a picture of them in their new kitchen:

Alonzo's three daughters, Ari, Alia, and Analy, have all grown so much while we have been away! They have all matured a lot and we had a delightful visit with them, especially when we got to see two of them at their softball games. They all play on different teams and all are very talented athletes. It makes me want to stay around there just to "coach" them a bit, and also go to their games! Here is a picture of these darling girls:

Gordon & Laura Bornkamp were parked next to us at the Fremont Elks club so we had a happy reunion with them too. Here is a picture of them we took at Mardi Gras in New Orleans:

Besides these visits, the goal of being in the Bay Area, and then in the Sacramento area, was to inspect the rentals, which we did. Happily, most of them look great, one needs a little TLC, and one is a major disaster. But we won't have to deal with it until the current tenants vacate, so we aren't going to stress about it!
Ron & Carol Leonard were kind enough to let us stay on their Sacramento property once again and we had 2 nice Happy Hours with them. It was fairly hot while we were there and the huge oak tree hanging over their deck provided much appreciated shade:

Our last day there we were treated to a delightful lunch by our friends Roberta Firetag and Odette Kummer. They have just had their 40th anniversary, and their son, Raymond, had just gotten married, so there were lots of great pictures to share and news to catch up on.

As we drove north on highway 5, we stopped in Corning, where there are lots of olive retail places. We tried the Olive Pit because we have been trying to find the same kind of green olives we so enjoyed in Barcelona. After tasting quite a few, we bought some picholine olives. Not as good as the ones in Spain but the closest we could come. It was very hot in the central valley, and as we started to climb, near Lake Shasta, we enjoyed the cool down. We were delighted to see that Lake Shasta was completely full of water. In past years it has been really low. And Mount Shasta was heavily covered in snow and looked so majestic as we passed it:

Mount Shasta can be seen peeking over the tops of the mountains surrounding this lake, as we walk in the wetland preserve.
We took highway 97 to get here and on the way passed at least 6 deer, several alive standing on the side of the road, but most had been hit by vehicles the night before. It feels good to be "out in the wilds" again, with all this beautiful scenery surrounding us.
The plan is to stay here for several weeks while we do some cleaning and rig repairs, and enjoy visits with Mike & Marilyn and other Canadian friends, Pat & Linda Jenkins, who are going to arrive mid-July.
Before I close, I want to show you a picture of the latest jewelry creation by Marilyn. She is an expert wire wrap jewelry maker and here are her earrings and necklace which I like a lot:

6/18/10 Well, my foot surgery was yesterday and all went well, I think. Won't know until Monday when the bandages come off and I have my follow-up appointment. Here is the picture Elaine took of me yesterday in the hospital just before they wheeled me off to the operating room:

The hardest part is sitting here on the couch with my foot up, because I am not accustomed to being so inactive! The pain hasn't been bad and I am even planning to hobble over to the weekly Happy hour at the clubhouse this afternoon. Tomorrow there will be another Happy Hour here in our neighborhood because Tom & Judy Tillery, who used to have a lot here and are now visitors, are staying on Brenda and Dave Neil's lot right across the street from us. I will be sure to get a picture of them at this event so we can post it next time.
The doctor said that Elaine can remove my stitches and do the rest of my follow-up stuff so we will be leaving Monday for the Bay Area. It will be good to see Tarra (Elaine's daughter) and family again and check on all our rentals. After that we will repeat the process in the Roseville area. The biggest bummer is that when we contacted our tenants in Woodland about coming for an inspection, they said that they will probably be moving in August! Darn - there goes some of the time we had hoped to have to return to Oregon for crabbing. But these rentals provide our ONLY retirement income so we had better pay attention to business, right??!!
The more we sit here on our lot, the more time Elaine spends on the internet looking at cruises. So she just found a great deal and booked us on it and I want to tell you about it in case any of you want to join us. As you might remember, we are going to India for most of the month of November, then flying to Barcelona to take the Adventure of the Seas back on a 14 day transatlantic. It ends in Puerto Rico, a place we have never been before. The end of that cruise is Dec. 12 and on Dec. 13 Celebrity Millennium leaves for 11 days in the southern Caribbean visiting lots of really neat islands which we have also never visited. It is very cheap, at $699 pp for an inside cabin. Yes, it gets back to Puerto Rico on Dec. 24, which might be a problem for some people, but not us. So, if you want a nice cheap cruise that goes neat places, with fun people (us), look on the Celebrity website.

6/11/10
Not much news to report. We have been having some medical appointments and all is well. Next Monday I have my 2 pre-op appointments and Thursday my hammertoe surgery. There is a good chance we can talk the doctor into letting Elaine handle my follow-up stuff so we can leave the area for a while. Mike & Marilyn have invited us up to their place at Agency Lake just above Klamath Lake, in Oregon, and we would like to go there. We will also stop to inspect our rentals on the way north. Then we will have to return to Park Sierra the last week in July because I have been scheduled for carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand July 30. It shouldn't take me long to heal, so Elaine's hand surgery will be on August 10. Then we hope to leave again and head up to Oregon for some crabbing.
One nice thing about being here has been having the time to schmooze more with our good neighbors, the Rodelys and Jeanne Taylor. Here is a picture taken when we all got together on our patio.

From left to right: Carol Rodely, Alan Rodely, Rodger Lyman, Elaine, and Jeanne Taylor.

6/2/10
While fellow Escapee member Steve O’Bosky is working on our satellite TV system, I will have some time to finally update this blog. Our system went kaput several months ago, as we were heading back to Park Sierra after crossing the country. There was no need to fix it then because Park Sierra has good cable TV, and then we were off to Europe for a month. Now that we are going to be in this area for at least another month, this is our chance to get it fixed. Having Steve do it necessitated quite a drive up into the mountains near Kings Canyon NP, where he lives. It is beautiful up here and about 10 degrees cooler than in Fresno, on the valley floor. Yes, the weather here has warmed up quite a lot and the prediction is that we will have temps in the 100’s by Monday. A good time to shampoo our carpets and do some other much-needed Spring cleaning.
Our last blog post was from Yuma, where Elaine completed her dental implant, and we had a very nice visit with our friends, Rick & Denice Osborne. On the drive back from there we stopped once again in San Diego in order to visit old friends Kathy & Sally. It is rare that we are able to connect with them because they are also avid travelers, and they have a second home in Idaho for the summer, so we were lucky they were still in town. Here is a picture of the 4 of us at the restaurant.

Once we got back to Park Sierra, the main purpose to be there was to have some doctor’s appointments and tests, so we have been doing that in between social engagements. It has been fun to see old friends and neighbors at Park Sierra. Curt Rogers brought Elaine an old washing machine agitator to use as a fire pit so she has been having campfires and Happy Hours at our site on a regular basis. Here are a few pictures:
Carole Schneider, Dave & Mary Fountain, and Alan Rodely near our shed.

Viv & Curt Rogers, Bev Mauck, & Cecile Thompson with Rodely’s lot in the background.

Bev Mauck (on the right) a new Park Sierra member, with Susan & Betty, guests, at our ladies only Happy Hour.

Last week Carole & Dick Schneider arrived to stay at our park so we have been doing lots of wine tasting, picnicking, and Happy Hours with them. It has been fun to explore the area with them since we have done so little of it on our own in the past. We had no idea that the Madera Wine Trail had such good wineries! Our first one was the Idle Hour Winery in Oakhurst which had wonderful wines and a delightful picnic spot down by the Fresno River. We met the winemakers, a young couple named Deb and Anna Maria, and then ran into them 2 days later when we visited the Birdstone Winery for a tasting. They were there bottling a new white wine which they will be unveiling on June 12. They invited us to the party and we are looking forward to the music, food and wine and the chance to meet some more local women. Here is a picture of Deb and Anna Maria:

And here is a picture of Carole & Elaine tasting wine at Birdstone with Kimberly, one of the owners. They have wonderful wines and do a very nice tasting, and made us feel so welcome.

Another day we four drove up in the Sierras to have a picnic at Nelder Grove, which is a smaller grove of Sequoia trees than the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite NP. Unfortunately, because there has been so much snow and rain, there were waterfalls going across the road in, and lots of tree branches down, so we never made it all the way to the grove of trees. But we did stop at a sunny place for a picnic:

Memorial Day we were invited to a BBQ at our friends Gary & Ceceile Thompson’s lot. They had delicious salmon and smoked pork, and the rest of us provided side dishes. Our good friends Ken & Janice Ryder were there too and here is a cute picture of them:

It was also fun to schmooze with some other park members in attendance whom we don’t often see socially. Here is a picture of Elaine & Carole with Gary & Ceceile and Ken Ryder.

The food was delicious and here is an example of it – Cecile’s colorful berry trifle:

We will be at Park Sierra until at least the end of the month, having more medical tests and I am scheduled for foot surgery on June 17. Our health is good overall, and since these are just little maintenance appointments, you don’t need to worry about us – ok??

5/18/10 Hi from Yuma, AZ. Yes, this is the wrong time of year to be here because it is starting to get hot, but we drove down for Elaine's final dental appointment. She was supposed to get her permanent implant installed yesterday but because the lab wasn't working yesterday afternoon, we have to go back today. It was kind of eerie to experience Algodones at this time of year because we are used to it being full of gringos getting dental work, new glasses, cheaper prescription drugs, cheaper booze, and a long line at the immigration line to get back into the USA. But yesterday the place was fairly quiet and it took about 5 minutes to get through the border. The good news is that our car had been successfully repaired and returned to us on Thursday, so we were able to drive down in our car, and stay overnight on Sunday with Darran & Marielle in San Diego, and last night in Yuma with our cruise friends, Rick & Denice Osborne. Hopefully, the dental work will be done this afternoon and we can head back north. It was only about 95 degrees here yesterday, and we were mostly inside buildings, so the heat didn't bother us.
Last week, while waiting for our car to be repaired, we mostly stayed at Park Sierra and tried to go through accumulated mail, take care of paperwork, clean out our shed, etc. Had a couple of doctor appointments and learned that yes, as Elaine had suspected because of my snoring situation, I DO have sleep apnea. Now I have to pursue treatment options. I thought this was mostly related to being overweight, which I mostly am not, so this was a surprise. But it does explain why I have morning headaches when I wake up. We both will be having other appointments in the coming weeks, such as colonoscopys, etc. I won't bore you with any other age related health complaints....
In downloading pictures from my camera, I came upon a few from the past few weeks that I want to share with you:
On our last day in Barcelona, our friends Duane & Dorothy McCarthy came in on the Voyager of the Seas so we were able to have a wonderful afternoon and evening with them. We went to the Picasso Museum (free on the first Sunday of the month), had appetizers and wine at our apartment, went out for a nice meal at an outdoor restaurant, and took them to the Plaza Espanya where the magical fountains had so entranced us the night before. It was just as fabulous when we were there with them and the weather was better so we stayed longer.
Here we all are at the restaurant:

Here is another look at the fountains:

When we finally arrived back in San Diego, we stayed with Darran & Marielle and one of the activities was joining Darran when he walked Daisy, Marielle's sister's dog. You can see that it was a sunny, beautiful day and Darran & Elaine both look healthy and cute:

Almost as soon as we arrived back at Park Sierra, some Australian friends, Kay & Brian Blinco joined us there. They had been in the USA for 2 weeks and had spent part of that time finding a big van and a trailer that would sleep 6 because they are traveling for 6 months with their adult daughter, and her 3 children. Here is a picture of us all which was taken on Mother's Day at the brunch which was provided for all of us in our park clubhouse.

It was wonderful to reconnect with them again because we met them 10 years ago on our Intrepid Travel tour in China, and we have kept in touch through e-mails. So far they said that they have been very well treated in America and we hope that continues as they travel everywhere, since we were very well treated in their country when we were there in 1999.
Saturday there was a dinner at Park Sierra to honor all the volunteers who do so much to keep the park functioning well and keep the costs down for all the residents. We helped our friends Ken & Janice Ryder who did a wonderful job planning and executing all the cooking for the meal. There were also lots of activities, such as a cakewalk, where Elaine won a cake to take to Darran's the next day. The emphasis was "hats off" to volunteers, so everyone wore decorated hats, and here is a picture of our great neighbors, Alan & Carol Rodely wearing their hats.

Carol loves gardening, so her hat has that theme, and Alan got his Rastafarian hat on their last cruise in the Caribbean. They are so cute! It is social events in the park, and all the delightful neighbors and friends there that make this such a great place to live whenever we are back.