550 Miles, L.A. Hell, and We Are in Sister's Backyard

Very quiet night at Chiriaco Summit.  Good coffee at the Gas Station before we left this morning at 6:30 am.  The last time I drove through L.A. area was around 1996, give or take a year or two.  As I get older and older the more I don't want to drive through large cities...and you can't get much bigger size ways than L.A,

 

By 9:15 we were on I-5 headed north on the Grapevine.  By the time we got over the pass and at the split for Highway 99 and I-5 traffic thinned out.  Did not have any problems driving through L.A. other than it is long, and traffic was getting worse and worse the further west we traveled.  Gas just as before we hit the Grapevine was $85 for 16 gallons...we just paid $50 for 17 gallons at Quartzsite.  Go figure.

 

Traffic got thick as we got to Tracy area due to San Francisco traffic headed east, but it was not too bad.  Stopped in Lodi for another Van Wash at Blue Beacon...same price as it was in Casa Grande a few days earlier.  So many bugs, especially moths and butterflies splattered all over the window and front of the van.  Made it Sacramento around 5 pm, and had a few splattered bugs after just 40 miles of travel...it is what it is.  Nice to be back in Sacramento...

Florida to California With No Commercial RV Parks

Cracker Barrel was another good dinner Thursday night, and not very many RVs stayed the night.  Other than a couple of ambulance sirens going down the road, it was a quiet night.  Without looking back on our blog, I think this was the fifth Cracker Barrel out of seven nights being on the road.  Back home we have a Cracker Barrel down the street about 4.3 miles from the condo...but we rarely have eaten there.  We save our Cracker Barrel visits for trips.

(Click Logo for Website)

Friday mid-morning we met Laurie at a GOOD restaurant (not that Cracker Barrel is bad...just a good change of pace) called U.S. Egg.  There are five locations in the general Phoenix area, but one was damaged by a fire.  They are owned by these Armenian Brothers, and this is the second time we ate there.  The food is good, portions are large, and staff are GREAT!  After a few hours of visiting, off we went towards California.

In Quartzsite Arizona we stopped for the last of our "less expensive" gas...$3.049 at the Pilot/Flying J.  I expect to pay around $4.50 - $5.00 for gas in California.  We continued on to Chiriaco Summit (General Patton Museum area) and we dry camping at the free campground there.  By-the-way, still a good number of RVs around the Quartzsite area...perhaps 35-40% of normal Wintertime camping.

Saturday we 550 miles to my sister's house (Sandy and Arny), and we plan to leave very early to try and beat any L.A. traffic as we continue along I-10 to highway 57, to I-210 to I-5, which will take us up and into Sacramento.  We have about 200 miles from here to where we no longer have to worry about L.A. traffic...figure if we hit the road by 6:30, we should avoid most traffic problems.  I have driven in L.A. many times, and pretty much refuse to drive it during morning or evening traffic jams...jams which can last ALL DAY.  Thank goodness it is Saturday, or we would be going another way (Sunday would be fine too).

Finally, this is our first trip from Florida to California without staying at a RV Campground.  With our other RVs, I don't think it would be as easy as it is with the Camper Van.  Also, we typically drove 62 mph with the larger motorhomes because the HHR is not suppose to be towed at speeds above 65 mph for prolong periods of time.  With the Van, when it says 80 mph, we can drive 80...although high winds make me bring it down to around 70.  Today is our 8th day on the road...had we not stopped to visit anyone, we could make it from our place to my sisters in 6 to 7 days. 

Another 340 Miles Down, 820 More to Go ... Another New Cane

 

With the wind dying down overnight, the drive through New Mexico and into Arizona was uneventful.  A bit of construction, and one long patch in which the construction appeared to be done, but they still had speed limit down to 55 mph, and only one lane open...saw NO WORK being down and a perfect two lane Interstate with new asphalt down and perfectly lined for the entire stretch...THAT is the type of construction which gets to me...construction which id done but a limited usage on the nicely finished Interstate.  Made it to Casa Grande, AZ around 2:30 pm.  Arizona is on California Time with Daylight Savings Time in effect everywhere except in Arizona.  And it was nice to not have to get up and go by 7:00 am.

One interesting thing...just a few miles before Arizona the West Lane was shutdown...we had to get off, and get back on again...we didn't even have to stop.  Why?  Because the overpass was being taken down due a wreck in which a vehicle hauling an excavator hit the bridge and did major damage to the overpass four weeks ago.  The bridge is being destroyed and will be rebuilt.  With little traffic today, there was not much of a delay...maybe 2 minutes.  The interesting thing is that the GPS wanted us to take a 20 minute detour...which, when I saw no cars or trucks taking the detour, I just stayed on I-10.  Thank goodness I did.

Online I found a cane at a Walgreens on West Ajo in Tuscon.  Briefly stopped there to pick up this adjustable Black Cane with a Brass Band just below the handle.  Personally I like wooden canes, so this will be the Camper Van Cane once I find and get a new wood cane.

Now, if Mom remembered more than she does, she would tell me...You will lose as many canes as you lost jackets while growing up.  I was one to leave jackets everywhere...it would be 55 degrees outside when school let out, and I would walk/ride bike back home and leave the jacket in the class room.  The next day she would say, "Go to school without a jacket today and bring that jacket that is there back home after school.  THAT did little good...the poor jacket would remain there at school until mom convinced the teacher to remind me to take it right as school got out.

Tomorrow we are meeting our GOOD FRIEND Laurie for Brunch.  Laurie is not one to leave comments, but I think she has read just about every blog I ever wrote.  

 

 

1,050 Miles Over Two Days

 

Sometimes I like to put in a lot of miles over two days to take it easier for the remainder of the trip.  Between outrunning and/or dodging storms (which we did), the second thing is we have a big chunk of the trip behind us now...the hard part...which means TEXAS!

Today we traveled from Kerrville Texas to Las Cruces, just like we had hoped.  The trip was much easier than yesterday when we traveled through Houston and San Antonio.  Very quickly the speed limit went up to 80 mph, and our Camper Van handled it very well.  About an hour later, the winds hit...I slowed to around 70, being blown all over the road.  Good news, another 60-90 minutes later the winds had subsided and I was able to get it back up to 80 mph.  Passed three or four police cars, two of which were Texas State Police, and instincts was to slow down...not only me but others around me slowed too.  The police did not even blink since we all were going the speed limit or under.

Stopped for gas at a Flying J where they just happen to be upgrading their pumps.  Had to go in and prepay, went back out and pumped gas, putting my cane against the pump...where I left it.  Did not realize it until I went in to Cracker Barrel to get dinner to-go.  Tomorrow we have to hit up a Walgreens to get another cane.

As usual, the winds really picked up near El Paso, and especially in Las Cruces.  Hoping tomorrow the winds will be fine early in the morning as we go across New Mexico and into Arizona.  It will be an easy day with only 338 miles.  And Friday we will have a leisurely "brunch" with Laurie before we head off to California via I-40, but how far we get will be a whole different thing...

Nearly 500 Miles

 

Today we covered nearly 500 miles, clearing both Houston and San Antonio and many miles of construction and CRAZY Texas Drivers.  Just before Texas we also had some construction near the boarder of Texas and Louisiana in the latter state.  Needing to have a quick stop, I pulled off of an exit, parked in the parking lot and used the Camper Van's facilities, and upon trying to get back onto the freeway I found that the westward entrance was blocked by construction.  Only option was to go east and make a U-Turn...which was 20, YES 20 miles away.  So add those 40 miles extra and we definitely drove over 500 miles today.

Other than that construction, the rest of the construction today (at least 100 miles of it) was not that hard to face.  While Marcia was taking a nap, there was one stretch where they worked on the Interstate and on the Frontage Road along side the Interstate.  This one older lady kept going over to the far right, nearly hitting the concrete wall once, and finally sees an area where she can go over to the frontage road on a dirt patch that connected the two (probably meant for construction use.)  Obviously she was a local and needed to get to her house.  Told Marcia about it later and added, "Where was she when we needed help getting through construction to get onto the freeway!"

I am convinced that Texas Drivers are the most impatient drivers in America.  Enough said about Texas Drivers...

Wednesday we plan to drive to the outskirts of Las Cruces, just over 500 miles...but no large cities to go through, even El Paso is by-passed now days.

 

 

Dodging Storms

 

Woke up at 6 am and looked at the weather...large storm system headed right for us.  We stopped the night at Cracker Barrel in Greenville, Alabama.  The weather looked real good when we went to sleep at 10 pm, by 6 am it was time to get out of the way.  We quickly got going and by 6:30 we were headed to Mobile Alabama.  At Satsuma, Alabama we pulled off at a Pilot Truck Stop and about 10 minutes later the storm hit.  Lots of rain, some lightening and wind, but not the killer storms other faced further north.  Two hours later (I took the opportunity to sleep a bit), we headed for Mobile with a light to moderate rain still going on.  Traffic was not heavy until we turned west on I-10 and got into Mississippi.  Huge slow down, but by the time we got up to where a wreck must have been, it was gone and the slow down speed up to 70 mph again.  Had some road work in Mississippi and especially Louisiana, but nothing that slow us up too much.  Stopped at Atchafalaya Welcome Center just west of Baton Rouge.

 

Above is a picture of my daughter Stephanie (lives in Salt Lake City), and my two boys, Ryan, the youngest on his graduation day back in 2019 (Chiropractor) and my oldest Michael (works for the State of California at the Capitol).  Plans were to see Steph on the way to Sacramento...until she called me Saturday to inform us she was not going to be in town...she was headed to Cincy to visit Ryan, then she has a conference down in Kentucky.  She will be gone the entire period that we could have been there.  So we will head to SLC after mom's birthday, probably in May, and visit some parks and stuff during that trip before heading back to Sacramento area.

This picture includes Ryan's wife, Kaelyn (also a Chiropractor) and Michael's wife Anna.  Since this picture Michael and Anna have had a baby girl, who will turn 3 in July, AND THE BIG NEWS IS, Anna is pregnant and we will have another grandchild in October.  (Grandpa is smiling big time!) 

So our new plans are to get past San Antonio tomorrow because the risk of major storms drops down to nearly ZERO at that point.  We plan to be outside of Phoenix on Thursday night, visit our friend Laurie on Friday before heading out Friday evening to get to Sacramento by Sunday late afternoon.  Lots of miles ahead of us, but after tomorrow, we won't need to worry about tornadoes, hail, etc., etc.

And There is ALWAYS a Route #3

 

We are near Peachtree Georgia, Marcia is visiting her friend that she has known for well over 50 years.  Due to weather (see above), we are changing our route...going to head back down to I-10 towards Mobile, Alabama.  The route I showed previous is littered with possible storms, even possible Tornadoes, so the far southern route is going to be our route.  It is about 11:45 am et, and we plan to leave here by 1:00 pm.  We will hit some rain, but the chances of the extreme storms will be way less than if we headed over to Little Rock.  

Visit with the Great Grandchildren was wonderful (as with Granddaughter and her husband).  Slept at a Cracker Barrel in LaGrange, Georgia last night, and other than a little road noise, it was very peaceful.  Hoping for another good Cracker Barrel 'over-niter' tonight.

 

Tallahassee Granddaughter

Left today around 10:30 am, went over to Masa Sub and Grill with a Touch of Mediterranean Restaurant, a place we found out about 2 weeks ago.  Ordered various Greek foods to take up to Tallahassee where Marcia's granddaughter lives with her husband and two children... granddaughter was dying for good Greek food.  Arrived at there house at 4:45, enjoyed visiting, she heated up the food and we enjoyed the meal too.

After more visiting tomorrow, we will head toward Peachtree Georgia and stay at a Cracker Barrel about an hour from where Marcia's oldest and dearest friend, Gerry lives...who we will visit with on Sunday.  

Winter Over, Time to Head West

 

There's Indy, sitting in the sun, looking for the Alligator that lives in the pond at the local library.  Well, I think she was looking more at the Birds, which were out of the picture to the right...but DAD always has a vigilant watch while there for that Alligator.  Sometimes I see it, sometimes I don't.  I have never seen it out of the water.  A funny thing happened about a week after this picture was taken.  

Out on the lawn was this HUGE turtle with a long neck, like the one seen in this picture.  Indy looked at it...the stare down lasted about 3 seconds...then Indy took a step toward the turtle, and BAMMM...the turtle ran down to the pond.  Indy did not bark, did not try to follow...I only wish I had it on camera.  It is called a Florida Softshell Turtle, found mainly in Florida, but also in neighboring states.

As we prepare to head to California, there are certain things that need to get done.  One of which is our taxes.  Well, that dirty deed is done as I mail the IRS our 2024 tax forms, and mail our 1st Quarter taxes.  Never a fun thing to do, but someone has to do it, and it is done.  I have done my own taxes since 1973 when I filed my 1972 taxes...of course, Dad helped.  In 1974, I did my 1973 taxes and Dad looked it over and gave me the big OK.  I have pretty much done my taxes ever since then, except for a few years after marrying Marcia when her accountant did them.  There were some write-offs back then that spanned over six years or so, so Tom did our taxes until those write-offs were finished.  The year they stopped, he did the taxes, but so did I.  When we agreed that I could handle them, and I have done them ever since.  Of course, our taxes are very simple so I just have to triple check all the math before signing and sending them off.

This (above) is most likely the general route that we will be taking.  "IF" the weather allows, we will be going through Salt Lake City.  I have a route going this southern route, and I have another taking us up to I-70...but my thoughts are that it will be too cold at night to go that route.  And as we get close to SLC, like in New Mexico, the weather will tell us to head up that way, or to stay south on I-40 and skip SLC, going on in to Sacramento.  Having lived in Utah, I know that Utah Snow Storms can dump a lot of snow, and can do so into April, even May.

So Friday we head north, will be gone for about 4 months.  Will try and keep the blog updated each day, after all, I want to test out our newest purchase...The T-Mobile AWAY™ – Unlimited Plan.  Costly at $160 per month, but it can be put on vacation twice a year for up to a total of six months, costing $10 per month.  That brings the cost down to $85 per month.  As for speed, tests here at home had speeds of over 250 Mbps.  Of course, speeds will vary while on the road, but should be better than our 4G Verizon Aircard gets.  Draw back is that we will have to run the inverter to power up the 5G Gateway TMO-G4SE device (shown above).  When we get back, I am dumping Frontier (100 Mbps at $115 per month) and get the T-Mobile All-In Home Internet for $70.  Overall, when we dump Verizon phones for Consumer Cellular, we will have faster service at about the same price.
 

 

 

V-Day, Anniversary, New Washer, Gators, Birds and THE DESTROYER

 

It has been since before the Hurricanes that I had seen the Gator at the pond at the Library.  Well...it is still there, and a little bigger than the last time I saw it.

Saw this guy who had fish bits to feed them...reminded me of the fishermen in Alaska who tossed fish bits out of their boats and the Eagles would catch them mid-flight and soar off.  Here (above) about a dozen pelicans gather around this lone fisherman.

 Of course, our little girl is always looking out to see what is going on.

One day I see this crane on a barge with two non-survivors of the hurricane.  

    

A few days later THE DESTROYER, ummm, barge had moved over to the other side of the boat ramp, and chewed up and removed boat rubbish to this garbage/rubbish for disposal. On its way over it must have swung by and got that boat that was run aground that I showed in my last blog and got it back into the water, or loaded onto a boat trailer...either way, it is gone.

Although I only got a picture of one Juvenile Eagle, there are two, and boy do they grow fast.  Google AI (artificial intelligence) says, "A young eagle, or eaglet, typically takes around 10-12 weeks after hatching before it can fly, a process called fledging, where a bird leaves the nest and takes its first flight; this involves a period of practicing on branches near the nest before fully taking to the air."  Well, I have seen other photos and clips of these two Fledging Eagles sitting on the nest flapping their wings, but nothing yet of actual flight...but that is coming real soon.

  

Of course, we always have a healthy population of Osprey around.  This nest has at least two, if not three, birds in it, as I can here them chirping when mom and dad are out looking for food.  I thought in the one picture had captured them bringing a fish to the nest, but it was nest repair material, or perhaps bugs in the Spanish Moss it has in its claws.

This is our Fisher & Paykel washer, with the dryer sitting to the left.  On Friday (10 days ago or so) Marcia was doing a load of rags/towels and the washer would not empty the water out.  Called a repair company that had fixed it before, and they said they would be out first thing Monday morning...which they did.  Bad news, the pump is no longer available as a OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and although cheap (his words) pumps are available on Amazon and other places, his company will not allow the repairmen put any parts in that are not OEM.  The washer has been good to us, it is around 20 years old, so we decided to replace it.  I had asked the repair man, a real nice man who even Indy liked, what type of washer he would get and without hesitation he said, "Speed Queen...they just don't breakdown."

 DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH A WASHER IS NOW DAYS????  Well, the low end, on sale, are about $500-$600.  The Speed Queen's are running $1,000-$1,600, depending on model.  GULP.  Bit the bullet, went to Famous Tate's, and got the middle level Speed Queen for just over $1,300 including taxes, delivery, and taking old one away, and a 5 year guarantee.  Saturday (4 days ago, 8 days after the breakdown) it was delivered.  Glad I didn't have my ICE t-shirt on or it never would have made it through the front door.  Because we did not need inlet hoses, they would not hook up washer with the old hose, but they did allow me, reluctantly, to attach the hose before he pushed it in.  I offered him $10 to screw on the two hose lines...no go...go figure...forget that tip!  Yes, that is how rude he/they were, AND, the dryer exhaust hose came loose and blew warm damp air into the condo as Marcia washed clothes yesterday.  Good news, our neighbor Mary had her two boys coming out, and today John was nice enough (and young and thin enough) to get it hooked up for us.  Now, as long as that dryer does not break, we are in good shape for years.  If the dryer needs to be replaced, we are in deep crap because finding a top loading dryer (easier for Marcia to use) will be a hard thing to do.

Yesterday we celebrated our 14th Anniversary!  Around 150,000 miles in a RV.  About 1,400 loads of laundry.  Over 5,000 dinners, same for breakfast, 50% less for lunches which we don't eat each day.  Oh, the list goes on and on...but we made it through the big unlucky "13" years, and headed for number 15!  For V-Day (valentines) we had a leg of lamb, and still have some left overs in the freezer of that...so we decided to have something we don't have very often...PIZZA!  My guess is that of those 5,000 dinners, maybe 100 of them included Pizza!

 

What a Day for a Daydream

 

What a Day for a Daydream (SONG)

Oh, I told you all that we were going to have a nice weather week...and boy have we!  Daytime temps in the low 70's, nighttime temps in upper 50's.  A little bit of fog to start the day (not FOG like I knew when I was a kid!), but by noon the sun is shinning, the birds are singing, and Indy and I are out and about enjoying it all.

This tour boat, above, is the Sponge-O-Rama's Dolphin Cruise Lines.  From $15 to $30 they will take you out, try and find some wildlife which includes Dolphins, Manatees, Whales (rare), Birds and such.  The more expensive cruise is the sunset cruise.  No sunset or animals guarantee, but they are sure to inform you of the local sponge business, the various islands, and I think they stop at an island for a short time period.  There are other cruises that not only explain the sponge business, but they will have a diver go down and pull a sponge up onto the boat...problem is, it is one that has already been caught, cleaned, and used for this "EXHIBIT" cruise, because everyone would probably loose their lunch if they pulled up a real, smelly, living sponge.

A bit of fog along the Gulf of America (above), the Anclote River facing east (below).  The river is essentially the Northern Boundary of Tarpon Springs, though the city limits extends just beyond it.  Holiday, an unincorporated city, is just north of Tarpon Springs, and that is where we live.  We live in Paco County, Tarpon Springs is in Pinellas County...the River is only 29 miles in length, and most of it is in Pasco County...now you know the logistics of it all.

 The rest of today's blog will be some pictures of birds, starting with Eagles, then Ospreys, then other birds.  

EAGLES

(This is a new nest I have found, but will be harder to get pics of)

 OSPREYS

 OTHER BIRDS