What a Year!

Ready for Christmas

Here we are at the end of 2020. We made it! But what a year it's been. 

We've been parked in Southern California since the end of October. Most of our time has been spent in Acton, which is in the hills (some call them "mountains") between Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley, or the "High Desert," as it is often referred to. We like this park primarily because it is just about half way between my son, in the Santa Clarita Valley, and my daughter, in Lancaster (Antelope Valley). The park itself (Soledad Canyon RV Park) is unremarkable. Much of it is closed down pending repairs--repairs that never seem to get done. We've been coming here three years now, and not much has changed.

The joy of our visit is the kids and our delightful granddaughter, Sophie. Most of our time this year has been with Sophie (and her parents). The children grow up so fast that every single moment we have with them is of immeasurable value. This year we were able to enjoy Halloween and Thanksgiving with Sophie, and we'll be sharing Christmas with her too. I feel incredibly blessed.

A Halloween mermaid

Little Pilgrim

Still, the only visiting time we really have, when our kids are fortunate enough to still be among the working, is the weekends. So two and half months condenses down to a dozen or so visits, and those visits will be coming to an end very soon. On January 2, we'll be heading east again for another spin around the country (God willing).

There hasn't been too much to talk about lately given the fact that we, like the rest of you, have been stuck mostly at home, waiting for Covid to go away. I have always loved New Year's because it feels so much like a fresh start. The possibilities are endless. We make new goals and resolutions, and our hopes are high. 

So, take a deep breath and say a prayer for a better year to come. God is still God. His plan is still on track. And there's nothing in all the universe that can happen to change that.

God bless & have a Very Merry Christmas!

More pics...

First family get-together upon arrival in California

Lunch with my good friend, Donna (before the ban on
outdoor dining)

Visit to Joshua Tree National Park

Cat-proof Christmas Tree. Sophie decorated
it all by herself!

Building a gingerbread house for Christmas

Bee-Line to California

For a variety of reasons, which I won't go into, we decided to alter our travel plans a bit and head to California sooner than we had first planned. Just to be clear, one of those reasons was NOT because we especially love California. Still, we thought it best to arrive and settle in before the election.

And so, we dropped all of our Washington coast reservations and made our first major stop in Seaside, Oregon. The coast of the Northwestern U.S. is one of the most beautiful and stunning coastlines I've ever seen. We love walking along the beaches, which are smooth and deep. Unfortunately, the weather is so chilly just about all year long that walking is all you can really do without a wetsuit or a child's constitution, neither of which we have. Getting in the water deeper than the ankles isn't going to happen. It turns out that the average temperatures in August (our last visit) and October are about the same--mid 60's. Still, the views are amazing and it's always calming to just sit and watch and listen to the surf. We did some re-exploring of Seaside -- it's our second time there. After strolling along the boardwalk, we had dinner at Mo's, a seafood chain in the area. Their clam chowder is fabulous! 

Outdoor dining at Mo's

No way I'm passing up clam chowder!

We had five days in Seaside. Though we wanted to extend our stay, the campground was full and last-minute changes were not possible.  Astoria is a little bit north of Seaside--about a twenty minute drive. We love that quaint town, too, and made a day trip to visit it while we were near.

Cargo ships in the harbor at Astoria

Astoria

In a store window in Astoria. Halloween, anyone?

From Seaside, we went down the coast to Florence, which is about mid-state, and stayed there almost a week. The Thousand Trails park we stayed in, South Jetty, was a hop, skip, and a jump from the Oregon Dunes National Recreational Area. One of of the nicer days, we made the short drive over and parked the car where we didn't have to pay a fee. After an arduous climb over the dunes to the sea, we discovered it was a short walk around the dunes back to where we'd parked the car. It's all good-- we got some unintended exercise in the process. There wasn't too much else to do in South Jetty, and since our RV park had absolutely NO sites with sewer, we decided to leave early.

Coming down over the hill into Florence, Oregon

Our lovely but sewerless site in Florence

Our next stop was Russian River RV Park in Cloverdale, CA. The only sites here were 30 amp and no sewer. Again! And again we left early for our next planned stop in Hanford, CA, to visit some "shoestring" relatives (and good friends) of Mark's--his son-in-law's parents. We were there just a couple days, but had a very nice visit with Phil and Judy. They treated us to a delightful dinner at a restaurant near the Sequoia National Park, called The Gateway. Check out this view from the outdoor patio where we dined. The food was pretty good, too! 

Phil & Judy, Me and Mark

In Hanford we generally stay at the Kings County Fairgrounds. It's first-come-first-serve, but we've so far not had any trouble getting a spot there. Sites are all nice and level with 50 amp full hookups. For a short stay, the price is reasonable ($30/night).

All the changes we made to our schedule put us in Acton (where we spend most of our California time) a full three weeks early. We're here in California now until the end of the year, bouncing back and forth between three Thousand Trails parks. I'll write about that next time. 

Safe travels and God Bless!

Mount St. Helens from the east (White Pass)

Mount Rainier through a buggy windshield

The beach at Seaside

Seaside beach walk

Oregon coast

More Oregon coast

Hwy 101 down the Oregon coast

Northern California coastline

Northern California coastline

More northern California coastline

Are you tired of the coastline yet??

Too bad. Here's another one.

Hwy 101 through the Sequoias

Last one, I promise.

The quail flock at Russian River campground

Too cute not to share.

Visiting the Spokane Clan

Tamarack RV Park in Coeur d'Alene, ID

Time is just flying by! Or I'm spending way too much time crocheting. Either way, I'm very behind in posting about our travels. And we have been traveling. Crocheting and traveling.

We've traveled all the way from Sturgis, South Dakota, to Florence, Oregon, since last you heard from me. 

Our first stop was in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, where we hung out for a week just to kill time. And it's a good thing, too, because we just missed all the really bad smoky, polluted air that hit Spokane from all the fires. Some of it hit us in Montana, but nothing like the choking mess that our kids had to deal with in Spokane and California. 

Smokey Conestoga

White Sulphur Springs has nothing to recommend it, except it's on the way from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park. In our case, it's where Conestoga Campground is-- the only affordable campground between South Dakota and Spokane Washington because we can use our RPI membership for a really good rate. After our busy days in South Dakota, it was nice to have nowhere to go for a while. We mostly sat around the house like couch potatoes.

From there, we headed to the Idaho Panhandle. We spent three days in the little historic town of Wallace, Idaho, and three more in Coeur d'Alene, before heading to Spokane, Washington. Three of my four children were born in Coeur d'Alene. I moved there from El Paso with my family after graduating from high school, and lived there (the first time) for about five years. Matter of fact, I moved back and forth between there and California a couple times before finally settling in Minnesota later in life. So the area holds a great deal of nostalgia for me. Now two of my children and four of my grandchildren live in the Spokane area, which is the reason we find ourselves there every year, thanks to our new mobile lifestyle.

We spent that first week with my son, Josh, and his family, who live in Spokane Valley. It's a bit of a drive from Wallace, but only about twenty minutes from Coeur d'Alene. It was delightful to get acquainted with our youngest grandchild, Adam, who is about eighteen months old now. He's such a sweet, happy boy. I don't think I heard him cry once during any of our visits. But he's a talker! He knows one word-- "eh," which he utters continuously (unless he's sleeping) with a wide variety of tone and inflection. It will be interesting to watch his verbal skills develop. I had the happy honor of lloking after him for a few hours while his mommy and daddy got away for a much needed "date night." We bonded.

Early dinner with the family at the 1313 Club
in Wallace, ID

Historic Wallace

Wallace RV Park

The following week we stayed at the Ponderosa Falls RV Park, about fifteen minutes east of downtown Spokane and spent most of our time visiting with Liz and her family. Haylee, my first granddaughter, is now an accomplished hair stylist, and gave me a much needed haircut---my first since last year. Savannah (#2) graduated high school last year and is now out in the work world earning a living. Leah (#3) is a sophomore in high school this year and dealing with the horrendously screwed up school system. God have mercy on the children. Contrary to the upbeat way the media is presenting "distance learning" to us all, not all the kids are doing well. The isolation they're dealing with is taking a heavy toll. They are dealing with loneliness, sadness, depression, and general listlessness from not being able to do anything but sit around their house or stare at a computer screen. It's not good. Keep them all in your prayers.

Gift from Liz. Now that the kitty is gone, I 
can have plants again. :-)

Mark and I are still looking for solutions to allow us to stay longer in the Spokane area. One possibility is a work-camp opportunity. He applied at Ponderosa Falls for next year. If they offer him a job, it will probably mean a three-month stay and a very happy me. But, as campgrounds in the area are generally too expensive for our pocketbook, and RPI will only allow us to stay one week on our membership, our visit this year was short. We said goodbye the first Saturday of October and started our journey south for the winter months.

Now we're on the coast of Oregon. But I'll save all that for the next post.

Until then, blessings and safe travels to all!

Here are some more pictures of our northwestern excursion...

These folks were parked across from us at the
Wallace campground. Check out the gear on 
the doggies.

Who knew the Center of the Universe was in
downtown Historic Wallace, ID?!

Obviously looking for the center of the
universe. (They're still here.)

Wallace RV Park

The town was walking distance from our RV