Hi Everyone,
Well, here we are on the road again.
We left Trinidad, California on November 15, heading south along the coast. We plan to make it to San Diego, then on to Arizona. We will arrive in Tempe, Arizona on December 5. We will be there at least a month, and possible longer, then start a slow trip back to North Carolina.
It's hard to believe that we were in Trinidad for 2 months and it's hard to leave Andrew, Marjo, Celsiana and Luna behind as we continue our journey. During our stay there we spent lots of quality time with them. It was wonderful to be able to see Luna develop. When we arrived she was 5 months old and just beginning to develop a personality. While we were there she began teething and had 2 or 3 teeth when we left. She started crawling and I would say she did a great version of "The Worm", rocking her way across the floor on her tummy. By the time we left she was sitting up by herself very well. She also had her first regular food at our place (baked sweet potato) which she seemed to like very much. Soon she was eating several other foods as well. She always had a smile for grandpa and grandma was a little jealous but soon was able to get her to smile as well.
Celsiana gave us a violin solo while we were there (not bad) and we were able to go to an equestrian show for children where she performed very well on her pony, Cinnamon, winning a couple of ribbons. We picked her up from school a couple of times and had a great shopping trip with her. She surprised grandma with the fact that she had learned how to knit. Grandma had her knit a couple of rows in the sweater that she is making for Luna. She is a delight to be around and we were so happy with how much she had matured in the year since we had last seen her.
We shared many meals with Andrew and Marjo and the whole family. We hosted them several times in our motor home (it was a little crowded but we made do). They introduced us to several great restaurants and foods that were new to us. Lynn had said that she never wanted sushi again after her first taste of it on our last trip there but she did try it again and really enjoyed it. I stuck with grilled salmon (I can't eat any type of shellfish without getting violently ill). We also attended a Navajo prayer session, held to bless one of their friends prior to her return to Brazil. We will miss being with them but look forward to our next trip there in a couple of years. On the night before we left (Nov 14) we celebrated my birthday (Nov 17th) and Marjo's (Nov 23rd) with a wonderful dinner. It was a great way to say good by.
While in Trinidad we enjoyed worshiping in a small Methodist church in McKinleyville. We loved the pastor(his sermons were great) and we were warmly welcomed by the members. We look forward to visiting here again also.
The weather was fairly good while we were there. We had some rain but most days were sunny. The temperatures were in the 60's early on but were down to the 50's by the time we left. Nighttime temperatures were in the 30's quite frequently. The winter is the rainy season so that was a good reason to leave. Shortly after we left the rains came and we feel like we left just in time.
We had a wonderful visit but it was time to move on. We stopped in Willets, California for one night, then on to Petaluma, California for 3 nights. While there we visited the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa and learned a lot more about "Peanuts". Also saw the home and gardens of Luther Burbank. Even though it was late fall there were still beautiful plants blooming..
We had quite an adventure getting to our next stop in San Juan Batista, California. This leg of our trip was to take us around San Francisco (no way was I going to go across the Golden Gate Bridge). I didn't want to set the GPS because I figured that it would take us where I didn't want to go. So, I looked at the map and when we got on the road, I misssed a turn. When I pulled off the road to check our location I had to make a U-turn (in the RV with the car attached). This worked out well and everything was OK until I missed another turn, had to pull off and make another U-turn, this time on a city street. Amazingly we made it around OK and eventually made it to our destination without further incident.
While in San Juan Batista we took a drive to Monterrey and enjoyed a picnic lunch and some terrific views of the ocean, with angry waves crashing onto the rocks.
Next stop was Oceano, California, next door to Pismo Beach. That was an easy drive, straight down Route 101. The highlight of this stop was a visit to the Hearst Castle at San Simeon. This is an amazing castle, built on the top of a mountain in the 20's. It is hard to believe how the super rich lived in the 20's and 30's. We also visited the Danish village of Solvang which was quite picturesque. Then we had lunch nearby in Buelton at "Pea Soup Anderson's". Obviously their specialty is pea soup. I had been there about 45 years ago and surprisingly it was as I had remembered. The pea soup, served in a bread bowl, was wonderful.
Now we come to our biggest adventure yet. Our next stop was planned for Northridge, California, on the northwest edge of Los Angeles. We made it to the planned stop at the selected campground only to find out that there was no space available for us. Plan B was to continue to our next planned stop in Orange, California and stay there additional days to keep us on schedule.
Plan B was good except for one thing. I wasn't crazy enough to want to go directly from the northwest corner of LA to Orange county, at the southeast corner of LA, right through the center of LA. The problem was that I didn't have a good map of Los Angeles. With freeways going every which direction I decided that our only alternative was to put the destination in the GPS, pray for God's protection and get on the road.
Naturally, the GPS took us right through the middle of LA, changing from one freeway to another several times. While there were a lot of cars on the road we didn't encounter any back-ups and kept moving along pretty well. The greatest problem came when I entered one freeway in the left lane and had to move over to the right without wiping out any cars flying along on the right. We made it though and at another point we had to get over to take a left lane exit. Fortunately, other drivers could see our predicament and let us get to where we needed to be. Actually we made it to our destination at exactly the expected time of arrival shown on the GPS. When we arrived, after thanking God for our safe trip, Lynn commented that she hadn't seen any other RV's on the road. My response was "Ignorance is bliss." Amen.
We are enjoying our stay here in Orange. The RV park is one of the best we have stayed in, the temperatures are in the 80's and of course there is a lot to do here. Yesterday we braved the freeways again (this time in the car) and drove to central LA, west from there, along Wilshire. We found the apartment house where I lived briefly in 1963 and surprisingly it was till standing (it was old then) and appears to have been well taken care of. We continued to Hollywood Boulevard where Lynn was quite disappointed that most of the walk of stars is in a pretty crummy location. The traffic was quite heavy and we decided to not stop and continued on to the Griffith Observatory. It sits on top of a hill and has a commanding view of the whole of LA. If any of you remember seeing the movie "Rebel Without a Cause" you would recognize it. Unfortunately a lot of Los Angelenos had the same idea that we did and traffic was being turned around at the base of the hill. After a little while, traffic began moving again and we headed to the top of the hill. All the parking lots were full and traffic was still heavy up there so we just kept moving and headed back to Orange.
While we are here, we are going to go to Long Beach and possibly visit the "Queen Mary", then visit Disneyland tomorrow. It is just down the road from our RV park. Also, the Crystal Cathederal in close by. We were surprised to learn that it is in bankruptcy and last week was sold to the Roman Catholic diocese. We will probably try to tour it while we are here.
Wow, I have covered a lot of ground. I hope I haven't bored you too much.
While on the road we celebrated Thanksgiving with a nice dinner in a local restaurant and gave thanks that we have been able to take this trip and that it has gone well. We wish all of you a belated "Happy Thanksgiving" and hope you are all doing well.
Love to all,
Grant and Lynn
