Mike and Cindy's Blog

Bike Ride

2010-05-12T10:28:00.001-07:00

Yesterday the weather was sunny and there was a crisp wind when we biked our daily route around Ranch Del Rey Parkway which is 5 miles.

DIY Windows

2010-03-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

We are installing vinyl windows in two of our bedrooms ourselves. This is A LOT cheaper than having a window company do it. It is the retro type window where it is installed through the old frame of the old window making it much easier by not disturbing the stucco. However we had a small problem with the size of the new window being too large to fit through the old frame. Apparently I messed up on the measuring and I had to grind off some of the old frame about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Anyway the result turned out beautiful and we now have efficient easy sliding windows.

closet server

2010-02-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

We are converting Dan's bedroom when he lived here into our exercise/sewing room. When he moved he left part of his server to service our internet, our network, tv system and the security web cams. We moved the server rack into the bedroom closet and hangs on the wall. I will put shelves in the bottom of the closet. I put a fan in the ceiling of the closet to exhaust the warm air from the server rack's components. The closet door will normally be closed.

Rock Climbing

2009-12-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

We rock climbed today at REI sporting goods in Encinitas. They have a 30 foot rock you can take lessons on or do short climbs for free if you are a REI member. Good thing they have a safety rope. We polished off the day with lunch next door at Islands Fine Burgers. http://www.facebook.com/home.php

Sarah Palin

2009-12-17T21:04:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue". I found it hard to put the book down it was so interesting. She tells how her VP campaign team kept her from doing her "thing" sometimes. This is the real story of Sarah Palin and not the story the media gives.

Bathroom remodel progress

2009-12-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

We're almost done with our hall bathroom remodel (actually just a facelift). The shower/tub is staying the same. It's got a new color pain job (light yellow). The floor is the same blue tile; but we replaced the toilet and are having a custom wood vanity made. We have new fancier towel bars and lighting.

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-26T16:37:00.000-08:00

Our guests were the Henslers including David's girl friend, Shawni. A good time was had by all. We had turkey marinated in brine and everything else was pretty much vegan. Dan set up his HD video equipment. We had loads of desserts.

Thanksgiving prep

2009-11-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

Today, wednesday Donna Dixon came over to help Cindy prepare for Thanksgiving dinner cooking. The turkey was prepared in a bucket of brine to marinate in the refrigerator overnite.

Korean Food

2009-11-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

Little Sophia Boyce is 1 year old and so cute. Bob and Jeannie had the party at the Seoul BBQ Korean restaurant in Kearney Mesa. The food was quite good and had many vegetarian things.
Sophia was dressed in an authentic Korean dress. There was even a rainbow cake made from rice.

Pumpkin

2009-10-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

Think this is a good size for Halloween?

No place like home

2009-10-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

We arrived home yesterday afternoon from our motor home trip. We saw a lot of cool things in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and even a little of Oklahoma. We were glad when we saw the sand dunes and wind mills near El Centro welcoming us home to California.

Tucson

2009-10-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

We spent the last few days of our trip in the Tucson area. Yesterday we visited Old Tucson which is a western movie lot that was used for hundreds of movies and tv shows until the 1980's. It is like an old ghost town. Today we took a tour of the Biosphere. It is really something to see. There is a real rain forest in there, a beach, a desert, plants, animals, machinery, living quarters and everything necessary to allow eight people to be completely self sufficient, sealed up for two and a half years.

Oct. 20- On the Road Again

2009-10-20T17:58:00.000-07:00

After spending 5 days with Steve and Sudi we on our way to our next adventure-Biosphere 2 in Arizona. It is mostly flat boring land between Benbrook and the Biosphere, not much to see. We did run into a little lightning and thunderstorm today entering Deming, New Mexico. Tomorrow we will reach Tuson and spend a few days seeing Old Tuson and the Biosphere.

Vegan food in Benbrook

2009-10-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

Mike Gliebe
Today Steve, Sudi, Cindy and I went to a little country fair in Benbrook. It was free. Then we went to the only vegan restaurant in this area called the Spiro Diner and bakery. The food was pretty good but the service was slowww. Then we went to our motorhome and played some games where it's camped at Benbrook Lake. We cooked a nice vegan dinner that was better than the restaurant!

Texas State Fair

2009-10-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Sudi and Steve took us to the Texas State Fair in Dallas today. We ate some healthy food. There sure was a lot of deep fried food; even deep fried latte.

Amarillo

2009-10-13T17:50:00.000-07:00

We are about 450 miles away from our final destination. We will arrive in Benbrook tomorrow.
Tonight we are spending the night in a Love's truck stop just outside of Amarillo, Texas. It was getting really foggy when we got to Amarillo. We had dinner at the Subway here. Trucks pass 15 feet away from our side window one after the other. Oh well, we save 30 bucks from not having to stay at a campground. When Cindy is driving I enjoy listening to podcasts.

From Zion, Bryce and North Rim to Benbrook

2009-10-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

We have finished vacationing in Zion, Bryce Canyon and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We had a great time exploring the national parks. It was cold and dry and high, though. Now we are almost to Albuguerque, New Mexico on our way to Texas to visit Steve and Sudi. While there we are camping at Lake Benbrook. The top picture is when we passed the Colorado River in Arizona.

Bryce Canyon National Park

2009-10-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

We left Zion National Park this morning exiting through a one mile tunnel built in 1930. It's not wide enough for two way traffic with a motorhome so they have to stop traffic and allow the motorhome to go through down the middle. Three hours later we arrived at Bryce and are dry camping with no hookups and it may snow tonight! We drove our car to see some of the viewpoints. Bryce has hoodoos which are eroded columns of rock on mountains. Most are red and make for fatastic scenery. Tonight we are going to a ranger talk and they will be putting telescopes out side for us to see the stars and stuff.

2nd day in Zion

2009-10-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Today we did a lot of hiking in Zion before it started to rain! Then we went in to town to walk around. It is nice but mostly touristy with lots of gift shops and restaurants. Tomorrow we head for Bryce Canyon National Park. To get there we have to drive our motor home through a 1 mile tunnel that was built in 1930!

Day 3 Zion

2009-10-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

We reached Zion National Park in Utah. It has beautiful mountain peaks. They have a shuttle that takes you on a loop to the various sights. We saw a few today and will see the rest tomorrow. We thought we could camp inside the park but the campgrounds were full, which surprised us because it is off season. We are camped at a private park in Springdale, a quaint little town like Mayberry, just outside Zion. The weather was perfect today, sunny and not too hot. We think we will take Mona inside the park tomorrow as long as she promises she won't bother the deer. We understand they can be quite aggressive.

Day 2 Las Vegas

2009-10-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

We spent all day in Las Vegas and started off the day at the Liberace museum which contains a beautiful collection of his pianos, cars and wardrobe. We saw the gardens in the Bellagio Hotel then walked way down to the Stratosphere and went up the tower (but passed on the rides). We then rode the monorail back to the Bellagio, where we had parked. There is a Whole Foods market on the south ene of the strip and we picked some vegan ready made dinner and returned to the rv park.

Day 1 RV Trip Oct. 4

2009-10-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

We're on our way to Texas to see Steve and Sudi. We will stop on the way to visit Zion, Bryce Canyon and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Today we had a windy trip to Las Vegas. Mona thought she was going to drive.

Biking Adventures

2009-09-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

We see interesting things sometimes on our daily bike rides. First, as we leave our neighborhood on Woodhouse St. we have new neighbors who conduct a business where their driveway always looks like a yard sale. They buy abandoned storage items to resell. They recently brought in a big semi trailer like storage container parked on the side of their driveway. If you look closely you can see where they knocked off the corner of their roof backing it in. We think they have been reported to the city. There is another neighbor on our street who blatantly conduct an Ebay business on their driveway with all kind of vehicles, lumber and trash. We all take pride in our neighborhood and don't appreciate it being trashed like that.

The other day on our bike ride Cindy noticed a small sink hole which is potentially dangerous. A bike tire could get caught in it. Ah...the adventures of bike riding!

San Diego Hardware

2009-09-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

San Diego Hardware has a lot of cool things. We were there looking for a decorative handle for our screen door that match the decorative handles on our new roll up garage door. They have a lot of cool plumbing fixtures and as I walked by a toilet the cover went up automatically. I should have checked if it went down automatically.

The Big 65

2009-08-28T11:17:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Mike's 65th birthday. It started with a Swedish massage at "Massage Envy". Mona helped me make coconut cup cakes. Dan, Cindy and Mike had take out for dinner from D'lish. Then we drove to the USS Midway for a CCT musical called "Let Freedom Ring". The music was so patriotic. A wonderful day indeed!

Geek Squad

2009-08-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

What is a GEEK SQUAD van doing in front of our house? Do we need technical support for our computers when we have DAN? No, actually, GEEK SQUAD does appliances now. The refrigerator we bought at BEST BUY has a problem with the ice maker so we called them before our warranty runs out. No, we're not crackpots! We got them at Mark and Crisha's wedding.

Blend n' Trim

2009-08-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

We just got the best blender in the world, the Blend-Tec and today we had our two giant eucalyptus trees removed. Here are two videos.

New Garage Door

2009-07-22T18:08:00.000-07:00

We just had a new roll up garage door installed to replace our old, old wooden garge door. With Most of Dan's stuff moved to his own garage we had the incentive to upgrade. Viva la difference! Note the before and after pictures.

Mark and Crisha's Wedding

2009-07-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

Today we attended Mark and Crisha's wedding held at her parent's huge backyard. It was casual style with a Mexican food buffet. They have a large vegetable garden scattered on the property; a very nicely landscaped yard. Dan manned the photo booth where people had their picture taken and they scrapbooked their pictures in a souvenir scrapbook for the newlyweds. It was a great wedding day for all, especially for Mark and Crisha Hensler!

Father's Day

2009-06-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Father's Day by going out for lunch at Soup Plantation. Dan made Mike a Father's Day card as you can see. Then Dan and Mike started the big project of moving Dan's stuff from our garage to his. Yesterday Dan removed all his stuff from the metal shelves and disassembled the shelves. Today Dan and Mike dissasembled the work bench and took it to Dan's garage and reassembled it. Phase one accomplished. Phase two will be to assemble the metal shelving and bring all of Dan's stuff which is in the middle of our garage floor to his garage.

Paver Job Completed

2009-06-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

Today, Saturday the workers completed our paver landscaping job. All they had to do is sweep sand into the joints and clean up. It looks beautiful and now we can plant ground cover to complete the landscaping job!

Veggie garden pictures

2009-06-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of our new vegetable garden that Cindy took.

Paver job

2009-06-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

Although we intended to do the paver job in our front yard ourselves we got an estimate from a paver company called Genesis Stoneworks just for the heck of it. After some negotiating we got such a good deal that we decided to have them do it. We were having trouble finding the right color of paver. Our house is blue gray with a charcoal roof. Most houses are earthtone colors around here so the paver manufacturers offer most earthtone colors. We found a charcoal grey color we liked at a building supply store from a picture so we ordered just one pallet and when it arrived the color looked almost like plain concrete color so they sent it back. With Genesis Stoneworks, http://www.genesisstoneworks.com/home/ - we found just the right color. They will start next Wednesday it will take 2 or 3 days. If we did it ourselves it might take who knows how long. We did a lot of research on installation and feel confident we could do it but a lot of it would be trial and error and we would have to rent a paver cutter at 56$ a day. There will be a lot of cuts because it is a curving walkway. It is going to look nice. Here are more pictures of the demo.

Concrete Demolition

2009-06-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

The next step in our paver project in the front yard was to demolish the concrete walkway in front of our house. That's really hard work and after about three swings with our sledge hammer we decided to get help. We got a good estimate and they started it today. We thought they would use a jackhammer but they started just using a sledge hammer and big pry bar. One guy hammered and when the concrete cracked the other guy would pry up the slab. They said a sledge hammr works better becasue it breaks up the concrete in big chunks and is easier and faster to pick up haul away. They will use a jack hammer on the big step in front of the door because it is extra thick. Click on play to see the video of them working away.

Mothers Day

2009-05-09T17:51:00.001-07:00

Today, Saturday we celebrated Mother's Day early. Sunday is so busy for Mother's Day to go out to a restaurant so Dan and Mike took Cindy to a new restaurant at Plaza Bonita, called the Corner Bakery. It is a bakery/sandwich shop. It was good.

For Mother's Day, Dan moved his remaining server rack in his old bedroom at our house into the bedroom closet. Now we can turn the bedroom into a sewing/whatever room!

Veggie Pizza

2009-05-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

We decided to make veggie pizza for dinner tonight. Cindy used her mother's pizza dough recipe.
She substituted soy milk for cow's milk. The crust came out really tasty but was mega thick. She said she could have rolled out two crusts with the recipe. We watched a movie while eating the delicious pizza. Can't do that in a theater!

New vegetable garden

2009-04-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

We are finally planting vegetables in our new garden. So far we have tomatoes, green onions, zucchini and cantaloupe. We are installing drip irrigation to save water. We are having a water rationing program this summer.

Silver Strand State Beach

2009-04-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

We decided to spend a few days camping at the Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado hoping the weather would cooperate. Well it didn't and it was mostly cloudy, cold and windy; so we just spent one day and night there. It was really stormy windy overnight but it was nice hearing the waves crashing. We returned home late this morning and decided to wash our motor home because it had a layer of sand on it from all the wind. Maybe we will return if we get a spell of hot weather.

Easter Sunday

2009-04-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the day with Vern and Marilyn with Bonnie and Bob and his wife Jeannie with their four month baby girl Sophia. We had a typical Easter ham dinner at our house. Every thing was vegan except the ham and the green bean casserole. We got up real early to go to 7:30 church with Dan so he could set up his home theatre equipment, while Cindy and Mike prepared the dinner. Sophia was very well behaved and really a beautiful baby. Dan showed our Hawaii video which Mike shot in wide screen (not HD) and Dan's video in HD of our trip to Texas last thanksgiving to visit Steve and Sudi. Videos really look good on a big screen.

Vegetable garden addition

2009-03-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Today, Saturday, we started on our new vegetable garden. We really need more room so we are digging up part of our back yard for more space for growing veggies. The grass is all dried up there but the ground is pretty hard. We borrowed our neighbor's (Stacey) rototiller. We found it worked better when dug it first with a shovel to kind of break it up. Then Mike went over it with the rototiller about four times and tilled it really good. If this works out good maybe we'll set up a produce stand on the front yard!click the arrow to see the video.

Post Vacation

2009-03-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

We have just about recuperated from our Hawaii cruise vacation. Felt like we were still on Hawaii time which is three hours behind. Here are two pictures taken by the ship photographers. They are always taking pictures hoping guests will buy them. We got one free courtesy of AAA. The photo to the right was taken on formal night, the other on Master Chef's dinner night when we were served baked Alaska for dessert.

Arrival in San Diego!

2009-03-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday about 6 am we arrived home in San Diego. It was still dark but beautiful to see. We had our final breakfast on the ship (our favorite breakfasts are oatmeal and cream of wheat with some fruit (lots of pineapple). Today we also had waffles. We left the ship at 9 am and took a taxi home. There's really no place like home!

Ensenada

2009-03-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

We are now in the port of Encenada. We are here only for 4 hours and will leave at midnight, then arrive in good old San Diego at about 7 am. We did not get off the ship here because there is not much to do. Today while at sea we saw some cooking demonstrations and a show. Mike used the thermal room in the spa which has a hot tub with mineral infused water and heated lounges and steam rooms hot enough to steam veggies. There is a beautiful view out the front of the ship while sailing through the Pacific ocean.
We saw the workers scrubbing down the swimming pool for the next cruise.

March 21 Close to home

2009-03-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Saturday we will arrive in Ensenada. Today we had the Chef's farewell dinner. We had a delicious mushroom, spinach dish rolled in phylo dough. For dessert was the traditional Holland America Baked Alaska. Our room porter made us a monkey towel. Mona had to play with it.

3 rd Day at Sea

2009-03-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

We have one more day at sea to go. We will reach the last port tomorrow in Ensenada at 8 pm and arrive in San Diego at about 7 am on Sunday. Yesterday we watched an ice carving demonstration had dinner in the dining room; it was formal night. Then we watched a live musical show and topped the night off with in the Crow’s Nest with a few slow dances. It is hard to dance when the floor is moving beneath you!

Hawaii Cruise Highlights

2009-03-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 15, I took a picture of a surfer and later found it was a pic of not only a surfer on a board, but there was also a surfer in the wave. Look closely to the left of the surfer to see his friend.

March 15 2009 we went to the Maui Tropical Plantation. They grow sugar cane, macadamia nuts, orchids, pineapple and more. They are expanding so they will grow coffee in the near future. The vine with the blue-green flowers is called a Jade Plant. We also saw a Taro farm. That is the picture with the square fields between the mountains. The tree with what looks like many roots coming down to the ground is the Banyon tree.

Monday, March 16^th we went to Mt Kilauea again but this time we went a different route. It was an 8 hour trip. We drove 100 miles one way and another 100 back up to 4000 feet elevation. We saw Mt Kilauea from the rim. We ate lunch at a very nice buffet along the rim of the volcano. On the drive to the volcano we stopped at a store to use the restrooms and buy snacks. It had a very nice view. On the way back we stopped at a bakery that is the farthest south then any other bakery in the US. After we boarded to set sale for the night the captain announced there were 4 hammerhead sharks off the port side of the ship. By the time I got my camera they were gone. I went to the other side of the ship and saw the fins of two of them. A few minutes later I saw several dolphins jumping in the water. I could not get a picture of them because I could not synchronize my snapping of the picture to their jumps.

Mona is having fun too.

Looking back

2009-03-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

About 100 miles off the shore of San Diego a fire alarm went off on the ship. The emergency 7 blasts of the horn was heard. I opened our cabin door and saw a gray haze about 10 doors down from our room. The firemen showed up quickly. They pulled out the fire hoses and the fires extinguishers, but did not use them. It turned out a rubber belt in the computer room were they train new employees was burning. No real fire broke out. But Mona panicked and put on the life vest right a way.

Luau

2009-03-14T01:55:00.001-07:00

We went to an outdoor Luau at Paradise Cove in Honolulu, Hawaii this evening. We saw many demonstrations such a coconut husking, climbing a coconut tree and how to throw a fishing net to name a few. We ate a traditional Luau feast then watched the show. The show was great, but towards the end it began to rain. They handed out plastic ponchos to keep everyone dry. Our bus driver and tour guide on the bus were the best we ever had. The tour guide told stories, sang songs and the best part was when he told us to get the flash on our cameras ready and when our bus passed another bus the bus driver turned off the lights inside the bus and we all snapped our cameras at the bus we were passing with our flash.

Honolulu

2009-03-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today we visited Pearl Harbor and went to the USS Arizona. It is amazing how much oil is still being released into the water after 61 years. Then we went on a tour of Honolulu on the Island of Oahu. Tonight we are going to a luau. It's a big buffet with barbecued pig! There should be lots of fruit and veggies to eat. The bus driver on our tour said the most popular food in hawaii is Spam! More on the luau in the next blog. ALOHA!

Day 1 in Hawaii

2009-03-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

We spent our first day in Hilo on the "Big Island". It was nice to get on land after 4 days at sea. We took a tour of Mt. Kilalea volcano, a 5 mile hike. We walked over lava fields and through a forest. As soon as we got back to the van it started raining. Lucky us. Hilo gets the most rain in the U.S.

Our ship is now leaving for Honolulu. Aloha!

Almost to Hawaii

2009-03-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

We have been relaxing the last four days on the ship at sea on the way to Hawaii. Yesterday we celebrated our 30^th wedding anniversary in the formal dining room. There is a lot of activities on board. We took dancing lessons (not to successful) and took in a lot of lectures and entertainment. Last night we saw a comedian juggler. There are a lot of nooks and crannies to sit and read while looking at the ocean.

Tomorrow we arrive at 8am in Hawaii at Hilo. We will be busy taking tours for the next four days.

The captain just announced we are traveling at 23 mph. That’s why it takes four days to get to Hawaii.

Hawaii

2009-03-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

We just left the cruise port of San Diego! We'll be in Hawaii in 4 days.

Front Yard Progress

2009-03-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

Today we finished another stage of our curb appeal project. All the palm trees are planted with tree sprinklers for each tree. The next stage is to put the path in. Our goal is to have a winding path going through the trees with some kind of ground cover. We might use concrete pavers (which are installed on a bed of tamped sand) or just colored gravel or bark. Eventually we want to remove the existing concrete path going up to the front door and make the path all the same material whether it be pavers, gravel or bark.

Michael W. Smith - Agnus Dei

2009-02-25T22:15:00.000-08:00

I like Michael W. Smith's music which Steve and Sudi introduced me to. One of my favorites is "Agnus Dei". This video is a long version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPBmFwBSGb0

Cindy's Birthday

2009-02-19T20:32:00.001-08:00

For Cindy's birthday we went to a wonderful vegetarian/vegan restaurant located in Normal Heights. Their most popular item is "neatloaf". It comes in vegetarian or vegan style. Cindy and I had the vegan version. It is served with soup or salad and mashed potatoes with mushroom gravey. Dan had an avocado sandwich loaded with goodies and a little cheese. We all thought everything was excellent. For dessert Cindy and Dan shared a decandent vegan chocolate mousee cake and I had a delicious apple pie.

Our own RV dump station

2009-01-31T17:33:00.000-08:00

We now have our own personal motor home dump station. Finished all the plumbing today and all that's left is to fill in the giant hole. We had to dig 6 feet to find the sewer pipe. We were about ready to call the plumber when when we got to 5 1/2 feet with no results. There wasn't much room in the hole to maneuver around so Cindy got in and dug around with a little hand shovel for a short while and hollered "I found it!" It was a little farther to the right than we thought it would be.

Front yard progress

2009-01-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

The next step of our curb appeal project is to install a dump drain to dump our motorhome holding tanks. We thought we would do it while we have the front yard dug up. It's a good convenience. Today we started digging and got to 5 feet. After running into a big rock (boulder) we dug about a foot away from it; so far no sewer pipe to connect to. We learned from the plumber who will probably install it that each house has letter "p" stamped on the curb which indicates the location of the sewer pipe. We will continue tomorrow. Are we having fun yet?

Latest Project

2009-01-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

Our latest project is to redo our front yard and give it some curb appeal. Our plan is to put a path down the middle of the yard with concrete pavers and landscape with palm trees and assorted plants.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas with the Henslers. Tim, Carol, Mark, David plus Mark's fiancee Chrisha and her brother Jesse came to our house. We had roasted chicken, ham and the fixens. Cindy made a delicious cranberry stuffing. We had vegan gravy and green beans and mashed potatoes. There was a lot things to eat for us vegans. We had a good assortment of desserts too. There was board games galore to play plus Dan brought his big screen HD setup. We watched stuff on it and playing WII games on it is a lot of fun.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Dan's bathroom remodeling

2008-12-20T17:32:00.000-08:00

This week Dan and Mike remodeled his downstairs bathroom for his new renter/friend, Ken. The bathroom was in bad shape and needed a new vanity and tub/shower surround. The shower area had ceramic tile which had to removed because the drywall was water damaged and some of the studs were termite damaged. So we hammered, chipped, soldered pipes, pushed, pulled and did what ever it took to make the bathroom usuable and pretty. There is still some drywall repair to do around the shower and that will be done in a week, but at least the bathroom is now usable.

We're home!

2008-12-05T22:34:00.000-08:00

Today, Friday December 5 we drove 2 1/2 hours from Palm Springs. We dropped Dan off at his house first. His cat Jake was waiting for him. Cindy and I picked up Subway sandwiches on the way to our house to satisfy our appetites. I guess we didn't feel like cooking. Anyway we had a great time travelling and seeing things and visiting Steve and Sudi. It was a little tight all living together in our compact motorhome but we enjoyed ourselves in a new adventure.

Last Stop

2008-12-04T20:40:00.000-08:00

Tonight we are staying in the Palm Springs area in Desert Hot Springs at a nice RV resort that has a natural hot springs well that fills the hot tub and pool. We've been here before and it is so refreshing. Dan loved it. After we made pizzas and had dinner we jumped in. Tomorrow we leave in the morning and head for home, only about 3 hours away! No place like home.

Petrified Forest

2008-12-03T18:57:00.000-08:00

Today, Wednesday we woke up to a light dusting of snow in New Mexico. We took off to Arizona to visit Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert which kind of surrounds it. We took the 28 mile route which winds around inside the park. It is very colorful and we saw a lot of petrified logs and parts of logs. Millions of years ago the whole area was flooded with water and covered the trees. Silica from the water saturated the trees and turned the wood fiber into minerals and stone. There are no trees standing now just pieces of tree logs. For years people just took the petrified wood and made souvenirs and really scavenged the area. It was finally made a national park and is now a criminal offense to take anything out of the park. Tomorrow we head towards Flagstaf and then maybe camp one more night and return home Friday morning.

From Texas to Home

2008-12-02T19:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we left Benbrook, Tx for home. We got as far as Amarillo, Tx and dry camped at a Flying J Travel Center. We parked with the big rig trucks. We got gas for, gasp!, $1.57. Today we are staying at an RV park near Albuquerque, New Mexico. We got there early so we went and saw some very interesting Indian ruins. Then we drove back to the RV park and Dan cooked us dinner- Hamburgers and baked beans with chips and salsa. It was delicious!

Thanksgiving weekend at Steve and Sudi's

2008-11-30T06:02:00.000-08:00

We are finishing up an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend today. We have been sleeping in their spare room, Dan in their study. Our motorhome is at a local RV park. It's nice having a big bathroom to shower in and a better bed to sleep in. Steve has been driving us all over the Benbrook area which is near Fort Worth seeing the sites. It is really like country, no malls just a few stores here and there. For lunch we went to Fuddruckers for veggie burgers. He took us through a few new housing developments. All the houses around here are mostly all brick, no stucco here. You can get a "mansion" here for 3 to 400,000 dollars or a nice 3 bedroom for under $200,000. He took us to a little quaint historic town kinda like Julian called Granbury. We walked around the stores and bought a few trinkets. Today, Sunday, Steve and Sudi are taking us to their church service. Last night Dan and I went to St. Bartholomews Catholic Church in Fort Worth a nice church that is all brick inside and out. It had a very nice choir. Today Sudi is going to fix us a Chinese lunch. Then we will, sadly, leave Monday morning for home.

Steve and Sudi's House

2008-11-27T08:03:00.000-08:00

We arrived in the Fort Worth area late Tuesday to visit Steve and Sudi. Since we were 1 day early we went to see some of the sites of Fort Worth and went to the Fort Worth Zoo which is a pretty nice zoo for its size. Then we drove to Steve and Sudi's house and were given the grand tour. A very nice brick house in Benbrook. We are spending 4 days with them for Thanksgiving. Sudi and Steve are cooking a sumptious Thanksgiving meal, Mexican style and vegan! Last night we all went out to a nice Pizza Hut restaurant for dinner.

Carlsbad Caverans

2008-11-24T06:43:00.000-08:00

This weekend we spent the time in the Carlsbad Caverns area. On the way here Dan got his chance to experience motor home driving. He did good. When we got to the city of Carlsbad we found our RV park and we set up camp and Dan set up our internet and his equipment. Are running 3 laptops. Dan set up his stop motion camera so we can see what our neighbors are doing while we are out touring. Sunday we toured the caverns. The immenseness of the caverns is mind blowing. We descended over 800 feet below the surface. We went on two self guided tours and one guided tour. This is one thing to see before you die for sure. It is better than any other cavern we've before. The formations are beautiful.
Today, Monday we are leaving and have to plan what sites to see through Texas. We know there are a lot of oil wells and flat land to see. We have about 8 more hours of driving to get to Benbrook, Texas to visit Steve and Sudi. We heard there is a chance of rain and SNOW by Thanksgiving!

Texas Bound

2008-11-21T07:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we left on our Texas trek with Dan in our motor home t visit Steve and Sudi for Thanksgiving in Benbrook, Texas. We spent the night in Yuma in an RV park after Wal Mark kicked us out because of a city ordinance. Seems this is the RV park capitol of the United States. There are rv parks all over the city here for some reason. We are stopping at Carlsbad Caverns on the way. We should be there in 2 days.

Veterans Day

2008-11-11T21:30:00.001-08:00

Today was a beautiful Veterans Day. The weather was perfect, not too hot, slightly cloudy. The day ended with a beautiful sunset. It's great to be an American in the USA!

Halloween '08

2008-10-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

Today we had a fun halloween night. Kids were scared left and right with Hagatha hissing and spitting. Dan's friends were here lending a hand. Cindy made veggie lasagna and meat lasagna for eats. Need something other than candy for sustenance.

Fence project completed

2008-10-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I completed the fence in our backyard by painting it. (actually a stain) I used my airless paint sprayer which really speeded up the job. It still requires a brush to blend it all in. Cindy says I looked like an alien!

Jeannie's baby shower

2008-10-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, Oct. 18 Jeannie, Bob's wife had a baby shower. Cathy who was visiting here and sleeping in our motorhome went with Cindy to the baby shower. Jeannie is due November 14 for a caesarian delivery. It is a girl.

Cathy Visits Chula Vista

2008-10-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

Cathy flew down for a few days to attend a baby shower for Bob Boyce's wife, Jeannie. Yesterday we took Cathy to see a few of her friends: Kathy who was her bridesmaid and Margaret who actually made her wedding gown. Then we took her to Dan's house so he could give her the "tour";
Then we finished the day off with dinner and a tour of the grand Otay Ranch Town Center mall.

New Windows

2008-10-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

We got our new windows installed today. We did just the front of the house for now (five windows).
They are energy efficient double pane and really keep the afternoon sun from beating in. You can see the before and after. We will do the rest of the house later. New windows are expensive. The quote for the whole house is good for a couple of years. Our house is getting "greener" all the time!

Heart Taco

2008-09-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

For dinner last night Cindy was making tacos and one tortilla came out with a heart on it. Well, these are "heart healthy" tacos. Maybe this could be sold on Ebay?

Server racks

2008-09-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend Dan started moving his server rack from our house to his. He has swapped his tall rack with a shorter rack that hold just the components we need for internet, security cameras and TV. Cindy and I transported the tall rack to his house in our truck. First Dan treated us to lunch at Chili's. Cindy and Dan had fajitas and I had the delicious black bean burger.

Dan is setting the server rack up in his server room which he painted purple (called "bite me"). We saw Jake the cat there and petted him. His fur is so soft! He is now an all house cat only.

Fence Project

2008-09-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

Our fence project is about 2/3 rds completed. It's more work than I anticipated. I'm using 230 boards 6 1/2 wide and 6 feet long. I'm using deck screws and no nails so the boards don't come loose as the wood contracts and expands. All the posts and cross rails are pressure treated which won't decay hopefully for a long time.

Mike's Birthday

2008-08-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Today being my 64th (old hah?) birthday Cindy and I went out and celebrated. We went to the USS Midway Aircraft Museum on Harbor Drive. I've always wanted to see it and it was really interesting. There are a lot of pipes, cables and wires and low hanging ducts and low door ways you have to step over. In other words it is ugly, compared to a cruise ship. But I guess it has to be utilitarian and not a vacation ship. The sleeping q uarters are really compact. It has to be to fit 5000 people in all those bunks. The admiral has it pretty good though. He's the 0nly one that gets a real bed and his own bathroom and dining room. The top deck has two runways and is the size of 4 football fields. It was self guided tour with audio headphones so we learned a lot.

Then we were famished and went over to Seaport Village and ate at Buster's Beach cuisine. It has island type food. I had a delicious thin crust pizza and Cindy had a portabello wrap. For dessert we had a huge thin crust (like the pizza) with fresh tropical fruits on a layer of strusel. We're not eating much dinner tonight.

Thank you all for the nice birthday cards, virtual and real. What a great birthday!

Latest Home Improvement Project

2008-08-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

We've had a week to recuperate from our 7 week trip and are ready to start a new project. The fence overlooking the down side hill in our back yard is so bad that about half of it is actually laying flat on the ground. It is all shot! Completely rotted away. The picture on the right is just to the right of where Dan and Steve's "secret hideout" used to be. Cindy was talking to the city gardener there who maintains the city property and he said the fence was laying on the sprinkler heads and needs to be removed; So we decided to get busy on it. It is chain link fencing on a wood frame. We were going to remove the chain link and reuse it but it is too hard to remove from the wood. Cindy suggested an all wood fence which is a little more expensive but it will block the ugly view of the City's shrubbery. I figure if I install 3 posts a day I will have all the posts in- in about a week, well maybe 2 or 3 weeks- you know how that goes.

Home At Last

2008-08-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today we left our last camping site in Bakersfield and drove through the Mojave Desert (107 degrees) to I-15 to complete our trip. Now we can start planning for the next trip when we and Dan drive our motor home to Texas to visit Steve and Sudi in November during Thanksgiving.

BLOGGING ON THE ROAD and BAKERSFIELD

2008-08-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

I thought I would try blogging while actually moving in our motor home. I am in the passenger seat in the cab and Cindy is driving. I tried using the computer while travelling before on the dinette table but it was just too jiggly. We are travelling on HWY 101 south with a good Sprint broadband wireless signal. We just left Gonsales after having lunch. It is a big farming community. We can see lettuce growing on both sides of the highway.

We are kinda playing it by ear on the way home now. We are about 4oo miles from Chula Vista. We may go as far as Bakersfield. There is a town right before Bakersfield called Greenacres. Maybe we will camp there tonight and see Arnold the pig. Remember that tv show? Oh, now we see grapes in the fields. Fruits and vegetables...YAY! So I would say we will be home sometime Sunday.

7:pm: We are now at a nice new rv park in Bakersfield. We are going to check out the pool. On the way just before we hit Bakersfield we saw thousands of oil wells, thought we were in Texas. We also came upon a car accident. Just one car and they life flighted the people away.

Really hot here, it was 97 when we arrived. Well, tomorrow we should arrive home, unless we see something really interesting to stay for.

Oh, when we were camped out yesterday visiting with Cathy and Joe we had our own blackberry bushes by our motor home. We went berry picking. We will put some on our pancakes tomorrow morning!

Cathy and Joe

2008-08-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the day with Cathy and Joe. They treated us to lunch at an Indian Restaurant in Santa Cruze and then gave us a tour of the downtown area and then a nearby state park.

Millenium Restaurant

2008-08-07T21:29:00.001-07:00

Today is our second day in Half Moon Bay. After taking a walk around the golf course resort here we drove 30 miles into San Francisco to eat dinner at our favorite restaurant in the world..Millenium Vegetarian Restaurant. After a delicious baby romaine salad with vegan caesar dressing we enjoyed our entrees. Cindy had a multi mushroom dish and I had a gourmet tamale dish which didn't taste at all like the traditional greasy tamale. It just tasted delicious with a corn mixture and beans and red quinoa. Then we finished up the feast with tasty vegan dessert.

Half Moon Bay

2008-08-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

We drove from Sacramento to Half Moon Bay in San Francisco. It was about a 3 hour drive. We had to pay an $8.50 toll fee to go over the Oakland Bay Bridge. Is that highway robbery? Well we had to pay for 2 vehicles. Still that is a steep toll charge. We are camping at the Pelican Point RV Park at Half Moon Bay. There is the Ritz Carlton Resort about a 5 minute walk down the beach. We walked down the stairs to the small beach. It is hemmed in by cliffs on each side so you can not go too far on the beach. We went back up the stairs and walked along the top of the cliffs. Surrounding the Ritz Carlton Resort is a gorgeous golf course.

Downtown Sacramento

2008-08-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

We toured historical downtown Sacramento. The Capital building was restored in 1978 and we got to see the results on a guided tour. We saw the ourside of Arnold's office which is in the annex added on to the original building. We then walked a mile to tour the Governor's mansion which was last used by Ronald Reagan.

We visited "Old downtown Sacramento" which was restored to it's original mid 1850's look...wooden sidewalks and little shops all around with a restored train station.

From Tahoe to Sacramento

2008-08-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics as we travel from Lake Tahoe to Sacramento.

It was about a 3 hour drive. We stopped in a shopping center in Pacerville for lunch. I was looking out the RV window while eating and I was an empty, unattended, rogue shopping car rolling right for our car. I jumped out of the RV and ran to the cart to stop it from broad siding our car. I put the cart in its place and then went back to my lunch. Just another day in a grocery store parking lot.

Lake Tahoe

2008-08-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

We took a two hour cruise on Lake Tahoe and didn't get shipwrecked. Part is in Nevada and part in California. There is enough water in it to cover California with 8 inches of water. It is 22 miles long. A beautiful lake and shoreline. We drove all the way around it-71 miles. It has a bunch of little towns as you drive around it. Tomorrow we leave for Sacramento.

Carson and Virginia City

2008-08-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

We toured a nice museum in Carson City. We saw a dinosaur skeleton that was found in the Nevada desert. They have a replica of a Carson City gold mine. Then we drove 20 miles away to Virginia City. The unique thing is that it looks just like it did in the 1860's. They have the original buildings with some restoration of course. We took a tram tour pulled by a tractor. We attended Mass in the oldest Catholic church in Nevada which is beautiful.

Tomorrow we are going to Lake Tahoe about 30 miles away.

Carson City, Nevada

2008-08-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

We left Reno today for Carson City where we are based in an RV park. We will spend at least 3 days touring in our car Carson City, Virginia City and Lake Tahoe which are close together. Today we toured Carson City, the capital of Nevada. We did a drive by tour of historical homes and churches. We saw the governor's mansion built in the 1860's which is still used. We saw a historical house which is for sale across from the governor's house. It is in need of restoration. We think the owner can't afford to fix it up so is selling. We wanted to buy it as a fixer upper.

We toured the original state capital building which is still used. It has marble floors and walls from Alaska built in 1871. The landscaping is gorgeous with lots of trees and flowers.

Reno

2008-07-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

We spent the day in Reno, Nevada. It's not at all like Las Vegas with glitzy shows and hotel/casinos with big themes. It's all gambling and food and drink. But we did see the awesome National Auto Museum which is the largest in the U.S. We saw a Ford Model T that is a camper. Maybe the first motor home! The Trukee River runs right through the middle of town. We found a Whole Foods here and did our grocery shopping. Then we went to a new shopping mall where they had a free concert. It was a country and western band which was good but we left early not being huge country and western music fans.

The Loneliest Road in America

2008-07-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

Today we drove the "loneliest road in America, Hwy 50. It's known as that because you see very few vehicles and it goes through a lot of flat land with nothing but scrub brush. We drove almost all the way across Nevada east to west about 270 miles. We stopped about half way through at a small town called Austin for lunch. It is nothing like the Austin in Texas. It was quaint but junky. They had one rv park but we decided to move on to a bigger town where are camped now called Fallon. It's got 6000 people and many more stores. Our car was so filthy from driving on dirt roads from going sightseeing that I took it to a car wash while Cindy did the laundry. We didn't see too much today as far as sightseeing goes. We did see one interesting sight. We pulled in to a turnout to switch drivers and saw a tree with hundreds of shoes draped on it. Look closely at the picture. It must be called "The Shoe Tree". Tomorrow we will visit Reno and Carson City.

Ely day 2

2008-07-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today we saw a national park, caves with formations, charcoal ovens, and went on a historic train ride. We drove to Great Basin National Park and took a cave tour with beautiful stalactite's, and stalagmites in 40 degree temperature. The we drove up to 10,000 feet to the summit of the park. We then went to see charcoal ovens where wood used to be made into charcoal. They are like brick teepees as you can see in the picture. Then we hopped a train ride through historical mining town of Ely. Mona insisted on coming with us. They are original restored trains.

Next stop- Ely, Nevada

2008-07-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

After Cindy cleaned the bugs off our winshield in the Wal Mart parking lot in Utah we took off to Ely, Nevada (pronounced Elee). It was a long hot boring 400 miles past the Great Salt Lake into the Nevada desert with not a tree in sight. We picked a different place in Nevada we hadn't been to before. It is near Great Basin National Park which has caves and pristine beauty. Ely is a historical old mining town with train rides and a museum back to the past. They used to mine garnet here and you can go garnet picking which we did. There is one area which allows people to keep what you find. Most of it is in lava rock which you have to pick out. We brought a bunch of rocks to our motor home and Cindy chiseled out what she could while I cooked dinner (oven baked potatoes with broccoli and "cheese sauce" with corn on the cob. Tomorrow we will probably go to Great Basin National Park.

On the Way Home

2008-07-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

We left Yellowstone today for home. We are taking our time to see sights we haven't seen before along the way. We traveled through Idaho and Utah today. Mostly all you see is flat land with a mountain range on the east. We stopped at a rest stop in Idaho and they have a lava formation trail that is interesting. Seems there was a big eruption there way back. Then we saw Idaho poatoes finally growing along the freeway. Cindy says they are probably red potatoes because the flowers are pink as you can see in the picture. When we got to Utah we stopped at a Wal Mart Supercenter and did grocery shopping. We are camping here tonight. The temperature was about 95. There is a Chili's next door so instead of cooking in our hot motor home and making it hotter we ate at Chili's. Wow that Black Bean burger was good! It is starting to cool down now. It is very windy but no hail storm yet.

Old Faithful

2008-07-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of "Old Faithful" that I shot on day 1 in Yellowstone. It erupts approximately every 75 minutes with 5000 gallons of boiling water shooting 150 feet in the air.

Yellowstone Day 3

2008-07-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today Sat. July 26 we spent about 3 hours seeing a few sights in Yellowstone we didn't see the last 2 days. We found out that when driving the roads in Yellowstone traffic will come to a standstill at any time because either a wild animal will be in the roadway or people will stop their cars when they see a wild animal off in the distance and so everyone has to stop a be a lookyloo, like the bear that stopped traffic, yesterday (see picture July 26).

We then went into town and had lunch at a restaurant. We ordered a cheeseless pizza and it was pretty good. Then we saw a few sights near our RV camp and happened to see a an interdenominational log cabin church that held Saturday evening Catholic Mass so we went. Our RV camp is really out in the sticks with few people and houses and stores, very peaceful.

Tomorrow we leave for home. Haven't decided exactly what we will see on the way. I-15 goes all the way to San Diego but we would like to travel through places we haven't been before. Maybe we will go through northern Nevada.

Yellowstone Day 2

2008-07-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today we did the second loop of things to see in Yellowstone. We have seen practically all of Yellowstone's attractions. We saw some big waterfalls and more geysers and wild animals. Tomorrow we are going to see some attractions by our RV park which is actually in Idaho. We may go into the town of West Yellowstone and walk around like tourists.

Yellowstone Day 1

2008-07-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the whole day at Yellowstone National Park. It was really adventuresome. We saw lots of geysers, lakes, rivers and wild animals. We also saw the fire damage that devastated the park in 1988. A lot of the greenery is coming back but we saw many dead trees sticking up out of the forest. We saw "Old Faithful" shoot up. We and many people waited 20 minutes for the show.
The amazing thing is there are geysers at a lot of different areas of the park. So you drive around to them to view the geysers. There are different colors everywhere with boiling, bubbling steam. Very few actually shoot up like "Old Faithful" but boil and bubble up showing their colors. Some you can see that drain into the lakes and rivers. Here are a few pictures, we will have more tomorrow.

Arrival in Yellowstone

2008-07-23T20:17:00.000-07:00

Today Wednesday July 23, '08 we arrived in Yellowstone. Along the way we saw a lot of rivers with rushing currents. Some people were fishing in them in fishing boots. When we got to Yellowstone we crossed right into Idaho about 20 miles to go to our RV park where we will camp for 4 nights. It is close to a big lake so tonight we hiked up a trail where we could see it. There were cows in the road by the lake that apparently gotten through their fence, so we didn't go any farther. Tomorrow we will drive into Yellowstone and probably see "Old Faithful" the famous geyser that goes off about every 78 minutes.

The Wal Mart Storm

2008-07-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

This morning we left JellyStone RV Park and made it as far as Bozeman, Montana. We drove through some rain, but the roads were generally nice. Shortly before we parked at the Wal Mart for the night there was a huge down pour. We noticed the street was flooded near a corner. It was a short but heavy rain. I stayed in the RV while Mike went into Wal Mart to shop. While he was in Wal Mart a lady parked her car in front of us and started to bail water out of it. She asked me if I had a bucket. I got a small bucket, a popcorn tub, 2 large rags and a squeegee. She, her daughter and I bailed a lot of water out of her car for about an hour. She was parked in front of Wal Mart when the huge down pour came and she was parked in a low spot in the parking lot. Later I saw a huge black cloud coming from the west. I thought it was going to rain. Well we got rain, hail, thunder, lightening and gale force winds. I thought the RV was going to tip over and I was sure the hail was going to dent the car and RV. Fortunately we stayed up right and there are no dents in the vehicles. There is just a lot of ripped leaves from the trees sticking to the car and RV. All is well now. Okay, well not all is well. when we pulled into the next RV park we discovered the awning that comes out when we pull out the slide out is now full of holes. The hail punctured it. It is there to keep leaves and dirt from getting into the RV when we put the slide out in. Oh Well, we will have it replaced when we get home. All is really well.