12/10/07 (Monday): We've been busy having fun. I hope you vicariously enjoy some of our little adventures of the past week.

First, I have to show you that we're enjoying the Christmas season. Here's our casa all decked out. We have a 4-foot tree, a stuffed reindeer on the door (he sings "Felice Navidad") and twinkle lights on our canopy. Tonight we even had a fire in our fireplace. We cooked some fish over the coals.



Of course, we're pretty well decorated in the daytime, too (deer, hummingbirds and acorn woodpeckers are very colorful).












A few days ago, we visited Ojai. It's a cool little historic town in the mountains just north of us.

This is Ojai Elementary School, and the tower is the Post Office--fancy, huh?












Yesterday was Piru's Christmas parade. We had a great time! There was quite a crowd, and the whole thing was very well done. There were horses, a band, several floats, decorated cars and Santa on a fire engine.






We also visited a woodworker's shop in the Piru Train Station that I'd been wanting to check out. The owner spoke with us for quite a while. He's lived in Piru his whole life and was very familiar with the history of the area. He does beautiful work.
















Our final adventure this week was a hike to the head of Piru Canyon, where Piru Creek flows into Lake Piru. It's about 5 or 6 miles, round trip. We could understand why we don't get a cell phone or TV signal--we're surrounded by some pretty tall mountains!

Great fun--wish you were here!

12/4/07 (Tuesday): Just in case you go back to look at previous blogs, I have deleted the slideshows from the previous two blogs. They were causing everyone (including me) too many problems. It took forever for them to load.

Is anybody tired of hearing about our good times yet? If so, you might as well log off now, because we've had some really good times in the past week!

First, we went to Port Hueneme for a little crabbing, fishing and relaxing. Port Hueneme is almost due east of us, near Oxnard. The name is from a Chumash Indian word meaning "resting place." There's a large naval base here, and the whole area is spic and span and attractive. We caught lots of little rock crabs, but none of them were big enough to keep. I finished some Christmas crocheting projects and also read for a while. The weather has just been gorgeous; warm during the day and very cool at night. By the way, don't go looking for a neat chair like mine, because you won't fine one. Wiley made it for me from bits and pieces he found at the campground in Michigan. Pretty cool, huh?!

I keep forgetting to mention that there's a clear view of the Channel Islands from many of the beaches in this part of California. To quote from the Park Service brochure:

"Close to the California mainland, yet worlds apart, Channel Islands National Park encompasses five remarkable islands (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara) and their ocean environment, preserving and protecting a wealth of natural and cultural resources. Isolation over thousands of years has created unique animals, plants, and archeological resources found nowhere else on Earth and helped preserve a place where visitors can experience coastal southern California as it once was.

It's a place we want to visist eventually. You can catch a ferry near here. I don't know if they show up in this sunset picture, but there are also offshore oil wells visible from many of the local beaches.

Our next day trip was to the painted caves near Santa Barbara. Of course, in our usual fashion, we made a few stops along the way. The first one was to have breakfast in a little diner in Piru. It's tiny, run by a local Hispanic family whose roots go way back in Piru, and really quite wonderful! It's very clean and the food is great. I had huevos rancheros--yummy! It was a great start to the day.


Then, as we were driving toward Santa Barbara, we decided to turn off on Fish Hatchery Road, which we'd seen many times and wondered about. There was indeed a fish hatchery back there that stocks many local lakes. It was quite interesting to see all the different sizes of fish and read the interpretive signs about how they are raised.


The water in the ponds comes from wells and is filtered and aerated. After it leaves the ponds, it runs into Santa Clara creek. Just the other side of the fences (the ponds are completely enclosed to keep out the wading birds), there were a huge number of birds gathered in the lovely, clean water. I'm sure the poor things were tortured by the fish just out of their reach!



Finally, we headed off for Painted Cave State Historic Site. It's at the top of a very narrow, winding road. There's a small sandstone cave with religious paintings made by the Chumash Indians in the 1600's. They are incredibly bright and colorful. It's hard to believe how old they are, although some of the graffitti that was carved over top of the paintings has dates in the 1880's. We couldn't get very good photos because the cave faces north and the light wasn't good, but if you're interested there are some good shots at this website: Painted Cave

Since we were so close to Santa Barbara, we couldn't resist one more stop. We went to El Presidio de Santa Barbara. It was founded in 1782, and was the last in a chain of four fortresses built by the Spanish along the coast of California. The other fortresses were in San Diego, San Francisco and Monterey. El Presidio sits right smack in the middle of downtown Santa Barbara, and is mostly a reconstruction. It's kind of confusing because there are modern buildings and roads interspersed with the historic portions of the fort. This poster shows the original layout. It was a fun way to end a great day.


So that was our week--hope you're having great adventures of your own!

11/28/07 (Wednesday): I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday as promised. I'll make this one extra special to make up for it! I'm going to do a combination of pictures posted with the text and more pictures in a slideshow. Those of you who couldn't see the last slideshow may just need to wait and let it finish loading--it takes a long time, especially if you have dial-up! You can click on any of the pictures in the slideshow and see the pictures larger and control the show.

Today was a workday, but we finished up at noon, so I'm sitting in the RV admiring my little Christmas tree and listening to a CD as I type this. Wiley is out picking cans and bottles out of the dumpsters. He made $81 last week! It's amazing what campers throw out--there's a five cent deposit on every bottle and aluminum soda can!

Anyhow, I want to tell you about our great Thanksgiving week. It started the week before Thanksgiving with a visit with my sister, Jan, her husband, Jim, their son, Tim, Tim's wife, Rosie, and their baby son, Ben. This is Rosie with Ben and my sister, Jan. Ben is Jan's first grandchild, and he's a real cutie! Rosie is British--love her accent!




We met in Ojai at Jim's mother's house and then drove to a beach near Santa Barbara. We had a picnic lunch and a quick walk on the beach, then it was on to Solvang.








Solvang is a neat Danish town in the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara. The name is Danish for "sunny field." It was founded in 1911 by a group of Danish teachers who wanted to escape from the cold Midwest. The buildings are all old-style European and there are lots of flowers. Jan and I visited several of the shops while the rest had a beer in the pub.









We left the next morning on Amtrak for Mark and Heather's. We boarded a bus in Fillmore (about 18 miles from here) which went to the Bakersfield train station where we caught the train to a town near Walnut Creek and then the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to Walnut Creek. We left at 8:30 AM and didn't arrive at Mark's until 6:00 PM, but it was very relaxing to be able to sit back and watch the scenery and not worry about traffic. We packed sandwiches and cold drinks, but next time I think we'll eat in the dining car--it wasn't expensive, and the food looked good (sandwiches and salads mostly).

Mark and Heather arrived home from Hawaii about 8:00 PM the same evening. We had decided in advance that we'd have our Thanksgiving feast on Friday, so on Thursday we had a laid back day. We played Monopoly, took a short hike (this picture was taken from the top of the hill behind Mark's house), watched a video and just chilled. We all pitched in and cooked on Friday--Turkey and gravy, stuffing with cranberries and apples, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans with prosciutta (sp?) and two kinds of pie for dessert. Yummo!

Now we're back at home, watching the hummingbirds on our feeder, visiting with our neighbors and enjoying life. I'll talk to you all again soon!

11/19/07 (Monday): I'm trying something new (again!) in this blog. If I do it right, you should be viewing a slideshow of Piru, Fillmore and Santa Paula scenes in the sidebar. Let me know if you like it!

Not a lot to talk about tonight. Yesterday was Wiley's 51st birthday and we went out to dinner with the other two Workamper couples. We had a very pleasant evening.

On Saturday, I got a call from my sister. She and her husband, Jim, were in Ojai at Jim's mother's house. Ojai is about 45 minutes from here. Since Jim had some work to do for his mother and Wiley wanted to go fishing, we arranged to meet at the Ventura pier. Wiley stayed on the pier to fish, Jim bought some stuff at the hardware store and went back to Ojai to work on his Mom's house, and Jan and I came back to Lake Piru. We had a wonderful afternoon--took a tour of the campground in the golf cart, crocheted, and talked and talked and talked! We picked Wiley up and drove Jan back to Ojai where we had pizza with Jim's mother (95 years young). It's so great to be able to have my sister drop in. She's lived overseas or across the country from me for so long.

Wiley and I worked today, then drove into Thousand Oaks, a big town across the mountains from us. It's where the Reagan Presidential Library is. We just needed to get some repairs made to our cell phone, get an oil change and explore a little. It was fun, but the traffic was horrendous (it's very close to Los Angeles). We might go back sometime and take a look at the Presidential Library.

Tomorrow we meet Jan and Jim and go to Santa Barbara and Solvang to explore. On Wednesday, Wiley and I catch a train to Emeryville to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with Mark and his family. I hope everyone has a great holiday.

11/13/07 (Tuesday): Greetings from sunny Southern California! We're having a blast. This is a beautiful part of our country, and very different from any place we've ever lived before. We're settling in very nicely and enjoying the company of some great people. Here's our casa, snuggled under a couple of olive trees with a hummingbird feeder that stays constantly busy.

Wiley has picked a couple gallons of ripe olives and is processing them in a brine solution.






It's a fun place to take walks. We had heard that the famous California happy cows (from the commercial) lived on adjacent ranchland. We saw them one evening. They look very contented, but the green pastures in the commercial were nowhere to be seen!
The deer who wander the campground are also happy and laid back! They like to eat the olives.









This is some of the damage from the recent fires. They're the remains of outbuildings of the adjacent ranch. If it hadn't been for the lake, this whole area would be devastated.

On Sunday we went into Ventura (about 30 miles from here). We were having a light rain (very much needed), so we visited the old Mission San Buenaventura. It dates back to 1749, although it's been added to and reconstructed a number of times. This picture is from their website. We couldn't get to the front of the mission because of construction in the area.
We wandered the courtyard and beautiful gardens behind the mission and went in a small museum where there were vestments and historic items. It was very interesting.








Afterwards, it started clearing up, so we went to the Ventura Pier. It's very historic. The Chumash Indians launched their plank canoes, called “tomols” from this beach. They conducted a busy daily trade of fish, shell bead “money”, acorns and other goods with other villages along the coast and on the Channel Islands from this area.

In the 1860s, the primary form of transportation in the Ventura area was ships. But without a wharf the vessels had to anchor offshore, which made loading and unloading difficult. Then in 1871, a man who transported people and goods from the ships to the shore on barges proposed building a wharf. It was completed a few years later, and there's been a pier here ever since.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, so we decided to take a drive through the Los Padres National Forest to the Bitter Creek Condor Sanctuary. We didn't see any condors, but it was a gorgeous drive. I have a couple of videos I was going to post, but my dial up connection is too slow, so I'll just put a couple of still pictures here. If you'd like to learn more about condors and the sanctuary, click on this link: Bitter Creek Condor Sanctuary.



Today we worked around camp, did a little grocery shopping and generally vegged out a little. Tomorrow is a workday. Wish you could all be here to share our adventure in person. We're having so much fun!

By the way, I put a counter on the blog so I'll have some idea how many people are viewing it. If I succeeded, you should be able to see it on the upper right side of the blog.

11/9/07 (Friday): This is my first blogging via dial-up internet experience. I hope it won't be too slow! We finally got our land line installed so that I can now access the internet at will (if somewhat slowly). We're isolated here, but there are some advantages to that. We have deer wandering the campground, lots of birds, and a gorgeous view of the mountains that are isolating us. I have lots to report, so I'll get right to it.

Last Thursday we made a spontaneous decision to drive up to Mark and Heather's for a few days. We packed up some camping gear and left Friday morning. We took the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping for one night on the way up and one night on the way back. We did loads of sightseeing. The Coastal Highway is magnificent--great views of the Pacific Ocean from the coastal mountains. Our first stop was the Hearst Castle, the vacation home of William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate.
Wiley wasn't interested in the tour, so he made use of the nearby fishing pier.

What a magnificent place. It had indoor and outdoor pools, a fabulous art collection, beautifully furnished rooms and three guest houses. The Hearst family still owns all the surrounding ranch land, where they mostly raise cattle. I was amused in the formal dining room to see the typical place settings that Hearst used. The ketsup and mustard, paper napkins and inexpensive blue willow reproduction china were apparently the norm.



We stopped every few miles along the way as the sights got more and more spectacular. The highway is an unbelievable engineering marvel. It clings to the mountains, crosses deep canyons with long bridges and traverses what must be some of the most incredible views in the world.






There were lots of places where you could access the shore, which ranged from sandy beaches, to rocky beaches, to high cliffs with crashing waves. At one of the pullouts, we saw these sea lions. They weren't more than 10-15 feet away from us! The big males seemed to be fighting. They'd raise up and bump chests while making this pig-like noise. It was really cool!




It was so good to see Mark and Heather and the boys again! It had been almost a year--the longest stretch I'd ever gone without seeing them. Heather had a bad cold, so I really appreciated her putting up with unexpected visitors. They've completely renovated their kitchen, and the house looked great.




On Saturday morning, we took the ferry to Angel Island and hiked all the way around the island (about 5 miles). I saw on the news yesterday that there's been an oil spill in San Francisco Bay near Angel Island. That's awful. It was a beautiful natural area, within sight of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. We saw deer and all kinds of birds. I hate to think of all the animals that will be killed.


We came back via a more inland route, but we still camped on the ocean. California has beautiful campgrounds with access to the Pacific. We were tent camping, and it was pretty cold at night, but being able to walk across the dunes to a lovely beach was very nice. Pismo Beach, where we camped on the way back, has real firm sand and there were a lot of joggers, dog walkers and people riding bikes. I just sat and people watched until the sun went down. Wiley, of course, went fishing!





To end on a funny note, I just had to share this funny picture. This pelican is just so dopey looking--he makes me laugh every time I look at him!

Well, I've got to do laundry and a little house cleaning today (and maybe make a trip into town for some groceries), so I'll call it good and close now. Have a great day!

11/4/07 (Sunday): Well, I couldn't wait to do the blog about Sequoia, so I'm doing a second one in a day. (It's so nice to have internet access!)

First, I forgot to post a video of Lake Piru, so take a peek at this.

I also took this video of some of the deer at the campground. (This was actually meant to be a still shot, but the camera was still in video mode, but I'm posting it anyhow, because the deer looks like he's actually posing for the shot.)

Okay--now on to Sequoia National Park. We did this as a day trip because we were laboring under the delusion that it was about a 2-hour drive to get there. Turns out it took closer to 4 hours (each way). We saw the fog rolling in when we were still about 20 miles away.








The road into the park was under construction and they were letting folks through in one lane. We faced about a 45-minute wait, so we stopped at Hospital Rock. There are pictographs here made by Native Americans almost 800 years ago. You'll recall that pictographs are painted on rocks, whereas petroglyphs are carved.







By the time we got into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, we could barely see the Sequoias! These are some monster trees. It was like driving in a cathedral. The experience awed and silenced us. As we drove through the huge stands of trees, we didn't talk or play music--just stared in awe.













We saw a little crowd beside the road and stopped to see what they were looking at. I couldn't believe how close the people were standing to this VERY LARGE bear! I stood in the open door of the truck and used my telephoto lens to take this shot. I know that bears can move very fast when they want to, and although this one looked very laid back, I wasn't taking any chances!










As sunset approached, we climbed above the fog that had settled in the valley below us.











We were at about 10,000 feet now.













Wiley insisted That I post all 3 of my sunset photos. I like the one with the dead tree best. He likes the one with the sun behind the tree best. What's your favorite?










As we began our descent, we noticed there were patches of snow here and there. It got dark very early, and it was a l-o-o-o-n-g ride home in the dark, but we had enjoyed the day so much that it was worth it.









Okay--that's it for another day. Time for a bath and bed. We went to Angel Island (near San Francisco) today, so I have fodder for another blog as soon as I download my pictures.

11/4/07 (Sunday): We're in Walnut Creek, visiting my son, Mark, and his family. (Yay for family, yay for internet access!) I'm going to to make up for lost time over the next couple of days, starting with a tour of our new home area, then our trip to Sequoia National Park and I'll finish up with our drive up the Coast Highway.

To get to Lake Piru Recreation area from I-10, you get on I-5 and get off on California Rt. 126. the little town of Piru is attractive.











It's not big enough to have a grocery store, but it has two little general stores about the size of a convenience store. One of them is owned by a woman named Elva (my mother's name)! Of course, I had to go in and introduce myself and chat with her a bit.








Most of the houses are smaller, older homes, but this B&B is one of several beautiful old places.













Leaving Piru, you drive up (up, up) a narrow mountain road. There are some green patches on the barren mountainsides, including orange groves and a horse ranch. It looks really funny to see oranges growing on the sides of a hill. Piru and its neighboring towns, Fillmore and Santa Paula, are considered the heart of citrus country. There are vast groves of orange, grapefruit and lemon. They also grow avocado, pistachio, olives and garden crops like peppers.




You cross a fast-moving creek a couple of times, and then you look down on the dam and Lake Piru.











The campground is beautiful--it sits in a 100-year-old olive grove (which I didn't take a picture of for some reason). The black-tailed deer wander the campground day and night (this shot was taken through my kitchen window).









We don't have a view of the lake from our campsite, but it's an easy walk to get there. There's a marina and concession. You can see where the mountains burned in the recent fires. Everything is still so dry. It's kind of alarming, but the people here take it in stride. In fact, one woman joked with me that they call this part of the country "Shake and Bake."

That's it for this time. Next time (probably tomorrow) we'll tour Sequoia. When we get back to camp on Tuesday, we'll probably have a telephone and dial-up connection to the internet!