3-31-08 (Monday): Farewell Lake Piru! We're in Kingman, Arizona tonight, on our way to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

But first, I have some catching up to do on our Lake Piru great adventure.

We had an Easter celebration for the campers and some locals the Saturday before Easter. My fellow Workamper and friend, Linda, and I spent several hours doing face painting. It was great fun for me, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. We had a long line--must have painted 50 kids' faces!


These are the General Managers, Nita and Lon.

This is Lon with Becky, one of our new Workampers.

We enjoyed a last week at beautiful Lake Piru with my son, Mark, and his family.

We said "goodbye" to the Pacific Ocean at a little Ventura County beach.

We fed the fish at the fish hatchery just down the road from the campground.

We went to the honey farm and tasted lots of different kinds of honey. My favorite was avocado honey. Each of the boys got to buy a jar, too. Austin liked his so well that he took the whole jar on a hike the next day and ate about a third of it. He was on a sugar high for the rest of the visit!

We spent another day at the Santa Monica pier, where Wiley went fishing and the rest of us enjoyed the little amusement park (which is right on the pier).
On Thursday, we hiked from the campground all the way to the far end of the lake (note the honey in Austin's hand!). He also found a green caterpillar on the way up. He named it "Jo Jo," and we left him with deep regret in a new home, which we assured Austin was superbly suitable for a friendly green caterpillar. The knoll upon which we sit in this picture was named "Jo Jo's Knoll" in Jo Jo's honor.












The wildflowers were incredibly beautiful. It was a great hike and a wonderful way to end our stay at Lake Piru.

On Friday, Mark took us all to Disneyland. We had a wonderful (and very long) day. The boys enjoyed the rides and I enjoyed watching them. Then Mark treated us all to a night in a wonderful suite of rooms. It was incredibly nice to spend a night in a luxurious room rather than driving through weekend traffic back to camp. Thanks, Mark!

It's getting late and Wiley has fallen asleep on the couch. I'd hoped to cover at least part of our trip East tonight, but it's going to have to wait. I do want to take a few minutes to say a fond farewell to all my friends and co-workers at Lake Piru. We had a wonderful winter and enjoyed working with all of you. We hope to stay in touch, and maybe we'll work with you again sometime.

For now, goodnight. The next blog will be Joyce and Wiley's Great Adventure, Part V.

3/17/08 (Monday): Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Everyone enjoyed my wildflower pics so much that I thought I'd post a few more.
(This one isn't a flower, but I couldn't resist showing you my favorite rock. I call him "Bozo.")Wiley and I met my sister and her husband in Santa Barbara on Saturday. What a gorgeous city! On the way up, we saw acres and acres of avacado trees. No wonder they only cost a quarter apiece here! (And they taste wonderful!)









We wandered around the city a little. There are lots of little pedestrian only streets (called paseos) with interesting shops. The one we walked on had many interesting sculptures. They looked like real people! Ben and I had a fascinating conversation (but I think his mind was wandering and he was concentrating on something else sometimes).








After a lovely picnic lunch on the lawn of the Santa Barbara Mission, we went to the museum of natural history. I was fascinated by the Chumash baskets. They were beautifully and artistically woven, and were so tight that they could be used for boiling food. Wiley enjoyed the fossil exhibit, including the fossilized skeleton of a pygmy mammoth that was found at the La Brea Tar Pits.



We drove back along the Pacific Coast Highway, admiring the Pacific and the hillsides covered with wildflowers. Do we have great weekends, or what?!

3/11/08 (Tuesday): Spring has sprung here at beautiful Lake Piru! We've been enjoying some beautiful weather, new friends, fun trips and a plethora of wildflowers.

We've had three new Workamper couples start in the last couple of weeks. We've become especially close to John, who's originally from Scotland. We love to listen to him talk! John arrived in a very small motor home. He knew when he came here that he wanted to buy something bigger, but he wasn't sure what. We had him over for dinner, and he fell in love with our 5th wheel. He decided he wanted one laid out exactly like ours, and we went out with him and found one! We also helped him negotiate a very good price. He's now moved in to his new home and loving it.

We took Sunday off (I've been putting in a lot of hours in the office--loving it, but needed a break). We took the Metro to Long Beach (the south end of Los Angeles) and went on a whale watch.














Didn't see any whales, but had a great time anyhow. We saw four lighthouses, lots of sailboats, big container ships, and working fishing boats.
















It took me about 20 tries to catch the light flashing in the Point Vicentes Light at Redondo Beach, where we turned and headed back to the Long Beach Harbor, whaleless, sunburned, and thoroughly contented!









I especially enjoyed seeing the Queen Mary, which is now permanently docked at Long Beach Harbor. My father shipped to Europe during WWII when this great cruise ship temporarily became a troop ship.









We also enjoyed the view of the L.A. skyline, the docks and the busy working harbor where lots of container ships (many from China) unload their cargo.










Today we took a short hike up Piru Canyon after I finished at work.




The wildflowers are just spectacular. The first shot in the blog was taken in a field overlooking Lake Piru. (And yes, those are lupine! We saw them in Maine and Florida and now they cover the hillsides in California. The yellow/orange flowers in the first shot in the blog are poppies.)

Julie's been having severe back pain and probably won't be able to come for a visit as she had planned.

So, Julie, these shots are for you! I hope everyone enjoyed their wildflower "walk."

We're happy campers here, but we're also beginning to be excited about our coming departure. We've made reservations for a trip to the Grand Canyon on an antique steam train. We'll stay overnight in an old depot hotel, have a guided tour of the Grand Canyon, and on our return we'll stay one more night in a KOA nearby. Then we'll head East, stopping (we hope) at Painted Desert and Petrified Forest among other things. We'll spend several days in FL with Wiley's family, and then head for Boone, NC, where we're expected on 4/25. It's only about 12 hours between Orlando and Boone.

Tune in again soon, and keep those comments coming!

3/3/08 (Monday): Hi--I'm back! Sorry it's been so long since my last blog. I had an opportunity to use a free ticket, and I made a trip to Michigan to see my grandkids. I had a great time!

Before I talk about my visit, though, I want to alert everyone to some changes I've made to the way you can comment on my blog. I've noticed quite a bit of spam lately, some of which I've been unable to delete for some reason. So I've added a feature that will require you to type in the letters you see on the screen before you post your comments. This should eliminate the spam, which is generated automatically to long lists of people. If anyone has any problems with this, let me know, and I'll explain it in more detail. And in the meantime, don't click on the links in any comments unless you recognize the name of the poster!

Okay--on to my family visit. I flew out on the 26th and just got back yesterday. There were several inches of snow on the ground and we had two more storms while I was there. It was beautiful, but VERY cold!







I didn't do much--just played with my grands and visited with my son and Kristin--but it was a really special visit. It seemed like a long time since I'd seen them last, and they've grown up a lot. Claire (18 months) was just learning to walk when I saw her last and now she's running and climbing with the big girls.

Unfortunately, in addition to bringing back some wonderful memories, I also brought back a bad sore throat. Oh well, this too shall pass. I'd do it all again even if I'd known I'd catch a cold.

2/21/08 (Thursday): As promised, here's the second half of our trip to Monterey. It sure is nice to be getting comments again!

Hudson and Austin have grown up so much. They're great kids, and I had a wonderful time visiting with them. Austin spent the night with us in the RV. Hudson wasn't feeling real well, so he stayed with Mom and Dad in the motel.

Fortunately, he felt better the next day. We went fishing and crabbing, but didn't catch anything. Then we went to the Santa Cruz pier and boardwalk and rode a bunch of the rides and checked out the shops. That was fun!

Then we hit the beach at Monterey. I'd been there before and was looking forward to exploring the tide pools, but it was high tide, so there were no tide pools. We had a great time playing on the beach. Mark and Hudson went for a long bike ride while Austin and Wiley explored the beach and Heather and I visited. We also had a long walk on the trail along the cliffs. Breathtaking!





These three sea lions climbed up on the rocks just before we left. The whole coast of California just abounds with life!











Monterey is just such a gorgeous area--high rock cliffs with little pockets where there are sandy beaches. Heather and Hudson climbed among the rocks, but I played granny and stayed behind because I don't need another broken wrist!

We had such a good time that we extended our stay by one day and spent the morning together. Then, Wiley and I left around lunch and stopped in Pismo Beach (about half way home) for the night. The campground there is right on the ocean. We had a quiet night and were home by lunchtime on Tuesday. I went right back to work because the managers were at a convention in Nevada. My fellow Workamper and I have been running the office and caring for the managers' dogs. They just got back today.

It's a great life!

2/18/08 (Monday): I'm sitting in my own bed, but the bed is located in Moss Landing, California! It's neat to have your own home with you wherever you travel! The reason I'm sitting in bed at 6:45 on a Monday morning (other than the obvious fact that I'm retired and can get up whenever I please), is that my grandson, Austin, is still asleep in the bed in the living room. He's our first overnight visitor in this RV. I guess the bed is pretty comfortable, because he's normally an early riser like his Granny!

I've had a wonderful birthday weekend with my son and his family. We took our time driving here--about 6 hours. Route 101 travels close to the coast for the first half of the trip and some stunning views of the Pacific Ocean. Then it turns inland and travels through farmland. Here's a link to a map of our route: Piru to Moss Landing, CA. We saw fields of strawberries just starting to ripen, cabbage, celery, broccoli and artichokes. I'd always thought of California as a movie and tourist kind of a place, but it's actually the #1 agricultural state in the U.S. Castroville, one of the last towns we passed through before we got to Moss Landing, is the artichoke capital of the world. The picture of the artichoke field is courtesy of the Pezzini Farms website. Check it out! The restaurants in the area advertise deep fried artichokes. I'll have to try that sometime.

Moss Landing is a cute little town on Monterey Bay (see the link to the map). It has a small downtown with a couple of antique shops and restaurants.










It's a real, working fishing village. One of the last in California.












We can walk to the beach from our KOA campground, which is on Elkhorn Slough (pronounced "slew"). Elkhorn Slough Reserve is on the Pacific Fly Way, where over 350 bird species have been reported. We took a half-day kayak trip that was one of the neatest things I've every done! Mark and Austin paddled one kayak and Hudson and I did the other. Everywhere you looked there were birds, harbor seals, sea lions and sea otters. The sea otters are absolutely adorable. You just want to hug them! (I'm sure they smell awful, but you get the idea!) The kayak concessionaire told us that we should paddle like heck if they swam toward us, because they'll climb right up onto the kayaks!

I'm going to close this blog for now and finish up later. I have some more photos on the camera that I didn't download yet. So stay tuned!

2/15/08 (Friday): Happy birthday to me! We're in Moss Landing, near Monterey for the long weekend. Mark and his family are joining us, and we're going to have some fun! But I'm behind in my blogging, so I'll talk about the fun time we had last weekend in the Channel Islands.

It was a gorgeous day, and we celebrated our anniversary with a trip to the Channel Islands. They're close (about 30 miles) off the coast of Ventura. It was COLD on the Pacific, so we were glad we had our coats with us. We look like refugees, don't we?!

On the way out of the harbor, we passed this "pirate ship."






There were lots of offshore oil rigs.


The Channel Islands are sometimes called the Galapagos of the U.S. because they were never attached to the mainland. This isolation caused unique animals and plants to evolve. There are five islands: Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara. The ferry was scheduled to go to Santa Cruz, the biggest of the Channel Islands, so we didn't have a choice as to which island we'd visit.

We were hoping to see some whales on the trip over. The Santa Barbara Channel between Ventura and the Channel Islands is a major migration route for gray whales. But we hit the two week period when the migration south ends and the migration north hasn't yet begun, so we didn't see any. We did see offshore oil rigs, sea lions, an elephant seal and lots of sea birds. There was also a lot of shipping in the area, including this large container ship. The captain said there were about 30 carago ships a day.



We docked at this tiny pier in Scorpion Harbor (I don't know why it's called that).












The water was deep and very clear with lots of kelp. There were numerous fish swimming among the long strands of kelp.







There were some large rocks in Scorpion Harbor, and one of them was an arch that you could see all the way through. It's hard to see in this picture. It's in the middle rock.



In addition to the natural history on the island, there was also lots of cultural history, including remnants of Chumash Native American Indians and ranching. There were a dozen Chumash villages that were home to over 1,000 people. They mined chert deposits for tools and produced money from shells found only on the island as a major trade item by tribes throughout California. They used large plank canoes, called “tomols" to travel between islands and to the mainland.

The remains of ranches and lots of ranching equipment are also scattered around the island. We saw an adobe ranch house and barn, an outhouse (that's Wiley in the outhouse!) an ice house and lots of equipment like this old tractor.

There was also a huge oven that produced bread for the entire island and is still intact. That's an ice house that Wiley's peering into.

According to legend, Santa Cruz Island was named for a priest’s staff accidentally left on the island by Spanish explorers in 1769. A Chumash Indian found it and returned it to the priest. The Spaniards were so impressed by the friendly people that they named it “La Isla de Santa Cruz,” the Island of the Sacred Cross. The Nature Conservancy owns and manages the western three quarters of the island and the National Park Service owns and manages the rest.

A ranger met us and we were given the option of taking a tour with the ranger or hiking on our own. We opted to hike part way with the ranger and then took off on our own. The ranger told us about many of the unique plants we saw along the way and the history and geology of the islands. When we got to the top of the trail, we left the ranger and then headed off on our own for Potato Cove. It was very steep, but the views were breathtaking!











Turn on your sound and hear how winded I am as I narrate this video from the top of the island!

After the hike to Potato Cove, we turned around, went back down the big hill and then back up again and hiked to the other end of the island on the crest trail. There were views of the ocean all around us as we hiked the backbone of the island. The white stuff on the trail ahead of Wiley is diotomaceous earth, which is made up of millions of one-celled sea critters. It's used in many scientific processes and in pool filters.


It was a fantastic day. We've made some wonderful memories in California.