Abbey's Road

ADDENDUM: I must make an addendum to this post as John pointed out to me that I was grossly mistaken in saying that we didn't go to the beach. John even went in the water, not on purpose, when Duke got excited over Abbey being in the water he tried to pull John in. In John's words, "...we DID go to the beach while you visited us in Manhattan Beach. We did so when we took the dogs and hiked the trails around Trump National Golf Course in Palos Verdes. We took Abbey and Duke (my yellow lab puppy) down to the beach, where they leaped, paddled, swam, and chased each other (and Abbey searched for edible sea life.)" I also forgot to mention Duke, their puppy. The poor guy was so excited to see Abbey but she wanted to have nothing to do with him. All he wanted to do was play like a normal 9 month old puppy.

I spent the previous weekend in Manhattan Beach with John Daegele, a friend from college, and his family. As is my bad habit, I forgot to get a family picture. Sorry, John. It was great to see them and spend more time with their kids. Like most families these days the kids were busy running around to sporting and other events most of the weekend. I got to see one of Nick’s soccer games and a hockey game, too. I actually have fun watching the games of my friends’ and families’ kids since I don’t have kids of my own. The weather was still a little cool, and the water definitely too cold, to go to the beach.

On Monday I took off up the coast and stopped first at Santa Barbara, a very nice and scenic city north of LA. We camped in the national forest about 10 miles out of town and in the morning drove further up the canyon. We had to cross the river, driving the RV through the water, 6 or 7 times to get to the end of the road. The water was pretty low and it was paved all the way across the river, luckily. I was tempted to get out and take a picture of the RV in the middle of the creek, but I didn’t really want to leave it sitting in the middle of the river. We hiked up along the river until it got too rocky and Abbey had a ball in the water as usual. It was so green and lush it didn’t seem like we were still in southern California. We camped at Morro Bay on Tuesday night and Abbey got to go to the beach for the first time since the Gulf Coast.
The waves were pretty tame so she even went in the ocean. As usual she found all kinds of interesting things to eat like dead fish and sand crabs.

She got to go to the beach again on Wednesday, at San Simeon, and I got to do some wine tasting at a few wineries in Paso Robles. Paso is not as well-known as Napa or Sonoma, but there are several good wineries there and it is a beautiful area. I spent too much money on wine so I decided to skip the Hearst Castle tour the next day, even though it came highly recommended. Moving on up the coast we stopped at a few more beaches plus we stopped at an elephant seal sanctuary.
There were hundreds of them mostly lying around the beach, but they were quite vocal and some were even sparring.
Abbey was dying to get a closer look, but they are supposed to be pretty mean so I didn't dare let her.

The next few days I reserved a campsite at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park in Big Sur. The drive along the California coast starting a little north of Santa Barbara up to Monterey is gorgeous with the highway right along the water most of the way, and Big Sur is probably the most popular, and most beautiful, spots along the way.
Besides having a rugged coastline, Big Sur also has huge redwood trees and the campground is in the middle of the redwood forest. The trees are so tall and thick that I had to use the lights inside the RV even in the middle of the day ‘cause it was so dark. My pictures were even too dark. On Friday, we hiked a couple miles down a road to Pfeiffer beach ‘cause they didn’t “recommend” driving RV’s down it. It was yet another beautiful spot, but unfortunately we got “sandblasted” on the beach because it was so windy. Even Abbey didn’t want to stick around. Being Memorial Day weekend it was getting really crowded so I left Big Sur and headed up to see the Kupecs again in San Jose. It seems like Memorial Day weekend at their house is becoming an annual thing for me.

Posted by Ed at 1:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I left the Kaibab National Forest in the morning, where it was in the 30s when I woke up, and arrived at Lake Meade NRA in Nevada in the afternoon where it was in the 100s. It didn’t take me long to decide to keep moving on. I only stayed long enough to let Abbey swim in the lake for a while and take a look at the map to figure out where to try next. I drove along the lake which took me around Las Vegas so I can still say I’ve never been there. By 6PM I was starving so I stopped at the Mad Greek Café in Baker which is home of the world’s tallest thermometer and is also the gateway to both Death Valley and the Mojave Desert. If my picture was halfway decent you’d be able to see that it says it was 110. Not only did I have a great gyro at the Mad Greek, but I also stopped at Alien Fresh Jerky to get some fresh jerky (made without preservatives, of course). Presumably, it’s the first choice in jerky of all aliens.

I was hoping to make it to the Angeles National Forest northeast of LA, but I was too tired and it got too late. So I did the next best thing. I found the Walmart in Barstow and succumbed to the siren song of all RVers. I “camped” for the night in my first Walmart. I didn’t get to meet any of my neighbors, but it was a pretty quiet night.

Can you make out the "Walmart"?
Some of my neighbors

Posted by Ed at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had only been to the South Rim before so when I heard the North Rim was opening on the 15th I couldn’t pass it up. I was able to get reservations in the campground for a couple of nights. I drove up to Lee’s Ferry on Sunday, the 14th, and went the rest of the way on Monday. Since Abbey wouldn’t be able to hike with me in the park I stopped in the Kaibab National Forest for a short hike before going into the park. It was pretty cloudy that day and I had already done 2 hikes with Abbey so we just did some sightseeing from some of the viewpoints. The North Rim is much farther from the Colorado River and there is only 1 spot on the rim that you can see the river from. As a matter of fact, much of what you see from the north side are actually side canyons of the main canyon. The views are still pretty spectacular though.

There is only 1 trail down into the canyon from the north side and it is quite a bear – the North Kaibab trail. It is 14 miles down to the river, but they strongly urge you not to do it in one day. Like I was even thinking about it! Since I couldn’t camp down there and leave Abbey in the RV alone overnight, my only choice was to go down part way and come back up. They recommend you get an early start so I got up at 5:30 (good thing I’ve been used to getting up early since the sun rises so early here) and took Abbey for a walk first. I made it to the trailhead by 7:15. At first I was bummed that it was so cloudy figuring that the color, and pictures, wouldn’t be too good, but later decided it was much better being cloudy and cool than sunny and hot. I took the trail down to Roaring Springs which is a mere 3000 ft. below the rim and 4.7 miles down the trail. It didn’t seem too bad until I had to turn around and come back up. I didn’t stop much for pictures on the way down figuring I’d be stopping a lot on the way up. It was good thinkin’ on my part as my legs were really hurting the closer I got to the top. For some reason one of my knees tightened up, which hasn’t happened in a long time, and it was definitely a hard climb back up. People on the trail kept saying “Good Morning” and I was thinking it’s gotta be afternoon by now. It sure felt like I had been up half the day by then. I was amazed at the age of many of the hikers. I saw 3 women who had to be in their mid-60s who were backpacking down to the river. They were going to camp down there for 3 nights. They weren’t the only ones. There was one big group of seniors who were spending the night at Phantom Ranch, a 14 mile hike in, though they only had daypacks. I keep seeing people in their later years still out hiking and backpacking which gives me hope that everyone in this country isn’t getting obese.

After a looong rest, I checked out some more of the viewpoints, but only the ones with very short trails from the parking lots. I tried to take Abbey for a walk around the lodge, but just as we got up to the lodge we heard thunder and that was enough for her. So I figured it was a good time to get a drink, sit on the porch of the lodge and watch the storms brewing over the canyon. I was pretty excited when I saw the saloon had Irish Coffee on special. So I got one to go and found an open spot on the sun porch and had a front row seat for the spectacle. Ya can’t beat that! I started talking to a group next to me and found out that they had hiked down to river from the South Rim, stayed the night at Phantom Ranch, and hiked up to the North Rim the next day. They were supposed to turn around the following day and do it in reverse again, but their bodies thought better of it and their minds agreed. There were actually 2 people in their group who did do it, and, believe it or not, they were the 2 older ones – in their 60s! I felt like a wimp only going part way down and back, but luckily I had Abbey as an excuse. But doing that hike, at least in one direction, is one thing that I’ve added to my list of things to do before I get too old. I think hiking just one direction, though and taking the shuttle back will be good enough for me. Wouldn’t want to get bored seeing the same thing twice.

Today we headed out of the park and back into the Kaibab NF. My knee was still sore and I wanted to get Abbey out some more. I did manage to get up at 6:30 to take Abbey for her morning jaunt. She seems to do much better in the morning. We ran into the 3 rim-to-rim hikers I met on the porch yesterday so they got to meet Abbey and see that I wasn’t lying about my excuse for not doing it too. On the way looking for a campsite this afternoon I saw a small pond off the side of the road. It looked like a good spot to take a break and eat lunch so I let Abbey out and she made a beeline for it. She finally came out of the water about an hour and a half later.

She didn’t even notice I ate my lunch. I felt like it made up for her being in all day yesterday. I found a decent place to camp for the night, and it turned out a few other people liked the spot too. There was plenty of room for all of us. It feels good to be boondocking again and not staying in a campground. Besides, it’s free. Tomorrow I start heading to LA. I am planning to arrive on Friday to see an old friend from college, John Daegele, and his family.

Posted by Ed at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Michael and Diana got back pretty late on the 9th. I had originally planned to take off on the 10th or 11th, but I found out that the North Rim of the Grand Canyon opened for the season on the 15th so I stuck around til then. I have always wanted to go to the North Rim but I was never there at the right time as it is only open mid-May to Mid-October.

If you’ve never had a chance to go to Sedona, you should try to someday. Not only is it a beautiful place, but just about anything goes here. There are crystal shops, psychics, vortex tour guides, and any number of different religious/spiritual groups. I didn’t go to any psychics but maybe I should have to see if they might know what my next job will be. The great thing about Sedona is that you don’t have to worry about that what you’re doing is going to look strange. Most people here are very open and accepting, and besides, there will always be someone who looks stranger than you. A lot of people think it’s the spiritual center of the country, if not the universe. In any case it is a very unique place and a very interesting one to visit. I certainly enjoyed it, met some nice people and saw some old friends. I also attended some interesting events. It never hurts to open your mind more.

Only in Sedona

I did a few more hikes but mostly in the morning with Abbey. I guess I was too busy doing other things. I didn’t even take any pictures on any of the trails, but with the views I had I didn’t feel the need to take my camera on the trails. Here are some more parting shots of the view. I’ll miss it. I think Abbey will miss the house too, though I don’t think the cats will miss her…and they’ll get to eat all of their food in peace now.

Posted by Ed at 7:30 PM | Permalink