And it gets worse...

We had the car towed this morning and learned that the front brakes,axle, brake fluid hoses and more were all melted and burned from the faulty RV tow device. We did everything right but apparently from the time we had last checked yesterday, ( a 5 hour span of time), the device had been pressing on the brakes when we were driving up and down those 7% grades. Serious bad news as the car could have caught on fire. But we are safe in our campsite with the RV. Unfortunately we have to wait for up to a week to get the parts and get it fixed, estimated at $3,000!

Also the "Rocky Fire" in our Lake County, near Clearlake is spreading and evacuations not far from us have started. Several homes have been destroyed. Luckily the winds and fire are going away from us, but we see and feel the smoke. We also can see bits of ash floating around in the air. We have checked out other campsites near or on the ocean, but they are full tomorrow but we do have a site near Mendocino for Sunday and Monday! These are pictures of the sky at noon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The journey is never the same....

Our journey is always interesting...we decided to go to a campground in a town in Northern CA, Kelseyville, on a lake not far from Mendocino. It was somewhat a splurge but we wanted a pretty place. So we left the Sacramento area and headed west towards the ocean to get here, then we see fires...not a good sign. They are a way from us now but evacuations have started in this county.

But the real kicker is the road is very twisty and narrow with 6% grades up and down and the GPS gave us a wrong turn so we had to disconnect the car to turn around. When I started the car the brake light was on along with 2 other alerts on the dash panel. The brakes hardly worked at all..my foot went all the way to the floor to get anything to happen and it sneaked terribly.We had 7 miles to go to the site and Don convinced me that we could make it , so I drove it in second gear at 15 mph to get here and made it. The tow truck will come in the morning...and here we sit...at least it is at a beautiful spot on Clearlake and we have food and beer....and I now feel refreshed after a good swim in the pool.

 

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San Diego

It has been about a week since we have been in the San Diego area. We spent last Thursday through Monday at the San Elijo State Beach Campground in Cardiff, right near Becky's cute new condo she has with her boyfriend Tim. Heidi and Ryan also tented in our site and it was so fun to have everyone together again.The weather was great which we so appreciated as we were dry camping, with no air conditioning. All we did was talk, sit on the beach, watch the guys surf and relax. Perfect! And we got to have fresh fish and tacos which were at a small stand next to our site.

Views from our camper's window:

 

Here we are at the edge of the beach: PS our RV is now named Woof!

I then spent a day with Becky, Tim and Ellie at their condo:

 

 

Monday afternoon we drove in the traffic to Heidi and Ryan's new home which I just fell in love with..it is an old 1950s home , that has lots of tropical plants and trees around it and even a koi pond. The inside also feels so tropical and open with its colors and design...kinda want to just move right in...

We are blessed to have the girls so close to each other so we could go back and forth between homes and are already excited about returning for Christmas.

 

 

 

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Heat

I just don't do well in heat, what can I say?? We left San Diego today and to avoid the LA traffic we went inland into the high desert to get around the city. Problem is the heat. We found a good campsite north of LA on a lake, BUT they won't allow swimming... Really? But we did at least sneak in Sophie for a quick dunk! It was 106 in the shade and don registered 116 when the thermometer rested on the RV. Not good. Thank God our air conditioning is now working for "Woof" , our Rv.

Tomorrow we will head for the coast as soon as we can after SF. ...

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Grand Canyon

I always wanted to take Don to the Grand Canyon as I have wonderful memories of an old family rafting trip on the Colorado through the Canyon. It did not disappoint. I feared too many people and although there were many (few spoke English!), the GC staff have an incredibly organized system with busses and lots of facilities. We went to the north rim for a few hours from Kanab, then the next day drove a long distance to the south rim. We walked much of the rim trail, had drinks at the hotel El Tovar, and then the next day hiked down into the Bright Angel trail. In the evening and early am we were greeted by Elk at our campsite.

We are now in Yuma, Arizona, the last stop before San Diego, when we finally see the girls. I have to be truthful to say that this will be my last trip to Yuma...it is so hot, over 100 degrees and they say that is mild for this time of year. It is so ugly..loaded with "over 55" RV campgrounds and not much else.

But we had to go this route due to a bridge washout on rt.10. It will all be worth it though....

 

 

 

 

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We fell for Capitol Reef!

We arrived to much cooler temps in Capitol Reef...we wondered what this park would really be like as the road to get there was so barren..miles and miles and miles of just rolling sage brush...almost scary to see nothing else anywhere! I had this fear about a break down, but we were so happy when we arrived. Incredible scenery...huge red rock faces amidst green groves of fruit trees. ( peach, apple, cherry, apricot trees) and Don was ecstatic to see the little store/museum with fresh pies from those trees!

Had some problems with the RV battery but otherwise perfect!

This am we drove to Kanap, Utah and had a brief spectacular visit to the north rim of the Grand Canyon..unexpected so I didn't have my camera, but we are on to the south rim tomorrow!

View from camper in the morning at Capitol Reef:

 

 

 

Petroglyphs

 

 

 

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And the beauty of Arches National Park, Utah

Despite the heat the park was gorgeous

 

 

 

 

And this is the view from our campsite:

 

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Goodbye Lake City, hello Arches!

We had the best time in Lake City with our friends. It actually felt like coming home. Great to see folks at the Pleasant View Resort and wonderful to see all the mountains and flowers. It was quite cold there, which we loved. It actually got down to about 38 degrees when I walked Sophie early one morning! We jeeped and hiked part of the Colorado trail and ate lots! A true fun vacation.

This morning we drove to Arches National Park area and will soon visit it. Right now we are doing a quick laundry and coping with the heat. We woke to 40degrees and it is now 94! A killer...I know I will never live in this kind of heat if I can help it.

Below are a few more pictures from the last few days:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So much to share!

We have been without Internet and phone most of this week so haven't posted, but what a wonderful week it has been with friends Kathie and Harry Palmer and Wilma and Tom Vuono. We've wandered around in Nederland, camped at Gunnison and hiked and explored Crested Butte, and have been Jeeping and hiking in Lake City. Since Internet is poor I will try to post just a couple of pictures

 

 

More to come soon!

 

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The bunny did it!

The car is now all fixed and no major problems....it was a bunny that ate through critical wires connected to the transmission. Moth balls are now under the car as we certainly don't want that to happen again! And the RV is now good to go too.

It has been surprisingly cool and rainy here so we took some nice drives and looked at a few houses on the market. One was so far out we even found a burro wandering the road! Today we went to Georgetown, a cute old mining town just off of rt. 70 but with a real remote feeling...wonderful galleries and a great little restaurant for lunch.

Below are a few images from our drives:

 

Georgetown

And then there are the many, many magpies that crow next to our camper ALL the time:)

 

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