Thursday, March 25, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Santa and the Wrangler.....where?
Guess we should change the name of this to "Santa and the Wrangler at Home" but....yeah/no that's just not gonna happen.
For any of our faithful readers who may not be aware we did arrive home on the penultimate day of February ...exactly four months to the date that we left.....and have been immersed ever since in catching up on things left undone for four months.
Of course it's tax time so the printer has just been humming...and is nearing meltdown!
Had to stop though and share a couple of cute new clips of baby Emily ---AKA The Baby Pirahna or the Baby Beluga--she now tops out at almost 24 pounds!!
For any of our faithful readers who may not be aware we did arrive home on the penultimate day of February ...exactly four months to the date that we left.....and have been immersed ever since in catching up on things left undone for four months.
Of course it's tax time so the printer has just been humming...and is nearing meltdown!
Had to stop though and share a couple of cute new clips of baby Emily ---AKA The Baby Pirahna or the Baby Beluga--she now tops out at almost 24 pounds!!
She was eating the paper bag...
She was eating the paper bag..., originally uploaded by xxcaro.
Cute new video clip of the 'baby pirahna...cute outfit too!
Monday, March 8, 2010
dates, driving mountain passes and dirty clothes
Feb 18
After a leisurely breakfast, a quick soak, we set off to find this famous date farm and oasis that we had been told about called China Ranch. We could see a small patch of green looking like a grove of palm trees in the distance. But that’s not anywhere near where the date farm is. The directions take us in the opposite direction across gravel/sandy soil not seeing anything green. Then the road took a decidedly steep decline through the crust of the earth down this twisty, winding, steep mountain trail. The walls of this canyon are dotted with small caves. Each cave is fenced off with warning signs not to go anywhere near the openings. These are old mine shafts where borax, gypsum, and other minerals were taken. And the road continues to decline.
When we finally reached the bottom there were huge date palm trees, some trailers, one very old and majestic home with the ‘driveway’ lined with palm trees, some palapa roofed shelters supported by palm tree trunks, and a gift shop.
It was a Chinese man, Ah Foo, from San Francisco who discovered the oasis, set up camp, brought in supplies and had a business supplying the miners as they trekked through the area on their way to the gold fields.
Ah Foo disappeared mysteriously and of course the business ended, and the oasis was almost forgotten, but in the 1960’s new owners started planting date palms and the rest as they say is history.
With about 2000 trees each producing over 200 pounds of dates a year, this is a thriving business..........and the gift shops sells dates, date shakes (not really a shake but more like a Dairy Queen Blizzard), fresh cookies still warm from the oven (we had chocolate chip date cookies – not on the diet, but neither were the date shakes that we had!!). We also found another sun for our collection! They have cactus and palm tree propagation and the signage was excellent as we drove around the date farm – identifying the varieties of dates, where they came from, how much fruit they produce, etc.
Back to the RV park, another soak and we have to start pulling things together for tomorrow’s journey – Death Valley!
Feb 19
Off like a herd of turtles (about 10AM) and on the road to Death Valley. We have both been interested to see this area of the US – Ed was through here when he was about 4 years old so remembers........not too much. The entrance to the valley is wonderful and the scenery is incredible. We are slowly descending to the valley floor (about 300 feet below sea level) and the landscape is of vast expanses of flat ground surrounded by steep jagged mountains. Then we pass a sign that says the road coming out of the valley is steep and long. The map states the mountain pass is about 5000 feet so we start climbing, and climbing, and climbing. The sadistic engineer who put this road in must have used an existing goat trail, paved it over (without putting in shoulders or guardrails), and offered the naive traveller to the gods.
The road is relatively straight, just barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass, no shoulders, no guardrails for most of the road, and a never ending climb from below sea level to over 5000 feet.
We climbed steadily and the old motor home was chugging away. We knew that we were going slower than expected but when Ross looked out the passenger window a crow flew by and he swears the bird looked right at him and grinned. How are you supposed to feel when you are travelling so slowly birds can pass you easily?
The speedometer showed we were travelling a whopping 12 miles an hour!!! And then we passed a sign..........”Slow to 30”...........How the hell can you slow to 30 when you’re only doing 12MPH to begin with!!!!?????
Of course, all good mountain passes finally reach their summit and we started the descent. If we came up over 5000 feet, then we have to also come down – right? Right!! But what the maps and signage do not state anywhere is there is another mountain pass ahead. So again we climb to just under 5000 feet, but this time the road is even narrower, the drop-offs are even steeper and the road is not straight but riddled with switchbacks.
At one time Ross looked out the passenger window only to discover we were travelling on air (or so it seemed) - we were right on the edge of the road with a sheer drop off below. He tried to get Ed to get further toward the centre of the road only to have Ed say there was no way in Hell’s Half Acre we were going to be able to do that........there was a transport truck coming down the hill straight toward us. This was one of those situations when you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t – move over to the centre and get squashed or move more toward the edge of the road and see if this vehicle can fly!! We squeaked by the truck and both of us needed a change of underwear!!
When we were just about out of mountain to climb wouldn’t you know that the same sadistic engineer from the last mountain pass had found another couple of mountains to continue our torture..........What a climb!!!! And again what goes up has to come down..........this time almost straight down. If we weren’t going to burn out the engine with the climb, how about burning out the brakes on a long straight hill that looked suspiciously like a ride at Disneyland.
Suffice it to say, we made it to Lone Pine eventually and pulled into a wonderful RV park. Staff, grounds, layout, price all were great......and we made camp........with a couple of drinks right away!!!
Lone Pine is a small town resting up against the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Large boulders piled one on top of the other and long stretches of sandy soil gave this area exactly what TV and movie directors were looking for when they filmed most of the western movies and TV shows of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Remember the Lone Ranger and Tonto racing across the desert after the bad guys? That was filmed in Lone Pine. Same for Matt Dillon, Cisco Kid, and Gene Autrey – all Lone Pine.
Just north of Lone Pine are the towns of Independence, Big Pine, and Bishop. All smallish towns with Bishop being the largest in the area, and on the way from LA to the ski hills of Lake Tahoe.
There is a German bakery in Bishop that makes dozens of different breads, rolls, buns, and sweet stuff. Even though we arrived at about 4PM on a weekday, the place was packed with skiers and travellers. The smells of fresh baking were incredible and the loaves of sourdough and 12 grain we got were wonderful. Then back to the M/H, supper, another drink, and to bed. Tomorrow we will have much better roads – how could they get any worse??
Feb 20
We can’t believe that in 10 days we will be back home in Canada! How the time has flown.
We break camp and hit the road heading to one of our favourite campgrounds – Orange Grove RV park. The highway is nicely paved, very wide, and 2 lanes each way. And we had a comfortable journey to Bakersfield. Laundry – what can you say..........you feed the machine quarters, wait with everyone else for the end of wash cycles, fish out your wash and feed another machine quarters so your wet clothes can get somewhat dry – it’s a boring job but had to get done once in awhile.
There were still a few oranges on the trees but we decided to forego that pleasure and bought a box of fresh picked oranges for $12 – a box of 112 oranges and all of them sweet and juicy. Yeah......more fresh OJ. When we were in Bakersfield last year we found a cute Mexican restaurant – family owned and operated, good food, inexpensive, and homey atmosphere. For the life of us, we couldn’t find it this time but did find another Mexican place (again family owned) and had a great dinner. Tomorrow is a quick trip to Fresno for a couple of days.
After a leisurely breakfast, a quick soak, we set off to find this famous date farm and oasis that we had been told about called China Ranch. We could see a small patch of green looking like a grove of palm trees in the distance. But that’s not anywhere near where the date farm is. The directions take us in the opposite direction across gravel/sandy soil not seeing anything green. Then the road took a decidedly steep decline through the crust of the earth down this twisty, winding, steep mountain trail. The walls of this canyon are dotted with small caves. Each cave is fenced off with warning signs not to go anywhere near the openings. These are old mine shafts where borax, gypsum, and other minerals were taken. And the road continues to decline.
When we finally reached the bottom there were huge date palm trees, some trailers, one very old and majestic home with the ‘driveway’ lined with palm trees, some palapa roofed shelters supported by palm tree trunks, and a gift shop.
It was a Chinese man, Ah Foo, from San Francisco who discovered the oasis, set up camp, brought in supplies and had a business supplying the miners as they trekked through the area on their way to the gold fields.
Ah Foo disappeared mysteriously and of course the business ended, and the oasis was almost forgotten, but in the 1960’s new owners started planting date palms and the rest as they say is history.
With about 2000 trees each producing over 200 pounds of dates a year, this is a thriving business..........and the gift shops sells dates, date shakes (not really a shake but more like a Dairy Queen Blizzard), fresh cookies still warm from the oven (we had chocolate chip date cookies – not on the diet, but neither were the date shakes that we had!!). We also found another sun for our collection! They have cactus and palm tree propagation and the signage was excellent as we drove around the date farm – identifying the varieties of dates, where they came from, how much fruit they produce, etc.
Back to the RV park, another soak and we have to start pulling things together for tomorrow’s journey – Death Valley!
Feb 19
Off like a herd of turtles (about 10AM) and on the road to Death Valley. We have both been interested to see this area of the US – Ed was through here when he was about 4 years old so remembers........not too much. The entrance to the valley is wonderful and the scenery is incredible. We are slowly descending to the valley floor (about 300 feet below sea level) and the landscape is of vast expanses of flat ground surrounded by steep jagged mountains. Then we pass a sign that says the road coming out of the valley is steep and long. The map states the mountain pass is about 5000 feet so we start climbing, and climbing, and climbing. The sadistic engineer who put this road in must have used an existing goat trail, paved it over (without putting in shoulders or guardrails), and offered the naive traveller to the gods.
The road is relatively straight, just barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass, no shoulders, no guardrails for most of the road, and a never ending climb from below sea level to over 5000 feet.
We climbed steadily and the old motor home was chugging away. We knew that we were going slower than expected but when Ross looked out the passenger window a crow flew by and he swears the bird looked right at him and grinned. How are you supposed to feel when you are travelling so slowly birds can pass you easily?
The speedometer showed we were travelling a whopping 12 miles an hour!!! And then we passed a sign..........”Slow to 30”...........How the hell can you slow to 30 when you’re only doing 12MPH to begin with!!!!?????
Of course, all good mountain passes finally reach their summit and we started the descent. If we came up over 5000 feet, then we have to also come down – right? Right!! But what the maps and signage do not state anywhere is there is another mountain pass ahead. So again we climb to just under 5000 feet, but this time the road is even narrower, the drop-offs are even steeper and the road is not straight but riddled with switchbacks.
At one time Ross looked out the passenger window only to discover we were travelling on air (or so it seemed) - we were right on the edge of the road with a sheer drop off below. He tried to get Ed to get further toward the centre of the road only to have Ed say there was no way in Hell’s Half Acre we were going to be able to do that........there was a transport truck coming down the hill straight toward us. This was one of those situations when you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t – move over to the centre and get squashed or move more toward the edge of the road and see if this vehicle can fly!! We squeaked by the truck and both of us needed a change of underwear!!
When we were just about out of mountain to climb wouldn’t you know that the same sadistic engineer from the last mountain pass had found another couple of mountains to continue our torture..........What a climb!!!! And again what goes up has to come down..........this time almost straight down. If we weren’t going to burn out the engine with the climb, how about burning out the brakes on a long straight hill that looked suspiciously like a ride at Disneyland.
Suffice it to say, we made it to Lone Pine eventually and pulled into a wonderful RV park. Staff, grounds, layout, price all were great......and we made camp........with a couple of drinks right away!!!
Lone Pine is a small town resting up against the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Large boulders piled one on top of the other and long stretches of sandy soil gave this area exactly what TV and movie directors were looking for when they filmed most of the western movies and TV shows of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Remember the Lone Ranger and Tonto racing across the desert after the bad guys? That was filmed in Lone Pine. Same for Matt Dillon, Cisco Kid, and Gene Autrey – all Lone Pine.
Just north of Lone Pine are the towns of Independence, Big Pine, and Bishop. All smallish towns with Bishop being the largest in the area, and on the way from LA to the ski hills of Lake Tahoe.
There is a German bakery in Bishop that makes dozens of different breads, rolls, buns, and sweet stuff. Even though we arrived at about 4PM on a weekday, the place was packed with skiers and travellers. The smells of fresh baking were incredible and the loaves of sourdough and 12 grain we got were wonderful. Then back to the M/H, supper, another drink, and to bed. Tomorrow we will have much better roads – how could they get any worse??
Feb 20
We can’t believe that in 10 days we will be back home in Canada! How the time has flown.
We break camp and hit the road heading to one of our favourite campgrounds – Orange Grove RV park. The highway is nicely paved, very wide, and 2 lanes each way. And we had a comfortable journey to Bakersfield. Laundry – what can you say..........you feed the machine quarters, wait with everyone else for the end of wash cycles, fish out your wash and feed another machine quarters so your wet clothes can get somewhat dry – it’s a boring job but had to get done once in awhile.
There were still a few oranges on the trees but we decided to forego that pleasure and bought a box of fresh picked oranges for $12 – a box of 112 oranges and all of them sweet and juicy. Yeah......more fresh OJ. When we were in Bakersfield last year we found a cute Mexican restaurant – family owned and operated, good food, inexpensive, and homey atmosphere. For the life of us, we couldn’t find it this time but did find another Mexican place (again family owned) and had a great dinner. Tomorrow is a quick trip to Fresno for a couple of days.
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