Another Week

Last week during our bike ride we stopped at a pet store where Blake purchased a feathered cat toy. One of his two Ragdoll cats, Yammi, loves feathered toys.

Yammi Bolo doing his dog imitation

The toy lasted about two minutes as Yammi grabbed the toy and thus began a tug-a-war which ended with Blake holding the stick end of the six dollar toy and Yammi running to his bed to play with the feather end. Blake pulled out the hot melt glue gun and made a repair. It was still intact when last seen in Spragga's mouth as he grabbed it and ran off to the office.

Spragga Benz about to make his getaway

Spragga is the other Ragdoll. Neither of the cats use their claws. Ever! They had to grab the toy with both paws and then with their mouth. At different times during our visit they jumped on the arm of the couch and slowly slid off as they tried to hold on with just their paws, but, not using their claws!

Just down the street from our home is an extensive county-wide trail system. I used it to ride to work on my bike from time to time. Frank, a co-worker, had commented that I liked the idea of riding my bike to work more than actually riding. Anyway, now I am walking on the trail with Tim, a friend and neighbor.

Tim on the trail

We try to get out once a day for around an hour or so unless one of us can think of a new excuse.

A tree along our walk.

In our area of California the trees are still in the process of turning.

This week we had a birthday party for Brad. At the birthday boy's request, Debbie made a burrito bar .

Debbie in the kitchen putting candles in the cheese cake

Mom, Stacey, Blake, Brad, Jill, Steve

Jill, Steve, Debbie, Robin, Stacey and Blake

At the party was my mom and sister Jill. Number three son Brad. Number two son Blake and his wife Stacey. Steve and Robin Brad's friends.

More or Less Weekly

It has turned out that the frequency of "Blogging" has decreased since Deb and I have arrived home. As I think about it, my days are filled with things familiar to me and not interesting enough to photograph or write about. But I realized that this is not the case for our friends and relatives who may be located in other parts of the US. So I am going to continue to update at least once a week with whats going on in my mundane life. After the first of the year we will leave for North Carolina on a southern route which will make our arrival in NC around mid-March.Then I will try to update every day or so. Now for a quick week, or so, in review.


I mentioned earlier that we both were anxious to visit Country Waffles for their Eggs Benedict special. I didn't mention that I also was looking forward to a Prime Rib sandwich at Barney's on Clayton Road. They have it on special just about every Thursday and Friday for lunch and I am addicted! On Thursday I rushed to Barney's to meet with Frank and Rob, a couple of friends, and take a photo to the Prime Rib. Figures. No Prime Rib and no Rob either. Rob is still working and had a workstation emergency. I had a salad and Frank and I caught up on the worlds woes. I am going to try again tomorrow.


Ty and I went with Debbie to her Office and waited for her to do her office thing. Ty wanted to get out and walk. He really likes to walk on the top of fences. So he was walking on a fence above the pool when he met a friend. His friend the Blue Jay kept flying back and forth from the fence post to a near by branch in the tree. Ty just watched with fascination waiting for him to land a little bit closer. He stayed entertained until Debbie was ready to go. The Jay wasn't that friendly after all, and never landed "just a little bit closer".

On the weekend we went over to Stacy and Blake's for a visit. The weather was; occasional clouds and cold. I guess cold is relative. In Port Susan where we were staying it has currently dipped into the teens at night. In Alameda it was a toasty 58 degrees. I brought our bikes for a ride and it felt pretty warm in the sun so Debbie and I left our coats and mittens behind. Big mistake. We discovered that when the clouds cover the sun it isn't as warm. Burrrr.




Good thing we had sweaters! We thawed out some when we stopped for lunch at Chipotle, a subsidiary of McDonald's. The burritos were ok and it was Warm inside. Reluctantly, I ate as slow as possible, we had to go back out into the cold to finish the last half of our ride.

Well I have a lot more so this will have to be continued.

Moving Day

Blake moved his project car, a '64 Karmen Ghia, out of our garage last weekend. He bought the car when he was around 14 as boxes of parts and a rusted out pan. Over the years he has completely rebuild the car and engine in our garage. It's now lovingly secured in his own garage.


Debbie is riding with Blake to his house and I'll pick her up later.

One of the the things Debbie and I have carted around with us are our electric bikes. They are really great when you get to a destination and we love riding them. The big problem is their weight. They are heavy bikes and the added weight of batteries takes them to a hundred pounds. Riding them is not the problem because of the electric motor, but loading and unloading them onto the special bike rack is time consuming taking about forty five minutes. The bike rack was designed to transport them but it seems to be getting stressed and I was afraid it was going to drop the bikes in the street at some point. We decided to leave the electric bikes and take lighter weight mountain bikes with us. It may seem to you that I am making a big deal out of this but you weren't the one loading and unloading those bikes.

Anyway we went on a bike ride in Alameda. It was a gorgeous day for riding and Alameda has wonderful bike paths and a really great one along the beach.

Blake and Stacey on Their Bikes

Ty continues to discover places in the Horizon he has yet to explore. He had trouble opening the cabinet door.

Home Again

We arrived home a week or so ago and I have been remiss in updating the Blog. The first thing Debbie and I wanted to do was go to Country Waffle for a breakfast of Eggs Benedict.

So for our first morning back we pickup my mom and headed over. Their Eggs Benedict is still the best. They have homemade sauce and at $7.99 you can't beat it. It was good to find Mom in good spirits and good health as was my sister Jill. Mom didn't want her picture taken!

Although we're home we still see wildlife. Here a Canadian Goose is walking down the middle of the street in front of the house!


On our second day back we were invited to our son and daughter's new home in Alameda for barbecued hamburgers. Brad, our other son, was also invited so that made five of us for dinner.

Blake making dinner for the five of us

Blake fixing the BBQ with his favorite tool

The regulator was not regulating and we could not get the fire going so he had to broil them in the oven. They were great! Debbie and Stacey split one between them. Did you notice in the picture above that Blake only made four burgers! They were giant size so they both had plenty.

Blake called Weber Grills the next day an although his BBQ is a couple of years old they are sending him a new regulator free of charge.

Trinidad California

The drive down the coast was picturesque all the way down and really spectacular in spots. The day was overcast but no rain and very little fog. There was a lot of wind as a high pressure system is moving into the area.

The view from the window of the Horizon during our lunch stop.

The roadway in Oregon was very good with a few curvy stretches. Just inside the California border we were stopped at the Agricultural Inspection station where they wanted our Avocados but we ate them last night with the steaks. The roadway deteriorated and then we were stopped at the first of two one way areas. Ty had been sleeping on the dashboard and pulled himself up to find out why we were stopped. It turned out at this stop a crew was working on a drain on the side of the road and had closed the lane.

Ty wants to know why we're stopped.

We arrived at the Emerald Forrest RV Park in Trinidad, California around 2:30pm. The park is located in the Redwoods. The office is on winter hours and the office was closed until 4pm so we pulled into a site and harnessed up Ty to explore the area.

At 4pm we checked into the office and paid for our site. $32 with our Good Sam discount for full hookup 30 amp pull through.

Site 18

The park is pretty much deserted, only about 5 or 6 RVs. Also it's very quite here as the highway is quite a distance away. Ty climbed several trees and found he like the Redwood trees the best because his little claws can really grip the soft bark.

Ty demonstrated his climbing technique