I’ve been a Facebook member for about the last year (at the suggestion of my children). It’s been a fun way to get little snippets of their lives and it’s also been fun to connect with folks from my previous (non-RVing) lifetime! Right now there is activity going around facebook called 25 (or 16 or 40) Random Things. It’s a exercise to come up with the required number of random things about yourself and then “tag” other folks who also have to come up with their own lists. So, before I get tagged for 40 random things – here are my 25 Random Things. This was harder than you might think!
1.I was born in New Hampshire but never lived there.
2.I currently am a Florida resident, but have never lived there.
3.Over four years ago I moved from a 4000 sq. ft. house to a 300 sq. ft motor home.
4.I LOVE my 300 square foot home.
5.Although we have been traveling for 4 ½ years there are still 12 states in the lower 48 that we haven’t spent a night in.
6.I have five beautiful children including two beautiful daughters-in-law.
7.I have been blessed with three amazing granddaughters.
8.Being a gramma is SO MUCH FUN!
9.I have an on-line journal. (stop by – www.rvthereyet.org)
10.My husband and I serve with a ministry called SOWERS – which stands for Servants On Wheels Ever Ready.
11.As a Sower I have: mowed acres of grass (using a zero-turn mower), cleaned pools, painted walls, planted gardens, cooked meals, cleaned bathrooms, folded towels and sheets, answered phones, entered data, and been blessed.
12.I started dating my husband when I was 14.
13.I dropped out of college to marry my high school sweetheart.
14.This September we will be married 38 years. Phew.
15.I love to quilt but have never made a full size quilt for my own bed.
16.I made my wedding gown.
17.I have two amazing sisters with whom I am very close.
18.I have a wonderful brother too – though I’m not quite as close to him!
19.I have seen many beautiful parts of this country, but my favorite place is still our family cabin in Vermont.
20.My husband and I enjoy geocaching.
21.My “foreign” travel has been limited to Canada, Mexico and one rainy weekend in the Bahamas.
22.We had our honeymoon at my sister’s house. Fortunately, they were not at home.
23.I still have my wisdom teeth.
24.I have never been hospitalized except to give birth.
25.Jesus loves me.

Ok, now it’s your turn!

When you’re traveling, and you get sick you often just wait until you get home before you check in with your regular doctor. When you’re traveling full-time and are thousands of miles from your regular doctor, that option disappears. Although we are often given a doctor recommendation, we have found that when you are always a “new patient” you are often told that the next available appointment is early next week. Or late next week. And because when you are feeling really punk “next week” sounds like “next year”, we have ventured into the world of The Urgent Care Clinic. I always thought that “Urgent Care” meant just one step below an emergency room. What I’m finding is that Urgent Care really means being able to see a doctor as long as you don’t mind waiting. We have checked out clinics in New Mexico, Arizona, California. The one in NM we actually drove the RV too since we were traveling between projects. In Arizona we actually got to fill out all of the paperwork on line before we even left for the clinic! The longest we have ever waited was an hour and a half, and twice we were seen within a half hour. In every case we were pleased with the care we received. As a bonus, we often walked out with a record of what had happened during the visit. Nice. The last clinic, here in Scotts Valley, though has been exceptional. The wait was short and the staff professional. The doctor was quite concerned that Gary was feeling so weak and lethargic for so long (over a week) so she ordered several additional tests. And when they all came back normal (good news but still frustrating), she continued to check up on him for several days. SHE called US to see how he was doing. We were impressed.
And of course, the really good news is that today, for the first time in almost two weeks, Gary is feeling like himself. He’s been out working, his appetite is back, and he’s only taken one short nap today. And as I write, he’s back at his computer playing solitaire. True signs of back to normal!
And while he was out this morning, I was cleaning, doing laundry and generally reclaiming the house from a week of sickness. Man, it felt good. And the timing was perfect – a friend from high school is coming over later today for a visit. Yes, high school. I don’t know exactly how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other – probably close to 40 years. I found out she lived in San Jose right after I was here visiting Lara last spring, and didn’t want to let another opportunity go by! I’m stoked!
In other catch-up type news……
We’ve had one sunny day since we’ve been here. While it hasn’t rained all day every day, it has rained every day. And the weather station is calling for about another week of this. But with Gary feeling better, I feel like even the rain can’t dampen our spirits. Plus, the Bay Area really needs the rain. So we’ll just keep our rain gear handy and enjoy the showers! Here is the view from our front window –

I’ll try to get some other shots of the campus when the sun returns! There are some amazing redwoods here!
And speaking of redwoods – HERE is the full batch of our drive through the Giant Sequoia National Park last week.

PS – It is now several hours later (than when I wrote the above). My friend, Lanette, arrived and we have had a WONDERFUL visit. I’ve thought about people tonight that I haven’t thought of in years and years! God is so gracious to allow these wonderful re-connections! She is not only a dear friend from high school, but had also become a sister in Christ since our high school days. What a grand reunion!

We’re settling in here at Mission Springs Conference Center in Scotts Valley, California. It’s located in the Santa Cruz Mountains between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Since it’s on the Santa Cruz side of the mountain we’re only at about 700 ft. elevation (as opposed to the 5000 ft. of last month) so we’re hoping that the lower elevation will be happier for Gary’s asthma.
But I think I left you all hanging back at the Super Bowl. (Pittsburgh won, btw – wasn’t it a good game?) Monday we took a scenic drive through the Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon. What an amazing drive that was! And true to form, I took picture after picture after picture. And as soon as I have a strong enough internet signal to actually upload more of them, I’ll be sharing them with you. But for now, I thought you would enjoy the landscaping around the visitor center –

We had a great day – and a wonderful long weekend with our friends, Dave and Trish, who were delighted to show off their mountains and orchards and local eateries! And we were delighted to have personal tour guides.


Dave and Trish had moved to Pennsylvania from their home state of CA around 1978 and we had become friends through Calvary Pres. in Willow Grove. Their oldest daughter, Christina (now an Air Force Doctor) was Lara’s age and their younger daughter, Cauleen (now a dentist) was just a couple of years younger. When Dave was offered a job back in California they jumped at a chance to move back home. They left Willow Grove in 1980 and I am sure we corresponded for a couple of years. I don’t exactly remember, but I’m sure by 1985 we probably had even stopped sending Christmas cards (I never was very good at that!). And yet, when I phoned them out of the blue last month (thank-you, anywho.com) they not only remembered us, but said they had just been talking about their time in Pennsylvania and wouldn’t it be fun to go back and track down those Conrads. Honest. Pretty crazy, isn’t it? Our reunion was lots of fun.
We hung around Visalia a little longer than we had planned because Gary had an asthma attack which developed into bronchitis. We checked out another Walk-in clinic, got some helpful drugs and Gary spend Tuesday pretty much asleep in the rig. We left on Wednesday afternoon, spent the night at the Costco parking lot in San Jose and pulled into Mission Springs Thursday morning.
And it’s been raining since we got here. But the locals are delighted since they need the rain badly and we are just making it a stay home and “veg” kind of day. While there is little or no cell phone here and though I can get on line it’s a very slow connection, they do provide cable TV!!! So, we’ve been O.D’ing on cooking shows, makeovers and the History Channel. Oh, and we’ve snuck in a couple of naps too!
Tomorrow I’m SURE we’ll be more industrious!
Right.

I got the present sent and made the call, but I forgot to wish our dear Eliana Grace a Happy Birthday yesterday here at RVthereyet. My humble apologies.

So without further ado -
How can it be that this precious little imp -

Has grown into this darling little girl -

Could someone please tell me where those six years have gone?
Happy 6th Birthday, Ellie!!!!
love, Grams and Pops

As much as we enjoy our Sower projects we are always excited about hitting the road when the time comes. And since so much of where we are going these days is NEW ROAD (to us) we were definitely ready to head down the mountain and see what needed to be seen!
Here is a sampling of roads that we traveled-
The down-the-mountain road

The civilized road

The civilized road through the mountains

The less than civilized road through the mountains

The REALLY less than civilized road between the mountains

OK, back to some good road….

And the ever changing scenery…

And as the roads changed, so did the view out the side window-
From the start of the day







to the end of the day, we enjoyed the changing scenery.
We made it as far as Bakersfield on our first day, and headed north to Visalia the next morning. However, the scenery was not quite as “scenic”. Not as far as we could tell anyway!

Gee, I love taking pictures out the window!

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Right now we’re sitting in the living room of friends we have not seen in 29 years (watching the Super Bowl of course!). It’s been delightful to catch up with them and they have graciously agreed to show us some of the local sights. Tomorrow we head to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon. Ooooo, more new road!
Can’t wait!