Escape from LA (NOT with Kurt Russell)

We may have forgotten to mention that the dog loved the previous day's visit to De Oro beach park. She especially enjoyed digging at the high water mark and unearthing matter that had previously been alive, or at least smelled that way. It was actually the first time we had seen the dog roll into a pile of offal. Hmmm - part of our previous evening's festivities involved a deep sink, a dog reveling in added attention, a bunch of rags and a delightful ginger conditioning shampoo that had been liberated from some hotel in days gone by.

The morning found us much fonder of Bandit - as you can well imagine.

And so, preparations for departure continued until about 10:45 when we tearfully said "'till again" to Ralph and Jacquie.

We headed down the highway constantly checking the outside temperature as we sallied slowly south simply seeking sunlight to warm our thick blooded bods. The temperature rose to a balmy 72 degrees before we finally pulled over east of LA.

Beautiful wispy clouds and an oceanscape.....until you see the oil rigs out in the middle of the sea.

Not sure what the name of this one is......but you can see a bridge going out to a little island.

Oh yeah - the title of the page is "Escape from LA"... well, as the faithful reader knows, we landed in LA on November 22 and proceeded to collect the jeep, meander around, buy a trailer and visit friends. Well it was now over a week later and we were north of LA by 200 miles and headed south to the warmer route east.

I'll tell you about the escape, but meanwhile...

One of Sharon's favorite towns north of LA was Thousand Oaks. The trees were turning colors, the valley was spectacular with soft rolling hills that looked like casually dropped velveteen blankets, the houses were hacienda style, the traffic was moderate and it appeared to be a really, really, nice place to live. Sharon was ready to move, again.

Then we got closer to LA.

Years ago I (Doug) had heard that LA had 14 major highways and you couldn't get anywhere. Believe me, that's still true. After a few hours of battling traffic on four and five lane highways, cutting our way through the brown haze that LAians call air and following route 210 (to 10) east through LA, Burbank, Pasadena, Montecito, Santa Barbara and all the other towns you've heard about on TV and the movies (Oh, oh - we went through San Dimas - made famous in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - which we all know is a MUST SEE movie) and finally landed in Beaumont at the local Elk's hooked to their electric and water - pheeeewwww.

Apparently, my coffee mate decided to take a small sojourn of it's own while we merrily drove about. The disaster only rated a 1 on the richter scale - and Bandit did her part to clean up the mess on the floor.

Sharon, on the other hand, was educated by an upper cabinet door in these tight spaces. Seems you can't leave a door open, stoop down and then try and stand up quickly. We took turns rubbing her noggin.

Tomorrow should have us at the HOT SPRINGS in Palm Springs followed by a visit to the Joshua Tree National Park.


We plan on continuing East to Phoenix-ish and then a straight shot North to Denver. Let's see how that works out - stay tuned!

Montana De Oro State Park - Shell Beach and Seal Rescue

We took a short drive over to Montana De Oro State Part with Jacquie and Ralph and happened to get there as a seal rescue was going on. The seal had been attacked, by a shark more than likely, and was laying up on the beach. A truck and 6 people were there loading it into a cage to take it where it could be cared for. A beautiful warm day.

Doug and Bandit playing in the sand.

Off in the distance you can see Morro Rock across from the three cooling towers of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power station.

The rescue truck got stuck trying to get off the beach. For once, Doug did not get involved - but watched as they deflated the tires and repeatedly tried to get enough speed to overcome the softer sand just above the tide line. With some relief, we all watched the truck make it's escape to higher ground with the saved slippery slashed sore seal safely stowed soon sedated and on the way to the rescue center.

Our friend Jacquie.

Cutie Pie  - you may notice the mustache is a little sparse - seems Doug had trimmed part of one side a little too much a few weeks ago. Tried to offset the mistake by trimming the other side - and so on and so on - until one day he said "the heck with this" and promptly shaved the bugger off.

Eeekkk!

Beach shots. Jacquie and Sharon spent lots of time looking at all the colored rocks and shells and digging for more. Filling pockets, searching, sorting, comparing, saving and trading was part of the day's activities.

Cool looking sedimentation in the rock - it's amazing how the tectonic forces have wickedly convoluted the striated layers everywhere in southern California. We've seen amazing jutting rocks, peaks, cliff faces and folded deposits at every turn.

The excursion was followed with a stop at Starbuck's (gratuitous plug) and then dinner at Ralph and Jacquie's favorite cafe.

We're back on the road tomorrow - heading towards the warmth...

Elephant Seals and the Hearst Castle

Waking early is not on our project list, and we managed to fulfill that goal once again. To be truthful, Doug was up early trying to find out what the myriad of unknown noises were in the neighborhood. Seems he was suspecting there might be an irrigation system in need of repair (when will he ever learn).

After a slow rise and playing with Bandit, Jacquie and Ralph took us to their favorite coffee shop for fresh baked rolls/bagels/buns and a chance to sit in the shop's private garden/nursery. It was cold out, but they had a gas-fired radiant heater going which almost made us feel like we could get a tan.

Following the coffee, we debated about seeing the Hearst Castle or seeing some elephant seals along the coast. Nature won out - as it should - and off we went to see the seals. Here's a shot of Sharon, Jacquie and Ralph peering over a fenced cliff that overlooked a beach where the elephant seals were sunning. The cliff was only about 20 feet high - so we could hear all the snorting and huffing. Sharon was overheard commenting about Doug's snoring... hmmmmm.

They are the coolest.  They give the funniest braying sound.  The little ones like to play by bumping each other around the necks.   We saw some coming onto the beach from the ocean and others on their way back out.  It is possible that they go back into ocean at night, probably because the water may be warmer than the air...go figure.

This is as close as we came to the Hearst Castle.

Sunset on the way back from the elephant seals, like before 5pm, can you believe it?

Reorganized and ready to go.

Okay, so now I'm better organized and actually have WI-FI again, so thought I'd do an update.

Sharon and I have left Hawaii after buying a home in Florida, getting married, selling business, combining households and shipping stuff.

Leaving our family and friends, Doug's son Douglas and daughter Elisa and their spouses, Amy and Greg, was a hard task and I still tear up, even as I write this (I'm an old softy). As well as Sharon leaving all her clients of many years and the community of friends that had been nurtured and supported over her 15 years on the island was emotionally and tearfully tuff for her..  But, the future is just around the corner and adventure is calling.

We landed in LA, collected the Jeep and the dog and travelled around a small part of CA looking for a small trailer. We meandered, as we have over a month to kill as our household wends it's way east to the new house in Florida.

Thanksgiving Day found us heading towards Death Valley. But the highlight of that day was when we drove along - as we thought about and missed the family and traditional turkey dinners - knowing we'd have something very simple such as crackers and cheese, perhaps with a peanut butter garnish - when we passed through Trona, California.

Well, Trona is famous for mining soda ash and apparently equally famous for not having many residents. But, as we drove through, I spied a few POW flags, American flags and an ELKS emblem emblazoned on the side of a building. And, wouldn't you know, there was a sign stating "Thanksgiving Dinner 2-6 pm." As we drove by, Sharon suggested we stop and we did. What a great group of people, good turkey and fixin's mixed with tales of how this one and that one used to hula back in "the day." We shared laughs, my same old three jokes and made it out of there about midday, all the richer for the experience.

After leaving Trona, we continued on our way to Death Valley. The ride was longer than we had thought (having gotten on the road well after 2pm), the scenery was beautiful, but rugged, and when we got to the valley it was just past sundown. The stars were incredible as there was no light pollution and we could see the Milky Way as clearly as I used to when a kid. The valley was cold and arid at night - I can see how it got it's name. We have been to the lowest point in the US and left our mark.  

We escaped alive and headed towards the nearest Motel 6 (dog friendly chain). 

The Internet led us to a fellow (John) living in Isabella Lake that owned a Scamp trailer. John was an affable gentleman, living an easy modest life. We inspected the trailer, ended up staying overnight in another town (again because we got on the road late) then worked a deal over the phone. Later, we picked up the trailer and began our terribly terrific travel trailer trip towards Tampa.

Not having any list, we stumbled upon Soda Lake on the Carrizo Plain (http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/bakersfield/Programs/carrizo.html). Our iPhone AroundMe program laid out the roadway to take. Up the semi-paved road to the oil pump fields, through the wells onto dirt roads over the undulating hills. We dragged the Scamp, held our breath and climbed the mountains and down the other side, while towing the trailer. This was wilderness and the open range. No humans, just gopher holes and vast expanse. Finally after more than an hour of back trails, washed out ruts and sand pits, we spied the soda lake glistening in the far distance (the park is over 250,000 acres). We kept driving, hoping to get to the lake as storm clouds grew behind us and started climbing over the hills we had just traversed. We feared the rains would wash out our escape route and give validation to the sign we had seen back in the oil fields that had simply said "Roads Impassable During Rains." We remembered the Donner Party from years earlier and new it would be a long hard winter on that side of the hills...

With the dimming light, (as it gets dark here early, and......again.....we got on the road late in the day)....gathering storm clouds and disappointment we headed back out of the valley. We had fun, the dog dug for gophers and chased birds and the jeep was warm and cozy (did I mention we were freezing our butts off).

We survived the escape over the mountains and started looking for a campground, Walmart (many allow campers overnight) or an Elks lodge with hook-ups for trailers.

As we travelled down the well paved two-lane highway we noticed a sign "Soda Lake Road - 7 miles. Yup, there was a friggin' paved road that drove up to within 75 feet of the soda lake. Soooooo, as Nixon said {explicitive deleted}, we drove comfortably to the lake, parked easily and walked out onto the salt. Bandit (that's the dog, by the way), went nuts. The cushy, for wont of a better word, surface felt good to her feet and she became a racehorse. We also loved the walk and, yes, I tasted the salt. We didn't have to go over the hills, rocks, sand, ruts and cliffs using the back trails - but sharing that adventure with each other was the best. I guess the journey is the best part.

Here's Sharon bundled up on the salt with the Scamp in the background.

After sunset, we headed back towards the coast (West, that is). We had now been in California for six days and were about 200 miles from our original starting point!

Stayed the night in a Walmart lot with brief interaction with other travelers and the next morning had breakfast, coffee and were off to visit our good friends (recently moved from Kailua Kona to San Luis Obispo), Jacquie and Ralph. Their house is shown below - beautiful gardens in back, large rooms and positively welcoming. Jacquie keeps teasing that we have to stay until Spring - so if you don't hear about us back on the road in the next week you better call the cops.

Well, that's about it for now - we should be in Florida around the end of December.

Write if you have time.

Stay warm - it's cold here!

Aloha,

Doug and Sharon

In the beginning...

First thing is our thanks to the family and friends that have helped us make this new beginning an event that remains filled with smiles and support.

Yeah, we can get mushy and stuff as we think of the gifts we've received from each of you; from simple (sometimes tearful) hugs to final days right on the ocean were a beautiful sendoff from Hawaii and the best possible springboard for our new adventures.