Author: daveleu

We drove about 285 miles today, taking about 5.5 hours including stops for lunch and buying some avocadoes from a little roadside stand. Our destination was Ludlow, California in the Mohave Desert. We chose it as it has a couple of large open parking areas, one on each side of the I-40 freeway, where we could spend the night as we make our way back to Tucson.

Ludlow is not much of anything, anymore. At one time, it was a small village that sprouted up around a train water tower. Back in the early days of steam locomotives, they needed to fill their water tanks before struggling to make it up the steep grade going west towards Barstow, California. Since the trains stopped there to fill their water tanks, some of the small, local gold and silver mines ran their ore car lines down and formed a juncture with the railroad. The miners would come to this junction with a need to wet their whistles, so a saloon and general store sprung up. When the mines ran dry, the village became a ghost town but was revived when in 1926 Route 66 was created and ran through the ghost town. The town hung on until I-40 was built in 1973 and most cars and trucks neglected it as they hurried by.

All that remains now are the abandoned ruins of a bye-gone era and two gas stations which cater to trucks waiting for night time before continuing on to Los Angles. They wait here in the two open parking areas for the LA traffic to diminish before continuing to their final destination. There is a Dairy Queen and a small café which offers the truckers food as they wait.To show you how desolate the area which we are staying in is, I have posted an image from Google Earth below. We are basically in a harsh, dry desert that is punctured by volcanic mountains and lava flows. There is a BLM area a little way north of Ludlow where we read we could stay but the dirt road is now washed out and it would take a 4-wheeled drive vehicle to get to it.

I did drive our little Fiat around to view the ruins of the old town and captured a view of the remains of the Murphy Brother’s General Store. I also found on the Internet a copy of a 1926 postcard showing what it looked like back in the “good ol’ days”.

Route 66 In Ludlow

Tomorrow we continue on with our journey back to Tucson. Our destination will be the Plomosa Road BLM site that we stayed at a couple of weeks ago, near Quartzite, AZ. I would like to drive over to the Bouse Fisherman geoglyph site that is just a few miles away. We did not get to see it up close and personal at that time and I am anxious to do that.

This morning we bundled LeuC up and then worked to turn LeuC around on Carolyn and Joyce’s driveway. We had 7 feet to play with and slowly moved LeuC back and forth, turning the wheels sharply first to the left and then the right as we rotated her around. Mary Margaret was outside directing me, keeping our wheels on the pavement and not on the lawn or garden.
Once turned around, I pulled out onto the street and stopped in front of the church that is next door. The road widens there and provides a nice place for us to reattach our little Fiat to the back of the bus.
With that done, we waved one last time to Carolyn who was watching us from her property. Carolyn and Joyce are such great friends and we can hardly wait to see them again, which will be just a few days before Christmas.
Our drive south, back down to the Harris Ranch near Coalinga was not eventful, although we have never seen so many trucks. The I-5 freeway is a major truck route, connecting Northern California and Southern California.
We will spend the night here and then continue on our way to Tucson tomorrow. Our goal for tomorrow is Ludlow, California. It is just a little old hole in the wall of a town, nestled along the historic Route 66 in the Mohave Desert.

We received lots of photos today from our daughter Heather. She took great photos of Molly’s Baptism that I just have to share.

Between oohing and ahhing over the photos, we also spent the day getting ready to start our trip back to Tucson. We leave tomorrow as we continue our longest period of dry boondocking so far. When we dry boondock, we are basically living off of the grid, relying on our generator and batteries to supply the electricity we need. When we unplugged LeuC from her hookup last Friday in the Ortega Flats Campground down in Southern California, we knew we would not be able to plug back into the grid until we arrived in Tucson this coming Saturday. That would be nine days living off of the grid.
What we have discovered is that we need to run the generator about 5 hours a day to keep the batteries fully charged as LeuC continues to suck down the amps. Since her generator is about the same size (10 KW) as we had on Leu Cat (11 KW), our former sailboat that we lived on for 10 years, I am guessing that we are using about ½ gallon of diesel an hour or about 2.5 to 3 gallons a day. Our fuel tank holds 125 gallons, so we have no fear of running low on diesel.

When we run the generator, we also run the fireplace to make LeuC post-toasty in the early morning and in the late evening. This keeps us warm when the sun is down. During the daylight hours, we have been very comfortable even though today was overcast and then rained as the day progressed. The temperatures have dropped into the mid-40s at night and topped out in the mid-60s during the day.

I spent this morning removing the road tar that has accumulated along the sides of LeuC from the fresh asphalt roads we have occasionally run across. By reading our manual, I discovered that Windex is the best stuff to use to remove this tar and it works like a dream. I would have never thought of this before reading LeuC’s manual.

While I was doing this, Mary Margaret and Joyce went over to Costco, so we could restock our fresh fruits and veggies. I also ran over to Ace Hardware and bought a really near collapsible ladder that telescopes up to 12.5 feet. When compacted, it is only about 2 feet wide by 2.5 feet tall, so it will easily fit into our storage area (our “basement) under the bus. I need such a tall ladder to be able to get onto the roof of LeuC to inspect her roof and the various things that are housed there, such as our satellite dome and the trickle charge solar panel.

Our day ended with a BBQ. Gifford, a neighbor of Carolyn and Joyce’s came over for dinner, so Mary Margaret baked some sweet potatoes, I grilled up some rib eyes that we had bought when we spent the night at the Harris Ranch, and Carolyn whipped up some potatoes and sausage stuffing. It was a feast that was only surpassed by the generous sized portions of cheesecake which Carolyn and Joyce passed around to complete the meal. Sweet!

Gifford recently joined the Elks Club and shared with me a copy of his “Elkdom Travel Guide, Vol. 1”. As it turns out, many of the Elks Club Lodges around the US and Canada will allow RVers to come and stay in their parking lots and many of the Lodges provide, water, electrical hookups and even sewer disposal for a nominal fee. However, to use this resource, most Lodges require you to be an Elks Club member. We are not members and after listening to what is required to become a member, it would be difficult for us to join. Nevertheless, if any of you are interested, it certainly is a neat option to look into.

This morning, after doing a couple of loads of laundry (what an exciting life Mary Margaret leads…) we hopped into our little Fiat and drove the 90 miles over to San Ramon, just east of San Francisco. Today was our granddaughter, Molly’s, special day. She is approaching two months old and our son, David Paul and his wife, Allison, had invited us to attend Molly’s Baptism.

When we arrived at their house we were greeted by warm welcomes from David Paul and Allison, along with Allison’s parents, Pat and Phil. Pat and Phil had flown into town on Monday for the special occasion. We had visited them just a couple of weeks ago in their beautiful home near Phoenix, Arizona.

Soon Allison’s older sister, Heather, her husband, Joe, and their two daughters came over and we all caravanned to the church. As we arrived, our eldest daughter, Heather, and her foster child, Victoria arrived. They live in San Francisco and made the drive across the bay to attend. After hugs and kisses we all entered the church and were soon joined by Joe’s extended family.

Lots of photographs were taken with Molly being the object of loving attention and everyone was having a wonderful time being all together for the occasion.

Soon the ceremony took place and Molly took the water dripped on her head with aplomb. Not a whimper or a cry. Mommy and daddy were very proud, as was the rest of the Nichols, Leu and Nudo tribes.

After the ceremony we all retired to David Paul and Allison’s home where a feast was brought in and drinks flowed. More pictures and good times. It was wonderful.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. First Pat and Phil said their goodbyes and Uber whisked them over to the Oakland airport so they could return home. Soon the rest of us followed course and Molly’s long but special day came to an end.

We returned to LeuC in Carmichael exhausted but happy and just plopped into bed, barely getting the covers over us before the zzzzzzz started. Tomorrow we will rest up for our 1000-mile trip to Tucson, where we will be spending two weeks for the Thanksgiving Holidays with our other daughter, Christina, and her family. The moss just doesn’t gather on the Leu’s….

Life is so unpredictable and fragile. As we got older and made the discovery that all young people make as they grow older, specifically: that we are not immortal, we modified our priorities to stress the importance of enjoying what we have, when we have it. This includes appreciating the friends we have and making them a priority in our lives. This is one of the driving reasons we decided to buy a RV and travel around North America. We not only wish to explore places and lands we have not seen or have not seen for years and years but to also have the means to visit with our friends who live all around the US and Canada. By bringing our house with us, we can go to where our friends live and spend time visiting them and not be a burden. We can then move on and drive to on to see other friends. Along the way, we explore and enjoy the beautifies and mysteries that make this great continent. Our rather radical lifestyle makes this possible. We are so lucky.

Today, we finished our passage up to the Sacramento area and arrived in Carmichael, California. We are parking LeuC at our dear friends’ (Carolyn and Joyce), house. We will be staying here a few days, enjoying their company and Carolyn’s very special New York styled cheesecake. We have the added benefit of being able to drive over to San Ramon, in the San Francisco Bay area, tomorrow to attend our granddaughter’s Baptism. Our son, David Paul, and his wife, Allison, asked if we could come up during our visit to Southern California to attend. We jumped at the chance to attend and have spent the last two days driving the 450 miles to Northern California so that we could.

Each time we come and visit with Carolyn and Joyce, they give us such warmth and love that we just glow, knowing how lucky we are to have such wonderful friends. Carolyn, Joyce and Mary Margaret are all RNs and Carolyn and Mary Margaret worked together back in the mid-1980s when we lived in the Sacramento area. Carolyn and Joyce are sisters and are two of the kindest and most generous people we know. We are so lucky to be able to have them as dear friends.

To celebrate our getting together, we went out for dinner to the Outback Steakhouse which is Carolyn and Joyce’s favorite restaurant. After a delicious dinner of ribs, steaks, and shrimp paired with deep bowls of French onion soup, we returned to their house to dive into the rich, creamy cheesecake that was waiting for us there. Ooooh, man-o-man, life can be soooo sweet!

We have driven in, around and through LA traffic during the 20 years we lived in Southern California, so we thought we were well prepared for our two day drive up to Sacramento today which would start out by driving up the I-5 freeway through LA.  With that understanding, we bundled up LeuC and headed out from our lovely campground nestled in the Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park this morning around 9 AM.  After stopping to flush out our grey and black water tanks at the sump dump, it was actually 0930 by the time we were on the road.

We thought by leaving after the dust was settled from the rush hour traffic, we would have a better time of negotiating LeuC through the maze of cars and trucks that always fill the freeway.  However, we did not realize that the freeway was still under construction after 25 years.  Back in the early 90s, the State undertook a massive project to expand the I-5 freeway running from Orange Country to North of LA County from its original 4 lanes to, in areas, up to 27 lanes.  While much of this construction is now completed, we discovered that there were still many places where it was not.  Ugh!  These under construction areas were pinch points that jammed the traffic together and that turned the freeway into parking lots as we all jockeyed for position in working our way through this mess.  It was not fun!

It took us 3 hours to go the 90 miles from San Juan Capistrano in southern Orange County to Valencia, in northern LA County!  The traffic was bumper to bumper the whole way and we ranged in speed from 0 to 60 mph.  The pictures that Mary Margaret took while we fought our way through the traffic gives you an idea of the fun we had!

To go north from LA to Sacramento, one has to cross the Tehachapi Mountains, going over the 4100 foot high Tejon Pass.  As you come off of the pass, you go down a 5 miles long, 6% grade which is known as the grape vine.  Back in the 1950s, before the freeway was built, the grapevine was a narrow, windy two-lane road that was infamous for trucks plunging off the road and crashing down into the steep ravines far below.  Now, it is just a very steep grade with gentle curves.  However, the vista of the expansive San Juaquin Valley far below is very impressive.

LeuC is made by Tiffin and Tiffin is known as one of, if not the best, manufacturer of RVs.  From top to bottom it is made with quality components.  A couple of these components are the Cummins 450 HP diesel engine and the Allison 3000 MH 6-speed automatic transmission.  Armed with these, LeuC just purred up and down the Tehachapis and coasted down the grape vine barely breaking out a sweat.  I watched as we passed a number of big semi-trucks struggling to get up and then down these mountains.  Not LeuC, no sir!

Once down in the San Juaquin Valley, the I-5 Freeway straightened out and with much thinner traffic, we began making miles.  The speed limit was 70 mph for cars but trucks with three axels or vehicles towing it was only 55 mph.  I set our speed control to 62 knowing the CHIPs usually uses a 10 mph buffer before they pull you over for speeding.  At that speed, it was not until 1500 when we turned off the freeway, arriving at our night’s destination: the Harris Ranch, near Coalinga.

The Harris Ranch is a large beef ranch and it is famous for its high-quality Angus beef that you can buy in supermarkets around the US.  It has built a large hotel, restaurant and store near its private air strip where people traveling the long San Juaquin Valley between LA and San Francisco can stop along their way.  For us, they offer a large area where trucks and RVs can spend the night for free.

We are the only RV here, but we are sharing the area with about a dozen trucks.  The area is very large so we are tucked along a tall hedge, all by ourselves.

We walked over to the complex where I enjoyed a delicious prime rib dinner and Mary Margaret enjoyed a roasted turkey with apple stuffing and homemade cranberries dinner.  This is her favorite meal and she thoroughly loved it.  My prime rib was one of the better cuts of beef I have had in a long, long  time.  Yum!

We also went to their store and bought some beef that we will grill on Monday for our friends Carolyn and Joyce.  We will be parking LeuC at their house in Carmichael (a suburb of Sacramento), while we drive our little Fiat down to San Ramon in the Bay Area on Sunday to attend our granddaughter’s Baptism.

Tomorrow, we just have a 4 hour drive before we arrive in Carmichael and since it will be Saturday, it should be an easy drive.

Time here in Southern California has just flown by.  It probably is because we have been so busy running around fulfilling our appointments and trying to see as many of our old friends and former neighbors that we could.  In the few days we have been here, we have put on over 300 miles on our little Fiat!

Today was no exception.  It started with us driving back up to Lake Forest so our dentist, Dr. Sal, could make and install a crown on the post that was implanted into Mary Margaret’s lower jaw two days ago.  Today’s technology is just so impressive.  Dr. Dal used a 3-D scanner and then inputted the data into a computer which then shaped and cut the new crown.  45 minutes later, the crown was done, and Dr. Sal popped it into Mary Margaret’s mouth.  Ta Da! It was all done! Yea!

Next, we drove over to Paula’s house.  Paula is Mary Margaret’s former manicurist that she used for years and years when we live down here.  They have become good friends and she tries to visit her whenever we come down to this neck in the woods.  Paula is 76 years old but still works making hands beautiful.  This last year she has moved her business to her home and all of her faithful clients have followed her there.  She loves working out of her house as it is so convenient.

We left around noon and, at that time, we tried calling my former mentor’s wife, Barbara, to see if we could swing by to say hi.  Unfortunately, she was not home so it was a missed opportunity.

We returned to LeuC and grabbed some lunch and rested a bit, all of this running around is very rewarding but also exhausting.   While Mary Margaret stayed to do laundry, and rest her sore jaw, I drove over to Doheny to visit my cousin, Robbie, and his girlfriend, Kim.  Back in 1965, I spend a couple of months with my aunt and uncle and Robbie.  During that summer, Robbie taught me to surf as Doheny Beach used to be one of Sothern California’s top surfing spots.  However, since then, Dana Point to the north, built a huge marina and jetty which changed the wave patterns and Doheny lost it surf and stopped being a surfer’s haven.  Nevertheless, my memories of being a young teenager and surfing the summer away remains.  Such great times!

It was great seeing Robbie again and meeting Kim.  Robbie now lives in the house that my aunt and uncle owned and where I stayed back in 1965.  They built the house in or around 1950 and it was one of the first houses on the bluff overlooking Doheny.  Since then, numerous mansions have been built and the view is now blocked.  But the area is still so beautiful.

Tomorrow morning, we will bundle up LeuC and start our journey up to Sacramento.  We will take 2 days to make the 350 mile trip, stopping at the Harris Ranch to spend the night.

 

We got up early this morning, donned our swim suits, grabbed our towels and hopped into our little Fiat.  We drove over to our old neighborhood, which is called Nigel Shores.  It is a wonderful community with spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island in the distance.  It has a large community center with a beautiful pool and spa.  We met our good friends, Ann and Steve, who still live here and joined them with the Dippy Dolphins.  This is a 3 times a week aquatic aerobics class that has been going on for years and years.  When we lived in Nigel Shores back during 2000 through 2007, Mary Margaret was an active member and loved it.

We were greeted by a number of people and friends who have been Dippy Dolphins for years.  One of them, Bunny, had introduced us to her family back in 2010.  They live in New Zealand and we arrived after sailing across the South Pacific, we so enjoyed meeting and getting to know them.

Today I discovered that while the aquatic aerobics class is about great exercise, it is also a great social function with all of the Dippy Dolphins being friends and keeping an eye out on the wellbeing of each member.  There were about 25 people there today and Steve shared with me that sometimes it grows to 40 people.  The instructor, Cindy, has been there since before we left to go sailing and Mary Margaret was thrilled to see and talk with her again.  It was like old times.  What a wonderful time we had and what warm and nice people!

Afterwards, we said our sad goodbyes and drove down the shore a few miles to Doheny where my cousin, Robbie, lives.  We thought we would just stop by to see if he was home.  He was but was in the process of stepping out of the house, having a meeting he had to attend.  I promised that I would try to swing by again tomorrow afternoon in hope of getting together.  He said that he would be there so I am keeping my fingers crossed that our schedule works out.

We returned to LeuC and shortly thereafter, our friends Debbie and Steve arrived.  Their daughter, Stephanie, and our daughter, Christina, were cheerleaders together and are still best buds.  We cracked open a bottle of Champaign and celebrated our getting together again and then gave a tour of LeuC.  Afterwards, we drove over to San Juan Capistrano, to return to Café Mozart, which our other friends, Ann and Steve, had introduced us to last night.  The food, wine and ambiance were so remarkable we wanted to share it with Debbie and Steve.  Each time we share a meal with Ann and Steve, they introduce to us a restaurant that is to die for and Café Mozart being no exception.

Tonight, we enjoyed glazed duck, swimming in brandied cherries or the wiener schnitzel with spätzle and red cabbage, each paired with great wines. Of course, the conversations we shared as we caught up on everything that had gone on in our respective lives and families over the last year were great and made the evening fly by. It was so special!

For a second time in two nights, we closed the restaurant.  We then said our sad goodbyes, sharing promises of getting together in either New Orleans or Savanah next spring.  We have our fingers crossed this will work out.

By the time we returned to our campground, it was 2150, just 10 minutes before the entrance would be closed for the night.  To our shock, the gates at the entrance were closed and Mary Margaret spied the chains and locks which were wrapped around the gates.  Fortunately, when she got out to inspect them, she discovered that the locks were not locked, and she was able to remove them and the chains, and then opened the gates.  Whew!  Once I had driven through and Mary Margaret reclosed the gates, we continued on to our campsite and LeuC.  Yea!  What a remarkable ending to a remarkable day.

 

 

 

I received a surprised Facebook message this morning from the wife of my former mentor, Joe DeFranco.  Joe was a member the Board of Directors when I was hired as a partner into an environmental engineering firm when I left state government way back in 1988.  He taught me the basics of running a successful and profitable company with the mantra of: “cashflow, cashflow, cashflow”.  Nine years later, after I and my partners sold our firm, I used that mantra and many of the other little secrets he drilled into my head to open up my own environmental company which also was very profitable.  I owe it all to Joe and the wisdom he shared with me.

Barbara, his wife of over 70 years, posted a message to me this morning asking me to call her.  What a wonderful surprise!  I immediately called and thoroughly enjoyed talking with this warm and gentle lady.  She shared with me that Joe quietly passed away this last February when we were still sailing around the West indies.  She shared that he was ready to go and while that helped ease my pain, it was still a shock.  Joe was a rock, a person who was an Icon in industry, and a person who helped so many people throughout their lives.  He will be sorely missed, not just by me but by all of those who he impacted in such a positive way.

Barbara, while 91 years old, is doing very well and, in fact, shared with me that she will be flying over to Hawaii in a couple of weeks to enjoy Thanksgiving with one of her daughters.  We are going to try to squeeze in a visit in the next couple of days if we can.  Our stay in So Cal is truncated as we wish to drive up to San Francisco this Friday to attend our granddaughter’s Baptism on Sunday.  Thus, we will not be able to see as many of our old and dear friends as we had originally hoped.  As we all get older, missed opportunities are more and more significant.

Speaking of dear friends, we were able to spend the evening over a delicious dinner with Ann and Steve, two former neighbors from when we lived in Dana Point.  Ann and Mary Margaret were “Dippy Dolphins” during the 7 years we lived there.  Dippy Dolphins is the name of the water aerobics class that is still being held 3 times a week in the neighborhood’s community pool.  Steve shared with us that he and three other men have joined the 30 or so women who so enjoy this form of exercise.  In fact, they have invited us to join them and see a number of our former neighbors early tomorrow morning during their next meeting.  We plan on grabbing our swimming suits and will brave the waters with them.  I have a cousin who lives just a few miles away that I wish to see and since Dippy’s is on the way, it is an opportunity we do not wish to miss!

We also were able to see another dear friend today, Maggie.  Maggie is our CPA and we have known her for 28 years.  She helped Mary Margaret manage the financial side of our firm and we have recommended her to a number of our friends over the years who now use her also.  It was great to see her and see that she is doing well.

Squeezed into this busy day Mary Margaret also visited a specialist who finished implanting a post into her jaw so that our dentist, Dr. Sal, can install a crown this Thursday.  Since we have previously been in the States just for a couple of months each year, this procedure has taken three years to get to this stage.  In just a couple of day, it will be all over.  Yea!

 

Our first couple of months of living and traveling in an RV have been pretty hectic but also very rewarding.  We have driven over 3,000 miles: exploring places that we have never seen before and meeting numerous wonderful people.  Now, we have briefly returned to the area where we used to live (southern Orange Country in California) and raised our kids.  A number of our dear friends still live here and we are filling up our free time with visits to as many of them as we can.

These visits are interspersed with meetings with professionals who have taken care of us for over 25 years.  These include our dentist, financial advisor (and dear friend, Ken) and our CPA (another dear friend, Maggie).  Today we visited our dentist and financial advisor and were rewarded with another clean bill of health from our dentist (Dr. Sal) and a rosy report regarding our financial status.

As it turns out, the radically alternative lifestyles of either living on a sailboat or living in an RV are actually rather inexpensive when compared to what it previously cost us to live on the land in a conventual manner.  Furthermore, being an RVer is even less costly than living on a sailboat and sailing around the world.  Go figure!

After our dental appointment and meeting with Ken, we swung by and visited with a former neighbor we had during the 12 years we lived in Lake Forest.  For years Mary Margaret and I used to take dance lessons with our neighbors, Glenda and Bob.  Bob passed away about 3 years ago and we miss him dearly but it is always so great to spend time with Glenda.  She is a vivacious, gregarious and energic person who is so much fun to be around.  While it has taken her a little while to deal with the loss of a lifemate, she has rediscovered herself and is once more enjoying life to the fullest.  To us, she is a role model on how to sweetly remember a love one lost but also as one who once again grabs with gusto the love ones she still has and enjoys life to the fullest.  She is a remarkable woman and we are so fortunate to be able to call her a dear friend.

She drove with us to see our new home on wheels and afterwards we went out for an early dinner in San Juan Capistrano.  The restaurant was located right across the street from the old Catholic Mission that is famous for the swallows that return to nest there each year.  For years, due to the development of the area, the swallows had stop returning but Glenda told us that for the last couple of years, they have started to return once more.  We were thrilled to hear that.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Cedar Creek Inn.  It had been years since any of us had been there and we were so happy that the quality of the service, the ambiance and its delicious food had not changed.  My swordfish covered in a fruit salsa was to die for!