Wilderness RV Park

I’m setting this to auto post on Wed. as we will be on the road during part of the day and busy setting up and meeting our neighbors during the rest of the day.

 

Tuesday: As I sat in front of my computer, (which is next to the window); I seen a little bird land on the arm of our awning. It is very colorful, so pretty! Of course, I didn’t have the camera handy. Quietly, I got up and went after the camera, but with my movement it flew off.  It has been back a time or two, but so far I haven’t been able to get its picture. It is very weary of my movements, just lifting the camera, sends it on its way.

 

We don’t have a green arena to look at in front of us, just the dirt field and cows standing in their own mud and mess; even though the cows are a ways from us we still are tormented with the odors associated with them. It is going to be, oh so good, to get away from the smell of cattle yards, and chicken sheds. On a warm day, it can be down right nauseating here. Late at night, I can hear the bawling of a cow, discontent with something, probably her udder needing attention, or maybe she is just cold.  

Behind us is one of the channels where the Mallard ducks and Canadian geese swim and carry out the affairs of their day. The air rings with their quacks, and honks and the sky is highlighted by their coming and going across the sky. I have enjoyed watching them and their antics. They are very tame, will come to you if you offer them food, which many people do here in the park. Up until a few years ago, the ducks used to lay their eggs in the tall grass that grew along the channel banks, but of course a person had to watch where she walked along the bank, and then the brats kids discovered the eggs and would throw them around causing much hate and discontent among the ducks and humans.   Then, the park personnel started to keep the grass cut, the banks were clear with no over-growth and unsafe for the ducks to feel secure laying their eggs there, so the enjoyment of seeing a nest of eggs and later on a little trail of babies following in the wake of their mother, has disappeared like so many other pleasant things from times gone past.

Occasionally, one can see a squirrel poke its head up from a hole in the ground. So far I have not seen a rabbit in this area. We had/have one right outside of our door for awhile; I haven’t seen it since I took pictures of it a while ago. I wasn’t sure if it is a squirrel or mole, I think the census from the peanut gallery is that it is a squirrel.

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See the size of this guy’s feet!

There was several of the baby colts in this field. And several fields full of colts.

While we were staying at Wilderness RV Park in Menifee, CA we were out riding one day and came across the Budwiser Clydedale breeding farm. This brought back memories from days gone bye, when I was a preteen back in the rural area of Michigan, back when most of the roads were lanes of dirt.  At least once a week, a matched team of Clydedale Horses would pass our house. They were beautiful, and so huge! I maybe wrong, but I believe that  they are the biggest horses on earth! I remember running out to the front of the house to watch them when they went by, I could hear them coming way before they got there. They had such huge feet, I think the ground shook when they took a step. They seemed to be gentle animals. I just loved them. I wished back then I had the courage that I do now and asked the driver for a ride. Oh well.

Back to the breeding farm, we stopped and I took some pictures of the baby horses. I don’t know how old they were, but couldn’t be very old, compared to how big that they get. They were very friendly! I was glad that they were behind, double fences.

 

This little guy wanted me to touch him and vis a vira, but he was to far away, double fences! Just think he is a little baby!

The gates were closed so we couldn’t talk to anyone.

My husband tells me that way back in the days of castles and dragons (Tee Hee) when he was the King; the Gladiators rode Clydedale horses in battle, used them when they did that jousting thing with the long poles, trying to knock each other off their mounts.  This is a link to the history of the clydedale horse. They originally came from Scotland, before the 19th century. It is quite interesting. I will let you read it yourself. http://clydesusa.com/clydesdale.htm

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Leaving Wilderness RV Park

It has been several days since I lasted posted on this blog. I just haven’t been in the mood for writing, you know how that goes.

 

I wanted to let you know that we will be moving up to Soledad Park tomorrow (Wed), that is a RV park nearActon, CA. Its about 15 miles north of Palmdale (Palmdale is in the desert) in the mountains. I am not sure if we have been there before, but I don’t think so. We will be able to see Aleta *my sister* one last time before we leave the area on our way north (Washington) and  east (coast), then SC.

 

Aleta will be in the Palmdale area visiting her son and looking for a new place to live. She is leaving her mountain home for the city life. She is getting a new job and setting up house keeping somewhere around there. Since her daughter moved with her family from Mariposa to the San Diego area last year, she has been in a sorry state. What a cry baby! I remember when Susan moved (with our granddaughters) all the way to the Seattle area from Chula Vista, how depressing a time that was. Anyway, Aleta will be closer to her offspring. She misses them terribly, especially the grand kiddies, and now will get to see them more often. That’s a good thing!

We have had a nice time at this park, but it is time to move on. We will be staying at the Soledad park for three weeks, before we continue north on our journey to see Susan (our daughter, (Susan’s Musings). I am sure that you have met her. She thinks that I have the long arm of God, when it comes to weather trends. Hopefully we will leave the rainy weather here in Menifee, they sure need the rain.

We will most likely be gone for 1 ½ to 2 years; staying in the eastern part of the US.  It has been ages since we spent any time to speak of with Ricky (our son, PastorRick). John, also, has several brothers and sisters back east and I have a sister in Wisconsin. So we will be blessing them all  when we show up on their door steps from time to time, and won’t they be surprised; now aren’t they lucky! I saw that rolling of your eyes! Ha Ha

And for your amazement here is double trouble (Eliza & Ruthie) on the socor field! These are Rick’s girls.

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A Little Beastie

This morning as I sat in my chair, in front of my computer, by the window, I noticed this little animal (a mole, I think) poking its head up out of a hole in the ground. It was about four – five inches long with a little round body the color of the sandy dirt that it lives in. Its fur looked soft like a very plush carpet. I had the biggest urge to reach out and touch it, to pick it up and pet it. I know that was a definite no-no.

           As I sat watching it, it would poke its head up and look around in all directions, listening for that ever present threat to its existence. Then, it would stretch a short ways out and grab a tidbit of something lying on the ground and swiftly duck back into its hole.  

I grabbed up my camera and tried to capture its image from the window, darn the screen was in the way, and the tinted glass didn’t make for a good photo.

After a little while, it got brave enough to crawl all the way out and make a quick grab for that special something it was eating, at least I think it was eating the items it was gathering.

 It was during one of these maneuvers that I had the opportunity to snap a shot of the little creature while it was completely out of its hidey hole.

             Quickly moving to the door for a better view, I waited until the little beastie had dropped back into its hole, and then quick as a wink, I slipped down the stairs, settling to a seated position on the last step. I still wasn’t close enough to get a really good picture; my camera has a weak telephoto lens.

I tried moving to the side of our car, which was closer to the critter, trying to fade into the side of the car; but the little beast was to smart for me. I thought that it might make a repeat performance, but alas, I had seen the last of it. I tried to wait it out, but I had no patience this morning.

There are several little holes about two inches or so wide around the area where it was dining. I wonder if they are this little creature’s handiwork or if it has an extended family hiding under the ground awaiting their turn at the breakfast table. I will leave it now to its breakfast.

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Blogging

Susan sent me a instant message this morning. At which time, I expressed my frustration to her about my lack of ideas for blogging. I was trying to come up with something special.  She told me to write like I use to when I would send letters to her and my family. She told me that she uses her blog to keep a written record of the everyday happenings in her life.  

That is basically what I did in the form of letters (postal type) when I was separated from my husband while he was out to sea in years gone by.  My parents and siblings lived in different areas of the country. I use to write them long letters, sad & frustrated letters, amusing letters, mundane letters. I would entertain them with exaggerated events that occurred in my life and in the lives of my children while they still lived at home. 

  Nothing was sacred, I would write about anything and everything, telling a story, painting a picture with words.

 Sometimes it was about nothing more then watching a tree; watching it move gracefully as the wind blew through its golden green leaves, leaves, one then another dropping and floating, zigzagging back and forth on their journey to the ground; seeing the limbs bend to and fro as the wind kissed it and hugged it in its embrace. The sky, pale blue, lingered, hovering like a proud mama in the background, while her child performed some little accomplishment.  So this is what I shall attempt to do, record my thoughts; my letters, if you will; about all of the little things, little things that I see, things that strike a cord in my soul, that mark a  moment of happiness, a moment of sadness, joy or frustration.  

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Rain & Car Lights

Continued from the previous posting!

(ALETA HERE, YOU SHOULD SEE PATTY WRITING THIS LETTER, SHE’S SITTING IN THE ROCKING CHAIR, SHAKING WITH LAUGHTER, SNORTING AND GIGGLING, SPIT FLYING EVERY WHERE – )

Well, we are on our way home from the refrig episode. – It’s very dark, very cloudy, no moon or stars out, we’re a long way from home. The road gets more windy and more hilly – changing before long to mountainous – Oh no – it starts to rain – now harder, we can’t see – she turns on her windshield wipers – Oh my God – bugs smear in wide streaks across the window, of course, the rain streaks, back & forth – its worse then before she put the wipers on – I lean forward trying to see out – practically got my nose against the glass, it doesn’t help – I look over at Aleta – did you ever see a person lay her belly on the steering wheel with her boobs hanging over the top, her nose touching the glass, blinking like crazy, I begin to laugh, she starts laughing – better to laugh then to cry! — head lights come around the curve, steep drop off on my side, we are blinded, by a oncoming car, car coming up behind us, going slower & slower – where’s the road – Aleta & I watch the lines on the road, she – the center line, in  case she gets in the other lane, me, the line on the right, in case, I need to jump out, as we go off the edge of the mountain. Steep, sheer cliffs with rocks below are so unforgiving – by now, we are laughing hysterically – tears streaking down our cheeks, a car coming up behind us, high beams on – we go slower, still more blinded by the extra light, pull over into the passing lane – the car pulls over behind us, the slower we go, trying to get him to pass, the slower he goes – who is it?, why doesn’t he pass – finally we are barely moving, he passes, he can’t see any better than we can – just a poor frightened man, all alone in the night, Oh God where are you!

ANOTHER FINE MESS ALETA’S GOT ME INTO.

Well, finally we make it home, relief spreads over us like a warm blanket. We go into the house and tell John what an ordeal we lived through – his comment was “Oh” — and that’s another day in the life of two sisters.

We missed you, more than you know and would have loved to have you on some of our escapades – you would have enjoyed having wet undies too —

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“Oh My God” Highway

My sister (Aleta) sent me a couple of pages from a diary that I had been keeping for a few years. Every so often, I would print out a story from it and send it to her; to remind her of the MESSES that she got me into.  She thought that I should include this one in my postings. I think that you will enjoy my mutterings! So here goes; almost word for word.

Dear Diary.

John, Aleta & I went for a ride a couple of days ago. We got home safely, but it’s a miracle.

I shall call this road, “Oh My God Highway”. We turned onto this road, actually (Highway 49) up near Aleta’s area of the country(Mariposa, CA) it started out really nice. We followed it into Mariposa, on through town and out the other side, it was hilly and curvy, then gradually started to climb – it started out being a eight lane highway (“<>”) — it seemed to be nice anyways – – the higher we drove, the narrower it got, the curves got tighter & tighter – we had to drive on the center line (you know the white one that separates the lanes) to keep all four tires on the road. This one curve where I looked back—I swear I could see the rear end of our car from the side mind you – I tell you, that gave me a start, as we hadn’t got all the way around the curve, and between the front & the back of the car was this huge deep drop off—it was mind boggling – while I was looking back, I lifted my eyes from the road up to look at Aleta – I didn’t know her eyes could bug out that far!  She had a death grip on the door handle and the other grasped the back of John’s neck, no wonder he was going so slow!

All the while – John kept talking about bringing the RV up this narrow road. I started wondering how much it would cost to fly back to South Carolina where it’s flat & the roads are straight and my sane, sensible son lives. I have to escape these crazy people!

Well, I finally stopped saying “Oh my God”, when we came to this little town. Of course, we had no idea where we were. We stopped to talk to a gal walking along the road. Aleta & I told her we were lost, but, John insisted that we were only disorientated. She told us how to get back home – also how great this restaurant called; “The House Boat” was, so of course, nothing else would do, we went off to find this great restaurant, with this great food.

We had hamburgers & Marconi salad. Let me tell you, if you are ever in the area of La Grange and you see a restaurant called , The House Boat – run, do not walk in the other direction as fast as you can,  before you get suckered in. Aleta & I took most of our food home & fed the dog and then ate some cereal – that cereal sure was good!   So here goes; almost word for word.  ANOTHER FINE MESS YOU GOT ME INTO, ALETA!!

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Gone in the Night

Another story from the past!

On day last week, (actually a year ago) Jenny (Aleta’s dtr) called and told Aleta about this refrigerator for sale by a man & gave her his phone number and told her to call him.  Aleta needs a refrigerator – well Aleta calls & we are off to check this out. (Aleta & I) Of course it was about 20 minutes before it would be pitch black outside – and we had a 40 minute drive just to get there – but off we go — we drive & we drive – Aleta makes two phone calls, trying to narrow our search for this elusive narrow road, through a gate with the number 1906,  looking for a Blue House on top of a hill quite a ways from the road. The man said watch the traffic when we cross the road to turn into this gate. Well,- finally we see the gate – nope wrong one – this went on a few times, but finally we found the right one. We just came over the crest of a hill – half way around a curve & there it was, of course the traffic could not see us from behind or in front of us, now get this, this gate led into a field – looked like hay or something like that – about knee high growing there,  a path going off into the distance, it was like a track with tall grass growing in the center of this lane/path. The gate was open – looked like one that farmers used to get equipment into the field. We see this small house sitting up there in the dark and in tall weeds, it was all dark about – we sat there in the road discussing if this was the right place or not, and talked about the fact that no one knew where we were — well, we pulled across the street and into this path and started up, the grass is scraping under the car, and along the doors. – Finally a light comes on up there – now is that good or bad? Up we go, we go around the back of this hill, no one can see us, its pitch black out, can’t see – only the ruts ahead of us, talking about serial killers and such like – wondering what in the heck we are doing here. Around & around the hill we climb up – no way to turn around and go back, finally in the back of the house – facing away from the street – these two huge dogs come tearing up to the car – they are very quiet – we see no one – -can we get out of the car – do we want to get out of the car – we get out – the dogs try to lick us to death – finally a man & a woman come out of the house – the man has a beard – like Manson – his mate is dark & heavy – they are both quiet, they take us into the garage – show us the refrig – a big one – a very big one- Aleta is standing near it – the man opens the door – the woman slams into the back of Aleta, pushing her into the refrig then slams the door shut on her – the last thing I seen was the hammer coming down toward my head. There was to much blood on the frig to be of use to Aleta.  ANOTHER FINE MESS YOU GOT ME INTO ALETA  

To be continue in next posting!

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Ricky at Seaport Village

It’s been a few days since I last spoke to you. I have been busy with Ricky (our son from SC) while he was here for the week, though he did not stay with us. He was attending a seminar and needed to be close to the hotel where it was held. We didn’t see as much of him as we would have liked to, but we did have a good time while he was here, and we had lots of little adventures! 

While he was here, he discovered my pocket hat.  It is one of the treasures that I brought back from Quartzsite. It is a hat that has a wire around the rim and can be folded over itself and put in a little bag and carried about.  Of course, he had to model it. He can be very silly at times. This is him clowning around in it.

John & I, took him to Seaport Village (an outdoor tourist attraction) located at San Diego Harbor. We had lunch at the Harbor house while we were there. My salad made a pretty picture.  Doesn’t it look good? I had this dish;

Chinese Chicken Salad;

the guys had fish tacos.

The restaurant was nicely located as it looked out over the harbor. We had a relaxing meal while we watched the ships and boats go back and forth across the harbor. The sun reflecting on the water added to the beauty of the scene.  We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day, being warm and sunny as it was. 

From there, we walked around;  people watching and looking in all of the shops. Rick was looking for tee shirts and some sort of toy for his girls. The tee shirts were easy to find. It took quite a lot of looking until he found the perfect present to take home to those mischievous twins; a couple of elaborate sippy glasses with a twisty straw and Shamu in the top part of the container. He seemed to be quite proud of his find!

We were walking through the shops, when John decided to use one of the porta-potty’s that are scattered around the area. Well, while he was in there, his dear, sweet and loveable son got the bright idea of locking him in the potty!  He’s looking around on the ground for a twig to put in the thing that keeps the door closed. He finds one and slips it in place and beat feet out of there, standing a little ways away so he could watch the fun?

 

I thought he was going to wet his pants, he was laughing so hard. He was quite proud of himself! 

I started over to the potty to remove the twig, but then I seen the door sort of push out in the center; so I got away from it thinking that it was going to fly open and hit me. All at once, the door slams open, startling the two guys walking past it. Rick later said that the look on their faces was beauty to behold! I didn’t see it, so I don’t know.  I wasn’t sure about the reaction getting locked in the potty would bring forth from John; but men will be boys! They began  bumping into each other, elbowing each other;  each trying to be king of the walk, I guess!  I can’t take them anywhere!!!!

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