California Circus Days

We spent the month of May is California.  It is a diverse state with four regions-desert, mountains, central plains, and coastline.  We traversed the mid and northern parts with the circus.

  Entering the Mojave Desert mojave desert.net was quite and experience.  The desert seemed to go on forever with huge mountains in the distance.  Once past Edwards, AFB, we started to climb through Bakers, CA.  Here Linda and I had to pretend we were on a giant roller coaster.  The terrain just goes up and down between 2-4 K.  One grade is 6 1/2%!  Don't know how fast I was going, couldn't let my eyes go off the road--but I tell you it wasn't my typical 55MPH.  With the rough roads, cross winds, and S curves, it was like Mr Toads WILD ride at Disney--for a fraction of the cost!  We didn't see much wildlife (just the road signs) on the way in, but the drivers made up for the desert wild!  70 is just a "suggestion" to these folks!
The next segment brought us to the Central Valley.  Dirt here is black!  We saw such lush strawberries, almonds, dates, apricots and cherries growing every where.  We camped in a place near Modesto called the Orchards.  The smell of cherries and apricots was in the air.  Check up on Modesto at Modesto.CA  I generally shun CA fruit, but they save the good stuff for the locals.  We had some of the best cherries I have ever eaten!  Of course up the road is grapes, grapes, and more grapes!  There is a winery down every road and for five bucks they will let you taste their juices.

Here we got our first rain.  It turned the air cooler and the temps drop into the 40s at night.  I makes for good sleeping, and the smog isn't bad in the smaller places, but Fresno, and Sacramento were hazy places.
We went from Sacramento down to Monteray.  There we ate at Cannery Row.  It was a quaint seaport, with seals in the bay.  I stuck my toe in the water (its May) and it almost turned blue.  Linda was content with walking on the beach.  She had dungeness crab and we watched the sun go down over the horizon.  A perfect day!  Still northward, we headed to Fairfield, CA.  It is the home of Jelly Belly.  We took the kids for a factory tour.  You can get a sugar high from just walking near the place!  The kids loved it!
We swung through Napa Valley and did a side trip to San Francisco.  We ate a Scormas on pier 47.  Check them out at Scormas.com.  I didn't get to see Alcatraz as the fog rolled in and it was cloudy over the bridge.  Maybe next time.

The 12 kids are great and circus life is busy.  One of the trapeze artists fell and broke his legs.  So far, we have traveled over 3,000 miles with the circus.
We are on our way to Northern Nevada.  On the way we traveled through Donner Pass.  It looked like the middle of December with 2 inches of snow on the ground.  It seemed so weird to be driving in the snow in June-not December.  We didn't bring that many winter clothes, so we are wearing many layers.
More next time.....

Dr Rocky Turns the Big 60-----Say It Ain't So........

Friday, February 18, 2011 I turned 60 years old!  I don't feel or look like what I think someone 60 should look and be like! I feel like, maybe 39 you know--like Jack Benny..  I have so much yet to see, and do, that I am not ready to sit on the front porch in one of the rockers!  I feel like I might have time for that later, but not now!  There are things to do and see and as long as I am able, I am going to keep on the move.  I mean after all, we have two RVs.  We have the JAG 5th wheel and the Bounder Motorhome. There is just no excuse not to go and as Dinah Shore used to say, "See the USA...."                                                                                                                                                                             

Linda asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday to celebrate.  I told her a nice dinner at a local restaurant would be nice and I'd like to visit my Mother.

Hampton Manor West

Look at those Happy Faces!!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        She recently moved into Hampton Manor West, an assisted living facility in Dunnellon, Florida.  I looked forward to seeing her.  She is in her early 80's and sometimes doesn't remember things very well.  I prayed that she would be having a good day and it paid off.  She always used to make me a chocolate peanut butter cake for my birthday.  So I used her recipe and made one. 

We arrived at the facility about mid morning and surprised her.  Her eyes lit up at seeing me, Linda, and our dog Rocketman.  She loves Rocketman and he thinks she is the BEST Grandma in the world (because she feeds him from the table!)  He does the science diet thing, and we don't let him have much else, but she thinks he needs chicken from her plate!  What are you going to do?  She slips food to him under the table just like she did when she lived with us a few years ago.

Chilling after Lunch on the Patio!

After we had lunch we visited outside on a patio.  It was cool and quiet and some of the other residents came out to see Rocketman.  He is quite a hit with the ladies!  One lady said, "I came to see your dog.  I love dogs, but don't much care for people."  She giggled in delight as he licked her on the face.

The trip to the assisted living facility was an hour and a half away, but the weather here is in the 70's and hardly a cloud in the sky.  Traffic down I-75 wasn't bad either.

When we returned, I did a chores around the house and got ready for dinner.  The restaurant, Splash, made a special table for me with confetti on the table and menus printed with a Happy Birthday message on them.  I had a steak which was cooked perfectly for me--brown outside, warm moist inside, and a delicious Caesar salad.  I finished out the meal with a fig dessert that had sorbet and fig newtons on the top.  Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE figs.  So it was the perfect ending for dinner for me.
  Until next time, see ya!  Rocky

MY LIFE AS AN AMAZON CHRISTMAS ELF

We travelers ready for the road!

Tis time to reflect back on winter past (can you tell I DON'T like the winter season that much).  Last September we made the commitment to Amazon.com for me to work in one of the fulfillment centers.  The one that seemed logical is located in Campbellsville, Ky.  So we took a little trip and explored the place.  It was Fall beautiful with all of the leaves in full autumn color and the scent of fresh apples everywhere.  The temperature was a pleasing 67-72 degree range and we were told that winters in Campbellsville, KY were mild, with no snow until after Christmas------boy did everyone misguess that one!  We had three snows before Christmas with another one on the way.  But BAD, COLD weather has hit everyone.....so we all have to say it's been an unusually cold winter season.

Rocketman is ready to return to Florida

Work as a "Christmas ELF" was challenging and fun and I think I would do it again.  My duty was to pick items from the bins and place them on the conveyor belt for shipping out.  Sorry, my friends who asked for pictures, but there is no photography inside Amazon.com allowed!  It was practically a full body search each time you went into the plant.  And, guess what?  No air conditioning/heating  inside the plant. You all know that we love the warm weather.  It would be a 28 degrees outside and I would shed my coat (no place to put it) and dash inside to a toasty 80 degree building.  The locals laughed at me in shorts and polo shirts, but at the end of my shift, I was cool and comfortable and they were soggy and lugging around sweaters and coats, with sweat stained jeans.  We met a lot of nice people there, the countryside was beautiful, even with the snow on the ground and the townspeople were friendly.

Amazon.com put us up at a new, small campground called 3 Springs about 15 miles south of the plant.  The area is located between Columbia, Ky and Louisville, Ky.  It was a new experience for the owners, but a nice setting on a creek bed next to a state park.  We would go back.  Most of the neighbors worked at Amazon.com and came from all over.  We made some great friends.

We had time to visit some local areas before the weather became too bad to travel and sight see.  One place we visited was Hodgenville, Ky, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.  I never connected Lincoln to Ky before, as history always talks about Ill.  But he was born in Sinking Springs and they have a reproduction cabin in the town.  Here are some pictures of the area.

Another thing we did was visit Bardstown, Ky.  It is somewhat North of where we were.  We met some neat guys and the hosts at Chapeze House.  It is a Federalist Mansion built by a doctor in 1789-1803.  His name was Henri Chapeze.  He had come to America with Lafayette for the American Revolution.  The Colonel and Margaret Sue fix gourmet dinners and tell stories of the distilleries in Ky.  It was a delightful evening and we very much enjoyed the company.

Until next time, Rocky.....