On the Road ... again!

After leaving Dockweiler and the darling granddaughters behind, we headed towards Gardnerville, NV and our storage unit.  It was time to get rid of some of our winter accoutrements and rummage through the remainders to see what goodies it held for us that we had forgotten about.  Forgetting comes so much more easily now that we're retired and don't give a you-know-what about what day it is.

On our way, we stopped for one night at Boulder Creek RV Resort.  We've stayed there before and really like it.  We are going to actually have to spend a week there some time because there is so much to do in that area--the Alabama Hills, the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Manzanar, Mount Whitney and so much more!

Our first night we were blessed with this spectacular sunset!

Which only got better!

 

 Here we are in the RV line-up!  It was fairly full at the campground because they were hosting an RV rally.  It was the most crowded we've ever seen that place!

 The Eastern Sierras from the RV park looking spectacular.

 

 I just had to take a picture of this pine tree littered with pinecones against the azure blue sky.  Yes, I just had to!

It was a one-night-stand at Boulder Creek so the next morning we loaded up and headed to the Carson Valley.  First, we dropped off the RV for an oil change and to get a few things fixed.  When that was done, we left the Jeep at Bob's Performance for oil change and valve cover gasket replacement (yikes!).  We stayed at my sister Jeanne's house for a few days but when the RV was ready we moved over to Carson Valley Inn RV Resort for the balance of our stay.

Here's the entrance to the Carson Valley Inn & Casino in magnificent Minden.  It's also where we had dinner with our good friends, Robin and Danny.

 While we were there, a crafts fair was going on in the casino's back parking lot.  On one of our walks, I bought a 4th of July necklace and pair of earrings ... I'm ready for Americana days!

 Our last night there the higher elevations of the Eastern Sierras received a nice dusting of snow.

 That white, snow-capped peak in the middle of the photo?  That's Job's Peak.

 And here's a close-up of Job's Peak.

We planned our route from Minden to Winnemucca, a little over 200 miles.  Winnemucca isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, the most scenic city in Nevada!  But, it did provide us everything we needed for a one-night stop along our route.  Here's our spot at Winnemucca RV Park.

Next morning we took off with plans for our next night's stop in Wells, NV.  But, the road was wide open, flat and level, making the drive oh-so-easy so when I took the last two-thirds of the drive I arbitrarily decided we would head all the way into Twin Falls, Idaho.  We drove almost 300 miles in one day!  I just couldn't see any reason to stop at either Wells or Jackpot when we were so close to Idaho.  And my taking a turn at driving really helps out allowing us to actually travel further in a day than otherwise.  Gary's sciatica and back just don't allow him to drive more  than 2-3 hours before we need to switch.

Next stop ... Twin Falls, Idaho!  Can you say "po-tay-toe" or is it "po-tah-toe"?

 

Judges 5:10
You who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who travel on the road-- sing!

Sunny Southern California ... it's a hotspot!

We have entered our transition period ... transitioning from spending the winter in Twentynine Palms to spending the summer in Kalispell, Montana. 

First stop ... Dockweiler State Beach RV Park ... the ONLY RV park in Los Angeles ... really!  Thankfully, it's right on the beach with full hook-ups (even if it is a bit of a parking lot and you are right under the take-off flight pattern for LAX ... can you say ear plugs?).

Two main reasons we stayed there three weeks ... granddaughters and grief.

Granddaughters:

Our son, Michael, and his wife, Erica, and our two darling granddaughters, Romy and Malin, are also in a transition period.  They are getting ready for the imminent arrival of Brooke Daughter #3 who arrived April 24th (see end of blog for more info on her arrival) and are just about finished with the Ecuador assignment before heading to Nicaragua.  We had an awesome time (but not enough time) with the kids on the beach and we thank Jesus for the GREAT weather we had.  Most mornings were absolutely beautiful with the wind kicking up in the afternoon, but sunny nonetheless.

Grief:

My brother-in-law, David Brown, passed away very quickly (and almost suddenly) from Bulbar ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).  He wasn't officially diagnosed until December 1st and then passed away in his sleep on March 20th.  Bulbar ALS is a very aggressive and rare form of ALS which makes it hard to diagnose.  He had his first symptom 51 weeks before he passed away, and most Bulbar ALS patients never make it past a year.  In memory of David Brown, who was like a brother to me, may you rest in peace in the arms of Jesus.

We had a wonderful stay at Dockweiler and because we kept extending we kept moving from one site to another which meant we had to pull in all the slides, raise the leveling jacks, somewhat batten down the hatches (but not completely), unhook all the utilities, and move about 3-4 spaces.  Then, put out the slides, lower the leveling jacks, put everything back into place, and hook up all the utilities again!  Oh what fun!  But why am I whining?  Our first four months on the road we did that every week and had it down to a science.



I did mention the weather was spectacular, right?  It provided me great walking-on-the-beach opportunities.  The bike path runs right by Dockweiler and on a number of occasions I used it to get in my daily exercise.  You can see the two rows of firepits in the photo below.  Remember this for later!

 I took a photo of an airplane taking off from LAX.



Here are some photos of the beautiful beach mornings.

 

 

 



Springtime was in the air and the colorfully creative beach flora abounded.

 

 

Here's Sadie taking time to stop and sniff the flowers. Even she can act like an amateur botanist.

Here's Gary with Sadie on one of my walks.  I often didn't walk with them because they want to dawdle and I'm like "on a mission" to get some "breaking a sweat" exercise done.  The two are mutually exclusive goals. 

On this walk, however, we did get an opportunity to see this egret.  The only other egret sightings I've had have all been at lagoons or bird preserves.  I think this guy had lost his way!

One morning I was particularly struck by these signs on my walk ...

Don't you wish left was like that too?  First you'd get the "CAUTION!" sign ... your road of life has some speed bumps ahead ... get prepared!  And then when that speed bump in your life hit, you'd know it because the sign would let you know, "Hey, you just hit the speed bump!"  Unfortunately, life isn't like that, is it?  We don't usually get the caution sign and the "here it is" sign!

 

Here are some photos I took at one of our different sites at the RV park.

 

Gary barbecuing dinner.  The sweatshirt means it was a little chilly/breezy!

That's our table and a view from our site ... unobstructed right now so you know it's during the week and not the weekend.  The weekends at Dockweiler are C-R-A-Z-Y!  And I do mean crazy!  To the right of the entrance is the day use beach area that is lined with fire pits and both Friday and Saturday nights every fire pit is active. People start coming into the day use area in the early morning to stake out their pit for the evening.  One time I was trying to get back into the RV park and my car was in the middle of the intersection for three lights because it was backed up so much with people trying to get into the day use area for the evening fire pit parties!

 Gary and Sadie guarding the RV.

We also were witness to some spectacular sunsets.

I mentioned in the beginning that one of the reasons we were there was to see our darling granddaughters. We babysat them one night, we had them to the beach a couple of times (as I mentioned earlier and as the pictures show, the weather was spectacular) ...



and we went to see Romy at her swim lessons at El Segundo Plunge.  She took swimming lessons in Zimbabwe but had few opportunities to swim in Ecuador so she was almost relearning here. 

 

Here she is swimming with her instructor.

 While waiting for instruction, she has spotted Gary and me in the stands so she's very happy that we are here to watch her swim!

 

I didn't take many photos with the girls because I was so focused on having fun with them!  Michael and Erica did take some, but they are now busy with the newest addition to the family, Vera Ellis Brooke, who was born April 24th at 8:00 a.m. weighing 7.56 pounds and 19" long!  Another granddaughter to have loads of fun with!!  And, shock of all shocks, this one does NOT have red hair, but is dark brown!  We thought for sure they would have their third redhead!





 

Psalms 127:3-5

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.

Cotopaxi ... what a volcano!!!

The trip to Cotopaxi is our last Ecuadorian excursion.  Cotopaxi is a stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located about 50 miles south of Quito.  It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reading a height of 19,347 feet!

 

Cotopaxi erupted more than 50 times in 1738.  The most violent historical eruptions of Cotopaxi were in 1744, 1768, 1877 and 1904.  Its eruptions often produced pyroclastic flows and destructive mud flows (lahars).  Some lahars have traveled more than 100 km and reached the Pacific to the west and the Amazon Basin to the east.  At the moment, it has been dormant for over 70 years, which is an unusual long interval in its recent history.

 

Cotopaxi has an almost symmetrical cone that rises from a highland plain of about 12,500 feet with a width at its base of about 14 miles.  It has one of the few equatorial glaciers in the world, which starts at the height of 16,400 feet.  The mountain is clearly visible on the skyline from Quito (remember my photo I took at the airport when we landed?).  It is part of the chain of volcanoes around the Pacific plate known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.

 

Here's the sign to the entrance of Parque Nacional Cotopaxi.

Our first stop was the visitor's center where we got information about Cotopaxi and viewed the different exhibits.  As you can see from the sign below, Cotopaxi is known for its "everlasting snow" capped peak.



Here's Romy (left, 5-years old now) and Malin (right, 3-years old now) standing in front of a replica of Cotopaxi in the visitor's center.

It was a gloomy, cloudy day and we weren't too sure we'd even get a glimpse of this magnificent beauty because as the photo below shows, the top of the volcano from this overlook near the visitors center which was hidden in the clouds.

 Here are the girls giving Grammy directions on where to go next on the trail!

You know how much I love flora and fauna photos by now, don't you???  Anyway, here are some beautiful flowers that were lining the trail to the overlook.



 

 

Here's Grandpa walking the girls back to the car because our next stop will be driving up to the base of Cotopaxi for an up close and personal view ... hoping beyond hope that the clouds will clear!

 

Well, our trip to the base of the volcano disappointingly did not produce any clearer weather.  And to make things even worse on the way back to lunch the car had a flat tire ... it started to rain ... and Michael had to change the flat in the rain with all of us out of the vehicle ... and I had the distinct pleasure of entertaining the girls in the rain.  So what did we do?  We played ring around the rosie, we explored the tundra and the different small, delicate flowers, and we jumped in mud puddles ... of course!  Here's cloud-enshrouded Cotopaxi.

On our way back down, we came across a herd of wild horses.

These are the grounds where we ate a delicious lunch and spent a few minutes sitting in front of the big fireplace in the lodge. 

 



While sitting in front of the fireplace, Michael went out to do something (I just can't remember what) and he came running back in ... LET'S GET GOING ... THE CLOUDS HAVE LIFTED!!!  So we drove partway back up the road ... and this is the beautiful scenic view that God so graciously gave us of majestic Cotopaxi!

 

 

It's a fond farewell we are bidding to Ecuador.  We had a great visit with our grandkids, son, and daughter-in-law.  Their next State Department posting is in Nicaragua (he starts in August of this year) and it is a three-year posting.  So you may see something from us in a couple of years from Nicaragua!

 

In the meantime, Erica (our daughter-in-law) will be having baby girl #3 (late April).  Stay posted!

 

 

Revelation 1:7-8
BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."