24-WE WENT BACK!

We are on the final leg of our trip home. Our “You Can’t Go Back But We Are Going To Try,” trip is nearly over.

Driving the I-5 is challenging as far as finding anything to put in this blog.

We did see many acres of apricot trees in bloom. The snowy blossoms added to break up the monotony of endless blacktop.

Of course a crop dusting airplane crossing the highway at a low altitude always perks things up a bit. It was spraying the apricot trees and flying from one orchard to another on the other side of the road.

 

We saw lots of signs relating to the lack of water for crops in Central California and the politicians who are being blamed for it.

So much for scenery on the I-5.

On this trip we were privileged to see 37 friends, some we haven’t seen in 20 years, others, only a few months ago. Amazing!

Typical of Don, he is ticking off statistics to me as we drive down the highway.

The bottom line is that we have driven just under 5,000 miles in the RV with over 100 hours of driving time. Additionally the motorhome sucked up waaaay too many gallons of diesel fuel. Also there are a couple thousand more miles of driving in the Jeep to see fun things in places where the motorhome can’t go.

I was hoping this would be the end of input from Don. but one of the things he always asks me is, “What was the best part of the trip for you? What would you want to repeat and what would you not want to do again?”

These are always hard questions for me because I just enjoy the trip as it comes and I don’t keep lists in my head…unlike Someone I know.

But to answer his questions, the best part for me was all the friends we got to see. That was real joy and a blessing. Then, of course, there was all the climbing we did to find petroglyphs and cliff dwellings and lots more really neat things. It’s really hard for me to narrow down what was best.

The next time we take a trip I would hope to again see a lot of friends. I consider them priceless treasures and I would repeat that again any day!

And what would I NOT want to repeat again… And it had better not happen when we get the new toilet installed!! (The carpet is still damp.)

One special item on this trip was meeting Paul De Luna and commissioning him to do the charcoal drawing of Don as Nicodemus. At first Don argued that he didn’t want Nicodemus to look like him, but I said that I did. I told him, “When you die this will be something that I will keep.” He gave me that look and said, ”What makes you thing I will die first?” Later he told me he was hiding the gun. OK, now he is just being overly sensitive!

So then I turned it around and asked Don what his favorite thing was on this trip. He said he wasn’t going to do that this time. He had something else in mind.  Hold on!  No telling what is coming next. 

Usually at this point on the trip home he wants to wrestle my blog away from me and wax philosophical. However, knowing that he can go on forever, I have agreed to listen to what he says, boil it down and not let him get his hands on my computer.

Then he started…"We hear so much in the news lately about ‘legacies.’ The President, other politicians, Hollywood stars…So many times these “legacies” are self serving  power trips that get in the way of what these people are supposed to be accomplishing.

There are three events that we experienced on this trip where I believe people left behind their legacies without really trying.

3) The Amerind Museum. (Blog Post # 11)
William Shirley Fulton moved from Connecticut to the desert of Arizona 20-30 miles east of Benson, near the Cochise Stronghold. After discovering a prehistoric pot in a cave he started working on his passion. He was not an archeologist but he spent years collecting artifacts, pottery, rugs and pictures from all over the Southwest including many items from Mexico.

He housed it all in a museum outside of Benson opening it in 1937. There is no way that I could live in this dry desolate location.

I’m sure that this man did not think that his legacy would be leaving behind his collection and museum for the public to enjoy, but to Dorene and I and many others, it is a monument to a man who followed his passion.

2) Kartchner Caverns. (Blog Post # 10)
In 1974 Randy Tufts and friend Gary Tenen entered a sinkhole in the Whetstone Mountains west of Benson, Arizona. They found a small blowhole by which they entered the Caverns. They became the first humans ever to step foot in this fantastic cave. This began an incredible story of secrecy, intrigue, political maneuvering and self doubt about whether they were doing the right thing.

On previous visits to Kartchner, Dorene and I heard some of their story, but on this trip I decided to buy the book, Kartchner Caverns by Neil Miller. Wow, what a story! I’m surprised that Hollywood has not picked this up and made a movie of it.

In 1978 Tufts and Tenen decided that they would visit the Kartchner family who owned the property and tell them about their discovery. They would continue to keep the location of the cave secret from the public. They eventually informed Arizona politicians about the cave trying to get it included in the State Park system. This lengthy process extended through the terms of three different governors.

In November 1999 the Rotunda and Throne Room first opened to the public. Both Tufts and Tenen were present at the opening. In November 2003 the Big Room was open for public tours. Randy Tufts had died in 2002 and of course did not see the second opening of his wonderful discovery.

 

The Kartchner family was paid about 1-1/2 million dollars for the property. It took many millions more to open it up for public tours. Of all the stories I have heard, and this book I read, I did not see any evidence that Tufts and Tenen received any financial reward for their discovery. The cave itself was their legacy.

I’m sure that they did not perceive at any time that they would leave a legacy behind, but they did.

1) The Out House. (Blog Post # 5)
When Dorene and I, after some 20 years, finally discovered the location of the homestead of Mom and Dad it was an exciting time. We often think of many people who had a pioneering spirit. I also give credit for that to my parents.

When they homesteaded this five acre piece, there was only one major road, no power, water or sewer. I remember driving across the desert with no roads trying to identifying the piece of property that they homesteaded. Finally they had a cabin (if you can call it that) built on the property.

 

As Dad began plans to construct an out house for the cabin, I am sure that he did not consider that this would be part of his legacy to me.

The process of building and trailering the out house some three hours out to the desert cabin was an experience that I fondly remember. Digging the hole and placing the out house over it completed the process. Oh, I guess there was one more step…”baptism by fire”.

This episode reminds me a lot about what my mom and dad taught me and the pioneering spirit that they both had. What better legacy could anyone leave?

The above three stories show what real legacies are all about. Nothing contrived, nothing controlled, nothing planned. But with determination and integrity it just happens.”

Disclaimer: OK, Folks, I tried, but I couldn’t hold him back. I told him this was a blog not a book. He replied that I couldn’t tell stories as good as he and Dad. Well, at least not as good as his dad, that’s for sure!

Through a wet and rainy windshield we finally see a familiar entry gate.

Well, guess what? We finally made it back home. It’s been a great trip. Thanks for riding along with us. Hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did. Remember, we always enjoying hearing from you.


So long till next time.

Dorene and Don

23-SAN DIEGO, Part 3

You can’t go to San Diego without going to the beach, especially in February when the weather is perfect.

Seaport Village is always a popular stop for locals as well as tourists.

It is a beautiful place full of shops and restaurants right on the San Diego Bay. There are plenty of places to walk along the marina to look at the boats…

…the Coronado bridge in the distance…

…and the impressive San Diego skyline.

The Harbor House is our long time favorite place for lunch. They have one of the best clam chowders around.  Searching out great clam chowders is one of our “hobbies.”

We sat upstairs at the Harbor House watching the people below. On the weekends the lawns are full of people flying kites.

When Don’s daughter, Shannon, graduated from high school we brought her to this restaurant on the bay to celebrate. A young waiter blatantly flirted with her right in front of her dad. She pretended to be embarrassed by it, all the while enjoying every minute of the attention.

Nearby the famous Star of India tall sail ship is permanently docked.

Somehow it took less time to go through Seaport Village than it used to so after a leisurely lunch we drove down to Point Loma to the Cabrillo National Monument. There is an amazing view of San Diego Bay and out to the ocean from there.

There is also an historic lighthouse that you can see from the parking lot. It is a serious hike up there which neither one of us felt like taking, so, thanks to a long lens on my camera, I just took a picture from down below.

There is a monument of Cabrillo here (always surrounded by tourists especially on days like this one).

Just down below is where Cabrillo originally landed. It is now part of a Navy Submarine Base.

Joao Rodrigues Cabrillo landed here in 1542. He certainly picked a beautiful place to land.

From the monument we could see a beautiful view of the San Diego skyline…

the famous Hotel del Coronado…

…and ships and sail boats coming from the ocean into port.

On the way out we passed the Point Loma National Military Cemetery. It was an impressive sight with the cemetery on the side of the hill and the bay in the background.

Next we met up with Jack and Claudia Downes (who we had seen in Indio, CA a few weeks ago) for a lengthy lunch on a North County beach in the community of Cardiff by the Sea.

On our way up there, we saw a sight that we would never see in Central Oregon. This was a pick-up truck with a surf board on top.  He has the flashing red and blue lights (not showing in this picture) and is giving this guy a ticket….Ah, California!

The restaurant where we had lunch with Jack and Claudia was right on the beach. It was a great location and the weather (have I mentioned?), was wonderful.

There were families on the beach…

…and surfers catching a wave. We had a great time and a great view.

The next day was Sunday and we went to Escondido to go to the church where we were married and where we attended services for several years.

That afternoon I met and had lunch with Sandi Wilkinson, (L) and Carol Groseth (R), friends of mine from way back. We were all in a Bible study together from about 1990 until when we moved away from the area. These are wonderful women that I miss greatly.

So when Sunday night rolled around, we were more or less getting ready to pull out come morning for our trip home.

I was at my desk working on the last blog that I posted. It was getting a bit late. Don was watching TV and I decided to visit the bathroom.

When I finished my blog, I headed to the back of the motorhome. At this point I began yelling because the motorhome was flooding. Not a situation one EVER wants to see. Don said to me, “I would never want to be in a fox hole with you!” I can’t imagine why not. I was the one who let him know we were being “attacked!”

And “Attacked” we were. Toilets in motorhomes are a bit different then the ones in your house. After you flush, you pull up a lever to add (CLEAN!) water into the toilet to seal it from sewer gasses. No problem, all (RV’ers) do it all the time.

HOWEVER, if the lever sticks….well not a good situation!

We had just put brand new carpeting in the motorhome including a piece that was bound and covered the tile floor from the edge of the bedroom carpet for the length of about five feet through the bathroom to the refrigerator in the kitchen. It feels really good on the feet early in the morning…well, at least it DID!! 

That piece of carpet got the lion’s share of the flood water. After all the screaming, Don grabbed that piece and tossed it outside over a picnic table while I threw every towel in the motorhome on the growing puddles everywhere else. We had very wet carpet in part of the bedroom and part of the living room.

This morning everything was still VERY WET. Don tossed the five foot piece of carpet in the back of the Jeep for the ride home and I just kept changing out towels. The situation is slowly improving.

This is the second flooding incident on this trip. The first not nearly as wet as this one. Well, guess who is getting a brand new toilet installed when we get home? We don’t need any more of these types of “adventures.”

Today we began the trip home to Oregon. We will be there in about three days. It’s not an exciting trip…unless we have adventures which, obviously, sometimes happens…hopefully DRY ones.

We did drive past Edwards Air Base where the space shuttle used to land. There are a lot of huge planes on the runway there. There are mountains and windmills in the background.

Then near Tehachapi, the hills are covered with windmills. Why are only some of them turning?? Just can’t help wondering…Can you tell I am grasping at straws at this boring point in the trip?

Now we are in a highway rest stop on the I-5 freeway near Buttonwillow, CA for the night. We are planning on a peaceful night.

Tomorrow…usually the point in the trip where Don begins to wax philosophical. We will see.

22-SAN DIEGO, Part 2

One of our favorite day trips when we lived in San Diego, was to run about an hour up the mountains to the little town of Julian.

Julian is known for a couple things. One, a number of small shops that are fun to wander through while in an old frontier town setting…

…and two, Mom’s Apple Pies. You just can’t go to Julian without getting at least a slice of Mom’s Apple Pie. So of course, after a bit of wandering, we found ourselves with a nice warm slice in front of both of us. It was just as good as it used to be. In this case, not only CAN you go back, but we DID and it was delicious!

Downtown Julian was the same…nothing had changed and we were glad. There were still all the old store fronts…

…and the old Julian Hotel was still there and operating as usual.

I was very pleased to find that on this February day it was Spring in Julian. Seventy degrees with Iris blooming along with…

Jonquils and Narcissus. Back at home we have snow. They keep saying it has been warmer than usual here since the first of the year. Now that’s my kind of weather!!

Julian began in the early 1800’s as a gold mining town. When the gold ran out the main commodity became apples (and tourists).

One of the things we stumbled onto for the first time ever, was the old Julian Jail. We have no idea how we missed it in all the past years that we have been coming here. It doesn't look like a very friendly place but was obviously adequate for drunken miners back in the day.

We also found, for the first time, the Julian Pioneer Museum. It houses an amazing array of artifacts depicting the history of Julian. Prior to the founding of Julian, native American villages were scattered throughout the area. The Native American display is impressive.

The core of the Julian Pioneer Museum building was built by Joseph Treshil in1888 to house his blacksmith shop. Later, it became a brewery. Then, in 1899, it again became a blacksmith shop. The 1.5 foot thick walls, made from native Julian rock, surround the central display area.

As usual, I could not take pictures in the museum. They have a very basic web site and I could only get this one picture from it, but found it was quite interesting.

More than 35 years ago Don had a business acquaintance,  named Barney Murphy. He lived just a few miles outside of Julian.

In this instance we found that we could go back. The house was basically the same. Behind the house, on the same 20 acres, was a valley with several head of cattle. Nearby was the house where Barney’s parents had once lived.

Don, some 30 years ago, before he and I met, was at their house for lunch. Suddenly, Barney’s wife, Mary, known as Pee Wee, jumped up from the table, grabbed a gun that was leaning against the wall and ran out the back door.

BLAM!! BLAM!!

Then Barney grabbed a gun and ran out, jumped into his truck and tore down the road. Don was left sitting at the table alone wondering what in the world had just happened?!? 

It seems that they had seen dogs going after their cattle and weren't going to stand for that…and they didn’t. It was a scene right out of the old west.

It was easy enough to find their house. It was right where we remembered it. However, no one was home.

We then went down the road looking for “Tom’s Chicken Shack,” an old Julian landmark complete with a big white chicken on the roof. It had been replaced with the upscale restaurant, Jeremy's On The Hill, where we we had a tasty, though somewhat pricy, lunch. The big white chicken was no where to be found.

After lunch we went back up the hill again to Barney’s. This time Barney’s son, John, was home. He was just a little kid the last time we saw him and now was 33 years old. He told us that his parents had been in Arizona and were not yet back. We left a card with him hoping Barney would call when he returned. Apparently he didn’t remember us like we remembered him and we haven’t hear from him.

While heading back down the mountain toward our RV park, we passed the Oasis Camel Dairy. Yes, CAMEL Dairy. Unfortunately, too quickly to get a picture of the camels standing way back in the pasture. Strange as it seems, these people raise camels and make soap from their milk. Well, after all, it is California. One really shouldn’t be surprised at anything.

Then our final stop on the way down was at Dudley’s Bakery in Santa Ysabel. Now Santa Ysabel is simply a wide spot in the road, not really a town, but Dudley’s is a well known bakery. The bread can be found in various stores throughout San Diego. Dudley’s has been there for as long as we have been going to Julian. We bought some of the best ever Sheepherder’s bread and took it back to the RV.

This proves that in some cases, You Can Go Back.

Next, beach time in San Diego.

21-SAN DIEGO, Part 1

Our theme for this trip was, “You Can’t Go Back but We are Going to Try!” The last few posts have not fallen into that category because our adventures in New Mexico and Arizona have been new ones.


Let me pause this story and give you a bit of background.


I had lived almost all my life in Kansas, never having driven more than about 60 miles away from home by myself.

Now, in September, 1984, at 42 years old I found my world and my 24-year marriage crumbling around my shoulders. My 16 year-old daughter, Darcy, and I decided to move to San Diego and start over there. This was a place that we knew ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about except that I had heard the weather was really nice there, unlike Kansas. Basically, I was scared to death.

A dear friend, Linda Smith, volunteered to drive with Darcy and I to the Land of the Unknown to make sure we got there in one piece.  After I safely secured an apartment, she flew back to Kansas. I will be eternally grateful to Linda for that gift of caring for us.

Now, after leaving Yuma, Don and I were driving the I-8 toward San Diego. About 80 miles east of San Diego, I began to re-live the first time I had driven on this road.

The trip Linda and I made was laced with adventures and it was on this stretch of highway that I reminisced about one of them.

Linda and I were very excited to almost be in San Diego where we would be seeing the ocean for the first time. In our excitement, we forgot to get gas in the car.

It was about 5pm when suddenly we saw the gas gauge sitting on Empty!

Now the highway was climbing through some mountains that were made of huge piles of rock and (we were sure) heavily laced with rattlesnakes. We were imagining having to sleep in the car on the narrow highway shoulder with snakes crawling up the side of the car and climbing in the windows. Trust me, we were praying…hard.

Finally, around a curve, we saw a sign for gas and we pulled in, running on fumes. The station was off the road and behind a large outcropping of rock that could not be seen from the highway.

The guy who ran the station approached us looking for all the world like a chain-saw murderer. Now the snakes were looking more friendly to us than he did. He filled our tank with gas that was about double what we had paid anywhere else on the trip. We didn’t care. I asked him how far it was to the next gas station. He said 80 miles.

We thanked God for the gas and keeping us safe from snakes and super creepy guys and drove back onto the highway. Just over the hill we saw another gas station…with gas at the normal price! “Eighty miles?” Right!!

Linda and I took turns laughing and crying off and on this whole trip. Usually it was me crying and Linda laughing like crazy which somehow kept me sane and in one piece. This was one of those times.

We spent that night in a sleazy motel in El Cajon (an east suburb of San Diego) because we wanted to see San Diego for the first time with a sunny blue sky for a background.


Our destination was Poway, a little town just north of San Diego. (Darcy had a horse that I would eventually have shipped out, and I was told that Poway was a horse-friendly town.) The map said the shortest way to get there was to take highway 67 north from near El Cajon. It seemed safer than taking the I-15 FREEWAY. The word, “freeway,” itself was scary to two little gals from Kansas. We didn’t know highway 67 would be even scarier!

Highway 67 was rather rural (by California standards) and wound up hill.

Once again we are seeing mountains and rocks.

Then we turned west and were remind that “what goes up must come down.”  This road is a narrow, two-lane highway that CURVES DOWNHILL…

…with a steep cliff that goes STRAIGHT DOWN from the edge of the road.

We can see the town of Poway in the distance…DOWN IN THE DISTANCE!!!

Have I mentioned that we don’t have terrain like this in Kansas? I am driving a little1980 Datsun with a luggage carrier on top. This car is packed solid with everything I own and furthermore, it has Kansas tags on it. 


None of this is missed by the other cars that are stacked up behind us and fuming because we are creeping down this two mile long hill at about 10 miles and hour, hugging the yellow line and scared to death that we will fall off the edge of the cliff. We were white knuckling it all the way!!

When we finally got to the bottom of the hill, we looked to the right. See the nice home with the red roof in the lower left? Well now look to the top of the hill right above it. See that HUGE boulder? What would be your first thought when there was an earthquake?? Mine, too. (By the way, it is WHEN there is an earthquake, not IF!)

Linda and I have laughed about this incident many times over the years. Interestingly enough, I just heard from Linda (still in Topeka) by e-mail this past week. Again, she mentioned our trip and how God took cared of us. It was the trip of a lifetime for both of us on more levels than you can imagine.

If it had not been for Linda and my crazy trip, I would have never met Don and would not be writing this blog.


So now back to Don and I. We are finally back in San Diego and we are definitely “Going Back”! There are so many memories here.

Darcy and I moved into this apartment building in Poway.

Don lived in this house about four miles away…

We met and were married in this church in Escondido in 1985 (didn’t let any grass grow under our feet!)  Then we both lived in Don’s house in Poway for the next 10 years.

Part of this trip involves sad memories as we visited the cemetery in Poway where both my daughter, Darcy and Don’s daughter, Shannon, are buried, just two graves apart. Darcy died on September 11, 1990 and Shannon on December 20, 1991.

This is always a painful visit but since we now live in Oregon, we have not been here in many years. I have another daughter buried in Topeka who passed away in 1966. The good thing is that we know they are not here. They are all waiting for us in heaven.

Next we visit Julian, a small mountain town near San Diego and other activities in and around this area. I am loving the weather here and Don is complaining that it is too hot. (It’s NOT!)