May 5, 2011 – Day One of Summer Vacation—Going to TX.

We are on vacation! If Larry can continue his good monthly lab test results, we don’t have to come back to see his nephrologist until November! He has stepped back another half-step from the edge of the abyss called dialysis. We will still be doing monthly lab tests and if the numbers go down, we will pack up immediately and head back to California. We are lucky that our HMO has email service to the physicians and even phone doctor visits for advice and non-urgent issues.

We are off to Texas for the summer. YES, we are out of our minds! We are going back to our cottage in the woods for a few months to work on the house, work in the house, do some healthy cooking and hopefully throw a lot of beautiful pottery bowls.

We drove from Bethel Island to Barstow today. Fuel is running $4.39-$4.45. The drive down I-5 was a disappointment. We feel so great, everything should be green fields, green hills and lots of wildflowers. Instead, everything was grayish and drab. If the poor visibility and smoggish skies are the result of the first hot weather in the Central Valley, they will need smog-cutters on the front of the vehicles by August!

I took this photo coming up the Tehachapi grade this afternoon—and you can see the smog has even crept up 2000 ft—notice the bluish hills.

We are camped back at our favorite dry-camp spot in Barstow. We got nice news this evening; I went out to take a photo and noticed the sign in front of the camper: Coming Soon—Denny’s!

Maybe Pilot isn’t going to sell/rent or lease this location as I was told in February. I sure hope so as it is easy to get in for RV fuel with two RV lanes and it just fits as a dry-camp spot on our trips. We may not have gotten our happy green-looking day, but we might get to keep one of our favorite camp spots. We would have gone in to eat at Denny’s just like we used to have the salad buffet when it was Country Market. Life is good—if one discounts the 94 degree weather when we arrived at 4:30. It is starting to cool off—our last reasonable weather until we get closer to Texas. Pray for us!

We considered going I-40 to Albuquerque, NM, and then south to El Paso, TX, but the highway hits 5-7,000 ft. in altitude, which is cooler and prettier, but Larry seems to have an issue with one ear failing to clear, and therefore causing him several days of pain. We don’t need pain! So, going to stay on I-10 and bite the heat bullet! This is our last dry-camp night—I NEED the air conditioning!

Last weekend, we drove to Benicia, CA to visit long-time friends and ex-neighbors, Jan Chappell and her sons. We took a short trip through Benicia and I had to take a photo of this house down on 9th street.

Isn’t it a hoot? That is a double-decker gazebo that looks out on the Carquinez bridge and the Sacramento River flowing to San Francisco. I just loved the idea that someone has so much fun in their life—to build something that tickles their fancy. Great job!.

Until tomorrow, the vacationers, Larry & Carol!