Nel & Tim's Journey

2/6/10 Nel here….(Please note the dates, I am catching up here….aka….old news for some.)

Last night we had a most lovely evening with Hannah and Jeremy. We drove to San Francisco, ate seafood at Scoma’s on the bay. The fish are delivered to the dock right next to the restaurant. THAT’S how fresh it is…Our waiter, big guy named Jim, had worked there since he was 12 or something; for 35 years. Tim said it felt like we were in his living room instead of in a restaurant. Jeremy ate a whole crab and looked pretty darn cute with his plastic crab bib !

We went to the Orpheum Theatre. I am sure they are always working to restore this place and we were more than happy to pay an extra “restoration fee” with our ticket price. The ceiling in this place was lattice work of hand hewn, maybe wood, painted and faded to a rich looking patina. And then carved faces everywhere.There is no way I can describe it….go there if you ever get a chance.

Anyway, we saw the play “Wicked”. It’s a fun story about Elpheba, Galinda and Nessarose. We know these witches as the wicked witch of the west, glinda the good witch and the one who got killed when the house from Kansas fell on her (think ruby slippers).  It was truly world class entertainment with the exceptional music, singing, dancing, costumes, and of course the story. Turns out Elpheba was not a wicked witch at all, she was however seriously green from birth….and just misunderstood and blacklisted by the current ruling power. The ruling power of course turned out to be the wizard !

Hhhmm lessons there for all of us, I believe. Thanks to Hannah and Jeremy for arranging that lovely evening for us.

Our weekend was disturbed by the very sad news that Betsy’s mom Mary Esther Kelly, the original “tofrom” gal, crossed over from our world due to a stroke. She suffered little. Betsy and her son Eric were able to get to her before she passed. Mary Esther was a fine woman, who at 83 was still traveling, volunteering, living life to the fullest. She had also managed to talk to a lot of people in the few days before her death, and get all of her important papers in order.  Mary Esther, wherever you are, we love you….We did our best to be supportive from afar. Part of my sorrow was that I had been worried about my own mother all week because she was recovering from surgery. When Betsy’s mom suddenly left us, it was not only a shock, but also a reminder about the fragility of all our lives. It seems as we age, everyone before us and behind us are aging also. I know that sounds corny, but it is harder for me to see my mother age than it is to experience the process myself.

Btw.. Pat Applegate is recovering well from her surgery with Aunt Barb and Brother Lonnie in attendance, as much as she will allow !

We also had a lovely evening with Ezra and Lynn Savage while in San Jose. Hannah created an elegant dinner party for us, complete with gold chargers and black napkins. If you don’t know what a charger is, that’s OK, I did not know either. You’ll have to ask around…. It was fun to get to know Lynn and reconnect with Ezra. My hope is that the four of them will continue to maintain relationship, as they are all in the greater SF bay area.

We hung out a bit with Jeremy’s sister, Blondie, her husband Brett and his parents Jim and Cheryl Landis. Hannah spends a lot of her time with the Landis family since meeting Jeremy, so it was nice to finally meet them all.  We had a fun evening at the Toll House Inn, even though they had no chocolate chip cookies on the menu, which of course disappointed Tim, the cookie dude.  I personally, was incredibly happy with the cauliflower au gratin and am hoping to recreate that one with a somewhat lower fat version.

 It was fun being at Hannah and Jeremy’s place. They have a lovely home. It is always fun for me to cook food with others, and especially in a cool kitchen like theirs, and especially with my daughter. I love visiting my kids, and hate to say good-by.

Hannah and Jeremy seem very much in love and that is so very nice to see. Happy them……

 5 road rules from Jeremy;

Do NOT pick up hitchhikers

Drink your milk ( Tim)

Wear your seatbelts

Hide the brownies

Don’t run with scissors

 2/8/10 Over the weekend, Tim found out that a woman on the Kind Tree board, who had agreed to take over the art program and organize the next art show, decided that she could not follow through and completely dropped the ball.  This was very hard on him, as he had entrusted her to do a lot of tasks that he could not do while we are on the road. Letting go can be very difficult sometimes. Other people have risen to assist, but he struggled with these happenings, for sure. All praise to Mary-Minn and Janice and anyone else who is helping out.

Today is our drive to Henry Coe State Park, not far from H&J’s. 10 miles up a steep windy narrow road with gorgeous lookouts and a couple of wash-outs. I experience more of my Nav windy road anxiety. I think that next time we are Nav mt climbing, I will try some Rescue Remedy to stay calmer and therefore more supportive of the driver. How can you be a good co-pilot if you are squeaming and squirreling ? Is it my age ? This stuff never used to bother me. I am getting used to the rocking of the Nav, it’s a lot like being on a boat.

 We are camping on this mountain top, knoll kind of place, looking out at these green rolling hills and valleys. No one else is around. We take a great long hike through the mountains. Great visitas, up and down gently gently. Old old sprawling oaks, smooth trunked madrone of deep rich reds and oranges. ( see pictures around here somewhere), and lush grass welcome us in. Pink granite, quail, woodpeckers, some strange torn up earth tracks under the oaks ( not deer, not elk, doesn’t look like bear even) and unidentified scat (cat scat ?)  also delighted us and made us wonder.

It is so quiet, I can only hear the ringing in my ears as we walk !

 Another cozy evening. We were hoping for some stars, but we got clouds and rain instead, after a marvelous sunset. We’ll reheat lasagna from Hannah’s and I’ll grind more coffee beans. Maybe I’ll just have a cup right now, at 6:00 pm, even without a camp fire. Yum….

We are charging our phones and batteries and all our lights from solar panels on the roof. So far we have had no electricity, just the solar and propane for cooking and the fridge. It’s fun being more conservative with power/water usage. Our mileage is so-so, 14.5-16 mpg so far. We have constantly been in the mountains, though we had hoped for better mpg.

 2/9/10 I wake up with a tick firmly planted behind my left ear. What ? Tim tries to get it out, but alas, he only got out the body of the tick. So… we spend 2 ½ hours in the ER in Garlicky Gilroy.

I just feel badly taking up the doctor’s time with so many really sick people in there.

The physician’s assistant who dug the tick head out of my head, casually asked me if we saw any of the non-native wild pigs in the woods. Right away I knew that was the animals that had made the unusually destructive “tracks” under the oak trees. He says they can be pretty big, oh like 500 pounds. He saw a man recently come into the ER with his leg mangled and broken by one of them. Geez, man, we spent about 30 minutes talking to a ranger yesterday…..he never said a word about the damn pigs. Way more scary than the tick.

 2/10/10 We had a sweet visit with David, Emily and Grace Kahn last night. Hannah was also there because she is working in the area this week, so that was an extra treat.  We sat up late and talked, and had a toast to Emily’s grandmother Mary Esther. I had a little tequila along, and knew that Mary Esther would like that. But alas, could not get those young women to commit to more that a wine toast. That was OK by me, although I did mention that if Susan and Betsy and Erin were there, they would certainly do the tequila !

Emily has created a lovely home and says she is ready soon to think about another baby to keep Grace company. Grace is almost walking alone and learning animal sounds. She did well with kitty and bee, but we could not get a lion’s roar out of her. Getting to spend an evening with them all was pure pleasure for both Tim and I.

I do so love our children.

 This morning Tim comes into the house with his long gray hair looking wild from a night of sleep. He sits at the table with Grace, Emily and myself. Both Grace and Emily give him a semi-startled look with the crazy hair. Then Emily easily says to her daughter “ look Grace, a lion”….at which point Tim lets loose with a roar.  What fun.

 We arrive at Red Rock Canyon State Park ( thank you Craig and Wanda) in time for a  good hike/ exploration  around the area. We are finally in desert country. The rock formations and dramatic land mass upheavals are enticing us straight into Death Valley tomorrow. Beautiful place, oh my. I would highly recommend this place for some r&r and maybe more than the short time we gave it.

Our first night with a clear sky ! Yippee ! We sat out and were amazed and reassured about all those stars in the sky.  Night freezing sky alive with the universe. And us little nothings who think we are so important.

 These hikes/stays in these CA. state parks are super great, and it’s costing us anywhere from $20-$35/night to be in each. Spendy little hikes, they are. The preservation of our natural resources are most important to future generations, so we are OK with spending the money. Because this is February and it’s rainy and chilly, we seem to have the parks mostly to ourselves, which is so nice.

 Side notes:

How to get Tim to understand how bad all the Mountain Dew is for him ?

 I have been playing my low ( thank you Joshua) gandanga Mbira almost exclusively working on Marenje. I am trying to get some singing in, but can’t quite manage it by myself. I will listen to Musekiwa and Jennifer on their new CD for some help ( woops, I did that, they are way too good for me, didn’t help).

 2/11/10 Our first desert morning ! (entries for 2/11-2/24 to be done as time/weather allows !)

 2/25/10 Here we are in Austin, the sun is warm today… we are at Miranda and Andy’s urban farmstead. The people across the street have 6 pink flamingos in the front yard. We are parked on the street, being gypsies…… it’s nice to have some private space, and for M &A too I am sure. I thought we would be in the driveway, but turns out that is way too steep to live in. The front gardens are nice and we ate garden salad last night.

Miranda got a new sewing machine for her birthday from her daddio. Very nice… we went to Sears and got a good old new Kenmore. That was after a day’s research on line. This morning she taught me how to make kim chee. Yummy…..I’ll get to take some when we leave. And we got to watch some of the Olympics last night… that was fun, as we have not been tuning into the TV.   

After passing  RV service places on our travels and driving right on by, it is clear that we need one now for a new longer and unbroken sewer hose…… A life’s necessity at this point.  

More sad news department. A couple of weeks ago, we found out that our friend wrecked our 1989 VW van, Greta.  She, our friend, was not hurt, thank goodness. We had previously discussed selling Greta, but decided that she was too valuable for hauling lots of marimbas to gigs, Kind Tree art and retreat gear to various events, and of course, people for family vacations and wine tasting adventures.  

After many calls to The Hartford, (AARP insurance rocks! Do not make fun….check it out if you are OLD enough), the auto body shop, and other various wonderful friends Mary and Keith helping us from afar; we‘ve been informed that the damages were enough for the insurance company to total the vehicle. They’ve offered us quite a fair settlement, or we could take a lesser amount and attempt to repair Greta on our own. Tim and I struggled to come to an agreement about what to do. We are grieving the loss of our german workhorse traveling companion. There was the road trip with Betsy and Susan to meet up with Joni, through Nevada all night driving with all that yummy food and iced coffee). There was our trip to San Juan Islands….my brother taking pictures of Greta for his friends because of all the bumper stickers on it ( that’s a relative condition in Eugene) ..  It’s hard to let go, but only makes sense. Who knows, maybe we can find another older VW van that is biodiesel when we get home, in better shape…or something equally serviceable….or….or …..Anyway, take a moment, if you knew her; to say fair the well.

 I am getting lax in my stretching and core exercises, and I can tell a difference in my level of pain when I wake up in the morning. Everything feels stuck together in my back and hips.  I need that stretching and core training every day.. why can’t I get it done ? Verna, where are you ??? Seems like I have to pay people to help me to stay healthy.  I guess it’s not all bad, we do try to walk a couple of miles every day and have been pretty good at that most days, unless we are really trying to get the miles in on the highway. 

3/1/10Today we mark officially one month on the road. We have…….

 Seen some new and wondrous sites

Connected with old and new old friends

Experienced some real sadness and grief

Shared some mind melding moments with each other

Heard and created some pretty nice music

Travelled about 2700 miles.

 In a way, this seems like a midway point for me, although it really is not. We have been still much longer here in Austin, and we have already crossed the continental divide ( in Texas for heaven’s sake). But will not be headed back for west for several weeks yet. 

 We visited San Antonio and realized the culture clash that must have occurred at the Alamo….first the natives, then the Spanish priests, then all those settlers from back east (think David Crocket) and the people of Mexico…to which culture does this land belong ? To all of us, of course….And now this small beautiful monument is surrounded by this great big city of bustling tourists and residents. It’s always good to remember that we white folks took all this land from others, and to honor those who came before us.  

I was able to get in a little Miranda cooking time as she tries out new recipes and ideas for her Austin Homestead blog. We made kim chee one day and raviolis another. She is working on granola and granola bars right now. She is very faithful to her project. One fun meal we had was brunch on Saturday morning. We prepared excellent scrambled eggs from her chickens and potatoes that Tim and I grew last summer. We all got a kick out of that.

Sunshine, Mbira practice, coffee grinding, hanging out today.