Monday, May 30, 2005

Yosemite, Hight Water

Memorial Weekend in Yosemite. Yeah, a bit crowded!
Necessary because it was to only chance to get a peak at the falls when the water was still flowing heavily. We stayed just outside the park in a RV park in El Portal on Highway 140.

A view of Upper Yosemite Falls, left, and a Lower Yosemite Falls from the bridge close to the base, on the right above.

Another view of Upper Yosemite Falls on the left above, Half Dome is on the right.

A couple of views of Happy Isles . Dawn and Lou are in the left picture looking at the rushing water.

Above left, Sentinal Bridge. The water is right up to the bottom of the bridge, was over the top last week. Above right, Mirror lake view of North Dome.

Above, many meadows are flooded due to the high level of the Merced river. Many pathways are blocked by the flooding.

A view of Upper Yosemite Falls from Camp Curry. On the right above is a view of Wildcat Falls, the second big water fall seen when entering on Highway 140 West of the Highway 120 junction.
Excellent weather for a visit, great views of the waterfalls but the meadows are a little wet. You can't have everything. One of the nice things about visiting Yosemite is that it is always a nice visit, whatever season!

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Mr Milo and Friend

Mr Milo has a friend. For several years now, we've had some birds nesting in our backyard. They hang around most of the time as well. They take turns playing with Mr Milo. Actually, they're protecting there nest but it seems to have evolved into mutual respect and I think they like each other.

Note the bird above Mr Milo at the window asking Mr Milo to come and play.

Mr Milo likes to take walks around our yard, but due to his hip injury, we keep him on a leash.

The fountain looks lovely as usual.

Bakersfield’s Pioneer Village Museum

Today, Don visited Kern County's Pioneer Village Museum. It's located in Bakersfield. It's a wonderful village of original old buildings from all around the county now making up a village. Unfortunately, much of the stuff here is what I grew up around.

In particular, the Fairhaven Pump House used to sit in the middle of the street about a block from the house I grew up in. That was where the bus stopped to pick me up for school.
The Oil Museum is quite interesting.




Today, there was a Peddlers Faire at the Village. It's like a flea market for antiques and other old things somewhat related to the era of the village.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Nothing Exciting

This visit to Bakersfield has been unusual. In particular, the weather. Hot one day, cool the next, on, off. hot, cool. Is it really the end of spring? This visit also showed a side of Bakersfield I haven't seen for a while, a blue sky. It's normally kind of gray and smoggy, not like it was back in my youth here. Could things be improving? Today has been a work on the computer all day, day. Fortunately, it was cool all day and really nice in the RV. Tomorrow, its back to the house repairs.
I haven't added any pictures to the site for a while. I'll have to find something worthy of a picture for my fans.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Bakersfield Again

We finally arrived in Bakersfield Saturday morning. Uncle Emery and Aunt Mary were at Uncle Doug and Aunt Helen's place. Nice visit.

Helen, Mary, Lou, and Dawn
A big mystery. An Okra seed thief must have visited because when Uncle Doug was ready to plant his seeds, obtained at great expense, they were gone.
Monday the tenants left in the morning. Lou, Dawn, and Mr Milo returned North to work, school, and napping, respectively. There's a bit of work to be done here now so Don remains. Painting and other repairs needed to ready for rental again. The weather today was much cooler and a lot of rain and wind in the morning. Nice in the afternoon.
When Don was out Shopping, he looked everywhere for Okra seeds. Have you ever tried to find them. They're usually only seen when not wanted, which, up until now, was all the time. Any way, they were finally found at Wal-Marts, not in the seed rack in the garden department but outside past the registers, on the back side of a display case that was against the fence. After reading the name of the seed packets on 6 displays of seeds, about 600 compartments of seeds, Okra was finally found on the 4th to the last possible place they could be.
Isn't Frozen Okra available at Wal-Mart?
Uncle Doug likes Okra and has a nice garden started, which now WILL include Okra.

Friday, May 13, 2005

A Visit To The Morgue

Dawn and Lou went on a field trip with Dawn's forensic anthropology class today, to the Santa Clara County Morgue. They got to observe several autopsies. To each their own. This afternoon we were on the road to Bakersfield. We stopped in King City at the Salinas Valley Fair. Kind of interesting, much better thsn the Santa Clara County Fair. Of course, any fair is better than the Santa Clara County Fair. The 4H and FFA are very active there and kids had their animals, art, crafts, etc on display.
We're spending the night in Buttonwillow.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Toad Back, Sounds Like New

The Toad came back from Midas with a new muffler and a bunch of new exhaust piping. It now sounds like a Volvo again rather than an old Ford. It has that Volvo ring to it again.
Don cleaned out the shop area enough to do some work. Welded up a rack for the canoe but didn't have time to try it out.
We're all headed to Bakersfield this weekend. The rental there becomes vacant and Don will remain to paint the whole inside of the house and do any other repairs. It's sad to loose tenants when they've been around for more than eight years.
Lou has 17 more days till she's off for the summer and we can take a trip north.

Monday, May 9, 2005

Tinkering

The Toad went in this morning to have the exhaust system looked at. It got a new header pipe, new connector pipe new muffler and a new tail pipe. It sounds good again. It turned out to be a tinkering day. I got some keys made, went through some items in the to be repaired pile, checked and repaired some websites, did other computer related work, tidying up in the RV, etc. The weather was kind of odd for May. We had several heavy downpours and San Jose even got some hail.

Saturday, May 7, 2005

Missing Part Run

Friday, I had to dash down to Camping World to get a missing shelf for the new refrigerator. Several other errands and some shopping and I made it to Dawn's house in San Jose to do a little more work on the fence. I installed the lattice work on top of the fence. The neighbors house is an older home that sits quite high and looks down into our yard. With the lattice work the fence is about nine feet high and almost screens view from their house. I also received my new Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router from Tiger Direct. This router promises 400% better coverage. It is a preliminary new wireless standard the 802.11n which is backward compatible with the g and b standards. Installation couldn't have gone more smoothly.
Find out more at RVexperience.info.

Thursday, May 5, 2005

Now It’s Cold Again

Camping World installed a new refrigerator today. The old one stopped working suddenly after excellent service. A leak of refrigerant in the burner. It's nice to have the extended warranty. They covered most of the cost. I think they won't want to here from me again. We've almost recovered the cost of the warranty in the last couple of days.
We're almost ready to travel again, except for the toad. It gets a new muffler and tailpipe Monday.
The weather is trying to stay the same. It rained most of yesterday and today here is San Martin, Ca.
Back home again tonight.

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

One Down

The RV dash air conditioner is fixed. About $1300 worth, all but $100 paid by the extended warranty. I also had some other work done. The RV has over 42K miles and I didn't want to have to look around for a service location and have to wait for a service date while we're on the road this summer. Usually, the only service on the road is oil changes and those can be done anywhere. The repairs were done at Superior Automotive & Radiator Services in Morgan Hill, Ca. They appear to know what their doing and take the time to explain what they're doing. I think they will be my regular service location.
Now, to save a bunch of gas. I'm waiting in San Martin (next door to Morgan Hill) for a Thursday appointment at Camping world to get the refrigerator fixed. I hope I don't get carried away at their store.