New Years Day Week

Tuesday: (12/29) Lou fixed a nice breakfast of home fries, eggs and bacon. Helen was off back towards Bakersfield this morning. Lou headed down to San Jose for more doll molds and Dawn and Courtney were off to a friends house. I enjoyed some time inside. Every thing is muddy again due to a good rain yesterday evening. Lunch was a grilled cheese English muffin. Dinner was English muffins with chili, cheese and Italian sausage.

Courtney wasn't feeling well so stayed at our place. It's nice to have someone to watch over you.

Wednesday: (12/30) Lou fixed a variation on my muffin breakfast. She used croissants, eggs, cheese and bacon. Show off! She picked up some more doll stuff in San Jose and worked on trying to fit it sll into her storage area. She's also been busy entering oll the new stuff into her inventory program. It doesn't work if you can't find it.

Courtney spent the night and by noon was much better. It's nice to see a 24hour bug rather than those long lasting bugs.

I accomplished nothing just tinkering at the computer. I'm getting better at nothing.

Lunch was leftover breakfast potatoes with leftover chili, cheese and Italian sausage on it. For dinner Lou fixed split pea soup.

Thursday: (12/31) Lou fixed French toast for breakfast using home made bread and Italian sausage. Another day of relaxation. I worked hard, on a couple of Soduko puzzles, read the papers, browsed the Internet and generally wasted the day. I did check the neighbors sump pump, which should count as work, about 10 minutes worth.Leftover pea soup for lunch. We all went out for a little shopping trip about 1pm. Dawn went to sell some books and Lou and I visited Walmart. We're practicing for when we get back on the road. We had no particular needs but left with a couple of bags full.

Lou and Dawn went down to San Jose in the later afternoon. Lou made a final pickup of doll molds from the store that is closing and they also checked out Christmas in the Park, a sort of Santa's village in downtown San Jose. They then examined all the thrift stores on the way home. Busy Busy.

There was another 2 for 1 coupon in the paper for Chicago Pizz'a Chicago which prompted pizza for dinner.

I often stay up into the wee hours of the night sometimes actually getting to bed about dawn. For some reason, on New Year's Eve it is usually more difficult to stay awake. Why is that? We'll see if this year is any different.

It's been an interesting year. It started out much as usual with a visit to Las Vegas for New Years Eve, Quartzsite for the big get together, our first visit to Yuma and Imperial Dam LTVA, some time at Joshua Tree NP, some knee surgery for Lou, a lot of work at home in the yard, a couple of trips to Utah for family, and then more work in the yard building new sheds and then the year was over. In a couple of weeks Lou and I hope to be out on the road again to start all over though a little late this year.

Friday: (01/01) New Years Day. Breakfast was different. It was some Chinese angle hair noodles with tofu provided by our neighbor.

I unloaded a used shelf unit Lou picked up at the closed doll store. First order of business was to clear the area where the shelf is to go. Unfortunately it was my leftover concrete bags and the like in the area so a little work was in order. I then had to adjust the shelf's leg lengths since I have a low roof 6'4" in the shop. I got the frame all assembled and then tried to install the wood shelves. The wood was 18" as intended but the shelf support was only 16" deep. Easy to correct by ripping the boards to the correct width but it's raining today and I need to roll the table saw outside to rip them so it will have to wait a day or two.

Lunch was leftover tri-tip roast with broccoli and pasta. A nice walk with Dawn around the neighborhood followed lunch. Much of the rest of the afternoon was doing as I prefer, playing at the computer. I did finally roll the saw out, cut the shelf boards and also make a new insert for Lou's sewing machine cabinet that's been on the list for a while.

Ernie fixed dinner. Homemade Swedish meatballs with asparagus and noodles.

Saturday: (01/02) A nice day outside even though the sun never appeared. Dawn fixed Irish oatmeal for breakfast. Lunch was leftover pizza.

I worked in the shop putting things away and organizing, an endless usually avoided job.

Dinner was an unusual treat, more leftovers.

Sunday: (01/03) Lou fixed baby croissants with egg, bacon and horseradish cheese for breakfast. Lou and I started with a little shopping run to find some plastic storage boxes for my new shelf. That took a while but there was a lot to look at  in the search.

Lunch was leftover more tri-tip roast with broccoli and pasta. I spent the afternoon making two vertical screens out of the old deck fence. It's always nice to successfully re-purpose something.

Dawn made a nice vegetable soup which we had with olive bread. I then packed my bag. Ernie and I are headed to Las Vegas to pickup some stuff from his storage tomorrow. Just a quick trip.

Japanese Tea Garden And Presidio In San Francisco

We drove up to San Francisco so Aunt Helen could see things. We stopped in Millbrea for breakfast at Neels Cafe.


Nice views of San Francisco today. Alcatraz viewed over The Palace Of Fine Arts from the Presidio.A view of the San Francisco skyline from Lands End by the Legion Of Honor.


Two views of the Golden Gate Bridge one from the Presidio's Crissy Field and the other from Land's End.


We visited the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The sun wasn't out but the overcast skies made for interesting photos. Though it was cold, the birds above are stiff because they're brass.


Proof we were there. Ernie sand I on the bridge. Ernie, Helen and Dawn by the Pagoda.


Flowers in bloom in in winter. Seems like there are always flowers.

Lou baby sat the dogs and fixed a nice tri-tip roast dinner with baked potatoes and raw vegetable medley.

Christmas Week

Monday: (12/21) Wow! it doesn't seem like it's been another year already.  Normally we would have departed for our winter trip a week ago but this year departure is delayed. Possibly mid January now. Weather was nice this morning but drippy all afternoon. I tinkered in the shop finishing most of the electrical in the morning. When it got drippy I went in and played at the computer.Lou and Dawn went down to San Jose, Lou to pick up some  doll molds and Dawn to see her friend Andrea.

Breakfast was PBJ English muffins. Lunch was a chili size. Dinner was at New Tung Kee in Mountain View. Cheapest dinner around and very good.

Tuesday: (12/22) The day started with a visit to the hardware store for a couple of things. I returned and finished the shop wiring then hit the trench. Ernie and I finished connecting the drain pipe under the new shop to the storm drain system. Next will be to connect the downspout to the system.

Last night I worked trying to get my email server to work. I have two virtual servers residing who knows where. One is Linux the other Windows. Working with them is like working with black boxes. The Linux system handles most of my websites and email. It just works and doesn't cause problems. The Windows server is much more difficult but I needed a Windows server to host my own software development projects. It also hosts several websites to be. The problem is that in order to be allowed to install my own software on the server I had to get a do-it-yourself server which requires I manage the server, including the email server. Some of the settings do not become effective immediately so sometimes I try something and then have to wait a day to see how it works. Patience has never been one of my virtues. Eventually it will work but this do-it-yourself stuff is getting tiring, educational but tiring. I hate Windows and wouldn't use it if I could avoid it but some things just have to be.

Lou's been busy getting more doll molds from a shop that is closing in San Jose and organizing her storage. Dawn and Courtney walked to the library. The weather was nice all day except occasionally windy.

I fixed English muffins with bacon and eggs for breakfast. A healthy lunch of guacamole and chips. Dinner was Dawn's potatoes a gratin with Italian sausage and raw vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli).

Wednesday: (12/23) Sunny but cold today. No wind so a really nice day.

I had to try to help a neighbor's kid who picked up a computer virus, no anti virus software installed. I couldn't help. She has a young friend who probably knows more about fixing computers. Don't they all. More than likely the drive will have to be restored in the end. Another reason to dislike computers. Of course the developer and distributor of the virus should be subject to the death penalty, in my opinion.

Ernie and I started going through junk in the remaining tent in the yard. Some to be saved and some to finally get a chance to take a trip to the dump. We managed to move my considerable lumber pile from it's storage rack. I need to make some improvements to the rack so it had to be emptied. It will end up in the new shop.

Lou worked on organizing her molds and did most of the Christmas grocery shopping.

Dawn, Courtney and Ashley caught the light rail trolley to the Great Mall late in the afternoon. Getting such a late start isn't too bad around Christmas when the stores are all open very late. The returned about 10 pm.

When I took a morning walk I picked up a newspaper and found a coupon for 2 for 1 pizza at our favorite Pizz'a Chicago. Of course, that was lunch. Lou and I went to the New Tung Kee Chinese restaurant, again, for dinner.


Thursday: (12/24)I spent the morning welding the wood rack making some needed modifications. When I built it in a hurry  last year when I moved out of the old shop shed        I did just enough. Today I finished it making the upper racks stronger. I was finished by noon when Perry mason came on. I like the show and it provides a break for lunch.

In the afternoon I moved all the wood, again, onto the upgraded rack in the new shop shed. That was enough work for the day.

I was just thinking today that I haven't been taking any pictures. Both my cameras are failing so I tend to not take as many right now. Maybe I'll make an extra effort tomorrow.

Lou's been busy cleaning up for guests tomorrow and cooking. Ernie was busy cooking as well.

Today is a special day that all too often wasn't special enough. Today is my mother's 99th birthday, or would have been. She passed away in 1989. Having Christmas Eve as your birth date has to be rather unfortunate because you probably never get a birthday present nor have a birthday party but, this is when it does pay off. It's easier for others, like me, to remember it due to the holiday relationship. So happy birthday mom!

And this makes me think of my Dad as well. His birthday wasn't so date gifted being October 26th. I missed remembering his 116th birth date, or what would have been, this past October. So happy birthday dad, belatedly.

I fixed eggs bologna and English muffin;s for breakfast. Lunch was refrigerator treats du jour. I had leftover seafood salad and cottage cheese. Dinner was pizza #2, the free one from yesterday.

Friday: (12/25) Speaking of remembering birth dates, this date seems important for some reason? Merry Christmas.

Breakfast was a healthful bunch of tarts, a wonderful by product of pie making. Ernie used a crust recipe that included vinegar which makes it light and it also has an interesting added flavor. Ernie and Lou were busy starting the ham and other kitchen duties. Dawn and I were busy not doing that.

Dinner was the usual feast. Ham, chicken, smashed potatoes, yams, green beans, macaroni and cheese, savory bread pudding, Fruit salad, Fresh cranberry sauce, green salad and probably something I forgot. I'm glad we convinced Ernie to minimize dinner for years past. Desert was choice of apple pear or apple pie. Our guests were Melei, Ping and An An (our neighbors), Courtney (Dawn's friend) and Ashley (Courtney's roommate).


Ernie fixed dishs for the doggie's special dinner.

I accomplished a great deal, ate too much and did nothing. Now if I can remember how I did it for future reference.

Saturday: (12/26) Breakfast was my egg, bologna and cheese English muffins. Absolutely nothing accomplished today. How nice.

The rain returned in force in the afternon and evening.

My aunt Helen drove up from Bakersfield. She had an interesting tour of the South bay due to a missed turn but arrived in time for dinner. Dinner was leftover Christmas dinner.

The Color Of Palo Alto And The Loss Of Our Bowling Alley

Monday: (12/14) I fixed the leftover  sauerkrauted potatoes as fried potatoes with bacon and eggs for breakfast. VERY good! Today was the nice day between two rain storms. It actually got warm and was quite nice outside. I started a pot of white beans with ham in the crock pot. We managed to take a nice walk and did some work in the yard. We also made a run to Costco for some things.

Lunch was ham sandwiches from a ham Lou baked. Dinner was the withe beans with ham.

About 6pm we hurried downtown to city hall to attend the council meeting. A developer wants to  tear down the only bowling alley in Palo Alto and Northern Santa Clara County, The Palo Alto Bowl, and a Motel six and replace them with a larger hotel, an office building and a bunch of condos. Dawn wants to protest the change so we attended the meeting. There was some confusion as to when it would start so we looked around downtown until the meeting at 8pm. Then all the preceeding agenda items were heard including an unusual presentation on "The Color Of Palo Alto". I didn't know that for the past 7 years a young man with far too much time on his hands has taken multiple pictures of every parcel in our fair city during the various seasons, a total of over 250,000 pictures, He then processed each photo to derive an average color. Then he's been analyzing the data and can report of the average color of each parcel, each street, each neighborhood the city, all parcels with a numeric address of 2358, each season, or any way you want to present the average color data. There was some useful data provided that the police and fire departments can use as well. Only in Palo Alto! Oh, of course the average color of the city of trees is green. Unfortunately, the pictures were prior to our house getting it's new siding so there are errors in the average color.

About 10:30pm, Dawn's item was heard and she along with a number of other concerned citizens spoke to the council. The city council members  listened politely and then approved the development. Money is more important than a livable city. It was actually interesting. It's been nearly 30 years since my last council meeting and it related to a protest of rezoning at our home in San Jose. Lou and I organized that revolt and the result was the same. Some things never change. We didn't get home until nearly midnight.

Tuesday: (12/15) Due to the late retirement last night this morning didn't start early. Breakfast was cereal. We chased a few leaves into the compost barrel and I unstuck the neighbors garbage disposer. That was it for work. I've been getting in to this doing nothing, if playing at the computer is nothing.

Lunch was leftover sauerkraut potatoes. Lou fixed fish with steamed vegetables and millet for dinner.

While we were supposed to have rain it turned out to be a nice day all day. The storm ran out of gas and stalled up North  a ways.

Wednesday: (12/16) Another nice morning, pretty clear and mild. It did rain well last night some time. Google still reports we're in for a little more rain today before we clear up for a while. Unfortunately, the wind and rain evidently don't have a good Internet connection.

I started the day with a visit to the the Kaiser Lab to give them some blood for an annual test. It's in downtown Mountain View so of course a visit to the Hong Kong Bakery was in order. A baked pork bun and an egg tart corrected the delay in breakfast caused buy having fasted unnecessarily for the test. Since it wasn't raining I did a little work in the backyard. I started to put some lights in the new shop.

Dinner was baked potatoes, broccoli slaw, and ham.

Thursday: (12/1 7) I had to get up early and head to my old workplace, the traffic operations center, to a pancake breakfast they put on each year. The food was good and it was nice to see everyone again. Not much has changed but they did have a big Christmas tree on the roof made from old LED signal heads. It was sure bright. Time does pass. It's now been over 10 years since we converted all the signals to LED.

I then headed over to the Great Mall, the old Ford Motor Plant, in Milpitas to look around. I found a dog collar that blasts a high frequency tone when dogs bark. We'll see if it works to quiet down Ernie's dogs. I stopped for lunch at the House Of Eggrolls in Santa Clara. They make the best egg rolls around.

And then I stopped at Costco to get new tires on the Toad. It was 1pm by the time I got there so the wait was considerable so I looked around there and at the nearby stores until after 4:30 when they finished. A bit longer that I had hoped.

Lou had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. She and Dawn also went shopping.

Lou had dinner ready by the time I arrived meatloaf, rice and soybeans in the pod.

Friday: (12/18) We couldn't get the batteries into the dog collar. The little door wouldn't open so we decided to head back and get another. Kind of a special effort since the mall is more thsn 20 miles away in Milpitas but quieting the dogs is important. We stopped for breakfast on the way at the Country Gourmet in Mountain View. Good place to eat but a little pricy when we each get an item rather than sharing and we evidently were all rather hungry. It was lucky we chose this spot because Lou got to see a bunch of her former students who stopped for breakfast on their way to work. It's great that some stores really have good work programs for developmentally challenged adults.

We made it to the mall and had no problem getting the collar replaced, just a dud on the first try. We looked around the mall some but were worn out early and returned home. It's a big mall and is difficult to get through it all in one visit.

Lou did pick up next years big calendar. Hard to believe the old calendar is already worn out.

Leftovers for lunch. Rice, soybeans and meatloaf mixed up.

I did do a little work. I exposed the drain pipe for the new shop and the yard drain pipe. I just stubbed it out before I poured the floor. It's only about 5 feet of shallow trench but the drain line that it needs to connect to is in a drain fabric lined rock filled trench and will be fun getting in to. I may not get it finished before the rain comes again Monday. Nice to get some rain but I'd love to see the sun for a moment or two. With clay soil, working in saturated ground is no fun.

For dinner Lou had prepared split pea soup and oven toast.

I spent some time in the evening working on website setup. I setup six sites with Wordpress as the publishing tool. Wordpress works great but for some reason i had some difficulty getting some of these to work. Once it's installed and works it's great.

Saturday: (12/19) Just a lot of wheel spinning by me today. I spent most of my time solving a little problem with those pesky websites I set up yesterday. They started not working and it took most of the day to figure out why and get the server setup correctly.  I still  need to get the email server working but every problem solved is a good learning experience. Now if my memory were only good enough to utilize the knowledge in the future.

Lou worked threading a loom and Dawn was busy baking scones and fruit cake

Interesting breakfast. It started with a piece of cheese cake followed by one of Lou's baked omelets. Lunch and dinner were leftovers. I discovered white beans for lunch and split pea soup for dinner.

Sunday: (12/20) I don't get busy too early as a rule but I enjoy Sunday mornings even more because of the political shows at 9am. So the day usually starts an hour later, at least. Lou an Dawn dislike them. I sort of think of them as like an oil change or some high speed driving for the heart. The blood pressure increase cleans up the cogs  in the brain a little.

I started the day with a call from our neighbor to assist with re-installation of a DVD player in his car. That was followed with a call to bring my jumper cables over. I did eventually do a little work in the shop but that was interrupted regularly to just enjoy the sunny day.

Breakfast was Lou's leftover omelet.Lunch was whatever one found. I had a PBJ English muffin. Dinner was at the Mi Pueblo Market. Lou, Dan and I shared a super carnitas burrito and a milanesa torta.

Stormy Weather

Monday: (12/07) It's freezing out there! We moved out  of the RV. Lou was busy helping the neighbor. I worked at the computer much of the day.

Cereal for breakfast. Lou and I shared a lunch from our local Chinese restaurant. Dinner was leftover pork roast with vegetables and potatoes.

Tuesday: (12/08) Another cold day. I started the day with a dentist's appointment. When I got home I worked on the car. While we were at Pismo the drivers door handle of the toad broke. It was worn out. I swapped it for the rear door handle and fixed up the old one so it worked but probably not too long. All's well now.

Breakfast of Irish Oats. Lunch at the Sunny Chinese Buffet in Sunnyvale. Dinner at Chipolte's Burrito House which just opened up near us.

Wednesday: (12/09) A much better day. Oatmeal and honey with sour cream for breakfast. I left in the car a little before 9am and the windows were already clear, naturally. I attended my Traffic Signal Association meeting in Fremont, CA at the public Works department building. We learned about a new single camera video detection (tracking) system for traffic signal control. Interesting and promising. I like to attend these meetings when I can to try to keep up on what's developing with my old trade.

I had lunch at a nearby Chinese Buffet, one of my many weaknesses. I then stopped by a big Fry's store in Sunnyvale. Our local Palo Alto Fry's, their second store and former headquarters, is a small store. I found two tings I was looking for some small diameter wire organizer tubing and an 8-gang UHF TV antenna. All the TV stations in our area, except for one are now UHF, even all the low number stations that were formerly VHF and still have their old channel assignments but are translated from UHF stations by the lousy new digital tuners. Channel 2, 5, 9, and 11 are all UHF now. Channel 7 is the only VHF left. I'm not sure why. Our old massive VHF/UHF antenna is no longer needed nor as effective as the new antenna is supposed to be. We'll see. If it fits, I'll also add one to the RV. The blade antenna on the RV, even with the UHF reflective elements that Camping World sells, is non functional.

My final endeavor was a visit to the Post Office for some stamps. For some reason, they no longer have stamp machines at the Post Office, just a nice long line. Of course the season has some effect on the length of the line but the appalling slowness of the clerks and patrons is a little stressful. It took 30 minutes to get through the line of about 15 patrons with three clerks working. I was patient and made it through to get the exact number of 5 cent  stamps I need to make my 39 cent stamps usable. I will no longer by any quantity of stamps, just tiny bunches in the future. They raised the rate twice before I used even a 1/3 of the last roll.

Lou was busy with the neighbor most of the day making funeral arrangements. She and Dawn also attended their braille class in the evening.

Dinner was some Chinese spaghetti and a tofu salad.

Thursday: (12/10) Lou was busy all day with errands with our neighbor. Dawn worked in San Jose. I didn't do much. I did install some door sweeps on the shed doors to help keep leaves and varmints out.

When the weather is stormy like it has been, I tend to enjoy doing nothing and doing it inside.

Breakfast was Irish oatmeal. Lunch was popcorn. Lou Dawn and I went to dinner at Chevy's sharing a couple of Chevy Cinco's.

Friday: (12/11) Breakfast was Irish oatmeal. Another nice day to be inside, it raned all day.  I stayed in and played at the keyboard.

Spaghetti for lunch. Chevy's leftovers for dinner.

Saturday: (12/12) Breakfast at Joanie's Cafe on California Street nearby. Lou and I shared a combination omelet and Dawn had salmon omelet. We had more leftovers for lunch.

Lou worked in the garage on her mold inventory organization while Dawn and i worked the keyboards. It was rainy all day.

I made pork, sauerkraut and potatoes in the crock pot for dinner.

Sunday: (12/13) Lou fixed French toast with sausage for breakfast. A little rain and occasional peak of the sun.

Dawn and I went shopping in San Bruno at Tanforan shopping center, a former horse race track.

When I was out the other day I found my favorite Sketcher shoes on sale at Penny's in Cupertino.I wear size 12 and ask the clerk to get a pair to try on. She came back and said they had size 10.5 or 13 as if I should decide on which one she should bring out. No thanks, not even close. So, I wanted to stop at another Penny's to see if they had a pair. The store in Tanforan didn't have any Sketchers like I wanted. When I checked Sears, they had a pair in my size and it was on sale the same as Penny's. The other day when I was at Penny's I also checked the Sears and they didn't have any Sketchers there? Why is the product at stores so variable? No one stocks anymore they just get random deliveries and never restock.

We had lunch at Fresh Choice.

Lou enjoyed her time at home alone reorganizing her mold inventory.

Left over pork, sauerkraut and potatoes for dinner.

Finally A Little Trip

Wednesday: (12/02) I took Dawn to the train after a stop for breakfast at the Hong Kong Bakery. I then returned home and got ready to hit the road. It's been four months so things have wandered some. I finally got away just before 11am. It was rather overcast all the way down to Pismo Beach. Traffic was nice. I arrived about 3pm. Lou had driven over from Bakersfield and had already signed us in at the campground.

It does get dark early.

Breakfast was a pork bun. Lunch was a slice of Costco Pizza in Salinas. We went to Francisco's in Arroyo Grande for dinner only because our first choice, the Pismo Fish And Chips Restaurant was closed until the end of December. Lou had a steak and I had a chili relleno and enchilada.


Thursday: (12/03) We started the day with a walk on the beach. Though it's cold, actually cool, the sun was out and it was a great morning. We ventured up the beach to Pismo Pier and watched the surfers. Even though it was cold to us, there were about 30 surfers out. The three that seemed to do best catching wave after wave and riding them all the way in while others missed the ride were an older guy near 50, a girl, and a one legged guy. It looks like skill does count.

We returned to camp and cleaned up the RV. I left without the usual cleanup before departure. It's been sitting for over 4 months and is a bit dirty.

I couldn't get the satellite Internet system to connect so I repositioned the RV and eventually it connected. I guess it forgot how.

We drove up to the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Arboretum. it's one of our favorite gardens though in winter it's not too impressive. A visit to a thrift store and then a walk around the SLO Farmers Market. We then had dinner. We got back to camp about 8:30pm.

Breakfast was cheese cake from Trader Joe's. Lunch was a tri-tip wrap and red pepper soup, also from TJ's. Dinner was Home Town Buffet in San Luis. Lou had a half off coupon we had to use.

Friday: (12/04) Started the day with pancakes and bacon at home. We visited the butterflies at the eucalyptus grove next to our campsite. Not too many this year but it was warm enough so we got to see some of them flying about.

We changed campsites to improve our solar generation We'll get a couple hours more sun at our new spot which is further from the trees.  Lou fixed some chicken and vegetable stir fry for lunch.

Dinner at the Splash Cafe by the pier in Pismo Beach. Since both our first choice of Pismo Fish and Chips and our second choice of Brad;s were closed for the holiday season we tried the Splash. Though much better than your average fiash and chips place we;ll still leave them as our third choice.

There was a little event happening nearby. They created some snow piles for the kids to use.

Saturday: (12/05) We started the day with breakfast at the Lion's Club nearby. Pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs for $5. Pretty good. There wasn't a crowd but we did enjoy visiting with a couple from Modesto during breakfast.

We then stopped at a small craft fair in the community room of the mobile home park across the street from our camp. When we returned to camp we lounged iaround for a while having a late lunch of a shared Marie Calendar's frozen chicken pot pie and a green salad.

About 2pm we headed off to San Luis Obispo to another craft fair at the mission there. There were a coupe of thrift stores calling to lou as well.

Our next stop was to look around Avila Beach and San Luis Harbor. Kind of out of the way and not much at either.

We then found a CD player belt case for Lou's new player and stopped for dinner at Francisco's Country Kitchen for breakfast for dinner. We evidently were hungry because we finished both a corned beef hash and a chicken fried steak breakfast. We made it back to camp just before 8pm.

Sunday: (12/06) We had a really cold night last night, down to 33 degrees at 6:30am. It took a while to warm up some. It's overcast like yesterday. We never saw the sun yesterday. Lou took advantage of the weather to bake a pork roast. We had some of it for breakfast with fried eggs and potatoes. We had just finished breakfast and were planning our day, which included renewing our campsite for another day. We tend to sample our site by only paying for a day or two at a time. Luckily, that's what we did. We got a call after breakfast from Dawn advising us that our neighbor Eric passed away. He was only 49.  We packed up quickly and were on the road home within the 1/2 hour.

We had a little rain as we passed through Salinas and Gilroy, just an annoyance. We lunched on a couple of apple fritters in Greenfield. We were home by 2pm.

Our little trip was made a day shorter than planned so we could be home and assist our neighbor. It reminds us that we need to be better prepared with wills and organized paperwork and that there are no guarantees of tomorrow.