Palo Alto Spring

Friday: (04/10) We arrived home in Palo Alto about 5:00 pm. the trip home was nice with mostly overcast skies and occasional minor wind gusts but no rain. It's nice to see the old homestead. Looks like the temporary tents in the backyard held up and protected what used to be in the shop. Building a new  shop building is one of the first projects to be started now that we're home. But, not today. This evening we relax.

Saturday: (04/11) Not much accomplished today. A little moving back into the house. a little work on dolls, a little work in my office.


Sunday: (04/12) Breakfast on the front yard patio.We had a guest for breakfast, a yellow lady bug. We've never seen a yellow lady bug before. they are always orange to red with or without black spots. Evidently they can come in many different colors including army camoflage colored. In any case, it's our first yellow one.

A neighbor commented that the street is more interesting when we're home because we spend so much time in the front yard talking to people as they pass. Nice to know we're missed.

Note: I updated the posts back to our visit in Joshua Tree NP adding photos and merging some previously posted photos into the text of the blog. it's all a bit more meaningful now.

Dawn made a nice vegetable soup for dinner.

Monday: (04/13) Breakfast was in Mountain View at the Hong Kong Bakery. They've evidently changed hands and the baked goods are somewhat different now but still good. Dawn browsed the book stores while lou and I went over to Kaiser in Santa Clara and then the DMV to get a temporary handicap placard. She's now an official temporary gimp. It should allow here to go shopping by her self now that she won't have to wear herself out just getting inside.

Lunch as leftover vegetable soup. Dinner was BBQ ribs, German red potato salad, and broccoli.

Tuesday: (04/14) Breakfast of toasted PB&J sandwiches. Yesterday afternoon I called to schedule a dental appointment which was this morning. That was much faster than expected. On the retrun trip I stopped at the big Fry's store in Sunnyvale (Home of their first store). It's about 4 times the size of our Palo Alto store. It is so big I had to give up before seeing everything. I also stopped by Lowe's to look a materal and prices for shed building.

Lunch was leftovers. Being a true procrastinator I was working on taxes, Being lazy and really a procrastinator I'm only completing the extension form.

We went to Lou's favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner, Luu Noodles House. When we got home, the wind was really blowing and had demolished one of the temporary tent storage units in our back yard. I spent quite  while tying it down and repairing the damage. The wind was blowing trucks over and ramming boats into bridges. Besides that it's making it cold outside.

Wednesday: (04/15) Today was busy. I went to a meeting in South San Francisco of the Traffic Signa Association that i belong to. i don't get to many meeting and its nice to meet some of the people i worked with in the past every now and again. After the meeting, i stopped by the Post office to drop off the tax extension request. That's a requirement to be a member of the Procrastenators Society.

I then headed down to San Jose to meet a contractor for an estimate for windows for the house there. Too bad bothe these meetings weren't in the same direction. Fortunately, this isn't a normal day.

I spent the evening computing while Lou and Dawn di thei hobbies. Dawn's been busy looking at things with her microscope TV system. Bugs look different up close.

Thursday: (o4/16) This morning I did a little cleanup in the yard. The gardener comes today as well so between  the two of us we should get rid of all the leave and branches from the storm. Dawn did a little gardening and Lou worked on her dolls.

Dawn went over to Stanford to a job fair in the afternoon. Lou and i stopped by the Menlo Park Safeway to pick up a couple of things. We had lunch from their deli. Lou tried to show at the Mountain View Safeway a couple of days ago but they have only one electric cart and it doesn't work. The Menlo Park store had three working. Lou likes scooting around in the carts but other shoppers really have to keep an eye out for her.

Dawn fixed chicken salad for dinner.

Friday: (04/17) I enjoyed the morning relaxing in bed watching TV. haven't got to do that yet since we returned. Lou and Dawn were busy preparing for our trip to Tulare this weekend.

 

Pismo Beach Spring Break

Wednesday: (04/08) We arrived at the campground about 2:30 and got one of the two remaining campsites. We forgot it was still Spring Break. It should make the scenery better but it will also be more crowded. After checking in and doing tank duty we headed over to the Pismo Beach Fish And Chips Restaurant for a late lunch of their excellent fish and chips. Then back to camp to start relaxing. We'll be here a couple of nights then return home.

Since this is Spring Break, we must be on our own Spring Break here. In our youth, more than a few years ago, we never actually went on Spring Break so it's about time. Lou made a nice fruit salad for dinner.


Thursday: (04/09) Another mostly sunny day. Breakfast of leftover Chinese food form a couple of nights ago in Bakersfield. Then Lou headed off to the thrift stores and I relaxed here and worked at the computer, for each of us, this is relaxing. Tonight we go to the world famous Farmers Market in San Luis Obispo. The campground was rather crowded due to the families here for spring break. This park is nice even with the crowds because the sites are nicely spaced. We had several visits by this cat, in the high grass near our camp. He's looking for breakfast, possibly the mole that is leaving a path around in the field. He wasn't friendly though.

Friday: (04/10) We went to breakfast at Francesco's Country Cafe in Arroyo Grande this morning. After breakfast we drove downtown so Lou could walk out on the pier to see the waves. They have new central parking ticket vending machines so I went to the machine swiped my card and the machine proceeded to give me an all day ticket for $8 instead of the minimum $1 ticket I wanted. Here we go again. No i have to do a lot of work to get a refund. I do have the time and i do hate theives so will take the time to complain and get a refund.

We returned to camp and finalized travel preparations and stopped by the dump on our way out. There had been a couple of RV's in line as we left for breakfast, none when we returned to camp after the vist downtown. There were six RV's ahead of us when we pulled into line for the time. Timing is everthing! The line went quickly until the RV ahead of us pulled in. They were obviously novice RVers or idiots. They got their hose out, opened the valve and then thought about hooking up the hose. Too late! there appeared about 15 gallons of brown paper mache on the ground. Their efforts at cleaning it up were none too much more effective. they did manage to expand the area of concwrn by sprawing the hose into the pile forcing the goo in the wrong direction. When they pulled out there remained about 5% still to be cleaned uo so my first effort was to get my hose and nossle out. The hoses at dumps are usually short and leaky. This dump was no exception. My hose is longer and therefore a bit more effective in cleaning up allowing me to get on the opposite side of the mess moving the little tidbits toward the drain hole. It took a while but i was eventually satisfied enough to pull my rig in to dump. I really think that there should be some kind of licensing requirement to drive an RV, one item of testing to be on how to dump. It is more amusing if you are only watching and don't have to enter the contaminated zone. Enough said about this.

With the dottie duty done we were off. I did notice a warning light on our toad brake controller. I stopped to check it out reseatingthe towbar cables  and applying the brakes corrected the warning light. This system has been in use for almost five years and this is the first time a warniong light alarm has occurred.

Our first stop was in Paso Robles at  downtown thrift store known to Lou. We then hit the road further North stopping in Greenfield for a break. We got a raised donut and an apple fritter from the local bakery for lunch. We shared the items and ate a bannana as well. The raised donuts were outstanding so we bought some to take home to Dawn and for our later snack as well. Total investment for four dounuts and the fritter was $2.75. The prices are good too. The bakery is mostly a panderia Mexican bakery.

We stopped again at Camping World in San Martin South of San Jose to get a replacement folding which i managed to break on this trip. Guess i did put on a little weight. i also bought a new HD TV antenna for the RV and a sewer hose support trough as well. That's the problem with shopping at toy stores.

We forgot that we were approaching home after 4pm on a holiday weekend, not the best time for traffic but we were headed into rather than out of town so it wasn't too bad. after a short look around at home we took Dawn out to dinner at Chili's.

Bakersfield In Spring

Monday: (04/06) We were up early and on the road quickly due to evening preparation. We stopped at the Crossroads Cafe en route for breakfast. Three visits in five days here. we do like the place and breakfast was as good as expected. I had a beef hash with scrambled eggs covered in cheese. Lou had  a Greek omelet. That mission accomplished, we were back on the road.

The weather was nice and the breezes calm so the trip was nice. We stopped at a couple of Ralph's markets to get canned ruby red grapefruit. We can't find it at home and really like it. Evidently most people don't because it  can't be found most places other than Smith's and Ralph's markets neither of which is in our area. There also are usually just a few cans in a store (markets don't stock anything anymore. When the shelf is bare they'll order more and it will be on the shelf tomorrow. Our just in time world.) We collected a dozen cans from two stores in Apply valley and Victorville and were off again.

Next stop was lunch in Mojave at Mike's Roadhouse Cafe. Lou had some very good grilled fish and I had a bowl of pea soup, and peach cobbler. We then made the final leg of our trip today to Bakersfield stopping at Don's Aunt Helen's place for a couple of nights.

Lou and Helen made a thrift store run while I relaxed.

Not to ruin a perfect day of eating out, we went to the Woolgrowers, a local Basque restaurant for dinner. We all had just setups (everything but a main course soup, salad, spaghetti, pickled toung, tomatoes, basque fries, beans, etc) We did get on meal with a main course of lemon fish and shared it. It was excellent.

Tuesday: (04/07) Another nice day. Lou is fixing breakfast burritos this morning. We visited all morning and then took off for a shopping trip. We rode in Helen's new car, a Toyota Cameray. We drove by our old house that we sold in 2005. Prices have really dropped and this house recently sold for just over 1/2 what we sold it for then. We fixed it up pretty nice before we sold it and now it looks like it's been abused and is the worst looking house in the neighbor hood. We were always lucky with our renters but obviously the new owners weren't.

We also stopped by the Winco market. It's always a nice stop and we do wish they would open a market near us. They have a great bulk foods area and we picked up a couple of things there. We also stopped by Fresh And Easy market, a new chain something like Trader Joe's without the service. There are no checkers there, all self checkout. They are just opening several locations here. Somebody has money to spare. Helen got a few things there.

When we returned home was visited some more and Helen and i removed a stuborn root left from a recent tree removal.

For dinner, we went to Bill Lee's Chinese restaurant downtown. This is brother Ernie's favorite restaurant in Bakersfield so we had to stop by. It's one of our favorites as well. We had the #2 family style combo. The food is Cantonese style. Chow Mein, almond chicken, fried shrimp, BBQ pork, fried rice, started with egg flower soup. We also like the Rice Bowl next door and alternate between the two. We haven't found any Chinese restaurants as good as these two anywhere else.

Helen's DSL Internet connection wasn't working. The modem had been replaced but it still didn't work. Then there was confusion over the userid and the password. I tried a little yesterday until it maxed out the login attempts. Because it hadn't been connecting for a while, McAfee was complaining it needed to be updated as well. An hours conversation with a  very nice and patient tech rep at ATT got the problem corrected. It will be nice to have her back online.

Wednesday: (04/08) Not to change a good thing, we went out for breakfast again this morning. Bakersfield is famous for good restaurants. This morning we went to Dona Keys Cafe. We haven't been there before. It was mostly good but Lou and i shared a corned beef hash and eggs which we thought would be home made but was canned hash. The home fries were excellent and the pancakes also excellent. Helen had a very good omlette. We'll probably return but not for corned beef hash.


After breakfast, Lou and I hit the road toward Pismo Beach via Highway 58. It was overcast in Bakersfield but it rained rather heavily throughout the drive in the mountains on either side of the California Valley. We arrived at the campground in Pismo Beach to find mostly clear skies.
The hills do look nice this time of year.

Joshua Trees, Jumbo Rocks CG

Wednesday: (04/01) No fooling!

We enjoyed ham Don McMuffins this morning. A new neighbor dropped by to chat. He and his wife are long haul truckers but freight is slow so they hit the road in their RV for a while to let the younger folk earn a living. He seems rather an RV novice and had a few questions about our electrical system. We finally got away from camp about 10am. First stop was the dump station for tank duty then we were off toward the other side of the mountain and park. We stopped at several pullouts to enjoy the view and had lunch in one, left over green and fruit salads.

We headed into one campground at White Tanks. Nice signs showing we should turn to go to the campground. Stupidly placed sign a while after the turn saying no vehicles over 22 feet. We had to break apart and turn around then hookup again. Where do they hire these people?


We continued on to Jumbo Rocks Campground and found a nice site, aligned right for solar, level spot, room enough for both vehicles and a big yard. There weren't too many sites where we could really fit. There were lots of vacant sites even though the signs when you enter the park and enter most campgrounds say the campgrounds are full. More lazy folk employed here. You just can't believe any of the signs.

A rock next to our campsite looks like Alfred Hitchcock. My brother Ernie says it should be called Alfred Hitchrock.

We're in a no cell zone here which is a good reason for the HughesNet Internet system. We'll be here a few days while I explore and Lou relaxes her knee. Nice spot.

We enjoyed our neighbors campfire. (Bill and Teresa, Bills brothe Mark and Ella the dog.


Thursday: (04/02) Our spot at Jumbo Rocks is quite nice. Lots of big rocks for me to jump around on and Lou to look at. One of the rocks is Skull Rock, about a 50 foot tall skull. I started the day with a hike to Skull Rock from camp. There is a nice nature trail along  the first portion of the trail until you get to Skull Rock. The return trip across the road was less interesting but still a nice desert walk. After I arrived at Skull Rock, I had to climb around on the rocks eventually reaching the cliff above our campground then back down and completed the trail.

When I returned to camp, Lou had just started a driving tour of the campground so I got in the car. We drove out  to Skull Rock and Lou was able to see it with a very short walk from a parking area next to it. We then drove on toward the town of Joshua Tree stopping at most of the pullouts, campgrounds and trails.


I hiked to the Barker Dam. Barker Dam's pond and Barker Dam.


The reservoir is very low at barker Dam, possibly 18" deep and 30x50 feet in area. Evidently the water does get higher necessitating a no swimming sign, in the desert.


Vandalized petroglyphs on the trail from Barker Dam.

We continued on looking at al the pullouts and stops until we ended up in town at the Crossroads Cafe for lunch. I had a Grilled Coyote, chicken breast, portobella mushroom, bacon, cheese in a whole wheat bun. It came with African Bean Soup, a barley soup with tomato and peanutbutter. Lou had a TBA (turkey, bacon and avocado) with a salad. Everything was excellent. Another place to return to. It's kind of a hippy restaurant and has atmosphere along with an interesting menu.

Lou looked around three thrift stores there as well. We then returned to the park.


On the way home we stopped and I took another hike to Wall Street Mill, a mining mill site, miners bunkhouse and windmill.


A rusting truck, one of several near Wall Street Mill Site. At the former bunkhouse site there is what was evidently a BBQ grill.


Cactus flower on the Wall Street Mill Trail.

We then returned home to relax. Lou fixed shrimp primavera for dinner.

Friday: (04/03) Up early, cereal for breakfast, and on the road in the car by 7am. We were off to do the laundry in Joshua Tree. The laundry was finished by 9am after which we proceeded over to my Aunt Mary's place in Landers. We had a nice visit and then went to lunch at the Carrow's in Yucca Valley. I had the Mile High Roast Beef sandwich, Lou had a steak, and Mary had a hamburger. Lou's and my lunches were very good but the hamburger that Mary had was tough. We then went back to Mary's place for a while before returning to Yucca Valley to buy groceries before returning home.

Dinner was roasted chicken, potato salad, avocado and cottage cheese with orange juice. The chicken was store cooked, the potato salad was ready to eat and the avocado was ripe, all planned by Lou so that there would be no waiting for dinner. The other items were excess from the fridge to make room.

The wind has been strong all day and is now (8pm) very strong. And it is cold as well. I may have to return to long pants tomorrow? The campfire for tonight was canceled due to high winds.

Saturday: (04/04) Hiking day, for me (Don). It's cold today but the winds are much nicer today. I toasted some English muffins for breakfast and we had peanut butter and apricot preserves on them. I headed off to some hiking. I was looking for the Arch Rock and White Tank but missed my turn so ended up a long ways down the road.


I stopped in the Cholla Gardens and took the nature walk. It could get sticky around there. A cholla flower and another cactus flower at the Cholla Gardens.


A Dutra flower near Cholla Gardens and another cactus flower in the gardens.


I backtracked and found the Arch Rock trail. I hiked back to the other side of the Arch and then started hopping around on the rocks and found White Tank and many caves and tunnels formed by fallen boulders.


A boulder cave near Arch Rock as well as another skull rock.


Some flowers near Arch Rock.


I then came back to Live Oak Tree, Live oak Tank and Ivanpah Tank and hiked by the oak and the two tanks. There was only an 8" diameter puddle of water left in the Live Oak Tank, hardly enough to fill a single canteen.


The Ivanpah Dam below the Live Oak Dam. All filled with sand now, no water at all.

I returned to camp for lunch. More roasted chicken, potato salad and corn chips.

Fortified, I headed off to Mt Ryan and hiked to the top. Only 1.5 miles to the top but it did take me a while to get up. Coming down was much nicer.


Above left, the trail to Ryan's Mt and a view of Ryans Ranch below.

There are some good views from the top but it also shows how the park road goes around in circles. Seems like the shortest distance and least emissions would be on a straighter road. It is a flat desert.


A chuckwalla on the trail.


Next stop was Hidden Valley. A nice fairly level 1 mile hike around an isolated box canyon that has slightly different plant life than other parts of the park.  Above right is a hidden flower in the valley.


A hidden lizard and a hidden rock climber.


A final stop was at Cap Rock to hike the .3 mile nature trail. It was a wheelchair accessible trail so no problems here. Above left, a lazy joshua tree near cap Rock. Joshua trees reproduce by three means  two well displayed here. By falling and rooting, by spreading from the roots and not observable by seed.

Enough hiking for the day possibly 8-9 mile total if all the off trail and rock hopping is added in.

Dinner was hamburgers and for some reason I was hungry. After dinner, we went to the ranger talk. It was interesting but it was also cold and fortunately no wind.

Sunday: (04/05) We had English muffins for breakfast and we had peanut butter and peach preserves on them today.


A rabbit  visited our campsite on the morning we left. It helped that all the children were not around that morning.

We then headed off to 29 Palms to the Oasis Of Mara park visitor center. They had a local artist fair there this morning. When we visited the Oassis Of Mara we saw a joshua tree blossom. The trees in the park did not have any blossoms.

We continued West on Highway 62 and explored the Indian Cove camp ground and the Black Roack camp ground. Reservations can be made at these campgrounds and they cost $15/night while all the other campgrounds in the park are $10/night. Jumbo Rock at $10 is sooo much better both cost and asthetisc.

We stopped at the Crossroads Cafe again in Joshua tree for lunch. I had the cheesesteak sandwitch while Lou had the Reuben Sandwich.

I tried to climb to the top on one of the big rocks behind our campsite. I know it's possible since I've seen others on top but I had to decide to leave it to better, younger and even more fool hardy folk than me. I descended without being able to wave at Lou from the top.

And now a little relaxation. We're off toward Bakersfield tomorrow.

Joshua Tree National Monument

Friday: (03/27) Up early. The wind blew with gusts above 40mph all night. It made packing up last night a little interesting. Lou fixed a nice pork hash with dried tomatoes for breakfast. We hitched up the car and stopped by the dump on our way out and departed by about 8:30.

We stopped by the Date Garden in Bard to get more dates and also had to try a date milkshake. Date shakes are very good.

Next stop was a couple of gas stations. Both the RV and the car needed some more cheap gas before we enter California where gas costs $.6-1 more. Our vehicle gas fillers are on opposite sides and getting back in the first station wasn't possible so we headed on into town toward the market stopping at another station for the toad. The first station was no problem but the second had a low canopy but it was labeled 11'3" clearance. No problem, we're under 10'6". It would look worse than it was. I forgot that I have two solar panels up as well. Fortunately they were only slightly elevated and are about 5" above the AC unit so we were closer to 10'11", a bit closer than I intended.

I've enjoyed not having to raise and lower the panels every time we move. They've been up for the past couple of months moving from Quartzsite, to Yuma, up to Las Vegas and all the stops back down to Yuma again, and they are still up. They seem to travel well since they are barely above the AC unit and behind it. I just need to remember that the RV is closer to 11' tall now.

We stopped at the Fry's market and restocked then headed West on I8. We cut off onto highway 115 through Holtville to highway 111. We stopped for lunch at one of the state beaches by the sea. I fixed chili with wieners and cheese. We took a peek at the tufa forming on the beach. We then headed on to Mecca above the Salton Sea turning on a small black line road heading up toward Joshua Tree National Monument.

The road went through the Orocopia Mountains. It wound fairly level through some washes. The rocks look quite interesting and there are several places that we could have camped but most of them looked a little softer than we were interested in. We wouldn't want to get stuck. We'll return in the future and try to find a suitable spot and do more exploring.


We stopped for the night just before the entrance to the Joshua Tree National Park. We parked in the desert with a bunch of other RV's. Free camping is always nice.

Lou fixed strawberry shortcake for dinner.

Saturday: (03/28) We enjoyed our morning tea watching the desert. Lou served up some of her leftover hash for breakfast. We looked around the campsites around our desert area which is just outside the South entrance to the park. The site we stopped in last night was quite nice except not too level. We found a vacant spot that was level and also nice so we moved. We then went into the park.


Just inside the park is the Bajada Trail which had the best collection of wild flowers we've ever found. I took a walk while Lou didn't. Her knee is much better and she wisely isn't pushing it. This trail is the best spot for wild flower viewing in the park.


These are some of the smaller flowers.


Some flowers were quite detailed.


There were lots of interesting flowers.


Red flowers were in abundance everywhere, much to the humming birds and bees delight.


My second walk was at Cottonwood about 6 miles into the park. There are two trails starting at the Cottonwood Oasis. One is a trail to the Lost Palms Oasis. My walk was intended to be a short walk up to Mastodon Peak, the shorter trail but I decided to also walk out to the Lost Palm Canyon. The weather was perfect for a walk, nice temperature and a slight breeze. The total walk was about 9 miles and took a little over four hours. Lou gave up after 3:59 and left to report me missing. When I got back to the parking area, she and the car were gone. When she headed back she picked me up and she returned to report me found. I guess I should keep her better informed! I've been thinking of getting the Spot locator so my whereabouts are always known and I can report myself safe or notify 911 all via satellite. More reason to do so.


Some interesting flowers on the trail to the Lost Palms.


The yellow flowers on the left are about a 1/4" in size. The flowers on the right I almost missed. There was a boy scout troupe heading out for a camp out ahead of me. They stopped near similar flowers. I hadn't seen these flowers before. As I approached them, I heard the scout master tell all the troupes to move to the side of the trail so I could pass, so, I couldn't then stop and take a picture so I hiked on. Fortunately, I did pass a couple of more further up the trail, but nowhere else were they seen.

On our way home, we checked out the Cottonwood Campground and decided where we are is much better. The campgrounds in the park are all full and they are packed in like sardines. We'll stay outside where we have much more room (our closest neighbors are 100 feet away) and a better view.

Lou fixed a nice dinner. Everything that was getting old from the refrigerator. Italian sausage with cabbage, carrots, onion, broccoli, and a can of three bean salad put it all together. It was quite good and, of course, there were leftovers.

Sunday: (03/29) Breakfast burritos started the day. We were home bodies as I relaxed today after my hike. I worked at the computer while Lou worked on doll clothes. Dinner was leftover vegetable mix from the other night.

The campers around our camp really thinned out as people went home after the weekend.


We finally got to see a desert tortoise in the wild near our campsite. The tortoise tracks are neat. We met some new neighbors as they were walking the campground deciding where to park. They mentioned they had seen tortoise tracks crossing the dirt road and had seen a turtle by their RV so we followed them home. There was a very nice looking 10" desert tortoise. Tortoises can really move when they want to.


The wind blew really hard (60mph?) and blew all the sand off the ground near any object on the ground like the car and RV tires.

Monday: (03/30) The wind blew very hard all night, probably 60mph. It started just after we went to bed about 11pm. About 3am we realized what the knocking outside was. We had two chairs outside. Fortunately they were on the upwind side so they had blown up against the RV and were the source of the knocking. If they had been on the other sides they would likely be gone. There has been a swarm of earth quakes just a few miles South of here 100's in the past week or so. We sure couldn't feel an earthquake  if it occurred with all the rocking in the RV with the heavy winds.

About noon we drove down to Indio. We'd intended to go by the General Patton Museum but turned the wrong way. Of course, when we travel, there is no wrong way so we made a day of the direction we went. We had lunch at Sloan's Restaurant in Indio on Highway 111. I had a chili relleno omelet with pancakes. Lou had carnitas. My omelet was a cheese stuffed peppers in a three omelet. It came with three pancakes. Lou got three huge pieces of pork on the bone looking like drumsticks. It came with a nice avocado salad and tortillas. It was all excellent. Another place to add to our return list.

Lou also made a tour of the thrift stores again and then we returned home.

Dinner was chili and tomato soup.

Tuesday: (03/31) Breakfast was Don McMuffin's. We then drove into the park to the visitor center. I picked up a hike trail book and other information. It turns out the trails I hiked the other day were all that there are on the South side of the park so we decided to move North to the other side of the park. While we were packing up, a neighbor dropped by asking a few questions about the Datastorm system and also mentioned the Escapees social hours and why we weren't coming to them. We're novice Escapees and didn't know that everyone else here was going so we stayed another day and went this evening. Lou fixed a salad for lunch.


We dropped by the social hour at 4pm and the campfire at 7:30. It was fun! In a tree above the fire pit was a nesting humming bird.