TraveLiving Journey - Our Life as Full Time RVers

Last Episode for the Season

2011-08-10T13:19:00.002-05:00

I am debating and thinking about it for some time. Deciding one way and then changing my mind again, and again, and once more. I think that finally I got to a conclusion – I am not going to continue with blog, at least for now, and its current format.

A lot has happened but nothing to say

Wednesday, August 19th, 2011 – Many things have happened since my last post. We had a friend from work staying with us for a weekend with his family. They are from Germany and visiting the US. We visited couple national parks together and even hiked together. I also flew to Minnesota and we finally got all of our belongings back. More about it in a second, but I would like first to get to the main point.
When we started our Full Time RVing life it was a very special experience. We drove around and had a lifestyle that was so exciting that I felt I would love to share it. Where we are, how it is to live in an RV, and how can we mix RV life with work and other aspects of life. I started by just sharing our trip map, with photos and stories about the places we have been to, but before I knew it, the format became a full blog.
Many RVers are blogging, because it is interesting, exciting and special. But I did not see too many people blogging about the ‘normal’ stuff. A blog without a backbone. Some blog about cooking, or photography or other hobby they might have. Some are blogging about a concept or idea they are passionate about, and many others are blogging about professional and technical subject.
The point is – I feel I lost the thread of my blog. I have nothing to blog about - as a subject – not as a content… Yes I can share my life experiences as I raise my son, eat dinner or work, but this is not a subject for a blog. This is something you share on Facebook (Or Google+).
So here I am, living in a house in a town, raising my son and working. Patti is working too and we are adjusting to be ordinary again. I still drive around and see all those RVs and think – that used to be me, and I miss it, but for the meantime – I need to wait until we have our chance again, and maybe revive this blog.
For now, I think the blog is going to hibernate. Since I enjoy blogging, I might find another subject in a different format to blog about, and if I do – I will tell you here in this blog about it.

Catch up

So just before I go, let me try to catch up and see where things are standing.
I just came back from MN with all of our belongings. It is all unloaded and we are slowly putting everything in place. Many things got ruined from water and mold, like our bed and mattress, so we need to get a new bedroom set for us now. That basically puts the house in shape, and take us out of the temporary living mode we were until now. Still lots of work to do, but slowly we are getting there.
My son is adjusting to his new life, and Patti and I are adjusting to him too. Next week I will enroll him to high school, and by the end of this month he will start his new school year with his new friends in a new place.
And me? I am working most of the time in my home office. I spend the afternoons with Patti and my son, still trying to develop my routine and find new interests locally. Maybe I will join some photography club, or the local synagogue.
The last weekend of July we had a friend come in from Germany with his family, and stayed with us for for the weekend. We had great time together – they arrived just in time for Friday night dinner and saw me blessing the wine and the Challah bread while reciting for the Shabbat. The next day we drove to North Cascades National park and took couple hikes there. One of them was extremely hard for me – we climbed non-stop for 3-4 hours until we got to a point where there was so much snow and mud, that we had to turn around and come back. The views were amazing though and I am sure I lost a pound or two as well …
On Sunday we visited the Olympic National Park, west of Seattle. Here again, we took a hike, but it was much shorter and easier. Most of the pictures in this post are from those two hikes.

Keep In Touch

For now, I am not 100% sure what I am going to do regarding blogging. I might post from time to time when we go for a vacation with the RV or have a special event, so you are welcome to keep me on your following list. One thing for sure – I will go back to Full Time RVing, and I will resume posting to this blog once I do.

In the meantime – you are more than welcome to become friends with me on Facebook, or better yet – on the new and emerging social site – Google+
So – Keep in touch!

It has been a week already

2011-07-27T00:39:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe but it has already been a full week since I came back from CA with my son. When you don’t think about it, is seems like the time flies, yet on the other hand it feels like my son is living here forever. Turmoil and storms are calming down and dust is setting as our life starting to shape its new tracks with the wheels of time.

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 – it was exactly a week ago when we went to court, got our freedom and flew back home. Since then many things have changed and still are changing, but in a slower pace and a more relaxing manner.

In the first few days, my son simply slept in an air mattress in a temporary setting in his new room. He got his computer by the bed and was happy as can be. The next day we went and bought him a new TV, although we could not connect it yet. That was another huge step for him, as now he got the computer connected to a big screen TV with the XBOX, all controlled from a remote keyboard and mouse. The only activity is moving his fingers on the remote and his eyeballs….

The biggest change came on the weekend. Patti and I went and bought a full bedroom set for my son, and a new living room couch – so the huge space by the kitchen has a sitting area now. Not a table yet,. but at least we can sit.

My son helped me all weekend setting up his new room that includes a queen bed, a dresser a chest and a night stand. This is a first time for him to own a brand new bedroom and he is so proud in his new kingdom that he never goes out… We have a daily meeting for dinner at the table…

So slowly things are starting to fall into shape.

Patti does not feel good lately, and the Lupus causes her lots of pain headaches and on top of that she caught a cold. This never prevented Patti to skip work, and although she was actually sent home today from work to rest – she sat and worked from home. That is Patti. I try to let her rest as much as possible, but until this flare would pass, she will not be able to resume normal life. I hope that would come soon.

Next week we are planning to get our belongings here (finally) and get the RV out of the shop (yeah – still in repair). Sometime this summer I hope to be able to go and get my boat from PA, but with the weather here in WA, it seem like the summer is 15 minutes long, all the rest is fall and winter… so I am not sure I will have enough time to enjoy the boat here.

I still miss the RV life very much, and wish I could be hiking or camping somewhere. I can relate so much to Al and Kelly (The Bayfield Bunch) when Al explains can’t wait to go back to the RV trip for the winter. I am not even a snow bird now – just a city guy..

Same Life New Chapter

2011-07-19T12:41:00.000-05:00

The wait is over. We are back home, and when I say we – I mean my son and I. Yes it was a happy ending for both of us, even better than I anticipated. Now, that I am a full time husband and father again, I need to learn and adjust to this new great reality. If you followed our story – you got to read that one.

Last day of waiting

Sunday, June17th, 2011 – Still waiting. Tomorrow we need to go to an investigation at the court. This will have a great impact on the results of the hearing on Tuesday, and from there it could have a dramatic impact on both of our life. So the wait is not easy and we had to do something with the time. My attorney told me that there is a county fair close by, and that might be fun. As much as I hate crowds and since we had nothing else better to do – we decided we will give it a shot.
Orange County, CA is one of the most crowded areas I know. City after city after city all the way to Los Angeles. From my observation in the past and at present – people here are very materialistic and either very rich or live way above their means. You never see so many luxury cars for example in any other place. I am talking Bentley, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Cadillac, Infinity, Jaguars… They dress in nothing but brand names and act as is they own the world – you included. Granted, not all of them, but generally speaking – that is the feeling in SoCal.
Anyways – back to the fair – we got there around noon, parked our cheap rental car among all the luxury ones and stepped in. It was funny, as the theme was western, with a twist to adapt the local culture. For example – most of the eateries were Texas style this, or southern style that, and you could sit on hay bails that were meticulously cut square and it looks like they were dusted every 2- minutes. A plastic real life size horse and a cowboy gave you the feeling – hey bud, you are in the wild… It was interesting to watch the people around and compare it to other county fairs I have seen in the mid west, south and other more rural areas of our country. We took a cable car ride above the fair grounds to get a good view, and walked around the booths. We even played couple of those games were you need to shoot or throw a ring over a bottle and get a stuffed animal if you win. (And I did win one, and gave it to a little girl in the park)
We returned to the room late afternoon, played for a while, and went to bed early. Tomorrow at 8:30 we need to be at the court.

The wheels of Justice

Being Investigated

Monday, June 18th, 2011 – Very important day today, but still we are not going to know anything until tomorrow. We woke up early, I took a fast shower and had a cup of coffee and we drove to the court. We were there by 8:00am. It was only 10 minutes drive, but with the morning traffic I did not want to take chances, better early than late.
I had to admit my son the the “children chamber” at the court while waiting to my investigation. I was the first one in the waiting room, waiting for my investigator to arrive. One by one all the people around me went in (they call your name) and I was again alone the last one. For whatever reason my investigator did not start until 9:30. Finally got in. My investigator was an older seasoned professor, and it look like she has seen it all. On a regular basis she deals with child abuse, and severe cases of neglect, so I am sure it was a mild case for her, at least on the surface. To protect my child privacy and other people involved, I can not get into the details of what was said, but what I can say is that after a short while she made a phone call to another professional involved in the case and her attitude turned 180 degrees. As of a sudden she became supportive and understood that what I was telling her was not only true, but also just the tip of the iceberg.
When I was done, I had to go and get my son from the children place. He sat with the investigator for a while as well. I waited outside, and in the meantime my ex-wife and my daughter arrived too. It was a tensed and uncomfortable situation but they tried to avoid me, and I did not resist. It is better this way, at least today. It was even more tensed when my son came out and we had to pass by them, not even saying a word. The brief eye contact was more than enough.
From the court we drove directly to eat something. We stopped at a restaurant that looked interesting but it turned out to be a vegan restaurant. Never tried one before so I thought I will give it a shot. I ordered some Moroccan plate and my son ordered some veggie burger. After couple bites we looked at each other and I said – let’s go look for some real food… We left the plates almost untouched and stopped at a Greek restaurant. At least the food is real here!
The rest of the day we relaxed and watched the lord of the rings movie on the computer at the hotel room. We tried to speculate what will happen tomorrow. I was exhausted as I could not sleep one minute last night, so I tried to stay awake until bedtime, so I will be able to get some rest.

The day that changed our life

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 – This is not a cliché. I mean maybe it is, but in this case – it is true. For my son – it is a huge change. It is a complete different parenting style, life style, food, weather, culture, friends, religion – you name it. Not only for my son it is a very big change. but for Patti and I – it is a huge change too. From being free to do whatever we want, back to parenting. That implies stability at least for the next 4 years. maybe more. It affects our lifestyle, our activities, our finances – so it is a big day today.
OK – so again we woke up early. by 7:30am we were on the way to court and 15 minutes later we had coffee and fast breakfast in the court cafeteria. just after 8:00am we went to the waiting area by the court room, where I met my attorney – and at this time I would like to say that she is amazing! – young ambitious down to earth lawyer. I think did a great choice. If you ever need an attorney in the area – call Gilbert and Marlowe office in Santa Ana, and ask for Priya. She is the one!! Anyways – she briefed me on her plan for the hearing, got me the papers I needed in order to get my son admitted to the children chamber and after dropping m son at the children waiting area we stepped in. The court session did not start until 9:15am and the judge called the cases one by one. He started with those cases that are fast and after 20 minutes or so we were one of the last two cases left. The case before us was a couple with a case similar to ours. He is from AZ, she is from CA. They have a son that is in his teens who wants to stay with dad. They could not get into agreement and asked the court to decide for them. The judge made it clear that he does not like to take the child away from his friends, and the familiar environment he grew up in, and eventually ordered the couple to go to mediation in the court regarding visitation arrangements.
This is the same judge that is going to deal with my case in 5 minutes. What if he won’t let my son go away from his familiar views of his childhood, the place he grew up? Will not want him to separate from his sister? I was very nervous at this point. And then they called our name.
I could actually hear my heart. I stepped into the chair in front of the judge beside my lawyer. On the other side there was my ex wife without a lawyer (representing herself, or Pro Per as they call it here).
The judge called the investigator to the witness stand, and started asking her questions. First he verified that this was an ‘Emergency investigation’, and ask the investigator to explain the difference. Emergency investigation, as the investigator explained, is a fast, single-day process that was designed to address immediate danger for the children. It should only recommend a safety plan until a full investigation is conducted. This is a bad start, I thought. That means that I will get only temporary orders, and the process will not end here.
Then, the investigator continued. She said that based on her findings, and on the other expert findings – she recommends to have my son move in with me. Period. That is great, I thought, but will the court make a decision like that just based on this fast urgent investigation?
Next, the judge let my ex wife speak. She started to tell the story of her life. She talked about her marriage with me and all that happened since our divorce in the last 10 years.She lied in her story some very bold and bad lies. She said for example that I was physically abusive – I never raised a hand on a any person in my whole life! I see an ant and I step aside not to kill it. nonsense! Anyways – after maybe 45 minutes, my attorney finally said – objection your honor, this is too way back and irrelevant. It seemed like the judge was just waiting for that, as if she has released him from a bad dream. Sustained, he immediately replied. My ex tried to start another subject, but none was relevant. She wanted to show the court some pictures, but the judge glanced and said – these are family pictures – keep them in your album we have no interest in those pictures here. That was the end of her story.
The judge was ready to tell us his decision, so my attorney just asked me some questions about the house in Washington and the school, and after couple minutes we all looked at the judge waiting to hear his decision.
“Although I usually do not like to separate families” he started… that was enough for me. YAY I thought – I got my son!!
The bottom line is – it is not temporary – it is final! my son moves in with me! and a new chapter of life begun!

Coming back home

I called Patti and told her about the decision, it was around noon when I called, and 20 minutes later we had two airline tickets for 6:00pm tonight. Patti is amazing with her ability to help – just took the hassle out from me, and I really needed that help.
I told my son to call his mother and tell her he will come over to say proper good byes to her and his sister. She wouldn’t answer the phone. We tried several tines with no luck, Can’t blame her – she is going through hard time right now, I am sure, but I would not want my son to stop his relations with his mom and sister, now that he is with me.
We decided to drive by the house, and if they are not there – go grab a bite and try again. They were there. My son jumped in and stayed in his mom’s house for a while (it’s not his house anymore…) and stepped out with his sister She decided to say good bye to me. I was happy, since I didn’t think she will talk to me for a while.We have our differences, we agreed, but we will try to work them out. I promised her to bring her over sometime this summer.
From there we went to Chili’s and ate some nice dinner. This restaurant was the very first restaurant we went together earlier this year when I got to CA. Closing circles…
Drove to the airport, returned the car and waited for our flight. Excited, looking forward to a brighter future together. We had a layover in Salt Lake City, and finally landed at 11:30pm in Seattle. Took the shuttle to the closest stop from home where Patti was already waiting for us and took us home. Patti baked a special welcome cake for my son – in his favorite lemon flavor. That was real nice of her, and it touched my son, I could see how happy he was when he saw that. A cake just for him!
His room is still empty, except for an air mattress Patti bought yesterday, but it is clean and it is his own room. After a long 10 days of waiting, and after a long day that started in court, my son is finally home, in his own bedroom, starting a new chapter in his life.

A Week in a Room

2011-07-17T01:14:00.001-05:00

It is almost over by now, but it wasn’t easy, and still is not. Last W/E before the court hearing next week, and a lot of stress and tense are building up. Also, being a whole week in an empty hotel room was not adding to the fun. Another break in life on the way to some new ‘Normal’ life.

A Week a Room and a Kid

Saturday, July16th, 2011 – I think what saved me is the work that picked up a little, otherwise I would have gone completely crazy. Just being in one room for so long is not an easy task. Our new routine is this: My son plays all night on the computer. I wake up at around 8:00am and making coffee, as my son is falling asleep.
I stay on that chair and work until 3:00pm or so, fighting with the bad Internet, and with all the tasks I have to do. At about 3:00pm I am getting hungry, and my sons wakes up. We then go to eat something, trying to pick a different type of food every day. After dinner, we would go back to the room, talk or listen to music a little, until I will go to bed and my son will start his nightly day.
Not much fun, huh? but not too much choice either. Can’t go out of the state of CA. Just waiting for the big news on Tuesday, hope that this will be the happy ending I am waiting for.
So this is just a short update while we are waiting… All the pictures are taken here in the hotel using the phone camera.

Little Wins and Bigger Hopes

2011-07-11T14:09:00.005-05:00

Guess what? In CA again. You don’t believe me? Well – I am not kidding I am back there, weather you believe it or not. So what am I doing back in SoCal after finally getting out of there just couple weeks ago? For that you will have to read on.

Hints are coming

Thursday, July 7th, 2011 – It started as a ‘Normal’ day. Normal, I think, refers to the routine of the last 3 days, otherwise there is nothing normal in my life, at least not recently. Patti got up and went to work, I woke up a little later this morning, starting my coffee and email check in my new office.
Then I saw an email from my lawyer. I was waiting for some updates – and here it came. For obvious reasons I avoided writing on this subject in the last couple posts, but now – I can tell. Remember how I left CA without my son. It was a sad day for both of us, as I knew how much he wanted to be with me, and how much better could it be had he stayed with me. I promised him to do all that I can to change it, and have him come and live with me.
And so I did. In my last day in CA I went to talk to couple family attorneys about this case, and the first day after I came back to WA, I hired the services of one of the attorneys I talked to. A young lawyer who looks like she has experience, and sincerely wanted to help in the matter. I trust her to do the best she can not only for the money but also because she believed it would be the best for my son. I made it clear that I have no intentions to hurt anyone, and I am not out for revenge. Also, it was important for me to emphasize that I want to help my son come and live me because this is *what he really wants*, and not because I want it (although I do want it very much).
So back to this morning – I received an email that states that all the attempts to settle with my ex-wife peacefully have failed (yeah, we tried once more to send a letter), and she is going to approach the court, but would like to know how fast can I get to CA if the court granted me temporary custody. I immediately replied and wrote – I will be there the next day! The decision of the court is scheduled for tomorrow.

So here it comes

Friday, July 8th, 2011 – I was nervous all day today, curious to know what would be the decision of the court. Patti and I already talked about it and decided that if my son comes over, he will go with me to get our belongings from MN by the end of this week.
Around noon, I got the much expected phone call. It was the attorney’s assistant. She told me that the court has decided to give me custody until the hearing on the 19th, but I can’t get my son out of the state of CA. Ouch…
I was extremely happy about the decision. Although it is only a temporary decision, I believe it shows the intentions of the court, and based on what I presented, the court takes this situation very seriously. Now I need to stay in CA for 10 days, No RV and no other place to stay – that means I need to rent a car and hotel room, and SoCal is not cheap especially not in the summer, when all the kids are going to Disneyland, Legoland, San Diego Zoo, Sea world, Knot’s Berry farms, Six Flags, Universal Studios – it is all around here.

Changing Plans

I called Patti and let her know about the news. She was extremely supportive and helped me plan and change all the travel arrangements. We had to cancel the flight to MN, cancel the move of our storage unit, find a flight a car and a hotel in SoCal, all in a one day notice.
I know how hard it was for Patti being by herself waiting for me to come over, and now I need to go again, but I appreciate her help and understanding.
When Patti came back home all the plans were already done. Part of it Patti did from work, and part I did from home. I am flying tomorrow at 7:20am from Seattle, so I have a shuttle picking me up at 4:15am from Everett – about 20 miles away from home. That is going to be a long day tomorrow.
With the short time we had, Patti has cooked for us a nice Friday dinner, she lighted the candles we blessed the Shabbat, the Challah and the wine, and ate a delicious fish over spinach and rice with a soft fresh Challah bread that Patti baked yesterday. Patti also helped me pack for the next 10 days (do you see the pattern? I don’t know what would I have done without her). We went to bed early as we have to get up tomorrow by 3:30am, facing yet another waiting period.

The trip south

Saturday, July 9th, 2011 – Could hardly sleep tonight. Well for obvious reasons.
Patti woke up with me and after fast coffee we drove to the pickup location of the shuttle. We waited in the car about 5 minutes or so and the shuttle came. That’s it – I am on the way to get my son. I am going to spend with him at least for the next 10 days. Hopefully for the next 4 years…
I was exhausted. Half asleep I managed to find the gate and waited for my flight. I believe I slept most of the way to Salt Lake city, where I had to switch planes. From there it was already after 10:00am and the short flight went pretty fast (90 minutes or so).
After we landed in Orange County, I went to pick up the car. I had a car reservation at Thrifty, so I went to their service desk and handed the girl my Driver License and a Credit Card. After punching some numbers she told me – “Sorry I can’t give you car”. “And why not?” I asked. She said – “Whenever we receive a debit card the system preforms a credit check, and it came back as declined”. What the… I was thinking. No way! My credit is not bad, and I have enough money in the bank… “I will give you a credit card instead” I said. “Can’t” the girl said and turned the monitor towards me. It had a message – Do not rent. Hand a Credit denial Card.
Nothing I could do at this point. It wouldn’t matter even if I pulled a credit report and showed her a score of 800. I am dealing with a computer, and there is nothing I can do. I turned to the next desk – National Alamo, and in 10 minutes I had a car. Just an embracement! If you ever need to rent a car – think twice before you choose Thrifty, and do not give them a debit card.

Finding the lost son

When I landed in Orange County I turned on my phone and a text message from my son was waiting for me “Where are you? Mom is forcing me to go to church”. I replied – “Just landed. on the way to pick you up”. That was the last I heard from him this morning.
Drove down south to his mom’s home, and as expected – there was no one there. Just across the street from the house there was this camera shop where I dropped my camera for repair couple months ago, and just yesterday I got a phone call that it is ready, so I swung by and picked up my camera. I got my D700 back! I don’t have any lens or battery to use it, but at least I got the body.
I called Patti, consulting with her what should be my next step, and decided that I will look for my son in one of the churches they use to go, and if not there, I will just wait by the house until they come.
My first bet was a church in Irvine, about 15 miles north (very close to the airport). I turned around and drove back north. Took me a little while to find the church, but when I drove through the parking lot I spotted the mother’s minivan parked at a far corner. Bingo!
I found my son and my daughter with their mom standing outside the church talking to someone. The mother noticed me approaching and I don’t think she was too happy. She knew nothing good is going to come out of it.
I parked close to the place they were standing and got out of the car. “Hi” I said politely. “I came to pick up our son”. “And what make you think you could do that?” She asked… “I have a court order”. This is when the color disappeared from her face. I don’t think she expected that. “What court, I was never invited, you didn’t tell me, let me see” she mumbled.
I knew she is in shock and going through hard time. I did not want to make it hard on anyone, just wanted to take my son and go. My hope is that she will realize that it will raise a red flag for her, and make her wonder what if the court will have to decide, as she might lose not only custody but much more, so maybe she will agree to sign the offer letter I sent her and fax it to the lawyer. That would put an immediate end to all this roller coaster, it would be the cheapest easiest way to put things in order, with minimum aggravation cost and anxiety. But chances are slim.
I showed her the court order and stepped back to the car, allowing her some privacy to say proper good bye. It took a while for her and my daughter to digest the fact that I am taking my son without their consent, and after a long while (probably 20-30 minutes) finally my son joined me in the car. It was not easy on him at all, seeing his mom crying and not wanting to let him go, but he assured me that as hard as it is, this is what he wants and he knows that this is the best thing for him. We had a fast stop at his mom’s house, picking up his stuff and from there we drove to the hotel, starting the waiting period. We grabbed a fast meal from a fast food joint across the street and went to bed. After all it has been a long and rough day.

The first day

Sunday, July 10th, 2011 – The hotel is not a fancy one, so there are very limited amenities provided. We stopped at Target and got some snacks and a cheap coffee maker. we continued to a Laundromat to wash my son’s clothes, and grabbed a fast bite from a Chinese restaurant close by. By the time we were back it was already 4:00pm or so, and we tried to pass the time by getting the room organized, watching some video clips and talking about all that is happening.
It is going to be tough keeping ourselves entertained in a small room in a hotel. I have to work, and not much for my son to do. He is trying to keep himself busy learning programming, and watching movies, but I am sure we will manage somehow. One week to go. Day one.
Monday, July 11th, 2011 – The day just started, and I am between work and emails sitting in this hotel room and trying to pass the time. I feel bad as Patti is alone at home, and my son is bored stuck here in the room with me, but we do have big hopes that this is not for nothing, and that the cause will justify all that we are going through. So with small victory and big hope we are looking forward. Hoping for the best.

City Hikers

2011-07-06T00:06:00.002-05:00

the family, grilling on the fire and they feel as if they are in the wild middle of nowhere? Or when a fancy passenger car is stopping by a trailhead, and you see the office guy with his wife taking a half mile trail with a gear that is enough for 10 day backpacking, and a survival kit for the jungles of south America? This W/E it was us. We were the city hikers…

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011 – As expected and forecasted, the day started cloudy, Still skeptic about tomorrow, but they still insist it’s going to be nice. Patti feels better today and the headache is fading away. Patti felt so much better that she wanted to sit down and work., bit she did not have a place to sit, and opened her laptop in the kitchen table. This is not right, I thought – we need to get you a desk too. Maybe a little smaller – but still a place to sit.
Going on Office Depot website, we found that the desk from the same theme, one notch down is actually on sale, and could be picked up in a store. For $170 that is a bargain! We bought it online, and drove to pick it up.
Patti was excited, and actually built most of the desk by herself! Within couple of hours we had a double desk office , and could work together. That was fast: Plan, buy, pick, build, work.

Looking forward for tomorrow – get out to nature again!
4th of July, 2011 – Yes, today is the day. The independence day of our country. 235 years old!
We had a slow and late start this morning, but the weather was promising. They say that they did not have a sunny 4th of July in this state for centuries, so it must be an experience of a lifetime.
After a small search around us, we decided on the North Cascade National Park, North East of us, about 80 miles away, and about 2 hours drive.
We did not take anything! All of our hiking gear is in the RV anyways, and my new camera is still in repair, but we are going.
Once out of Everett, and off the highway the land looked more like what we know and like – small farms and country living in its glory. I miss that. When driving in a car, you don’t even notice too much the high grade uphill or downhill roads, you just drive in the comfort of the A/C and the sound of the stereo (Still – the highway on Sirius XM)

We stopped at the visitor center and chose a nice trail recommended but the ranger. Most of the park is still under 10 feet of snow, she said. It will be open only in August, so we have a good reason to come back. Before we got to the trail we stopped at some nice view points and took some nice pictures of the breathtaking views. The trail itself was around 3 miles long, climbing 450 feet to a view point above diablo lake. this is one of the shortest and easiest trails in the park, which offers over 400 miles of hiking trails. The first part was very thick rainforest trees and brush, letting very few sun rays go through the branches, and provide some kind of a mystic atmosphere. After a certain height, the thickness clears up, and the sky is visible, and today – a blue sky and a warm sun with all it glory.

Independence or War

When we cam back home, it was already around 9:00pm although still light outside. I think it doesn’t get dark here until 10:30pm or so.
After a shower we went to bed but something was not right. We heard the sound of war all around us, Heavy artillery, guns, tanks sound and a strong smell of gun powder, but there was no siren and the radio seem to ignore the street fights, as if everything is OK.
The enemy stood strong against our forces, as even close to midnight the sound of the rockets and canons was still loud. Only after midnight the enemy retreated, as the sounds started to go further away. We won, I thought, we won again! the US is independent yet once again! that was a close call, and a very rough night.
Here are some more pictures from the hike:

Adjusting to gray

2011-07-02T13:47:00.001-05:00

Closing 2 weeks in my new home. The RV is still in the shop, didn’t even get the estimate done. The house is still empty, and the sky are still gray. once a week the sun peeps out and this is a state holiday in WA. The main moves are behind, now we just need to get my son home, and the belongings from around the country

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 – So a whole week is gone in the new house, but not much happened. The days are dragging by, staying by myself most of the day. Work is picking up a little, and that helps passing the time.
My typical day starts at about 8:00am. Sometimes I will wake up a little earlier and sit with Patti to have a morning coffee before she is running out to work. Then I am by myself for the next 8 hours or so. I will cleanup the kitchen, make some fresh coffee, take care of Diva and sit down to work.
Patti comes home at around 5:00pm and usually starts dinner. Not the she has to, but she loves cooking and does not want to give it up. By 6:30pm we sit down to eat, and by the time we are done we have couple hours or so before it is bed time again. Patti would usually watch cooking shows on TV, or relax from her busy day. I might catch up with customers that just wake up in their part of the world, or just sit with Patti watch her watching TV.
The house is still empty and I think we will get the furniture only by the end of next week. In the meantime we are using an air mattress for sleeping, and couple plates to eat. That is enough to get by.
The move is going to be very expensive. Much more than I expected, and much more than what Patti’s company is willing to reimburse. I believe that by the time we will get all our belongings here, we will scratch the $10K in moving expenses.

I have got an office

The only rooms in the house that are equipped to be used are the master bedroom (well, air mattress) the kitchen (the appliances were there before), the dining room (an old table they left behind, with a table cloth and two folding chairs). That’s it. The rest is empty.
Up until Tuesday, the only sitting place was the dining room table. Eat, work, have coffee, everything. Last weekend we bought a new desk at Office Depot, so on Wednesday it finally arrived.
It took me good 5 hours to assemble the desk and the hutch, but now I have another room I can work in. Actually I am spending most of my day in this room. Because the sky are almost always cloudy, the room is usually dark to the point I need to use lamp in order to work, even in the mornings. I love natural light, so that’s a bummer, but I believe like everything else – I will get used to it too.
So here is the story in pictures of building it up:

4th of July Weekend

Actually the weekend did not start right. Patti went to work on Friday with a migraine, and did not feel good at all. She did not sleep well through the night either, and today (Saturday) she is still fighting a headache. The ironic thing is that this two days are blessed with the rare occurrence of clear skies without a cloud and a perfect weather.
Having such a short summer in this area (summer is characterized with clear sunny warm days in my dictionary) and so many beautiful parks and attractions to see, I was hoping to go somewhere together. Tomorrow supposed to be rainy again, and Monday.. well – that is too far in advance for them to predict. They say sunny, but who knows. I will cross my toes.

What’s next?

I am planning to fly to MN by mid July to supervise the loading of the truck. That will make it a little easier to live, I suppose, can’t even remember what I got out there.
With my son – as you know, the attempts to resolve the issue in a good way have failed. I did not give up, and still trying to do the right thing. Hope to be able to report some happy results soon.
The RV is still in the shop. The damage was bigger than I imagined, and they need to tear it apart just to give an estimate. I did not hear from them yet. Hope for good news. I miss my RV, the freedom the hikes … withdrawal symptoms…

Blown up trip

2011-06-26T12:53:00.001-05:00

Believe it or not – that’s it. I am in WA. Very happy to reunite with Patti, but I drove here by myself, without my son. This is not going to be an easy summer, but I hope at the end of it my son will get what he wants and will be able to finally move in with me. Oh, and guess what? – It’s raining since I got here… Welcome to WA

Driving Alone

Monday, June 20th, 2011 – On Friday, with all the running around today, I did not have much time to prepare for Shabbat dinner. I did not want to eat just a frozen meal either. so a Mexican Taco dinner was a great solution – Ground beef with taco seasoning, some vegetables, sour cream and cheese – that’s all it takes. As you will soon realize, my ex insisted on Gal coming back to her house after school on Monday, so I believe that is going to be the end of my stay with my son for the summer. A short meeting with her on Saturday assured me that this avenue, of trying to get her to agree and let my son move in with me, is a dead end. She will not let my son go, at least not willingly.
Knowing this is the last weekend was sad, just like a dark cloud hanging over me. It is also Father’s day W/E, and I was not sure what to do. A friend of my son came over as well as my daughter, to stay for the day, but I wasn’t in the best mood at all. We grilled a little (I ruined almost all the meat), and I had to drop my daughter back home (she had to study, so she said) and took my son and his friend to the movies. I think It’s called super-8 or something like that. While trying to keep a smile on my face I did not have much patience, and I was very tensed the whole time.
I dropped my son at school on Monday morning, knowing I am not going to pick him up that night. From text messages he sent later that day I understood he is not so happy about the new situation.
Night was quiet. No one with me tonight. it has been a while since I was just by myself in the RV, I am not even sure it ever happened before. Thinking to myself I realized that sitting around in the campground by myself is not going to do any good, especially knowing that my son is not coming up north with me, so I decided to start my trip North the next day.

The Journey North

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011 – Some last minute errands and by 10:00am I was already on my way. The trip is 1,230 miles, and I will try to do I in 3 days. That means at least 400 miles a day. When I took the ramp on to the I-5 my Google navigator computerized voice announced – “Stay on I-5 for one thousand two hundred miles”. That was when I turned it off. I will turn it on again when I am ready to exit, near home in WA.
I passed L.A., drove through the mountain region north of it, and started the big flat ride through the desert. It was very hot outside, over 100 F, and the road was steaming! Signs of tire services where almost every mile alongside the road with pieces of black rubber all around. I think it was around 3:00pm when I heard that loud noise and glanced on the driver side mirror to see a big piece of metal sticking out of the RV. I stopped at the side of the road and sure enough – a tire blew off. I was just a mile before the exit, so I drove slowly to the Lost Hills, and stopped at a gas station. I was not surprised to find out that they had a tire shop right there.
After about two hours and two hundred dollars I was on the road again, determined to complete my 400 mile quota for the day. It was about 11:30pm when I finally decided to pull to a rest area for the night, but it was completely full. The next one was 28 miles north (I think around exit 580) where I found a single spot to rest for the night.
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 – The loud noise of the semi truck engines around me woke me up. I took Diva for a short walk and hit the road starting my second day. I was still down and unhappy about having to drive without my son, but tried to cheer myself up. I am going to be with Patti after so long, and that is a great deal – at least I will have a companion and support when I am down.
The temperature was still high today, around 117, even though I was already in the southern Oregon. Around 3:00pm I heard that familiar big bang sound again. Oh no.. This is the second tire out of 4. That is not good. This time the nearest exit did not have anything. A tiny gas station that served the gold hills village, they didn’t even have Diesel.
I called Les Schwab from the nearest town, and after 30 minutes they were there. The guy told me that I needed a stronger tire – a 14 thread, and what he brought was only a 10 thread. He also noticed that the tire they put yesterday was not the right one. This Mexican shop yesterday did not have any variety to choose from, so I had to make do with what they had.
I drove on this temporary tire to the shop where they replaced all four tires while I went to lunch and fill gas. Another two hours and this time over a thousand dollars put me back on the road again. The truck itself did great pushing the RV over the hills and mountains of Northern CA, and Oregon. At times I had to drive as slow as 30 mph uphill, and 40 mph downhill but on the flat portion of the highway the truck could easily pull at 70mph, taking about 9 mpg.
When I left Portland and entered the state of WA it was still light outside, that was when I turned on the GPS on my android again. I was less than 180 miles away, around 3 hours of drive, with one more stop to fill gas. Being so close, I decided to try and get home tonight. My estimate was that I will be home before midnight. Not too bad for 1,230 miles trip. Driving through Seattle was no fun. frequent lane changing, bridges and tunnels with heavy traffic of city drivers. 20 more miles and I am home.
When I finally arrived it was completely dark outside, I could not see the house from the road and based on photos I saw from Google Street View, I realized that is the right place. I jumped off the truck to see the RV parking Patti was talking about, but there is no way I can get the RV down this driveway from such a narrow road. Forget about parking the RV by the house. For tonight, I just left the RV alongside the front of the house. I need to take it to the shop anyways, and by then I will have to find some solution for it.
It was very exciting to see Patti after so long. She actually stepped outside and after the XOXOXO she helped me back the RV to its night parking spot. It was very late at night, we were both exhausted and went to bed.
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 – Next thing I know, I woke up on an air mattress in an unfamiliar house all by myself. Patti was already out to work. Diva was still locked in the bathroom from last night, and I was about to start my first day of the next chapter of my life – living in a brick and mortar house. I took Diva outside and fed her, then I took the grand tour. it is a very big house, yet very empty. No furniture yet. Most of our staff is still in storage in MN and yet to come. If my son will not come to live with us it would be a huge space just for the two of us. Moving from an RV to a 2,600 SqFt house is a very big change! Going from the bedroom to the kitchen almost felt like a journey in the carpetland wilderness. I can’t even live my cell phone in the bedroom – I won’t hear it!
I made a list of urgent things I need to get from the RV. The rest will be brought in tonight when Patti comes back home. That included the server, Diva’s bed and dishes, and some personal items. Although I do not have any active project at the moment, there are some minor issues I need to address, and those were waiting for me to get here. So the plan is to get those issue resolved first, before I move on.
When Patti came home she first started to prepare for the Challah bread. She will not have time after work tomorrow and before dinner to bake the Challah, so she mixed the dough and let it rise. While rising we started to haul stuff from the RV home. The guiding rule was to leave anything we might need when going out on a trip, except for food. Even with food we left those items that could not get spoiled. We left some clothes, Hygiene items, dishes and any camping items. Even then, we have filled the car twice hauling items home. Lots and lots of items. All the office and work related items, all the food, we emptied and cleaned the refrigerator, some clothes and the list goes on and on. I know that one day, sooner or later, we will haul it back and go back to Full Time Rving. I have no doubt in my mind. I did not say a word, but the act of emptying what used to be my home and the center of my lifestyle in the last 2 years was very hard on me, and made me a little sad.
We had a light sushi dinner tonight and went to bed early tonight, closing the first day at home.
Friday, June 24th, 2011 – Another day to wake up to an empty house alone. This is going to be the norm in the near future, so I better get used to it! I started to put things away from the piles in the living room. On this floor we have the master bedroom, one room is an office and one is a guest room. If my son will join us we will get the basement – a whole floor for himself – that is a bedroom, a family room, a huge game room (with a pool table) and a private exit to the yard. Otherwise – I don’t think we will even use that part of the house. Even just the top floor is plenty big.
When I was done putting things away (on the floor for now), I made myself some fast breakfast and continued my work. Patti starts at 7:00am so by 6:30am she is out. She usually finishes work between 4:00pm and 4:30pm and gets home just after 5:00pm. I hope I will have enough work to fill my day, otherwise I will go nuts.
When Patti came home she immediately started dinner. It is Friday today, and we did not celebrate Shabbat together for some time. We have a new candleholder set and a plate for the Challah bread I bought in CA, so that is the first time we actually using it together.
Around 7:00pm dinner was ready – coconut curry chicken with rice and Israeli salad tonight. and of course – a freshly baked Challah bread. After dinner I put on some Shabbat songs in the background, and we just set around having coffee and talking. That was a nice evening and a good start for a weekend.
Saturday, June 25th, 2011 – Shopping day today. Not too much, but we decided to get some essentials like towel hangers and basic items around the house that will make living easier even before we get our stuff from MN. We also decided to buy an office desk so I can work comfortably. We stopped at some furniture stores, but the prices are outrageous! over $1,000 for a corner desk! Maybe if it was a house we owned and we had to buy a long term furniture, that would be an option, but we were looking for something cheaper. Much cheaper.
We ended up in Office Depot, buying a big L shape corner desk with a hutch for half the price. This is a delivery only item, so it will get here by Tuesday. That’s what they said. I also bought the very basic tools I needed – a hammer, a screwdriver and a ranch. Just in case I need to do something around the house. We came back home early afternoon. I hung the towel hangers and shower shelves, and fixed the Mezuzahs in both main doors of the house. A mezuzah is a small scroll in a fancy housing (usually decorated wood or metal or glass) that Jewish people hang at the entrance of their homes. Patti chose 2 mezuzahs online from a store in Israel, and she received them while I was still in CA, so now it was the time to fix them in place. Not much else is going on today, just taking the weekend easy. I called my son to see how he is doing, and making sure he still wants to come. Last word was not said in that subject yet.
Sunday, June 26th, 2011 – Woke up to a sunny morning. That would be now! this is the first morning with blue sky since I got here. It is so much nicer to see the shades on the lawn and the reflection of the sun rays from the leaves and trees around. Precious day! I understand I will not get to see many of those sunny days in this part of the country. So that’s where I am. Sitting in the only table we have at home right now, the kitchen dining office everything table, looking out the huge window to our back yard and writing this blog.
So what’s next? I believe I will go to MN in mid July to get our belongings. Probably rent a U-Haul truck and get everything down here. Next I need to rent a pickup truck and get our boat from PA. Not sure when I am going to do that, but I hope it will be this summer, so we can enjoy the boat this year. We will slowly furnish the house, build the business and get used to live in a ‘normal’ house. That is, until we will resume RVing.

Fantasy Over

2011-06-17T15:27:00.001-05:00

Not so simple these days. the hope that things will get smooth for me, and for my son is gone, and I might need to postpone my travel back North yet again. Just when everything seemed to fall into place and the end of the turmoil was in the visible horizon, everything flipped again. I miss Patti and can’t wait to get out of here. Too much and too long.

Friday, June 17th, 2011 – Without any active project the days seem to crawl rather slow. Mid month just past, and I really need to find some source of income this month. Patti and I are doing great so far, and trying to support each other remotely as much as we can, looking forward to the day we can finally reunite, the day that is getting closer and closer now. Or is it?

I think it was Tuesday early afternoon when I called my ex, trying to expedite the handling of my son’s custody change. This was when I realized the she has no intentions to let him move at all. “You and I don’t agree on the way the kids should be raised, and I want them be raised my way”, she told me. After 3 months letting my son live with me, and leading him and I to believe she will agree, that came as a surprise. a bitter one.

When I talked to my son and told him about this new situation, he could not believe. He was devastated. “How come? She told me she will let me go…. “ he mumbled. I could see tears in his eyes when he finally turned to me and said – “No matter what dad, I will always be with you. You are in my heart, and that no one can take!”

I promised him that day that I will do anything in my power to get him to move in with me.

The next few days I started my research. I browsed the internet, contacted Family Attorneys and tried to understand where I stand. The most important thing is, that my son wants to be with me. Apparently the state of California puts a very heavy weight on the kids choice, and starting at the age of 14, they actually listen to the kids unless there is a reason not to (i.e. unfit parent). My son is only 5 months away from 14, and the judge will definitely put a heavy weight on my son’s choice, being so close to that age. I heard it from more than one source.

Problem is – it all takes time, aggregation and money. Lots of it. Lawyers are very expensive here in CA ($300/hr), and being separated from Patti for a long time is not my preference either.

The comforting thing is, that Patti supports me all the way – “it takes whatever it takes”, she said, “we have to do whatever we believe in, and whatever is the best for your son”. These words of encouragement meant the world to me! This shows deep love and care.

So that is pretty much what occupies my mind these last few days. Getting everything ready to the time that I may need to hire the services of an attorney and stay here longer than I thought.

Last Hope

But just before that – I am going to try one more time with my ex, explaining to her that she could save a lot of aggravation time and money to all of us, by letting my son go. It would be much easier on him knowing that his mom let him go from her love and care to him, rather than being forced to do that.

What can I say, my friend. Life is not a honeymoon, and surprises are around every corner. I hope and pray that this last attempt will be fruitful and I will be able to resume normal life soon, after all. WE will have to live and see, won’t we?

Bumpy Road Take me Home

2011-06-12T17:35:00.000-05:00

As you probably know, Patti and I are going through many changes this month, in each and every aspect of our life. This roller coaster ride is not always so smooth, and there are bumps on the way. With a lot of love and energies we just past yet another such bump. Hopefully the last.

Thursday, June 9th, 2011 – I just realized: Today is the first day of the rest of my life. That didn’t make any difference to life though… The familiar alarm sound put an end to my sweet dream at 5:30am. No time to roll in bed, or even debate if I should start welcoming the day – I have 45 minutes to be ready and out the door. Half asleep, still congested, I woke up and started my daily routine – Pop Tarts and Orange Juice for breakfast, Lunch meat and cheese sandwich and a snack for lunch, and a cup of coffee for me. Quick glance at the computer – maybe some email is coming with a new project – but nope. Nothing. Time to go.

Drove down and came back to feed Diva, got a load of laundry going, cleaned sinks shower and bathroom, and sat down at my computer, trying to start a development of a new Android Application as an alternative source of income, just in case projects will not come through.

Before I knew it – it was time to go again, drive my son back home. Wasn’t sure what to cook for dinner, so I called the master Chef: “Hey Patti, any idea what I can make for dinner?”, “What do you got out there?”, she asked. “Hmm some yams, potatoes, squash, and shrimp”. Step by step we arranged for a pressure cooker Squash medley and shrimp and mushroom in butter wine and garlic sauce. Remote team work! In between the peeling, the honey and the soy sauce, we talked about the new job and challenges Patti has now. She is actually doing great and appreciated for her experience in system analysis and design skills, and the software development lifecycle management ability. I am so happy for Patti, I think this is exactly what she wanted, and what she needed – a place that will utilize and appreciate her talent, experience and skills.

Dinner was great, and we were both tired and ready to go to bed early tonight. A goodnight call to Patti and I was in my dream world.

Black Friday

Friday, June 10th, 2011 – Not the best day today. When I woke up I thought – wow already Friday, and I don’t even know what I am going to cook for tonight’s dinner. After I dropped my son at school I drove to a grocery store that carried Challah bread for Shabbat, got some mixed vegetables bag and drove back home. I decided to make a mixture of small vegetables – miniature Potatoes, miniature Onions, Brussels Sprouts, some Broccoli, Cauliflower, and some chicken drumsticks in the oven. That was the plan at least.

At 2:00pm I drove to school to pick up my son. He spotted me in the parking lot and ran to the car – “Hey Aba”, he said. “I am glad you are here,I need five bucks”. “Where is your backpack?” I asked. “Oh, in class I will get it later tonight”. he said, “you have five bucks?” “For what?” I asked. “You forgot? today is the dance, and I am staying here till the evening”. I just realized – I completely spaced it out. Not only that – I also forgot my wallet at home, and did not have anything on me. “Well – I will drive and get you some money, I will call you when I get back….”. “But I don’t have my phone, I forgot it at home”, he said… “I will look every so often outside to see if you came”.

The drive home is over 30 minutes each way, and with my big truck it is not a cheap ride. I drove it twice this morning, another round trip to get my son (but I didn’t), and another one to get him some money, and finally – I will have to drive another one to pick him after the dance. if you counted correctly – this is 8 times that route! about 5 hours on the road back and forth. On top of that – the Friday dinner – this is gone too! I am not going to eat by myself…

Into this chaos, on the way home Patti calls. My mind is completely spaced out today, and I completely forgot – she had an important meeting at work. After telling her what happened today, I forgot to ask about that meeting… I think that the stress build up on both of us and just not being together for so long, just started the inevitable. a stupid argument on the phone.

That just shadowed this Friday completely, and ended the day in a Scratchy chord.

Just wait – no so fast! Almost… Just before I went to bed I called Patti again. “We can’t be doing that!” I said. She agreed. We just laughed and realized what we did. Since we don’t have each other all the time, as we are so used to, we can’t unload our stress little bit at the time, and it builds up and explodes. So now that the steam is released – all is good again. Time to move on. Hey – just to make it clear – I love you Patti, more than anything. We will always be together!

Saturday, June 11th, 2011 – Not too much is planned for the day. I woke up in a better mood this morning and prepared a nice breakfast for us. Challah bread with cheese (the Shavuot leftovers), vegetables, yogurt, cereal and berries. My son in an attempt to find activities other than computer games, wanted to visit a friend and get his hair cut. I thought both were great ideas! The long hair he wears is too hot for the summer, and hides his face. I like him in shorter hair.

We drove down to the city, and found a nice ‘Old Fashion’ style barber shop. The huge mane just piled on the floor bit by bit, and before long I could actually see that there was a face underneath that hair. Next – we drove to his friends’ house but he could not come over. Had some family commitments. Next week, his dad said.

Drove back home, and thought what could I do for the rest of the day. On the way in, I noticed some activity around the candy store (a famous store just at the entrance of the RV Park) and decided to take a look. We went there and walked around the different booths of local artist – an air spray painter, a local singer, a wood carver, and of course the home made chocolate fudge of the candy store.

The Hike

On the way out, I glanced and saw a trail head I never noticed before. It was on the same side of the park, across from the other trails we took before. That is a good idea, I thought – a hike.

My son didn’t ‘feel like it’, as teenagers say. I kinda figure that. A good time to catch up with games, but that was fine with me. I could take the time and walk in my own pace, stop and take a picture whenever I want, and clean my head. Since I am by myself, it was an opportunity to take a little longer hike.

We walked back to our site, and I put my hiking shoes, vest, hat, walking stick, grabbed the old camera (yes the new one is still in repair) and water belt. I was ready to go.

My android phone is now on the stock battery (The original battery that cam with it) since the bigger battery failed. That means that the phone will not last long if I will use it as a GPS or navigation device. Back to my old GPS, I turned it on, acquired position and started my hike.

At the trail head I stopped at the topo map, planning my route. I chose a round trip about 5 miles long, going through some stream and returning to the park via a gravel road from the east.

It was a hot day and the hotter I got the more flies turned around my head and drove me crazy. I just decided I am trying to ignore them and every few seconds just killed another one. Not that it helped, but it kept my mind off of the irritating buzz. Flowers are blooming all around in yellow, pink, red and white. I could smell them even through my congested nose. The trail went uphill about 600 feet along 4 miles or so, until it reached the gravel road. From there the path was wide and clear and constantly downhill, back toward the campground. At one point, a car came from around the corner, spinning its wheels and almost hit me. I jumped to the said scared – crazy drivers… I thought. Few minutes later that same car came back down. The car stopped by me and a young guy opened the window and said – “Sorry about earlier, the tires are not the best and sometimes spins, I did not mean to scare you”. “That’s OK”, I said – “don’t worry about it, and thanks for stopping and apologizing – that’s nice of you”. “Want cold beer?” he asked. “No, thanks I am good”. I replied. “Well – it is for my mom, and its not so good for her – take one and save it from her”, he tried to convince me. “Is it cold?” I asked. “Very…” he handed me an ice cold can of beer. I grabbed the beer, thanked the guy and he disappeared down the road.

I don’t think it was a great quality beer, but a very cold beer in a very hot day was a perfect combination. I could feel the cold beer going down my throat cooling off my warm body. Later downhill, I saw the guy sitting on the porch in a farm house with his mom. I could not believe that in SoCal there are places like that – a small village with little farms, simple houses, gravel roads. Chickens cows and horses in the yards – a country style small town in crowded SoCal.

I talked to Patti again on the way as I was crossing this village, approaching the RV park. When I arrived I took a nice shower, loaded my GPS trail and photos into the computer, ate a light frozen dinner and was ready to go to bed. Not before I talked to Patti, of course – got to keep the flame . She took the day easy, she told me, cooked herself some fancy meal, and wine, and enjoyed the evening.

BTW – most of the picture in this post are from this hike.

Sunday, June 12th, 2011 – Got some work to finish for a customer, an old task I promised to get done. After a small breakfast I sat down to finish this task and write this post. Later today I would like to clean the RV, prepare a nice dinner (after two days without cooking) and maybe watch a movie tonight. that’s for today.

The rest of the week – I hope to get some progress and hopefully finalize an agreement with my ex regarding my son, although it is hard to believe it would happen. Try to finish as much food as I can from what we have here, and get ready to move. in a week and a half – on Wednesday, I will be driving the RV for the last time before it is parked unoccupied in my back yard. Will have to learn how to winterize it for the first time, but that is not in a long time.

Beyond that – I might be travelling to MN and PA to pick up all our belongings from the storage units around the country and gather all in one place. That’s all I have planned for now, anything else will deal as it comes.

The unfulfilled Itch

2011-06-08T15:02:00.002-05:00

Time is playing games with me. Some days are as long forever twice, and some days are as short as few seconds. Being on the fence plays with mood, with time and with life in general. The slow down on work doesn’t help to fill the days with smile either.

New Dad To Old Child

Saturday, June 4th, 2011 – I am re-learning to be a parent. Both myself and my son who joined me couple months ago are adjusting to each other and getting to know each other better. It has many great moments, but some tense and frustration that any parent of my teenager in the world has experienced. You know, the ‘Normal’ stuff – The ‘your generation doesn’t know nothing, and can’t understand it’ is just one example. When you were young you didn’t have …. This is how everybody are dressing nowadays. and the best one – ‘I am a ‘Gamer’ it is in my blood, this is a different type of personality you never knew because it is new…
This last statement is a response to attempts to get my son do something other than playing computer games. On the computer, on the XBOX, every free minute of his day. Any ideas there?
So anyways – I was happy when on Saturday (after the refrigerator incident) he agreed to go visit with friends. I drove him down to a friend’s house, and drove back to the RV, cleaning and washing the RV from the inside out. When my son finally called me to pick him up, it was already 9:00pm. I jumped in the car and drove towards the campground exit. But guess what? The road was blocked! I knew they closed the road at night during the weekdays, but they just decide to change it and close it everyday, including weekends. So with Hwy 74 (Ortega Hwy) blocked, I had to drive all the way around – that is almost 2 hours drive each way! That was a looong night on the road.
We did not do anything special this weekend. Can’t even remember Sunday, it went so fast. Monday was somewhat tensed between us, and the fact that I have absolutely no active project worries me and doesn’t add to the overall positive mood, if you know what I mean.

Shavuot

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 – I thought I will not make a big deal out of it, and just let it go. Tuesday was Shavuot eve. Shavuot is a Jewish holiday exactly 7 weeks from Passover, and one of the traditions of this holiday is to eat dairy products and drink wine (Cheese and wine). On the way back from school we stopped at the grocery store and bought some nice cheese like Brie, the laughing cow, Boursin, and Camembert. To accompany this variety we got Ritz crackers and a vegetable tray. For dessert we got a strawberry cheese cake and drove home. No dinner cooking tonight – it is a free cheese bar day! I also had couple glasses of Zinfandel (no work, remember?) which contributed this time for the positive mood. To celebrate the night we decided to watch a comedy from Patti’s movie collection. We found the Yes Man, and sat and laughed together. The cheese cake was a perfect finale for the day, and by the time the movie was over it was bed time anyways.
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 – I am expecting an Interesting day today. Couple things suppose to happen – first, I need to take the RV to the shop so they fix the valves, and second – my son is going to go to his mom’s house while I am waiting for the RV, and while there, he should try to talk to her about moving in with me. Maybe if it comes from him directly, it will be more convincing.
After dropping my son at school this morning I drove back and started to get the RV ready to move. This is the first time I am doing both the inside and the outside. Usually Patti is taking care of the inside while I fold everything outside. I had to find place for all the knickknacks and the fragile decorations we have. I think I did fine, we will see tonight when I reopen everything again.
It did not take me more than 30 minutes to be hooked up and ready to go, but it did bring back the memories of the excitement of going to a new place from one campground to another. As I pulled out with the RV, I felt this pinch in my heart, looking back into the happy travel days, sweet memories, that will have to be dormant for sometime now. Like a Hitch Itch that can not be fulfilled.
After about 45 minutes drive I arrived RV Giant service center and unhooked the RV. They thought it would be something simple, and within an hour or two I will be ready to go, but just an hour ago I got a phone call that one cable cracked and the other one got loose, and they need to install a new assembly. this is going to be a $700 bill.
I am not sure what to do – The gray water valve worked just fine before they touched it a month ago, and although the black water valve got damaged in KS, I never had a problem with the cable. They have just replaced the valve a month ago, but I can not prove that they caused it… They tried to call the extended warranty company but they will give an answer only tomorrow. Well – I need my home back!
I told them to fix it anyways, and if not approved I will have to pay the bill. Now I need to cross my fingers and wait for the answer tomorrow. Once ready, I still need to drop the RV in the campground and go get my son from his mom’s house, and it is already 4:00pm. Lost a full day.
Sitting at a coffee shop and trying to pass the time waiting for the RV to get fixed, reviewing everything that happened since Saturday, and writing this blog. At least to this point…

Coming back home

4:30pm, the service manager called - the rig is ready. I was only 5 minutes away. stepped in, hooked it up and drove back to the campground. I still have to drop the RV, go and get my son and drive back, before 8:30pm when they close the road. I think I still have time.
It took me about an hour and a half to get the Ortega Oaks. My backup skills are still in shape as I put the RV rig on the stop in one single maneuver, Even I was impressed. Actually – only I was impressed – there was no one else there. Connected electricity and sewer, didn’t even open or try the valves yet. With the slides still in, I left the RV as is, turned around and drove to town.
My son was not home, he said when I text him, he is with his mom at the public library. No problem – library it is. Readjusting the GPS (my Google navigation on my android) and driving to the library. Full scan of the library room by room yield nothing. Could not find anyone resembling my son or his mother. Texting again – Where are you know? – On the way, he replied. I must have just missed them. Ran out jumped back in the car and headed towards his mom’s house. 4 minutes and I was there. No I did not drive like a maniac, but she lives few blocks down the road. There was no one home.. but as I stopped she just pulled in.
Didn’t have tome to say anything, gave a quick hug to my daughter while my son jumps in, and we were on out way back home. So how was it? I asked. What was said? Well, said my son, we talked a lot, I presented all my points, but there is no decision yet. She is closer to decide and I think she considers it positively. That’s it? I asked. Yep. He replied. That was it.
This is the first time my son is actually participating in setting the RV. I showed him the procedure, and where to look before you open the slides, when he said – good thing you showed me because there are fruits on the floor that would become fruit mush it you would have open the slides. He picked them all – first mistake in setting the inside. Net we found 2 broken cups on the floor. Must have forgotten those somewhere. last – I found my computer mouse in 3 pieces on the floor – the main part, the battery cover and the batteries. Good thing it didn’t break, but I have to exercise more caution next time, and pay attention to details.
After maybe 30 minutes or so, the RV was back again to normal. Rugs, knickknacks, computers and all.How about another movie tonight, my son asked? Hmmm, why not, I thought to myself. – Sure! I said. We looked up the movies in the big Patti movie case, but we could not tell by the name what is each movie. I didn’t see most of them, My son Googled them up, and the decision was made – “The Cleaner” a comedy about a janitor who thought he is a CIA agent.
That was a nice closure for a long day. Tomorrow another 5:30am wake up. Got to go to bed!
~Good night

RV Shabbat in CA

2011-06-04T20:44:00.000-05:00

It has been just couple days since I posted my last blog post, but these last couple days were so full of events, that if I will wait few more days the blog would either be too long, or I will just forget it. Yesterday was actually a great night, and I am pretty proud of myself for what I prepared, so if you want the menu and recipe, it’s right here, and much more.

Him who prepares for Shabbat, Rest in Shabbat. Really?

Friday, June 3rd, 2011 – It is a long day today and I have lots of cooking and shopping to do. 5:30am the annoying alarm is singing again. in 45 minutes I have to be on my way out. Getting dressed, making lunch, coffee, glance at my computer to see if there are any urgencies, and – oops we got to go.

Dropped my son at school, and started to plan my errands: I need to buy a book for him, a Challah bread for Shabbat, and I wanted to have a half-way decent looking candle holders for tonight. Using Google places on my android, I find a Barnes & Nobles, but they open at 10:00am, That is three hours away! There is also Borders in Irvine that opens at 9:00am. OK, I got an anchor – a starting point, now I need to find a grocery store close by. Again, punching some keys and android comes up with trader Joe’s – just by the Irvine Campus. Great!

I got to the store at 7:30am and had 30 minutes to kill. A coffee place close by was a perfect start for the day. Sat down with a hot coffee and a chocolate Croissant. Had to plan the rest of the day, and even found a Judaica store close by.

Trader Joe’s is a special grocery store, small but full of special products, mainly organic. I found Challah bread, Kosher Wine, Persian cucumbers, Organic Chicken and fruits for my dessert. Got everything in a recycled paper bag that proudly carried the store logo, put everything in the truck and continued to my next stop.

A short stop at Borders where I got a book for my son, and couple photography books for myself, and I was ready to head out the my next stop – Golden Dreidel – a Judaica store. This is a beautiful store with anything a Jewish person may need – Tallit (a Jewish prayer Shawl), Kippah (yarmulke), Menorahs, Candle Holders, Challah covers, Mezuzas – and so much more. Many of the items were handmade by Israeli artists and were just amazingly nice. I found a set of wooden candle holders for Shabbat, and a Challah plate – a glass platform to put the Challah bread on, and finaly was on my way back home.

So what’s Cookin’

When I got home it was already about 11:00am, so I did not have much time. I have to start with the items that needs the longest time to cook, I was thinking to myself – and that is my main dish. So here is my first dish (with my modifications)

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

Ingredients:

4 skinless bone-in chicken thighs and 4 Drumsticks (about 5 lbs)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
0.5 Lbs. Tri-Color baby potatoes
About 10 Tri-Color miniature Cauliflower
about 10 miniature onions, they have a name, can’t remember it)
4 cloves of garlic minced, and about the same amount whole.
1/3 Cup honey
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh Italian Parsley
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh Cilantro
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Directions:

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over moderately high heat. Add chicken and cook, turning, until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes.
Place the potatoes, onion, Cauliflower and garlic in a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker; top with chicken.
Stir together honey,lemon juice, cornstarch, rosemary, salt & pepper in a small bowl. Pour over chicken. Cover and cook 6 to 8 hours on low or 3 to 4 hours on high.

Ok, the slow cooker is going now. Rinsing all the dishes and starting me next dish – an Israeli salad. I think I already gave the recipe sometime before, but here it is again:

Israeli Salad

Ingredients

3 cucumbers (I used about 6 Persian cucumbers which are much smaller but tastier)
3 tomatoes (I love those on the vine)
2 large onions
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. Chopped Fresh Cilantro
squeeze of fresh lemon
salt and pepper

Directions

Cut cucumbers tomatoes and onions into small cubes (about 1/4 inch)
Add oil and spices
Mix and serve. It can sit in the refrigerator for up to 2 days before you have to throw it away.

The salad is cooling in the refrigerator, and I am headed to my next dish: Mixed some raw Tahini with water lemon and salt to make a Tahini dip. That would be served tonight with Hummus, pine nuts olive oil and Paprika. I also have the eggplant salad I prepared yesterday, so I am down to my last dish – Fruit salad.

I cut 3 oranges, 2 apples and big pack of strawberries, put in a bowl add topped with orange juice until all the fruits were covered. Added 1/2 cup of sugar, some vanilla extract and 1 tsp. of cinnamon. That’s it – ready to go!

Waiting…

By 2:00pm every thing was done. Time to go and pick up my son from school. I stopped at the grocery store for couple last items and another quick stop at the gas station. When we got back home it was already going on 4:00pm. Don’t eat anything, I told my son – there is a lot of food tonight and I don’t want you to fill up! OK, Aba (That’s how my son calls me – it means dad in Hebrew).

At 5:00pm Patti’s brothers’ Fiancé (let’s just call her Allison) calls. I am back from work, we are on the way, she said. That’s great! I replied. We will be waiting for you hungry – come fast – I joked around.

So I am cleaning up, getting the table ready and my son is playing with the XBOX. 6:30pm. My son is asking – OK, when are they coming? I don’t know, I said. I am hungry too. 7:30, and it is starting to get darker. My son looks at me, and I look at him back. Don’t know. Maybe traffic, I said. Let’s wait a little more…

8:00pm we heard a knock on the door. They are here! They made it! time to eat!!

RV Friday Night

I took the extra folding chairs back from the storage underneath the bed. The table was set and we were anxious to start dinner. I lit the candles and read the Hebrew blessing for the Shabbat, while Allison reads the English translation from the printed papers I prepared earlier for everyone. I cited the blessing for the wine and let everyone drink a sip. Even Patti’s brother and his Fiancé (yes, AKA Allison) who usually do not drink alcohol, tasted the wine. Well appreciated!
My son sang the blessing for the Challah, cut a piece and handed everyone, and the meal started.

I started with an appetizer – an artichoke I steamed with lemon, garlic and bay leafs, served with spinach dip. That was followed by the salads and the main course. I think the food was good, as the plate came back empty, The only left overs we got are some salads - I think it was just too much.

I put up some Shabbat Song by Dudu Fisher (a very famous and talented Jewish Cantor) in the background, and we moved to the living area. After a short while I served the fruit salad and coffee and we just sat and talked. The conversation got somehow to music, and I mentioned that – yeah, we do have a musical instrument in thus house.

I pulled my keyboard from underneath the bed, wiped off the dust and brought it over. I did not touch it for over two years! Allison played some Christian music and sang while her to-be-husband is joining and singing along. I played some songs too, surprisingly I remembered something. Not much but enough to make a recognizable sound.

The conversation went on and on, and it wasn’t before midnight when our guests were too tired and had to drive back home. Might be back tomorrow they said. That would be lovely!

I was too tired to do anything at all, so I just put the keyboard away, handed my son his bed sheets (he sleeps in the hide-a-bed couch we have in the living room) and went to sleep.

Saturday, June 4th, 2011 – Woke up to a big mess. Well I knew that, so I wasn’t surprised. Had my morning coffee outside absorbing the morning sun rays while talking to Patti on the phone, filling her up with the last events. I also let Diva out, fed her and gave her some fresh water.

A disaster that didn’t happen

It is going to be a long cleaning day. I washed all the dishes, got all the furniture away and vacuumed the carpets. Then I mopped the floors, put the dishes away and was going to organize the refrigerator. But wait – there is no light in the refrigerator. My son did notice earlier that the light was flickering, so maybe the bulb just burnt. I looked at the microwave – yes – there is electricity. Closed the refrigerator door, and looked at the panel – it was dead! no lights, no response from any button. Oh My God. I have so much food and its going to go all to the garbage!

My son was in the shower, when I called him: Hurry up, we are packing and going to the shop,. We got to fix the RV. I went outside to the refrigerator panel, maybe I will see something, but nope. I checked electricity in the sockets – and the sockets were live. I called the shop and told the service manager – we are on the way.

Rushing to clean and fold everything I finished the inside (usually Patti is doing it), and was ready to pull the slides in. Opened the panel door, push the slides button, and – nothing. Not a sound. Pushed the other slide buttons – same nothing. I t didn’t make sense. Both the refrigerator and all the slides are out? Must be something else – something in common to both. But what is common to Slide Out motor and a refrigerator? Of course! DC power. I have AC but DC is out…

First thing to check is the main switch for the Battery. It is a red big key type switch used for storage, and disconnects the battery completely. I opened the basement door, and voila – there it it is – the switch was in the ‘off’ position. I must have moved it when I fed Diva earlier this morning. Turned it on, and the refrigerator came back to life, and so is the color to my face. Whew – that was a scary moment…

Called the shop and cancelled my visit. I told him what happened and he laughed. It’s better you found it before you drove all the way down here. the service manager said. You Bet! I replied.

After that incident – not much. Drop my son in town to visit some friends, came back home, and finished my cleaning, another load of laundry – and sat down to write this blog. Only two days and so much to write.

Hope you liked it..

Slowly moving fast

2011-06-03T18:17:00.002-05:00

When looking at our life in perspective, we are going through a huge change. From travel to stationary, from RV to a house, from telecommuting to Office work, from being just a couple to raising a child… really big changes in very short amount of time. but when you actually go through the process, the time seem to slow down as freezing the moments. Sometimes I feel I just want to be over with, and be done.

Electrified Water anyone?

Sunday, May 29th, 2011 – It’s a long weekend. Looking back – we didn’t do much, just took the days slowly. My son playing on the computer and on what used to be my XBOX, and me? I just catching up on the endless house chores. Yesterday – on Saturday we drove to Patti’s Brother who lives about 40 miles north of us. Him and his Fiancé (he just proposed a week ago…) are very much into natural and healthy food. I even got to drink magnetized water and super Spinach that made me even stronger than Popeye.
Discussed some job opportunities, some mystic symbols in modern religion and all the weird stuff you can think of. I enjoy those brain storming talks and discussions, I don’t get to do them so often so it is nice and refreshing every time we meet. After a long visit, we agreed that they will come for Shabbat dinner this coming Friday. Lots of cooking to do ..
Monday, May 30th, 2011 – The day did not start right. going to the washroom, I realized that the black tank is full. Half sleeping I went outside to open the valve and empty the tank. After pulling the valve handle, a gush of stinky material rushed through the hose making all kind of gargling noises, and leave a smell that makes no room for mistake. letting you know what you are dealing with. When the flow finally stopped and probably reduced the RV weight in half, I pushed the valve back in to close it. It went in too easy, and when I released it – woosh it popped back out like a spring. hmmm. pushing again and it pops again. Swish – swosh, Swish Swosh. this valve is playing with me.
Well – it will have to stay open for now.. Will have to call the shop again, they just replaced the valve, and this is the first time I try to use it. They might have installed it wrong. Another unnecessary trip next week.

From Doom to Great

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 – A short week starts today. I am not sure if it is the stress buildup or missing Patti, or maybe everything altogether, but I woke up and saw an email from a client, asking to report my time. It was then when I realized that this month I hardly had any billable time. That worried me and shadowed my day, being concerned about all the upcoming expenses and the move. Later that day I heard one of my favorite county songs – ‘Sounds like life to me’. This was the point I decided that I am not going to be too worried about it, and just concentrate on getting more business. Ironically enough, I had a meeting today with a potential customer in San Diego, a meeting that I believe would bring a new customer in the near future. Just be positive! It will be just fine. That has always been my motto, and I just had to be reminded.
I called the RV shop and set an appointment for next week sometime. At least they remembered me, and willing to fix it free of charge!
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011 – Wow – it is actually June already! This is the last month we are here (I know I said it before, I know) and the last stages of the de-RV-tization process. Tonight I also suppose to meet with my ex, discussing my son’s future.
The schedule is all messed up today, as my son is going for a field trip with school to Knots Berry Farm , and will not be back till the evening. My daughter has a concert and I have to meet my ex at around 5:30pm. wow. busy day! Stopped at the ATM on the way to school to give my son some cash in his pocket so he can have some fun. came back home to do some laundry, cleaning, and some computer work.

Welcome to WA

Patti sent me a message early afternoon – “Call me – it’s urgent”. Patti never uses the word urgent, and I got worried. She wouldn’t answer her phone and looking through my emails I found an email from progressive – “You can view your claim online”. This is not a good sign, I thought. An accident? Something happened to Patti?
After a long wait (of 10 minutes) Patti calls. They broke into her car in the middle of the day in the parking lot of her office. they broke the window for a stupid GPS. The police came right away, and Progressive gave a wonderful service, but I got to think – where are we moving to? I asked Patti, and she said – it is probably a bad luck. It never happened here before and this is considered a very safe area. I don’t know, if it is one in a million why can’t it be a lottery ticket for a change?

The Meeting

Later in the afternoon I drove back to town for ‘the’ meeting. I really did not have too many hopes from that meeting so I felt I don’t have much to lose. My ex was not surprised, and actually did not say no. We discussed the future of my son, the school, the father figure in his life, and the bottom line was – “I will think about it”. Now the firs reaction could be – hey! not too bad… at least it’s not a no… but knowing my ex, that could go both ways. It could be a honest request for some time to think about it, but it could also be a way to earn some time until I have to leave town, dragging the answer, and after I go just drop it.
Knowing that my ex actually knew what I was going to talk about, she had enough time to be prepared for the concept, and learning from past experience, I am not so sure how it will turn out, but I still hope for the good. With all these change I need lots and lots of patience.
I stopped by my daughter’s school to see her play and rushed to pick up my son and drive back home. He was exhausted but full of experiences about this roller coaster and that roller coaster, and couldn’t stop describing how fun it was. The scarier the better! Didn’t take too long before he fell asleep.
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 – Life are back to the temporary normal. The daily routine of waking up, making lunch, driving to school, stopping at the grocery store, driving back home, another couple loads of laundry, taking care of Diva, and finally sitting to work for couple hours. Then driving again to school, pick up my son and coming back home. Helping a little with homework, working a little more, cooking dinner, cleaning up… ufff
Patti’s car is back to normal. They actually came to her and fixed the car at her office. That is a great service I must say. We don’t have much bad to say about progressive. We are very happy with them so far. In the meantime Patti has already moved in to the new house and bought the necessities to start living. Some groceries, some cleaning supplies, an air mattress… and a TV. Necessities (Easy to say for someone who rarely watch TV, huh?)
I found some time finally to sit down and write the blog, but I don’t have pictures… I will look for something, and try to publish it tonight or tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow is Friday and Patti’s brother and his Fiancé are coming over for Shabbat dinner. What’s on the menu? Can’t tell, They are reading my blog too… I will tell you next post.
So what’s for next week? I hope to get some progress with my ex wife regarding my son. I also hope to schedule movers to move all our stuff from the storage units in MN to WA. After 2 years who knows what condition are those boxes. On Monday they are going to install fast Internet and TV in the WA house, and… whatever comes – comes. Will see.

We got a House

2011-05-28T00:37:00.000-05:00

After a short house hunt, Patti finally found a house for us. She looked at many houses, some too far, some too expensive, and some too fancy for us. This one looks like just what we needed, although I haven’t seen it myself yet. So slowly things are moving on.

The Hunt

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 – The house rental market is very active in the WA area., Houses are added and rented all the time, and you need to be constantly online to find and get the house you want. Our main sources are Trulia, Craig List and Zest, and the process is tedious. Patti or I are finding the houses and sending the links to each other. I try to keep a Google map updated with all the options and the details too. Then we comment on the houses and evaluate them. One is too far, and another is too much in the city. Another one was in a bad school area… When we find a house we think could work for us, we try to call and set an appointment. In Craig list many times they don’t even leave a phone, so you have to send an email and wait.

The Catch

So today, Patti scheduled a house showing after work. She meets with the owner at the house and while still there she calls me – We got a place! she said. Great – I said, what is it? Oh, you will like it. I already gave her the check! She is Jewish, and she also have a Pom, we became friends… Congratulation to us, I said.

The house sits on 3/4 acre lot, bordering with public land, so no neighbors from the back. There is ample parking for the RV, the car the boat and the guests. Wrap around deck, a finished basement, doesn’t sound too bad.

At the Concert

Thursday, May 26th, 2011 – Today my son had a concert at school. The original plan was to meet with his mom before the concert, and regroup at the school. I asked my son to go to a friend’s house until the concert so I can meet with his mom, and so he arranged. I moved some work meeting planned for the day, and just before I was ready to drive and meet his mom (yeah – My Ex), she calls and cancels. Why ain’t I surprised? I think it is very disrespectful to other people’s time, but oh well. That’s is just another reason why we are not together, right? Being used to ever changing plans – I make some phone calls, and drive to meet my son at the mall. Quick fast food dinner, and going to the concert. Well, this is not Simon and Garfunkel Live in Central Park, but it was nice to see my sons plays the sax in a band, and he actually did pretty good.

Closing another week

Friday, May 27th, 2011 – So here comes Friday again. Although Patti is not with us, I decided to keep the tradition of Shabbat dinner, so I am trying to do my best. We stopped at the grocery store on the way from school and got some groceries.

So here is what I did:

On a big frying pan I fried some onions and mushrooms. I cut three big chicken breast to squares about 2” in size (Yes – I pounded it first), and added it to the pan. I also chopped around 10 garlic cloves and added them as well. Added some paprika, salt and pepper and little bit of yellow curry. Let it cook for a while but before it was ready I added 1.5 cups of red wine, reduced to low heat and let it simmer.

In an oven pan I cut potatoes, carrots, yams, onions and acorn squash into big pieces. Added some garlic oil, Soy sauce fresh cilantro, honey and some salt. Preheated the over to 400, and put the pan in the oven. This is going to sit there around 90 minutes so except from mixing it from time to time, this dish is on its way.

Last, I threw some corn on the cob into some boiling water and let that cook.

I covered the chicken and stir it every few minutes. Just before it was ready, I added some parmesan cheese, and corn starch (not too much – just to give it some volume).

I was proud of myself – pretty nifty huh?

My son is not picky at all, when it comes to food, and appreciates good taste, so that helps.

We actually found real challah bread this time, so we did the blessing and all the 9 yards. That was nice. The only thing that is missing here now is Patti. Still about 4 weeks to go.

Slowly but surely we are stepping towards de-RV-tization. We already have a house. Tomorrow Patti is going to buy some essentials and move in. She did mention that the handyman still comes to make some fixes. His name is Bruce, and he is good lookin’ she said

Hope to meet finally with my son’s mom next week some time, and get that taken care of.

Oh and I forgot to mention – most of the pictures in this post are from today. I realized I don’t have photos to show, so I took my camera (the old one. The new one is in repair, they want $250 for this stupid plastic door, imagine that!!) and captures some pictures around the RV.

Countdown begun

2011-05-23T00:30:00.000-05:00

Countdown for what? Great Question. I think the countdown to life, to normal life. Our life are now in the air, not here and not there. That is how we crossed from the ‘other’[ side to RV Life, and that is how we are crossing back. But how is it a countdown? In a countdown you start from a number and actually counting down. But we? we don’t know when this will end, so we don’t have a starting point to count down from. Better pick a high number.

The Separation

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 – It was early morning when the shuttle to the airport called my cell waiting by the hotel entrance. I found this shuttle on the internet for $28 from the hotel to the airport, saving Patti a long commute in heavy Seattle morning traffic.I almost missed the shuttle, can’t end the Good-Bye. We are not going to see each other now for 6 weeks. This is a LOT for us, used to be together 24/7/365.

The driver is a retired air force engineer who knows a lot about a lot. He did not stop talking to his audience – three half sleeping passengers, all the way to the airport, and we just sat there and nodded our heads uh huh. Among all the other things he talked about – he mentioned some propane addition to a diesel truck that according to him will double the power and cut in half gas consumption. I think he mention mds.com but I never even bother to check.

It was a long day that started at 3:00am and ended late at night. I arrived Orange County airport around 1:30pm. I picked up a rental car and drove to the other side of the Ortega highway over the mountain to get my truck (still in the shop – remember?). The dealership paid for the rental, but with the money I left there – I should be super VIP… The truck was ready for me, clean and shiny. Drove back again to the other side to pick up my son. From there, we stopped at the mall for some fast food, and went to see award ceremony at my daughter’s school. She received an excellence award for her math studies. Great Job!

It was already after 7:00pm at that time, when we started to head back home to the RV. Yes it is still home for me. I have no other place to call home yet. Exhausted I fell asleep just to wake up the next morning back to the old routine of my son’s school.

First Weekend Alone

Friday, My 20th, 2011 – Yesterday passed by pretty fast. I dropped my son at school in the morning, drove to the boarding kennel and picked up Diva. From there, stopped at the grocery store and drove back home. I am so backed up with work that I don’t know how to catch up. With that – I know that Patti was left alone, and has to actually go to work every day, and she is having hard time looking for a house. So between work, cooking, taking my son to school taking care of Diva, cleaning the RV, laundry, blah blah blah… I had to find some time to look for a house too.But about this – in a little bit.

Friday is here, and I don’t know where to get Challah for Shabbat, or even how to cook a nice meal. I know the basics, but I did not cook for ions! So after I dropped my son, I stopped at the grocery store (Pavilions) looking for Challah. I settled for Italian bread. Oh well. I sat and worked all morning, until I had to go and pick up my son from school. When we came back I tried to make some dinner. I ended up frying Spanish rice with garlic and Cabbage Cutting chicken breast marinated with Paprika, garlic soy and honey. I cut some fresh vegetables, and I think overall I did fine. Nothing to compare to Patti’s fabulous dinners, but enough to bless the wine and the bread. I did not have Patti here to light the candles for us… and I already miss her!

Shortly after dinner I simply fell to bed. No alarm tomorrow, Yeah!!

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 – Weekend is almost over. I am tired again and going to head to bed shortly, Tomorrow is an early morning again 5:30am. Saturday I worked pretty much all day, and looked for houses.

House Hunting

The house on the Island turned out to be a disappointment. The layout of the house was very awkward for us, and everybody around us is warning about the Ferry traffic. So this idea fell. Patti was supposed to meet a realtor on Saturday, but he called and said that both houses he wanted to show are already under contract. One house left to see – and this is a nice property over 5.5 acres 5 minutes away from Patti’s office. The views from the house are magnificent – overlooking the ocean and the islands. Sounds very promising.

Today, Patti met the realtor at the house. It was noon when she met her, and just after 1:00pm I am getting a Skype from Patti. I saw the house, she said. There are 2 drawbacks though. First, the landlord has a relative who lives in the guest unit that is attached to the house, and takes care of the lawn… I did not even want to hear the second one. We are looking for 5.5 acres secluded private property, to have a stranger that lives with us on the same property? That is so irritating! What do they think? Why didn’t they disclose it earlier? That was a huge disappointment for me. I don’t want to live with someone under my nose on a huge property. I can rent an apartment if I want neighbors. It is cheaper!

So back to searching. The house on the horizon now, is a nice property about 10 miles away from Patti’s office on about an acre. The problem is that it is a little too pricey, so we will have to see is they will be willing to go down.

Late afternoon I took a short hike with my son. I have to move around! So I took the 3 mile hike right across the street, and actually found 2 Geocaches on the way. It was my son who found the first one. I did the second… All the pictures in this blog are actually from today’s hike. Which remind me – on the way I broke my camera too. Yes the new one. The memory card compartment door flipped open and broke. I will take it with me tomorrow, see if it could be fixed.

Came back home. cooked a fast dinner (spaghetti with meatballs and red sauce that Patti left for us in the freezer) sat to write this blog, and I am just about ready to go to bed.

And oh – one last thing, Patti does not feel so well this weekend. She has high fever and upset stomach. But you know Patti (well, I do) she will go to work as long as she breathes. extremely loyal and dedicated person. I knew who to choose. I hope she feels better.

So what about this coming week? I plan to get a hold of my ex-wife and try to approach her with the idea of having my son move in with me. See how she reacts. I hope and pray it will go smooth.

So if you came so far with us – stay tuned. It is never boring here (although sometimes it seems so).

Stationization

2011-05-16T17:23:00.000-05:00

One more week behind. Today is Patti’s first day at work (Good Luck Patti), and the second day in WA. Already looking for a house. Events are moving fast, so fast that sometimes it is hard to notice. With all the changes that are coming on our way we start feeling some bumps too, trying to smooth it up with air ride. Hope nothing breaks on the way.

Monday, May 16th, 2011 – This week just flew by. I can’t believe it is Monday again… Patti just went today to her first at work, but wait – I am jumping too fast.

Remember last week, we took the truck to the dealership, and ended up with a new car? Well, the truck is still there waiting for some parts, and of course they found some additional stuff in it, god know what it is, but I know how much… Ouch.. The week flew by, but not without bumps. I think this is the hardest part of all. Adjusting to all those changes does take a toll, and this is not a nice part in the process, but I guess it is a part we have to go through, and although I know eventually we will be fine – it is not pleasant time sometime. As Patti says – it is a wishful thinking to expect so many things to change and go just smooth.

North Along West

I was supposed to be in Florida in a business trip this weekend, but a last minute cancellation changed my plans again (yeah I know). So instead of flying to FL, I decided to join Patti to the other corner of our country. On Friday morning I dropped my son at school before our trip, picked up Patti and started our journey. We drove over 700 miles on Friday mostly on hwy 5, which was pretty boring until we approached North California. The views of the mountains rivers and lakes are simply breathtaking, even if you just drive on the interstate. We could not help it, and stopped couple times to take a picture or two. I wish I had my big camera with me, but sometimes all you got is your phone… (See the top picture)

We stopped just north of Ashland, OR for the night. Not sure what it is in Ashland but the prices there are outrageous! $80/night for a no-stars roadside inn. We had to drive 30 miles north to find $55 Days Inn…

Houses for Rent

Saturday drive was very nice – driving through the natural beauty of OR and WA, and we arrived early afternoon to our hotel. We had already some properties we found online, so we went to see those houses before the end of the day. Sunday was just about the same routine – we looked for more rental properties and drove around. Actually 3 properties made the cut so far – one is on a narrow strip of land, just short of an acre, on a lake (with a private dock), the other one is a meticulous house and yard on 0.75 acre at the perimeter of town, and the last one was a real country setting on an island, sitting on 9 acres of mature forest.

The problem is this – the meticulous house is on the higher range of our budget and probably not available (contract pending). The lake house – is in a ‘so so’ school district, and the one on the island has a transportation problem, as the only way to get in and out of the island is by Ferry, which could be a problem in rush hour.

So we might still go back to the drawing board and continue looking around.

I took Patti this morning to the office. She was a little nervous, but excited to start her new job. It has been a while since Patti dressed up and went to work (well, for a week there in KS, was actually the last time). Shortly Patti will be back and I am anxious to know how was her day, but that will probably be in the next post..

Believe it or now (This is aimed to myself), things are actually moving and changing!

By tomorrow I hope to find the house of choice, in between my work that is piling up. Wednesday I will fly back to CA, hopefully get my truck back and wait impatiently to join Patti back here in WA, after school is over.

How was Patti’s first day? Did we find our dream house? How was the trip back to CA? All in the next post of… The TraveLiving Journey!

Settle Process Begun

2011-05-09T11:51:00.000-05:00

Time flies by, day by day and yet another week is behind us. The process of moving back to the ‘other’ side seems closer than ever. As a matter of fact, I think we have already started it. Many of our friends are planning to become Full Time RVers, and are in some stage of the process of preparing for the big day. Funny, as we are planning the cross back.

Thursday, May 5th, 2011 – This week moved fast. I don’t even know why… I just woke up, drove, slept, worked, looked at the calendar, and the week was gone. It was so fast I didn’t even had a chance to stop and look around, take a breath or plan. The tense we had earlier this week was replaced by happier and brighter days and I hope it would stay that way.

Patti is getting nervous a little as her first day at work is getting closer. This W/E she is going to WA while I fly to FL to the SAP user Conference for few days. My son will be with his mom for those few days until I come back, and start counting the days he finishes school and I can join Patti. It is not going to be easy on us, starting so many new things without being beside each other. In this 6 weeks time Patti will have to find a new house for us, arrange the move of what’s left from our household from MN to WA and start the WA life all by herself. This is not going to be easy at all, not because she is not capable of doing it, but because we are so used doing everything together. We are also supporting and complementing each other in so many different ways and in time that so many things are evolving – we need each other, for emotional support if nothing else.

From developing new daily routines to raising a child to managing household – it is all coming together at the same time. I wish I could be beside Patti so we could support each other and be part of the change with her by my side.

Friday, May 6th, 2011 – Weekend is here. It is mother’s day W/E but we don’t have anything special planned. Patti is preparing for the last Shabbat we are doing together before she leaves. Fresh Challah bread in the over, Patti;s magical mashed potatoes, and baked chicken. Patti lights the candles and blesses our house, and after a short prayer for the Shabbat we have our precious time together. These are the moments of family magic. Precious! After dinner we sat together and watched couple movies (I love comedies, comedies and some time I watch comedies as well. Hey, if you want to watch Drama – you don’t need movies for that).

Saturday, May 6th, 2011 – Yesterday morning we had an appointment at the car dealership to get the truck brakes serviced. They make some grinding noise and probably needs to be replaced. We drove down to the dealership in Elsinore Lake and dropped the truck. When they took the wheels out, it turned out that the whole rotors need to be replaced, and that is going to take some time (and probably some money too). While waiting we took a walk outside and looked around. Patti noticed a nice car she liked in the used car lot. Well – we are going to have to buy a new car sooner or later so that Patti can drive to work, so might as well… I came back to the waiting area and did some research on similar cars on the internet. (We had our laptops with us, and they have free WiFi). It looked like the price they were asking was a little too high, so I dropped the idea. A little later we went out again, and walked by the car. Just to get a closer look, thinking we may buy this car somewhere else later. A salesman came over (of course) and asked if we liked the car. I said – It is a nice car, but $5,000 too high! So, without thinking twice the guy said – if I will take the price down $5,000 will you get it? Yes, I said.

I will make a long story short – Patti got a new car! This is the first major move we made towards settling down. So Patti will not fly, but drive her new shiny car (well, it is used, but still shiny) to WA instead.

Sunday, May 7th, 2011 – I was planning on sleeping in today. As you already know I have early mornings during the week now, so the W/E nights are those I am letting myself enjoy those extra morning hours under the blanket. 8:00am – the phone rang. My first thought was – oh no… Here goes my day, but – it turns out it was Patti’s brother Girlfriend. They want to come and visit us today! This is perfect timing because this is the last W/E Patti is here, and we love her brother and his girlfriend. They also have Moe (Out Boxer we gave them remember?) so he is coming too!

Harvey is a very smart man, and very talented computer guru himself, so whenever he comes over – we have plenty of subjects to talk about. But that is not all – Harvey and Allison are planning to go full timing, and they are very serious about it, so we got a chance to share all what we have leaned in the last two years about buying and owning an RV, and about the Full Time life style. As we were giving them the tour and talking about how it is to live on wheels, we realized how passionate we are about our life and how much we enjoy it. So here is another proof that we really love our life, and we will hit the road again – as soon as we can.

So there – if you are not sure about this life style, let me tell you – it is the best thing you can do. If you love exploring, love nature and adventure, you would love this life style. If you plan just being in one place or two – get a house.

So what’s next? This week will be the last week in the current settings. Things will start changing this W/E when Patti leaves, and we will just have to wait and see how it goes. we would love it if you stayed and follow us too.

Am I a Full Timer

2011-05-01T20:44:00.001-05:00

Technically, we live in an RV, so we could say we are still full time RVing, but are we? What makes us RVers and not just ‘living in a mobile home’? I am not 100% sure I know the answer, and maybe it is just a stage in the process of resuming different ‘normal’ life, at least for a while.

Friday, April 29th, 2011 – Another month is ending, and spring is in the air. This is the time when we were supposed to leave CA and start our AK journey, the trip I was waiting for so much. But we are not. We are still here in CA, and it looks like I am going to be here until school is over for the year, sometime at the end of June.

In the meantime, I wake up every morning at 5:30am or so, getting ready to get my son to school. After I drop him at school I am usually waiting at a local Starbucks and work there.I pick up my son and come back home at around 3:00pm. The rest of the day I continue to work, until bed time.

My time with Patti is limited before she starts her new job in WA – just two weeks before she lives and I have to stay here for over a month by myself. (Well, with my son, but without a partner).

Weekend got a whole new meaning now – the w/e nights are the sleep-in nights that I miss and not having to drive around so much away from home most of the day. Even when this temporary period will be over – I am going to be by myself most of the day, while Patti is at work and my son at school.

So when I come to think about it – we are no longer full timing… We are back to normal (and somewhat boring I must say) way of life, except we are still living an an RV, until we will find a house in WA. Those big changes sure bring some frustrations and tense home, and we try to learn to deal with them one day at the time, hour by hour, minute by minute.

Does it worth it? I sure hope so… but days will tell. I am very happy for Patti that she got a new job. I think she will be much happier. I am also very excited to have the opportunity to raise my son, and be part of his life.

Still many more changes are coming in the next couple months – the new job starts, the move to WA and the summer plans. I might have to change the title of the blog although the little words bellow did not change that much….
”Unexpected events in our personal life, at work and in the economy started a sequence of events that ended up with us becoming a 'Full-Time RVers', and Go back to Normal again.

I can tell you this – After experiencing both types of life styles– I can assure you that the dream of living on the road – is as fulfilling and exciting as it sounds. Still Rver at heart, and I know I will go back to RVing sooner or later (You are probably going to hear that a lot from me)

So keep following us, as we are exploring life with and without the RV. making to switch back and forth.

No pictures this post – we actually did not go anywhere…busy busy busy. Hope to have a more exciting post next time!

And it keeps coming

2011-04-25T00:16:00.001-05:00

Life events are falling our way all the time, and things are changing. It seem that everything falls into place, we just need to adopt adjust and embrace. Like always – we try to do it with a smile and with open mind. So what’s now?

Interesting Weekend

T.G.I.F

Friday, April 22nd, 2011 – Since we started preparing Shabbat Dinners, I am always excited and looking forward for Friday Night. Sit together all the family, Patti lights the candles and blesses our house, there is always good smell of the delicious dishes Patti makes, and a fresh Challah on the table. Everyday Patti makes meals – some of them are just amazing, but always there is something special about the Friday Dinner. This Friday I will make “Pigs in the Blanket”, Patti announced – and so she did. Delicious Cabbage leaves rolled and filled with meat and spices, in a tangy sweet red sauce. After a good meal, we are always so full, that there is nothing else we can do but sit down and relax. My son who came back ‘home’ since the Sedder adopted a gaming position on the couch, Patti is on the recliner, and I am on my office chair. Precious family time. Sometime we will watch a movie together, or watch my son plays one of his games on the XBOX (yes – he claimed ownership on this device, as you can imagine).

Paradise in my back yard

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011 – Patti still does not feel 100% yet as she is going through the flare, but she is getting better. Looks like the flare is going away, although all night she had an unexplained high fever. We wanted to go for a hike today, but thought it would be better to let Patti rest, so it was only my son and I.

One of the places I had in mind was actually across the street from the campground, right at the Candy Store on Ortega Highway. There is a sign for couple of trailheads – San Juan Loop and Bear Canyon trail, so we did not even use the truck today. We simply crossed the street and followed the trail signs, We were surprised to find a beautiful waterfall and a nice river along the 2.5 mile trail.Amazing what you can find just few steps away from home.

Surprise Surprise

So how do you end a peaceful Saturday and starts a wonderful Sunday? Let me give you a hint… Remember some time ago I mentioned that we have contacted an old time colleague and a friend from WA? Remember that there a was a chance that Patti will get a full time job? Well you must already figured it out…
We almost lost any hope with this job opportunity, but Patti got a phone call today. Yes – she got the job. What is that mean? I am not sure yet. It means that we are moving to WA, and will probably rent a house there. We will try to get my ex-wife agree and let my son come and live with us. Still many things to figure out but it is not bad after all. If we need to settle down and stay some place for my son, we might as well have a full time job. At least one of us. And what is better than a job with someone you already know, in a job that fits your expertise, and with a boss that supports telecommuting…
So like always – we will see how it goes, and take it as it comes. and it is all good.

Easter Sunday

Patti feels much better today. That is a good start for today and actually a great start for any day!
I got some Easter Candy and groceries and Patti is making a nice dinner for us. Feels great to have a holiday spirit at home, especially when my son with us, and we are not alone. It brings back the feeling of a family
So what’s on the menu today? Devilled Eggs, Cornish Hens with stuffing, mashed potatoes, Squash, and for dessert – bi-color chocolate mouse with strawberries.
So… In the last month we had so much happenings, and the last three days are just a logical additions – Time is losing its meaning.. Feels like a year! We are still Full Timers, and still live in our RV, although we know things will change soon. One thing we are very confident – we love RVing, and no matter what happens – we would love to continue what we have started.
So keep on following us as our life are changing shape and form. Isn’t it what makes life interesting?

Life has a Plan of its own

2011-04-21T14:05:00.001-05:00

When you plan not to plan, everything goes by the plan. We try to embrace life as it comes and as it flows, but even with this approach, unexpected life changing events are happening to us all the time.

Practical Move

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 - It was Last Wednesday when I received a phone call from my son – “Can you come and pick me up?” he asked. “Sure, I said, I am on the way! That was the beginning of the move.
My son and I were always in contact, but not as near as I wanted it to be. His mom and I went through a bitter divorce, and it was not easy to keep in touch., as I had always the feeling that the kids are detached and repressed. This time around it was very different. My son opened up to me and we got closer. Much closer.
So since last Wednesday he is with me here, in the RV. This is a big change for all of us. I wake up at 5:30 every morning (yes I said five thirty) preparing lunch and drive my son to school – 30 minutes away. I then go to Starbucks and work from there until 2:00pm when I pick him up and drive back home. But this is just one example – there are so many things that change when another person comes to live with you, especially in a very limited space like an RV. Overall – I am extremely happy to be with my son, but this is not a long term solution. Something will have to change.
I have no idea at this moment where this leads. I don’t think that his mom will let him live with me, even though it might be his choice and the best thing for him.
Our planned trip to AK is now not a for-sure thing anymore. We might do it with my son during his summer break, or might not do it at all. It is possible that he may change his mind, and we will go as planned after all. And after that – this is one big question mark at the moment. The best that could happen is that my son will move in with me and his mother will let me have custody and move to a different state. But this is a wishful thinking. Keep on dreaming Motty…

Busy busy busy

Projects are picking up again, but my time is much more limited, and with the early mornings and late nights I have hard time staying awake, in focus and productive. Patti did not feel good at all last week. She went through a bad flair that just now started to fade away, but this tied her up to the point she could hardly move. The hike we planned for the W/E was cancelled and we pretty much stayed home.
The stress level started picking up on Tuesday. The original plan was to drive all three of us in the morning, let Patti work in the city while I go to the Dr. (Physical) and go from there to the Sedder, but since Patti did not feel so well, plans were changed. I drop my son at school in the morning went to my appointment and picked him up just to drive back, get dressed real fast and drive all the way back again to Aliso Viejo, where the Passover Dinner (The Sedder) was (about it in a sec).
Then on Wednesday I woke up again very early, drove to school and back, got the RV ready to move and drove with the RV to the shop. Drop the RV, drop Diva (our Pom) at the groomer, found a place for Patti to work (A nice coffee shop with Internet) and drove all the way to pick up my son (over an hour away). When I got there, I found out that his mom convinced him to stay for the night at home, so again – driving all the way back by myself to the shop, hooking up the RV and driving back to the campground.
While all this is happening – I had to deal with urgent issues at work, paying and handling the RV and answering endless number of phones in between. Very stressful day…
So how was the sedder? This is a nice reform congregation (Beth El) in Aliso Viejo, CA. We were surprised to find out that the both the Rabbi and the Cantor were female. Nothing is wrong with that (IMHO) but this is the first time for me to see that. The evening itself was interesting, we met some locals and had a great evening. Patti and my son enjoyed it too, although he would not admit to it. Did I say he is 13?
Earlier that day, at the Dr office, I was informed that I have to change my life style. With high blood pressure and being overweight – this is not a good thing. Not that I did not know that, but this was a reminder. So there… I need to exercise more. I am not sure if I will give up some of my afternoon nap time, my 4 O’Clock tea time, or my noon siesta…

Looking forward

As much as I try to restrain my eyes, the fog is just too thick. No idea, not even a clue as to what we are going to do in the next few months. It ranges from giving up RVing, settling down somewhere and raising my son, all the way to simply continuing what we have been doing.
I think the key word and our motto is – embrace life!

Spring has come, Passover is approaching

2011-04-11T23:30:00.000-05:00

This weekend has passed too fast. After spending the week with my son I had both kids with me for the whole weekend. We decided to repeat the fun we had on the lake and spend yet another day on the water.

Friday, April 8, 2011 – My daughter decided she would like to join us for the weekend. That is a refreshing change – picked her up and came back home for dinner.
Patti has been working all day to create a wonderful Shabbat dinner. She becomes very proficient in making the Challah bread, and tonight she actually made an old fashion style Challah from six strands. This is the best one she made ever! Moist, soft, sweet – perfect!
On the menu we also had ground turkey balls in home made BBQ sauce (oh this tangy sweet sauce taste so good with the Challah), mashed potatoes and onion jalapeno quiche. The wonders that Patti can make from basic ingredients are amazing!
The kids loved the food and participated in the dinner. My daughter read the blessing for the day in both Hebrew and English while my son blessed the bread and the wine. That made me so happy and proud!
Sunday, April 11th 2011 – Just skipped Saturday. We took the day slow, and relaxed around the RV. watching movies playing games and surfing the internet.
We decided to go today the Lake Elsinore again, even though it was a little colder and cloudy. I took my camera with me - practicing in shooting birds again. I am getting more and more used to my new camera which is much bigger than the old one. When I take picture with my older camera it almost feels like a toy in my hands compare to this newer one.

Both kids drove the boat and chased birds while I am trying to get some nice shots with the right light, angel and position. Not so easy, but I think I did not too bad. A faster lens could help here, but that is something I will get after my next big project.

For now I am happy with my new body, and still learning and getting used to it.

Busy week is coming

Next week is going to be busy. The A/C unit is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, so we may have our RV fixed. I also plan to take care of my annual physical check while here, and visit the dentist, see if he has anything to say.
I also have couple conference call already planned in weird hours. but more important than anything – Passover dinner is on Monday night. We plan on joining a local congregation like we did last year, so I need to call tomorrow and find a place to go. I hope my some will be able to join us this year.
We also close one full month here in Lake Elsinore. We plan to stay here until the end of the month, and start our journey north along the pacific coast.
Have a great week! and check on us again. Exciting days are coming!

The Best Kept Secret in SoCal

2011-04-07T03:44:00.001-05:00

…shortly after we started our drive the houses and electric wires disappeared, leaving behind any sign of civilization. The narrow single lane road winded into the mountain forest exposing endless views of valleys, stream and pure nature beauty...
When reading this description many places may come to mind, but not crowded Southern California. We were surprised too.

A week with my son

Thursday, April 7th, 2011 – Spring break is on! – that means the kids are out of school for the whole week. My son already told me he want to spent every minute he can with me. My daughter, you know…
Drove on Friday evening and picked up my son and since then we are together. I just don’t know how to express it, but we are getting closer and closer, and creating a very unique experience together. This is a great feeling.
On Sunday we spent some time at the Game Stop and he got some new games for the XBOX and his computer. That keeps him busy (and happy) when I need to work.

A day on Lake Elsinore

On Monday we decided to spend the day on the lake. We drove down the hill to Lake Elsinore got a fishing pole, and rented a pontoon for the day. We had a blast! Patti showed him all the fishermen ties, and how to bait and I showed him how to run the boat. I think we spent at least 5 hours on the lake laughing swimming fishing and enjoying the views around us.

The secret

Tuesday flew by. After a day off I had to catch up with some work related issues. On Wednesday we planned to go hiking. I also got a phone call from Oren – a customer of mine (yes – the one from AZ). He is in Irvine and arrived a day early for a training, so we decided to spend the day together.
Our first choice was a bigger state park – Limestone Canyon, just East of Irvine. We drove there and found nothing but farms and security cars who told us to go away. Our second choice was a smaller park south of Mission Viejo, named Thomas Reilly Wilderness park. When we arrived we found a small property surrounded by houses with nothing interesting to explore.
So when plan A and Plan B are depleted – you got to find plan C.
I remembered that the guy who drove me from the GMC Service facility told me about some nice falls around the area – Teneja falls. The road to the falls starts on Hwy 74 – Ortega Highway, where our campground is. When we took that turn we saw some houses and power lines around us, and I was thinking – no matter where you are, in Southern California (SoCal in short) you will always see some sign of civilization. but I was wrong!
just 5 minutes later the road became a narrow gravel road, the houses disappeared even on the adjacent mountains, and so as the power lines structures or anything that resembles human intervention. The only sign that people were here was the road we drove on.
The road was narrow and curvy, two cars would not fit on it and there was no place to turn. One side is the mountain up, and the other side is a cliff down. but for the whole time we drove, over 30 minutes, we did not see any car in either direction. All the other trails we looked at were full, but this place was just empty!
At some point we started hesitating if we are on the right way, but eventually we arrived to the parking lot that had a small sign that said Teneja Falls.
We parked the car, put the hiking gear on – vest, hat, camera and walking stick and all four of us started our hike on the trail – Oren, My son, Patti and I. After a short distance the trail crossed the river and started climbing up towards the falls. The hike was not too long but the falls were magnificent. This time – no writings on the rocks (Almost.. There were some, but not near as bad). The fall itself was in three separate levels with pool at the foot of each stage. It was just us and the nature and it was so peaceful and nice.
It was unbelievable that we could find such a place in this area, and it was a great ending to a clumsy start. We drive back home, and Patti prepared for us a wonderful dinner – Chicken roulade, and chocolate soufflé for dessert. Can you ask for more?

Sun of a Beach

2011-04-01T14:24:00.001-05:00

What does the Pacific Coast has to offer, and no other place does? Of course –The pacific Coast! with the warming sun rays of spring, and the beautiful sandy beaches you just can’t get enough, or maybe you can? or even more than enough? find out!

Friday, April 1st – Fool’s Day, 2011 – A whole week just flew by so fast. Didn’t even noticed it was here. Wow how time flies. The temperature started climbing and stayed in the 80’s almost the whole week. And us? hmmm… didn’t do much most of the week. On Monday I tied loose ends from the projects I recently finished. Little things here and there. I also got irritated by a small bird that fell in love with our unit, sitting on the bike and flying into our window non-stop every 20 seconds. The first 50 times it looks cute, but after 378 times, it is starting to get old, noisy and annoying. The bird BTW did not stop to this day. no matter what we do. We can make it go for 10 minutes but the bird comes right back.
Tuesday was an errands day. Drove to Wal-Mart, stopped again at the bank and back home. Those trips are so time consuming that it is unbelievable, took me almost 5 hours just for those two places. I ate a Pita while I was out but Patti already cooked a great dinner for me. By the time I called and asked her not to cook – it was too late. I am going to have a drunken chicken for lunch tomorrow!

Phone with Roots.

Since I don’t have too much pressure from work right now, I decided to do something I wanted to do for some time – Root My Android. This is not a simple task, and pretty much you need to start over with your phone, so I waited to the right time. In simple words to ‘root’ the phone means to gain full control over it, and access all the areas of the operating system, including those that were blocked by your carrier. You can then install any software you want, upgrade or disable anything you want and bypass any restriction – like the use of Skype only over WiFi – what a stupid concept…
I started around 7:00pm and by 2:00am I crawled to bed, The phone was finally rooted, but naked with no software installed on it. That would be the start of a 3 days marathon to reinstall everything to the state it was before, with all the improvements that I wanted to achieve. Yeah – my Android is LOADED.

California Beatches

I seem like I have a typo in the title, but I was not sure which word will describe better this story, so maybe the combination would server the best… But let me start from the beginning. On Thursday the forecast was 86 degrees here in So Cal. that was a perfect opportunity to go and spend the day on the beach. We chose the closest beach to us – Capistrano beach by Dana Point, and drove down the hill to the ocean. The beach was not too crowded and we found a nice spot to spread our towels and enjoy the sun. We took a walk along the water line to take some pictures and enjoy the coldness of the ocean water in our feet. At some point, a lady got up and ran towards me as if something happen and she needs some help. Without any apology or explanation she approached me and said – “I hope you are not taking picture of those kids because that is not OK with me.” I was thinking – which star did you fall from, weird lady, and why are you even talking to me? I was just going to say - I will take any picture I want and if you want to hide your kids, leave them at home.
Patti, who was just beside me told her – “No, don’t worry, he is just taking pictures of me”. And we continued our walk. This incident bothered me. How rude? She didn’t even apologize, she acted is if she owns the beach and I am some criminal sex offender who just ran out of jail…

As long as I am here in the US (that is over 15 years), I can’t recall a stranger comes to me and talks like that. Is it a different mentality? a whole different nation? Where am I? What does she think? Is it the beach of the bitch? or maybe she is just the bitch of the beach…
I couldn’t help it. I had to go back. I told Patti – Just wait here a sec, I got to go back there. I turned around, got very close to this lady and took a picture of her. She didn’t even say a word this time. She knew I was pissed, and she probably crossed some lines. That was the smartest move she did. I turned back and continued our great time on the beach.

When not enough is Too much

Patti loves the ocean. At the whole time she had a smile from ear to ear. Didn’t want to leave. I knew that too much sun is not good for her, nor only because of her Lupus, but also because of her sensitive skin. After 3 hours in the sun I told Patti we got to go.

We stopped and had a great dinner at the Dana Point Harbor. Patti is usually very criticizing on what she eats and since she cooks so well, she does not compromise with less than top quality food. This time – she did not stop complimenting the food – she just loved her coconut shrimp, and sea bass in Lobster sauce.That by itself worth every bit of this trip!
All was great until we got home. then Patti started to feel the sun burn. Her skin was red, especially on her hands and feet. Tons of Aloe Vera did not help. She was hot, de-hydrated got a strong headache and in a very strong pain. She could not even take a shower, she was just miserable I suggested to put some yogurt honey and mint on her skin (if it is already cooked we might as well enhance the flavor) but she refused.
Not sure when did she finally fall asleep but when she woke up this morning it was all much better. The headache was gone, and the pain was much more tolerable. By now, it is all gone.

Spring break with my son

You guessed right. My daughter didn’t come again. She might join later during the week for couple days. But in the meantime the bond between me and my son is just getting stronger, We are just having great time together. He joined us tonight for the Shabbat dinner and even blessed the wine and the bread, in Hebrew! That was so awesome!
Not sure yet what we are going to do all week, but the most important thing is – we will do it together! So tomorrow morning we will sit together and plan.
I wanted to write something about this campground but I will keep it for next time. Anyways – glad you are with us, following along = Thanks you!

Signs of Spring

2011-03-27T03:27:00.001-05:00

The sun and the rain have chased each other all week long at the top of the Santa Ana mountains here in the Trabuco region. The unusual amount of rain filled the lakes, accelerated the rivers and painted the whole area with green. So this weekend we had to take a bite and taste the great flavors and colors around us.

Closing the week

Friday, March 25th, 2011 – Things are falling into place now. We got our truck fixed, and actually we were told that the extended warranty will cover the valve and most of the A/C unit, so next week we will have to haul our home again to the shop.
Thursday was a shopping and errands day. We stopped at the bank, the post office, and finished with a long visit to a local grocery store (I think Vons). Most of the Wal-Mart stores around here are not Super Centers, so we have a chance to use a ‘normal’ grocery store for a change. There are two main differences that I have noticed – there is much more variety when it comes to food, and it is much more expensive. Not sure if the prices of food are high all over southern CA, or just in this chain store, but its more expensive than what we are used too.
Anyways – Patti, although not Jewish, is chipping in and creating a great atmosphere of Shabbat, by preparing special Shabbat dinner for us, and lighting the Shabbat candles.So today Patti has baked fresh Challah and Rosemary Chicken with Mashed potatoes, she lighted the candles as I blessed the Shabbat, the wine and the bread. It does give a great feeling that we like.

Weekend with my Son

Sunday, March 27th, 2011 – I drove down to the city to get my kids for the weekend. They could not come on Friday as they had to attend a concert with their mom, but on Saturday they planned to come over. My daughter apologized again saying she has so much homework to do, and as much as she loves me and would love to be with me, she prefers to stay home. I wasn’t happy, but she is old enough to decide and I respect her wish. So I picked up my son and drove back.

I think we have a special bond, the two of us. ?Just getting along so nice. He is a good kid and I do have fun and great time being with him. The rest of Saturday was primarily sitting around and talking and looking at his new computer game (Our XBOX controller getting some attention) but today we woke up and knew we are going to do some hiking! I am waiting for it for 2 weeks now!

After a short discussion we have decided – this is going to be a short hike with a nice view. Short and sweet. That’s easy – just 1.5 miles east from here very close to the road there is a set of cascading falls called Ortega falls.

The rocks were slippery and we did not have the right shoes or gear. This is also the first time I am trying to use my new camera in a little more advanced mode than what I am used to. There is no Auto Mode here, or a picture of flower and an runner. Just the P-A-S-M modes. Since most of my photos today were of water, I used Shutter priority, although some picture were taken with aperture priority to control DOF. Just playing a little and learning my new camera. It know it will take me some time for me to learn it, but I have patience and I enjoy it. I also used my new camera bag for the first time today, so I need to get used to it too. I will get better!
There was one ugly thing that we saw here, and have never seen before, and that really hurt me – all the rocks around the falls were full with ugly graffiti of stupid people who had to write their name to ruin for everyone else. That’s a shame.
We came back home and had a nice dinner (Slow Cooker Chicken with honey) dropped my son back home and drove back to sit and write this blog.

I must have twisted my arm pretty bad sometime today, because my whole shoulder area hurts pretty bad. That will teach me how Patti feels when she gets a flair.
So that’s it – up until now. Next week we are going to get the unit fixed and probably explore the area some more. as of work, maybe some new projects will come in, as I am pretty much done with most of my current projects.
And for you- thanks for joining the ride. We love it, and hope you do to!

Rainy week in SoCal

2011-03-24T01:54:00.000-05:00

It has been rainy most of the week this week here on the San Juan mountains Region. We resumed into maintenance mode, and still not done with it. Typical maintenance week of a fifth wheel RV and Truck,

I knew something was wrong

Tuesday , March 22th 2011 – When I drove my kids back home on Saturday I already knew something is wrong with my truck. I heard a strange high pitch noise, and the break pedal kind of bounced back when I touched it. The car stopped just fine, there was no warning light, overheating or anything that will indicate that something is wrong except it just didn’t sound right.

Top that with our RV heater – every time is stopped, because the temp was hot enough, there was a strange bang sound. It worked, but just didn’t sound right. Today – it quit completely. The breaker would jump every time we try to turn it on.

So with everything going wrong we decided we need some fixing done. We found an RV service not so far and scheduled a visit.

When we drove down the hill today the RPM showed over 5,000. is was at the very end of the red scale. I knew the engine was not running at 5,000 RPM but the high pitch sound was there too. We dropped the RV at the service place, and called GMC dealership in Lake Elsinore. I must say that we were very hesitant since the place had very bad reviews.

When we started the truck to drive to the dealership, the sound simple disappeared, and all came to normal. All week it had this sound and now – it is acting perfectly fine…

When we got to the service department we were surprised bu extremely nice crew. They accepted us immediately even without scheduling, started working on the truck immediately and even offered me a private office where I could sit and work while waiting for the truck. It wasn’t easy to find a problem that does not exist, but based on the clues I gave they found some oil leak from some high pressure lines. It was too late in the day to fix it, so they topped the oil and set an appointment for the next day.

In the meantime we drove back to the RV Service place just to find out that the extended warranty guys could not give an answer, and promised an answer within 24 hours. Not so happy with them. Don’t even know their name – some insurance from Chicago that we were convinced to buy when we got our Escalade in Michigan last year.

So with the same broken truck and RV we drove back to the campground at the top of the hill.

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 – Got at 7:30am today, as I had to be by 8:30am at the GMC dealership. After a fast coffee I was on the way. I got there just in time, and they were waiting for me. I did not have to wait even a minute and a shuttle was already on the way to take me back to the campground, some 16 miles away.

I am now in closing edges stage as most of my projects are done. That gives less pressure but worries me at the same time. Got to get a new project in line fast!

Around 2:00pm they called from the dealership – the truck was ready. They sent the shuttle again to pick me up, and the truck was waiting for me clean and shiny. in 5 minutes I was already on m way back. No idea why did they have bad reviews – I was very happy!

The extended warranty guys didn’t call. I hope they will approve it by tomorrow. I need the electric heating A/C unit fixed and the grey water tank valve replaced (it is not sealing anymore). Will update you how it goes.

I just need to get some good long term project that will allow us to work without pressure and get some steady income, and that would be great!

Otherwise, we did not go out much this week. It is rainy almost everyday. I do hope to get out this Weekend as it looks like there are nice places around here, and I need some fresh air!

Some weeks are more exciting than others, but overall – no complaints. Part of RV life

So like always – I would like to take the time and thank you for following us along, hope you like it.

Pacific Weekend

2011-03-18T21:44:00.000-05:00

What a perfect ending to a busy work week – Patti my lovely wife – has prepared a wonderful Shabbat Dinner for us, Baked Challah, lighted the candles and joined me to welcome Shabbat.

Shabbat Acceptance?

Friday, March 18th, 2011 – Not sure how to translate Kabbalat Shabbat. This is the Jewish dinner on Friday night just before the day of Shabbat starts (Jewish days are evening to evening).

Whatever the phrase is, we had a great dinner! Patti gathered all my favorites into one meal, and you can’t go wrong with that!

The meat – Chicken in coconut milk and curry. The vegetable – Brussels Sprouts. The side dish – yellow rice. Add to that a wonderful perfectly baled Challah bread – can you ask for more?

Wait – I didn’t even get to the dessert yet! Too full

Browser Problem or bad post

I opened today my last blog post and after closing the browser, the window kept opening! It opened endless number of windows, and the only way I could stop is is by disconnecting from the internet and forcing all windows to close as a group.

Didn’t have the problem with Chrome... Didn’t have the problem with any other site with IE either. I decided to delete the last post, and the reopening stopped. Posted it again – and it came back... Happens on Patti’s computer too. no idea what is going on, but I am checking. Please let me know if it happens to you too.

Time flies

2011-03-17T23:32:00.001-05:00

Unbelievable, tomorrow is already Friday! staying here and working all week and the time flies around us just by itself. Winter left behind, time moved ahead, and the earth is still turning. Hope to get some excitement this weekend, wait and see.

Everything is fine

Tuesday, March 17th, 2011 – Slowly we are settling in, here at the campground. We drove on Tuesday to Camping World in San Marcos, about 60 miles south, and got a potable dish. So now, if we park underneath a tree, we can still connect our dish, if there is a spot close enough that has good sky view. The only problem is to set it up. We are so used to flip a button and viola – got signal but this requires slow adjustments. With intensive use of my android level and compass, and yelling at each other – “getting better” “move more” “oops too much, a little back” “Can you go down a little”. Now can you imagine if someone hears that and he doesn’t see what we are doing?

The rear window views are beautiful (see top picture), and we have peace and quiet. the side windows are open too. The internet is stable, although slow, and the phone reception is not the best, so we are going to get a phone connected (They have on-site connection). This will resolve all our communication issues. I am using only my Google voice number so all I need to do is redirect this number to our local line. Virtual world. If my grandma was alive, she would have died…

Expecting soon to get my second wave of packages – this is the camera aftermath. The sling bag, the camera GPS and some other toys and gadgets. Will try to get some nice pictures this W/E hiking in the area with the kids, although they predict rain for the W/E.

We also plan to take the rig to the shop on Tuesday, the electric heating pump on the roof quit working, and the grey water valve is not sealing the tank anymore. I believe that should be covered in our extended warranty, good time to test it!

2FT = Double Full Timer

The young and the restless

We got new followers to the blog – so we are growing!! Welcome and thank you! Evielynne & Jorge left a comment in the previous blog, mentioning the “young” RVers, those are full time RVers and have Full Time job. They are creating and selling crafts, as you can see in their blog.

I thought that it would be cool if we will create some kind of a sub-group, kind of an interest group and can exchange ideas and share our challenges and experiences. For example – health insurance, Work ideas, tax issues you know… See, escapees are more for the retired community, and Passport America is concentrating on Parks and Travel.

Don’t ghet me wrong – nothing against those organizations. I love them and they do great work. I am a member myself, and many of my RVers best friends are retired. but sometimes I am looking for an advice or idea from people that share similar challenges.

I will try to start with a small group in Facebook, and let you know here on the blog, so you can join. What do you think?

It’s all about location

Also – I think that it would be awesome if we could create a foursquare or Loops or FB Check-In friendship (this has nothing to do with the previous idea) so that we can see when we get closer to each other and can get together. Kinda like what we did with Al and Kelly last year. Would you join? If you are member, look for me (mottych) – I will friend you!

Enough blah blah…

Thanks for following along

PS – had to delete and repost this post, as it caused my browser top keep opening a new window everything I closed it. Hopefully reposing will do the trick.

Also – the new group in Facebook was opened. It is called Full Time RVers at Work. – so Join!!

The full Version

2011-03-14T04:02:00.001-05:00

Happy ending the the campground story, but just before that let me tell you they it had to get worse before it got better. At least I can sit now at the comfort of my office, and post the blog from my laptop. So here is the story of the camp and the weekend and everything in between

West All the way

Friday, March 11th, 2011 – We actually followed our plan today and started moving west. The midway was just around Quartzsite, AZ so our initial thought was to stay around this area. When we got there it was still early and we had no good reason to stop right there, so we continues into CA. The only thing that I cared about was to stop before Indio as I did not want to get into Indio and the urban. When we were about 80 miles away we started looking for a place for the night.

My car is running on gold

We stopped for gas and when you enter your CC into the pump it requires you to mortgage your house, get 3 co-signer and have a credit of 801 or better. For every gallon you buy you get 2 cars free! I hope you are getting my point… $4.70 (Four United States Dollar, and sixty nine point ninety five hundredth of the dollar also known as cents or pennies). This is the price for each gallon of this hard to find unique liquid that comes out of the pump and drains your pocket and bank account in an astonishing speed of $20/min. Wow.
On the positive side – we stopped at a truck wash place. four guys scrubbed the truck and the RV soaped it and waxed it – no machine – just hand wash. And guess what? it cost $35! unbelievable! but on the good side..

Surprise in the center

Well, we did find a campground in a place called desert center. It is a small town in the long stretch between Blythe and Indio. The town has a small Café and a trailer park. That’s it. Serious! nothing more. The park is ran by a wonderful lady who just celebrated 90 years. Se is doing all by herself – from maintenance to accounting and even remodeling the park models she owns (11 of them). Unbelievable. And you want to know something else? We thought that this café would have the crappiest food. It was the only place around, and they simply don’t have competition. All the other stores around closed down. We did not feel like cooking so we went to see what they got, and we were surprised! They did not have gourmet food, but whatever we tasted was just great! Mashed potatoes and gravy made from scratch! no powder, not frozen – they peeled the potatoes. Same with the fries, and every other dish we got, Rare find even in better restaurants! So Green Acres Trailer Park and Desert Center Café were a great welcome to this state. We liked it.

Settling in

Saturday, March 12th, 2011 – We continues our trip into CA, This time we had to go into the heart of Orange County, as my kids are living in Mission Viejo, and I wanted to be as close as possible while still staying out of town. The best we could find was a park on the hills between Lake Elsinore and Mission Viejo, on Hwy 74, Ortega Hwy. The RV park is called Ortega Oaks. It did not have good reviews at all, but we though it would be better then staying in town, and decided to give it a shot.
When we arrived, the manager on duty came right out and showed us around so we could pick which site we wanted. We chose a nice big site that has its back into a stream and had nothing on the door side – so we could have open views from both the back window and the living area. The site was also just beside the Internet antenna, so that was a perfect match.
After we hooked up I tried to connect to the internet but did not have any luck. The phone reception in this area is pretty bad too. AT&T has no reception at all, and Verizon merely gets a line or two. not good! We called the office, and they answered right away. They tried to reset the router couple times but it didn’t help. We had to wait till Monday for the network guys to come and fix it up.
In the meantime I called my kids and drove into town to pick them up. My daughter (she is 15 now) was busy with friends and studies and although she was happy to see me, she chose to stay with her friends. My son could not wait to come with. He also knows that I got him a new laptop, and you had to see his face when he actually got it! a smile from ear to ear! a brand new laptop!!
Monday, March 14th, 2011 – My son and I spent all day Sunday working on his new computer, playing XBOX and talking about all those things that a dad and his teenager son are talking about. You know. stuff.Really had great time, but it passed too fast and it was time to take him back home and start the week.
The day did not start right. First – we still did not have Internet, and second – we woke up to a dry faucet. No water! Turns out that the well pump broke. Had some calls scheduled for the morning so I had to run to the office and sit there and work. At least I had something…
By the time I was back home, the Internet came back, and later on the water came back too. Now – the only thing we need to take care of, is the TV, since the “cable” TV they offer has 8 local channels. That’s it, and Patti is going crazy without Top Chef, Chopped and the Food Cannel.
So far so good – We have good site, decent Internet, and we are actually only 30-40 minutes away from town. Not too bad, considering we are in Orange County CA. Huh?

dis-communicated

2011-03-14T01:24:00.001-05:00

I knew I may use the android Blogger one day... we are in CA since Friday in a gorgeous park in southern CA but no internet and very poor phone signal. No TV either...
We will have to figure out what to do tomorrow morning since we have to have internet here. I don't understand why this is always an issue. It is as important as water and electricity and the infrastructure is not so expensive. Why can't we expect to have high quality reliable internet at the campground just like hotels. It is always a challenge.

So just a short update until I can post a normal blog.. just had the greatest time with my son this w/e my daughter did not join, I guess she had more important things to do (i know, what can I say...)

This coming week I am going to be swamped with work, but next w/e we plan some hiking in the area, so fun is coming. Will keep you posted

Inside a Movie

2011-03-11T00:42:00.001-06:00

I was actually an actor in an action movie today. Not in a major role, just a statistics, except it wasn’t a movie, it was real this time. And if that is not enough we also were the actual players in a balance game where you need to cross rivers on a log of wood and if you fall you get wet. how is it called? Avatar?

Scary day at the Park

Thursday, March 10th, 2011 – I know – just yesterday I posted and here I post again just didn’t want to forget all the happening today. so here we go:
I worked very late last night. Stayed until 4:30am, so I woke up a little later this morning, maybe around 10:30. Patti was already up and a fresh coffee was brewed. Patti was outside smoking (yeah, I know, try to tell her that). When she stepped in she said – You wouldn’t believe – there are police officers running all around with their guns drawn in the park, look out! Sure there were. Maybe 15 of them all over. WE wre debating if we should go or stay. Patti was sore from the hike on Tuesday and we were not sure yet if we are going out or not, so we sat down and went through emails and tasks.
It didn’t take even five minutes before an officer knocked on our door. We opened and said Hi! “You got to get out of your RV Now” he said. Well, I thought – we will go hiking… Grabbed the cameras pair of socks and shoes and stepped outside. “You can’t use your car” said the officer – “stay out there by the fence”. Here goes my day.
So we step out, I was told to put the cameras at the bed of my truck (yes my brand new shiny camera) and joined the rest of the park residents who were already there. The conversation was going, and from what I gathered, there is a bad guy that does some bad things on the Internet and now he is closing himself in his airstream RV with two kids. As we were standing there, a SWAT team arrived, and an ambulance and a fire truck shortly after. Started to look like a war. To the war party joined some journalists that started to interview anyone who was willing to say hi to them. I just wanted to go. My truck was the closest to the exit, I had to sneak jump and go, but not with so many black shirt guys running with M-16 all around. God knows how bad should this guy be to get here half the army. Waited to the right moment to try and get permission to get out. When an officer came close I was going to ask him but I was so lucky – he asked – “who owns that truck?” and pointed to my truck. “I do” – I said immediately – “Can I get it out of here?” “yes, but fast”, he said. I am free!! Jumped on the truck and before you could say archisuperdispanpanante I was gone. (It took you some time, didn’t it?) I just hope we won’t have any bullet holes when we come back..

The Balance Game at the Canyon

We started heading east towards Sedona, happy we could escape from the fire zone, but now we need to decide where. The hikes books, the map, everything was left in the RV. Patti also realized that she doesn’t have socks. Grabbed the wrong item in a hurry.
As we drove through town, we saw Walgreens and decide to stop, and get some socks and a map. Now that we have everything we need, we voted on a romantic easy trail north of town called West Fork. It is a trail that goes along a stream in a canyon. The full length of the trail is about 3 miles each way, and you have to cross from side to side 15 times along that way. At the beginning of the trail we found some ruins of some old farm house that had the most romantic spot. The fireplace remained whole in the middle of the field that once was a house. Now – isn’t it romantic? A fireplace on the trail?
The mountains around were part white and part red, and with the green trees and white snow (yes I said the S word) it just created perfect composition. Add to that the water stream the river round rocks and you got the most romantic trail ever. Although you could find snow on the ground, the temperature was not cold at all. I would say 60-65.
The first cross came shortly after we started our walk along the stream. Two big trees side by side created a comfortable easy pass. That was a perfect sport for some reflection pictures too. A little later upstream came the second crossing. This was a little trickier, as the logs were not that big and had some stems and branches in the middle, but we crossed it without too much trouble. When we reached the third cross I got it – It is just like a video game. You passed level 2 and now its level 3. it gets harder each time.
When we reached the fourth cross we did not see people around us anymore. As a matter of fact we did not see even the crossing. We thought that the trail continues on the same bank but any path we took ended in some huge rock or water. It was obvious that there is no more trail in this side, but where is the crossing? we could not identify any clear place you could cross… It took us some time but we figured it out. Going to some island then jumping to some rock in the middle and from there through another log to the other bank. Did that.
The fifth cross was actually over a small waterfall, and was pretty narrow (See the top picture). After that one, we decided that this is the end of our trail for the day. Patti was sore, the sun started to set (it was already around 5:00pm) and it got colder. We stayed a little bit, watched the great mountains and rocks around us and started our way back. Did it to level 5!
Drove back home to our RV. The police was gone, and there were no bullet holes, it was all quiet and peaceful. End of an eventful day. So tomorrow we will start our journey west to CA, and will probably get there by Saturday afternoon.
Well, hope you liked this post, and thanks for following us along!
Until next time…

Sedona I

2011-03-09T16:38:00.001-06:00

The more we stay in this area and look around, the more we find how many amazing places are there still to explore. Hikes, Canyons, Views and Energy Vortex – all around this area. This is a place to come back to – so full of attractions. Just spent another day outdoors and hoping to be able to explore once more before we move.

Exploring Sedona

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 – After couple days of work we decided to get out again today. It turned out good as this last couple days (Sunday and Monday) were colder and rainy. I think I should not say it out loud that I want to go exploring. Seems like my customers are listening… As soon as I got up this morning I faced some urgent requests from customers that got to be done immediately. I think they heard I want to get out so they called …
By the time I was done dealing with urgencies it was already noon. Never mind – I told Patti, we still have good 6 hours of light and we can do something. So here is the plan – let’s go to the grasshopper park and at the evening catch a nice sunset at the airport. I heard that there is a good views from there. Sedona is only 15 miles from Cottonwood (where we are), so that should not take us too long to get there.
We stopped at the visitor center on the east side of town to get a parking permit and some information. Turns out we don’t need a permit since we have our National Parks Annual Pass. That is great! Found a nice book about hikes in Sedona (There are quite a few of those), and asked about the best sunset point. They confirmed what I already heard - the the airport is THE place. The lady also pointed out that the Grasshopper park is more of a summer place since people are swimming and jumping of the rock, but the Cathedral rock is a nice hike we could take.
That was a great advice as it turns out. The trail climbs up the Cathedral rock to the base of the big pillars (The Saddle) and exposes magnificent views of all the area. It is a short but strenuous trail with some slippery smooth rocks to climb, but it sure worth the effort. The picture below is a composition of 16 pictures (Not covering everything as you can see) of the south views from the top of the saddle.

Stayed at the top and explored a little while. Not only the views were amazing but also the feeling of being there – overlooking the endless beauty almost taken from a fairytale book.
I picked some of the photos for your enjoyment, so take a look at the slide show (Start it from the beginning) – Hope you would like it, or better yet – come and take this hike.

It was around 5:00pm when we started heading down just enough to get to the car and drive to the airport overlook for the sunset. It must be a known place for sunset since it was sooo crowded when got there.
Seems like people just heard of this fire ball that was discovered yesterday and orbits around our planet (or so it seems) leaving strange bright colors as it disappears, a phenomena known by the name sunset. The crowd that gathered in this place has every equipment you can think about, from a sophisticated Nokia flip phone with a camera, to a simple Canon D1 with huge lenses and tripods.

Stereotyping States

The views were not so thrilling or maybe we set our expectations too high. But there is one thing I want to share with you. There were hundreds of cars in the parking lot, and people went all the way to the back to park in an empty spot. There was enough parking for everybody. Except from one car. They didn’t feel like driving all the way to the back and they parked in a place that blocked someone else’s car. When we walked back to our car, we noticed the blocked car owner standing puzzled by his car waiting for the blocking car owners to come and let him out, but they were not so much in a rush. People that walked by made some comments to the guy – like “They blocked you in huh? What a consideration, but on the other hand what can you expect – it is a car from CA”… We heard this reference to the western neighbor state from more than one person. It might be a stereotype, but it sure was a CA plate, and it was the only car which did not park in an empty spot like everybody else. Hmm something to think about.
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 – I really wanted to post this blog yesterday, but had so many obstacles – first – my laptop started beeping when it starts up, and when I ran memory tests it crashes repeatedly on one of the tests. No idea what is wrong, but that worries me. Second – Patti did not feel good. I am not sure if we over-did yesterday or it is the remains of her last flu attack, either way I wanted to comfort her and help her.
After dealing with the normal urgencies of the mornings, I found some time and sat down to post the blog. BTW – the new camera is awesome! There is still so much to learn about it, and there are so many options and settings… The only thing is – the new camera is much heavier than the D70, and I can feel it on the neck strap. I may need a different strap for it.
What’s next? Maybe Tomorrow we will find time for another hike in the area, and Friday we are moving towards CA. It will probably take us couple days to get there, so we will be there by Sunday, close to Lake Elsinore, the closest campground I could find to my kids.
Hope you like the pictures this time, I think they are cool (most of them) and some credit for those pictures is for Patti who is getting more and more into photography, and now she is a
“Nikon person” too. Let me know what you think, leave a comment, rate this blog or click on one of those “Cool-interesting-boring” buttons. and before I forget – we have couple new followers to the blog, slowly we are growing Welcome! Thank you for joining and bigger than you for staying and following!
So until next time…

Sedona Intro

2011-03-05T01:55:00.001-06:00

After countless recommendations from friends, we have decided to swing by Sedona before we move to California for what has left from the winter and the beginning of spring. It turned out good since it stretched our 10th anniversary celebration over 3 days.

Fighting Lupus

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011 – It is our 10th anniversary today. I know I have mentioned it before but this is a great deal for me. Not the day by itself as much as the great feeling I am with the right person for me. Knowing that I feel this way after ten years is a proof to myself more than anything else, that this is not a fake, and this is not going to fade. I am so happy I found Patti and we are a perfect match.
Our plans for the day were to go to Saguaro NP, hike during the day, and finish with a nice dinner in Tucson. Unfortunately, Patti is feeling very bad last couple of days. She started to feel bad at the day we took that hike in San Tan, remember? so it got worse. She has high fever, she is very noxious, and has a very bad headache for two days straight!
Hey – that is not going to break us! We will celebrate our anniversary over the W/E. One idea was to go to Sedona, AZ, 100 miles north of us, and enjoy the hikes with a dinner over there – just as we planned. That actually sound like a better idea – We have seen Saguaro forest all around us, and we will get a chance to experience something we have not seen before.

Day of Gifts

Today, we received finally all the mail and boxes from our mail forwarder in SD. We haven’t receive mail for some time, so we got lots of goodies!
The highlights of this shipment were a new laptop for Patti and a new Camera for me. I am dreaming about this new camera for some time, and this is just what I wanted, I am so happy. Now I need to learn how to use it. Patti will take over my old camera and start getting a little more serious about photography. Seems like she likes it!
She also needs to move all her files, programs and setting from her old laptop. That is going to take some time, but it is always exciting to get a new shiny fast laptop!
I also got an extended battery for my android. From what I read, it supposed to hold for few days with moderate use, so that is going to make this little device more practical. I have no idea why they chose to call my GPS, Camera, Radio, MP3 player, PIM, Game Station, Phone – just a phone. It is not even the most usable function in it…
Just before I forget – I visited yesterday the company I consult for. They import and market Dead Sea products in the US. I think it is great to have a friendly relationship with the people you work with, right? Got to meet many more people from the company and see first hand how they work. That was a good visit.
Friday, March 4th, 2011 – Moving day today, We decided to go with the idea of Sedona, and we are on the way. Patti still doesn’t feel the best, but there are sign of improvement. The problem is not the Lupus itself, but the immune suppressants she takes. See, Lupus is an auto-immune disease, which mean the body attacks itself. To reduce the effect of this attack, the medications are causing the immune system to become somewhat dormant. So long there are no “enemies” – everything is fine,. but as soon as Patti is in touch with someone that has or had some illness recently , she catches it very easily and her body has hard time fighting it.
So where were we? Oh – moving day, right… Actually the ride was pretty smooth, and Patti, as I said, fought headache and stomach turmoil. When we got to our new campground, we hooked up and Patti went to rest. Later, in the evening Patti felt much better, so we decided to go out for dinner – starting celebrating our anniversary. Dinner before Hike, that works too!
Opened our devices (OK, ..Phones) and looked up a restaurant. Patti felt like Italian, and I felt like making Patti happy, so Italian it is. The most recommended Italian restaurant in town is called Nick Italian Steak and Crab House, right on Main street. The place had nice romantic setting and great service. Patti had fettuccini Alfredo (her favorite) with King Crab legs, and I had chicken breast in some kind of lemon sauce with bow tie pasta, with a bottle of zin to celebrate the event.
Food was great, service was wonderful, got 4 stars from me!
Got back home and went to bed – need energy for tomorrow. I think it is a beginning of a better time. Patti feels much better
The campground we chose is in Cottonwood, on 89A towards Sedona. It is called Rio Verde RV Park. We chose it because all the camps in Sedona were outrageously priced, I am talking like $60 bucks a night… So this one was not too far (15 miles from Red Rock SP) yet reasonable – We paid $160 week. The campground itself is OK. The internet is not so reliable, and although we have phone service here, we do not get 3G. Sites are close together, but the campground is not full. it’s ‘’OK’.

Saturday, March 5th, 2011 – Now today is the cherry in the cream day. Hiking in Sedona. Patti was a little skeptic about this area. When we drove up here, we climbed to 4,000 ft above sea level, and Patti saw nothing spectacular except from mountains all around. Today she was surprised. Very surprised.
Let’s start with the fact that she feels great! and that is great by itself!. After waking up and getting our coffee, we were ready to go to the Red Rock Park. According to my friends in Phoenix, this is the Jewel in the crown. so I thought – if I want to get Patti excited – this is a good place to start. We started with the Red Rock State Park. A short hike of about 2 miles took us to excellent view points over the Cathedral Rocks in the Red Rock country of this area. We took the Coyote trail that climbed up the mountain for better views, while I am playing with my new camera, and Patti is learning my old one.
Our next stop was the best part of the day. In the upper loop road there is a turn to the Crescent Moon Ranch – Red Rock Crossing. There we could walk along the river, step on red rocks and enjoy the spectacular views that you see throughout this post.
There are many more places to see around here, and we plan to go out at least once more, if not twice before we leave towards CA, but tomorrow – work day, Got to catch up!
See? Got lots to write about this time. Wow - did you read all of that? With all the happening and the move and Patti not feeling the best – I could not find time to write the last couple days, so all came out today
Anyways, thanks for reading and following us, and see you next time

Follow a follower with custofriend

2011-03-01T23:48:00.001-06:00

What are the odds that in the middle of the desert you will find someone that follows a blog of someone you know, and at the same time you will be with a custofriend or is it a frientomer?

Monday, February 28th, 2011 – This weekend was a little colder. Not too bad – nothing like Kansas or God forbid, Minnesota, but in local terms, mid 50’s is pretty cold winter day. We spent most of our weekend catching up with work, and roaming around the campground capturing the desert beauty around us, in particular the fascinating sunsets. (There is a rumor there sunrise is pretty too, but I never got to see one. Is it real?)

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 – We decided to spend most of the day today hiking in one of the parks around. My Friend/Customer (Can I call him Oren?) is going to join us today so we are actually the three of us. I went bed yesterday after 1:00am, and this morning I had a conference call at 8:00am so I didn’t have much sleep. I will pay for it later today, I know that. By 9:00am I was ready, and Oren was already on his way.
Patti doesn’t feel the best in the last few days. I think she has a “flair” with her Lupus, but with all the pain she decided to go anyways. I think she is brave, and her positive attitude is amazing!
Looking at the map – there were two options around us. The first one was Picacho Peak state park. One of the reviews said that although the place is great, it is a little strenuous, and with Patti’s flair we didn’t think it is the best idea.
The other option was San Tan Mountain Regional Park. A nice desert treasure with cacti flora, giving a first hand experience and close look at the Sonoran desert. We arrived the park by 11:00am, parked our cars (it is a self paying parking – $6 a car) and decided on our trails for the day. Our planned trail goes through the Gold Mountain and closes in a loop of about 4 miles. Hat on, Vest – on, Walking stick – on, camera – on, ready to go!

Shortly after we started our hike we met a very nice couple at the bottom of the gold mountain. They told us about other beautiful attractions in the area, and then the tough question comes – Where are you guys from? Well, we are full timers, we live in an RV. This time, we did not need to give any more explanation. They knew exactly what we are talking about, and were thinking of doing it themselves. They are the “Anonymous” followers of Al’s blog The Bayfield Bunch, the one from Thunder Bay in CANADA (That’s how they describe themselves). They are completely up-to-date with the blog, and it was kinda weird and funny talking about the house Al wants to buy in AZ, and where he is now, and they never even met him… They also follow Donna and Stu (2 Taking a 5th) and Laurie and Odel (Semi-True tales of our life on the road), so they are in the loop We stayed a little longer and had a nice chat with Chris and Lorna Ball – about RVing, about Arizona and the places around and all the blogs and bloggers we know.
On the way we named all the cacti that we know. The Saguaro, the Ocotillo, the barrel, and the meanest of all the Hurtsalot. (Pronounced Hurts-a-lot). We told Oren that this last species actually jumps on you and sucks your blood. We told him it really happened to us in NM and CA. Of course he did not believe us. Until.. it happened again. a branch of hurts-a-lot jumped on him and stuck to his leg. Not a good feeling but it was funny how the unbelievable happened. See?
When we came back to the car, Patti was very sore. We decided to eat late lunch/early dinner together, so iPhones and Androids are turned on, and Trip Advisor becomes the application of Choice. The first choice was a steakhouse, but that was too expensive. Second was Mexican, so that fell too. Third came a restaurant named Joe’s BBQ Grill downtown Gilbert, some 15 minutes away. This is an American cuisine, cafeteria style serving ribs, pulled beef, baked potato and the like. The food was good, but not amazing, although the décor in the restaurant was cool – a John Deere parked in the middle and a farm atmosphere.
Had a great company and an interesting time together. Said goodbye to Oren and drove back home, tired and happy (and Patti was sore too)

Tomorrow – I am going to work at Oren’s Company’s office. Haven’t worked in an office for ions. Not that I miss it, but some people still believe in that concept … Thursday is our anniversary, and still we are not 100% sure what we are doing. Shortly after that – we are planning to move west towards CA around my kids that I miss so much. One day at the time.
Exhausted tonight, so I am going to bed early. Thanks for following along, and see you in couple days or so, OK?

Shabbat Shalom AZ

2011-02-26T23:42:00.001-06:00

While staying here in Arizona I was invited by a customer and a friend to attend a Shabbat Eve feast with all the company. Since the host observes the Shabbat law, I could not take any pictures that evening, but I will try to describe the great time we had there. And what happened with the campground? Did we find anything better? The full story follows…

Campground story

Friday, February 25th, 2011 – So we wake up in the morning to the sounds of the city life around us. People are talking, kids are running, cars and trucks are going up and down the road. Happy Active camping day. At least for those families and young couples who came to spend here some wild time over the weekend.
We were already hooked up, so all we had to do is get some coffee and head out. But head out where? We had two options. The first one was to continue west on I-10 to another campground, that looked like a parking lot to me. They say their sites are a little bigger, but it did not look promising.
The other option was to go to a campground named Rancho Sonora South East of the city, nearby a town named Florence. We called the place and turns out they are completely full, no one single site available, except… if we are willing to stay in a site with no sewer. Sure! that’s not a problem! we said – and we were on the way.
I think we were lucky they were full, since the site we got was insulated, by itself surrounded by cacti trees and plants. Perfect! Patti was extremely happy too, you could tell that since the carpet and the outside chairs were already opened up with our small table. I completed the picture with out cordless outdoor speaker and couple of beers, joined Patti and Diva to the perfect sun.
The views from our window are amazing. Wild West Cacti, birds rabbits squirrel and other creatures are passing by to say hi, even the view from our dining room is perfect. We are happy again.

Shabbat Eve

We were invited to a Shabbat eve dinner at the house of one of the company owners. This company is our customer for some time, and apparently we do something right, otherwise I don’t think they would have invited us. We were supposed to be at around 7:30pm in chandler, about 60 miles from here.Patti took a nap and woke up by 5:30pm. I planned on heading north at around 6:00pm so we didn’t have much time. Since we are not hooked to a sewer line, and to save time, I made myself a shower bag and went to take a shower at the campground’s facilities, while Patti got ready in the RV.
When I stepped out of the shower the sight was amazing. Bright red,orange and yellow sunset colors have provided a perfect background to the cacti in front of me. This is a perfect picture I thought, but I did not have a camera with me… I knew the sunset is not going to last too long, and we did not have much time before we had to leave for the dinner so I took some picture with my phone. All the sunset pictures you see, including the one on top is an Android creation.
We arrived just on time for the dinner. My friend has waited for us outside and we stepped into the house. The tables were already set with all the traditional Jewish Moroccans salads – Paprika Carrots, fried red peppers, fried green hot peppers with garlic, fried eggplant, eggplant with Tahini, sour cucumbers, fresh vegetables salad, beats, matbucha, orissa, potato salad, if I didn’t forget some. All with fresh baked dinner personal Challa rolls.
Meeting so many people on Friday evening is an important part of the Jewish tradition, and many feelings and memories were floating to the surface and fill me with warmth. I think it is great that those guys are meeting every week like that – blessing the Shabbat and having great time together.Anyways – after the appetizers came the main meal – again a variety of traditional Mediterranean, North African Jewish blend of spices and favors. Artichoke hearts, Cabbage rolls with Meat and Spinach, Rice with Pine nuts and Raisins, Potatoes, Chicken, Some kind of pasta, Peas with celery, huge variety of food!
After dinner we stayed and talked with our friend, and invited him to come over and visit us in our RV. He promised he will.
Saturday, February 26th, 2011 – … and he did. This afternoon my friend came and visited us. It is very interesting for someone who is not familiar with RV life to get a glimpse into the excitement of full time RVing. His first word when he came in was – WOW. Couldn’t imagine that RV could be so nice inside. We sat down hours and talked about the RV life style, told stories about places we have visited around the country accompanied with many pictures to show off. Simply great time. We agreed to meet once more this week and go hiking together in one of the parks here around, probably Monday or Tuesday.
This Thursday Patti and I are married 10 years! that is a great mile stone and we are very excited about it. We are not sure yet what we are going to do, but one of the ideas is to spend the day hiking in Saguaro NP, and end the day in a nice restaurant in Tucson.
After that – we will probably head west and go to California visit with my younger kids for the rest of the winter. Stories to follow!
Exciting week is waiting for us, and lots of work on our hands too. Hope you like the excitement as much as we do, so stay tuned! Thanks for following along!

Jailed in a Resort

2011-02-24T22:39:00.001-06:00

Oh My god! Just arrived to our resort and I am still shaking from the shock. We have been to many different campgrounds but this is way above and beyond anything else. I can’t calm down. Unbelievable!

My way or the Highway

Thursday, February 24th 2011 – Moving day today. We want to get to the Phoenix area, and have a long ways to go. Patti found a campground on the other side of the city (You will hear about it shortly). After picking up and folding away, we are ready to go in the truck. Patti punches in the address and Tom Tom plans a Route. I am not even looking – Tom Tom has a soft spot for Interstate Freeways. Even if it needs to make you drive 200 Miles out of the way for a short span of 1000 yard on a major highway, it would. Got to be there.
OK, looking at the route – sure enough – it plans it through I-10. I don’t like taking those major highways unless we don’t care about the way and just need to get somewhere. But if we are driving around – I would prefer the smaller roads. Not narrow forgotten one lane dirt road with 4 digits on the name or some County HH road, but NM-78 sounds good to me.
Patti prefers highways. It is safer, she thinks. There are no narrow roads, low bridges steep slopes and sharp curves. You know that with out RV you can get where you need to go. She has a point there, but in my way of thinking, if you go exploring your country, then the way itself is a big part of where you need to go, and it is very important part of the trip itself.
We started climbing North, decided to take the shorter route this time, and avoid the freeway. Just before we had to turn to hwy 78 from hwy 180 I stopped for short break. When I came back to the truck, Patti pointed on a sign and said “See, that’s what I am talking about when I say I am scared of those side ways”. This sign warned from steep curves and sharp turns, and advised trucks to choose a different route.

So now what? Turn back? My way or the highway?
I was just about ready to turn the truck and go back to I-10 when Patti said – Let’s do it. Let’s try this way. Adventure!! OK! so we took NM-78 to 191 and all the way to 60 and to Phoenix. Since I am writing these lines that means we made it just fine! As a matter of fact the way was AMAZING! Driving through the mountains and forests, the first 30 miles we drove between 20 and 40 mph and if you trust your breaks – that’s not a problem.
The way would take you through Gila national forest, through cliffs and valleys and breathtaking views as you go down from the mountains. We stopped several times to take some pictures, and some were shot as we were droving. I need to clean my truck. I know.
My main concerns on those smaller roads is gasoline. With the gasoline vaporing at the astonishing rate of 10 miles for the gallon, that could be a problem. At the bottom of the hill, when 78 meets 191 we saw a small pump in the sand. No gas statin or sign. just a pump. We stopped by the pump and from a small shack a woman came out and filled the truck, Full service – what do you know?
With a full tank I felt much better when we climbed the big mountain on 191. The road was wider and in great condition, and the great views were still all around us. No traffic, no towns – just nature. Stop anywhere you want to enjoy or take a picture or a small break. Later on, we started to see the famous Saguaro cacti on the side of the road, Patti’s favorite plant on the planet.
What can I say? No regrets here – we loved the way to Phoenix, until we got there.

City is a City is a BIG City

By the time we got close to the big city it was around 5:00pm. Not sure if you know what it means, but we found out after a research we did, that this is the time people are done working and driving back home. Except that in a city, people from all around the area choose to work around the same place and time. This is a social phenomena that is still being researched and not quite fully understood yet, but it does cause some other gastronomical situations also known as Traffic Jams. The nutritional values of this jam are not the best. Not recommended. It took us over an hour to drive the last 20 miles but we finally got there.

The RIZORT RE/SORT Resort

As soon as we drove through the gate of this great Leaf Verde Resort my hands started shaking. 3 guys are standing ready for you and directing you to a one of the many marked parking lanes for registration. The office has 3-4 clerks serving the heavy traffic of people that are checking in and out. All with uniforms. The RV town has many streets and from each street there are endless number of paths going out, and each one has an endless number of RVs parked one on top of the other. So crowded that they are being parked Zigzagged. Door to door. We were assigned site E-16 and driver G guided us on his pioneer vehicle J-15. The lady gave us Key G to the western dog walk, and key L to Laundry and Bathroom facilities of our neighborhood.
On the way to the site, I managed to see hair salon, and from what I heard – Wal–Mart are considering opening a super center in the middle of this RV town.
The traffic engineer did some weird dances in front of my truck, not sure what dance it is, but it sure has distracted me from parking. I parked. Got out of the car, and the engineer said – excellent job! –Thanks bud – you are a great dancer!, I replied.
We could not get to our home door without stepping over our neighbor’s carpet but they were all very polite and gathered all around us for a warm welcome from the hood.
I was still speechless. All I could say is mumbling some unrecognized sounds that no one could understood except Patti. And she translated my mumble to the surrounding company: “Where can I find a smaller campground? MUCH smaller campground….”
We did not hook up. We did not even unhook the truck. Tomorrow morning we are going to hit the road again after we find a different place, even if it means driving 200 miles away. I am not staying here!!! If I want to live in a city I can rent an apartment.
That’s it for the night. I think I am heading to bed now, Another moving day tomorrow.
Hey – thanks for stopping by and reading all of that! Part of RV Life… Take care and see you next time!

City that Rocks

2011-02-23T18:23:00.001-06:00

If you have never been to this area (Silver City) you have to put it on your map. We just came back from the City of Rocks State Park – and that was the last proof to show that this area is an absolute must for anyone who wants to explore our beautiful country,

Before I start

Have you ever lost your whole post just before you post it? That is irritating. You write it, put your thoughts and mind into it, then read it again, fix here, tweak there, rearrange the pictures, and when you are ready to post – puff ! gone!! the writer closes itself and the post vanishes! All over again! So this is the second time around… hopefully last. Ugrrrr.

OK, now I can Start Restart

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 – Yesterday was a work day. Pretty much it. I think that unless there is something worth mentioning, I will save you from reading about those days. I am not so good at telling stories when there is not much to tell. What can I say? Woke up in the morning. 9:43am. Brushed my teeth. All of them. Yes including the one on the upper left. Washed my face. dried it too. Then ate a Yoplait Yogurt – strawberry flavor. Doesn’t sound too exciting to me. so I will save you from that. Let’s just say – yesterday was a work day.
So now – the more exciting stuff. Today. After a light breakfast Patti found all the packed away hiking gear. Time to take it out, seems like we are using it more often lately! Got my vest and the pouches. Filled some water and Granola bars and were all ready to go.
City of Rocks is a park not so far from here – about 30 miles south on hwy 180. When we got closer to the park, the sight was very unique. In the middle of endless yellow flat meadows there are some patches of rocks growing out of the ground, as if they were lost in space and time.
We parked the truck, and started exploring around. The main area of the park is in and around the rocks. The different shapes of the rocks, the light and shade, combined with yellow sand, blue skies and green trees creates a majestic blend of shapes and colors that are just waiting to be captures. And so we did. We took many photos in this park, couldn’t help it.
One thing unique about this park is that you can camp almost anywhere around. The sites are spread throughout the park and provide a perfect camping spot with privacy, and beauty all around you. Most sites are dry, but some will have electricity and/or water. They even have showers for the campground. I think it is unique to camp in the middle of the park – and not too expensive. The phone reception though is not the best although we did get some emails and Skype messages while hiking. At least we had a peace of mind that if there is any emergency we are accessible. Thankfully – no urgent calls today.
After we looked around and among the rocks, we decided to take the outside trail – along the park perimeter. This is a very peaceful easy walking trail, about 2.5 miles long that provides excellent view points on the rocks from outside. It just emphasizes the uniqueness of this park and puts it in perfect perspective with the landscape around. The trail ended close to the starting point, in a desert botanic gardens. Nothing was blooming at this time of the year, but I am sure it us magnificent at spring time.
We have so many pictures and it is tough to choose. So this is a small sample of them. View it from the start and join us along to our city tour:

Rethink Possible? Impossible!

Back to a favorite subject – the cellphone companies. This time it is AT&T.
It all started with an SMS message that Patti got, telling her that she exceeded the 100MB Data roaming quota. After paying outrageous amount to Verizon on roaming data, I called AT&T immediately to sort it out.
I will try to make a long story short:
In the US, AT&T coverage is 97% (so they claim). The 3% that are not covered are moving all the time. Moving with me that is. Just happened to be exactly where I am at.
Turns out, that according to the ‘Terms and Conditions’, if you are in an area that is outside of AT&T coverage – you are limited to 100MB of roaming data. That is fine. Here is the trick though – if you use over 100MB of roaming data in two consecutive billing cycles – you will be permanently blocked from all roaming data usage. This is irreversible. So when I found that out, the conversation with the “External Network Specialist” went something like that:
– So if I am not eligible to use over 100MB of roaming, please stop the service when I reach this limit, but don’t block the roaming altogether for good.
– That is impossible, sir
– Then instead of sending me a message after I exceeded the quota, please send me a warning when I used, say, 70% of the quota, so I can still do something about it.
– That is impossible, sir
– Is it AT&T??
– yes…
– Then rethink Possible!!
How am I supposed to know how much of roaming data I used?
– You can call anytime sir.
– well, we both know that 100MB could be consumed in less then 30 minutes. so am I suppose to call every 20 minutes?
– That’s what the terms and condition says. You are still under your 30 day trial, you can return the phone if you want.
– No, I don’t want to return the phone, but I want to have practical solution to avoid permanent irreversible blocking from roaming in the 3% of the US that you don’t cover, and happen to follow me around. What you are telling me is that if I am out of your coverage area, I should turn my phone off. Smart phones are designed to consume data. Those devices are more than just phones and have many different usages, so even just turning the phone on in a roaming area can cause me to lose my roaming ability forever.
She didn’t have answer for that. Just another irritating fact they don’t tell you, Don’t you love those cellular providers?

Enough crying poor baby

Ok, ok, enough. Don’t worry, I didn’t lose sleep over it. It is just irritating and I wanted to share it with you, just in case you didn’t know that.
Anyways – we came back home and Patti didn’t feel like cooking tonight, so we went out to eat some local food. Good authentic Mexican food at Jalisco Café. They have great green Chili. If you like south western food, go there and tell them I sent you. They will look at you in a strange look like “Who???” but you can still tell them :)
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 – Didn’t have energy yesterday to write read or do anything (as Donna said in her FB Wall). Came back form the restaurant and fell asleep. So today I arranged all the photos and wrote this post and wrote this post. (It is not a mistake – I wrote it twice).
Tomorrow we are leaving this campground, Rose Valley Ranch, so just few words about it. We really enjoyed it here. First – it is definitely not a parking-lot style. Ample space, and privacy. Second – the aesthetics around – you see they care. Old time ornaments around the campground, the US flag is flying on a big lighter pole in the center, many service buildings throughout the campground – even a small gym! and last – they are very friendly people. we really enjoyed it here (Oh – I said that already, didn’t I). So if you are in the area and looking for a campground – this is the one! Tell them I sent you. No, just kidding…
So although I wrote this post twice, at least you get to read it once! but that is enough and appreciated! Hope you like it, and thanks for following along.

Have you been to Stay

2011-02-19T23:34:00.002-06:00

Patti and I were debating tonight were should be our next stop. We are planned to leave tomorrow and go west towards Phoenix. After looking at campgrounds and the weather channel, we decoded unanimously – we are going to Stay! Have you been there?

Traditions

Friday, February 18, 2011 – I think I jumped ahead a little with the title. I will get back to it a little later, but for now – let’s start with a short jump to yesterday.
I am not sure what was it that made us decide to resume a tradition we had in the past. Being in Israel, dealing with many Israelis here in the US, whatever it is, we decided to restart and celebrate the Shabbat Evening – a very fundamental and basic Jewish tradition. Not with all the prayers, songs and laws and rules – but the basic. Bake a Challah and a nice dinner, light the candles and bless the house, drink and bless on the wine on the bread and on the food – the core.
Patti planned on cooking all day today. We stopped last night at Wal-Mart and got all the ingredients for the Beef Bourguignon, and some more. That was a nightmare shopping last night – all the night shift people were restocking the shelves, and each and every one of them had its own little boom box playing full blast some type of rap music, to the point you could not hear or talk. Rap is not exactly my favorite Genre either. Came back and work till late to compensate for the time we are off.
All forgot about Diva and her vet appointment, but the alarm clock at 7:00am reminded me. This is the first time I use the alarm clock on the droid, and turned out that the alarm is not compatible with some other application I have, and the alarm would not shut off, until I turned off the phone completely. What can I tell ya – I am not a morning person. You should have seen me, no take it back… You shouldn’t have seen me that morning.
Turns out the vet is just around the corner from here. Took Diva to the vet, came back and sat down to work. Between the conference calls and the programs a write – the time flew by. In the meantime – Patti is working on this super complicated dish and the smells are already in the air!
She cuts the beef piece by piece, drying it with a towel, petting it, talking to it, and laying it on a special plate with its friend beef pieces that went through the same process. A whole bottle of wine disappeared somewhere inside this dish…
While the wine was reduced and the Challah was baking Patti ran to the vet to get Diva. I had a conference call planned at 6:00pm. Why? because this customer is not in the US so I make time adjustments. We tried to shoot for 6:30 or 6:45 but the phone call lasted until 7:30, the Challah bread was cold, and the food had to be reheated,. Patti was disappointed. After a full day of work and preparation she wanted it to be perfect.
Finally had our Shabbat dinner – and the food was nothing short of Devine!! Patti knows her cooking. Had a great dinner and went to bed looking forward for exciting day tomorrow.

Exploring

Saturday, February 19th, 2011 – Now that’s what I was talking about when I said we need to work some and have some fun! Once or twice a week to go out and look around – that’s awesome!
On the map today was the Cliff Dwellings National Monument – 44 miles north of Silver City. We were not quite sure what did the sign mean when it said – 44 miles, driving time 2 hours. How come? Is it for mules? Actually not – it was meant for cars. Hwy 15 is the road that takes you to the park, and it is as enjoyable as the monument itself. A narrow windy road (Mountainous, as the sign says) without center line, very sharp curves that you cannot see if there is a car coming or not. Just trust the common sense of the other drivers to slow down and move to the right as much as possible on those curves.
Views were breathtaking. Mountains, Ponderosa Pines, Scattered clouds in blue skies, and even some snow here and there on the side of the road. It was around 60 degrees outside – a beautiful day for a hike.

It took us just about two hours to get there. We stopped at the visitor center to stamp our National Parks Passport, take some brochures and head out to the sire itself, 2 miles away.
The trail was not too long, and let us along a small stream with small wooden bridges crossing it from side to side. At one point the trail start climbing up, towards the cliff where the caves are. I think the climb was just a little over 100 feet, and we realized – we need to do more of those!! There is only one tour a day, at 1:00pm, and guess what – it was 1:00pm when we got there. We joined a group of people that was there, and followed our guide showing us those three main caves. the place was initially occupied for only 25 years (1175 – 1200) and the initial residents left. It was used again several times after that and you can actually find a corn basket filled with corn that is 200 years old.

By he end of the tour we came back the same way we came up. That was much easier. Wonder why… Patti started to get a headache so we didn’t explore much more. We headed back to the campground enjoying the mountain views and the back roads on the way back.

Decision Time

OK, so we are going tomorrow, but where? One option was to drive through Breer – a small mountain town on hwy 60. I started to look up campgrounds in the area – but they are all closed. Opened May thru October. This doesn’t sound good. I found some campgrounds closer to a bigger towns on the way – Eager and Pinetop Lakeside. On their website you could see advertisements to their winter activities – Ski!!! Oh no,, No thank you!
Short visit to the weather channel assured us that this path is a spring-summer path. At least for us. So we looked on an alternative path. Coming from the south. The distance to Apache Junction is only about 215 miles, and in that area you could find many campgrounds, except they are called resorts, priced extremely high and offer some swimming pool and family activities. That could be great for those who are looking for a resort, but I am looking for a nice place to stay to meet with some friends. And then the penny dropped. We don’t have much to see in Phoenix because we not city people. We are there just to meet friends, and we are not going to have much time to see them until the weekend anyways, so …
So we are staying here. We will move towards the end of the week, maybe Wednesday or Thursday, stay there through the weekend and continue. So that’s it – We are going to Stay. Many places to see around, and the RV Park is not bad.
Man – that was a long one! Did you read all of that? You are the one! Thanks though! (I wrote it :) – Stay on with us, leave a comment and see you next post…

Walk the Catwalk

2011-02-17T21:04:00.001-06:00

When thinking about New Mexico, I always imagine flat desert with dry bushes and yellow sand. The Gila National Forest area does not even resemble this image. Mountains, Creeks, water and trees are creating magnificent views and trails in a perfect harmony – all of this was waiting for us today and carried us away from our daily jobs to NM wonderlands

Thursday, February 17th, 2011 – When we got here to Silver City, NM we knew we are going to dedicate some time looking around. We decided to dedicated 2 days while we are here to explore, and the rest… to work.

Preparing

Tomorrow, on Friday, we need to take Diva to the vet to take care of her teeth, and in the evening we wanted to start having a Shabbat Dinner, with Challah and candles and a nice cooked meal. So that is not a good day. On Sunday, we would like to continue our trip west, so today and Saturday are the chosen days.
Patti looked up some places around us to explore, and came up with a list. The Catwalk National scenic trail, the cliff dwelling national monument, and Rock City State Park. I had to pick the one for today. Since we did not hike for some time, I was eager to get my shoes dirty on some trails, so after a small research I downloaded topographic map to both our GPS and my Android, charged everything and we were ready to go to the catwalk.

The trip

So today we got up (not too early), had our coffee, got the cameras and were on our way. We passed through Cliff, a small town on highway 180 on the way, and decided to stop and grab a snack, so that we will not get hungry while hiking. The decision where to stop was easy - Between the gas station, Mini Mart, Fishing shack, School Bus station, and the town garage we chose the one building that was all of the above. Grabbed some Trail Mix, a pop and were back on the way.

The hike

The trail head was some 68 miles away from town, so about an hour later we finally got to the parking lot of the trail head. Jumped out of the car (paid the $3 fee) and started our hike. After about three miles we saw a small mark on the ground that said 1/4. Quarter what? Quarter a Lbs we lost?, Quarter an hour we walked? don’t know. After three or four additional miles we saw yet another mark that said 1/2. Maybe we are half way? when we reached the marker that said 1 I looked at the GPS and found out – we walked just about one mile – that is five thousands two hundreds and eighty feet. This is how out-of-shape we are.
The trail itself was magnificent. 1.1 miles each way. It goes above the stream and crosses it many times walking on metal mesh floor bridges. On the way there are many smaller water falls, cliffs, and shapes in the white red rock that the water curved in time. The games of light and shade just added to the picture, and deep blue sky with scattered clouds were perfect background to the tree tops.

Back Home

Came back later afternoon, ate left overs from yesterday’s meal (Chipotle Cranberry chicken, Garlic and Onion Zucchini and mashed potatoes) loaded our pictures, and we need yet to go to the grocery store (Wal-Mart of-course) for tomorrows dinner.
On Saturday we will probably go exploring again, and on Sunday – moving day.
until then – keep on checking in. Great you are coming along so far. Thanks a bunch!