Visiting Family and Friends

12/25/04 - Christmas Gathering
After a bit of a leisurely start, we drove to my sister's house in Guerneville (Map) for the family Christmas gathering. We had our traditional heart shaped waffles, stocking goodies, presents galore, and a great roast beef dinner. A good time was had by all. I was particularly impressed by the maturity my niece and nephews showed. They are growing up to be fine, loving people.

Goat Rock on the Sonoma Coast

While dinner was being prepared, my sister and niece (who live in Ohio) and my wife and I all drove out the coast, which is about a half hour drive. We spent some time enjoying the surf and sand at one of our favorite places, Goat Rock. It was quite cloudy and a bit chilly, but we all enjoyed the time together.

After dinner we returned to Spring Lake, where we had no hookups or internet access because of the trees. So we spent the evening reading, writing, painting and listening to music.

12/26/04 - Back to Sonoma County
Today we moved the coach again, stopping in Rohnert park to spend some time (and have lunch at the Olive Garden) with our friends Bonnie and Terry. We also stopped at another good friends house to wish her happy holidays. While I was there I installed Earthlink DSL on her computer, which I had never done before. All went well and we left at about 4pm. We were headed back to the east bay when darkness began to fall and a heavy storm blew in. So we decided it would be wise to stop at the KOA in Petaluma for the night.

12/27/04 - A Very Challenging Day
It rained over three inches last night and this morning the surrounding agricultural land was mostly flooded. I decided to dump my holding tanks and fill up with fresh water before leaving. unfortunately the sewer connection as pretty far from my tanks, so I connected two hoses to make the reach. As soon as I started dumping I realized that the sewer was also slightly uphill and things started going very badly. Small leaks turned into big leaks and although I got most of the black water down the sewer, I spilled a considerable amount on the ground. So I also dumped most of my gray water on the ground to dilute the mess and cleaned up as best I could.

My wife was planning on doing laundry that day anyway, so I changed all my clothes and we left the campground just as they were closing the road due to flooding. We were concerned about Hwy 101 being closed at the Marin County line, so rather than stopping to do laundry, we pressed on. Turned out that the trip to the east bay was relatively easy.

Big Oak Tree with no leaves in Oakland Hills

Where to spend the night was the big question. Because we intended to see some friends in Fremont on Thursday, I thought it would be good to find a spot between there and Concord. Our book showed a campground at Anthony Chabot regional Park in the Oakland Hills. So we drove up another very windy mountain road to get to this place. it was very picturesque, but when we arrived we discovered that even though they claimed they could handle a 40 ft rig, the camping spaces were too small, so we decided not to stay there. I had a rather hard time turning around and getting out of there, having to unhook the toad to make one of the turns.

I also had a big problem finding my way back to the freeway I had come from. We stopped at one point and asked directions to 580, and as we were following them, I noticed an on ramp to CA37 which I thought was where we had come in. But I hesitated, my wife said we should continue toward 580, so I ignored my intuition and got totally lost and frustrated in the process. I wound up getting upset at my wife and driving miles out of my way to get back to the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds where we spent the night again.

I learned many lessons today from all these unpleasant experiences. First, make sure the sewer connections are tight and that the sewage will flow downhill. Second, call ahead and make sure that the place I intend to stay at can accommodate my big rig. Third, don't take my frustrations out on my wife. Forth, have a clear idea of the route I intend to take before starting out (so I don't ask for directions to the wrong freeway for instance).

12/30/04 - Getting Ready to Move Mom
We spent the last couple of days helping my mom get ready for her move. My sister did most of the planning, directing, and dealing with my mother, while my wife and I handled assigned tasks. One of my tasks was to go through about 15 trays of slides and pick out any I thought were important to save. Some were of my mom when she was in her late teens, but most were of trips my family took to various places throughout the world. My dad was a school psychologist so he had most of the summer free to travel and so the whole family (I have two younger sisters) would spend a month or so traveling around the US or Europe or Japan or Mexico each year.

It was great to take a trip down memory lane, but I was mostly interested in any photos of our family, as opposed to the places we traveled to. I have yet to tackle the nine trays of slides of our trip to Japan, but I pulled perhaps 150 slides which I may digitize someday.

Today we left Antioch and drove down to Fremont (Map) where David, my best friend from high school, lives with his wife and daughter. We have kept in touch, rather sporadicly sometimes, since then. There were a few years (around 1988) when I worked for him, creating multimedia applications, so we saw a lot of each other then.

David now teaches chess to school kids and stays home to cook, clean and take care of his daughter, while his wife performs her duties as a telephone company manager. He is a gourmet chef and fixed us a wonderful seven course Chinese dinner. It is always great to see him, his wife and growing child again (she's about 16 now).

Tonight we spent the night at a nearby WalMart because there are no RV parks anywhere near here. With so many people in this area, it seems to me that there would be more demand for RV parks, but at least at this point, they are very far and few between.

Bamboo near Saratoga, CA

1/3/05 - New Years Visits
The week between Christmas and New Years has typically been a time for me to travel to the San Francisco Bay Area and catch up with old friends and family. This year we have extended that into this first week of the new year. We invited some good friends that live in Mtn. View to join us at Saratoga Springs in Saratoga (Map), for a New Years Eve dinner and visit. We always have interesting conversations with them and this visit was no exception.

Yesterday my cousin Ed and his wife Enid came over from Santa Cruz for lunch and to see our new coach and today another cousin and her husband also drove over from Santa Cruz. It was great to see them all. I intend that since we are now more mobile, we will get to see them more often.

Today my cousin Marty and her husband drove over from Santa Cruz and met us for lunch (at the same great Chinese restaurant as the day before) in Saratoga. Then they spent a few minutes checking out the coach and visiting before needing to leave so they could pick up their son after school. It is always great to see them too.