RoadMusic

I wish I'd thought of that.....

2007-06-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

I love words. Words are fun. Where would we be without words? (I was so tempted to end this right here.)

Which is why I love Word Imperfect. What a great idea! The author posts a new, obscure word each day, then ..... and this is the fun part ....... readers are invited to make up their own definitions of the word and post them as comments. Some of these are brilliant and very funny. (Some are boring, but they go by fast.) Readers can vote on which invented meaning they like best. The correct definition of the word is then revealed. An altogether excellent idea for a blog and I am sooooo jealous that I didn't come up with it first.

Wouldn't it be funny if Noah Webster put all the wrong definitions in when he wrote the first dictionary and we've now gotten used to all the incorrect meanings? Maybe a "sink" is a large over-stuffed chair. Makes more sense, doesn't it?

Coming Home

2007-06-02T17:57:00.001-07:00

Yes, we are back home in Salem, Oregon safe and sound. Domesticity has set in again. Today we planted an herb garden and some lettuce plants, both of which Malcolm wants badly to destroy. He is plotting, I can tell. By the way, he was very glad to have his people back, and he's been repaying us for leaving him behind ever since we got home. Soon I will sell him on eBay.

Before going further, here's a short description of the final days of our journey.

Las Vegas was hot, the traffic was terrible, but it was all worth it to spend a couple of days with Dusty's sister, April. I wish I could put April's giggle in this blog - it would brighten up everyone's day. Oh, and that's Murphy the cat on the table between them.

After leaving Las Vegas, we had our most interesting travel day (if you're into panic and thoughts of old horror movies). Having once visited Pyramid lake, near Reno, I suggested that we drive that way instead of staying on the main roads. It was, after all, Memorial Day weekend and neither of us were too keen on maneuvering through heavy traffic.

There are very few towns between Las Vegas and Pyramid Lake. More out of boredom than a craving for chewy meat, I excitedly yelled "fresh jerky" when I saw a small store along the road advertising this treat. We went inside, picked up a bag of jerky and a big jar of cactus honey (for my mother), then spent ten minutes or so listening to the grizzled owner (of course in the Nevada desert, the owner would have to be "grizzled") give us directions on the best way to get to Salem. He talked and talked, and we understood some of it; he drew involved maps on a brown paper bag that we later couldn't decipher. Finally, we tore ourselves away. I don't think he gets many visitors. Many miles down the road we realized we had left the jerky behind. Oh well -on to Pyramid Lake.

Pyramid Lake is quite an unexpected sight when you've been driving for several hours through the barren sagebrush desert of Nevada. It's quite large with lots of interesting pyramid shaped rock formations around it. We congratulated ourselves on taking the road less traveled and finding such a refreshing spot. Right up to the time that the paved road ended and we found ourselves going about 20 mph on gravel and kicking up dust like crazy.

At this point I realized I had misread the map. What I thought was a "scenic route" was in fact an "unpaved road". But I wasn't concerned - it didn't look like a very long stretch of road. An hour (and maybe 25 miles) later, I began to get concerned. Dusty had been concerned for quite a long time and was nearing hysteria by this point. Just before her head would have exploded, we saw a pickup pulling a horse trailer approaching from the other direction. This was the first sign of life we'd seen since hitting the gravel road. The driver and his two dogs all spoke in a slightly German accent. We were told that we'd get to some town we'd never heard of if we just kept on the way we were going. On we went to someplace.

Half an hour later, still on the gravel road, we saw another pickup truck, this time behind us. We were encouraged that someone actually wanted to go wherever it was that we were going. We let the pickup truck pass us and we waved the driver down. He told us to follow him and he'd get us to the paved road, which he did. We then discovered we were in California, considerably south of where we had intended to cross the border. But we didn't care. We were off that stupid gravel road and we hadn't run out of gas and we hadn't pulled over an ax murderer to ask for directions, and we were never going to Pyramid Lake again.

So, another trip is history. It was definitely a success but we were very glad to get home.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Arches National Park, Utah

2007-05-26T09:24:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos from Arches National Park that were taken on Thursday. Friday night we stayed in Mesquite, Nevada and had no Internet access. Last night was our first night in Las Vegas and I should have blogged, but I pooped out. So, I'll catch you up on our last day in Utah for a start.

We got into the park quite early in the morning so we had very little company at first. It's easy to walk around out there and feel like you're the only person for miles around. By the time we left it was getting a lot busier.

And then there's Las Vegas...... quite a culture shock after all our quiet days in the mountains. And who the heck controls the thermostat here?

Dusty and I have decided we have had enough of life on the road for a while, so we're heading back to Oregon when we leave Las Vegas in the morning. We have about 1,000 miles ahead of us. We'll be avoiding the interstates, so we will probably have a couple more motel nights before we reach Salem.

We are curious to see if Malcolm completely ignores us when we get home, or if he will be all over us. (We suspect the former.) We will also be coming home to new kitchen cabinets that my brother Jeff installed while we were gone. As you can tell, the travelers are getting a little homesick!

Canyonlands National Park, Utah

2007-05-23T17:27:00.001-07:00

Lots of pictures tonight from Canyonlands National Park hear Moab, Utah.

The road into the park.

Dusty with two rock formations called the Merrimac and the Monitor in the background.

Beautiful country, this.

A rare sighting of the elusive Kate-person.

No matter what direction you look, there's a photo to be taken.

Blooming prickly pear cactus.

You don't realize how noisy your life normally is until you come to a place like this and can hear nothing but silence.

More prickly pears in bloom.

Dusty

What can I say? Big rock.

See why they call it Canyonlands?

There is a how-to blogging book called "No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog". Having read the title, although not the book, I've avoided detailing our meals. Besides, what we've eaten on this trip is far less interesting than what we could have eaten, but didn't. In Colorado, we didn't eat buffalo jerky, buffalo burgers, or buffalo meat loaf (with black gravy). Fortunately, the wonderful chocolate shop in Estes Park has not joined the buffalo trend; I don't think I could have handled Double Buffalo Fudge.

In Utah, we haven't eaten Duck Raviolis (or is that Duck!!! Raviolis!!!), Lamb Tacos, Rabbit Sausage with Goat Cheese, Smoked Elk Tenderloin, Pan-seared Caribou medallions with plum, whiskey & habanero demi-glace, or the ever-popular breakfast dish, Pigs in a Pancho. I'll let you know soon what we don't eat in Nevada.

The plan for tomorrow is to go through Arches National Park, then head to Las Vegas for a visit with Dusty's sister, April. Get ready, April!!

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

2007-05-22T16:50:00.001-07:00

In my last blog entry, I completely left out an important part of our trip yesterday: our visit to Mesa Verde National Park. Dusty had always wanted to see the Anasazi cliff dwellings.

You have to drive up about 20 miles of twisty mountain roads to get to where you can view the cliff dwellings. This is Dusty's very favorite type of road to drive on. I think her knuckles are still white.

One of the canyons in the park.

A pit house. Looks cozy, huh?

One of the cliff dwellings, from a distance. Dusty put a deposit on this one for next summer's vacation rental.

A tour group viewing one of the dwellings.

Back down in the valley.

Catching Up

2007-05-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

If you're ever in Cortez, Colorado and want to connect to the Internet, do not stay at the Comfort Inn.

I settled in last night, all set for a nice long blogfest, but found that although I could connect to the wireless network, I couldn't actually do anything beyond that. My call to the motel's front desk got me nowhere ("Gee, I really don't know what to tell you.") Next step: calling the wireless company's customer support. I got a very nice young woman in India with whom I chatted amiably for way too long. We tried changing many settings on my laptop, then changed them back. Many questions were asked and answered. My face began visibly aging in the mirror in front of me.

Finally, when all solutions had been tried, I was told that the wireless company has an incompatibility issue with Intel network cards. Hmmm...... sounds like maybe they should go into sheep farming or something. The young Indian woman apologized for not being able to help me, then offered to give me a "case number" so that I could call them back if I wanted to. I felt like screaming "WHY ON EARTH WOULD I WANT TO CALL YOU BACK???". Anyway, no blog last night.

Tonight we are in Moab, Utah, with a wireless connection that works - hallelujah. So time to post yesterday's pictures and a few from today.

The last picture from the cabin in Estes Park. I had to show you the lighted snowshoes. If there's someone on your Christmas list who is hard to buy for, this is the answer.

An old stone church on a mountainside south of Estes Park.

The drive between Montrose and Durango, Colorado was great. The mountains are the San Juans.

More San Juan mountains.

This pictures was taken in the Uncompahgre National Forest in Colorado. Dusty and I just loved saying this word, so we said it over and over for hours. Occasionally we even pronounced it correctly. We also practiced saying Ouray (a town we drove through in Colorado, pronounced you-RAY). So it was "Uncompahgre, you-RAY" all the way down the road. Driving does not have to be dull.

I'm sure there's a good caption for this picture, but I don't know what it is. Dusty looks like she's trying to sell someone a river.

The trip from Montrose to Durango involved ascending several times to just under 12,000 feet, where it was still a little wintry.

This morning we drove through the Four Corners region (where the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona all meet at one point) then through Arizona a ways and up to Utah through Monument Valley. Unfortunately, it was very rainy all morning, so all the fantastic geological formations in Monument Valley were shrouded in clouds. As we got a little further north, it started clearing up. Above is Mexican Hat Rock.

Along the road driving up to Moab, Utah.

A mini-arch. Tomorrow we'll see the BIG arches in Arches National Park.

Dusty and the mini-arch.

We are staying two nights here in Moab, since we want to see both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National park.

For those of you who are leaving comments, first of all, thanks! Secondly, the comments don't show up on the blog until I "publish" them, which I do as soon as I know about them - but that might be the next day. This is to prevent comments showing up that I don't like, such as "What a stupid blog!", or "I can't believe I wasted my time reading this.". All extremely positive comments are encouraged though.

Rifle, Colorado

2007-05-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

No photos today, folks. We've taken so many scenic mountain pictures this last week that they are all starting to look the same. Tomorrow will bring a change of scenery however. Dusty's mom told us that the drive between Montrose and Durango, Colorado is wonderful, so that's where we're heading. I'm sure there will be lots of photos to share with you tomorrow evening.

We are staying tonight in Rifle, Colorado, at a motel called The Rusty Cannon. Sounds noisy, doesn't it?

More elk and ....... ghosts

2007-05-19T19:58:00.001-07:00

We'll be leaving Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow after a wonderful stay. We've already decided to come back again in the fall sometime, when the aspens are changing color.

We did see some bighorn sheep, but only at a distance. Unfortunately, no moose!

Here's a coyote skulking around the edge of an elk herd. The elk were keeping a pretty close eye on him.

A big boy crossing the river

There was a minor crime at the cabins yesterday. A group of golfers who rent cabins here have held an annual golf tournament for several years. They put a big sign out by the road advertising this year's tournament, but this morning the sign was missing - apparently stolen by vandals. The sign read "The Annual Elk Poop Golf Tournament". I am not making this up.

The historic and supposedly haunted Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.

Stephen King wrote half of "The Shining" while staying for five months in room 217 of this hotel. The second filming of "The Shining" - the TV mini-series - was filmed here. The hotel is said to be haunted, although the spirits are friendly, not evil as in King's story.

The fourth floor is the old servants quarters and is particularly ghostly. Children are heard playing in the narrow hallways when no children are present. Room 418 seems to be the center of activity, with many noises coming from it and impressions left on the bed when no one has been in the room. (Cue music from The Twilight Zone....).

The ghost of the original owner is sometimes seen in the billiard room and his spectral wife is heard playing the piano in the music room. Stephen King himself says he saw the ghost of a young child roaming the hotel looking for his nanny. But then we know what kind of an imagination he has.

Well, now I've scared myself silly and I'll be up all night.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Day 2

2007-05-18T15:45:00.001-07:00

Some pictures from our second day of exploring Rocky Mountain National Park. As the bumper stickers around here say: "Another ho-hum day in Paradise"! We had beautiful weather until about 4 pm, when a thunderstorm sent us back to the cabin.

We hiked about half a mile on this trail, then turned around and came back because we didn't know which trail we were on or where it was going. The funny thing was that no one we passed knew where they were either. We decided to name it the Heckawee Trail, as in "Where the Heckawee?".

Views from the Heckawee Trail.

Dusty and Cindy on our second hike today. This time we knew where we were: Fern Trail. By this time, with the weekend approaching, we started seeing quite a few more people.

Elk everywhere, as usual. This evening we're going to a place where we should be able to see some bighorn sheep. And I'm still looking for my first moose.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2007-05-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Today was off-and-on thunderstorms, but we still got out and saw a lot of beautiful scenery and quite a few critters.

We have a new buddy out front of the cabin. He sits on this stump and waits for us to throw him a peanut, then he runs over to pick up the peanut and runs back to his stump to eat it.

You don't have to drive very far into Rocky Mountain National Park to see lots of elk.

More beautiful mountain scenery.

Bear Lake. There's still quite a bit of snow around it, some of which I managed to sink into up to my knees.

Bear Lake

Cindy, Dusty and I took a walk around Sprague Lake and found some more friendly chipmunks. This little guy looks like he's saying "Oh please, please, feed me!"

Dusty likes it here. Can you tell?

Some muledeer resting in the trees.

Estes Park, Colorado

2007-05-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

We were welcomed by this friendly little bear when we arrived at our rental cabin in Estes Park this afternoon. What a beautiful place! And, to my surprise, there is wireless Internet access in the cabin, so I'll be able to keep blogging daily. I'm sure this is quite a relief to everyone. (And you thought you weren't going to have to read this for a few days - ha!)

Our home in the woods for the next four nights.

There is over 600 feet of the Fall River on the property, and part of it is only about 50 feet from our cabin. It's a great place for fishing, we're told, but neither of us fish. I love the sound of the running water and just sitting by the river and relaxing. Dusty agrees, but says the sound of running water makes her want to, well, you know......

More of the Fall River.

Dusty relaxing by the river.

Some interesting rock formations nearby.

I looked out the window as I was writing this blog and saw these wild turkeys. It's also very common for foxes, mule deer and elk to wander around here. We saw several elk grazing in front yards as we drove through Estes Park earlier today. Dusty isn't too impressed with the wild turkeys, but thinks the elk are great.

Tomorrow afternoon my friend Cindy arrives. (I got in trouble earlier when I referred to her as "my OLD friend Cindy".) We'll all start exploring Rocky Mountain National Park then and try to cram as much into the next three days as possible. I wish we had a month here! It's great to be back in Colorado again after all these years.

Rawlins, Wyoming

2007-05-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

We had a very nice drive today from Jackson Hole to Rawlins, Wyoming. We sure can't complain about the weather the last couple of days - it has been perfect.

A street in Jackson Hole. See the little arch on the left side? It is made from elk antlers.

After leaving Jackson, the view in the rear view mirror was spectacular.

Dusty got to feeling really Western while in Jackson and bought this great hat. Now she thinks she's pretty cool.

Some more pictures taken on the first part of our drive today.

As we got further south in Wyoming, we started seeing lots of interesting geological formations.

We got up a little high on this leg of the trip, almost 10,000 feet. This picture was taken at the Continental Divide. I wanted to get out, build a snowman, and put Dusty's hat on it, but she was adamant - the hat was staying with her. She can be such an old poop.

We had some wildlife sightings today. Wild buffalo (or bison - I don't know the difference), lots of antelope (but no cantaloupe), and even a fairly close-up look at an eagle in flight. I think we saw more wildlife than people.

Tomorrow we will arrive at our rental cabin in Estes Park, Colorado, and we'll stay put there for four days. We are both a little road-weary this evening, so having several days coming up with no long drives sounds pretty good. As far as I know, the cabin does not have Internet access. But I'm going to try to find a Wi-Fi hotspot nearby so that I can continue to post our daily reports.

This is from the receipt for our motel room tonight. The spellings, capitalizations and other weirdnesses are exactly as it was written:

Motel are NOT responisible any thing left behind in room and LOST FOUND IN SIDE or OUT SIDE.

It kinda worries me that they are not responisible.

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

2007-05-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Dusty says "See, we finally made it!". This place is too beautiful for words, so I'm going to let our photos do the talking tonight.

Burley, Idaho

2007-05-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning driving through eastern Oregon and the afternoon in southern Idaho. Eastern Oregon definitely wins the beauty contest. I know other parts of Idaho are very scenic, but really..... they should have given the southern part of the state to Nevada.

We got to see one of the extremely rare Oregon Nike trees. You may have heard that Nike shoes are manufactured in Oregon, but the fact is they grow on trees. They are harvested in the spring and fall by extremely tall aspiring basketball players. Obviously, the locations of these trees is a closely guarded secret and we were lucky to come across one.

As you can see, careful hybridization has resulted in trees that produce many different styles and colors.

Below is the Malheur River in eastern Oregon. The air is as clean and fresh as it looks.
Somewhere a few miles past Stinkingwater Creek, we saw this contraption all by itself in a field.
Vale is a typical little town in eastern Oregon. Very quiet, hardly any traffic, with a slightly Western ambiance about it. Several buildings have beautiful murals painted on them.
Sorry, no pictures of southern Idaho. Our cameras will handle just so much beige.

The man in the room next to us has gone outside to improve his cell phone reception and it sounds like he's talking to his wife. He just told her that he saw lots of either cantaloupe or antelope on his trip today. My reception isn't very good either - I need to put my ear up to the window.

Tomorrow we will finally get to the Grand Tetons! Honest....

Hines, Oregon

2007-05-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

Above is a view of the Cascades from the highway between Sisters and Bend, Oregon. I thought this view would be a good subject for trying out the "photomerge" feature in Photoshop, so I took seven pictures and merged them into one. Other than the phantom triangle just left of center, it worked pretty good. The picture looks better when it isn't so small, but Blogger would need the Heimlich maneuver if I tried to feed it the big size.

We made it to Hines today, which is just west of Burns. I know, you've never heard of either one of them, right? We're in high desert country here, lots of land and very few people. Tomorrow it's on to Idaho and possibly into Wyoming.

We saw some good road and business signs today. A "Congestion" sign in the middle of a town with a population of 20. We figured one of them must have a cold. The one and only restaurant in another small town with a sign out front: "The Best Food In Town". No doubt. Another town, another restaurant with the sign: "The Swiss Chalet - Try our Oriental specialties!". Those darn Swiss. A bowling alley called "Lava Lanes" brought to mind Fred and Barney with their square bowling balls.

Well, we're off for a hot Saturday night in Hines. Just kidding - I don't think they have Saturday here.

The Stowaway

2007-05-11T20:13:00.000-07:00

While we were packing today, Malcolm jumped into one of the bags as though to say "You just THINK you're leaving me at home!". Poor little guy. Poor us, having to look at that sad face. Or maybe I misinterpreted his look. He may have been thinking "Oh, you're going away? You can't have this bag - it's comfortable.".

I think we're all ready to leave in the morning. Sounds like we may have a slightly rainy beginning to the trip, but that shouldn't last long. Off to the Grand Tetanus!!

Getting ready

2007-05-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

We went to a sporting goods store today to get a day pack for carrying around our water bottles and other necessities when we go hiking. Now all we need is a mule.

Brusha, Brusha, Brusha.

Here's the new Ipana with a brand new flavor! It's dandy for your te-e-e-e-eth.

(For those of you too young to remember, this little ditty is from a 1950s TV commercial, starring Bucky Beaver. Oh, such a culture-rich period!)

I hadn't been to a sporting goods store in years. I'd forgotten all the great stuff you can find in there. Like a solid mahogany turkey call, to use when hunting mahogany turkeys for that special Thanksgiving. Unlike boneless chickens, those dudes will really stand up to a carving knife.

One more day before we start on our trip and the excitement mounts. The suitcases have come out of storage and Malcolm is getting very nervous. Stay tuned!

Spring in Salem

2007-05-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

Today was so beautiful we decided to walk to the library instead of driving. Dusty was the photographer du jour.

Isn't this an odd-looking plant/tree? I have no idea what it is but I think the pod people left it behind.

One of the many paths through the neighborhood park.

See that little tiny person in the lower right-hand corner? That's me, Kate. Who says I'm not photogenic!

Dusty looked for orange azaleas for 20 years in the Carolinas and never could find any. In Salem they are everywhere.

A big pink tree! I'm such a botanist.

X Minus 4 Days

2007-05-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, we're hitting the road again, on Saturday, May 12th. I wasn't sure after the North Carolina to California to Oregon to California to Oregon trip if we were ever going to feel like traveling again, but of course we do. This trip will be strictly for fun.

Malcolm is staying at home this time and my mother will be taking good care of him. This will make traveling a lot easier for us, but don't tell Malcolm I said that. We'll miss him like crazy, and he will probably ignore us completely when we get back home. (How DARE you leave me for a month!!)

Surprisingly, Malcolm has become friends with my mother's Jack Russell terrier, Tippie, and they chase each other around the house. Here's the Tipster:

Malcolm has a squeaky mouse that fascinates Tippie, so there's an ongoing game of Tippie trying to get the mouse and Malcolm chasing her off. Personally, I think it's better than television.

So where are we off to this time? To begin with, a day or two at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Neither of us have been there before.

Looks purty, huh? This time of year in the Rockies it can be nice and warm one day, and snowing the next, so we're taking clothes for all types of weather.

By the way, the spell-checker in my email program keeps suggesting that I change the word "Teton" to "Tetanus". Wouldn't that be a great trip, to the Grand Tetanus? Followed of course by visits to Gangrene Canyon and Lake Ptomaine. Ptotally.

After Wyoming we'll be spending four days in this cabin in Estes Park, Colorado, right on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park.

I've stayed here before, many years ago, and it's just beautiful. Lots of wildlife around, many hiking trails, and gorgeous scenery. My camera is really going to get a workout. So will we, on those hiking trails.

An old friend of mine (sorry, Cindy, but you ARE getting up there) will be meeting us in Estes Park for a few days and it will be great to see her again after about eighteen years. Lots to catch up on.

After Estes Park, we're going to wander around other parts of Colorado for a couple of days and then head over to Utah. We'll plop ourselves in a motel room within driving distance of many of the scenic areas in S.E. Utah and stay there for four or five days, taking day trips in various directions.

Next will be Las Vegas and a few days visiting with Dusty's sister April. Then.... who knows. If we're pooped, we'll head home, if not we'll do some sightseeing in California along the way.

The laptop is going with us although we may not always have internet access. I'll keep up with this blog whenever possible. I hope we have lots of good pictures and some interesting stories to tell you.

Mea maxima culpa

2007-05-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Kate here, head hung low with shame for my poor blogging habits. OK, that's uncomfortable, so enough with the apologies. On with the fun!

First of all, a message from Malcolm. He wants all his fans to know that he is being held hostage in this house and is suffering greatly from the ill treatment he is receiving from his moms. He cannot go mouse hunting, he cannot go mole hunting, and he only gets fed 7 or 8 times a day. It's a rough life and he is hoping for lots of sympathy.

He does, however, have his own special spot on the dining table (ewww, cat germs!) where he can lie in the sun and watch the world go by.

Dusty does not get to lie on the dining room table, but she's doing well otherwise.

We are just beginning to explore some of the scenic wonders of Oregon, now that the weather is warming up. Recently we went hiking at Silver Falls State Park, which is just 20-some miles from where we live. This park has 10 waterfalls but in order to see them all you have to hike something like 8 or 9 miles. Being the weenies that we are, we decided to start with just a 2 mile hike and therefore got to see only 2 of the waterfalls.

See the little path behind the falls? You can walk behind it and, if you've brought personal hygiene supplies, shower, shampoo, and brush your teeth.

This place is the epitome of the Pacific Northwest: very green and very wet. Dusty is becoming quite fond of it though and doesn't miss the Carolina heat and humidity at all.

What a happy little face. You'd never know how much she misses her job at the bank.

Must run for now. Please return often for updates. Big news coming up..... another ROAD TRIP!!

Fan mail

2007-05-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hey! I'm really steamed! You guys start up this blog that I was really digging, then you just clam up for months on end. So ok, you just stay in your shell and see if I care!

Chowderhead in Pismo Beach

Please, we beg of you! We are dying to hear how Malcolm is doing in his new home! What adventures has he had since we last read of him? He is such a roll model for all of us, and a role model, too. He is an inspiration to all the felines in the world with dreams of someday traveling the world.

As the President of his International Fan Club, I hope I can prevail upon you to give us word of his well-being, and to relay to him how much we have missed hearing about him. If he is not too busy, we would also appreciate another bunch of autopawed photographs. The demand for them is astounding.

Mrs. Bianca Tabby
46 Litter Lane
Felinedelphia, PA

So where the heck have Kate, Dusty and Malcolm the Hairy been lo these many months? It seems at least one of them could have taken the time to write a few lines, but noooooo, their faithful readers (of which I was once one of) were just forgotten, like dust in the wind. Isn't there enough thoughtlessness, stress and disappointment in the world already without this kind of willful abandonment of responsibility to friends, family, and complete strangers? Can no one be depended on these days?

I, for one, am extremely disappointed in the management of this blog and will not read any further postings until such time as they are written.

Bereft in Beaverton

Home Thweet Home

2006-11-11T12:49:00.000-08:00

Howdy from Salem, Oregon! Land of much beauty and much rain. Can't have one without the other.

We wanted to thank all of you who have taken the time to read this blog during our recent travels. We've enjoyed writing it and it gives us a good record of the trip. We will be posting to the blog whenever we have photos worth sharing, funny stories, or brilliant ideas (this doesn't happen often). Please check in once in a while to see what's new. Most likely there will be weekly postings from now on, possibly more often.

Although we will be doing more traveling in the future, especially here in the Northwest, the phrase "road trip" is currently not allowed in this house. We covered about 5,400 miles since leaving Charlotte in October, so it's time for a little staying put! That doesn't make for very interesting blogging material, but I'm sure we'll be able to stir up a little excitement now and then.

Now go get ready for Christmas!!

Yesterday's adventures

2006-11-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

We are back in Willows, California this evening, on our way up to Oregon. Yesterday we took a short trip up into the San Gabriel mountains to a little town called Wrightwood. Beautiful scenery, great little gift shops.

April (realizing that at nearly 8,000 feet, we all should have brought jackets), Bob and Rusti. Unfortunately, sister Jill had to work so she missed all the fun.

Sorry, Bob..... I have to tell this story. We parked in Wrightwood and got out to walk around to the shops. Bob immediately realized he had locked his keys in the truck. He went off to call AAA while Rusti, April and I went shopping. AAA showed up amazingly quickly, considering where we were, and got the door of the truck opened without too much trouble. Big sigh of relief from all of us until Bob announced that he couldn't find his keys inside the truck. Another 10 minutes or so of searching the truck inside and out turned up nothing. (April, already cold, continued to get colder as the sun went down.) The keys were finally located. They had slipped off the center console into the back, into my bag that was on the floor - naturally the last place we would look for them. Of course Bob will never live this down. Every time we got out of the truck for the rest of the day, Bob was bombarded with three women asking him if he had his keys. Fortunately, Bob is a very patient man. Thanks for the fun day!!

We will be back home in Salem, Oregon sometime tomorrow afternoon and can continue getting settled in. We both miss Malcolm a lot!

Horsing around

2006-11-05T12:08:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from our visit to the stables this morning. Bob and Jill have a couple of horses and we had fun feeding them carrots and rubbing their heads.

Rusti, April and Jill. You can't tell that they're sisters, can you?

Jill and Rusti.

Kathy, with a little sliver of Bob on the right-hand side of the picture.

We're off sight-seeing this afternoon, so I should have more pictures to post later today.

From Ventura to Palmdale

2006-11-04T18:45:00.000-08:00

This used to be the courthouse in Ventura. I'm not sure what it's being used for now, but it's a neat building.

Rusti can't get used to the fact that the sun SETS, not rises, in the ocean out here.

One of the Ventura beaches. I'd like to say this photo was taken at an artistic angle, but I think Rusti just had her left foot in a big hole.

Main Street, Ventura California.

Rusti got to see her grand-niece Bentleigh Rose for the first time today.

Hi all,

This evening we are in Palmdale, California, which is the high desert of Antelope Valley. We will be visiting here until Tuesday morning, when we'll head back home towards Oregon. We are staying with Rusti's sister Jill's family (in a REAL house with HOME-COOKED food!). Rusti's sister April is also visiting here, so it's a mini-family reunion.

The San Andreas fault runs right through Palmdale. I hope I fall asleep before I have too much time to think about this. April assures me that it has been there a long time.

Rusti here:

I want to tell you all I had good reason to worry about the fog last night. I lived in San Francisco many years ago. One evening we went to a baseball game at Candlestick Park and coming back from the game the fog started to come in. Now fog in California is not like fog anywhere else. It's alive! It doesn't just kind of drift in, it crawls and creeps and insinuates its fingers into everything it passes. It's like the corpuscles in "Fantastic Voyage"! Well, we tried to beat it back to the city but didn't. We weren't able to see past the taillights of the car in front of us and ended up following it into a garage! We finally did get home (I'm here, aren't I?!) but I still don't like the fog!

Goodnight and sleep well.