expedition56

Nevada – Saturday, September 7

(I’ve been camping in Utah for 3 days, which is why there’s a delay in posts!)

After a long day in the van yesterday, Tula and I were ready for some walking this morning. Carson City is the capital of Nevada, and I really like the city. Despite the fact that it’s a major Nevada city, there’s still a small-town feel to it, and it’s a fun town to walk in. We started by walking around the Capitol area, and it’s a nice capitol building with a silver dome and pretty landscaping. Then I started off on the 2 1/2 mile Kit Carson historical walk in town (Carson City was named after Kit Carson). There’s a wide blue stripe on the sidewalk all through the historical parts of town and out into the neighborhoods, and it was fun to walk along that and see all the interesting buildings and historical homes. It passed by the elegant governor’s mansion too. Lots of people were out strolling – there was some kind of wine/shopping event and people who bought a ticket could go to a variety of places for a glass of wine and munchies and then stroll on to the next place. I popped my head into the second oldest church in town, which had its original stained glass windows from the 1800s and that was one of the wine stops. Even though I didn’t have a ticket, they offered me food, but since I’d had a late breakfast, the only thing I had was a piece of cold watermelon which hit the spot after a couple miles of walking! As I was finishing up my walk in town, the church bells pealed the hour, which I’d heard every 15 minutes, and then all of a sudden they started playing the child’s nursery song “There was a farmer had a dog, and Bingo was his name-o. B-I-N-G-O etc” – not what one expects to hear from church bells!

Carson City isn’t far from Lake Tahoe, a place of great beauty for everyone, and also great sadness for our family. My youngest brother’s life ended in Lake Tahoe, and this is the third time I’ve returned since his death. I was hoping to stumble upon a donation opportunity that was fitting for the day, and surprisingly, I found one that kind of summed it up. It was a shelter called Safe Embrace, and because I like to think of the waters of Lake Tahoe being a “safe embrace” for my brother at the end of his life, it seemed like it was meant to be. And their logo features doves soaring into the clouds. Safe Embrace has been open for almost 20 years – their services are available for men and women although their actual shelter is for women only, and their kids. The shelter is somewhere near Reno, although the physical address is not available for safety purposes, so I will simply mail in a donation to their P.O. box.

I drove over the mountains to Lake Tahoe, and drove down to Zephyr Cove, but there weren’t really any good walking places there. So I drove north along the lake and stopped where I saw a trail along the steep, rocky shore. I think I found one of the few paths that dogs were allowed on, and Tula and I walked a couple miles, enjoying the views from the bluffs – the lake was a beautiful blue/green color in places. I continued on to Incline Village where I found the Lakeshore bike trail, and that was another pretty place to walk some more miles – past beautiful wooden homes with pretty landscaping; some of which overlooked the lake. There were a few people out biking, but mostly it was shady, quiet and peaceful. The whole Lake Tahoe afternoon seemed peaceful, and doesn’t seem to haunt me so much. The sun was setting as I started the drive back, and I found a place to watch through the trees and enjoyed the colors of the evening. I knew I would have to face Lake Tahoe on my journey, and there’s more peace each time. It was a good day.

Nevada – Friday, September 6

It was Friday, and a big Amway convention was getting underway in Vegas, along with some other big groups, so it was time to leave town and head northwest up toward Carson City. It was still hot out, so I found a park to walk Tula for a bit before getting into the car. We started driving across the desert, and eventually we were driving along the south side of “area 51” – an air force test site, and also one of the places that the military is rumored to have aliens – haha! The lone gas station/store/brothel along that part of the highway had an alien theme, and I just think it’s all really weird – I’ve never liked aliens. And I had the misfortune to stop by when a big tour bus stopped – I think everyone driving down the road stopped there! As I continued on, I saw signs pointing to Death Valley – the vast majority of Death Valley is in California, but there is a tiny bit of it in Nevada. I decided to duck down into California to drive through a short stretch of Death Valley. It was very hot, but I had plenty of gas in the car, and plenty of water for me and Tula, and most importantly, there was a fair amount of traffic so people were around in case of any car problems. I began the 3000′ descent down to the floor of Death Valley and I watched the temperature steadily rise from 104 degrees all the way up to 122 degrees, and even up to 123 for a few minutes. I stopped by an observation point (along with the same tour bus) and walked about 1/4 mile uphill to the vantage point – I’ve never felt that kind of heat before. I wouldn’t even let Tula out of the car in that heat. Death Valley is called the hottest place on earth, and on July 13 of this year, they set a record with 135 degree heat. Whew! The lowest part of the valley is a couple hundred feet below sea level. Down on the valley floor, there’s a resort called Furnace Creek Resort, and an RV campground, and a national park visitor center. I stopped by the visitor center and found enough shade to get Tula out for a few minutes. I can’t imagine who would want to come stay at a resort in that heat! There were some old train cars there and a sculpture of a mule train – back in the 1800s borax was mined in Death Valley and had to be hauled 165 miles to Mojave and they used mule trains to do that.

After driving through the valley for a ways, I started climbing back up the 3000′ I had descended earlier in the day, and then I crossed back into Nevada. I went through the ghost town of Rhyolite – at one time a mining town. About the only building that is still intact is a “bottle house” that someone built out of empty glass bottles, which was apparently built well enough to be standing long after the other buildings in town. Tula and I did a little walking in the town of Beatty, but I’m coming up short with my walking today – I wasn’t going to be out in the 120+ degree heat to do that, so I will get it made up in the days to come. I also didn’t make a donation today – partly because I had doubled up yesterday, and partly I was in a very unpopulated part of the state and there weren’t any places to make donations to!

And then I made the long push to get over to Carson City – there aren’t a lot of towns in southwest Nevada so although I looked into stopping in Tonopah (everything was full) along the way, I decided just to get myself over to the west side of the state for the next few days, and finally got into Carson City well after midnight.

Nevada – Thursday, September 5

Since I was out walking really late last night, I was a bit slow to get going this morning. My plan was to stay in the Las Vegas area today, but away from all the hotels and casinos. I had 2 donations I wanted to do, and that would require a bit of driving since they were both on the far north end of town. My first donation was going to go to a food bank called Three Square, and their motto is “working together, we serve hope.” I had called to find out if there was anything in particular that they needed, and the lady said they could really use diapers, wipes and paper products like paper towels, toilet paper or kleenex. So I found a Walmart and shopped in the baby department for diapers and wipes, and also got the toilet paper and paper towels. Then it was a bit of a slow drive all across town to find the food bank. It was a huge colorful place – their statistics show that 1 in 6 families needs assistance, and over 50% of the school kids are eligible for assistance. I carried my stuff in and put it in the big donation box inside the door.

Then I made another drive to the Helping Hands of Vegas Valley on the west side of town. They’re an organization which helps the seniors in the area with food and transportation to various appointments. Many seniors move to the area for the warm, dry weather, but they often lose some of the support systems they had back home. So Helping Hands steps in to help. I met Cory when I arrived, and she told me they make 600-700 transportation runs a month for the seniors. They also have a food pantry, and that helps about 350 seniors a month. The other service they provide is vouchers for “respite care” – if a senior lives with a caregiver, and that caregiver needs a break, whether it’s for a vacation or other reason, Helping Hands will provide a certain amount of money for the senior to to go to a day care facility while the caregiver is away.

The day was slipping away, and so far we had only done a mile of walking. It was really hot out – 110 degrees – so I looked for a park to get Tula out in. I found one on the east side of town, and we walked all around the park and ball fields, and covered another mile. Then, since I was kind of in the area, I headed for the Wetlands Nature Preserve out in the desert southeast of Vegas. I was a little confused why there was a wetlands in the desert, and it still just looked like desert to me. Maybe something happens in the springtime or something. The sun wasn’t quite so hot, so Tula and I set off for a short walk on one of the trails in the preserve. We covered about a mile and I thought that was enough for her – the air was still really warm. I left her in the van with the AC on, and set off for a very surreal 3 1/2 mile walk in the desert. To begin with there was a rainstorm toward the east, and I could see the clouds and the rainfall. And then the sun was sinking down in the west, so that began to cast long shadows and make everything look sort of red. The end of a rainbow appeared on my right, and a warm wind was blowing. The trail led up and down the rolling ground, and aside from a few bicyclists, I was the only person around. It was really windy out, and it was a very warm wind, but it actually felt good and made me feel like I was part of the rocks and desert. As the sun sank down further, the shadows got longer, and with the hills on the trail, sometimes my own shadow appeared to be disconnected from me. And then the end of a rainbow appeared on my left. When I turned around, I could see the hotels of Vegas off in the distance in a small little clump, and it looked like a child’s playset. The setting rays of the sun beamed down on it, and it made me think of the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz – and with the rainbows I thought of the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow from the Wizard of Oz, and it almost began to make me wonder what was real and what wasn’t – I felt like the twilight lights and shadows and warm winds of the desert were all playing tricks on me, and I just wanted to keep on walking and walking – it was fascinating. But I eventually turned around and headed back – and the sprawling lights of the cities next to the desert started blinking on.

My day wasn’t quite done yet – I still had a mile and a half to walk. I headed back into Vegas where I had noticed an older hotel/casino just down the road from my motel that advertised 7.99 t-bone steak dinners. So I stopped in to have a meal, and I almost got lost finding the restaurant – they make you walk all through the casino and upstairs to get there! But it was a good deal, and then I headed down to the Fremont Street area to look at all the lights in “old” Las Vegas. I waited around for the light show that happens every 45 minutes or so, but it wasn’t quite what I expected. I thought it was going be some sort of light show involving little moving Christmas tree-like lights (don’t know why I thought that!) but it was more like a psychedelic movie up on the ceiling – mostly moving blobs of color. The people watching was good though – lots of impersonators hoping to get tips by being in photos. Tula and I finished our walking for the day, and then I was ready to head back – another late night. I passed the pawn shop that’s featured on the TV show Pawn Stars (which I actually like) so I stopped by to take a better look. Even though it’s open 24 hours, I couldn’t see anyone inside except someone sitting by the entrance, and I didn’t feel comfortable going in to look around. There were 2 sets of doors to get into the shop, and I looked through one of them, and saw the long counters that appear in the show. It almost looked like that area was separate from the rest of the shop, and maybe that is the case since they could do the TV filming in there.

And finally we were back – late and tired again!

California/Nevada – Wednesday, September 4

I headed out of San Bernardino knowing I only had one more California donation to make, and 2 miles left to walk. I was going to be heading east across the Mojave Desert toward Las Vegas in Nevada, so I knew I would have to finish things up before reaching the desert. The military also has 4 large chunks of land in this barren region that are used as weapons centers and gunnery ranges, and are closed to the public. It’s pretty barren, desolate land. So the last bit of civilization I would be driving through was the town of Barstow, and there was a food pantry there called Desert Manna. I called them to see if there were any particular items they needed, and the volunteer told me anything would be welcome. So I got to town, which was mostly brown and rocky, and first found a few neighborhood blocks with some green grass here and there. It was over 100 degrees, so I got Tula out for just a short walk by the grassy area. Then I found the local market and shopped for rice and beans, pasta and sauce, mac and cheese, canned fruit, cereal, tuna and peanut butter. I took it over to the food pantry and was happy to see some young volunteers there with the older ones. Barstow is an older, rural town on the edge of the desert that mostly seems to be a transportation hub, with a couple highways and railways intersecting. I didn’t really see any place in town that was good for a long walk, so I headed to the outlet malls on the edge of town. It seemed an odd place to have a couple outlet malls – but the first one I went to was abandoned, and just had sort of a creepy air to it. The other outlet mall (one of the Tanger chain) was just across the street and had quite a few people visiting, but the majority of them seemed to be Asian tourists who came on big buses. It all just seemed kind of strange and out of place. But I only had a mile and a half to go, and with rain threatening, I quickly finished it off.

Then I headed into the desert, and I enjoyed driving across that. I could see heavy clouds, and some cloudbursts in the distance – I could see for miles and miles around. At one point I came to one of the dirt roads leading into the Mojave National Preserve, so I drove down that for a ways, and felt like I was the only person on the planet. There were lots of stumpy little joshua trees in addition to all the sagebrush – I like them. And there was a sign for a turtle crossing (in the desert?) but I didn’t see any. I watched some heavy rainstorms come toward me, and figured I better turn around and get back on pavement instead of getting caught on dirt roads that don’t see a lot of rain. The pelting downpours had a dramatic affect on the temperatures – it had been about 106 degrees earlier in the day, and with all the rain, the temps then plummeted to 64. Crazy.

I continued my drive toward the Nevada border in the rain. My wonderful week in California was finished – all 56 miles walked (and fun to have my brother and sister walk some of them!) and 7 donations made – the Rural Human Services (Donate, Don’t Dump!) in Crescent City; Stuff the Turkey (Sacramento Food Bank); Red Cross blood donation; After the Finish Line (thoroughbred rescue and placement assistance); USO San Diego; Mama’s Kitchen in San Diego; and Desert Manna Food Pantry in Barstow.

Then I crossed into Nevada and right at the border, still in the desert, were a couple gaudy, neon-lit casinos out there in the middle of nowhere. Again, it seemed so out of place to have a couple casinos and a hotel and an unused roller coaster right there in the middle of the desert! It just doesn’t fit! But I guess that’s how Reno and Vegas got started too. I continued across the desert toward Las Vegas, where I was going to stop. I had found a brand new pet-friendly Red Roof Inn for a very reasonable price and it was only a mile off The Strip, where I planned to do some walking since it was now evening and getting too dark to walk anywhere else. In Vegas, one doesn’t have to worry about the dark! So I got settled in, then drove over to the Excalibur Hotel where I found some free public parking. Tula and I set off for some walking along the mega-theme-hotels and casinos. Las Vegas is not a place where one sees many dogs out for a walk – and quite a few people talked to Tula and commented about seeing a dog in town. It wasn’t horribly crowded since it was a weeknight in September, and we made our way past the Excalibur and New York, New York, and across from Paris, and headed toward the Bellagio. We had to go up and down stairs to use pedestrian crossings and it’s quite a hike from one hotel to another. Tula walked 3 miles with me, and then she was done. It was a very pleasant evening out, and I wanted to do a little more walking so I left Tula in the van, and this time I could cut through some of the hotels – although it’s very easy to get lost inside of them because they’re so huge, with different levels, shops and casinos in each one. My head became full of the “bing, bing, bing” slot machine noises! So I wove my way inside and out, past the hotels we’d already walked by, and then I stopped by the fountains in front of the Bellagio because people were gathering for the next fountain show. And it was pretty cool – every 15 minutes they play some song on the speakers and the fountains (there must be at least 100) “dance” to the music. The first time I watched, they played the Andrea Bocelli/Sarah Brightman duet, which I really like, and it was really beautiful with the music and fountains – although I could have done without the drunk guys near me trying to sing along with their fake opera voices! After that I made the long walk down to Caesar’s Palace and went inside the Roman Forum with all the shops and statues and the fake sky above, although none of the statues were moving – they were “resting”. And then I turned around and walked all the way back. I happened to pass the Bellagio again when another fountain show was about to start – this time the music was All That Jazz from the Chicago musical, and it was fun to see the fountains with a completely different style of music. By the time I got back to the van, I had walked 5 more miles and was it was almost midnight and I was tired! But it sure got my Nevada walking off to a good start!

California – Tuesday, September 3

I rode along to drop Keira off at school so I could see her classroom – such an exciting time! It brought back lots of fun “first day of school” memories with my 3 girls. Then it was time for me to get loaded up to finish my California week after a wonderful weekend. Before driving too far, I got Tula out to walk in a park nearby – it was pretty warm in the desert-like, sagebrushy landscape, but we still covered a couple miles.

Then I had to take care of a few errands before making my way south to the San Diego airport, where I was going to make my donation to the USO. They recently expanded and moved into a new building, and are now the world’s biggest airport USO. Roughly 11,000 troops come through in a typical month, and last New Year’s Day alone, 1200 troops stopped by. Today was unusually quiet since it was the Tuesday after Labor Day, but there were still quite a few people around, including some fresh recruits who just arrived to start boot camp. Camp Pendleton is nearby, which is a Marine base, so most of the troops who visit this USO are marines. One of the volunteers had a small dog with her, and it was wearing a red, white and blue scarf. I thought it was just her pet, but it’s also a therapy dog for the USO. Another volunteer showed me and another lady around, and it was indeed a spacious facility. They have a storage room for bags and gear, a computer room, family room, lounge, and kitchen area with free food. Outside there’s a big patio complete with grill. It’s a comfortable place for all the troops passing through.

Then I headed downtown to make a donation to Mama’s Kitchen – a big organization which delivers food to families living with AIDS or cancer. They’re the oldest and largest meal delivery service in the area. They prepare and pack hot meals 3 days a week, and then also pack enough food to provide 3 meals a day until the next visit. They help about 1400 families, and also make sure to pack extra food if there are any children in those families. I met Aimee, the manager, and she showed me around – we went downstairs and I saw tables full of bags ready to be filled with food in the morning. Since I was there on a Tuesday, no one was cooking today, but they were all set for tomorrow. They have a nice big kitchen and about 800 volunteers who rotate in and out – for cooking, packing food, and drivers to get the meals where they need to go on 32 different routes. It’s quite an operation!

Then it was time for some more walking. I headed to Balboa Park, which was a wonderfully interesting place to walk for miles. I walked in an actual park setting, and passed a couple lawn bowling courts, although I don’t really know what lawn bowling is! Then I walked through an area which made me think of an old Spanish town, with ornate buildings and tiled domes and fountains, and then I found myself in a fascinating cactus garden – I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a variety of cactus plants before – from small little plants to bushes to trees! I also passed a nice outdoor auditorium area, and from the signs that were around, it looks like the San Diego Symphony performs there. After walking a little over 4 miles in all the different parts of Balboa Park, I headed back to the Seaport Village area, where Chris and I had noticed some tall ships yesterday. Tula and I got out for an evening walk along the waterfront pier, which has numerous old ships moored within an arm’s reach that are open to the public – kind of a marine museum. There were 2 submarines, some 3-masted schooners, and even the USS Midway aircraft carrier. The sun was going down, and it was really pretty to be walking by all the old ships in the rosy sunset colors. Past the aircraft carrier was a little park with a bigger-than-life sculpture of the famous end-of-WWII picture of the sailor kissing a nurse. And beyond that was a tribute to Bob Hope – with a sculpture of him entertaining a variety of troops. And there was a recording, in his voice, of one of his shows, and in the fading light the sculptures almost looked real, and it didn’t take much imagination to think it was all happening live. As we headed back to the van, I passed some people who were fishing, and I watched one of them reel in something that looked like a stingray, but they said it was some kind of shark. They simply took the hook out and tossed it back in. Tula was pretty curious about it!

And then I was ready to sit for a bit and drive a couple hours to San Bernardino, where I stopped for the night.

California – Monday, September 2

We all left the house early this morning to go over to the track to watch some morning workouts. Christy won’t have the chance to see a race (they have another horse racing tonight after her flight leaves) but this way she can see some of the horses out on the track. It was a pretty foggy morning, but the racetrack was still a busy place – most horses have workouts every morning to stay in shape between races. So the trainers and grooms and exercise riders all keep early hours. We watched the horses on the track for a while, and most were just galloping through their workouts, but a few looked like they were doing “breezes” – full-out running as though they were in a race. Their speed and fluidity of movement is fun to watch. Then we headed for the track kitchen where we were going to get breakfast, and just after we’d all ordered big breakfast burritos, Erik and Pavla got the news that their one horse in New York at the Saratoga track was going to race in about 20 minutes since the race had moved from the turf to the dirt because of wet weather. And there happened to be a TV in the track kitchen tuned to the correct racing channel, so we’d be able to watch the race while eating. And it was an exciting race – their horse, Sea to Sky, started on the outside, but sailed right over to the rail and was in front for a good part of the race. Even the announcer was enjoying the race – “And Sea to Sky sails through a sea of slop….” Eventually another horse snuck by to come in first, but Sea to Sky hung onto 2nd and everyone was very happy. After breakfast, we visited a couple horses, then headed back. Christy and I had 9 miles to walk before her flight this evening, and if we accomplished that, she will have walked 100 miles with me on my journey – some in each corner of the country, and that would be very special for both of us.

As we were leaving, someone called Pavla over to give her an envelope, and it turned out it was the director of an organization called After the Finish Line, which is a group that helps find good homes for retired racehorses. Many of them are still young when their racing careers are over, and some people have difficulty finding a suitable place to help their racehorse transition into a new life. I had wanted to make a donation to an organization connected with racing, and had already looked into a different one, but this was a perfect opportunity to help horses find new homes, so I explained my story and made a donation right in the parking lot!

Then Erik, Keira, Christy and I headed back to the beach in the fog, while Pavla went to the other barn. Despite the cloudy, foggy weather, a lot of families were still on the beach, enjoying the last official day of summer, and we passed some pretty creative sand sculptures. Keira walked a whole mile with us, and wanted to keep going until Erik reminded her they still had to walk back! Chris and I kept going, and when we walked as far as we could in one direction, we turned around and went off in the other direction for a ways, and Pavla joined us for a couple miles too. Altogether we walked 6 miles on the beach, which only left 3. We went back to their house, and Christy got packed up, then we headed for Seaport Village for the final 3 miles of walking. By this time the fog had lifted and it actually turned into a pretty warm day. We walked all around Seaport Village and the adjoining marina, looking at all the huge yachts. We easily finished off the 3 remaining miles we needed, and then found someone to take our picture so we’d have a record of 100 miles that we walked together! After a little shopping and a snack, it was time to head to the airport, and I dropped Christy off, knowing I’d see her again in about 3 weeks for her oldest daughter’s wedding.

I went back to Erik’s house – they didn’t join us since they’ve been down to Seaport Village many times, plus they wanted a quiet afternoon at home since Keira starts school tomorrow. So they were just finishing up with some relaxing pool time, and then it was time to head to the racetrack again, since they had another horse racing. This colt was in a race with more experienced colts, but it was a good opportunity for him to run, so they decided to enter him. And I was happy to have another chance to see a race, since the one on Friday didn’t work out! Everything went smoothly, and their colt came in 4th against the more experienced ones, so once again they were happy with the outcome. So they had 2 successful races today! As we left the track, we saw a couple big horse vans, loading up horses to head to the next track for the next meet. We asked one of the drivers how many horses they can fit onto one of the big vans, and he told us 15, although they don’t usually like to have it that crowded. There are also planes that are equipped for horse travel for cross-country journeys – although it’s kind of hard to imagine what those look like, and how the horses manage take-offs and landings! We stopped for a bite of pizza, and had to get Keira back to get ready for her first day of first grade!

California – Sunday, September 1

Since more than 8 weeks have passed since my last blood donation, The Red Cross has been calling to get another donation time scheduled. But it’s tricky when I’m on the road because I’m never quite sure where I’m going to be, and then I have to be somewhere where there’s a blood drive happening! They had just called me again – for the 4th or 5th time – and this time I knew I’d be in the San Diego area for a few days, and they actually found a blood drive happening at a church in Del Mar today – close to my brother’s house. So Christy and I headed over there first thing in the morning – she was going to try to donate blood too, but she was on the tail end of a cold, and they wouldn’t let her. While I was going through the screening process with the nurse (which takes a little longer than usual for me because we have to review my travel and they have to re-verify that each US territory is in a safe zone – no potential malaria problems and stuff like that), Christy went out and got some bagels to take back. It didn’t take long to do the actual blood donation – I’ve got good veins for it, and have never had any problems after all. I had my 2 little cans of OJ afterward (the only time I like canned OJ!) and some cookies, and then they let me go, and today’s donation was done. They also gave me a free Red Cross t-shirt. It was a really cool church – the Red Cross was set up in a separate fellowship building, so it didn’t get in the way of Sunday services.

We had plans to drive up to a nice horse farm about an hour and a half away, where Erik and Pavla keep their one stallion, and some mares and foals. They’re building their breeding program, and it’ll be fun to see how things work out in the years to come. We eventually headed out, and drove up into the dry sagebrushy mountains to the horse farm, where everything was green and pretty – they do a lot of irrigating. We met one of the staff, who knows all the horses, and we drove around on golf carts to all the various pastures and paddocks so that we could see all their horses. Other people have racehorses there too – some are enjoying down time as they recover from illness or injury, and sometimes racehorses simply need to take some time off (a vacation of sorts) so they don’t get sour with the daily workouts and racing. They’re in the process of weaning the foals, and only a few are still with their mamas. Altogether there were about 90 horses there, but that can swell to 250 or so during breeding season. It was a beautiful farm to visit. It was pretty hot out, and it’s probably just as well we were getting around on golf carts in the heat of the day – I was being extra aware of getting enough water and liquids after donating blood.

Then we drove to the quaint old town of Julien – known for it’s pies. Chris, Erik, Tula and I set off for 3 miles of walking in the hills around town since it had cooled down a bit, while Pavla and Keira visited the library and some of the shops. I totally forgot to take any pictures of the cute little town! Keira has taken off with her reading, and can hardly keep her nose out a book – what a world that opens up! Then we went to a fun little western restaurant for dinner, and started the drive back to their house. But Christy and I still had 5 miles to walk for today, and since we’d gotten a later start to the farm than planned, it was dark by the time we got back down the mountain. But that wasn’t going to stop us stubborn Norwegians! Erik pointed out a bike path near a golf course in Rancho Santa Fe, so I grabbed the pedometer and Chris took the flashlight, and we did our walking in the dark! We walked all 5 miles – about 3 miles on the bike path, and the other 2 miles around the village of Rancho Santa Fe (which does not have street lamps in order to keep a country feel.) Mission accomplished! And then my GPS voice went wacko and tried to tell me to drive through a country club building to get back, and that set off an interesting return drive to Erik’s house. Once we got back, we all enjoyed peach pie ala mode – I couldn’t leave Julien without getting a pie! We all tried to get to bed at a reasonable time because we were going to head over to the racetrack first thing in the morning to watch some of the early morning workouts.

California – Saturday, August 31

It is impossible to believe that a year has gone by since I drove out of my driveway at 12:56pm last August 31 – doubly excited to begin my journey and to spend the Labor Day weekend with Tara and family while meeting my new little grandson, who almost shared his grandma’s birthday! The little guy was only one day old, and already had the power to affect my itinerary! I left on my journey with a great anticipation and flexibility (the only things cast in stone when I left were my flights to the US territories.) I remember wondering where I’d be on my next birthday, and I certainly didn’t think it would be California because my original plans had me there in mid-July. But here I am in California, unexpectedly spending my birthday weekend with both my brother and sister. Life is indeed good 🙂 It has been one of the most amazing years of my life.

Despite being my birthday weekend, there were several little things I had to deal with, and I absolutely had to go get an oil change. Luckily there was a Jiffy Lube close by, and Christy came with me so we could do some walking while they were changing the oil. Chris had been hoping to join me in New Mexico for some walking – since she has walked in the northeast, the southeast, and the northwest with me, she wanted to cover some miles in the southwest too. But there didn’t seem to be good flights and times to New Mexico for her, so she figured this was a better solution, especially with Monday off. We walked 2 1/2 miles while they were working on the van, and returned just after they finished. We went back to Erik’s house, where Christy and Keira then spent quite a long time making a decorating birthday cupcakes – they got very creative!! It was quite a production, and they ended up with lots of different animal heads, a toy soldier head, a surfer dude with spiky blond hair, and even Bob Marley with licorice dreadlocks! Keira loved helping her “Auntie Kiki” with all the frosting and decorations!

By this time, Pavla was back from her other barn (she keeps her riding horse there, and also looks after a couple of their retired racehorses) and we had a bite to eat for a late lunch, then Chris, Erik and I went down to the ocean beach near their house and walked 5 miles barefoot on the sand. Lots of people were out swimming, sunning and surfing on this last official summer weekend, and we paid attention to the tide. Part of our walk took us by high bluffs, and when the tide is all the way in, the water can come right up to the bluffs. But we knew we could always walk back along the road if necessary. There are houses perched right on the edge of some of those bluffs, and they look like that may topple into the sea with the least bit of crumbling from the bluff underneath. I don’t think I’d like living there, but I don’t know how fast (or slow) the bluff is eroding. We walked about as far as we could along the coast until we came to some rocks we couldn’t get around, and it was time to head back anyway. We enjoyed our walk back through the sand with a sinking sun, and the tide was noticeably higher, but we made it past the bluffs with the water just lapping at our ankles.

Then we went out and enjoyed a yummy birthday dinner at a nice restaurant nearby. Keira was getting sleepy, but she revived when we got back – she wasn’t going to miss out on the cupcakes after all the work that went into decorating them! It was a wonderful birthday, even though I didn’t want to turn 57 because 56 is going to be a tough act to follow!

California – Friday, August 30

I slept well after my late night drive last night, and was ready to face the southern California traffic. I had hopes that if I hit the Los Angeles area in the middle of the day, it might not be too bad. Ha! Friday of Labor Day Weekend is no time to be on the roads in that neck of the woods. My brother Erik and I had several plans for the evening depending on my arrival time in Del Mar, and at first I thought I would get there well before the 7:00 race time. But then it became apparent I was just going to make it by the skin of my teeth – but I did! I got to their street about 10 minutes before they wanted to leave for the race, and I just waited to follow them to the track.

Because of the long traffic delays in the car, and the start of a holiday weekend, I didn’t make a donation today, and will simply double up during one of the days to come.

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve been to the races to watch one of Erik and Pavla’s horses run, and it was fun to go back into the paddock area to watch all the horses get ready for their race. Erik reminded me it was considered bad luck to take pictures back there, so I didn’t take any. Everyone’s hope is to have their picture taken in the winner’s circle at the end of the race, so no one wants to “jinx” their luck by taking a picture in the paddock. This was a race for 2-year-olds, and only 2 of the 10 had ever raced before, so anything could happen with such a bunch of beginners. Their filly was a feisty one – full of energy and the jockey got some extra instructions about people/horses coming up behind her. She was ready to go. The jockeys all mounted, and the grooms all led their horses out of the paddock area to go through the “tunnel” under the grandstand to meet their ponies who lead them out for the post parade. At that point, something startled their filly, who reared up so high the jockey was afraid she was going to topple over backward, so he bailed out, then the filly took off for a solo run down the track. We hadn’t even had time to walk out to the track, so we heard about it over the loudspeakers. Once they caught her, that was it as far as her racing tonight – she had to be scratched from the race. So that was a big disappointment. She was ready for a race and everyone was looking forward to seeing what she could do – now there will be a delay since the Del Mar season is ending and they all move to a different track. But thoroughbreds are unpredictable and it’s all just part of the game. (Once while I was watching a race on TV, a horse dumped his jockey in the starting gate, and took off with all the others and actually came in first with no guidance! But he was disqualified anyway, because he wasn’t carrying the 122# jockey weight that all the others had.)

We did go back to the barns to see their other horses – they all train every day, and my 6-yr-old niece likes to go feed all of them carrots. They keep a huge (50 pounds?) sack of carrots at the barn, and enjoy having their horses close to home during the 6 week season. I watched one of the grooms walk the filly around to cool her off – she still looked like she was full of herself! Hopefully in the future this sass and energy will translate into successful racing! It’s kind of fun to walk around the backside area – only owners and their guests can be back there besides all the race people, and it’s a busy place with grooms getting horses ready for races, and cooling them down afterwards. There’s dorm-like buildings for the exercise riders who move from track to track, and horse laundry (blankets, towels, leg wraps, etc) is sometimes hanging out to dry. There’s owners and trainers and grooms and exercise riders and jockeys and vets and farriers and horse van drivers back there – it takes a lot of people to run a racing barn! On our way back to the parking lot, Erik and I watched the end of the race after theirs, and since there’s only a couple days of racing left, the grandstands were full of cheering people. One thing they don’t usually show on TV during the races is the ambulance that takes off right after the horses and follows them all around the track – to be on hand instantly should the need arise. It sometimes looks as though the ambulance is chasing the horses, but it’s far enough behind them that they’re not really aware of it.

From there we all went to a dog park to introduce Tula to their dog Cody. He’s very protective of his home and family, as he should be, so we figured meeting on neutral ground would be the best. And it did work out well – we didn’t have any dog problems during the weekend. From there we went out for a late dinner – then headed back to their house. We visited a little, then Erik had some computer work to do, and I started working on my blog – once again I was hoping to get caught up a bit. Later Erik wondered if I wanted to ride out to the airport with him to pick up some lost luggage from their trip last week, so I rode along. He pulled up to the curb and yelled out my window that he was here for the lost stroller (and I couldn’t imagine how they knew when he’d be arriving) and he got out to put the stroller in the trunk, and then someone tried to hand me some flipflops through my window, and I was surprised they had my niece’s flipflops too, but all of a sudden I realized the flipflops were too big for Keira, and there was my sister Christy – surprising me with a birthday visit for the Labor Day weekend!!!! I could hardly believe my eyes! They really pulled one over on me! No one let the cat out of the bag – even Keira the 6-yr-old kept the secret! It never occurred to me to question why Erik was going to the airport at 11:30 at night – I know he’s really busy and something of a night owl like me, so I figured it was just a good time for him to go! And the last time one of my kids had lost luggage, they didn’t deliver it and I had to go get it, so I didn’t question that either! It’s a good thing they had recently been on a trip and could use the lost luggage story (there was no lost stroller!) – otherwise I’m not sure what they would have cooked up. By then it really was late, but we were all looking forward to a holiday weekend together.

California – Friday, August 30

California – Thursday, August 29

Today my plan was to put on as many southbound miles as I could while still making a donation and doing my 8 miles of walking. I was going to have to get over the mountains and onto the interstate north of Sacramento, and the roads were curvy and hilly and I’m glad I didn’t try to cover those miles last night – they took longer than I expected! Along the way, we passed a huge lake that had several older waterfront towns alongside it. We stopped in one called Upper Lake to do a little walking, but we were only able to get about 3/4 mile in because the towns just aren’t that big! After I got out of the mountains, I was in the enormous agricultural valley in the middle of the state. It’s getting to be harvest time, and I passed trucks loaded down with tomatoes, onions and I don’t know what else. I passed countless orchards and I wish I knew what all the trees were – once in a while there were signs about olive trees, walnut and almond trees, and maybe some of them were avocado trees too. The valley is such a rich source of fruits, nuts and vegetables.

I made it into Sacramento, and found the Sacramento Food Bank, where I was going to make a donation to their “Stuff the Turkey” fund, which is part of their annual Run to Feed the Hungry race. The 10K run and the 5K run/walk takes place on Thanksgiving morning, and nearly 30,000 people raise money and participate. This will be the 20th year they’ve run the race. The guy I gave my donation to participates in the race along with his whole family, and he also told me the food bank has a turkey drive, and they get 6,000-7,000 turkeys, which they take out to distribute in the local communities. Since my journey will be over before Thanksgiving, I was happy to be able to make a Thanksgiving-related donation a little early. The Sacramento Food Bank is a big place with numerous different programs, and its success lies in the hands of thousands of volunteer workers.

Then I headed for Old Sacramento, the historic part of town from back in the Pony Express days. Sacramento was the western terminus for the short-lived pony express route, and there was a statue commemorating their efforts. I had seen the eastern terminus back in St. Joseph, Missouri. Tula and I walked nearly 3 miles in the old town, which has wooden sidewalks, and old-style building and saloons. It was a hot day but we were pretty much able to stay in the shade. In the park, some people were setting up tents and getting old uniforms/costumes out for the upcoming gold rush day weekend celebration. There seemed to be an unusual number of homeless people around – many asking for loose change, and it gave the area a little bit of a seedy feel. We also took the pedestrian walkway under the freeway to an outdoor sort of shopping area, and walked through that. I thought I would walk down to the state capital area, but that was a little too far away, so we turned around and walked back to the van. I drove over to the state capitol instead, and Tula stayed in the car while I walked a quick mile around the capitol with its copper dome, and its very pretty landscaped grounds with gardens and statues and memorials.

Then I headed south a bit more to Stockton, which is one of California’s 2 inland seaports. I thought I’d be able to find some good waterfront walking since the city lies at the end of a 78 mile channel connecting it to San Francisco Bay. But at first I couldn’t find any place at all that looked safe and good for walking – even the parks didn’t have any paths, and the waterfront looked industrial. So I was going to drive out of town, and then I came to a nice big park where lots of families were out picnicking, and numerous ball games were going on, and there were good paths all around. Tula and I walked all around the park and up and down several long adjoining neighborhood streets with small homes and very tidy yards – it was a very pleasant evening walk and we covered a little over 2 miles. And then I found the downtown marina with a riverwalk and nice restaurants along the waterfront, and Tula and I finished our walking for the day there. Then I got a big salad to eat in the car while I drove late into the night along the interstate to get down near Bakersfield, which I figured would set me up pretty good for the next day. The benefit to driving late at night is light traffic, and if I could have driven through the Los Angeles area at night I would have, but I’ve never been the sort of person who can drive all night long – I knew I needed to stop!