Regal Jug is our 23 foot sailboat. It has been in the family since 1974. For many years we had an annual vacation somewhere in the San Juan Islands of Washington, or the Gulf Islands of Canada. The last couple years we have not done any major trips in Regal Jug.
This year Regal Jug was adopted by our son, Glen’s family. Two weeks ago they met us in Oregon and picked up the boat. They spent last weekend cleaning and updating the maintenance on the boat. This weekend we arrived in Gilroy and we formalized the adoption by going to a local lake and launching the boat and having an inaugural sail. Read More
An Adoption:
October 29, 2011
Tourist Destinations:
July 16, 2011
Yes, we often show up in odd ball destinations like Wickenburg, AZ, visiting obscure attractions like the “Jail Tree.” This week, however, we set our sights on a top tourist destination, Mackinac Island in the Mackinac Straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron in upper Michigan. By the way up here it is pronounced “Mackinaw,” the “c” at the end of the word is silent. The name is a shortening of the original Indian name Michilimackinac which means “place of the great turtle.” Read More
The Attic:
July 11, 2011
Here we were drifting around the nation’s rust belt, Detroit and Dearborn Michigan, when we stumbled into America’s attic. Maybe not exactly stumbled, more like encouraged by long time friends Jim and MaryKay and their daughter Kati and hubby JT. We arranged a rendezvous in Tipp City, Ohio and enjoyed a long visit. Read More
Man vs. “The Machine:”
April 1, 2011
The technician led the man down the long hallway. She had a pleasant smile on her face. The man followed with stoic resolution. He had been warned that a monster machine waited at the end of the hallway. They arrived in the control room for “The Machine.” Read More
Arizona Springtime
March 28, 2011
We are in the middle portion of Arizona, about an hour northwest of Phoenix. The weather has been improving daily here in the Sonoran Desert. High temperature today was 78 degrees after a low last night of 42 degrees. It makes it up to 65 by about 11 am. That is how long I had to wait to do some painting. Each day we get in an hour of walking before the temperature gets too warm. As soon as the sun sets, however, it starts getting cool quickly. Read More
Something New
January 29, 2011
In six years of travels we have never leased a lot for a whole month and stayed put. Oh yes we have stayed in one area for a month or longer, but always in places that limited our stay. We would have to move every couple weeks to go to the dump station, or to reset the clock. These locations always are close to our children’s families homes in Hillsboro, OR or Gilroy, CA. Read More
Hot Bluegrass:
January 17, 2011
Hooray! We finally found the warm weather in Blythe California. We just finished up a week of Bluegrass, pickin’ & grinnin’ and renewing old friendships. The warm weather filled in late in the week just in time for the festival. We were treated to dawn to dusk sunshine and temperatures in the seventies.
The only fly in the ointment is that I am still fighting off the lingering effects of a cold from December. The only real problem is when I try to sing I irritate my throat and suffer a setback. I can’t sit around a campfire with a guitar in my hand and not sing. So each night I promise myself I would only sing a little; yah, right…
Tonight we are getting the water tank filled back up and tomorrow we will head out into the Quartzsite desert for an Alpine Coach rally. There will be something like a hundred motor homes like ours camped together under the stars. We all get together and swap ideas on how to maintain our coaches. The company went bankrupt a couple years ago, so we no longer have a source for parts and advice.
People are starting to complain that I haven’t had a blog out in a while. The problem is I promised myself and you folks, that I wouldn’t put out a trip chronicle. I would only write when something exciting happens, like blowing up a tire or cleaning all the antenna of the top of the coach. Well I must be getting the hang of this RVing because things have gotten downright boring: Besides boring is a lot easier on the pocket book.
The exciting part is every year we have more and more friends to look up at these functions and lots of adventures to review around the campfire. Can you believe that we have been at this for over six years now?
For now we will wish all of you get to have some of this warm dry weather too, and good health to all of you.
With love, Gary and Judy
- Blythe Bluegrass Festival Colors
Bluegrass Weekend
September 28, 2010
This is our third year of attending the Tygh Valley Bluegrass Festival. (Pronounced like ‘tie valley’) Each time it just keeps getting better. This time we talked some of our friends in to joining us in Tygh Valley. Long time friends, Fran Pickering and David and Adrienne Schilling joined us at the fairgrounds. Adrienne, Fran, Judy and I sang together in choir for many years. In addition, Fran is an excellent, classically trained violinist. We perhaps corrupted Fran just a bit. Read More
Family Legends
September 1, 2010
In the big inning there was the typewriter and gelatin transfer mimeo. In that era Judy and I were the leaders of a square dance group called the “Sage Hoppers.” I produced the monthly news letter on “spirit transfer stencils” and a tray of transfer gelatin. Believe it or not, the product is still out there. I Googled it and was directed to a tattoo supply company. The product is used to transfer designs to the skin to guide the creation of the tattoo.
Next came the ham radio and QSL cards for spreading the words. I sold my ham radio intending to buy a better one but instead purchased a CompuColor II computer based on the intel 8080A CPU and 32 kilobytes of memory. With a 300 baud modem we could have posted notes on the popular bulletin boards of the day but that was not exciting to us. Glen and I were both learning to program in Basic and Assembly languages. We were computer geeks with a capital ‘G.’ Read More
Playing Trains:
August 5, 2010
From 1962 to 1966 I worked as a telegrapher on the Northern Pacific Railroad. It started a lifetime interest in railroads. I worked in depots up and down the Northern Pacific line from Thompson Falls Montana to Toppenish Washington. On Tuesday this week I got to play trains on one of the same branch lines that I worked as a telegrapher. This time I got to play with the real trains.
