Moving day(s), traditions and tours

I trust everyone had a safe and socially distanced Thanksgiving. Ours was a very quiet and small affair.

It’s been a busy five days, starting on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

The campground where we were staying, Sweetwater Summit County Park, had a 14 day limit. We had reached our 14 days and it was time to move on. Problem was, many, many, (many) people camp over the holiday weekends in California. It’s something one does not think about when coming from Michigan. Most people back home have winterized their RVs, tried their best to rodent-proof them, and tucked them away for the winter.  Not so much the case here. People like to spend the long holiday weekend camping. Finding a campground with openings in close proximity (and close is a relative term) to our daughter proved to be quite the task. We were also looking for a campground that would take us long-term. The age of our trailer has kept us out of many campgrounds. It’s something to consider when looking for an RV, but I like the price-tag and financing that came with ours (i.e., cash, no payments).

We eventually found a campground that 1) had a vacancy and, 2) did not seem concerned with the age of our trailer. It’s not that close to our daughter, but it’s doable. There was one hitch. A long-term opening was not available until Sunday and in order to camp for the four days prior to the site becoming available we had to move the trailer twice.

Lake Jennings

Lake Jennings

The new campground, Lake Jennings Campground, is part of the Helix Water District. The lake is a reservoir that was created in 1964 to provide water for the local residents of Lakeside. The campground has 97 sites (some of which are precariously perched on a bluff overlooking the lake – tent sites they say, but I’ve seen some intrepid RVers parked in them.  I swear they have to place them with a crane).  Anyway, King, who can be very gregarious and friendly when it suits him, talked the long-term campsite maven into getting us into two pull-though sites. The first site was more or less vertical. I could sit in my reading nook by bracing my feet against the wall. We had that site from Wednesday through Friday and parked the truck vertically behind the trailer – just in case. The second site was fairly normal (we stayed there Friday and Saturday), and our third and final site, (until the end of February) is just across the “street” from the second site. It’s fairly spacious and Cindy has some low bushes she likes to lie underneath and sleep. She is aging and tends to sleep – a lot.

We have stayed at Lake Jennings Campground a couple of times in previous years, never for a long-term stay though. This time around I will be following the example set by other campers and decorating the outside of the trailer for Christmas. I’ve never done that before. Inside I have two strings of garland, a few battery-operated poinsettia-shaped tea lights, a battery operated ceramic tree – and we will call it good. One obviously can over do decorating 184 square feet.

So it appears we are settling in. On Friday, following our first move, we enjoyed a family tradition of getting our daughter’s Christmas tree.  This is our third year of joining in on her tradition. The boys had seen some spray-painted trees from the road and although they did not seem too keen on getting one, they did want to check them out.  Grandma made the appropriate “ohhh” and “How pretty” noises. There also was a small petting zoo (farm animals) at the tree farm. We checked out the ducks, geese, pot bellied pigs, sheep, rabbits and chickens. I listened in as a mother explained to her toddler how eggs came from chickens. I also noted there were not that many hens in the flock but I kept that info to myself.

On Saturday we drove to San Diego and took a catamaran tour of the San Diego Bay. The boys have been asking to go whale watching. Our daughter figured if they could handle the bay tour they could probably handle the Whale Watching tour. Three years ago she and I took a whale watching tour late in the season. Although we never saw any whales (it was the first time all season the charter had not

San Diego skyline

spotted any whales) there were a lot of dolphins that followed the boat. We assume, on the off chance of the same thing happening again, the boys will be just as happy seeing the dolphins – so at some point this winter/spring we will do some whale watching.

Things are starting to fall into place and we are getting into a routine. We are slowly making repairs on the trailer brakes and working on figuring out what is going on with the truck. Lights are still blinking and bells are still ringing but we will get there. In the meantime I’ll turn down my hearing aids and look the other way.

This is the way we go to school

Since arriving in California we are learning, first-hand, the joys of homeschooling first graders.

Our daughter’s twin sons are in the first grade. They attend school online Monday through Wednesday and attend school in class (half-day) Thursday and Friday. The school district’s plan is to switch to five days a week, (half-day) in-class learning after Thanksgiving.  With the Coronavirus on the uptick I’m not certain if that will still happen.  

The country is waiting for someone to do something definitive rather than play golf and bitch about the election.

Yes. That is a political comment.

Regardless of what the district decides, we are here in California to help our daughter with daycare/homeschooling while she works. It’s tough trying to work from home with children in the house. Been there done that. It’s just plain scary when one works on commission.

On day one, what I discovered was keeping first graders engaged and on task (always hated those words when I heard educators use them) is akin to herding cats. “Sit up. Pick up your pencil. No you don’t have to sharpen that pencil again. Don’t hit your brother.  Get off the floor. Do you wiggle like that in school?”

 There was also some initial shyness when it came to reading in front of Grandma and Poppa, although at night they are always eager to take turns reading. I think when it comes to school it’s a little different.

The daily schedule is self-paced learning in the morning and zoom classroom in the afternoon. We finished early on Monday and spent some time in Grandma and Poppa’s truck pretending to catch bad guys or look for stray animals. Imaginations take us everywhere.  On Wednesday we took them to La Jolla to watch the sea lions and seals. It’s about 20 minutes from their apartment so we could finish with morning class, spend as much time as they wanted watching sea life and returned in time for speech class.

I asked the boys if their Mom or Dad helped them as much as I did with school. They said no.  It’s hard to know what is helping and what is interfering. The day after I questioned them about “help,” I stepped back a bit. King, the retired educator, didn’t agree with my tactic. I’m sure by spring we will have it figured out.

Back in Michigan one of our granddaughters in Grand Haven was exposed to COVID and was in quarantine. A few days later the entire Grand Haven school district gave up with in-class learning and school board decided to go back to virtual learning until December 9. In Paw Paw where the other grandkids go to school, the high school has closed for three weeks as mandated by the state, but the elementary remained open. Some things simply defy logic. Although I was informed it was so working parents who can’t find daycare can continue working, I personally believe if we don’t stop the spread, a mandatory stay-at-home order can’t be that far off.  It’s scary times for everyone. Please people. Wear your masks. It’s such a simple thing.  

Speaking of masks… Yesterday we took the boys to check out a campground closer to their home. We drove their mother’s car, since using her car with the car seats already installed is so much easier than moving them into the truck.  We forgot and left our own masks in the truck. King went into a gas station and had to use one of the kids’ masks … the one with dinosaurs on it. He looked really dashing. The boys were quick to point out that the mask had to be washed after Poppa used it. It’s rather sad that seven-year-olds are so wise in the ways of the spread of a virus.

After driving through the campground we took them to the local beach. I came home with bits of shell, lots of sand, and a few other "treasures" that I keep in my "treasure box" in the trailer.

Between trips to campgrounds, beaches and learning how to do virtual learning, it looks as though we are going to have a busy winter.

Report from the road

We meandered across the country and ended up in Quartzsite, Arizona on our sixth day on the road.  I have to admit, and this may offend some, Quartzsite is not my favorite place to stay. But it is free and that’s a big draw.  We have a reservation at a county park near our daughter on Wednesday and since we need some repairs, this is as good a place as any to stop.

I would say Quartzsite is a wild and beautiful country but it’s difficult to see with all the other RVers who are parked here calling this home. That sounds pretty negative, doesn’t it?

View from our backdoor.

Quartzsite is surrounded by Bureau of Land Management (the original BLM) land. So camping in some designated areas is free. These areas are known as short-term visitor dispersed spots, meaning you can stay 14 days for free and then have to move on. There is also an area referred to as a Long Term Visitor Area(LTVA) where campers can stay from September through April – for a $180 fee.  For that fee you get a pit toilet, a dance floor and RV dump station.  Quartzsite also has regular RV “resorts” with full hookups.

For a Michigan girl who loves green trees and grass, the Arizona desert is, umm dry. The landscape is flat, sparsely vegetated with creosote bushes and what they call trees (palo verde, ironwood, and mesquite) as well as cacti. But there is beauty everywhere if you look for it -- the mountains in the distance are purple against the sun and I can see awesome sunrises and sunsets through either window in the front of the trailer. Early this morning there was a coyote somewhere outside the trailer. I’ve often heard them in the distance – even at home – but never so close. This one was probably within a stones throw of the trailer. And I don’t throw very well these days. 

Yesterday and today are incredibly windy. King and I have retreated to our trailer. He is watching football and I’m keeping myself busy with writing and reading. I have some paranormal romance novels stored away on my Kindle.

We also have company.

We have a friend from South Haven who left on a nomad travel adventure about a month before we did. We keep in touch via text messages and discovered we would be in Quartzite at the same time so for the next few days we are socializing. I provide the coffee he provides the cookies.

Today King and I drove to town looking for cigars I saw a sign for the Hi Jolly Monument. We are staying at the Hi Jolly dispersed campsite, so I figured it might be worth checking in out.

Hi Jolly or Hadji Ali, was born in Syria as Philip Tedro. His father was Syrian who converted to Christianity and his mother was Greek. As a young adult Ali converted to Islam and after going to Mecca to perform the jajj (pilgrimage) he called himself Hadji Ali – Hi Jolly was no doubt an 
Americanized version of his name.  (For one brief moment the politically correct version of me was offended. But I have a very Dutch maiden name. Not only has the original spelling of my name been bastardized – my father changed it further after joining the Army in 1942. Some things simply are…).

Hi Jolly Monument

Hadji Ali worked as a camel breeder and trainer. He served with the French Army in Algiers before signing on as a camel driver for the US Army in 1856. He was one of several men hired by the US Army to introduce camels to the US to be used to transport cargo across the desert.  Ali was the lead camel driver during the US Army’s experiment with the US Camel Corps. Apparently the experiment was a failure as army mules, horses and burros were terrified of camels. The start of the Civil War led to congress not approving more funds for the Camel Corps.

Ali became a US citizen in 1890 and used his birth name of Philip Tedro. He married Gertrudis Serna in Tucson. They had two children.

Ali moved to Quartzsite, Arizona where he mined and occasionally scouted for the US Army. He died in 1902 and was buried in Quartzsite.

So now, for me, the mystery of the camel logos, streets named Camel, Pyramid or Oasis in Quartzsite has been answered.

New shoes and a few more new things...

For many, many years we dealt with what we called “McCrossin Luck.” It generally centered around our vehicles and involved breaking down -- often in inconvenient places with inconvenient passengers. 

There was one standout moment when we were moving from Paw Paw to Alma. It was the last load of the move. I was driving the car with our St. Bernard, Annie, and small mutt dog, Lucy. King was ahead of me in the truck. This move coincided with the time there was construction on the S Curve in Grand Rapids. Traffic was detoured to Wealthy Street and somehow detoured around the S curve and back to US 131. We were on the overpass on Wealthy when my car died. I managed to get to the side of the road. King came and got Annie and I snapped the only “leash” I had onto Lucy’s collar. It was a 15 foot longe-line for horses. No biggie. Now I should mention Lucy was probably a Coydog -- that is part coyote, part dog. Our daughter brought her home after passing a sign in front of a farmhouse advertising “free puppies.”  Lucy had several quirks that we learned to accept, one of them being she simply could not tolerate being on a leash, in fact, we could barely keep a collar on her. She was an extremely timid dog who was deeply attached to me. I managed to get her off the overpass by duck waddling backward, letting out the longe-line, calling her to me, having her leap into my arms, and repeat the process several times over. (The slightest tension on the longe-line and Lucy went into full panic mode, darting out into traffic while I reeled her back to the side of the road like a fish. And as much as she loved me, trying to pick her up and carry her was absolutely out of the question. She could not handle it). But we made it off the overpass and to the waiting truck -- driving the rest of the way to Alma with a St. Bernard, a scared to death coydog, King and I in the cab.

That was a typical day in the life of the McCrossins.

But that was also 20 years ago. Things seem to have changed and we have fewer and fewer mishaps. I suspect it is because I have taken over the maintenance on our vehicles (seeing that it is done, not doing it myself), but King would debate that fact.

So, when it came to our on-going battle over replacing the 17-year-old tires on our trailer, I worked to convince King it was absolutely necessary to have them replaced. Naturally he wouldn't take my word for it but by calling several mechanic friends and tire places the consensus was driving 2000 miles on 17-year-old tires was probably not a good idea. I also learned that not too many places want to replace trailer tires in the fall and I called at least five tire shops before I finally found one that was not only eager to help, but friendly as well.

So this past Tuesday found King and I packing our trailer, disconnecting everything and driving to Gobles to get new tires. We’ve been traveling with a trailer for about three years so we have a system. I back the truck to the hitch and decipher King’s windmill arm motions as to which way to turn and how close I am to the trailer hitch. It’s then our routine that I stow away everything on the inside and King takes care of the outside. New to us this summer is a Dish TV satellite system – receiver the inside, satellite dish on the outside.  You can probably see where this is going.

Even our kids warned us, “Don’t forget to take the dish down before you move the trailer.”

King said he thought about the dish several times while getting the trailer ready. But he never got to it. We debated quite a bit about my asking several times if he needed help since I got things stowed away inside in relatively short order. He was disinclined to accept my offer.

Before we left, I checked to make certain the electric and water were disconnected. We check the lights and turn signals together. That’s our normal routine. I forgot the satellite on the roof (not mounted, just resting comfortably) and evidently so did King.

It wasn’t until we reached the tire place in Gobles that he remembered at one point there had been a satellite dish on our roof. It wasn’t there any longer. All that was left of it was the coax cable running to an empty spot on the roof. No more CNN. No more Gunsmoke. Gone are the Wagon Train re-runs and the wisdom of Ben Cartwright.

Yes. We looked for it. It either broke into a million, trillion pieces, flew deep into the woods somewhere, or someone picked it up and now has a portable satellite dish.

The system had been a gift from a friend who moved out of the country. It hurts to have to buy a new satellite dish when we are so close to leaving and like to have a monetary cushion during our travels. But we decided to bite the bullet, reduce our cushion somewhat, and buy a new dish.

There are those who wrinkle their noses at the thought of television in a camper, but one must remember this is also our HOME. So today had me driving to Holland to buy a new satellite dish. As I write this it is sitting in the backseat of the truck awaiting installation.

King is content to watch Bewitched DVDs for the evening.

 

Down to the wire

 Surprisingly the RV potion of the campground was almost full this past weekend. There were even a few hearty souls who camped in tents. I am assuming the weatherman’s promise of sunny skies and warm weather combined with fall colors starting to peak here in southwest Michigan brought people out.

King and our sons played in their second to last golf scramble on Saturday -- The Turkey Open. Entrance fees were reduced rates plus a frozen turkey to be donated to a food bank. Judging from the food bank lines over the past six months at the Presbyterian Church in South Haven, I am guessing there will continue to be a huge need for assistance for the foreseeable future.  I’m going to make a political comment here: People in Washington – there are still many, many, many Americans who are hurting. Get off your backsides and DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING. Just stop arguing, finger pointing and blaming, ok? (I guess finger pointing and blaming are one in the same).

While King and our sons were golfing I drove to Grand Haven to watch our granddaughters play soccer. I have not been to a soccer game in a long, long time. It is fun to watch, especially the little, little ones who put their heart and soul into play and just a quickly disappear onto the playground when the game is over.

We have another granddaughter who plays on a traveling team. I’d love to watch her play but the league she is in limits attendance to two family members.  Maybe next year, “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” as a co-worker from the south was so fond of saying.

As I mentioned earlier, the campground was almost full this past weekend and now, for a Sunday afternoon, there are still a good number of people here in their trailers. This past week the road crew working on I-196 finished their project and pulled out with their trailers and fifth-wheels in tow. That left King and I and one other motor home in the campground until Friday night. Today a goodly number of people left at checkout time, but there are still a number of people camping, and a few more are still pulling in. I’m thinking those who are still here today with children are probably doing virtual learning for school so bugging out on a Sunday is not very necessary. In years past I may have talked to other campers to learn their stories, but most people (myself included) like to keep our distance.

And now for some really good news! We now have a definite date for leaving. I asked King the other day if he could give me one. He looked at me, blinked a few times and then, in his most sarcastic, condescending tone (and I’m perfect, remember), said, “We’ve always said we were leaving November 2.”

No King, we did not. You may have known the date for your last golf outing, but you did not share it with me. Sigh. After 44 years I should have known. But I’m still guessing our daughter’s-in-law are NOT going to be happy with the last golf outing of the year falling on Halloween, so if, indeed, the Halloween outing does happen, the day after the outing will be spent recuperating.

In the meantime I’m still working on getting car and truck tags (which I can do via a 24-7 Kiosk), trailer title transfer (which if I can’t get in early, I still have an appointment with the Secretary of State on November 2) and I’m still battling King about trailer tires. King says he will do whatever our mechanic recommends. I’m wondering if I can pay the mechanic off.

Little by little I’m making progress toward heading West. I do things King does not even realize. Yesterday I set a few extra radio stations on our Sirius Radio in the truck to news stations. It was done in anticipation of King announcing on election day, “Find out the election results.” Now, instead of going through a set-up procedure that requires a degree in Information Technology, I can smugly push a button and there it is.

And King thinks life just happens.

Last month in Michigan

I have a countdown app on my phone. It says it is 26 days until we leave and 28 days until the election. The election, probably, will go on as planned. Our departure is a moving target dependent on the last golf scramble for King and our sons.

Technically there is an outing on Halloween but my daughters-in-law are not too keen on husbands playing golf on Trick or Treat night (depending on social distancing norms – whatever they may be). I can’t say as I blame them. King does not get it. “They will be home before Trick or Treating starts,” he keeps saying. “It’s no big deal.” Well, it IS a big deal. Pulling into the driveway in just enough time to load kids into the car for Trick or Treating is not conducive to family harmony.

So… anyway, our departure date is still up in the air. We have an arrival deadline of November 13 --meaning as long as we leave shortly after the first of November we can take our time traveling out to Carlsbad, California, where our daughter now lives.

The campground is now basically empty. There are five trailers/motorhomes parked at sites. Three possibly four belong to the work crew for the I-196 highway repair. They work during the week and generally leave on Thursday night and return Monday night. So things are fairly quiet here. Target date for construction completion is mid-October and then it will more than likely be just King and I clicking our heels alone. I would think the owners of the campground are anxious to see the place empty so they can begin winterizing. Technically they close October 31^st but we can park without power for a day.

We’ve taken down our front planter and gave it to our son for the winter, removed the birdbath and will give it to our son in Paw Paw and take the little bunny statues (from Grandma McCrossin) and give them to our daughter for her balcony at her new apartment. One truck tune-up and a trip to the secretary of state for a trailer title and we are ready to go. I’m ready.

I will admit traveling amid COVID-19 is a little unsettling. Normally when we stop for gas and bathroom breaks we grab ready-made sandwiches at the gas station (no, they are NOT yummy, they are rather dry and gross even when there is not a pandemic). I will probably make sandwiches in the trailer and use our own facilities. It is always just a little disconcerting for Cindy the first few days of traveling west. When we leave the grassland of the Midwest behind she has a hard time finding just the right spot to relieve herself minus grass. She actually is a private dog. Tall grass is her comfort zone.

As things wind down for the season it’s a good time to reflect.

This summer has been an unusual one, hasn’t it. Everything has been politically charged – from wearing face masks, to tax returns, to conspiracy theories. I think we’ve all grown weary, crabby and mean. We can blame it on social distancing, we can blame the president, we can blame the governor. Fact of the matter is, we are responsible for ourselves. Point your finger at someone else and three more fingers are pointing back at you. That sentiment looks good in writing, but I tend to be pretty politically charged and what should be an easy concept to follow isn’t always so. I’m working on it.  In the meantime, I have un-followed, un-friend, or blocked a few people on social media. Not because their views differ from mine, but because they are mean or name calling.

There is enough icky in the world.

 

Rainy Days and Mondays

 Rain.

It’s Monday and it’s raining. The Carpenters had a song about that. Rainy days and Monday’s Always Get Me Down.

Except they don’t.

I like rain. I like the sound of rain on our metal roof. I’m not too keen on the rain seeping in the leak we can’t seem to pinpoint, but I still like the rain. As for Mondays – they don’t really bother me too much any longer. When I worked a regular office job (for that university that must not be named in the middle of the state) Mondays were kind of a downer. But when I worked for newspapers I worked nights, weekends and holidays so Mondays were just another day -- kind of like they are now, minus the work part. I guess that actually makes Mondays better any way you look at it.

The rain has chased us inside the trailer. King is watching “Gunsmoke” on satellite TV. Before that he watched “The Big Valley.” He has a penchant for TV westerns. I can take them or leave them. I have an annoying habit of watching the actors and their stunt doubles ride horses. I am a snob when it comes to riding ability. Michael Landon was a good rider as were John Wayne, Robert Fuller, John Smith and a few others. The rest? Not so much. I’ve also been known to scream at the TV, “lighten up on that poor horse’s mouth. That hurts!” And don’t get me going about the final scene of Hidalgo where the character Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) returns the horse to the wild – with its (the horse’s) shoes on. I saw the movie in the theater and yelled at the screen, “Are you kidding me?” John Wayne and Audry Murphy both rode the same horse. It’s a good thing they never did a movie together. Michael Landon’s famous paint horse was actually more than a dozen horses over the course of the TV series – sometimes two different horses were in the same episode (and yes, I can tell the difference). James Arnes (Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke) and Lorene Greene (Ben Cartwright, Bonanza) also rode the same buckskin horse – Buck. Stands to reason Ben Cartwright never visited Dodge City.

So, that’s my life on a rainy day -- thinking about TV westerns and the horses that made them.

Back in reality, we still don’t have a departure date – although we do have a “must be in California by date.” Our daughter has a work commitment in mid-November. We will be there by then to help with the grandsons. We are also running up against some new COVID-19 regulations that are complicating our stay. The San Diego County park system has some lovely parks for camping. Each one has a 14 day limit, but we could move from park to park and never really had a problem. This year they have a 60-day total time limit for all the parks combined. Although they say it is because of COVID, I am fairly certain it is because the huge homeless population often travels from park to park. Those of us here in the Midwest, where winters are not conducive to year-round homeless living, really can’t fathom how prevalent homelessness is. Trust me, it happens right here in South Haven, but one does not often see people living in makeshift shelters under viaducts, or alleyways next to generators.

The challenge for us will be finding an affordable place to stay near our daughter who now lives in Carlsbad, California. There is also the problem with the age of our travel trailer. Many private parks and RV Resorts have an age limit for their trailers (anywhere from 10 to 15 years). Our trailer falls into the “older than dirt” category. Having an age limit, and banning school bus conversions is a way to keep pleasing aesthetics in parks – but that’s another story.

  
In the end we will figure it all out. We fly by the seat of our pants but we always manage. It’s our way.