Back to our other life...

Trading life on the road for life on the water

We are headed back to San Carlos, Mexico around the first of October. We are looking forward to being back on the water. We plan to start off spending more time in the Sea of Cortez than we did last season. We are also a little anxious to get back to our boat, Notre Isle, because of the recent Hurricane Newton that hit San Carlos where Notre Isle currently resides in dry storage.

Marina Seca Dry Storage. Some did not have it so lucky!

But from what we’ve heard and seen, we are one of the luckier ones. Some boats got knocked around pretty good and other Marinas such as Fonatur at Guaymas, lost some docks and a handful of boats sank! We were sent an email along with a couple of pictures showing that our boat had been damaged. We are pretty confident and hopeful that it’s very minimal damage. Just the same…we'd like to take a look for ourselves.

Since we returned back to our home base in Sacramento from San Carlos in May, we spent a couple of weeks connecting with friends 

and family 

My daughter Lauren, Granddaughters' Rosie

and Eve Louise

and then we spent time down South, mostly in Morro Bay & San Luis Obispo for Danielle’s graduation from Cal Poly. 

Proud Papa with Danielle

We also spent time in Santa Cruz for a brief visit with my sister Sydney and some long time friends of Rick’s, who live in La Selva Beach. 

Rick with Rick Shugart. We stayed with his son Byron and his wife, Marybeth while in La Selva

Harley, me, Paris and Sydney at La Selva Beach

Then…for our biggest journey, we drove the RV approximately 12,000 miles within 80 days, towing our motorcycle.  We went up to Oregon seeing most of the state, but made an extended visit with dear friends Drew & Shawnae Long who recently moved to Bend.

Jenner (Tanner's childhood friend), Shawnae & Drew Long

The Downtown area of Bend Oregon. Just beautiful with this river that runs through it!

A visit to the High Desert Museum

A ride along the Cascade Highway - Oregon

Oregon Coast

Interesting sign randomly posted out in the Oregon wilderness. Lol

Multnomah Falls. We climbed to the top 627' in a round about way. (I huffed and puffed, Rick jogged most of it)

Columbia River on the Washington side looking across to Oregon

 Drew making up with cuddles after he accidentally rolled the window up while Harley's head was sticking out.

Next was Washington which we saw all parts of and stopped to visit with friends Steve & Marilyn, who live in Kent Washington. We met them last season while cruising in Mexico. They have a beautiful home on a lake! We had a fun visit with them for a few days.

Visited a Lavender Farm in WA

Me with Marilyn & Steve - Kent Washington

Marilyn & Steve's Home

View from Marilyn and Steve's home on the lake

Moving further north, we went up to Canada by way of Ferry on our Harley and visited & stayed with Chris and Shelley who are friends we met years ago at KKMI in Pt. Richmond. Among other beautiful sights we saw in Canada, Butchart Gardens was one of them!

Rick and Chris getting caught up as we are sailing around the Gulf Islands

Butchart Gardens

Flowers on one of the floating homes at the Wharf in Victoria

Wharf in Victoria Canada

Next place was Idaho where we enjoyed Coeur d’Alene for a night. Did some exploring on the bike during the day.

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

We spent a week or more in Montana. The highlights were Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks.

Glacier National Park

Bison aka Buffalo at Yellowstone

Witnessed Old Faithful erupt at Yellowstone

We did not spend too much time in Wyoming but had fun in Jackson Hole and seeing the Grand Tetons. 

Jackson Hole Wyoming

Wyoming - Grand Tetons (there were fires nearby so the photo is not as clear as I had hoped)

Wyoming near the famous Top of the World tourist shop. I guess they figure people want to buy souvenirs celebrating the fact that they successfully  made it up 12,000' in their vehicles on a road full of hairpin turns and steep drops.

Wyoming near Cody

South Dakota was our favorite of all places. We originally went for the Sturgis Bike Rally but fell in love with the Black Hills and the surrounding area that we ended up spending 20 days there exploring on the Harley. 

Parked our rig here for two weeks…right along side a river that Harley enjoyed!

Visited the Mammoth Site in Custer

Loved the beautiful countryside

Deadwood - attained it's notoriety for the murder of Wild Bill Hickock.

The daily late afternoon thunderstorms grew on us, some of which we got caught in on the bike.

A side road in Sturgis

Black Hills Cavern

Rode this road on the Harley

Mt. Rushmore, SD

Nebraska…well… we drove right through without stopping. And Kansas, one of our main goals was to visit my son, Tanner, his wife Kim and their 2 ½  year old son, Tyler. My son is stationed at Fort Riley Kansas. A few tears were shed when we had to say goodbye!

Grandpa & Nana with Tyler Ray

Tanner, Tyler and Kim

After Kansas, we headed back to South Dakota, driving straight through Nebraska and stayed another week before heading home. We went home by way of Colorado, where we stayed a few days. What we saw of Colorado was very beautiful. We really loved seeing the Rocky Mountain National Park. 

Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado

Utah was next on our list. We only spent one night there but were able to explore the Arches National Park for one full day. 

Arches National Park

Got a lot of exercise at the Arches climbing and exploring!

We weren't really planning to spend much time in Nevada, but we did end up stopping overnight at Sand Mountain where we climbed the mountain just at dusk.  Not the best plan. For one it took longer than we thought and we did not get down the mountain until after dark and secondly, we both realized we were overweight and out of shape, and that trying to roll down a mountain of sand is not as much fun as a grown up as it is when you are a kid!

Sand Mountain, Nevada (mountain is deceivably higher than it looks!)

Sunset at Sand Mountain

We stayed our final night in South Lake Tahoe in a Casino Parking lot (in the luxury of our RV of course) where we enjoyed a delicious meal, yet way too expensive, at the top of Harrah’s and walked across the street to a comedy club at Harvey’s.  

Back in Sacramento, where we had been dreading to go, we unloaded the RV and reloaded it with things we need to take to the boat. We have been staying at our good friend and neighbor, Frank Galati’s house---parked in his very large backyard. We are staying here with Frank because we are currently renting out our home.

Frank has been the most gracious of hosts. For our keep, Rick has been doing some things around the yard and house and I have been having Frank join us for a few meals. We enjoy his company and each night we spend time outside sitting in our lawn chairs visiting. 

Rick has been working on a couple different jobs in town to replenish our sailing "kitty". And I’ve been trying to get errands done preparing for our trip to Mexico and tying up loose ends here in town. 

We have been trying to visit with some friends, our kids and grandkids as time will allow us before we take off again. It’s been fun catching up, but unfortunately every visit usually involves eating out.  Our cheeks are starting to look like Marlon Brando in the Godfather and our tummy's…well, we can rest our folded arms on them when seated. 

Hope you all follow along with our blog this season!  Next entry will probably be in Mid-October. Stay tuned.