All posts by paula

1-Julian, CA, Places we Visit-Year 1

Wildlife around William Heise county park

Well, we’ve been here at William Heise County Park for 4 days now.  The A/C is still out; we took the trailer to the dealer yesterday and he has ordered the necessary part so hopefully in a few days we’ll take it back down the hill again and get it fixed.  The afternoon from about 2:30-7:30pm is very VERY hot in the trailer, partly because our site has no shade during the afternoon.  I take my camp chair and a book and find a shady place with a breeze to spend the afternoon.

We’ve taken several walks around the park and several drives around the area, which is beautiful.  You can still see scars and remnants from the fire a few years ago, but a lot of the area has grown back and the brush is very high around the park.

We’ve seen lots of squirrels, some rabbits and a couple of jackrabbits.  Laddy is VERY interested in these little critters!  We’ve also seen several turkeys and a few deer.  We’ve tried to take pictures but they take off as soon as we get the camera out.  We’ve got some woodpeckers nesting in the tree next to our picnic table;, it’s fun to watch the male come in and land right next to the knot in the tree where the nest is just to have the female squack at him till he takes off again.  I guess she doesn’t want any help.

We also saw some woodpecker chicks (we think that’s what they are) down on the road today and got a couple of pictures of them.  Sorry for the poor quality of the attached pictures…you just can’t get these wild animals to hold still.  If you click on any of the pictures below it will enlarge it.

On the other hand, Laddy is now a model.  We took a drive over to Sunrise Highway and pulled off at the Kwaaymii point overlooking the desert.  There was a photographer and a male model doing a photo shoot.  The male model was all in black and was very thin and “model-like

” looking.  As we walked Laddy past them Jeff called out “need another model?” and they both looked at Laddy and got excited about having him in some of the shots.  So the model posed with Laddy, I got behind the photographer to get Laddy’s attention so he’d be looking right at the camera, and they took several really good shots.  The photographer promised to send a few of them to us, hopefully he remembers to do that!

1-Julian, CA, Places we Visit-Year 1

At William Heise campground – Julian, CA

Jeff’s last day at work was yesterday (7/31) and today we headed out of town with our new home (the trailer).  We didn’t go too far – up to William Heise campground in Julian CA.  First day with the trailer so getting it set up and ready to use was interesting.

Friends recommend we not go too far the first couple of weeks in case of problems and we’re lucky we did that as the A/C won’t work.  We contacted the dealer and may have to take it in tomorrow – we just got here!!

But, for sure we can’t do without the A/C – it’s hitting the 90s during the day and we aren’t in the shade at our spot.

Here are some pictures to show what our trailer looks like “up and runing” (well mostly).

About Us

Moving Sale – Everything Must Go!

Well, it’s the end of day 1 of our Moving Sale.  Anything that doesn’t fit into the trailer or truck bed is being sold as we are not going to have a storage unit.

People were knocking at the door at 6am!  Luckily we were already up and dressed.  By 8am most of our big items were gone and much of the little stuff was gone as well.  The rest of the day was pretty slow.

Day 2 promises to be slow since there’s not much left.  What doesn’t sell will be donated to charity or hauled away by a junkman.

Next step – fit all the stuff we want to take with us into the trailer!

About Us

My First Day of Retirement

I consider today to be my first day of retirement as it’s a Monday and is the first day I am not at work.  It’s been a fairly quiet day, I haven’t done anything exciting or really worthy of a first day of retirement.  Mostly I’m preparing the house for this weekend when we’ll sell all of our furniture and most of our belongings, as well as packing and organizing what we’re planning to put in the trailer and take with us.

The first day of our new adventure will really come on August 1st when we have everything sold or donated, the trailer packed and hitched to the truck, Laddy in the back seat and we take off!

 

About Us

Did you notice the background pictures?

The background pictures scattered around the top of the page are from travels we’ve already done.  This blog won’t focus on previous travels and I may replace the pictures at some point but for now it’s what we have pictures of.

The picture on the left is on Coronado Island during a whale watching tour.  Six hours from San Diego down to Coronado and then back again.  We did see a blue whale and followed it for about a half-hour watching it spout, surface etc.

On the right are pictures from other trips we’ve taken, Morro Rock at sunset, Bryce Canyon, and Lake George in New York.

The trips that Jeff and I have taken in the past inspired us to do what we’re going to do now – travel full-time living in a trailer!  This country has so much to see, so many varied and unique places that we have to do it full-time or we wont’t get it all done. 

Of course, we’ll be spending time with our grandkids too, and other family members that we haven’t seen much over the year.

Thanks for checking out my blog and be sure to check back once in a while and see what we’re up to!

About Us

Meet Laddy

Here’s a picture of Laddy, our new dog and companion.  Jeff and I have always known we would want a dog with us on our travels, and a Dobie is a great choice because they’re very smart, easily trained, and almost always well-behaved with strangers and in strange places (unlike other dogs we’ve known and loved).

We recently adopted Laddy from Dobie SOS, a rescue group out of Tehachipi.  Laddy had been picked up by Animal Control running down a busy street, thin and with wounds.  They nursed him back to health and out of 8 dobies we looked at, Laddy was a clear first choice!

We’ll talk about Laddy’s adventures more in our blog.