Travels with The Rayman

As some of you may have noticed (or not), my blogging has slowed.  And I’m not sure why except that I’ve gotten lazy.  This my be true.  It may also be true that I attended a Writer’s Workshop last fall and discovered,  to my utter amazement, that in order to write a book, you have to actually write it.  And I’m stuck in the middle with 13 chapters done and 13 to go.  A faint depression has set in.  Who knew it would be so much work?

And last night we went to Al and Charlie’s for dinner and I was amazed to find out that our friends are missing my blog.  Either that, or they are extremely thoughtful.  Or just being nice.  But they brought me to my senses.  I have returned!!

A welcome sight.

As I compose this epistle, I as sitting in The Dog House (TDH) which is currently parked in space 38 of the Holiday Homes RV Park in Borrego Springs (BS), California.  This is our third March here.  Our bicycle friends live here and a bunch of other bicycle friends come here every March to ride their bikes up and down the huge mountains that surround this oasis.

The Rayman and I played golf today but we did not post our scores because a few holes made us cheat.  That is largely because I was on the phone trying to cancel an order for Starbucks Kenyan Espresso pods.  And the reason I was doing that was because when I ordered them on line this a.m., I messed up the order and had them going to our house instead of BS.  So between shots, Rayman and I were trying to get the coffee order cancelled.  This caused a certain amount of angst which is why I am sure that the shot that resulted in my ball lodged under a bush…occurred. Golf takes a great deal of concentration and I am now in awe of our friends that get calls while golfing and still manage to whip my derriere!!

What a swing!!

Things have been okay of recent.  We left home last Tuesday after canceling a Monday departure because of rain and high winds at home.  So, we drove all the way from home to here in one day.  10 hours total.  I’m too old for that.  Several funny things happened along the way but the heck if I can remember any of them.  We were tired when we got here and set up TDH in the fading light of day.  So, we walked the dog, locked him in, and went down to Carmelita’s for long wait at the bar.  The bartender was very busy making mammoth margaritas for the clientele.  While waiting, I talked with the three guys to my left.  I talked their ears off.  Don’t know what got into me.  Yak, yak, yak.  The good news is that they didn’t like Trump either so we all got along just fine.  Yes, politics were discussed.  Anyway, I’m sure they were glad to leave because I was making a pest of myself and I couldn’t stop it.  Must have been all those hours of captivity in TDH.

Since that day, it took until yesterday to fully recover.  Bouncing back is not as easy as it once was.

We did a nature walk with some of our friends.  Flowers are plentiful this year because of the rain but the locals explain that they aren’t as tall as usual.  We also observed Swainsons hawks  who show up when the caterpillars appear.  They love those caterpillars which are black and show up quite nicely for those hawks.  Their underbellies are yellow and if you flip them over, they immediately right themselves.

Bird brains

Our friend, Elizabeth, biker extraordinaire, brought with her to the nature walk, a chart with pictures of flowers normally found in the Borrego-Anza State Park.  Only we only saw about 2 of them.  So, where were all the other flowers?  And why weren’t the flowers that we were viewing not on the very colorful, slick papered brochure?  A total mystery now surrounds our adventure.   Guess we will have to do it again next year to see if things change.

Desert lilies were viewed.

Since we have arrived, I made a batch of yogurt, some sourdough pancakes (yes, I brought my started from home) and a pork tenderloin with trimmings.  While doing all this I managed to burn my hand and drop the stove top cover on my big toe which made me drop straight to the floor.  The good news is that I have not yet cut myself and the food has been tasty except for the burnt yams.  It was raining and windy that night and I had to do the whole meal in that tiny oven and so I burnt some of it.  Barbecuing is a much better way to cook when one is RVing.  We plan to grill scallops tonight and have them with salad and some pasta that I will dress with olive oil, garlic and some parmaigiano reggianno.  (spelling is butchered, I sure).  That is unless the scallops don’t thaw enough, in which case, we’ll just go back to Carmelita’s and have another chicken enchilada and a small bowl of black beans with fresh pico de gallo.   Ole.

Oh, I just remembered when I forgot.  When leaving the RV parking lot where TDH leaves in San Luis, I wanted to look at Rayman’s ipad.  But it wasn’t on board.  We left it at home.  OMG.  What to do?  The car was hitched up to TDH.  Drive home and get it?  or have Claudia send it to us.  We took door number 2.  That error cost $61  because Rayman had to have it ASAP.  And it arrived the next day about noon.  Amazing but expensive.  Glad we didn’t leave the vacuum cleaner!!  That would have cost a fortune.

The weather here has been really interesting.  Wind blowing so hard we thought the RV was going to topple over.  Rain.  Who knew it rained here in the desert.  More wind.  And the wind starts suddenly and then it stops suddenly.  It’s been in the low 80s.  But that’s about to stop.  The temp is heading into the 90s and will remain there for the rest of the stay.  Think we will head up the mountain to Julian.  It’s in the low 50s there.  Just 30 miles away straight up the hill.  California is so varied and interesting.  Glad we get to experience it like we do.

And as a final note for today, we have made some of our reservations for our trip to the Badlands this May.  More fun and games to come.  Our friend, Diane Wyatt, found an RV place to stay in Gillette, Wyoming called Green Trees Crazy Woman RV Park.  Sounds perfect to me!!