Adventure 170: Rehab-Cager Style

The tools of recovery

Judy had her knee replaced on Tuesday, Nov. 18. She spent one day ( I spent four) in the hospital. She started physical therapy four days later ( I started eight days later). Now nine days later, she's developed a three times daily exercise regimen, jettisoned her walker (I still use mine), and is scampering around here like a nimble mountain goat. Her swelling is way down and last night she slept a full six hours uninterrupted by discomfort. Baring unforeseen events, she looks to be ready to resume our road trip on schedule (Jan. 13). By the way, she has been slapping me silly on the cribbage board. She's still up to her old wily tricks of moving the front peg after she counts and things such as that but nonetheless, Life is good, especially today. We give thanks for all of you. We, ourselves, have much to be grateful for, and we are. 

The view from her private corner room.

No wonder she's grinning. The food is great!!

 There she goes,taking a lap with one of the cute PTs.

 This is the morning of the day after surgery.

 She won this game, despite her morphine induced stupor.

 Notice the even breathing.

 The swelling is now about half of what it was. Great sign!

 She's religious about her workouts, three/day.

This is her leaning exercise. We call it the phone perch.

Adventure 169: Home Sweet Home/Half Time

Fric and Frac's temporary home.

I ended the first half down twenty-five dollars. I may have to use some of the Cager's wily tricks when we resume our adventures in January. Storing Fric and Frac went smoothly. We took a cab driven by a very loquacious Hispanic mother of three named Donna. She was personable, eager, effusive, and efficient. We'll call her company when we return. We spent a few hours lounging around the San Jose airport, then took a two leg flight through Denver to get home safely at midnight. Mr. Ulmen picked us up, which was very gracious of him, but of course that is one of his best traits. I got up early to go to my Tai Chi lesson, which is something I miss as dearly as Judy misses the children. To quote Ed, "It was great." We putzed around the house this morning, did a little shopping, a little yard work, and a little napping in front of College football. Tonight, we're hosting the Ulmen's for some Italian Wedding Soup with crusty bread. A little red wine will flow, and then we're attending a Tedeshi Trucks concert. After that, we'll live relatively sedentary lives until the second week of January when we'll resume our trip down the California coast. Judy goes under the knife in ten days. Put her on your prayer lists, and remember, life is good, especially today.

 Electric gate system.

 Slot number 415. I didn't even unhook. I simply turned off the propane, placed the trailer battery in store mode, unhooked he pigtail, and covered the windshield on the truck.

 The owner of the storage unit, Mark Passantino, lives on the property as he has since birth when the property was a plum orchard.

 Now Mark's income is passive and steady.

 If the cab didn't arrive, I was going to put this cutie out on the road.

 Our game this morning. The Cager wins again! Drat.

 The Christmas cactus in full bloom.

 Crisp fall color abound in the back yard.

 Red Maple leaves.

Fall rasberries. It's a little surreal, but it's always good to be home.

Adventure 168: Maple Leaf RV Park/Morgan Hill, California

Site #3 in Morgan Hill, California.

Horror of horrors! Disaster has struck. I'm as distraught as a blearily eyed baby boy who's dropped his Huckleberry Ice Cream Cone on the sandy pavement outside Leonard Paul's store in Coolin, Idaho in midsummer before he could even take a lick. I'm sure my WAILS echoed off the mountains above Lionhead.  Pitifully, it is true. The Wily Cager has taken the lead with a smelly skunk. She is now up $16 dollars with but one game to play before intermission. I don't want to admit to being a sore loser, but my lower lip is pretty sore from me tripping over it all day. That aside, we traveled easily from the mountain air of Oakhurst through the dismally smoggy and desperately desolate valley floor that ran straight as a string toward San Jose. We've clearly left the beauty of the Sequoidendron Giganteums and traveled straight into the morass of Central California. Morgan Hill itself is a quaint bedroom town at the bottom of Silicon Valley. Its downtown is filled with bistros and coffee shops all with sidewalk tables set with cloth napkins and covered with linen table clothes. It's all very chic. People everywhere are racing around doing who knows what, all in a very big hurry. The pistachio farms are trying to outlive the drought, but the evidence of hardship (agriculturally) is apparent. Our RV park houses a couple hundred permanent residents, is squeaky clean, convenient, and quite adequate for our one night layover. We're cleaning, washing clothes (Well, Judy is), and generally preparing the rigs for a little storage. We're only eleven miles from the storage facility, and about a twenty minute cab ride from there to the airport. Since I believe that I must appreciate each day regardless, I must also say, "Life is good, especially today."


 These two guys tried to warn us that the air in the valley wasn't breathable.

 An instant replay of Mario Batali's poached eggs primavera on Semel instead of crusty sourdough.

 You gotta love California! When was the last time you saw a "cherry' '57 Chevy Wagon?

 Downtown Morgan Hill is a string of renovated turn of the century buildings.

 The downtown core also has a median. Very pleasant.

 This Methodist Church, along with some other buildings in town, is on the historical register.

 We took a side trip to a residential area just off downtown. Cute little bungalos.

 Eighteenth century brick 'n brac.

 This citrus tree, lemons we think, was literally drooping with fruit.

 Holy Moly! With gas this cheap, maybe we'll just drive around in circles.

On the other hand, maybe I'll go back to the see through air and the fresh pine scent.

Adventure 167: Oakhurst, California/High Sierra RV Park/Post B

Smile, sweet cakes!

Started the day on a good news/bad news vein. The bad news is I dropped eight bucks to the Cager. The good news is we ate apple/walnut pancakes (Had to use the milk and eggs you know). After breakfast we drove the short, twisty sixteen miles up to the Mariposa Grove of ancient Sequoias. I'll post a few, but none of the pictures came close to capturing the stately reverence of these trees, the fragrant subtleties of the pine scent, or the crazy ruggedness of our fifteen hundred foot ascent. In the interest of toning Judy's muscles for her upcoming knee surgery, I cajoled her into a forced march of 8.5 miles covering roughly 22,000 steps. We saw a plethora of named Sequoias including the Grizzly Giant, the Bachelor and Three Graces, the California Tunnel Tree, the Clothespin Tree, the Faithful Couple (Our favorite), the Fallen Tunnel Tree, the Galen Clark Tree, and the majestic view from Wawona Point (Elevation 6800ft.) The only named tree we missed was the Telescope Tree, but I couldn't convince myself, let alone Judy to detour another .3 tenths of a mile (One way). The day itself couldn't have been more lovely. It was around seventy-five degrees down in Oakhurst, and it was warm enough for us to shed a layer as we hiked through the forest. I'm glad we came down to the Mariposa Grove, but if I had only one chance to visit Yosemite, I'd choose the Valley. If I were younger, the best way to see the place is to do as John Muir did one hundred years ago: Simply start walking from one end to the other. To finish our day, we built a camp fire under the full moon, enjoyed another batch of roasted weenies, and counted our blessings by the glow of the embers. Tomorrow, we head toward San Jose (Morgan Hill actually) for one more night before we leave the truck/trailer in the storage unit. We fly out of San Jose International about five O'Clock and if all goes well, we'll be home around eleven-thirty. We were thinking that this has been an exceptional three weeks on the road. We've fallen quickly into last year's patterns, we've enjoyed a range of weather (Mostly favorable), and we've held up well so far. We'll get Judy home, nurse her through surgery and rehab, and then I'll force her back on the road for more adventures. There will be an interruption in the blog postings after Friday, except to inform our readers as to the Wily Cager's recovery. Until then, just remember that life is good, especially today.

 The photo seems so ordinary, but the place is anything but pedestrian.

 Wood art: Kind of snooty don't you think?

 The price we had to pay for this photo was to say, "We love Californians!" (A bit steep, I thought, but I've overpaid for other things over the years).

 The bark is so thick on these trees, it's incredible.

 You can't really tell, but the limbs on this "Grizzly Giant" are seven feet in diameter.

 These craggy fingers are about twenty feet high where they bend to start forming the trunk.

 Our "selfie" in front of the Faithful Couple tree.

 The rangers burn the forest floor on purpose to discourage White Pine and encourage new Sequoia. The Clothespin center is a burned section.

 Fallen oak leaves providing feed and fuel for the forest floor. The cycle continues.

 The view in one direction from Wawona Point.

 The view in the other direction.

 The Bunny, no worse the wear from the forced march.

 She even grinned a full mouthed chipmunk smile at our lunch table.

 Sugar pinecones hanging like Christmas ornaments.

 The Mariposa Museum, unfortunately, was closed for the season, but it's a normal man sized cabin, which gives you some idea of the perspective. The building sits in a grove of about ten gigantic trees. My lens would allow me only to get part of two.

 My Bunny's bunnies.

 From this humble cone, grows the giants.

Fire raging, weenies roasting, (Nitrate free, fat reduced of course).