BLOGGER VS FACEBOOK

Nowadays people have a variety of ways to keep in touch with each other and to share their daily experiences. Personally I don't use Twitter or TikTok at all, but I do look at Facebook almost every day. For me it is a way to keep in touch with friends, family, and a few groups I belong to. But, for me, it is not a satisfying way to record and share our travels or pictures we take.

Black Swallowtail at McConnell Arboretum and Garden

In my eye, this blog is more like a diary or a series of travel articles. It gives us a place to share our photography. A single picture on Facebook works, but adding several becomes a mismash. When I create a post on Blogger, I try to look at it as if I was creating a magazine page layout. 

A feature of the Blogger platform I really like is the ability to go back and see what I wrote in past years.  I don't know how many times I have used the SEARCH function on my blog to verify when we went to a particular location. 

Try that with Facebook!  

I do put links for my Blog posts on Facebook,  so my friends there know when I write a new one. 

 

For now, I want to say thank you, and welcome aboard, to my friends who commented on my first blog of the year and wrote they would be "traveling with me". It makes me feel like I am writing a letter to each of you when I do a post. 

 

 

The pictures in this post were all taken Monday at the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens. It is located in the same park area as the Sundial Bridge.  These orchid-like flowers grew on a tree!

We walked 2.4 miles,  just a little farther than on Sunday. Monday was quite warm, but some clouds kept it from getting as hot as the day before. 

 

 

 

 

 

Splish splash, I'm takin' a bath.

 

Not all interesting things in nature are "pretty". I find the vast range of textures in both living and dead plants to be like eye candy.

This fallen log definitely says: "don't sit on me!"

We will still be in Redding, CA on Tuesday, but do not plan on any outdoor activity. Predicted temperatures are over 100°. There is a bowling alley just around the corner from the RV park we are at. We haven't bowled for 40 years.  It might be fun if our old backs and knees feel up to it. 

Check back for the rest of the story.

 

Count Down to a New Travel Adventure

Although we took a quick "shakedown" trip to Morro Bay at the end of June, we have been staying safely settled on our Jojoba Hills site while the world is fighting COVID-19.

 

Ricardo Breceda sculpture at his studio in Aguanga CA

The summer temperatures here have been quite hot, hitting the 100°+ range several times. The Alfa AC has just kept up. The evenings have been very nice and we have been able to turn off the AC and open the windows almost every evening.

With the quite pleasant evening temperatures, we have taken to sitting outside and enjoying the sunsets and watching our local wildlife.  We see a lot of quail, bunnies, birds, and even saw a bobcat walk right across our site on his way for an evening hunt.

Part of our after-dinner routine has become feeding the local bunnies. We noticed they were eating the dried leaves that had fallen from our two grapefruit trees. So one evening I scattered a few fresh leaves to see if they would eat them. They did. Now we put some down each evening. 

Bunny video

There are four bunnies that we see most evenings. One is far less shy than the others. He often sits under the tree waiting for us to come out and put down some leaves. Even though he has been waiting, he doesn't rush over to eat when I drop the leaves. The other three, if they are around, will run away when we come out and only return after we have been sitting quietly for some time. The less-shy bunny will either freeze when he first sees us, or hop just a short distance away, then slowly make his way to the new leaves and eat.  Although one is a bit smaller than the others, we think they may be siblings. We have noticed that they do not "share", and will chase each other away, or drag "their" leaves away from the others. It can be a bit of a circus.

Since most other possible park activities are closed, bunny watching gives us an hour respite from politics and COVID concerns.

Although our patio area of our site faces the Southeast, we get very delicate, pretty sunset colors. On this evening the northeastern sky was intensely colored with fuschia and purple clouds.

Many of the people here at Jojoba have planted a lot of things and developed their landscapes. They don't appreciate the rabbit population, and protect their flowers with wire and fencing. We have kept things simple with mostly gravel, cactus, and "rabbit proof" honeysuckle plants. Although they like the grapefruit leaves, they cannot reach them and cannot climb the two trees!

Unless something unpredicted happens, this is our last week at Jojoba this summer. On July 29th we will be taking off for at least two months on the coast of Oregon. 

Traveling around 300 miles per day, it will take us four driving days to get there. I have made reservations so we know where we are stopping each night.

We will spend the month of August in Bandon, and September in Port Orford. 

Our October homebound drive will include stops in the big tree country of northern coastal California. Where and how long we stop will depend on the virus.

Although we have felt quite safe here at Jojoba, Riverside county California has had some very high case numbers. Neither of the Oregon counties we are going to have had any deaths, and their case numbers are quite low, so we don't think we will be at greater risk. We will continue to take all of the precautions, masks, hand washing, avoiding crowds, and keeping shopping trips short and infrequent, that we have been doing for months. We are looking forward to walks on the beautiful cool beaches and parks of the Oregon coast!

I am trying to get back into the blogging habit, and my next post will be after we have arrived in Oregon. 

I will be posting a link to each blog on my Facebook page.  I usually do not accept friend requests from people I don't recognize, so if I don't respond to your request, leave a comment on my blog and I will be sure to accept your request.

How have you dealt with hitch-itch or the desire to wander this summer?

All RV Needs, Medford OR

Although we don’t have a lot of RV experience, we understand that there will be breakdowns.  Parts will fail, and repairs must be dealt with. Having something break on the RV and having to go to a RV repair place is much like being injured or getting suddenly sick and needing to go to an ER or Urgent Care center.   Everyone feels better if they've had time to ask someone’s opinion. A recommendation is always comforting.  Given that the service center we went to because someone at the RV park suggested it is too busy, we feel better because they recommend another shop

It seems there are a dozen RV repair or sales facilities in Medford Oregon, big and small.  Tonight (Tuesday) we are plugged in, in the parking lot of “All RV Needs” service and sales. 

This is a new shop.  The owner worked at a dealership (Courtesy) in Klamath Falls.  He fit us in this morning because the service writer from Courtesy called him on our behalf last week.  As we sat around waiting for news on the part that we need, I overheard the service writer estimating and booking a steady flow of customers for work two weeks out.  Rigs only break down when they are in use. 

The small broken part in the slide was found quickly by the service tech.  But it took most of the day to figure out how to order a replacement.  The FAX machines at All RV Needs and Alfateers in Fontana, CA both work with other FAX machines, but absolutely refuse to talk to each other.  Finally, Craig had Alfateers scan the necessary drawing and email it to us.  He then identified and ordered the needed part.  We're having it sent overnight and it should be here for the fix in the morning.  We hope.  We also had a new water filter ordered and that too should be here tomorrow. We called all over Medford for the brand and model of filter we needed. None were available. 

We are parked in the last spot on the lot that has a power connection.  We did have to drive across town to get a 50 amp extension cord. The shop would have loaned us a 20 amp, but we have wanted to buy an extra heavy cord anyway.  Now we have one if and when we need it in the future.

Today was the first really hot weather we have run into. The air conditioners seem to be cooling the rig down nicely, and tonight we will probably watch a movie.  We are done with pre-planned agendas, for this trip, and are going to try  inventing our course on the fly...