We arrived in Yuma, a final stop in AZ before crossing into CA, to one happy surprise (The Goodmans! With wine!), and one unhappy one. The piece of Polish pottery I’d been using as a utensil caddy for ten years had taken a leap out of its storage cabinet en route, and it did not survive. Nothing like finding wooden spoons, spatulas and the ice cream scoop strewn across the kitchen and dining areas. I started to place the remains of my crockery in a plastic coffee canister we were about to discard, and realized… I’d found a temporary, not to mention unbreakable, solution.

And by we, I mean I.
And by “hit a bump,” I mean “failed to negotiate a curve correctly, and drove the RV over the curb.” That tends to cause a certain amount of… upheaval.

Also, never send your husband into Walmart to buy a utensil caddy. Especially if you tell him it’s for spatulas and big spoons, and “kind of like a big cup.”

Next stop, California. We didn’t realize we had so many people here! We’ll need to come back through to hug all the ones we missed on this trip.
Also, we remembered — twenty years after being stationed in Monterey — that it’s kind of weird here. Most of the time it’s a rather wonderful and benign weirdness, but sometimes it’s a bit frustrating. “That is Very California” is our new catch phrase.

It’s difficult to see, but this guy is taking his two dogs for a golf cart.



Thanks, CA.
Whee.


We’ve got five sons between us, all of whom attended Larchmont Elementary School in Norfolk, VA.


Being told the BFT is too FB to board, and having to make an 18-point turn in a dually to get out of the ferry line? That made it unpleasant.


So we did.
Before dinner.
No regrets!




Next stops: central and northern CA, where we’ll meet up with some cousins and watch the weather in the mountain passes, to figure out when best to traverse Oregon.
Uh…You have a LOT of nerve coming up with an “only in California” mantra, considering the state you left. And, yes, we are weird, but we also vote Democratic in large numbers. Also, your GPS needs to have a little talking-to.
Heh. We are also from California, having lived in Monterey from 1994-1996, so we get a say. Hell, one kid was born here, and the other conceived here, so CA is in my children’s blood! We claim all our crazy states, and one US territory. Made us who we are.
May I ask how old were you when you decided to take on RV travel full time? I am originally from California, I love your pictures!
Hi Jenny! We are 46 and 49, and we made this decision a little less than a year ago. So far so good, but we’ve found that retiring early means not many of our friends can come out and play yet, as they’re still juggling jobs and kids. Trade-offs…