AJ and Yosemite

AJ flew into Reno to stay with a high school friend and we arranged to meet up outside Carson City for the next (and among the most fantastic) legs of the journey—Yosemite and Big Sur coast. Yosemite was a late add to the docket and I didn't have reservations. We stopped en route at stark Mono Lake which concentrates salts and has unique insect and bird like that tolerate the geologic oddity.


We proceeded to just outside the east entrance to Yosemite and checked out Ellery Lake campground. Greeted by Fred, an amiable and stone deaf camp host, he suggested site 11 walking us to it. It was THE BEST site in one of the loveliest campgrounds backed by Ellery lake and stunning sheer glacier-carved cliffs. JACKPOT!

It's been awhile!

 I'm on a plane headed to UK for my brother-in-law's 60th birthday in Bradford, England.  I will be joining Joyce who left a week ago to attned her Aunt Ruth's 90th birthday party which I was unable to attend.  I arranged a trip following the celebrations to visit Spain and our good friend Mike Kelley now living in Madrid.  We'll start at Malaga on the Mediterranean coast, make our way north via Granada and the al Hambra, and then onto Madrid.  I'm currently reading for the first time Don Quixote, so am looking forward to tilting swords at some windmills!

People have asked me to finish my blog, so I will use this time to catch you all up.

It looks like I left you all in California, with my good friend Omar and his wonderful family.  He and his oldest daughter, Rania, met me again at the Del Valle park and we did a bit of touring, packed up and headed to Omar's home in Tracy, CA.  He had generously allowed me to park Humsafar in front of his house so I could head out on my only departure from the journey.  After breakfast the next morning, I headed to SFO to get on a flight to Detroit to see mom and dad, and to attend the wedding of my nephew David Birchall to his lovely fiancé, Alex outside of Toledo, Ohio. 

Roasting Marshmallows with Omar and the girls! 

On the road again!

After catching up with the Fam, including my older sister Sue who notably donated one of her kidneys to me in 2019 (without which this journey would not have been possible!! ❤️), I return to San Francisco airport, and ultimately to Tracy, CA to again see Omar and to pick up Humsafar to resume my journey, now over 3 quarters done.

Omar and Margie were excellent hosts! Omar, while watching over the trailer, noticed an ant trail and found they had invaded the trailer! He was too kind and cleaned up the mess putting ant repellant everywhere. The trailer was in tip top shape and I was able to stay the night, have breakfast the next morning, and off I went to S Lake Tahoe where, you guessed it, Tim and Natalie live!

We have visited them over the years and it was great to see their place again! Driving up I was again excited and energized in the beautiful cool mountain air! I stayed in their (5 Star for sure!) Hosted —— bedroom and was able to glean some tips that I was able to pass onto Kateri who is starting to Airbnb her guest house. I worked as usual Tuesday and Wednesday downstairs and we had dinner with friends one night.

The next night I had contacted Bruce and Kim. I met them earlier in the trip when camping at ————-. I had struck up a conversation and I showed them videos of the cute river otters I had seen that morning. Passing by my trailer later, while I was working, they had invited me to their site for a happy hour. Over drinks I learned they were both retired (she from UCLA Foundation work, and he from engineering, and split time between LA, S Lake Tahoe, and the road. They invited Tim, Natalie and I for a nice boat ride on Lake Tahoe that evening (Emerald Bay). I was glad they could meet with each other and perhaps make new friends I the area!

Dave and Alex’ wedding!

It was always part of my plan to attend David's wedding. It conveniently broke up my trip to allow a visit to mom and dad, and my siblings, nieces and nephews, and a several great nieces and nephews. All of my 8 Sibs were there, attesting to the closeness of my family. It was great to see everyone!

My sister, Sue!

 

My niece Becky invited us all for tacos and beer the next day. AJ, Kateri and my new son-in-law were there as well allowing me to catch up with my own family as well.

 

It is heartening to see the next generation make their imprint building family and their lives and committing to love which in these times can seem so distant. Mom and Dad looked great and Mom was recovering well from her hip fracture. She was glowing.

Omar

This is the part of the journey I had long planned: to visit my great friend and colleague from Abu Dhabi now living in Tracy, California. Omar had previously worked at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City as a clinician and married and was now living in California when I first met him. He linked up on LinkedIn and when I saw that he had worked on informatics and the electronic health record I thought perhaps I could get this guy to come back and work for me as a physician Informaticist. But first, I asked the chief medical officer of SKMC, Dr. Abdulmajid, about his opinion of Omar. The response was immediate! He's excellent! That was true, then, and is true today!

Omar is the smartest, wisest, most innovative, and talented Informaticist I have met, myself included. I spoke with Omar on the phone, and his sincere, understated, and kind approach to life and work was immediately apparent. I hired Omar, and he joined me at Abu Dhabi Health Services; SEHA, to help level up our informatics team. He was very organized, knew how to use SharePoint to track order sets, and Clinical Decision Support rules, was facile with pivot tables, understood how to get things done and thus was a key to many successes experienced there.

Part of this trip is to make connections with important people in my life. Omar was on the list from the beginning. I drove to Del Via regional Park and set up camp. Omar brought two of his daughters, Nuha and Rania, seventh and fifth graders respectively. They had never been camping before and we decided to let them experience camping but they could go home to their beds 45 minutes away. The girls were pretty shy, and unfortunately, Joyce is not here with us because she would've immediately engaged them in some fun things in her unique way.

We started off with lunch, listening to some of the birds nearby and an annoying ground squirrel. I was hoping to use the kayak on the water, but it didn't pass inspection because it was still wet from the previous trip, so we went to the boat docks to see about renting Unfortunately none were available. But the girls were enthusiastic about going fishing. They had never done that before.

So we went back to the camp, grabbed the fishing tackle, then off to the west beach with fishing tackle in hand. They quickly caught on to casting both bait, and lures. Nuha did get a tug, but the fish were lucky today, and we didn't catch any!

Back to the camp, where Omar's special Middle Eastern chicken for kebabs was marinating. We started a fire with Rania lighting it. The kebabs were amazing. They were served with special Afghan bread brought from the market. We sang some songs and tried to coax Nuha into also playing and singing, but didn't get very far with that! Turns down, she already knew "Country Roads!"

Of course we finished with s'mores s'mores and s'mores!

Among Giants

 Standing in the quiet of the old growth redwood forest is a spiritual experience.  There is a moss and lichen softened hush and then you hear the living breathing sound quietly of the forest.  The movement of the snake, a brown creeper chirping in the canopy, a gentle creak when the wind moves a tree too close to another, a ground squirrel stirring.

The redwood trunks can be massive and they can grow 300 feet and live up to 2000 years.  They often clone themselves using burls and so one root ball/lower trunk can eventuate into numerous trees.  Fallen trees are far 'taller' sideways than my 6 feet 2 inches.  They host whole villages of other life including lichen, moss, other trees, birds, reptiles such as lizards, salamanders, frogs, ferns, flowers.  A fallen tree can 'nurse' with its decaying wood, a hemlock tree.  When the sequoia is finally decayed, the hemlock looks like it is standing up on its roots with open space where the nurse tree once existed. 

I visited the "Grove of Titans" and Stout Grove nearby my campsite at Panther Flats.  I hadn't exactly planned ahead to see these specific wonders, but was reviewing my RV Life Trip Wizard App and another camper user recommended these.  The late afternoon shadows contributed to the ambience. 

Being among the Redwoods is great for the soul.  Not so great for Starlink, however.  So for the first time, I had to deploy my "mobile unit" in order to work.  It was a great trial since it was only a 6 hour day on a Friday.  I had purchased an Ecoflow Delta 2 power station when I was near Paulsbo fur just such an occasion.  With it I could move to the more open day use area of Panther Flats along the crystalline Smith River to power my computer, monitor, and starlink.  I have a chair and table but used a picnic table.  I also have a portable screened pop up in case I need shade, but the tree above the picnic table sufficed. My Teams background looked artificial!

Mobile Office

The Smith River provided a bubbling accompaniment, and later allowed for some casting (still can't call it fishing!). I was joined by Watersnake (Narodia per Google) who swam over and sunned itself while I sipped coffee.  

Narodia joined me for sun and admiring the crystal clear Smith River.

The next morning, Campers from next door celebrating Mindy's 47th birthday and needing my space for parking cars gently asked me when I was planning to leave, which was in about 45 minutes.  They explained they were going to float the Smith River.  I asked for details and whether my kayak could handle it and poof, I had my plans for the day!  They offered to ferry me from the take out point at 'Society Hole' to the launch at 'Myrtle Beach' and mentioned people are friendly to hitchhikers holding up a paddle in the area.  When they didn't show for a longer while than I expected I found a nice young couple willing to take me three miles up to Myrtle beach. I later ran into the group who apologized for being so late. 

I can't emphasize how clear the water of the Smith river is!  In parts it is more than 12 or 15 feet dep and one can see straight to the bottom.  Though the birthday lady Mindy stated her friends were going on a 'float', she didn't mention there were a few mild to moderate rapids to be negotiated.  The first was right away and my kayak was quickly filled with 3 or 4 gallons of water.  Fortunately, I had the sense to put my phone and wallet in a  zip lock bag, which I tucked into the front of my life vest.  

The river was a dream.  There were a few shallows I had to walk and I had to dump rapids water a few times.  Once, I bent too far over and once in the kayak noticed my phone was no longer there!  Yikes!  I looked ahead and saw something floating on the surface of the river:  my bag with phone and wallet!  I caught up with them and better secured it from then on!

There were quiet areas and a few beautiful homes along the banks.  I saw no fish but they were probably hiding among the huge boulders and rocks and it was a bit early for the annual salmon run.  

After a few hours, I arrived at the stone beach where I had left my Airstream, changed from wet clothes, and off to the next campground, very satisfied about a great day on the river!

Launching on the Smith

Back to Society Hole

Ft. Bragg

 Got behind again so in reverse order...

Incredible drive down the 101 and onto the 1.  Left early for a laundry stop in Eureka--it was predicted to rain.  Tried to find a local cafe for breakfast within walking but settled on McD's.  Driving through the redwoods, even though I have now been here for almost a week, is still awe inspiring.  I saw a sign just as I entered the 1 at Legett saying (I think) no trailer tow greater than 40 feet. I'm 50 feet with F150 Tow vehicle and the 27 foot Airstream plus bikes.  If that's what it said, it was too late--there was no turnoff.  It was a stunning road going between coastal views, cypress tree tunnels, and grassy bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  The truck and trailer handled the twisty turny up and down drive just fine!  I wish I could have shot some video, though. 

I arrived at Surfwood Campsite of McKerricher State Park with a campground backing onto an ocean view.  The clientele had definitely changed after Labor day with families returning home to school and work, leaving the parks to us oldies.  This place had several nice features: A boardalk overlooking the pacific where we saw harbor seals playing around in th ewater and tons of brown pelicans.  I particularly liked the stairway to the tide pools where I, with the help of a young family (homeschoolers?) found 5 kinds of starfish, not to mention sea snails, hermit crabs, several kinds of anemones, kelp and other seaweed.  Then today I took a bike ride to 'glass beach' where nature had turned an historic garbage dumb into something beautiful with sea glass.  

Glass beach

Sea Glass 

I continued to Noyo bay and again saw playful seals, pelicans, gulls, ravens.  Life!