Early-August

We've added a new Links & Tips page with many links to some other cool sites and our new Guestbook as well. Stay tuned for a few new pictures and more upated pages, coming soon!

Other than that we are still cooling our heels in Newark, CA, trying to get some of our adventures into print so we can afford to get back out there and have some more fun!

Sitting in Newark, enjoying the company of family and friends we had almost lost sight of our goals. It took a few weeks of dealing with Bay Area traffic and weather (windy!) to remind us that there are other hills to climb and dales to see. Beebee's perspective was jarred into place by going back to work. Not to say that work is inherently bad… no no no! But spending close to two hours in traffic everyday to go to an office and bask in the combined luminescence of flourescent tubes and cathode rays is a pretty good reminder of just how nice a 110 degree day in Baja can be.

Steve, on the other hand, has been acting as house-husband and dealing with a minor bout of depression at his newfound lack of purpose. Getting things ready to go, yet again, isn't as much fun as it was the first (or second, for that matter) time. With a little help from Jon and a tool-loan from Kirk, Steve did manage to finally get Sandy's snorkel put on, and is pleased with the results. It was pretty scary, hacking a nearly-4" (96mm) hole into Sandy's fender… Whew!

Fortunately life isn't all about offices and itemized lists. We've both really enjoyed some great quality time with our relatives and friends. Steve had an absolute BLAST when Keith taught him how to windsurf on San Francisco Bay, and can't figure out how he lived here for six years without ever trying it out. Beebee has gotten her first chance ever to spend a lot of time with her sister, Cristie. We got to house-sit two separate homes for a total of nearly three weeks; we saw a part of the Concourse de Elegance in Carmel- stop and go traffic isn't as bad when the traffic is all classic sports cars! We also got to enjoy a fantastic concert by Chuck Mangione at the Paul Masson Historic Mountain Winery (in Saratoga, CA). It was a little freezing for us (temps dropped into the low 50's) but the music was excellent.

So life is pretty great, but the wanderlust is creeping up on us and we've got to get back out on the road- new things, new people, new places to see.

On the way back to the apartment we caught some nice night-time photos of the Opera House, one of our favorite San Francisco landmarks.

     

After a wonderful dinner and many laughs we headed home- only to find ourselves stuck in stop and go traffic on the Bay Bridge- at 11:01 (if you look carefully you can see the dash-clock in the picture) on a Wednesday night. The Bay Area has a lot of things going for it but smooth-flowing traffic isn't one of them!

Thursday morning Steve somehow convinced Beebee to take the day off of work to celebrate our anniversary, observed. Seems we've gotten into a bit of a tradition with that as special occasions often seem to be on days that are inconvenient, so we end up doing birthdays, anniversaries and such as "observed" holidays. Hey, it works for businesses and schools, why not us? Things may get sticky in December…. but I digress.

So instead of sitting in morning commute traffic we grabbed some coffee (mmmm, coooffffeeee) and headed out to the National Refuge down the street to enjoy a spectacular (but totally un-photographable) sunrise through porcelin-gray clouds and over still-watered wetlands. The mosquitos, unfortunately, chased us back into Sandy and eventually on our way.

Because Beebee couldn't take the day off entirely, we headed over the Dunbarton Bridge into Palo Alto, just a few miles from where Steve went to High School. Much to his regret, the Peninsula Cremery (best milkshakes on the Peninsula) was closed and so Beebee couldn't write it up for work. Oh well. We still had a good breakfast at Jim's, then headed off to buy some art-supplies and some beads. We both got a kick out of the fact that once upon a time we shopped for jewelry and other nicities to celebrate our wedding anniversary- this year we got water-colors, a technical-drawing pen, and pastel crayons- and we had more fun shopping for them this year.

While in Palo Alto Steve decided that Beebee just had to see El Palo Alto- California's first living historical landmark. While not much to look at now, in November, 1769 it served as an important campground for Portola in the historic expedition that discovered San Francisco Bay. An apparently-famous (if you follow such things) topographical map drawn in 1776 by Pedro Fonz included the towering, double-trunked redwood tree, making it the first official living landmark in California's history. Since then one trunk was hit by lightning and the other was topped in an effort to keep the whole thing from falling over… but it is still a cool little park next to a creek that has a neat footbridge next to a trestle bridge for trains. To Beebee's delight a train went whizzing by while we were there. We like trains.

The rest of our anniversary, observed, included seeing Steve's brother, Marty, and his wife Karen before heading down to Willow Glen to check out some more work-related stuff.

Very fun day for us, and the first time in a while we have spent a day doing fun things instead of being mired in all of the little details that surround our…. is this the third?…. attempt at getting out of the country.

By the way, will somebody please buy our trailer so we can leave?

Now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast: Kate, Steve and BB went to Seabright beach on Saturday. A gorgeous day in early September -- the best month of the year by the beach in California: Both the tourists and the fog go away. We talked, ate burritos, read and slept. Just what the beach is for.

We left Kate around 5 p.m. as Super B (aka Brian Sullivan) had invited us up to the family cabin (let us use this term loosely, as it's got four or more bedrooms and about 3,000 sq. ft.) in Ben Lomond (in the Santa Cruz mountains, about half-way between Santa Cruz and Los Gatos) for a little weekend fun. We got there as the shadows lengthened and the air cooled a little. A barbecue commenced after a few beers in the most amazing 2,000 year old stand of redwoods. Three old trees, burned out at some point long ago, with off-shoots some 20 feet tall, form a huge hollow with the hillside and their roots and new growth. Inside this hollow (probably 25 feet across and 60 feet long) sits an enormous picnic table and a brick barbecue with an adjustable grilling rack. We spent the evening grilling corn, meat, fish, and later, s'mores, and hanging out with some very cool friends of Super B's.

Sunday morning started late, with a few hangovers (Steve and Beebee escaped fairly unscathed) so the 10 or 12 of us went to town and wolfed down a huge breakfast in 90 degree heat. The river (did we mention the "cabin" sits on top of the bank of the San Lorenzo River?) beckoned. The water was cold, not quite No. Cal. ocean cold, but probably 67 degrees, and felt wonderful. We played in a shallow waterfall that spanned the breadth of the river (less than two feet deep in most places) and then hiked upstream about a half-mile to a superb rope swing/swimming hole. To get there though, we had to swim across a bit of very deep river (Super B swims it and he's about 6 and a half feet tall) and Beebee, to put it mildly, was, scared. Hyperventilating while swimming is rather difficult. But with Steve sitting in an inner tube next to her, coaxing her along (yes, she too wondered, "Why isn't Beebee in the inner tube?") she made it across. Although it was a good facing-of-fears episode, it left her a bit wary of the rope swing: heights, dark pools of water, heights, lake monsters, heights.

The other kids all took their turn (many turns in fact) and Beebee finally sucked it up, climbed up the root-ball ladder to the swing and … stood there. Holding onto the rope, coaxed on by 7 or 8 of her new, closest friends she jumped, screamed and remembered to let go. The water was cold and not so deep. No monsters. So she got out and did it again. Just to prove to herself that she could. Without screaming. But she did ride the inner tube back …

Sunday night we were expected at the Broyles' in Carmel, so we hightailed it out of the "cabin", only to find that we were expected at 3 p.m., not 5. We missed dinner, by just minutes, but everyone stayed at the table with us while we ate. Karyn and Randy left soon after, but we stayed on overnight to visit with the folks for a while. Monday morning came too soon and at the bottom of their hill, we turned around and went back to spend the day with Bill and Bonnie. And what a day we had. We packed a picnic and a couple of blankets, put on our suits and drove south 26 miles to Big Sur and Julia Pfeiffer State Park (actually a beach). The weather was incredible for Big Sur: 75 ish, sun-sun-sunny and little wind. We got down to business with the food and wine, then went for a great walk north along the beach. Steve and Beebee (at Bb's whim) somersaulted down a steep sand hill (more than once, it was so fun) ran along the beach, climbed some rocks, jumped off them and even jumped in the water (ouch!). We were so glad we did. It was a beautiful day to be alive. Back to the blanket we went for a quick nap (we would have slept longer, but mom and dad were ready to go), then back up the highway to Nepenthe (the best view from an establishment on the stretch of coast from Carmel to south of Big Sur) to have an evening cocktail and enjoyed the sunshine. Following are more pics from our day in Big Sur:

           
     

We slept well Monday night, got up early on Tuesday and drove up to Berkeley to meet Kelley (Bb's brother -- we'll stop telling you who he is soon, so pay attention) and his wife Lori.We stopped at Blondie's for HUGE pieces of pizza and lemonade (pink!) and then they led the way into and through the Oakland hills to Lake Anza. We had no clue this place existed. We swam and played in the water and hung out on the grass (there was sand too, but grass seemed somehow nicer that day) and talked about somethings and nothings, but most importantly the part of our trip they are taking with us! As evening came on, we weren't ready to part, so we made a b-line to the most popular burger place on Solana Avenue in Berkeley. They've got every kind of burger and non-burger you could think of. We meant to talk more about the trip, but got busy talking about other things. But for those who have no clue what we're talking about, K & L, (we may find a better nickname for these two, but that must suffice for now) are joining us in Guatemala City on Nov. 1 and riding with us for six whole weeks! The rough plan is to visit Glover's reef, Roatan, Antigua and other colonial cities, Tikal and maybe some other ruins, as well as kayak, canoe (probably in Belize), shop - both for food and gifts, eat wonderful food and marvel at the things we get to see. That will take us to Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala with them. We can hardly wait. They are positively wonderful souls and we four seem to think incredibly alike in our traveling wants and needs.

The only downside to traveling is leaving. Beebee is noticing again she's feeling that inexorable pull away from people she loves. There is nothing to be done about this but stay, and stay we can't. We would be unhappy. But the leaving gets to her in a way that few things can. People are so precious and time so short, it tears a little bit of her heart every time she realizes it will be the last time for a long time to see some of you.

We started the day off by meeting at the obstacle course. All said there were five wagons in various configurations in attendance:

Brian Sullivan in his white fj60, The Timex, with 4" lift, open diffs and 33" tires

Tom Boyd in his white fj60, Das Beast, sprung-over on saggy OME springs with 35" tires and lockers front/rear

Steve, in Sandy (also a white fj60), 31" tires and an OME suspension and an ARB air locker in the rear

Jon Kuhry in his very clean blue fj60 (Bloomin Whale, if it has a name yet), OME with 35" tires that barely fit

Rich (whose last name I've forgotten, Sorry!) in his red fj60 with OME and 33" tires as well as a very cool rack and family roll cage.

All in all it was a pretty impressive collection of 'Cruisers and a great illustration of some of the basic differences in how you can set up a wagon.

After driving through the frame twister a few times and generally foolin around, Brian decided to tackle the "Mini Rubicon" obstacle. Only minutes before a Toyota Mini-truck went through and crunched it's tailight (the 60 is a fair bit bigger than a mini-truck).

     

After eating lunch with a great view (we also met up with Roy Marcum in his mini-truck, and a couple driving a Cherokee) we headed down to the rock quarry to play a little.

     
… where Tom did some impressive climbing…
     

Seeing a fine opportunity to test out the rear-rocker panel sliders that RockSolid Off-Road built into our custom bumper, Steve decided to drop Sandy's butt on a rock shelf…
…the paint got scuffed a little, but the metal barely got scratched, and the rocker panels came out perfectly-protected - which is what that part of the bumper is all about.

Leaving the tank trap, Brian called out over the CB, "Hey! Someone take my picture before I roll!" Steve was slow on the camera- this picture is after he had backed down a little and gotten more level.

Other highlights for the day included Steve getting an opportunity to winch Brian up a hill (good winch practice and fun to give him guff) that he couldn't climb…Steve also used the pullpal to drag himself out of a solid stuck. The pullpal worked really well, but no pictures because the camera battery died… grrr.

A fun safe day was had by all.

There are some more good shots at Jon Kuhry's website, FarmerJon.com. You'll have to click through a couple of links to get to the "good stuff". You can see a little animation that Steve did with some of Jon's pictures here.

So here's a little picture gallery of those things in the order mentioned:

     

        

Made it as far as West LA to visit with Axel. We had talked on the phone with The Kids ahead of time and it worked out that they met us at Axel's home as well. Fun night of chatting about travel over good Thai food and some cold beer.

While sleeping in the roof-top camper overnight (on the streets of West LA) Jocelyn overheard a young man talking to a young woman- extolling the virtues of "A real off-road vehicle" while walking around Sandy. Steve slept through it, but it was fun to hear the story anyway. Hopefully the poor girl wasn't too bored by his monologue.

It was hard to leave everyone in the morning. We tried, briefly, to get the kids to come with us, but they are on towards Australia instead. Bye guys! Have a great trip! And a big thanks to Axel for hosting us.

On Saturday we finally made it down to San Diego, and straight to the Hotel Del Coronado, an SD landmark over in Coronado. Christine Miller's parents were in town, so the five of us had a very enjoyable lunch and we got to show off our truck to peeps who hadn't seen it yet. We ran errands afterward (but missed AAA for our Mexican insurance by a couple of hours -- ugh) and lucked out when we stopped by Stephie Sorensen's house and she was home! We chatted with her for almost an hour, then headed over to Todd's. He's now living in a fantastic apartment with an ocean view in Pacific Beach. Steve and Beebee took off for a run, while Todd and Becka (another mutual friend of Crisonja's) went surfing. With hefty appetites, we plowed into a pasta dinner followed by many rum and cokes and lots of fun conversation.

We did find out that same night some really wonderful and some very terrible news. Dave and Haven (the cousins in Long Beach) delivered (Dave actually delivered the baby!!!) a 6.5 lb. baby boy, Jack on Saturday the 14th at 4:52 a.m. On the same day, Michael Cala (the husband of Steve's cousin Robyn) died in a plane crash in Mexico. Our hearts are with Michael's family and especially Robyn. Makes us appreciate how tenuous life is and realize that we should definitely live life by and for each day we're lucky enough to have.

Sunday found us a bit tired and fuzzy, but no worse for our drinking. After breakfast, we drove up to Escondido (north of San Diego about half an hour) where Mike Flynn made us a new crank for our roof-top tent. (Thanks Mike, it works like a charm!!) In the wee hours leaving Newark on Thursday, we left the crank hanging off of the tent, never to be seen by us again. That took the better part of the day to fab, and while the paint dried, Beebee went and cut all her hair off -- all the easier to take care of and better to look less like a blonde Californian/American. She discovered that her hair is quite dark brown at the roots and she fears she looks a little like a boy. Steve assures her she doesn't. But these pictures don't do much to support his opinion.

We took off around 6 p.m., stopping in a little town called Pine Valley and had a great dinner at Major's Coffee Shop. After that we only made it a couple of hours east. We were beat, so we camped at a roadside rest stop (loud!), got up in the morning and made it to Tucson by 2 p.m. Monday. We made a bee line for the local AAA, after buying gas for $1.51 a gallon (we kicked ourselves when we saw it later for $1.47 -- we thought it couldn't get any better than the first price we saw) Perspective: gas in the bay area and San Diego goes for over $1.80 or so for the cheap stuff- sometimes as high as $1.97. Steve even took a picture of the $1.51 because he thought it was so incredible.

The best part about Tucson is that Beebee's cousin Darren and his wife, Shelly, live there. In a really great house, we might add, with concrete floors, lots of windows and a huge back yard. We had dinner with them (how great that they didn't have plans) and chatted for a while before we crawled into the condo for much needed sleep.