Kayaking Lk of the Springs 6/9/11

We've gone up in temp about 25 deg. in two days! Bright, sunny and very warm this afternoon. We took the kayaks down to the beach this morning about 10.30 a.m. This lake is about 3 times the size of Lake Minden and is fed by 7 springs. I found wild yellow iris along the river inlet. We traveled up one little river to where the inflow was small rapids. It was a perfect day, almost no one on the lake. This is a 'no wake" lake so only electric motors allowed. The park has kayaks, canoes, and funny red round boats that were out when we first were on the water. They also have three party barges available. It has been awhile since we've done any serious kayaking and my arms sure could feel the workout. The wind came up on our way back in (doesn't it always come from the wrong direction?) but we took our time and it was fine. There are many kinds of birds here and to hear them singing was great. This is a large park and not a whole lot of folks here except for the deer that visit every day. Roger saw a fox yesterday; the quail visit along the road too. We are going out to the culinary school/cafe for dinner tonight. My sister Nancy and hubby Lon will be back in the park this weekend. Means more dominoes! Sunshine is wonderful. Remember you can click on any photo to see a larger shot. Happy Trails...

Road trip in the Sunshine 6/7/11

Sun was out today and we made the most of it. At the little town of Brownsville we picked up a picnic lunch and headed up the highway, hoping to get to Little Grass Valley reservoir. We had heard about the Little Grass Valley lake and campground from locals and it is about 30 miles from Lake of the Springs TT park. The "road closed" sign is almost to the entrance of the campground but as you can see from the photos, the area was still snow bound. It is at about the 5200 ft level. We were able to drive into the Strawberry campground which was empty except for the camp host. The small reservoir there is shown in my photos. Very pretty and has a 'car-top' boat launch for day use only. Would be a beautiful place to kayak. We enjoyed our lunch parked off road by a large meadow in the pines. Has been a long time since we have seen either big fir trees and especially SNOW! One thing I noticed is the strange feeling of being closed in as we drove up the highway. The tall firs and overhanging oaks and madronas as well as blooming dogwood were like walls along the road. After the deserts of Arizona and Baja which are such open expanses of view and land, the closed in walls of the trees were a little daunting at first. All the green was beautiful and the dogwood were a surprise; we loved it. And after 2-1/2 weeks of rain and cold (to us anyway) weather, the sunshine and 70+ was a perfect day to get and enjoy nature and a great drive. I also took some photos of local sights. This area was originally settled by miners I think in the 1850s. There are several little communities along the highway up to (and beyond) Little Grass Valley. We have a really great site here at LOTS park. After the drive, we enjoyed our latte and mocha sitting outside reading and enjoying the sunshine and lake view. Pretty darned nice life, I gotta say. It's amazing what a day of sunshine will do for me! whoohoo.. Happy Trails.

6/1/11 In California TT parks

Well, we left AZ and headed west, thinking we would still be in warm sunshine. Well,maybe so, maybe not! The first two photos are of the Lake of the Springs park near Oregon House, CA. We have even a better view of the lake than the top photo shows. You can see Roger and our "toys" at our site. We arrived after getting lost for a couple of hours on a one hour drive... ah, life on the road... After we got settled, we were watching the tv to see tornado warnings near the Lake Minden park we had just left. While being lost, we were caught in the big hail, lightening, rain, and winds... black clouds were amazing. The last two photos are of Lake Minden and us kayaking. Who knew old folks could have so much fun! My sister Nancy and her husband Lon joined us for 4 days. We played "Spinner" dominos, had dinners together, and got Nancy into the kayak. Think we have a convert, folks. They have their 5th wheel here at Lake of the Springs year round and will join us on the next two weekends. I am hoping for more sunshine; weather here has been very unusual - should be in the 80s at least some of the time by now. Guess we will just enjoy what comes around. We saw wild turkeys today and were greeted at our site here by two deer. Life on the road... Happy Trails...

May Paintings 5/13/11

Well, I have been having fun painting this month. The weather has been great for painting on the deck where I can spread out on the patio table. Some of them turned out better than others, but it is fun to try new techniques and color combinations. The sideways one is of the Free Beach at sunset in Los Barriles. The one of the kayaks and sailboat is of Santispac, and Pelican Island. We loved it there. Calelb's Cafe is one of Roger's favorite places in Los Barriles. It has such a view of the Sea of Cortez. The two florals are two different styles, one almost abstract and the other with an inner 'frame'. The last one is my attempt at cliff dwellings we've seen in Arizona. I am taking a workshop in Bend, OR in Aug and have been inspired to 'get to work' so I wont feel like such a beginner in class. Course my photography is not so hot, but if you click on a photo, it should enlarge so you can get the idea...lol I still don't know if you can 'rotate'a photo in Blogger either.. at least I haven't been able to do it. Today is Friday 13th, and it's going to be about 100 deg. here today. Think we will be staying in for the rest of the day. Roger's coffee machine arrived but he is not happy with it so plans to return it. Guess we will be heading back to Starbucks again! We will be in California for Memorial Day weekend, visiting with my sister and her hubby at Lake Minden, a Thousand Trails park. We hope to get some kayaking in there. Meanwhile, I hope to keep my brushes wet... hope you are having a good time too.... Happy trails.....

People paintings 5/3/11

It's been very quiet here in Casa Grande. Most of the 'winter visitors' have gone home. I have had sometime to do some painting and think about some paintings I would like to do. The first painting is my most recent. It is of the flower vendors at the Puyallup outdooor market. I took photos last summer at the market. The flowers were spectacular. I have been trying to put 'people' in my paintings recently. Faces are much harder than trees or water etc. The second painting is of a different market. This one is an outdoor market in Los Barriles, Baja where we spent this last winter. The farmer and his wife would pull up every Saturday noon in their SUV and trailer and then unload the most wonderful fresh, organic food. Everyone is our RV park would gather round, pick out their treasures, and line up to pay. We would have discussions about what we were going to make with the fresh veggies, share recipes and catch up on what was happening in town. This big tree gave us shade when it was warm and even gave us a little protection the one! time we had sprinkles. The third photo is from my sketch book. This young man is hauling back a surf kite to the starting grounds after his 'flyer' has landed. This happened during the big Lord of the Winds contest on the beaches of Los Barriles. I think this would make a good painting. At least I think I will give it a try. The last painting was done while we were still in Baja. I found the flowers at another kind of market. We were in La Conner last summer and stopped at several local farms for fresh fruit. The "Schuh" farm had wonderful berries for sale as well as a coffee stand and a beautiful side flower garden. Since we have friends by the name of Schuh in Fiesta Grande in AZ and have visited their farm in Ill. we had to stop! We really enjoyed the berries, the clever Schuh mailbox, and we got some nice photos to boot. Other news for us; the coach is now in the hands of the repair shop for the awning (finally), our new floor is installed, and Roger is STILL waiting on his new coffee machine. We will be leaving Casa Grande in another couple of weeks. We have plans for stops in California and Oregon on the way back to Washington state. So time to pull out my brushes again and see if I can bring the young man and his kite to the paper! Happy trails....

Big Day.. Hullavators installed!

Today Roger installed the hullavators for the kayaks! Whooeee! Very excited. I've put a video of how they work on this page. They have a hydraulic system to lift the kayaks to the top of the Jeep. Then with a gentle push, the cradle eases down to the Jeep roof top, holding the kayak snugly in place. We use tie down at both ends as well as the middle 'body' straps. This way, we can take a day trip and easily kayak for a day and return home without the heavy lifting/struggle to load the boats. I am not really tall enough (or strong enough) to be much help to Roger with the process. The kayaks weigh about 50 lbs. apiece and raising them above my head to the top of the Jeep without standing on ladder or something is pretty much out of the question. This is going to make our excusions so much easier! With my new, longer paddle and these hullavators,we are good to go! Roger's brother Mike and his wife got their hullavators installede earlier in the week and have been exploring lakes in the area around Phoenix. We are looking forward to getting out there and trying them ourselves. I am waiting for call about the installation of floor for the park model. We are moving right along on the 'to-do' list! Hopefully my next blog will be about a kayaking trip! Happy trails...

Rainy day in AZ

Roger took me for a ride this morning to check out the water in the park. It has been raining since last night. I think if it keeps up, we can take our kayaks out right here in the park! We don't have the usual Lake Burrito in front of our park model, but in other parts of the park, the water is more than puddles. Roger and I only brought one pair of long pants each from the motorhome to the park model. After all, it's April! He turned the furnace on this morning as it was quite chilly. Reminds me of summers in Washington. We know the weatherman has predicted temps in the low 80s for next week, so it's all good. Hope you are warm and dry, where ever you are. Happy trails....