Farewell to Chris - a memorial ceremony on Sunday

We had a lovely memorial service for my brother Chris on Sunday the 13th.  It was held at the Healdsburg Senior Center, where Chris had attended meetings of his AA group for over twenty-five years.  He was very active in that group and was well known for mentoring many people new to the program and helping them with their recoveries.  His sister Maggie and I organized the ceremony and several relatives attended, including his daughter Loreen and his nieces Vanessa and April.  There was a lively crowd of around a hundred people, many of whom shared memories and stories about Chris. 

Chris was famous for his outrageous Hawaiian shirts, which he wore everywhere when he was not working.  People in Healdsburg took pleasure in buying them for him when they went to Hawaii, and he had gradually built up a huge collection.  Maggie took them all to the ceremony and we gave them away to all of his friends and neighbors who attended.  People really enjoyed that and snapped them up.   It was quite amazing seeing all of his shirts worn at once in the same room.  


So now we are gradually returning to closing out the house that he lived in and re-planning our trip.  We expect to be back on the road after the fourth of July weekend.  We'll be working on an itinerary over the next few weeks and will post it as soon as we know more. 

Chris Graham 1943-2010

My brother Chris died on Tuesday, June 1, after several days of rapidly deteriorating condition.  Apparently the cancer made rapid progress in that last week - he stopped eating and drinking and sank into a coma.  He died peacefully in the afternoon with our family present.  We will all miss him very very much, but I am really glad that we had all of that time together during his last few weeks.  He was a wonderful man and a great brother to me. 

We are setting up a memorial service for this coming Sunday, June 13th, and are collecting photos and memorabilia for the event.  Ivy and I expect to be here for about another month, and then head out on our RV expedition again.  More later.  

One month in Healdsburg

A month has gone by since our last post, so I am far behind in my blogging.  I apologize to our many friends but it has been quite hectic down here as you might imagine. 

We've settled in to a day-to-day routine in Healdsburg.  After a couple of weeks of preparation, we were able to move the RV onto my brother Chris' property and we are in effect living there now.   We keep in close contact every day, help with medication and chores, prepare food, and work on various repair and enhancement projects to make his life easier.  There is a steady stream of visitors, and we are constantly impressed with the overwhelming support that Chris is getting from neighbors and friends in his community.  They are wonderful people and they are going all out to help him.

My sister Maggie is the most constant family presence, and a vital support for Chris.  She was a nurse at Stanford Hospital until she retired, and handled many of the most difficult cases there, so her experience with the medical system is extensive.   He trusts her completely, and she works very hard to balance his medication properly, manage his relations with the hospice people, and handle many of his financial and business affairs.  His situation is quite fragile, and his quality of life is subject to wide swings, but with her help he has many good days to share with all of us.

Other family members are here, too, as they can manage.  My brother Thom is up here now from San Diego.  This is the first time that all four of us have been together since 1999, and Chris is in great form, so the visit has been very good for everyone.  We have been sharing old photographs from one of my mother's old albums, and spending a lot of time reminiscing. 

Northern California is lovely this time of year, and we've had some pleasant outings.  The days have been mostly sunny and clear, with temperatures reaching over 80 some days.  We have visited Sebastopol, Bodega Bay and other points of interest around.  This is a terrific biking area, and the streets are often crowded with bands of bicycle riders, so Ivy and I are having fun exploring the bike trails and roads in the area.  We are located very near the Russian River, and that provides a number of scenic parks and beaches. 

The birding is good here, and there are lots of species that we don't see up north.  The California oak tree is a predominant forest type around here, so there are birds like the oak titmouse and the acorn woodpecker that we never see up there.  Around Chris's house, the most common two are the mockingbird and the scrub jay, both of which battle daily over turf in his yard.  There's a baby mockingbird down on the ground near his house right now, with the parents standing guard and swooping over anyone who comes near.  Chris has five ancient and disheveled cats, so the daily drama keeps us watching.

Ivy has been doing a bit of painting and drawing as she gets the chance.  We took a very nice trip up to an Audubon site near Healdsburg called Mayacama, very remote and wild.  She took advantage of the trip to draw and paint a bit.  It's lovely country with both good birding and beautiful scenery.  Chris has a friend, Ellen, who has helped out enormously during our trip, giving us an RV site at her home for a couple of weeks and showing us around.  She is a painter also, so she an Ivy go off on trips together and are sharing techniques and sites.  

As for me, I am mostly occupied with visiting with my brother and making an effort to keep up with repair and maintenance on his old house and our RV.  I go for long bike rides when I can, or longer outings with Ivy when we have the time.  I spend a bit of time each morning in a local coffee shop, work on little projects here and there, and watch movies on the new HDTV set that Maggie and I conspired to buy Chris.  He enjoys Lord of the Rings all the time, and has it on most days as background, and we watch lots of other stuff, too, many with his friends and neighbors who share our passion for movies. 

We are plotting to get some visits with the grandchildren sometime soon, and some longer trips to scenic spots around here.  In the meantime, life is pretty good - the area is lovely, the weather nice, and the people are as helpful as we could hope.  More later.

Catching up after some adventures - May 2, 2010

OK - lots has happened, but we have not updated the blog because of unreliable or intermittent internet contact.  Apologies to everyone, and we promise to do better in the future.

When I left off, we were on the second night of our journey, down in Crescent City.  We started our day there very nicely.  It was a sunny day, and we had a walk by the fishing harbor, with lots of colorful fishing boats, which seemed to be entirely idle - guess it's not the fishing season.  The town seemed very slow economically, with not much going on at all, but a really colorful town.  By luck, we happened to see a male Brandt's Cormorant in breeding plumage - he popped up right next to us in the harbor, then disappeared before we could get a picture.  But he was gorgeous, with two striking white stripes down the head.  We also sighted a flock of Aleutian Geese, also known as Cackling Geese.  I guess they used to be close to extinct, but they're now plentiful around here in the spring. 

We went for a bike ride along the main highway and down to a local beach, where we took a long walk.  Ivy found some interesting rocks to draw.  Then we packed up the RV and  headed down the road through the redwoods.  We stopped at the Big Tree for the obligatory picture, and had a lovely lunch in the RV, parked among the redwoods.  We spent the night in an RV park nearby, great trees and shade but no cell phone or wi-fi coverage.  Had a nice conversation with a local RV'er, and were entertained by a large flock of quail who foraged all morning through the park.

By Friday afternoon, after an uneventful run down highway 101, we reached Healdsburg, where my brother,Chris, lives.  I was hoping to locate the RV right on  his property, to allow us to go back and forth easily, but that turned out to be impractical for now.  But we were able to work out a spot to stay in nearby Windsor with a good friend of his, Ellen.  She had a space alongside her house that fit the RV perfectly and allowed us to get power, water and all the trimmings.  It's a lovely spot, with two giant ancient oak trees shading the spot and a fence for privacy.   And for an added bonus, Ellen has a lovely garden in her back yard, complete with various birds and her two cats.  We've had a number of delays getting wi-fi going, but after a bit of wrangling and installation, we got that happening as well. So we are settled in for a bit.

Ivy and Ellen are both artists and gardeners, so they have been getting along fabulously, with Ellen giving Ivy tours of the area and working on artworks and garden projects together. The springtime is lovely around here, flowers all around and the ubiquitous vineyards starting to green out.  We had a very nice bike ride in Sebastopol, and there are many additional promising routes around here which are on my list for the next few weeks.  There are some fabulous birding opportunities as well, and the coast is quite nearby.  Weather has been mostly sunny and warm - up to 80 degrees today. 

I've been spending most of my time at my brother Chris's place, getting up to date on what's happening there and helping out wherever I can.  He is in a wheelchair and his mobility is quite limited due to the back operation that he had.  But he is lively and cantankerous as ever, and working hard to improve his situation and get it more workable.  He is surrounded by many people who love him and are working hard to take care of him.  People from the community are rebuilding his bathroom for better wheelchair access, fixing him food and bringing it over, cleaning up and doing laundry, dropping by to chat and watch movies, taking him to appointments and meetings, etc.  It's hard to get a word in edgewise sometimes, with all the folks that are crowded around to help out.

Chief among the helpers, though, is my sister Maggie, whose long career at Stanford Hospital has prepared her to handle all of the many details of medical arrangements that are so critical to Chris'  comfort and safety, as well as all the paperwork and documents that are needed.  Chris relies on her totally, and she has done an enormous amount to get him through all this with the best possible results.  She has been truly heroic, and we are all very grateful.


So we're settled in for awhile.  I'm not sure what our next steps will be, but things will get clearer over the next few weeks as we enjoy the Sonoma County area and spend more time with my brother.  I hope to have more regular bulletins in the future. 

At Last - On the Road - April 19th, 2010

After a minor setback or three, we launched our great adventure on Monday morning.  We had spent the weekend with our daughter Michelle, her husband Mark, and their two lovely kids at their house in Mount Baker.  They patiently put up with our ferrying goods back and forth to our covered wagon, outfitting it for the long journey.  We finally cleared their house of our huge pile of boxes and bags, getting everything stowed away and , after a last visit to our little house and picking a final bit of purple broccoli out of our garden, we were ready to go.
 
 The travel on Day 1 was largely uneventful, though somewhat rainy and cold, and we arrived at our friend Ruth's house in Salem, Oregon for the first night's stayover. She lives on a fairly busy street and her driveway was just barely able to contain our rig. By parking it diagonally across the driveway space, we could just barely fit it in so that people could still use the sidewalk in front of her house. We had a very pleasant dinner and a great evening of conversation and catching up, with her and her family, Margaret, Emily and Wes. We stayed in her house rather than the RV, a gentle partial transition to RV living.

On Day 2, we headed over to the Oregon Coast, along Highway 34.   The coast is stunningly beautiful, of course, but was very windy and cold. The RV handled very well, and our little tow car tracked along nicely in spite of the wind and rain.  We saw lots of birds along the way, including this flock of Brandt's Cormorants sheltering from the wind.  We spent the night in a state park called Honeyman, nestled in among the Oregon Sand Dunes.  It was a lovely area, well protected from the wind, and our first real night of RV living, setting up all our equipment, cooking in the rig, sleeping there and feeling much more as if we were on the road.  The RV was very comfortable, though we spent a lot of time re-arranging stuff and adjusting to our new lifestyle.  

 

On Day 3, Ivy and I began to settle into a better routine.  The basic chores of RV'ing were more familiar, and the pace of our travel began to match what we were intending.  Our trip down the coast continued through the rest of Oregon.  Although we were intending to move fairly quickly to California to visit my brother, we took a more leisurely pace on this day, stopping more frequently, looking around, taking pictures and exploring a bit more.   Our lunch was particularly nice, as we stopped in a small city called Bandon along the Oregon coast, picked up some fresh local snapper from a fishing outlet, and cooked it up right there while doing a bit of birdwatching out the windows of the RV, which was parked along the shore of a bay.  I saw some turnstones, a loon, and some brants in the water, while munching on one of Ivy's characteristic one-dish salad meals.  We began to get a sense of how this adventure would unfold. 

 

We went to an elk viewing area, and got to see a few of them, though they were far away.  We stopped at several spots along the highway to walk around or take pictures.  And I had my required mid-afternoon nap parked by the side of the road while Ivy went walking. 

We settled into an RV park for the night at Crescent City California.  I wanted one with all the trimmings, to check out the wi-fi, cable TV, electric and all.  And we got one, located close in to the city.  It wasn't much to look at, on a flat plane and row on row of RVs, but everything worked and we were able to check everything out and be nearby to the Redwoods Visitor Center, for the next morning.  The raging wind rocked our RV gently all night as we snoozed and waited for the next stage of our adventure.

Almost Ready to Go - April 9, 2010

Much has happened since our last post.  We are now about a week from departure, but a lot of work has been required to get us here.  Ivy and I are both quite exhausted from the endless preparation and are looking forward to launching the real trip.

Our RV developed several leaks during our shakedown cruise, all of which had to be worked on.  The most serious of these was some "delamination", a curse word dreaded by all RV owners the world over. That caused extensive repairs, which will be completed next week. In the process, we will lose our leopard decals along the side, to no one's great regret.   Once that is done, we will be ready to pack the RV and go on the road.

In the meantime, we have been packing up all our belongings in preparation for renting out our house.   Generous friends and family have provided us storage space in several locations for our mountains of stuff, and we have been giving away, throwing out, and selling off all kinds of things to get the profile down to something manageable.  It's great to be getting rid of things, which tend to accumulate to excess when you have been together as long as Ivy and I have.   We will be moving in to the home of some friends for a few days while they are away on vacation. 

We have found a tenant for our house,  and that family will be moving in at the end of the month.    It's quite strange to see our house so empty after seventeen years here, and to think that we won't be back for such a long time.  But we are very much looking forward to launch this adventure and seeing so many new places we have always wanted to see.

We have acquired some great new technology to help us on the road.  We have plunked for an iPhone to provide both GPS and internet access while on the road.  These amazing gadgets have countless Apps that provide information to travelers like us, pointing out the gas stations, RV parks, cash machines and whatever you need in whatever location you find yourself.  We were clueless about the features, but our children and grandchildren were happy to educate us, after appropriate eye-rolling at Grandpa and Grandma.

We will miss our community of Vashon while we are gone, and our many friends throughout the area.  We have been  used to visiting with them and being involved in our community activities for years, and that will be a real change.  For weeks now we have been having farewell luncheons and dinners with friends, sometimes multiple ones with the same friends.  And we have been gradually letting go of committee work and civic involvement and transferring that work to others.  Everyone wishes us well and has been as helpful as we could have wished, so we are ever mindful of and grateful for the support of our friends and family.

Most of all, of course, we will miss our four charming granddaughters, who light up our life on such a regular basis (Their parents are not chopped liver, either, but, you know......) .  We have two in Seattle and two in London, and we will be far from everyone.  Our last family gathering was last summer, and those are some of our most precious times, as you can see from the photos.  But we have not given up - we are busily plotting some kind of gathering on the road, so that we don't totally miss the little urchins.  Being residents of London and Seattle, they are all drawn to beaches and warm weather, so that will definitely be part of the plot. There will be future bulletins on this subject.

Some unfortunate news from our family down in California will be affecting our trip plans, as well.  My brother Chris has had serious spine surgery and has been diagnosed with advanced and pervasive lung cancer.  Given his prognosis, he is refusing further treatment and has arranged for hospice care.   So we will be heading down to his home town of Healdsburg, north of Santa Rosa for our first stop.  The news is very sad, but we feel lucky to have the RV ready at this time, so that we can spend as much time as needed in the area and have a completely flexible time schedule. 

Our next posts will be from on the road. We hope to see as many of you as we can while we are traveling, either by visiting you at home or meeting up in whatever places we find ourselves.  Keep in touch.

Steve

Shakedown Cruise - Feb 16th to 20th

CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT - THE FIRST SERIOUS CRUISE WITH THE NEW RV



Our first big shakedown cruise began on Tuesday, February 16.  We hooked up the Geo to the RV and off we went!  It was quite a sight, the 30 foot RV with the little Geo in tow and the bikes hooked up in the middle.  But it drove quite well and we made our trip without incident.  We arrived at the Cape Disappointment State Park at the mouth of the Columbia on the Washington side just before closing,  and set up at our campsite.  We hooked up power and water and settled down for the night.

The next morning we climbed on our bikes and went to the ranger station to register.  The park is quite spread out, and the bikes were quite handy.  The weather was terrific, blazing sunshine and cool, and it was lots of fun trying out all the gear and getting set up.  The rest of the day was taken up with bike rides and beach walks.

The next day we hiked up to McKenzie Head, an old fort battery site overlooking the ocean, and then took a tour of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  Cape Disappointment, of course, is where the Lewis and Clark expedition's westward trip ended when they reached the mouth of the Columbia, and you can get the same view that they got when they arrived (with a jetty and whole lot of sea traffic added in). Of course, they weren't too lucky in their selection - this stretch of coast is rated the most hazardous in the entire US coastline, and has been labeled the Graveyard of the Pacific for all of the shipwrecks there.  In fact, while we were there the Coast Guard was carrying out practice rescues in the sea and on the cliffs under the North Head Lighthouse.  I guess people come from all over the country to train here. 

On Friday, we took our old, but trusty, Geo for a drive into Astoria, Oregon, about fifteen miles away across the Columbia.  A highlight there was their Maritime Museum, which chronicles all of the dramatic shipwrecks and rescues that have taken place at the mouth of the Columbia. Then we had a celebratory dinner at a local restaurant, Baked Alaska, for some (local?) seafood.  Then home for a snooze.  Next morning, after a relaxed morning of sketching and drawing (Ivy) and birdwatching (Steve), we headed home. 

LESSONS LEARNED - the shakedown cruise definitely gave us some new insights into RV living.  Besides the inevitable equipment issues that came up and flaws in the packing and preparation, there were three major ones.

1) A year is not a very long time to do the kind of trip we're talking about.  It seemed like a lot to us when we started out, but our Cape Disappointment visit was a good lesson.  We were there the best part of four days and there were still lots of places we didn't get to see.  It takes a lot of time to really explore a new place, and that really limits how many places you can go to.  Limits, limits, limits.

2) Paradoxically, RV travel has a lot of lessons for green living.  RVs come with quite limited resources and you have to be always aware of how much you're using and what it's costing you.  There's only a forty gallon fresh water tank on our RV and a six gallon hot water tank.  All of your resources are limited, the propane gas, the battery electricity, the water, the black and grey water tanks and so on.  You have to be frugal with your use of resources all the time.  But because you're living in about a 150 square foot house, your energy use for heat, light, etc., is quite a bit less than a normal home, which helps.  It's sailboat living on land.

3) RV travel involves a whole lot of care and feeding of the equipment.  Our rig is ten years old, and has already developed some unexpected problems.  You have to watch all the time for leaks, because everything is moving all the time and things work loose.  You need to carry your own tools and be prepared to fix stuff yourself, or patch it together until you can find some local assistance.  Duct tape is an essential.  It's the modern equivalent of covered wagon living, but without the wagon train.  Fortunately, RV owners in every campgound are a resource for everyone and will help you out in need and provide advice and counsel as well.  It's a kind of "smart mob" for RVers.