Julian, CA

We're at 4,000 feet up into the mountains here, though only an hour of winding roads from San Diego. Amazing oak trees - these acorns are huge.



Julian is an old mining town that somehow has its old wood buildings still standing, now filled with shops that are a bit tourist-y, but some nice art galleries and a good collection of western kitsch. Even better, Julian is famous for apple pie made from local apples and there is no Starbucks or Marie Callender anywhere around.

San Clemente

Port Hueneme

Before I became a high-powered executive in the money management biz, I worked in the oil patch. Yesterday, we drove by the former location of a company I worked for in the late 80s, a company which was acquired (in what became a hostile takeover) by my Anchorage employer. The accounting department was up those stairs in the building in the back. I met Mark in the engineering department upstairs in the building on the right.

Thanksgiving dinner at the beach

What a great day. So much to be thankful for. Not the least of which is our dinner:
- Turkey thighs stuffed with onion, garlic and herbs.
- Baked sweet potatoes
- Green beans
- Cranberry sauce with orange, pears and candied ginger

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were startled out of bed this morning by waves hitting the van. OMG. Don't worry, I think we're okay.

This place is hopping. Relatives arriving for Thanksgiving. Fishermen. Surfers. Dolphins! It's definitely a full house. Let the turkey-cooking begin.

The fridge returns

Believe it or not, we got the refrigerator back from County Wide Dan and it seems to be working. Just in time for Thanksgiving. So we did some grocery shopping and a couple loads of laundry, then hurried back to our temporary home on the beach. I was hoping the days would be noticeably longer down here, but not so. Sunset was at 4:49.

A little bump in the road

A couple days ago, VanMan's little refrigerator started running constantly, making an awful noise, and never getting particularly cold. This morning we decided we better do something about it. We called Ventura RV Repair who suggested we call Beacon Marine, who suggested we call County Wide Dan, the AC guy. Dan told us to pull out the refrigerator, leave it by the side of the road, and he would swing by, pick it up and see if he could fix it. So that's what we did. Then we went to Target to buy a cheap ice chest and some ice. So far, it's much quieter and seems to be keeping our food plenty cool.

We still hope to hear back from Dan, so I guess we'll stay here through Thanksgiving. It's not too painful





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This is more like it

Ventura

The Mission:



I lived in this apartment in 1989:



This was the view from the patio of my apartment:

Ojai

The Grapevine

Heading into LA County on I-5: stop-and-go traffic on the Grapevine, raining and 38 degrees. This state is loooong - it's taking forever to get to sunny southern California.

Back on track

We got waylaid for a couple days visiting relatives but are back on track now, heading south on I-5. It's 42 degrees and raining this morning so no progress whatsoever on that front. 

Travel in the off-season is quiet. If it weren't for a group of Cub Scouts  who spent the day canoeing, we would have been the only guests in this campground on the Sacramento River.

Heading down I-5

Yesterday was a perfect fall day. The temperature was a bit brisk, but the red and yellow on the maples was absolutely brilliant and the sky was a crystal clear blue.

Today is a different story. It's wet. And the only color is gray.

That's okay. We're heading south.