I have visited the Pacific Northwest many times in the last few decades, and explored as extensively as my aging legs possibly could. However; most of my time was spent in Oregon, barely venturing into Washington. I anticipated it being very much the same as Oregon, and in many ways it is. Washington is gorgeous, it has mountains and ocean and big trees, but the mountains aren’t quiet as tall, the trees aren’t quiet as big, and the ocean extends deeply into the land mass. It is this last trait that I never considered and has surprised me existentially.

My past experiences of being surrounded by the ocean have been in Florida and the Bahama’s. Being surrounded by ocean this far north is a very different experience. The air contains ocean moisture and controls the temperatures allowing little variance. Our days so far have all been a high of 48 F and a low of 42 F. It is cool, but at the same time comforting and amazing. We are parked right next to the water. If I didn’t know it was ocean I would think it was a slow river or lake, but it is salt water, it has significant tides, and it is so crystal clear you can see right through to the bottom like looking through glass. How did I not already know about such pristine waters?

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When I was young I was a distance runner. I was never very good, but I did enjoy it and the very best running experiences were those rare Ohio days when it would mist. Maybe one or two of those would happen a year, and I would always make my best effort to get out and experience the phenomena. I don’t mind getting wet and something about being in the mist is exhilarating.

I don’t yet understand the science of it but, the location of the Olympic mountains and Pacific ocean and prevailing winds causes this part of the world to have tiny little raindrops just like those Ohio mists for nearly every storm. It has been raining all morning and the drops are so tiny I can barely make out the sound of them striking our roof. Shanti and I coated up and spent the better part of an hour walking along the shore enjoying the tranquility. I don’t imagine many people would enjoy this, but I found it incredibly soothing.

I was nervous planning ahead to spend the first two months of the new decade in Washington state. It is, after all, further north than Ohio where those months are absolutely miserable and depressing. Now that I am here I find myself excited to have new environments to explore. I haven’t gotten to do much hiking yet, but I anticipate my next entry will have pictures from at least one hike.

I hope that you have a wonderful new year and the next decade treats the people of Earth better than the last.

May peace find you.

We now have nearly a year on the road under our belt and are getting better at the lifestyle. We had originally planned to spend the Thanksgiving week in the Valley of the Giants, but toward the end of our week in Fort Bragg Kendra was recovering from a bout of cold symptoms and my mother was in the hospital leaving me concerned my father might need my help. A week off grid in the dark cold damp woods wasn’t sounding like the best plan after all. When we started this journey we likely would have just bulled through, but now we adjusted plans and traveled into Oregon instead.

The plan change turned out to be an all around great idea even though I didn’t need to fly anywhere. The drive was absolutely gorgeous, I don’t think I will ever tire of driving through mountain forests. We came over the pass on I5 from California into Oregon. The conditions were a bit dodgy with some ice and snow, but we came through safely. One day later the storm hit and they closed down that pass.

Kendra, master trip planner, reserved us a full week at Silver Falls Campground which has the nickname The Gem of Oregon. Gorgeous campground with huge trees. It got a little below freezing at night but thawed through the day so we were able to keep the RV systems running properly. My mother is now home resting and I am looking forward to visiting for Christmas.

With vacation and holiday I had the entire week off and we went hiking every day exploring the many waterfalls of the region. One day the path was a bit icy and the hiking went slow. With my massive feet I did pretty well on the ice, but Kendra is almost as tall as me with much smaller feet and a section before the last two falls was just too treacherous for her to traverse. She talked me into going ahead and taking pictures while she started back. Due to an incoming ice storm we did not catch the very last waterfall, Winter Falls, this trip.

South Falls

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Lower South Falls

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North Falls

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Upper North Falls

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Lower North Falls

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MIDDLE Falls

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DOUBLE Falls

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May peace find you.

If you have read my past entries, you know that being on the road has it’s own special challenges. However; sometimes the stars align and life is very good indeed.

This week we have spot right on the bluffs, and work has been light affording me time to really enjoy the location. When we wake up I open the front blinds and we are looking at waves rolling in.

There is something powerful and invigorating about being near the ocean. Every walk with the dog was a joy. I watched nearly every sunrise and sunset with either Kendra or Shanti or both. Took a chunk of one day to go hiking in Mendocino and wished I had time to do it again.

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The most magical thing about being on the road is the freshness. If I had a home exactly where I am parked this week I would eventually become blase about what awed me this entire week. It isn’t the easiest lifestyle, but it is an existential experience I highly recommend.

May pace find you.

Last week was a blur for me. The culmination of a year of effort at work resulted in a lot of over time as we finalized for launch on Monday. That meant I ended up doing very little other than working and didn’t get to enjoy the location as I typically would.

We spent through Thursday at Acorn Campground. On Friday I drove to the office where the frantic work continued. Kendra took Shanti to a rover for daycare, then dropped Torta off at the Mercedes dealership in Sacramento to fix the DEF sensor. That was covered free of charge under warranty, but was an exhausting day for Kendra and the pets. I am still a bit put out with Mercedes for programming the vehicle to force you into the shop for bad sensors.

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Over the weekend we drove to Fort Bragg, my wife’s home town. Due to the terrain there are no highways into the town, just a choice of incredibly windy mountain roads. I wish I had a GoPro on the dashboard so I could put up video from that drive. It was a couple hours of gorgeous mountain forests which words cannot describe. If it weren’t for the fact that it was heavily traveled, forcing me to pull over and let cars pass constantly, it would have been a lot of fun driving in. We may take a lesser traveled route when we leave, though it is lesser traveled because it is every bit as windy but more than twice as far. We will see.

We have a spot where we can see the ocean again, which is just the best. The cliffs prevent me from hearing the surf, but Kendra can at night. With my overtime completed I think we are going to have a great week exploring this area.

On Sunday we went hiking in Big River Gorge with old friends. The tide was coming in as we did the hike so the river current was going up stream. I find it fascinating that a river can have a current that flows both directions at different times of the day. I want to do a canoe trip down stream both ways some day.

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We have far more things to do this week than we will have time for, so next blog entry should be heavy with new photos.

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May peace find you.

Welcome to the post formerly known as Viva Las Vegas. We spent last work week at Lake Meade and visited the strip one evening. It was amazing and disappointing at the same time. I’ve never been to Vegas before so my expectations were set by movies. I was expecting flashy lights, cheap drinks, cheap food, and excited people winning a jackpot here and there. They have lights, but mostly it is screens like any other city, the one drink I had was $22 for an old fashioned, dinner was $100 and I never saw anyone win once in any casino we walked through. So it did not meet expectations at all, but it was still cool and I enjoyed it.

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On another evening we checked out Hoover dam which was actually amazing. We spent a couple hours walking around and wished we had come early enough for a tour. It was a different era when this beast was built.

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We spent a lot of time toward the end of the week reading the news and weather reports to determine if fires would keep us from the beach. There were twenty active fires with reports of flames jumping up to a mile ahead of the main burn making containment nearly impossible. Smoke was visible from space and the safe bet would be to divert, but we took the gamble and drove to the beach. We did go through some smoke on the way here, but it was the right call. Air is clear, with sun, seventy degree days, and amazing sunsets. We really love the ocean.

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We are staying about a hundred yards from the beach and enjoying the sound of the surf at night. I think I get the most consistent good sleep when I can hear the surf.

May peace find you.

I missed a week and feel a little overwhelmed with covering everything in one blog entry. The time involved switchbacks into the mountains, a rattlesnake, old friends, hiking, Phoenix, Old Town Scottsdale, Joshua trees, Boulder City, Lake Meade, Vegas, a React conference, and more. So I guess, start at the beginning.

We stayed in Catalina for another work week and just loved it. I don’t think I would want to be there in the heat of the summer, but Tucson is a lovely area to visit. We did more of the local hikes and explored the camp paths very well. Shanti and I ran into a rattlesnake just after sunset. Not sure if Shanti saw the snake first or vice versa, but I know I didn’t make first visual contact. Shanti was far closer to the snake than I would have liked when I heard the rattle.

Adrenaline is amazing. I had the dog back beside me in record time. I think my reaction alerted the dog to the severity of the situation as she then avoided the snake even more thoroughly than I did. I thought I was recording a video to go below this paragraph as we carefully skirted the snakes claimed territory, but somehow I failed to click record. Adrenaline may not be so amazing for pressing tiny buttons on phone screens.

Kendra and I sat out and watched the sunset on the mountains with dinner, except one night. That night I got off work early and we drove up into those mountains. The pictures really don’t do them justice. We drove an hour and a half and were only three fourths of the way to the top of Mount Lemmon. Well worth the drive, though I was glad it was in the Honda instead of the Winnebago. Pictures really don’t do the experience justice, but I have some below anyway.

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Next stop, Phoenix to visit with friends. This time we surfed their driveway for two nights, mooched power, and had a new mattress delivered to their house. To top it all off they accepted our old mattress, and re-homed it with someone who needed it! Talk about taking advantage of friends huh? Feel a little guilty, but the mattress is life changing and the visit was top shelf. Got in a great hike, shopped and ate in Old Town Scottsdale then returned for old fashioned whiskey drinks and sharing of new music.

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The next leg of our journey was an interesting mix. We traveled through some beautiful country, which included my first view of Joshua trees but the estimated travel time was only an hour and a half. There wasn’t a direct shot to Vegas so the roads were windy, bumpy, windy, and apparently contained a bubble in time. That is the only explanation I have for how long it felt driving only an hour and a half.

Lake Meade has been a surprise. It came up in old movies all the time, but it is much prettier in person than I anticipated. Rugged mountains all around the pretty blue waters.

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Then off to my first professional conference in twenty years. A co-worker, and friend, talked me into the React conference to get us excited for upcoming development at work. Two long days of talks later I think we both came away excited. The conference was a little more pep rally and a little less informative than we hoped, but still worth it. Loved the diversity of the people we met from all over the world. Being a Facebook product I think the global community of the language is as big a deal to them as the language itself.

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Next we visit with another old friend, visit Hoover Dam, and spend a work week on the lake before heading for the ocean.

May peace find you.