Land and Sea

Here we sit on the sands of Cabo San Lucas looking out at the vessel that brought us to this beautiful location. I'd say it was about time we hit the road again! In this case we also took our travels to the open water on this lovely boat.

My wonderful sister-in-law has graciously agreed to house-sit for us while she awaits the arrival of some paperwork, so we departed on Friday November 28, 2025 heading south. Our cruise was scheduled for December 4th through the 14th so we needed to get ourselves to Southern California!

Usually when starting our winter road trip we take the scenic route down the 101 but this time we are in a rush to get down south so I-5 it is. The halfway point is the Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville Oregon. I get to get my gamble on and we get to park overnight for free... win-win.

We had some tasty high dollar burgers then I sat down at a couple of slot machines and won back double what we spent in the restaurant and we went back to the van and had a good nights rest. The next morning we got an early start and made it to San Francisco by late afternoon. This is a view from the roof of my uncles house - that's Sutro Tower.

After a couple nights in the city, a wonderful visit and a couple of items knocked off the to-do list we hopped back on the road toward LA. Again, on I-5 due to timing, we could drive straight through but we weren't in that big of a rush so we decided to stop about halfway down in San Benito County at a Thousand Trails Campground for the night. Since being on the road as often as we have been over the last several years we have joined Thousand Trails and enjoy the many benefits it offers to recharge and freshen up along the way to where ever we may be going. If they aren't available we look for a Harvest Host or an Army Corps Engineers Campground.

We arrived in Dana Point on December 2nd, we'll be cruising with Darin's siblings. We're all converging on the oldest brother's house. Jeff, Mar, Dave and Darin all decided to spread the ashes of their wonderful father in the Pacific Ocean off the stern of the boat during the cruise, so we brought Pops with us to join the party. This of course is something you have to coordinate with the cruise line prior to departure, there are specific guidelines and what-not that have to be followed as well as scheduling that needs to be adhered to, so don't go thinking you can just hop on with a bag of ashes and toss them in the wind... it doesn't work like that.

Early on December 4th we all headed out in 2 ubers for San Pedro to hop on the Emerald Princess! There are seven of us in our party, Jeff, Fran, Mar, Dave, Elaine, Darin and me. Jeff, Fran, Mar and Dave are experienced cruise people, Darin, Elaine and I are first-timers! This should be interesting.

When boarding a cruise ship you line up to line up to line up again, all very smooth and easy without any issue or hiccup. They give you these handy coin like medallions that identify you and double as your room key... genius really. Once onboard, we dropped off our carry-ons and headed to the buffet for our first gorge session. That particular activity was the most active throughout the ten days onboard. The breakfast buffet was the absolute best. I was able to have grits and eggs every single morning... along with a few other choice items I might add. We quickly made friends with a server and joined her for dinner every evening, Racquel was a joy and our cabin steward was so wonderful!

Our itinerary included... a few days at sea, The Sea of Cortez, La Paz, Loreto and Puerto Vallarta. The onboard activities were were eating, art auctions, eating, cornhole, eating, lawn bowling, eating, massage, eating, jewelry auction and eating. Every evening after eating there were great shows to see, the entertainment was really impressive with magicians, comedians, singers and dancers. As two first-timers, we got hooked. Every time we left the room they must get some alert or something because when we came back it was spotless, whether it was 30 minutes later or three hours later, weird but awesome. I can honestly say we will be happily back on the open seas with the rest of the old folks.

Once we got back on dry land it was time to load up the van again for the rest of our winter road trip.

After we said our good-byes to the family we spent a few days in Oceanside to catch up with some loved ones and to see the old neighborhood then we started our trek south. Ultimately, we are aiming for New York City but we have many stops planned along the way.

Our first stop after Oceanside was just outside of Yuma Arizona, at a Harvest Host, The High Tanks Brew Company is off the beaten path but well worth the trip. The sunset and sunrise was spectacular. The funniest part was upon our departure we mentioned we were on our way to NYC, one guy shouted back that we should be careful. We turned and looked quizzically in his direction... "Make sure you're still a Republican when you leave New York" We laughed out loud and let him know we weren't Republican heading into New York.

In Lordsburg New Mexico we found another Harvest Host for the night at the Goldhill Outpost. A quirky gift shop with a great big parking lot in the back close to a truck stop. Not the best location but not the worst. We got up early and continued east to Las Cruces for an early lunch at Lucy's Mexican Diner. Our next night was an iOverlander find 'Living in a van down by the river' near Balmorhea Texas. Always a little sketchy pulling into a side road to park for the night and finding a bunch of spent shotgun shells all around.... But hey, nobody died.

We made it to Georgetown Texas to see the niece, Lainey and Jeremy who are always amazing hosts. Their home is in a beautiful neighborhood with lots of roaming wildlife and friendly neighbors. We arrived just in time to attend a Winter Solstice Neighborhood Party.

As it turned out, they were heading out to California for a few days so we stayed put and did some house and cat sitting through Christmas. Perfect timing!

We spent our days watching three cats, cooking in a real kitchen. riding our bikes planning our route to NYC and relaxing in the Texas warmth. Christmas came and went, Lainey and Jeremy returned home and treated us to a wonderful night out for Darin's birthday and our wedding anniversary then we loaded up the van and hit the road again.

We drove east a few hours and stopped at a Thousand Trails Campground for three nights to rest up after the stress of cat sitting... just kidding we have no stress these days. The campground was really nice and big on Lake Conroe with a cute village of cottages just inside the entrance.

During this trip so far we've stuck to the freeways which is unusaul for us, we prefer state highways and county roads but we are somewhat destination oriented. Now we're off to the next Harvest Host which is in Louisiana.

The Bayou Teche Brewery is something unique located in Arnaudville Louisiana. If you've never had pizza with fried pork skins... well don't knock it until you've tried it. Truly delicious. We met the cook, from Minnesota and the owner Bob from Washinton State. We also met another couple that camped there, Mike and his wife, also from Washington. It is a small world after all.

Next up? Another Harvest Host in Florida... Chateau Le Coeur we met a couple named Bill and Lisa traveling in a Houseboat, yes a houseboat that is on a trailer that they have been pulling across the country. It takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. This winery will be something to behold... one day. Currently it is in under construction but eventually it will be huge. They are planning a variety of wedding venues, camping facilties, vineyards, a lavendar farm and much more. They were very hospitable and gracious. The owners, John and Gwen put out quite the spread, the charcuterie was plentiful and the lavendar syrup is a must have! John came down from Canada and Gwen is from Texas. It was a fun evening of chit chat and laughter.

Now we're off to Plant City to visit my little sister!!

While in Plant City we had a nice visit and enjoyed some really good food at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, Darin was hit on for the first time ever by a guy at the bar while we ate lunch! It made his day! The food was fantastic.

From there we had a couple days near Jacksonville to celebrate my twin grand-nephews birthday and some solid family time. My nephews, their wives and their boys are all so awesome. I do wish we lived closer.

Then it was off to Georgia for a quick visit with my mom and little brother before stopping in North Carolina to see Darin's clan, then Virginia for my oldest cousin before dashing up to New York City. All family visits were quite rushed because we were in a hurry to get to NYC for Willow's birthday and to start on a very important project that we thought might take 10 days to 2 weeks to finish. Key words here being "thought" and "might".

When we arrived we had to find parking for the juggernaut of a vehicle that we travel in. No easy task in Manhattan. Thankfully we scored a spot in a secured lot a short walk from the apartment that we would be calling home for the duration.

Our mission: To do whatever Willow and Matteo wanted (within reason) to make their new home move in ready. What did we think we were getting into? Some painting and a little floor sanding and staining. Which is nothing close to what we ended up doing.

This apartment is gigantic. Like 4000 square feet gigantic, in a building built in 1912.

The previous owner ran a business and lived in this unit and took really good care of the space. However, the floors needed updating and the walls and ceiling needed freshening up so we had our work cut out for us.

Fran, Willow's fabulous mother joined us for the first week of this NYC adventure. We all went to some wonderful restaurants and ate some of the very best food you can imagine. That is one of the best things about NYC, you can always get a good meal.

Now as far as getting supplies for this job let me give a little reference. When Darin and I remodeled our home we would get in our truck and regularly drive to the local Lowes or Home Depot. This would take about 15 minutes to get to the store, we would get what we needed, load up the truck and drive back home, unload said supplies. Well in Manhattan that is exactly not what happens. Thankfully, we have visited NYC before and had a little foresight and brought some supplies and tools. But not knowing the full extent of the job we didn't have everything we needed. Believe it or not there is a Home Depot in Manhattan that is about 3 1/2 city blocks away. It's a very nice walk with a nice little short cut through a beautiful park.

At first we thought we were making the floors darker - easy peasy.... Noooo once darker samples were presented they were all shot down. Now mind you, this is January. Snow is pummeling the city and making national news due to the severity of the storms. People are literally calling us on a regualr basis to make sure we are ok. Some of the supplies we need are very large floor sanders, yes plural. Remember, 4000 square feet and we have to go lighter not darker.

Now, any experienced handyman might wonder what in Hell are they even talking about the floors first for anyway? True, floors should not, not be done first. But logistics and situtations out of our control dictated otherwise. So, floors first. Not ideal, but we'll work through it.

Remember that 10 day to 2 week time frame? LOL That was spent on sanding and goo removal. The previous owner had put some sort of crazy double side tape on the floor to keep a rubber mat in the kitchen under the edge of the counter and appliances. That alone was a scientific experiment that we needed a PhD to decode. Fran worked her fingers raw trying to get the goo off the floor and helping us sand.

Matteo came on the weekends to run a sander and Willow was the chief organizer of feeding the crew. She knows how to keep a crew happy and functioning.

Home Depot runs were 'fun" we took a wagon with us through the mountains of snow for the smaller items and used Uber with wheelchair capability for the big sanders - they would strap them in on the ramps and even helped us load and unload them over the snow banks risking life and limb.

On one trip me and Matteo walked one of the sanders from the Home Depot back to the apartment while he carried two very heavy items - I think he was trying to stretch his arms or something - not really sure. My job was easy I just pushed the sander through the snow.

Finally, we got the floors signed off by the kids and moved on to painting. How many colors of white do you think there are? You really don't want to know. However, my new favorite is the one they picked, no pigment whatsoever. Very clean and very flat. Oh, did I mention the ceilings are 13 feet high? Also, the ceiling is not flat. there are exposed conduit, exposed HVAC, ceiling fans, lights, and vents. Then on the walls we had possibly 40-50 outlet covers to remove, the floors had to be covered with rosen paper and the WINDOWS!!! My GOD the windows! They have windows galore. Paint prep was insane! The tape and paper that went into that was crazy. With the height of the ceiling we had to use a sprayer - there was no rolling that. White wasn't the only color either... Which made me happy I like dramatic colors and Willow brought the drama in her powder room and bar.

It sounds like I'm complaining but truly this was a labor of love and Darin and I loved every minute of it, we would absolutely do it again, well maybe not the sanding, all in all - 6 weeks in we did it. Fran had to leave after a week, she has a real job beatifying people and the world. Matteo and Willow pitched in on Weekends and and took care of us every evening. Toward the end the kids had a preplanned trip so we were on our own for the last several days.

This gave us a chance to provide a little Lagniappe. which included cleaning and organizing everything, switching out some light fixtures. washing window frames and oiling the old wood that really drank it in. We also were able to build a bench at their entry and create a wine cubby in the bar.

We can't wait to see what they do with the place to make it their home.

While in NYC, we made friends with the building super Freddy, the local Irish Pub bartender Jin- the wings are the bomb and the local pizza joint Stretch.

After six weeks and a lot of work and three major blizzards it was time to head home. We had to go down to Virginia to grab our bikes that we left behind just in case we needed to use the van to haul crap, we made one more southern stop in Georgia and headed west. We fast-tracked it to the west coast because the world was going crazy and fuel prices were skyrocketing. Of course, the west coast is where those prices are really high but the weather is better and so are the views, among other things.

We made a stop in Prunedale to see a dear friend and in San Fransico then up the coast to the Great Pacific North West. After 4 months and almost 10,000 miles we made it home to enjoy the peace and joy of the beautiful spring and summer in the PNW.

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