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[user 30781]

Hi travelaround! When I first met my kids dad his grandmother owned the oldest house still standing on Mission Beach in San Diego. Back in the day when it was built it was considered a summer cottage for someone living further inland. Anyway her garage had been made into a small apartment and we moved into it. I went to Old Town one day and there is an old house there that was also a courthouse. I was walking up the stairs to the second floor and ran smack into a cold spot. Found out later it's a very well-known haunted building.

 

[travelaround]

Yes, there are ghost tours there. I didn't have time to do anything like that. Must have been wonderful to see the area before it was a tourist trap. Almost all the buildings have businesses in them now.

 

[rvwandering]

Travelaround - US 395 is a wonderful, scenic drive. I hope you have a lot of time to sightsee! A few suggestions:

After visiting Salvation Mountain head north to the General Patton Museum. It's not the best curated place but it's still interesting and there's a free campground behind it. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/12659     https://freecampsites.net/#!2550&query=sitedetails

Then you can take a scenic drive through Joshua Tree National Park and stay for free outside the park https://www.campendium.com/joshua-tree-north  This is a dusty lake bed so you may want to continue to this beautiful free BLM camp ground https://www.campendium.com/sawtooth-canyon-campground  or drive farther north for free parking at Peggy Sue's Diner https://www.campendium.com/peggy-sues-50s-diner

We weren't impressed with Calico Ghost Town - too touristy and fake when there are so many real ghost towns to visit. 

Alabama Hills is a must stop. It can be busy but you should be able to find a good camping spot https://www.campendium.com/alabama-hills-recreation-area

Stop at Manzanar National Historic Site to learn about this sad chapter in our history https://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm

Laws Railroad Museum is a fun stop - https://www.lawsmuseum.org/

Stop at Mono Lake to walk along the shore and see the tufa towers. There's adjoining BLM so you can camp too. https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=514

Take the short side trip to Bodie Ghost Town. This is a real intact ghost town - not to be missed.  https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=509
There are places to camp nearby along 395 but we didn't stay at any of them so I don't have any recommendations. 

Have a good trip!

 

[user 30781]

Yes, there are ghost tours there. I didn't have time to do anything like that. Must have been wonderful to see the area before it was a tourist trap. Almost all the buildings have businesses in them now.

It's the Whaley House and says it's permanently closed?  I was poking around in Old Town that day having fun, saw the house and wanted to see the inside.  Looked around the ground floor and started up to the second floor, got about 2/3 of the way up  and ran straight into freezing cold, and it was gone in the next step up or two.  When I got back down I mentioned to the docent how weird it was that the air conditioning ran right across that area and she said "We don't have air conditioning, you ran into the cold spot and it's not always there!"  goosebumps  I read about the house later, got a book from the library.

 

[maki2]

My csmping life is gping to be peaceful and quiet for abwhile. Just work and some play. The weather looks to be moderrate for the next week.

So unless I get involved with something else this week I have decided to minimize my time on the ineternet and focus on work, home on wheels improvement projects and of course some reading and video watching. Good strong cell signal here so perfect for catching some films using my "included with Amazon prime" account benefits.

 

[travelaround]

Thanks for all the tourist and campsite recommendations, Tony and Karen! I've been to Bodie about 20 years ago but none of the others. Calico must be like Old Town San Diego and Columbia State Historic Park.

I'm at the laundromat today. Seems like my sister wants me to stay a while... but I'm not using her washer as I want to do everything at one time. I might stay until Saturday. Two more nights. Two more days to glam my van before I actually go back to sleeping in it.

We put off our trip to the beach until tomorrow, to have another rest day... it has been a busy week with her husband's memorial wake and military interment, other relatives here from Oregon and Hawaii and Montana. They all went home so it is just the two of us. She likes living here and has some close friends and a modest but very nice house.

 

[NctryBen]

We’ll travelaround, you can say you live in a modest van with really good friends. Boy, I was just out to Utah, it was kinda hot. Glad my grandsons game was in the morning Saturday... I felt bad for the kids and parents coming for the noon game. Just can’t imagine how hot it would be down there. Even the Dakotas were 90’s.sounds like a great trip... fun to see siblings too I’ll bet. With all this talk about winter travels, I’m really getting pumped. Having fun with my camper project. I really gotta work at it to keep my batteries full now, but I only got a suit case portable panel... I’m hoping to get some panels (about 300 watts) installed sooner then later.
I give my son a year to sell everything and take his family on the road... he can make quite a living wherever he goes. Haha!

 

[travelaround]

I now have a bed again in my van ... could use improvements but one day at a time. It is hot out there. I'll be heading north in a few days.

 

[maki2]

Hooray, my son is now done with cancer treatments!!

He is getting his PICC line out on this coming Tuesday, delayed timing as there was no earlier appointment.

Happy for him and my "very worried Mom" daily thoughts about his health can now go back into a corner and quietly gather dust and cobwebs.

 

[user 30781]

Happy to hear that, maki!

And yay for the bed, ta!

I laid out the tent my son used this morning, it was a little damp the morning we broke camp, not raining though, and I wanted it to dry out completely before putting it away. I must have swept 5 pounds of pine needles off that thing. Also, and I'm kind of proud of this, I managed to roll it to fit back in the bag it came in. Only problem was I should have folded it in 4ths instead of thirds, there's about 6" sticking out
of the bag. lol

 

[nature lover]

It’s another beautiful day here in Pennsylvania. last night was 45 degrees;and high today near 80. I had to get a blanket out for on top of my sheet last night. But for me that makes very good sleeping weather. I can feel my back itching as the wings and feathers sprout for the trip to Florida. Last year I was down there by Thanksgiving this year won’t be till the second week in December. So I still hope I miss snow and ice. We had 10 inches of snow a few years ago at the end of October when I was camp hosting at a state park in the Tuscarora State Forest. 10 inches of wet snow with leaves still on the trees and me living in the tent. Thank God I got everything packed in the car before I saw the first snowflakes. Obviously a lot of limbs and trees came down that time. But within three days the snow was melted. I’m hoping it holds off till at least mid December after I Fly south. God bless the nomads each and everyone.

 

[Random Painted Highway]

Maki-Glad to hear your son is finished with cancer treatment! We are still dealing with chronic cancer and maintenance chemo, but we have recently made some improvements on pain management which i hope will continue.

Went out and tinkered with the motorhome to keep it conditioned and ready to go if we are able to make a trip somewhere this fall and winter. Decided to keep our home since we will eventually need medical care locally, and that's alright.

Early retirement is looking better and better!

TA-great to have a bed in place!

NL:- I enjoyed your Florida bird pics last winter, and look forward to seeing more this winter from you if you care able to. I hope you make it down south before the real cold sets in!


I don't post very often but i enjoy reading everyone's goings on.

 

[travelaround]

I hope you manage to miss the snow, Nature Lover, but mid December sounds late in the season. I'd also like to miss the snow in the Klamath River Valley, but that depends on when the van conversion is done. Hope I don't have to spend the winter in a cold climate again but wouldn't be surprised.

 

[travelaround]

Maki, so happy your son recovered from that terrible illness!

Wandering... congrats on fitting the tent back in. Sounds like you had a fun time with the family.

RPH ... congrats on early retirement and less pain (long may that continue).

Ben. I wonder which one of us will get solar panels on our van roofs first!

 

[NctryBen]

Oh great, now it’s a race. Haha! We had a couple days of rain. I had to put a charger on my batteries so my refrigerator will make it til sunny tomorrow. I have a suitcase panel that works ok, but I really want something mounted and less of a hassle. Safe travels back north! I hope your build is taken care of quickly.
Maki2, I met a fellow paddler yesterday. He’d been up camping by the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. He is battling leukemia... but he’s like a lot of people I know who try’s to keep on doing things he likes to do. That’s amazing your son is beating that. I’m sure there is monitoring for at least a while. I’ve been cancer free a few years and they still watch me.
Nature Lover... I hope your wings grow fast... although hopefully the snow stays at bay until you go. Does your snow stay? We rarely lose any snow once it starts until spring, so it’s baffled me when I see places it snows one day and gone the next.
Wandering soul... always good to get that tent dry and clean. Amazing how fast a tent can fail if not taken care of. My daughters just informed me they want to do a canoe trip here next year. I’ll have to get them totally outfitted. There’ll be tents, packs and all kinds of gear to go through upon their return. May have to bring my tandem canoe to recoat it so it’s ready... but I need to rest for a bit down there. Had another bout with my condition Thursday. Was weed zapping the cemetery and it hit me hard and fast. Might have been just as easy to dig a hole and fall in. Kind of a form of homesteading. Haha. Neighbors saw I was struggling and helped me get home. Once in my chair I couldn’t even get up til midnight to get to my bed. See the pulmonary doctor Monday. Meanwhile, the sun is coming back out and I’ll be puttsing with my camper... the funny thing is I didn’t realize when I got home my dog went down to the lake. My buddy Troy made sure I was ok in my chair and let her in as he left. She laid in her bed, but when I woke up she was laying on me and she was wet. Haha. Another neighbor came and warmed up a frozen dinner for me. That was embarrassing. Almost as bad as when they had to backboard me and toss me in an ambulance a while back... during a first responder training. I got extra credit for providing a real life scenario. Haha. But I’m thinking it’s time to retire it all. I’ll easily find ways to fill my time. Especially on the road!

 

[maki2]

NctryBen...there is more thaan one type of leukemia. My son had acute leukemia which will kill someone relatively quickly, often within 6 months time. Depending on factors such as age and which variation of acute leukemia the sucess rate for a cure is pretty good nowadays.

The other types of leukemia can be chronic, no cure but ongoing treatments can bring many years of survival and a pretty normal life. I have a girlfriend who has that type. She just started on a new drug, given as a pill, and is doing ver bwell on it with no side effects. But it is a treatment that will not produce a cure.

So quite likely the person you met has one of the chronic types. He would be much too ill to travel if he had the acute type.

 

[nature lover]

I have acute gluteus maximus. I can live with it.

 

[user 30781]

I went to order the tea I drink from Amazon this morning, I get it there because it's cheaper than buying it from the health food store in town. Well, the Amazon offering at it's usual price is not available. I knew there were supply chain issues going on and I know I should have ordered extra weeks ago but it slipped my mind. So I had to pick one of the 'other sellers' listed which are always more and sometimes outrageous. It's still a little cheaper than the health food store at $6/box.

I got myself going on possible shortages so I did a quick inventory of my herbal supplies and placed a *gag choke cough* quite large order with Mountain Rose Herbs in Eugene. I usually buy my herbal supplies in February because I pay for it with my tax refund every year. I did this last year but around May or June I made a second order just in case. I'm working on that second order now but I don't want to get low on something only to find out it's unavailable so I bit the bullet again. Dried calendula flowers come from Egypt. Menthol crystals from India. Essential oils from all over the world. Arnica flowers from Canada. Unrefined shea butter from Africa. So on and so forth.

 

[maki2]

Ah the not so upside of travel. I was hungry for a good hamburger, the handmade cooked in a kitchen type. So I went into a steakhouse in Tayasun AZ. Unfortunately over cooked and tasteless burger. It looked good, it should have been good but just blah. But the real kicker was when the waitress broght me ypthe check she did a huge math error and tried to charge me more than $80.00 for it. Then was mad at me for asking to see the manager telling me it was my fault???

Last night my campsite was invaded by a late arrival who just crowded in and parked underneath that lovely old, likely 100 years old juniper tree. Drove right on it roots with a big van. So very destructive to the health of a tree to park on its roots. But thev2nd idiocy of their action is parking under a tree on a hill top in an area that is prone to getting lightening strikes from frequent thunderstorms. .

All you newbies heading out to camp on public lands, do not park under the trees in the forest. Dangerous for you and dangerous for the trees. If you need shade then park where the shadows get cast by the trees and do not park under its branches. That is the trees life giving uptake system you are crushing with the weight of your vehicle.

 

[travelaround]

Ben, sounds like you had a severe episode and how great people noticed your distress while at the cemetery and helped you out of there! Nothing wrong with a long rest... I've been needing them often lately.

Today I finished reorganizing my mess in the van so it will be something I can live with and in for the next two weeks. Need vacation but also need to get back to HC after that in case the van conversion ever really happens. I'm leaving here in the morning. I got my van fridge connected today so I'll have the essential cold water as I travel.