We did a lot of traveling in 2007– I was photographing, and travelling,  in ernest–the date on my digital camera still said 2006

In late January or early February we went to visit Rosie in Beaver Groach, and drove on pismo beach

In April, we hiked to Steve’s favorite, Limantour Beach , where I lost a clog  .  .  .   a woman took my address, said she would find it and mailed it back to me!

In March, we took an awesome desert wildflower trip, Rt 66 to Sequoiah,   We planned to meet Jean and Jerry at Hole in the Wall (Mojave National Preserve) , or sometime thereafter, but they couldn’t make it.  

We wandered all over the desert,

camped in the Turtle Mountains

and Lost Arch Mine.

Then back through Calico where it started to rain,

along Rt 66 to Daggett and Essex, Ca.

Then north, to Sequoia, where it snowed,

and I got some great low-light shots,

We stopped at California Hot Springs for a soak, and finally, Pine Flat Resevoir.

These are some of my favorite prints ever, and make me miss my old Nikon 5800.

A great early 21st Century camera.

AFTER fourth of July weekend (don’t go there  .  .  .  ) Steve and I met Jean and Jerry at Usal Creek on the Lost Coast.  It was a beautiful weekend, lots of hikes, good food, smoke, beer, photography.

I found a sticky note:  July 22, 2006 (Palmdale)?x Little Rock photo dscn0674  incredibly cold day in the high desert with a storm passing through.  Steve comes from fogland- he’s used to it!

Home via Barrel springs 7/26/06

SLO

Willow Creek 7/26/06

In March, Cousin Fred again invited us to join him for a conference where he was stayng at  Embassy Suites in South Tahoe.  It was snowing, and continued through the night.  We woke up to a white landscape, and I had to buy boots to walk and hike around.  There was complimentary breakfast and happy hour drinks and snacks, and a gym, pool, sauna and hot tub for three days and two nights.  We drove around Lake Tahoe, counter clockwise, in the 4Runner.

Afterward, we drove south, stopping in Sequoiah on the way, to meet Jean and Jerry in Anza Borrego!

After Jean and Jerry left for home, Steve and I spent a couple more days, at Mortero Palms,

Ghost Mountain,

a place we call Tamarisk Grove (space junk?  see full size)

A beautiful slot canyon in later years we found to be shut off from camping-  too dangerous? 

Then back to Desert View Highlands for Easter, and a rare snowfall, before heading home again.

We intended to head back to Chaco Canyon, via the Verde River, which was no longer remote and deserted, but busy and trafficky just on the road in.  Jerome was a nightmare, Sedona full of shopping centers and Republicans.  We made an immediate decision that we had to go farther from LA to get to wilderness, and ended up in New Mexico, Silver City, Gila Cliff Dwellings.

Finally, in 2005 I bought a digital camera!

In August we camped and played a festival at a little produce grower,  “Love Farms” , with fields of zinnias and a troupe of ostriches backstage, in Healdsburg, CA.

Then to Yosemite (my first time) to meet Cousin Fred, who was there on a per-diem arrangement, meaning, a suite, and meals provided.   All we had to do was show up and Partake.  Wow!  Thanks, Cuz!  It was a beautiful October weekend, just a hint of winter in the air.  We had some great hikes, meals, wonderful memory.

Also several of us enjoying a beautiful November weekend at Sea Ranch with our drummer, scott, who has a time share there. Fond memories, too, of my dear friend Jean, modeling her new work gloves–gone too soon.

We often used a trip down south as a starting point, or ending (showers and laundry!) for a venture into the Eastern Sierras.  They all seem to run together, and the photos are often unmarked.   We were visiting Sara twice a month, or once, if someone else wanted to visit her.  In February we drove to Palmdale on the 17th, then headed out to Death Valley from the 21 to 23rd.

April 9, A quick trip to look at the ten-acre property known as Goldfinch in Butte County

Memorial Day weekend: Meadow Muffin XXX, and then Goldfinch, Sierra Valley May 30, and down to Palmdale on June 5

Palmdale 7/2-4!

So, it wasn’t Hurricane Emily.

Hurricane Emily, 7/20/2005

In September we went to Shasta lake  .  .  . for a week on a houseboat with Jean and Jerry and two other couples.

Ten years later– I am overcome with rage and grief.  Why did you leave me?  I can’t make sense of it.  There was no explanation, no warning, really, just here one day, and then, gone.  My unceasing gratitude that you didn’t die on the road, or in some remote wilderness, without a phone, or any way of lifting you into the car  .  .  .

Somewhere I have photographs of Christmas in Palmdale with Big Red, and adventures in real estate near Mojave,  CA.  A hill with a giant, seemingly abandoned log house.  Fortune Avenue, Ophir Street, “Gold Town”, parcels for sale.  A plan for a website, including a page of “Unknown Locations”.

Berkeley, 9:30 AM 3/30/2003., we leave for our Spring Desert Wildflower trip at 163289 miles.  5 PM near Olancha, out of gas!  at 163707 miles. 17 mpg with the air conditioning on, gas is $2.259 per gallon.   Scotty’s Castle 164125.  4/4/03 at 3:35 PM. 164327 in Baker. 4/13, Pahrump Nevada, buying tires, I bought a white buffalo calf ring (early birthday present) for $114 at the Desert Springs Trading Post.  Pined for a pair of old pawn turquoise earrings.

June 26, Santa Cruz, something to eat, a place to drive to  .  .  .

Reiki class:  For today, hold no anger, do not worry, be grateful, be kind to others, work hard at your practice.  At an appointment with a practitioner of some sort I thought would help me in my distress and confusion, I was Stood Up, again.  My truck had been ransacked for the meager change in the ashtray, the 4Runner was out of gas (thanks, Steve).   I am learning to let go of my dreams.  At an exhibit of fascinating painted rocks, (Claire Rojas) writing feels safer than drawing.

July 13, 11.088 gallons, $1.699 per gallon at 167376 miles in Reno, Nevada.  Where am I ?  Why am I in this hand basket?

Am I free to go?

I wish to remain silent

I want a lawyer

Visiting Portland via the Train to pick up a car–a 4×4 with California origins–Steve’s sister is giving us.  All subsequent trips into the backcountry(and to prison) are with the Red Toyota.

My cousins have much geneological papers to pass on to me– Millikens (family crest? motto- “Regarde Bien”), Donohues, O’Briens, County Clare, County Kildare.  Some Dutch history, too, the pre-English founding of Kingston, New York as Esopus, circa 1660 via the Bonte-Cou from Amsterdam.

August 1, 4Runner fill up at Newberg, Oregon, 12.8 gallons at 269 miles.  The Hounds of Hell on our heels, we didn’t stop to say goodbye.  Big Red!  We are in Love, with our new car.

Hart Mountain Hot Spring, Oregon, in snow

Camping: 8/2 Monday, Wamic, $10; 8/3 Hot Springs Camp, East Lake, $14; 8/4 Little Crater Campground @ Paulina Lake $0.  Two mile hike clockwise around the lake to the Hot Spring beach, Mergansers, Osprey?  Gorgeous light snow Friday morning, High Meadows jeep road to headwaters of Rock Creek.

Heading into Eastern Oregon we stop at Hart Mountain Wildlife Preserve, Hot Spring Campground in the snow, $4.  Then South on Rt 299 to Alturas, and the best, cutest town by far, Bieber, California.  Saturday, Upper Rush Creek, Adin Pass, Modoc National Forest $6, Camp Preventorium Hot Springs

Back into the nightmare that is our life now, at least we have a vehicle that can get us into and out of trouble.

OCTOBER 2002, DEATH VALLEY

Sick, no need to relate symptoms. Stress, psychic insult.   Suffice to say, digestive and thereabouts.  Death Valley, the Racetrack..  Beautiful late-October day.  Supersonic jet @ 745+ mph, just roared through, ahead of his cone of sound by 1 1/2 seconds.

10/30/2002  Lunch at the Mozart Cafe in Goldfield, Nevada.  Ortega Burger, coleslaw, cranberry juice.  We left Death Valley as a storm front moved in.  Taking the road to Silverpeak, then west to 264, we found a lovely warm concrete pool flowing into a birded wetland in the beautiful craggy mountains of the Silver Peak Range.  Then on to highway 6, and 120 to Benton Hot Springs and the Old House. Wonderful campground, each site has its own pool, with a flowing hot creek and taps to adjust the temperature.  Happy Halloween!

Nov 1, I bet Steve $100 that Titus Canyon runs East-to-West from Beatty, Nevada into Death Valley.  Due to the encroaching storm we decided NOT to go to Titus Canyon in case it might rain.  So we went North to Monolith Mine–too cold!  7000 feet above sea level.  So, we went down , 90 minute drive back to the road, 5000 foot drop.  One more night, then .  .  .

Back home for a recording session at Wally Sound with the Ravines–astonished at how good my voice sounds, Sally Go Round the Roses, Out the Window.

I ended Christmas “Vacation” with the Flu, and was sick the second week of January–wild waves and storms, so just as well. Truck and Rent issues are resolved by the end of February, and my health slowly settles into mild despair and distress.  Steve is drinking quite a lot, and takes a Friday Night header, one of several, perhaps off the porch steps.

Saturday April 7 we left early and headed for Red Rock Canyon, our traditional first stop on the way to the DESERT! Sunday, Lone Pine, Hunter Mountain, Saline Valley Road, Panamint, full moon in Snow Canyon

4/9 Monday, storm, and hail–Death Valley, west side drive, Tecopa,  baths and camp

Tuesday night, Sunflower Springs, Old Woman Mountains

Wednesday night Painted Rock

Thursday, shopping in Blythe, Anza Borrego south entrance

Friday, Agua Caliente, Borrego Springs, Clark Dry Lake

Palmdale April 14, 4:30 PM, Easter, Church with Elsie  .  .  .  dinner with Craig and Marth

Return home to –Biopsy, and my 50th birthday.

By this time, Steve’s sister was fully embroiled in the giant fishnet in Southern California, and we began to spend more time traveling to the High Desert and taking trips Down Below to the County seat.  Things were sketchy, but didn’t seem a total disaster, until  .  .  .

S E P T E M B E R E L E V E N

From there, things went swiftly downhill.  Also, I had had a bad scare, the biopsy that was a clown show followed by a debacle, and a diagnosis of, “I dunno”.   In fact, I had a follow-up doctor’s appointment for that very morning (9/11), which I had cancelled in frustration with the lack of information or care I was getting in return for a summer of fear and dread.