Travels With Picasso

We are settled into a small RV park in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County north of San Francisco. It rained hard on us all day until we got north of the bay. Since we arrived it sprinkled a little, but nothing serious. Today involved driving over some of the roughest highways we have experienced. The result was a mess inside the trailer. Some doors popped open and storage boxes spilled. Nothing broke and nothing was liquid or other mess, so we escaped with a little pick up.

We put up our side awning/canopy for the first time since our aborted efforts at Falocon State Park in Texas. It doesn’t appear as if there will be wind here to blow it away. Having the canopy over the front door gives us a “dry” room for our shoes, etc. It makes it seem more like home.

We intend to stay here for several days to see Vicki and family in Berkeley and Kevin and Barbara south of San Francisco as well as to visit some of our favorite places. This is our first visit here since Aunt Gen died. She introduced us to so many wonderful things in the area. We will be revisiting many of them and expect to evoke memories of our visits with her.

The other activity while we are here will be watching the road/weather forecasts for the Siskyou Mountains. When it looks like there will be a favorable 2-3 days we will make a run for Oregon and home. Right now the next warming is predicted for next weekend.

This evening we are camped in a KOA east of Gilroy CA in the rain and mud. The weather forecast looks like primarily grey skies and rain for the next two weeks. We have a chance at sun on Sunday and Wednesday. That sounds like we’re getting close to home!

We plan to camp in Sonoma county for several days, visit friends in the Bay area, see some favorite sights, and go to some wineries. The length of our stay will depend to some extent on the weather and our tolerance for discomfort. From there it is three days to get home.

The car and the trailer both have become quite disorganized and messy inside. In the rain and mud we can’t keep the floor clean. If the site is amenable to it we may put up our awning in Sonoma so we have a “dry” room to enter and exit from. I doubt that we will get the motivation to reorganize the car.

The long range forecasts for Siskyou Pass look like snow next week. That means we will have to watch the road reports closely and make a run for it when it looks good. That sounds like escaping Texas all over again!

We arrived in Los Angeles (actually NW of the city near Malibu) yesterday afternoon. It was a windy and rainy drive out of the Mojave Desert into the city. At times we were down to 45 mph due to head winds and upgrades. By the time we crossed the metropolitan area the skies cleared and the sun came out. Cousin Judi greeted us at Shawn and Terry’s house then took us for a drive to the beach to survey state parks for possible camping sites. We chose to stay on the street in front of their house.

Two driving errors yesterday had the potential to damage Picasso. First I drove over a curb coming out of a gas station. Something clunked, but there is no visible damage and the trailer followed us well the rest of the day. Then when we were parking in front of the house I didn’t see a tree limb sticking out and it scraped Picasso’s top molding. Again, although it created a “scar” there doesn’t appear to be any large damage. These incidents reminded me to be ever vigilant and to be mindful when it’s been a stressful day driving. That seems to be when one becomes inattentive to detail.

Today it is partly cloudy and not too warm. We are enjoying a low key day chatting, charging our electronic devices, and I am finally downloading the video I have shot. Perhaps I can get some edited and posted later.

Today we drove from Tempe to Indio, California. This was a relatively short day, which left us time to visit Joshua Tree National Park for the late afternoon. The light and colors were tremendous. Of course being that far up in the mountains at sunset meant driving home in the dark through twisting mountain roads. It was worth it.

On Sunday we capped off our Tucson time with a visit to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Although we’ve been there many times, it is as fresh as the first visit.

This time we made sure to see the raptor free-flight demonstration. That involves five Harris hawks flying at the same time. Harris hawks live and hunt in packs like wolves. The program is a live demonstration of their hunting. The five hawks circle the desert arroyo, landing on cacti and going to any one of the many handlers scattered around the edge of the audience. It isn’t choreographed and the birds fly where they want, but are trained to go to the handlers for snacks. The snacks are quail and mouse bits. Jean capture many fine pictures of the hawks. Here are a few.

This morning we went with our friends Dottie and Mike to the Tucson Museum of Art. The main event was a presentation by artists Bill Schenck and Julie Sasse and professor Peter Lehman of ASU about The Cinematic West and its Influence in Art. Bill Schenck creates Andy Warhol type images from stills taken from western movies. He also has an exhibit of his work at the museum at this time. http://www.tucsonmuseumofart.org/exhibitions/bill-schenck-the-serigraphs His work is quite distinctive. I describe it as Andy Warhol meets Frederic Remington and interprets John Ford images.

The discussion was very interesting as Bill shared slides of his appropriated movie images and the subsequent painting interpretations he made from them, and they discussed the impact of cowboy movies on art and art on movie-making. They got off on tangents discussing the importance of directors to making good movies. It was very interesting. I thought of my buddy Glenn and wished he could have been there.

Then we went to lunch at a cantina in a nearby cluster of folk art places. As we sat down at our table a show of Aztec dancing began! That was quite colorful and the dancers went to great lengths to explain the dances.

Following lunch we toured a few buildings of old Tucson that are part of the museum property. This included another visit to the Tucson Nacimiento display that Jean and I saw in January. These nativity displays are a long-standing custom in Mexican culture. It is a sight to behold. http://www.tucsonmuseumofart.org/exhibitions/el-nacimiento

This evening we had a light dinner at Mike and Dottie’s place and watched the sun set on the mountains. Ahhhhh!

Today something happened that we had begun to think was impossible this winter…we turned on the air conditioner! Yes folks it’s 80 in Tucson today. Now windows down would have been sufficiently comfortable, but we fear we may not have another opportunity like this.

Sunshine, heat, no rain…this is why we came south for the winter. It arrives just as we are on our way back home, but it is entirely welcome. We may even have to try to remember where we stored our shorts and tee shirts.

We have found warmth and sunshine in southern Arizona. Of course a week ago they also had freezing weather. However, now it is glorious.

Yesterday we took a hike along the San Pedro River, which is a riparian conservation area for most of its length. There actually was water in the river due to the snow last week that is still melting from the mountains. Usually there is no water this time of year.

We stopped to see art galleries in Benson. This is an active mining town that also has a great arts community. In one of the galleries a woman told us about the Whitewater Draw conservation area. That became our next stop. In the winter this is the home of about 20,000 Sandhill Cranes and thousands of other waterfowl. The noise was impressive, the cranes beautiful, and the mountains in the background spectacular. We want to return there Thursday to paint.

Yesterday we passed the 5,000 mile mark! We should be near 8,000 miles by the time we get home. Tonight we are camped at a very nice RV park on the San Pedro River outside of St. David Arizona. This is near Tombstone where the cowboy shooting match is taking place this weekend. We will leave on Friday and miss the shooting. ;-(

Other milestones occurred yesterday and today. Yesterday we passed our second vehicle on the trip! Yes, folks, we travel SLOW. However, today we passed three more vehicles! We’re now officially the fifth slowest ones on the road.

We’re going to be exploring Chiricahua National Monument, Tombstone, and the San Pedro Wildlife Refuge in the next three days. Hopefully we can post some pictures along the way because at this resort we have a great internet connection.

Did I mention that it is 70 degrees here? The sun is shining. We’re loving it. We hope all is well with all of you as well.