Almost back to normal

San Diego is getting back to normal this week. Here in Vista, other than some ash making everything a bit dirty, we'd hardly know anything happened while we were gone.

Certainly there is NOT a quarter inch of ash on the ground as our neighbor described... well, OK, maybe in some corners where the wind blew it. And, we'll probably get more ash off and on over the next month or so.

Here's what we found when we got home. There is a very thin, just dirty looking, bit of black on everything. You can see some gathered around the step by our pool.

Rick spent some time hosing down the patio, and cleaning the pool filter which was packed with soot. We had to wash my car, and clean some of the driveway where Goldie lays down. Plants and the house have soot on them, but, our normal ocean breezes should clear that off. A good rain WOULD be nice!

Here you can see black at the bottom of our pool where the "creepy crawler" vacuum had not yet cleaned. I'm sure it was totally black bottomed a week ago.

The hurricane category 2 level winds did blow things around, and THAT's what made it so awful during the fires. But for us, we lost one umbrella that we left open, one fell over, and one, also left open, is just fine! That's it!

Dang, this umbrella cost us $6.00!!! :-)

I suppose if you click on the photo to enlarge it, then look real close, you can see our chairs were covered. There is also some soot in the stamped impressions in the concrete.

Paul and Mary: come on out!!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visiting Frank's "The Tile Studio" in Monterey

We were able to stop in Rick's cousin, Frank Di Mercurio's tile shop in Monterey. We surprised him! His brother John lives down in San Diego/El Cajon. Their Mom and sister came in from Detroit for a visit last month. Their Dad, Bud, worked with Rick's Dad, Desiderio, in the tile business in Michigan.

What COOOOOOL stuff Frank has! Take a look.... can't wait to go back when we can stay longer! I could spend some money here! :-)

Now, if you dare, ask Rick about the Truck ride back to Vista!

After our week of adventures, we are ready to get home and see our house. We saw several burned-out areas along the I-15 just 10 or so miles before our neighborhood. Apparently, one fire jumped 14 lanes of asphalt and concrete in the wild winds. We saw homes with splashes of red/pink fire retardant on them. Our home is OK; just dirty and soot is everywhere. It smells more like a campfire here than the places we stayed during the week.

Here's the day by day events of the fire:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071028/news_lz1n28inferno.html

Here's a Google Fire Map.
Our home is located almost exactly where it labels our city "Vista", inland from Carlsbad, along the 78.
I think Google is updating the info daily.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&ie=UTF8&om=1&msa=0&msid=114250687465160386813.00043d08ac31fe3357571&num=1000&ll=33.151349,-117.111511&spn=0.823223,0.997009&z=10

----------------------------------------------------------

Further North: Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey

Night-time card games in the RV. (Ever play "Skip-Bo"?)



Tall Redwood trees at the campground




Golf anyone? Pebble Beach




After 80 HOT degrees the day before in Carmel,
the weather changed quickly!

Meanwhile, down in San Diego, schools and businesses are closed, and the fires kept raging. Should we have returned????? We have no TV, internet, or even cell phone service here in the Big Sur campground we are at. Once we drove into Carmel, all of our phones started buzzing with messages from worried friends who could not reach us by our home phone, and it took many tries to get a cell phone connection (plus the Officials were asking people to keep phone lines clear). Of course me not being on the internet really added some fear!
I stopped in the Carmel Library, used their internet for the posting below.

------------------------------------------

RV Travels up the Pacific Coast to Santa Barbara

Wayne and Gunde Stewart, our neighbors, traveled with us and were the best tour guides! They have lived out here 35+ years. We toured "The Getty" museum, the Santa Barbara Courthouse, the Mission, stopped to see the Monarch butterflies that come in this time of year, and the giant elephant seals who also make a stop for a few months in the Fall.


"The Getty" in LA -- Gunde and I think we should build a reflecting pool like THIS between our houses at the top of the hill! (Rick says: "Put it on THE LIST")



The Santa Barbara Courthouse is worth the visit!
r


We stopped for lunch at Moro Bay

REALLY BIG Elephant Seals! (Not like those little guys down in La Jolla!)


Our campground sunset over the ocean -- we could hear the waves crashing all through the night (OK, AND the train.)

Butterflies (can't see much here). Sometimes THOUSANDS cover the trees in Pismo Beach.


Everyone knows where HAPPY COWS live!


Meanwhile, back in San Diego, the fires rage on. We thought long and hard about turning around and heading back, but everyone suggested we stay put where we were safe. Roads are closed or dangerous everywhere anyway, and we could get stuck trying to return. We had each other, Goldie, and our 2nd home with us, so in a worse case scenario, we would still be OK.

So, we continued on.

------------------------------------------------------------

California Fires - we are OK, for now

Hi, we have been out of the San Diego area since Sunday, when the first fire started in Malibu. THEN all the fires started in San Diego County.

So, if you are trying to reach us, you have not been able to because we are in the RV up by Big Sur, without cell phone and internet!

Today we drove up to Carmel, and I am in the library to publish this info. The big fire is quite a ways from our home, although several small ones started and were put out within 5 to 15 miles. It's very scary for everyone there.

So far our home is fine.... just covered with 1/4 inch of ash our neighbor tells us. We'll see Sunday when we get back. (Oct 27).

Check out this red sky we had to drive through north of Malibu! We felt like we were on Mars! Even though the sky looked like this, we could see no fire anywhere. After 20 minutes of this drive along the 101, we were happy to get into the clear skies.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Yes Kevin Brosch, we really DO have a pool!

But Kevin, this is about as much as your Dad got in it! OK, he did hot-tub it one night with Mr. Simioni, and jumped in the pool too.

Now you HAVE to ask Rick Brosch about his first night here and the "California Girl" greeting he got at Mr. Peabody's in Carlsbad!!!!!!! I wish I had my camera with me then! We could not have PAID a girl to greet him this way.............



Rick's here a week, and this weekend is participating in the charity/fundraising bike ride for MS:
http://www.ms150biketour.net/modules/paging/index.php?id=2

He's rode one in Michigan for many years. This time he gets a nice Pacific coastal ride (with a few hills!) Of course, as happens with MOST of our Michigan visitors, we got rain today! Probably less than a 1/8 of an inch, but enough to bring out the clouds!

The ride left Saturday morning from Irvine, in Orange County,

and stopped Saturday afternoon in Carlsbad.


Besides the terrain, the other big difference is the Teams themselves: Disney for one. and, The TV show "Scrubs" has a big group participating.

Maybe Michigan has crazy couples like this one?:


Rick is finishing there in the middle somewhere:






The first night the stop was in Carlsbad. The ride ended Sunday at San Diego's Mission Bay. Rick's niece, Sara, drove down from LA and met us. We went back to our house, and then out to dinner at MARCO'S just around the corner.
How Rick Simioni does the ride:


Finished!








Monday the 2 Ricks and I headed to the wineries in Temecula, about an hour away. We had a great time visiting 3 of them (we even joined a wine lovers club!) You may find this hard to believe, but the guys did more shopping than me! Especially RB who got some gifts to bring back to Michigan.









After, we found another Italian restaurant that was great!!!

Rick B goes back to the early days at Ford with Rick S. And, RB is one of the owners of that "wild and crazy" place: The Trollet. Where I met my Rick back in, er, um, geez... 1973.

Today RS and I are feeling a little down. We sure miss our friends. With RB departing last night it feels empty here. So, I opened a bottle of wine! (Nothing fancy like the wineries, instead, our favorite "Two Buck Chuck" merlot!)

We love seeing folks from back home... if nothing else, it seems to always bring some clouds and drizzle! Never enough to erase the drought. So come out ... we need the rain!


-----------------------------------------------

Penny & Carl made a one-night stop here last week, and we got enjoy their company before they headed back to San Diego for a medical conference.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------