Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens (West Coast Van Trip – Post 9)

I don’t have much to say about this post other than lol, we always go to botanical gardens when we’re on trips if we can! This is one of our absolute favorites though, because in addition to great plants, it has a beautiful coastal bluff walk.

https://www.gardenbythesea.org/

I’m going to get bored uploading all of these photos. But you’re worth it 😉 Hope you enjoy them! It’s the next best thing to being there.

By chance I’m listening to Japanese music as I upload these (which is unusual for me), but it turns out to really work with the photos. I should learn how to make my blog play music 🙂

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Kayaking at Russian Gulch (West Coast Van Trip – Post 8)

It would not be wise to take our little blow-up kayak out into the ocean proper, but we figured we could handle the relatively flat water of this cove.

Here we are getting it ready to be blown up. It’s easy and fast to inflate with a foot pump.

There were nearly no waves at all, so launching from the beach was easy.

After awhile we decided to paddle around a near point to go into the next cove over.

We needed to go fairly far out in order to stay well wide of the point, so as to not be pushed into the rocks by the waves.

We got most of the way out there, and realized the waves were bigger than we were comfortable with. We quickly rowed back. We don’t have any pictures of all that because we were too busy paddling! However, after we got safely back into the cove, John took this short movie.

Then we spent some time trying to get that perfect picture of seaweed. (I never did get one as good as that first one I missed.)

Then we headed to shore. Here’s John trying to wash the mud and sand off the kayak in a muddy and sandy area.

Lol, I think he was just making it worse! I suppose I could have been helping rather than laughing at him and taking pictures, but I figured it was a lost cause.

Fine, hon, do whatever you want. I’m going to sit on the van steps and take a selfie for my blog.

I’m looking unusually wild. Yep, that’s me, the bad-ass wilderness woman. LOL, not really, but I did go kayaking in the Pacific Ocean!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Mendocino (West Coast Van Trip – Post 7)

Brrrrrrr!!!! It’s so cold, it’s shocking. Highs had been in the 100’s for it seems like months now in Tucson, as well as our whole trip so far. Record highs over 100° in Boise, suffocatingly hot and smoky in Oregon, searing hot even in the mountains, and suddenly a high of 55° with damp wind and fog.

Shortly after arriving we ate an early dinner in Mendocino, outside at a restaurant patio – where they had two different kinds of gas and electric heaters set up at every table. And we needed them! It seemed crazy to be heating the great outdoors while the rest of the country sweltered in wildfire smoke. But we were all out there in our coats, shivering.

The coast is so crowded right now it’s insane. There’s not a single hotel room, RV spot or campsite to be had anywhere up and down the entire coastline. The restaurants are so crowded and understaffed, most are refusing to offer take-out because they can’t keep up with demand. They all just have lines out the door of people hoping for a table.

We are luxuriating in a gorgeous hotel room, which we doubly appreciate after camping for the past week. I reserved it months ago, and couldn’t remember the exact details. So when we arrived we were surprised and impressed with how nice it is – for an affordable price too!

It has a large window view from the bed, a small sitting room, and a sliding glass door off the sitting room.

It doesn’t have a full kitchen, unfortunately, but it does have a small refrigerator and microwave and a good sized table.

Someone got caught watching golf 😉 He looks a little sheepish, although I honestly don’t mind when he watches sports.

We’re grateful for the gas fireplace, which seemed so crazy since 100+ degree heat had become our life these past couple of months! But we’ve been using it.

The first day was cloudy.

We went on a nice hike. John liked this tree growing from a stump.

Not everything red and shiny is poison oak. This is Oregon Grape (Mahonia, actually, it is called grape because it has little blue berries but they aren’t edible, don’t eat it.)

The next day the weather got sunny, but it was never really warm. It was beautiful though!

This is the mouth of the Noyo River in Fort Bragg. You can’t see them in the photo, but there were seals in the water.

This patio at Silver’s has a great view! We go here every time we visit Fort Bragg. Most of the food is only so-so, but John really likes the caesar salad with crab cakes and I like the coastal salad with rock cod.

Here’s a pretty little beach near Montesano.

People were building structures out of the driftwood.

It was a short beach – we couldn’t walk very far. The Mendocino region is mostly an area of cliffs and bluffs. John was eyeballing that next cove. I just knew he was thinking he could wade through that water to the next cove – it wasn’t very deep…maybe the tide was going out…

Nope, I vetoed that idea while it was still a just glimmer in his eye. We did go out in the water though – in our inflatable kayak! I’ll post about that next.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Humboldt Redwoods (West Coast Van Trip – Post 6)

We weren’t able to get a campsite in any of the redwood state park locations, but we did have time to stop for some hiking as we drove from the northern California mountains out to our next destination on the coast.

This next one is John’s favorite, with tiny little me on my tiptoes, staring up at that big tree.

John kept trying to use me for scale. But all he really wanted was pictures of the trees. After awhile I started making grumpy faces, ruining his pictures, lol. (I’m not posting those.) Here’s one of my last few fake smiles before he had to resort to just taking long distance or backside shots of me.

John had no trouble posing. Aaaand…here he is folks, King of the Log!

In the desert, a sudden and unexpected peek-a-boo view of water would be a big deal. Here it was, oh, huh, there’s a pond or something over there.

Here it’s all about the trees.

It was magical.

It almost makes me understand why people used to buy bright green carpeting for their houses, back when wall-to-wall carpet was a brand new thing. Who wouldn’t want to live in a fairy glen?

When I was a kid, I wanted a real live tree growing up through the middle of my house. I’m not sure exactly how that would have worked. But I have seen houses that are about the same age as me that have atriums. Our neighbor in Placitas had one that included an indoor water feature and large plants when you first walked in her front door.

The top of that burned snag looked even more precarious in real life.

It was a wonderful place for a walk!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Trinity River (West Coast Van Trip – Post 5)

Originally we were going to go to the Illinois River in southern Oregon, but the area we were targeting burned a few years ago and is no longer scenic.

I was also interested in visiting the Marble Mountain Wilderness in the Klamath National Forest in northern California, but it didn’t look like there would be a lot of places for van camping. It looked better for backpacking, but I don’t feel well enough yet to backpack. Maybe we can add backpacking in the Marble Mountain Wilderness as a future goal.

The current big Bootleg fire in southern Oregon, the early stages of which was impacting our Pelican Bay trip, continued to impact the air quality in the entire region, restricting our choices. In addition, last year’s August Complex fires impacted a lot of northern California forests.

As we attempted to avoid recently burned areas and currently smoky areas, we were pushed farther south and west than originally intended, and ended up along the Trinity River in California. It’s a beautiful river, but deep in a canyon with difficult access.

The first forest service road we randomly chose into the canyon was terrifying. I swear, Californians will pave anything! Everywhere else in the country one can assume that if the road is paved, then it’s reasonably easy access. But no, the road we ended up on was barely wider than our van. On most sections of the road, it would have simply been impossible to get by an oncoming vehicle without one of us backing up. It would have been very challenging to back up our long van on that road.

The twists were insane and the drop-off was absolutely vertical. I didn’t understand how the road even stayed on the mountain! Some stretches of road were covered in rock that had fallen from the bluff above, and in other areas the road was crumbling away and falling down into the ravine!

After several terrifying miles of that ridiculous, so-called road, we ended up camping for the night in a gravel parking lot. What a let-down! At least it was an empty parking lot. Because, who would want to camp there? Lol.

There was a short, steep hiking trail down to the river, heavily fringed with poison oak.

The river was beautiful, but lacking backpacking equipment we couldn’t actually camp by the river. We settled for taking some scenic shots and hiking back up to sleep in the van in the parking lot.

We hiked back down to take some more scenic shots the next morning.

I’m like, yep, it’s a river.

It was really beautiful in the morning.

We spent most of that second day trying to find a spot to camp with our van along the river, or along any of the smaller creeks and tributaries.

We had high hopes for a couple of campgrounds. One no longer existed (signs were gone and the area contained road construction equipment). Another turned out to be closed.

I don’t know why it says it’s closed for the season in July. What other season is there?

We gave up on campsites and tried to find some sort of van pull-out near a creek or tributary in the area. Even that proved too challenging, and late that afternoon we settled for a random hillside far above any water. It was pretty enough. And no one was out there, probably because there was no water.

The next morning we went on a hike up what looked like an old, abandoned road.

It started off gentle enough, but after awhile we were trudging straight up the side of the mountain. It turned out to be much steeper than we expected! It was a real workout! I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it even a few months ago, much less a year ago. I am getting stronger.

You can see smoke in the distance, but it wasn’t bad where we were.

This is a relatively flat section near the top as we started to head back down. Some of it was so steep I had to go down sideways to keep from slipping.

John regretted not wearing long pants! He was a good sport about it. Hilarious!

Not only were these grass seeds sticky like velcro, they were also sticky like sap! They were all over my pants; both the sticky seeds as well as a black sheen of sticky dirt smeared all over the bottom of my pant legs. I don’t know what plant it was, but all we were thinking was – thank goodness we don’t have the dogs on this trip!! Can you imagine that mess in curly poodle fur?

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Pelican Bay (West Coast Van Trip – Post 4)

When we pulled in that first evening, we were initially extremely pleased with our campsite at Rocky Point Resort on Pelican Bay in southern Oregon. What a view!

By about mid-day the next day we realized the campsite had a complete lack of shade during the hottest time of the day. We were baking! Good thing we came to spend time on the water, not sit around at our campsite.

Here’s John checking out the kayaks for rent the next morning.

This is the restaurant on the rocky point. The food was only so-so. Burgers & such. But the view from the deck was awesome!

John’s not actually sunburned. The red table umbrella was reflecting on him.

We went out on kayaks several times during our visit. It was so beautiful!

One evening we rented a motor boat.

It got windy and choppy as we headed out into the Upper Klamath, so we came back into Pelican Bay to fish.

The old guy on the left caught a big fish and released it. He said it was his second one for that day.

We didn’t catch anything, but we enjoyed being on the water.

There was a fire east of Klamath Lake, which got worse during our 3-day visit.

You can see it billowing in the distance (these marsh grasses are between us and the main part of the lake, which is very large).

This first picture was taken shortly after we arrived, and the second one shortly before we left. You can see how the smoke just kept getting worse.

By the time we left, the smoke had completely obliterated the local hills.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Boise (West Coast Van Trip – Post 3)

The drive from Las Vegas to Boise was tedious at best. A lot of 2-lane highway with infrequent passing lanes. We were exhausted and grumpy by the time we arrived. Luckily, Serenity didn’t mind that we checked straight into the hotel with plans to meet up with them the next morning. The kids had just finished a family reunion with their dad’s side of the family, and everyone was tired.

Laura was sharing our hotel room with us and had arrived earlier that afternoon. Turns out it was an excellent hotel! We had a balcony overlooking the greenway path along the river. After our Lake Las Vegas disappointment, I was texting her, “Are you sure we have a balcony? And it overlooks the river?” So she texted me proof, lol.

Yep, sure enough, that is a real balcony, overlooking the river. It was fun to watch the river flow by. I snapped these shots during a brief break in passersby, but the path was well used by walkers, bikers, rollerbladers and scooters. It was fun to people-watch too.

We walked and jogged on the path multiple times during our 3 days in Boise. It was so nice to have it right there!

The next morning we met up with Serenity and Chirstina to float the river. The float is between two parks, with a shuttle bus between them. We parked at the lower park, shuttled to the upper park, rented a raft and tubes there, and floated on down. It was great!

The float trip was actually the first time John and I met Chirstina in person, but I didn’t fully realize that at the time. It seemed like I already knew her from Zoom and Facebook and everything.

Life has been so surreal because of the pandemic – I actually have several friends I’ve never met “in-person” yet. I would have to stop and think to even be able to name which ones I’ve met and which ones I haven’t met. They are all definitely “real” friends either way. Anyway, meeting at a park for a river float trip totally beat the proverbial, awkward “meet-the-parents” at Thanksgiving Day dinner by a long shot!

Here’s John and Laura at the park while we wait for Serenity and Chirstina.

Here’s comes the shuttle!

Serenity and Chirstina on the shuttle:

The kids had floated the river with their dad’s side of the family a few days earlier, so they knew it was impossible to stay together as you’re swept along in the current. So we roped ourselves together. Serenity and Chirstina were in the raft out front, John was next on an inner tube, and then Laura and I were roped to John.

The water was freezing, but it was a super hot day, and it was tons of fun.

John and I often travel with an inflatable kayak, so next time we’ll probably skip the tube rental and just float the river in the kayak. That would eliminate the long line for equipment rental.

After rafting we got cleaned up and went out to eat, but I totally forgot to take pictures. I’m kicking myself, because I don’t have very many good pictures of Serenity and Chirstina.

We went over to Serenity’s house that night and John did some needed handyman work. Serenity and Chirstina were very grateful. John is both generous and skilled. In addition to various kinds of drilling and tightening and adjusting things, he even crawled around below the house in the crawl space to verify there were no water leaks. That’s because the linoleum in the downstairs bathroom was lifting, so we thought, uh-oh, water leak. But it turns out the builders just installed poor quality flooring, so that will need redone at some point. Luckily they only had that particular type of flooring in just that one small area.

I was super excited to see Kira, but I forgot to take her picture! She looks the same as ever. All wiggles and wags! And as usual, all she wanted to do was play ball! I miss that dog!

I was somewhat less excited to see Kai, but grateful that he’s getting good care. It’s mostly Serenity’s roommates taking care of him. Chirstina told me that Kai has snarled and snapped at them a few times, but it doesn’t seem to bother them like it bothers me. Maybe it’s because they didn’t know him before he got mean, so to them, that’s just the way he is. Whereas I take it personally and it’s upsetting. Plus, I am actually a little bit afraid of dogs that will bite.

John stopped by Home Depot to pick up a couple paving stones to create an intermediate step between the doggie door and the patio paving. Kira wasn’t having any trouble with the step, but Kai is getting arthritic. Kai seemed very old. Here he is in the car after a recent trip to the groomers.

The groomer did more of a schnauzer cut than a poodle cut. At one time I would have cared, but I’m sure he doesn’t mind. And as long as the people who look at him every day are happy, I’m happy! And the dogs both seemed very happy.

The next day the kids were working (remotely), so John and I headed to the botanical garden. It was so hot, we were almost the only ones there. It was nearly 100°. We have been getting used to those temps ourselves this summer, but most people in Boise would not be used to heat like that – that’s really hot for Boise! Plus, Boise’s not as dry as Tucson, so the sweat just drips off rather than evaporating instantly. Yuck! In Tucson and Albuquerque you can’t even tell you’re sweating because you never get wet! Here I was definitely glowing, lol. We still enjoyed the garden.

Another highlight of the trip was our hotel itself. At the moment, Serenity has two roommates in addition to Chirstina, so there’s no room for us to stay with them. But turns out our hotel was so excellent that I just want to always stay there on visits, regardless of how many people may or may not be living at Serenity’s house!

In addition to our great balcony, it had two restaurants, both good, one of which had a huge area of shaded, outdoor seating near the river.

The other thing I loved about this hotel is how pleasant all the staff were. They were short-staffed (I think everyone is short-staffed right now), but even so, they were not frazzled and not grumpy, and surprisingly easy to interact with. It made the entire stay extremely pleasant. https://riversideboise.com/ (No, I’m not being paid to do an ad, lol.)

All in all an excellent visit in Boise – my only regret is not taking more photos of everyone. I guess we’ll have to go back soon!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

July 4 at Lake Las Vegas (West Coast Van Trip – Post 2)

In the morning we decided to go kayaking on Lake Mead, which we’ve enjoyed before. But as luck would have it, right when we got there a strong wind picked up and it was threatening to storm. It was over 100° out, so plenty hot, but it just didn’t look fun trying to fight the wind. And the water level is disastrously low, with nothing but crumbling gravel and smelly mud where there should have been a nice shoreline. Bleak!

So we went on a short hike along the river instead.

It was a very short hike because it was hot, and once the trail got down to the river it was overgrown with seasonal river reeds and brush. All in all, disappointing, I had hoped to get out on the water, but the reality is, we were just very tired.

So we got Thai food instead. There’s a Thai food restaurant in Las Vegas we really like. That perked us up a bit, but I ended up laying down in our room while John took a walk through the neighborhood in the 106 degree heat. I was wondering what the heck is the matter with me, taking afternoon naps. But then when John got back from his walk he fell asleep, leaving me to wish I had actually managed to sleep during my little rest. We are getting old!

Here’s a quick video of some other people out on the water:

We used to really like Lake Las Vegas, but it’s changed and we are less impressed than we once were.

They always used to set off fireworks over the lake right outside our condo, so we often went out on the 4th of July and New Years. We didn’t realize that the fireworks were going up on a completely different part of the lake. Once we found that out, we don’t know if we’re going to be able to see much. I had mentioned the fireworks to the front desk clerks at check-in, but unfortunately they didn’t say, “Uh, lady, we don’t do them here anymore, you’re at the wrong hotel.” Urg.

If you had kids though, this place would be really fun. There’s an entire inflatable playground on the water. Wow, wouldn’t we have loved something like that when we were kids!

It is pretty and we like being on the water.

That night we watched to see if they were going to do fireworks or not. Sure enough, they weren’t setting up where they used to years ago. Uh-oh. Would we be able to see them?

On the hopeful side was all the people lined up on the shoreline and party music blasting over the loudspeakers. They were clearly expecting something to happen.

It was pretty while we waited.

Yay, fireworks! Not nearly as close by as they once were, but at least we could see them.

I love watching fireworks from my own balcony (or in this case, window). It was just as well we were indoors because even this late in the evening it was ridiculously hot.

I hope everyone had a good July 4 holiday! Next stop…Boise, Idaho…

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

And We’re Off! (West Coast Van Trip – Post 1)

As we started on our latest van trip Saturday morning, I fought an unexplained sense of unease. If I believed in such things, I would say it was a premonition. Instead, I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out what might be causing this unnecessary worry.

Usually I’m quite upbeat the morning we head out on a van trip – relieved that the packing is done and excited to be at the beginning of a vacation and heading toward fun places to be. And this trip should be much easier than towing a boat to Florida!

I think we’re just not in the mood for a road trip. We planned this trip a few months ago, back before John ended up having to work in Albuquerque more than expected. With all the driving back and forth between Tucson and Albuquerque, we are actually getting tired of road trips. Not a great mental space for starting another road trip.

I’ve been having some trouble with my back for a couple of months, so John bought me this bead thing for my seat. LOL, remember back when these were popular? I’m guessing circa 1970’s, but John’s thinking more like 1990’s. As we get older, it all starts running together.

Our first stop is Lake Las Vegas, in Henderson, Nevada where we once owned a condo. It’s a little resort area with a hotel, casino, shops, restaurants and golf courses around a small lake. We first stayed there shortly after the real estate crash of 2008, when the place was in bankruptcy. John fell in love with the area because it was all new and fancy but also completely deserted. I thought it had a bit of a dystopian feel, with coyotes ambling across dead putting greens. But we were able to pick up a nice condo with beautiful views for next to nothing, which we enjoyed until we sold it in order to afford our move to California in 2012.

We have occasionally gone back since then. Many of the condos are vacation rentals, but this time we are staying at the hotel. We have gotten tired of airbnbs, which we felt were safer during the pandemic – some of them were great, but some were terrible. Usually with a brand name hotel, you can at least expect a fairly consistent experience. This delta variant of covid is worrisome, but John and I are going to trust in our vaccinations, as well as take decent precautions.

After driving through 4th of July weekend traffic for 7 hours (yep, America is on the road this summer), we made it to Lake Las Vegas at 4:00 PM. Big snafu at check-in; no room! Our reservations were for a lake view room with a balcony but they had given them all away. More rooms were coming available and we were willing to wait, but they refused to assign us a room before it was cleaned because – what if there was something broken? They wouldn’t know until they had the housekeeper’s report. They would not guarantee anything and we wondered if we’d end up scrambling to find a last-minute room in Las Vegas for the holiday weekend. Dozens of people milled around in the lobby with suitcases waiting for a room. What a fiasco.

I think the new question to establishments nowadays, instead of asking about covid-prevention practices, should be, “Are you paying your staff sufficiently such that you are fully staffed and are operating smoothly, or are you unable to keep your establishment running properly due to a critical lack of staff?”

After about an hour wait we were given a room with a beautiful view (but no balcony – I hope they don’t charge us for the balcony that never materialized). There’s no housekeeping available during our stay (another new-since-covid), but the room is clean enough and we’re only here for a couple of nights.

Here’s the view out our window. The hotel lobby is practically as far away as those buildings in the right hand section of the picture. It’s 280 steps just to get down the hall from our room to the elevator, and another 100 from the elevator to the lobby! (Yeah, I counted, lol). All told, about 500 steps from our hotel room to where the van was parked, which roughly translates to a quarter of a mile!

At least the view is excellent.

It costs an extra $25 per night to park our overly-tall van that doesn’t fit into the parking garage.

Here’s a funny picture of John trying to clean the outside of the very dirty window with a wash cloth tied around a coat hanger. The window only opened a few inches so he couldn’t reach very much of it. I was surprised it opened at all!

We decided to have dinner outside because at first it seemed nice out, but by the time we were done eating I was really hot.

Mango mochi ice cream to the rescue!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Cars and commuting

Remember last year when we got stuck along the side of the road south of Albuquerque when the van did this:

It’s a broken exhaust manifold. Well, it turns out the van has two of those things, one on each side. And apparently Nissan didn’t do a very good job of making them strong enough for a camper van.

On Sunday we were on our way to Albuquerque in the van when we realized it was making that same noise again. Last time we broke a manifold it started making noise in about Hatch, New Mexico, and we made it to just south of Socorro before it gave out completely. This time it started making noise in about Hatch again. Déjà vu! We imagined being stuck along the side of the freeway just south of Socorro. Again!

And the weather was miserable. It was hot with extremely strong headwinds and crosswinds, with dust and smoke in the air despite occasional sheeting rain. We just held on tight and kept driving, the noise from the engine growing louder and louder every minute. Would it hold together until we reached Albuquerque, or would suddenly give way, drop to the ground and drag, leaving us stranded along the side of the road again? It was very stressful. We were so relieved to make it to Albuquerque!

Here we are driving towards our neighborhood, having just left the freeway. Our engine was gleefully announcing our arrival.

Here we are backing up into our driveway, sounding like a fleet of motorcycles, vroom, vroom! I’m sure our neighbors were impressed (not). But the lizard on the wall was surprisingly unfazed.

So yes, we’re in Albuquerque again. And stuck here until we can get the van fixed.

After a year and a half of John mostly working from home, the project he’s leading is now in a stage where he needs to be onsite a lot. It really doesn’t have much (or anything) to do with the state of the pandemic. It just has to do with equipment he needs in this stage of his project.

We’re guessing this particular stage of his project will be done this summer. Then going forward he expects approximately 2-3 periods of about six weeks each when he needs to be onsite in either Albuquerque or the CA Bay Area.

Earlier this month he flew out for a week and a half without me, but he didn’t enjoy the flight at all. There’s not a direct flight, so it practically takes as long as it does to drive. And air travel is a bit of a mess right now. The industry hasn’t caught up with the sudden increased demand. Flights are late and people are grumpy and everything is under-staffed. So we’ve decided to go back to driving.

We’ve been doing the Tucson-to-Albuquerque commute in the camper van. During the pandemic the van was handy because we have our own sink and toilet and didn’t need to use public restrooms. It doesn’t matter as much now. The van is comfortable, but it doesn’t get very good gas milage. And we don’t like putting so much wear and tear on the van, which is supposed to be for vacationing, not interstate commuting.

So…drumroll…we’re thinking of getting another car. When I met John back in 2005 he had three cars. I remember wondering what kind of guy thinks he needs three cars, LOL. But they all had different purposes; a 4WD Jeep for the backroads, an old AWD Subaru for commuting from Placitas into Albuquerque in snowy conditions, and a sports car because, well, I guess you don’t need a reason to have a sports car.

We don’t have any of those cars anymore, but we still have plenty of cars. I have an older Mini Cooper in Tucson. Then there’s the camper van of course, which you hear so much about. We also have an old pickup we use for upkeep of the rentals, and moving, and landscaping, and remodeling. It’s currently in Tucson. The day before we left for Albuquerque this week, John came home from Home Depot with an impulse buy of 5 big cement planters, each weighing some ridiculous amount.

They were a good price and our backyard in Tucson is barren. We’re going to put them between the pool and the wall, where there isn’t really room to put anything into the ground – it is paved almost to the wall.

In addition to the Mini Cooper, the camper van and the pickup (all older and purchased used), we also have a fairly new Toyota 4Runner. I believe John had high hopes of exploring wilderness areas in it, but since we bought it I have not felt well enough to do any tent camping, much less actual backpacking. So we’ve just been van camping instead.

Hopefully someday we can get back to the more extreme (and less comfortable) wilderness trips. We’ve been pushing the van too hard I think, taking it on extremely rough back roads – it’s just too big and heavy for that. And it’s rewarding us with cracked manifolds! It’s really the 4Runner we ought to be taking camping out in the middle of nowhere. We could commute in the 4Runner too, but it doesn’t get very good gas mileage.

Speaking of gas mileage, I had hoped that our next vehicle would be fully electric. But it is 458 miles house-to-house, which is too far for a fully electric vehicle. It’s not an easy 458 miles either. Elevation and weather, especially wind, can decimate our milage, and sometimes we face fairly extreme winds on the trip. And we don’t want to worry about having to recharge.

It’s not a great time to buy a car (it’s not a great time to buy anything right now except maybe masks). But John says that used hybrids are a reasonable price, because many people who previously were in the hybrid market are now opting for fully electric vehicles instead. With a commute of nearly 500 miles, a hybrid would be perfect for us.

I told John he could get anything he wanted. I just have two criteria. It needs to have good visibility and it needs to be reliable!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com