Happy New Year!

Hey there, Everybody! Happy New Year! I didn't expect to be away from the blog for so long, but sometimes it works out that way. So I have lots to show and tell. Let's just back up to the day we left home, shall we?

It was wet and dark. Lots of RVers with similar predilections to us call themselves "Snowbirds." We don't get a lot of snow in our area, and so when it snows, it's more delightful than disturbing. Instead, we get a winter that looks just like the one you see below. Lots of dark, wet, and muddy days.

And because of that, we call ourselves "Rainbirds." Yeah...like the sprinkler. So anyway...off we went. You know on these driving days, I amuse myself taking pictures of barns. We've seen a lot of barns the past few days, and so I'll share some of the best ones with you in this post.

We stopped for lunch at a rest area. It gave all of us a chance to use the facilities and to get some food. Sadie was stealth, looking at what was going on outside from the safety of one of the side tables.

Smitty was more bold, checking things out from his window seat.

And then we were back on the road. This is pretty much how our drive looked the first day.

We spent our first night in a new-to-us state park. We were planning to have breakfast with a dear friend from high school the next day.

The kitties couldn't wait to get out on the catio. Sadie asked me to wait so that she could purrsition herself to take advantage of Smitty's tail. She's always wanted to see how she'd look if nature had endowed her a little more generously.

I had some time the next morning to finish the embroidery on the first Snowflake.

Before taking off from the state park, I snapped this picture of Smitty. He likes to go down the road in a small space beside Mike's side of the bed. We keep some raggedy towels there for mopping up wet floors, and Smitty thinks this is a perfect spot for the road. What you can't see in this image is that Sadie is tucked in behind him.

It was too bad it was raining so much because we had a nice quiet spot with a view of the Rogue River. It was just a short distance to walk over there, and I'm told there's a trail along the river. This is a place we'll want to come back to again when the weather is better.

And then we had a really nice breakfast with my friend Becky and her husband. I'd never met her husband, and so it was wonderful catching up. We graduated from high school the same year in 1972. Becky visited our home in the early 90's, but we hadn't seen one another since then.

And Becky offered to take a picture of Mike and me before we got back on the road heading south once again.

 

I took this next picture to show you that we had no problems getting over the Siskiyou summit, which was our one worry with respect to road conditions. There was snow on the sides of the road, but the road itself was just wet pavement. No problems at all.

As we crested the summit, it was as if we were heading into the light. It got brighter and brighter, and we discussed donning our sunglasses.

When we crossed over...YAHOO! Blue skies and sunshine. That's what I'm talkin' about!

And it wasn't long before we crossed the state line into California. Bye-bye, Oregon!

Hellllllooooooo, California! Land of my birth. And Mike's too.

Shortly down the road, we had to go through the agricultural inspection station. As we'd pondered our first day on the road just before leaving home, it suddenly occurred to me that we were going to lose all our produce. I was able to find a chart showing what was "subject to inspection," and what was "prohibited." On the prohibited list was any citrus, and I had a whole unopened bag of clementines, several limes, a lemon, and an orange. Gah! I texted my neighbor, and she took the citrus off our hands. As for the rest, there was a lot of it, and I could only hope for the best.

As it turns out, they were only interested in the fruit, and the only thing I had left was apples. When I fessed up to the apples, he simply waved us on through. Thank you, Sir, and Happy New Year!

And then it was more hours of driving and more barns.

I love passing by this next thing...they are tanker-style trucks for sale. Why they are painted in so many colors, I have no idea. Sometime I'd love to stop along the road here and take a better picture because I'm sure there's a quilt here.

We'd despaired of seeing Mt. Shasta because we were in and out of the fog. We kept looking ahead, trying to see it, when Mike looked out his left window. Holy sh*t...it was right there!

We stopped overnight at a casino where we could stay for free. In the morning we awakened to trucks all around us...and I mean really...all around us in all directions. I was able to get under way sewing the pearls on the snowflake.

These are tiny 2mm Swarovski pearls, and that's a tiny thin beading needle laying there beside them. They are a little tedious to work with.

I've been using a single strand of monofilament thread to sew them on. As I'm writing this, there are 12 to go, and then I'll be finished. The dark circles you see around them will disappear once I rinse the Sticky Fabri-Solvy out of the piece and trim it up.

It was a pretty sunrise before we took off yesterday morning.

We travel south on Interstate 5, which happens to parallel the Pacific Flyway. We saw lots of birds of prey, including a couple of bald eagles. Off to the side of the road, we saw thousands of geese. If you look in the image below, stretching across the middle of the image, that band of white is geese who've come in for a landing.

The skies were full of them.

When we reached our final spot for the next four nights (three now), we were greeted by this Attack Cat. This cat appears unhappy to see us, and s/he means business.

And here's where things get funky. We're moving into the whining and complaining part of this post.

We checked in, and all was well, but something happened as I was getting out of the truck at our spot. I had the distinct impression I'd just inhaled some kind of powdery stuff, although it was invisible. It was the same sort of feeling you get when you choke on a drink, and I started coughing, and coughing, and coughing. Holy moly...I coughed all night along and into the morning. I have mild asthma, and I had an inhaler along, but I use my inhaler so infrequently, and never for an attack this severe and prolonged. It really didn't have a lot of poop left, or a lot of quantity, and so I had to call my doctor back home to request a refill on the inhaler. I spoke with the doctor on call...it's New Year's Day, don't forget...and he phoned in several prescriptions, including a couple of steroidal medications to try to shut down the inflammatory process I have going on.

We had to drive an hour to the nearest 24-hour pharmacy. Along the way, I wheezed past a few more barn photos. It took my mind off my inability to breathe temporarily, at least.

I took hits off the two different inhalers and also swallowed an oral steroid, and I'm feeling quite a bit better as I write this. I think I will survive this episode, but my chest still feels tight.

Tomorrow we're meeting up with yet another friend from high school. You might remember my friend Judy who came up to visit during the solar eclipse in 2017.

Judy is a very smart person, and a career entomologist. She's also a "birder," and she's going to take us to a couple of the local national wildlife refuges. At one, we'll see some kind of elk, and at the other, we should be able to see the flight of the sandhill cranes. I've only ever seen it in videos, and it is impressive. It should be a fun day.

So that brings you up to date. As for my sewing projects, it's time to set a goal for January's

Hopefully, I'll get in a day of sewing here and there. My January goal is to quilt and bind the Pumpkin Pie quilt I started a couple of years ago. It's a small project, and so it should be do-able.

So there you go...we're all caught up. I'll continue to blog as I have the time. Tomorrow should be a full day, and so I don't know if I'll post tomorrow, but I'll probably be back the next day for sure. Until then...stay safe and healthy, and let's finished lots of quilts in 2020.