The State of Jefferson

No taxation without representation!  There was a revolution fought in the 1770's for this reason and it appears that may be happening for the same reason in Northern California.

You may not have heard of the State of Jefferson.  It could be the 51st state to join the union.  In Northern California there is a movement to separate from the Southern CA and Bay Area. We are on the geographic edge of this new state.  In Lake Tahoe we also saw signs and there were multiples on Interstate 80 as well.  I think this idea is catching on but they will have a fight on their hands.  At this point, the only state to join the Union with permission in its charter to split into 5 states was Texas.

The State of Jefferson is a proposed U.S. state that would span the contiguous, mostly rural area of southern Oregon and northern California, where several attempts to separate from Oregon and California, respectively, have taken place in order to gain statehood.

As of October, 2015, 11 Northern (California) Counties have sent a declaration or have approved to send a declaration to the State of California with their intent of leaving the State and forming the State of Jefferson.

 

We have had a fun week spent with family and exploring casinos in the area.  Last Tuesday we went to Thunder Valley casino and played Progressive Pai Gow Poker.  The casino has a great way to separate you from your money.  In addition to the standard bet to play, they have an Envy bet which pays you when you get a straight, flush, 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, etc.  And now a Progressive bet for $2 flat fee which pays out different amounts when a player gets a "premium hand" such as a Royal Flush, 7 card straight, etc.  Mike had a Royal Flush and it paid him $1,000 for the progressive bet (fill out that W9 form so the IRS gets its cut!!) and $750 for the envy bet.  Everyone else at the table got $50 for playing the envy bet too!

Thursday we went to Lake Tahoe to drive around the lake.  It looks lovely as ever and the drive down on Rt. 50 into the Tahoe Basin is still a clincher - beautiful and scary at the same time.  Until you get lakeside you can't see how low the water levels have become.  On the north side of the lake all of the docks we saw were out of the water.  We came home thru Trukee/Donner Summit.

Yesterday we went to Ikeda's in Auburn.  We have driven by that store hundreds of times on the way to Reno or to visit Pat and Jeannette.  Recently we saw Ikeda's on Food TV and knew we had to buy an apple pie.  May I say that this is the best pie I have had since  my Aunt Griffie (Martha Ellen) died about 40 years ago.  The crust is crisp and has the most amazing flavor.  The apples are very thinly sliced Granny Smith and Golden Delicious with the perfect amount of cinnamon and sugar.  In spite of the horrid traffic and lack of parking, I believe this may be a frequent stop over the next month.

So much for those 20 pounds to lose by April...sigh

Home at Last

Most of you know I'm a proud West Virginian but my heart belongs to Northern California.  We have been here for over a week and I'm settling down into our routines very quickly.  Welcome Home Bev!!!

We spent the first few days in our favorite west coast 5 Star resort - Jim and Jack's beautiful home  - before our cottage was available for rent.  Last Wednesday we moved to Pilot Hill.  We are only 8 miles or so from Auburn but with two mountain roads,  8% grades, a useless GPS, and oodles of switchbacks, it feels much further.   We are country livin'!

The cottage is perfect for 2 people.  Thank you www.VRBO.com!!  Craig and Jane have created a cozy home.  We have a large great room, nice sized bedroom and a large L-shaped bath with walk in closet.  Our view reminds us of our backyard in our Granite Bay house.  We are surrounded by Valley Oaks and pines.  Most mornings I am watching the squirrels running around chasing each other and burying food for winter.  We also are keeping a close eye on the horse trough to see which birds show up for a drink.  The red headed woodpeckers come in threes and take turns acting as lookout.  Scrub jays just dive right in.  Last night we saw a HUGE jack rabbit and some deer as we were heading home but I'm still waiting for the turkeys to arrive.  (P.S.  Mike dodged a turkey this evening too!  Now my nature fix is complete!!)

Craig and Jane have 2 dogs.  Scout is the Bassett Hound.  He already has us well trained.  He comes to the front door and just stares at us until I get up to take him a cookie.  (Honestly, I always give him two!!).  After I love on him and wipe the sleep out of his eyes, he scams Mike for another cookie before napping on the porch for that long 50 yard walk to the Big House.  He is a sweetie.  Sometimes his sister comes with him and tries to take his cookies as well as eat her own.  Scout never lets a crumb fall out of his mouth. 

This has been a very busy week leading up to #foreveryoungwedding as our niece Crystal married Jon.  The hash tag was for their wedding photos posted on media.  I was lucky enough to have Crystal style my hair at her beautiful salon, we had dinner at Jim & Rhonda, enjoyed a sushi dinner with Pat's family, got invited to the rehearsal lunch at The Chef's Table in Rocklin,  Big family dinner at Jim's when Carol and Rick got to town, WEDDING, and then topped off by Mike's family get together at Pat's on Sunday night. 

We will have 6 more weeks here in No Cal and I'm looking forward to connecting with old friends and spending more time with Mike's family. 

Los Angeles

We had a few days in Los Angeles before heading to Northern California.  I always look forward to being back in LA because we get to spend time with Aunt Liliana and Uncle Richard and visit our old haunts.

Our first night in town was dinner at Captain Kidd's by Redondo Beach Pier.  It is a must whenever we are in town.  Captain Kidd's is a fresh fish market.  They have many choices either local caught or shipped in from Alaska, Mexico and Hawaii.  There are also whole crabs provided with newspaper and a mallet.  The reason we like it is  we get to choose our piece of fish and they cook it for you, served with 2 sides.  Of course we always have to have either smoked fish or shrimp cocktail and a tumbler of wine to go with dinner.  Dining is at picnic tables out back.  Delicious!!!!

Our next day we spent a nice afternoon visiting with Aunt Liliana and Uncle Richard.  Lunch was at a little Thai restaurant in San Pedro and was yummy!  We were able to get together the next afternoon as well.  We have promised to be back in December with lots of family and wedding pictures.

Driving to Sacramento from LA, we stopped at Harris Ranch in Coalinga.  It is our usual stop.  We had a lovely suite with a balcony overlooking their pool and grounds.  I spent part of the afternoon on that balcony and had breakfast coffee there the next morning.  Harris Ranch grows the majority of food prepared in their kitchens and you can also buy their fresh beef in their gift shop.

On to Sacramento!

West Texas and Arizona

West Texas, need I say more???  The towns are few and far between.  Hotels are the same.  Some are quite nice and others you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.  In our Toyota Tundra, we felt right at home as every other vehicle on the road was also a truck!

We spent one night in Deming New Mexico before heading to Arizona.  Since we have already reserved our Tucson property for winter stay in 2016 and 2017,  we decided to do a drive by and check it out.  We were quite proud of ourselves!!  It is a lovely neighborhood and backs up to open desert with trails.  I think we will be quite happy there.  And after a short trip to look at the house we built and never closed on in Sahuarita, it was on to Phoenix.

We had a wonderful time in Phoenix visiting with my cousin Tawn.  So great to see her again and just have time to relax and reconnect.  First a wonderful dinner at Sol in Scottsdale with pink guava Crème Brule - yummy!

Tawn took us to Prescott on Sunday October 4th.  Prescott was the first capital of Arizona.  There were two events going on in town and I truly enjoyed both of them.   Dog Festival on the square!!!!  You should all know how crazy I am about dogs so this was THE PERFECT FESTIVAL for me.  Of course I had to search for the dachshund rescue tent and, sadly, there wasn't one.  Many rescue groups and stores catering to dogs and dog owners were there on the town square.  I did meet one older chubby doxie girl but she was an attendee.  And Mike is happy to report we got out of the festival without adopting a lovely greyhound!!

We walked through some stores, window shopping, and then headed to the Sharlott Hall Museum.  She was a local woman who decided in the early 20th century that the history of Prescott and the surrounding area needed to be preserved.  The museum grounds is the site of the original log cabin which served as Governor's Mansion for the first few governors.  There was also a house in which John Fremont lived when he was governor of Arizona.  That was a surprise as I was not aware of Arizona figuring in his history, being more familiar with his California days.  A small one room schoolhouse (where picture above was taken) was on these grounds and an typical rancher's cabin.  The day we were there the museum was also holding a Folk Music festival.  As we wandered the grounds we heard some wonderful music, much of it reminding me of my childhood in West Virginia.  There is nothing like fiddles and mandolins to bring back those memories.

Governor's Mansion in Prescott AZ

Now we are off to Los Angeles and Sacramento....

Bev's Rules of the Road - First Learning Experience

I thought we'd be free spirits, roaming the US, and stopping when we felt like it.  HA!!  The best laid plans and all that.....

We stopped our first night on the road out of Livingston just east of San Antonio and asked for the senior rate (love those senior discounts!!).  The price we were quoted gave me a heart attack but I thought it was just for one night so $140+ per night was OK since there was a big antique sale in the area and most rooms were booked.  Second night we were in No Man's Land in west Texas and the price was higher!  What really ticked me off was checking on line I found the same room for $80 less per night.

So now we plan our travels and nightly stops. New rules are:

a.  Drive about 350 miles per day
b.  Drive only between 9 AM and 4 PM
c.  Make on-line reservations the night before for a hotel at the next stop and hope for the best.

Next update will be about our weekend  in Phoenix

October 2, 2015 Ft. Stockton Texas

We have become legit Texans.  We are now residents of Livingston Texas and have received our first snail mail there.  Our truck has the proper registration, insurance, and license plates.  We have Texas driver's licenses and are registered to vote in Polk County.  Yep, it is Official!!

Our road to Texas from Kentucky was not uneventful.  I have to say that I wished we'd given ourselves more time to travel as I wanted to stop about every 20 miles between Louisville and Nashville to investigate some point or interest or other, especially the Maker's Mark distillery.  We will take that trip more slowly in April and make those stops.  First night stop in Memphis was an easy drive and we found a Bob Evans for breakfast!

Second day things went well until we were west of Little Rock.  Due to road construction, I-30 was reduced to one lane and a small vehicle had a run in with an 18 wheeler.  We were routed to a side road and then sat at the on-ramp for 2 hours.  Mike worked on his tan and I read.  Back on the road and making good time when the U-Haul trailer blew a tire on Texas 59.  Waited almost 2 hours to get a new tire on Sunday night parked over someone's driveway in rain showers.  Three really nice folks stopped to ask if we needed help, including the owner's of the driveway.  So we didn't get into Livingston until 10:30 PM instead of before 6 PM as planned.

We completed all of the official domicile steps early and decided to continue our trip to Sacramento so we are back on the road.  Today we are in Ft. Stockton Texas and will be going to see original fort buildings from the 1800's before heading off to Deming NM.

The adventure continues.....