Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

we met at ted’s around 11. first we had to make a stop at a thrift store to get Christmas hats and sweaters. I forgot our stuff at home.  jerry’s sweater was a little small but the only one they had. I got a chico brand blouse that still had the price tag on it. $98, and I paid $3, and I really like it.

ted had all his old photos out and gave me a lot of them. some the cousins might like to see. also, he gave me some of the prints he’s made over the years. it was a lot of fun as we tried another variety of german beer. ted likes to drink his beer from a champagne glass. i might try that. speaking of beer, i know you don’t drink any more frank, but you’ll  have to take a Benadryl and join us for a beer made in bourbon barrels. you too linda.

we went downtown so ted could take our Christmas card photo this year with a reno feel to it. i’ll save that one until Christmas.

we headed for the casino next. it’s grown since we all were in reno and had lunch there. remember cousins?  it was more of a coffee shop then.

we tried betting on a few horses in the sports book. del mar was running it’s last 2 races. ted made all our 2 dollar bets for us.

it was a  lot of fun. we got close but no one won any money.

that’s jerry’s horse in the lead but another one came from behind and won.

then we went to the Friday night seafood buffet.  this is our third trip in two months that we have been tempted with so many choices of food. the salmon was really good, but I liked the cheese enchiladas that I had the other night the best. I had a spinach salad that was delicious too.

jerry pigged out on all the things that came in shells.

we went back to ted’s and jerry and ted had some cognac as we visited. I had a glass of wine we brought from our gift basket at the ranch. we were going to have a fire, but never got around to lighting it.

we had checked out of the campground and spent another night in ted’s driveway. good-bye keystone rv park.

tomorrow the sad part comes.  we have to leave.

stay tuned.

ps. I saw in walmarts ad last week that next Wednesday, veterans day, we should all put one green light on our porches or somewhere in our home visible to the outside, to honor our vets.  you can go to ‘greenlightavet.com’ to find out more. also don’t forget to put your flag out.  thanks, jill

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thanks for all the birthday and anniversary wish’s on the blog and on the phone.  and no celia, I don’t remember which piece I used to play with. now I would pick the ship. I sure don’t remember that bankers tray.  it’s a date to play monopoly ray.   I think grandpa and I are opal and earl Emily.    did you get the job at Disney chris?    do you have snow yet tracy?  i’m glad you liked the pictures of the p.i.e. truck. it was parked in a lowe’s parking lot, still being used.  I told ted everyone says hi.

we were on our own today so we  cleaned up the coach, took showers, and just hung out in the coach.  we ate very little so we can pig out at the buffet tonight.

ted showed us were all the tattoo parlors are.  all along Virginia st.  we all agreed the ‘aces tattoo’ was the best looking one. it got good reviews online too. so that’s where we went.

look at the bottom left of the sign. that’s not true.

I went first. with sean.  he did a really nice star.  on the bottom right.

since he had the ink in his hand, I had him touch up last years star. the one on the top. it had blown out in his words, in my words it was fuzzy.

much better.

jerry went next. his start turned out good too.

I got jerry’s image in the glass door next to him while sean was working.

we’re good for another year now.

we have a lot planned for today.

stay tuned.

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we got to ted’s house around 3 o’clock Tuesday. we had a nice visit over a new shiner beer he found. octoberfest. very good. we always go the buffet on the first night. we are going again on Friday night for the seafood buffet.

we spent that night in his driveway. it was cold outside but we were warn and cozy in our multi blanket layered bed. in the morning we saw that it had snowed a little.

we made our way to our favorite place the homage coffee shop. and here’s another picture of that bus on top of the greyhound bus terminal we always pass. ted said a lot of people don’t like it.

this is another good way to start the day. breakfast with your brother.

we went to a couple of thrift stores, found some good stuff, and then went back to teds to talk over plans with another beer ted had found, jubelale. also very good.

bob it still hanging out at ted’s house.

he’s making progress on his collage. still cutting out intricut images of very colorful fish. no set date for it to be finished. artists are very interesting people. in no hurry.

his beautiful Christmas cactus wasn’t in bloom yet, but it has a bud on every stem. he’s has this plant for years.

we brought ted a rock from pt. magu this time. we’ve bee collecting this rock for years there. it’s all over our yards. it’s very interesting with little fossil type things in it. I put it right near the heart rock we gave him last time. i see now it’s a little off balance ted. please put it where you like it to be.

i’m glad he has something to remind him of me. and see’s it every day.

we got the coach and checked into the campground. ted came and picked us up and we went to his favorite Mexican restaurant. the fish tacos were great.

ted’s doing errands today so we’re going to get our third star tattoo. ted pointed out the best place.

before I close I want to put in a picture for Martha and Sharon. as we left chico I saw this out of the corner of my eye and said to jerry “look at that truck, can you go back so I can take a picture”?. so he did some maneuvering and got us right down where the truck was parked.

I hope you guys enjoyed a peek in to the past of your father’s truck.

stay tuned for a picture of our new tattoo’s.

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highway 80 was good to us. it gave us a spectacular show. the snow was so beautiful. every turn gave us a new picture. here are some for you southern Californians who never get to see it. which is good because I wouldn’t want to live in it.

our first peek at the snow.

as we were driving I thought how long we’ve been traveling and how two of our schweethearts, on the left, have been with us the whole time. the ones on the right are only 4 or 5 years old. I see them over my computer all the time watching where we are going.  well look what’s going on when I put down the lid.

ha ha aha.

there’s ice on the pond. the snow was so soft, I guess what they call powder.

i love this picture I got out the window. the sun made the snow look so white and that one lone tree. I wish I hadn’t got the road in it though.

looking at that railroad on the side of the mountain made me think how long and how many men it took to build it.

the trees are showing some color now. this is the truckee river as we neared the end of highway 80.

we visit ted next.

stay tuned.

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hi all, just wanted to thank you for all the wonderful comments. it was like Christmas morning at mcdonalds this morning. finding all the new comments to read. thank you again for taking the time to look at the pictures and giving me feedback. i love it.

we took it easy yesterday. waiting for the weather to change. it did and we had some thunder and lightning and the blackest clouds. we watched as the sky turned into a beautiful pink.

we were waiting to go in the movie theater to see ‘martian’. it was pretty good but seemed to long.

we spent some of the rainiest hours in a goodwill. it was a huge one with some of the best prices. i got this old monopoly game for $1.99. the last copyright on the box was 1964.

it has it’s own banker tray. did we ever have one of these celia, ted?  did anybody? does anybody know what the bigger red pieces of plastic in with the hotels are?

the sun is shining today. not a cloud in the sky. ted says it’s cold and wet in reno. we are headed that way this morning, hope hwy 80 is good to us.

stay tuned.

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the old man is snoring.

since we are still sitting at mcdonalds, and jerry is still sleeping, I want to show you this picture, because I wish I would have put this one in the blog than the one I did.

jerry was cracking them up.

I guess I have time for a few more.

there were two cats at the ranch. tom and jerry. I never got a picture of jerry. tom looks like jamma, Hannah’s cat.

don’t you love this kara? I wish I still had all my fabric scraps. save all your scraps Emily, you’ll want them one day.

uh oh, jerry just woke up. more later.

thanks for paying attention to the blog and leaving comments. love all of you. jill

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we stayed at another Walmart in chico last night. no wifi at that one. we we’re at another good old mcdonalds this morning doing the blog.

we got an email from ted that said there may be snow on hwy 80 today. the way we were going. it might even  get down into reno. we don’t want to take a chance on getting in snow again, so we’ll hang out in chico today. maybe see a movie. open our bottle of champagne and toast to 53 years of highs and lows and all the in-betweens.

anyway, now I have time to do the mansion post. I know all of you can’t wait to see another Victorian mansion. jerry says that they all look alike to him, but he takes me and ends up enjoying it.

it looks kind of like the physco  house.

that generation sure liked big portraits of themselves hanging everywhere. could you see any of us having a picture of ourselves that big hanging in our houses now. but if you are the founder of the city of chico, I guess you can do it. he was also a general and a congressman among other things.

I loved his desk. look at that old typewriter.

this was the living room looking into the dining room. i love the flag drapes. the hanging on the wall on the right is a picture made out of hair. something done in that era.  that’s jerry in the mirror.

they also hang pictures from a pictures rail. see they used to really use them frank. I like the way this one is in a corner.

this is a few steps up from what the Indians had.

the library was enormous but I liked the collection of little books.

I put this picture in for amy. she loves pink, as do i.

third floor looking down. I wouldn’t like doing those every day. in those big dresses?

ok the last one. this is mrs. bidwell’s 150 year old rosewood  ‘baby grand square piano’. I thought it was beautiful. a work of art.

I guess we’ll go find something to do now. I found a movie theater and a thrift store in the same block.

stay tuned.

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the firestone beer people told jerry to come on up to the brewery on our way north. it’s in paso robles. well we got there too late and left too early to do that. damnrn. we spent the night on an out of the way street. it was across from a big car lot. we were playing dominos and at around 8:00 we heard someone opening and closing the car doors. it was the salesman going to every single car, probably 100 cars, locking them I guess. just one of the things that go on in the night.

we knew we would be driving all day Saturday. there’s just not much to do on 99. we did go to a few thrift stores. we ended up in tracy for the night, hi tracy,

at a walmart. a very nice new store. and look what it has now. something we’ve been wanting for a long time.

but I had no pictures to blog with.

the only thing we bought here was a sunday paper. the first paper jerry had read since we left home. at home he reads me pickles every morning. it was a good one today.

we headed for sacramento. there were a few things we wanted to do there. we hadn’t been in old town for a long time. and we had never seen the underground railroad. well the rain finally got here. around Stockton it started drizzling. by the time we were at sacremento it was pouring. we drove on. heading for chico to an air museum. the rain had let up by then, but the air museum was closed and not at all what it looked like on the brochure.

they had a cool fire truck though.

across the sky was this beautiful break in the clouds that almost looked like a rainbow. I couldn’t capture them. damnrn.

it was really so beautiful. no telling what you will see in north Dakota tracy. they say you can sometimes see the northern lights up there.

we went to an historical home here also. the bidwell mansion. i’ll do another post on that. we’re headed for reno today.

stay tuned

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the ‘ranch’ ranks right up there on our scale of best places. it’s expensive, but you sure get your moneys worth. our anniversaries are splurge worthy, so we do splurge.

to ride the horses we would have had to get up at 6:30. so at 6:30 we woke up,  looked at each other and said “let’s wait and do the hay ride at 8:45. I thought horses would pull it but it was just a truck. it was a lot of fun anyway.

it was hard to take pictures in the bumpy truck and the sun washed out the picture of the lake. the property is 6,000 acres.

the group that rode the horses got there first.

we had a nice place to eat. and plenty of the best food.

let’s see, we had fresh fruit, pastries, bacon, sausage, pigs in a blanket, two types of scrambled eggs, potato cakes, quesidilias, and pancakes. I think that was it.

this is a very cool couple we had as tablemates several times. she’s a freelance travel writer, and he’s a fireman. they had lots of great stories.

a woodpecker kept us company as we ate. he had a beautiful red head I didn’t capture.

the original ranch house is still on the property.

you should get a rug like this tracy.

notice the pump at the sink?

as we were leaving we saw what the woodpecker was waiting for, the pastries.

we got back on the ‘haywagon’ and headed back. I tried another picture of the lake.

what an absolute joy that was. another great way to start the day.

we are in paso robles this morning and again I want to thank McDonald;s for the use of their wifi, from the comfort of the coach.

stay tuned for who knows what’s next

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oops. I put a #4 on the last one skipping #3. so I guess i’ll name this one #3.

we are having such a great time here. we’ve met some of the nicest people. had some of the best food. relaxed and partied. as we did last night. I took your advice Sharon and we went hog wild again.

it was a beautiful evening out by the pool.

one of jerry’s favorite beers was there.

and he can’t resist that free beer.

brad and frank starting the asparagus. they were passing out appetizers again, but no pork belly. instead they served bbq thick sliced bacon. this was an omg Martha.

one of pasquales cooks made the chicken tonight.

we ate in the gazebo by the pool. very nice.

we picked out a new York strip steak and shrimp. jerry let frank cook it for us with his seasoning from the restaurant. you could do it yourself like the other man is doing.

frank ate with us at our table. that was pretty cool. they had the man that frank buys his meat from talk for awhile. we learned a whole lot about beef. he said if you can’t find a good butcher, buy your meat from gelsons, not your local supermarket. he also said northern beef is much better that southern beef. I guess you won’t have trouble finding some good beef in north Dakota tracy.

we got a picture of us with the chefs.

I told frank that jerry had been admiring his hat all night and would love to have one.

so he took it off his head and look who got it.

we took the hay ride this morning to breakfast. we wanted to sleep another hour. we’re getting ready to check out, so i’ll post a few pictures of that next time.

stay tuned

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