Nomads, Long Beach 2, CA (9/24/2023)

Welcome to my second posting that discusses our visit to the Long Beach and Los Angeles area. As of the writing today (9/24/2023), we finished with the trip to the aquarium and the yarn store (the Alamitos Bay Yarn Company). Donna was impressed by the wool store (they had some rare Dutch wool); and honestly the aquarium wasn’t bad. I have been to a few other aquariums and in my opinion the one in Baltimore is still the best; however, this one was absolutely good. The nice thing was that it concentrated its effort on the Pacific and had a lot of touch and feel stuff for kids. However, despite its great quality, it somehow conveyed its age (25 years-old).

We visited the Rancho Los Alamitos. This was a great place housing one of the oldest ranches on the west coast. We had a history talk and then wandered through the gardens. I was blown away by the Morton Bay fig (Ficus macrophylla) trees. These trees were enormous and had an impressive root base. We loved walking from the rose garden to the vegetable garden. Eventually we popped into a desert type garden, ending up in a more native garden with an artificial stream. It felt that we eventually needed to be kicked out because it was nearing closing time.

It blew me away on how may restaurants there were in the area. So what did we eat? Indonesian, Japanese (ramen), (south) Indian, Chinese, Korean (tofu soup), Cambodian and of course contemporary American. Moreover, we had some magnificent donuts; there are a lot of Asian owned donut stores in the area. I mentioned in my previous post, that we encountered a few (13 or 15) between the home and the church where the ordination took place. The most exotic was the Cambodian fermented fish stew that I had for dinner. Our daughter told us that many people she talks with never cook, but only eat out. I can believe it. There are so darn many different restaurants in the area, that I think you can eat out every day of the year within a 10-mile radius of where they live and never visit a place more than once.

General impressions? The area where the kids lived is very ethnically mixed. But they spoke about Cambodian, Mexican and other street gangs. There are a lot of Taco stands (legal and pop ups, most probably entrepreneurs that run a taco stand without a health department permit), and indication to me that some folks are probably unemployed and are earning a living this way and that the area is thriving. Here I am only guessing, but a taco stand beats being homeless, which we were constantly reminded of. On both sides of the block where my daughter lives had a homeless camp or at least a place where two or three homeless were living. One group had a children’s play pen. I did not see a kid in it, but I did not look very long, not wanting to be accused of staring. It just reminded me that children can also be homeless, no matter what age they are. I wrote a little about homelessness in my previous post. Finally, the smog. We did not experience it or were not bothered by it, but only noticed it when we drove into and away from the area.

A little more about the homelessness. Of course we saw the occasional person who missed out on admission to a mental institution, maybe a few illegal alien, entrepreneurs who can make more money panhandling than holding a regular job, or what might appear as a drug addict; however, I am sure that I was also running into folks who had been kicked out of their rental home or apartment because they could not keep up with the rising rental rates, or lost their jobs. I find it difficult to distinguish amongst them all and it is therefore difficult deciding who legitimately deserves a handout and who is going to abuse it. In other words, it is so difficult to show empathy and compassion. I am therefore trying to do that in this blog and make you all aware of it and show compassion and love for mankind. I do not believe we are being overtaken by homelessness, but this is a sign of what politicians argue about but do not want to compromise to everybody’s detriment. I’ll leave it at that for today, but let's resolve to be a little bit kinder and understanding towards each other.

At Los Ranchos Alomitos

At the rancho

The homeless behind our daughter's townhouse

At the yarn store

Nomads, Long Beach 1, CA (9/22/2023)

This post I will name Long Beach, partially for obvious reasons, although it seems we have explored the entire Los Angeles basin. However, Long Beach is the home base where all our trips originated and returned to. Our daughter and her spouse live in Long Beach and that was the ultimate destination of our trip. Our girl, they always remain your girl, no matter how old they are, was going to be ordained as a Unitarian Universalist Minister and we needed to witness that.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon after a fun drive over the L.A. freeway system. It wasn’t that bad; I had a great navigator sitting next to me in the captain’s chair (“there will be a slowdown in a half mile”, get ready”; “do you see those brake lights?”). Parking in front of her apartment building was something else; it is basically a free-for-all, but we got a spot that we could squeeze the van in. We were advised to empty all the valuables, because of the homeless living down the street; my daughter already had their car window broken for what appeared to be an empty grocery bag. Some time after that we put shades and blankets in front of the windows to make sure the van appeared occupied, and no one could look in. This seemed excessive at first, but later in the evening while walking the dogs we observed a gathering of homeless folks and saw at least two vans that someone obviously lived in (a.k.a. boondocking). The doors to those vans were open and there was mosquito netting hung in the door openings, a sure sign of active living.

During our entire stay in the area, we were made very aware of the homeless crisis in this area. It is amazing. A couple of days later we visited a bonsai shop, and the owner (a 50-year-old Asian lady) started to blame the welfare state of California. We hesitated but did not tell her that Republican states are partially to blame for all this, by bussing them in.

A good friend of my daughter and fellow minister came in from Alabama the following day. She was going to sleep at my daughter’s place as well, and we needed to decide how to organize the sleeping of five persons and three dogs in a small townhouse. At night we had a small gathering at a microbrewery nearby and all was well. The first days we did not do too much, we had a ceremony to prepare for. Our daughter and spouse took good care of us, and we were acquainted with the area’s (Asian) donut shops (15 or so between home and her work), the taco stands (too numerous to count), and the ethnic food in the area, most notably Cambodian and Indonesian. The fermented fish dish at the Cambodian restaurant was interesting and delicious, but it or the uncooked vegetables gave me terrible gas. It seems that nobody cooks at home, and everyone eats out all the time.

Our daughter’s church where the ceremony took place is absolutely gorgeous and is in a beautiful location. We got there early which allowed us to scout out the place and take the nature trail, which is owned and maintained by the church, at the edge of the canyon that looks towards the Pacific Ocean. The ceremony was great, and we now have a reverend for a daughter. Afterwards there was a social gathering with a taco dinner, beer, wine and cake. We got to meet more colleagues, and congregants that we can remember. Later on talking with our daughter we heard the stories on all the folks we could remember talking to.

Sunday was a trip to downtown L.A. We visited Little Tokyo for lunch; this place is absolutely worth visiting and went for a hike up hill to the observatory. However, what goes up must come down and so did we. While the downhill was relatively easy, in hindsight I injured my knee; two days later it ballooned and was painful.

We visited the Huntington dog-beach on Monday (see the photograph below) and Tuesday was our bonsai and Japanese garden day.

I guess I’ll write more about our Long Beach visit (Wednesday, Thursday and maybe some other observations) in my next post.

We had to go wool shopping after the aquarium

One aquarium picture

The Japanese garden

Jasper did not like the waves at Huntington Beach

The view from the conservatory

Hiking to the observatory

One picture from the ceremony

Get together at the brewery 

Nomads, day 15 (9/19/2023)

We have arrived in Long Beach, our intended destination. We have come here to watch our daughter get ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister. I have no idea how long we will stay here. But let’s continue with the correct sequence of events.

Day 15: Henderson (NV) – Las Vegas – Barstow (CA) – Long Beach

Days 16, 17 and 18: Long Beach and the Los Angeles area.

The trip from our latest stopping point to Long Beach was interesting and uneventful at the same time. We left the hotel as soon as possible! Here, I came up with one observation: while the setup of the van makes sense and is good, we need to devise a better way of moving things from the van into a motel room or now into our daughter’s home. Yes, I get a lot of steps on my Fitbit walking back and forth between our van and the intended place of domicile for the night, but it all seems somewhat inefficient if you decide not to sleep in the van that night. We have our clothes in bins and when staying overnight in a motel room, I only need our toothbrushes, one piece of underwear, a clean T-shirt, etc. You get the message I assume. We still sleep with the same clothes on as at the time we were born.

After what had inevitably become to be, our regular breakfast of a McMuffin meal with coffee, we decided to go for broke and visit the famous Las Vegas Strip. It took us a half hour drive in morning commuter traffic to get there. However, we were treated with the sights we were somewhat expecting. The van we are driving has the advantage that you sit higher, and you can look over all the vehicles. It was a great vantage point. There was a lot of construction and traffic on the strip, so we inched from one end of the strip to the other. The benefit was that the driver (me) had plenty of chances to look around as well. The electronic billboards, the famous casinos, the tourists, and even the occasional person sitting on the curb, acting as if he was completely out of it, broke after gambling, drunk or with a hangover at 9 in the morning was fun to see. After hearing so much about the famous strip, it did not disappoint.

Leaving Las Vegas put us on Interstate 15, all the way to LA. Starbucks on the way, and by the time we left Nevada for California my Google Maps told me there was an accident somewhere down the road. We were passed by a screaming police vehicle and soon thereafter we got the reminder why not purchase one of these super big campers (at least the size of a big bus) that fit behind a monster truck. We finally got to see what one of those campers looked like from underneath. The camper was on its side on the shoulder of the highway. The truck that was pulling it was upright, but it looked like it had been on its side as well. The airbags had been deployed and when we drove by, I could see the driver trying to deflate them.

The remainder of the drive was fascinating. We just descended and descended from a plateau that was above 4000 feet to approximately 700 feet in elevation. It got progressively hotter, and the vegetation became sparser; we encountered large areas covered in sand. Looking on the map we could see we were entering the beginnings of what was to become Death Valley further to the northwest. We never actually entered Death Valley; we skirted it; however, this low area already seemed very inhospitable and an eerie reminder of what we could have encountered had we gone there. In Barstow we stopped for dog food at the local Tractor Supply, which was much larger than our local one at home. Lunch at the outlets near Barstow and on the road again, now with Long Beach as destination on our GPS. Our lunch spot (at Chipotle) was interesting. We sat outside with the dogs, and we were surrounded by house sparrows that were begging for handouts. Radar was really interested in the little birds and tried to shoe them away.

Back up in the hills to finally descend into the L.A. basin. As we dove down a layer of smog or maybe thicker polluted air and the L.A. highway system welcomed us. The highways were all that they were made out to be, very crowdy and congested. Thank goodness we were able to utilize the carpool lane having 2 individuals in the van.

We arrived in one piece after a 16-day trip. In the next post I will describe some of our adventures while residing in the Long Beach and L.A. area. We are now slowly starting to plan our trip back home. I think we will be somewhat happy to drive up our street, to stick the key in our front door and start planning some new (van-based) adventures.

Not in order of our trip this time.  We have arrived!

Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert 

Las Vegas strip

Las Vegas strip

Nomads, days 13 and 14 (9/18/2023)

We woke up in Logan Utah, with the destination in sight. We slept decently, even after being relocated by the folks that stole our site. But let’s first resume my daily log.

Day 13: Logan UT – Cedar City

Day 14: Cedar City – Zion National Park (Kolob Canyons) – Moapa Valley (NV) – Hoover dam – Henderson (near Las Vegas)

Back to Logan. We were not particularly happy as you might have noticed above and in our previous post. The memories that flooded back from our time there were interesting. Together we received around $1000 in stipends, and we lived of that and savings that we had accumulated from my Uganda job. We cleaned our home and did laundry on Saturdays and hiked on Sundays. When we left town at the end of our studies, our landlord gave us our deposit in the form of a check. When we arrived on the east coast four days later, we learned that she had blocked payment on it without giving us any reason. Our discussions with the waitress, the evening before (shew was from Texas and obviously not from the prevailing religion), somehow had brought other negative feeling up about our stay 42 years ago. I am still amazed how events from so long ago can jaundice someone’s impressions and feelings. It harks back to some of the stuff I read in “The Art of Travel” (look at my first post for the reference <here>).

After breakfast at McD. (we wanted get the hell out of the campsite ASAP), we again drove by our old home and decided to go view the campus. We hardly recognized it, so much has changed in the 42 years although a few things looked familiar. I was looking for houses friends used to live and tried to remember parties we had while driving to campus. However, those homes were gone and now were the sites of commercial buildings. We remembered our friend Allen who was always in shorts and even biked to campus in shorts during snowstorms. We also again discussed our very good friends Jeff and Maria. Jeff had rheumatoid arthritis and one afternoon they came to our home, giving us all their booze, because they had decided to turn Mormon. A couple of weeks earlier we had been skinny dipping together in a creek in the hills.  Jeff committed suicide soon thereafter; he could not live with the pain and the outlook on his future.  In those days, they did not have the drugs we have now. We hit the road after that and took off for Cedar City.

The drive took off some of the pressure, I personally was delighted to be back in the basin and range ecosystem. I love the Great Basin Desert. We initially wanted to go to Bryce Canyon NP, but changed our minds, since it was getting hotter again. In other words, we found a dog friendly Holiday Inn Express; I booked a room online and set that as our goal. Our intention was to go for a hike after checking in and visit Zion the day after. Well, by the time we got near Cedar City we were hit by some major thunderstorms and the hike never materialized.

Zion stayed on our list, but a visit the next day revealed to us that this National Park wasn’t dog friendly. The Kolob Canyon scenic road was partially closed, and we walked the dogs on a section of the closed part.

Goodbye Utah, hello Nevada; one of the few states I had never set foot in. Lunch at a taco stand in Moapa Valley while watching a flock white faced ibises; they were what looked like grazing in a flooded pasture. This was followed by the drive through the Lake Mead scenic area. In Nevada we had entered the northern regions of what looked like the Mojave Desert, I was delighted to see creosote bush and the sparseness of the vegetation. The geology was amazing, as well. Here I am in my element, at home; being an arid land ecologist. We loved seeing the lake and the white ring showing how the water level had dropped. One of the rangers told us that the level had come up 26 feet these past few months.

A visit to Hoover dam, and a hotel. It was 98 outside and we were not thrilled with camping. This turned out to be something. It seemed that only the casino hotels in the area were dog friendly (guess why). Honestly, they sucked, or the one we ended up in did! You had to enter a smokey casino with dogs to get to the elevators, but we survived it. These are some of the perils of camping in a van with dogs.

What did I learn to date? We need a rooftop AC, if we want to do this more regularly in the warm part of the year. To be able to operate the AC on sites with no electricity, we will need to generate our own power. In other words, we need to install solar panels on the roof and a battery system. Something to investigate when we get back home.

Zion

The taco truck

In the sand dune area with petrified sand dunes

Same as above, with our van.  The temperatures are 98

The Hoover Dam

The carpet at our hotel.  Should I take my shoes off?

This is where you walk your dog, in the parking lot of the casino

Nomads, days 11 and 12 (9/15/2023)

We are making progress. I am writing this on day 14, but I will get there in my next post. But let’s summarize:

Day 11: Great Falls (MT) – White Sulphur Springs – Three Forks – Dillon

Day 12: Dillon – Lemhi Pass – Tendoy (ID) – Logan (UT)

Boy that looks like two relatively short trips, but they were not. The trip from Great Falls to White Sulphur Springs was absolutely exhilarating. This was most likely the most beautiful landscape we encountered up to that point. It made us want to retire to Montana, were it not for the threat of winter. We traveled through a number of ecosystems leading us to a lodgepole pine forest and a ski area (Showdown).

While it was downhill after that, it really wasn’t from a landscape viewpoint. We again hit extensive grassland areas, had lunch on the road somewhere; however, we hurried up to get to Three Forks and the Missouri Headwaters State Park. This is where the Missouri splits into three fairly equal rivers. Our heroes (Lewis and Clark) had to decide which river to follow. Looking on the map (which they did not have of course), they named the streams from left to right the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin rivers after the President, Vice President and the Secretary of the Treasury. Albert Gallatin was of course the guy who bankrolled the expedition.

Since the Jefferson River somehow veered to the west, they decided to follow this stream. This was also part of the insistence of Sakakawea their Indian guide who was originally from close to this area. We had a great walk with the doggies in this park. Jasper went wading in the Gallatin and of course, I slipped and went into the river as well (I slipped into the treasurer). There is a nice knoll/hill we climbed up on, which gives you a nice view of the confluence.

Then it was off to Dillon, our destination for the night. I know we would be able to see Beaver rock on the way down there, a hill that Sakakawea recognized as a sign that they had arrived at their original hunting grounds. It lifted the explorer’s mood, knowing they had taken the correct stream and were ready to cross the Rocky Mountains and the continental divide. We had a great stay in Dillon and had pizza delivered to our van in the campground.

After a great night at a great campground, it was our turn to really go into the Rocky Mountains to find the continental divide in Lemhi Pass. Lemhi pass is the same site the explorers crossed and met the Shoshone Indians and Sakakawea’s brother who was the chief. It is slightly more convoluted than that, but you will have to read up on that yourself.

After a short trip on the Interstate highway, we turned on a dirt road and it was 20 or so miles to the pass. We passed some absolutely gorgeous countryside, that made me want to buy a ranch somewhere in these mountains. The ecosystem went from grassland to Rocky Mountain Juniper, to Pondarosa to Lodgepole Pine. As an ecologist it was absolutely great to see and learn. There was a memorial at the summit (7700 feet in elevation) and we had a great walk in the area while being fairly loud to alert any potential Grizzlies to stay away.

The dive down to Tendoy was another exhilarating experience. It was a steep dirt road that is absolutely unsuitable anything larger than what we were driving and absolutely no trailers. We ran into a cross country cyclist on the way down, and a local who couldn’t believe that foreigners from Virginia came all the way up here on vacation. Lunch and gas were in the town of Lemhi, a few miles south from Tendoy, the place we finally hit a hard top road.

Subsequently, it was back in the van and the drive to Logan, UT. We both received our MS degrees from Utah State University in Logan, in the fall of 1981. We had never returned, so this was a homecoming, of sorts. We both felt extremely apprehensive to return, while we had good memories (of hiking), we also had some not-so-good memories having to deal with the culture of the time.

In the past 42 years, Logan has changed a lot, in particular along main street. The town had become like every other town, you would not be able to distinguish it from any other Main Street, USA. In the center of town, it all rushed back, and somehow, we were able to drive to the home we rented 42 years ago. It looked the same, except the day-care and post office next door to us were gone. The home next door where two couples lived until one of the husbands was killed in a car accident was still there. They used to use the brick on the outside of the home as a climbing wall and practice. After they left it was occupied by a lady and 4 to 6-year-old daughter. The lady used to entertain men (for pay) and then she would kick the daughter out who would come it on our porch and cry. At the time, we had moved to an apartment behind our first home (this apartment is gone and is a driveway now), and we would take care of her for an hour or so before the girl was allowed back home. We did this all while finishing our thesis. We were too naïve to call child protected services or any other authority about this situation.

As you can imagine, all these things came rushing back, and even more so while having dinner at the local microbrewery and talking with the waitress. We asked if we could buy a can or two of their beer, but no you could only do this at the state liquor store, another place of bad memories to us.

When we got back to the place where we were camping, some other campers had moved into our spot and we had to relocate. The office was closed until 10 am the next day and we were not waiting for that to complain; we wanted to get the hell out of Dodge. But it all was a good reminder of what living there 41 years ago was like. More about Logan in the next post.

The road to Sulphur Springs

The three forks of the Missouri

And into the Gallatin he went

Beaver Rock, there is so much to write about this.  The ranch at the bottom of the rock is managed by a couple who are ecologically minded and really manage the area for wildlife.  Very impressive!

Camping in Dillon, MT

Clark Lake, ready to go to the pass.

Pronghorn at the start of the dirt road

The start of the climb.  The next few pictures (below) show the pass and the divide)

Our old home in Logan, UT

The Logan Microbrewery, we had to hand over our driver's license to get registered in their (the State's) database of drinkers.  In the old days you had to become a member of an establishment (usually $1.00 per year) before you could order an adult beverage.