Category Archives: Travel

The Salton Sea

March 18, 2015 Keevan 2 Comments

The Salton Sea is a strange place.

Deathly. Beautiful. Intriguing. Smelly. It’s a dying sea, yet there is abundant life there.

The seashore (if you can call it that) looks from a distance like beautiful soft white sand. Up close, walking upon it, it crunches. The “sand” is actually made up of billions of dead brittle barnacles!

Then there are these fish carcasses that litter the shore.

The water is disappearing…leaving salts behind. Salts that have drained here from irrigation.

The Salton Sea was formed when the mighty Colorado River broke through diversion canals and flooded a huge low lying basin in the early 1900’s. According to the Salton Sea Museum, approximately 600 tons of salt are added to the lake annually, due to runoff of irrigated fields in the Imperial Valley. As water evaporates from Salton Sea, the salt is left behind in high concentrations, killing off the fish in the water, and the soil around the lakeside.

The future is not pretty for wildlife, migratory birds, or recreational use.

Where will they all go?

There are groups and agencies trying to save the Salton Sea.

Fresh water would be nice, if there was more to be had. But everyone wants that.

The riparian areas around the perimeters of the sea support non-waterfowl, such as this pretty little Verdin.

This vegetation is dying off also.

These burrowing owls are numerous along the ditches.

Salts and toxic silts filling their homes???

😥

Salton Sea Museum

For a great overview of the history of the Salton Sea.

National Geographic News

For an in-depth look at the environmental, economic, and political impacts of the Salton Sea

Camping, Hiking, Nature, Travel

The Other Mojave Desert

March 13, 2015 Keevan 2 Comments

We’ve been hanging out in the Mojave Desert.

This time we chose not to go to Mojave National Preserve. We’ve instead spent our time exploring some lesser known out of the way places.

Such as Owl Canyon.

This BLM campground was really nice, very uncrowded, and provided garbage cans, nice picnic tables, and shade awnings. The sites were quite spacious, and there was much to explore. With our senior pass, the price was $3.00 a night.

Most people come here for this wonderful hike up Owl Canyon.

We spent a couple of nights at Owl Canyon Campground, exploring some smaller canyons too.

Then we moved on south to Sawtooth Canyon, down in the Lucerne Valley. Much of this area is ATV territory…you can see the damage done to the fragile landscape everywhere.

Up until about five years ago, Sawtooth Canyon was also becoming a desolate wasteland from being mismanaged. The BLM finally stepped in and made it off limits to all ATV’s and all hunting. What a precious resource it is, and now mostly rock-climbers, wildflower watchers, and birders go there to enjoy the area, though you find remnants of broken glass and shotgun casings littered everywhere.

It actually made me proud of our government for taking a stand to save this treasure.

Some of the blooming wildflowers we encountered, hiking around here.

And a few of the feathered local residents entertaining us.

Leaving Sawtooth Canyon, we drove south through Joshua Tree National Monument. This area seemed really tired and very dry already, even though it’s only March. The repercussions of last year’s drought I assume.

We didn’t camp there. It felt a bit too claustrophobic with the sights right on top of each other and quite crowed, so instead we dry camped just south of the park, where we didn’t have to listen to noisy neighbors.

The break of dawn, and an early morning playtime for Pia in the desert…

Packing up, we decide to take a little jaunt down by the Salton Sea, to check out some birds for awhile.

On a stop for some coffee and gas, these handsome fellows we met charmed me into giving them a few pieces of my cracker.

I thought if I continued, he would soon be inside the van with us, coming along for the adventure!

We keep rolling along. ❧

Birding, Nature, Simple Living, Travel

Ducking Around Los Osos

March 5, 2015 Keevan Leave a comment

Green hills, the ocean, beaches, volkswagons, and birds.

We made it out to Sweet Springs Nature Preserve in Los Osos, the sweetheart of locals, where dog lovers walk their dogs, birdwatchers scope out the avian visitors, and baby boomers sip wine while watching the sunset.

Happily, we find birds! (The duck kind, and some shore birds too!)

We’ve been looking for both this Green-winged Teal, AND the Blue-winged Teal all summer, and here there are hanging out together in Los Osos.

Lesser Yellowlegs (might be a Greater Yellowlegs)

These long-legged birds have long bills to match. Seems like a definite advantage to finding grub for dinner.

Another stop to see our pals at Go Westy, we pick up a new knob for our stove top in the van, and a new cup holder for the passenger seat up front. Always a joy to visit the folks there and gawk at the beautiful camper vans they restore.

And finally, finally…we have a heater, defroster, AND air conditioner that work again, after six months of complete dysfunction of all the above. Thank you German Auto in San Luis Obispo. You guys are awesome!

This Curlew bill may be a bit too long, but I guess it works for him.

The Snowy Egret is a great fisher-bird, and so graceful and beautiful to look at.

Bird of a feather, flock together. Hmmm.

A beautiful day, a wonderful time in Los Osos, and farewell to the ocean for awhile.

❧

Camping, Nature, Travel

More Fun Along The Coast

March 1, 2015 Keevan 2 Comments

Another week of immersing ourselves in coastal living. Another week of feeling very small and insignificant compared to the mighty Pacific. Another week of watching pods of gray whales heading south for the summer.

Highway 1 along the California coast is a road like no other. It is not for the meek. But if looking for incredible ocean views, and getting a sense of just how enormously humongous the ocean is, this is the road to take.

The ocean just goes on and on and on. You are driving right on top of it, next to it, and high above on bluffs with long steep drop offs right down into it. After many miles of this highway /ocean kinship, you sort of become one with the water and sand and its creatures in a very zen like way.

The beauty is breathtaking.

My most sincere apologies to those of you reading this in the eastern half of the U.S. who are still submerged in freezing temperatures, record breaking snow and sheets of ice covering your walkways.

Here folks, Spring has arrived. Today, on a short hike I counted at least twelve different wildflowers poking there pretty faces up and blooming like no end. There were Lupines, Poppies, Flowering currents, Potato vines, Paintbrush, Milkmaids, Western Columbine, and Wild cucumber to name just a few.

Lack of wifi / or cell reception this past week, has left me a little behind on the blog, but we certainly have had our share of nourishment.

My secrets divulged here, our two favorite campgrounds along this highway:

Plaskett Campground, which is a national forest campground, therefore accepting the senior access pass, and making it quite reasonable for California at a mere $12.50 per night. It’s spacious, has lots of green grass around all the sites, and is directly across from Sand Dollar Beach.

Our other favorite is Montana de Oro in Los Osos. This one is a State Park, so a bit more pricey, but we are in California and dispersed camping is not that easy along the coast. Both campgrounds always have really nice campers staying in them for some reason.

Take Plaskett for example: Here we meet Mark and Ronnie, our next door campers with a Eurovan the exact same year and engine that ours is. We spend time comparing interiors, discussing storage options, sleeping arrangements, and all the do dads that one figures out to be helpful camping in a van.

Then this beautiful Vanagon “Syncro” (that’s a much sought after 4 x4) pulls in next door to Mark and Ronnie. Isn’t this just a gorgeous setting with three lovely vans camped next to each other?

Some thoughts on photography…

Sometimes I’m perplexed on what photos to put on this blog. Of course I like to showcase photos that I think are pretty decent. But then this isn’t a photography blog. It is a travel blog. So I wind up adding a lot of photos that I don’t actually think are great photographically speaking, but yet they still tell a story.

When memories fail, photographs are great for picking up the pieces and putting times and places together in context.

Which is why, you might have to look really hard in these next shots to see the subject. We were seeing so many pods of gray whales spouting around, I couldn’t not try to capture some of them. They were really far out in the water, but try I did, and to my amazement with my 300mm lens, and some serious cropping, they actually materialized in the shots!

What I wouldn’t give for a nice spotting scope and one of those beastly very expensive super telephoto lenses!

Well, we are heading over to San Luis Obispo to see our friends at German Auto for hopefully the last time in a really long time, (still having issues with the heater / ac unit) before leaving this beautiful shoreline and ever stretching ocean, teaming with abundant wildlife and grandeur, to head inland to warmer weather.

Looking forward to shedding a few of our heavy jackets.

❧

Campervan, Eurovan, Repairs, Travel

Eurovan Woes…Again…

February 18, 2015 Keevan 4 Comments

There we were, cruising down the road after a couple lovely weeks on the coast.

Up the hill, and uh…what the heck. She died. Again.

This is the same thing that happened when we first got back to Santa Cruz, right in the middle of an intersection. This time, we have to coast backwards, downhill, to a place where we can halfway safely pull off the road.

She won’t start up again. Battery’s o.k. Starter is o.k. Fuel lines are o.k.

She just won’t start. And it’s raining. Again. It was a hard and heavy and windy forceful full onslaught of rain hitting the front end on the van all night. So much so, the canvas tent was wet along the seams. On the inside!

Hours of not being able to get her going, we call for yet another tow. Number 3 in 4 months. Not a good record. Luckily we’re now into a new year, so our Geico free tow limit starts over again.

We take her to our good friends at German Auto again, in San Luis Obispo.

There she sits overnight. And wouldn’t you know it, she starts up fine the next morning.

Something is getting wet, somewhere, and something seems to be shorting out, somehow, and we nor the German Auto guys, nor the Volkswagon folks back in Santa Cruz can figure it out. And yes, both times, it’s happened on, yep, that’s right, a Saturday. Saturdays – you know are the days, when all good mechanics don’t work.

So by the time anyone smarter than us, can take a look at her, she’s dried herself off, and is behaving perfectly and very well mannered.

Frustrating. YES. But Miss Keevan, we still love you. Even if it means we are stuck someplace till yonder sunshine gleams down and brings forth light to our “Eurovan Adventures.” We’re sticking in there with her.

But we have made a few threats! Just so she knows.

On another front, we had to make another quick trip back to Santa Cruz, for some appointments, and for Fred to officially sign up for his old age fountain of youth, well deserved, social security retirement.

We are planning to squeeze in another trek down to Arizona, for a couple of months, before coming back to this city yet again, and finally – for the event of the year!

The event of the year? That would be the wedding of our most beautiful and loving, cherished daughter, and her most wonderful and handsome, totally awesome, soon to be husband.

Hope to be posting from down the desert roads again soon!

Camping, Nature, Simple Living, Travel, Van Living

Long Snouts And Water Spouts

February 6, 2015 Keevan 6 Comments

We’ve been cruising south on highway 1 along the California coast, finding our travel mojo again.

Cement Ship – Seabright Beach, Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz to Monterrey to Big Sur…along the winding road, following along with the whales also heading south. We stop often to watch huge water spouts emerge from the ocean, then spot the enormous dark blobs barely visible, looking more like tiny specks in the gigantic Pacific Ocean.

So refreshing it’s been, beautiful blue skies and perfect temperature in the 60’s and 70’s. Monarch butterflies flitter about, and golden poppies are already brightening up the green hillsides in some localities.

It’s feeling a bit like spring.

The campgrounds are wonderfully sparse, our fellow campers we meet also energetically embrace this glorious opportunity to enjoy the outdoors without the summer crowds.

Morning bird songs wake us in the dawn, and orange sunsets announce the close of our days. So nice to be back in sync with nature’s rhythms again.

Piedras Blancas, a little north of charming Cambria, is home to thousands of Elephant Seals. These massive pinnipeds, once so close to extinction, there were only 50 known animals off of an isolated island, have made a whopping comeback, and now are able to entertain us humans with their bizarre shapes, very unromantic love lives, and ever so cute babies. From December through January, they haul their massive tonnage out of the ocean up onto shore, give birth, breed, and stay around only long enough to wean the pups, before swimming off into the depths of oceanic life again.

A real treat and amazement to watch…the males can weigh between two and five thousand pounds!! The dominant and beta males constantly challenge each other for lordship over their harems, and the babies constantly try to keep from getting trampled as these massive males (incredibly fast) maneuver along the shore alternately mating the girls, and fending off the boys.

To add interest to the show, the California coast has been having many “King tides”…excessively high tides, which reduce the beach front real estate to a slender thread of sand, crowding the seals, and mixing up the harems, so the big Bull Elephant Seals have even more work to do, to keep everything straight! We watched this one little pup try so hard to get across the hurdle of rock to reach his mother, we just wanted to go give him a little shove to help out. (We didn’t) Poor thing was so exhausted.

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Laying down our tired bodies from much exercise and outdoor vitamin D, we are lulled asleep by the crashing of the ocean waves. So grateful and fortunate for this past week.

❧

Nature, Travel

A Birding We Did Go

January 20, 2015 Keevan 2 Comments

While still waiting for some final parts for our Van, we decided to take a little bird watching expedition.

We drove over to Lodi, to the Isenberg Crane Reserve, in the central valley of California, in search of our friends the Sandhill Cranes.

We had encountered these beautiful birds across the northwest this past summer on our travels, then found them again in New Mexico in the fall as they began migrating south for the winter.

Sandhill Cranes are really fun to watch. They have a very happy almost laughing cry that echoes throughout the fields and skies. They are extremely vocal, making them easy to at least hear, if not see. They fly overhead in huge numbers at a time, in graceful flight, as they come and go to bodies of water.

At sunset they all come into a shallow body of water where they spend the night in large numbers – for safety away from the lands edge and predators.

At sunrise they all take off and scatter, spending their days in grasslands such as these or in farmers fields, while feeding and socializing.

Soon they will start their courtship rituals, which involve dancing, flapping, and jumping around to entice a mate for long lasting relationships.

Although we came for the Sandhills, we also saw many other wading birds, such as these beautiful Snowy Egrets.

And their shyer cousin, the Green Heron, caught with his crest raised! These herons are almost always hidden in the tangles they are so perfectly camouflaged for, so seeing him and his raised crest was a great treat!

There were diving birds, such as this common American Coot, who I learned is actually more closely related to the Sandhill Crane than it is to a duck.

A not too shy Northern Mockingbird with it’s ever cheerful personality spent the afternoon with us, while we ate our lunch.

And a few standbys such as this cute shot of an American Robin, always close at hand.

The thing with watching birds…is that you also find yourself getting to see some nice sunrises and sunsets too! A nice little bonus!

Unfortunately, Lodi, didn’t have much to offer in the camping department.

So back to Santa Cruz we headed, spending a day in Monterey in between. A nice respite, while waiting and waiting for parts.

❧

Beginnings, Campervan, Nature, Simple Living, Travel

Greetings From Santa Cruz

January 12, 2015 Keevan 4 Comments

Hello 2015.

We’re closing in on 300 days on the road. A little Unbelievable, but very True it is.

Holidays came and went. Lots of Fun and Happy times with Family and good Friends. Food, wine, and much beach time was enjoyed.

Four people looking across the bay. — Beach

The Rain that greeted us upon arrival home, turned into chilling Cold weather, which then turned into Summer like temperatures.

Young girl frolicking in the surf — Delight

In the midst of Happiness, some Grief was endured, more van problems were encountered, and then a hard drive that died a grizzly dark Death threw a loop into our visit.

Young girl walking quietly on beach — Moving On

Long walks along the ocean with Loved ones helped heal the wounds.

Marbled willet along the shore — Marbled Willet

Our Friends in Nature encouraged us to Look forward to new Adventures in the coming year. There are lots of Ideas for new Projects here on this blog and elsewhere.

Snowy egret with injured leg — Snowy Egret

We’re very Exited about all the new Energy generated in the blog world. Everyone seems so full of Enthusiasm.

Young seagull on the sand — Immature Gull

We’re quietly and Peacefully getting Miss Keevan fixed up pretty and Practical, before traveling onward.

kayaker heading out to sea — Heading Out

Into the Unknown we Journey.

Hope we all make time in life for Renewal, Abundance and Hope in this coming year.

Journey Onward.

Eurovan, Repairs, Travel, Van Living

Unexpected Holiday Gift

December 15, 2014 Keevan 2 Comments

Slo town, USA…Volkswagon Mecca.

Driving or walking along the streets of San Luis Obispo, one cannot help but notice Volkswagon busses, bugs, and campers of all sorts and all ages parked in driveways on every street in every neighborhood.

Not only are they parked all over the place, but they are in prime condition – shiny, clean, loaded, and with pride written all over their smiley faces. I have a hunch the VW owners in this town, not only love their vehicles, but that they engage in a bit of classic car competition around here.

It’s not surprising really, since this is also the land of Go Westy, the notoriously famous Volkswagon Vanagon and Eurovan parts, gear, and toy provider, and notably the most famous and complete VW camper van restoration folks in the U.S.

We had to pay them a visit, which provided us with loads of fun, checking out all the different vans and being treated royally to a private tour of the back, where old loved vans, are reborn from the bottom up to morph into like brand new camper vans and weekender vans after complete restoration work.

🚐

We’re about to head up to Santa Cruz, but the van won’t let us.

It’s pinging and knocking. We fear the worse, that it’s the engine, but really we think it’s mechanical issues stemming from the driveaxle that was replaced back in Tucson, which I wrote about here. We’re so close to home, but don’t want to take this ailing van up crazy curvy highway 1 along the coast in this rainy weather.

We have to get it checked out again. Geico…Hello…Are you home???

Not really, as it take us a day and a half to get a response from the good ole insurance company, and get an ok to have someone take a another look at the work done by the Tucson mechanics.

The first shop we go to tells us to just drive it on to Santa Cruz, the second place Geico sent us, said there was no problem. Everything looked fine they told us.

We try heading out of town again, but the grumbling unhappy noise still insists we don’t go too far, so we decide to have it checked out this time on our own by a real garage, a european auto repair garage.

Another very long story, another week long wait, but these european mechanic folks know their business. It seems that the Tucson mechanic improperly installed the drive axle with too long of bolts, causing the loose axle to beat the heck out of the transmission case, shredding it to smithereens.

So now we not only needed another new axle again, but in addition we needed an entire new transaxle replaced!

Which leads to the fact that Go Westy, remember, just a few miles away, happens to have a shelf full of rebuilt Eurovan transmission/transaxles that are not only rebuilt, but rebuilt with cooling components much better than the original trannies.

And that folks, is our unexpected Holiday Gift!

We now have an almost brand new vehicle, stronger than ever, and raring to go, with a new left axle, the new entire transaxle, more new ball joints, and a new oil seal, to stop a small leak we had, all thanks to the poor workmanship in Arizona, the fantastic workmanship here in San Luis Obispo by Jim, Tucker, Taylor, and crew, and our insurance company who stood behind the warranty.

Not a penny out of our pockets was spent.

Arizona may be a horrible place to break down, but seriously we couldn’t ask for a better place than San Luis Obispo to break down a second time, this land full of fantastic mechanics and more volkswagon parts than one could spend a week dreaming about.

The best customer service, the best mechanics, and the place everyone goes back to is German Auto of San Luis Obispo.

We’re pretty proud of Ms. Keevan for putting up with all of this. And we’re all very happy to be back together again!

We’re homeward bound.

❧

Boondocking, Campervan, Camping, Nature, Travel

Alabama Hills Of The West

December 9, 2014 Keevan 6 Comments

Leaving the Big City Lights, we were looking forward to Death Valley National Park.

But really, it just didn’t do much for us after everywhere we’ve been. And the campgrounds there…well what can I say, they were pretty much dusty, graveled parking lots with wall to wall people.

I guess it’s a popular spot for this time of year.

We couldn’t bring ourselves to camp in this situation, so we just kept going.

We drove to Lone Pine, a little town above the pitiful remains of Owens Lake, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

We had heard about the Alabama Hills, where so many movies have been made, they named the road there, ingeniously “Movie Road.” According to local lore, over 400 hollywood movies have been filmed in these hills.

Were we ever wowed when we drove in, just hoping to find a place to sleep for the night! Boulders and mountains and lots of open spaces with views to die for.

Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental United States with a summit of 14, 505 feet, was what we saw from our van door here! This is actually the back side of Whitney, seen from the east. How majestic her grandeur.

We felt pretty humbled and privileged to be camped here. To think that the likes of John Wayne to Johnny Depp have left their footprints here in the dust, and may have camped in the exact spot we did. (Well – probably not this exact spot, but maybe close by.)

Not a bad spot for morning coffee and breakfast. My own “John/ny” cooking up some yummy grub.

I wonder how much you would have to pay for a kitchen window with this view??

I wish I could say this was us, jogging along the road, but we enjoyed the view just as much while casually walking along behind these lucky folks who obviously run here often.

Another time when it’s just really hard to pull away…

We’ll be back here again.

❧

PS…For those who care, I am now officially caught up and current on this blog!!!

Keevan Soul