Happy Easter Everyone!

Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012

A glorious Happy Easter to everyone.  Here in Santee, California, on a morning that promised a day of sunshine and warmth, we attended the Sunrise, or Sonrise, Service in the campground where we are staying.  There may have been forty or fifty people in attendance.  The sun appeared from behind the hill behind us just as we were closing the service with the final hymn "He Arose!"  Beautiful morning at Santee Lakes!

After trying to make a FaceTime connection (video/audio call on iPad) with Kurt, Heather, Jamin, Maya and Ahna without success, we shopped for the melon we would take to my brother's house for the Easter meal, then returned to the trailer to rest and nap.  The alarm went off this morning entirely too early - at 5:15am - too early for me anyway.  The sunrise service began at 6:30am and, believe it or not, we made it on time.  Chalk one up for us!

Our day at Skip and Susan's was very nice.  Susan's sister, brother-in-law and niece were there, as were the newlyweds, our nephew Mark and Jenn, and later Mark's sister Nikki and her husband Tom and their children, Landon and Reagan stopped by for a while.  At home, we often spend Easter afternoons alone, getting together perhaps with Kurt and his family after they return from sharing the Easter meal with Heather's family who live in the Olympia area.  While we would never begrudge Kurt and family time with Heather's kin, it was nice to be part of a family celebration of Easter.  And, finally, after many failed attempts, we connected with Kurt, Heather and the grandkids on FaceTime.  A near perfect Easter Sunday.  What would have made it perfect?  Talking with Brett in Alaska - he had to work today.

Yesterday, Saturday, we drove the 400+/- miles from Tucson and made pretty good time.  We made very few stops along the way, and those were mostly quick rest stops, for gas in Yuma, Arizona before driving into California where fuel prices are well above $4 per gallon, and for Date Shakes at Dateland, Arizona.  Yum, yum, yum - date shakes!  We look forward to them whenever we are down this way.

In California, we stopped at a rest area just west of El Centro along I-8, where we saw a Vermillion Flycatcher.  We have seen them before on this trip and in other years, but they never cease to amaze us.  A small bird, the Vermillion is bright, bright red with black back, wings and tail.  It is a show-stopper.  The location in California is an unusual place to see one, just on the fringe of its breeding range.

On Friday April 6th before leaving Tucson, we spent the day giving the trailer a thorough inside cleaning.  I vacuumed walls, cushions, vents and blinds; cleaned the Fiberglas surfaces; and hand cleaned the floor.  Duffy washed windows inside and outside of the trailer and inside the Honda.  Then, we went directly to a laundromat with all our soiled clothing and bedding where I fed the washers and dryers until they could take no more, and Duffy took off to find a car wash.  Everything except the inside of the Honda was clean as a whistle when we were through.  Duffy spent extra time washing the car, giving it two washes and two rinses.  Spic and span indeed!  Except...in the time it took to drive the short distance from the car wash to the laundromat, spring pollen coated the newly washed Honda with a sticky, thin layer of fine dust.  Except...in the morning we would be hitting the road, picking up dirt and grime that would need to be washed off by the time we reached Santee.  C'est la vie!  Oh well.  It looked nice for a while.

Thought on haircuts on the road: I really wanted to hold out until returning home to get my hair cut by my long time hairdresser, Christine.  But, by Tucson I was beyond tolerating it the way it was.  Every morning upon waking my hair stood on end, looking like something frightened me in my sleep, or like I'd wrestled with the pillow all night long.  No matter what I did, short of washing it, I could not make it behave.  Well, I nixed the idea of going to Walmart for a haircut.  Not knowing where to turn next, I searched online.  Finally reaching one salon by phone (that had far too fancy a name suggesting $$$$), I settled for an expensive haircut.  How expensive?  More than twice the cost of one at home!  What did I get?  Well, not exactly what I wanted or expected.  I guess what I can say is short hair, really short hair, is easy to care for on the road.  The stylist ignored specific requests I made on length, and only heard "short" and "it's okay if my ears show."  I now have the new Pixie look.  She shaved, she clipped, she texturized with shears, and she coated my hair with a water wax to make it spiky and messy looking when she mussed it with her hands.  Now, Cindy and Peggy, you both look great in spiked hair.  I would not say the same for me.  The good news:  it will grow out, and as the stylist said, "you will be ready for a haircut when you get home."  Thank heaven!!  It sure does not take much fussing, and even if it does stand up in the morning, it's a whole lot shorter than it was before.  Some consolation.

Until next time...
Pam