Traveling thru Nevada today

Today warmed up a little, the ice began to melt and the sun came out most of the day. It was another pleasant Nevada Winter day. Tonight it will probably go back down to 22 degrees but for now we head south enjoying the wonderful scenery.

The Family Dinner

so we all got together for a family dinner..... not everyone... just the ones who were here .... lots of food .... lots of fun

Look who came to dinner!

We all had a good dinner..... the animals shared in the good dinner. They all seemed happy and content... minimal barking...no biting :-)

Wandering on

The 26th of Dec is the day when millions of people return millions of gifts or trade off for somethinng they might like better .... you'd think they would be in the parking lot of Macey's, Sears, WalMart of some other mall ... but no... they were all out on the freeway. I saw them. 5 lanes of stop and go with spurts up to 20 mph. Amazing.
The slow cruize allowed me a magnificent view of the countryside and time to listen to someone read a book on a CD.
The morning started with an enjoyable fog which had settled in during the night, changing the landscape into the mystical dream world that fog always seems to do. Very captivating in it's own way.
After the traffic thinned out (in the Sierra Nevada foothills) the trip over the High Sierras was magnificent as usual. I thought there might be a little more snow piled up than there actually was but nevertheless, still quite lovely. No pictures of that... thought I would pay attention to the road instead of "drive and shoot"  :-)
After arriving in Reno it seemed there was 6-12 inches of snow everywhere glistening in the late afternoon light. Actually it was very frozen with packed ice everywhere. Those tire prints behinnd the Sprinter are where I got stuck. Had to go fetch some "salt" to melt down the ice so that I could get the van off the alley. Even with all that extra weight I just could not get over that icey spot.
Fianlly you see the destination..... Baron's house. I am nestled in here for a while...cosy and warm.

It's a beautiful world

Today the sun was shining all day ... I thought that meant it was going to b e nice and warm ... wrong......quite chilly, so I was bundled up real good staying warm.... but it was a good day.
I went on line to search for foreclosures, Repos and distressed sales (but flew right past all the "fixer-uppers"

Bob was very kind and offered this place as a possibility. Great place. Look at that view from the back deck. Dock and boat access right out the back door... who could ask for anything more?

Running around looking at properties has good points, too. Look at all the animals I get to meet! they all came running over to greet me when I came up the driveway. Made me feel very welcome.

This is the view from the house on 13 acres. How can we not like that?

From there we took the shortcut to Nice. This County is amazing. It seems there are no bad views from any angle.

Then the view from Nice.... nice, eh?

Of course we went on to Lucerne with it's lake front and high hills. Kinda like Switzerland over here ... but not quite.

signing off... from the back of my van

Best to you all

Happy Wanderer

Greetings from the happy wanderer!
This is a great life .... wandering from place to place...visiting my friends and family .... seeing new sights.... experiencing new tastes and smells ... petting new kitties and watching new hummingbirds and gold finches.
Some of the places I visit are pretty as a picture.... some are like dream worlds .... look at this shot .... like a road that leads off into a fantasy land.....

and here is lunch today ...... the banana is from Trader Joe's .... I love

Trader Joe's... but the pink grapefruit, it is from Florida... one of the last things I got to take with me... thanks Elaine......... It is sooooo tasty ... sad to see the last one go but a sweet memory. The apple ... that is the last one from my last trip to Gardnerville....... picked it off the tree myself ... how do I get them to last so long? ... very carefully to be sure.... these were some of the tastiest apples I have ever eaten .... I will miss them,  so I will chew each bite 29 times to savor the taste as long as possible. Good by sweet dreams.

Sharing with friends

Arrived in Northern Cal OK...... it is cold here...20 degrees at night... so I did not sleep in the truck... there was a wood fire going inside.. ahhhhhh

Later I broke out the famous chocolate cherry bread http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bella/2009/02/phoenix_phoodies_ben_hershberg.php
which I picked up at the Farmers Market booth ......... it was clipped down significantly in a flash..... as always. This bread is a hit wherever it goes.

Cherry Tomatoes Too

Fresh raw foods are soooo good. These were added to our salad. Isn't it great that our food not only tasts good but is beautiful to look at?

Fresh Berries even in Aridzona

I love berries. I eat them everychance I get. Today's choice was strawberries... big, plump delicious. What a way to start the day!

Yummy

I guess we are feeling better when we start to shoot aoo the food in sight. How can we resist a trio like this? Yummy, yellow and ripe.
Good for morning , noon or night.

Unocchio attends the Kung Fu class

It was another hectic day of running full speed to deliver kids to school..... return in the afternoon to pick them up....do a little shopping at the local Fry's super market or buzz over to Trader Joe's for some fertile eggs and sprouted grain bread. Traffic is more intenxe now in Phoenix... the snow birds have dropped in for a few months .. AND... the holiday season adds more cars to the jam than most people would like to see. We had things to do so light or heavy traffic makes little difference... we just go do it.

Today after the school pickup we headed directly to the Kung Fu station. I know.. it's not called a station... but I did not know if it was called a DoJo or not...... the three muskateers di not know heh heh.. so I'm not along... the experts did not even know. Dosn't matter. It was the United Martial Arts Co.
Now the Mom comes into the room... she informs me that the studio is also called a "Dojo". Now we know.

There was a small goup of learners attending today... all very enthusiastic... all very excited to learn from the Master. The Master is quite a reknown Master so I'm told. the kids are fortunate to be able to learn from him. He seemed to be very patient as he guided the little learners thru the paces.
the Master and the instructor were very kind to me as an outsider and invited me to take all the pictures I wanted and to feel free to wanter about the very clean and neat studio to get a good position.
Soon the session ended... the students all bowed to the Master and we exited to go on to the next adventure.