January 1 - 7, Moss Landing
Monday, January 1. HAPPY NEW YEAR! We wish for a happy and healthy 2007 to all of our readers.
Its a beautiful, 36 degree sunny morning when I wake up. There is a bit of frost on the grass when I take Ruby and Lucy out for their morning routine but it warms quickly. In the afternoon, after chatting with the neighbors, Brent and Karen, we walked with them, their son Nick, and their 2 Corgis to the beach. The dogs just had a wonderful time playing with each other and running on the beach and we really enjoyed having someone to hang out with. There were lots of people and dogs at the beach today and we really did have fun. For a while, we stood watching dolphins and seals from the shoreline.
When we got back, Brent and Karen invited us to join them for dinner and they got fresh halibut from Phil's Market. We had a wonderful dinner, good wine and conversation at our motor home. It was a great way to start the new year, with new friends and an active day in a great place, and good food.
Tuesday & Wednesday, January 2 & 3. We worked both days so there hasn't been a lot happening. On Tuesday, I made a call to the Human Resources person at the company that we are working for and I got a good feeling about possibly finding something within their company. We have an interview scheduled for Friday, the 12th.
We are trying to come up with a plan once again, would like to stay in the area but it doesn't look like we will be keeping this job. The new managers have stopped by a few times and they have assured me that it is their feeling that the new owners will not be hiring assistants at this time. Also, since I sent an e-mail to the new owners back on the 15th of December and haven't heard anything - thats probably a good clue.
Friday, January 5. Nothing happened yesterday, as the weather was ugly with lots of rain and wind, so there was nothing to write about. Today was sunny but cool all day long. We cleaned house and went for a walk. The dogs were left behind while we took a drive to Marina and Watsonville to run errands. On the way to Marina, we stopped at the Marina Dunes RV Park to see if they were looking for help. It just happens that there is a good chance of it and we're hoping to hear back from the manager about any possibilities they might have. The park is nice and the location is great.
On the way back from Watsonville, we stopped at the Sea Harvest restaurant, just north of the harbor in Moss Landing, for lunch. The restaurant is owned and operated by local fisherman. It is a very nice restaurant with excellent views of the harbor; hundreds of gulls perched on the dunes, lots of sea otters swimming and playing around, frothy topped waves coming in from the bay, and pelicans flying around. The meal was also excellent, starting with the roasted garlic artichoke. Mike had the crab cake and I had the red snapper and we both agreed they were excellent. It is amazing how good the fresh caught fish and seafood is.
In the evening, we got together with Gary and Beth for a glass of wine. They are folks that we met from Seattle and have just started full-timing. Its always nice to meet people and to hear about their experiences and to share stories.
Saturday, January 6. Happy 50th, brother Randy. Today is the day to take Ruby back to her home in the city. She really doesn't seem to like the ride in the Suzuki - after all it is kind of loud and bumpy and crowded, but I tried to make it as comfortable for her as possible. When we got to the apartment, she seemed a bit confused.
I went to the grocery store to get a few things for breakfast and lunch tomorrow with Ben and Jill. In the evening, we watched a Bruce Springsteen concert on PBS that was excellent.
Sunday, January 7. The day started with a trip to the airport to pick up Ben and Jill. They had a very nice vacation with family in Minnesota and Wisconsin and an uneventful trip back home. While we had lunch, we heard stories of their trip. Ruby was definitely glad to have them back.
After a nice walk along the coastal trail, we packed up the Zuk and headed back to Moss Landing. It was a nice drive and we got to see a beautiful sunset along the coast.
I think we're going to miss having Ruby around.
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January 8 - 14, Moss Landing
Monday, January 8. A very busy work day for us with several checkouts and lots of new reservations taken. Mike was busy outside getting sites cleaned up. There was a couple in the park that were having trouble leaving the park because they couldn't get the living room slide-out on the motor home to come back in. It turned out that they developed a leak in one of the windows in the slide-out, and it caused the flooring and carpet to swell, so the slide wouldn't pull back in. Unfortunately, they ended up extending their stay until they could get it repaired.
Tuesday, January 9. Today's entertainment was provided by the same couple that were trying to get out of the park yesterday. They also had an unfortunate event while emptying their holding tanks last night. I know this is gross but it is also kind of funny - and rather stupid on his part - kind of like the movie "RV", this is one of the things that most people learn early in the Rving days. They hooked up the sewer hose when they arrived at the park in early December, left the black tank open, and never flushed it out until today. This led to a backup in the hose. When he tried to plunge it - it forced the stuff out the vent on the roof. When he released the plunger - it backed it up into the rig. We thought everyone knew that you don't ever leave the tank open and it should be emptied when full - the weight of the liquid helps to flush it out and then you rinse very well.
This was all done last evening and Gary and Beth were watching from their rig across the street - kind of like the movie. Beth said that she caught herself laughing out loud in the middle of the night.
Wednesday, January 10. Cleaning day. Mike took care of the details such as the fan blades and vents while I took care of vacuuming, dusting, and laundry. We had a thin layer of Ruby and Lucy hair covering every nook and cranny. The windows had streaks of nose prints and everything needed a good cleaning.
We were thinking this might be our last week here at the RV park but it looks like the change in ownership won't be taking place this week. We are now on the schedule for next Tuesday and Wednesday - we shall see.
Lucy and I took a walk to the beach. The wind is picking up and there is a cold front moving in. Lucy was behaving real strange and didn't really want to be there, she was in a big hurry to get back home.
As the day went on, it got colder and colder. By 6:00 pm it was close to 50 degrees. We were going to walk to the Whole Enchilada for dinner but decided to drive there instead. Its a good thing because Mike discovered a piece of tubing on the gas line had slipped off and it wasn't running very well. He fixed it with his trusty Swiss Army knife and all was well again. The wind is biting and cold. Had a great dinner and a *bleep*tail.
Thursday, January 11. The day started chilly but bright and sunny. Michele informed us that we will be receiving a final paycheck for the days worked this week but will no longer be working for this company. Later in the morning, the new managers stopped by to let us know that we don't need to hurry to leave here and there may be an employment opportunity with the new company, Reynolds Resorts. Michele was told that Mr. Reynolds (the new owner) has told his managers to make us an offer, although that didn't occur. They just kept telling us that they didn't know and more and were also waiting to hear from the owners. They will be moving here on the weekend, so we will see if an offer is made - might reconsider staying in Moss Landing, then again, who knows? We haven't been too impressed with the lack of response we've gotten from Reynolds Resorts - rather unprofessional.
We decided to drive to San Leandro this morning, about 85 miles away on the east bay. It is where the Mission Bay mobile home community is located and we are scheduled for an interview on Friday for an Assistant Manager position there.
Before heading there, we dropped off our resumes at Marina Dunes RV Park, about 8 miles south of here. There is also an opportunity for the busy season there, starting in April - another possibility in the continuing saga - its too bad we are so good at spending and not so good at earning these days. The drive was long and through heavy traffic and dense population from San Jose all through the East Bay. You really can't tell where one city starts and another ends.
The mobile home community is very nice, well-kept, friendly staff, and the homes are packed in like sardines - not a lot different from the RV parks that we are used to frequenting. What we saw of San Leandro was rough, with a lot of litter scattered about. But we left there with not a very good feeling and by the time we got home, had decided that we really don't care to live and work in that area. We much prefer the RV parks living. The drive home was long, with heavy bumper to bumper traffic for at least 20 miles.
Friday, January 12. The thermometer said 29 degrees when I got up, but we still had water running through our water hoses - a good thing. The sun is coming up and it won't take long to warm up again. I think the temperature peaked at about 54 degrees today - it was cold and windy, but nice and sunny.
I went to Marina to the grocery store and browsed some of the shops around there but spent most of the day indoors.
Mike got a call today from the San Francisco RV Resort in Pacifica, just south of San Francisco, offering us a job there, starting as soon as the background check goes through. Looks like we will be heading up there to fill out paperwork tomorrow.
Saturday, January 13. Up the coast again, to Pacifica where we met the manager of the RV park, filled out the forms, got a short tour of the park, and found out where we would be parking the motor home. Its a good offer with a free site and all amenities including propane, cable, and wi-fi plus an hourly salary for all hours worked - and a schedule of 20-32 hours per week. Sounds pretty good to me. Hopefully we will hear back from them early next week and be able to head there to start working.
Sunday, January 14. A lazy day. Ben was planning to come here to hang out today but wasn't feeling real good, so maybe tomorrow. We've been reading and watching movies.
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January 15 - 21, Moss Landing - Pacifica
Monday, January 15. Other than a nice, long walk through the community of Moss Landing, we didn't do much. The walk started at the bridge just next to the RV park, then south along the Elkhorn slough and the dunes, then back north past all of the little antique shops and back to the RV park, close to 2 miles by the time we finished. That is the extent of Moss Landing. We also sat and talked with the new managers for a while, getting to know them a little better.
Tuesday, January 16. This morning we decided to drive to Monterey to the aquarium - we never did get to see it the last time we were in this area, about 10 years ago, shortly after Ben moved to San Francisco. It was really an enjoyable time although we didn't get to see the great white shark that has been a big attraction all winter long. It was released to the wild this morning, just before we got there. There were lots of other very interesting creatures to see and we both thought that the jelly exhibits were beautiful.
While we were gone to Monterey, we had a phone message from Marina Dunes RV Park to schedule an interview and a message passed on to us from the new managers at Moss Landing that the new owners are interested in talking to us about a job at their Costanoa resort, about an hour north of here on the coast. Their website makes the place look very nice, but we will probably drive up there tomorrow to see what it is like. We are still waiting to hear from Pacifica also. It seems to be feast or famine and we are both getting stressed with not knowing what is to come. Ever since we left Wisconsin we have been wanting to "stay put", but that just doesn't seem to be happening. The last 6 weeks in Moss Landing has been very nice.
The last few nights have been really cold, dropping into the upper 20's. The agriculture around here is really suffering and it looks like the oranges are destroyed and the artichoke fields are a mess with most of the crops lost.
Wednesday, January 17. The drive to Costanoa was very nice this morning. The days have been beautiful, getting up near 60 degrees and bright sunshine. The water along the coast is this gorgeous deep blue, then varies to lighter and darker shades where it is more shallow or deep, then frothy white on the shoreline. It just couldn't get any better.
Costanoa is a real nice resort with a lodge, rental cabins, rental canvas cabins (yurts) and the RV park. It is very secluded up on a hillside facing the ocean, and is surrounded by 3 state parks. Thus, dogs are only allowed in the RV park and can't even walk along the trails or the roads in the resort. We were unable to get a signal on our phone which would also mean there would be no TV reception or aircard signal. The closest town for supplies would be Half Moon Bay about 20 miles to the north or Santa Cruz, about 15 miles to the south. When we got back to Moss Landing, there was an e-mail message from the owner that my inquiry was being forwarded to Costanoa. We shall see -- she has been terrible about returning my calls or answering my e-mails. I don't think we would want to be quite that remote anyway.
We also had a message from the San Francisco RV Resort in Pacifica - they want Mike to start working on Sunday, so we will be leaving Moss Landing tomorrow.
I got in a real cooking mood and decided to bake a sweet potato cake, a recipe I had found in a magazine. I had some trouble with the sweet potatoes at first, had to make a trip to the market, but finally finished by about 6:30 when I started dinner. The cake turned out great - is served with a pineapple sauce - and is actually healthy stuff.
Thursday, January 18. It felt kind of strange to be packing up the rig again, getting ready to roll. We had to be extra careful to remember everything since it has been quite a while and you really do get out of practice. We pulled out at about 11:30.
Michele and Bill sold their 5th wheel and it was being picked up by the new owners this morning. The will be staying with friends for a few days until their flight leaves for Hawaii next Monday. I'm glad that we were able to get trained by them and hope that Moss Landing doesn't change too much with the new ownership. They get about 70% repeat business right now because the place is so nicely kept.
We arrived at Pacifica by about 2:00 and proceeded to get setup in our site. We have a nice little patch of grass next to us and a view of the ocean over the cliff (as long as it doesn't fill up with RVs), so its real nice for now. Will find out a bit more about the job (schedules, responsibilities, paydays, etc.) tomorrow.
Friday, January 19. After meeting with the manager this morning, we found out that we will both be working a 4-day on, 4-day off schedule with Mike starting on Sunday and I won't be starting a regular schedule until maybe Feb 1. This park is not very well maintained and needs a lot of upgrading - there are a many broken things around; light poles, electric boxes, doors, chipped paint, etc. and they still get $67/day for their ocean cliff-side sites.
In the afternoon, we drove around to find the local grocery stores, farmers markets, Circuit City, etc.
Saturday, January 20. Ben called in the morning and I invited him to come join us for breakfast. After that, we went for a walk. Our intention was to take the beach access right next to the park - a rough path and some climbing over rocks to get there, but the tide was in and there was no beach. So we walked a few blocks along the street and ended up at a very nice walkway along the cliff and the Pacifica Pier jutting out over the ocean. Dogs are not allowed on the pier, so we didn't walk out there. This was also an area of little shops, cafes, and a few restaurants. We're starting to get familiar with the neighborhood.
This evening, Ben and Jill took us to Aziza, one of their favorite restaurants, for dinner. It is a Moroccan restaurant where the chef prepares organic and locally grown items. Dinner was an excellent 3-hour dining experience; the decor of the place was beautiful, very attentive and knowledgeable wait staff, and the food was absolutely wonderful. We intended to order a sampling of appetizers, a main course, and a sampling of desserts, but we got so much more than that. One of the owners is a client of Jill's and she saw that we received 8 or 9 items in addition to those we ordered. Below is a list of the things that we all got to try:
Liquid Refreshments:
Persimmon chai tea, brown sugar, brandy
Kiwi, ruby red grapefruit, fleur de sel, tequila
Verbena, wild spearmint, chrysanthemum blossoms, rum
Tangerine, lemon thyme, orange cello, mandarin vodka
Appetizers:
Herb and citrus marinated olives
Carrot soup
Kefta (lamb sausage) & grape skewers served on cucumber-torpedo
onion salad with a creamy herb vinaigrette
Wild mushrooms in phyllo
Farm roasted beets, redwood hill goat cheese, toasted fennel seed
dressing, bull�??s blood lettuce
Goat cheese cherry tomato and citrus jam, za�??atar toast
Basteeya - a phyllo pie with chopped chicken, almonds, powdered sugar
& cinnamon
Main courses:
Prawn tagine - meyer lemons, tomato, sweet pepper, roasted carrot
Seared scallops - warm vegetable salad, pine-nut currant vinaigreet
Rabbit - hungarian paprika, baby carrots, parsnip puree, dried bing
cherries
Couscous aziza-grilled chicken, prawns, spicy lamb sausage, stewed
lamb
Desserts:
Meyer lemon sorbet - pomegranite granita, gingersnaps, candied lemon
peel
Bitter almond chocolate cake, toasted almond milk ice cream, almond
butter crunch
Pistacho cardomon cake, dried apricots, orange crème fraiche
Chocolate cayenne custard, pecan brittle
Wine, Coffee
Needless to say, we were all stuffed after this wonderful experience. So many thanks to Ben and Jill for sharing it with us.
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January 22-28, Pacifica
Monday, January 22. Mike started his job yesterday and I worked a couple of hours today on the flower beds. They were more than happy to have me help make things look nice, willing to purchase new plants, and especially, willing to pay me for the task. My plan is to take it in small bursts because its been a long, long time and might make my body hurt.
Wednesday, January 24. We decided to hire Julio's Detailing Service to give the motorhome a good cleaning today. They recommend that it get washed at least every 2 weeks because of the salt air. The park will let us wash it, so we should be able to keep it up.
I got ambitious today and baked some peanut butter cookies - oooh! they were really good. But then I lost my ambition and ordered out for pizza for dinner. Actually have had a hunger for pizza for a few weeks now.
Thursday, January 25. Mike made it through the week ok, but is pretty laid back today. Lucy is not doing well today and it really had us both worried. We're hoping it is just a "down" day for her.
The weather has been beautiful ever since we got here, but is starting to look like we're going to get some rain. The wind has changed directions and the surf is really high and loud.
Friday, January 26. Lucy seems to have bounced back and is eating and behaving pretty normally. We have been giving her some Advil and that seems to be helping.
I had an appointment with Jill for a haircut this morning and we found our way to the salon in Pacific Heights with no problem. I left there feeling very content with my haircut - hopefully starting the transition to growing it out a little bit - getting kind of tired of the short cut.
When we left there, we went to meet Ben for lunch and he works near Coit Tower and the Embarcadero. We walked to a cafe that was quite busy, so purchased some bag lunches and went back to his office and ate our lunch in the conference room. There we got to meet the owners of the company and some of his co-workers.
After leaving there, we headed back to Pacifica where we stopped at the mall so we could buy some jeans - guess if we're going to be in the cooler climate, we could use another pair.
Saturday, January 27. I just don't know where this day went. We talked about doing several things, but ended up just hanging out. It was raining off and on throughout the day. At one point when it cleared up nicely, we walked to the little farmers market a few blocks away and bought some shrimp, veggies, and wine for dinner.
When we got back to the motorhome, we watched the movie "Employee of the Month". It sure reminded us of our jobs at Home Depot and Walmart and we got a lot of chuckles about it. Don't really care to ever do that again.
Sunday, January 28. It was a sad, sad day for us, as Lucy had a bad night and wasn't feeling good again this morning. We decided that the time had come, so had her put down in the afternoon. We both know that it was the right thing to do, as she would have put up with the pain forever, but we just couldn't put her through it any longer.
She was one of the best pets that anyone could have; general good health, stoic, quiet and clean, with a wonderfully sweet disposition. We will miss her and always remember her.
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January 29 - 31, Pacifica, CA
Monday, January 29. The start of Mike's shift and a day for me to keep busy, so I spent the day cleaning the carpet and rugs. It took most of the day and feels good to have the job done. It is a lot more silent in the house today.
Wednesday, January 31. Its been hard this week to stay busy and keep from feeling sad about Lucy. Everywhere I look, there is a reminder. I must say that I haven't been tripping over her in the house.
I've been driving around a bit, getting to know Pacifica a little better. It seems like a nice community, not real big. I found the library and got a card today. I also spent some time on the gardening project today, cleaning up the beds at the front entrance to the park and spraying some roundup to get rid of weeds. I don't know quite how dedicated I'm going to be about the project, but its a good filler when I've got time on my hands and feel like being outdoors.
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Created on 12/13/2006 10:12 AM by bridge
Updated on 02/01/2007 02:01 PM by bridge
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