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2/1/05 Before the move from Akron, OH. to Fullerton, CA.!
It is Tuesday and yesterday I published the rough draft of our new web page. Today I got feedback from others who have looked at it and found typos and made suggestions. On our computer at home last night we reviewed the pages and found that the layout was out of kilter as viewed on that computer. This morning I checked it at my computer where it was designed and found everything OK except for the typos. It is easy to republish the pages so I think that we will be able to up date our journal pages as we travel on the road.
Speaking of the road we are still organizing ourselves. Preparations are on going to get the house ready to sell. We have interviewed two realtors and told them that we are going to try and sell the house ourselves but after approximately a month or so if it has not sold we will be using a realtor. There are two people interested now so we are approaching them first with an asking price.
It has been hard for us to go through all of our stuff and start donating clothes, furniture, sports equipment, tools and just in general cleaning out all the closets. How do you just throw away or donated parts of yourself you have been carrying around for years? The attic storage boxes which have not been opened in years.... going through family jewelry, heirlooms, pictures, and correspondence.......Out it all goes! We must down size our lives to make room for our new retirement lives on the tandem!
We are struggling most with our family obligations and with our beloved cats, Missy & Sam. We each brought a cat to our marriage and now they are twelve years old and we care for them very much. We hope to find good homes for both of them soon, maybe before we put the house on the market in April. Art
 
Missy Sam 2/11/05We have decided to put our house on the market a month earlier...March 6th will be our first open house. We have chosen a Realtor to take over the sale if we are not successful after the first month. Still need to set the price, waiting to see if the market opens up a bit for spring. Now it is time to finish all the house prep clean up for the sale. Judee has been really hard at work to help the house look great! Our closets cleaned out, medicine cabinets also. Fresh paint for part of the basement floor and further touch ups all around. This weekend the garage and yard will be my major focus. It would be wonderful if we could put the furniture on the deck but it is still winter here.
We have been struggling with what to do with Judee's mom. Presently she is in an Alzheimer facility and has adjusted well there. But most recently it looks like that adjustment is wearing thin, so we are now beginning to prepare to move her to California with us and find a facility for her there.
This last Wednesday we were interviewed by a reporter[Beth Peterson] from one of the locale suburban newspaper chains. It looks like we have our first news coverage of our up coming adventure! She was a cyclist and ask lots of good questions.....How many pounds of gear will you be carrying [approximately 75-85 lb.]? What kind of tandem are you using [Co-Motion Moca Java Co-Pilot]? What kind of panniers are you using [ Arkel tandem panniers]? Will you be camping or staying in accommodations? We plan to camp in Europe, Mexico, Central & South America, Australia & New Zealand, Middle East and Africa. In Asia and India we are not planning on camping.
Both of us are having our emotional ups and downs. The transitioning out of work is challenging! I got my pay check today and held it in my hand thinking soon I will not be getting one of these for the first time in my life.....Sacrey! Soon, maybe today, I'll make an appointment to go down to Social Security and get things set up to start drawing down my account. We have looked at the pros and cons of drawing down at 62 vs. 66 and feel we had better do it NOW. We realize we are giving up 25% but the gamble that we will not be around to collect is to great. Our financial situation is such that we know that we can live more cheaply on the bike than we can living in the US. thus we can make the best of our saving on the road!
Weight gain in the winter and the winter blas this year are being held at bay through our spinning classes, yoga, and meal portion control. Judee is slowly but surely dropping the pounds and so am I..... wheeee! We know Spring is on its way and I'll be commuting two to three days per week and meeting Judee for dinner, all on our bikes.
We are strongly thinking of moving to a bike only life style when we arrive in CA. We do plan on selling one of our cars before we move and the other just before we take off for Mexico. We both think that it will be the healthiest way we can think of to share and live out our final years. Good for us physically and the same for the environment! Art
2/18/05 I slept very poorly last night, up till 3 am! Could it be that I was anxious about going to the Social Security office to sign up for my retirement benefits today or that the Board of Trustees has suggested that I get around to writing my letter of resignation since my last day of work is July 1st? Maybe it's that we are putting our house on the market in two weeks?
Judee is busy checking out movers and costs.... do we want to move ourselves or have someone else do it? It would be fun to take our time driving across the country, possible spending time at the family cabin in the Black Hills of SD.
Exciting news, we have picked up three sponsors, Schwalbe tires, Co-Motion cycles and Arkel panniers and bags!! WOW wonderful support! Art
2/23/05 Today is both a Happy & Sad day.... I dictated my letter of resignation and my last day as CEO of Community Support Services Inc. will be July 1, 05. I have worked there for the last 16-17 years helping grow the Agency from less than 30 employees to its present 250+ staff. The budget has grown from the hundreds of thousands to well over sixteen million annually. I am both very proud and sad to leave. We have loved living in the Akron, OH area and will dearly miss it! We are leaving our friends and A
acquaintances to explore new horizons both in ourselves and round the world.
Judee found out yesterday that she has a large tear in her right knee cap and will under go arthroscopic surgery in March. According to the surgeon she can get back on the bike four days after the operation! She also saw another surgeon regarding her chronic lower back pain....Good news there, he can see no real spinal or disc issues. She is going for another MRI soon as the doc was not happy with the results from the last one. As you can see we are both paying attention to getting "fixed" before we have no insurance here.
Judee is meeting with our Realtor this afternoon to price the house and sign the contract. We will try to sell it ourselves in the month of March, then turn it over to the Realtor if it doesn't move.
We have another sponsor, Velocity wheels. They have agreed to provide replacement rims as ours wear out on the road! Further we developed a bunch of new requests for sponsorship letters over the last weekend and they are in the snail mail and e-mail. This positive support is helping make our moves forward much easier! Art
3/1/05We put the FOR SALE sign up for our house on Sunday, of course we waited with baited breath all day as cars passed, for some to show interest. Alas no calls and no stops so far! How could they pass up such a sweet heart of a house?
All the agonies of: is it clean enough? is it priced right? should we have put a picture with the ad in the paper? what if someone buys it tomorrow and needs quick occupancy, where will we go? should we have waited till later in the Spring to put it on the market? is the housing market softening? are interest rates going up?
We saw a quick glance of the article that is being published about our forth coming trip, but to date have not had a chance to read it. Soon as we can get either a copy or pdf file we will put it on this site or a link to it! Art
3/8/05 I always thought I thrived on change. Now, the days kick up dust up as they whiz by; I am not so sure that what I feel with change isn't anxiety. Sleeping has become difficult for both Art & I. It is so hard to focus.
And now the house sold. In about 3 hours. I knew it was lovely. But I put it on the market earlier than I had planned, fearing we wouldn't be able to sell it before we wanted to leave town. Now, we have to rent our house back so that Art can stay at his job until he retires!
The snow swirls outside and I am ready to work in the garden. I just don't have enough to do! Judee
3/9/05 So our roller coaster continues....to much to do , to little to do! Selling the house so quickly after all our worry work is anti climatic. Now we can get down to preparing for the move and garage sale.
Time On Line has published the letter Judee sent [http://www.time.com/time/secondacts/] about our trip. The other letters are also written by "youngsters" in their sixties +. Tales of wonder, courage, and discovery!
We have had two responses to sponsorship letters we sent out a couple of weeks ago....No's from American Airlines and Toshiba.
We are exploring the use of a solar panel to power our notebook computer and charge the batteries for our bike lights and camp lights. These solar panels are flexible and weight less than two pounds. According to the company literature the panels will charge the computer in three hours of full sun! Of course we plan on riding only in full sun at 70 degrees....Ha! Ha! fat chance of that! Art
3/16/05 House inspectors have completed their inspections, termite, radon and physical so we may hear in a couple of days what is up with our fifty year old house. We really want to sell it "as is" so hope all is well.
Judee is concerned about her up coming knee surgery and will be calling her doc. today to discuss the procedure and the expected out comes. She has had little or no pain since stopping her aerobics and is willing to replace aerobics with "spinning". These are not easy decisions!
Other quandaries are to take a cell phone on the trip or not? We are exploring international calling rates and phones. A cell phone is just one more thing to worry about, batteries need to be kept charged and the extra weight....will we have cell coverage when we need it? We are planning on not installing a land line in CA. so will need cell service there for a few months. Verizon looks like they have the best deal, bring in an old phone of theirs and they will activate it and we can buy minutes monthly. I have used a cell phone at work and Judee has shared in this but we don't feel we really are knowledgeable with these instruments! More learning experiences, JOY.
Today we are off to do a slide presentation to a women's group. It is about bicycle travel overseas and camping. Part travel log and "How to" accomplish traveling with and on your bicycle. Since we camp most of the time we'll explain our camping logistics. We have presented this same presentation to the Akron Rotary Club and it will be interesting to see the different reactions of the groups. Peoples questions are the favorite part for us. Art
3/21/05 The first day of Spring.... then why was there snow on my windshield when I started to drive to work today? Judee had her knee surgery last Thursday [3/17/05] and is on the mend. She over did it on Friday so we had a very quiet weekend at our house. Speaking of "house" all the inspections are done and the repairs to the furnice and water heater are completed. Judee has spoken to our renters in CA and informed them that the house is SOLD and that they will need to move on their plans.
My Board of Directors has finalized the choice of my replacement.... my second in command. Good choice, now we can plan in earnest for me to move on. I e-mailed all the CSS staff and will start letting the Public know right away. This is both exciting and a downer as I have been here for almost seventeen years and built it from scratch [not all by myself, but with lots of help from some very good staff]. As I let go things will start to happen around me and I will no longer "be in the loop". For someone who has work all his adult life and whose identity is immeshed with his work this transition will have a few wrinkles to get use to.
The old "Who am I?" and "What am I worth ?"questions are coming up! In the future when people ask "Well what do you do?" What is my response? "I am retired" I don't think so.... how about "I am a Wanderer/ Adventurer/ Vagabond. This I like! It is not a really a totally new view of myself but one I've been trying on for some time. Art
3/29/05 I am another year older, 62 years young! My Social Security starts in August!
Judee is doing well in her recuperation from knee surgery, we are a little over a week an a half. Last Saturday she went hiking over hill and dale with the Akron Bike Club group in the Cuyahoga National Park and felt OK. Tonight we are are going to do our Tuesday night workout at the gym. Yoga and weights for Judee, weights, spinning, and swimming for me.
Today was my first bike commute to work in "05". It was a cold 40 degrees and overcast, but what a blast! I felt strong but it took some getting use to, looking for cars and traffic signals again. I found it very different from my winters spinning, but spinning gave me a good base to work from!
Our plans for moving are coming together: April 5th we finish our "shot regimen" at the Akron Public Health Center; April 25th put an ad in the paper to sell the Nissan Altima - show the car April 30th; May 17th we fly out to CA [our renters are leaving the 15th] to work on the condo and find a place for Judee's mom. We hope to get a good head start on renovating the condo, painting, carpeting and a good house cleaning. Judee has lined up a number of visits to facilities for us to visit and evaluate for her mom. We have already visited some and not been impressed. June 5th Judee's brother returns to CA with his mother and introduces her to her new home. June 8th is my retirement party at work. June 11th is the Akron Bike Club goodbye party and bike ride. June 13th the moving truck picks up our things and we leave for CA. If all of this works out as planned, we hope to take a leisurely trip across the country doing some sight seeing and bike riding! Art
4/07/05 This morning I typed this entry and you know what, this damn machine decided it didn't like what I had written so it said "Sorry" and closed!
So I'll give the shortened version. On Tuesday we finished our shot regimine except maybe for rabies ...three shots or one booster? The local health dept. does not provide them so we will have to go out of county or wait till CA.
The local newspaper The Akron Beacon Journal is interested in our trip , so we met with an editor and reporters to explore angles that might be interesting to their readers. After some discussion it was agreed that the human interest area would be best. We might be answering readers questions regarding how we accomplish our day to day lives living and traveling by tandem bike. How do we manage our personal hygiene, sickness, shopping, cooking, banking, bill paying, correspondence, and our interpersonal relationship when we are living so closely all the time. Sounds like we will be doing monthly messages to the Beacon.
Judee's knee is healing steadily, she has been working out and attending spinning classes. She was recently asked to join the "fast women's" group of riders on Wednesdays. If she does this she will have to get her old racing bike back. Also she has started to clean up the yard of its winter mess. Our flowers are blooming and she vibrating to get to gardening. We are taking it slowly ad hope to soon share our gardening knowledge with the new owners. They are a younger couple from CA. and this is their first house.
On a sad note we are having to find new homes for our be loved cats Sam & Missy. They have been a joy in our lives and we will miss them greatly! Hopefully by May there will be new owners and homes. Signs have been placed all over our work places and in the community. Keep your fingers crossed!
Judee and I are collecting boxes for the move. I picked up a number this week and Judee is busy filling them . This is forcing us to really look at our STUFF...what do we really need vs. want? What needs to be packed away for the next five years? What will we need in CA. for the two months that we will be there. In May we will be "condo camping" in Fullerton... what do we need to take and can we leave it there or do we need to bring it back?
My car, the Nissan Altima that we are going to sell soon, decided to shuck its' front breaks and all four tires! Judee thought we should do all the work necessary to get it in tip top shape so all the work has been done. Next we "detail" it this weekend or next and the FOR SALE signs go in it. It is always fascinating for me to set prices for used cars, bluebook/ blackbook , what is one the local lots.? We will probably ask between $8 & $9,000 and best offer. And so it goes for today! Art
4/26/05 No real bites on the car yet. It has been in the local paper the last two weeks! It is also on the internet. We have had a few calls but.... Judee is getting juiced that we will not be able to sell it before we leave.
We also have put up signs all over the community to find homes for the cats . Judee had a call from a family with a five year old boy who had to come over right away to see Missy. The young boy walked in the house as though he owned it, marched into our closets chasing the cats. When Judee tried to help to introduce Missy to him, Missy was so scared she pooped on herself and Judee. Needless to say this did not work out well. The cat hissed at the boy and then he said "I don't want that cat". "Hooray!" We do have a possible family and they are coming over this weekend to get aquatinted with both cats. It will be a relief filled with sorrow for us, but one more step toward our dream!
The house is officially SOLD, we signed the paper work last week. The couple who bought it are coming over Sunday for a course in House & Garden 101. We have a half acre yard that has many flower plots. The yard is well landscaped by Judee the taraformer. The "course" will include how to start and use the weed wacker, lawn mower, and snow thrower. Also routine maintenance on these machines. Judee will describe the different flower beds and their care and maintenance. The six to eight inches of snow we had over the weekend wreaked havoc with some of the flowers, but things still look good! Tulips are wonderful!
Had a very interesting experience while we hunted for an internet bank. We started with Bank of America thinking that they had free ATM banking out of the country. No, they just changed their policies so that they now are charging $3 per ATM transaction plus the local banks charge. Off to Citi Bank, they have branches all over the world so no ATM charge. We submitted our application for a ATM/savings account and guess what, we were rejected! Why? They can't discuss it with us due to confifenciality laws, we have to discuss it with the credit rating company. Wow, our credit has always been excellent....what is going on here.... identity thieth we wonder? We have to apply for a credit report from the credit company so I go on line to submit our application and it wouldn't accept my appt. saying that I have an invalid Ohio drivers license number.... I just renewed my license three weeks ago. Tried three times to submit the darn thing and no luck. Off down the street to check my license with the Ohio Dept. of Transportation. They say the number is correct! Back on line to Citi Bank to discuss the problem with them. Told them that I can't access the credit company due to drivers license number issue and that they need to get me a human to discuss this with. Half and hour later a nice lady in India took my credit application request and said that we would receive it in six to ten days. In the mean time we reapplied to Citi Bank and a second time they rejected our application due to a different credit company report. We finally got both credit reports and they were EXCELLENT! This makes you wonder about the whole system! We now have a nice internet bank in another state [the Internet Bank of Indiana] and things are working out well.
Last weekend was Judee's 59th birthday. I surprised her with an overnight stay at a beautiful B&B, the Spread Eagle Tavern in Hanoverton, Ohio. It was the plan to tandem down with our friends the Jones, but the weather really turned awful snow, rain, and cold! We all had an outstanding time in this 1836 tavern. Great food and friendly service!
I am still working on finding sponsorship support for our notebook computer and solar panels to power it and recharge our batteries for the lights, camera and computer. One of our local bike club members has offered to assist me in developing a system to power all this stuff while on the road. Art
5/02/05 We had a GREAT ride yesterday! We road down to the youth hostel in the National Park for their annual pancake breakfast [three cakes and two sausages for $6 per person]. Bright blue skies in the low 50ts with Spring poping out all around. The flowering fruit and red bud trees were at their peaks. Tulips and flox to knock your socks off! It was only 33 miles, but so nice to be on the bike with Judee. We live our Co-Motion tandem! We have tentatively named it the "Pewter Plow" because it can go dog gone any where and plow through nearly anything.
When we got home from our ride we had to prepare to greet the family that was coming over to see our cats. It was one of my staff member and her son and mother. I boxed up the cats in their carry cages so they would go and hide as they usually do when strangers arrive. Judee had packed up their food ,cat boxes etc. so if all went well we were prepared to let them move to their new homes. The introduction went well so we helped load them into the car and say good bye. It was a very sad time for us the cats have been an intragul part of our lives for twelve years. When went went to bed last night, no cats to cuddle and no cats to feed and take care of this morning! When I go home tonight from work Sam won't be there to greet me as has has every work day for years. I did get word today that the cats are adjusting to their new homes and will be loved! Art
5/09/05 It is a beautiful Monday afternoon and I will have a great ride home from work! The week was exciting ....we sold both of our cars!! This was very unexpected. We had listed the Nisson for over two weeks in the local paper with only one call. We had been using word of mouth and I put an ad in the work newsletter, no results. On Thursday, Judee said she was going to list the Nissan on Auto Trader.com so she took pics. of the car and signed us up . Thursday night we discussed it and felt that we probably would have little luck due to the numbers of Nissans being advertised and our price. Judee suggested that we put the Mazda 626 on the net also, we did. Now we have no cars. We are both adjusting to this situation, it is a mind twister. At first, you think of all the things that you can't do, well we wouldn't be able to do this and this etc. Slowly you come around to well it's probably going to be OK, we'll just rent a car when we need one...we'll see how this rental thing works out.
Our cats are adjusting well to their new homes so this takes a load off our minds!
Since we have no car I suggested to Judee that we just load up the tandem and ride to CA. Judee is thinking about it, lots of issues with children and her mother. I'll wait and see where this goes. Art
5/11/05 We are not riding to LA, we are flying South West on the 15th. Judee has reserved a motel at the airport for the 14th since our plane leaves at 7am. We have a rental car to get us to Fullerton from LAX and for the first week there. Things are beginning to pick up speed as time runs out on this phase of our lives! Art
5/13/05 Are we adjusting to "NO CAR"....well we have to, so we are now on bicycles! The rent a car issue gets muddled since we now have no car insurance. More things to work out. The internet access problem is being explored with Earthlink since they have no cable access in our complex in CA. We hope to be able to continue a dial up with Earthlink so we can have ISP access and keep our e-mail address.
This is a Shameless Plug for a local eatery The Diamond Deli. I have been eating lunch there two to three days per week for years and I have to tell you, they have Great sandwiches, soups, carrot cake and brownies!! If you find yourself in the Akron, OH downtown area, check them out at 378 South Main St. Tell Chuck that I sent you! Art
Condo camping in Fullerton, Ca.    5/26/05 Just returned from Southern Cal. where we condo camped, sleeping bag and mattresses on the concrete floor of our master bedroom. No stove or fridge, seems that the previous tenant took the fridge and forgot to tell us the stove was broken, we ate out a lot! Spent the majority of our time fixing up the condo for our move in in middle of June. Installed new fixtures throughout, all fresh paint [light yellow with Swiss mocha for the trim], new carpets and window blinds, new bathroom sinks, patio furniture and new appliances. Many, many trips to and back to Home Depot and Lowe's.... Meetings with the painters and handy man. Had the high speed cable and modem installed, but not the tv!
It was sunny and warm most of the days. The last two were cool and foggy, but by 10:30 am the sun had burned off the fog and blue sky appeared! We used the hot tub at night and the pool in the late afternoon. Most of the time we were the only users! Life is GOOD! Traffic is TERRIBLE!
We now have library cards for both Fullerton and Brea libraries [good internet connections if we should need them]. Market cards for the two main groceries Ralph's and Albertson's both of which are with in a good walking, biking distance as is a Trader Joe's. Bike lanes on most of the major streets we need to get around, to the post office, library, groceries, theaters and restaurants. We can see the snow capped San Bernadino mountains from our condo complex. You gradually get used to the noise of the cars, trucks and motorcycles on the "57" freeway on the other side of the complex and our four lane residential street out side our windows.
Found a very wonderful place for Judee's mother to stay. Twenty-four residents in a closed facility with good and caring staff only 2.5 miles from the condo.... biking distance.
We saw few bikers other than the local hot shots in Lycra going out to put in some miles. Seems few people use their bikes to shop or commute, but we will see. We have two parking places assigned to the condo so we will explore the possibility of renting out one or both. There really is no room to store the bikes inside so we are looking at putting them outside our front door under the steps leading to the upper units. Judee will be making a cover for them and we will need to think about security issues. Making it easy to get to them to use daily will be the trick. I am going to attach a pair of panniers to our mt. bikes for shopping purposes.
I have ten more days till retirement but who is counting! Art
6/06/05 Five more days till retirement.....This is the week of my retirement parties and more Good-byes!
We had a wonderful weekend for our No Frills Tandem Rally. Three beautiful warm and dry days with blue skies. In total, we had between 25-30 tandem teams and 5-10 singles join us for the rides.
Since we have been sort of car less we decided to load up and ride out to the start location. On the way we came upon a new housing complex being built, so stopped in to one of the houses to see if we could bum some tyvek off them to use as a tandem cover for our RTW trip.
 Tyvek man and Judee
Yes, the construction guys were very generous and we were very happy to get this material! Popped it into the pannier and off we went to No Frills.
Speaking of No Frills this was our tenth year of organizing this annul ride and over these years we have make some wonderful tandem friends from all over OH. and nearby states. Saying our goodbyes was difficult! The Rally will continue since two couples[Lange's /Durkee's] stepped up to the plate and will take over the organizational details and leadership for the future.
   No Frills Tandem Rally 2005 [ For other Rally pics contact Mark Lange at mark@stevelange.com. ]
We have been borrowing a car to use in emergencies [when it rains or something we need is to big to fit on the bike]. It was loaned by a friend who told Judee "It is un-American to not have a car!" The Miata has been a BLAST, we feel like two teenagers flying around with the top down. Even Judee's mother likes to ride in it! Art
 Juan and Art
6/10/05 My last day of work... Very Mixed emotions! Sad at leaving, excited about the future! The last few days I have spent attending retirement parties where I've listened to people describe me and my accomplishments.... how humbling it is!
Judee and I will be leaving wonderful friends and a community that has been very good and kind to us and moving to a community where we know few. No more "Title on the door, or Bigalow on the floor!" We are now entering that phase of our lives where when people ask us, "What do you do?" we will respond with " We are Adventurers, Vagabonds, Wanderers!" Art
Across the Country/Miata Madness! 
8/16/05 California!! We made it in one piece and it only took us three and one half weeks!! The tour across middle earth was outstanding. The "blue highways" drew us in all directions, through OH, MI, IN, IL, MO, KS, CO, UT, AZ, into CA, including National, State and County Parks.   Jefferson Memorial  Morning shave  Kansas campground
Our moods and emotions have tossed and tumbled. We would be exhilarated seeing coyotes, moose, wild turkeys with their flocks of chicks, rolling prairies, high mountain passes sporting tundra or stately trees, night skies filled with stars, and meeting wonderful people. Then there were the days of baking sun in our little convertible Miata, thunder showers with high winds blowing out the power and threatening our tent site, and the downer!
  Mesa Verde The downer followed us in the form of a black shadow: "Where is our furniture? When will it be put on the truck? When will it arrive in California?" Hours of calling the moving companies to track down what was happening with our belongings created an emotional low every time we made contact. The answer always seemed like the truck was going to be loaded tomorrow!! Our delivery date ended up being 5 weeks after it was picked up in Ohio. Broken, water-damaged, stained, and stacked in all of its glory to the ceiling of our new living accommodations. Are we smiling, yet?
 Powow in Council Grove, Kansas  Liars Club Council Grove  Sandy's "Where you pour own!" Indiana  Women's Club at Sandy's Yes! The trip was worth every minute we spent on the road learning about the people of our wonderful America! Seeing Indians dancing at a Pow Wow in Council Grove; having coffee in the morning with the "woman's club" at Sandy's pour-your-own-coffee in Indiana; kibitzing with the men's Liar's Club in Kansas; acquiring spectacular destination information from motorcyclists; learning of good camp grounds from Park volunteers were what made this trip memorable.
 Grand, Grand Canyon!
We will be adding pictures to this tale when the *%$#@! computer will release them. The nuts behind wheel are working night and day to share our experiences. Hang in there we will be right back! Art & Judee
8/25/05 Guess what, I think we have the picture problem solved. As you can see from the new pics added, we had a blast learning and visiting on the back roads. Now we are exploring the back roads and byways of Orange and surrounding counties. Much of our present scenery is of Target, McDonalds, Unocal, Del Tacos, in other words the strip mall scene which seems to occupy every intersection in the LA area. We are able to get in some long rides between our short neighbor hood shopping trips. Two weeks ago we took off down to Oceanside [150mi.+ round trip] for the weekend. It was adventure some due to having to travel through Camp Pendleton Marine Base for about 20mi.
Last weekend found us peddling down to the south end of the county to baby sit Zack one of our grand children [80+mi round trip] Delightful weekend but boy can he keep you busy. He is absolutely not afraid of the water so you must keep an eye on him all the time at the pool. By the way he is only 18 months old.
Top  
Santiago Canyon Rd. on the way to south of Orange Co.
To Continue this saga go to to our new CALIFORNIA 05 page, under Journal.
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