California Adventure

Posted on June 11, 2016

After flying all day to Salt Lake City from Fort Lauderdale, we finally arrived at my Mom’s home at 11:30pm and got to bed. At 2am I was awoken by crazy winds and immediately jumped up and ran to make sure the sails were tied down and that everything on deck was secured. I found myself standing in my Mother’s living room, quite disoriented as I realized that I was not on Tanda Malaika. The wind blew for a long time as I lay and listened to it, and my mind wandered till about 5am when I finally drifted off to sleep, only to be awoke by the 6am alarm. We looked outside and noticed that the wind had carried the neighbors ceramic bird bath over tall trees and onto a concrete pad outside our back door, without a scratch!

My Mom and I climbed into the Excursion and began our drive to California. About 3 hours into our trip I felt like we should stop for a few minutes, and just as I pulled off the freeway and into a parking lot, the truck lost power when I pushed on the gas pedal, and it left a trail of liquid on the asphalt from under the truck. After stopping we looked underneath to find a large puddle and a dripping hose. The transmission hose had come off. I called trusty AAA, got towed to a transmission place and the hose was promptly replaced.

The mechanic had to add two gallons of POG juice (pineapple orange guava juice) to the transmission to refill it.

We passed so many gorgeous scenes of mountains, deserts, green hills and fields. As we drove through Death Valley at 7pm the thermometer read 104 degrees. Finally at about 10:45pm we arrived in Oxnard, drove to our sweet friends, the Waleas, and went to sleep.

This morning we left at 8am to round creatures up and get our bodies over to the storage unit to empty our mountain of goods, sell it, reorganize and keep moving on. I had to ask the storage unit manager to open our unit for me, and as he did I told my Mom to brace herself because the unit is so full, stuff might fall out as the door was raised. To our amazement, about 95% of the unit contents was gone. Someone had come and stolen almost everything. The sad part is that all the creatures scrapbooks that I’d made for them as well as the girls blessing dresses that my Mom made are gone. All Danny’s amps, fancy keyboard and other music equipment are gone too. On the positive side, there’s less to get rid of, but theft is such a frustrating and selfish act. I called the police to file a report, and TJ and Tank showed up to take it.

TJ is young, single and excited about life. Tank is a joker who loves boats, bikes and traveling with his wife and kids. We fed them donuts and eventually gave them a report. They said storage unit theft is a very common occurrence.

Later in the afternoon we ran a couple of errands, passed by strawberry fields and stopped for a flat, and munched on the red juicy sweetness till we were full.

This evening we have spent time with our dear friends, and early in the morning we will drive back to Idaho.

Stuff is just…stuff. It can all be replaced. But family, is an entirely different matter. I happen to have the best family in the world. Life is busy, and I am grateful for the energy to embrace it as well as the relationships I enjoy in it.