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PART 1: We're on the Road Again...
PART 2: Virginia and DC Hello
PART 3: Emergence from the Wild
PART 4: Hello from the Road
PART 5: California Dreamin' Part 1
PART 6: California Dreamin' Part 2
PART 7: Sedona as a New Age Tourist
PART 8: Sedona to South Florida; The Road Home


Part Five; California Dreamin' Part 1

Daniel and I spent a few days at an RV Park outside Truckee, which is just a few miles northwest of Lake Tahoe. The air was crisp and clean, quite a shocking difference from the 100 degree weather we'd sweated through the previous week. We happily piled on the blankets and snuggled under the covers for the great sleeping weather. The days warmed up wonderfully and only steps from the campground, we found several trails that led into nature. We wandered along Alder Creek that flowed alongside the campground and wound its way through the canyon there. It was great to be in a place with so much water, rich green plants, and flowers. Then we hiked up the surrounding mountain on twisting, switchbacked paths to see grand views into a wilderness preserve.


Truckee Path


Truckee Path


Alder Creek

One day we drove around Lake Tahoe and found a lakeside park and hiked to a beach there. The water was cold and clear to almost 15 feet, although I remember seeing this lake differently when I visited it at ten. I was taken onto the lake in a rowboat and once there, I felt terribly nervous to look over the side of the boat. I could see down 50 feet to a clearly defined lakefloor. It felt as if the boat were floating or was it hovering? in air. Back in those days, woods surrounded the lake. Now developments and fancy houses do. Sadly, that's just the story of so many beautiful places. (Somehow we lost the pictures I took of the lake, but you can catch a view of it by googling it on the net)

From there, we drove through the center part of the state to and around Clear Lake, a beautiful area that reminded Daniel of Switzerland. Continuing to the west, we drove through canyons of scrub, but picturesque and lovely in their own glorious and wild way. Reaching the coast, we turned south into Mendocino. There we parked in an RV Park close to the beach that was so crowded and whose camping sites were so narrow that we heard everything our neighbors said (and sometimes what they thought too, it seemed!) Our friend Conni invited us to park two nights next to her place with a view of the ocean and surrounded by flowers. In the mornings, we woke up to the clean air, lovely view and the muted gobbling of wild turkeys. The weather displayed its best for us with unusually warm weather without much fog, which meant that I wasn't freezing as I would've done if we'd camped there only days earlier! Instead, the weather was perfect, provided I had a sweater handy. Conni showed us a magical beach view from a bluff, covered with wild native flowers of many species and sporting a powerpoint, a circle of giant windblown trees; a true Pacific coast image.


Coastal Wildflower Profusion

From there we headed across California on a smaller road that cut between the beach and the freeway and although some of those curves and hills were tough on the RV, I'm glad we did. We drove through a grove of huge redwoods and I felt a deep nostalgia for what? Other lifetimes spent doing ceremonies in sacred groves? We called this a Sacred Grove out of respect for the serenity and peace that was there. Back onto the freeway, we headed south to Marin County and the RV Park there in Novato. Marin is just to the north of San Francisco and across San Francisco Bay from Oakland and Berkeley that lie on the east side. Marin is a popular place to be because it's beautiful. Views abound everywhere and many different communities with their unique styles offer a smorgasbord of potential lifestyles. We have many connections here, made through Lazaris and Galexis, and so we had a lot of fun socializing.


Sacred Grove


We also put on two events. The first one was a Friday night Open Mike at Kirby Seid's place, a lovely classroom next to rooms of awesomely beautiful crystals and objects d'art. It was well attended and Galexis spoke about how to stay "in the Flow." Then the second weekend after that, we held a 2-day workshop in Mill Valley on "Healing Through Time." As usual, Galexis gave the attendees several "downloads," or programs of higher energy in the days preceeding the workshop. The night before the workshop, I was so "downloaded" from all this that I simply could not sleep. Maybe I got two hours, tops! Now I'm a gal who usually needs to get 7 hours of sleep or else I feel like dead dirt the next day. But this time, I simply drank a cup of coffee and Galexis did a brilliant job. I was amazed. I'd never funtioned on less than two hours of sleep before! Fortunately I slept well that night and was refreshed and ready as usual for the Sunday half of the event. It was powerful, intense, deep, and beyond anything I'd ever expected to channel. I felt as if I had been an airport and hundreds of planes had arrived and flown out through me - major "energy traffic." It didn't help that the RV Park was extremely busy and the big motorhomes came and went daily in the camping spaces next to us - sometimes as early as 6:15. Lucky me, needing my peace and quiet! haha

Once I'd recovered from all of that, we headed south once again, this time towards Santa Barbara. I was craving wilderness again, so I was delighted with our stay at the San Lorenzo RV park in King City. I have seldom enjoyed being at an RV Park more, and what a contrast it presented from Novato! Quiet (except for distant freeway noise), peaceful, with nice paths surrounding it, and in a spot far away from any other RV's. I slept like a log. Yes! Rest and restoration!! I really didn't want to continue but to stay here indefinitely. But the next morning, we prepared to set out for Santa Barbara and stay on schedule. That's when we realized we had a flat tire on the RV. What could have been an outrageous hassle involving road service or something we could have had to wait hours for, turned into one piece of magic after another. I was delighted that I just "knew" there was magic and expected it and the reality reflected it. We pumped up the tire temporarily, found a tire place only a mile away, and got the tire patched immediately.


Smoky Campground Sunset


Smoky Sun

Back on the road, we arrived at El Capitan state beach and the recently built RV Park there. It catered to the big rigs and since there were no other RV parks anywhere around that offered full hookups (electric 50 amps, water and sewer), everyone with a big rig who wanted to camp on this coast arrived at this very park. With no competition, the El Capitan park charged us the highest rates we have paid in all our travels for one night  - $85! For comparison, the average RV Park is somwhere between $25 and $40 a night. This park was just as chaotically busy as the one in Novato, in Marin, and there was a lot more of park to be busy in. We had noisy neighbors, several young adults in a rental RV, and the huge park was simply jammed, so we couldn't arrange getting a quieter site. It seemed as if California RV Parks were just terribly crammed in and noisy. Lots of dogs and children. And then we realized; we were camping here in August, at the final peaks of summer vacation. That's why there were so many families in rental RV's in the parks. Children ran, rattled, bounced basketballs and squealed joyfully up and down the street all day. Dogs accompanied them, yipping at other dogs. There were so many tent campers too and the evenings were filled with campfires a kids with marshmellows on their sticks!


Pacific Powerpoint


We stayed here several nights and during the day we drove into Santa Barbara, about 15 or 20 miles to the east along a pretty coastline. I noticed smoke over the mountains to the north. It felt spooky as if something was big and looming out of sight. I found out it was big and looming - the Santa Ynez valley just to the north of Santa Barbara was suffering a terrible fire known as the "Zaca" fire. We found out that the clouds we saw were over 20 miles away! The smoke would be pushed to the north by the ocean breezes during the day but would seep over the coastline as brown clouds in the evening. We could smell the burnt-black odor with it and in the morning found the truck and RV covered with ash.


Zaca Fire Looming

Years ago, I'd asked Lazaris in a personal reading where would be a good place to live and he mentioned several places in the country, and in California, he said "Santa Barbara south." I asked Starr Fuentes last year where would be good, and for California, she said "Santa Barbara south." Then later last year, I and Dale Carley, who channels Baratta, did an exchange. In my reading, I asked Baratta this question and got the same answer! So we took looking at SB neighborhoods seriously and found several areas we liked, although we have no idea how people afford to live here. House prices are just so very very high. What would go for $500,000 in South Florida would undoubtedly sell for almost $2 million in SB. Obviously everyone wants to live here with the pretty land and warm climate. We socialized with our special friends here and held a Galexis afternoon workshop as the culmination of our visit.

Then onto the road to L.A. - I am writing this from the RV Park in Malibu - pictures later.

Next; L.A. and Southern California...