Tuesday, June 14, 2011

May Visitors

Two sets of visitors in May brought an unexpected benefit: our preparations finally got the house clean. Unfortunately, after those visitors departed entropy re-visited us with a vengeance and chaos is again ruling the household.

Bixby Bridge on Coast Highway
Like a clean house, the visits were very refreshing and too short lived. My sister Jane and her husband Ralph arrived from London in early May and Cyndi’s sister, aunt and their husbands (Betty & Trent, Peggy & Jeff) arrived late May from the Louisville area. One of the highlights of both trips (at least for Cyndi and myself) was a ride down the coast highway along Big Sur. Winter brought a number of road wash outs and slides and the timing was perfect: the northern most closures were cleared a week before Jane and Ralph arrived and the southern most slide at Gordo closed Hwy 1 just before the first visit and re-opened just after the second visit.

If you think the Gordo slide timing was bad, then you haven’t driven the Furgeson-Naciemento Road across the Santa Lucia mountains to Fort Hunter Ligget. This is one of my most favorite drives but it is nearly impossible to convince a visitor to take that bypass unless Hwy 1 is closed. So the Gordo timing was great for me, if not the visitors: we got to see the prettiest part of the coast and the gut churning ride up and through the coast ranges.

Ralph and Jane at the Winery
Jane and Ralph got the Napa and City tours, with wineries and bakeries figuring heavily in the fun. Ralph seemed impressed that we seemingly knew every road and intersection and every barrista within a 150 mile radius, but I think the illusion was broken when we got lost in tiny little downtown San Luis Obispo. We always seem to get lost in downtowns. But after spending 10 hours a day for 3 days in a car listening to Cyndi and my stories about geology and history and culture and our kitties, I think Ralph and Jane were very happy to get on Amtrak and continue their trip down to San Diego sans the free tour guides.

Betty, Cyndi and Peggy
The Louisville gang visited Sequoia National Park on a quite snowy and sloppy Memorial Day. Along the way they got to experience Central Valley, the flattest place in the US and another place visitors typically shun. And I think they now understand why that particular shunning. We had to take two cars for this trip and each day a different “volunteer” got to ride with me in the Mini while Cyndi rode with the rest of the gang in a rental. Poor Betty had to ride with me across the Central Valley, where she learned more about geology and irrigation that she ever wanted. And Trent and Jeff learned how to change a tire on the rental while the rest of us watched them. We finally parted ways at Mission San Antonio at Hunter LIgget and while Cyndi and I returned home to re-enable chaos mode, the gang continued to Santa Barbara and LAX for some peace and quiet.

Thanks for visiting, folks. But next time come earlier so you can help us clean house.

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