The Further Adventures of mmm

Trip journal, musings, updates on my life

Saturday, July 29, 2006






Mason Gets Voted Off the Island

Photos, clockwise from top left: 1) View of area around San Simeon State Park from window of the RV. 2) Clyde sleeping in the RV arm chair. 3) Shiloh sleeping off an active night on the top bunk. 3) Mason, alert but sitting still for a change on the RV armchair.

RV Adventure #2 was the end of July. I decided it was time to take advantage of some of the beautiful campgrounds in California, and San Simeon seemed a good choice. I hadn't been to that part of the coast (south of Big Sur/north of Santa Barbara) in years. The coast was the right choice, since temperatures have been hovering around 110 inland. Heading south seemed like a good idea, since the chance of sun seemed more likely there than north of San Francisco.

I'm trying to get the cats acclimated to travel, since they're part of my long-range roam-the-country plan. Cats are notoriously bad travelers, and mine have never given me any indication they'd be otherwise, but since three out of four of them made the trek across country last year and did fairly well with it, I could hope.

For starters, I couldn't catch Peanut to get her into the camper. Like the Cheshire Cat, she just made herself disappear somewhere in the house. After about an hour of searching for her, with the other cats waiting and wondering in the RV, I decided Peanut was going to be left behind. Thanks to Ronni West, On-Call Catsitter Extraordinaire, I knew Peanut would be OK, if a little lonely with us gone.

The ride south on Route 1 along the ocean was beautiful, and Sonny Boy handled the many curves easily once I got the hang of driving the RV on such a winding road, but the same can't be said for Mason. By the time we reached San Simeon, he had tipped over the litter box and peed in the cat bed I'd brought along. One of the cats had also thrown up, but that might have been Clyde. Shiloh spent the trip hiding in the slide-out area of the camper, and Clyde struck a long-suffering pose under the dining table. So much for happy travelers. I was having a great time, though, listening to lots of CDs on the 4-5 hour ride it turned out to be.

We camped at San Simeon State Park, which was simple but very nice. The cats were happy to be in a nonmoving vehicle, although Mason followed Clyde everywhere he went, to the point that Clyde was getting mightily annoyed, as he sometimes does when Mason acts too needy. Shiloh was just happy to be hanging out. Once the motor stops in the RV, she's back to her curious and comedic self.

We spent a couple of nights there, and during the day I checked out San Luis Obispo (neat town worth a longer visit) and various beautiful beaches. I had intended to go to Hearst Castle, but I ended up passing on that in order to spend more time watching the waves at one of the beaches. At night I kept the shade pulled up next to the bed so I could see the stars and the moon through the trees that surrounded our campsite. The temperature would drop to the low 50s, and the cats were happy to snuggle with me on the bed.

Two days later, we were heading up. For the trip back, I decided to go over at Paso Robles and get on Highway 101. Before we even got to the 101 Mason, who had been crying his little heart out for most of the trip so far, pooped in the middle of the RV floor. After I pulled over and cleaned up the mess, we took a family vote and decided that Mason would not be coming back on the next trip. Our little landlubber would stay home and keep Peanut company, happily entertained by the amazing Ronni, she of the magic laser light and catnip. As for Shiloh and Clyde, we'll see if they want to join me on the next adventure.

Stay tuned.

Saturday, July 22, 2006


Lookee what I bought.
It's a 24-foot Class C motorhome, just like the one my friend Earl and I drove across country last spring when I moved to California. I've named it Sonny Boy in honor of my dad. My parents had a camper for years that had been my grandfather's, and my father loved it. Sonny Boy is what my dad's mother called him when he was a baby. An odd tribute, I know, but hey, it works for me. As for Dad, he would have been amused, I'm sure.

I took my first trip in Sonny Boy to Medford, OR, over the 4th of July weekend to see my mom. I brought two of the cats along, Clyde and Shiloh. They didn't much care for the RV when it was moving. As a matter of fact, Shiloh, who has more than her share of moxie, went and hid in the slide-out section before I was even out of my complex in Aptos. Clyde just lay under the dinette table, wearing the best long-suffering pose he could muster. Part of the reason I bought the RV was so I could take the cats along when I go away, since Clyde is now diabetic and needs shots twice a day. As much as I told the cats I did this for them, they remained unimpressed as long as the engine was running. Ungrateful little beasts, but I love them nonetheless.

We spent the first night in the driveway of my friend Patty's house in Sacramento. The cats thought it was great, once we were stopped. After much cuddling and purring, the cats settled in for the night, as did I. In the middle of the night, I awoke to the most horrible howling from Shiloh. She sounded as if she was being tortured, and she was all puffed up to twice her normal size. I got up to see what was wrong with her and realized that something outside had disturbed her. That sort of disturbed me too, but I couldn't see anything or anyone out the window. As I lay back down in bed, I looked up, and there, framed in the skylight, was a little cat head, cocked at an angle, looking into the RV, trying to figure out who was in there. One of the neighborhood cats had come to check us out, and Shiloh the Fierce was just proving her mettle as a watch cat.

We stayed in a KOA campground north of Medford in Gold Hill. It was mighty warm during the day, so at night I ran the A/C. There was wireless Internet available, so I listened to Folk Alley on iTunes, surfed the 'Net, and sent some e-mails. Hardly the camping of my youth, but the cats and I were very comfortable and slept soundly. With the help of my Treo's alarm, I was up and at the showers by about 9:15, rather late by camping standards but the break of dawn for me.

The gas for the trip was exhorbitant, but the RV ran beautifully. I'm eager to take it out again. Once my place in Aptos sells, I'm planning on renting in Sacramento until the market settles down and I decide where I want to be for the next few years. With the RV, I can take off, with the cats, for days, even weeks, at a time, since I can work from just about anywhere. When it cools down, I'd love to go to the Grand Canyon for a while.

That's the update for now. I'll post again soon.
mmm