September 5, 2000, Tuesday- with a 6:45 start we headed west to Las Vegas. The 650 miles rolled by with breathtaking scenery throughout Utah and Arizona. The bad sign was the changing of the trees. Many places had the gold and red colors creating pockets in the fields of green.

Our stay in Vegas was at the Crown Plaza suite hotel by Holiday Inn. It was one of the few properties that permitted pets. I spent a lot of time on the phone and on the net yesterday finding this place.

Tradition lingers on as we did dinner at the Stage Deli at the Forum Shops in Caesar's Palace. Afterwards a few nickels finished the evening, but upon our return Susan noticed that her gold buckle bracket had fallen from her wrist. We were both saddened by the loss. It most likely came off while gaming as the strap from her purse kept pressing and releasing it from her wrist.

While we were in the MGM Grand Casino we noticed an alcohol dragster on display. If you want to get someplace fast, this is the machine. 0 to 100 in .8 seconds, and to 200 MPH in 2.2 seconds. Forget about commuting traffic. With a 25' wheelbase, this was not a small machine. Horsepower- over 6000! Fast!

September 6, 2000, Wednesday- Gateway still can't locate the computer that was returned on Thursday to their Gateway Country Store in Denver, and was to be overnighted on Friday.

Our 400 mile ride was uneventful. We passed through some beautiful country and tons of agricultural fields, growing everything from pistachio trees to grapevines, and everything in between.

Robert looks great. His new apartment in northern Fresno is spacious and on a neat little frog pond. It took a few minutes and we had the U-haul unloaded and returned to the company. My how much better the car is without the trailer behind it. In California the speed limit with a trailer is 55, while cars alone are 70 along the interstate.

Susan, Rob and Larry at the Elbow Room

Dinner at the Elbow Room provided first class steaks and a chance to catch up on the wonderful experiences that Robert has had at his new assignment in Fresno.

September 7, 2000, Thursday- another early morning. Up at 6 and on the road by 6:40 so that Robert could get himself ready for his 7:00 trip to work. Up highway 99 to I-80, and back to Truckee, 280 miles. It was lunchtime so we did the Truckee Diner, a real old-fashioned eatery. Originally build in the 1940's and placed in Pennsylvania until 1995, it was moved here, reconditioned, and placed into service in December 1995. Afterwards, we got the coach out of storage and drove the 100 miles back to Sacramento where tomorrow Hobbes goes to the kennel, and we spend the weekend with Laurie and Stan, and Rob and Deb. The trip was about 60 miles of downhill with a 6000 foot drop. Mostly it was 5 and 6% grade, and with the Pac Brake, we didn't have to touch the service brakes the entire way down.

Gateway is still a pain in the butt. This morning we called again and they never returned the call that the computer was located. This afternoon I called again and found a nice woman who worked the system. Long story short, the Gateway Country Store in Denver had never shipped the unit. It may be just as well since they would have sent it to the wrong service center and it could have also gotten lost. By the time they located it in Denver, it was too late to ship it out tonight, so, it will most likely be another week without the prime computing machine. Meanwhile the web page will be late and our digital camera is running out of disk space after three weeks of not being able to download the photos

September 8, 2000, Friday- nice managers in the Stillman RV Park where we are staying. The park is tight, in fact, the tightest park we've been in with space widths of 15'. Usually the minimum width is 20', and many of the "better" parks that we go to are 55' wide for each space. Here is a full gravel pad and a paved main road, but it is the best rated park in the area. Fortunately it is also like a fortress with high block walls topped with barbed wire, and a coded entry gate, because the surrounding neighborhood is, shall we say, tough. Even the tenement garden apartments next door have a chain link fence and a gated entryway. But, since we will be with Laurie and Stan for the weekend, the coach will be safe and secure. The reason I said the managers were nice is because when I went to the clubhouse to get the e-mail, a water company excavation had cut the phone line. So, they took me into their doublewide park model and let me use their personal phone.

At noon we took Hobbes to his kennel for the weekend. Nice folks own and staff the facility, with large pens and huge exercise areas. All pens are intertwined by gates so that they never need a collar on the pets as they lead them into the exercise areas.

Then, we drove the 100 miles to the coast, from Sacramento to Emeryville. The temperatures dropped thirty degrees in 68 miles, from the mid 90's in Sacramento to the mid 60's and breezy on the bay. We stopped off at the 4th Street Shopping District for a wedding present for Stan and Laurie (this way they can return it if they want something else), and then up to Laurie's apartment. Susan said she was ready to move into the place and stay forever without having to change a thing. With theater tickets for tonight's Shakespeare's Love Labours Lost, Laurie prepared a great picnic dinner, but with time running out, Rob and Deb joined us at Laurie's for a quick choke it down 15 minute dinner. Thus we saved the time to pack it all up and try to find a spot on the hillside, etc., etc. By the time we left to get to the Orinda outdoor theater, we were counting the minutes until show time. As we exited the tunnels on the way towards Walnut Creek, the traffic stopped due to a multi-car accident. After weaving our way to the parking lot, and creating a space, we made the start of the play by less then 30 seconds. Now that's cutting it close. Oh yeah, the play was great with the actors and costumes fulfilling the roles written by Willie!

September 9, 2000, Saturday- Stan, Laurie, Susan and I drove to Tiburon and then boarded the ferry to Angel Island, a National Park with a history similar to Ellis Island in New York. Here thousands of immigrants came to our shore and the lucky ones were permitted to enter, while the rest were sent back to their country of origin. During W.W.II it was a place of interment for people of Japanese ancestry. After a great picnic lunch we did a 5 plus mile hike around the perimeter of the island, returning with 15 minutes to spare for the last ferry back to the mainland. Not wanting to miss a trick, we then got the last few seats to see Nurse Betty at the local movie house. Cute, but nothing to write home about.

September 10, 2000, Sunday- Stan and Laurie's original wedding day….so let's celebrate. Rob and Deb joined the four of us for a Sunday Brunch at Towns End, a neat little restaurant with scrumptious food on the Embarcadero. With so many wonderful items to pick from off the menu, it was hard to make a decision. After the feast we walked down the Embarcadero towards fisherman's wharf, past the new Giant's stadium, the Pacific Bell Ballpark. On the way back we rode the electric trolley, refinished like yesteryear.

Wedding Brunch- Deb, Rob, Susan, Larry, Laurie & Stan

Rob, Susan, Deb and Larry in SF	Laurie and Stan- best of luck!

Then Rob and Deb headed back, and the four of us did some furniture preshopping for Stan and Laurie, and did dinner at Trader Vic's. An action packed day with my feet feeling the two days of extended use.

September 11, 2000, Monday- after spending the morning helping Laurie wrap a series of gifts for Tracy, we left for the ride back to Sacramento. Again the temperatures went back up from the mid 60's to the upper 90's. Hobbes looked great after his bath at the kennel, and we were back together as a family.

September 12, 2000, Tuesday - a morning of recovery from running around. It took us all morning to finish the e-mails, snail mails, phone calls and reservations for the next two weeks. Afternoon we cruised to a lovely municipal park that had great kids play areas and a 9 hole golf course. Weather permitting, tomorrow we will whack the ball a little. We stopped by a pet supply house and found an expandable screen that goes between the rear door windows and frame. This will let us leave the windows half open to give Hobbes some fresh air, while preventing someone from opening door.

September 13, 2000, Wednesday- Susan and I swung the clubs today on a 9 hole municipal course about 10 minutes north of us. Since we haven't played since Breckenridge in July, it felt good to just swing. It wasn't the best but, it was far from the worst. Fortunately the temperatures were in the low 80's while a cloud cover kept everything comfortable. A few hours later, in the sunshine, the temperature was over 100.

We spoke to a women in the RV park today who used to work for the California Highway Patrol, and now works for the DMV who was not positive on the state. She viewed everything as going downhill, and Sacramento leading the way. She described most of the city as almost a war zone with no real pockets of good areas.

Gateway still eludes the return of our computer. Everyone we speak to has a different story. Who knows if it will every return?

September 14, 2000, Thursday- another day has come and gone and the Gateway computer is still in the land beyond. Will it ever return?

After some cleanup on the coach and some wash, we headed south to 30 miles beyond Fresno, to Kingsburg, CA. This park, Riverland Resort, was unrated in the rating book, just saying it was under new management. I think that they haven't put any money into the property as the "new" management. Unpaved sites, grass, and only 30 amp electric service. With temps in the mid 90's and above, and weak 30 amp service, it was a struggle to run just one air conditioner. But, since we came here to see Rob and Deb, we'll make it work.

For dinner we met Rob in Fresno and caught up on his week. We dined in a little brewery in the Tower section of Fresno. It fit the bill.

September 15, 2000, Friday- in late morning we headed to the little town of Visalia. After cruising the little down town, we headed to the south portal of Sequoia National Park for a nibble tour of the park. We knew we couldn't do the loop around the park since our RV park neighbors said it was a full day for the 196 mile trip. The parts that we saw were incredible, with jagged peaks; textured, colorful vegetation; and a feeling of stepping back in time. Sequoia Park is undergoing a revamping to remove "improvements?" that had been placed years ago, before the current knowledge that the improvements were killing the sequoia trees. These trees are the worlds' largest living thing, as measured by volume.

The old roadway	Sequoia vistas

They only grow in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and 75 groves are the worlds' total. Diameters can reach 8 feet in size, heights can be over 300 feet, and they can live over 3000 years. But here comes man with roads and parking lots covering roots, people camping and driving over other roots, and surprise, the trees stop reproducing. Now the plan is to pull out the blacktop, concession stands, gas stations, etc., and let nature take its course.

In the evening we shared Rob and Deb's invitation to a fellow doctor's home for a BBQ. Great to meet some of their friends and hear their war stories.

Oh yes, Gateway is still a bunch of losers- it's almost 5 weeks without the main computer and they still don't have a return date.

September 16, 2000, Saturday- after picking up Rob and Deb we headed north west to Huntington Lake. This trip took us out of the valley floor, elevation 200' and hot, to a 7000 foot level and a lot cooler. The lake was picturesque with lunch on a balcony over the water, followed by paddling in two canoes. Oh yes, Hobbes again enjoyed a canoe trip.

Raisins drying in the sun	Susan, Hobbes and Larry- on a cruise

Rob and Deb	Ridges, ridges and more ridges

After a quick dinner we four went to see the new release "Almost Famous". A good commentary on a rock and roll group touring the USA during the early 70's. Many things for we baby boomers to revel in.