Magical Days at Concepción

Before I start today’s post, I’d like to express my sincere thanks for the kindness you all have shared with me this past week since the passing of Millie.  I knew she was one well-loved dog out there in blog-land, but honestly was amazed and touched by the outpouring of comments, emails, and phone calls.  It seems she left a hole not only in my heart, but in many of yours as well.

I spent last week mostly consuming myself with work.  I’m currently volunteering at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico for a few months, and it’s been a perfect place to begin healing—surrounded by caring fellow volunteers and lots of amazing wildlife to watch and learn about.  I’ll start posting more about this place soon, but first wanted to finish up and share the final few posts of our winter Baja trip, as our last week there was pretty amazing!

In Memory of Sweet Millie

My dearest, most-loyal companion, Millie, left this world yesterday morning from the comfort of her own bed with me holding her paw.  This last photo above was taken just the day before, as we enjoyed a nice afternoon on the shady, cool grass of Socorro, New Mexico’s town square.

While going through photos today, I realized just how similar our last day was to our very first day together back in April of 2005-- we started and ended our journey from a lush lawn of spring-green grass.

 
What an amazing 10 years she gave me (and so many of you as well who enjoyed her adventures via this blog)!

Visiting Cabo Pulmo National Park

Our final day trip of the bottom of the Baja peninsula took us from La Paz to the East Cape’s Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park.  Established in 1995, its mission is to preserve one of the finest examples of live coral reef in Mexico (and one of the best diving destinations closest to the U.S.).

The Power of Prayers & Prednisone

As much as I try to catch this blog up, it is now running about 6 weeks behind real-time life.  I promise to finish up the Baja trip posts soon, but wanted to give everyone an update on this past week’s events with Millie.

Last September, Millie’s mast cell cancer returned after a 3 year remission.  She showed no symptoms, but I knew that her long-term prognosis was not good and knew I didn’t want to put her through any more heroic cancer treatments.  So, our hometown vet suggested a regime of Benadryl and Pepcid AC, and we hoped for as many happy, active months as possible.

Millie’s 10th Birthday Bash

After “ruffing it” on the beach at Tecolote for a week, we headed back to AquaMarina RV Park in La Paz to meet back up with Hans and Ursula.  The owners here are so warm and friendly, and park is so immaculate, that we decided to just stay here and do day trips down to various spots on the cabo rather than move RVs further south.

So, I got the View all parked and planted for the next 2 weeks just a few spots down from Hans and Ursula’s View.

One of the first orders of business was to celebrate Millie’s 10th birthday!

Millie Falls Overboard!

A few short kilometers west of Tecolote Beach (north of La Paz, Baja Sur), sits an absolute gem of a aquamarine beach—Playa Balandra.  When the north winds are howling at Tecolote, the protected, shallow inlet of Balandra can be as calm as a baby.  The waters here are so shallow that you can walk nearly across the inlet (especially if its low tide).

But for our visit today, we had two objectives—swimming for Millie, and kayaking for me, Hans, and Ursula.  So, we arrived to Balandra right at high tide to enjoy our day.

Shopping & Strolling Around La Paz

Like any Saturday in the U.S., the biggest shopping day of the week in La Paz, Baja Sur is Saturday.  Ursula and Hans have lots of mercados (markets) and tiendas (stores) to show me.  We start with the organic veggie market next door to the RV park. 

Christmas Week in Loreto

As much as Millie and I loved Playa Santispac, the lack of phone or internet signal would be just too big a barrier for the upcoming Christmas holiday.  I looked forward to video chatting or calling my family, and wanted to be somewhere with good connectivity.

Loreto was happy to oblige! 

The Best Boondocking Beach in Baja

Whenever I thought about spending my winter days lazily boondocking on a beach in Baja, this was always the scene I always imagined—RV’s (not too many, not too few) parked around an emerald bay with views of islands in the distance.

When we first drove down Baja Highway 1 and crested the hills south of Mulegé to see this stunning picture postcard in real-life for the first time, I knew I wanted to come back ASAP to camp at Playa Santispac along the Bahía de Concepción.  So after a few days together in Loreto, when Hans and Ursula continued south to La Paz to visit their old sailing buddies,  Millie and I backtracked 70 miles north to find a bit of paradise on the beach!

From One Oasis to Another

After 2 long days or driving, today’s drive from San Ignacio to Loreto will be a more leisurely 170 miles.  Which means we have time to tour the main attraction in town—the eigteenth-century Mision San Ignacio Kadakaaman.

To get to town, we first pass this lovely pond.  Is that a volcano in the distance?

Palm trees continue as we make our way down to the town center--

So, check, the tour books are right!  San Ignacio is, indeed, an oasis in the desert!  Now, on to the Mission…

Escape to Paradise

This time of year, it is usually still pitch black in the morning when Millie wakes me up for her nature’s call.  We stumble out of the rig into the expansive desert that is our boondock spot just outside of Canyonlands Needles District.

The sky is no longer awash with a carpet of stars, but rather, almost completely covered by clouds—all except the fringes along the horizon.  Could we be in for a fabulous sunrise today?  I head back to the RV for my camera and tripod and then set up to await the big show.

What a show it is (and a great way to start the day)!

Weekend With the Aspens

Visiting the Vail Valley is always a bit of a challenge when driving an RV with a toad attached.  Fortunately, I arrived on Friday afternoon when most folks (and their cars!) were out and about.  I easily snagged a nice parking spot for the RV right in front of the house, but with overnight temps hovering around freezing, my brother’s fiance’ insisted Millie and I stay in the guest room in the house—so, I packed a little duffle bag and away we went for the weekend!

Wrapping Up with Some Highs & One Big Low

The last couple weeks have been a flurry of activity—mostly good, positive stuff but mixed with one major setback.  We’ll start with the good news, though…. 

The storage garage is steadily being emptied!  Millie has quite enjoyed being a “junkyard dog” and watching me sift through boxes of stuff to scan, pitch, or sell.   We are on track to finish this job in about a week and be ready to hit the road.

Home Improvements

Hard to believe that Millie and I have now been full-time RVers for 1 whole week!  I’m still at the lovely county park campground on the outskirts of Chicago enjoying a large campsite overlooking an oak savannah prairie, and soaking up some great sunrises and sunsets.

While I’ve been spending most days working away at the remaining 20 boxes to be eBay’d, Craigslisted, scanned, or garaged sale’d from the storage garage, Millie has continued to be absolutely no help at all --  She spends her days lounging in the cool grass, or when the sun’s too hot, she crawls under the motorhome to a favorite shady spot.

On the rolling home front, I’ve been enjoying some new home improvements for TV watching, photo editing, vacuuming, storage, and lighting.

Finding My “Way” in the Dark

Ever since getting a bit of “dumb luck” in shooting this photo a few winters ago at Joshua Tree National Park, I’ve been fascinated by night photography, particularly night landscapes.

Last year, I discovered the Into The Night group on Flickr (as well as its excellent companion blog by Royce Bair) which provided a never-ending source of inspiration and knowledge.  But it seemed every time I tried to plan a nighttime photo shoot, I was stymied by one thing or another—wrong camera, wrong lens, wrong exposure settings, wrong time of year, wrong moon phase, or wrong weather.  With each failed attempt, though, I learned a tiny bit more than I had known before, so “progress” none the less.

This year, I set a goal for myself to finally capture photos of the Milky Way.  It’s taken months of planning and waiting for just the right conditions, but finally (FINALLY!) two nights ago, I did it!

Q = Queen of the Roost

Hear Ye!  Hear Ye! 

The Queen has returned to her Throne!!!

Long Live the Queen!

…and pity the poor jester trying to figure out how the queen’s sofa will ever fit into the Winnebago!

 

 

L = Lovely Llano

After a week without hook-ups, I was ready for a nice RV park to rest for the night.  Llano, Texas delivered my absolutely favorite kind of RV campground—those small, quiet city/county camps with all the conveniences of a commercial park, the spaciousness of a state park, at a price that neither of them can beat!

The description of Badu City Park on my Allstays Camp & RV app sounded very promising and it turned out to be true—nice campsites overlooking the Llano river and city park for only $15 a night!

Even though the sites were nothing more than elongated parking spaces with full hook-ups, all had excellent views-- our hilltop even had 2 Views (when an H/K-model View pulled in right next to us on our second night).

Millie was ecstatic to see water again and enjoyed walking along the river bank, but it had turned a bit too cold to take a dip.

 

We awoke the next morning to billows of fog rising from the river.  What a beautiful way to watch the sunrise and start the day!

Downtown Llano features a pretty, old stone courthouse surrounded by a square of antique shops, restaurants, bars, and an old movie theatre. Small-town Texas Hill Country at its very best.

I spent most of my day driving the rolling countryside looking for good patches of Texas bluebonnets and did see quite a few strips of it along the roadsides, but it was still just a few weeks too early in the season (late March when I was there) for any widespread color up in the Hill country.

The best bluebonnet patch turned out to be right at the campground’s city park!  I promised Millie a big chicken stew dinner if she’d pose for some pictures, and she grudgingly obliged.

I would have loved to stay here longer if not for the fickle Spring weather patterns along my route back to Chicago.  There were only a couple days within the next 10 where skies and winds would be calm enough to drive a motorhome up through “tornado alley” so I had to “git while the gittin’ was good” and continue northward after 2 nights.

But I will definitely be back to central Texas another Spring to enjoy finding and photographing more of this lovely area!

 

 

K = Krisis at the Karnivore Kafe’

Hello Everyone!  Millie here, the kanine half of the WinnieViews team.  I don’t have much time, so my message will be brief (snuck the human’s komputer away from her tonight when she wasn’t looking!).

If any of you happen to see me at a kampground someday soon, please, PLEASE could you share some of your spare Chikin with me?  I’ve not had any in awhile, and I’m getting rather desperate!

You see, my human is one of those darn plant eaters!  Even though she gives me a couple of big bowls of dog food every day (including some fancy canned dog food with real meaty stew), I’ve now tasted the real deal, and well, this canned stuff is just NOT the same!

When we were in Texas not too long ago (gosh, are dogs lucky to live there surrounded by all that BBQ meat!!!), we were traveling with this very nice lady who saw me sitting outside my rolling doghouse looking sad one day.

 

She asked if I’d like to come over to her place some time for some special treats (as long as I kept quiet and didn’t let my human know).  Heck yeah, I would!!!

Well, it turns out, this nice lady was a dog’s absolute dream!  She didn’t seem to eat anything except real, honest-to-goodness meat!!!  The night she invited me over, she was cooking up a whole grill full of nothing but chikin!  Row after row of the stuff!!! Even with bar-b-que sauce on top!

She asked me if I’d like to try some, and I then had to admit that, in all my 9 years, I’d never tasted any of the real stuff before.   She gave me an astonished look and said “well, just step right inside the karnivore kafe’ you poor, deprived, little yellow dog! I’ll fix you right up!”

From that night on….I was hooked!!!

Whenever I’d see her out walking around her kampsite, I would trot over to say “hi” and see what kafe’ kreations were on the menu that day.  She almost always had something delicious to offer! 

One day, we shared some blue corn chips…

Another day, I followed my new best friend up to the Internet Kafe’ and almost got a bite of her ice cream sandwich (before my mean human nixed the plan).

On another afternoon, I saw her out at the picnic table and raced over as fast as I could to see what \what was cookin.  Just as she reached into her goody bag, we heard our names being yelled..

We turned around and froze in place, but it was too late.  We’d been…BUSTED!!!

The day I saw the nice lady pull her karnivore kafe’ up behind my doghouse, I feared this might be my very last chance for one final fleshy hit of the good stuff.  I made a fast dash to her door…

 

and she quickly escorted me inside to the prized contraband.  She carefully opened the tin foil to reveal…half of the very last chikin breast on board! And she let me eat it all!!!

Ever since that day, whenever I see a big white RV pull up next to us, I try to ask politely if they might have any spare chikin to share, but so far, nobody has given me a darn thing.

So, I’m now at the point of desperation!  Please, everyone!  Anyone!!! 

I……NEED…...MOR…...CHIKIN!!!