A foot and some bowling balls.

One of my goals on my "101 in 1001" was to get out more. Sadly, even though the time was up in September, I have not updated my 101 and therefore failed to reach my goals. However, on the upside...I did reach many of the actual listed goals including the one to get out more. The actual listed goals that pertain to getting out (and their results) are as follows:

66. Get out of the house at least one of my days off. (Quit being such a homebody.)

I really did quit being such a homebody, although I still crave staying at home over going out. Changing to dayshift sent much of this goal into hyperdrive as people in my life realized I was now available for social activities. I started out keeping to myself, then started getting out more, then crawled halfway back into my shell. So I do get out much more than I did, but still not as much as I could. It's a nice compromise.


67. Go to my friends's houses instead of always expecting them to come here.

I'm doing better at this. Really I am. Sort of.


68. Go shopping at least once a month.

Hahahahahaha....I can barely go grocery shopping once a month. I do get gas every week if that counts. I seriously hate shopping and online shopping does not help me meet this goal at all. LOL. Fail.


69. Remember my friends's birthdays and actually get them something.

Gosh, I suck at this.


70. See more of my grandchildren by going to their houses more often. (they don't live close.)

I'm doing pretty good with this one. It helps that I now have weekends off. I no longer have to plan and take flex time to spend time with the grandkids. This has helped tremendously and it's nice to be able to go get Trenton more than once in awhile, which means I also go get Isaac and sometimes Logan.


71. Travel to Oregon to meet my online friend.

I never did this. I did however take a trip with my friend Chris and while on our trip we did stop in to meet a mutual online friend that lives in Idaho.


75. Go to see the Grand Canyon.

On a later list I changed this to "Go to visit Chris in Saskatchewan, because I knew I was really going to get to do that and wasn't sure that I could fit both of those goals into 1001 days. (for expense reasons) But guess what? I did! Chris came down to visit me this year and we took a road trip that included two goals on this section of the list...Highway 101 and going to the Grand Canyon and we also got Route 66 in on the deal! SWEET!


76. Take a trip from Laurie's to New York.

Because of all my other trips, I haven't gone back to Maryland. I will have to put that on my new list when I make it. So that is a Fail.


77. Actually do the tourist thing when I'm at Laurie's and go see the
museums in Washington, D.C.

See above answer.


78. Visit Jen and Jay.

I so wanted to visit Jen and Jay while they were in Germany. Alas, they didn't stay there long enough. Now they are in Korea. I failed at this one, but I might be able to go visit while they are still in Korea. I will probably put that on my new list.


79. Drive Highway 101 down the coast again.

I did this (with Chris) and I have pictures which I will eventually post. I promise.


80. Take (or work on) a cruise.

Can you believe it? I did this one too. I took a cruise rather than get a job on one. It was a trains, planes, automobiles and ship year.

So there you have it. Some goals met. Some not. Oh...and here is the foot and the bowling balls. These pictures were taken on a day trip that I took with my friend, Becky, over to Point Defiance and the waterfront. These were at a little plant nursery in North Tacoma. The guy had these bowling balls all through his outdoor nursery, which was a little neglected, but interesting in many ways. So now you know what to do with your old bowling ball...make it lawn decor.

Road Trip. (I should be travel blogging, but I'm not.) Until now.

I am sitting in Indio, California in a quaint little cheap motel. We have found some very interesting cheap motels, but this one is interesting in a nice way. It is a cute little room with some real ambiance and nice furnishings, not at all like our other cheap motels. It has a drawback if you are not comfortable with trains rumbling by every so often, but I enjoy the trains and I know the noise will not keep me awake, so I am good with it.
The winds outside are very strong and are blowing things about a bit. Every so often something flies off and hits the roof. I imagine it must be the branches from the high palm trees that are around. I am resisting the urge to go outside and stand in the wind with my arms spread out and my eyes closed. I love the wind and it's too warm in here.
I am enjoying my first little glimpse of the desert and I am very excited about going into Arizona tomorrow. Winds or no winds, the landscape is marvelous. Along the I-10 highway around Thousand Palms there is a spot with hundreds upon hundreds of wind mills. (Not the pretty little dutch kind, but those skinny poles with blades atop that I have grown to love when I see them on the landscape.)
We stopped to take some pictures of them from an undeveloped spot off the freeway. There was an exit which led to a gas station and not much else. They are obviously planning a much bigger community around here because they have roads that go no where and freeway exits that lead to nothing.
A little further up we found an exit which led us to a place with beautiful wide boulevards. One of those wide boulevards led to a very fancy Casino/resort and most of the rest led to absolutely nothing. They are beautiful and wide, like this place must be expecting a lot of traffic someday. The one boulevard ran in front of the casino with an intersection at the casino. Three of the connecting roads were completed and one of those was the road into the Casino complex. The fourth road (across from the casino) was not completed and stopped about twenty five feet from the intersection. We pulled in there to take some pictures and when we went to leave there was actually a magnetic strip already in place for those turning left and those going straight across to the casino. This cracked us up since the "road" we were on was not even a road yet, but it was nice to have a green arrow with which to return to the boulevard.

Here are some pics of the windmills:













I also loved the way these clouds hugged the tops of these mountains behind the windmills.












Today was an especially long day. We drove all day, coming from Dublin (near Pleasanton) all the way to Indio. It was rainy near Dublin, but the rest of the trip was fairly nice with high clouds until we came to the mountains before Los Angeles. It poured rain all the way through the pass and until we were almost to Six Flags. Then it was pretty nice again until we were almost through Los Angeles. We had two rolling slow downs due to an accident in L.A. and something unknown near West Covina. The rest of the trip was fairly nice and easy. Tomorrow we head towards Arizona and up to the Grand Canyon. I am hoping we have nice weather but not too hot. It would be nice to enjoy getting out and looking around and taking more pictures.

Just some pics

Taking a nap in the tree.

The view from our hotel balcony in Ventura.

The beach right outside our hotel in Ventura.

On top of the world at Twin Peaks in San Francisco.

The lovely beach at Pacifica, Ca.
My sister used to live a block from the beach, there.

The view from my friend's kitchen. (uncropped)

Old Faithful, picking up steam.

My son and my favorite part of the states.
South Dakota's black hills.

Again, the black hills.

Mount Rushmore.