Greta Leads Me to My Next Book

Greta is our nickname for our car GPS. I thought the automated voice was a man's voice but Rollie said it a woman's voice—just really deep. So, Greta it is, for Greta Garbo, who, by the way, didn't say "I want to be alone" but "I want to be left alone". At any rate, the GPS takes us where we can be left alone. I thought it was silly to get a GPS because we KNOW how to find our way to Nebraska or San Diego for Pete's sake. Well, it turns out that Greta takes us on adventures because she has her own mind about how to get from A to B. The discovery of the Chumash Cave Paintings turned out to be one of those adventures. Driving north of Santa Barbara we were told to exit from HWY 101 to HWY 154 over the mountains.Thirty something miles versus fifty something miles. OK. No snow so let's go. Miles into the drive we spotted "Painted Cave Road" and according to my Roadside History of California there is a cave with the most spectacular American Indian cave paintings in the US.

These priceless paintings were done by the Chumash Indians who have lived in the area for thousands of years.Likely done by shamans or priests they may have been trying to seek spiritual strength or to influence supernatural beings and forces. They used charcoal, powdered shells, and red ochre for their paints. The meaning of the paintings was lost along with the destruction of their way of life. It is suggested that the large circle represents a solar eclipse that occurred in 1677 AD. These will be the subject of the next book I make for my book arts guild exchange titled, "Accidental Art". Well, it WAS an accident that we found them. 
To find out more visit the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Death Valley, Joshua Tree National Parks

In spite of being retired for several years, it's hard to get the need for a Spring Break out of your system. So, we four retired mathematics professors headed off to Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks. We camped for four nights and other than having no shower facilities—by the fourth day I was considering using Sandy's salad bowl as a bath—we had a great time. It was a wonderful 85 degrees and we had just enough time to burn off the mold that had accumulated on our bodies after the long and rainy winter we've had (have).

Incredibly, this is my first visit to Death Valley but it certainly won't be the last.

King's Canyon National Park

We're retired but we still had to head off for SPRING BREAK! It has been really dreary here behind the Redwood Curtain and we felt a need to travel to the desert. But first we made a stop at King's Canyon to play in the snow.

Is this what an igloo feels like? The overhang from the roof meets the snow on the ground.

The top of a giant sequoia looks truncated. Unlike tourists in our area, I didn't lay down in the middle of the road to take this picture!

This is the bottom. Do you see the little person standing there? These trees are gigantic but they don't have the elegant lines of our sequoia sempervirens. If you look in the bottom right hand corner you'll see my friend, Sandy, taking a picture and she isn't laying down in the road either.

Oregon Coast Birthday Jaunt

My birthday trip up the coast of Oregon.

How lucky I am to live to close to sights like this.

Tea in bed, walks on the beach.

A long drive to Agness where we are watched by this raptor. 

Rested.