Agraichen's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 17,842 | Long...Slow...Distance........ by Agraichen - last update: Nov 5, 2009  |
Current Events...The hurricane damage to Loreto was minor compared to the villages just north where the normally docile river was over 30 feet higher flooding most of the hillside town pouring mud many feet high in most homes. The Baja Bush Pilots organization flew many "missions" with supplies to the towns most dammaged. The US homeowners in Loreto Bay alone filled three planes with supplies. Current Upcoming Happenings2009 Dec - Loreto, BCS 2010 Jan - Loreto, BCS Sep/Oct - Lexington Ky - World Equistrian Games. First time on US Soil. I need a room to rent if anyone is accomodating.... Most Recent Happenings.
2009
Oct - Loreto, BCS - time to survey the damage and help with getting repairs to the house and the town.
Oct - Napa - Halloween party at Clos Pegase winery.
Aug - Livermore, CA - Big White House winery release party.
Aug - SF, CA - VT_Meet. Rixie orchestrated a meet with Matim (Ilse) and her family in SF. We had a great time meeting and talking about their US travels that have taken them from the US east to west major sights.
Jul-Aug - Loreto, BCS to see how hot it can get in the summer. Two weeks at 112 was more than enough. Even the water was hot.
May - Less than two weeks in Loreto, BCS is not enough to end the season. The drive north is still in front of us since the truck needs to get a CA smog inspection before it can be registered again. Hopefully this will be uneventful in spite of the Swine Flu issues that have been present on the mainland. Friday we take off for the US.
May- Quick trip to SF for a screening of Angels & Demons on Thursday, the day before the release to theaters. OH WOW...great movie I don't care what the WSJ "critics" had to say.
Apr - Weekend trip to Napa to taste a few grapes. Rombaur was first on the list to replace the sold out 2005 Zinfindeld; Duckhorn was next as we had a bit of extra time. It was well worth the trip. Last, Quintessa for barrel tasting and to pick up some 2006 magnums. mmmmm....
Apr - Las Vegas. World Equestrian Event is back to the US.
Mar-Apr - Loreto Blue Whale watching in the Sea of Cortez
Feb - Monterey & Carmel Mercedes back road RIDE; Great time just driving back roads at speed.
On a rainy day in Danville, thousands of town residents turned out with EVERY major TV station in the SF Bay Area to pay tribute and welcome home Sully Sullenberger, the pilot of the US Airways jet that "landed" in the Huson River last week. ALL 155 people aboard the aircraft survived.
Jan - Napa - Release party at Clos Pegase with a Jazz ensemble featuring the Wine Club Manager Susie. Great time.
2008ROAD TRIP. Danville, CA to Loreto, BCS. Day 1: Danville to Hollywood on the set of My Own Worst Enemy. Day 2: Lightweight, Hollywood to San Diego to see an old friend. Day 3 5:00 AM meet with two others and a 5:30 AM border crossing. Day 4 off at 8:00 AM. By 3:00 PM we were in Loreto enjoying Margaritas. Napa for the Crush. Early run to Napa for a Harvest Party at Clos Pegas - Tasting, blending, learning followed by a wonderful lunch and a Grape Stomp competition. We Came in 3rd for the blend and 1ST for the Stomp...YES. Friday, Sep 26 - Danville - Dinner and concours to benefit Parkinson's Research. Former race car driver Sam Posey was in attendance. He joked that his cane (he has Parkinson's) has "camber" as he banged it a time or two.... Friday September 26, 2008 screen icon and motorsports racing enthusiest Paul Newman died after a long battle with Cancer. Once again this year (Phil Hill, last month) motorsports has lost a great driver and supporter. |
|  | Now back to reality...
Cronicles of the family:
TV is subject to the economy too. Christian Slater's "My Own Worst Enemy" debuted in October and was cut in November. Now it's back to the network for the next gig.
In the "off hours" there is a community service project in the making. Bridges to Prosperity has not really had a documentary produced of their humanitarian work so Carla plans on doing so in 2009 with UnBroken The Documentary.
She was able to use the time off from the writer's strike quite well and is now fully PADI Certified as a Rescue Diver and got quite a bit of travel in herself. Now if only SAG doesn't go out too. With the rotator surgery behind her she plans to finsh the Dive Master requirements.
The road to Hollywood is not that smooth; just look at the encounter heading south on I-5 when Road RAGE took over....(See the album links below).
Now back to the more mundane stuff like my history and how I began traveling.
I tend to think I grew up traveling. In New England, USA, you can see a lot without driving too far so even a weekend is enough for a "short vacation" and it could be done inexpensively.
Trips to surrounding states could be done in just a few hours so on my father's occasional day off, we'd pack the car and just drive. Where ever we ended up at the end of the day is where we stayed for the night. Explored a bit the next day and returned home.
Later we began vacationing on Newfound Lake in Bristol, NH. After a few years of renting a cabin we acquired a small house near the lake and my summers were spent in "another world." After chores, I had the freedom to wander the Apalachian Mt. Range trail heads or swim in the lake or mountain streams which filled me with a desire to wander.
Fortunately I've been able to trave widely throughout the years, but there's more out there waiting and I hope to cover much more. |
Home Winter in No. CA sometimes provides a few "cold" days. Just enough to leave a bit of snow on "our" mountain. Only 3849 feet high, Mt. Diablo has the unique ability to allow people to see more land mass of the US than from the top than from any other peak in the US.
This phenonomon has something to do with the mountain's location and the fact that much of the "central valley" of California is quite flat. On a clear day you can see the Sierras to the east, the Ocean to the west, Mt. Shasta to the north and almost to Bakersfield to the south. | | |
| Oh Yeah? Well, mine is bigger than yours.... |
| | Locals dropping in... The resident varmits have decided to migrate by my back door (well better these guys than the wild boar that are beginning to show up on the mountain).
They must know that in CA, you can't do much with a wild Turkey (legally) other than shoo it away (but don't try it with a hen herding chicks) or just sit back and enjoy the gobble (even at 4:00 AM)....... and once again (2nd year) on Thanksgiving morning 3 dozen showed up for "breakfast" along with 4 deer. |
"The Zoo" has increased again It's hard to believe Merlin is now just over 2 years old. He's grown from a very scrawney colt to over 15.1 hands. We were hoping for only 15-15.2 but at this rate he may top 16. BUT he's got great ground manners, gentle and playful as a puppy. | | |
| | My Favorite Web Sites... |
SF VT On the "GO" SF VT Madness Blowout -Part Deux. June 25 SF.. SF VT Part Deux Only SF VT can consistently outdo itself. This evening was a few hours of dancing and gambling (for fun money) on SF Bay. | | | VT SF Dine About Town CREW.... |
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| Yubert photographing his VT Fan Club.. |
| | VT HOSTED a fabulous time in Mahattan Beach, CA; KUDOs to the "Brains behind the machine."
And er...well..it seems some members always have more fun than others... |
 Agraichen's Albums | | | |
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 Comments for Agraichen | | | | |
DonnaFL Fri Oct 30, 2009 21:15 UTC
The kitties stay home except to go to the vet. They are much happier at home (I think). Best wishes on traveling with kitties. | appleseed81 Fri Oct 30, 2009 05:18 UTC
LOL... Finally someone noticed... :) | Waalewiener Thu Oct 15, 2009 02:24 UTC
Hi Al welcome back my friend Enjoy every day and Take care | 2Cities1Love Sun Oct 11, 2009 06:40 UTC
Hi Al, I do hope you make it to OZ. Thanks for stopping by and we can have meet ups i'm sure when your here :-) Cheers Sue. |
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