Retro Sunday

I have said before that I had another blog and am slowly moving my writings here. This was one of the first things I wrote for my other blog. You see last summer we loaded up our home on wheels and came to Montana. My husband was building a building and we decided to make an adventure out of our trip. I thought I would share it with those of you who didn't visit me back then and for those of you who did...suck it up and read it again.

The Grand Adventure
Or a Not so Pioneer Woman’s adventure into Big Sky Country

I am not a pioneer woman; I am more of the modern woman meets 1950’s housewife. I enjoy keeping house, cooking and generally being doted upon by my adoring husband, but I also like the freedom of cell phones, microwaves and all those other wonderful conveniences. When my husband, the Big Kahuna, told me we were going to embark on our “grand adventure” several months in Montana, I thanked my lucky stars we had a modern day covered wagon in which to make our trek. Unlike my foremothers that went before me I will be heading east and north for this adventure. I would not have to cross the deserted prairies, but have desert in restaurants or cooked in my own home on wheels. None the less I felt the excitement of an adventurous spirit of seeing the country and being able to sleep if not under the stars at least under the stars in the comfort of home. I mean is it really necessary to sleep on the hard ground with all kinds of creatures staring at you from their glowing eyes or with bugs crawling over you? I’ll take the luxury of traveling in an RV any day.

We started out by visiting my husband’s parents who are in their eighties. We drove 45 miles up the freeway to their little gated community and pull our rig in next to their house. .You could tell, they wanted to come with us if not for the whole trip, maybe just for a bit. To feel the adventure of pioneering out there as they did when they were a bit younger.




I had gone on line before we started our trip and found a RV park in Santa Barbara; it was right off the freeway and looked on the internet to be nice enough. We get to Santa Barbara and took the exit only to learn when they say “right off the freeway”, they mean that it’s is literally right-off-the-freeway. They left us a note where our spot was and we quickly figured out it was going to be a tight squeeze. We unhooked the jeep, pulled around the park and then, backed into a very tight space between two other RV’s and under a tree. We were parked between the couple drinking straight Jack Daniels and the guy with the beach boys turned up loud on his boom box. Welcome to Santa Barbara!

Our breakfast stop was at Goleta Beach Café, which is adjacent to the Goleta Beach Pier. We decided to take a walk on the pier while we waited for the kids to show up. We were strolling hand in hand looking at the waves and the people fishing when we heard a roaring herd behind us. We turned around to see three young men in wetsuits, fins and headgear running up the pier. We looked under the pier in the water and see another man in a kayak in a similar outfit.


We watch them run to the end of the pier yell out to the guy at the end pier who yells back at them to jump one at a time. Then they proceed to jump from the end of the pier into the water to complete their life saving drill or someone told them to take a long walk off of a short pier.

Then the real adventure began…We traveled 60 miles up the coast highway at 25 miles per hour going from one switchback to another as the Pacific Ocean roared and rushed 50 feet straight down the cliff from our house on wheels. I’m going to be very honest with you here. There are no pictures simply because I was too busy hanging on and being scared. Not the Big Kahuna, he drove up and down round and round like it was nothing. It wasn’t until later when we found a spot to hunker down for the evening did I find out, he had been holding on to the seat with his butt cheeks puckered up so tight he had glutes of steel. I would not recommend this as your new exercise routine unless you have a strong heart.

I am very glad we came that particulara route. We were through there one week before the fires ravaged Big Sur, Montery and Half Moon Bay. I was so sorry to hear because it was all very beautiful.

Stay tuned and I'll fill you in on the rest of the journey.