Last December Days in Sunny San Diego

Another gorgeous day in San Diego

As the year rounds to its inevitable end we’re spending the last few days of December hanging out in sunny and gorgeous San Diego. Between walks in the wild and relaxing glasses of wine, it’s actually been a whirlwind couple of weeks packed tightly with the cats’ vet appointments, chores in the RV and meeting-up with friends.

Taggart has taken over our camping chairs

On the furry side Taggart is healing up nicely and mostly complaint-meow-free from her mass removal, especially since we got rid of the horrible MFTD. The mass turned out to be a Mast cell tumor which was completely removed by the operation so it was actually a huge piece of luck that we decided to get it taken care of. She’s been exploiting her position as ailing cat by taking over our camping chairs…the little sneak. Polly has been having a blast and has made at least 10 new doggie friends, incl. a lovely black lab/chow mix at our neighbours RV. We’re completely surrounded by hiking trails out here in Santee, plus we’re only ~30 mins from some fabulous dog beaches so it’s been utter-paw-doggie heaven for her.

Hanging out at Del Mar dog beach

On the friends side we’ve been meeting up w/ a bunch of old pals incl. some old work buddies and a college friend of mine. This New Year’s Eve we’re even going to have a mini-RV rally of young fulltimers  with the couples from Tally Ho and Our Take on Freedom that we met up in Oregon a few months back.

We’ve also managed the first “purge” of our excess RV items doing a full empty and sorting of the underneath RV bins. At least 3 full bag o’stuff has gone out the door so far so it’s not a bad start.

Mission Trails park out by Santee, CA

That’s all the practical stuff anyway. The other stuff is more on the spiritual side and it’s just as good. We live a simple life and I simply love it. Here we are with warm, sunny days, beautiful sunsets, awesome experiences and the freedom to be as we are and exactly where we want to be. As I reflect back on the year that’s passed I feel extremely lucky to be living this lifestyle and I can’t imagine any better New Year’s Resolution than to keep going as long as we’re able. So, with the last few days of 2011 in view I raise my glass and say “here’s to another one just like this”. Happy New Year everyone!

Our buddies Matt & Tracie (Lions fans in case you didn't notice)

My college buddy Gene. Many good, drunken memories in this reunion!

Another Year And 8,000 Miles On The Road -> 2011 Reviewed

Boondocking in beast heaven, AZ

With Christmas over, bellies full and 2012 just around the corner it’s the perfect time to take a moment and reflect over the past year. I’ve been mapping our journey on Google Maps since we started RVing so it’s always fun to add it up at the end of each year and see where we’ve been. Kinda puts it’s all in picture so to speak. The math this year works out to a full cross-country ocean-to-ocean drive of just over 8,000 miles and 62 stops. Even with all that travel we’ve taken our time with an average of 4-6 days in each spot and drives of only ~150-200 miles. It’s the way we like it. Slow and smooth, baby!

Morning walk on deserted TX coastline

It’s also been an AMAZING ride from the sublime beaches of the Florida panhandle through the southern states to festive New Orleans. A month and a half in Texas with food to swoon for, our first boondocking of the year and the scare of a fire evacuation.The plan of a “quick trip” to New Mexico which ended up lasting 2 months ‘coz we simply fell in love with the place. Another month in summer-cool and gorgeous Colorado that draws us in every time we go. A stunning side-trip to Utah and a quick jaunt into Idaho followed by a speed-run to Oregon to get the rig slide fixed. That led to another month exploring the fabulous Oregon coast. We ended the year with probably the most beautiful drive ever down 395 to the splendors of the desert in winter. Oh, and of course we managed to do at least one totally idiotic thing…and a Nina special too (the year wouldn’t be complete without, would it?)

Phew! Did you manage to get all that in one breath?

A surreal red sunset in windy NM

We also managed to stick pretty closely to our flip-flop barometer. Early in the year with a longer-than-usual winter hanging in the North we hugged the Southern coast enjoying mostly sun and mid-warm weather. Once it started to heat up in Texas/New Mexico we escaped North to the mountains (8,000 feet and above is the key in summer!). We had a few really hot and dry days, a good couple of really windy ones, some crazy Oregon weather and a single really cold spell, but overall we avoided almost all the bugs (yeah!) and did really well.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so rather than blabber on for another 600 words, I’ll just go ahead and show you the whole enchilada. Blog posts for each location are linked to the corresponding site on the maps, so in good ‘ol web fashion you can just point and click for all the details you’ll ever want. Enjoy!!

PART I – Florida to New Mexico (~3,200 miles Jan-Apr 2011)

PART II – New Mexico to Oregon (~2,600 miles May-Sept 2011)

PART III – Oregon to California (~2,300 miles Oct-Dec 2011)

Christmas Elves And A Gift of Hearts

På loftet sidder nissen med sin julegrød,
sin julegrød, så god og sød,
han nikker, og han spiser, og han er så glad
for julegrød er hans bedste mad.
(Up in the attic sits “nissen” with his rice pudding
His rice pudding, so good and sweet
He nods and he eats and he’s oh so happy
Because rice pudding is his favorite food)
Danish Christmas Song, 1911 (listen to it here)

nisser making mischief in the RV

Twas the night before Christmas and the RV was crawling with nisser! The magical and mischievous little creatures have managed to sneak onto the slides and are making merry and taking things apart, as they do. Thankfully I’m prepared and already making rice pudding which should hopefully keep them busy for the night. We’ll see…

But the elves are not the only thing going on in the RV tonight. Our hearts abound and on this merry San Diego eve of the 23rd I’m making a little present of my heart to yours. These are Danish woven julehjerter (Christmas Hearts) and are another great little Danish tradition, which double up as handy, space-saving and fun RV Christmas decorations.

One of my many woven hearts

The tradition of weaving hearts goes back they say to the late 1800′s. The oldest known Danish julehjerte was actually made by Hans Christian Andersen in 1860 and is still preserved in his old house in Odense, Denmark. I’ve been weaving these things since I was a child and still make one or two each year. Traditionally they’re made with red and white shiny paper, but you can get creative and use any color you like. When they’re done they open up, like a basket, and you can fill them and hang them on your tree (or, in our case hang them on the free tree cuttings I got from Home Depot and put in my handy, dandy collapsible vase!).

All you need is 2 different-colored sheets of paper. Follow the instructions here or check out this video. And with that my friends I make a gift of my heart to yours. For as the Beatles so very famously said, all you need is love. And love is really what these next few days are all about. Happy Holiday’s Everyone!

Our Christmas "tree" (cuttings from Home Depot)

Another of our little RV elves

Still All About The Cats

Feline bliss - Taggart relaxes after her ordeal at the vet

Well it’s been all about the cats here at the beast headquarters these past few days, so that’s what you’re gonna get…at least for one more post. Both cats made it through their big dentals with the added bonus that there were only 2 mini-extractions (= can we say cheap, oh yeah!) needed this year. So our budget breathed a huge sigh in relief and we put the dough aside for next year.

The only other gotcha (there’s always one, you know) was that Taggart had a suspicious mass that needed removal on her thigh. The removal went fine, but while we wait nervously for the results we’ve got to deal with the cat-with-stitches phenomenon. That means some kind of restraint to keep kitty from ripping out the stitches before they can heal.

Taggart sunning her stitches

The traditional vet product which is rather elegantly called the Elizabethan Collar (E-collar for short) is really none of the sort. In our house we call it the MFTD (Medieval Feline Torture Device) and our cats agree with us. It’s an uncomfortable stiff plastic cone that is the perfect size to prevent all normal activity -> so if you want your cat bumping into doors, not able to eat or sleep properly, meowing uncontrollably, not able to see the litterbox…etc then this is your device of choice. Taggart went literally bananas when we tried it. She emitted a looong screaming wail-of-a-meow, streaked in a mad rush to the bedroom (getting caught several times along the way) and then pawed like crazy until the thing came off. Short of tightening the device around her neck to strangulation point this clearly wasn’t gonna work.

Now, that's a creative product idea!

So bring creative RVers we improvised. A handy sweater-sleeve, some expert cutting & basic thread-work and we got ourselves a full-body cover. So far the contraption is working and kitty is waaay more comfortable. It boggles my mind that nothing like this is sold for pet owners, but there you go. A free start-up idea for all my blog readers

For those poor pet owners looking for other alternatives there are inflatable collars (ProCollar), soft e-collars (Comfy Cone) and something called Lick Strips. None of the products get stellar reviews, but as far as we’re concerned if it works it works. And anything is better than the MFTD.

The Tale of The $8,000 Cats….

Notice anything missing in this picture? Yessss...thatsh would be the teetsh

Reading the title you might think this is going to be the story of bionic cats. Perhaps cats with super-silicon-titanium-unobtanium implants and electronic ultra-feed quantum powers.  Add-in some ESP for good measure.  Sadly, as cool as that would be, this is not one of those stories. It is in fact the simple tale of two almost TOOTHLESS cats and how we managed to dish out $8,000 to get them that way.

Oh, and the joy of owing pets too…

It's a good thing they're so darn lovable

The tale all starts with a degenerative and completely incurable tooth disease. They’re called Feline Odontoclastic Resorptive Lesions  (FORLs, or resorptive lesions for short). Basically it’s a condition where the cat’s own body attacks its’ own teeth and starts dissolving them, creating painful lesions in the mouth along the way. The fun thing about this disease is that despite almost 20 years of research on it, it’s not known what causes it and there is no known cure or preventative. The ONLY thing you can do is home tooth-brushing to help with basic oral health and extraction when the resorption gets too advanced.

Believe me, I’ve looked into it. I’ve read copious quantities of on-line research, contacted vet universities, even went for a several-hour sit-down with the guy who literally ”wrote the book” on FORLs over in FL last year. All you can do is pull the darn teeth.

And therein comes the moolah and the pain (for the pet parents that is). A single tooth extraction can cost anywhere from $500-$2,000.
{{pause}}
I’ll allow you a moment while you consider how MANY teeth are in a cat
{{pause}}
and another moment while you all grasp your chests and gasp for air
Oh and BOTH our cats have the disease

Yup, a cat's life is a good life...

It’s painful isn’t it? This has gone on for years now and needless to say we save up money all year just for one single tooth extraction event…

Rand is at the vet dentist today (Taggart’s turn is tomorrow) and I have to admit I’m nervous. I always get jittery when our pets have to go under even though I know they’re in the best of hands. Taggart’s already gotten rid of most of her teeth, but I estimate Rand’s got at least another good few thou $$ worth left in her mouth. It’s a good thing I love the furry bums so much, otherwise it’d be a hard bargain to accept. They DO say pets are worth their weight in gold, don’t they? :)