Dec 1 – 2 (2 nights, Morgan Hill, CA USA)
We are staying at Thousand Trails RV Park in Morgan Hill for a couple of days. They allow you to stay for free on weekends, if you agree to attend a 90 minute sale pitch where they try to sell you a membership. We have to go on Sunday at 10:30. It should be interesting. Already I don't really like it here. The security guard at the gate was less than friendly. The resort has no sewer system. The sites are too close together and there are way too many rules. This site is supposed to be a marketing site and it is run down and dirty. I am going to be a tough sell. They do have some interesting wildlife however.

Dec 2
We have a 10:30 a.m. appointment for a Sales Pitch. We arrive on time and the salesman went into his sales presentation full force. The price for a membership started at over $20K and by the end of the sell it was down to less than $10K. We told him we needed to research more and I later found the same membership available on the net for less than $2.5K. We thanked them for the weekend but told them “No Thanks” for a membership.

Dec 3 ( 1 night, Morgan Hill, CA USA – Alberts house)
I had an Ultrasound appointment today to look at my thyroid. Six months ago during an ultrasound of my carotid arteries, incidental nodules were observed on my thyroid. The doctor suggested I have it looked at but we were on our way to Alaska at the time, so I postponed a follow up until now. I will see the endocrinologist on Wednesday.

Back at camp we did our laundry, and dumped our tanks in preparation for moving up to Alberts house today. We will park the coach at his house and we will be staying with Michael and Ying in Sunnyvale. We are thinking the cops in Sunnyvale will run us out if we stay parked on their street too long.

Moved the coach up to Alberts house. We took Albert, Donna and the kids out to dinner at an Italian restaurant and stuffed ourselves on pasta and pizza. Sim and I spent the night in the coach and packed out stuff in preparation for moving up to Michael and Yings place.

Dec 5 – 20 (17 nights, Sunnyvale, CA USA – Michael and Yings)
I had two Doctor appointments today. First, my cardiologist told me I looked great. He reviewed my medication and suggested I cut out one of the diuretics to help increase the levels of Potassium in my blood. All other levels including cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure looked good.

My second appointment was with the endocrinologist. She suggested we do an aspiration biopsy. That is where they stick a big needle in you and draw out a bit of material to test for cancer and other nasty stuff. The doctor said it was not going to hurt so, I agreed and she had me lay down and then she proceeded to stick me 4 or 5 times in each side of my neck to draw samples from these 5 cm nodules on my thyroid. It was not pleasant, and I allowed her to do it without any anesthesia being administered. What was I thinking?

After we finished up with the doctors, we stopped over to see Homa and Farshad. Homa and Farshad are our Iranian friends that live in East Palo Alto. Homa was home, Farshad was at work, so we visited with Homa for several hours. She is still in the child care business and we had fun playing with her charges while we caught up on everything that has been going on since we saw them last.

Dec 6
Today I woke up to a hives breakout on both my legs. Large red welts that itched horribly covered both legs in various locations. I called the doctor and spoke to her finally late in the evening. She assured me that the hives could not have been caused by her procedure. Yeah right! I have never had hives in 63 years, and when I get poked in the thyroid, suddenly I get them. Ten minutes later, the doctor called and told me that the hives was probably the result of her procedure. I got some Benadryl and some Cortisone and applied the creams liberally for days and days before they finally went away.

Sim and I had appointments with the dentist today for teeth cleaning and a checkup. We headed down the road for the dentist and got halfway there and had a flat tire. I got the car jacked up but forgot to block the wheels in my haste and the car rolled off the jack. So the whole tire change operation took twice as long as it should have and we were 45 minutes late for our appointments. The dentist took us in anyway and we had the fastest teeth cleaning procedure in history. We were in and out in 20 minutes. Both of us were disappointed in the lack of thoroughness of the cleaning and we will not be going back to that dentist again.

Dec 7
Kick back day. Do nothing day. Play with the kids day.

Dec 8
Today we have a party to go to at Ken and Na's house. You remember Ken and Na. We attended their San Jose wedding in April of last year. They had their wedding reception at the Thai Basil Restaurant in Sunnyvale. Well, all the Thai girls are cooking up their specialty dishes and we are all meeting at Na's house to eat and talk. About 15 people showed up at the party and it was a big success. Everyone got a lot to eat and drink. It was all delicious as usual.



Dec 9
Today Sim is having lunch with her Chinese friends, Liduan, Lisa, and Weiting at a local Thai restaurant. Sim tried to hint to her friends that she was tired of Thai food, but she had no luck because her friends all love Thai food. So, majority rules and Sim had to eat Thai food again. Sim said her friends usually didn't get together to see each other until she was in town. I am going to run some errands, get a haircut and get some new tires on the Jeep. After the blowout on the way to the dentist I am without a spare. All the tires need to be changed. The two fronts were used to start with from the blowout in Mississippi, and the backs have 50 or 60K miles on them. I have been worried about the tires for the past few months and will feel better getting new rubber on the ground.

Dec 10
Sim has her ultrasound appointment today to get her liver checked. She had one brother die of liver cancer and one is dealing with liver disease so she has to keep an eye on hers. Today I also found out that the test run on my thyroid nodules was negative, so no worries there.

Dec 11
Sim is meeting with Cherbill today. Cherbill is a former co-worker during the time Sim worked at the Biltmore Hotel and Suites. They treat each other more like they are sisters. Sim was gone for 5 hours. When Sim left I was reading something on the internet, and when she came back, I was still sitting on the same chair and still on the internet looking for something on Google. Sim said it looked like she had never left.

Dec 12
Kick back Day

Dec 13
Today we are having lunch with Margaret Choy. Margaret was a classmate of Sim's at San Jose State. Sim told me that Margaret was one of a top notch students. She graduated one semester before Sim and was on Deans List and Valedictorian of her class. Sim, on the other hand, was also an honor student and Valedictorian of the Spring class. Margaret nows runs the cafeteria at Marvel, a semiconductor company in San Jose. She has 70 plus employees to supervise at the Cafe. The Marvel employees get their breakfast lunch and dinner paid for by the company.

Dec 14
Sim is meeting with Cherbill again today. It will probably be a four to five hour deal again. I don't have any plans other than to run a few errands.

Dec 15
Today we are having breakfast over by the Sunnyvale Farmers market at the Bean Scene. They have good coffee and great pastries there. We are meeting with Elisabeth and get all caught up with her life and share some of our adventures with her. Elisabeth is a friend of ours that attended San Jose State with Sim. Elisabeth helps out on an apricot farm in the summer months and we used to visit her every season for fresh apricots. She was also my “Christmas Date” at the time Sim worked at the Biltmore. Sim invited Elisabeth to her company's Christmas party every year. So, Elizabeth was my “date” and kept me company while Sim was busy running the party. This afternoon, the Thai girls all came over to Ying's house and cooked up a bunch of delicious Thai food for everyone. Everyone was stuffed and all the food was gone in short order. Jua, owner of Thai Basil was there also, so I talked him into taking off one afternoon to play golf.

Dec 16
I am taking the kayak covers down to a woman in South San Jose who is going to make them fit the kayaks a bit better. These covers I bought are one size fits all covers, and that includes kayaks and canoes. So there is way too much material and they flop around on the top of the car and collect water when it rains.

Sim is having Dim Sum with a couple of friends, Marjorie and Tiffany, so she is going to be busy for hours and hours today. Tiffany was a SJSU student who took a class where Sim was working as a teacher's assistant while she worked full time at the Biltmore Hotel. Tiffany was on the Deans list as well, and Sim hired her at the Biltmore after Tiffany graduated. It must have been very good Dim Sum because Sim didn't come home until very late in the afternoon.

I am taking Michael out for lunch at his favorite taco place. These are true Mexican tacos. $1.00 each and they are a couple of tortillas filled with beef, pork or chicken. You put on your choice of salsas, onions, and peppers. I would like to open up a taco place like this in Phuket after we get settled in and the house built.

Dec 17
Today I was scheduled for my colonoscopy, but it was cancelled when they found it I had a defibrillator implant. It seems the clinic cannot do a colonoscopy procedure on patients with a defibrillator. I would have to go to Stanford to have it done. I have no idea why they did not ask me if I had a defibrillator when I made the appointment with them 3 months ago. Now it was too late to get another appointment at Stanford. The wait for a slot is at least two months and we do not want to stay in San Jose that long. So I will wait another year and get one done when we finish our trip and before we head over to Thailand.

Sim has an appointment with her doctor today. She is getting a general checkup and talking to her doctor about the results of the liver ultrasound. Her liver looks healthy.

After finishing up with doctors' appointments, we went to see my old crew at Sanmina-SCI. Everyone looked great and it looked as though they were still having fun working. Really! Sim said my old boss looked fresh and was pretty in a good shape. We noticed new defibrillator equipment was installed by the HR office. I was told that the new equipment was to honor me. My big event, the heart attack, happened while I was giving a presentation to a potential customer when working for Sanmina in 2005. Ironically, while we were visiting Sanmina, Joette the HR Mgr., was taking the new Plant Mgr. to the hospital because he was experiencing chest pain. It turned out he was OK however. It was very nice seeing the old gang again, but glad I retired when I did.

We didn't get the chance to see Farshad when we stopped by a week ago, so we went to their house again this evening. We stopped at the Chinese grocery store to buy the ingredients to make chicken wonton before heading off to their house. Sim wanted to give them a home cooked treat of a simple, easy, healthy, and delicious dish that they haven't eaten before. Sim cooked quite a lot and we thought there was no way we could eat all of what she had prepared but because we all had a second serving, including Ariya, their 9 year old son, who does not like to try new dishes, there were no leftovers.

After dinner, Ariya, entertained us by playing the violin. I also played a video football game with him, but he quickly tired of playing as I was no competition. The evening adjourned at about 10 p.m.

Dec 18
I don't remember what we did on this day. The weather has been cold and dreary lately so I think we just stayed inside and kept warm. We did however go out when it got dark and drove over to Tangerine Lane to see the Christmas lights on that street. There are a couple of guys that live next to each other that collaborate on Christmas decorations each year. This year they have over 80,000 lights put up, all set to music. The show plays continuously from 6:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. each night for about 3 weeks. The cars line up early for good spots to view the show. We went an spent about an hour there watching the show.

Dec 19
I don't remember this day either, I think we just lay back and did nothing. Ying has cooked for us every day while we have been here, so tonight we are taking everyone out to dinner. We took Ying, Michael, Gaew, and the kids to our favorite Greek restaurant. The food was good, the portions were huge and everyone left the restaurant with full stomachs and leftovers.

Dec 20
Meeting Jua for lunch today over at Thai Basil restaurant. You remember Jua as the owner of the Thai Basil restaurant in Sunnyvale. Thai Basil is where the wedding reception for Ken and Na was held. You remember Ken and Na, right? As soon as the lunch rush is over, Jua and I are heading over to the Sunnyvale Golf Course to play a round of golf. Sim is going too to act as official caddy and photographer. We had fun and it was good to catch up with Jua. He beat me as usual, but I did have a few memorable shots. Jua wanted us to have dinner with him, but we already had another commitment this evening. He, nevertheless, packed up a to go box of Chicken basil and Chicken bar-b-q, so we could eat while we were traveling tomorrow. Very kind of him.

Sim is meeting with Cherbill and Vasuki for to go out for Indian food tonight. Vasuki was Sim's student while she helped teach at SJSU. Vasuki was a 4.0 student. Like Tiffany, Vasuki was hired by Sim at the Biltmore after she graduated. Now she is an Assistant GM at a well known chain hotel. Sim is proud to see the students whom she hired doing well. After dinner, Sim and the girls had fun driving around Cherbill's neighborhood and took lots of pictures of houses with Christmas lights before calling it quits for the night.

I am going to see my buddy Ed. Ed was the second founding member of the Shoreline Model Yacht Club. One year I was off work and built a 3' long radio controlled sailboat. I would go out to Shoreline Lake in Mountain View and sail almost everyday. Ed showed up one day and sailed my boat and decided he had to have one too. When a third guy bought a boat, we formed the Shoreline Model Yacht Club and today it carries on with 10 members. I spent about 4 hours over at Ed's place before Sim called and said she was heading home and could I meet her there.

Dec 21 (1 night, Oak View, CA USA)
We are done with all the doctors appointments and there is nothing keeping us here any longer. Michael and Ying are heading over to Arizona to have Christmas with Michael's parents. We have decided to caravan down the I-5 freeway towards Los Angeles together. The kids, Adena and Theo, along with Michael and the nanny will ride with us in the coach, and Ying will drive the car. Michael will switch off with Ying if she gets tired or lonely. Close to 1 p.m. we stopped at a rest area to have lunch. We finished the two to go boxes Jua gave us and they were enough to feed all of us; five adults and two kids.

We arrive close to the road where Sim and I are heading west to go over to Ventura to visit with my friend Anita. The kids, Michael and the Nanny all get in the car with Ying and we say our goodbyes and part company. Sim and I continue over to Oak View, CA and met up with Anita. We parked the coach on the street and spent the rest of the evening catching up with Anita while having dinner.

Dec 22 – 24 (3 nights, Camarillo, CA USA)
Anita made breakfast for us this morning and we ate and talked and checked out her place in the daylight. She lives in a nice canyon area in the Ventura foothills. Lots of wild animals and birds visit her place. Everyone has horses and dogs. Sim was in love with P.D, Anita's dog, and was thinking about adopting him. But... after sleeping on it one night, she said it would be better to have pets after we stop traveling.

It is early afternoon and we say goodbye to Anita and head south to Camarillo. We are meeting up with the son of a former business partner of mine. I have known Eric since he was about 8 or 9 years old. Eric and his dad Wayne and I spent a lot of time together playing in the mountains and on the lakes and rivers of California, Arizona and Colorado. We all lived together for about 4 years back in the 1980s. Eric had reserved 4 guest parking spaces in the community where he lives so we were able to park the coach just up the street from his place.

That evening we had a great dinner that Eric prepared; lamb kabob, asparagus wrap, and bok choy saute. We got to know his wife Jessica and their daughter Natalie. It was fun reminiscing about the “good old days”.

Dec 23
Today we are going to the beach with Eric and his family to meet with his friend Marvin. We all headed out to have breakfast first thing in the morning. We went to the local breakfast place and I had my usual French Toast, while Sim, Eric, and Jessica enjoyed eggs, bacon, and wheat toast. The weather is beautiful, and the beach is warm. There was no wind, the sun was out, and the temperature was about 75 degrees. It is hard to believe it is Dec 23rd. We sat, talked, watched surfers, played the guitar, and laughed a lot.

A four year old Natalie seemed to be bored after sitting with us for a while without understanding why adults had fun just sitting and talking. So, Sim volunteered to take her for a walk or I should say a run. Natalie came back and told us with her excited voice that she found a HUGE Starfish, and wanted her parents to go see it. We played at the beach until the early evening before heading back to the coach. Sim cooked up a big batch of Pad Thai for dinner and we told more stories and laughed even more.

Dec 24
We have decided to leave today and head up to Apple Valley to have Christmas with my son. So we need to do some shopping. Luckily there is an outlet mall close by so we headed off in the morning to do some serious Christmas shopping for Joel and his family. We got our shopping done by noon and said our goodbyes to Eric, Jessica and Natalie and headed for Apple Valley.

It was an uneventful drive to Apple Valley. We pulled in an plugged in. Hugs all around. Our grand daughter, Angelina, is walking now. When we saw her last month, she was only taking one or two steps before falling. Now she is walking everywhere and of course getting into everything.

Dec 25 – 30 (6 nights, Apple Valley, CA USA)
Merry Christmas everyone. Today we are going to Golden's parents house for Christmas dinner. I guess all Golden's brothers are going to be there with all their kids. Should be a full house. Christmas dinner was pot roast, honey baked ham, spicy cornbread, various vegetables and several yummy sweet desserts. Devon, Golden's son from her first marriage, was the official Santa Claus and passed around the Christmas presents to everyone.

Dec 26 – 30
We relaxed for the next few days. We also did some work on Joels addition. The biggest thing remaining is the bathroom tile and installation of all the fixtures. The bedroom carpet is coming in a few days so at least they can move in to the bedroom and out of the living room where they have been sleeping for the past few months. I washed the coach the day before we were going to leave. It finally got warm enough during the day so it was not too cold playing with the water.

Originally, Sim didn't plan to cook Pad Thai this time while staying at Joel's place. However, Dominique, Joel's step daughter, asked Sim if she was planning to cook Pad Thai. She told Sim that it was her favorite dish. So, Sim of course cooked it and her Pad Thai made everyone happy. The kids fought over leftover Pad Thai next day. I think Pad Thai has become Sim's signature dish. You cannot find Pad Thai anywhere either here or in Thailand that tastes like Sim's. The secret is that she changed some ingredients and created her own and all ingredients are fresh and the Pad Thai is all from scratch.

Greg sent us an email that he was having a New Year Eves Party at his place. So, we are heading to his house in Irvine tomorrow.

Dec 31 – Jan 3 (3 nights, Irvine, CA USA)
Joel is off to Las Vegas to visit his Cousin Brenda who is out from Florida with her daughter to visit for the holidays. We are leaving Apple Valley and driving to Irvine today. The drive is interesting because of the high winds. Lots and lots of big rigs are pulled off the road waiting for the wind to die. There are High Wind advisories in effect for I-15 which is the freeway we are using. Our Foretravel performed admirably in the windy conditions. I could feel the wind but at no time was I afraid of losing control or worried about our safety or tipping over. With the coaches low center of gravity, half full of fuel and full of fresh water, it handled great the entire time.

Dec 31
We are at Greg's house in Irvine again. Greg decided to have a New Years Eve party so we are helping him get ready. He has no idea how many people are coming so we are preparing for 30 or so. The party turned out to be a big success. About 25 people showed up and we ate, drank, played some Texas Hold Em and at midnight, put on funny hats, blew our party favors and tossed a couple bags of confetti all over Greg's house.

Jan 1
We got up late this morning and went inside Greg's house to find him reading the paper and drinking coffee. The house actually looked pretty good. A couple of people had stayed late and helped with the after party clean-up. We got our vacuum cleaner, mop and broom out of the coach and helped get up the confetti that seemed to be everywhere we looked. The floors clean, we settled down to watch the Rose Parade and the numerous football games that were on TV. Later in the day we went out to return the Karaoke equipment to Greg's brother in law and do some shopping. When we got back to the house around 3:00, Greg went to take a nap. We did not see him again until 6:00am the next day. I guess all the partying really wore him out.

Back To Travelogue Page