17.04.25 Last duty days

Tuesday was my last shift of this four month camp host assignment. I have already confirmed my spot for the same time tame in 2018.  Here is a peek into the duties  (I wouldn't actually call it work) and tools of the trade....

My on duty days at the campground are Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  I work from 6:00 am to 1:30 or from 1:30 to about 9:00PM depending on the day.  Richard and Eddie have been my partner host couple during march and April.  They cover the other half of each day we work.

The campground is 1.5 miles north to south situated at the top of a tall bluff along the ocean. Each camp host is assigned a golf cart to use while attending to camp host business since the park is really to big to walk.  Here I am with my golf cart in from of the entrance station kiosk.

Morning and noon rounds are primarily for traffic control. We use registration records provided by the entrance station staff 

to make an early morning cam check to identify unregistered vehicles and nudge them to register by leaving a yellow "love note" on their windshield.  This note holds no weight itself, but could result in an actual law enforcement ticket if they ignore ours and do not pay voluntarily.  The reason we start t 6:00AM AM is to catch the squatters before they leave in the morning. It happens almost every day because the aids go home at dark and there is no gate restricted access.  At noon we circle again and nudge the outgoing campers out so the next batch can access their reserved sites at the 2:00 check in.

While cruising the campground in these golf carts we answer questions, give directions and chat up the campground visitors.  I stopped to talk to these folks because they were from Michigan, and because I loved their custom license plate.  Mike would really appreciate this since he and I were big fans of National Lampoon's Vacation and Christmas Vacation.  This RV owner was too, since his custom plate read "KUZINEDY" which was a nod to the dreaded Cousin Eddy who always showed up at Clark's door in his motorhome

There is a bit of time spent in the entrance station to assist the park aids as needed and to spell them for their lunch breaks.  Here are Kelly, Tim and Emily - almost always happy to be at such a beautiful place to work.  

There are two aides on duty most days during the busy 2:00 check in time, and on weekends.  In addition to admitting campers to the 220 campsites, the kiosk staff collect day use fees from people who are lucky enough to have friends or family camping here.  General day use parking outside the park along the beach is at a premium - especially on weekends, so most visitors are happy to have a front row parking spot at the standard day use parking fee of $15.

Here is a view of the beach from the park road - my favorite place to stop when making rounds to soak up the view and make a phone call or two. 

Next up:  what comes next since my camp host duty is not DONE!

April 2017: Alone at home but not alone in Carlsbad

I've been at South Carlsbad State Beach (volunteering as a camp host in exchange for the privilege of living at the beach) since January 1 this year.  Mike and started coming here in 2014 during our 2nd year of our full time motor home living adventure.

I'll talk more about the camp host aspect of my time here in another post.  Right now I'd like to talk about my non-volunteer activities and the people who make this time interesting because.....

I have heard concerns from a number of my family and friends about whether it was a good idea for me to come down here all alone so soon.  Mike and I talked about it before he left and we both agreed it would be OK because the town, the work and the people are familiar.  Those who have been here to visit us understand.

First of all, it is beautiful ocean front living.  With ever changing neighbors. Here is a photo of unfavorable neighbors who sometimes block my view completely.  Not a biggie because I know they will be gone soon. There is a one week camping limit in this state park.

Here is a photo of better neighbors who park off to the right and let me see the view.  

And here is the joyous view from my front door when there are no neighbors at all -

 like the weeks of  January 16 - March 4, when the north end of the park was closed to campers 

for seasonal maintenance work.  

Six weeks with no neighbors during the winter storms.  Perfect!

I have seen whale spouts from my front window, and the sound of the surf is very relaxing.  

But don't worry, along with the 180 degree ocean view I can also see the  campground's 

check in booth out the driver's side windows only 100 yards away!

  

Next on the plus column is the short distance to community services.  Groceries are less than a mile away.  The library is four miles away.  I have been getting books on tape from there since I'm stationary long enough to listen and return.  The Carlsbad Senior Center is six miles away.  I've been going there on Monday mornings for Spanish class and occasionally on Tuesday mornings for knitting circle.  Both of these activities have been satisfying for me personally and I have added names to my new friend list as a result of my attendance at both activities.  Carlsbad Hospice is six miles away.  They offer grief yoga on Thursdays at noon.  What a wonderful experience that has been.  The instructor lost her husband when in her twenties.  She knows how to relate and invites us to fully experience our own grief as only we now how.

Finally, we are making new friends.  Here we are with Beth and Mike last year at the beach.  We met them last year through the Parkinson's Assoc. Support Group meetings, and have been in touch ever since.

Last year Beth introduced me to Robin who lives across the street and walks through the park regularly.  This week the three of us met for lunch, and afterwards,  Robin took me up to see the Carlsbad Flower Fields.  They are a 50 acre area overlooking the ocean and are in stunning full bloom right now.

I've had play dates and meal time with a fellow knitter friend, and meet ups with other Spanish learners where we only hable espanol.

And then there are the camp hosts.  Other like minded folks who come to the beach for three to four months at the same time each year.  Here is Pete and Nancy.  They have time hosting seniority and showed Mike and me the social ropes during our first year.  This year Pete just happened by in his golf cart one night at dusk when I was out walking and really needed a hug,  Thanks, Pete! Nancy is a fellow knitter and I'm working on her fingerless gloves pattern right now.  Thanks, Nancy!

Mike and Kathy have been my on-duty shift partners for two years during Jan and Feb.  Mike was my Elks Club sponsor last year and Kathy makes pleasant campfire company at night.

Here we are with Pete and Patty who we worked with during our first year here, and who we met by accident in the fall of 2015 when they just happened to be at Folsom Lake State Park the same days we were there visiting with Mike's sister, Chris.  Small world!

Randy and Lois follow me in to Site 127 after I leave at the end of April, 

and helped us celebrate my birthday last year when Mike and I had a week of R & R 

in the campground here after returning from Mexico.

There are other camp host friends from Carlsbad but no pictures to prove it... Richard and Eddie Mike and Elena, George and Pam, George and Barbara.

All these folks make me feel welcome and safe. I look forward to keeping in touch with their adventures as they travel through life and meeting up with them once a year at South Carlsbad State Beach.

Backpedaling: 2017, April 1 - 14

Where do I begin?  How about the beginning of April.....

Eric stopped in for a two night visit on April 5 and 6 since he was driving by on his way from Cancun to northern CA for his summertime work.  I borrowed a bike from Pam, a fellow camp host for me to ride and Eric rode the bike Connie gave me.  We take a very nice 16 mile round trip bike ride up to Oceanside on a beautiful day.  Here we are stopping for a break at Stone Brewery - a local San Diego brewhouse.

Spring has finally arrived.  This year has been wet everywhere on the west coast, I know, and that is a good thing.  This year we have received more rain during Jan - March than we did the whole time we were here in all the previous years combined - 2014,2015 ad 2016.  This is a view from the campground looking down at the beach - there are five different access points spread out over the 1.5 mile beach campground at the top of the bluff.  The access stairways are not handicapped friendly - 2 of the 5 stairways contain over 100 steps from bluff-top to rocks.  If you zoom in on this picture, you will see an eager sunbather getting some early season full body sun.

Here is an empty campsite sporting a beautiful spring bouquet of flowers.  The palm trees and houses are across the street called The Coast Highway, Highway 101, or Carlsbad Blvd.  It is a major road, so carries a lot of traffic but once you get to the ocean side of the road all there is between the road and the ocean is the campground,  Less than a mile on the inland side of the Coast Highway is I-5.  At night the road is mostly quiet, and the campground smells of campfires. It is easy to forget we are so close to civilization when the ocean surf is such a beautiful sound.

Let's take a short flashback to last March, 2016 when Mike and I drove to Phoenix to purchase and have installed this hydraulic lift which was an integral tool in Mike and my ability to accomplish our goal of staying in the motor home for as long as possible.

Since the lift is no longer needed I took a repeat road trip this March, 2017 to the Phoenix area to have the hydraulic lift removed from the motor home at the same place that installed it last year.  I also had a repeat visit with camp host friends Laverne and Bill.  I parked on the side of their house in Arizona City and had a really nice two night visit.  Laverne has been brewing kombucha and was happy to share a starter kombucha scoby with me so I can make my own.  Here is a picture of my second batch bottled on April 1. Delicious!                                                  

As I mentioned in a recent post, I have been making it a priority to visit the beach.  In addition to this activity being a really good place for me to reflect on the past and look forward to the future it has the added benefit of allowing me to prep the tan I will need and want for my upcoming trip to Mexico.  More on that later.  Here is me needing practice on making better selfies.

 

and another after many tries with the delayed timer 

on my phone which I balanced against a rock in my new rock spot.

I have yet to learn if a person can have too may sunset pictures.

17.04.15. Where do I begin?

Thanks again for the encouragement I received from friends to get my travel blog going again.  I am not ready to drop the "Mike and Denise - The Next Phase" title just now, and I am certain that Mike is with me, so I will forge on in this format until I am ready to change.   

Before getting in to the daily details in a future post, I will simply say that I arrived alone at South Carlsbad State Beach on December 30, knowing that this would be a perfect place for  me to be to digest the loss of Mike on December 4, and the preceding 2.5 years of awareness, concern, discovery and caregiving that accompanied his rare neurological disorder, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.  

So this post is dedicated to Mike, in memory of all the great years we had together.

Here we are on Christmas night 1981 at my parents house in Kalamazoo Michigan just before taking off to drive to California for the new jobs we had 

in San Francisco at Touche Ross and CO CPA's.  Pretty exciting!

The early years were spent in San Francisco from where we launched many trips to the mountains and enjoyed cross country skiing, hiking and backpacking.

Four years later we married in 1984

and moved to Stockton where 14 months later Eric arrived

then Curt, 2.5 years later.

We still loved loved trips to San Fransicso

and Mike advanced his career 

while being a devoted father.

He took us with him on business trips. 

 Here we are at the top of the twin towers in NYC in 1996

We started our motor home travels in 2001 with a trip to visit sister Chris in Austin Texas.

Here we are at the top of the Arch de Triumph in Paris after Eric graduated in 2004.

with my brother Jim in 2004

still strong and hiking in 2008 after leaving the corporate world.

Here he is at the beginning of our full-time motor home journey in Tillamook OR in 2013.

Here at Curt' and Sarah's wedding party in Sheffield, England in 2015

and sitting with brother Steve at Eric and Claudia's wedding party 

on Isla Holbox, Quintana Roo, Mexico in 2016

So many good pictures of him, but that's all for now except for this big thumbs up for the positive attitude he carried with him through his disease

Thank you very much, my love, for being such a good partner in life.  

You will be with me always as I carry on and enjoy the journey we started together.

17.04.16 An Easter Miracle message

I intend to play catch-up with this blog, because a lot has happened since last I posted at the end of August.

In the meantime, in order to avoid getting any further behind, I will just start in from where I am today, and what better day than Easter Sunday when I received an amazing message,

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17.04.16 Easter Sunday

PM campground duty today made this a no-beach afternoon, so I went this morning instead after an easy no-alarm wake up and a big bowl of fruit for breakfast. I made no time for the beach yesterday and I did not want to miss two days in a row. The beach trips have been important to me since I arrived here at South Carlsbad State Beach. They are a good time to think and to release pent up tears. Both activities make me feel good - they are a priority. This is my 5 fifth trip to the beach in 10 days. I have a favorite rock that is far enough from the staircases to be mostly private. The rock sits at the top of the tide line with a nice level back rest like a reclining beach chair. The chair seat is small rocks arranged by the tide at a perfect declining angle to fit my knee joints.

Imagine my surprise when upon arrival at my beach rock this morning, I found the rock had been exposed by one of the high tides since I last visited the rock two days ago.

No more back and knee rest. No more beach chair at all! What a powerful spiritual and personal message that was! Mike is not here. His loss is incredibly painful for me in many dimensions. But…. Mike and God are living in me! I know they will be an influence to me as I do the work to discover and manage my life without Mike. I received this Easter message from being in nature. Nature is a close connection I will always have with Mike.

My Easter song is "For the Beauty of the Earth".

My future mission is unfolding because my mission with Mike was lost in a tragedy. Here is my next beach spot. As Mike always used to say: I'm Gumby!