Encinitas, CA

 

5/30 - We are parked in the lot that Lola and Eric Larson have next to their house in Encinitas.  They are Escapees and have made the lot available to other Escapee members.  There is a network of people who provide this service to Escapee members – free!  The price is right, but they only have water and electricity, so we are conserving our storage (gray and black) tanks and will compensate them for the electricity used.

 

Peg is enjoying her family reunion in Louisiana, and I am here enjoying California!  

 

Exciting news!  We went to the Agape Church of Religious Science, a very large church in Culver City.  They have been selling my book in their bookstore for years now, and they took 25 books while we were there.  Plus, they offered me an author book signing!!  What an honor!  I am trying to get it set up for 6/13 – the last day before we head north.  I called Bryan – son-in-law – to send me my box of books from his basement in St. Charles, MO so I can put some more of my books together.  I had to get more labels printed and some more covers printed, also. 

 

Peg’s cousin JoBeth Williams, lives in Los Angeles and we are trying to meet up with her.  Hopefully we will see her and her family when we go up to Agape on the 13^th. 

 

MaryBrenda, Jim & Lynn Chow, and Peg and I have been negotiating for a very large house in Idyllwild – to be used as a spiritual retreat center.  It has been our dream for years to have a retreat center and this is a definite possibility.  However, we have found a few bumps along the road.  It still might work – it would be really nice, since Peg and I would have the privilege of parking the RV free at the location.  It is up a mountain, but the grades are not too severe. 

 

We have been enjoying the Sufi Dancing and Devotional Singing.  The last Sufi Dancing was so beautiful – dancing with 60 Angels in a circle, one after another.  I am going back to Agape this Sunday with the Course in Miracles study group from the Vista church in Vista, CA.  Jeannine Caryl is an old friend of mine who leads the group.

 

It has been a little cool so far here, but probably warming up over the Memorial Day weekend – will try to get to the beach. 

 

6/6 – Finishing up our stay in Southern Cal – this is a hotbed of spiritual activity, something going on lots of evenings, from Sufi Dancing to Devotional Singing to Dances of Universal Peace, to drummings, along with various other spiritual meetings.  There are Religious Science churches in most towns, including the small ones.  We went to see an Indian Guru, Mirabai Devi, who channels the Divine Mother’s energy.  The feeling of devotion and love was so thick you could cut it with a knife. We both received a blessing from her that included a very peaceful and soul filling embrace.  Sufi Dancing on Friday was just marvelous, with about 50 loving Angels all around the circle, holding hands and

dancing together to create a beautiful energy.

 

Peg is back from Lake Charles, had a good time with her family reunion and took LOTS of pictures. Her kids, Kevin & son Zach and Karen & husband Bryan also made the reunion as well as all of brother Owen’s kids and 3 cousins and her Aunt Trula who is 95. Her trip back was a very long one due to delays in Houston and Dallas for thunderstorms. She did get a visit with Bob Stecker in Houston but had to miss seeing Sherry in Dallas because of the weather. We didn’t get back to our trailer until 12:30 am! A very long day that started at 6:30 am.

 

We’ve stayed at the Larsen’s place for 2 weeks and are now moving down towards San Diego to an RV park.  Hopefully the book signing will be on 6/13 and we can move up to Culver City for one night before heading north.  If not, we will have to find another place to stay (if an opening doesn’t come up in the RV park) and stay until 6/20 for the book signing.  I have about a hundred books put together.  Went down to San Diego last week to find some more bookstores to handle my book – found 2 of them.

 

We have found a wonderful friend, Kenny, here, who is a friend of MaryBrenda’s.  He is a Peace Walker and in 2002-03 walked from San Diego to New York to the United Nations.  He is truly a being of Light and Love.  He lives on donations and stipends, does some carpentry work for a retired couple to help them fix up their home.  We have really enjoyed being with him. 

 

6/8 – Moved to San Diego – Santa Fe RV Park – Not the nicest park in the world, lots of noise from the freeway AND the railroad day and night.  It is a Happy Camper park, which means that we get 4 days out of the six that we are staying at ½ price because we belong to the Happy Camper Club.  The site is a little too short for the RV, but we made it fit, anyway.  We have to turn sideways to get between the truck and the RV – Peg can’t get in the truck while it is parked – have to pull out first.  Got the rig in fairly easily – proud of ourselves!  The noise didn’t keep us from sleeping, as we were tired from the move and hook up involved in the move.

 

Went from there to Old Town, San Diego and took the trolley around town.  Very interesting, came back filled with useless but interesting trivia concerning the history of San Diego.  Will take in more of the highlights tomorrow and the next day.

 

Finally got a date for my book signing with Agape – 6/13!!  We will go to a park near Culver City the morning before and stay on the beach for a couple of days.  I am buying, if it is still in the store, an outfit which is white and has the OM symbol all over it.  It is very apropos to the Agape mode of dress.  This is exciting!!!

 

Santa Monica, CA 6/12 – 6/15

6/12 Parked at the Dockweiler State Beach - actually on the beach, by the bike trail, and under the take-off path of the planes leaving LAX.  It is a little noisy, but the noise is not too bad.  Wonderful site.  Went for a bike ride and walks on the beach. 

 

 We had our book signing on Sunday 6/13 at Agape Church of Religious Science, one of the largest metaphysical churches in the country.  I took 60 books there and came back with NONE!!  We sold 50 books and the bookstore kept the other 10 to fill out their supply.  It was a wonderful day - and it was quite an honor to be presenting my book in that forum. The bookstore was very pleased.  I saw some old students of my Course in Miracles classes in Huntington Beach and some other old friends as well.  We went to lunch with Kenny Carroll and a friend of his, and then went to Peg's cousin's home in Bel Air for the late afternoon and evening.  It was a wonderful visit. 

 

We went to the Bodhi Tree bookstore and the Psychic Eye Bookshop on Monday to sell some more books and were quite successful.  We also visited the Disney Concert Hall and took some pictures - that building is spectacular, in downtown LA.  Sent the pictures to daughter Karen for her architecture firm’s edification.  They appreciated them a lot.

 

We are leaving today for Hearst Castle in San Simeon and going from there to Muir Woods north of San Francisco. 

 

Morro Dunes, CA 6/15

Stayed at the Morro Dunes Park, a private RV park.  Went to Hearst Castle – the magnificent obsession of William Randolph Hearst.  He spent millions to show us what opulence looks and feels like.  He gathered ceilings and fireplaces and furniture from all over the world to collect in these buildings, making a playhouse for adults.  We went on two tours of the five that they offer – the Castle Grande (main house) downstairs and one guest house, and the other tour covered the upstairs of the main house. 

 

King City, CA 6/16 – 6/20

San Lorenzo County Park – went to a National Monument, the Pinnacles.  Saw some very interesting panoramas of volcanic action.  Took a hike on one of the walking trails which was a little challenging at times because the trail was not clearly marked and was fairly rocky.  At one point, we were scooting through a gap on our royal behinds. 

 

Corte Madero, CA 6/20 – 6/21

Stayed in Marin RV Park – short stay.  We went down to Sausalito for dinner and ate some fried food at a nice restaurant on the Bay.  The trouble is, we are not used to fried foods, we think that is what made me ill the next day, all day long.  Not fun!  Had planned to see Peg’s friend Sherry’s niece and her husband in San Fran, but had to cancel due to stomach problems. Did get to make a quick visit to Muir Woods the morning we left. Got to the park early and had some real quality time in the quiet and beauty of those wonderful redwoods before it filled up with visitors and people talking.

 

Redding, CA 6/22 – 6/30

Bear Mountain RV Park – Computer went dead, had to take it in to a computer store to rescue our data from the hard drive which was going bad. Had withdrawal pains from not having my computer for 4 days! Luckily got most of it back.  Spent the day loading and recovering programs from disks, were able to get back on the web (a miracle)!  Got new tires for the front end of the truck.  It drives a lot nicer now.  Had to extend our visit so that we could look at the computer and determine if any more help was needed from the computer store. The park is a Happy Camper park, which means that we pay ½ price for the spot.  It is not the nicest park in the world, but in the woods and comfortable.  We had bought an antenna from the last rally we attended and were able to hook it up and get the cell phone to work enough to get on the web and to make/receive calls whereas we had been only on roaming before the antenna was attached.  That is going to be very helpful to us in our future travels. Spent one day driving around the Mt. Lassen National volcanic park – they have examples of 4 kinds of volcanos in that one park. Did you know there was more than one type? We didn’t.  Also visited Mt. Shasta another snow topped volcanic mountain that dominates the surrounding area. Visited the dam at Shasta Lake and got some good pictures of the  mountain dominating the background.