Category: OBC blog

A Walk in the Park

Mountains Meta, Wolfson Park, Rancho Mirage

Two weeks ago today—practically to the minute (!)—on Saturday November 12, 2022, the OBC Caravan arrived in Rancho Mirage.

Since that date, Timi Hendrix and I have taken many walks in the immediate area of our new home and around the perimeter of our new gated community, always staying within the walls. The idea has been for him to learn the scent and extent of his new territory.

Today, after 14 days of this intensive “territory training”, we ventured beyond.

Surveying “The Wash”

Just behind our complex is a lovely trail called the Butler-Abrams. It runs alongside a sandy culvert known as The Wash. In the event of flash flooding, this is where water will rush down from the mountains like a river. It hardly ever rains in the desert, but I guess when it rains, it pours.

Wolfson Park Entrance/Exit

Timi and I walked beside the wash all the way to Wolfson Park, then looped back on Frank Sinatra. Many streets here are named for 20th century performers and politicians who lived and golfed in Palm Springs—Dinah Shore, Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, etc.

Waiting for the Light on Frank Sinatra

Near the end of the walk, I noticed some dates on the ground, freshly fallen from date palms lining the sidewalk. I collected a handful to bring home and enjoy (after washing them and checking for bugs, of course.) Delicious!

Wildcrafted Dates

I wrote about dates and how nutritious they are here, in one of my previous blogs from another lifetime.

Roadside Date Palm, Rancho Mirage

Altogether it took about an hour to walk the Butler-Abrams loop—a perfect length of time. Timi was very well behaved on his leash all the way, and friendly to every dog we met on his exciting first foray outside the complex.

Happy 2-week Anniversary to us! 🌵OBC🦉

OBC Back at the Ranch

Timing is Everything

Today is Tuesday, the 22nd of November, a date which looks very cool written out as 11/22/22 for all you Magic Numbers buffs, and as 22/11/22 for the even cooler Euro crowd. But I digress.

Heading West at Dawn, Upstate NY, Tuesday Nov 8, 2022

Two weeks ago today, under the dark light of a full moon total eclipse, I was waking up at a Quality Inn in Dunkirk NY. Some of you may recall the travails of the previous day when clever Clyde, the cat, delayed our departure by three hours. We had been headed for Cleveland on Day 1. We weren’t supposed to spend the night in Dunkirk/Fredonia (two towns joined at the hip) at all, nor be departing from such an eastern point on Tuesday, November 8th. I ended up spending an exhausting 11 hours on the road that day, making up time lost by errant feline. It was a very long day, but at least the weather was clear.

Well, get a load of this:

This past weekend, a mere ten days after I passed through the region, this happened. Talk about a delay! A record-setting snowfall led to a State of Emergency with travel bans issued for Erie County and surrounding areas. The entire I-90 was shut down—all the way from Buffalo to…wait for it… Dunkirk/Fredonia. My exact route!

Seems a bit surreal, writing this from the California desert where a “cold snap” has been keeping daytime temps in the low-to-mid 70s. But back in upstate New York, things got pretty messy. Hardworking crews are still cleaning it up.

“The heavy snow made for dangerous travel conditions, according to the state Thruway Authority…More than 1,000 state Department of Transportation employees, state troopers and National Guard members are on the ground in Western New York and in the North Country to address the lake-effect snow.“

Guess I was playing it risky by waiting a full week into November to commence my cross country sojourn. Next year, I’ll plan for October. Hate to miss the leaves, love to miss the blizzards. 🌵OBC🦉