New and Experienced climbers over 50 #20

Phylp, When you were in Carlsbad did you happen to see the ranunculus field? I really wanted to get out there with Tony this year but I imagine the blooms are gone by now.  Have fun in San Diego!

Regarding the parking structure, It may be beautiful but I had forgotten how claustrophobic they make me. I had forgotten how hemmed in I feel just driving through Sunset Beach on PCH or navigating through various interchanges on the 5 freeway. Maybe I’m just out of practice.  

I sat on the beach for a while yesterday morning and just gazed out at the gray ocean and counted 15 tankers floating out there I don’t remember seeing all that before. It’s probably the perfect beach to take up surfing since the waves were maybe 1 foot and the water was OK but I do remember taking a stroll there  25 years ago with a friend who got stung by a stingray and was in some terrible pain. This macho dude finally decided to go to the ER and he was not a happy camper for several days. There was some controversy over whether I could’ve helped by peeing on his leg – – I think that would have been for a jellyfish sting, either way I didn’t think of it and he wound up with some Vicodin.  

I guess the key to this is to “shuffle” when you’re wading in shallow water.

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I’m just taking a few days in Auburn to be with my family and just change it up for a minute. Tony stayed behind – – he’s a miserable mess. His upcoming surgery is July 2 and he is just done with having physical limits. He says he could have lived with it if he hadn’t met me but now he understands what he’s been missing and he’s angry that this couldn’t have been fixed decades ago. He’s just supremely impatient right now—wants the surgery “yesterday”, no more postponements.  He’s afraid of nothing except the possibility that he won’t have his mobility back. Not too much to ask.

Congratulations on the graduation Randy. Big mile stone! Job well done.

Lori Milaswrote:

Phylp, When you were in Carlsbad did you happen to see the ranunculus field? I really wanted to get out there with Tony this year but I imagine the blooms are gone by now.  Have fun in San Diego!

No, we just went to have dinner with some friends, and the next day in San Diego to have lunch with some other friends.  Came home yesterday and today we are both exhausted.  This "lunching and dining" business is more tiring than a day of climbing!  We did get to see lots of wonderful jacaranda in bloom everywhere, and some typical traffic interchanges.

Lori Milaswrote:

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I’m just taking a few days in Auburn to be with my family and just change it up for a minute. Tony stayed behind – – he’s a miserable mess. His upcoming surgery is July 2 and he is just done with having physical limits. He says he could have lived with it if he hadn’t met me but now he understands what he’s been missing and he’s angry that this couldn’t have been fixed decades ago. He’s just supremely impatient right now—wants the surgery “yesterday”, no more postponements.  He’s afraid of nothing except the possibility that he won’t have his mobility back. Not too much to ask.

Congratulations on the graduation Randy. Big mile stone! Job well done.

Please give Tony my best wishes. I really enjoyed meeting him and hanging out. Great guy, sucks to have to go through this... 

Kristian Solemwrote:

Please give Tony my best wishes. I really enjoyed meeting him and hanging out. Great guy, sucks to have to go through this... 

Thanks Kris, he’ll appreciate that. he really liked you too. I thought he was joking when he put on Quigley down Under but that was a serious gift of friendship I guess. This is his opus and I’m not even supposed to laugh. We hope you’ll be back soon and bring your wife. Personally so far I have really enjoyed Joshua Tree in the summertime. Early morning is a great time to get out and sunset is beautiful so it’s all yours with no crowds whenever you want.

“The young ones are running faster but the old ones know the shortcuts.”   Ursula von der Leyen, Pres of European Union 

I’ve been having a great visit with my daughter and grandkids – – and horses dogs cats and ducks and chickens. I had forgotten how she accumulates animals. Suddenly I recall an iguana screaming down our upstairs hallway when she was a teenager, through  a bedroom window and leaping to its untimely death. An injured crow she brought home out of the gutter that took six months to Rehab. A turtle with a broken shell. A 200 pound Burmese python. (That one was my fault). At any rate she’s got her hands full with life and it’s a sweet reminder that we are needed as elders. Does anyone wish they could be 40 again? I don’t, with the exception of it would be nice to have the physical stamina. But not for the world all the doubts and questions and incredible pressure. 

Since that first fateful day  when Erin arranged a half day guided rock climbing session for my birthday a few years ago we have been on parallel paths; she has taken to mountaineering and joined  search and rescue and she has found her heart in Mount Shasta. She has been taking annual journeys to Shasta and learning avalanche training and crevasse training she’s been caught up in snow storms and had a few panic attacks but now she sounds like a seasoned climber. People tell her she’s ready for Denali, she’s ready to head out on her own without a guide etc. but for this time in her life and with young kids she loves exactly what she’s doing. I can relate.

It’s an odd twist of fate that only now can we elders be free birds and do whatever the hell we want and take whatever chances, but in the bodies of elders where a little less performance is possible.

Randy- Congratulations!
Henny- Congratulations!
Carl- Congratulations!
Lori- Congratulations!
OLH- Congratulations!
Wendy- Congratulations! 

Todd- Congratulations!
Kris- Congratulations!

Phylp- Congratulations!
Ward- Congratulations!
Alan- Congratulations! 

Nick- Congratulations!
RUSS- I don't think Randy could be your Dad……….but I can think of a whole bunch of other dudes who could be! Congratulations!
Anybody I missed- Sorry 

I went to NorCal with Bill, Caliveras Dome, to be specific. First time for me. I do not know how Kris and I managed to miss this Big boy. Then it was off to The Valley! Things sure have changed- and not in a good way- everything is crowded and whoever runs the place isn’t very “customer service” oriented. I picked up a six pack and waited in line for 35 minutes! It’s one thing to pay $17 for it but another thing to count 60 people in line with only 2 people working the stands, 6 were not in use! But at the crags everything was the same old same old.
I climbed After 7! …. The stone is as slick as ever, it was hard digging up the old skills but after a bit “it” started to return again.

Congratulations, Guy.    

I’m feeling a sort of bittersweet nostalgia, remembering how much I loved the Sierra foothills and the rivers and lakes and certainly the lupine that grows like clockwork every spring. Today was perfect warm weather with warm breezes all afternoon and plenty of time to play with my grandkids. My daughter showed me the picture of her search and rescue harness and rigging – – what in the world? She’s seriously into this.  And that little boy in the bottom picture is one of my grandsons. This one loves to give hugs and sit on my lap and tell me all about his day  and show me how he skims rocks and plays with his monster trucks.

I am still learning to straddle two worlds. 

After the last two trips with RV and tow car in raging windstorms, I decided enough was enough, I'm too old to be dealing with this.  Came home 5/9, researched new class B's, bought new RV 5/14, sold old RV 5/17, picked up new RV today!  No more tow car!

The most important part of any RV, IMHO.

WOW! awesome looking rig!

Wow, Phylp, I have serious RV/john envy!  
Totally kills most climber's van.
Hope to see it on the Eastside in the not too distant future!

Phylp, so nice! My wife is all in for something like that. Now that we are post grade empty nesters, hitting the road sounds great.

phylp phylpwrote:

After the last two trips with RV and tow car in raging windstorms, I decided enough was enough, I'm too old to be dealing with this.  Came home 5/9, researched new class B's, bought new RV 5/14, sold old RV 5/17, picked up new RV today!  No more tow car!

The most important part of any RV, IMHO.

Guess there are lots of us who would like to see this cool rig.  Perhaps you could drive it to the Over 50 get together at City of Rocks in June.

Kristian Solemwrote:

Graduation in a stadium? What school?

And congrats!

Thanks Kris. 

Both ceremonies for The New School (studies at Lang & Parsons), were in Flushing, NY at the tennis stadiums there. The whole school ceremony (above) was at the Arthur Ashe stadium. 

BTW, I've always thought of Russ as a wayward son.

Randywrote:

BTW, I've always thought of Russ as a wayward son.

Thanks Dad!

Idaho Bobwrote:

Guess there are lots of us who would like to see this cool rig.  Perhaps you could drive it to the Over 50 get together at City of Rocks in June.

I'd love to, but I have family visiting and I'm tied up while all that is happening.  Next year!  And Bob, I haven't forgotten we want to meet at Maple Canyon!

Lori Milaswrote:

Carl look at you! Wow! Can you somehow fashion some Climbing knickers that look like that? I think maybe you are pulling out of your slump. Really nice pic.

Cheers!

phylp phylpwrote:

After the last two trips with RV and tow car in raging windstorms, I decided enough was enough, I'm too old to be dealing with this.  Came home 5/9, researched new class B's, bought new RV 5/14, sold old RV 5/17, picked up new RV today!  No more tow car!

The most important part of any RV, IMHO.

We must have looked at 50 Class B's and finally decided none would work for us.  Now we finally have a custom design, but they can't even start until January, which is probably good because no dealer can even order the van shell for the build.  And you did it in 3 days ! Nice.

Very nice Phylp!  That's a bright red, the pictures are almost blinding me, haha.  If I get to the parking area in PC/ORG I should be able to tell immediately if you're there.

You can tell we're a bunch of over 50s, we all think it's a cool purchase because of the comfort it offers.  BITD it probably would have been diss'd because it violated the dirtbag perspective.  Thankfully that's no longer the case.

Absolutely.  When I was 18 I  completely felt superior to the Whinnipigo crowd.  

Tim Schafstallwrote:

We must have looked at 50 Class B's and finally decided none would work for us.  Now we finally have a custom design, but they can't even start until January, which is probably good because no dealer can even order the van shell for the build.  

Yes the wait times for custom builds is quite long.  I was able to make this decision quite fast because, after driving the apartment on wheels (26' Winnebago Outlook) for 16 years, and knowing exactly how I'm likely to use this one, I knew exactly what features were essential.  It would have been nice to get a 19 footer, but they all felt too cramped.  This one is 21 feet which is still pretty easy to park. We decided this model would work very well and were able to find one locally, that was actually a reduced price because it had been in inventory for a while.  The things I took off the list, which added a LOT of money, were:

-Mercedes engine.  I only put 63,000 miles on the old one over 16 years, so at my age, I don't need that engine.  I would have preferred a Ford to the Ram promaster but no one is building on the Fords right now because they can't get them.

-Lithium ion battery package.  Adds about $20K. My new unit has two solar panels, batteries, and a very quiet gas generator, which is plenty for me for the amount of dry camping I'm likely to do. I don't winter camp, and heat doesn't bother me.  Don't need to run an AC off grid.  I've done enough dry camping to know that I'll be able to do 3-4 days of dry camping without black tank dumping in this new rig, and that's more than I'll ever be likely to do. I'll probably still stay at RV parks for the long trips I do to Red Rocks, etc.

-4 wheel drive/high clearance.  Would be nice but not necessary for the way I'll use it.

Thanks for the good wishes everybody!