Week 2+ in LA

Rainy, cold--but nothing like back East!

Pizza night at the Woodward's--Toby showing his technique to stretch out the dough,




Maddie and Max putting on the fixings under the watchful eye of Jess.



Eating berries as the pizza cooks.




Brunch on Sunday--one reason Tulip loves the kids so much: cheese dropped on the floor.




Lea and Carl Feinstein join us for the weekend, here singing
their rendition of the song they sang at Adam's wedding: "We Ain't Got a Barrel of Money."

First Week in LA



Monday we went to Max's music class--Maddie was in school,
Max quite pleased, a little puzzled having Jess all to himself.




Playing some of that music at home.




Tuesday, practicing walking in Cinderella high heels.




Wednesday, Julie and Bob in the Woodward's kitchen--
our kitchen too for the next two months. Jack, the dog,
wondering if those cookies are for him.




Thursday, Sam reading the required four books before bedtime, Maddie in her
"Woody" from "Toy Story 3" pjs.

A great first week, enjoying the sunshine, the friends, the family.

Arrived!

After 5 days and 3500 miles,




passing through the gates to California,




passing by thousands of windmills in the mountains,




passing next to trucks loaded with fresh oranges,




we arrived in Pasadena and soon met up with Jess and Maddie and Max!
Maddie is gazing up at parrots in the tree and Max is thinking about Tulip.
Sam joined us later for pizza dinner at the Woodwards.
How wonderful to be here at last.

Continuing on....

El Paso was truly cold--1 degree with a wind chill of much less, the city all but closed down by power failures. Ice. We've been dodging storms all the way across the country. Happily, our motel room in El Paso was cozy and warm.




Lunch at a little Mexican restaurant en route.

We're now about 30 miles west of Phoenix on Rte. 10.
3112 miles - more or less - from Providence. Hope to make LA tomorrow!!!!

The Open Road!

..or not if there's rain and sleet and ice and snow.


So far we've managed to stay ahead of the storm by driving two and a half very long days, leaving Providence mid-day on Saturday and getting
to Austin, TX. late Monday night.

Tulip's been a model traveler, curled up in a small space in the back seat of
the Prius for long hours--and adapting quite rapidly to various motel rooms, quite liking the smells in these dog motels.





Today we had a leisurely and lovely drive from Austin towards southwest Texas over Rte. 290--now maybe my favorite road: lovely live oaks, many peach stands, closed for the winter of course, and pecan stands, also closed, and small and large ranches and horses and no billboards and hardly any trucks or other cars. Plus, occasional sunshine--first since Providence. We played David's cd mix of western songs, his "Tumbleweeds" tape and thought about him and Rachel too traveling that road back and forth between Austin and Silver City, New Mexico.




Toby found sun-bleached cattle bones along the side of the road (now in our trunk)




and looked kind of western in his hat. We're so glad we brought along our down parkas as it's been very cold and very, very, very windy.




So windy that the baseboard air conditioning/heating unit in our motel room in Austin was blown free from the wall. A screeching wind and a huge thump and curtains billowing wildly in the wind! So windy half this sign was blown out making it difficult to find our motel in Sonora, TX.

We're on our way to El Paso and beyond tomorrow, although they say it'll snow here tonight and maybe parts of Rte. 10 will be closed. Yikes!