October 23, 2924 - October 26, 2024 — Final Leg of Trip and Days at Erin’s in Tracy, California.

My Blog Reflection

You don’t get older, you get better.

Shirley Bassey

October 23rd:

After a nice breakfast at Dennys we headed to Tracy, California, our first destination - Erin’s house. It was a beautiful drive through Donner Pass. We stopped in Truckee, California, to tour the “Donner Museum”. There was a nice video and many displays explaining what happened to the Donner party wagon train going over Donner Pass in 1846. There is a beautiful monument there which depicts a family headed West. The sculpture is bronze and it was brought to the site in several pieces. Here is a picture and an explanation.

We arrived at Erin’s on a sunny afternoon and visited until the boys got home. It was so great to see them. Erin made a pot of rice, beans, and pork for supper, which was delicious.

Three year old Free is a character. At one point he decided to demonstrate how Grandma gets off the couch. It was hilarious. 

I was up early so tallied up my gas receipts to see what kind of mileage the truck got on this long haul. 15.9 mpg. I was a little disappointed. I would have thought it would have done a little better.

Erin had to work so we took Free for the day. A few things were needed so a trip to Walmart was in order. Free got a pair of rubber boots, a new bike helmet, and new PJs. Erin needed a crock pot so we bought one. Back at the house Kelly put the ingredients needed for a chicken noodle for supper in the new crock pot. While she was doing that I followed Free around the block on his scooter with his boots and new helmet. His scooter went much faster than grandpa. 

We then took Free to lunch at the Black Bear Diner. Here is a picture of Free and Kelly out in front.

After lunch we drove about eight miles to a pumpkin patch farm. It cost $21.00 each to get in with no discount for kids nor seniors. The place was a major ripoff in my opinion.  As we walked in there were several large puddles. With his new boots on Free was eager to jump and splash. He jumped and splashed for several minutes until he got his pants wet. He didn’t like that. There were long slides and tubes to slide down. After going down kids had to walk a long way around to get to the steps to go again. Free went down twice and had enough of that. There was a “Teeny Town” of children sized buildings. Free roamed through each building but mostly he liked the Italian Restaurant where he cooked us pizza and served it up in the booth.

He also liked the firehouse and held tight his position as the fire truck driver as other kids walked in and out. Here is a picture.

They had pony rides for an extra $10.00 and it was $5.00 to ride the carousel. Tight Grandma and Grandpa said “no” to both. They had a large jumping pillow, which he enjoyed. When finished jumping he wouldn’t walk back to get his boots because he didn’t want to get sand on his socks. The worker was kind enough to retrieve him, carry him to us, and fetch his boots. Jeez, three year olds. When walking back to the truck he told us that he had a great time so I guess it was worth the exhorbitant price.

Erin’s back yard is all concrete and all back yards in subdivisions in California are surrounded by a six foot solid fence. In one area in the back of her yard the concrete has settled and water pools up all the time. I brought my hammer drill and drilled a couple half inch holes to hopefully drain the area.

October 25, 2024

We went to Stockton to check on some things for Erin. From there we went back to her house to meet a friend, Scott, who was going to help get Erin’s Ford Cmax started. I had put a 6 amp charger on it for two days and it did nothing. It is a hybrid but needs the 12 volt battery to start. Scott’s jumper box started it right up but it wouldn’t stay running. We did some checking and found the 12 volt starting battery in the back only had 3 volts. The battery had a 2023 sticker on it and Scott recognized it as an O’Reilly battery.  We pulled it out and headed there. The battery was replaced and still has two years left on the warranty. Everything is good. Erin now just needs to get it licensed and insured.  Then she will not have to rely on Kellen’s car. 

After the car issue was resolved we picked up pumpkins to decorate and a flower for Kellen’s girlfriend, Sabrina. It was her seventeenth birthday so we all had dinner together. Here is a picture of Kellen and Sabrina.

Here is a picture Erin took of us outside. I love Free’s little grin.

Back at the house we painted pumpkins and put them out in front. Lots of talent in this family. LOL I’ll let you guess which one I did.

October 26, 2024 

In the afternoon we went to Kellen’s marching band competition. His school hopes to do a sweep this year and win all competitions. Last year they came in first in all but one competition. In that one they came in second. Today they came in first in all categories except band director which got second. Cousins, Violet and Wren, made posters to cheer Kellen on. Nice work for a seven year old and a four year old.

Here are some pictures of the competition. The first is one is of some band members with the trophies they won today. Well deserved. They practice two hours after school three days a week and for six hours every other Saturday.

Here is the band ready to take the field. Kellen is on the front row, far right.

Kellen is the one on the right of the three playing the baritone horn.

Here is a short video.

After the band competition we drove to Annie and Adam’s house in Mountain View, California, where Adam had a nice light supper ready for us.

October 27, 2024

Sunday morning, after a nice breakfast cooked by Adam, we unloaded the truck. We brought out a lot of stuff for this family. Then all of us except Adam carved pumpkins. Adam was busy making homemade Ravioli for supper. YUM!  I’ll let you guess which pumpkin I carved.

After cleaning up from the pumpkin carving we all settled in for a day of watching football.