Morgan Dean

Since traveling full time is a different way of life from most of the people we know, we are often asked questions about how we manage the logistics. For instance family and friends will ask us where we are going next, how long we will stay in one particular location, and how we make those decisions. Being relatively new to this ourselves (on the road for about 14 months now), we are still figuring some of that as we go along. We usually have the next four to six months planned in advance, but one of the definite advantages to this lifestyle is being able to relocate easily, which gives us lots of flexibility if things come up that alter our plans.

Meet Morgan Dean, my newest grandchild. I guess you could say Morgan was one of those (wonderful) things that changed our plans. We hadn’t specifically planned to be back in the Sacramento area at this time until I heard that my daughter Cory was pregnant, and due in September. That bit of good news helped shaped our plans to travel back to California for the Fall, and when we happened upon the hosting position at the Grasslands Regional Park, things sort of fell into place. Here are a couple of pictures of Morgan.

Grasslands Regional Park

To paraphrase Simon & Garfunkel – “Alaska is just a dream to me now…”

I can’t believe it’s been seven weeks since my last blog entry – so much has changed between then and now!! Coming from the far North to central California we have covered thousands of miles and settled into a totally different way of life, at least for the next few months. It was an amazing trip, we saw and experienced so much, and it’s almost impossible to capture this with words or pictures. And now, here we are in Dixon, California, in October, enjoying 80 degree weather when just last week I checked the weather in Fairbanks, Alaska and it was 1 degree. One. Snow already blanketing the ground. So hard to comprehend we were there only a few short weeks ago! This traveling way of life never ceases to thrill, surprise, and delight me!

So here we are in Dixon, as Park Hosts for the Yolo County Grasslands Regional Park. We settled in to our new temporary home the first week in September and soon met with Yolo county staff to finalize the arrangements and go over our duties as Park Hosts. Although Dan and I are both former long-time Sacramento area residents and Yolo County was always a close neighbor, neither of us knew much about the area beyond the city of Davis. It has been fun exploring the rest of the county and getting to know more about this still mostly rural part of central California. Notwithstanding the presence of the University of California, Davis in its midst and the State Capital just down the road, Yolo County remains a relatively rural agricultural area, home to the multi-billion dollar California tomato industry, which dominates 90% of the tomato market in the United States. Grasslands Park is right across the street from acres and acres of tomato fields and the first month we were here, we couldn’t believe the truck loads of tomatoes running day and night as they finished harvesting the late summer crop.

Grasslands Park is a 320-acre park that contains significant natural resources and habitat for wildlife species, and also serves a variety of existing active recreation uses, including model airplane soaring, archery, and horseshoes. As Park Hosts, our duties include opening and closing the entrance gate at dawn and dusk; maintaining the park host living area; and walking through the park to monitor guest usage. We are really enjoying our stay and our assignment, and like saying “we live in a park”!