Switching celebrations

We are at the now-familiar Elks lodge in Monterey, California (map). We were a little surprised to find only three other rigs here when we arrived mid-afternoon yesterday; this is a popular lodge and we expected RV parking to be nearly full on a pleasant weekend. We had our pick of spaces, which is good, because only three or four of the 12 here really fit us.

Louise's dad Jerry came by and we spent the afternoon chatting and catching up aboard Odyssey, a rare treat for us. His wife Kay is allergic to our pets, so we never spend any time on the bus when we get together, but Kay is away for the weekend at a wedding. It was Jerry's birthday Friday, so we got to take him out last night to celebrate, and wrapped up with a bit more chat at home before ending our brief visit.

We turned in early for an early start today, but our effort was somewhat foiled by a wedding or similar party going on here at the lodge. The lodge rents its hall out to a local event outfit with an office next door, and they were busy preparing when we arrived. The music went until well past midnight, and the myriad cars dribbled out one or two at a time over the course of a couple hours. One presumably inebriated party-goer insisted on honking his horn several times on the way out of the parking lot at one-something a.m., rather rude with four RVs and an apartment complex sharing the lot.

Today we go to a celebration of a different sort, the memorial for our friend Joe who passed away in December. We were sent the invitation as a courtesy; no one involved expected us to attend, knowing we had been in Florida just a couple months ago. But we were in Phoenix when the invitation arrived, and already en route here, so we only had to accelerate our plans by a week or two to arrive in time. We are glad to be able to attend, and also looking forward to seeing everyone.

We will drive directly to the memorial location, a community room at a mobile home park, just in time for the celebration. Whenever we are done there this afternoon, I expect to just head over to one of our stealth parking spots for a night or two. We have lots of projects specific to the bay area on our agenda, but I need some time first to catch up on a bunch of things that I planned for Phoenix, but put on hold to arrive here today.