Parrottrek Journal 2010

The sun slowly peeks out

A beautiful view of the moon, at 10am

My favorite two headed monster

Abbey loves the beach

March 5th - The Sun, Moon and Stars of My Life -
As I sit here looking out our picture windows at the views of our yard, lake, nature trail and trees, I realize I might just be the luckiest woman alive. Here I sit in the most beautiful state on this sunny cloud free day, admiring greenery as far as the eye can see with deer prancing around us, Bald Eagles flying above us, all while being surrounded by four of the most amazing family members ever. Today's activities have included block playing, some toast for breakfast, six slices to be exact, yes Cody is a pig, a bit of HGTV, since that is our latest addiction and finally a shower, around 10:30. At noon, we decide to go for a bike ride, but as we open the front door to go outside to enjoy the beauty of what we see on the other side of the glass we are knocked off our, ummm feet, yeah, feet, not due to the views mind you, but because of the freezing cold wind that blew straight through the 5 layers we are wearing. Heelllloooo!! We are in Florida, it's supposed to be warm, sunny and relaxing, just like it has been the last five years we have been here at this chunk of time.

Bradley tries to hide from the wind

We are very spoiled and used to March weather that makes lounging by the pool with a book and some tunes the perfect way to spend an afternoon. This week the only reason we would hit the pool is to sit in the jacuzzi, fully dressed in all 5 layers, in order to try to warm up, but since once we stepped out of the nice hot water we would be back in the cold air, I realize that that too is now checked off the list of what we might do today. So instead, I decide to close the door and return to the comfy confines of my little house with my comfy family and pick up my crochet needle in order to create another layer to wrap us all in. Once I start to crochet one of my babies picks a fight with the ball of yarn while another jumps in my lap and starts to unravel what I have already finished. As I find myself laughing out loud I realize that this is just another day in paradise, and even though this paradise requires sweats, a warm body to sit next to and three furnaces to be on, it's just that Parrotdise!

The last thing we expected to see

The amazing ladder truck in action

The flames are finally extinguished

Luckily everyone made it out safe

February 27th - Not Our Usual Bike Ride -
Each morning we are here at home in Florida we take a nice, long bike ride up and down the streets of our resort. Today we saw something that we didn't expect. Something we never wanted to see happen to any of our friends and neighbors. As we headed out on on today's ride, we noticed smoke on the opposite side of the golf course, heard multiple sirens and observed worried neighbors all around. At first we hoped it was a controlled burn, since those are allowed here in green, lush Florida, but as the third fire truck passed us with sirens and horns blaring, we realized there was nothing controlled about the smoke we saw, so we decided to see for ourselves what was happening. We joined a group of neighbors who had gathered along the banks of the lake behind the home on the 3rd tee and watched some very brave fire fighters not only put out the flames on the house involved, but stood their ground around the neighbors homes and kept them all safe from the flames. The only damage to one neighbors home was some melted vinyl siding due to the intense temperatures that the flames reached. Once the flames were out, we discovered that the only remaining concern was finding the lost, scared dog that ran out of the house once the flames began, which we are happy to report was safely returned to his very worried parents, who also were safely kept away from the flames. Knowing first hand how devastating it is to return home and see your residence and possessions burnt beyond saving, and even though we are all thankful that no living beings were lost, my heart goes out to the Standards as they now have to piece their lives back together one possession at a time.

"Take Two" with Kenny and Brandon

The film crew in action

An interview with the Crew Chiefs

Frank chats with the sound guy

February 13th - Lights, Camera Action!! -
If we had a dollar for each time we were asked this weekend "What's Copart?" we could afford to have Parrottrek as the main sponsor on the car. Copart.com is an on-line vehicle auction company that is taking the racing world by storm. In addition to sponsoring our Kenny Bernstein Top Fuel Dragster team this year, they are sponsoring a car in the NASCAR series for a large majority of those races. Also as a part of Copart's new presence in motorsports they are creating commercials staring the cars, the teams and the racing action, which is what took place today at Firebird International Raceway, in between qualifying rounds, which made our pit the place to be. With this new sponsor not only are we surrounded by a new group of people with fresh, new ideas but we have a world of new possibilities at our feet. Not only did the camera crews and their loads and loads of equipment bring interest from our invited guests, but it brought lots of attention from the surrounding crowd attending the event here in Phoenix, Arizona, so keep your eyes out for the men of Kenny Bernstein Racing as they may be gracing your television screen outside of ESPN and race day.

February 11th - The Racing Season Begins - Pomona, California -
As our time in California comes to an end and we begin to say our goodbyes, we often get the question, "So tell us what you guys do again? I can't seem to visualize it." Most of the time we can get across some idea of what it is we do, but visualizing the hospitality area that we work in still stumps most. In order to remedy this, and since apparently Parrottrek followers don't actually think we work since the majority of our entries are about what we do on our weeks off, we have included a bit of a slide show to help those of you who haven't seen us in person on the job, get a better idea of what we do from start to finish at each of the 23 events we work at around the country. Since we have a brand spanking new sponsor this year some of you might not recognize our set up, since what used to be a small city in red is now a gorgeous shade of blue. The new look of the trucks, race car, uniforms, tables and everything else around us is amazing. What is even more amazing is the fact that the team and it's owners put all this together in about 4 months time.

February 6th - An Egg Update -
It has now been a little over two weeks since Bradley began her attempt at motherhood and the number of eggs has grown to 5. The little pile is almost too big to fit completely under her, so she spreads her wings out and uses her beak to tuck them in all around her. In all the research we've done about this, the census says that she will most likely sit on her eggs between 21 -28 days before realizing there isn't anything inside them other the makings of an omelette, but we aren't sure if that is 21-28 days from when she laid the first one or 21-28 days after she lays the last one. Hopefully this 5th one will be the last, since laying an egg takes up quite a bit of energy and calcium from her little body and we don't want her to compromise her health by attempting to repopulate the African Grey species. The picture to the right is what fertilized eggs turn into 4 weeks after they hatch and even though it would be fun to have a bunch of little fuzz balls around us, the amount of work that our little Bradley would have to do to accomplish this is immense, not to mention we'd have to find her a date, so for now we will just bide our time until our little mama decides that she is done with sitting on her pile of eggs. Now the only issue will be how she'll sit on the eggs when the motorhome is mobile.

A walk through the vineyards

A family picnic at the newly planted Buellton Botanical Gardens

Attending the annual Christmas tree burn

February 1st - Time Flies - A Recap -
As our time in California comes to a close, I realize, that in most cases, timing really is everything. There have been a few things that happened in the last few months that I would have loved to come at a different time in our lives, a much later time, but one thing I am glad for is the fact that within a few days we will be back on the road and embarking on a whole new set of travels, adventures and things to yet be seen. I also realized that the month of January flew past without many Parrottrek updates, and for that I apologize. My usual schedule of postings has been interrupted by good things and bad. One of the great things that took up most of my time is gaining my Massage Therapist license. It's something I have always wanted to do and had planned out in detail with a school here in Santa Barbara long before the unfortunate Mom tragedies even began. There came a point in my schooling with all the goings on that I almost stopped it, but when I took a close look at my life and all that was happening, I found that it was one of the things that kept be sane, my mind occupied and made me focus on something other than sitting at home staring at the walls crying, so I forged on and will finish up just a mere 3 days before we hop back in the motorhome and put some road behind us. The surrounding photos are a hodge-podge of the various things that took up our January. Also check out our map page, which is coming along slowly but surely.

Frank played guitar at his Grandpa's church

Breakfast with our fabulous nieces

Bradley found fun toys while garage saling

Cody's first California concert

The sweet mama sleeping on her egg

Keeping her clutch warm and safe

Then there were two

And along came number 3

January 29th - SURPRISE!! -
In the bird world, they tell us that you can't tell the sex of an African Grey or most macaws any other way than through a blood test. Well, I have news for them. A sure fire way to find out that the sweet little bird you have had for 13 years isn't a boy, is to have an egg appear under her one morning at 6am. Not knowing how she might react to this, we have pretty much left her alone and she has been a wonderful mother. She sat on her egg all day long, turning it from side to side, keeping in warm and only leaving her cage long enough to go potty elsewhere, since she doesn't want to poop anywhere near her nest. Three days after the first egg was laid, another appeared and then another just this morning. She is the most precious thing to watch tend to her little clutch and our only fear is just how sad she will be the day she realizes that even though she loves Frank more than anything and feels as though he is her mate, her eggs aren't fertilized and hence, little African Greys are not in her future, which breaks my heart :-(

Our good friend Steph snapped some photos of the action

A couple of the not so lucky boats that washed ashore

Stormwatch 2010 -
Traveling the country has taught us many things. For example - the national average of rainfall in most state is 47 inches, in California its around 9. The hills around Santa Barbara County have had numerous and disastrous fires over the last couple years, so the up and coming storms had people in a bit of a panic. On the one hand this area greatly needs the rain since the hillsides are dry, brittle, brown and continue to be a fire hazard, but on the other hand lots of rain could take the fire damaged hills and turn them into mud slides that could possibly flood the roads and neighborhoods below them.

Snow all around the mountains

Los Padres National Forest is finally green

Over 3 days more than the annual average fell, turning the relatively calm Pacific Ocean into an angry wave making machine. On the outskirts of Santa Barbara Harbor is a place called "Fools Mooring" this is an area where people anchor their boats since there are no slips available inside the harbor. Unfortunately a few of the boat owners learned the hard lesson of how this area got its name when they came looking for their boats and found them beached on the shore all around the volleyball courts of East Beach.
Once the rains diminished and the sun came back out, the city happily realized that the pouring rain didn't have nearly the damaging effects that the public had expected, the lake is slowly getting filled and the dry, brown mountains around us are turning gorgeous shades of green

The scene from bed

The sprinklers come on

Which turn a beautiful sunrise into an amazing one

January 10th - Early to Bed, Early to Rise - Santa Ynez, California -
I've never been a big fan of New Year's resolutions, but the few I have made in the past have usually come to fruition. For example the one year I vowed to loose 20 pounds I actually joined a gym, got on a program, became an addict of Spinning, became an instructor and somehow let two good friends talk me into running a full marathon with them. The marathon was in Hawaii, so it didn't take too much arm twisting to get me to join them. This year I have made no resolutions, other than to photograph a sunrise and sunset in each state we visit and to perhaps get back that fabulous 30 year old body I had, just a few short years ago, or something that might resemble it. Non-resolution one began this morning, as I rose to one of the most beautiful and perfectly timed scenes I've ever seen. The sun was in just the right spot shining through the branches of the tree as the sprinklers in the front yard came on with the perfect density of fog all around. Quite a sight to see, which in turn inspired me to attempt non-resolution two and so I headed out on a jog.

The traveling sound system

wine + music + friends = good times

Sampling the Panky

Laughing with friends

January 9, 2010 - Pouring Fun - Los Olivos, California -
The gigs are rolling in and the confidence is building. It has been an amazing transformation to see. Frank, who at one time was nervous to play in front of more than three people, especially is they were watching him, is now playing amazingly well, a couple times a week, in front of packed rooms full of friends and strangers. This evening our friends Allan and Rochelle Phillips, who have just released their own wine line, had a pouring party in the town of Los Olivos, which is just around the corner from Santa Ynez, and invited Frank to be the live music during the event which lasted from 4-8pm. Both the music and the wine were a complete success.

Camping under a tree full of mistletoe

Waking through a meadow of clover

Searching for four leaves

Strolling by the lake at dusk

January 1, 2010 - A New Year Unfolds -
I must admit, I am greatly relieved that all the holidays are done with. I'm not sure I could handle another happy, cheery bell-ringer wishing me a great day with all that has gone on. Yes, we are slowly getting back to what might resemble normal and the emotional waves aren't as steep, but since Christmas carols remind me of my mom, I am glad to have them behind us. To ring in the New Year, we spent a couple nights with friends at Cachuma Lake. Being here in California it's hard to realize that winter is on us with the days being in the wonderful mid 70's, however the chilly nights being in the 30's and 40's make us realize summer is long gone.

Dinner and campfire with friends

and some radio controlled 4 wheelin' fun

The downside of California is that since the sun does shine most of the year, the rain levels are a bit low and the greenery is a bit sparse. Aside from a meadow full of clover and the wild mistletoe that grew in the trees above us there wasn't much green along the shoreline of the lake. Lucky for us our friends Step and Julio brought their radio controlled Jeep which turned the rocky ground around us into a playing field for the boys and their toy. After a bit of 4-wheelin fun we headed back to camp, set up the portable camp fire and bar-b-qued hamburgers for dinner.