PrunePicker: (Widower 30) A whole month on the Olympic Peninsula. Making plans for 2015.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

(Widower 30) A whole month on the Olympic Peninsula. Making plans for 2015.

It was the month of July 2012. I sure had a nice visit. I do not believe that I will do that again. I would like to visit for a week or so. I may do that next year. I plan to spend the week of my 90th birthday on Orcas Island with my daughter Nancy's family. Orcas is one of the San Juan Islands.

I might consider a visit to Port Townsend starting the July 4th weekend (Oh Boy! I could attend Fiddle Tunes one more time.) The week on Orcas Island starts on Saturday the 18th. (My 90th birthday is on Monday the 20th.) I might be able to catch a boat from Port Townsend to Orcas Island. Does that sound like fun? Probably not possible. Maybe yes in the middle of the summer. At the very least I could catch the Coupeville ferry in Port Townsend, and a bus from Coupeville to Anacortes, and then the ferry to Orcas Island. That sounds like fun too.

Thinking out loud, I think that I will spend two weeks on the Olympic Peninsula from the 3rd or 4th of July and then go to Orcas Island on July 18th. Isn't it fun to make plans? Thanks for your help.

I just counted them. There are 47 weeks before I go to the American Festival of Fiddle tunes at Fort Warden. 49 weeks to Orcas Island.

This will probably be my final grand tour of the Olympic Peninsula and the San Juan Islands!

You can see Port Townsend to the left of the center of the area shown. If you look hard with some imagination you can see a Sea Dragon. Port Townsend is on the nose of the dragon. (Our home for 17 years was in the belly of the dragon). Orcas Island is almost due north of Port Townsend at the very top of the area. The yellow spot is on Orcas Island. The skinny island across from Port Townsend is Whidby Island. My route would most likely be up Whidby to Anacortes and then to Orcas on the ferry boat to Canada.

2 comments:

NancyAugust 7, 2014 at 11:29 AM
We are all so excited to celebrate your birthday with you.
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Chuck MonsonAugust 8, 2014 at 2:56 PM
I am excited too. I am looking forward to it. Then when I get home I will have another belated 90th birthday celebration. You just can not be the center of attention too often!
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My niche in the Blogosphere.

My blog is about me, my family, my interests, my opinions, and my daily activities. My name is Chuck Monson. I am a native born Californian. I worked in the oil exploration and production business and am now retired and living in Ruston, Louisiana. I am a 91 year old widower. I blog because I really enjoy it. Posting gives me a schedule and is a wonderful make work project. I like pictures, both the taking and looking at them. I really like old historic pictures. I enjoy a good photograph. I like putting pictures and text together in a way that is hopefully interesting to others and that will be interesting to me in the future. I like to be silly now and then. It is also putting my memories down on paper. My blog serves as a diary. I have used it for a reference quite a few times.

I do mix it up. Some of my blogs are “what I had for breakfast”, some are just pictures, some are items of genealogical nature, and there are items from my family history. I have a history of the Munson/Monsons in America. The study of this history has led me to the discovery of much American history that had previously been unknown by me.

I have had a lifelong interest in history, archeology, philosophy, religion, politics, architecture, technical subjects, music, food, and sports. I spend time every day reading blogs and posting to my blog. I do not pontificate on religion or politics because I do not consider myself wise enough to try to persuade others to my beliefs. My beliefs are quite nebulous anyway.

I was started on blogging by my late son, Christopher David Monson. Chris wrote the blog "snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition" There is a link to his blog above. I look at Chris's blog often. I have read most of his posts.

My adult years.

I married Jackie Lois Ireton in 1944 in San Luis Obispo, California. I met her on a blind date when I was taking amphibious training at Moro Bay. We have been blessed with four children, nine grand children, and nine great grandchildren. They are an exceptional group. I love them and I am proud of them.

I was an army combat engineer (infantry with shovels) during World War II. I served in the Pacific. I was wounded on Peleliu Island helping the marines on Bloody Nose Ridge. I was shot in both legs just above the knees. The wound locations indicate that I was not running away.

I received a BSME in 1950 from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. Jackie received a PHT. (pushing husband through.) I retired from oilfield work in 1985. Jackie and I moved into a fifth wheel trailer and enjoyed the RV lifestyle until Jackie's health failed. We traveled across the continent 3 1/2 times. We spent a summer as volunteers at Acadia National Park. For 17 years we helped build an Escapee RV park in Chimacum, Washington. Jackie passed away in 2007. We had been married 63 years. We were married on June 3, 1944. I still live in our fifth wheel trailer. It is parked in the yard of my daughter Kerry's home in Ruston, Louisiana. It is by far the nicest RV park that I have ever lived in.

My teen age years.

I was born in 1925 in Pomona, California. Pomona is on the east edge of Los Angeles County. It is halfway between Los Angeles and San Bernardino and halfway between the mountains and the beach. I thought that it was great to be an hour from snow covered mountains and an hour from the ocean surf.

In my days of growing up, Pomona was completely surrounded by orchards and truck farms. Oranges, lemons, grapefruit, peaches, apricots, olives, persimmons, and walnuts. Watermelons and strawberries. During the depression I had many meals from the orchards.

They say that you cannot go back home. That is true of the Pomona Valley of my youth. Because it is no longer there. Most of it is now covered with asphalt and stucco buildings.

My ancestors.

I am getting more and more into genealogy. I have a trove of information on the Munsons/Monsons. My father is buried in California. His father by adoption (He was an uncle.) is buried in Kansas. His natural father is buried in Kentucky. So I have two grandfathers. I have a grandfather and four great grandfathers buried in Kentucky, one great buried in New Jersey, and three greats buried in Connecticut. I have two greats buried in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England. I have been led to believe that my ancestors before that came from Denmark and Normandy.

Captain Thomas Munson was the first Munson to move to America. He was baptized in Rattlesden, England in 1612. The baptismal font is still in use. He served in the militia in the Pequot Indian Wars in 1637. He served in the militia all his life and reached the status of Captain. His signature is on the founding document for New Haven, Connecticut.

In 2011 I visited New Haven and took pictures of his gravestone. In May 2012 my oldest daughter Nancy Ann escorted me to England and France. We visited Rattlesden and I took some pictures of the Captain's baptismal font.

Why is the old prune picker living in Ruston, Louisiana?

In 2006 my wife Jackie was in poor health. Jackie had kidney failure and was on dialysis. She had heart problems for some time with A-fib. She had fallen and broken her hip. She had broken ribs and vertebra just moving around normally. My family thought that I needed help caring for Jackie. My daughter Kerry and her husband John offered to park our trailer in their backyard in Ruston and help. Jackie and I accepted their kind offer. My daughter Nancy accompanied Jackie in an airplane flight from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to Ruston. My son Mike took time off to help me pull our trailer for five long days to our new home. We were and are grateful. We enjoyed our new home very much.

Unfortunately and sadly, Jackie passed away in six months. I had sold our truck and was permanently parked. I was ready to give up full time RVing anyway. It is very pleasant in Ruston and I am close to family. So that is why I have been living in Ruston, Louisiana since October 2006.