Rex is Official - Oct. 14th, 2018

Though we adopted over a year ago, and we have always promised that every dog we bring into our home would be with us until the end of their days, he has now become official, he has his own shingle at the bear.

Uncle Mike was kind enough to make a sign for Rex that now hangs proudly on our bear.

We love you Rex, you are such a wonderful loving boy! :-)

Safe travels all!

Eric and Carol Anderon

The annual Waite family reunion - Oct. 12th, 2018

Once again we had the annual Waite family reunion in Pine Grove at the Gold Country Campground. The event was well attended by many members of the family. Since the change in location, the reunion has taken on a little different flavor to it. Though we don't play all of the games that have been played in the past, we still have the horse shoe tournament.

We stopped going to the Tower park in Lodi due to the cost of the cabins getting out of reach and because they just did not have enough cabins that allowed dogs. So, we started a search for a new park. We came to Gold Country Camp Ground last year, but were less than impressed with the cabins as they were pretty run down. This last off season though, they did a lot of work recondition the cabins and now they are truly enjoyable.

Eric had anxiety in the past of driving the motorhome up to Pine grove because it couldn't make the grade without overheating, but since the Radiator has been serviced 6 months ago, its just humming along on the roads of any incline! :-)

It appeared that everyone that attended was having a great time! We will be returning to Pine Grove again next year as long as the rules or costs don't get too out of hand.

Safe travels all!

Eric and Carol Anderson

Listening to a Dauchau Survivor - Oct, 11th, 2018

Carol and I were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to hear live and in person the personal experience of one of the Nazi World War II Concentration camps; that camps name was Dauchau Germany. The gentleman we were listening to was Bernard Mark's. This Dachau survivor spoke at the Mather community center. He talked about making ME262's at the age of 13. One of the encouraging things about an event like this, is 1/3 of the room is filled with kids of all ethnic backgrounds that though they may have been to young to vote, but not to young to learn, learn about the mistakes of human kinds  past.

Clearly the room was standing room only. As you can see, we got there so late that we had to stand during the 1 and a half hour talk (Carol was next to the TV across the room), but we would not have missed this talk for anything. We are looking forward to next weeks talk by a lady who is a survivor from a US interment camp in world war II.

It is so important to attend events like these and they are right in our own back yard. Also, these events are free and held at a wonderful and rejuvenated former train station that we are truly lucky to have here in the city of Rancho Cordova.

Safe travels all!

Eric and Carol Anderson

Chako Dog videos - Oct. 6th, 2018

As always we live mixed life style. One where we get out and about in the community, but also where we enjoy just relaxing at home with our dogs when we get the chance. Eric still makes it out to the Front Street shelter on occasion to get pictures and video stock of dogs that are at the shelter and being worked with by Chako Pit Bull University volunteers. Eric makes it out to the shelter at least once a month and this year was no different.

The night before Eric was supposed to go to the Shelter, he got a call from Dawn Capp the head of Chako and responded to her request with help with a couple of rescue dogs that she found wandering her street. Dawn was headed out of town, but could not leave the dogs to fend for them selves. So, early Saturday morning met up with a couple of other Chako volunteers at Dawns house to place the dogs in the Jeep and take the dogs to the shelter before he was to meet up with the Chako PBU volunteers to work with Chako Dogs.

One of the dogs was a German shepherd the other was a little black dog that looked like a miniature Black lab. A day or so later, the dogs owner was located and the dogs were returned to their home. 

Eric got pictures and video of the two dogs currently in the PBU program and produced the video to help them get adopted. 

The videos worked! Within a week both Titan and Doug were adopted from the shelter. Doug had been in the shelter for 62 days, and it did everyone's heart good to see him get adopted. 

Safe Travels everyone! 

Eric and Carol Anderon

Oil, Tranny, Axle - Oct. 1st, 2018

We have both been mindful of the fact that the motorhome needed to stay up to date on its service. We knew she was due for an oil change as well as a Transmission oil service. So, we took the rig in to get those two maintenance items taken care of. We were told this would be about a 3 hour service and that we should be able to pick it up around noon.

Well, Noon time came and we called to find out the status. It turned out that one of the rear axle seals was leaking and there was a broken weld on the landing gear used to stabilize the rig when it is parked. Though it meant we would spend money we had not planned on, they said they could get the work done by close of business and we decided to have it done. We were not terribly surprised at this development given the fact that we had the axle seal replaced just a few years earlier. The bonus to having this done is that now the breaks on the motorhome are both current on the rear of the rig.

Going to Sacramento Truck center has never been a cheap venture, but we never feel like they do anything but a quality job for us. As always, our three dogs are the best, they just hang out with us in the Jeep all day long until it is time to pick up the rig. :-)

Safe Travels all!

Eric and Carol Anderson

Juvenal Detention Guest speaking - Sept 29th, 2018

Earlier in 2018, Eric had reached out to a fellow volunteer at the Front Street animal shelter to attend CDCR's annual 'Take your child to work day'. This volunteer, a lady by the name of Barbara Vik helps out at the County of Sacramento's Youth Detention facility as part of a program to help Juvenal offenders to learn compassion as well as skills  where they can hopefully move in a direction that will be more productive to their long term success in society.

Barbara was more than happy to come and talk to son's and daughters of CDCR staff about programs involving animals and offenders in detention environments. She did a wonderful job and even brought a four legged furry friend with her.

A few months later, Barbara reached out to Eric and asked if he would be interested in bringing a dog in to be part of a 'Guest Speaker' series at the counties youth detention facility and talk about how volunteering has impacted his life.

Eric was only happy to oblige and he and Charlie Ventured into the youth detention facility and spoke to 8 young ladies about his involvement with Chako and other shelter/rescue operations.

Safe travels all!

Carol and Eric Anderson

Drone Task force - Sept 21st, /2018

For the last couple of years, the California Department of Corrections has had a Drone Task force who's purpose is to identify uses for drones within Corrections. There are a number of aspects of Drones that the Task force is looking at that include the use by flying drones as well as detecting drones that are used for contraband delivery in prisons. All members of the task force participated in this years California Capital Air show as well as worked to test Drone Detection options available for deployment at state facilities.

Due to his aviation background, Eric was asked to become part of the Task Force and get his part 107 license. Eric was infact the first to get his license and encouraged others that the process was not as difficult as others may have feared. Soon after. Two other members of the task force obtained their Part 107 certificate from the FAA. As a result, the task force now has three FAA licensed Part 107 Pilots and three different levels of drones.

The pride and joy of this budding fleet is a drone with a Forward Looking InfraRed (FLIR) camera that can be used to see those who may be trying to evade law enforcement during among other times, including High risk arrests of parolees who may have had a warrant issued for their arrest due to probation violations.

Safe Travels all!

Carol and Eric Anderson.

Chako at work - Sept, 19th 2018

Every year, the state of California has the 'California Giving Campaign'. This is an event where non-profits have the opportunity to come out and explain their organizations and what they do in hopes that state employees will donate funds to the organization through pay-roll deductions.

For about the 5th year Eric has done this booth for Chako. He did it three years while working for the California Department of Social Services, and then subsequently has done it twice now at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. 

As you can see the booth has pictures of chako volunteers and dogs available for adoption. No only is Chako eager to have donations, but they are also looking for new volunteers and Eric is eager to tell those interested about all of the volunteer options that Chako has available. This is a great opportunity to tell people about Chako is about but also to learn about other organizations as well. 

Safe Travels 

Eric and Carol Anderson

New Sun Shade - Sept. 20th 2018

A couple years ago, we had asked the RV park management to repair the cracked concrete at our site. Admittedly, it was a trip hazard, but we were not prepared for the eventual chain of events that would take place.

The cause for the concrete cracks was the fact that the root structures from one of the large trees in our yard had caused the concrete to heave and crack. When they removed the old concrete, they hacked up the roots to lower them and then poured the concrete. Well, the Lye in the concrete mix was absorbed by the roots of the tree and started to kill the tree. With the tree gone however, we lost a lot of shade on the front of the motorhome.

So, Eric built a sun shade to help keep some of the early morning sun off the front of the motorhome. No, it's not near as nice as a tree, but it does help. And also, Eric was able to re-purpose the 'Mining' lights that we had purchased a few years back to help illuminate the area at night.



We sure miss our tree, but this solution sure does help!

Safe Travels all!

Eric and Carol Anderson

Firefighter Career Expo - Sept, 8th, 2018

On September 8th Carol worked a booth at a Firefighter Career expo here in Sacramento. It was great to see so many agencies out at this event recruiting those interested in becoming firefighters. Every candidate there was interested in becoming a firefighter. Some were definitely more prepared than others. There were a number of candidates there who were former military, some with Medic training and ready to jump in at the first opportunity.

There were hundreds of candidates at the event. At times when Carol and her co-worker looked up, the lines to talk to a Cal-Fire representative would be 10 people deep.

Though Cal-fire didn't have any equipment at the event, there were a number of agencies who had their fire fighting equipment on hand at the event. Sac-Metro fire even had their helicopter do a fly-by twice past the event.

Eric came along to help with carrying equipment to and from the event. As always, the team did a great job representing Cal-Fire.

Safe Travels everyone,

Eric and Carol Anderson

Trying a new dog bed - Sept. 5th, 2018

As with any new dog that joins the pack, there are always adjustments that must be made. Frequently you find a dog will be destructive due to separation anxiety. Sometimes, as is our case, the destructiveness comes as a result of a puppy growing up and finding out what they can and can not chew. Sometimes, it takes a while to get that behavior corrected. And sometimes dad is tired of breaking out the needle and thread every night to sew up the damage done to the dog bed, from the night before. So, we have invested in our first dog bed by K9 Ballistics.

The dog bed got 12 paws up from our pack in the rig. Rex has only tried to chew on it once, but didn't go very far before giving up on it. So, next time we get paid, we will be ordering another of these dog beds.

Safe travels everyone!

Eric and Carol Anderson

Anniversary at Cler Lake - Sept, 2nd thru the 4th, 2018

For our 19th wedding anniversary, we decided to venture out to Clearlake California. Eric had met a gentleman at Sacramento International Airport one time when he was waiting to pick up Carol from a trip with Cal-fire. The Man told had a Aurora RV Park T-shirt on and told Eric how he was helping to turn this park around. 

So, a couple months or so before their anniversary (which also usually falls on Labor day weekend) Eric made a reservation at the park. What was not happening at the time of the reservation was wildland fires that would cause the park and the surrounding town to be evacuated. We kept tabs on the status of the fire the couple of weeks before our trip and though the fire raged on, the town of Nice and the surrounding area was given the 'All clear' and we thought it only appropriate that we stay with our plan and help out the community by coming and spending some dollars their to help their economy. 

One of the first investments that we made while here in town was to replace the electrical plug on the motorhome. We had one contact that had gone bad. Eric was able to get it functional to get us through the first night, but come the next morning, we set out to find a replacement. Though we didn't find any in the town of Nice, we did find a RV supply and rental equipment place that did have a plug that we needed.

Though there were times that it got smoky here, we did enjoy our visit. We did some investigating of the area and could see where flame retardant had been dropped just below the ridge line that was to protect the town of Nice and other communities below.

As always, our wedding anniversary was memorable and we love each other as much as the day we got married.

Safe Travels everyone.

Woofstock - Rocklin - Aug. 26th, 2018

On Sunday August 26th, Carol and I escorted Charlie to the annual Woofstock event in Rocklin. We always enjoy this event not only to show off how wonderful a family member a bully breed dog like Charlie can be.  We helped out at the Chako Booth at this event talking to people who stopped by and explained our organization and what we do.

We also had the opportunity to meet Chako Foster Dog Baily who is a true sweetheart and ready for adoption. Baily was rescued by Chako volunteers when she was found wandering by a Chako Dog training class in North Sacramento. 

Safe travels all!