Lake Havasu SARA Park Slot Canyon Hike

 SARA Park is located on the south side of Lake Havasu City and the slot canyon is a very popular hike. MOST years that is. This pic is from last year and shows my cousin PJ and her husband Craig about to negotiate a dry waterfall. Slide down that waterfall and your committed to completing the hike as a loop because it's VERY hard to go back up the waterfall.

Unfortunately THIS year about fifty yards downstream, and out of sight from the water fall, this is what your confronted with...







There's no going around, or going back, and it's thigh deep. It was a squishy hike out!

The San Diego Zoo

Last fall I bought a zoo pass and manage to go there a couple of times a month.

The pandas are a big attraction and often have long lines.  One of the advantages of going regularly is I can pop in for a quick visit if there's no line.

2014 Reading and Movie Favs

Reading
Robert B. Parker's Wonderland - Ace Atkins
Raylan - Elmore Leonard
Plum Lovin' - Janet Evanovich
Bad Business - Robt. B. Parker
Calico Joe - John Grisham
Walking Shadow - Robt. B. Parker
Jungle Tiger - Mark Rainbolt
Explosive 18 - Janet Evanovich
Benjamin Franklin - Brandon Miller
Detroit - Scott Martelle
Drift - Rachel Maddow
Heads in Beds - Jacob Tomsky - *2014 favorite
The Cheapskate Next Door - Jeff Yeager
Killing the Blues - Robt. B. Parker
I Suck at Girls - Justin Halpern

Movies
Blue Jasmine
The Big Year
Dallas Buyers Club
American Hustle
The Wolf of Wall Street
Captain America: the Winter Soldier
Heaven is Real
Draft Day
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Our Idiot Brother
Enough Said
Love Serenade
Adventureland
22 Jump Street
Girl Most Unlikely
Edge of Tomorrow
Muscle Shoals
And So It Goes
A Walk Among the Tombstones
Mud
St. Vincent
Citizen 4

Oceanside Museum of Art Bike Ride

This weekend I biked up to Oceanside on Saturday and back on Sunday. On Saturday I took the train up to Sorrento Valley and biked the remaining twenty-seven miles to Oceanside. On the return trip on Sunday I missed a major turn off and ended up biking all the way back to San Diego. Which really only added another ten miles to the return ride.

The art museum had an opening Saturday night for the new show "California Dreaming: An International Portrait of Southern California". My cousin PJ's husband Craig had a piece[above] hanging in the show.

Another favorite from the show.

My Langins - Langin Loyalist Notes

Note by Joe Leeak:
I was interested in finding out if there was any truth to the rumor that the Langins went to Canada as Loyalists around the time of the Revolutionary War. The short answer is they seem to predate the Loyalists as you'll see in my research notes below.

None of this rules out that the Langins were originally French Huguenots. The Huguenots have a history of moving multiple times so it's perfectly possible that the Langins came from either France or Ireland or both.
I have positively been able to confirm Loyalist roots on my dad's side of the family though. Christian Knisley was given 200 acres of land adjacent to what would become the Welland Canal that parallels the Niagara River between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. This land became enormously valuable and was held by various family members until the untimely death of an unmarried school teacher in the '60's who left the land to a combination of the local school district and hospital. This land would be worth 10's of millions of dollars today.


24 November 2014

Joe Leeak's notes on early Canadian Langins being Loyalists:
From the historical literature:
The greatest number of Loyalists[ about 14,000 ] went to Canada after the revolutionary war was over in 1783.

There was no immigration into Nova Scotia[the eastern half later to become New Brunswick in the early 1780's] between 1775, when the US Revolutionary War started, and when it was over in 1783.

Per “Planters and Pioneers” the Langins where in Nova Scotia before the Loyalists arrival starting in 1783[ ** Son Frances born in MA in 1797 ].

Per Lois' unattributed genealogical record:
All of Thomas Langin & Jane Mooers' children were born between 1782 and 1797 in Rowley, Essex, Massachusetts.

Thomas born between 1760 and 1769 and Jane Mooers in 1753[** 7 to 16 years before Thomas]. Assuming Thomas was at least 16 when his oldest son was born in 1782[ 29 YO mother] the latest Thomas Sr. could have been born would be 1766[ ** at least 13 years after his wife. ].

The last of 11 children, Frances, is shown as born in 1797. [**Making the mother 44 years old.]

[ http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/17933615/person/580512336/storyx/0ff5ba26-adc9-44a8-8c63-9fa839ac72d1?src=search ]

Excerpts from: Planters and Pioneers: Nova Scotia, 1749 to 1775, by Esther Wright, published by Justin Wentzell, Beaver Bank, N.S., 2007.

"Nova Scotia from 1749 to 1775 included the area north of the Bay of Fundy, which, in 1784, was made into the province of New Brunswick. The settlers who came to New Brunswick are therefore part of the story of the pre-Loyalist settlement of Nova Scotia. ...

...I found it necessary to separate the pre-Loyalist settlers from the Loyalists. ... there was a larger population in Nova Scotia (including what later was New Brunswick) when the Loyalists came than historians had realized. ... the whole story has not been put together. ...The settlers who came to Nova Scotia before the influx of loyalists have been relatively ignored, and the importance of their contriubtion to Nova Scotia, to the Loyalists who followed them, to Canada as a whole, and to North America and beyond, has not been adequately known or emphasized. Even in New Brunswick, where the number of Loyalists was in greater proportion to the number of older settlers than in the rest of Nova Scotia, the dominant factor in the cultural heritage came from the Massachusetts pioneers. St. John River families had taken it for granted that they were of Massachusetts origin, and it was a surprise to find that the Loyalists came mostly from New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

It was partly to emphasize the importance of these settlers in their own right, that I chose the title "Planters and Pioneers." Planters was an Elizabethan term for colonists. ...1749, the year of Cornwallis' arrival in Halifax, was taken as the beginning of the period, although there were a few earlier settlers ... 1775 makes a convenient end to the period, because the outbreak of hostilities in the rebellious colonies put an end to immigration to Nova Scotia, although there were one or two families who moved up the coast from Maine to New Brunswick after 1775, and a few Scotsmen who arrrived at the Miramichi. ... (and) about 2000 (Acadiams) in the area when the Loyalists came. ... (the above exerpts from pp. 1 to 3).

...Halifax.. .knew little and cared less about such a remote area as the St. John River and what was happening there. James Simonds from Newburyport, Massachusetts, who had been trading at Passamaquoddy, had found that area crowded, and had by 1762 established a trading post at the mouth of the St. John River. James White soon joined him, and William Hazen arrived in 1775. To carry on their various enterprises, they brought up many workmen from Massachusetts, most of whom became permanent settlers. In 1763, settlers from Essex County, whose scouts had previously come overland from Machias and chosen a site, began to arrive. Their settlement, at first known as Peabody's, ...later as Maugerville, because of help Joshua Mauger was supposed to have given in getting their grant, was one of the most successful in the whole of the old province of Nova Scotia. Nearly all the subscribers came, only a few returned to Massachusetts, and the Maugerville settlement was and continued to be a dominating influence up and down the St. John River.

The other townships on the river were less successful. ... Beamsley Glasier came to Nova Scotia in 1764 to select lands...and obtained grants of Gagetown, Burton, Sunbury, and Newtown. ... Glasier spent two years in an abortive attempt to get a milling venture established, but (many) sold their shares to British entrepreneurs, probably for debts they had incurred. Settlement lagged, as it always did under absentee proprietors. For those four townships, and Conway at the mouth of the river, the official enumerator of 1783 gave 500 inhabitants." (pp 15-16.)

Among the pre-Loyalist[ ** Thomas Langin's children were born in MA between 1882 and 1797] names listed in the book "Planters and Pioneers" are three men who are the direct ancestors of the Langin/Burpee lineage:

"BURPEE , JEREMIAH MAUGERVILLE, 1764. b. 21 May 1726, son of Jonathan and Hannah Platts Burpee, Rowley, Mass., d. 11 July 1767. m. 28 May 1751, Mary, dau. of Edward and Elizabeth Gage Saunders. Ch: David, Lydia, Edward, Hepzibah, Esther, Jeremiah, Thomas, Josepth or James." (p. 57)

"LANGIN, THOMAS (LANGDON) ST JOHN RIVER, 176-. d. 1811, Burton. m. Jane Ch: Edward, Jane, Rebecca, Huldah, Elizabeth, Margaret, Frances, Thomas, Hugh, Mary." (p. 163)

"MOOERS, PETER MAUGERVILLE, 1765. cordwainer, prob. from Haverhill, Mass. m. Mary . Ch: Huldah, Elizabeth,Sarah, Abigail, Rebecca, Samuel, David, Molly." (p. 188).

Note from Geneva Ensign-Langin. I have listed the above Pre-Loyalists exactly as quoted; however, some of the data is incomplete. According to my research, the maiden name of Thomas Langdon's wife, Jane, was Mooers. An additional daughter should be listed for them, that of Margery Langan, b. 1788, m. Asa Upton. Peter Mooers was was born 1726 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts. His wife's maiden name was Howes; they married in 1748. They also had a daughter who isn't listed in the book-- Jane--who married Thomas Langdon.

San Diego River Estuary Moonrise

San Diego Water Color Society

I was out for a bike ride on Sunday and happened across a really great water color show at the San Diego Watercolor Society. As I was walking out I was going to quip that I'd like to have one of each. As it turned out they were selling a full color catalog for the show so I bought one. Here are some of my favorites:

Faux Kombucha

I like kombucha but can't tolerate any amount of cafeine at all so wanted to come up with a no cafeine alternative.  As it turns out it's just not possible to make kombucha from herbal tea.

I've come up with the following kombucha-like herbal tea drink that is pretty easy to make myself.

2 quarts boiling water
3 - rooibos tea bags
1 - licorice mint tea bag
1/3 cup stevia
1/2 cup vinegar or lemon juice
Chill overnight in the frig

To serve:
Fill a glass 2/3 full with tea and three ice cubes; then fill with soda or seltzer water.

September Travels

I headed north after Labor Day for a trip through Oregon and Washington.  After leaving on Tuesday after Labor Day I stopped for two nights to camp on the Rogue River about an hour north of Medford, OR to spend a day hiking along the river.  This is my favorite place to be on the planet... so far.

I left my campsight near Crater Lake on Friday to head for my friends Perry & Carol's house in Bend.  We spent Friday night through Sunday at the Sisters Folk Festival in Sister, OR.

After the Sisters Folk Festival I headed up to Seattle for a couple of weeks before heading back towards home. I met up with my friend Jay for an afternoon at the Puyallup fair.

As chance would have it I was able to meet up with my friend Don from Alaska for lunch in Marion Forks, Oregon.

The first week I was in Seattle I stayed at my friend David's house.  As it worked out though he and Jacque were in San Diego though. But I did manage to see them the next week. At the left is one of Jacque's home made quilts hanging in the hallway.

My friend Diane and I met up for a walk on the beach one afternoon at Discovery Park. Every time we'd planned a longer hike in the mountains it rained. Pffft... what did I expect!

On the way home to San Diego I stopped for a visit with long-lost third cousin Jim and his wife Brenda.   They have an olive orchard with nearly a thousand olive trees outside of Redding, CA.

My original plan had been to drive down California's central coast from Carmel to San Luis Obispo.  The weather was terrific and views spectacular... but I wasn't prepared for the mob.  The campgrounds were full and I ended up getting home a day early after a backwoods bivwac up in the coast range.