March 15, 2015

Nude, clothing-optional or textile? This a question that many a nudist has to resolve before using a beach, hot springs, or resort.
Don’t you wish that next time you visited a nudist club, that the people you encounter there would actually be nude? Are you tired of attending nudist events to find the majority of the people you meet are either partially or fully clothed? This fall, we visited a resort that actually lived up to the title of nudist.
On the weekend of November 20-22, 2015, Donna and I decided to take our newly acquired Roadtrek, which we have named Sun Rover, to a nearby Glen Eden, a Southern California co-op nudist resort. The weather forecast predicted sunny skies, with temperatures in the mid-eighties. I am sure we can agree those are ideal conditions and we couldn’t wait to take off for the 85 mile drive from our winter home in Desert Hot Springs.
We have visited Glen Eden many times in the past, but it had been several years since our most recent visit to the club. GE, one of the premiere clubs in the West, is set in a scenic canyon on I-15 south of Corona, California and east of Los Angeles. We had reserved a spot near the tennis courts and swimming pools and were not disappointed in the least!
If you have not been to Glen Eden, you might be surprised to discover that the club is nudist, not just clothing-optional. The two pools (inside and outside), the sunning deck, and the dance floor are nudist only (weather permitting). This really sets the tone for the club. First time visitors to the club are expected to take a tour of the club in the nude, but since we were in the files, it was not necessary.
We paid our grounds fees and RV space rental at the resort’s entrance and were soon hooked up to utilities and we found our sunscreen and proceeded to the spacious poolside sunning area. We were surprised that, although many sun-worshippers were poolside, nobody was swimming in the beautiful water. John made a quick check of the water temperature, which explained that. Apparently, the pool heater had been turned off for the season one week earlier. Oh well, the inside pool was still open. One of the unfortunate things about this season of the year is that the days are quite short and by 3:00 the sunning area began to empty out.
Donna remembered that an old friend of ours from Squaw Mountain, Kent Sjolander, now lives at Glen Eden. We looked him up and had a nice chat at poolside where we caught up on the past ten years. He invited us to his home for dinner that evening and a good time was had by all.
Both of us enjoy dancing and Glen Eden was well prepared for us. The dance floor is spacious, the music was plentiful and the dancers were nude. This made our dancing especially enjoyable. The choice of music might appeal more to someone a generation younger, with a constant, hammering bass beat that reminded me of a pile driver, but, judging from the turnout, it is what the audience wanted. As I remarked to Donna, “Anytime I get to hold you tight makes for a great evening.”
We spent Saturday making the most of GE. A leisurely, romantic, sunrise hike to the top of the park gave us a wonderful view of Glen Eden, as well as the vistas of the surrounding countryside. Since both of us are music lovers, we were pleased when were invited to join in an 11:00 AM ukulele jam, a very popular event at the club.
We spent several more hours by the pool in the warm afternoon sun, sunning our buns and catching up on our reading. In November, the temperatures drop immediately and we were soon forced to find warmer surroundings. We thoroughly enjoyed warming up in the oversize hot tub seeking refuge from the evening’s chill in the club’s excellent sauna. There were people of all age groups on the grounds, participating in all sorts of activities and having fun while doing so.
The owners of an adjacent site, also Roadtrek owners, invited us for cocktails and we had a nice conversation with them, learning much out the compact motor homes.
We tried the Saturday evening DJ dance, but soon tired of the monotony of the repetitive, pounding and retired to our coach.
Sunday morning’s sun rose right on schedule and after a quick breakfast, we began to close up our camper for a 10:00 departure to keep from being assessed an extra day’s grounds fees. Glen Eden charged the highest grounds fees we have ever paid at a nudist club, but the wonderful late November experience made the entire, truly nudist experience all worthwhile. Perhaps we will see some Sun Rovers there next time.

For more information about Glen Eden check out http://gleneden.com/ or
Glen Eden Nudist Resort
25999 Glen Eden Road
Corona, CA 92883
(800) 843-6833 or (951) 277-4650

April 28, 2015

On December 10th, several members from both Bare Spirits and Sun Rovers met at the State Capitol for a tour that was led by Mike H. The capitol building was decorated gorgeously with plenty of trees, lights and many school choirs were there to sing Christmas Carols. After taking a wonderful tour and spending a little bit of time in the Senate chamber, the group then met at Rockin Rogers on South Commercial Street for a great lunch and conversation. Everyone had a great time and plans are in the works for next year.

April 28, 2015

On January 3, 2015, Don and I met up with several members from Sun Rovers and joined them for a tour of Widmer Brewery in Portland. Mary planned a surprise reunion for Don with his nephew and niece and Don’s nephew gave the tour for the group. We learned a lot of interesting information and at the end of the tour had an opportunity to do a beer tasting. They had some great Micro-brews for all to enjoy.

Once the tour was over, everyone met in the restaurant in their back room for lunch and great conversation followed by a Sun Rovers meeting. Don was again surprised with his niece and her family and his nephew’s family joining us for lunch. It was a great time and definitely it has been great meeting up with others for all the different activities. Thanks to the Sun Rovers for hosting this event.

mh

April 28, 2015

In November 2014 Don and I took a trip to Florida and had the opportunity to visit Lake Como in Lutz, FL. I’m sad to say we were not able to enjoy all the amenities as it seemed Florida had a different type of weather planned for us. We did stay at the motel and had a nice view of the lake etc but because of tornado style conditions we were not able to do much other than visit with a dear friend of ours. In fact, the little restaurant that they had on-site had to be closed down due to high winds and concerns for patron’s safety.

The property is nicely kept up and we did come home with a couple of souvenirs so all was not lost. Just a minor note, at the time we left Oregon, weather was cold and lousy and that is what we had when we arrived in Florida. The morning we left Lake Como we did have an opportunity to eat in the on-site restaurant and the food was great but the service was even better. Just think, we could have saved the money on airline tickets and just stayed home. We did enjoy several areas of Florida and had a wonderful trip.

mh

October 26, 2014

Yearning  for some warm sun on my nude bod I took the redeye to Orlando, picked up a rental car and drove south to Kisseme and to one of the premier sun resorts Cypress Cove  –  where I had been two years ago during the spring meeting of the Nudist Clubhouse.  This was a fun group so I picked the timing to join the group again.

Cypress Cove is one of the best resorts of the 12 or so I have visited and also one of the most expensive  costing about as much as some mid class motels I have stayed at.  It as all the amenities one could want  – more than I’ve found in any other . http://www.cypresscoveresort.com

After four days there I drove for little over an hour to the gulf side and stayed at Lake Como for four more days which has the attraction for me of its hiking trails over parts of its 200 plus acres, with the main lake and several smaller lakes and ponds. The amenities are far less than Cypress Cove and the restaurant  can’t  hold a candle to CC’s but the the pool and hot tub are great and the cost  is about half. http://lakecomonaturally.com

Rocky

July 4, 2014

While in California during June 2014 I attended my first River Dippers event.  River Dippers is a Naturist Society affiliate.  They have gatherings at natural locations to take skinny dips, but they also meet at host houses like our travel clubs do.

The Ice Cream Social is held at a member couple’s private residence and features ice cream shakes in multiple flavors provided by the hostess.  The smallish back yard has a pool, is well fenced and private, but was adequate for the 30 or so guests that came.  Later in the day there was a pot luck, featuring tri-tip beef and vegetarian dishes.

In addition to the new people I met, there was also a local couple that I had previously met at Willies over Memorial weekend, and TM (AANR presidential candidate) was there too.

It was a very nice Saturday.

rb

January 12, 2014

I was recently going through old files while cleaning house and in one file generically called “Correspondence” I came across 4 responses to inquiries I had made about joining a nudist club – in 1982.  I remember joining ASA for one year, but I had forgotten that I had written clubs for information.  I guess I got the club mailing addresses from the ASA publication.  It’s possible that phone numbers were not shown in the directory at that time.

1982 was the year we moved to Oregon and had two kids under age 3.  I was about to start at Oregon State in January 1983 and may have had some time on my hands, along with diaper residue.  We must have decided not to pursue club activities at the time.  After the new year started and I started classes, time for social activity was not to be found.  As evidence that nudists hibernate, only one of the responses came in 1982 for sure.  The post mark on another was not readable.

Responses came from Willamettans, Restful Haven, Hidden Springs, and Sun Rovers.  I did not find anything from Squaw Mountain.  Maybe I did not write, or got a response and did not save it.  I don’t know.  Click below any of the envelope images to see what I got from that club.  None of it is weird, but it is a good reminder of how clubs responded to inquiries 31 years ago.

Three of the 4 responses were on yellow stock.  The Hidden Springs response was on yellow index card stock.  The writer was “acting President”, so maybe he did not have club stationary.  The two travel club responses were hand written.  It took me another 27 years before I joined a club.  Now THAT’s procrastination!

rb

June 25, 2013

The June 22 BS event was at Mountaindale Sun Resort.  Though the weather was not primo, it was warm enough and dry enough on Saturday to do the Cabin Crawl naturally.  For those who have not been to one, a Cabin Crawl is a multi-course meal served at several of the resident’s cabins.  You travel from cabin to cabin for each course, starting with appetizers, going to salads, and ending up a few cabins later with dessert.  This works on more than one level.  You get to meet each host, see the host’s cabin (some of which have had interesting remodeling done), and each cook serves one or more favorite recipes.  And you get a bit of exercise by walking.

The jam session started after the cabin crawl at the newly relocated fire pit.  Judith invited a musician she met recently – “Christopher of the Wolves”, who is skilled a performing with unconventional instruments.  He performed at the jam with two ‘hangs‘, and a ‘didgeridoo‘.  At Judith’s cabin he also had another steel instrument I don’t know the name of, and assorted percussion instruments.  He was a one-man band during his visit, but sometimes performs with others professionally.  A hang is the flying saucer shaped steel drum shown in the photo.  The didgeridoo is the long wood pipe he blows into get the rich base sound accompanying the hang music.

Also performing at the jam was our on-the-spot fearsome foursome.  Musicians Dave on guitar, Randy on harmonica, Kelly on uke, plus another guitar player I don’t remember the name of (sorry!).  He played at the Daly BBQ last year.  We muddled thru selections from a song book and actually sounded pretty good at times.  We did some requests from the audience as well.

A wood flute player did a haunting solo to add variety to the set.

This mp3 is from one of Christopher’s CDs and is an example of what we heard.

If the mp3 player does not work for you, you can try downloading the file by right clicking on the link above.

June 10, 2013

If you ride in the Portland Naked Bike Ride, it is an experience you will not forget.  The 2013 event was well attended, but at the time this was written an estimation on the number of riders had not been published.

The ride started at the Portland Art Museum, with the route and end points not announced to the media.  I presume this was done to avoid too many people gathering at any single location.  The end point did not loop back to the start as was done in previous years.  Departure time was a little after 10 pm.

Three of us went and we managed to stay together thru about 2/3 of the ride.  At that point, my bike threw the chain while I was in the middle of a mass of naked riders going uphill after an underpass.  By the time I worked my way to the curb and got the chain back on, I was a few minutes behind the others.  We got together at the end after some wandering about.

If you join the ride in the future, it’s a good idea to have good bike lights, body lights (I had light sticks) and a phone for each rider.

See the official web site at http://bikeportland.org/2013/06/09/the-best-of-world-naked-bike-ride-2013-nsfw-photos-88136