California

Before heading into California we stopped at River Breeze RV Resort on the Colorado River in Ehrenberg, AZ.  After 2 plus months of desert landscape it was good to see flowing water, grass and something besides palm trees. 

 

Our home for the month of April was Casa del Sol RV Park in Hemet, CA. From there we branched out and explored the central and southern parts of California. First thing we did was find a farmers market and purchased the most beautiful and tasty strawberries any of us had ever eaten. 

 

We visited the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Museum to see some of the history of drag racing. 

 

To further Beverly's knowledge of car racing, we attended a World of Outlaws dirt track race. While focused on getting to the pits before the racing started, we failed to notice that they had watered the track and the "hot laps" had begun. We were making our way around the curve when we were sprayed with mud clumps. Welcome to dirt track racing. Another difference in this and NASCAR racing is that many fans wear goggles to protect their eyes and bandanas or dirt bike/hockey type masks to protect their nose and mouth from the dirt that at times is so bad you can barely see the track. We had a great time. 

 

We toured Palm Springs and rode the Aerial Tramway to reach the Mountain Station in the Mt San

Jacinto State Park. Enjoyed the 2.5 mile ride over the Chino Canyon, views from the top and displays in the museum. We ate lunch at the Peaks Restaurant while watching this getting off the tram, many who were not prepared/dressed for the temperature change and gusting wind associated with the 8500 feet elevation. 

 

We went to Yorba Linda with Larry and Beverly to visit his cousins Margaret and Nancy (from Arkansas) and their husbands Bob and Gary. We had a wonderful meal and great time watching Larry and the "girls" interact. You could easily believe that they had caused all kinds of problems for their parents when they were younger. 

 

One afternoon as Larry and David were preparing to grill our dinner, they heard a crack and looked up in time to see a tree limb slowly fall onto the top of our motorhome. Help from the RV park was slow in coming so David climbed on top, cut and remove all limbs with no damage done. Took park employees a week to remove the limbs from in front of our coach. 

San Diego is the home of the USS Midway. It was a Navy aircraft carrier and the largest ship in the world until 1955. It operated for 47 years and saw action in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm. It was decommissioned in 1992 and is now a museum. We roamed around the ship for hours checking out the various aspects of carrier life.  It was all quite amazing. After the tour, we ate at the Fish Market Restaurant and walked around Seaport Village. 

We finally had the opportunity to go to Hollywood and we were very excited. We traveled down Hollywood Boulevard, saw the Walk of

Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theatre and hundreds of people. When we noticed how crowded it was and how many people were approaching tourists trying to sell them something or promote their latest cause, we decided we had seen enough. We did however, still need to see the Hollywood sign.  We proceeded to Griffith Park Observatory area which was the perfect spot to see the sign and a view of the LA skyline. 

 

No trip to California would be complete without seeing the Pacific Ocean. We traveled to Oceanside and after a walk on the beach, went out on the 1,954 feet wooden Oceanside Pier.  We saw Pelicans and other birds that appeared to be waiting for a handout from someone........anyone. They were not bothered by people at all. It was a very pleasurable time. 

 

 

 

Presidential Libraries are on our "must see" list so we were excited that there were two in this area.

 

 

We didn't get to tour the Richard Nixon Library as it was closed during renovations so we headed to the Ronald Reagan Library. It was great to learn new things about his early life, see the influence he had been and how he transitioned from actor to president. Wonderfully enjoyable. 

We did lots of sightseeing. Many times we would just chose a direction and go. We ate at several interesting places. Farmer Boys was a California inspired hamburger joint, but not exactly our style. Polly's Pie had wonderful homestyle food, cornbread that was more like cake, yummy pies and Strawberry Lemonade with lots of strawberries. Enough said!!

Something we never got accustomed to was the traffic. Didn't seem to matter what time it was or how many lanes the road was, traffic was bumper to bumper in all directions and lanes. Would not want to deal with that on a daily basis. We can now say we have truly been to California and not just the airport, LAX. 

PHOENIX

We left Tucson and headed to Phoenix where we spent March at Leaf Verde RV resort in Buckeye, AZ.  It was a lovely park, convenient to everything but with no shade. Although we had a palm tree in our spot, it provided no relief and the trailer next to us was to small to add any shade relief. 

 

Since we were in Phoenix partly for baseball spring training, the next day we went to our first game. We had great seats along the first base side at Surprise Stadium where we saw the Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals 10-0. Larry secured several autographs and was very happy. 

 

That weekend we went to Melrose on 7th Ave Street Fair & Car show.   It was not like the craft fairs or art festivals we had been too. It was mostly vender types (like infomercials) and food trucks plus lots of classic cars. You know the guys liked it. 

 

On a local PBS tv station, we saw a program called "Check Please" where they rated local restaurants. One looked especially yummy so we all headed out to Flavors of Louisiana.  We went several times during our stay in Phoenix and had: Dunkin' Catfish (fried catfish strips over rice covered with crawfish etouffee), Cajun-fried shrimp and catfish, fried pickles and green tomatoes, hushpuppies, coleslaw, red beans and rice, dirty rice and beignets. Yum. Yum. 

 

Our church while in Phoenix was First Southern Baptist Church-Buckeye. It was a little more reminiscent of our Longview church but with a much smaller choir.  We really liked the preacher  and the messages he brought. He identified our accent (especially Larry's) right away and knew we were from Texas. 

 

We visited Goodyear Stadium was where we saw the Texas Rangers beat the Cincinnati Reds 11-5. Great seats again and a good time was had by all. 

 

Cafe 25:35 was a great find for us. Their mission statement scripture was Matthew 25:35, which explains their name and desire as a business.  They had wonderful breakfast and lunch which we had several times. The cafe and the business next to them, had free fast wifi so it was a great place to get a good meal and update apps at the same time. 

 

 

 

NASCAR was in town so we went to the race. Beverly knew nothing about NASCAR racing so it was a lot of fun seeing her enthusiasm and excitement leading up to the race.  We got there early so we could check out all the displays. When we saw Richard Petty and told her to take a picture of him, her response was "Which one is he.".  Oh Beverly, we have lots more to teach you. 

 

 

 

 

One night we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the Bruno Munro's Sonoran Lights. The

artist used fiber optic lights to create beautiful displays throughout the gardens. One display used water filled 2 liter bottles with fiber optics inside in different colors. Contrary to the norm, this was one time when a picture was better than the real thing. The colors were much more vibrant in pictures. 

 

 

 

While Larry and Beverly went to a local music festival/workshop, we went to a local car show. Since it was sponsored by a Cougar Club, there were lots of older Cougars and Mustangs from old to new. 

California was next. Will report on that soon.