Day 44 Saturday, April 14, 2007
Vandenberg AFB, CA to Monterey – 192 Miles
Today we decided to leave Vandenberg and head on up the coast to Monterey. We had listened to the weather radio and heard that the winds were going to be gusting again on Sunday so we decided to leave today, a day earlier than we had planned so as to avoid the issues with driving a high profile vehicle in high winds!
The weather has turned a little chilly here in California. We are having daytime highs only in the mid-50s the last few days and today was no exception. Today as we drove we had to drive through off and on light rain but by the time we reached Monterey the sun was out but it was still cool outside.
We checked in at the Monterey Pines RV Campground, another nice military RV campground. Since we were 2 days ahead of our current reservation here we had to hope for the best on getting a space without reservations today. They did not have any space in the regular campground; however we were able to “boon-dock” without any hook ups in their overflow area, an old soccer field.
We started up the generator for some power, fixed microwave pizza and had a salad for dinner tonight. The campground and overflow lot are sitting right next to the military Monterey Pines Golf Course and just across from the Monterey County Fair Grounds and tonight there is a live band playing in the fairgrounds amphitheater and we have “front-row” seats for free!!
Tomorrow we are going out to explore the Big Sur coastline going down California Highway 1; we’ll check out the fisherman’s wharf and the Monterey Aquarium and then later in the afternoon we’ll take our bikes and ride the bike trail that runs along the beach.
Days 42 & 43 - Thursday, April 12, 2007 & Friday, April 13, 2007
Carlsbad, CA to Vandenberg AFB, CA – 248 Miles
After getting a recommendation on which route to take through Los Angeles we push off around 9:30 so we would avoid the LA rush hour traffic. We found the traffic to be very familiar to what we were used to driving in the Washington DC area except they have 5–6 lanes each way in many stretches and they have an HOV lane each way right next to the regular lanes (similar to how we have it on Hwy 66 in DC). The HOV lanes require 2 passengers in the car and this restriction runs 24 hours a day.
Go to around Ventura before Richard needed a break; so, we pulled off and filled up with $3.20/gal gas (about $200 to fill up this time!! Ouch!) After a short rest we pushed on toward Vandengerg. The famous California winds were in full force today blowing us all over the road. Richard was having a lot of trouble keeping this high-profile rig in our lane with the 40–50 mph gusts of wind hitting the side of the RV…. really scary today!!
We we happy to arrive safely at Vandenberg and spent Thur and Friday there just relaxing and sitting on their beach. They have 36 miles of beach on this Air Force base but we only saw a short stretch that they allow people to be on.
The rock cliffs had some interesting stratifications of different types of soil/rock that showed the history of the earth along this shore line… just wondered what really happened here all those years ago to call these stratifications??
You could see there were interesting caves hewed out of these cliffs as the Pacific waves crashed into the shore at high tide and during storms.
Found a few geese eating seaweed on the rocks. They later were frightened by some other people on the beach and few off.
Then here’s a bird that was flying no where… Just let me relax….
Day 40 & 41 - Tuesday, April 10, 2007 & Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Coronado Island, CA to Carlsbad, CA – 40 Miles
We enjoyed camping at Coronado– watched Navy Helicopters land on Aircraft Carriers -the campground was right on the water with a view of San Diego and this huge bridge crossing the bay from San Diego to Coronado.
The flowers displays on the highway and in the whole town of Carlsbad were fantastic. Romano and Linda, we found you skinny pine trees– they are all here.
We arrived at Sandy and Len’s and to our amazement there was a Fifth-wheel RV parked in their driveway? Hum, they have been holding out on us; they are RVing as well! Just before we barged in we thought we better give them a call; something did not seem right. Sure enough Einstein, our friendly GPS system took us to their former home, the address Richard put into Einstein,ups! As they say garbage in garbage out holds true with GPS’s as well. We did find them….they were only a few streets away.
John, one thing I forgot to mention – around Yuma, AZ and crossing the mountains into CA we saw many solar panels on roofs. Some were the old type panels as we are accustomed to seeing in the DC area; however, we also noticed a new type of panel that seem to be part of the roof shingles themselves, just slightly darker. This looks promising
As we mentioned Carlsbad is awash in flowers – it reminds us of Germany– Sandy and Lens house was no exception.
Here’s a panoramic photo of the hill side.
Their home was located on a Hill overlooking the Pacific in the distance… we decided to move in… just kidding.
They were gracious hosts and showed us the flower fields and that evening we had dinner at their favorite seafood restaurant. The company, food and wine were excellent. We also did some housekeeping and laundry. Speaking of laundry, it appears when we do laundry we seem to leave a few pieces behind. Sylvia had mentioned to Sandy about the “leaving laundry issue”, Sylvia was looking for her favorite capries in the RV to no avail… don’t know if this is a Freudian slip or not and she something about she means to return here…
We have been experiencing some louder than normal noises with the RV engine lately. We got a name of a reliable place in Oceanside, CA from a fellow camper at the Coronado campground. It had started to sound like a huge lawn mower without a muffler and was noticeably loosing power going up the hills. Turns out that the issue was a leaking exhaust manifold gasket; the same one we replaced back in Woodbridge back in October, Ouch! The shop also said the resonator was coming apart at the seams; seem like we recall hitting a speed bump at Kingsbay too fast and remember the bump hitting the underside of the RV. No choice but to repair it as the plan is to cross the Rockies and Richard will need all the power he can get going up those “small” hills.
While the RV was being repaired Sandy and Len took us for lunch at their Country Club where Sandy plays tennis. During our visit were able to catch up on the our families and old friends and took several long walks on the beach which was only three miles away.
We sure hated to leave – the Rogersons were such gracious hosts – the scenery and the weather were lovely - but the road was calling!
Day 39 - Monday, April 9, 2007
Yuma, AZ to San Diego, CA and Coronado, CA –194 Miles
Onward from Yuma, AZ to Coronado Naval Base Fiddler Cove RV Camp; we left early this morning and arrived here in CA around Noon Pacific time. We’re on our way to Carlsbad, CA to see our friends, the Rogersons, Lynn and Sandy. We stopped over here for the night and tomorrow we’ll push on to Carlsbad.
Day 37 & 38 - Saturday, April 7, 2007 & Sunday, April 8, 2007
Las Vegas, NV to Yuma, AZ – 294 Miles
We’re off to Yuma Arizona, we’re back in the Dessert and Syliva is going take a chance and try driving the RV….there is really nothing to hit except huge cacti. Wow - it does feel like a big heavy truck.
There is not much traffic, but I get neverous about the cars behind me….Richard tells me not to worry about the cars behind me…but to keep an eye on the ones in front of me..Easy for him to say. As we get closer to Yuma I pull over and let him drive. I think he’s a little relieved…. hah!
We were planning on staying at the Yuma Military Campsite, but we were advised to stay closer to town as the Yuma Army Depot was way out in the middle of nowhere. It was let me tell ya!! One of the things Arizona is famous for is all the RV’s here.
There is actually a town call Quartzsite that is made up of RV’s. Many RV’s come here for the winter from all over the US and Canada. Well we saw it – sure enough – nothing but RV’s!!!!
We joined Passport America to give us additional low cost camping options when Military Camping Facilities are not available. There are many Camping clubs out -they all have pros and cons as we’re leaning from other campers. Once we arrived at our campground we took a dip in their pool had some interesting conversations with some of the remaining “snow birds” who were heading back home up north in a couple days.
We took their advice and visited a local Mexican-American restaurant for dinner only to get there just in time for a “fight” / “shouting match” right there in the restaurant. We figured this was as close as we’d get to the “fight at OK Corral”.
Easter Sunday – Yuma, Arizona and Mexico
We have some special friends who live in Yuma; Pearl Sims Bowman, her daughter Chanoa, and son-in-law Nando. We met up and enjoyed brunch together at I-Hop and then took a quick trip into Mexico since the border is only a few miles away.
With it being Easter Sunday many of the shops and vendors were closed and home with their families; the place was almost a ghost town. However, you know women on a mission, they’ll always find a place with some bargains. Sylvia was especially looking for some medium size clay vases to complement a Mexican carpet we had purchased in Puerto Vallarta in February. We found some nice ones and so it was time for Richard to do the barginning.
He “hemmed and hawed” and “grunted” a little about how high the initial $95 price was for these three vases. The shop keeper was tough on the deal wanting only to go down to $75 …. We looked in our wallets and only could come up with $58, had to borrow a $10 from Nando. He was the one to make the final offer explaining we had no more money and the shop keeper finally gave in and Sylvia got her 3 vases.
Now we we leaving Mexico with 3 vases and no money to even buy a Margarita before crossing back over the border! Mama mia what we to do? Well Pearl knew this place just before the crossing of the border and thought they would take a check from her local Yuma bank; so we checked and sure enough we were in luck and were able to have some Margaritas in Mexico.
In fact, everyone but Richard, the designated driver, had about 4 each before we “happily” crossed back over into the US. Sylvia insisted they only had two Margaritas each.
Pearl graciously invited us to here condo for some more Margaritas and steaks and shrimp for dinner. We happily accepted. What a great Easter we had with our friends in Yuma! We feel fortunate to have friends living , and we’re able to stop and catch up as we travel accorss the country.
With tomorrow being a work day for Pearl and another travel day for us, we parted wishing we could stay another day; however, we’re off to see new places tomorrow and see some more friends as we drive into California through San Diego and up to Carlsbad to visit Sandy and Len Rogerson. We heard President Bush was to visit Yuma on Monday; couldn’t stay to see him.
Day 36 - Friday, April 6, 2007
Hoover Dam 
Today was time to do some RV maintenance and get a haircut – we were starting to look like mountain people. We noticed the temperature was going up in the low 90s during the day so we made sure we did all our runing around early morning. I am amazed at the stunts the Air Force Fighter Jets over us seemed to perform; this is the Air Force’s Fighter Warfare School.
Hoover Dam was noted as one of the world marvels of engineering. Before the construction of the dam, the Colorado River Basin periodically overflowed its banks when snow from the Rocky Mountains melted and drained into the river. These floods endangered downstream farming communities. In addition to essential flood control, a dam would make possible the expansion of irrigated farming in the parched region. It would also provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and other Southern California communities.
One of the major obstacles for the project was determining the equitable allocation of the waters of the Colorado River. Several of the Colorado River Basin states feared that California, with its vast financial resources and great thirst for water, would be the first state to begin beneficial use of the waters of the Colorado River and therefore claim rights to the majority of the water. It was clear that without some sort of an agreement on the distribution of water, the project could not proceed.
During its construction, a black Labrador Retriever named Nig was dubbed the offical mascot of the dam. More of the history of the dam may be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam………
Although we wanted to visit Las Vegas at night – we were too worn out from our afternoon sightseeing so we grilled some fish with Teresa’s secret spice mix and visited with our neighboors at the campsite. We also accomplished some bookkeeping and, as we figured, gas has been the highest expense of this trip. We firmed up our plans for the California portion of the trip after checking in with our friend Pearl in Yuma, our next stop.
Day 35 - Thursday, April 5, 2007
Las Vegas, NV
We hit “the strip” early. We drove to the Tropicana, parked and started walking. At the half-priced shows ticket shop we skimmed over the shows available; Elton John and the Red Piano and The Producers shows caught our attention as possibilities. As the day wore on though and our stamina weaned, a show was not what our hearts desired. So we decided to do this another time. The hotels were something – the numbers of people on the street and in the casinos was amazing…is no one working? We did hear on the local news that Las Vegas was the site of a the Formula One race this coming Sunday, Easter Sunday; so a huge amount of folks are in town to see this event.
We decided that Las Vegas was the Disney World for grown ups. We stepped into the Bellagio Hotel and Casino – since last year we visited the real city of Bellagio on Lago de Como in Italy. It certainly was impressive. We decided to stay awhile and take our chances in the casino for a while. Sylvia played the slots while I decided to try my hand at Video Poker. Sylvia cleaned up with a total winning of $30.00 and I broke even, so we decided to eat our winnings at the Bellagio Jean Phillippe Patisserie that served scrumptious pastries and freshly made crepes. We strongly subscribe to the idea that the little things make life pleasurable - crepes at the Bellagio was pretty special. Christine -we can highly recommend the chocolate and banana crepes mit sahne.!!!
We returned to the RV in the early evening tired but happy.
Day 34 - Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Zion National Park, UT to Nellis AFB, NV (Las Vegas) — 155 Miles
As always we hate leaving the last place behind – however are eargerly looking forward to our next destination, Las Vegas – Nellis AFB. After 4 days of – boondocking in the park without hookups – there is light and lots of water at Las Vegas! We both noted how we dont miss the TV in the wilderness, yet the TV seemed to be turned on a lot while we’re at home. The business of the city feels odd after 4 days of prestine beauty and silence; l guess lights and running water come at a cost.
We’re in the dessert it’s hot!! after the cool evenings and pleasant days we’re hitting 85. Luckily we have AC now. We get settle, restock, (I miss Trader Joes, and Whole Foods), do laundry, even Lucy gets a bath.
