TO RINCON (?) AND ATASCADERO
Thursday morning dawned overcast and gloomy with the local TV reporting a serious accident on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) that broke a water main, washing tons of dirt onto the highway. This was precisely the route we wanted to take through the famous Malibu area with all the expensive homes lining the beaches and on the hillsides. But by the time we made it to the area it had been cleaned up except for mud that was left to make a mess of our PT Cruiser tow car. When we got to the Rincon Beach Parkway there was not one space left of the 127! Many of the RV’s there were not occupied and we figured people just leave their RV’s there to hold a space for the Memorial Day holiday. Too bad, but it was not a very nice day anyway. We pulled over on the side of the road for lunch, and suddenly, Fran saw a dolphin leap completely out of the water in a perfect arc and then dive back in. On closer inspection, we saw a school of dolphins frolicking in the water as they swam south-ward. Very exciting!
Our backup plan was to head for the Elks Lodge in Santa Barbara and a phone call confirmed that they had space available, good deal. We knew that old friends from San Francisco, Ron and Rosanna Lutz, had been in Santa Barbara the previous week so an email soon confirmed that they were still there and we made plans to get together. Santa Barbara is truly a lovely city with flowers seemingly growing in profusion everywhere. We had a very nice lunch along the beachfront area and enjoyed their company on a tour of the city.
By Saturday we moved on to Atascadero Elks to visit with more old Bechtel friends, Paul and Yee-Sen Wolfe, who moved from the Bay Area to a ranch in the Paso Robles area where they had planned to grow wine grapes and olive trees but found instead that they could continue working in San Luis Obispo, so the grapes would take a back seat for a while. We enjoyed a very nice dinner on their patio under a tree with magnificent views of the surrounding vineyards.
Tuesday we will be off to the Thousand Trails Preserve at San Benito off in the mountains near Hollister.

TO GARDEN GROVE AND DISNEYLAND

TO GARDEN GROVE AND DISNEYLAND
We made it to the Garden Grove Elks on Monday, May 24th, and as luck would have it there were numerous sites available. With Disney only a few miles away we expected it to be overflowing. Perhaps it was the $3.00 fuel or the recently increased price, but it was only half full. Better yet, we arrived just after our friends, Harry and Susan Salit, who were coming from a rally in Pahrump, NV. First order was a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm for their famous Chicken Dinner. Tuesday we all headed to Disneyland, which hasn’t really changed that much in the many years we have been visiting, but it’s still worth the rather heavy admission price. We looked forward to luncheon at the Blue Bayou Restaurant which is always a treat, mostly because of the ambiance – sitting on a terrace overlooking the “Bayou” as the boats glided by carrying passengers on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the sounds of crickets and soft banjo music to lull the unsuspecting rider into a sense of peace. The famous Indiana Jones jeep ride was out of order for most of the day, but we finally were able to take it. Always a thrill! For the little ones, we tried the new Finding Nemo submarine ride. Like I said, it was for the little ones! We finally got home after walking what seemed like a “millyun” miles. It turned out to be Bingo night at the Elks with cars parked everywhere, so there was no chance for Harry to get his coach out that night. On Wednesday, Fran and I were off to the Richard M. Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. This doesn’t get much publicity but turned out to be an excellent place to visit and as usual, we underestimated the amount of time to spend there. But we were off to Monrovia to visit an old boss of Fran’s from Bechtel who is now suffering with MS. It was very nice visiting Hugo and chatting with him for a few hours. He shares a home with his son and grandchildren in the 1911 Bliss House, which is on the Monrovia City Register of Historic Sites. That evening we headed to the Salits’ home in Pasadena for dinner and conversation, which seems to be our main source of entertainment these days. Tomorrow we will be off to Rincon Beach Parkway, 127 RV parking spaces along the ocean-front, but will there be room for us? With the Memorial Day weekend looming near, we just don’t know! Again, no reservations! ----- Just a “first come - first served” policy.

FROM PIO PICO

We mentioned the sights along Highway 94 in our previous blog so we returned on Saturday, the 22nd, to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum at Campos, CA, to ride on their weekend excursion train. This was only about a six mile trip in a 1930's Pullman car and seldom exceeded 15 mph but we learned all about the history of the San Diego and Arizona Railway. The Railway was built from 1909 to 1919 by a San Diego businessman, John Spreckels, who wanted to avoid the Southern Pacific monopoly in the Southwest. His line went some 10 miles into Mexico to try to avoid some of the terrain on the U.S. side of the border. There were still bout 4 tunnels and a number of major trestles involved so it was no easy task and very expensive and ultimately it never really made much money. The line gradually dwindled and actually lasted until recently when a fire in one of the Mexican tunnels collasped the tunnel and put an end to operations. It was then turned over to the Museum operation by the State and, with membership money, has become a major museum with weekend rides and, until last year, an excursion train to Tecate, Mexico, for shopping and tours of the Tecate Brewery. Unfortunately, another tunnel fire put an end to that as well. We certainly enjoyed our visit to the SD&AZ Museum and wound up at the Campos Cafe down the road for an excellent lunch to top off the day.

Since the Railway and Highway 94 parallel the Mexican border along with large high-tension electrical lines taking electricity from Arizona to California, we were able to see much of the highly touted border fence. This is quite a construction through rugged, mountainous terrain. There seem to be more Border Patrol vehicles in this area than we have ever seen anywhere. If they sent half of these patrols to Arizona, perhaps we would have much less of a problem on the open flatlands of Arizona.

Monday, the 24th, we will be off to the Garden Grove Elks Lodge, where we hope to find a site available! (No reservations, no guarantees!)

Still having trouble loading photos here, not to mention an almost unbelieveably slow Internet connection.

On our way

The Guadalahara Restaurant

The Frontier at Algodones, MX

Fran bargaining for a purse!

ON OUR WAY TO PIO PICO

Getting an early start to our Summer Trip on Monday, we made a stop at Algodones, MX, to buy our stock of medications (don’t call ‘em drugs) and booze, a candy wrapper purse for Roseann, and finally lunch on the terrace of the Guadalajara Restaurant.

“Algodones” means Cotton in English and has only one reason for being; that is to furnish cheap medications, booze, eye glasses, dental care and native items to Americans who make the trip into this small Mexican border town, where there are many dozens of each type of store. Of course, the winter snowbirds from all the northern states and Canada bring hoards of customers in the winter months; but by the time of our visit in May there are few visitors left and what was once a two plus hour wait to re-enter the States is now down to only a few minutes. We have been visiting Algodones for over twelve years and have watched it grow and clean-up its act to improve its appeal to the Gringos.

After a few hours in old Mexico we continued westbound on I-8 toward our destination of the Thousand Trails Preserve at Pio Pico, California where we will kick back for a week. However, this was the first time we tried cutting off the Interstate to California Highway 94 which parallels the Mexican border for some forty miles, often to within 1/4 mile. This gave us a good view of the new border fence which is quite impressive in places. Far from being the simple fence that most people envision, the fence is built through some extremely mountainous areas with massive granite outcrops. This all requires extensive grading and moving many tons of earth and rock. Also along this road at Campos we found the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, a very large railroad museum complex with railcars and track all over the valley. We will try to find out more when we have a connection to the internet which is sadly lacking at the moment.

That’s all for now folks!