Our RV Adventures

Today was the first day in a while we weren’t on the go, so we slept late and took it easy.

About 10:30 I went over to the office to extend our stay here another 4 days. So now we’ll be leaving on Monday morning. Maybe.

Coming back, I made coffee and we had one of the muffins we brought home from Marie Callenders. Then at 11 am we watched ourselves on The Bonnie Hunt Show while Jan tried to catch up on her journal, but Mister wasn’t much help. He’s never met a horizontal surface he didn’t like.

About noon we headed out for the lunch buffet at Shakey;s Pizza.

Leaving the RV park, we noticed a LOT of new snow on the mountains just west of here in the Los Padres National Forest.  It was 37 degrees and raining here last night. Looks like it was colder and snowing in the mountains last night.  Here it is almost May and it’s still snowing in California.  Isn’t Global Warming wonderful!  (You can click the picture to enlarge it.)

After stopping for gas, we headed over to Costco. It was only our 2nd time at one since we became members in Tucson. I guess you could say it’s like Sam’s Club, but different.

Next we stopped off at Albertson’s to get some things that Costco didn’t have, or had too much of. I mean, we didn’t need 5 lbs of strawberries. A pound would be fine.

We got home about 3pm, just in time for a nap.

Yesterday, coming back from LA we stopped off at a viewing area along the freeway that looks out over Lake Palmdale and the California Aqueduct. It’s really a nice view.

That’s the Aqueduct in the foreground. (You can click the pictures to enlarge them.)

 

Tomorrow we’re going to drive back into LA, eat lunch at Esther’s Taco House, visit Olvera Street, one of the oldest areas in LA, dating from the 1870’s, and then drive Mulholland Dr. thru the Santa Monica Mountains, above Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

More then…

We now have a middle name!

Our upcoming grandchild’s full name will be –

Landon Thomas Morrison

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We left the rig about 10 am headed for Hollywood and our Movie Star Home Tour.

We got there early enough to have lunch so we decided to try the Hooters across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater where our tour would start.

One thing we’ve noticed is the Hooter’s hot wings out west are not near as hot as the Hooters in Texas. We both had ours at “911” which is their hottest normal temp. (Some Hooters also have off the menu temps called “Bentley” and “Elvis” which are hotter still.)  But “911” out here is only about equal to ‘Hot” in Texas.

Anyway we got with our group and were led to our tour bus.

Since rain was forecast and it was sprinkling on the way in from Lancaster, we were a little worried, seeing as how we didn’t have a roof. But our tour guide said not to worry, that if it rained, he had a backup plan. Jan asked what the backup plan was, he said “We get wet!”.

Oh boy!

But off we went. And it turned out fine. The rain held off and the sun even came out for a while.

And now, in no particular order, here are some of the homes we saw.

 

Bob Barker of “The Price is Right” fame

 

The mountain-top retreat, high above Beverly Hills, has been owned by both Steven Spielberg and Merv Griffin. It’s up for sale now.

 

This is the entrance to Bill Cosby’s home.

 

This one is newly-built by Richard and Kathy Hilton, the parents of Paris Hilton.

 

This home was used both in Will Smith’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and  in “Mommy Dearest”, with Faye Dunaway.

 

This under-construction mansion is rumored to be the new home of Arnold Schwarzeneggar, but it’s supposed to be a tight secret with a lot of security around it, even under construction.

 

This was Rosemary Clooney’s home.

 

This is one of the homes used in the Beverly Hillbillies.

 

This is the Beverly Hills Tower, home to Elton John, Cher, Sidney Poitier, and Matthew Perry, among others.

 

This is Nancy Reagan’s Nail Salon, where she has her nails done every Thursday.

 

This is all that remains of the location of “77 Sunset Strip”. It’s the valet parking area, and it’s not located at 77 Sunset Strip, anyway. It’s more like 4800.

 

This is the home of “Colombo’s” Peter Faulk.

 

And this is Helen Hunt’s home. And it’s up for sale, if you’re in the market.

 

This is the back of Johnny Weissmuller’s home. It has a quarter mile long swimming pool that winds thru the estate, with trees and vines so he could still play Tarzan. His family stills owns it.

 

This is the front gate of Michael Jackson’s home.where he died.

 

The balcony here leads into the bedroom where Michael’s body was found.

 

This was the home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez.

 

And right next door was Jack Benny’s home. It’s now owned by Jon Lovitz.

 

And right next door to that is Carol Burnett’s home. That’s some neighborhood.

 

This is Dr. Phil’s home, also known as the “House that Oprah built”.

 

This is Tom Cruise’s home, or what you can see of it.

 

 

And this home, complete with gargoyles, was the home of Dracula’s,Bela Lugosi.

 

This is a shot of the LA skyline, as seen from the Hollywood sign view point.

 

And, of course the Hollywood sign itself. It originally said “Hollywoodland” and was erected in 1923 as an advertisement for the Hollywood Land Co. The last four letters were removed in 1945, or destroyed by a rocket belt-wearing Nazi spy crashing into it in the movie “The Rocketeer”. Take your pick.

 

Back at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, there are always a bunch of movie characters in costumes for people to have their pictures taken with. We’ve seen Spiderman, The Hulk, Batman, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia, just to name a few. However, only in Hollywood would you find KFC’s Colonel Sanders and Jesus, walking and talking.

Seeing this made me want KFC for dinner, so we stopped and picked some up on our way home.

I wonder it I’ll want to go to church on Sunday, too.

Stopping at KFC, I finally got to try the new Double Down Chicken Chicken Sandwich.

It’s two strips of bacon, two slices of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese, and Colonel’s Sauce, between two chicken breasts. It’s messy to eat, unless you keep it in the wrapper, but it’s delicious.

And at 540 calories, it’s not bad calorie-wise, either. That’s 140 calories less than a Whopper and 160 calories less than a Big Mac.

And did I say it’s really, really good?