Our RV Adventures

After three straight days on the road down to LA, it was time to slow down a little and just stay in the area today.

We left the rig about 10:45 to have the lunch Buffet at the Shakey’s Pizza up in Palmdale. The last time we ate here was 7 years ago when we were here just about this time of the year. But Shakey’s goes pretty far back for Jan and I, and even further back for me.

Jan and I ate at the Shakey’s in Orlando several times back in 1967 when we were dating in Titusville, FL, and then later, after we were married and living in Birmingham, we used to eat at the one in the Roebuck area all the time.

But further back, when my family took a vacation out west in the summer of 1964, we ate at a Shakey’s in the LA area for the first time. In fact it was our very first time to actually eat at a PIZZA place. Before that if we ever had pizza it was an Italian restaurant in our area.

As a matter of fact Shakey’s was the very first franchise pizza chain, starting in 1954, peaking at 500 stores by 1974. But through a series of clumsy buyouts the number of stores declined to 221 by 1989. And now there are only 51 left in the US.

But, at the same time, starting in 1975, a Philippine conglomerate begin building Shakey’s there, where there are now over 500 locations in the Pacific Rim area.

Leaving Shakey’s, we drove up to Lancaster and then out west of town to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. When we were here 7 years the hills around here were alive with poppies. You can read more about it here.

Poppies, Poppies, Poppies

Last time as we drove out into the gentle hills we could see the flowers from miles away.

You can see even more photos at the link above.

But this time though, not so much. This year all we saw were scattered patches left around, and not many of those.

Turns out we just missed Peak Poppy about 10 days ago during the Poppy Festival on April 22nd and 23rd when it looked like this.

What a difference a week and a half can make.

Heading back into Lancaster, we decided to soothe our poppy disappointment with pie.

Marie Callender’s pie.

Jan, of course, went with her favorite pumpkin, while I once again got their Double Cream Blueberry, and coffee as well.

And even better we got duplicate pies to take home to have for our dinner later tonight.

Really, really good.

And as well as pie, we also got see to see flowers, roses this time, as part of the restaurant’s landscaping.

Tomorrow we’re making a 345 mile trip to Flag City RV Park near Lodi. A long day, but at least it’s Interstate all the way.

“I find nothing more depressing than optimism.” ― Paul Fussell

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Today, our last day to journey down to LA proper, we were on the road by 9:30, heading down to the Hollywood Blvd/TCL Chinese Theater area for our 12:15 TMZ Hollywood Tour.

We were going down early so we could check in for the tour early and then have lunch. I had made our reservations online a couple of days ago so all we had to do was to check in at TMZ’s booth in the Hard Rock Café, get our badges, and then head right across the street to the Hooters.

We had first eaten here in 2010 prior to our last Hollywood Tour, and hoped it was as good as before.

As usual we both went with our favorites, Jan getting her Original Chicken Strip Cheese Sandwich with their new Big Dipper Fries.

Previously they only had Curly Fries, but the Big Dipper’s are more like Steak Fries, but shaped to hold dips/sauces. Very Good.

I of course went with my usual wings, all drums, coated with their Habanero BBQ sauce with side sauces of Chipotle Honey for the sweetness, and Triple Dog Dare, their hottest sauce.

Jan and I both agreed that Hooters has really upped their game, I imagine, due to all the competition with Buffalo Wild Wings and the like. The wings are larger than they used to be, with a lighter breading that forms a slight crispy crust, almost like our absolute favorite wings, the Sweet Tangy Golden Sauce Wings, from the Beeville Diner down in, where else, Beeville, TX, where we ate several times while we were gate guarding down in south Texas.

As we left Hooters we noticed a police car right in front of the door, and two police officers on the sidewalk. Turns out that apparently Jan and I are going to Hell because we ate at Hooters.

At least that’s what the protesters were saying, signs, chanting, and all.

We waited about 15 minutes before our TMZ Tour Bus showed up and we were on our way.

Unlike our last Starline Tour in 2010 (You can read about it here) the TMZ tour is more ‘spot the stars’ type. However the Starline tour was a ‘homes of the stars’ so if that’s your thing, take that one.

Because we were star-spotting, AND didn’t see any, there weren’t really any photos to take. So nothing really from that.

But we were shown the very best viewpoint for the Hollywood Sign, and aptly enough it’s from Hollywood Blvd.

Right down the street from the Hard Rock Café there is an opening between the buildings where they’ve set up a viewing area for the tourists.

We were back at the Hard Rock Café by about 2:15 and quickly got on our way home, wanting to get ahead of the going-home traffic, which we did.

We did fight the winds, forecasted to be in excess of 60mph, all the way home, finally getting back about 3:30pm.

Lucky for us the wind didn’t really pick up until later in the evening when is was rocking the coach back and forth. But according to the news, trees and power lines were blown down all over LA.

New blog readers Rob and Dottie dropped by to say Hi. It’s always good to meet new friends.

Tomorrow we’re having lunch at the Shakey’s Pizza up in Palmdale, then some shopping, and maybe a drive out to the poppy fields.

Newport Oregon Police received a 911 call that there was a cat in a tree armed with an assault rifle. True Story.

Neighbor dogs were relieved to find out that it was just a suspicious-looking branch.

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