Our RV Adventures

Ours, at least.

April 22, 2010

Shopping Day . . .

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! 

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.

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…

April 22, 2017

Peggy Sue and Primm Too . . .

We were hooked up and out on Boulder Hwy. heading to I-15S by 9:15 after a great two weeks here at the Las Vegas Thousand Trails.

We were heading for our first visit to the Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails about 15 miles south of Palmdale, CA for a one week stay.

Passing through Primm and into California, we saw the Ivanpah Solar Generating Plant off to the right of the highway.

With almost 350,000 mirrors focused on 3 ‘Power Towers’ it generates as much as 390 megawatts . . .  on a sunny day, of course. Really impressive.

Our one stop along the way was in Yermo, CA, just east of Barstow to have lunch once again at Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner. Located right off the Interstate, it is surrounded by two very large parking lots, not only big enough for to park our RV, but big enough to hold a decent size RV Rally.

We’ve stopped here several times before and it’s always been good, and today was no different.

Peggy’s looks like a 50’s diner, right down the waitresses in their lime-green uniforms right down to those little white hats they wore.

Jan had the Patti Page Patty Melt with Curley Fries and Cole Slaw,

while I had the King Kong Burger with a 1/2 pound patty, Cheese, Bacon, and Curley Fries, as well as a really good cup of Navy Bean Soup with Bacon.

As you can tell from the food names above, Peggy Sue’s is loaded with movie memorabilia, because ‘Peggy Sue’ and her husband both worked in the movie industry for years and collected 1000’s of items that they used to decorate the place.

They’re also known for their homemade pies, so we got a couple of pieces to go.

And if you’ve got kids there’s even a dinosaur playground out back.

Back on the road, it took us another 2-1/2 hours to make the last hundred miles, mostly due to having to cut over on SR-18 below Victorville to hook up with the Antelope Valley Fwy, just a few miles above the park.

We got to the park about 3:30 and only 90 minutes later we were finally parked. Turns out Soledad is one of those parks where they give you a map and let you wander aimlessly until you find a site you like.

Unfortunately, for the first hour every site we liked had a small red X on the pedestal, designating it as No Electric, the X being small enough that you pretty much had to get out of your vehicle to see it.

We were told that 50 amp was available, but what working pedestals we could find were all 30 amp, and with not 20amp socket to use my AC bypass.

Finally I called the office and asked the young lady where all the 50 amp sites were. She said, “There are a of them in ‘B’ . . . but it’s full.”

Well that was a lot of help.

But with the help of another RV’er we found a nice 50 amp site with trees AND a good satellite view.

So we’re set for the week.

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Brandi sent over these pics of Landon’s first hockey lesson.

Looks like he’s up on the skates pretty well.

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Thought for the Day:

“Vengeance is sweet. Vengeance taken when the vengee isn’t sure who the venger is, is sweeter still.”

   

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Jan and I had lunch once again at our new local Pho Barr just a few miles east on FM646. Our 2nd time there since it opened about 10 days ago, it was just as delicious as always.

Though we got our regular Spring Rolls, Vermicelli Bowl, and Pho Ga, we also got an order of their Fish Sauce Chicken Wings to split.

Jan first had them a couple of weeks ago when we had Pho Barr take-out up at Brandi’s in Katy. And they were so good she wanted them again. But she also wanted her usual Grilled Chicken Vermicelli Bowl.

So we split the wings, and that gave us more of our main dishes as left-overs to bring home for dinner tomorrow.

Next up was a haircut for me. I told the guy, “Short, but Not Too Short.” Now his wife knows how to cut it, but she was busy with someone else.

But he apparently has a problem with the ‘Not Too Short’ part. The only way it could be any shorter would be if he just shaved my head.

You’d think I’d learn.

Coming home we made an HEB stop and it seems we picked up a couple of hitchhikers who followed us home.

I know we swore no more flamingos, but Jan said, “Oh, they’re just too adorable.” Love the flip-flops.

So now its again No More Flamingos!

Unless they’re just too adorable, I guess.

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And here’s a couple of reposts from past years.

April 21, 2010

Homes of the Stars . . .

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 if 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?

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April 21, 2019

27 Friends, 4 Dogs, and . . .

One Very Nervous Cat.

Brandi realty gets into the whole Easter thing, including an Easter wreath. I didn’t know they even made Easter wreaths.

Everyone sat out around the fire pit last night, enjoying the nice weather and the lighting.

Today people started pouring in around noon, with the kids hitting the pool

and the adults hitting Brandi’s Moscato Punch,

and Jan’s Sausage Balls.

But everyone showed up for the Easter Lunch Buffet with Brisket, Turkey, Jalapeno Sausage, Baked Beans, Ham-Wrapped Asparagus, Salmon, Mac N Cheese, Salad, and more.

Later, after everyone was stuffed, the older kids hid Easter Eggs all around the backyard with each child having his own color eggs to find, so no fighting over them.

Then it was more pool time for everyone.

Jan and I finally got home about 6:30, trying to get to bed early for week-long sprint to Friday.

Brandi sent us home with a couple of her full-size suitcases for our upcoming trip. They looked awfully big so the first thing I did was to measure them to be sure they meet Lufthansa’s requirements.

One of the cases measures 31”H x 18.5”W x 11”D for a total of 60.5”

The other one measures 29”H x 19”W x 10”D for a total of 58”

Lufthansa allows a total size of 62”, so we’re good to go.

Well, also with the 50# limit, too.

But I did figure out that the laptop bag I was planning on using as my second carry-on is too large, so I’ll have to find something smaller that will still fit all the electronics I want to carry, I.e. laptop, power supply, Samsung Tablet, Kindle, Kindle Fire,etc.

Tomorrow is my second-to-last day at work before we leave, and I still have a lot to wrap up. So I’ve started to prioritize things, things that must be done, things I’d like to do, and things that would be nice, but that I can blow off.

One thing I’ve decided to do is to take the rent car back Thursday afternoon rather than early Friday morning, since we won’t need it after that.

Hopefully.

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Thought For The Day:

They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody? – Princess Diana

  

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