Slabtown
Nov 15 2008
Our time at Thousand Trails in Palm Desert is over now and we are moving to an escapee park in Aguanga, near Temecula. We will be visiting with our friends Bev and Lowell Kuhn who use this as their home park.
Yesterday we went with a group from the park to Morongo Canyon Preserve where we hiked in the morning and in the afternoon we went for lunch at Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown. Pioneertown was founded in 1946 by a group of Hollywood personalities as a permanent 1880s town for filming westerns. Roy Rogers broke ground for the first buildings assisted by The Sons of the Pioneers, from whom the town gets its name. Over 200 movies and TV serials were filmed there. There are people who live there and occasionally parts of films are still made there. On the way the mountains looked like big piles of rocks, we also saw plenty of Joshua Trees; The wild fires here are terrible. We passed sections where all the trees were burned. And the one right now has burned over 600 homes and many acres.
We are now in Jojoba Hills in Aguanga, we could see the smoke from the fires far in the distance from here.
We went to Palomar Mountain Observatory. You can see it from the park but you must drive around the mountain to get there. Our GPS said it was 6 miles but when we saw the dirt road she was taking us on we opted for the paved way of about 35 miles. The dome houses a 200 inch Hale telescope. Astronomers used to climb inside it and take pictures but now it is all done automatically and the study the pictures from computers.
We also went into San Diego and toured Coronado Island. What a lovely place to live. We were told more Admirals live there than any other city. The Del Coronado is still a beautiful Hotel. Just down the road is a state park with camping right on the ocean for $23. We might end up there after our next stop.
Norm went to breakfast with the mens group this morning.
Fri we went north to Yorba Linda to see Richard Nixons Library. It was very educational. It is located on the site of his childhood home. It is a 900 sq ft kit house built by his father. The helicopter used to transport presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford. Was also on the site.
We are now at another Thousand Trail park closer to San Diego, and we found Panera Bread!!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!Lois

pics from the desert

Top picture is the TT park we are staying at. They harvest the dates from these Date Palms.



These are fan palms at the 1000 palms canyon. We were told fan palms are the only palm natural to the area.

Nov 4 2008

We are at a Thousand Trails park in La Quinta, about 35 miles east of Palm Springs. The landscaping around here along the roads and housing developments is just beautiful, everything is green ( a lot of watering being done), with beautiful flowers and manicured bushes and lawns. There is boocoo money here! The park seems active, I’ve already been to a photoshop class and they play pickle ball just up the street from us, The pool is warm and feels really good, We are happy here. Norm already went to a spa at Desert Hot Springs, I found a Stein Mart, all is well!
Today we went on a road trip to Anza Borrego State Park. The wind was blowing the sand all around just like the last time we were here. I wouldn’t want to stay there long in a motorhome there would be sand in everything. The desert is pretty but hostile! When we were there last time we hiked up Palm canyon to a beautiful oasis with palm trees. In 2004 a 40’ wall of water came crashing thru the canyon, taking out many of the palm trees and leaving big boulders strewn around. [flash flood]. This time we decided instead of hiking up the storm damaged canyon we would look up a hot spring Norm found in his hot spring book. It was an additional 50 mile drive to the desert north of Brawley where after driving 1 1/2 miles in the sand we came to an oasis with about 20 palm trees and a beautiful natural hot springs under the palms. It was like something out of a movie.
Most of the week we’ve been lounging around the pool. It’s been hot and sunny here.
Sat-Today we went to the College of the Desert to a street fair where we spent the morning walking around the vender’s tents. When we left there we drove up the thousand palms canyon and took a short hike thru the palms.
Sun- Today we drove to Palm Springs and drove up to the tram. We didn’t go up the side of the mountain (it was cold), but the view from there was awesome. We were both a little surprised at Palm Springs. Palm Springs appears to be older than all the communities that have sprung up to the East. There are alot of empty shops and the landscaping along the streets doesn’t compare to what we were seeing here in La Quinta.
Hope all is well with you and have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Lois

pics from LA

Oct 30 2008
Our last day in Monterey we went to the Carmel Mission where we learned we were not as smart as a 4th grader!! A fourth grade class from Sacramento was touring the mission and we tagged along with them to take advantage of their docent. We learned a lot about missions and had a great time trying to answer the docent’s questions (quietly) before the kids did and usually they had us beat. The mission was established in 1771 by a Franciscan friar, Father Junipero Serra, who had to be a really courageous explorer to come to a wilderness land and set up a community. He would walk back and forth to Mexico for needed supplies!
From there we traveled 340 miles southwest to Acton which was the location of the Thousand Trails preserve that we went to for their sales presentation. There we just took it easy and enjoyed their pool and hot tub and the 3 free nights of camping. By going there we received a months free camping at thousand trails so tomorrow we leave for the Palm Springs area for 2 weeks on Thousand trails. We just heard they had 3 small earthquakes near there, hope they are DONE.

The last 5 days we have been in Simi Valley exploring the LA area. Our first day was spent at the Ronald Regan Library which is on a beautiful setting where on a clear day you can see the ocean. He is buried there. They were featuring a special display of Nancy Reagan’s outfits. They also have a new display featuring Air Force One and a presidential motorcade. This Air Force One flew Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H W Bush, Clinton, and W Bush. Visiting the library was a very moving and worthwhile experience I hope all of you can sometime do. Their love story was truly special!
We had heard about the Petersen Auto Museum at our region 12 rally so we went to check out their RV display. They have motorhomes and trailers from the 1930s, including a1936 airstream clipper, the
earliest one known to have survived. The museum is located in downtown LA on Wilshire Blvd on the miracle mile so we walked down the street to check out the mile. We came upon the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. The museum houses the bones that were taken from the natural tar pits located right along Wilshire Blvd. We toured the tar pits where they are still digging up prehistoric bones. It’s amazing what has been found and what probably lies beneath Wilshire Blvd. Since we were in the neighborhood we went to Rodeo Drive and went street walking.
We came back thru Topanga canyon, a curvy steep drive that rewarded us at the top with a magnificent view of the city at night.
Yesterday we decided we should see the canyon during the day so we took it to the ocean. We went to Venice beach ( I was hoping to see the muscle guys) they call it muscle beach. There were lots of surfers there but not much else, the fishing pier was occupied by older men who didn’t look too prosperous! From there we checked out the boats at Marina del Rye Harbor, now there’s a contrast!, Santa Monica was busy with people jogging and biking on the trail beside the sea, and we walked along 3rd St where the shopping and restaurants are located. It’s a beautiful area but very heavy traffic and the housing is expensive.
Halloween seems to be a big deal here. There are lots of Halloween stores and decorations at houses and today we ate out for lunch and most of the people in the restaurant were dressed up. I think they were office workers.
Well we have just moved to the Palm Desart area and it is hot here. We’re at a Panera bread to get WIFI I sure am glad we have to come here now and then! I must close and send this off. Hope things are beautiful in the east. Lois