Tuesday, February 29 2012

A combination of things led us to the decision to not travel very far this summer.  We looked for a place to stay for the next few months and decided to try the Anaheim Resort RV Park.  They offered us Workamping jobs, so today Randy started in Maintenance and I started in the office.  This will be our first summer in California; our cousins tell us it will be hot, but I simply cannot believe it will be as intense as the heat and humidity combination of St. Louis.  We should only be working part-time, which will give us time to stay in touch with family as well as see the area.  We are parked less than a mile from Disneyland, and at night we can see the Disney fireworks from our window!

February 23, 2012

Three weeks gone without any Blog entries.  What have we been doing, just goofing off?  Well, actually. . . yes.

I realize that I haven't blogged anything because I haven’t taken any pictures.  We are in an area that we’ve been in before, so I’ve already got pictures of everything.

When we arrived  here in early February, it was with a sense of homecoming.  Our family always offers us a very warm welcome, which is why we keep coming back!  But there is a nice little bonus here - the comfortable feeling of knowing our way around.  Streets like Arlington, Tyler and Magnolia are well known to us now;  we can get where we want to go without using the GPS for everything.  That’s a nice feeling that “homebodies” (ie non-RVers) hardly notice.

After we got here, we settled in to take care of some tasks.  It’s time to decide if we really need everything we have in the RV, so we have been going through every drawer, cabinet and bay to get rid of what we can, and repack the rest.  Unfortunately the side-effect to all of this is that now when we want to find something, we remember where it used to be, which is not necessarily where it is now. 

And all those boxes and boxes of seashells that I collected on our journey westward - just rinsing off them does not get rid of the smell.  So I unpacked all the shells we picked up on Florida, Alabama and Texas beaches, bleached them, sorted them by quality, color and size, and looked for matching pairs that would make pretty earrings.  

The first week we were here, we detailed and repaired an RV for some friends of Teresa.  I got so inspired that I want to refurbish our own RV.  For the past 2 years, every single time we settled in one place for an extended period of time, I said we would replace our awful carpet.  I said the same thing this time, with the same results - nada.  But soon, I think . . . I did start painting the bathroom cabinet doors.  Got the wrong color, but at least I started!

Randy has been going fishing with Jack a lot.  Sadly, he has just been fishing - not actually catching.  But a bad day of fishing beats almost any other day, right?

Several nights a week we have been working (if you can call it work) on stage sets for the Riverside Children’s Theater presentation of the Wizard of Oz.  The folks who are building the sets, mostly volunteers, are using their imagination to create some of the best sets ever!  I’ve been painting some side panels that will be used to fill out the stage, while Randy is helping build sets for center stage.  Cousin Teresa is the director, so this will be a really great play. 

The weather here has been good.  It gets pretty cool at night; we set the furnace to 55 and some nights it kicks on.  I start the day in sweat pants, and then it warms up so much that I have switch to shorts.  One day it rained, but they need rain so bad here that we couldn’t mind it.

So that’s pretty much what’s been going on here.  Great people, nice weather, relaxing schedule, and Randy and Teresa are taking turns fixing dinner - what more can I ask for?

January 31, 2012

On this trip we have been feeling a need to get to California as soon as possible.  Don’t know why, but sometimes you just need to go with the feeling.  So here we are in San Diego, enjoying a visit with Randy’s brother Butch and his lovely wife Lina.  As usual, they welcomed us and have been making sure we have a good time.  Butch drove us to Coronado Beach to enjoy the great view of the lovely Coronado bridge, and then on to the Silver Strand Beach.  Why they call it the Silver Strand is a mystery to me, because the wet sands look absolutely golden.  

RV parking is allowed on this beach and we have considered staying here, but it’s one of the few places where you have to pay for dry camping so we haven’t done it yet.  But it’s really beautiful.  Of course, when I'm on a beach, I look for shells.  And as usual, everyone indulged me and helped out, and I got a lot of shells to carry back. 

And they also took us to the San Diego Zoo.  We haven’t been there since 2002 and boy, has it changed!  San Diego Zoo is one of the top Zoos in the nation and here’s one thing we noticed right away; the St. Louis Zoo, which is also a top zoo, is free while the San Diego costs $42 (unless you have a relative with a guest pass, like we did).  But it’s non-profit, so all money goes towards the maintenance and expansion of the zoo.  And it’s an amazing zoo; their exhibits are created to provide the animals with the best environments possible and are constantly being updated.  The wild is the very best place for wild animals, but there are a lot of reasons to have animals in zoos, and I have to say that most of the animals here really seem at ease.  For example, the Sun Bear was up in a tree, flat on it’s back, sunbathing and scratching - not the actions of  an animal that stressed.  The only time we saw animals pacing back and forth was when it was lunch time and they wanted to go into their feeding areas.  The Silvered Leaf Monkeys have two adorable little babies, and one of the Takin (which looks sort of like a stocky Wildebeest) has a brand new baby, less than a day old and already standing up behind his mama.  None of them exhibited nervous or stressful behavior.  Their lions and jaguars are so beautiful and not at all impressed with the tourists, but they weren’t shy around us, either.  There are some animals here that I haven’t seen before, such as large Secretary Birds and charming little Meerkats.  They have a good assortment of the animals you expect to see - rhinos, camels, giraffes, antelope, elephants, etc, and we learned what you feed a California Condor - a dead rabbit.  They also have two really unusual and outstanding exhibits - polar bears and pandas.  The polar bears are gorgeous and you can see they are totally at home here.  They include a brother and sister who have been here since they were a couple months old, and another polar bear who has been here since she was two.  Now they are all grown up, very graceful and frighteningly big.  The male is over 10 feet tall and none of that is fat.  In the wild their diet would be mostly seal blubber, but in a zoo they don’t expend as many calories (regular meals, no hunting and warmer weather) so they are fed leaner meats.  These bears are all muscle and fur and ready for lunch; it was wonderful to be so close to them.

There is also have a big exhibit for their Giant Pandas.  No matter what I know to the contrary, they really do look like you could reach out and cuddle them.  Right now they have a female and a male.  The male is called Gao Gao and he’s known for two things: he is a bamboo-eating machine and he is really good with the ladies.  Female pandas are only fertile two days a year, so in both zoos and in the wild it’s hit or miss to make a baby panda.  But Gao Gao has gotten it right four years in a row!  

Here is my first try at posting a video - this is Gao Gao, effortlessly stripping off the inedible outside of bamboo and munching non-stop; you can see he's an expert at this.

January 26, 2012

We camped in Deming, NM yesterday.  For some reason we were not in the mood to appreciate Deming; it’s a perfectly nice little town, popular with snowbirds everywhere, including some of our friends, but we just weren’t feeling it.  We did visit the St. Clair winery where Randy bought some good port, and we tried to visit a nearby hot springs, although that was closed.  So we left this morning, agreeing that we didn’t give Deming a fair shot and should visit here again later.  

Before we left we found a gas station offering gas at less than $3 a gallon - the pumps are set up to accept credit cards only and nobody is working there.  How awful is it that we were excited to find gas at less than $3.00 a gallon? 

Shortly after we crossed into Arizona the landscape changed; it was still dry and rocky, but there were huge red boulders now instead of small gray rocks, and the beautiful mountains were closer to the road.  We pulled into the Benson I-10 RV park and settled in for a couple of days.  I’ve never been to Tombstone, so Randy drove me over there so I could be a tourist.  

Tombstone is a neat place to be a tourist because that’s the name of the game there.  We bought a couple of cold sasperillas and started walking around.  The Court House is a big two-story brick and stone building with a great cuoplla on top.  It’s full of memorabilia about the town, including a reconstructed hanging gallows out back.  A few blocks away, historic downtown is as much unchanged as can be managed.

The Crystal Palace is still a saloon, with a really fine wooden bar, the original wooden floor, and the original tin ceiling with a lot of bullet holes in it.  Marshal Virgil Earp used to have an office upstairs but a big fire destroyed the the second story. 

Next we visited the building of The Epitaph, which has been the town's newspaper since 1880.  The little museum has the original printing press and many pictures by editor and photographer John Clum.  I learned that besides his work in Tombstone, John also went to Alaska, climbing up the Chilkoot trail and establishing post offices. 

Of course we wanted to see the OK Corral.  The front entrance has been blocked off, so you have to go to the show to see it.

But the main reason to going to Tombstone is to see where the Gunfight at the OK Corral occurred, so we bought the tickets.  There are a few extras thrown in for the ticket price, such as examples of cribs and saddles, but it’s mostly about the fight.  In the area of the original corral that is still there, life-sized figurines have been placed in the locations where the men stood, according to a sketch made by Wyatt Earp.  Then some actors put on a play about the events leading up to the fight, which was full of odd bits of made-up statements.  The actors were OK, and the actor who played Doc was quite good, but it all lacked impact.  So did Boot Hill Cemetery, outside town.  The headstones are all obviously fairly new, which made it seem more like something Disney would put up outside their Haunted Mansion.  But the outlaws really are buried here, achieving an odd sort of fame they could never have anticipated.

Basically it has all the markings of a perfectly normal tourist trap, perhaps a cut above many, and very enjoyable if you accept it for what it is.  And I was really glad we went.  I didn’t expect anything more, and I recognize that the people are doing their best to recreate a single, significant event from a specific, fascinating time.  There is just enough there to make it work on some level, just enough to help me imagine what it would have been like.  I am glad I didn't miss this.

January 24, 2012

Another long day on the road today.  In western Texas the view goes out so far that it seems like you can look across the plains and see what the weather will be tomorrow!    

The land continued to be very rocky and very dry, but apparently it can support a sizable number of deer.  Along the roadside we've seen at least 40 deer that didn't make it across, so there must be a lot more out there.

Eventually we reached the end of west Texas, which is El Paso.  There are places here where Highway 10 runs so close to Mexico that you can see across the border, where lots of small houses are stacked up the hillside.  

Out of Texas and into New Mexico; the biggest change was the weather.  A quick shower suddenly turned into sleet.  Fortunately it left just as quickly - one of the main goals of RVing is to avoid cold weather!

January 23, 2012

Today Randy drove all day through west Texas.  And a day driving through west Texas is a really long day.  After we got out of the San Antonio area there was nothing but scrub brush and dry land.  It is amazing that so many scrub trees can grow on such dry and rocky land, but they do.  For miles and miles and miles there is nothing but this . . . 

We decided we didn't need to drive all night, too, so we stopped in Fort Stockton at the Comanche Land RV Park.  It's inexpensive, right off the highway, and has cable TV.  Plus it's got these cool giant arrows all over the parking lot!

January 22, 2012

Yesterday I asked Jordan to be in some of my pictures; she's a good model!

Today Lance, Marla and Jordan came over to our RV because our first stop for the day was the Flea market across the highway from us.  There were a few booths selling new products (sunglasses and such), but most were true flea market vendors, offering the proceeds of countless yard sales and estate liquidations.  There were some genuine antiques, some specialty items, and a lot of junk; personally I like the junk.  And by diligent searching, we found a few things we couldn’t live without.

For lunch Lance and Marla suggested we go to CBQ Eatery - excellent idea!  It was started a few years ago by a DJ who decided to change careers, and as far as we could see, it was a good decision.  Randy and I ordered one appetizer, one side dish and one sandwich.  Appetizer:  Kanas City Pork Wings - meaty, tender pork ribs in sauce.  Side dish:  Punk Potatoes - home fries with bacon and covered in beer cheese sauce.  Sandwich:  The Primal Stoopid - grilled cheese with ham, bacon and gruyere, topped with beer cheese sauce, bacon and 2 fried eggs.  And it was all good, every single bite!  Plus the service was great; our server was attentive, helpful and friendly.  Plus the place was clean and attractive.  We give this place high marks on all counts.

Next Marla suggested we visit the Snake Farm Zoo.  As the name suggests, they have a lot of snakes, including a couple of Albino Western Diamondback who are pretty active and look mighty mean. 

They have some huge Reticulated Pythons, which are the longest snakes in the world.  I thought Anaconda were, but they are the heaviest (and they have some of those here, too).  But the highlight for me was when a young man named Clover brought out a couple of animals for the visitors to learn about.  First he brought out a bearded dragon, which is a small lizard.  It looks spiky, but the spikes are actually modified scales and they feel rubbery.  Next Clover brought out a Python.  He talked about it for awhile but I didn’t hear much of what he said because I was busy admiring the snake.  Eventually he finished talking and let us hold it.  I was amazed how soft the underside was - almost like baby skin.  And every time it moves you can feel all those muscles contracting.  I love snakes!

They also have a big (7 feet long) Asian Water Monitor named Khan.  Like so many exotic animals that used to be pets, he was suffering from malnutrition when he was donated to the zoo.  People don’t seem to realize that malnutrition has lasting effects; of course, these are the same people who don’t realize that not every animal should be a pet.  In Khan’s case, he was raised on dog food and since that isn’t what a growing lizard needs, his jaw is slightly deformed.  Clover says these animals are about as smart as a 6-year old, and Khan is his favorite animal in the zoo.  Khan shares his kennel (and his heat lamps) with a group of other reptiles, including an American alligator, a big Guadalupe Spiny Softshell turtle and several River Cooters. . . yes, that’s really the name of these turtles.  Kahn is the biggest varmint in the kennel but he seems laid back, even if he does use a turtle for a pillow.

Outside the reptile house is a small zoo with some unusual animals, like the Patagonia Cavy.  It’s the second largest rodent in the world (Capybara are the largest, and they have those, too), but to me they looked like a cross between a big rabbit and a small deer.    

They have a couple Spotted Hyenas here; I haven’t seen those in a small zoo before and can’t imagine how these ended up here.  They also have several large, brilliantly-colored Macaws.  I am always surprised that so many of these birds end up in zoos because they are such expensive pets.  The petting zoo here includes some very fat pot-bellied pigs, the usual assortment of goats, and a beautiful llama.  In one of the paddocks, a zebra shares it’s digs with miniature horses, and in the next corral are several different species of cattle, including buffalo and whatever that is with the great big horns

After we left the zoo, Marla took us to see the pet store where she works.  They have an adorable Kinkajou there, aka a Honey Bear.  She has a fully prehensile tail, a lot of energy, and was never still enough for me to take a good picture.  She liked to climb on Randy and nibble on his head. 

Lance drove us out to a beautiful park nearby, where scuba divers were training in the lake.  The surrounding neighborhood includes some beautiful houses, and in a side yard between 2 houses we found a large heard of deer.  When Lance slowed the car down they got curious and came up to investigate us.  If we had stayed there I think a couple would have stuck their head in the window.  But on the other hand, they might have head-butted the car, and it was a new car, so we rolled up the window and left them to their grazing. 

We have to leave early tomorrow, so we decided the sightseeing was done for the day.  Many, many thanks to Lance, Marla and Jordan for a wonderful time in San Antonio!