LOOKING FOR THE OTTERS

We headed out this morning, picked up our friends, and we off to the Rock.  Hoping to see some otters.  Our son and DIL stopped here on the way home and were telling us about a mother and baby otter they seen and how much they enjoyed it.  No such luck for us.  Did see a few but at a distance. These gulls were looking for a free meal.

The birds were in full view though.

Our friends, Bill & Carol.

We set off for Paso Robles, where years ago we would always stop at the neatest caboose that served the best hamburgers ever.  It was still there, but, now it had been turned into part of a mini food court.  Hamburgers were still good, onion rings wonderful.  Just no caboose.  And the temperature……we left here, 60 degrees, drove 30 miles inland, 99 degrees.  Sure felt good to get back to the RV.

Had to post this picture, there is a story behind it from the very distant past.  Way to long to go into here. 

One more day here, and then we move to the central Sacramento valley.  Still not looking forward to the heat, anxious to see our friends, so it is worth it.

Morro Bay

A nice uneventful drive of 80 miles.  We actually had more trouble finding the campground once we were on this very small National Guard outpost.  It is not the best of campground, actually I would rate it rather low.  There are only about 14 sites, but FHU’s and for the tourist area it is in, very reasonable.  After we seen the other parks in the area, ours went up rather fast.  We have room between our rigs! 

A friend of ours had moved to this area, and remarried, so we were looking forward to meeting his new wife and getting to see him again.  We met the first night at the Apple Farm in San Luis Obispo. Great time, stayed till we felt that we had worn out our welcome and then some, but the restaurant was not busy so didn’t feel too bad.  The best part, we felt like we had know his wife forever. 

The flowers were amazing, you know they are my downfall.

Leaving there we took a drive to the beach, had to see the “Rock”.

Shooting into the sun, kind of hard to get a good picture.  The birds were all over the rock. 

Several types of birds nest on Morro Rock, including three cormorant species and two gull species.

It presently serves as a reserve for peregrine falcons, which are locally endangered and cause most of the laws that prohibit intervention with avian life.

If you click on the pic, you can see the birds, there also is some other evidence visible. Luckily they were not in the flying mode while we were walking around. 

Sea lions on a pier out in the bay.  Almost sinking the pier there are so many on it.

^{The last few days we have been trading dinners.  Been a long time since I’ve cooked a whole meal, get kind of used to doing the potluck routine.  Today started out with us doing laundry and then Chuck met Bill for a round of golf.  Me, I just vegged, tomorrow think we will do the beach thing again. Love’n the cool weather here on the coast, high fog early but it usually is gone by nine or ten.} 

^{Well, that catches me up for a while, life is good.}

WHEELS A’ROLLING

Don’t know about anyone else but after we have sat for awhile getting back into the pre-routine of moving is some what nerve racking.  We left Jojoba heading for Chula Vista Elks, following one of our neighbors.  Easy drive, lots of traffic.  Great campground, although it is just a large parking lot.  They also have a partially enclosed clubhouse, with tables, chairs, big screen TV, bbq.  Very nice set up for a small group of no more than 12 to 15 couples.  Everyone was very welcoming and we had a nice time. Seemed we were mostly planning what to eat, where to eat, or complaining that we couldn’t eat another bite.  The first night we were only three couples so we did a small potluck, and our neighbor gourmet chef fixed a wonderful salad of heirloom tomatoes, gorgonzola and red onions with white balsamic vinegar dressing. OMG, it was so good!

While we were in the area we took a run out to the Naval Air Station to check on the possibility of flying from there.  Very small, but we will see when the time gets closer.  Going over to Coronado Island was awesome, pictures didn’t really turn out all that good.

There seems to be a big surge in vineyards in the Lompoc area.  Several small wineries have started up.

At the last minute our son found out that he could make the trip to L.A. where our grandson was bowling in the state championship.  So we tried to put a meeting place together, but there was no place that would take us, especially when I mentioned the kids were planning on setting up a tent to sleep in.  Finally got a camp site at Vandenberg AFB, which is up above Santa Barbara,  made Chuck very happy, as we would be coming through Los Anglos on a Sunday.  Actually it was fairly busy even then, hate to think what it would have been like during the week.  And our darn GPS took us through down town, on some very rough highway.  But the campground is prefect for us, the kids have a tent area right behind us.  There are two rec rooms, bathrooms, TV's.  This the first base where we had to unlock all our bays, open the hood, leave the truck and go sit in a waiting room, just to get on base.  Wondering if they were going to consider my kitchen knives as weapons. Was afraid the kids were going to have a body search once we tried to vouch them on.  But it went okay. 

Yesterday we took them into Pismo Beach so our grandson could play in the waves. 

The water was so cold that we laughed ourselves silly watching our son and DIL trying to get wet and not get wet and cold all at the same time.

Even our grandson didn’t stay in very long, although he did ride the waves for awhile on his boogey board.  Chuck and I did not venture down onto the sand, we stayed on the pier and took pictures. 

We had plans to go for clam chowder at a small place called Splash.  They have the best, but there was also a line half way down the block so we nixed that and tried another place that we knew.

Today after a breakfast of fruit and pancakes, the kids went into town, and Chuck and I went to the commissary and got the making for clam chowder. How about that?  No waiting line, and it was darn good if I do say so myself.  They are leaving in the morning, and we are staying another night here, then moving on to Morro Bay for a week.  We have friends that we are meeting up with, and I just might see if I can play a round of golf.  One of my favorite courses over there, they call it the “poor man’s pebble beach”. How dumb are we, that we decided to go to the valley of California IN AUGUST?  Guess if it gets too bad we will head back to the coast.  Now as for here on the coast it is down right cool.  We are all wearing jackets, especially at night, sleeping weather is wonderful. That is one of the weird things about the weather here, the coast is almost always cool and in the summer can get down right cold.  But you don’t go to the Sacramento valley in a tin can in the summer!  The opposite of cold is HOT, and we lived there long enough that we should know better.  But salmon season opened and Chuck is dying to catch a few in the river.

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives, so lets try and make the most of it.  Travel safe.

I’m Late, I’m Late…………….

Saturday came and went, and my blog is still not up to date.  So much for my promise that I made to myself that it would be done every Saturday at the very least.  Well, there are plenty of forgotten resolutions in the corner to keep this one company.
Got the slide issue taken care of.  They did a major adjustment to the big slide, to even it up, and the hesitation it was doing when the slides were coming in was all due to a tired solenoid.  And the good news, the repair men came to us.  Nice not having to take our home into the shop.
We are going to the San Diego area for a week or so, leaving here Wednesday.  Be fun to get away.  Also want to check out the marine base there, checking out the space-a options.  Being as we are using that to fly to Hawaii in October.  We have about three options close by so checking each of the bases early.  For those not familiar with space-a, it basically is space available on any flight going where you headed.  The bad part is, nothing is guaranteed, which means you just might not get there.  There is a sign-up 60 days before you want to fly, so the chances do get better.  Well, we are up for an adventure, and looks like that will be what we will get.  We flew like that to Alaska when the kids were little, and it was interesting.  Coming back we were on a huge transport plane, with cargo strapped all down the middle.  But the pilots took the kids up front, and they “flew” the plane.  It was great. 
Been sitting here looking out the window at the quail running around.  They are every where in the park.  So neat to watch, they run all over, hardly ever fly.  And the babies are wonderful.  So tiny and they are right there with the parents.  The female stays on the ground, but poppa perches up high to keep and eye out.  Another nice thing here, we have no mosquitos, and very few flies.  Of course the summer isn’t over yet, but so far so good.  Here comes a flock of quail again.  And yes, they do bring a smile to my face. 
So that was easy, got it all on paper, ready to hit publish.  Awww, life is good.

And in closing......

The DEBT CEILING

 Democrats don't understand THE DEBT CEILING

 Republicans don't understand THE DEBT CEILING

Liberals don't understand THE DEBT CEILING

NO ONE understands THE DEBT CEILING

SO - Allow me to explain...

Let's say you come home from work and find there has
been a sewer backup in your neighborhood. Your home has sewage all the
way up to your ceilings.

What do you think you should do? Raise the ceilings or pump out the crap?

Your choice is coming in November. Don't miss the opportunity.

SPOKE TOO SOON

Last week I was talking about the weather and how it was so wonderful, well, I spoke too soon.  The heat has found us.  Time to roll.  We are going next week into San Diego for a mini rally at an Elks with a few folks from here.  That will be nice as the temps tend to stay fairly consistent there, in the seventy’s.  Then we will pop back here for a few days and get things together for a slooow trip up the coast.  See a few friends, play some golf, just take our time.

On the road into Temecula, we our having some visual treats appear.  The iron works company has begun putting out some of the many horses along the road.  They are very eye catching, as they are life size.

The picture below had electric poles that I thought were distracting, so photo shopped them out.  They also added the one horse that is on the other side.   The photo of the one above is on a tall hill, and can be seen from quite a distance.  Word has it that they will be displayed all the way into town. 

Been busy doing a whole lot of keeping busy doing nothing.  Can’t believe that we are so content, but have to admit looking forward to those wheels going round and round for awhile.  Will miss having the little car to drive, we don’t plan on taking it with us.  We decided that it would be best if we didn’t get our grandson when he comes down to bowl in L.A. we will plan something when we get up there.  Maybe take him and a friend camping or something.  He is 13, and the thought of him having to spend days entertaining us two old fogies', made us feel for him.  This is a case where two kids is better.

Been waiting on the RV mobile repair service to get back to us to install a new motor for our slides.  It has started to hesitate when the 3rd and 4th slide comes in, and gradually is getting worse so we decided to have it fixed before we ended up stuck some where.  Does not help that the big slide is the last to come in. This service does a lot of work in the park, and everyone we talked to seemed happy with them.  And he was “Johnnie on the spot” coming out, but no word, and no returns on our calls.  Hate not to have it fixed before we go to San Diego.  Got a week yet, so hopefully.  Only been since November, so it is like we could have called sooner, not the smartest thing  we have not done.

Hopefully next time will have more to write about.  Life is Good.

The Value In A Glass Of Wine

A glass of wine

To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine, and to those who don't and are always seen with a bottle of water in their hand.
As Ben Franklin said:

In wine there is wisdom,
In beer there is freedom,
In water there is bacteria.
In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink one liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than one kilo of Escherichia coli (E. Coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming one kilo of poop.
However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.
Remember:
Water = Poop
Wine = Health

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I'm doing it as a public service

Therefore, it is better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of sh*t.

LOVING THIS WEATHER

Everyone has told us that the weather does get hot here, (Temecula, CA) but so far we are loving it.  Yes, the afternoons tend to get on the warm side, especially inside, but turn the air on for a few hours or head to the pool.  And the club house and all the rooms are kept pretty much on the icy side.  We have been busy, but never seem to get done, always more of this hard life to tackle the next day.
We went out with a bunch the other night to support one of our own who was playing at the opening of a new restaurant.  Had to bring our own wine as they had yet to get there license.  And yes, some of us drank a bit too much, and the next morning water aerobics went by the way side, although later in the day I did go up and spend some time toughing it out.  Guess that tells you one of who indulged too much.  Yesterday I sort of tricked Chuck into going to see Magic Mike.  For those who don’t know, it is about male strippers.  Back in the day I’ve been to a few shows, but none like these,  whoooo!  Of course the language was so bad, can not believe that it has to be that way.  Okay, enough.
Chuck and I both had doctors appointments today, just checking in, Chuck has been getting nose bleeds every once in a while, so he is going to see an ENT to have it checked out.  Other wise all seems to be well.
If we had not already booked our Hawaii trip, I think we might seriously be heading back for the Escapees rally, but we have, so that settles it.  Next year we are thinking of doing a grand tour, from California to Canada, over to Maine, then weave our way back, but it is still in the thinking stage, not even to planning yet.
For years living in northern California we caught salmon quite a bit in the river.  I would smoke up huge batches using an old grill, with just a tiny wood fire in it.  Delicious.  Chuck now has this electric smoker, so we bought some salmon and marinated it just like we used to.  This turned out so bad, don’t think it is even eatable.  Bummer. 
Well that is a week in our life, the good the bad and the …..well, it was all good.  Have a great week!