Monthly Archives: October 2018

Day Trip to Santa Barbara, OCT 31, 2018

Continuing our stay at the Ventura County beach park, on Wednesday we drove to Santa Barbara to look around the town. Our first stop was at the Reagan Ranch Center. 20181031_12420820181031_124232

The Center, called the “schoolhouse for Reaganism, is a Young America’s Foundation Center dedicated to Ronald Reagan.  20181031_124814 

There are exhibits about Reagan as well as rooms for lectures, conferences, events related to the conservative movement  and a replica of his library at the ranch. 20181031_13252320181031_132542

The Center is free and we were given a tour by a Center docent. We saw a movie about President Reagan’s presidency, policies and life at his nearby ranch. The Reagan ranch, Rancho del Cielo (Ranch of Heaven) is not open to the public. IMG_20181031_13335820181031_132932

During his presidency the ranch became the Western White House.  He loved spending time there chopping wood, clearing brush, chopping up telephone poles for fences, riding horses and reading in the evenings by the hearth. Reagan loved the ranch, the land and all it represented. IMG_20181031_13190920181031_132805

The Center has a chapel room with President Reagan’s favorite verse printed on the wall. This was was his mother’s favorite verse, the verse he mentioned during his inaugural address in 1981, and the family Bible was open to this verse when he took his oath of office. His mother, Nelle, had written in the Bible beside the verse, ‘A wonderful verse for the healing of a nation”. 20181031_125706

We saw Reagan’s riding boots, a piece of the Berlin Wall, his jeep given by Mrs. Reagan for his birthday in 1983 and one of his saddles.20181031_12483320181031_13283620181031_13234820181031_132357

It was hard to get pictures at the Center because of glare from the museum lights. (An example is the picture of his boots where it looks like the top of one boot is missing due to bad glare). 20181031_12463520181031_13004320181031_12494020181031_125955

Next up was the Moreton Bay Fig tree, the largest fig tree in the United States. A seaman visiting Santa Barbara in 1876 gave an Australian Moreton Bay fig tree seedling to a local girl who planted it. IMG_20181031_134017IMG_20181031_134144

Last we toured the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, without a doubt the most beautiful courthouse we have ever visited. It was completed in 1929 after the first courthouse was destroyed by an earthquake. It is a Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture and the Spanish influence is everywhere. IMG_4460

The courthouse is composed of four buildings with red tile roofs, a four faced clock tower, beautiful arches and a sunken garden. On the grounds are plants and trees from 25 countries. You enter the main building and see wrought iron chandeliers and railings and colorfully tiled floors.  Even the walls around the water fountains are tiled as well as the elevator doors. 20181031_14433120181031_144750

Our favorite room was the mural room with hand-painted murals. IMG_20181031_14551420181031_14550520181031_14545120181031_145439

Bill did a panoramic shot of the room. If you click on the image and then again the arrow and move the picture (up/down/left/right) with your fingers, hopefully you can see around the room.  Click this link to see panorama interactive image

In the clock tower we had gorgeous views of Santa Barbara. At each of the four corners was a display showing us what we were looking at. 20181031_150418IMG_446620181031_15060620181031_150640

On the way back down the stairs we passed the Bisno Schall Clock Gallery where we could see the mechanism of the huge clock installed in 1929 and still keeping time on the four faces outside. IMG_4469

What a great day, and we were pleased that none of the places we visited today charged a fee and Santa Barbara provides plenty of free parking. The only annoying part of the day was the rush hour traffic jam we got in on US 101 on the way home.

We really enjoyed our time on the beach in Ventura watching the surfers, viewing the amazing sunsets and going to sleep each night to the sound of crashing waves.

Next up: lots of fun things in the Los Angeles area

Ventura, CA OCT 28, 2018

After enjoying our time along the coast in Oceano we traveled inland towards a private campground bordering the Los Padres National Forest about thirty miles inland from Santa Barbara. The campground was nestled in a valley which trapped the heat and made it very hot with temperatures of 90 each day. We have been in the 70s to mid 80s most of this year. The campground also had a scary very narrow road leading into the campground with sharp blind curves and much of the road too narrow for two cars to pass. I drove the car ahead of the RV and we used walkie talkies (ham radios) so I could let Bill know if there was a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction. We managed okay entering and leaving the campground but it was definitely a negative for possibly returning in the future.

After four days we headed back to the coast for a week long stay at a small county campground right on the Pacific Ocean in Ventura. IMG_4430IMG_4447

Arriving on a Sunday we had quiet days in the campground until Friday when it filled up and became crowded and noisy. A note for next time: arrive on Sunday and leave on Friday before the crowds arrive.

Our first five days were quiet looking at the waves, watching all the surfers and enjoying the gorgeous sunsets. This is a popular place for surfers since it is both a campground and a day use area.  IMG_4456IMG_4457IMG_20181029_163402IMG_20181029_163617

Bill was fascinated with the new surfboards. A hydrofoil board is a surfboard with a hydrofoil that extends below the board into the water. This design causes the board to leave the surface of the water so the surfer skims above the water. IMG_20181029_173641IMG_20181029_173915

One day we drove down the coast to Malibu, enjoying the scenery along the way. We remembered when we were in Malibu four years ago there was a seafood restaurant with really good food. So along with enjoying the views we also had the goal of stopping at Malibu Seafood for lunch; Just as good as we remembered! On the way home we drove Pacific Coast Highway to the snaky Mulholland Highway to the US 101. 

 We stopped by the Channel Islands National Park Visitors Center. IMG_20181030_153425

The Channel Islands are made up of eight islands off the coast of southern California. Five of those islands make up the Channel Islands National Park. They are only accessible by boat. The U. S. military uses some of the islands as training grounds, weapon test sites and as a strategic defense location. Boat tours to the Islands are available but rather pricey. Maybe next time. The Visitors Center had great views of the nearby marina where the National Park Service parks their boats and views of the city of Ventura. IMG_20181030_161851IMG_20181030_161930

Next up: A day trip exploring Santa Barbara

 

Oceano, CA OCT 20, 2018

We really enjoyed our stay in Oceano at a campground located near the huge Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.  This area is a 1,500 acre coastal sand dune and is the only state park in California where you can drive vehicles on the beach. IMG_20181022_151710IMG_20181022_15190920181023_182641

Nearby were horses and agricultural fields. IMG_20181022_151459IMG_20181022_162457

While staying in Oceano we drove up to see Bill’s cousin Joey in nearby Santa Maria. Joey is a retired Colonel in the Air Force who recently opened a Chic Fil A restaurant.  We certainly enjoyed seeing him and his wonderful new restaurant. IMG_20181018_145312

Oceano and nearby Pismo Beach are beautiful areas with gorgeous ocean views. We even got in some geocaching! IMG_20181023_153539IMG_20181023_153639IMG_20181023_154012IMG_20181023_154217-EFFECTSIMG_20181023_154251IMG_20181023_154315IMG_20181023_15442920181023_155045IMG_20181023_16112820181023_161633-EFFECTS

Next up:  Santa Barbara and Ventura

 

Central CA Coast, OCT 16, 2018

Leaving Morgan Hill we traveled down US 101 to SR 1, the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). We were back on the coast!! We passed beautiful Monterey Bay. Not a great picture because I took it from the RV as we went down the road. You can see the lamppost bell which signifies “El Camino Real”, Spanish for “The Royal Road” or sometimes in English “The King’s Highway”, a 603 mile road connecting the 21 Spanish missions in California. 20181016_100039

We passed over the famous, most photographed spot in Central California, the Bixby Creek Bridge. It was completed in 1932 and is one of the tallest single span concrete bridges in the world. It is 174 feet in length and is often used in commercials, music videos, TV shows and movies. With no convenient place to pull over in the RV, we had to settle for pictures from the window. 20181016_104850IMG_4406

The views along the California coast are amazing with sea oats waving in the breeze on the sides of the road. 20181016_150141

The views are fabulous, the road not so much with curves, sometimes hairpin curves, one right after another. 20181016_10253420181016_110221-EFFECTSIMG_441620181016_15193520181016_153649

In the distance we could see Point Sur Lighthouse. Built in 1899, it is the only complete turn of the century light station open to the public in California. IMG_441120181016_110600-EFFECTS20181016_110600-EFFECTS(1)

We passed through the coastal area where in May, 2017 a massive mudslide closed this section of the highway for fourteen months. A third of a mile of the road was covered in rock and dirt almost forty feet deep.  The damage was massive. We felt very fortunate the road had reopened in time for our trip. IMG_4413

Our destination was Kirk Creek Campground, a small national forest campground with magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean. We pulled up to our reserved campsite (#10) and immediately knew we had a problem. The site was extremely unlevel. Bill tried everything possible with boards and levelers to get the RV level, but it was unsafe to stay there. I think in over five years of our being on the road this is the first time we have had to walk away from a reservation because of the site quality. Bill talked with the camp host in the hope we could get a better site but the campground was full. We had no choice but to leave and continue south. Complicating things was there is no cell phone service for most of this area of the Pacific Coast Highway, preventing us from calling other campgrounds for availability.  Feeling frustrated and slightly anxious we tried not to let it spoil our enjoyment of the beautiful views. Site #12 would be good site for our next visit in this area.

We stopped at one of the places we remembered from 2014, the Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery located five miles from Hearst Castle in San Simeon. In the distance on a hill we could see Hearst Castle which we also visited in 2014.  This elephant seal rookery is the only elephant seal rookery in the world easily accessible and open free to the public every day of the year. During the peak times of January, April and October there can be up to 17,000 seals on the San Simeon beaches. The seals are up to sixteen feet in length and weigh up to 5,000 pounds. 20181016_16302420181016_15575120181016_155808

In the late afternoon we passed through Morro Bay with Morro Rock in the distance. Morro Rock is a 581 foot volcanic plug. I won’t go into the geology of it here but it is easy to Google for more information. 20181016_17012620181016_170523

TEN hours after beginning our travels earlier in the day, we pulled into our campground in Oceano, California about 175 miles north of Los Angeles. We are here for an eight night stay and ready for a rest!

Next up: more on Oceano and the surrounding area

UPDATED: Petaluma, CA OCT 6, 2018

In the last blog post we left off with the dilemma of a screw in one of our four back tires. Since it was inadvisable to continue down the coastal road, we were headed from California SR 1 to US 101 in the hope of making it to a tire repair center before the tire went flat. We sure didn’t want a blow out on one of the narrow curvy and coastal steep roads.

I drove the car and we started out slowly with Bill listening for any beeps on the tire monitor system signaling a problem. We backtracked on SR 1 to SR 128. So far, so good. Then came SR 253 which was recommended for us to take to US 101. The southern end of SR 128 is also not advised for large vehicles.  Highway SR 253 was the scariest drive of the day with descents of 8% and 10% grades. Really steep, but at least they were not uphill. Not good on the best of days and downright nerve wracking with a potential tire problem. Reaching US 101 never felt so good.

When we had a good phone signal Bill was on the phone with several tire companies. Of course none of them had the RV tire in stock and certainly would not recommend removing the screw without a tire to replace it. We continued on, and after almost six hours of driving with rest stops and lunch we arrived at the Petaluma Elks Lodge, a wonderful lodge with full hookups. Jeff, the friendly camp host, was extremely helpful in getting us set up there. Amazingly the tire had not lost air even though Bill noticed a disturbing crack in the tire in addition to the screw.  We were definitely blessed to have made it safely. We knew we would have to wait it out until at least Monday.

On Sunday Bill went to sit in on a taping of TWIT (This Week In Tech), one of his favorite tech podcasts which is taped right in a studio in Petaluma. We were last in Petaluma in 2014 and he also sat in on a taping then. After a stressful day on Saturday, he certainly enjoyed the diversion and had lots of fun. IMG_20181007_142830aIMG_20181007_153507IMG_20181007_140107IMG_20181007_172924

Back on the phone Monday morning Bill found a tire company who could order us the tire. And since the tires were over five years old with almost 44,000 miles on them, we decided to replace all four back tires. We had replaced the two front tires last year. A definite bright spot was the screw was not in one of our new tires.

The tires came in on Wednesday and that day was spent getting the new tires installed and then settling back in at the Elks Lodge.

Before the tire drama our original plan was to stay at a RV park in Pacifica outside of San Francisco for four days. With the delay for the tires to be ordered and installed, we had to cancel our Pacifica plans. I explained the tire situation to the lady at Pacifica and she graciously refunded all our money since we had prepaid the full amount. We were disappointed but we had visited San Francisco in 2014 and done all the touristy things including riding the cable cars, visiting Pier 39 and Alcatraz and driving on Lombard Street, aka “The Crookedest Street in the World”. Over the past couple weeks we have been watching the San Francisco local news. While it is without a doubt located in a beautiful area, it definitely appears to be a city in crisis. With garbage in the streets, rising crime rate (especially car break-ins) , homeless population as well as drug use, it is a city in deep trouble.

One thing we had looked forward to doing again was walking on the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. Since Petaluma was a 35 minute drive to the north end of the 1.7 mile long Bridge, we decided to drive there on Thursday. We drove to the north vista point and parked the car in a free visitor parking area. We were nervous about leaving the car because of all the news reports of recent break-ins in broad daylight throughout the San Francisco area.  Signs in the parking lot warned of break-ins. From there it was a quick walk to the Bridge. IMG_20181011_135628IMG_4307IMG_431520181011_142525

IMG_4345

Alcatraz Island

We walked to the halfway point, enjoying the spectacular views of San Francisco, Alcatraz and the San Francisco Bay.  There were lots of tourists walking and bike riding on the Bridge. IMG_4330IMG_4342IMG_4339IMG_20181011_150326IMG_4334 In the water we saw sea lions, including this one with a big fish in his mouth. Several sea gulls were diving down fighting him for the fish. IMG_4357IMG_4393IMG_4395 On the other side of the Bridge we could see the Pacific Ocean and a viewpoint which we later drove to with the most magnificent views of the Bridge and city. 

IMG_4346

Looking toward the bridge viewpoint

IMG_4396IMG_20181011_155935 As World War II approached, the Army made further improvements to the Harbor Defenses of San Francisco. They had plans to install a 16-inch gun high on the hill but when the gun arrived the decision was made to abandon the plan. Thus leaving this concrete mount and tunnels. IMG_4404 It had been an easy quick 35 minute drive to the Bridge that morning but later that afternoon it was a slow stop and go, hour and fifteen minute drive back home.

After getting new tires we were ready to get back on the road and continue our travels. While heavy traffic doesn’t bother Bill, I wasn’t looking forward to the drive around San Francisco and through San Jose. We had three route options and after asking for advice from locals we chose the route which took us furthest around San Francisco rather than over the Golden Gate Bridge or through the bay area. Leaving the Elks Lodge we meandered through some vineyards and eventually on the interstate. 20181012_095229 The worst traffic was around Walnut Creek. We continued around the bay to San Jose, the center of the Silicon Valley. All in all the traffic wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared. 20181012_113350 We reached Morgan Hill and were almost at our campground destination when we were stopped by a sign saying the road had a bridge ahead which was restricted to traffic under seven tons. Oops! I called the campground to get their advice only to have no one answer at either number. Not willing to take a chance, we had to find an alternate route nineteen miles out of our way and many narrow passages. When we arrived at the campground and asked about the bridge restriction they told us that was just something the locals put up to keep big trucks off the road. Grrrrr…..

We are now safely at Morgan Hill, California for four days.

Next up:  Back to the coast

Petaluma, CA OCT 6, 2018

In the last blog post we left off with the dilemma of a screw in one of our four back tires. Since it was inadvisable to continue down the coastal road, we were headed from California SR 1 to US 101 in the hope of making it to a tire repair center before the tire went flat. We sure didn’t want a blow out on one of the narrow curvy and coastal steep roads. I drove the car and we started out slowly with Bill listening for any beeps on the tire monitor system signaling a problem. We backtracked on SR 1 to SR 128. So far, so good. Then came SR 253 which was recommended for us to take to US 101. The southern end of SR 128 is also inadvised for large vehicles.  Highway SR 253 was the scariest drive of the day with descents of 8% and 10% grades. Really steep, but at least they were not uphill. Not good on the best of days and downright nerve wracking with a potential tire problem. Reaching US 101 never felt so good. When we had a good phone signal Bill was on the phone with several tire companies. Of course none of them had the RV tire in stock and certainly would not recommend removing the screw without a tire to replace it. We continued on, and after almost six hours of driving with rest stops and lunch we arrived at the Petaluma Elks Lodge, a wonderful lodge with full hookups. Jeff, the friendly camp host, was extremely helpful in getting us set up there. Amazingly the tire had not lost air even though Bill noticed a disturbing crack in the tire in addition to the screw.  We were definitely blessed to have made it safely. We knew we would have to wait it out until at least Monday.

On Sunday Bill went to sit in on a taping of TWIT (This Week In Tech), one of his favorite tech podcasts which is taped right in a studio in Petaluma. We were last in Petaluma in 2014 and he also sat in on a taping then. After a stressful day on Saturday, he certainly enjoyed the diversion and had lots of fun.

Back on the phone Monday morning Bill found a tire company who could order us the tire. And since the tires were over five years old with almost 44,000 miles on them, we decided to replace all four back tires. We had replaced the two front tires last year. A definite bright spot was the screw was not in one of our new tires.

The tires came in on Wednesday and that day was spent getting the new tires installed and then settling back in at the Elks Lodge.

Before the tire drama our original plan was to stay at a RV park in Pacifica outside of San Francisco for four days. With the delay for the tires to be ordered and installed, we had to cancel our Pacifica plans. I explained the tire situation to the lady at Pacifica and she graciously refunded all our money since we had prepaid the full amount. We were disappointed but we had visited San Francisco in 2014 and done all the touristy things including riding the cable cars, visiting Pier 39 and Alcatraz and driving on Lombard Street, aka “The Crookedest Street in the World”. Over the past couple weeks we have been watching the San Francisco local news. While it is without a doubt located in a beautiful area, it definitely appears to be a city in crisis. With garbage in the streets, rising crime rate (especially car break-ins) , homeless population as well as drug use, it is a city in deep trouble.

One thing we had looked forward to doing again was walking on the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. Since Petaluma was a 35 minute drive to the north end of the 1.7 mile long Bridge, we decided to drive there on Thursday. We drove to the north vista point and parked the car in a free visitor parking area. We were nervous about leaving the car because of all the news reports of recent break-ins in broad daylight throughout the San Francisco area.  Signs in the parking lot warned of break-ins. From there it was a quick walk to the Bridge. IMG_20181011_135628IMG_4307IMG_431520181011_142525

IMG_4345

Alcatraz Island

We walked to the halfway point, enjoying the spectacular views of San Francisco, Alcatraz and the San Francisco Bay.  There were lots of tourists walking and bike riding on the Bridge. IMG_4330IMG_4342IMG_4339IMG_20181011_150326IMG_4334

In the water we saw sea lions, including this one with a big fish in his mouth. Several sea gulls were diving down fighting him for the fish. IMG_4357IMG_4393IMG_4395

On the other side of the Bridge we could see the Pacific Ocean and a viewpoint which we later drove to with the most magnificent views of the Bridge and city. 

IMG_4346

Looking toward the bridge viewpoint

IMG_4396IMG_20181011_155935
As World War II approached, the Army made further improvements to the Harbor Defenses of San Francisco. They had plans to install a 16-inch gun high on the hill but when the gun arrived the decision was made to abandon the plan. Thus leaving this concrete mount and tunnels.
IMG_4404

It had been an easy quick 35 minute drive to the Bridge that morning but later that afternoon it was a slow stop and go, hour and fifteen minute drive back home.

After getting new tires we were ready to get back on the road and continue our travels. While heavy traffic doesn’t bother Bill, I wasn’t looking forward to the drive around San Francisco and through San Jose. We had three route options and after asking for advice from locals we chose the route which took us furthest around San Francisco rather than over the Golden Gate Bridge or through the bay area. Leaving the Elks Lodge we meandered through some vineyards and eventually on the interstate. 20181012_095229

The worst traffic was around Walnut Creek. We continued around the bay to San Jose, the center of the Silicon Valley. All in all the traffic wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared. 20181012_113350

We reached Morgan Hill and were almost at our campground destination when we were stopped by a sign saying the road had a bridge ahead which was restricted to traffic under seven tons. Oops! I called the campground to get their advice only to have no one answer at either number. Not willing to take a chance, we had to find an alternate route nineteen miles out of our way and many narrow passages. When we arrived at the campground and asked about the bridge restriction they told us that was just something the locals put up to keep big trucks off the road. Grrrrr…..

We are now safely at Morgan Hill, California for four days.

Next up:  Back to the coast

Westport State Beach, CA OCT 1, 2018

We left the beautiful redwoods and headed south down US Route 101 towards coastal State Route 1. California SR 1 is 659 miles long, it is the longest state route and is usually designated as the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). The closer we got to the coast the steeper and curvier the road became with one switchback after another. The worst part were the steep climbs right after sharp banking curves. It was a wild, amazingly beautiful drive along the California coast.

We arrived at the Westport Union Landing State Beach for a four night stay with amazing views of the ocean. We went to sleep each night listening to the sound of waves crashing on the beach. Such a beautiful, peaceful place. I could have stayed for months. IMG_20181002_120003

But California state parks are pricey. They charge an additional fee for the tow car on top of the high price for camping, and the sites do not have any hookups. This park did not even have a dump station. The price of $35 a night plus an additional $10 per night for the tow car for dry camping is pretty ridiculous. Yes, it is California! IMG_20181002_120136-EFFECTSIMG_20181002_120145IMG_20181002_185025-EFFECTSIMG_20181002_185622

On Friday we left Westport and continued the wild ride further south on SR 1 to a large vista point near Manchester where we had read overnight camping was permitted. With no signs prohibiting overnight camping, we decided to stay for the night. IMG_20181004_134135IMG_20181005_185141-EFFECTS

With the good days come the occasional bad, frustrating days. (Cue the ominous music here). Bill went outside to do his usual safety check and found a screw in one of our four back tires. Normally not a huge problem. But this threw us into a bit of a frenzy because we were on SR 1 in the middle of nowhere. Over three hours from the nearest tire dealer. Late on a Friday with the weekend looming. If the tire went flat and they had to tow the RV to a tire dealer, we weren’t sure how they would ever tow an RV along the steep, winding road to a large town with services. Bill has a tire monitor on each tire that lets us know if one of the tires has a problem. The monitor was not showing any air loss in that tire. We didn’t even know how long the screw had been in the tire. We regrouped, talked it over and decided to abandon our plans heading down SR 1.  Instead we would backtrack seventeen miles to State Route 128 and then take a shortcut on State Route 253 to get back to US 101. If we were going to have a tire go flat, it would be better to be on US 101 a major highway instead of SR 1. We slept that night with one ear on the tire monitor listening for the beep beep beep signaling air loss.

The next morning the tire was still holding air. We decided I would drive the tow car in case a problem arose. We headed out early because we didn’t want to take a chance on being stranded on the side of the road late in the evening. We started out on the three plus hour drive for help.

To be continued.