A ride around Mission Bay

During our last week here in San Diego, Tom & Shelly invited us out on their sailboat with some of their friends. The photos here are shots as we motored out and back from the bay while dinner cooked on the pier.  I'm not a boater, but Dona & I had a great time.  The boat is a nice 48 foot racer that sleeps 10. I couldn't get a good picture of it, but take my word for it - it's a nice boat!  (Lots of gadgets!)

This is our last week here and the weather's wet.  As one person said, "If I wanted Seattle weather, I'd stayed in Seattle."  At least we didn't get the bad weather that the rest of the country is experiencing.  And as wet as San Diego is at the moment, apparently it's still some three inches short of it's annual rainfall amount.

Moving on, if all goes well we'll move to Castaic, CA (north of Los Angeles) for the Escapees' Rose Parade program tomorrow.  Be there a week.  A cool, sunny day is predicted for our three hour trip up I-5.  We'll see how that holds up.  Today, we washed the truck after Donna got back from assisting in foot care for homeless veterans with Tom & Shelly.  About an hour after finishing with the truck and with over half the sky absolutely clear & sunny and a small, fog-like cloud covering the remaining sky, we got treated to a nice rain shower and beautiful rainbow.  (There would have been no rain if I hadn't insisted on washing the truck!)

Anyway, we've spent a great Christmas with Bill & Nancy's family, plus Donna's uncle Larry & aunt Lillian.  We've said good byes to everyone plus Mike, Terry, & our favorite daschund, Ike.  We'll miss everyone, but it's time to leave.  Later, David

Roaming San Diego

Crystal Pier with its Christmas tree & cottages

 Today's trip was out to Pacific Beach and a walk out to Crystal Pier followed by lunch at Tom Ham's Lighthouse on Harbor Island.  It was good to get out after a weekend of rain.  San Diego was a little busy, though, with all the Ponsetta Bowl activities.

This past week we've met up Donna's friends Shelly & Tom, and had Donna's Uncle Larry & Aunt Lillian

over for dinner.  Donna's cousin Nancy and her husband Bill have invited us over for Christmas.  Lookin' forward to that!

Anyway, that's it for us.  Until next week, Merry Christmas!!!  David

The local eagle hanging out at "the lakes".

San Diego Zoo

This week Donna's Aunt Lillian and Uncle Larry arrived in the campground, and we got away to San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park.  We're continuing to settle in.  Donna's found a Curves (gym) and a knit shop over in La Jolla.  We've found a place to wash the truck (no washing of vehcles in the campground) and hit Phil's BBQ for lunch for the second time since arriving in Santee.

After a perfect beginning, weather's gotten wet by today.  Interesting to

watch the local weather forecast and see them predict rain, flooding & snow with highs ranging from low 60s to low 40s.  It all depends on where you're at: beach, inland, mountains, or desert.  And they actually do a pretty good job of predicting, too.

Anyway, that's it for us this week.  Here's some pics from our visit to the zoo.  Hope you enjoy them.  Later, David

2nd Week @ Santee, CA

San Diego Bay from Cabrillo National Monument

Point Loma lighthouse

We've been out & about this week visiting Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego Zoo's Safari Park & Scripps Research Center's Birch Aquarium.  We've had a couple days of rainy weather, but it's usually a cloudy morning that ends in a sunny afternoon.  Highs are usually in the low 70s with nightly lows into the 50s.  We've located Mike & Terry from the Nuwa Owners forum and expect to meet up with Donna's friend over this coming weekend.

Safari Park

Donna's also found a kntting shop over in La Jolla, and I've introduced her to the Souplantation (restaurant).  We've located decent grocery stores. Unfortunately, Super Walmarts here aren't all that super in that they're missing fresh vegetables and fruits.  Albertsons and Vons are pretty good grocery stores that are in this area.  And we've also located those all important shopping malls and one great BBQ restaurant (Phil's).  So we're good.


Safari Park

One other thing of note - this isn't a strong Verizon Wireless area.   Verizon's locator map notes Santee and San Diego is 4G LTE, but we're constantly in 3G coverage or none at all - and that includes voice coverage.  So Verizon users beware.  On the north end of the campground's West Oak loop where we're located, Verizon Wireless is useless for voice & data.

Safari Park

The Santee Lakes campground WiFi is pretty good, but can slow down when a lot of people are on it. We've found it pretty much useless on the weekends when the campground fills with families and kids (& grandchildren, etc). 

We've also driven around and looked at several other campgrounds in the San Diego area.  Just based on asthetics, we don't think you can beat Santee Lakes campground, though. It's a great walking/bicycling park with nice wide sites here on the north end.

Anyway, we're having a great time. I've posted some pictures from the areas we've visited so far. Still more to see.  Later, David 



Safari Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

Safari Park

Safari Park



Birch Aquarium



Birch Aquarium

La Jolla as seen from Birch Aquarium

Back in Southern California

We've safely arrived at Santee, CA, so we're back in southern California & close to San Diego,  Weather's in the high 60s and mostly cloudy as there's a low up around the northwest that's throwing fronts down this way.  This will be our first chance for rain since leaving Colorado Springs.  The pictures are of the campground here in Santee Lakes Recreational Preserve. 

We're just now getting out & about and finding our way around.  Drove over to the coast looking for a knitting store and came back.  Haven't seen this type of traffic since Denver.  Got use to Lake Havasu City and its small town atmosphere, so now we're learning to live in the "big" city, again.  Made the mistake of walking into a Best Buy and walked out a little poorer.  Oh, and we're quickly getting use to the better selection of restaurants!

Unimpressed with this photo?  That's all solar panels on the roof!

As you may or may not be aware, we added a new roof top satellite TV antenna, replaced the over-the-air TV antenna, had the truck's shock absorbers replaced, and had everything washed & waxed while at Lake Havasu City.  The new satellite TV antenna is much more convenient, but we're keeping the portable one as a backup.  And the new shocks (Rancho 9000) gave a much improved ride.  For the non-off road folks, these are adjustable shock absorbers.  We've set them to be slightly softer than the stock shock absorbers that came on the truck and it worked well on I-8 and it's espansion joints.  We did - unintentionally - set the shocks on the softest setting while in Lake Havasu City, and it was the best ride we'd ever experienced in the truck.  We've got more experimenting to do, but we're happy with the Rancho 9000s.

Anyway, that's it for now.  We're here through Christmas before going up to Pasadena for the Rose Parade.  Donna has a cousin in the area we need to look up.  I'm tyring to find a guy I use to work with from NAVAIR who moved out here when SPAWAR came out here in the mid-90s.  And Donna's aunt & uncle are due here in a couple of weeks.  So that's what we're doing. 

Later, David

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  We're in our last week here at Lake Havasu City. We've spent the day walking in one of the local parks and eating our thanksgiving meal with about 50 or more people who are staying in the park.  Most will be spending their winter here, but a few are stopping for just the weekend before moving on to their winter spot.

I've tried to get some pictures of the sunsets, but the pictures just don't do it justice.  The first two pictures here are about the best I've gotten.  Unfortunately, the pink sky behind the trailer just doesn't show.  And as you can see, we're in an RV park - not a campground.

Anyway, the internet connections here have been and continue to be poor and I need to close before it dies completely.  I hope you've had a great Thanksgiving holiday.  We sure did!  Later, David

Bill Williams NWR

Just checkin' in letting everyone know we're fine. Less than two weeks to go and we're on our way to San Diego.  Today was our second day since we've been here in Lake Havasu City to have a cloudy day.  In some ways it's nice as it gives a break in the heat.  As we're paying for our electricity here, that's nice as we're not constantly running both ACs.

The pictures are of the Bill Williams NWR.  The Bill Williams NWR was created in order to replace wildlife habitat lost to the Parker Dam and the resultant Lake Havasu.  It's located at the point where the Bill Williams River now flows into Lake Havasu.  Somewhere below all that water is the confluence where the Bill Williams River use to flow into the Colorado River.  To us the landscape looks like Mars with some vegetation.  Pretty and very different from what we're use to back east.

We enjoyed our walk there and spent some time talking to one of the volunteers.  The RVs are parked under large tents to protect the RVs and try to keep them somewhat cool. Think of a carport with a fabric roof and you get the idea.  I should have taken pictures.  They blended in well with the landscape and other buidings.  So this place is now on our list of potential volunteer spots - but only for the winter!

We found this NWR to be well maintained and visitor friendly with handicapped accessible fishing docks and picnic shelters.  The principal trail is paved.  The remaining trails aren't "maintained", but they sure looked like they're "maintained".  All buildings are built and painted to blend in with the landscape.  Based on all the inscriptions, it looks like the public areas were built by reserve seabee units over several years.  They did a nice job.

Anyway, that's it for this week.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures.  Have a great Thanksgiving!  David.

Oatman, AZ

 

Main Street Oatman, AZ

Where in the world is Oatman, AZ and why would anyone care?  Well, Oatman is in the middle of the desert, about a 45 minute drive from Laughlin, NV and along the original, dirt road that nostalgia fondly refers to as US Route 66.  It's a beautiful drive there and back.  It's a tourist trap.  And you're driving history when traveling there.  Plus there's a gun fight or two each day of the weekend.  Unsure if it's re-enactments or they're just poor shots as it seemed to be the same people doing it each time.  Um, visit at your own risk.  Nothing else there.

But it did make for a nice weekend trip.  Also this past weekend we visited a R/C Float Plane Meet held at Windsor Beach here in Lake Havasu City.  This was cool!  We shoulda brought our camping chairs.  Beautiful planes.  Some so realistic that when you see the pictures of them in the air, you think they're full scale.  These guys were good.  Some great at acrobatics.  A few were learning.  And at least one ran out of fuel and had to be returned by boat while we were there.  

Otherwise, we're fine.  Our upcoming weekend is our first with clouds & rain since leaving Colorado Springs, CO.  It's getting cooler, so we'll try to take advantage of it and walk some in the desert.  Repairs to the trailer are done, though there's always something that needs fixin'.  New roof mounted satellite TV antenna works great - especially now that we know that when we execute a satellite TV receiver system reset (long story), we have to go back and have the receiver do a switch check on the 

antenna.  New antenna also makes a good bird perch. I'll let you figure out how we know.


Anyway, that's it from here.  Hope you're favorite candidate won. At least the commercials are over.  Later, David

Parker, AZ

Bill Williams NWR

Colorado River at Lapaz County Park

Time for a weekly update.  We're doing well and we're making progress getting things done.  Our new rooftop satellite antenna works, but it appears it's showing a weakness in our satellite TV receiver.  Once again  & within 20 months of buying our first receiver, we now have our second receiver that fails to lock onto a satellite.  Shut everything down overnight, and we have to reset everything as if we're setting up for the first time every morning.  Seems I'm great at buying stuff that doesn't work.

Motor home sites at Lapaz County Park Campground

We've also proven that extended warranties are a useless expenditure of money.  Seems our over-the-air TV antenna was covered.  And then it wasn't.  Apparently, over-the-air antennas aren't electronics. I find that surprising given they're always listed and stocked in the electronics sections of catalogs and stores.  We canceled our Good Sam Extended Service Plan and suppose to get our money back. 

We're still awaiting that second part.  Of course, if I bought stuff that worked, none of this would be an issue.

So I guess you're wondering about the pictures?  OK, I'll tell ya about them. We drove south through the Bill Williams NWR to Lapaz County Park for chili/salsa tasting and a car show.  Really nice RV park there on the Colorado River, too.

Of 13 chilies we tried, only one wasn't all that great.  All the salsas were great.  We'll go back to Bill Williams NWR as there's a trail that looks interesting.  We also saw a golf course built into the side of the mountains at Parker.  The fairways and greens really blended in well with the surrounding desert and none of it looked out of place.  It was impressive!

We continue to have great weather.  Today is the first day for us to have real clouds that hang around for awhile.  Highs are still in the upper 80s with lows in the 60s each day.  Sunsets are gorgeous!

We're getting out and seeing more of the area.  Lake Havasu City is really built from the lake eastward to the mountains.  If you go to the lake and look east, it looks like an infestation of some type.  We've visited some model homes.  Most of the little gated "communities" are built for snowbirds who go north for the summer. Typical unit we looked at has a large garage for an RV or large boat. 

Unfortunately, food's just average.  We've been spoiled by Gulf Shores! 

Oh, and Donna is enjoying her visits to Curves.

Plans for this weekend are to visit a R/C float plan show at the lake (Windsor Beach), Friday.  Saturday is a planned trip to Oatman, AZ.  Oatman is advertized as a ghost town and one of the original Route 66 towns when Route 66 was just a dirt road.  Looks interesting.  We'll tell ya more about it next week.

Later, David