Fredericksburg, TX–Jan 23–26, 2013

Fredericksburg RV Park

Our drive down to Fredericksburg was on a pleasant two lane country road most of the way.  Light traffic except for the crude oil tank trucks that were everywhere,  either in front of  us, slowing us down or in back of us, pushing from behind.

Looking south at downtown Fredericksburg. The view we saw as we enter into town. You can see the National Museum of the Pacific War complex at the end of block under the US flag.

The Nimitz Hotel was built in 1852 and was know as the Steamboat Hotel because of the ship's bow front. Remodeled many times, at one time had a flat façade but has since been restored to the ship’s bow.

 

We drove down the main street, through the downtown to Fredericksburg RV Park located a little south of town.  The park is on a slight slope and the sites are slightly terraced at our end, level but somewhat close together .  We are surrounded by 5th wheel toy haulers all carrying 3 wheel motorcycles.  They belong to a club which came down to Texas hill country to ride the back roads. 

We started our exploring at the The National Museum of the Pacific War-George Bush Gallery and the Nimitz Hotel museum complex.  The lady at the ticket counter explained the areas including the availability of a guided tour of The Pacific Combat Zone, where the struggle for the islands of the Pacific took place.  She said the exhibits were located about a 15 to 20 minute walk from the museum.  She also noted that our tickets were good for 48 hours, a point I felt was unimportant as I felt one day in a museum would be more that enough.  I was proven wrong. The museum is the best I have ever experienced. So good in fact, we did return the next day to finish up.

Starting in the morning at their opening time, we decided to start with a walk down to the The Pacific Combat Zone. It turned out the walk was much shorter that we were advised and only maybe took 5 minute. We arrived about 15 minutes before the start of the tour.   Debbie aims an anti-aircraft gun below while we wait for the tour to start.

The Pacific Combat Zone was an indoor/outdoor exhibit which included restored WWII military vehicles and weaponry in a realistic setting including; docks, entrenchments and beachheads.

            

We then walked back and entered the Nimitz hotel museum. We sat down and watched a very informative video about the Nimitz history.

Afterward we walked down to the Der Lindenbaum German Restaurant. The restaurant and is located in a beautiful historic limestone building built German pioneers who founded Fredericksburg over a century ago.

Jager Schnitzel piled two deep. Having worked up an appetite with all the walking, I ate it all.

After lunch we returned to The National Museum of the Pacific War-George Bush Gallery and spent the rest of the day there. This is the best museum we have ever been in. My usual endurance in a museum is a couple of  hours max, but we didn’t finish and had to return the next morning.

At noon the next day we drove down to the Catfish Haven.  Mmmm fried catfish.  Was excellent.

After lunch we took a walk downtown. This variety store brought back some long ago memories.

After lunch we drove out to Lynden B Johnson Ranch. We got there just in time to go through the visitor center and then we drove out to the the ranch house which still has a large plane parked in a hanger next to the ranch house.

Next San Antonio.

Palm Springs Tour

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013

Today we decided to play tourist and when on a bus tour of Palm Springs. It was a great tour and really enjoyed stories about the stars and the history of Palm Springs.

 

Debbie must have been watching cooking shows again.

 

This is a ‘dinner’ crab cocktail. No it’s not crab from Port Susan, WA. I have to thank the local Costco who was selling crab and Debbie who put it together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, Jan 29th

Today we ventured up to Joshua Tree Nat Park.

Her we are on an overlook in the park. Debbie is sitting on the wall. No view of the valley, too hazy. It was also freezing and windy there.

A view of the Joshua Tree forest.

Skull Rock, It began long ago when rain drops accumulated in tiny depressions and started to erode the granite. As more rock eroded, more water accumulated, leading to more erosion until, as time passed, two hollowed-out eye sockets formed and the rock began to resemble a skull. Skull Rock can be reached on a 1.7 mile nature trail

 

Palm Springs CA

Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013

Art Under the Umbrellas in Old Town La Quinta. This was a pleasant morning and the the art was more upscale than I usually see.

Clay flowers were undistinguishable from real flowers.

Colorful pottery abound.

Lunch at the Crab Pot in La Quinta.

The menu was extensive but the meal was just so-so. That may have been why you see an empty restaurant on a Saturday at 12:30.

Palm Desert–What Site Was That Again?

It was another sunny day as we prepared to leave. The slides and jacks performed as they are supposed to and we reluctantly leave the beautiful view site #30, at Malibu Beach RV Park this morning.

The traffic across LA was not too bad but the opposite direction was stopped for miles.

On our way into the desert we see a golden oasis, the Morango Indian Casino. We stopped there and fueled up.

We arrived at the Emerald Desert RV Resort around one o'clock. After checking in at the office we proceeded to the assigned site, 95, the same one we had last year. When we arrived at #95 we found it already occupied by another motorhome. Nobody was home so we contacted the office and after a lot of confusion and back and forth we just pulled into site 93 and the office blessed our decision. The sites are all mostly the same but this site was a better one as it had some shade from some large trees.

We are here for a month.

We had some gorgeous sunsets.

We went on a bus tour of Palm Springs and learned a lot about the stars who use to live or visit the area.  Had a great time.

A special surprise, my sister Jan and her husband John visited for a few days.

While we were here we had Horizon and the jeep washed and waxed.

At San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. Debbie is looking at the information board and hasn’t seen this information sign.

We started to walk along a trail with Debbie keeping a sharp eye out having seen the sign.

The only wildlife we saw were these cute little guys who said they hadn’t seen any rattle snakes.

Debbie decided to wait at the car.

Along the trail, a view of the Palm Springs valley.

Looking back at the visitor center.

Santa Monica

We’re still overlooking the blue Pacific Ocean from the Malibu Beach RV Resort.  Today we went sightseeing around Pacific Palisades / Santa Monica area.

The iconic Malibu Fishing Pier, a café at the end.

Walking to the pier from the parking lot.

Santa Monica Pier has more than fishing, boating and cafes.

                

 

As we were leaving for Palm Springs, Debbie noticed this humming bird feeder.  I always thought humming birds were very territorial but here are seven that seem to be sharing.

Malibu

 

 

Don’t mess with Debbie before her first cup of coffee in the morning or her first glass of wine in the evening!  Ty thinks this is a really big cat box.

What a view from our front window. Santa Monica is across the water in the background.

Malibu California

The sunset view standing in front of our Horizon. 

We are in the Malibu Beach RV Park on the edge of a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Horizon is behind another RV. The Jeep is parked next to it.

Horizon front end sticking out high up on the cliff as seen from the Pacific Coast Hwy.

Debbie is standing in the parking lot of Paradise Cove where  Jim Rockford’s house trailer which used to be parked when they were filming the TV show, Rockford Files. We were unable to find the trailer but we did find the Paradise Cove Beach Café and had a great lunch. Some of the outdoor part of the restaurant is in the background. 

A view of the Paradise Cove Beach Café from the beach.

I know this looks familiar but its not the same photo. Note those are different shirts. (same cat)

Replaced Rear Bedroom Thermostat

The motorhome has two propane forced-air heaters. The main and larger one has registers on the floor running the length of the motorhome and heats both the bedroom and lounge.

The smaller heater just serves the bedroom and to a lesser degree, the bathroom. It works great but the thermostat is hard to set accurately and has a wide temperature  range where it gets too hot and then too cool.  We like to sleep with the bedroom window open, so the thermostat couldn’t be turn on at bedtime or the furnace would run all night. This meant I had to hop out of bed to turn it on in the morning. I know!

So I replaced the original mechanical thermostat with an electronic one.

Now it stays very close to the easily set temperature. As a bonus it can also be set to turn on and off at desired times. No more popping out of bed to turn on the heater in the mornings.

Installation was a bit of a puzzle. The mechanical the thermostat only used two wires. The electronic one’s installation manual gave directions for connecting, using four to seven wires.  In an internet search I didn’t find a two wire example, only a three wire solution. Using the best guess method, I connected the two wires I had to two of the new thermostat’s wires and it works perfectly.  With only two wires there is no power but the thermostat has a battery for backup and it seem to work ok on battery power. We’ll see how long battery last.

                    

Old on the left and new on the right.

Jocko’s for Dinner

Last year we stopped at a Country Kitchen in Florence, OR for breakfast. It was a great meal and we were surprised to learn it was a chain. It look so country homey. Well we found another one here in Santa Maria and so off  to breakfast at Country Kitchen close by on Broadway. 

This restaurant was completely different with a local flavor. Still good, but not as great.

We also had dinner a Jocko’s.  Learning from past mistakes we made a reservation. I think the only thing a reservation does is give them your name. You still are going to wait a half to one hour on a normal night.

The outside is not very impressive.  As usual the meal was to die for.

We’ll be headed to Malibu in a couple of days.

Santa Maria Elks - 2013

Arrived here at the Santa Maria Elks slightly after lunch. The park was 70% full but the space we usually take was still available. We have been here many times in the past and this is one of the nicer Elks RV parks.  A neighbor across the way said all the RV spaces were full New Year’s Eve. He thought local members parked their RVs there so they didn’t have to drive home after partying.  He also said this was the first nice day, that it had been rainy and cold for the past week.

Lunch time and we over to Brad’s for lunch. One of my favorite places on the Pismo Beach strip.  Found a parking space right across the street. Put 2 dollars in meter. Darn, their patio is closed during week in the wintertime. I guess that’s understandable, you can see the bare sidewalk, during the summer the sidewalk is so crowded you can hardly move. By the way, the patio is where they barbeque great tri-tip  and steaks.  Left $1.98 in meter and looked around for alternate.

Now where to go?  We ended up farther north at Mclintocks in San Luis Obispo. We’ve been here a couple of time before and always had a good lunch. This time was great also. Best “Santa Maria Style” Tri tip sandwich, so tender, the meat was as tender as the bread!

Debbie looking over the lunch menu.

After lunch a walk in beautiful weather.

After lunch window shopped on Marsh St. My girl on the sidewalk of downtown San Luis Obispo.

Stopped at Walmart and Trader Joes on the way back to the Horizon, then stopped in  Five Cities’ outlet stores. I’m Looking for a dress sports shirt or two and found some that were a terrific 50% off on sale, now only 49.99. Still looking!