Santa Anita Race Track

Not even sure I should blog today.  This Rally is so different than anything else we have done with Fantasy RV Tours and they assure us that they will never do this again.  The actually put this on with the SOI Motorhome Club, a chapter of the FMCA. It has been so disorganized and so not up to the quality standard of Fantasy RV.  Very disappointing on so many levels.  

Today was a quick shuttle ride across the parking lot to the restaurant of the Santa Anita Race Track for a "leisurely" lunch.  From arriving to the serving of dessert was three hours.  A bit slower than what we expected.  Beautiful, but cold day so was very nice to have an indoor seat.

Tonight is the New Year's Eve Party at the Rally Tent.  Should be fun.  Since we have to catch a 6:00am bus to the parade route, the party will end at 9:00pm east coast midnight.  Works well for us ! !   LOL

Happy New Year Everyone  ! ! ! 

Fantasy RV Rose Parade Rally

Today is our first full day at the Rally.  Fantasy does a great job.  We started the morning earlier than we have been getting up for a while, 6:30am and breakfast was at 7:30.  By 8:30 we were boarding the bus for the Sierra Madre Float Barn.  It is entitled "I think I can" this year. There were got to help get the roses ready for the float by cutting them to the correct size and sticking them in the water vases that had been filled by the Girl Scouts earlier.  

After cutting about 250 roses at our table in one hour, we went next door to tour the actual float building area. The workers were painting with seeds and other materials and the flowers will be applied to the green foam on the base of the float.  That will take place on the 31st.  In the meantime, all the flowers are stored in refrigerator trailers.

This is what the finished float will look like!

The floats princess's were ready for pictures ! ! 

In the afternoon we spent a couple of hours at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in downtown Pasadena.  It is a wonderful place that would really take at least a full day, if not a week, to see as it takes up about 209 acres of land. The brochure states that it is a private nonprofit collections-based research and educational institution founded in 1919 by Henry Huntington. They only charged $15 for admission of seniors. We were only able to see several of the gardens with a docent and then inside the Huntington House where the art collection is displayed.  I quickly found these two famous paintings. You may recognize them.

This is Pinky 

And this is Blue Boy

The most interesting garden for us was The Chinese Garden.  All the artwork and design came from Suzhou, China where my brother Joe and his wife Celeste lived for five years.  The actual inserts in the windows and the sandstone rocks as well as all the other materials were shipped from China.

It was so interesting to see all the flowers that are still in bloom, even in the winter...  Carmelia's, roses and this bird of paradise ! ! ! Beautiful

Tonight we are doing a winery tour and dinner at the San Antonio Winery. Should be fun! ! .

Tomorrow is another busy day !

Merry Christmas

We traveled from Yuma AZ to the Thousand Trails Pio Pico Park in Jamul, San Diego County.  From there we can visit my nieces and my brother and their families.  Becky & Johnny Smith, our niece, are hosting the Christmas dinner. We went over early so I could make clam bread with Chloe and Lyla and then make my mushroom dish.  Of course, there was tons of food.  Didn't take many pictures cuz I couldn't take any at the park as they still do not have cell service there and Ken forgot.  

Becky is so artistic so the table was set beautifully.

This is what Christmas looked like in the RV..

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.  We sure did but really missed our family back home.

"Home" on the west coast, finally

We made it to Thousand Trails Pio Pico RV Park in Jamul, California yesterday. That is San Diego County for those who do not know southern Cali.  Happy, we are ! ! Today was about 75 degrees, so nice to have warm weather finally. Made another run to Costco so those who know us, know that is a good thing for us and got our laundry done for the first time in about two weeks. Happy to go to our niece Becky and her husband, Johnny's house tomorrow. Ken will help Johnny and Troy put the trampoline together for Chloe and Lyla's Christmas present. Becky, Darcy and I will make holiday desserts, yummy! ! ! Have missed doing that this season since we only have a microwave/convection oven in our RV.

Could not believe it but Costco in Chula Vista is now selling diesel and at $2.65 a gallon ! ! We never saw diesel that low anywhere in the US so far.  The lowest has been $2.89 and that was in Texas. Wonder if all Costco's will start selling it?

Also, Becky tells me that the check from the warranty insurance company has arrived at their house.  Sooooooo happy to hear that.  It has been three months since the engine failure and tons of paperwork for me. Now we have to find the San Diego office of Fidelity so that we can get it deposited and pay back the loan we took to pay back Ken's retirement fund.  You confused, think how we are ! ! LOL  Now we start the fight for the reimbursement amount since it is about $6,500 less than what we had to pay the CAT shop plus missing days of the trip, all the food in the fridge having to be thrown away, let alone all the headaches we suffered ! ! !  Whew, just happy right now for this check..

We have the RV decorated for Christmas including a tree and lights, trying to take a picture that we can show here but not having luck with the lighting and windshield and then there is the issue that the program is not opening the pictures I took today.  Too tired to mess with it, sorry ! ! !

Christmas is gonna be at Becky and Johnny's house this year with my nieces, my brother and my sister and their families.  Fun times ! ! 

Merry Christmas everyone ! ! ! Happy New Year.  Sunday we will be heading to Pasadena where we will be attending the Fantasy RV Rally for the Rose Parade. Should be great fun ! ! 

One big question ! !

Where do all the trains come and go from that we see so many of in New Mexico? There are so many trains in New Mexico and some in Eastern Arizona but then they are gone.  Where are they?? They are hauling a lot of containers. It's the big question that we asked ourselves the last time we came through here.  Also, they are doing a lot of work on the tracks, they are well used.

Found a Gary, New Mexico just for our Gary ! ! ! 

A very short area of big rocks that look like we were back in the Arches area of Utah.  Utah also calls them "slick" rocks.  We love them, they are so pretty.  I didn't get my camera out in time to get enough pictures.

We realized that most of Texas, all of New Mexico and, at least, to Benson Arizona we were between 2,500 and 5,000 feet in elevation.  Never realized that this was such a large area of high desert.  So much evidence of rain but we missed it all.  Several areas of fog but that was it.  

Changed our plans again.  Yuma tomorrow night and then Pio Pico Thousand Trails Park in Jamul California, just outside of San Diego.  So happy, my niece Becky has asked us over on Tuesday.  Ken will help Johnny put together a trampoline for Chloe and Lyla and I get to help with Christmas desserts. Missing that so am really excited ! ! ! 

Just hope that our mail and the warranty check are at Becky's.  All will be good!

Texas

Huuummm Texas - don't know quite what to say.  We have seen such contrasts. Speed limits are up to 80 mph.  No where else have we seen that, lots of 70 but no 80. Left grey, rainy, cloudy skies this morning to warm, blue, clear skies here in Fort Stockton, TX. We have not gotten lost on this trip before Texas but here we have been lost a couple times. Once was in San Antonio trying to find The Alamo and The Riverwalk. Well, we ended up settling for BBQ and giving up. Texas is also the only state where we have seen a car accident, a rollover on the freeway. Lots of oil and/or gas wells, wind farms and just open land. U-turn lanes at almost every light. The lowest diesel price yet, $2.89 a gallon. Closer to San Antonio we saw huge houses and cattle farms but not so much out in the open land. We have seen more deer here in two RV parks than maybe our whole lives.  They just roam around in herds like there is absolutely no fear. And then the sad, more dogs hit by traffic along side major roads with usually no houses around. The plus is that we have seen more new building construction in Texas than anywhere else, whole new home developments and additions to existing developments as well as new businesses. 

Looking forward to seeing most of my California family for Christmas, not everyone but most.  Will be nice to be among the peeps we know.  

Starting through Texas

Oh my gosh, Houston was not a fun city to get through.  It was 20-30 miles of freeway and tons of on and off traffic.  Sure happy last night to get to the Thousand Trails park in Columbus, Texas called Colorado River.  This is a huge park that is not very well used. Probably less than half full.  Too bad.

Woke up this morning and had received a message from our friend Janet Dornhecker, her sister in law, Chuck DeGuire's wife, Donna died from cancer last night. She was way too young.  Tough times, again, for that family.  So sad.

Walked around this park today.  Deer are everywhere.  Our neighbors, Donna & Bob counted 21 outside their windows this morning.

We saw these out in the woods while walking in the afternoon.










The river does not look very healthy around this area.

 This is the campground boat ramp.  huummmmm

Leaving Monday morning and heading out across Texas.  There is a fuel station near by with diesel for $2.89 a gallon.  That is the lowest we have seen on the entire trip.  Had seen $2.99 and a high of $3.69.  You really have to watch where you go. We hear that their are fuel wars going on here so hopefully the price will drop again by Monday.  LOL

On to Louisiana

Very interesting how different the geography is in the different parts of this country.  We now totally understand how the gulf coast suffered so much during Hurricane Katrina.  Most of the ground within a mile of the coast line appears to be as they say in Charleston, "low country", which means lower than sea level. There is such much water that it can't soak in.  So many bogs, swamps, marshes, etc and then they build on it and wonder why a storm takes it all away. I tried taking a bunch of pictures around the Baton Rouge area where there are lots of "hardwood swamps", in other words, dead trees standing in water, but all I got was reflection out the windows, darn !

We are camping at Sam Houston Jones State Park in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Look who practically greeted us..  Ken just opened the door and sat on the steps.  She walked right up to him.  Huuuummm  wonder if someone has been feeding her. 

 We just saw another camper out walking with their small dog, just walk up and pet this deer.  Guess she is not afraid of humans.
















This is in the park.


On to Texas tomorrow...



huuummm, totally dark here already and it is only 3:45pm.

The Gulf Coast in Pass Christian Mississippi

WOW, sure nice to have blue skies and warm sunny days.  We haven't seen that in weeks. Warm here right now is in the mid 60's but it is sure shorts and flip flop weather to us. Glad that we came here a day early.  It is also an RPI park so it is really cheap for us to stay.  Also, since it is warm Ken was able to remove a wall in our bedroom and find the water leak.  Oh my, the hot water line had just wiggled loose.  So happy it wasn't another huge issue.  AND, no cost to fix ! ! !  We could finally wash all our towels and really dry out the flooring and carpeting.  

The locals told us about Steve's Marina, a great place to have lunch.  Fried green tomatoes are crunchy and topped with crab and hollindaise.  Yummy. Then we ordered seafood nachos.  So great as we also shared a topical drink.

Steve's was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina and was just rebuilt about three years ago.

The gulf, at least here, is very different than we expected.  Lots of "ponds" and no waves.  Not exactly inviting to go into.  Was hoping to snorkel..

This day was lunch at the Shaggy (huuummm, can't remember the name!!  

Another place that shows evidence of the damage of Katrina.  Saw quite a few columns for piers that no longer exist.  

And then these palm trees on the beach.  They are all that is left of something from the past.  We notice that there are very few palm trees here, mostly live oak without the Spanish Moss and pine trees.  The pines really surprised us.  










Houses here appear to be either regular houses or gigantic houses and lots of land but rather close to each other.

Finally looks like we may get our check from the warranty insurance company, even though it is minus $7,000.  Gotta figure out how to deal with that.  We were able to send them the rest of the documentation that they need before issuing a check.  They cannot direct deposit but say that they will send the check to our next reservation. Don't trust them yet, so will wait to see how it all plays out.  We only have 18 days left to repay Ken's retirement without penalty of the extra earned income.