San Francisco & Monterey

From Oxnard we headed back east into the Mojave Desert for a few days of rest and relaxation. We stayed at Edwards AFB where I managed to get in a round of golf that I prefer not to elaborate on. We went to the Air Force test museum and thoroughly enjoyed the displays and especially the movies of the Air Force test history. Seeing Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1 that broke the sound barrier as well as many other great airplanes was interesting. Edwards is on the Rodger’s Dry lake bed where the Space Shuttle lands when it cannot land at Cape Kennedy (Canaveral). Two 747s built to carry the Shuttle from Edwards back to Kennedy were parked on the ramp at Edwards.
We left Edwards for Travis AFB and were able to make a quick tour of Sequoia National Park. The weather in the mountains broke just enough that’ with rented chains for the tires, we were able to get up to see General Sherman, the largest tree in the world. The giant forest was simply spectacular and the snow that was over 8’ in places added to the experience. At Travis we stayed for about a week. Their fam-camp is ok but they have more rules than Alcatraz has and it was almost like being in prison. Regardless it was a great place to base while touring San Francisco. We rendezvoused in town with a very special couple who used to go with me out to Horn Island in Mississippi. They always said I was to call them if I ever came to California so we did. They met us and gave us a grand tour of San Francisco. From the government buildings, the Presidio, Golden Gate Bridge and more we drove all over the town, saw and rode on cable cars, drove down the most crooked street in the USA (Lombard Street), had some great food, saw some great views, and just had a great time. We attempted a whaling trip with Jennifer and Joey but wind, rain, and high seas made for a rather rough outing. We have rain checks and maybe we will get another chance. Sandi and I had been anxious for sea food and finally had a great meal at Fisherman’s Warf – Dungeness Crab and fresh salmon. We took a tour of Alcatraz, bought San Francisco sourdough bread, and just had an awesome time.
From San Francisco we went back south to Monterey. This has been another great stop. We drove along the Big Sur. Great waves crashing on rocky shores, sea lions, harbor seals, giant redwoods, some great birds and one breath-taking view after another as we cruised south along the coast. A stop at a farm market provided some of the freshest and tastiest strawberries and artichokes. We hiked trails in a most interesting National Estuary Research Reserve and I picked up a couple more life birds and then we spent a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Not nearly as big as other aquariums we’ve been to like Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Baltimore, but every bit as good. They had a very natural display full of live shore birds. Black oyster-catchers, snowy plovers, marbled-godwits, American Avocets, assorted sandpipers, phalaropes, and more. All in the open and within arm’s reach. We ate lunch in their awesome restaurant sitting against big windows and enjoyed more sea food while watching harbor seals, pelagic and Brant’s cormorants, pigeon guillemots, and especially sea otter--all in the wild in the Monterey Bay. Their kelp forest display, and sea-horses were awesome.
Sandi and I have picked up a hitch-hiker in the form of a Barbie doll called Belle from the Beauty and the Beast. We take Belle with us and she gets to write back to her best friend and “Mommy” our four year old granddaughter, Braelyn, who though that since she could not travel with Nana and Pop Pop, maybe Belle could go. Remember Flat-Stanley?
Golf is great here as it should be. Sandi and I toured Pebble Beach and ate more seafood from the veranda of the clubhouse overlooking the famous 18th hole. I would have liked to play a round there since the course is open to the public but the $500 green fee is just out of my range. If I could only find a sponsor.

Salton Sea to Oxnard California

The Salton Sea was a great birding area and we were to return there but first it was back to the desert near Yuma to relax and return to Mexico for some affordable dental work. Then back to Slab City and a tour of the wetlands around the Salton Sea with a contract tour on the International Birding Festival. Saw some great birding areas. No life-birds but some great birding. Seeing thousands of Pintails at one time was interesting. The bird expert was a painful, egotistical, know-it-all, but except for some glaring mis-identifications, he really did have a good birding knowledge. From there we headed to desert Hot Springs Resort, a Western Horizon Resort. Not an organization that I would want to belong to. I was a bit amused with the inhospitality of nearly everyone – staff, members, sales staff, etc. Not that we did not meet some friendly folks but they were the exception and not the rule. Went from there to 29 Palms where we stayed at the Marine Corps Base. Just a few miles from the Joshua Tree National Park, we took the time to drive through the park, take a couple hikes through an oasis (saw my first California thrasher) and play a round of golf on the Marine base.
From there it was back to Algedones, Mexico for some dental follow-up. That completed we worked our way westward to Point Magu Navy Base near Ventura, California (Northwest of Los Angeles). We are nearly parked right on the beach. Shore birds and harbor seals are abundant. The weather forecast is scheduled to be varied from day-to –day for the next week so we need to plan our activities accordingly. The good weather of the first day made for a touring opportunity to see Hollywood. We took the drive down the Pacific Coast Highway and into Hollywood where we saw Grauman’s Chineese Theater, the Kodak Theater, the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame with all the stars as well as the footprints and hand prints of stars in front of the theater. We also went down to the La Brea Tar Pits to view the work being done there as well as to go through the museum and see the thousands of fossils they have so far discovered. The displays of Mammoths, saber-tooth cats, dire wolves, and more were a great sight to see. Watching the actual excavation-in-progress and the cleaning and cataloging work was most interesting.
The Oxnard area has been interesting. We visited the Harbor at Ventura, after getting some advice from the folks at the Oxnard Information Center. We attempted to find the roosting monarch butterflies at a local city park but few remained. Seems late February is just too late. We did fond a few mating pairs and others flying around as well as numerous hummingbirds. The only ones I could positively identify were Anna’s. The Costa hummingbird, supposedly common, simply eludes me. We sto[pped at a fruit stand and bough farm fresh celery, avacodos, and strawberries. Eating one of these berried is almost like eating an apple.

Oxnard is just a few miles from the Channel Islands so I had to take a trip out there. Added almost a dozen new birds to my life list including the endemic scrub jay of Santa Cruz Island. Saw several new cormorants, some auklets and common murrelets. No whales but hundreds, maybe thousands of common dolphins as well as a multitude of sea lions. A great trip on the Island Packer.

Phoenix to California's Salton Sea

We pulled into the Freightliner truck facility in Phoenix for what turned out to be a $1600 oil change. Actually a lot more than just an oil change: Filters, inspections, lube, transmission fluid change and more. There is a lot to be said about preventive maintenance.
We had a great couple of days together with Frank Ramsey, my roommate and squadron-mate from Vietnam days and his wife Janis. A few dinners out, a round of golf that I prefer not to talk about (Franks home course, a mountainous, but beautiful desert course, destroyed me), and plenty of time to recall our experiences as Lopez FACs (forward Air Controllers) made for a most enjoyable way to spend time while the RV was getting its annual checkup.
Frank and Janis have a place in Alaska where they spend the summer and keep their bush plane, a Maul, that Frank uses to get into the back country for hunting and fishing. We’ve been putting a trip to Alaska on the back burner for sometime but the invite from Frank and Janis to see Alaska the right way may be too good to pass up.



From Phoenix we made a short drive to Tonopah, AZ where there is a great hot springs. The private area that Sandi and I rented for two hours had a beautiful rock hot tub with a water temp around 106F. There was also a cooling tub which we did not use. Lounges and chairs faced to the west and the setting sun. The private area was enclosed on three sides and completely open facing the desert. What a great way to watch a beautiful sunset.
We finally arrived in Quartzite, AZ, the boondocking destination for thousands of RVers. We heard from our great friend, Marilyn Darling, from Mexico and Yellowstone and met her and several other friends whom we had travelled with into Mexico. We joined up with another 100 other RVers who belong to a group called the “Boomers” all baby-boomers born between 1940 – 1960. We were all parked in the middle of the desert on BLM land. The “Boomers” are an interesting group—no officers, no rules. A working display of anarchy. If you do not like what you see or what is going on, you are free to leave anytime. Our visit here coincided with a huge flea market and a rather large RV show each with hundreds of vendors selling everything from RV-unique items to things that I can’t imagine anyone needing – miracle eyeglass cleaner, kitchen aids that chop and dice (just like seen on TV), tools, nuts and bolts, jewelery, and much more. We did get new RV slide-out awnings and a few other item that we really needed. It is also a rock-hound’s mecca and all kinds of lapidary equipment, rocks and fossils are on display and are available for sale.
This town is quite different. It has a gum museum (never been to one of them), a book seller that has a store on Main Street who does not wear any clothes, and there is a monument to Hadji Ali, a Syrian camel driver that came here in the early 1860s to help the U.S. Army with a test to see if camels would work in the American deserts. Known locally as Hi Jolly, he is buried beneath a pyramid monument in the local cemetery. We are surrounded by mountains, but the desert is flat and quite suitable for boondocking. It really is like a big party. It has been fun but we were ready to continue on towards California.

From Quartzite we headed to Yuma and then into california where we faound a great place out in the desert to spend a few days. The rains came and we watched an Arroyo "dry stream bed" go from bone dry to a raging flood torrent. The wheather forcasters commented that they had never in a liffetime seen Arizona entirely in the green forcasting rain. Many had more than a half a years rain in one day. We endured the rain and 50 mile-per-hour winds and really apreciated the nice weather when it returned. We took a side trip without the RV into Algedones, Mexico where we had another tooth filled and both got a couple pairs of glasses.

Then on to El Centro Naval Air Facility. Small Navy Air base that is used for training and also is the winter home for the Navy's Blue Angels. It was quite thrilling to see a daily air show right over the RV when the Blue and Gold F-18s would return from their practice sessions.

North of El Centro in the Salton Sea, one of the Important Birding Areas. An awesome inland sea, that is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, is a great place to see birds. I've seen nearly 100 species and have added a couple new birds to my life list. I think the Eurasian Widgeon is the best so far. A close look in the photo will show Ross Geese. Snow Geese, American Avocets, Shovellers, Pintails, Widgeon, and more. What a place.

Departing Tucson

Thought I better bring this blog up to date, if not for those who may try to keep up with us, then just to keep up my historical record of where we’ve been or what we have done.
After departing Sabino Canyon, we parked the RV at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base(DMAFB) and flew back East to visit our kids, grandkids and my parents. We managed to have this visit coincide with Sam's birthday. Birthdays are special times and just maybe we will be able to attend a few more of them in the future. Another short visit, we decided we needed more time so our next visit may be a bit longer and we will, in all likelihood, head back East after Yellowstone this coming summer.
On returning to Tucson after our trip east we got tickets and went to see a great production of the Nutcracker Suite on Christmas Eve. We had two Christmas dinners: a party put on by the DMAFB RV Park and a great Christmas dinner at the chow hall on base. Military members, their wives and kids, all manned the serving line, giving up some of their Christmas day to bring Christmas dinner to those who could not head home for the holiday.
We departed DM for Kartchner State Park and the Kartchner caverns, a magnificent recently discovered cave, that has been meticulously managed and developed to preserve its natural qualities – no colored lights, no music played on stalactites, and little focus on the naming of the features but a lot of geology facts. From there, a quick trip to Douglas AZ and Agua Parieta Mexico for some golf, shopping, and some dental work. Then we headed a short distance to Naco, AZ so I could play the Turquoise Valley Golf course that is home to the 10th longest golf hole in the world – a 747 yard par 6 – called the rattler. Not a favorite hole of mine where the best I could do was bogey.
We returned to DMAFB and I managed a few more rounds of golf- One at the Tucson National course (which was home of the Tucson Open years ago) and another round on the DMAFB course. We also took a trip to the San Xavier Mission which is just south of Tucson. One of the missions founded by Father Kino, this mission still serves the Tohono O'Odham Indian Nation.
Disney has been advertising a day at the park in return for a day of volunteer service. Sandi and I decided to accept the invitation and gave a day to help the Girl Scouts distribute 351,000 cases of cookies. Our plans are to get to Disneyland sometime in the next month. We will probably forgo the hi-speed roller coaster rides and opt for more sedate attractions but we are looking to take a Segway tour of the park.
We will leave DM today for Phoenix for some routine annual maintenance on the RV.