Travels with Edna and Papi

Sunday, February 5, 2017

A bungee cord ," Mel" , NO mudflaps, Tombstone and.....Marfa!

The hills of Arizona and the Titan ll missile

It wasn't easy leaving my home state of California, but we had frozen our last night here in the desert and couldn't wait to head towards Arizona hoping for warmer weather. I think the cold had gotten to our dog Daisy because she had not been feeling well constantly getting sick making for a long, treacherous car ride! She whined throughout the long five hour trip but poor little thing managed to wait until we stopped each time to be sick. We finally arrived in Tuscon at Davis-Monthan AFB around 7:00 pm with the sweetest couple helping to guide us into our spot. It was a somewhat stressful driving day so we opted out of our usual pizza night and stayed in planning the next few days.
Our first adventure in Tuscon was to head southeast to a small pioneer town named Tubac. Thank goodness Daisy was back to her usual vibrant (Walker Coonhound) self. Tubac was filled with Art Galleries but first we wanted to take the dogs on the famous walking trail of Spaniard Juan Bautista de Anza. First thing when starting off your day with two dogs is to make sure you have leashes! We left them back in the fifth wheel (about an hour away), and there were no stores close by only Art Galleries....and a trail! Perry thought a long bungee cord might take care of one dog, certainly not Daisy (she sprung right back) so it had to be the dog that listened, Gracie. Perry bought twine that we used for our makeshift leash for Daisy and away we went on our two mile walk in the high desert of Tubac, Az. We felt the rich history of early Native Americans and cowboys, but even more so the late 1700's Spaniard settlers and missionaries. We walked past an old church built in the early 1800's called St. Ann's that still had some of the original walls....a peaceful presence. Our short visit to Tubac was enjoyable but we were on our own mission and that was to try Arizona wines.
We drove another forty-five minutes taking the high desert side roads that led us to a gradual climb to an elevation of 4500' ending up at our first wine tasting in Sonoita. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of their white wines but especially the reds. The next few wineries we stopped at we enjoyed many conversations with other travelers. Our favorite winery (highly recommended) was a aluminum like building in the middle of nowhere. We passed by a herd of prong-horned antelope on our road to the Rune winery stopping to take a picture,...beautiful countryside. We arrived just before closing and enjoyed meeting the owner, winemaker and sole proprietor of this amazing winery and he in turn didn't mind us turning the dogs loose while we enjoyed a glass of chardonnay. He suggested the best placed to eat in town ( pop. of 800 people) was called the "Cafe". Gathering up the dogs and heading off to "The Cafe" with ravenous appetites, there were no places to sit so we opted to eat at the bar while listening to two local cowboys play guitar. There was a lively group next to us celebrating a birthday and a gal "Mel" from the group engaged us in conversation. She invited us to visit their brewery in a tiny town named Elgin not far from Sonoita. This was a beautiful area surrounded by mountains and we didn't mind making another trip back but tonight we wanted to be able to find our way back to Tuscon before dark. The next day was to a historical western town called Tombstone, Az.
Tombstone is best known for the shootout at the OK Corral back in 1881 between " Billy the kid", James Hickey and William Clairborne , Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. There was no sort of law enforcement during this time in Tombstone and it attracted a lot of outlaws. There were shootouts in the streets, at the wild Birdcage Theater where over twenty men were killed in a shootout and the infamous thirty second gunfight in the OK Corral. We visited the Boothill Grave Yard where cowboys and "Indians" were buried. Their graves were built up in stone to keep out critters and grave robbers. What an interesting place and time in history and so glad I didn't live back then to experience the hardships and violence. We've evolved.......somewhat! As we walked the town absorbing the wild west history with the dogs, we were invited into a building by a sweet older lady who was part of the Arizona Rangers. She was happy to explain the police like Ranger training that she and several other volunteers had to endure including how to use a firearm. The Rangers were used at the turn of the 20th century to control outlaws and protect the U.S. border. We were soon joined by two more Rangers who were very proud of what they did.......I could picture my Dad being a Ranger.
This historical place was something I wouldn't forget but we had a small town brewery to catch in the town of Elgin visiting our new friend, Mel! Thank goodness for GPS getting us there, because like other places we visit, it is once again in the middle of nowhere. She was happy to see us as we joined other visiting beer tasters. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but this trip was worth it. Mel and her husband moved to Elgin a couple years ago purchasing a large farmhouse on several acres caring for many farm animals and growing hops (used in beer). Their tiny brewery was marked with conservatism and the second Amendment....."nope" we're NOT in California anymore. Perry had one beer before we were informed there was a possibility of snow that night....time to head back to Davis_Monthan AFB. The next day was for domestic things.....grocery shopping, post office, laundry and of course, my hair!
Perry and I went to a laundry mat not far from outside the Navy base to wash dog bedding. It was not a safe area and I couldn't wait to get back to our safe surroundings of the U.S. military. Later that day, I did some errands inside the base and as I'm driving back to the fifth wheel, cars are stopped in the middle of the road and all activities around me ceased. I stopped as well and rolling down my window, I realized our national anthem was being played. Here at Davis-Monthan, at 5:00 pm everything stops to pay tribute to our country by listening to our national anthem which I think instills pride!
Before we were to leave Tuscon, my retired military husband wanted to see the Titan ll museum in nearby Sahuarita. We caught the last hour tour which this experience will stay with me for a long time. The Tital II is the only missile left in an underground silo from the cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union from 1963-1987. It was somewhat unnerving to think we were standing next to a disabled nuclear warhead that was capable of traveling over 6,000 miles and destroying a city over 1,000,000 people. During this time period, they explained, this was used more as a safety precaution to protect the U.S. again the old Soviet Union as they had several nuclear weapons aimed at the U.S. We were able to sit in the control room where four young military men sat and guarded the missile, next to the red switch if given the executive order. I thought to myself how we take our country's safety for granted not knowing what really goes on to keep us safe. It made me appreciate where we live even more. Good bye Tuscon.....off to El Paso, Texas.

West Texas

The change going into Texas from Arizona was a more windy and gradual climb in elevation and I was excited to be here with so much to see! After traveling four hours we decided to stay in El Paso for a few nights at Camp Bliss, an Army base. We did seek out our traditional pizza night and not being familiar with El Paso, we depended on Yelp reviews. It was not exactly the area I would have chosen to enjoy pizza. There was graffiti everywhere with bars on the few "intact" home windows but, the restaurant was everything and more that the reviews talked about. The pizza and service couldn't have been better. We got back to the fifth wheel and Perry realized he had left his wallet at the restaurant. Not looking forward to returning to this particular area, we headed back the next day and retrieved his wallet from a friendly and honest staff. Once again, the RV location on a military base has not let us down. Fort Bliss amazed us with their shopping mall where we actually enjoyed a long overdue movie. As we hitched up the next day to head towards Fort Stockton, I couldn't help but be amazed at the wall that runs for miles separating our country from Mexico. As we continued to head east in Texas, we couldn't help but watch the temperature drop into the 20's. We didn't quite expect this and before arriving at our RV site, the temperature dropped to 23 degrees with an expected low of 14. We were hoping to avoid drastic weather and climate changes but it IS January and the middle of winter so try to dig out all our heavy jackets and comforters. This night, we decided to enjoy some Mexican food in a small close by restaurant where we were greeted by southern hospitality. The hostess asked where we were from and three women of one family joined in conversation. They were proud of their hometown of Fort Stockton and gave us suggestions of places to visit and the oldest family member offered to teach us line dancing. (You sure know you're in Texas when it takes you twice as long to eat a meal because the people are so friendly). Once we were back in the fifth wheel, a staff member stopped by to tell us to drip water out of our faucets to prevent the pipes from freezing that night. We did just that but somehow missed the hot water in the kitchen. We must have had at least six inches of bedding on us that night to keep warm and we actually let the dogs on the bed that night to keep them warm. The next morning we woke up to find an icicle where the water connecting hose is....obviously a poor connection. Thankfully, it warmed up quickly and the hot water returned in the kitchen. Today we were packing up overnight bags for a stay in the small town of Alpine, Texas after making small trips along the way to Fort Davis, Marfa and Marathon. It was a Sunday and the roads to Fort Davis were miles of rolling hills with no one in sight, except for the amazing sight of a hundred Texas bighorn sheep and one car parked along side of the road, a State Trooper. We pulled into the park with the dogs and hiked along a trail not finding the Fort but took in the beautiful (chilly) view. It was going to be a long sightseeing day so we decided to head towards the interesting, small "artsy" town of Marfa. Driving away from Fort Davis the one car on the road decided to pull us over. The young State Trooper must have had a very slow day as he informed us it was illegal to drive a dually truck without mudflaps in the state of Texas. Explaining we were visiting from California (we had the token travel snacks in the front seat and the dogs in the back, not to mention a trailer hitch) we drove off with a warning. We took it lightly as we figured it was a slow day and it was probably his first warning....especially to Californians! Marfa.....here we come!

Marfa

Ok.....Perry's been talking this town up for sometime so I had expectations! The tiny town of 2,000 had Art Galleries unexplained evening lights and a famous hotel but no restaurants to grab a quick bite. Driving through town we saw a couple sitting outside a small place eating a burger and Perry was intrigued by the dilapidated building with a sign "Bad Hombres". He insisted we check this place out after we visit Chinati, an Art Gallery of aluminum sculptures. Very interesting to say the least because these aluminum peaces of art were all the exact same size with the variation (not much) to be inside the outer piece. After seeing building after building of these sculptures (you couldn't touch them or take pictures), it was time to move on. There wasn't a whole lot to see in this tiny town so next we stopped at "Bad Hombres". Not feeling too confident that this was the place to trust to get food, a patron was eating a burger that looked somewhat decent. We were greeted by a young man wearing sunglasses yelling over Bob Marley music, "Welcome to Bad Hombres, what do you want?! Perry wanted the creole as he had to yell it back to him over the loud music. "We don't have creole (it was on the menu)", "ok, we'll have a burger", "what's your name?", the employee yelled! "Perry", he yelled back. "Ethan?", " No....Perry". "Ok Ethan, I'll call you when it's ready". I wasn't sure based on the employees and looking inside the kitchen area this is where I wanted to have lunch, but despite the odd encounter the burger was actually pretty good. Next, we had to check the well known charming Hotel Paisano . This is hotel was built in 1930 and struggled during the "great depression" as this 35,000 square foot building housed cattle ranchers who came to Marfa to sell their herds. In the 1960's, the movie "Giant" was filmed in Marfa, and the cast and crew stayed in the hotel including Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean. Perry and I enjoyed a glass of wine on the patio while admiring the beauty of this once vibrant hotel. I now wished we had more time to spend in this eclectic town passing up several other Art Galleries but time to move on once again to our stay in the somewhat larger town of Alpine. We stayed in a small but charming, western hotel that welcomed dogs and this concluded our delightful visit to several small western Texas towns. Returning the next day to Fort Stockton we came across a herd of wild buffalo. Time to pack up and head out the next day for the much anticipated city of Austin.
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Next......Austin Music, "Houston, I think we have a problem!", and good ol' New Orleans!

The beautiful hills of Western Arizona

The Titan ll control room

The base of the 103' missile

A little too cold for us Californians!

Our own stalactite

This says it all!

One of the "Bad Hombres"

The Paisano Hotel

Mel and her husband

Countryside of Elgin

Loved the Arizona hills of Sonoita, Az.

One of our favorite wineries

Prong horned antelope

Entrance to the Boothill Graveyard

One of the original tombstones (many had to be redone)

Volunteer Arizona Rangers

The original O.K. Corral

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

"No fish in California, Mean Green and Fiery Red, Christmas in Joshua Tree"

Ahhhh- My home town of San Diego! It feels so good and so right to be back in the city where I grew up. I have only the fondest memories of my childhood and well into adulthood. This is the city where a kind, family oriented Navy man met a young beautiful transplant from Massachusetts. San Diego is where they married and settled down to raise four children.
Perry and I met here and bought our first house in Santee (a suburb of San Diego), just two blocks from the very active Santee Lakes. We now are back after all these years in our fifth wheel at a site directly on the water where Perry is excited to go fishing in the newly stocked lakes. I leave him to his manly fishing duties while I spend some long overdue time with my sister, Jean. She owns a children's theater who would be performing a holiday show the first weekend we were there. These amazing talented performers brought me to tears as their finale of the Holiday Show was "Let There Be Peace On Earth." Sung with such purity and innocence and thinking how we need more of this in our world. Thanks Jean.....beautiful (as always) production, making me feel so proud of your dedication to these kids! Perry continued to fish as I visited with my best friend, after attending to the necessary Christmas shopping. One night we went to watch my brother sing and play guitar with his band. They were awesome playing songs from the early 70's to fairly current rock and roll. Perry decided this night that we needed to sharpen our dancing skills by hitting the dance floor and show our lack of coordination. We hit the dance floor and suddenly others joined us, mostly likely out of sympathy. We DID have fun dancing, listening to great rock-n-roll and visiting with my nieces that were there. Our grand finale in San Diego, was enjoying the Laguna Mountains with Jeanie and Jeff . Staying the night in their house heated by a wood burning stove, we played a competitive game of corn hole followed by a walk on the dirt road trying to avoid ice and snow. Daisy and Gracie were worn out after much needed mountainous freedom!

Mean Green and Fiery Red!

The rain continued to pour on this Thursday that I was to meet a good friend for lunch in a soon to be crowded and popular mall. It was one week before Christmas and I wanted to be sure to get a parking spot, so I got there in plenty of time and was one of three cars in a lot of about twenty five spaces. As I sat in the parking lot waiting for my friend to arrive, I felt my rental car slightly move. As I looked over I saw as woman in a neon green car stare at me as she continued to pull into her narrow space. She was no more than three inches from my car and I was unable to open my door. I rolled down my window as she continued to stare at me and I mentioned that it felt like she hit my car. She screamed expletives at me and told me to show her where she hit me. The scrape was on my rented Jeep side door but continued to deny it was because of her. I explained that the car had been inspected by the rental agency and it wasn't there before. She continued to scream as I stood there in disbelief. Perry has said in the past to treat hostility with kindness and keeping that in mind, I wished her a "Merry Christmas". She was infuriated and continued with her expletives. At this, I decided (with fear of retaliation) to move my car. Upset and somewhat shaken, I told myself I wouldn't let his miserable person try to ruin my day much less a holiday that I love. Her colors of red and green weren't my Christmas colors of red and green. Her neon green car and bright red face were soon a distant memory with no financial consequence for the superficial scrape on the rental car.

We spent a lot of time with immediate family, and friends that were like family but our amazing time in my hometown was coming to an end. I felt fortunate to spend time with my two aunts, many other family members, friends and especially my sister and brother. We hugged them and said our goodbyes knowing we most likely wouldn't be back to my hometown of San Diego for at least a year. It was time to head to Joshua Tree to join our kids and Taylor for Christmas!

Christmas in Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree was a place we all decided to spend our Christmas together. It wasn't too far from where everyone lives and convenient for Perry and I to hop on Interstate 10 to head out of California. We found the R.V. park in the high desert with no one around us. The site we hooked up at had no power so we were told to try another site. It seemed to work but we wouldn't be spending more than two nights there due to the fact we rented a house for the next four days. Ahhh.....the house! Following our GPS, we decided to find the house prior to checking in which took us up a dirt, rough road. Of course we should have learned by now that a GPS usually takes you the fastest route. The house was about what we expected, plopped in the middle of the desert with a chain link fence. This fence later proved to be a life saver as we could let the dogs have room to roam freely. We weren't checking in until the next day and being a travel day we looked for a pizza place. The few that we found were either closed or didn't look to desirable. We stopped at the local saloon and enjoyed a great meal. Joshua Tree is considered somewhat "eclectic" and "hippyish" but it wouldn't take long for us to embrace this town. Back at the RV park , once again we were at a site where the electricity didn't work and speaking to an employee there, he had informed us they were "obviously" having problems. It was a cold, rainy night but Perry got creative running an extension cord to an 110 amp outlet which provided us with heat from a space heater.
The next morning we packed up wanting to get to the house long before the kids. They were leaving after work which meant they wouldn't arrive until long after dark and it was raining. There are no words to describe the house, other than "eclectic". The family room room was decorated from the 70's; a yellow floral couch, bright orange shag rug, skulls, clown faces and many antiques. One bedroom had a mannequin shag lamp, sad clown face and creepy dolls (this would be Kaylyn's room), another room had more 70's decorations and more clown faces made with bones and a lot of amazing antiques. This place was strange but yet warm and endearing. We embraced it and it turned out to be the most memorable Christmas! We got there in time to stock the refrigerator, unpack, put up some Christmas decorations and start the wood burning fireplace. The kids surprised us arriving two hours earlier than expected which I was happy about since the rain and cold were about to arrive. In all the excitement, Daisy somehow ran into a cactus so David pulled the needles out with pliers. No worse for the wear, she continued to enjoy her open space and run freely. That night we enjoyed catching up over a nice spaghetti dinner.
The next day was full of adventure by first off finding a brewery that David read up on. It was in the middle of nowhere (pretty much like everything else). The place was called Landers Brew Company and it was the first time we were to be with our youngest legally drinking his first beer. I joked with the bartender to "please" check his ID since he just recently turned 21. Oh, that bartender....(Phil) quite the character! He was from U.K. and we weren't quite sure if he was bored, drinking the day away or if this was part of his personality (he was full of personality)! He talked our ears off and we're thinking he was just happy to have people there, especially six of us at once. It was a pretty rough and rustic place with an old honky-tonk style piano and a guitar. Brandon enjoys playing the piano so he entertained us while David strummed the guitar. It's hard to describe this unique experience other than to say this was the beginning of a different and interesting stay here in Joshua Tree. Our next stop, (also in the town of Landers) was at a unique dome like structure called "The Integratron". It was built in 1959 for the purpose of rejuvenation and time travel and is now used for relaxation and for a fee you can enjoy a "perfect sound bath". It peaked our curiosity so we had to see this popular structure visited by many musicians for its perfect sound. Moving on, we went to see the a large 5800 square foot boulder called of all things "Giant Rock" which is known to be the largest free standing boulder in the world. Of course our outdoor grown kids couldn't wait to do some boulder climbing.
The next day was Christmas Eve and we had to find our Christmas Tree which we all agreed should be something small and simple and we found just that.....a cute little 31/2 ft. tree and it looked even smaller once we placed on top of the truck. We attended Church that evening at a very small but beautifully decorated church with the priest being quite the character. It seems like everyone here never lacked character and the priest was no different as he processed out at the end of mass with his dogs. Well......it IS Joshua Tree and we were ready to take on our next long-awaited adventure......Pappy's and Harriets! We had heard so much about this unique venue mostly because Paul McCartney had a surprise concert there two months earlier. Pappy's and Harriets is a restaurant that has well known artists on occasion and it's quirky "hippyish" style, so this was on all of our "to do" lists. Perry surprised all of us with gifts of matching Bomba socks and bee-emoji t-shirts for the girls and bee-keeper shirts for the guys. My husband, had to make sure we didn't feel out of place?! We lovingly all wore our thoughtful gifts and went to the famous restaurant. Unfortunately, being Christmas Eve there were no performers scheduled but we got our pictures taken on the stage where Paul McCartney played. Later, the traditional Christmas Eve traditional PJ's (this year they were matching) were distributed and welcomed on this cold night. The rest of Christmas Eve was spent visiting and enjoying each others company.
Christmas Day we hiked and later drove into Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Trees are by far the most unique but yet beautiful trees scattered throughout the desert and with all the recent rain, in the distance were the snow covered San Bernadino mountains. It was such a beautiful sight! That night we played games and built gingerbread houses in teams. Brandon and I were on the same team and building them was a lot harder than I thought (all part of the fun)!

December 26th- I wasn't looking forward to this day after Christmas when our kids and Taylor were leaving for home. After packing up our belongings, we went to a pizza place before heading our separate ways. One of the owners of 2 Guys Pies told us what it was like attending the Paul McCartney performance at Pappy's and Harriets and how Paul McCartney requested all animal heads be covered since he's vegan. The day we pulled away from our house and said our "good-byes" to our kids and Taylor was not easy, but somehow I knew this "good-bye" was going to be harder since we were leaving California for a year. It was! David and Taylor (our wine and back-yard buddies); these two that have a beautiful future ahead of them with David our loving oldest, hugging with tears in his eyes. Kaylyn, our sweet loving daughter who now directs her attention to her horse, Bandit, hugged also with teary eyes, knowing our unbreakable mother-daughter bond will always be there! Brandon (our youngest) who has such a beautiful spirit, gave me a hug of a lifetime that I will never forget! Our memories, our love, our family!! I cried as we said our good-byes asking God to keep them safe and healthy. We hope to see one another throughout the year!
Perry and I returned to the fifth wheel with temperatures nearing 32 degrees and still no power, we gathered up every jacket and blanket necessary to stay warm.

Joshua Tree will go down in the Schmidt Family History as a memorable place and now it's time for us to start our adventures across America!

My sister and founder/director of Young Actors' Theater

My brother's band "Virtual Image"

Family friends

Dinner with my friend Debbie and her husband

Yes-a selfie while having fun in the Laguna Mountains

Christmas in Joshua Tree

Our traditional Christmas Tree (minus several feet)

Our first night together

Landers Brewery with Phil (rt.) and a local (far left)

Landers' Brewery with Phil The Bartender

The Integratron

In front of the worlds' largest free standing boulder

Christmas Eve Mass

Matching socks for Pappy's and Harriets

Christmas Day

Boulder climbing

Teaming up for Gingerbread House Building

Thank You for reading this blog and viewing our fun Joshua Tree pictures!

Next- The Mojave Desert, a sick Coonhound, Prong-horned antelope, Tombstone and the OK Corral, wine tasting and Mel!

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Election Day, Butterflies, The Treasure Hunter and a NASA Turkey?!

November 8th thru early December

Tuesday, November 8th, 2016

For the majority of the nation, this day was a very important day. Who would be elected President;Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? This day was more than election day, it would have been my Mom's birthday but it was also travel day from Three Rivers to Paso Robles. I was anxious to get there knowing I'd be seeing David, Taylor and Kaylyn. Perry kept reminding me of our patriotic duty, obligation and birth given right to vote, but for the first time since I was eighteen I had thought of NOT voting. My conscience got the better of me and after settling into our RV park, we found a polling booth in Paso not far from where we were staying and did our civic duty! Ah democracy....! After casting our votes it was off to find a place for our traditional, travel day pizza.

Butterflies and the Treasure Hunter!

The next day we were ready to venture towards Cambria and San Simeon, driving past green, rolling hills. We packed the binoculars in hopes of finding elephant seals but after several stops and a little research we realized we were a few weeks early in the season. Continuing down HWY 1, we took in the most scenic and breathtaking views of the ocean on the left and Hearst Castle zebras on the right. The Hearst park and winery were beckoning and the dogs needed to get out for a walk. We sat outside on a warm sunny fall afternoon drinking a glass of red wine when we spotted thousands of monarch butterflies. One actually flew in front of my face but I welcomed it with a smile. My Mom always said after she was gone, to let us know she was okay she'd give us a sign of a butterfly. At her funeral we released dozens of monarchs and now the day after her birthday, I took these beautiful winged multi-colored creatures as a sign.
We ran the dogs along the beach with no one in sight until we came across an interesting man in his thirties with a metal detector. We asked if he found anything which sparked a good forty-five minute conversation about treasure hunting. He introduced himself as Ty and said he works on shipwreck sites (e.g. The Beeswax and Wallula) sunk off the coast of Oregon and Washington state. This well educated professional treasure hunter went on to tell us of a find with his metal detector which was a revolutionary coin worth $9,000. He fascinated Perry and I with his many stories of his "ancient" finds and worldwide excavations. We referred to him as a professional treasure hunter but yet with his many stories reminded me of a modern day Indiana Jones. The tide quickly moved in so we said our "goodbyes" and moved on.

The beautiful rolling green hills and fine wineries beckoned us for the next couple of days before the kids arrived. David was to surprise Taylor for her birthday by bringing her to Paso Robles not knowing we'd be there. In the meantime, we visited four small wineries (where dogs were allowed) and agreed this beautiful countryside is a place we could picture ourselves living for a year or two while figuring out our place of permanent residence. Perry has a knack for picking great wines and Paso has just that! David surprised Taylor at Opolo Winery where Perry and I were and not much later, Kaylyn had driven to Paso. Ahhh.....life is good! Almost my entire family (Brandon still in college) , beautiful countryside and fabulous wines! The next day, we took advantage of Rover.com and brought the dogs to a sitter for the day. Off we went back to Cambria, San Simeon and the cute town of Harmony (pop.16)a finale was sunset at Daou a mountain top winery Our fun time at Paso was coming to a close and hating to see the kids leave, we knew we'd be seeing them the following week as we worked our way to southern California (NAS Point Mugu) for Thanksgiving.

Perry being retired Navy allows us to stay on all military bases which I like because they're well kept and safe. Our next stay was at a National Guard Base in San Luis Obispo where the only sign of any sort of activity were the new recruits singing as they ran in unison. The beauty of Paso Robles was amazing and I didn't think our next stay could measure up. I was wrong because the Pacific Ocean, especially Morro Bay were breathtaking (I mean this literally). It was so cold and windy, a nice cup of hot clam chowder were beckoning. Earlier, we were walking the dogs near the ocean and struck up a conversation with a nice gal who was also walking her dog. She mentioned a beach a mile down the road where you could take dogs off their leashes. Gracie and Daisy were so happy to run freely and we always hope this will tire them out so we can leave them for an hour or two at night with hopes of a little "dog parental freedom"! We love our dogs but to them, the four of us are all a pack and they're not happy unless we're all together. Before long, there was a young family on the beach with two Great Danes off their leashes and because of their intimidating size, Perry decided to put Gracie on her leash. She doesn't tolerate other dogs as well as Daisy. One of the dogs became aggressive with her and picked her up in his mouth off the ground, shaking her vigorously by her back hips. I was nearly in tears and eventually the owner was able to free her. Thankfully she was okay, just a little sore. After our soup, we walked past a bakery that advertised "fresh baked dog cookies". They deserved a little love and care and a nice baked biscuit after Gracie's ordeal!
San Luis Obispo has their own share of fine wineries and one of them is Edna Valley (our fifth-wheels namesake and one of our favorite chardonnays). The day before we were to drive to Ventura County for Thanksgiving, we visited Edna Valley(and a few others) and enjoyed a glass of their chardonnay.

Perry retired from NAS Point Mugu in 2003 but Ventura County is where we continued to raise our kids. There are so many memories here and so happy to be back in our own neighborhood, ready to see our kids and friends A little over a month into our adventures (so many to date), we are finally getting faster at the hitching, take down process. Perry's true skills were tested when we were assigned our spot on base near the ocean. Space number 124 was "a stones throw" from the ocean but it proved a little tricky to back into because there wasn't room to maneuver. Thankfully, a kind neighbor helped direct us in ......let the fun begin here at Pt. Mugu!
There were many walks on the beach,. A large group not far from us gathered for the Thanksgiving holiday and sang every night around campfires. David and Taylor were anxious to have us at their place in Woodland Hills and to see their new patio set, and of course Perry and I wanted to visit Kaylyn and her new young horse "Bandit". Brandon flew in for Thanksgiving the Friday before and finally we were all together spending family time together.
On one of our many walks along the beach, we came across a memorial for Alaska Air Flight 261 that crashed (nearest point was the location at Pt. Mugu) in 2000 where 88 people lost their lives. There was an estuary close by where daily we spotted over a hundred sea lions, cranes, egrets, pelicans and herons. Not a bad thing to wake up to each day not to mention the beautiful sunsets each night!

Thanksgiving

We rented a room in the hotel on base so the kids could stay nearby for Thanksgiving. I was excited to prepare dinner for my family and this was going to be a true "cook" test in the fifth wheel oven. I love shopping at the base commissary because the selection and the prices are great. Here you don't pay for grocery bags like other grocery stores in California. I found my turkey and its brining bag which read "made for the U.S military by NASA". I was excited knowing I was using an official thick, fool-proof bag for my small 13 pound stuffed turkey. Here we go, the turkey was stuffed and into the NASA bag it went! My timing seemed to be okay considering I had all the other sides to prepare while the turkey cooked. In it went at 350` on an unstable aluminum pan that BARELY fit into the tiny oven but I was excited to think I was cooking an entire Thanksgiving meal for my family in this tiny kitchen. In years gone by, we would have a traditional dinner at a lovely decorated table but this year but it would be at a picnic table! Our view of the ocean and knowing we were all together made it all worthwhile. After an hour of the turkey being in the oven, I figured I'd better check it and boy I'm glad I did! The plastic bag had melted to the sides of the oven and looked like shrink wrap against the 13lb. bird. I panicked and quickly (not that quickly) tried to remove it from the oven but the flimsy aluminum pan wasn't cooperating. It took three of us to carefully remove the bird and painstakingly remove the plastic. Thankfully all plastic was removed but had I not checked it when I did, it would have been a vegetarian Thanksgiving. It took me over a week to clean the oven! In the future, I know now not to confuse a brining bag with a cooking bag! David brought pies and the rest of the food was delicious and we were ALL together. Friends joined us later that night for desert around the campfire.

What I will miss about Point Mugu-

Each day on base at 8:00am we were awakened by reveille and a blasted version of "The Star Spangled Banner" and throughout the day various jets including E2C Hawkeyes flying overhead practicing their touch and gos. Kaylyn and I walked the dogs one afternoon and spotted something in the ocean. It turns out there were several sea lions with their heads popping out looking at us (it appeared that way) that reminded me of periscopes. We also enjoyed pods of dolphins putting on a show for us almost daily.
When we first arrived on base, I was informed by the security guard at the entrance that my military ID had expired and to "get it renewed immediately". I referred to my new "friend" as "ol cranky pants". Each time we passed through the entrance he had such a mean, stern face but a couple times we were able to make him smile.....my personal challenge! To drive off base at Point Mugu and go anywhere took you along miles of farmland. Such a peaceful drive, although the air was not always pleasant due to the fertilizer.
We visited the Huntington Library in Pasadena and got to see paintings by Renoir and Van Gogh and original paintings of Blue Boy and Pinky. The original Gutenberg Bible was on display as well. I highly recommend visiting this beautiful place. I couldn't resist showing a picture of Perry at the museum with his arm carefully surrounding a Madagascar palm.

(side-note)-In 1994 Perry purchased a three inch Madagascar palm at K-Mart and over the years watched it grow taller than he is but he had to donate it to Apricot Lane Farms after we moved. I'm sure he misses his little gem!

This completed our trip before heading to San Diego for Christmas.