Palm Springs

We are in the Palm Springs Thousand Trails campground. It is actually in Palm Desert, but they call it Palm Springs because it sounds better then saying Palm Desert. It has cooled off this week and has only gotten to about 101, but next week it is supposed to be back to about 108. The pool is not heated yet, but is about 85-86 degrees and is perfect!

This mornig Scott and Terri Blankenbiller are arriving and staying for a week. Because of that we have not done much yet. We arrived on Tuesday and have just done some shopping and of course gone in the pool. We did go to the Palm Springs VillageFest on Thursday evening. That is about a 3 block farmers market/swap meet. We didn't buy anything but did have diner at a dive Chinese restaurant called China King that had good Yelp reviews. It was actually really good.

In the middle of the VillageFest is a park with a huge Marilyn statue. It looked pretty cool at dusk. You can see how big the statue is by comparing the people standing underneath her!

Marilyn Monroe

We'll write more this coming week as we do more. We expect to go to the Air Museum and will probably go up the tramway.

More later,

Love you all,

Brian and Patty

Friday Endeavour Pictures

This morning the Space Shuttle Endeavour left Edwards and circled Mojave, Rosamond, Lancaster, and Palmdale where it was built. We drove near the Boeing plant where we had heard it may do a fly over.

Cars parked along the road waiting for the flyover

After waiting about 15 minutes we could see the shuttle in the distance. It first flew towards us and then banked to our left.

Flying at about 1500 feet

It seemed to be flying over the 14 freeway.

Getting closer

The shuttle kept getting closer, and then circled around us.

We could hear the 747 as it passed us

As it banked again it started heading south.

Heading south

It starting getting further away and then banked back towards us. It began heading directly towards the Boeing building and dropped from 1500 feet to maybe 300 feet and did a very low pass directly over Boeing.

Flying low over Boeing

After passing Boeing it started gaining elevation to head north towards Sacramento.

Gaining elevation

In this picture you can see how low the shuttle is compared to the houses in the picture above.

Low altitude fly over

This was really a thrill and we feel blessed to have been here to witness this historic event. They say this will be the last flight of any Space Shuttle and we were here to see it! Awesome.

We sent some of our pictures to KTLA and I'm not sure if they showed them on TV, but they are on their web site. Pretty cool!!!

God Bless you all!

Love you, 

Brian and Patty

Space Shuttle Endeaveour

Today the Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at Edwards Air Force Base. Since Edwards is not very far from where we are camped at in Acton we decided to try and get a look at it.

We drove to the gate at Edwards AFB. There are planes outside the gates at Edwards, sort of like at Point Mugu. There are signs describing the planes, which is clearly meant for the general public.

Jets outside the base gates.

I really like this picture that Patty took, kinda artsy! You can see the sign that describes the plane.

Great picture!

There were probably several hundred people waiting for the shuttle to appear. About 15 minutes before the expected landing time, an MP showed up and declared that we were all trespassing on base property and needed to leave!

The poor guy was trying to disperse 200 people and children who were there just to see a piece of history. I nicely asked him, "wasn't this the general public viewing area"? We were outside the base gates. The road was a California road, not a military road. He said we needed to move 14 miles down the road. That would have put us on the other side of highway 14! The poor guy was just doing his job, but he didn't have the law on his side, nor was anyone paying attention! :)  To be fair, it didn't seem like he wanted to be doing it, and he didn't overreact!

We just moved away from him and waited for the shuttle to arrive. 

Here it comes!!!

Coming right at us!

It was cool how it was piggy backed on the 747! It started to bank and made a big circle.

Starting to bank

It made a big circle and then started to land. If you look closely you can see the white chase plane. There were also some f18 in front of it.

Continuing the circle before landing.

From our vantage point you could not see the actual landing. This is the last we could see before it dipped below the small hills.

Shuttle Endeavour

This was really cool. Tomorrow at 7:30 it is taking off again and flying over the Palmdale and Lancaster before flying up to San Francisco and Sacramento. It will then fly back down to LAX. It is scheduled to fly at only 1500 feet. We plan to drive in to Palmdale to watch it again.

That's it for today,

God Bless you all!

Brian and Patty

Tehachapi Loop

One of the seven railroad wonders of the world is the Tehachapi Loop. It is a .73 mile long spiral or helix through the Tehachapi Pass that was finished in 1876. It is still used today with about 36 trains running the loop daily. If a train is at least 4000 feet long which is about 85 boxcars it passes over itself at the tunnel. The picture below we copied from the internet to get an aerial shot, but the rest I took on my Android phone camera. We realized half way to the loop that we had forgotten the regular camera.

Tehachapi Loop

This sign marks the best lookout point for the loop.

Loop Sign

We waited about 1/2 an hour not knowing when or if a train would be coming through soon. Several other people starting showing up. Then we heard the train coming up the mountain! You can't see it because the tunnel is hidden in the left of the picture but the train is crossing itself!

Train in the Loop

The train is starting to loop itself here. It was a long train! If you click on the picture it will blow it up bigger for you.

Looping Train

The train is now pulling out of the helix and continuing up the mountain.

Loop

After the loop we continued down the hill and went into old town Tahachapi to the old train station. The same train was just arriving in town.

Train Station

The loop was really cool and we were glad a long train came through while we were there. Terri, make sure Scott gets up here to see this!!

Love you all!

Brian and Patty

Just checking in

Just a few words to let you all know that we are still here!
The scooter had been running hot, or so I thought since the day we bought it. It is particularly bad idling, or stop and go riding on hot days, or riding up steep hills. It would teeter in the red on the gaugue and on hot day's nail itself against the hot all the way.  I did notice the fan did not turn on until it pegged all the way, which bothered me. The scooter is liquid cooled and we weren't loosing any anti-freeze.
There is a scooter/radiator shop in Lancaster which I thought would be a perfect fit to look at it.
They had a $50.00 diagnostic charge that if I had them fix it would go towards it.
Two days later, on Friday they called. Turns out the needle on the gaugue was loose and out of adjustment. The scooter never did actually run hot.
The diagnostic fee covered their work completely so we got off cheap! Thank you Jesus! Rode back in 100+° heat up the 14 and the gaugue never read past half.
Saturday Patty went to Jessica (Will Meade's girlfriend)  baby shower. We spent the night at James and Crystal's and then went to church with Matthew and Uncle Milo. Milo really liked our church and is coming back next week when Matt is playing worship.
While I was at mom's house Saturday showing her pictures from our trip I was looking at her driveway. Talking to her about my concerns about the electricity at the garage she told me her ex-husband wired it. There is NO way I am hooking up my expensive home to that! Even properly wired would have worried me. We have found a mobile home park in Santa Paula that also has RV parking for a reasonable rate with 50 amp power and full hook ups that we checked out today. Turns out Patty knows them from when she was on the radio during United Blood Services days. Stick Boys parents own it.
Tomorrow we will call Stick Mom and try and reserve October, November, and December.
That's it for tonight,
Love you all,
Brian and Patty

37 Years and counting!

Today is our anniversary! 37 years ago today my beautiful bride said "I Do", and the rest is history! Here we are 12 years ago on our 25th anniversary on a trip to Maui, Hawaii.

September 2012

God has truly blessed this marriage. God has given us two beautiful and awesome children. Crystal being born in 1982 and Matthew in 1990.

This picture was taken in 2003. Crystal was in college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, so we took our trailer and all the presents up there and stayed at the El Churro campground. We had a great Christmas. We went to a candlelight service at a Baptist church and then went to a candy cane lane in Napomo. We then went back to the trailer for diner and presents. We finished after midnight!

Christmas 2003

Now the kids are all grown up. Matthew is finishing college and working at the church. He has a wonderful girlfriend Jasmine. Crystal is married to James and is expecting in late October our first Granddaughter Grace.

Grace's foot!

Today is a movie and tonight we are going to diner. We are living our dream now. We miss our family but realize we will keep seeing them as we make our way back home often!

One last thing. Yesterday we lost a good friend Pam Meade. She passed away in her sleep. She was too young and we grieve for her husband Mike and their children as well of all the rest of her family. You will be missed Pam!

God Bless all of you,

Brian and Patty 

Back home

We are staying in Acton,Ca at the Thousand Trails Soledad campground. We are here for three weeks while we take care of doctor visits and family visits in Ventura. Thursday was our daughter Crystal 30th birthday. We took her and James to diner at Ferraros Italian restaurant. Today family and friends are gathering together to celebrate.
We will spend the night here and go to church tomorrow at our home church New Life Community Church. We will also spend Sunday night here because I have a doctors appointment Monday morning. We will then head back to Acton.
More later,
Love you all,
Brian and Patty

Al the Wops

Today we did a loop we found on the internet called the Rio Vista Loop. We drive across the Rio Vista bridge and headed to the Ryer Island Ferry. First I want to show you a picture of the Rio Vista Bridge. As many of the bridges around here are, this is a drawbridge.

Rio Vista

Do you remember Humphrey the Humpback whale? Back in 1985 this wayward whale got lost in the Delta here in Rio Vista. There is a plaque here remembering Humphrey.

We continued on to the "Real McCoy" ferry across the Cache Slough to Ryer Island. This is a FREE ferry that uses twin diesel engines to go back and forth across the slough. CalTrans also reports this to be the oldest working equipment they have in California.

Real McCoy Ferry

We continued down the road and saw many types of agriculture. Before the levees were created this was all underwater. Along Steamboat Slough is Snug Harbor Marina and RV park where we stayed the first time we came here with the Jet Ski's. We stopped by to see it. They have added a lot of cabins and removed camping spots on the waterfront.

We came to the also FREE J-Mac ferry that crosses Steamboat Slough. This is a cable ferry. A pully system pulls the ferry back and forth. When the red lights flash it is not wise for boats to cross because the cable is pulled tight at the water line and can ruin props!

J-Mac ferry

We passed by the 58 room Grand Island Mansion which you can rent out for special events. They also serve Sunday Brunch. I suppose it is spendy!

Grand Island Mansion

We traveled through Courtland which is advertised as the pear capital of the universe. I can say that there are pear trees as far as the eye can see! We also had to cross three bascule type drawbridges. These bridges have huge counterweights that lift the bridge up.

As we were driving on the levee we came across a self pay fruit-stand. For $2.00 you would pick out a tray of tomato's or pears or asian pears, or bell peppers or apples. There was a safe bolted down with a slot in the top to drop the money. A sign asked you not to mix the fruit to keep the price low. 

We picked up a tray of maybe 2 lbs. of grape tomatoes and a tray of maybe 6 asian (apple) pears for $2.00 each tray. At the store  each pear would have been $1.00! What a deal!

We then got to the old Chinese work town of Locke. Despite what Patty may tell you I did not ride Dragon Puff Jr. in!

Dragon Puff Jr.

This is the whole town. The whole town looks like it is falling down. The walls are all leaning and the floors inside the buildings are crooked.

One horse town

Patty is trying to hold this building up.

Don't let it fall!

This is the street sign. English and Chinese.

Bi-lingual sign

If you go to Locke you need to eat at Al the Wops. In 2007 we ate here with Scott, Terri, Krista and our Matt!

Al the Wops

The tour had us go through Isleton. We found the laundrymat that we used with the Blankenbillers last time we were here. Speaking of Scott and Terri, We stayed at Vierra's RV and Marina last time we were here. Not far past Isleton there was Vierra's on the right. We turned in and found our campsites. I'm not so sure I would fit in with my new rig. There was a 5th wheel that was taking up two sites in at an angle right next to our sites from 2007.

Speaking of campsites. Our campground is now filled up. When we got back there were people on both sides of us. The sites are pretty wide so they are not on top of us.

And with tonight being the last blue moon until July 2015 I wanted to say good night and God Bless!

Delta Blue Moon

See you in a few days!

Brian and Patty