With family for the holidays!

We drove back to Ventura on Wednesday and left the rig in Las Vegas at the Thousand Trails. You are supposed to ask the manager for permission before you leave your rig overnight because they don't want the park to be a free storage yard. Many people do not, I chose to follow the rules and Randy was very accommodating and said they would keep an eye on my 5th wheel for me!

Wednesday is supposed to be the busiest travel day of the year so we left at 6 am. We just stopped for a restroom break in Barstow because my truck as plenty of fuel to get the 320 miles on one tank. We arrived at Crystal and James' house at 11:15 am which really is good time! They are awesome and allow us to stay there when we are in town.

On Thursday Patty, Cynthia and Crystal were doing the cooking. Patty got up at 5:00 and had the turkey in the oven (upside down) by 6:00.

I picked up my mom at about noon. My dad drove down from Ojai but Claire was not feeling well and did not come with him.

Matt came early and Jasmine came in her own car so she could take off early and go to her own family. Milo and his girlfriend Jane also came. It was a great day with family!

Thanksgiving day at the Hills house

After I got back with my mom I turned the turkey right side up. Having the breast down for most of the cooking time drains the juice from the dark meat into the dryer white meat. At least that's the theory. All I know is that we have been doing that for the last three years and the turkeys have been so much better since we have done it!

On Monday we headed back to Vegas. Crystal and Gracie rode back to Vegas with us. Our son-in-law James took Friday off of work and will be driving to Vegas tomorrow morning and staying until Monday taking his family back with him.

On Tuesday we went to the Bellagio to see their atrium display. It was being worked on and will not be ready until Friday. We will go back.

Bellagio

Several years ago before Crystal was married I took her on a daughter//father trip to Las Vegas. One of  the regrets with the trip is that I did not buy her something that I did my my son Matthew on our trip to Vegas.

A Deep fried Twinkie!!

We went to the Freement Experience Tuesday night and that is where you can buy the scrumptious experience! Now that Twinkies are back in business redemption was mine!  :)

Deep Fried Twinkie

For you that have never indulged in one, they taste like a funnel cake on steroids. They are really good, but you need to share it because it is soooooo rich tasting! She gave a taste of the powdered sugar to Grace.

On the way back from Freemont Street we stopped by the Sams Town Casino. They have a free show called Mystic Falls every two hours. They use lasers and water and steam and music and animated animals. During Christmas time they change to show to Christmas music and even have bubbles come down like snow.

Sams Town Mystic Falls

On Wednesday night we went to the Ethel M Candy factory. They have a 3 acre cactus garden that is free to the public to tour. At Christmas time they decorate the whole thing with lights!

Ethel M Cactus Garden

Here are three beautiful generations of women! Grandma, granddaughter, and daughter!

3 Generation girls

Santa won't be here until Friday so I had to sit in!

Santa Grandpa

Crystal wanted to take this picture because the RV in the background!

Gracie, Grandpa and Grandma

If it looks like we are bundled up, it's because it's about 38 degrees out. Today it never got above 42. We are really having a cold spell right now! It's lovely having weather!

Tonight we are going to Opportunity Village which is Penn Jillette's charity. On Saturday night after James gets here we will go to the Las Vegas Speedway. You drive the speedway which is decorated with Christmas lights!

That's it for now,

Love you all,

God Bless,

Brian and Patty

Nevada National Test Site Tour

It has been more then a month since I have posted. I really haven't had time or good internet to be able to be able to post. Although I can use my phone to tether from, I have been using a lot of data so I don't want to use it on the blog. It takes more to upload the pictures.

To catch up what we have been doing is that after we left Palm Springs we went to Acton for 2 weeks. We realized with Gracie's first birthday coming up we would be driving into Ventura every day so we decided to come back to Santa Paula for birthday week.

Birthday Girl

After we left Santa Paula we went back to Palm Springs for a week. We then went to Earp, CA which is across the Colorado River from Parker, Az. The picture is from the Arizona side looking across at our RV Park. It is called Emerald Cove RV Resort.

Emerald Cove RV

The funny thing about it is that although it is in California, the entire Parker strip as they call it use Arizona time, even on the California side. Legally it was one hour earlier, but all the businesses use the later time.

We stayed a week here and really enjoyed it. One night three wild burros came into camp. Here one of them is in front of our rig.

Wild Burro's

We are now in Las Vegas. We are here for three weeks but will be coming home for Thanksgiving. 

On Wednesday we did the Nevada National Test Site tour. It is an all day free monthly tour that you need to book 5 to 6 months in advance.

You are loaded into a nice motorcoach at the Atomic Museum in Vegas. They take you to the test site about 70 miles outside of Vegas. You are assigned badges and they are checked at the security check. A soldier comes on the bus and actually touches and checks the front and back of each and every badge. No cameras or phones or computers or even binoculars are allowed on the tour so from now on all pictures are photos I found on the internet but do properly describe what we saw!

Security Check

Obviously I won't show or describe the whole tour as it was from 8:00-4:00 and about 250 miles, but the highlights were as follows.

The Aluminum Domes were setup to see if they could stand up to the atomic blast. Not only did they crumble but when you looked into the whole they were actually melted. 6" thick cement also did not hold up, but 2' thick did.

Aluminum Domes

This train trestle is warped and mangled. This was from a bomb dropped from a plane about 1600 feet away.

Train Trestle

The bank vault held up. The contents were fine although it was said the contents were warm inside.

Bank Vault

We went by a low level waste dump. I was surprised that it was not buried deeper then it was. They put the waste in train containers and then put them in pits maybe 20 feet deep.

The bus drove down into a fairly shallow crater.  The Bilby crater is about 80 feet deep. This one is created by an underground explosion.

Bilby Crater

The Apple II House is one of the houses you saw in the old newsreel films with the mannequins in them. Because of all the reinforcing in the house it actually held up during the blasts.

Apple II House

The Sedan Crater is the worlds largest man made crater at 320 feet deep and 1280 feet across. A 104 kilaton bomb displaced 6.5 million cubic yards of dirt. This was a test to consider using nuclear for clearing large areas of dirt and rocks. The project was called ploughshare.

Sedan Crater

That's it for today. We will try not to make it so long next time!

God Bless,

Brian and Patty