Category Archives: California

OK… time for an update 🙂 I’ve been getting lazy on the updates and need to catch you up since we’re now back in Phoenix again. Where does the time go? Here’s what we’ve been up to…

As mentioned in my last posting, we stayed at the Newport Dunes Resort & Marina in Newport Beach, CA a few more days after the Alpine Coach Rally was officially over on Monday the 25th. We ended up staying there until Friday the 29th.

On the last official rally day (Monday), while most of our rally friends headed out of the park… we decided to visit Disneyland’s California Adventure Park® (DCA). DCA is the newest Disney park located right next to the original Disneyland®. We also visited Disneyland® a couple days later on Wednesday but I’ll save all the Disney pictures for the end of today’s blog.

When we got back from DCA late in the evening on Monday we found (as expected) that about half of our Alpine friends had left the park 🙁 On Tuesday, we spent the day hanging around at the RV park and packed our stuff away in preparation for moving. We deflated and cleaned the inflatable raft, loaded the Harley onto the back of the Silverado, cleaned and put away all our chairs, mats, etc.,

Kaan and I washed and deflated the Sea Eagle raft for storage.

Kaan playing on the beach at the RV Resort & Marina beach.

There were still 8 to 10 Alpines (out of 20) in our row with most of the remaining folks planning to leave on Wednesday, so we still got the chance to mingle throughout the day on Tuesday.

Alpiner’s enjoy discussions in the street 🙂

We said goodbye to a couple folks that left on Tuesday.

Alpiners’ waving goodbye to one of our SoCal members as they left the rally on Tuesday.

And then the remaining Alpiners’ had an impromptu evening get-together at Frank Krauland’s Coach. Frank fired up his grill and barbecued some awesome chicken while other’s pitched in with a few side dishes. Thanks for the food and ambiance Frank!

Our last get-together at Newport Dunes RV Resort & Marina.

It was another fun and successful Alpine SoCal rally… can’t wait for the next one! We said our ‘see-ya-laters’ to the remaining Alpine SoCal members before we went to bed because we planned another trip to the Disney parks on Wednesday and wanted to get an early start. This time we visited the original Disneyland®.

Now here’s some pictures of our visit(s) to the Disney theme parks from both of our trips. Some of my Facebook™ friends may have seen a few of these pics already when I posted online. The first ones’ (below) are from Disneyland’s California Adventure® park (DCA) that we went to on Monday:

Radiator Springs Racers at Disney’s California Adventure (DCA).

Kaan watches the Radiator Springs Racers whiz by on the track.

The whole town of Radiator Springs from the Disney movie ‘Cars’ is here.

We watched as “Mater” drove around town and joined “Lightning McQueen” on the main street of Radiator Springs.

Kaan really liked Radiator Springs. Secretly, so did I 🙂

Long lines were the norm…

Radiator Springs Racers at Disney’s California Adventure (DCA). This was a fun ride, but had the longest line… we only got to go on it once.

Riding the Radiator Springs Racer around the banked track.

One of the first rides we went on at DCA was the California Screamin’ roller coaster. It was the first time Kaan had been on a roller coaster. After the first ride, his initial shock and fear wore off and he couldn’t wait to get back on. We (Jenny, Kaan & I) rode the roller coaster a total of four times throughout the day. Stilla (as usual) waited out the scarier rides.

Jenny, Kaan, & I on the California Screamin’ roller coaster.

On Wednesday, (after taking a break on Tuesday as I mentioned earlier), we got an early start and went to the original Disneyland® theme park (pics below):

This looked like a cool ride, but it was closed for renovations. There were a large number of rides closed the day(s) we visited 🙁

On the submarine ride with Kaan and Jenny.

Getting ready to go on one of the rides.

Stilla went on the Buzz Lightyear ride with me… Woo Hoo!

Kaan, Stilla, and Jenny. Hyperspace Mountain in the background. That was a fun ride… kind of like a roller coaster in the dark. The ride “Star Tours” was the coolest 🙂

Almost all the water rides were closed for some reason 🙁 There were no boat rides at “Rivers of America”. No “Jungle Cruise”, etc., Even “Autopia” was closed along with the “Disneyland Railroad” and “Matterhorn Bobsleds”.

The Mark Twain Riverboat. Walk-on only, no rides 🙁

Kaan got pretty wet riding in front at Splash Mountain. It was worth it he said 🙂

The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was a blast.

The Indiana Jones ride was one of our favorites, we got to ride twice and the second time Kaan got to drive.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures from our Disneyland theme park visit(s). Remember, this blog is primarily intended for friends & family and doubles as our photo album to look back on in future years. So if you think there’s too many pictures… you’re just going to have to deal with it 🙂

On Thursday, since we already packed most of our stuff for the trip back to Phoenix, we just relaxed for the day and hit the local island here in Newport Beach (Balboa Island) and then spent some time on Huntington Beach.

We had a nice lunch on Balboa Island and then walked around to do some sightseeing. Stilla and Kaan spotted some seals or maybe they were dolphins(?). Too far away to tell for sure.

Interesting boat theme on Balboa Island.

We didn’t have to take the little ferry onto Balboa Island… but we did anyway just for the fun of it. There’s also a road that connects the island to the mainland.

The Silverado taking the Harley for a ride on the ferry.

We had mere inches between the three vehicles that the ferry can hold at one time.

We walked one of the piers along Newport Beach.

And then we drove up to Huntington Beach where the parking fee was metered by the hour and was a little more reasonable than the $15 dollar fee they want at most of the other nearby state park beaches.

Kaan and I had a good time playing on the beach and in the water. Stilla and Jenny just got some sun.

My sand castle got washed away 🙁 Kaan was smarter and built his farther up the beach 🙂

On Friday morning, we left the park by noon. After braving the LA traffic which rolled along at a snails pace at times, we finally rolled into Quartzsite to look for a free boondocking site for the night.

We found a nice spot just off the highway (I-10) called Dome Rock Rd. It’s on the west-side of Quartzsite, only a few miles from town.

We unhooked the Silverado and drove into town for dinner. We went to Silly Al’s (←link) for some awesome pizza and had enough to take home some leftovers. After dinner, we found a souvenir shop that was still open and did some browsing. Here’s Kaan (below) posing in front of the World’s (reportedly) largest belt buckle.

On Saturday, we made good time with light traffic and arrived back at the Triple T RV & Mobile Home Park by early afternoon, which is where we’re now parked again. Hopefully, not for too long.. it’s starting to get too hot here in Phoenix. We got the same spot we had before we left for CA and Jenny’s travel trailer is still parked just behind us. I’ll post again soon. Stay tuned…

California

Day 3 – Newport Dunes Alpine SoCal Rally (Newport Beach, CA)

2016/04/24 davidhobden@mac.com

Welcome back to another great day at the Alpine SoCal Rally! Today is Sunday the 24th (see agenda below) – our last official rally day here at the Alpine SoCal Rally at Newport Dunes RV Resort & Marina. Some of the rally attendees are moving on tomorrow (Monday), however, I expect many to stay on for another couple days, as are we. We’re paid up until the 28th when we’ll head on back to Phoenix.

Once again, today was basically a free day with no scheduled activities until our 5 PM “Social Hour” followed by a “catered Mexican Dinner” at 6. But first, our rally hosts put on another stupendous breakfast spread to start the day. Then some of our resident “comedians” had a little fun at Bill & Patti Figge’s expense. While Bill and Patti were away from the park on some personal business, some of our members (whose names shall remain anonymous) used the opportunity to play a little joke on them (see picture below).

The “jokesters” put a for sale sign in the windshield of their Coach and liberally applied some blue masking tape pieces all over the front. Bill intends to have his Coach painted soon and he already had a couple of the blue tape pieces stuck on his coach in order to mark areas that he intends to get touched up prior to painting. Therefore, the “jokesters” just took the tape pieces to a whole new level 🙂

There were even some “offers” in response to the for sale signs that some of our members left pasted on their door…

A couple of our members were aware of Bill & Patti’s return time, so many of us hung around to watch them arrive back at the park.

Bill & Patti arrive to see their newly-decorated Alpine Coach.

Bill & Patti surveyed the “handiwork” with good humor. Their good ‘sports’ and I think they enjoyed the friendly prank. Everyone got a good laugh.

After the morning comedy session, we piled into the Silverado for a drive to Long Beach. We thought we’d check out either the USS Iowa or the Queen Mary for a tour. When we arrived in Long Beach after driving up Highway 1, we found out that we only had time to do one or the other. So we opted to take the Queen Mary tour. We purchased the First-Class Passport tickets which includes:

• A ticket to board The Queen Mary
• 4-D Theater screening – The ship’s newest attraction is a 121-seat theater offering a 3-D viewing experience with 4-D effects such as wind and scents.
• Audio Tour – Tour (1.5-2 hours) the Queen Mary at your own pace with our comprehensive Audio Tour. Learn the history of the Queen Mary while strolling the decks with our exclusive Queen Mary headset.
• Access to the new “Alcatraz: Life on the Rock” and “Alcatraz: The Last Day” exhibits.
• Access to the Ship Model Gallery
• Access to the Queen Mary Story, Museum & Historic Exhibits and two guided tours.

Our two guided tours consisted of The Glory Days Historical Tour (←link) and Haunted Encounters (←link).

Kaan, Jenny, and Stilla in front of the Queen Mary.

Some of you folks that follow the blog may remember that Stilla and I visited here in March 2015 while attending the Pomona FMCA rally but didn’t take a tour because we had our dog with us. Click (here) for a link to that posting if interested.

Russian submarine “Scorpion” on display next to the Queen Mary. The submarine was closed for maintenance.

Model of the Queen Mary made out of Legos®.

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour(s) and would recommend it to others. Although a bit pricey. Here’s a few pics:

Inside the forward most section (bow) of the ship that we viewed during the Ghost Encounters portion of the tour.

Picture of a picture depicting the “Ghostly” swimming pool in its hey day.

Hope you enjoyed the tour pictures 🙂 Don’t forget to click the links to learn more about the Queen Mary.

A live concert was being held in the parking area next to the ship while we took our tour which made it difficult at times to hear the tour guide. One tour guide told us that the bands consisted of “has-beens” and “one-hit wonders” from the ’90s. We made the best of it and still enjoyed the tour(s).

We finished our two guided tour(s) just after 4 PM and I was worried we’d be late getting back to the RV Park in time for dinner. But we made good time by taking an alternate freeway route back to Newport Beach and we even made it back in time for “Happy Hour”.

Bill was pouring some of his “famous” margaritas that I’ve posted about before.

After some fine margaritas, everyone walked over to the RV Park Community Room where our rally hosts had set up our catered Mexican Dinner.

Once again, everyone had a great meal with great company. We also held our general membership meeting after dessert.

Another successful Alpine SoCal rally thanks to our wagon masters! Another A+ rally experience 🙂 Thanks from all of us!

(L to R) Mike & Donna Hambarian; Marcy & Greg Vaughan.

On Monday (the 25th) we plan on visiting Disneyland. Hopefully, we still have a large number of our Alpine friends still at the park when we return because (as I mentioned before) this is really just a weekend rally but many Alpiners reserved more time here… but not everyone. Stay tuned…

California

Day 2 – Newport Dunes Alpine SoCal Rally (Newport Beach, CA)

2016/04/24 davidhobden@mac.com

Welcome to Day 2 of our Alpine SoCal Rally! Today was Saturday the 23rd (see agenda flyer below).

Our rally attendees gathered for breakfast at the designated site between the wagonmasters’ Coaches. Our hosts and co-hosts, the Vaughn’s and the Hambarian’s had a superb breakfast spread prepared.

Mike and Greg toasted bagels.

We had yogurts…

… and plenty of fruits as well.

As you can see from the agenda at the beginning of this post, everyone is free to do activities on their own for the day. The only planned activities are a Social Hour at 5 PM and a Potluck dinner at 6 PM.

I’m pretty sure everyone found something to keep themselves occupied with for the day… the towns’ official website (www.visitnewportbeach.com) lists a plethora of activities for the area and says the following: “Newport Beach, California is a coastal fantasyland where leisure and style come together in ten distinct neighborhoods, each with its own unique charm — Airport District, Balboa Island and surrounding seven islands, Balboa Peninsula, Balboa Village, Cannery Village, Corona del Mar, Fashion Island, Mariner’s Mile/Westcliff, Newport Coast/Crystal Cove, and the Back Bay. Visitors can enjoy unlimited things to do in Newport Beach. Enjoy luxury shopping, spa treatments, championship golf, and sample a bit of the sophisticated and aspirational lifestyle found here.”

The website also goes on to say that; “Newport Beach is home to Newport Ensenada Yacht Race, Newport Beach Film Festival, Restaurant Week, Newport Beach Independence Day on the Bay, Hyatt Regency Summer Concert Series, and the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade. With the largest recreational harbor on the west coast, Newport Beach activities are abundant. Visitors can choose aquatic adventures from sunset cruises to stand-up paddle boarding. Art walks, wine tastings, tours, live entertainment and cultural venues will fill your itinerary. Create lasting memories on idyllic California beaches, breathtaking seaside cliffs, harbor-front promenades and leave with the desire to return.”

For a complete guide on outdoor activities view the PDF here or to view a full events calendar click here.

Several of our members (myself included) chose to visit the annual Woodie Club and Car Show at Doheny State Beach (←link) in Dana Point which was taking place today. Doheny Wood (←link) is one of the Premier Woodie Events of the year, presented by the largest Woodie organization in the world, Southern California Woodie Club. Doheny Wood is a wooden vehicle only event, presented every April at beautiful Doheny State Beach, Dana Point, California and is the only woodie event that is held on the sand of the emerald blue Pacific Ocean.

Fellow Alpine Owners’ Greg & Marcy Vaughan own a “Woodie” that they brought to the rally and they planned to attend the Doheny Wood event today. So I used the opportunity to follow them down the Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy 1) to the event on the Harley.

Greg & Marcy Vaughan traveling down the PCH in their 1940 Ford “Woody”.

Stilla, Jennifer and Kaan opted to get in some more “beach time” and took the Silverado for the day. I learned later that they visited Balboa Beach and Laguna Beach. Stilla reported that she even spotted some more whales 😉

Here’s Greg & Marcy (below) once they arrived at the event and parked their immaculate 1940 Ford Deluxe.

Greg & Marcy’s window tag for the car show.

Several of our other rally attendees also came down to the car show. We had a great time wandering around and admiring all the fine automobiles on display. I’ve been to plenty of car shows, but they were always general in nature and had all kinds of cars. This show was unique in that only “Woodies” were allowed. It was really neat to see so many in one spot at one time.

Enjoy some pictures from the car show:

(L to R) Frank Krauland, Mike Hambarian, and Greg Vaughan at the Doheny

Raffle prizes were doled out during the day. An event official announced winning numbers.

Lots of memorabilia and event t-shirts for sale.

Mike and Frank admiring one of the more “unique” cars on display.

Marcy & Greg did some comparisons of the competition.

(L to R) Mike, Frank, Marcy, Greg, and Donna.

The Doheny State Beach, next to the car show.

The Doheny State Beach pier, next to the car show.

Doheny State Beach, next to the car show.

After spending a couple hours at the cool car show, I rode the Harley down the coast (south) to Capistrano Beach and then San Clemente. I turned around at that point and returned to Dana Point where paused to take the pictures below.

’96 Harley-Davidson Softail Classic overlooking Dana Point Harbor.

It was really great to get out on the bike for the day… it’s been awhile 🙂 After taking a couple more pictures of Dana Point Harbor (below), I took the PCH (Hwy 1) back to the RV park and arrived with plenty of time to spare before “Happy Hour”.

Dana Point Harbor and the Ocean Institute (notice the sailing ships at the docks).

Back at the Newport Dunes RV Resort & Marina (see site map below), the Coaches are really packed in with limited space for tow-vehicles.

SiteMap-4-14_Lge — Our row of Alpines (inside the red oval).

Here’s a view of our Alpine Coaches (20) in a row with all our towed vehicles lining the street (below).

It’s getting pretty crowded in the small sites here. At our site, we still haven’t deflated the Sea Eagle raft from our outing on Friday. We might still take it out again.

Prior to “Happy Hour” at 5 PM, I gathered the Alpine SoCal Executive Board Members that are here in attendance at the rally in order to hold a quick “Board” meeting so we’re more prepared for the General Membership meeting we plan to conduct after tomorrow’s catered dinner. The meeting was quick and painless – a testament to the professional and highly-qualified members of our Alpine Coach SoCal group. And then it was dinnertime… time for another famous Alpine Potluck meal!

Everyone brought out their favorite dish to share and (as usual) we had way more than we could eat! Our rally host and co-host (Greg and Mike) helped serve some of the dishes as everyone filed through the line.

Loads and loads of good food once again…

… no one went home hungry 🙂

(L to R) Donna Hambarian, Marcy Vaughan, and Stilla.

Check back tomorrow to see what we all get into! Stay tuned for more rally fun in sunny CA…

California

Day 1 – Newport Dunes Alpine SoCal Rally (Newport Beach, CA)

2016/04/23 davidhobden@mac.com

Welcome to Day 1 of the most recent Alpine SoCal Rally! Here’s our weekend rally agenda (below) for your viewing pleasure:

As you can see from the agenda (above), today (Friday) is basically the official start day with many of the Alpine Coaches still arriving today. However, as mentioned in my last post, many folks arrived early and will depart later in the week in order to get the most out of their time here.

Our ‘wagonmasters’ prominently displayed our club banner at the official gathering site between our coaches.

Since today was basically a “free” day with no planned activities other than “Social Hour” at 5 PM followed by dinner at 6 PM – we decided to get the inflatable raft out on the water and see what the harbor looks like.

We unpacked the SeaEagle (SE9) “Fisherman’s Dream” from the back seat of the Silverado where it spends most of its time, and then rolled it out next to the Coach to assemble and inflate.

Before long, we were out on the water paddling and trolling with the electric motor through the inner harbor and channel that surrounds the RV park.

We took a quick break to explore one of the islands in the channel. Kaan got bored with it pretty quickly. We slowly circled the inner harbor and channel islands and then returned. We didn’t want to get too close to the ocean in our fully-loaded little raft, right?

Jenny and Kaan tried their hand at paddling while we gave the electric trolling motor a break… I think they need more practice 🙂

We passed lots of nice (and expensive looking) yachts and boats.

Kaan liked driving with the electric motor.

After a few hours on the water without incident, we got ready for “Social Hour” and dinner at our designated gathering site that our rally hosts did a superb job setting up and decorating.

There are now 20 Alpine Coaches in attendance and by 5 PM everyone gathered to socialize before dinner.

Before dinner, I performed my presidential duties and said a few words to welcome folks to the rally.

And then dinner was served. A great spread of chile with (or without) fritos, and then hotdogs, salad, and desserts.

Service with a smile 🙂 Look at all that good food!

Everyone enjoyed the good food and company. Many thanks to our hosts/co-hosts Greg & Marcy Vaughan/Mike & Donna Hambarian!

Mike even provided some personalized services and delivered cookies at the table. Wow… what service!

The crowd of ‘Alpiners’ thinned out soon after the sun went down and the chill in the air sent most folks back to their respective Coaches for the rest of the evening.

Check back tomorrow for more rally fun…

Arizona, California

Travel and Pre-Rally Activities (Newport Dunes Resort & Marina, Newport Beach, CA)

2016/04/22 davidhobden@mac.com

On Sunday (the 17th) we drove down to the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande to visit my mom, stepdad, brother Steve & Cheryl. We wanted to pick up our mail, check on little ‘Coach’ and say Hi to everyone there before we took off for the Alpine Coach Rally in CA.

We spent the day visiting and then we all went downtown for a nice dinner. Here’s a picture of ‘Coach’ (below).

Little Coach is doing just fine and likes life on the “dirt farm”. His hair is starting to grow back after Mom’s buzz-cut. It does get hot here – so I guess he doesn’t mind what he looks like 🙂

Mom got some new baby chicks that Coach has sure taking a like to. He wants them to come out and play and acts like their his to protect.

On Tuesday (the 19th) after Kaan finished school, we all piled into the Urban Escape Vehicle for our ~350-mile drive to the Alpine Coach Rally in Newport Beach, CA.

Screen Shot 2016-04-22 at 7.44.45 AM — Route from the Triple T RV Park in Phoenix to Newport Dunes Resort & Marina in Newport Beach, CA.

We stopped in Quartzsite overnight and boondocked at a nice spot just south of town. We haven’t stayed on this side of Quartzsite before, we always stay on the BLM land on the north-side of town for the annual Alpine Coach “Desert Rat Rallies”.

We enjoyed a nice evening walk around the desert and then again in the morning. There were only a couple other rigs in sight of our spot. We even treated ourselves to an evening campfire with our “bonfire-in-a-can”.

We tried to get grandson Kaan to hug a cactus.

After a nice leisurely overnight stay in Quartzsite, we continued on to our rally destination.

And here we are at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort (below). We arrived without incident, except for some typical CA freeway traffic. I downloaded the Harley from the back of the Silverado and unloaded the back seat so we can drive around without having to be stuffed into the front seat.

As of Thursday evening, we have 10 Alpines in attendance so far. This is a weekend rally, however, most folks (like us) want to make the most of the rally and arrive early and leave late. We intend to stay here until the 28th and then have to return to Phoenix since our daughter Jennifer and grandson Kaan need to get back to work and school.

Our rally hosts/co-hosts Greg & Marcy Vaughan/Mike & Donna Hambarian guided folks into their spots throughout the day as they arrived and then Mike even ordered in some pizza for an impromptu dinner/get-together.

Here’s some pics of our first evening together here at Newport Dunes RV Resort & Marina:

Frank remembered his name tag this time.

The Alpine “circle” grew as the evening progressed. Good pizza, good people!

Here’s a few pics of our Alpine row… the Coaches will fill in the empty spots as they arrive. Everyone should be here by Friday when the rally officially kicks off.

Frank Krauland has his nice outside entertainment center set up for business.

Frank set up his latest project for display. He made a “fake” RV park power pole with a water faucet. It has a pump that circulates the water so it looks like it’s dripping. This will be a big hit when he sets it up at our next boondocking rally and we see how many people walk over to ask how he was the only one to get a power pedestal 🙂 Of course, he was given lots of constructive criticism by fellow Alpiner’s on how to improve on his “faux” power pedestal. Way to go Frank… pretty cool!

Ron and Jeanne Maxwell are also here at the rally with Jennifer’s old dog ‘Ember’. Some of you that follow the blog may remember (←link) that we had to find Ember a good home when Jenny first moved down from Colorado Springs. You may also recall that Ember is Coach’s sister, although they look entirely different. Ron & Jeanne stepped up during the rally (February) in Lake Havasu and took over that duty. She appears to be quite happy and is even putting on some weight. Thanks again Ron & Jeanne! Jenny and Kaan sure enjoy seeing her again.

Stilla, Jenny, and Kaan also spent some evening time at the RV Resort’s beach:

Kaan burying himself in the sand at the Newport Dunes RV Resort & Marina.

And our first pre-rally day comes to an end…

Full moon through the palm tree at Newport Dunes RV resort.

Late evening picture of the Newport Dunes RV Resort & Marina beach.

Our first full day here at the Newport Dunes RV resort (Thursday) we spent exploring the local beaches. First, we went north from the RV resort and explored Huntington Beach and Seal Beach. Then we went all the way south to Dana Point. We stopped along the way several times and played in the water and even watched some whales. Follow along:

Here we are at Newport Beach (←wikipedia® link).

Aliso Beach:

Kaan is making a habit of burying himself in the sand everywhere we go.

At Dana Point Headlands Nature & Interpretive Center (←link here) we stopped and got the tip from the onsite volunteer ranger to walk the pathway for some whale watching. There were reportedly several whale sightings. There were even a couple mama whales with their calves.

We walked along the nature trail to look for whales.

And we were in luck… we saw numerous whales but only got pictures of them barely breaking the water or blowing. Every time one would come up for a good picture, none of us had a camera ready. Here’s a few pics of what we did get:

One of the more informed spectators claimed that we were watching Gray Whales.

It was pretty cool to finally see some whales and some of them were pretty close to shore.

Kaan at the Dana Point Headlands Interpretive Center.

A couple more beach pictures:

At Dana Point, we stopped at the Ocean Institute but quickly saw that it was getting ready to close for the evening. But that didn’t stop us from looking around.

The Silverado in the Dana Point Ocean Institute parking lot below the cliffs.

I saw a Tesla in the parking lot. I haven’t seen one of these before, so I snapped a couple photos:

Click (here) to learn more about Teslamotors. A pretty cool looking car and much larger than I thought they would be.

According to the Ocean Institute website, “The Pilgrim (below) is a full-sized replica of the hide brig immortalized by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. in his American seafaring classic novel Two Years Before the Mast. This historic voyage is the basis for the Ocean Institute’s Two Years Before the Mast education program.

After walking along the pier(s) and boardwalk at Dana Point, we headed on back to the RV Resort with a quick stop at Trader Joe’s® for some groceries. We made it back just before dusk. A few more Alpines had arrived while we were gone and I got the chance to say a couple of quick “hello’s” before we called it a night.

Stay tuned for more on the latest Urban Escape Vehicle travel journal and our latest Alpine Coach SoCal rally which officially starts today (Friday)! I’ll try to keep up…

California

Southbound & Down (Red Earth Casino – Thermal, CA)

2015/11/23 davidhobden@mac.com

Happy Monday! My new favorite day of the week since retirement 🙂

We’re on the road again headed south to the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande, AZ. The “dirt farm” is a term of endearment that my Mom, Stepdad, brother Steven & Cheryl call their ~5 acres where they keep horses, chickens, dirt, etc., 🙂 We need to be back there before Thanksgiving because we have a lot of family coming to visit over the holiday, plus we are making plans to leave the Urban Escape Vehicle parked there while we travel to Germany to visit Stilla’s family over the Christmas holidays. We need to be in Germany for Stilla’s fathers’ birthday on the 8th of December.

We sure would have liked to stay at Bill & Patti’s but we have to hurry down to Casa Grande as I said earlier. We’ve dawdled enough and better get down to the dirt farm to help out with things before Thanksgiving.

Thanks again to Bill & Patti for their hospitality! We said goodbye with hugs and ‘see-ya-laters’.

We traveled about 200 miles yesterday (Sunday) after we left Bill & Patti Figge’s house in Thousand Oaks, CA. We needed fuel… Bill turned us on to a nearby Chevron station that had easy access. Thanks again Bill! We put in a couple hundred dollars worth of diesel and continued on. We stopped at the Red Earth Casino (map below) for an overnight stay. It’s free as long as you stay away from the slot machines 🙂 We stayed here once last year on our way to Pomona… it’s not bad here, but there’s dry-camping (boondocking) only.

The fine (sic) roads around Los Angeles took their toll on the drivers-side sun shade (below). The little bolt that holds the arms to the shade loosened itself up and fell out due to all the bumpy roads and vibrations from the concrete freeways. Luckily, a rest stop wasn’t too far away. I was able to find all the pieces and put it back together 😐 I also took the opportunity to tighten the others, i.e., side-window shades and the passenger-side windshield.

Drivers-side view after the sun-shade fell apart.

And here we are at the Red Earth Casino (←link). We made the rest of the days trip without incident 🙂

Red Earth Casino (Thermal, CA) dry-camping.

Here’s the rest of our intended route for today (map below). 291 miles to go… check back later to see if we make it 😉

California

Alpine Friends & Malibu Dining (Thousand Oaks, CA)

2015/11/22 davidhobden@mac.com

It’s been a couple days since my last post. We stayed an additional day (Friday) at the Elks Lodge in Pismo Beach to enjoy the nice weather. I also took advantage of the extra day to wash the Silverado and the Harley… they were looking pretty bad after driving around on the beach and the rain from previous days.

On Saturday, we drove the 160 miles south on Hwy-101 to Bill & Patti Figge’s house in Thousand Oaks, CA. Along the way, we made a small detour in Santa Barbara where we followed a tip from my cousin Phil to take Shoreline Drive and take in the views. Nice… Thanks for the tip Phil! We had to dodge a few low-hanging palm trees, but it was worth it.

We contacted our friends from the Alpine SoCal group (Bill & Patti Figge), who offered to let us stay at their beautiful house in Thousand Oaks. So we plugged their address into the GPS and pulled into their driveway around 2PM.

Bill & Patti Figge’s beautiful neighborhood street view.

Bill directed us onto his RV pad next to the house. Wow… 5-Star amenities with full hook-ups! Their Coach is at the shop right now… unfortunate for them but fortunate for us 🙂

Here we are with our nice backyard views.

The Urban Escape Vehicle parked at the premier RV spot at Bill & Patti Figge’s in Thousand Oaks, CA.

Our view this morning 🙂 We even had hummingbirds outside the windows.

Little ‘Coach’ really likes the backyard, but he wasn’t too sure about the lawn decorations.

Bill & Patti took us to dinner in Malibu.

The Malibu Seafood Fresh Fish Market and Patio Cafe (←link) was absolutely wonderful… with great food, great views, and even better company. Thanks, Bill & Patti!

Views of the beach across the street (Hwy-1) from our patio dining seats:

And here we are! (L to R) Patti, Bill, and Stilla.

It was great catching up with Bill & Patti. What great friends! I just hope we can return the favor sometime in the near future. We look forward to seeing them again in January at the Alpine Coach “Desert Rat Rally” in Quartzsite, AZ.

Now we need to head on south and get ourselves to Casa Grande before Thanksgiving… a lot of the family is gathering again and we better get there to help out. So time to hit the road again… stay tuned 🙂

BTW – Here’s a map showing all the locations we’ve stayed at during our last year and a half of travel. There’s a lot of gaps… guess we better get busy, eh?

California

Still Beach Bumming at Pismo (Elks Lodge 2504 – Oceano / 5 Cities, CA)

2015/11/20 davidhobden@mac.com

We spent the day (Thursday) bumming around the Pismo Beach area while we’re still parked at the Oceano / 5 Cities Elks Lodge.

Here’s a little history about the lodge from their website:

Many years ago, probably in the 1940’s, there was a real estate office located on the corner of Highway 1 and what is now Pier Ave., just up from the Lodge. It’s unique design included a three story tower that Harold Guiton, the developer, used to enjoy relaxing in. When it was no longer needed, the office was torn down, however, the tower was moved to a vacant lot across the street from the Lodge where it laid for several years. In the early 1950’s the tower was incorporated into a new drive-in built across the street. The drive-in was called Skipper’s. Built separately up the street was a bar, called The Sands. Eventually Skipper’s closed until a local cook leased the building. He added a dining room and opened a Mexican restaurant called Spanish Seas. He eventually built his own restaurant on the corner of Highway 1 and Pier. This popular restaurant is still going strong, now called Juan’s Cantina. After the Spanish Seas moved, the building and the bar next door sat vacant until a few men looked into opening an Elks Lodge in the Five Cities area. They eventually got the charter and leased this property on a lease-buy agreement. The 564 charter members were initiated on March 23,1974 at the Arroyo Grande High School.

Our Lodge, located within easy walking distance of the beach, and with a large RV area, is a popular place to visit. We currently have just over 1200 members. We have many activities on the calendar and many ways to volunteer.

After breakfast we walked the beach again and enjoyed the day. Later on we drove around the area to check things out and stocked up on some groceries. Then we walked around the beach some more:

Stilla stayed on the beach walking ‘Coach’ while I did a little wading.

We closed out the day at the Pismo Beach Pier.

Out on the wharf.

We’ll probably head on south today (Friday). Check back to see where we end up…

California

Beach Bumming (Elks Lodge 2504 – Oceano / 5 Cities)

2015/11/19 davidhobden@mac.com

We left the Camp Roberts FamCamp around 10:30 and headed south on Hwy 101. About 60 miles later, we pulled off into the Pismo Beach area and got onto Hwy 1.

Just south of Pismo Beach, the GPS routed us to Elks Lodge 2504 (←link) Oceano / 5 Cities.

We checked in and paid $25 per night for two nights.

We’re only two blocks from the beach.

We spent the rest of the afternoon just driving around at the beach and dune area. Then we parked and enjoyed the sun. It was a little brisk with a light wind but otherwise warm.

‘Coach’ really enjoyed the beach and couldn’t understand why the birds didn’t want to play 🙂

We watched the sun go down before we went back to the Elks Lodge for a Salisbury Steak dinner.

We’ll hang out here until Friday, then southwards again…

California

Castles, Lions, and Zebras (Camp Roberts FamCamp – Paso Robles, CA)

2015/11/18 davidhobden@mac.com

Sounds like a fairy tale right? But really! We went to Hearst Castle today, saw some (sea) lions, and the Hearst estate actually has zebras, right here in (somewhat) sunny California.

When we left the San Jose Elks Lodge on Monday, we headed south on Hwy 101 and landed at Camp Roberts (Army FamCamp) located just north of San Miguel, CA. Full hookups, and 50 Amp power for only $10 a night. Granted it’s not the nicest park… right next to Hwy 101 with a good number of folks that appear to be parked here for an extended stay based on all the “stuff” around their rigs, but it’s conveniently located and very affordable.

Click the link above for the official national guard website and HERE for the Wikipedia® link which gives the following information:

Camp Roberts is a California National Guard post in central California, located on both sides of the Salinas River in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, now run by the California Army National Guard. It is named after Harold W. Roberts, a World War I Medal of Honor recipient. Nearby communities include San Miguel, Heritage Ranch (Lake Nacimiento), Oak Shores (Lake Nacimiento), and Bradley, all unincorporated. The nearest incorporated city is Paso Robles. Camp Roberts is adjacent to Fort Hunter Liggett.

Camp Roberts is host to annual training to almost every California Army National Guard unit and it is also used by the British Army.

Camp Roberts is undergoing major renovations, including demolition of World War II-era barracks, which have been plagued with mice, asbestos insulation, and lead paint. Demolition of nearly all the World War II-era structures facing US Route 101 began in 2012. (ref. Wikipedia®)

We passed the Camp Roberts Historical Museum (←link) which claims to be the largest Army museum in California. It’s only open Thursdays and Saturdays so we didn’t get a chance to check it out. 🙁

Here’s our first view of the Camp Roberts RV Park. It’s a mile or so from the main part of the Army post and located right next to Hwy-101. Surprisingly, not much highway noise though.

On Tuesday morning, we woke up to frost and a little ice on the Silverado… we need to hurry up and head farther south.

Our RV site at the Camp Roberts FamCamp:

We decided to stay a couple nights here at Camp Roberts so we could check out (the somewhat nearby) Hearst Castle and a little bit of the coast on Hwy-1. We drove 57 miles to get to Hearst Castle.

Views of the coast after crossing the mountains (hills) on CA-46:

There were a large number of zebras grazing with the cows near the entrance to the Hearst Castle Visitor Center.

We parked the Silverado in the Visitor Center parking lot and cracked all the windows so little ‘Coach’ would be comfortable. It was a balmy 60° at the most.

We had purchased our tickets online the day prior, $25 pp, So we checked in, got a snack, and got in line for the bus.

The bus takes a 4.2 mile winding road uphill to the Castle.

The bus dropped us off below one of the cottages where we met our tour-guide to start our 90-minute tour.

We read in the literature, and now the tour-guide reiterated that photos are encouraged for personal use, but written permission is required for anything to be published, therefore, in the spirit of compliance; I am only posting pictures of the outside of the castle, the gardens, and the swimming pool out-building. This was also the case on our tour of the Winchester Mystery House (posted HERE) where they only allowed picture-taking outside of the house and in out-buildings.

Click HERE for a link to the Hearst Castle website.

Our tour-guide took us through the estate grounds and then led us into a side door of the castle. What an impressive place… I took lots of pictures, but again, in order to stay in compliance with their policies, I won’t post any inside photos on the blog. But, here’s a few photos of the outside gardens and surrounding area that we took during and after the tour:

There were lots of statues and fountains.

Entrance door to one of the cottages.

The front door to the castle.

The tennis courts (below) were built above an indoor swimming pool.

The indoor swimming pool with the tennis courts on the roof.

We were told that gold was used in the tile work.

If you’d like to see pictures of the inside of the castle, just do a search online… I’ll let others get in trouble (if any) for posting pictures.

After our tour, we boarded the bus again for the long winding trip back down to the visitors center.

View back up to the castle from the access road.

Portion of the 4.2 mile access road to the castle. Only accessible by tour bus.

The visitors center has a nice viewing area of the castle on the hill.

Zoomed-in from the visitors center.

After we got back from the castle, we went back to the parking lot to walk little ‘Coach’ and then went back inside the visitors center to get a little lunch and check out the huge gift shop.

Then we watched the informative 40-minute film in the 5-story tall ‘big screen’ theater.