Tag Archives: California

Sunday was another great day of get-togethers and reunions. It was also our last day here. First of all, we drove over to visit with fellow Alpine Coach owner’s and friends John & Marlena Schierholtz. They live in the San Jose area.

Older photo of John & Marlena Schierholtz in front of their Alpine Coach.

We navigated our way over to their wonderful home from the San Jose Elks Lodge RV Park where we’re still parked.

We greeted John and Marlena with hugs and spent a short time catching up before we went out for breakfast together.

Check out the cool 21-window bus that John has in the garage. Nice… I think John should set this up to tow behind the Alpine. 🙂

John & Marlena took us to breakfast at Alice’s Restaurant located on a hilltop in scenic Woodside, CA “where you can get anything you want” according to their website. Sometime during the 1960’s the restaurant was bought by Alice Taylor who renamed the restaurant after herself and the now famous Arlo Guthrie song of the same name.

It was a cool day with gusty winds – especially on the hilltop where the restaurant is located, but that didn’t deter a few bikers from getting out.

This popular restaurant was busy and we had to wait for seating.

None of the customers wanted to sit at any of the outside or open porch tables because it was too cold and windy.

Notice the huge redwood tree growing through the deck.

We found seating at the bar and enjoyed a good breakfast with good company.

Afterwards. we visited the gas station / gift shop next to the restaurant.

This time, I found a cool t-shirt to add to my inventory.

We took the scenic route back to their house and stopped at a nice viewpoint along the way.

View of the San Francisco Bay.

We spent some more time visiting with John & Marlena at their house before we said our ‘see-ya-laters’ with hugs and handshakes. It was great getting to spend some time with them during our stay here… we hope to see them again at the next Alpine Coach “Desert Rat Rally” in Quartzsite, AZ in January. Thanks for everything John & Marlena… see you soon!

We made it back to the Elks Lodge with just enough time to pick up our little dog Coach so we could continue over to my cousin Philip and Tina’s house for our previously scheduled 5 PM dinner date. We made it just in time for the arrival of the pizza, pasta, and salad dinner. Here’s cousin Beth (below) performing delivery duty.

We enjoyed the rest of the evening with family at Phil & Tina’s wonderful home.

(L to R) Keith, Faith, Nathaniel, and Philip.

The girls (Daria, Faith, and Anya) had to finish up some homework before they could play. 🙁

We closed out the evening with some board and dice games…

while the girls talked in the living room.

It was another great family get-together that we were privileged to be a part of! Thanks again to Keith & Beth, Phil & Tina, and Aunt Donna for putting up with us and showing us around 🙂 We hope to get back this way again soon.

We’re finally going to continue our drive south today (Monday) with the goal of getting to Casa Grande, AZ before thanksgiving. Check back to see where we end up next…

California

17-Mile Drive; Pebble Beach; Carmel Mission (Elks Lodge 522 – San Jose, CA)

2015/11/14 davidhobden@mac.com

Friday morning we drove over to my cousin Phil’s house in San Jose and transferred ourselves to his car for another fun-filled tourist day of sight-seeing. But this time we have a local tour-guide (my cousin Phil)!

We drove south on 101 towards Carmel. But along the way, we stopped in Monterey for lunch at the Turn 12 Bar & Grill.

This place had a cool motor-sports vibe and motorcycle motif going on. Their website says it is designed to pay homage to Laguna Seca Raceways 11 turns. I liked it. And lunch was good too!

We did a short drive through Monterey and headed over to the north entrance to 17-Mile Drive.

17-Mile Drive (←link) is a scenic road through Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula in California, much of which hugs the Pacific coastline and passes famous golf courses, mansions and scenic attractions, including the Lone Cypress, Bird Rock and the 5,300-acre Del Monte Forest of Monterey Cypress trees.

17-mile-map — Red arrow depicts north entrance where we paid our $10 for the privilege of going down 17-Mile Drive.

We drove south along the coastline and finished in Carmel. We didn’t do the inner coastal road. Maybe another time…

Here’s another good map that I found on a “Pin It” site courtesy of hotelcaliforniablog.com. This map depicts most of the scenic viewpoints we stopped at.

Follow along for a picture tour…

Stilla and Phil getting out of the car. We did this many times throughout the day as we stopped at numerous viewpoints along 17-Mile Drive.

My cousin Phil poses on the beach with Stilla.

Another rare photograph of David & Stilla in a picture together.

It appeared that seals or sea-lions took over one half of the island rock (below) and birds took over the other half. So much for desegregation in California, eh? 🙂

Wonder how much these homes cost!?!

The Ghost Tree.

We finally got to the south end of 17-Mile Drive (see arrow in pic above) and drove over to the Carmel Mission.

Click HERE for more info on the mission from my good friend Wikipedia®.

We had to pay a $6.50 entrance fee that helps support the Mission.

We then drove through the Mission Ranch Hotel & Restaurant (←link) located next to the Mission Church. It is reportedly owned by actor Clint Eastwood.

Notice the tree growing through the porch roof on the Mission Ranch guest house (below).

After our tour of Carmel Mission and the Mission Ranch, we did a drive-by of the beach and scenic downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea:

When we got back to San Jose, Phil treated us to a great dinner at a favorite pizzeria he frequents often. Willow Street Wood-Fired Pizza in Willow Glen.

Thanks for a great day Phil!

Stay tuned because on Saturday, Beth & Keith are coming over to the lodge to pick us up for another fun-filled day of sight-seeing…

California

Winchester Mystery House Tour (Elks Lodge 522 – San Jose, CA)

2015/11/13 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

I don’t have much time to spend on today’s posting about our Thursday tour of the Winchester Mystery House. Cousin Phil has taken Friday off from work and we plan to meet up early this morning so he can spend the day with us. We’re looking forward to having our own personal tour-guide. 🙂

So follow along on a quick tour of the Winchester Mystery House (←link) located in San Jose, CA:

Sign off Winchester Blvd in the parking lot of the Mystery House..

Mystery House entrance kiosk on the side of the parking lot.

Informational placard on the Winchester House.

More information on the Winchester Mystery House.

Be sure to at least read the placard (above). Learn more about Sarah Winchester and the Mystery House from the Wikipedia™ link HERE.

We chose to take the “Best Value!” Grand Estate Tour and paid $84 after receiving a $4 military veteran discount.

Here’s the entrance to the house tour (below), next to the green screen where they take your picture before going in. There were basically two tours included in our admission price. Both tours are docent-led and after we finished our tour of the house, aptly named the Grand Estate Tour, we met another guide in the garden for the second tour that was named the Behind-the-Scenes Tour.

There were no pictures or recording devices allowed inside the house. So all the pictures today are of the outside of the estate and in a few of the out-buildings where we were allowed to take pictures during the Behind-the-Scenes portion of the tour.

The website describes the Behind-the Scenes Tour as a 55-minute guided Tour which shows much of what made the estate run. Tour stops included the Stables, Fruit Drying Shed, Garage, Greenhouse, and the unfinished Ballroom… the highlight of the Behind-the-Scenes Tour is a journey down into the basement which houses the oil burning furnace and an original hydraulic cargo elevator. The basement is also the location of many ghost sightings. We didn’t see any though 🙁

Garden-side views of the mansion:

Hollywood style styrofoam “mock-up” of Sarah Winchester’s actual headstone located in New Haven, Connecticut.

Fruit Drying Shed:

Old picture (pre-earthquake) of the Mystery House.

The garage and car wash building:

View of the Grand Estate through the garage window.

Our tour-guide points out a photo of the Winchester Estate carpenters.

Our tour guide tells us about some reported ghost sightings. The guy on the right in the picture (below) has been seen pushing a wheelbarrow in the basement by more than just a few folks.

Front view of the Grand Estate:

The christmas decorations are already going up throughout the estate. Many of the rooms we toured had their trees up already.

The front door. Reportedly never used.

Many areas of the house that were under construction at the time of Sarah Winchester’s death were abandoned and never completed:

More exterior photos:

Look closely at the windows in the pics below for any ghosts that may be looking down on us:

The door to nowhere. It’s a long step downnn…

Notice the vines growing where the brick chimney used to be. The brick chimney was destroyed during the 1906 earthquake.

Sarah Winchester’s bedroom where she passed away in her bed on September 5, 1922. All construction stopped immediately after her death at the age of 83.

What a crazy house with stairs that go nowhere, skylights in the floors, and doors that open up to walls! It was a really neat tour, I highly recommend it if you’re in the area. I wish the tour fees were a little more reasonable though.

Of course, our tour wasn’t complete until we checked out the Winchester Historic Firearms Museum located in an out-building:

Some revolvers: (These are for you brother Steven)

The WInchester rifle “Commemorative Series”:

After our tour of the Firearms Museum, we wandered through the huge gift shop:

Great tour, great day! We basically spent our entire Thursday here.

We returned to the Elks Lodge RV park with just enough time to walk our little dog ‘Coach’ before we met up again with my San Jose relatives for dinner.

We decided to take advantage of dinner inside the San Jose Elks Lodge. We went into the lodge with my cousin Beth, her husband Keith, and their daughters Daria and Anja. My cousin Phil joined us shortly thereafter on his way home from work.

The lodge had a veterans support event going on and was raffling off some quilts as we finished up our dinners:

We had three great choices for dinner which included a full soup & salad bar. The choices were Sirloin Steak, Fried Shrimp, or BBQ ribs. By all reports, the meals were delicious and they were all reasonably priced as well 🙂

Another great finish to a great day 🙂 Check back tomorrow to see where and what we get into with my cousin Phil acting as our local tour-guide…

California

Hiding from the Rain on a Lazy Monday (Elks Lodge 522 – San Jose, CA)

2015/11/10 davidhobden@mac.com

We just hung around the Coach and hid out from the rain today (Monday) until my appointment time with the Veterans Supportive Services Agency (VSSA) representative. I wrote about making this appointment in a previous post (HERE) when we went into the San Jose Elks Lodge to check out the Veterans Fair & Luncheon. The meeting went well and I gave the rep all my paperwork and we filled out some forms. The meeting was held at a combined VSSA and American Legion building. After the appointment, we found a post office to mail the documents off to the VA with a return-receipt request. Now all I can do is wait and see if my rating gets re-evaluated.

I was also contacted by an old Army buddy today that lives in the area. He is a ‘friend’ on Facebook and saw that we were here. We made plans to get together in Santa Cruz on Tuesday. I haven’t seen Adam Breed since before I left Germany in 2005. We were deployed to Iraq together a couple times. He was in my welding section when I was the Chief Warrant Officer in charge of a Direct Support Battalion operation in Tikrit, Iraq. Looking forward to catching up with him and his family on Tuesday… as I’ve said before – there’s no greater bond between men than having served in combat.

Around dinnertime, my cousin Beth texted about getting together again for dinner… Well SURE ! 🙂

Beth and her husband Keith (along with two of their three daughters) picked us up again at the Elks Lodge and drove us over to a local Mexican restaurant that they frequent often. Great food, great company once again! Man, what service… courtesy pick-up and drop-off… we’re getting spoiled 🙂

(L to R) Self, Stilla, Daria, Anja, Beth, and Keith.

Unfortunately cousin Philip and his wife Tina couldn’t make dinner because he was working… he’s still trying for that first million I guess 🙂 We still have time here to get together… and if we don’t we’ll just have to stay longer, right?

Check back later to see how our day in Santa Cruz goes… The rain stopped and it looks like we have good weather again for a while…

California

Sunday Post 1 of 2 – Alcatraz Island Tour (Elks Lodge 522 – San Jose, CA)

2015/11/09 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

Authors Note: Warning – Another great “tourist day” with lots of pictures … as a matter-of-fact I had to split Sunday up into two separate posts to accommodate all the pics. This is post 1 of 2.

We got up early (Sunday) to make sure we made it to San Francisco’s Pier 33 in time for our 10 AM ferry ride to Alcatraz. We gave ourselves a 2 -1/2 hour headstart in case we had trouble finding a parking spot. We left little “Coach” in the Coach for the day.

It was wet and drizzling by the time we completed the ~50 mile trip. We arrived with only a half hour to 45 minute cushion to board our ferry. We found a covered parking area just a block away from the pier but saw it was an outrageous $30 per day (Weekend Rate). So we drove around to find a cheaper parking lot. We found another lot that was farther away, but it was also $30 per day because we were “over-sized” per the attendant… so we went back to the first parking area and grudgingly paid the fee 🙁

We parked and made the short walk to the pier to pick up our tickets at ‘Will-Call’ that we had reserved before we left my brother’s house in Westley, CA last Thursday. The tickets for the tour were $31 per person.

I took pictures of the informational placards on the pier as we waited to board the ferry:

And here comes our ferry (below). We boarded and found a seat inside to stay dry.

Our first views of the Golden Gate Bridge. The clouds receded a bit and it quit drizzling. It looks like we got lucky for once with the weather 🙂

Our first view of “The Rock”.

Looking back at the San Francisco skyline.

Here’s a little history of Alcatraz Island that was posted on the wall in the ferry.

And here’s some info on the ferry itself that was displayed on the flat-screen TV.

We pulled into the dock and disembarked. The ferry ride was short and smooth. We were also able to get a quick breakfast onboard to help fuel our day.

Once on the island, we listened to a park ranger give us safety instructions and an introduction to the island. Then we headed over to the nearby theater for a short film.

There were several screens playing the film at the same time in order to accommodate large crowds.

Then we toured the lower part of the old fort. Learn more about that by clicking HERE.

This room (below) had information on the American Indian occupation of Alcatraz in the late ’60s to early ’70s. Click HERE for more information from Wikipedia® on that.

After touring the lower portion of the island, we walked up the walkway(s) to the main cell block building.

I have no idea what significance the old truck (below) has on the island of Alcatraz – but you know me… I just had to take a picture 🙂

View up to the main cell block building as we walked up the pathway.

The officers’ club is in need of serious repairs.

A lot of the old walkways and stairs were closed for safety reasons.

Many areas of the prison are in dire need of repairs:

View back down towards the dock (below) after we walked up the pathway to the upper levels and main cell block.

Once inside the main building we viewed the clothing and bedding issue area.

The communal showers.

And here’s where we got our headpieces and started the audio-tour (below). Follow along on our audio-tour with these silent pictures: 😉

Typical cell block with a copy of the stringent ‘Rules & Regulations’ booklet on the table.

We toured the cell blocks and listened to some of the inmates’ stories on our headphones.

We walked out into the recreation yard.

View of the Recreation Yard with Stilla in the foreground.

We took the steps back up to the cell blocks from the Recreation Yard for more audio-tour.

The infamous “D” Block – solitary confinement.

The prison library.

Cell re-creations with authentic personal items:

The Administrative area of the main cell block:

Check out the old ‘period-correct’ office equipment, i.e., phone, rolodex, typewriter, fan, etc.,

The visitation area.

Front door to the Admin area. This is where you had to go if you wanted to visit with an inmate.

Informational placard and island model in the administrative area:

Then the audio-tour talked us through the 1962 escape from Alcatraz… click HERE for more info on this infamous event.

The Anglin brothers’ cells (below).

More cell block pics:

How did she get out? 🙂

Entrance to the dining hall.

More dining hall pics:

View from dining hall window.

We finished the audio portion of the tour and headed down the stairs…

to turn in our headphones.

And of course, the exit goes through the Museum Store.

Souvenirs anyone?

We went back outside the main cell block building after getting through the gift shop and wandered around the grounds:

I think this was the old Warden’s building:

The old lighthouse.

The old parade grounds:

Walkway down to the west side gardens.

A couple nice views of the Golden Gate Bridge. The sun peeked out a few times during our time on the island. No rain at all 🙂

The stairs (below) go up to the Recreation Yard.

Another Golden Gate Bridge picture with sailboat.

Dilapidated guard tower on the corner of the Recreation Yard.

View of the old lighthouse as we came back up the path from the gardens.

I zoomed in on the San Francisco skyline from the southwest-side of the island. I thought these pics came out pretty good:

We gathered back down at the dock with the other tourists and waited for the next ferry. They run every 30 minutes.

We were herded back onto the ferry for our return trip to Pier 33.

Sign near the dock:

The island receded into the distance as we cruised back to the mainland:

Views coming back into port:

Pier 33:

After we got off the ferry, we went to check out the picture they took of us as we boarded earlier in the day. Everyone’s picture was posted in order of departure time:

We decided to buy the cheapest photo package ($20) for a 6 X 8 in a frame:

Stock photo of the dock on Alcatraz (below) was provided with our picture (above).

We were hungry after our long walking tour, so we walked into the Alcatraz Landing Cafe that was located right next to the loading area on Pier 33.

We shared our lunch with a couple pigeons that seemed to be at home on the floor of the Cafe.

Hope you enjoyed our tour of Alcatraz Island. We thought it was great! It was well worth the $31 pp fee, I just wish parking in the area was more reasonable.

After our quick lunch at Alcatraz Landing Cafe, we decided to check out some more of the area, i.e., Fort Point and the Golden Gate Bridge. Check my next post for a recap of those attractions. We also had a dinner date with my cousins and Aunt Donna later in the evening. I’ll try to get it posted asap…

California

Rock Gardens (Imperial Sand Dunes, CA)

2015/04/03 davidhobden@mac.com

After leaving Hemet, CA, we drove back north to I-10. Then we headed east until Indio, where we picked up 111 south to the Salton Sea. This time we opted to go around Salton Sea on the east-side. We traveled the west-side on our way to Pomona a couple weeks ago. The east-side of Salton Sea was certainly more picturesque and we passed several campgrounds and recreation areas. Sorry no pics this time 🙁 But here’s a link to the Salton Sea Recreation area website, HERE.

After Salton Sea, which by the way, is touted as one of the world’s largest inland seas and lowest spots on earth at -227 below sea level, we turned east on 78 to go through the Imperial Sand Dunes.

We traveled this way back in February, I wrote about the Imperial Sand Dunes HERE. We turned south after crossing the dunes and skirted the east-side of the dunes recreational area until we landed at our boondocking spot that Mike and Donna Kuper told us about.

And here we are after ~200 miles for the day.

All alone in the desert again.

This is a rather unique spot with a “rock garden” that someone spent significant time building. It’s exact location to remain undisclosed… we wouldn’t want it to become too popular, right?

We enjoyed the evening desert air outside while I grilled up some bratwursts. Stilla made sauerkraut to complement our meal.

“Why can’t I have some bratwurst?” Little Coach seems to ask.

Little Coach enjoyed some run-around time, he really liked the wide-open space.

And how do you like the sunset views?

This was a nice overnight boondocking spot… thanks for sharing Mike and Donna. If anyone else wants to know where it is, just contact me directly.

On Thursday, we will be back in Casa Grande to spend Easter weekend with my Mom, Stepdad, Brother Steve and Cheryl. And we’re supposed to have some additional relatives show up… We’ll see!

And then, we’ll see what’s next…

California

Pool Time (Hemet, CA)

2015/04/03 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

On Monday, after we said farewell to our Alpine Coach Association friends at the FMCA Rally in Pomona, we traveled a whopping 65 miles and landed at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort in Hemet, CA.

Urban Escape Vehicle parked next to Mike and Donna Kuper at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we chose this destination because fellow Alpine Coach owner and friend, Mike Kuper is staying here with his wife, Donna. Mike blogged about this place @ FlyingtheKoop.com. We last saw Mike, albeit briefly, in Phoenix, AZ when I was getting a new inverter/charger installed. Before that, we were together at the FMCA Rally in Redmond, OR back in August. They did not attend the recent FMCA Rally in Pomona with us, but have been spending the week here before heading south to their next destination. We don’t know when our paths may cross again, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to see them again.

Mike and Donna Kuper posing in front of our truck at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort in Hemet, CA.

This park honors the Passport America discount for three consecutive nights. So we paid $50 for two nights and scored the spot right next to Mike and Donna. Now, it was great to be parked next to them, but the sites here are pretty tight. We couldn’t put the living room slide out all the way without hitting the hedge, and I couldn’t move the Coach over without driving on the concrete pad. The park office sent a maintenance guy over to trim the bushes but it wasn’t enough – I have a few new scratches now. In the morning, the park sent another guy over with a power trimmer that finally got the job done.

Here’s a picture with the slides in after the hedge was trimmed. With the slides out, the thorny bush and fruit tree were mere millimeters away from the paint AFTER trimming.

Here’s the view out our front window. Mike and Donna reported that all the spots were full when they arrived several days ago. Many of the Canadians that frequent this park have already headed north.

On our first evening, we enjoyed some time with Mike and Donna outside their rig. Donna used her Vitamix to make us a caramelized banana pecan ice cream treat. Yum!

Wednesday morning found us enjoying some time at the pool and hot tub(s). Nice 🙂

Here’s my view:

And here’s Stillas’ view:

We also spent some time at the pickleball courts as spectators. Mike and Donna have become quite the avid players… maybe we should take this up for some much needed exercise… 🙂

Here’s Mike in the yellow hat:

We also attended a small Farmers Market that is held each Tuesday at the park. There were only a few vendors, but we still found enough to spend some money on. We bought some peanut brittle; english toffee brittle; home-made salsa; a chicken quesadilla; and a half-dozen tamales.

We made a late lunch / early dinner out of the quesadilla and tamales. Yum again!

Later, Stilla took a bike ride around the huge park with little Coach.

Later that evening, little Coach seemed to have another of his epileptic type seizures. He threw up, then he was wobbly and disoriented, and became very lethargic. I watched over him as he just laid motionless in his little bed for quite a few hours. It was 2 in the morning before he started moving again. He jumped up and seemed like his old self again. I took him for a long, late-night walk.

We missed the opportunity to spend more evening time with Mike and Donna because we were on dog watch 🙁

But, little Coach is fine again now. He has had these “seizures” more than a few times now… the last time was when we were in Yuma a month ago, and before that was last year in Redmond, OR. We’ve committed to not let him eat anything other than his normal dog food and approved treats from now on.

On Thursday morning, with our time here already at an end, we packed up and moved over to an empty site to dump tanks. We had to do this because I couldn’t open the door to the sewer controls with the bushes up against the Coach on the drivers side.

We said our fond farewells to Mike and Donna and plugged our next destination into the GPS. Mike gave us a tip on a sweet boondocking spot that is halfway between here and Casa Grande. We want to be back in Casa Grande in time to spend Easter with my Mom and brother.

See you down the road Mike and Donna!

California

FMCA Rally (Pomona Fairplex, CA)

2015/04/02 davidhobden@mac.com

Once again; better late than never… There was so much to do and see during our time at the FMCA Rally that I couldn’t find time to update the blog. Between Thursday and Sunday – When we weren’t attending seminars, we were either visiting the vendors and exhibitors or driving the golf carts for the volunteer tram service. And of course, there was entertainment scheduled each evening in addition to our evening get-togethers with the Alpine Coach group.

Tuesday thru Friday seminars and events at the FMCA Rally in Pomona.

Friday thru Sunday seminars and events at the FMCA Rally in Pomona.

As expected; our Alpine Coach group met each evening for “Happy Hour”.

One evening, we even had Pizza! Here’s some pics of our group enjoying the Pizza:

We even paused long enough from our pizza to celebrate a birthday!

Here’s some of our group coming back from a fun, full-day of activities. Don’t they look happy?

This place was huge. Their website says that Fairplex is home to the L.A. County Fair, the largest county fair in the world. It’s a good thing we brought our bicycles to get around on. It took a long time to get around, even if you jumped on one of the trams or golf carts.

Here’s a view out the front window of the golf cart that I spent a couple 3-hour shifts driving around in. I was glad we volunteered to drive the golf carts for the handicap transportation service, it was fun.

Except it was no longer fun when my golf cart broke down on my last shift Sunday. We think the battery couldn’t hold a charge any more and the engine wouldn’t auto-start when you pressed the gas pedal. I had to get towed.

We took the time to snap a few pictures at the Railroad Museum and Display that is located along one side of the Fairplex.

And then, there was even a miniature railroad that we visited. This was really cool. The Fairplex Garden Railroad is the oldest and possibly the largest miniature railroad in the US according to their website.

If you look closely, you can even see a lizard that has taken up residence in the miniature Police Department building.

And the NHRA Motorsports Museum is located here. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the time to visit… maybe next time.

And here’s some more pics of our Alpine Coach group enjoying another “Happy Hour” get-together.

We also had other evening entertainment to enjoy. On Friday, western-music singer, Mary Kaye performed. And a really special treat; on Saturday we enjoyed Herman’s Hermits, starring Peter Noone.

Our final evening, Sunday; we were treated to a “Patriotic Night”.

All-in-all, it was a great Rally, however, I don’t think overall attendance met expectations and it seemed a little light on the quantity/quality of vendors from our experience at the two other FMCA Rallies we’ve attended in the past. But we still enjoyed our time here, especially with our Alpine Coach group friends.

Here’s Stilla showing off her goodie-bag of micro-fiber products that she won at one of the raffles. Go Stilla!

On Monday, we packed up along with most of the others (some left Sunday) and jockeyed for a position at the dump station. After taking care of the “dirty-deed” we headed east on 10, away from LA.

Since we still hadn’t decided where our next destination would be, I contacted fellow Alpine Coach Owner and friend, Mike Kuper. I knew Mike and Donna Kuper were staying nearby because I follow Mike’s blog; “FlyingtheKoop.com“. They are in Hemet, CA at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. Mike told me there was plenty of room there, so I called the resort to check on pricing. They accept our Passport America (PA) discount, so it would be $25 per night. I reserved a couple nights and we headed that way after stopping at a TA to put $150 of diesel in the fuel tank; enough to get us to the next Flying J in Arizona where the fuel is cheaper. We want to be back in Casa Grande in time for Easter with my Mom and brother at the “dirt farm”.

Anyway, I’ll save all that for my next post. C U soon 🙂

California

Moving Day to FMCA Rally (Pomona Fairplex, CA)

2015/03/27 davidhobden@mac.com

On Tuesday morning it was time to say goodbye to the Valencia Travel Village and move to the Fairplex, formerly known as the LA County Fairgrounds in Pomona for the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) Rally.

It’s been a great Alpine Coach Association Pre-Rally thanks to our hosts/co-hosts; Tris and Carolyn Swan/Joel and Mary Langord. A great time was had by all. Many thanks to them for a superb and successful rally!

We got most everything ready to go on the previous evening after we returned from our totally awesome tour of the Reagan Presidential Library. We dumped our tanks, took on fresh water, etc., This morning – all we had left to do was load the bicycles.

I did an early morning walk with our little dog Coach and took a few pictures of the park. We’ve had a great experience here at the Valencia Travel Village. Too bad we didn’t find the time to check out the pool or hot tub. But, we definitely filled our time here with other exciting things; just see my previous posts for proof of that.

Here’s a picture of the pool directly across from our site.

The “Village Hall” where we had all our fine Alpine get-togethers.

Community fire-pit near the park office.

This is something new that I haven’t seen before. Have you ever seen an LED bulb vending machine?

The Market (General Store) located next to the office.

View of the pool area. Our Coach is directly on the other side.

Another view of the pool area.

And here I see the first Alpine that is leaving for Pomona… better hurry back and get ready to roll also.

We left the park by 8:30 AM and made the 65 mile trip without incident. Although, I’ll still complain once again about the bumpy freeways, the stop and go traffic, and the inconsiderate drivers merging onto the highway.

Here’s the entrance sign to the Fairplex.

And here we met up again with most of the other Alpines that were with us in Valencia along with a few new additions.

We all lined up in the “staging area” and waited for the few remaining Alpines that hadn’t arrived yet so we could all get parked together.

Meanwhile, we all disconnected our tow-vehicles and milled around.

Finally, after all the Coaches had arrived, we were guided to our parking spots.

There appeared to be a little confusion, but the volunteer parking guides finally came through and got us all into our respective spots. We have 30-Amp power from generators that are spaced throughout the lot.

So, here we are; ready for the 91st Family Reunion & Motorhome Showcase, nick-named “California Gold” where the 2015 FMCA Rally expects more than 2,000 motorhomes to gather.

We got set up and downloaded the bicycles to go check out the area. This place is huge.

At 2 PM, we attended a meeting for volunteers. Most of the folks in the Alpine group are going to drive golf carts to help shuttle the disabled throughout the Fairplex. This is the reason we are all here a couple days early before the event kicks off. I drew two 3 hour shifts. One on Wednesday and another on Sunday. However, I traded my Wednesday for a Thursday because a fellow Alpiner had already signed up for a safe driving course that conflicted with the shift he drew. I was glad to help out.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we plan to take the truck and do some more sight-seeing around the area since there are no planned activities, plus my first golf cart shift isn’t until Friday now. On Thursday, we plan on attending some of the seminars that are scheduled to begin. The event officially begins on Friday when they open the gates to the public.

Stay tuned…

California

Day 4 – ACA Pre-Rally – Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (Valencia Travel Village, CA)

2015/03/26 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

Warning! Another picture-heavy posting today – consider viewing on your computer or laptop instead of mobile device… todays destination was just too cool for me to be able to limit the pictures.

Author’s Note: Sorry this is a few days late, but it took time to sort and format the pics and meanwhile we moved to the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) Rally in Pomona with most of our Alpine Coach group and have been pretty busy. But more on that later – First, follow along now on our really neat trip to the library:

My new favorite day of the week (Monday) consisted of an awesome guided tour of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. We are now on day 4 of our Alpine Coach Association Pre-Rally which has not been disappointing in the least. Thanks again to our hosts/co-hosts (Tris and Carolyn Swan) & (Joel and Mary Langord) for a superb rally!

Here’s a copy of our Pre-Rally flyer:

Breakfast was on our own this morning, so everyone could carpool or convoy as early as possible to meet our 10:00 AM tour start-time.

Here’s the sign leading up the long winding road to the top of the hill where the library is situated. It took us less than an hour to make the circa 40 mile trip here from the Valencia Travel Village.

Route up the hill to the Reagan Presidential Library.

Road to Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Building at the top of the hill in the distance.

Our group gathered in front of the Library and waited for the doors to open.

A full size statue of our late – great president greets visitors at the entrance doors.

We didn’t have to pay the $16 pp entrance fee. It was included in our rally package price.

After the doors opened, we all gathered once again on the backside of the building and waited for our tour guide(s). There was an original section of the Berlin Wall on display to keep us entertained along with a nice view.

View from the back of the building, looking West.

Our tour guide(s) arrived and invited us to take a self-guided tour of the automobile collection that was temporarily on display until it was time for our docent-led tour of the library/museum itself.

And was this collection ever cool! More cars… Yay! And you thought it would just be a visit to the library today 🙂

It seems that the Petersen Museum is being renovated and some of their cars are on display here until they reopen in December 2015. Click HERE for more information on the cars in the Petersen Collection.

Some of the pictures are out-of-focus due to the inadequate lighting in the display area and the “no-flash” rule. I’m sure it’s better at the Petersen Automotive Museum where they all originally hail from. We’ll just have to go back, eh?

And who doesn’t love the Love Bug?

Does anyone remember this one from the movie ‘Grease’?

No intro needed for this next one, right?

Is this a treat or what! And we haven’t even started the tour of the library yet…

We walked down to a lower display area for even more cars.

I wonder if he’d trade in the Alpine Coach for one of these? A ’56 Chevy. As most of you know, I sold my ’57 a couple years ago… it still hurts 🙁

They even had a gold-plated De Lorean.

I don’t think I remember hearing about this one before – According to the placard; Elvis shot this Pantera with his hand gun when it wouldn’t start.

After the unexpected treat of the superb car collection on display, our group gathered again at the front of the building. The tour guide(s) then broke down our ~50 person group into more manageable 8-10 person mini-groups. Our mini-goup tour started off by going directly to Air Force One.

What a view out the huge window.

Here’s looking down into the lower area. We’ll be having our lunch at those tables later.

And here we are before boarding Air Force One. No pictures are allowed at the entrance or inside the plane. The library contracts out to a photography studio and they take your picture for a price $$$ 🙁

Informational placard on Air Force One.

After our tour of the plane, our guide took us to the lower level under the plane. And guess what? More cars! These are a permanent part of the presidential library.

Nice personalized plate, eh?

Our next stop was Marine One on the lower level.

We got to tour the inside the helicopter, but again, no pictures allowed.

And then we got yet another special treat! We couldn’t help but notice that NASCAR legend, Richard Petty was also taking the tour today along with his entourage. I snapped a couple pics but was too shy to ask for an autograph.

Richard Petty in front of Marine One at the Reagan Presidential Library.

He took the time to do a couple pics and autographs for folks that weren’t so shy. For those few that don’t know who “The King” Richard Petty is… click HERE for more info from my friend Wikipedia.

Richard Petty at the Reagan Presidential Library.

We continued on our tour. Do you think Stilla was feeling homesick at the Berlin Wall displays?

And here’s Richard Petty again! Most of our group was so distracted that we weren’t paying attention to our tour guide anymore 🙂

Richard Petty had a few words with fellow Alpiner, Mary Langord. Isn’t she special? 🙂

It was really neat to get the opportunity to see and hear Richard Petty up close and personal. What are the odds that he’d be here the same time as our group?

NASCAR legend, Richard Petty at the Reagan Library.

And back to the library tour:

We got the opportunity to take pictures in front of the podium. Mary Langord looks like a natural orator, doesn’t she?

I even took my moment.

And then our small group waited for our turn in the Oval Office.

Exact replica of the White House Oval Office with many original personal items from President Reagan himself.

Too bad we couldn’t take turns sitting behind the desk 🙂

Finally, we made it to our catered lunch under the wings of Air Force One. And what a good meal it was, with good company.

Here’s Stilla with fellow Alpiner’s, Gary and Renee, enjoying lunch.

After lunch, most folks went their separate ways. However, since we were distracted by our Richard Petty experience, we (and several other couples) went back through portions of the library/museum. We just couldn’t get enough of this really cool place that honors it’s namesake, Ronald Reagan. So here’s a few more pics for you to enjoy as we did…

Stilla even got to go for a presidential ride-along.

Ronald Reagan’s personal belt buckle collection:

We finally found our way to the gift shop. Lot’s of cool stuff.

Hidden around the corner of the building, we stopped to view the F-14 static display. I think a lot of folks missed this.

Picture of the back side. The Berlin Wall piece is in the center foreground.

Memorial around back.

And orchard.

And a fond final farewell to my personal hero – President Ronald Reagan. What a great experience! This is one of the neatest and most informative places we’ve had the pleasure to visit in our travels.

We made it back to the campground to enjoy yet another fine get-together with our Alpine friends. We had a nutritious dessert and some pre-packaged breakfast goodies to take with us on our morning trip over to the FMCA Rally.

Here we are, (with full bellies), getting our final words of wisdom before we pack up and head out in the morning for our next destination.

Hope you enjoyed the tour today. I know we did!

Check back in for a recap of our trip to the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) Rally in Pomona… We have to get an early start in the morning in order to arrive in time to meet up again as a group so we all get parked together.

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Tag Archives: California

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Day 4 – ACA Pre-Rally – Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (Valencia Travel Village, CA)

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