Thursday, December 20, 2007

Near the beach,.. and Rats with wings???


Went down to the beach and the truck gets checked out



This seagull walked along the bed rail checking out everything in the bed of the truck.

One pigeon jumps onto the mirror, I asked the pigeon what it wanted and it just cocked it's head, I told it, you want something? just come on in, and it did! Another took it's place on the mirror. How bold can these rats get?


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Pacific Dunes RV resort, close to the Pacific Ocean and right on Pismo Dunes National Preserve

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

On the Coast.. In the Redwoods..

Stayed at River Grove RV just outside Santa Cruz, Ca. the last two weeks.


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The trees made it very shady for most of the day, I get some early morning sun light like this and a little in the late afternoon. It's very calm and quiet here, the San Lorenzo River is just steps away and Henry Cowell State Park surrounds the RV park.



Under the giant Redwoods


I made several daytrips, I spent a day in Santa Cruz, then the next day drove to Monterey and had dinner. I stopped several places around the bay and checked out the sights, like the Pacific Ocean crashing beaches in front of the oncoming storm. (It rained for 16 hours the next day.)



Monterey Bay in the fog/smog from an overlook on Highway 1


We traveled down to Gilroy, an experience everyone should have, (home of garlic ice cream) and the World Famous Garlic Festival.


On the way back from Gilroy, and passing through the south part of San Jose, I spotted "City Diner-The Fabulous Fiftys" off in the corner of a mall, since it was about seven in the evening, I decided to stop. Glad I did, the chicken fried steak is the best I've had since the Mt. Air cafe in Park City, Ut. The potion was a little small for the price (everything is more expensive in California) but the taste and tenderness was right on. It was covered with pepper base country gravy instead of sausage gravy, but had real mashed potatoes on the side. Score this place a "10" I think it's the best score I've ever given since the Mt. Air.

P.S. Despite the name of the blog, I only get CFS about once a month, I've had so many bad ones, I always hesitate to order, since it ruins my tastebuds for a couple of months.

Delta Dawn, whats that flower.... Oh Delta Shores aka "on an island"

Stayed at Delta Shores RV resort for 2 weeks, Delta Shores is a flower in the center of California, with potlucks and ice cream socials every weekend, it's on Brannon Isle in the Delta area of the Sacramento River. Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, and Stockton are within an easy days drive back and forth (daytrip.) I had a Thanksgiving in nearby Rio Vista, at the Moose Lodge and another on Saturday at the Delta Shores Park. The breeze is usually warm and moist, it's nice and cool at night (50F) and 65F to 70F during the day.

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Unbeknownst to most RV'ers, Delta Shores is a K/M resort, so K/M members only pay two dollars a night here for full hookups. Coast to Coast people pay $8. It's a benefit of having a camping membership.

On checking in, I met one of the McLoeds, I forget which one, not Doug, maybe Kevin, (I've become terrible with names since I don't write them down anymore.) He was cool, we discussed Neskowin Creek resort in Oregon (another K/M resort) and Two Springs resort, (he invited me over since I was going to stay at CatSpa again.)

We went on several daytrips in the area, one was to the Sacramento LDS Temple and one to the Oakland LDS Temple.



Evening Christmas Lights 2007-Oakland


Ready for Christmas-Oakland Temple

Sunday, November 18, 2007

No more maps- How neat is that?

As I travel around the country, my dash was covered with maps, The Next Exit book and countless guidebooks...... I had my computer in the back seat, ready to put on the pedestal, (it takes up passenger space-duh). I've had Microsoft Streets and Trips, and Delorme Mapping Software.............. NOT ANY MORE!!
I broke down and bought a Personal Travel Assistant-known to some as a GPS, but it's so much more than a GPS, it certainly uses GPS technology. After much research, I went with one of the big names, Garmin, and got the Nuvi 350, looked like the best value for the price and it came with the latest maps.
So you enter an address and follow the voice prompts-easy, even gives street names.

You want to know where the nearest fuel is? Press Menu on the Map screen, and come up with the following screen. Press Where to? and you get to pick Fuel, Lodging (even RV parks), Food, Favorites (custom entries) or have the unit do a search for a name or partial name. Put in GMC and it'll find GMC dealers, showing closest first, how many miles away and direction with arrows, same with Rest Areas, RV dumps, and Walmarts.
You get hungry on the road?, Press Menu, Where to? and Food and choose a food style, from All foods, Barbeque and Chinese to Fast Foods, Italian, Mexican, Seafood, Steaks/Grill and Chicken Fried Steaks.

It'll quickly show the direction and distance to each and then ask if you want to add it to the route. My dash is cleared, I can't believe how useful this PTA is, replacing all the junk.