San Diego Ca.-Acton Ca.

Thur. We had a good morning getting places to stay for the next two weeks.  We also got the rest of the "break buddy" sent so they could check it out.  They are sending us a replacement till ours gets fixed.  We went to Mexico for the last time(YEA) for Linda got her crowns and teeth cleaned.  We went and got groceries, ate dinner, and went to club house and watched HGTV.  Only109 today! This is the third night that we went for a swim and did it feel refreshing. As we were swimming we enjoyed the sunset.  We went on a walk around the park and linda found some flowers on the cactus.  After playing some cards we went to bed.

Fri.  We got up ate and did our bible study.  We got on the road the first two hours was flat then 69 feet to 4269 feet.  We dropped to 3000 feet just to go up to 4200 again.  We passed a church that was on a hugh man made hill(top left)  Then went past sand dunes(middle left), mountain with rocks(middle middle), past many spots to fill your radiator (middle right), and mountains with vegetation on it.  After we got hooked up we noticed a little critter drinking water from our hose(bottom right) At 3100 feet we found our campground.  WE HAVE OUR WINDOWS OPEN.  At 8 tonight it was 74 not 105.  What a difference we even cooked on the grill Salmon,asparagus had baked potatoes and ate outside.  After a walk we did laundry, washed the windshield and our Fri. chores.

Sat. we got up moved back up the mountain about 5 miles to another campground.  God blessed us with a 50 amp. elec., water, and sewer.  We went down the mountain to San Diego. Top left picture is us going into town toward the visitor center.  We then went to Old Town(Birthplace of Ca. where the first Europeans settled) the Ca. settlement depicts the Mexican and early American years (1821 to 1872).  There are many historic buildings and adobe homes.  They had a Dr. buggy(middle picture), Stable (middle right), making candles(bottom left),during the week-end folks were dressed in 1800 attire(middle bottom), and Wells fargo coach(bottom right).

Top left printing of San Diego Pacific Newspaper, adobe home(middle top), oven which was behind the houses(top and middle right), school house(middle left), home with three double beds(middle picture), telegraph and bank office(bottom left), outside cigar store(bottom middle) inside store(bottom right.

Top left Linda in a wagon, I (Linda's mouth still to sore to chew)had two tacos and while I ate they had dancers(top middle), the rest some of the flower pictures Linda took.

We drove to Coronado, parked the car and walked around town.  We came to Hotel del Coronado where the average cost is $687.00. One of the few examples of wooden Victorian structures. It is the second largest wooden structures in US after Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook Or.(middle left), middle Linda at a fountain in front of resort, middle right a conference room with the wooden ceiling, bottom left the beach, bottom middle bank, and bottom right the movie theatre.

We then drove to the other side of the island to Coronado Ferry Landing.  Top pictures a view of San Diego, middle left USS midway and the rest is of different Navy ships.

Sun.  We went to church then out to "Original pancake house".  Top left picture 1925, 2600 foot long wooden, Giant Dipper Roller Coaster on Misson Beach in Belmont Park. Next two pictures Mount Soledad and Veterans Memorial.  The walls have a picture of the service men and a little about them on each plaque.  The view on the 822 foot above sea level was wonderful.  We could see the sky scrapers in San Diego and Los Angles along with the beach coast.  We then drove to La Jolla cove and children's pool which are the next six pictures.  You can see the sea lions and seagulls with her babies. 

We then drove to Balboa Park which has 17 museums and 10 gardens and the Zoo. It is an amazing place 1,200 acres which is the nation's largest urban cultural park and is rated one of the best parks in the world. We started out going to the Botanical Building(bottom left) Then walked around seeing and enjoying the architect of the buildings.  As we left we passed the Spreckels Organ Pavilion(bottom right).

Here are some of the flowers we captured as we walked in the Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden. It is one of the top public rose gardens in the world.

Here is the Old Cactus Garden which has some of the largest and oldest cactus.

Her are some flowers from the Botanical gardens one of the lagers wood lath structure.

Mon.  Middle picture and top left, we drove around San Diego Gaslamp Quarter.  We then went to the Seaport (bottom right).  The highlight was going aboard the USS Midway. The longest running U.S. Navy carrier of the 20 century and the longest in the world for 10 years.  Outside the ships grounds they have some statues top middle is Bob Hope with some troops.  You can listen in on what he is saying.  Bottom a man greeted by his wife and child.  Then the 40 foot sailor kissing a nurse.  Middle bottom the rear of the ship.

Inside, below, and on the deck they had many interactive displays.  Top left the sleeping quarters of three sailors.  Top middle chain for anchor each link 140 pounds. Top right I am using the radar ( you can see what happens when you mess where you should not mess Jail middle left.  Middle picture giving orders to release plan. Middle right the deck with planes and helicopters you could set in.  Middle bottom mess hall and middle right the chapel.  This only scratches the surface of the things you can see.  They gave us an audio recorder to help us around the ship with 66 stations to go to.

Mon.  We got up and headed for the dentist near Yuma.  Linda was having problems with a new filling not having space to dental floss.  While she was there they shaved another tooth down so her bite would be better.  All the water bottles we have been saving we cashed in got $3.75.  When we got home we got things ready to leave.

Tues.  We got up and drove to Yuma (I guess we missed the heat at 110 degrees).  Linda went back t the dentist for one of the fillings did not give her room to dental floss.  She also had a little pain in one of her crowns.  They shaved a little off each.  We drove back to the rig and got ready to leave.

Wed. We got up and left for Acton Ca. Thousand Trails.  After 7 hours  ( because I-5 was bumper to bumper traffic the entire 201 miles) we got here where the weather is to be in low 90 but instead it is 102!!.  We got set up and I took a nap.  We got our "loner"' break buddy.  We drove to church and along the way we stopped at Train station to see how much it would be.

Az.

Thur.  With the time change I was up early. I made coffee and  we did our bible study.  We left Albuquerque N.M. stopped in about a hour for our breakfast rolls that we got  4 for a $1. Then 1 1/2 half to the boarder where we were hoping to get info on Az.  They  no longer have info at the rest stop.  We then left for  Cottonwood Az.  We got here around noon and got the rig set up with 30 amp. We were getting concerned when we found out it was going to over 100 degrees.  We made it though the day and when the sun went down it cooled off quickly.

Fri.  In the 60's when we woke up but it got to 101.  We moved the rig to a 50 amp site.  It is very uneven and we had to use 4 2x10 boards to get the front high enough for the automatic levelers to work.  We played cards at the club house and took a walk at night. We talked to some folks from Ca. and they told us things to do and roads to take in Ca.  

Sat.  After our breakfast and bible study I did some maintenance on the generator and Linda Ironed some clothes.  We went to the club house where there is internet and I worked on  the blog.  We played some cards and some jig saw puzzles on the I-pad. For lunch they had a food wagon and it served hot dogs with a different flair(top left tow pictures).  We had wild hog with apricot and cranberry the fix-ins was sauteed onions, peppers, bacon and a special mustard.  We also had a pheasant with spinach, mushrooms, parmesan and the fix-ins was onions, bacon and special mustard. They also had southern buffalo, jackalope with dried cherries and habanero,polish, smoked kielbasa, and all beef hot dogs.  It got up to 106 today we spent most of the time in the club house.

Sun. We drove to Sedona for church.  When we got there we looked for a post office to mail letters.  They had a man there who informed folks about snake and had one around his neck(top right picture).  We got a Starbucks then church.  The four mountain pictures just do not show the beauty God has made these mountains.  I guess you have to see it to believe it.  We went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and had maui maui with mango salsa.  It was an outstanding dish (middle picture)  Then for dessert we went to a shopping area that we had visited four years ago and had a raspberry cake with cheesecake chunks. We were to full to eat it so we got it to go.  When we got back to the rig it was 109 degrees it topped out at 113.  It is amusing that we turned the air conditioner at 90 to get cool.  We spent the afternoon at the club house playing cards.  We had dinner and our cake.  It got cool enough to go back to the rig around eight o'clock.

Mon.  We got up at 5, did a devo, then got ready to leave.  As I was leaving I turned the rig into some scrubs. Had to back up and go the other direction.  When we got to the top of the hill to hook up the car I looked at the side and found the scrubs in Az. are very sharp and do not give! As we were leaving we saw an air balloon (picture below top right) We started our trip going up 2000 feet. As we are going up the mountain I heard and felt the engine struggling.  As we were going down the mountain I went to get off an exit when the front brakes of the car locked-up.  For about a 100 feet nothing but smoke, I took my foot off the brake but the tires still locked up.  I reapplied the brakes and they started to turn again. We called Blue Ox people they couldn't  figure out why they would lock up. Picture below bottom left a cactus and bottom right solar elec. panels.   When we got to Yuma we parked the rig, took a nap, went to the store.  That is when we felt the tires bouncing down the road.  When we looked at them we saw two bald spots(pictures below top left).  We took it to Honda for we have a warranty.  Well the warranty is only good for a few things that may hurt the tires.  They did not have any in stock so we went to Discount Tires and got two new tires. Now we have to call them back because both Honda and Discount Tire said they had never seen that before. God was with us as those tires could have blown. Today 109 out.

Tues. We got up did a bible study lots of prayers and left for Mexico.  We got to the dentist and found all I needed was a cleaning and Linda needs 3 crowns and 5 fillings.  Hope to be done by Fri.  When we got back we had the Honda oil changed and had them see why the antilock brakes did not work.  They found a wire going to the break system that may be bad. We then went to the Blue Ox place to see what is going on(they were close in Ne. try Wed.)  We got home very hot fourth day over 105 degrees.  Went to club house to get cooled and catch up on our budget. We have to keep rig at 95 in daytime so as not to over work the air conditioners.  We went swimming (it felt so nice).

Wed.  Again we got up did our bible study then to Mexico.  They have been so great and on time with everything.  Linda got her filling's done and color for the crowns.  When we got back to Yuma we went to the blue-ox distributor and called them about the breaks locking up.  They had us send it back to them so they can be sure it is working right.  Also she told us that we could not have the motor running when we set the break buddy.  We got the box ready and went to fed-ex, which was a mile away.  111 today! Going to church tonight.  We made reservations to go to California on Sat. They could not get us Fri so we are still trying to find another spot for Fri.  Its 80 to 90 there but it cools to 60's at night opposed to here cooling to 88! 

Sojourn-Mindel Ne.-North Platte Ne.-Albuquerque NM.-Turquoise Trail/Santa Fe/Bandelier National Monument

Thur.  After our country fried steak, biscuits and gravy, potatoes, and eggs we had our devo.  Linda went to the library to help the girls and I went to help finish the painting at the dorm.  For lunch we had t-bone steak(see picture below), baked potato, and asparagus.  Linda and her group had a little more to do at the library so they went and finished.  While there one of the guys was turning 75 so we had ice-cream, banana bread and cake.  We got the rig ready to leave so after dinner we emptied the tanks then hooked up the car.  We played cards for the last time.

 Fri. We woke up and had our coffee watching the Today show.  We came back to realty and    had oatmeal for breakfast. We then got on the road and drove to Minden Ne.  After we got set up we walked to the Pioneer Village.  We both thought it was going to be village of the past showing the Ne. history and how it was in the old days.  Boy were we wrong.  They covered the history 1820 to 1980 not only Ne. history but all the things going on at that time period.  Below are some of the wagons and buggies.  The first two covered wagons, then an ice carriage, a water wagon(use to keep the dust down in the streets), postal wagon, a hearst, chuck wagon, upper class buggies, and buggy pulling a Hearst.

Scattered around in different building they have 350 antique autos. Notice the VW and middle right a corvair that brought back memories when we first started dating. The bottom row a trailer and motorhome.

They did have some building that you would expect like the old store, top middle is a sod house(there were not many trees here so they made 3 to 4 feet thick sod homes),a church, middle right a 1879 steam powered carousel and some flowers Linda captured.

They had many trains engines.  In one building they captured a room setting middle row left 1930, middle picture 1950 and  middle right baby carriages and above that a baby doll swing.  The bottom row is 3 of the 100 antique tractors.

They had snowmobiles, motor bikes, bicycles, ice boxes, stoves, sewing machines, and wash machines.

They had a large collection of John Rogers Sculptures. His first in 1859 "The Checker Players" brought him fame.  He made a total of 80 in 34 years.

Yea this is the last picture.  Top left two are ways they took large trees out of the woods.  There was no rivers or streams.  Third picture some tools. Top right gas pumps, bottom 2nd picture is a bath tub which tips up to make a table.(becuz you take a bath only once a week)  Third picture is me playing a game and bottom right and left some boats and motors.

After dinner we took a walk downtown. Top two left pictures the court house.  The three right pictures more flowers Linda found on our walk.  Bottom left is the Opera House built in 1891. 

Sat.  We drove to North Platte and settled in at Lakeside Campground.  Thinking we had lots of time we cleaned the bugs off the front of the rig.  We drove to Starbucks then the welcome center.  We got a pass to four places.  Below is Buffalo Bills State Historical Park. Top left there home for 27 years on 4000 acres. The 2nd picture Louis’a bedroom which she had her personal maid stay with her. Top right picture is Buffalo Bills bedroom and next to it was the guest bedroom with joining doors. Middle picture is a buffalo jacket.  Outside they had a spring house, ice house and the right picture is the cellar.  Bottom left 2 pictures are two of the posters he used when he got to a town.  And of course they had two buffalo there.

Bill had a huge barn.  He could have several horses there(middle picture) and this is where he kept his wagon’s when he was not on the road. Middle left picture is some of the tools he used. The picture next to that  a buffalo head and hide.  Middle right and bottom left some of the buggies they road in. Bottom middle and right three indians “Hawk, San Surrounded, and Sitting Bull.

Just around the corner from there was Lincoln county Historical Museum. Top left a petrified turtle. Middle top a collection so arrow heads. On the right the back of a chuck wagon. Middle left post office, middle Iron lung, and right glasses and opth. office.  Bottom left a MD office with a child getting a Z-ray. Middle the movie projector used at the town movie theatre.  Right picture a living room back in the early 1900’s.

They had on display the orphans that were shipped from NYC out west.  They had a number and put on the Adoption train.  The top left is one of them after she grew older.  Top middle some band equipment and uniforms.  Right a dining room setting. Middle left a ladies salon and next to it a Beauty bar.  Middle right a wedding dress. Bottom left since the town was a stopping point for the service men on the train.  The ladies made sandwiches and drinks for the service men half hour stopover.  They made twenty birthday cakes a day for those having there birthday.  Middle many newspaper weightings and the German flag. On the bottom right some of the uniforms used by the service men and women that came through the town.

The Golden Spike Tower is the reason for stopping in town.  We went up into the tower(top right), middle is some of the train cars getting ready to leave.Top right is the place where the engines get worked on. Middle left look at the three cars in the top middle of the picture.  They are on what they call the hump, they are released and a computer puts them in the right train line. Middle picture look on the right that is where the engines get fuel. Middle right is a setting out of the  dinning car.  Bottom left some things left out the track is 8 miles long and two miles long and is on  2,850 acres. Middle picture one of the operators for the train yard. Bottom right with layout of the train yard.

As it was getting late we got to Cody Park Train Display before it closed.  Top left a peacock we saw on the way. Top right the station and bottom the train engines.  

We went back to Lincoln county Historical Museum for a stage performance of Woodrow Wilson  bottom left and W.E.B. De Bois(Bottom middle).  They told what was going on at the time with the negro’s and how the time were changing. Top pictures a church and inside, middle pictures a school house and inside it.  Left is a Sears and Roebuck house With two of the rooms Bottom right.

As we were leaving we went to a barn which had these fire trucks, farm equipment, and cars.  Just outside we saw the old gas pumps. Bottom left a home of one of the town prominent leaders.  The middle picture is inside his house. Bottom right train station and caboose.

Linda went and took pictures of the flowers below.

 Sunday we went to church and one of the Sojourners lives in town. We had a little visit with him. We ate at a restaurants that the first owner of the restaurant sold it to one of the employees, then they sold it to one of the employees, which sold it to one of the employees.  The food was great and teens which were probably family served  us.  When we got back to the rig we left and drove to Garden City, Kansas. It is very hot (97) and the sun is very intense coming in the front window which makes it very hot inside. 

Mon.  We got up and went to Great Clips for our haircuts.  Then on the road to Logan New Mexico.  We traveled through the panhandle of Ok. and Tx. to get here.  For the third time when we stop I washed the front of the rig to get all the bugs off.  I got caught up on the blog and we went to bed early because we our now in Mountain time zone.

Tues.  With the time change we were on the road early.  The picture below is some of the things we saw, top left a building in the dirt, top middle a different looking silo, the fan blades of the windmill  turbines, 2nd row left a water tower, middle crops which there were a lot of fields full of them, Canadian River coming into Albuquerque. 3rd row different mountains.

After we got set up on west side of Albuquerque we drove into Old Town.top left I am standing next to a sign telling how the town started. Top 2nd picture in the town square were some musician's (they sounded very good with music you would expect in Mexico). Big middle picture is San Felipe de Neri Church and 2nd picture bottom inside the church and bottom left an angel carved out of a dead tree. Top 3rd picture and bottom 3rd and 4th picture the market place.  Top right a young lady getting here pictures taken.

We then drove to the Albuquerque International Ballon Museum(middle picture).Top left first-ever"world Hot Air Balloon Championship" held in Albuquerque 1973 138 balloons. 2nd picture 950 pound cow balloon used each year, 3rd and 4th picture top and bottom 1st and 2nd pictures some of the air balloons. 3rd bottom picture is a replica balloon flight that dates in the early 1700's.

Some flower picture Linda took.

Wed.  We left this morning for the Turquoise trail.  As you can see in the pictures below there was a lot of mountains and each is a little different with the rocks, trees and scrubs.  We went to a ghost town "Madrid" which now people are starting to move back into.

  

We went to Santa Fe and went to the state courthouse.  The guide was wonderful and told us a lot about her state.  Three of the bottom pictures are of artist in the state.

We went to Cathedral Basilica. Of St. Francis Of Assisi the next two pictures below show them

 
We went to the oldest home in Santa Fe  first five pictures. Then bottom row of pictures is the oldest active church in the nation "San Miguel Mission Church.

Then to Bandelier National Monument.  We started out with a guided tour but when time got limited we went on our own. There are still over a thousand areas that have to be studied.

Third week at York College

Thur.  This Sojourn has been great.  The school has a chef and since we are the only ones here he cooks for us.  For breakfast he has made pancakes, omelets, eggs(and way we want them) and more.  For lunches he has made chicken cordon bleu, stir-fry, and more.  We got the meeting room painted and worked a little on the dorms again.  All the sojourners drove to the president of York College home(top left picture). Linda took some pictures of the flowers in their garden(rest of the pictures below).  We had dinner and fellowship afterwards.  When we got back to the college we played cards.

Fri. We got up and drove to Omaha, Ne.  After visiting the welcome center we walked to some of the statues they have in town.  Top left is a very tall boy.  The rest of the statues is a series of them.  It had a wagon train with folks doing different things on the wagon trail.  The wagon train scared the buffalo which scared the birds in the pond. The birds were over a two block area.

We had lunch ate "J's on Jackson".  We got their bacon-peanutbutter hamburger(middle left).  We drove to Lauritzen Gardens(top first three pictures)Botanical Gardens.  You can see their large green house and flowers in the pond. Across there parking lot is Kennewick Park (bottom right picture)where two of the greatest locomotives.  Big Boy (left in picture is 1 of 25 ever built) at the time most powerful (7000 hours power top speed 70 MPH), heaviest(1.25 million pounds), and longest steam locomotive. It logged 829,295 miles.  The Centennial a single-unit with two diesel motors, had nearly 2 million miles and could go 85 MPH with more weight. We went to the Omaha's Union Station.  Now a museum they have statues of the former way of life.  With the different setting they have recordings of what might have been said(second picture below).  The 3 middle row pictures on right is the ice cream shop we went to "Ted and Wally's". We had a double dip with cinnamon raisin coffee cake and green onion cream cheese.  Linda went into the Old Market Candy Shop. We then drove to Lewis and Clark Historic Trail.  As we got there they started a movie telling about them.  We then walked the grounds which they had plants that was recorded by the two of them. Bottom left picture is of the grounds and the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. The 3,000 foot long walkway(1.2 miles) starts here at Lewis and Clark Historical Trail and other end is at Council Bluffs Iowa. After we got home we ate and played cards.

Sat. After breakfast and bible study I washed the car and Linda started to get our next destinations ready.  After lunch we went with some friends to the York Museum.  They had things from the 1800''s to 1900's.  We then went to a marble museum which had over a million marbles.  Some with uranium which glowed with a black light.  They had some with logo's on them.  He even got some from a marble plant that had thrown the disfigured marbles in the dirt.We went to a mexican restaurant for dinner then came back and played cards.

Sun.  Bill, Ellen(sojourners), Linda and I drove to Lincoln Ne. for the day.  We first went to church then to the Capitol Building(top left) which is one of the most beautiful capitols.  2nd picture is the senate chamber.  The top right  is the door to the House chambers that Ne did away with during the depression.  They are the only state that has one chamber.  3rd top is Buffalo Bill who is born in Ne.  They had many folks displayed that helped form Ne. history.  2nd row left is the Ne. Supreme Court. They had a guided tour of the building which was awesome, then we went to the top of the building.  The view was fantastic. We drove to a International Quilt Museum which houses 3,500 quilts but only displays 50 at a time. More that 25 countries are represented(2 row 3rd picture to bottom row 3rd picture).  As you can see they have different types of quilts.  Before we left town we went to the Dairy Store on University of Nebraska east campus and had ice cream(bottom right).  When we got back to York we went to church then went to bed early. 

Mon.  We got up had our coffee in bed watching the today show.  Did our bible study then to the cafeteria  for breakfast and group deco at 7:30.  John and I worked on putting windows in the class room doors.  We went to three locations and got eight of them done.  At the close of the work day we put one of the windows on the bottom of the door.Yikes!  I washed part of the rig before dinner.  After dinner we played cards.

Tues.  I lead a prayer for devo this morning. John and I put in eight more windows this morning.  After we got done I started painting.  Linda has not stopped painting since she got here.  Before dinner  I washed the front of the rig.  After dinner more cards.

Wed.  I lead the devo this morning on the biblical heart.  We painted again today, after lunch we finished washing the rig. After work I cleaned inside of rig, checked the tires, and Honda.  Linda went to the grocery store. We've been spoiled with being fed two BIG meals every day for 3 weeks!!  We had dinner then to church. WE came home and I put the bikes on the car.