California - 2

So, it’s been a while since I took the time to do any writing. Time keeps slipping away. We have dwibbled away the entire month of April here in California. When I left off last, we were still at Jojoba Hills and I was preparing for my trip to Minnesota.

I flew out of Palm Springs for 4 days at Greg and Peggy’s where I played with Edie and enjoyed some spring days. We went for bike rides and went to the beach where it was warm enough for Edie to play in the water. I was there for the opening day at Sea Salt Eatery at Minnehaha Park. Greg, Edie and I arrived early to get a place in line so that when Peggy got off work she could meet us there. It was a fine way to spend a splendid spring day. If you ever get to Minneapolis, I highly recommend this place. We arrived early and still waited in line for half an hour. Two hours later we left and the line was still circling the building. No one seemed to mind the wait since they could get a glass of beer and the weather was fine. Minnesotans really know to appreciate an exquisite April day. (I was overusing the word ‘fine’ to describe the weather so I went to the thesaurus to look for other words).  Lovely, splendid, gilt-edged…. All work to describe the weather that day. I also was lucky to catch Sister Kay at home on Saturday and we enjoyed lunch together at Byerly’s Grill. That night Edie and I enjoyed a mac & cheese dinner with broccoli and played wildly imaginative games of getting bats out of the house and rescuing baby dolls while her parents enjoyed a night out. My trip ended with dinner at Greg’s with brother Ludwig, sister Kay and nephew Kenny and and niece by marriage Lori. The weather changed and it was cool and rainy. Time to go home to California and Don.

Our camper has a top of the line system for providing heat and hot water called Aqua Hot. It runs on either electricity or diesel fuel (or both) depending on what is available to us. Before I left on vacation, it started not working. It flashes a series of codes to let us know what needs to be fixed. Don replaced the diesel nozzle and thought that fixed it but then it started a different code. While I was in Minnesota he continued to work on the project. It was flashing a different code so he ordered a high-temperature thermostat to replace one of those and was waiting for that part to be delivered. I had informed Don in no uncertain terms that I was not interested in becoming an Aqua Hot technician and thought that we should pay someone who was trained. As it turns out that might not be feasible as technicians are few and far between and the shop we were near was scheduled for weeks out and would need us to drop off our house for a few days… not very practical. So we continue to work on that for now.

We left Jojoba Hills on April 22^nd and boondocked (dry-camped) for 2 nights at a site we found through our membership at Harvest Hosts, Falkner’s Winery near Temecula. That was a beautiful place to stay. We met a woman named Maureen who lives fulltime in an RV and travels around. Maureen and I went to the wine-tasting. She had a glass of sangria while I did a wine-tasting and sampled 4 different kinds of red wine. While we were there, we picked up the Aqua Hot part and installed it. That didn’t solve the problem but we continued down the road. Fortunately the weather isn’t cold and with electricity we can have adequate hot water as long as we both don’t take long showers.

We left Falkners on April 24^th and came north getting around Los Angeles. We stayed for 2 nights in Pomona at the KOA. It was cool and rainy… actually misty. It never really rains here anymore. On Saturday we took the train into LA and used subways and buses to get around. We went to Hollywood and walked down Hollywood boulevard reading the names of stars under our feet. We saw lots of strange things and ate cream puffs for lunch at Papa Beards. Then we took a bus over to Beverly Hills where we walked down Rodeo Drive looking at lovely houses and expensive shops. We then took the bus and subway back to Union Station for the train trip back to Pomona. I will try to upload some pictures.

On Sunday, we came to the place where we are now, Valencia Travel Village near Santa Clarita. My friend Hillary lives there. Back in the 1980’s when Ronald Reagan was president, I worked with Hillary for the Illinois Legislature. She did science research when I was working for the Printing Unit. We had dinner with Hillary at the Newhall Refinery on the sidewalk and caught up on news. Amazingly, Hillary and I don’t look much different than we did in our 30’s and we had no problem recognizing each other. On Monday, we stayed around here. I made some granola, did laundry and cleaned up the place. Don continued to work on the Aqua Hot. An Allegro Bus pulled in next to us and we met a couple who have been on the road since 2008 and have had lots of experience with Aqua Hot.  Dennis and Elsa (see their blog at lettersfromabus.com) are their names. Dennis and Don talked Aqua Hot for a while and Dennis talked about their 8 months trouble shooting ultimately replacing the motor for $2500 which solved the problem and it has run fine ever since.  He had the name of a service tech in California that he gave to Don. Don went and got an Ohmmeter and tested circuits and so on. Last night he put the thing back together and put away the tools. It continues to flash the same code.

On Tuesday we took a drive into Santa Monica by way of Mullhollen Drive and were rewarded with even more fantastic vistas which California continues to provide. We walked down the Santa Monica pier and spent some time on the beach. We then began driving north down the 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). In California no one says Interstate 10 or Highway 126. It is the 10 or the 126. I am learning to speak the language. We stopped at Malibu beach for lunch at Paradise Cove overlooking the ocean. Since the misting stopped on Sunday, the weather has been unseasonably warm and sunny.We continued our drive and came upon several RV's that were camped along the beach at a state park. We stopped to talk to a young couple who were outside unraveling their kite string. They were there celebrating their 18th anniversary and said that they had been watching whales go by as they are migrating up to Alaska right now. We sttayed for a while in hopes of seeing a whale but were not so lucky. It didn't really matter sas it

The reason I brought up Ronald Reagan earlier is because yesterday in honor of Friend Dwight, we drove up to Simi Valley to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum. We expected to learn an alternative version of late 20^th century history and were not disappointed. As you can see by the picture that I hope to include, I was totally smitten by this movie star President. He saved the country from the depths of recession and inflation by cutting taxes and shifting government spending to the military.

Today, we are moving the camper to Pismo Beach for a couple of days and after that we will start moving towards Yosemite. More about that later.