West Coast Swing

No, it's not a dance, just our meanderings through the land of fruits and nuts.  California really is Americas Salad Bowl, so they say.
Lots of agriculture, stuff growing everywhere and we can't identify most of it.
Our first contact with the nuts was on the freeway.  Seems as soon as we crossed the state line and were officially in California, people started tailgating me (and not the pre-game party-in-the-parking- lot kind).  They are also in an extreme hurry to get where they are going.  I'm not judging, especially in my case, having lived in Texas most of my life and more than happy to drive as fast as I can on those wide open stretches (BTW I was the youngest to "earn" my PhD in defensive driving.), but they are all going by me on both sides like I'm standing still.

We reached our campground in Jamul, CA only to find that it's in a canyon and there was NO cell service.  The sites were on both sides of a highway and we had to get in the truck, cross the road and go to the swimming pool area to get a cell signal. (first world problem, I guess)

 

For my birthday, we decided to just go to San Diego and bum around for the day.  Of course, a trip to San Diego would not be complete without going to the Del Coronado hotel.

A guy was there building sandcastles for a wedding and this one just happened to mark the date.

These guys are truly artists.  The detail is amazing and when I asked him, "How do you do that?", he said, "You start with a big pile of sand and remove the part that doesn't look like a castle."  Simple.

Fun fact:  The Del Coronado, opened in 1888, is the second largest wooden structure in the U.S. We decided that the people hired to paint the exterior have perpetual job security.






Slightly because of the traffic issues and mostly because we're cheap and didn't want to pay for parking, we found a Park & Ride, parked the truck and took the MetroLink train to the game in San Diego at Petco Park. Because the train has a lower fare for seniors and the parking lot doesn't.
 
 

Our favorite spot; behind home plate, in the upper deck.  Great view of downtown and we can always see the replays on the video board.

The high temp that day in San Diego was only 68 and by the end of the 5th (inning, not Jack Daniels) it was 59 and we were ready to go.







We moved from Jamul (San Diego) to Menifee (Los Angeles) and went to the Rangers game at Angel Stadium.  Really nice stadium inside and out.  It got cold here too, but it was the Rangers so we  hung in there for the full nine innings.  Rangers lost but we stayed for the whole ugly thing.

Even the mouse is apparently an Angels fan.





















Here we are again, upper deck behind home plate.  No downtown view here but the mountains are really nice.



Today, 4/13, we moved again.  Now we're in Acton and preparing to go to Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

 

Time to Catch Up - Part II

More Fun / Less Stress

This was our second trip to Voyager RV Resort in Tucson.  The first time we spent a month back in Oct/Nov of 2015.  It's a great park for senior adults with over 300 activities and events to keep retirees out of trouble.

We wanted to see what Tucson was like in the winter months because, after all, our # 1goal was to find a place to settle down when we have completed our sight-seeing tour of the U.S.

Tucson is situated at 2500 feet elevation and we found out that in January and February, it gets dad gum cold, violating our # 2 goal of never being cold again.  Thank goodness for our electric mattress pad.  I will say this in Tucson's favor, even when the highs were in the low 60s, when the sun was shining, it was plenty warm for pickleball.  It wasn't quite warm enough for Jane to go to the pool for water exercises though.  The low humidity, almost no bugs and beautiful mountains make it a pretty desirable place to be.  Oh, and did I mention lots of pickleball, 14 courts and they keep 'em busy.

They also have some gorgeous sunsets over the mountains.

 

By early March, we had the wheel / axle fixed and the body work completed just in time for Jimmie and Ed to come visit for a few days.  We had a great time going to Sabino Canyon, near Mt. Lemmon.

The next day Ed and I played golf while the girls went to line dancing and water exercises and played pickleball.

Jane here - while I was line dancing and going to water exercises, Jim was busy honing his pickleball skills.  He became a rated player at the 3.5 level.  The ranking system goes from 2.0 to 5.0.  The week after Jimmie and Ed's visit, the park held it's annual pickleball tournament.  Jim entered the men's doubles and  mixed doubles and received a bronze medal in men's doubles and a silver in mixed doubles.

                 In mixed doubles, they lost the gold medal match by 1 point.  Maybe next year.

Then, it was time to check off another one of our travel goals, to attend some Texas Rangers spring training games in Surprise, AZ.  My cousin, Rick Spear, was in Surprise for some games also and we got to see each other there!  I knew he was there through the wonder of facebook. 
















The Rangers and Royals share the same stadium and there are 14 other teams that go to AZ for spring training.

Spring Training is over and it's time to start the season and we're headed west to attend games in San Diego, LA, Oakland and Seattle. We will see the Rangers at all these games except San Diego.  Then, we will have completed our goal to attend a game in every major league stadium (actually, Jim still hasn't been to Fenway and I remind him that I've been there whenever we watch the Rangers play the Red Sox on TV)

We made it to El Centro, CA. 

This park is between Yuma, AZ and San Diego.

We can look out our window and see the mountains in Mexico.
















James 4:15 says, "Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

If the Lord wills and we live, here's where we plan to be this year -

April 5-8 San Diego
April 9 - 13 Los Angeles
April 14 - 19 San Francisco/Oakland
April 20 -22 Oregon House, CA
April 23 - 26 Crater Lake, OR
April 27 - 30 Mt. Hood, OR
May 1 - 5 Seattle, WA
May 6 - 8 Florence, OR
May 9 - 10 Mt. Shasta, CA
May 11 - 18 work our way down to Santa Barbara and then to So. Cal.
May 18 - 27 work our way to Flagstaff, AZ
May 27  meet up with Bill, LuAnn and Becca in Flagstaff

There will be some time spent in Texas and at the lake in Arkansas after that and then back to Texas for our annual doctor appointments and to get the RV and truck inspections.  We have reservations for the winter in a park in the Rio Grande valley in Texas. Some other couples from the park in Tucson will be there so that should be fun.  It is always a little intimidating going to a park where a lot of the snowbirds already know each other from years past and we are the newbies.  So knowing people when we get there will feel good.

So.......here we go......another wild and crazy spring.  Have you ever awakened in your own bed but not been sure what city you are in???  Always an adventure.