L.A. "It's A Wrap"

On a day trip to Santa Barbara, California, we visited the Ronald Reagan Ranch Center and the Santa Barbara Zoo.

There were exhibits here, but the actual 688 acre private
ranch, Rancho del Cielo, is located about 25 miles away.

This black-crowned night heron seemed
to follow us around throughout the zoo.

Baby Chad was born March 26, 2016
He was 6'6" and 191 pounds at birth. 

The small Channel Island Fox are extremely endangered.

On another day we visited Mission Hill and Sylmar. Mission San Fernando Rey de España was founded in 1797. This is one of 21 Catholic missions founded along the coast of California.

Old Mission Church

This is a replica of the church that was
built here in 1804

This 400 year old altar was hand made in Spain.

The Bob Hope Memorial Garden is located just outside
the old mission church. 
Bob and his wife, Dolores, were buried here in 2005.

The Nethercutt Collection and Museum were outstanding. J.B. Nethercutt, co-founder of Merle Norman Cosmetics and his wife, Dorothy, loved to collect beautiful things, functional objects. J.B. and Dorothy set up a trust so the public can enjoy their collection free of charge. The collections includes over 250 antique and classic luxury automobiles, a restored 1937 steam locomotive, tender and Pullman car, musical instruments, Reproducing Pianos, Nickelodeons, Disc Music Boxes, Orchestrions and jewelry.

1912 Pullman Palace Car
This luxurious suite could be considered the
equivalent of owning a private jet today.

The 81 foot long railcar had its own kitchen and
dining room with electric chandeliers.

Master bedroom with adjoining bathroom,
two guest rooms and servants quarters.

1937 Pierce Arrow pulling a matching Travelodge Trailer

Where is the AC and the slide-outs?

Ford Model "T" and Model "A"

1937 Cord

1934 Duesenberg

The Grand Salon is a replica of what a dealership
showroom looked like in the 1910’s, 20 and 30’s.
There is a marble floor, crystal chandeliers,
and painted ceilings that make
up this beautiful room that is filled with
the finest automobiles of that era.

George Gershwin played Rhapsody in Blue on this Reproducing Piano.
His performance was replayed for our enjoyment.

We were entertained with this beautiful sounding
5,000-Pipe Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Organ

These beautiful "Jacaranda" trees were blooming
all over L.A. County



California Here We Come

Californian RV Resort, south of Palmdale, north of LA, was our first stop in California. This hillside resort is a great home base while touring the area.

The view is outstanding.

California Poppy, the State Flower

On Friday we drove north to the small town of Boron to the Borax Visitor Center. Here we learned all about the Borax industry and viewed the mammoth mining equipment operating in California's largest open pit mine. The pit measures one mile wide, one and one-half miles long and about 650 feet deep. It could hold up to 66 billion gallons of water or 77,000 Olympic swimming pools. This free museum provides an overview of modern mining and the roles minerals play in everyday life.

An Original 20 Mule Team Wagon

Buried deep in the Mojave Desert this is one of the
biggest and richest deposits of borate on the planet.

The tires on the trucks that haul the ore are 12 feet tall.

 The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum opened in 1991. The Library sits high on a mountain with  views of the surrounding mountains, valleys and the Pacific Ocean. We have visited a number of presidential libraries and this is now a favorite.

"Ronnie" Greats All Visitors

An Exact Replica of the Reagan Oval Office

This is the Air Force One in which Ronald Reagan
logged 660,000 miles visiting 26 countries.

Conference Room on Air Force One

The President's Limousine and Motorcade

Nancy joined Ronald in March and they are now
both interred at this site.

We swung by the Channel Island National Park Visitor Center to look at the exhibits and watch a 30 minute video about the five off-shore islands. Because the islands are relatively inaccessible this is about as close as we will be getting. The visitor center is located on a pier with restaurants and shops. On the drive home we stopped at a couple of fruit stands and bought some delicious in-season strawberries and oranges.


Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center in Ventura

I-8 to Yuma

Traveling west, we made two stops in Arizona. Our first stop was at the Casa Grande RV Resort for one night. Due to high winds and predictions of blowing dust, we got an early start and arrived at the resort at noon. We had the place to ourselves since it was off-season.

This was a great stop for less than $20.

We made a two day stop in Yuma. While there we toured the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historical Park, the Quarter Master Depot and Martha's Gardens Medjool Date Farm.

Prisoners built cell blocks in 1876.

Six prisoners lived in 80 square foot rooms
until 1909 when the prison was closed.

No trip to Yuma is complete without a stop at one of their famous date farms. Martha's Garden is one of the best to tour with over 100 acres of date palms.

These date trees are descended from ones imported
from Morocco in 1927.

Next Season's Fruit

Our Summer Adventure to Washington State Begins

After leaving the Rio Grande Valley March 21, we stopped in Austin for a couple weeks to visit with our daughter and her family and then on to our old stomping grounds outside the Dallas Metroplex.  We stayed at East Fork Army Corp of Engineers park on Lake Lavon in Wylie, Texas. Unfortunately, Wylie made National news on Monday, April 11. Grapefruit and baseball sized hail rained down on Wylie for ten minutes. We watched, helplessly as these large stones hit our trailer, truck and car. It looks like our Rhino Roof on the trailer paid off because the trailer suffered little damage, just a broken vent cover over the shower and bent fins on the air conditioning units. The claims adjuster estimated the combined damage on our two vehicles at over $9,000. We were thankful they were not totaled, just a broken windshield and many dents, but still fully functional.  

These are the biggest hail stones we have ever experienced.

After the storm passed, we had a beautiful sunset.

Leaving Wylie on Tuesday, April 19, we headed west on I-20 and joined up with I-10. We drove three days, and then stopped in Deming, New Mexico, for a four day weekend. Deming is a nice little town of 15,000 in the southwest corner of New Mexico. The Escapee Campground is level, clean and friendly. There are four interesting New Mexico State Parks all within 35 miles of the campground.

Escapee Dream Catcher RV Rainbow Park
Deming, NM

City of Rocks State Park was formed by erosion
of ancient volcanic activity.

Pancho Villa State Park, contains exhibits which commemorate the 1916 Pancho Villa raid of the town of Columbus, NM. After the early morning raid on the town, General Pershing was sent to this small border town along with 10,000 troops. They pursued Pancho Villa 500 miles for 10 months before giving up and returning north to U.S. soil, just in time for the U.S. to enter WWI.

Columbus, New Mexico

The Original Border Custom Station in Columbus, NM

Desert Bird of Paradise in Columbus, NM

Another Season Completed at LRGV

We finished up another season working at Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. After departing the Valley on Monday, we stopped in Victoria for a couple of days.

Our favorite lunch spot at Boca Chica Beach

This season we had extremely dry conditions which made the properties along the river very accessible. We were able to inspect properties, work fences and repost refuge signs along areas that are frequently too wet and some two-track roads that we had never driven.

We had a lot of luck finding old tires for the "Dump"
We estimated that we picked up about 600 this year.
Over time it seems like we are making a difference.

This corner was so covered with brush, we didn't
even see this large brown sign before we cleared it.

Beautiful little cactus blooming at
Los Ebanos in February

LRGV's Newest Property - Hunke Ranch

El Tecolote Ranch, part of the Hunke Ranch, is one of the newest acquisitions of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acquired the 1,119 acre tract with funds from the Department of Homeland Security that were reserved to counteract the negative impact to wildlife caused by the construction of the U.S./Mexico border fence. The previous owners, Karen and Phil Hunke, worked for more than a decade to transform thousands of acres into a sanctuary for endangered plants and animals such as the ocelot.

 

We had the opportunity to spend three days working with the fencing contractor as well as posting signs along the borders. The property is seven miles from any paved roads and sits on the Hidalgo/Willacy county line. The area is very quiet with an abundance of wildlife. Driving through the property we saw deer, coyote, nilgai antelope, and lots of birds. 

The fencing contractor placed these beautiful iron
gates at the two entrances.

 

 

Lunch Stop



This beehive on an abandoned building
is the largest we have seen.

Weekend on South Padre Island

We arrived at our destination in South Texas on October 29th. Site 10 at the Marinoff LRGV campground, our winter home for the last six years, was waiting just the way we left it.

 

We took a weekend trip to South Padre Island to celebrate Kurt's birthday. December is a great time to visit the Island because the crowds and prices are low. If you time your visit right, you can still get some great weather.

 

We had a great time bay fishing.

The seagulls chased after us for the unused bait.

This friendly pigeon followed us around the boardwalk.

Baby Alligators at the SPI World Birding Center