L.A. The Final '"Wrap"

Saturday morning, after traveling 95 miles from our RV resort, we were still in L.A. after arriving at Yorba Linda where the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum are. The L.A. area is sure huge, we were thankful for the ten lane wide expressways. The Library is located on the grounds where the 37th President was born and spent his first nine years.

The Museum was closed for renovation but
all the outdoor exhibits were available.

President Nixon's Birthplace

Army One

President Richard Nixon and his wife, Patricia's, Graves

We stopped at Forest Lawn Memorial Park to view the final resting place of many of Hollywood's stars. This beautiful century old cemetery sits high on a hill. With over 300 acres it contains many works of art and sculpture, a museum, theater and several small chapels. Where else can you see the final resting places of multiple movie stars, visit a replica of Rudyard Kipling's church, watch white swans glide across a lake, see a mosaic of "The Signing of the Declaration of Independence," view the world's largest religious painting in a state-of-the-art theater, and discover replicas of all of Michelangelo's major works in one place?
The "Golden Age" Hollywood stars buried here include some of the biggest names in the history of Hollywood: Jimmy Stewart, Jean Harlow, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Humphrey Bogart, Mary Pickford, Errol Flynn, Spencer Tracy. Others here are:  Walt Disney, Sammy Davis, Jr., Alan Ladd, Ted Knight, Nat King Cole, Ed Wynn, Chico Marx, Robert Cummings, Casey Stengel, and Jean Hersholt, plus authors Louis L'Amour, Theodore Dreiser and L. Frank Baum.  

The Mystery of Life Sculpture

 This modern theatre presents hourly exhibitions of the
colossal painting called "The Crucifixion."
In fact, the Hall was built expressly to house and
display this work of art. The world's largest religious
painting, "The Crucifixion" measures
195 feet long and 45 feet high.

The Great Mausoleum holds the crypts of
Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor,
Red Skelton, Clark Gable and
W.C. Fields to name only a few.

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