WHAT A DOOFIS ! I AM REALLY IN TROUBLE TOO

I cannot believe that I left my memory card out of the camera on two separate occasions.  But, I did. 

Above paragraph is yesterday's.  Today, I returned my memory card to my camera and reviewed past photos. Well, guess what.  All of my photos are there!  I, for some reason, cannot get them to show up to add them to both Picasa or straight to the blog.  Soooo.....

All the photos that you will see in today's blog are from the Internet.  

Our stay at Guajome County Park in San Diego County and Oceanside, CA was a treat.  The sites were large and our site (19) had vegetation around three of it's sides. In site twenty was Jojo (NancyJo) and her friends, Cathie, Cathie's daughter Becca and Wendy.  Wendy and Jojo graduated from Taylor University together.  Cathy is Jojo's business partner.   

It was fun to see Wendy again.  One of the last times we say Wendy was at the girls softball game.  It rained and the game was called.  The girls were frisky and since it was pouring and from third base to the home plate was a big puddle, the girls decided to run and slide to home plate, on their stomachs!  There is no need to explain the condition of the girls uniforms.  We were thankful that it was the last game prior to graduation.  

Opps, I digress.  Guajome County Park is a nice place to camp with electric (30 amp), and water hook-ups.  There is a dump station at the exit.  

There are so many trails to explore.  I walked many of the trails, but was unable to walk all.  One of the trails actually leads to the beach at Oceanside, eight miles away.  All trails are also suitable for bicycles.  The park is also dog friendly as long as you clean up after the fur kids.  

Part of the park system in San Diego is the Rancho Guajome Adobe County Park.  On the grounds is a seven thousand square-foot, twenty eight room hacienda. It is located on twenty-two hundred and nineteen acres.

The seven thousand square feet would not have been so much a problem, but the lay-out would.  This hacienda was built totally around a courtyard. 

What you see in this photo is one side of the hacienda.  This area contained the office, the master suite, a formal entry (Zaguan) with a staircase to the observation "tower," and sewing room.  The parlor, the office and the store.  

In total, the hacienda had seven bedrooms, a school room, a dining room, kitchen, bakery and pantry.  I loved the bakery with it's wood burning oven (horno).  
 
 

Note the thickness of the adobe walls.

As a parent, I cannot imagine not having children's bedrooms so far from the master suite.  

Children's bedrooms  and the school room

One side, the side directly opposite the photo above, is where the servants and the mayor domo were lodged.  Then behind these quarters we found the carriage courtyard and the blacksmith shop.  

Now, let's think about this.  This hacienda is seven thousand square feet.  It would take seventeen and one half forty foot motorhomes placed in a square to equal the hacienda.  

I will stick with my home on wheels, thank you very much!

Radar equipped airplane

The next day, we ventured further into San Diego and visited the aircraft carrier from WW II through Desert Storm.  

Again, these photos had to come from the website of the USS Midway.  

As I looked at these airplanes and thought of the thousands of airmen, whether Navy, Marine, or Air Force.  Then I thought of the thousands on the ground that have fought for our freedom.  I just remembered the phrase "what cost of freedom."

What a contrast from our first Naval air planes to the more modern.  And these are only the planes that were stationed on the Midway.

Docents are retired members of the Navy that served on the Midway as a crew member.  I could see their love of the ship as they shared their knowledge and experiences of this majestic ship.  

Tomorrow ( I hope ), I will share more of our experiences of the past week.  If I don't I am sure that my friend Kay will be on the phone, once again telling me to stop having such a good time and write this blog.  

If any of you, (ahem, hint, hint) have any idea why I cannot download the photos from my camera to my computer, please, oh please, let me know. 

Otherwise, please feel free to leave comments.  I do enjoy hearing from you all.  You too Kay.  

God bless you all.  Safe travels and watch out for that flu bug.  I am reading that it is a nasty one.   

DUST STORMS, FAST AND FURIOUS, ARRIVED AT OUR GOAL!

Thursday, we left Tuscon, Arizona and headed in the direction of Yuma.  An easy pace was planned.  We were looking forward to cruising down the road and enjoying the scenery.     

Wellll, much of the time the the scenery was left in the dust.  Not only the scenery, but also, the road was not easily visible at times. 

We spent an uneventful night in Yuma, taking our time getting back on the road since the final leg to San Diego / Oceanside was to be a short, uneventful ride.  

Our first obstacle was the Border Patrol.  Just like cattle leaving the feed lot, we were being directed into a small chute (one lane), having our health evaluated, (ahh..."do you have any fruit on board?" "are you U.S. citizens?" So we took our place in line to meet the "fruit police" and border patrol.  

I had two oranges and some Cuties in a basket.  The Cuties were origonally from California.  I knew we were safe there.  But, I had two oranges that I was hoarding to use in the cranberry salad for Christmas dinner and I had no idea where they came from.  

Mr. Fruit Police enters the motorhome. I show him the basket.  He confiscated my cranberry salad oranges!  I bet he just wanted a snack.  

He sure looks too nice to be an orange-naper doesn't he.  I should have hidden those oranges under my pillow.  Then I would still have them since I have yet to fix our Christmas dinner.

I just did not want to take a ride into the desert in this SUV!  He probably would have just pushed me out of the SUV by some sticky ole cactus and said, "find your own way, you fruit smuggler!"

But he did not and we, with no illegal fruit, continued our way toward Guajome Regional Park in Oceanside,   San Diego County, California.  

Ahhh, this is the sign we had been anticipating since our excape from the Border Patrol!  Time to settle in for ten days!  No more PDS for us, by George oops! by Paul.  

A little later, after we had settled in, we were delighted to have our daughter Jojo welcome us.  

No, she is not Apache or from any other Native American tribe.  She is wearing her Cyclops headlight that she uses to walk her fur kid. 

The next morning, very bright and very early, our fur kids, Oliver and Olivia took me out for a walk.  It was time to explore!  Yippee!  

I think Olivia found some kink of Eucalyptus, at least that is what it smells like.  I really do not think she was smelling the plant, but for a creature under the plant.

 They led me to this beautiful lake.  We walked around the entire lake and what to our wondering surprise, we found.....a Chirstmas goose?  Whatcha think?  

I told Oliver and Olivia that  we needed to pass on the goose since we are on the plant based way of eating.  Sadly, they left and continued their explorations of the foothill in San Diego county.  

Soon they were distracted by new sights and smells. They found some creatures picnic area under a Date Palm tree.  They also found many holes in the ground.  Holes of various sizes and once under the surface, they went right, left or straight ahead....Hum, a well fed underground city for creatures.  

 Even I found something I like and remember from our trip out here two years ago.  I am going to show you the trunk at ground level since that is what I love.  

 This is the root system and trunk of an olive tree.  I love the shapes the trunk and roots take at ground level.  This makes me think of the claw-like feet of a very long legged bird.  Okay, I'm kinda strange, I know, but that's the artist in me.  I will recreate this in one of my paintings.  

That evening, Jojo invited us to her camper.  Oh my, did I have a surprise in store for me.  I was greeted at the door by said daughter with my birthday crown!    As you can see, John got a kick out of this.  I was just in shock.  

 Jojo is not a follower of the plant based way of eating, but thoughtfully prepared potato-leek soup with no animal fat!  It was sooo good!  What a thoughtful daughter.  

Dinner was followed by a delish chocolate bundt cake.  Oh my, the first cake I have had, welllll in a long, long time.  

Then we played the funniest game called Apples to Apples.  We had five players:  Jojo, Jojo's friend, Cathie, Cathies daughter, Becca, John and I.  We will be getting this game to play with friends as we travel.  

Again, our day left us with another breathtaking sunset.  


Have we ever told you that we REALLY, really, enjoy fulltime living and travel?  

We are so thankful for doctors, nurses, therapists..... anyone who had a hand in making John well enough to live our dream of traveling the U.S.A!  Most of all, we are thankful to God, who gave these health care professionals the talent and the desire to make their patients lives better.  

We are also thankful to yo all for your kind thoughts, words and prayers during these last nine months.  

God Bless, travel safely!