April 18th through April 24th, 2022 - Week Sixteen - Chico California

 Destination number: 95/175/33

Our first stop on our way back north to Yreka was the city of Chico. Chico is the home base for the North Valley Animal Disaster Group that is based in Butte County. The drive to Chico was just about right at 500 miles. I figured best case scenario with LA Traffic and the Grapevine that the best I could hope for is a 10 hour drive. I also knew my limit was about 12 hours behind the wheel. Luckily I split the difference and arrived into Chico after about 11 hours behind the wheel. 😀 We left the Golden Shores RV park at 6:00 AM and rolled into Chico at just about 5 PM. 

As always, Remi was a rock star for the road trip. She can sleep 23 hours out of the day as long as I am around for her to keep an eye on. We arrived at the storage yard for the vast majority of NVADG's rolling stock. They let Remi and I boondock there for the week before my first week of training. This is a great place to boondock. Typically, there is a dedicated gate for the yard that opens onto a street at the airport. However the gate is stuck closed and I had to use an emergency gate to come and go. That emergency gate takes me through the parking lot for a business and I don't think they appreciated me driving through their yard with either the Motorhome or a vehicle (the Jeep) that they didn't recognize. I was kind of getting the "Stink Eye" from them about traveling through their lot, so I was trying really hard to only leave the yard after they had all gone home for the day, but some of them didn't leave until 7:00 PM, so that made runs to the grocery store, the Amazon locker and what-have-you a little difficult to do. 

As a result, even though the board of directors for NVADG approved me staying there for two weeks, I decided to cut the stay short and go to a near-by Thousand Trails park that was only an hour and a half south of the yard. Plus, at the Thousand trails we have full hookups! :-) But, that location is for next weeks blog. Getting back to my experience at the Chico location, one night I somehow left something on in the car over night, and the next day the battery on the Jeep was dead. I had to resort to getting an Uber to take me to a Autozone to get a battery charger, but I got the Jeep running again. Whew! 

Chico is the home of University California at Chico. The Chico airport is also a former Army Air Corps base from World War II. So, over the decades, the town of Chico has thrived around those two entities. And while the Chico air field is no longer a military installation, they have plenty of fire-fighting aircraft here. Wildland fires happen frequently in Butte County. As a result, the Chico Airport is the most centrally located airport to support those air operations. 

They do have a small but very cool aviation museum here at the Chico airport. I've seen the signs for it every time I stay here at the airport, but I finally made time Friday after work to go check out the museum.  They have a number of cool static displays of various types and vintages of aircraft. Most interesting to me is the Bell helicopter that was used in the TV series M*A*S*H. The biggest bummer was I couldn't get close enough to really check it out. There was an F-15 Eagle as well as numerous aircraft from the 1960's and 1970's. The part I enjoyed the most was being able to sit in the cockpit section of a P-2 Neptune anti-submarine aircraft. Given security provisions now days in commercial aircraft, I don't think I have sat in the Pilot's seat of an airplane since the 1980's in a Cessna 152.Also, I loved seeing the old guard shack from when this was the Chico Army Air Field too! 😎

The museum is tiny compared to the Pima Air and Space museum, but the care and craftsman ship of what they applied to this museum is just as wonderful as what was done at Pima. While Pima, the only way to do that museum justice is to spend the whole day there. This museum can be done in no less than 2 hours, and spending 3 hours here might be optimal, especially if you have little kids... little ones would love it! 

On Saturday the 23rd, this was my first day for the main reason we stopped in the Chico area... to attend NVADG training. Saturdays training was Large Animal Evacuation Training at the Large Animal Evacuation coordinators home. She has a beautifully manicured property which denotes her desire to avoid wildland fires near her home. At this training we got some great tips on being effective at the task of Evacuation. We also went through a physical fitness test to ensure that we are physically prepared to perform the duties that we might be called upon to do. We then also received training in how to approach and greet a horse, put a bridal on a horse, as well as how to load and unload horses from a trailer. We also got fitted for our PPE equipment. 

On Sunday the 24th, many of us met up at Camalot, an equestrian facility in south Butte county where we spent part of the day learning about operations of the Large animal shelter and then the other part of the day, we had a work party to work on getting the barn areas cleaned up and prepared incase they needed to be used for evacuation operations from areas consumed by wildland fires. 

In the next installment, Remi and I will be at Lake of the Springs in an area called Oregon House which is in the Sierra foothills north east of Sacramento. Until then, here is the video for this last weeks adventures. 

Safe travels all!

Eric and Remi too! 

April 10th through April 18th, 2022 - Week Fifteen- San Diego California

Destination number: 94/174/32 

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I have one sibling Karen. Karen has been married to Mike since the 1960's. Mike has two brothers Chuck and Steve. Steve has three daughters who live in southern California, one of them, Mia lives here in the San Diego area. I was thrilled when she reached out to me when I first got to San Diego and asked if we could go to dinner or something some time. I mentioned to her I wanted to see the USS Midway which has been docked as a museum here in San Diego for a number of years. She asked if she could join me and then maybe we could grab an early dinner Afterwords. Her interest in joining me made my heart swell with a feeling of being loved, and I have looked forward to spending the afternoon of the 10th with her all week. All three of the Wraight families have some truly amazing children. 💗

Sunday finally arrived and Mia and I made the most of our time on the USS Midway. We basically closed the place down today. Though we both realized the Midway was huge, we didn't know just how long it would take to explore all the open spaces. When we boarded the ship, they took our picture, and so as the main souvenir, I bought the photo package. Yes, they are a bit cheesy, but it does make a nice memento of the experience. 

This thing is definitely a floating museum. There is so much to see not only from a naval perspective but also from an aviation perspective as well. These ships are definitely floating cities with 6 mess halls (Cafeterias) and the capacity to have over 4,000 people on board when the ship is at sea! We covered just about all of the open areas of the ship, but we didn't get to the ship until about 2:15 in the afternoon. The ship is open until 5:00 PM, but you really need 4 hours to see everything. And, if you want to spend any time doing the virtual reality experiences, you better make it an all-day event.

This day was filled with so many wonderful memories. Including some of the Mannequins that are put in place such as those in a computer room setting or sleeping in a bunk. And then there was an animatronic of one of the Midway's captains. The most priceless was where Mia and I were talking about how some of the mannequins look so lifelike they are almost scary. And then we came across one gentleman in an area called CIC where this guy was just staring at us. We thought he was a mannequin... and then his eyes blinked. Scared the crap out of both of us. LOL. We topped off the day with a wonderful dinner at a Mexican food restaurant that Mia picked. Thanks for the great day Mia! :-) 

The Thousand Trails Park here in Pio Pico has been a great place to stay, especially if you want to unplug. The cell service and internet service are both pretty bad, but I managed to figure out how to make it work for teleworking. I just had to be proactive if I knew I had a meeting scheduled to ensure I had a solid internet connection and cell phone available. This usually meant spending that day teleworking from the car out by a nearby lake where I had good service. The park is great. It is in a very natural setting and well maintained. Though the laundry and bathroom facilities are not as up to date as some Thousand Trails we have stayed at, they have been updated in the last 5 years or so. The Pool and mini golf areas are great, and they are doing a lot of work on beefing up the electrical infrastructure in the park. 

On Saturday the 17th, Remi and I set out for Coronado Island. This would not be my first venture to Coronado, but what would a trip to San Diego be without going to experience this place. There are not any monuments here to see, at least that I am aware of, but it does give one a chance to do a little bit of people watching and to see how the other (richer) half of society lives. While we were over on Coronado Island, I was able to see the San Diego Naval base, as well as the San Diego Convention center where I have attended the Esri Users conference a couple of times. I was also able to see the USS Midway from a different perspective. Additionally, there is the Coronado Beach Hotel where those in a much higher tax bracket come to experience the finer things in life. 

One of the best ways I could have thought to cap off my trip through southern California was to visit one more time with Steve Wraight and his family. Steve and his wife Elena hosted a Easter Gathering for the family here at their home in Long Beach. The event was filled with a lot of great food and visiting with family, as well as to watch Marina's son Tyler do a bit of a Scavenger hunt looking for prizes, all of them larger than an Easter Egg. The visit was capped off with a cruise through the keys of Long Beach on Steve and Elena's duffy boat. In the keys area, it turns out to be a great area for jelly fish to grow up! Ahhh the good life! 😀

After the gathering at Steve and Elena's was over, Remi and I retired to the Golden Shores RV Park in Long Beach. The RV park is right next to a Waterfowl sanctuary here in the Long Beach area. This RV park is where Remi and I spent the night before we hit the road at 6:00 AM on Monday morning to head up to Chico which is north of Sacramento for our next two week stay. 

Here is the link to the video of this weeks activities. 

Safe Travels everyone! 

Remi and Eric too! 

April 3rd through April 10th, 2022 - Week Fourteen- San Diego California

Destination number: 93/173/31

Remi and I returned to the great state of California this week and for the first couple of weeks, we are in San Diego California. The name of the unincorporated town we are actually in is a town called Jamul. Though we are supposedly in a town, the only thing of it that I have seen is the Pio Pico RV Park run by Thousand Trails. I've traveled from one end of Otay Lakes road all the way to the other, and no sign of the Ace hardware and supposedly a few other merchants that this town is supposed to have, but there must be a side road that leads to those gems. :-) 

The RV park is smack dab in the middle of a Canyon and Cell service for AT&T is horrible to say the least, and Verizon is even worse. If I have a work call to get on, I've had to drive 5 miles to get to a lake at the end of the canyon that has a clear shot to the cell tower. Even talking to other RV'ers with those special cellular antennas that has what looks like a can to hold golf balls on the end of it find they are not able to get any service, so I don't feel bad. Other than the lack of cell service, it is a nice little park here. Like most of the Thousand trails parks, this one is undergoing some extensive renovation, specifically in getting an electrical upgrade for this park. There is Park WIFI so I am able to telework from the motorhome, but it does drop out once in a while, and if your paid weekly subscription runs out, you have no option to either reformat your hard drive, go out and do a registry hack on the computer at the very least, or call the vendors technical support to resolve the issue. I must admit, regardless of the approach, it is pretty involved and poorly designed if you ask me. But, the view of the lake almost makes the commute worth while! 

There is a nice two and half mile hiking trail that runs from one end of the property to the other, but I've been warned more than twice that there are rattle snakes that have been spotted, so I've now opted to stay in the open areas and keep my eyes on the ground. 

The work week was productive and the temperatures have ranged from the 40's at night to the high 90's during some of the days, so all in all the week has been a good one, but the weekends adventures is what I truly look forward too! And the adventures this weekend did not disappoint. We started out early Saturday morning headed towards the Cabrillo National monument. I didn't know this, but you actually have to go onto the San Diego Naval base in order to get to the Cabrillo National Monument. Remi and I got there about 30 minutes before the monument opened, so we spent some time visiting Fort Rosecrans, which is a National Cemetery here in the San Diego area. Predominantly, these hollowed grounds are filled with the remains of service members laid to rest here. However, there are a very small number of plots which are allocated so that spouses of those military members laid to rest here can also be interred here. 

The Cabrillo national monument grounds are a great place to visit... not only is the monument here, with it's expansive views of the San Diego bay. The visitors center done by the national parks system is very well done, as they all are. Our national parks system is truly something to be proud of and once again, I was able to put my Annual National Park Pass to good use! 

Additionally here at this national park is the Point Loma Light house. Many might argue that if you've seen one light house, you have seen them all, but one must keep in mind that each one is designed for it's specific location and this one is no different. Due to the lack of city water back in the day, they built a catch basin to collect rain water. The water that was caught by the catch basin drains into a cistern below ground. Then a water pump can be used to pump the water up into a bucket to be used by the occupants. The light house exhibit in and of itself can easily stand alone, and it is great to have two stops like this right next to one another. 

Right behind the light house, there is a communications installation that was built in the 1910's and later used for communicating weather information to incoming ships as well as working to identify if those incoming ships were "Friend" or "Foe"

Additionally on these grounds are some tidepools that are down at the beach below the light house. Unfortunately, because of safety issues, they do not let you take your dog down to the tidepools. The reason this is a safety issue is because due to the slope of the rocks that you have to travel down to get to the tidepools, you could very easily lose your footing and fall to the jagged rocks below. That would make for a very bad day. :-(

After we finished exploring the Cabrillo National Monument, we traveled to La Jolla to check out the cove and beach up there. California is truly fortunate to have so much beautiful coast line. Remi and I went to La Jolla and explored the cove which was full of tourists and out on the flat rocks in the cove, lots and lots of sea lions! I'm not entirely sure that Remi really ever saw a Sea Lion. Usually if she ever sees any wildlife, she takes off after it, most of the time she is just interested in checking out the ice plant. 

After we finished exploring the La Jolla Cove and the subsequent beach area further south, we then went to Sunset Cliffs Natural park. This was another very beautiful coastal area here in San Diego. It is amazing to see how over the millennia, how the ocean has slowly carved this coast line. 

On Sunday, I ventured out by myself to check out the San Diego Maritime Museum. In all the times I've been to San Diego, I always see the signs for this place, but have never taken the time to check it out, but I'm sure glad I made the time on this trip. There is a old Ferry from the late 1800's called the Berkeley which was the first successful propeller driven Ferry on the west coast. It houses the nautical museum with lots of artifacts and scale models of ships of all purposes, and vintages. In the video link at the end of this entry where I have video for the week, you will also see some sections of the engine room. 

Then there is the USS Dolphin. A military research submarine used by the Navy to test different submarine components and design approaches to see how deep a submarine could potentially dive. This diesel electric sub holds the record for the deepest dive ever recorded to this date. It carried 3 officers, 18 crew and 4 scientists on any given mission. 

Next was the Star of India, a tall sailing ship here in the San Diego bay. It was so interesting to walk around the different compartments of this ship and see how those who use to travel the "High Seas" lived back in the 1700's and 1800's. There were staterooms, a sick bay, and of course a galley and even a captains quarters. 

As with all of my previous stops, this one here in San Diego has been just as memorable as the ones before it. I still have another week here in San Diego and am truly looking forward to spending time with my niece Mia as we explore the USS Midway. So check in next week for that installment.  

Here is the video from last weeks adventures. 

Safe Travels all! 

Remi and Eric Too!