Festivals Day

Just got back from Newhall, Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival at Melody Ranch. The famous movie setting since hopalong cassity days. Last movie filmed here was Django, Actually, I am sure they filmed the Lone Ranger here as well.

We also started to go back home the back way through Lancaster, Palmdale and discovered the Poppy Festival; Oh well? Went to that one too.

Too tired to post the entire day. Two festivals is way too much fun and I am feeling it this evening. Sorry, I will post the entire days goodies in the morning.

 Entrance

 Old western town set.

 Poppy Festival in Lancaster.

Yahoooo happy friday. Supposed to be nice and warm today 89.

While we were in Monterey we did some little trips to local areas and I took some photos. There is one short movie that Jackie took at Pebble beach.

 Yes, those are Jackie' delightful feet in the Monterey Hotel, where we were staying.

 Picture of Pebble Beach Golf Course

 We are at the pier

 Jackie at the London Bridge Pub close to the hotel

Sunset at the pier

This is the bartender we were chatting with at the Abalonetti Restaurant. on the pier.

Well apparently I am unable to upload the video for some reason.

Beautiful bright morning today.  I am posting another older trip Jackie and I have taken. Just saw the West Texas fire and explosion. Another tragic event this week.

Earlier this month Jackie and I played a round of golf at the Project Kids Golf Tournament. This is a charity event for support for a home for kids who are victims of sexual abuse.
There were over 150 golfers on the course and there were a lot of hole sponsors. Jackie's office sponsored the 13th hole with a Hamburger for everyone. I had to cut the onions for these. Not a fun task.

 Jackie and Kathy Lansford

 Us

 Jackie at the 5th hole. Lots of tacos and beer.

 Jackie and ken white

This is the hole that Jackie's office sponsored. Janet White is beside her. They actually had Hamburgers left.

Jackie and Butch one of our foursome. He is a power hitter. Overall we did pretty good, I don't remember our score. It was best ball so I'm thinking it was in the 60's We had a great time and didn't turn the golf cart over once. Unfortunately, Jackie wasn't able to display her awesome 60 ft. putts, like she usually does.

Wow, what a beautiful day today. Sun is out and bright. Jackie just got back from her walk and I finished preparing breakfast for her and myself.

Taking the idea from yesterday I am revisiting some of out past adventures.

We went to Yuma AZ, To visit a good friend of Jackies. We drove out with the Jeep stopped for breakfast off Monterey Blvd. I think it was called Cathy's Cafe. It was wonderful. Yuma is where a lot of people go to so they can cross the border and get medical needs taken care of. Dentists don't charge much for most of their work and I understand its the same quality as here in the US. Lots of signs along the highway for Dentists and Plastic surgery.

We had our visit with Jackie's friend and we stayed overnight in what I think was the cleanest casino I have ever been in. Its called the

Quechan Casino Resort. Its right off the hwy  in Yuma. 

Jackie did her thing in the Casino and I walked around the Casino and was very impressed. One of the security guys told me they built it in 2005, so its pretty new. The pool area is very impressive. If you ever want to get inexpensive dentistry performed, This is the place to stay in Yuma. here is the web site. http://www.playqcr.com/

 Jackie waiting for the jeep to be brought around.

 Pictures of Yuma Territorial Prison.

As you can see we decided to take a quick tour of the old prison there. Its worth the visit. The put people in prison in those days for cheating on their spouse. And they did make them break rocks all day. We got our hoodie sweatshirts to prove we were there. Cute huh? On the way back we could see the border fence from the hwy. I guess they have big breaks between the panels so Illegals simply can walk through them. Jackies friend says they sometimes back car carrier trailers up to the fence on each side of the border and transfer vehicles that way. Amazing. Talk about a need for security.

Well see ya tomorrow.

Tuseday Musings

Happy Tuesday!!

Overcast again today in normally sunny Riverside.

Looking for things to post today. So aside from normal day to day issues I will post some past adventures.

In January this year, we drove up to the Realtor convention in Monterey and had a wonderful overnight stay in Morro Bay.

We got there late afternoon and without reservations were able to secure a room at  The Estero Inn. This place was fantastic. It was reasonably priced and we had a great view of the bay from the room, Which had a round porthole style window in it. All rooms have balconys.
If your interested in staying here is the web site: (http://www.esteroinn.com/index.html

Here is a bunch of photos.

 View from the room out the balcony.

 Enjoying an adult beverage before sunset.

 Great Oysters

 The Fetching Jackie

 Cute room decoration.

 270Degree view of the bay

 The angelic Jackie

 Porthole in room

 Morning in the bay

 Morro Rock photos, We walked out to the end of the road arount the rock. The other end had a bunch of surfers out enjoying the morning sets.

All around best of 2013 trips. We had just gotten the jeep and were enjoying the way it handled on the trip.

Looking forward to many more trips with it this year.

Mojave National Preserve

Saturday morning we decided to go on a little adventure out to Mojave desert to see the Joshua trees blooming.

It took about 2 hours to get out there. You have to take Kelbaker rd from Baker south to the town of Kelso Depot, where they have a visitors center set up by the National Parks system. Here are some photos I took of the area. It is about 35 miles off the I15 to Las Vegas.

The building was built in 1923 and there were about 1500 people there in the 1940's. Mostly miners, who mined ore for use at the Fontana Kaiser steel plant to build Liberty ships. The depot was restored in 2005. They have a cafe inside and everything is in great shape. We got some information about where the Joshua Tree Forest was off Cima Rd, near Cima dome. So we decided to go there next. Stopped to take more photos of a wrecked cabin.

 Joshua Tree in full bloom. Pretty cool huh?

Saw our first Joshua tree blooms here. 

Stopped by Mojave Cross  across from the Cima Dome hiking trail. We were going to hike out to the Dome but only got 1/2 way. Too much of the same view I guess. So we headed back to the I-15.

 Jackie dropped here glasses right here causing us some frustrating moments before we found a stick to fetch them.  Kind of afraid to put my hand down in the rock cracks. Not knowing what kind of critter I might find.

 Here is the trail scenery. We soon got bored with it.

Since it was getting on toward 4pm we decided to go to Las Vegas for an unscheduled overnight.
When  we arrived we stopped at the Rio Casino thinking we could get a room here. The whole town was booked for the night. We had to stay at the Buffalo Bills Casino outside of town near Stateline. Not recommended. But too tired to worry about it. Jackie got her gambling fix and I watched "life of Pi" on my Ipad. One of the worst buffets we have experienced at Buffalo Bills.

On Sunday we headed out early after a Mcdonalds breakfast.
Since we were not on any schedule we stopped at Calico Ghost town to see what was there. Here are some photos.

The town was restored in the 1950's by Walter Knott the fellow who built Knotts Berry Farm.

 Old school house

 Why?

 Bottle house built by Walter Knott.

 We had a great time this weekend doing our little adventuring.