Issue #9 -- April 2017 - On The Road - West to East

April 1st and it's time to get back on the road.  We truly enjoyed our winter in the West and the visits with family and friends, both old and new. This month of travel is a busy one for us, lots to do in a very short time.
After leaving San Diego our first top is an overnight at Fiesta Grande RV Resort, in Casa Grande Arizona.  The park is associated with Thousand Trails/Encore parks.

This is a nice, clean park, Easy in and easy out. You can walk across the street for a bite to eat or just enjoy a brew.  We found the food, drinks and service to be excellent at Macayo's.  It's a Mexican food restaurant, known throughout Arizona for great, reasonably priced food.


After some good food and a relaxing evening we were back on the road April 2nd.
We were able to get all the way to El Paso, Texas.  In El Paso, we spent the night at Mission RV Park. This is a Passport America park, so the rate is 50% off the regular, daily rate.


April 3rd was another day on the road.  After arriving in Abilene, Texas we checked into the Buck Creek RV Park, for a three night stay. The RV sites are nice and large.

During our stay in Abilene we found some very good places to for a good meal. The Dixie Pig Restaurant, a great place for breakfast that is known for the best biscuits & gravy in this part of Texas. Also, Sharon's Barbecue, known throughout Abilene for some of the best BBQ around.

Abilene was established by cattleman as a stock shipping point for the Texas and Pacific Railroad, and was originally named after Abilene, Kansas, the original endpoint for the Chisholm Trail cattle drives. Abilene has a distinct Texas cattle town flavor to it. We found the Frontier Texas Museum extremely interesting and well worth your time, if you want to learn about Texas history. David found pickled quail eggs, along with other cool goodies in the museum gift shop. ONLY IN TEXAS, PEOPLE ...

Abilene is also known for its Zoo.  Personally, I have a difficult time touring zoos outside of the San Diego, California area, I guess I'm just spoiled.

In addition to several other legal issues we need to take care of on an annual basis, one of this years items is to get our passports renewed.  If renewing your passport is on your list this year, be sure to check the expiration date and submit for your renewal at least a good six months before the expiration dates. If you need passport information this link should take you right there.







After out short visit to Abilene we were ready to move on to Texoma Lake, in Gordonville, Texas. Here we take care of two more of our annual legal issues.  Before we go on to the Thousand Trails Lake Texoma RV campground we'll get both the RV and our vehicle inspected. Texas requires an annual vehicle inspection as part of the registration process.  Because we spend most of the year traveling in the RV we are able to get a waiver which is good until we return to the State. Our vehicles don't require an emissions test, so the process is actually handled, very quickly, with just an equipment safety inspection, sent digitally to the Texas DMV.
The other legal issue we take care of is our annual firearms carry renewal. Since we are both retired law enforcement, per federal law, if we qualify with our firearm once a year we are able to carry our firearms in all USA states and territories. As this must be completed in our state of residence, we qualify in the Dallas area with Mike Lane, and his company  Texas Firearms Training Academy. Mike is also a captain with a local police department in the area. He even has a classroom, range & building simulation range on his ranch for training local officers, and school teachers, how to stay safe. He also qualifies other civilians for firearms carry. Thanks Mike, we'll see you again next year. Stay safe!

Now it's time for some fun, (not associated with shooting firearms)!

While staying at TT's Lake Texoma, we are able to visit some friends, Jim & Robbie Collins. Last year I helped Robbie learn a crochet pattern for making a scarf and she made this beautiful scarf for me. Thank you Robbie, I love my new scarf!









I know it may seem as though we talk a lot about food, but that's because there are so many places to choose from we thought we should share them with y'all.  Huck's Catfish in Denison, Texas is definitely a must try.  The food is exceptional and prices are reasonable.

Ok, enough about food.  You can't go through Texas in the spring or summer and not take in a Texas Rangers baseball game.  We were lucky enough to catch a home game in Arlington on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  They won!

This little guy is our newest traveling buddy, "T" Bear!


Next we'll be heading to the Eastern Shores.

David's Buddy Stops:

Issue #8 -- Yuma, AZ to San Diego, CA (2017 January - April)

Sunsets, Rainbows & Full Moons
      (Yuma, AZ)

Yuma Territorial Prison:

So if you spend any time in Yuma, Arizona, then the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park is a must see! There's a lot of history within the walls of this prison.  The prison dates back to 1876 and was in operation for thirty-three years. There were a total of 3,069 prisoners during those years which included 29 women.

In 1910, the Yuma Territorial Prison became the
Yuma High School for about three years. So you might wonder what the school mascot name was. What better name than "The Criminals." Once the new high school was constructed the students kept the mascot name of "The Criminals."

                



I tried locking David up, but he escaped and followed me to  Lutes Casino, which is a great place for lunch.  Lutes is in the downtown area of Yuma, with lots of parking and a nice walk to tour the area. He likes the Lute's Special, a double hamburger with grilled, sliced hot dogs and two slices of bacon. (Yes, I keep a large amount of life insurance on him).










We stayed in Yuma until the middle of February. During our last couple of weeks we explored the foothills of Yuma and found a great area to stay the next time we winter in Yuma which will be December 2018 - April 2019. (Yes, I do keep a 5 year calendar).

The views of the foothills of Yuma are great from this RV site.  It's a privately owned piece of land which will accommodate two RV's.  The space fee includes full hook-ups and is upgraded with a washer & dryer on site and a covered gazebo.

From Yuma we are moving on to Santee, California.  We'll be spending about seven weeks at Santee Lakes Campground. If you're looking for a nice place to stay while visiting the San Diego area, this is it.  There are 300 full hook-up campsites and seven lakes for fishing. This time of year, they stock with trout. It's also a great area for biking or long walks, or perhaps a day quietly reading on one of the lake shorelines.












Visiting Friends & Family in California:

We plan to spend our winters on alternating coasts each year. This year, it's California.  To be more exact the San Diego area.  As I mentioned earlier, we are staying at Santee Lakes.  Most of our time here will be spent visiting good friends and family we haven't seen for about two years.  Our first visit was actually to the San Diego RV Repair Shop for a couple of repairs, all of which were quick and easy, once the parts came in.
                           
 I enjoyed a very nice birthday dinner with our son, David.  He took us to Outback Steakhouse of El Cajon. Thank you David, it was a very nice evening! Our son lives in El Cajon and is very much an outdoors man. He loves hiking and running marathons.

We've also been able to visit our grandson and his family.  Sam is now married to a lovely young lady, Yuvia, and together they have a son, Allen.  Allen is now sixteen months old and loves exploring and mugging for a camera (Gets that from his dad, Sam, perhaps?)






Some of our friends from Texas were here as well, Gerry &  Denise Wranischar. They were staying at Pio-Pico RV campground, which is a Thousand Trails campground.  During their stay at Pio-Pico the rains were not friendly to them.

They were flooded in and had to extend their stay. It turned out to be OK for them, and us, as it gave us time to visit after both David and I got over our colds.  We took them to a really great Mexican food restaurant, Casa De Pico.
We look forward to seeing Gerry & Denise down the road!














 I can't even begin to name all our friends we're visiting while we are here.  Most of our friends in this area belong to the El Cajon Wandering Elks Group II.

Our first big get together was at the monthly Elks - Taco Saturday which is usually the third Saturday of the month.  These are some GOOD tacos!
In March the camping group holds it annual March Parking Lot Camp out at the El Cajon Elks Lodge. There's lots of good food, dancing and sometimes too much drinking.


Good Food and More Great Friends:

In addition to visiting our Wandering Elks camping friends, we also made time to visit our former Rancho San Diego friends, Gary & Shelli Clemons.  We were able to go to dinner twice. The first is a great Mexican food restaurant, Casa De Pico.  This restaurant has been around longer than I can remember.  It was originally in Old Towne San Diego, and about five years ago moved to the Grossmont Mall, La Mesa area.  The food is as good as ever, so if you're visiting San Diego, it's a great place to eat.



Our second dinner took us to Phils BBQ in Santee.  You know it has to be GOOD BBQ when there's a line to get in the place.

Thank you Gary & Shelli, we enjoyed seeing you both again.














Central Home Girls:

Saturday March 25th was a very special day for me. I spent the whole afternoon having lunch and visiting some of the best women I worked with during my career with the City of San Diego. We met at Casa Machada, another great Mexican food restaurant.  I have to say, San Diego does not lack for good Mexican food.
Our get together was our annual Central Girls Christmas Luncheon. Yes, we know this is not December.  Due to health issues within the group, we all agreed to postpone our annual luncheon to March.  This really worked out good for me, as I would not have been able to make it last December.  The next time I'll be able to see these great women will be 2018.  Thank you ladies, I had a great day and will miss you all as I continue my travels throughout the United States in my RV.

One more plug for good food has to be Ichiban of Pacific Beach. After some really good Teriyaki chicken, David & I took a nice walk along the shores of Pacific Beach.

I've talked about a lot of good restaurants, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of our good friends who opened their homes to us with some really good dinners.  We enjoyed an afternoon lunch out, then a visit to the beautiful new Fletcher Hills home of Mike and Margie Kallmeyer. In advance, thank you Beth & Bruce Stevens, who organized an afternoon cook-out at their home in Jamul, with a few of our other friends.  Also to Jerry & Maxine Barrows, we are scheduled to have dinner with them on March 29th. And I can't forget Bob & Debbie Lerwell for being extra special in having us to dinner with them on several occasions.

Traveling to Mexico for Dental Care:

In my last Blog I spoke about David's trip to Mexico for what we thought was minor dental care. I really need to update the information. We hear from a lot of our friends and others about how good the dental care is, and not too expensive.  Although the dental care in Mexico has worked out for them, it is not a good fit for everyone.  If you have any type of gum disease or special dental issues, as is the case for David, then you might want to consult a dentist in your local area.

David's Buddy Stops: