Geriatric Park?

Many moons ago when we first started traveling by RV through California we heard that Hemet was a great retiree playground. Lots of sunshine, no smog, many golf courses. Always had it in the back of our minds to go and explore the area.

This year we stayed at a wonderful RV park: Golden Village Palms. It was great. Clean, friendly, and lots of activities.

Hemet has grown recently. We saw at the local museum a picture taken by plane over the area. This RV park was right in the middle of many acres of farms. But now, the road in front is clogged with traffic and there are about 6 strip malls and a big mall within 2 miles.

And why? The demographics of the area in the last 10 years has lowered the average age from 59 to 37. The housing costs in the LA area have risen so much lately that the young families are moving out to the Hemet area for "reasonable" cost housing in the $300's! That's progress.

From some of our old information, there was an item about the private zoo in the area. We drove past and found lots of No Trespassing signs but did see a field with sheep, goats, antelope, and zebras. Guess the new owners got the animals in the bargain.

Home Depot for Squirrels

More pictures from the "safari-mobile".

This antelope ground squirrel apparently decided he needed more "insulation" in his den.


He started pulling on the paper towel which was stuffed in the chair pocket.







And he pulled and he pulled.









Finally getting it all loose.

Now he had to figure out how to carry it. So he started stuffing this 11x14" paper towel in his mouth.






First try, he didn't get it all in.

2nd try, he was successful and ready to move.

We've been Badgered

Even though some folks think camping in an RV is not the way to enjoy nature. We enjoy the view from our "safari-mobile". Animals that wouldn't be in the neighborhood if folks were sitting outside will walk through our campsite.

Take this guy, for instance. Him and his mate walked through the campground coming out of the rocks above our site. What a surprise! We didn't know that there were even badgers in the park. His claws were longer than 3". Glad he was out there!



We printed the picture and took it to the ranger's office and they said several years ago that there had been a report of a badger 30 miles away in the other end of the park. So they were quite delighted to see proof.

Darn those bees after all

News this week in Visalia is the growing fight between beekeepers and citrus growers.  Now the way we see it, we think that the bees are pretty important in the pollinating of the trees.  But the citrus growers who grow seedless oranges say the bees are creating unwanted seeds in their crops.  Now the orange farmers want "no-fly" zones and farmers of other crops need these bees.  A lawyer for a citrus farm is threatening to sue if the bees treaspass within two miles of the crops.  Can you imagine a little bee jail?  Or maybe we just keep them under "hive" arrest (kind of like house arrest)?

 

We have enjoyed the hospitality of the Visalia Elks lodge.  Nice folk, safe parking, good RV utilities, book exchange, and free wifi.  Hardly could get better than this!  Heading east over Tehachapi Pass then dropping south toward Joshua Tree National Park later this week.

 

Visiting the Pinnacles

New travel route for us heading down to Pinnacles National Monument. We had heard about all the tarantulas on the trails but were 6 weeks late. The male tarantulas wander all over the park in October looking for a mate. Just as well we missed them!

The whole route south was along the San Andreas Fault line. Half expected to feel a shaking while we were there but all was quiet.

At one of our touring spots we were interested where the creek had overflowed and torn a lot of material out of its banks. Reading about this 40-year flood we found that the park service had used this area as a solid waste dump. (Guess we would have thought that next to a stream bed would be a bad place for garbage.) Now they are having to do a remedial cleanup. Yup!



The Pinnacles is one of 6 places where California condors are being released in the wild after being raised in zoos to help this species from becoming extinct. If things go as planned, adult female condors lay an egg. Then scientists take the egg away and the female will lay another one. The scientists give the egg either to a non-laying female or take it to a zoo to be hatched and then raised by condor puppets. (really) We didn't see any condors because at this time of the year the scientists trap the condors for the season and keep them in a cage. Quite sure we hadn't heard of that before! Guess they have good reason for this as condors are close to extinction because they feed on carcasses which, to their bad luck, often are the animal remains left by a hunter and have lead from ammunition. It's the lead that has killed them.

A new campground has been added to the park this year and that is where we spent the night. Laurie didn't get in trouble for squishing a park bee. Guess the ranger felt the sting was enough! We had 16 deer, 12 wild turkeys, and at least 500 quail in our campsite! Didn't see any of the wild pigs that are in the area but noticed a lot of damage in the campground from their nosing around.

Great day to tour the San Francisco waterfront

It's been a long time, maybe 20 years, since we've been in San Francisco. We picked a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the 60's.

Got up early to catch BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to town. Our trip was so speedy we even got to Pier 39 before the stores opened.

We saw 3 Cruise-A-Homes in the marina there. Excuse me, the south marina. The north marina was taken over by sea lions almost 20 years ago.

We hiked north along the waterfront. Checking out all the boats and the shops. Found that the shopping "meccas" of the Cannery and Ghiradelli Square are no more. Though we could still get some chocolate at Ghiradelli's.

We did have lunch and some Irish Coffee's at the Buena Vista - a must. The USA version Irish Coffee's were perfected here in 1952. They pour about 2,000 a day. We did our part!

Enjoyed hiking out the pier at the National Maritime Park looking at the historic vessels, enjoying the beautiful day, and watching the swimmers(!) (We think the water in the bay was a bit chilly!)

Heading back, we just had to try one of the high-tech automated self-cleaning toilets.

These units have been situated in Seattle with some disparaging comments and a cost of about $700,000/year .

The self-cleaning cylindrical bathrooms include a toilet, wastepaper basket, and sink with a dispenser that dribbles out soap, then air drys your hands. The doors open and close like those on an elevator. Step in and you have 20 minutes to do your job. The floor has been freshly cleaned - even soap suds around the corners. Laurie's experience: Pluses: sweet smelling, enough time to do the job. Negatives: no TP, no soap air dry for the hands.

Sliding our way around San Francisco

So we headed south down I-5 wondering where we could stay that would be north of the San Francisco / Oakland weekday traffic mess. Hard to find any place. Lots of olive trees and rice paddies but not much in the way of camping. A casino 10 miles east or a county park 10 miles west. No WalMarts.

Then we saw a billboard for Bill & Kathy's Restaurant. And they welcomed us to stay the night in their parking lot. Laurie loved it: dinner and breakfast out. And even better a wifi hotspot.

Bill & Kathy's Restaurant has been in beautiful downtown metropolitan Dunnigan since 1947 and is now being run by their grandchildren. Dunnigan looks like it only has 130 population so, "metropolitan" is a bit of a stretch. We certainly appreciated a place to pull off.

Saturday morning after breakfast at B&K's, we headed south to Fremont (near San Jose). Lot's of traffic but nothing like the weekday. We were there early enough to scope out the BART train station, shop at Fry's Electronics (for a few "must haves"), and grazing at Trader Joes.

Parking here at the Elks for a couple days. Plan to take BART into San Francisco and visit some boating friends.