Spring Training Trip - Day 27

Today was the first spring training game.  The Phillies ballpark, Brighthouse Field, is about 7 miles from the RV Park, but with traffic through the city it takes about 20 minutes to get there.  We got to the park about 11:30 am to check it out again and have lunch before the game started at 1:05 am.

The game today was the first game throughout the  Florida spring training system and was essentially a scrimmage with the Florida State Seminoles, a pretty good college baseball team.  The Phillies used a succession of young pitchers who will have a hard time making the team this year due to what appears to be a strong pitching staff (at least on paper).  Most of the regular players started the game and batted at least once.  Some did not, including Chase Utley, Placido Polanco, Carlos Ruiz, and Ryan Howard who is recovering from his achillies heel injury and will not be back in action for several more months.  The kids pitched well and the minor leaguers and rookies who took over after the regulars left early, scored some runs and won the game 6-1.  We even got to sit next to the “Phillies Box” behind home plate.  This is an area controlled by the Phillies for their staff and invited guests. Today, Ruben Amaro, the Phillies General Manager, and Ed Wade, a former Phillies  General Manager and now a special assistant to the General Manager, were sitting there.  There were also at least a half dozen scouts with radar guns behind home plate, either scouting the young Phillies pitchers and/or the Florida State players in anticipation of the next amateur draft.

Attending a game here is an excellent sports experience.  The stadium is very nice, the crowds are not too large, the ball park food is good, and everyone seems to be very friendly and laid back.  There were a lot of people here today supporting Florida State who were not necessarily Phillies fans.  Their campus is at Tallahassee, a good 6 hour drive from here. Most games however are predominately attended by Phillies fans, most who either now live here, came down for the winter, or are visiting for just a few games.  The food in the stadium is all geared towards a northeast (Philadelphia) crowd. Examples include hoagies and cheese steaks from a Philadelphia restaurant, Philadelphia style pizza, and Yeungling Beer on tap.  A lot of retirees with Philadelphia ties make up most of the stadium help, including ushers, concession workers, and other related stadium help.

After the game, we stopped for a few groceries and returned to the RV for dinner.  The next game is Saturday afternoon against the NY Yankees.  This will be the first official game of the Grapefruit League Spring Training season.  As the Yankees spring training site is in Tampa, there will probably a number of Yankee fans in attendance along with a full house of Philly fans.  I believe the game will also be televised on MLB.TV. 

Day 27 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 26

We slept in today and got sort of a late start, so we had time to go to Camping World (25 miles away), eat lunch at Cracker Barrel and get the car fixed – Costco will have to wait until Thursday or Friday.  The weather was warm, sunny and humid today with a few short rain showers.

We found out at Camping World that our awning should not have screening attached to it because it is raised and lowered electrically.  So, “Plan B” is to look for a small screen house, about 10 x 10, to put beside the patio.  We have plenty of room – our site is large.  So far, we have had very few mosquitoes, but we heard they get worse as it gets warmer.

We took a walk through the RV Park this afternoon and Pat took some pictures of the facilities, the surrounding ponds and bayou and some of the other RV’s.  A few geese and egrets seem to be in residence, and apparently there could be alligators in the ponds, but we didn’t see any of those.

Day 28 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 25

Today was another “no picture day.”  We dropped off the VW at the dealer and had breakfast at a café nearby.  When we got back to the dealer, they told us the new shield wouldn’t be in until early afternoon, so we rescheduled the appointment for tomorrow and went to McDill AFB to get some prescription medicines at the pharmacy and to shop at the commissary and BX.

The base is huge, a joint command facility with all services represented, as well as many international troops, at the hospital, commissary and BX.  AS you can see from the attached Wikipedia Link, there is a lot going on down here:


Mc Dill AFB


We bought a few things at the BX, ate lunch at the food court, hit the commissary for a few items and then headed back to the RV.

It was warm and humid today, the first time we have had to put the AC on in the car since last summer.  We heard that it is snowing in Nevada City tonight, possibly 6” or more.  I took a nap this afternoon while Pat worked on the computer, researching a possible new purchase – a screened in porch to fit on the awning.  It is a little buggy here in Florida.

Tomorrow we will find the local Costco and Camping World, get a few things at each place, and bring the VW back in to finish up with that.  The first baseball game is on Wednesday afternoon.

Spring Training Trip - Day 24

No clowns and circuses today.  We slept in, did the laundry, and set up Detachment 1 of the home office.  It was a gloomy day anyway, cloudy and occasional showers and temperatures in the mid 60’s. Like it or not, it was necessary to begin to catch-up with the other day-to-day things that you have to deal with even though you are on vacation.

We have an appointment in the morning at the local VW dealer to deal with a slight problem with the bug.  There is a shield under the front end that protects the oil pan and other engine components.  Since the VW rides very low, towed or not, if you bottom out there is a high potential for damaging the shield.  It has happened before to us and we apparently did it again, most likely getting in or out from a gas station along the way.  So, we either need to get it fixed or replaced.

After the VW is fixed, we are planning to go to McDill AFB, about a half hour drive away, for a resupply run.  If we have time, we will check out the local Costco.

No pictures today.

Spring Training Trip - Day 23

We’re here.  We arrived at the Bay Bayou RV Resort in Oldsmar, FL about 3:00 pm after a 6 hour drive from St. George Island along the coast of the Florida Panhandle then south to the Tampa Bay area where we will be staying.  We stayed here before on our Florida trip in 2009.  The park is very nice and, like most parks down here, caters to “snowbirds”.

Our plan for the next few days is to settle-in and not do any particular sightseeing or anything of extraordinary importance.  We will probably go over to McDill AFB ( 30 minute drive) for supplies, check out the local Costco and Camping World and maybe take line dancing lessons at the RV park.  The first Phillies Spring Training game is Wednesday against Florida State, a pretty good college baseball team.  The game is essentially a scrimmage with a lot of Phillies rookies playing.  The first “official” spring training game is against the Yankees on March 3^rd.

We have driven a lot of miles and have seen a lot of things on the way here.  It has been a fun trip so far and the plan now is to kick-back and enjoy some spring training baseball.

We will keep updating the blog and posting pictures as the adventure continues.

Day 23 Pictures

Departing St.George Island at sunrise:

Beach Houses on St. George Island - Note the stilts

Bay Bayou RV Park  (more pictures to follow)

Spring Training Trip - Day 22

We did some serious sleeping-in today and didn’t get up until after 8:00 am. After breakfast in the RV and getting ready we had a nice walk along the beach.  The weather was mild, not too windy, with periods of sun and clouds. We found lots of shells, saw many birds including great herons, gulls, and others we couldn’t identify, and passed a few other people along the way.  The island is very narrow at this end and you can easily see the bay from the top of the small dunes close to the beach.

The park includes 9 miles of undeveloped beach and dunes surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico and Apalachicola Bay. The park occupies 1,962 acres and is a combination of sandy coves, salt marshes, shady pines, and oak forests. There is an abundance of wildlife and the island is a rest stop for many species of birds migrating in the spring and fall.  The island is also a breeding ground for Loggerhead Sea Turtles who start coming ashore in April to hatch their eggs.  Nighttime restrictions on beach lighting are in effect from April 1^st to October 31^st because the turtles use moonlight to reach the ocean after being born.  Other lights confuse the turtles and interfere with the process of returning to the ocean.  We were told that only a small percentage of the new turtles ever reach the ocean due to predators, mostly sea birds, getting them along the way.  Even after reaching the ocean, many more are lost to predators there.  The good news is - lots of baby turtles survive and they keep coming back each year to continue the cycle.  The island is also a nesting place for shore birds that rear their young in the summer months.

The State of Florida has done an excellent job with their state park system.  It appears to be well funded, well maintained, and dedicated to providing many recreation opportunities for its citizens and others.  Their facilities are excellent (at least at all the parks we have seen) and they have done an outstanding job of preserving their natural heritage, especially in places like St. George Island which unquestionably would have been totally developed with vacation homes and condominiums. The State of California is making a huge mistake in not supporting their state park system and the effects of not doing so are going to be felt for years to come.  When the state finally wakes up and decides to make their park system a priority, it may be too late to save and preserve many of the state’s irreplaceable natural resources and recreational facilities.  What a shame!

After our beach walk, we ate lunch at a small restaurant in the town of St. George, just off of the causeway leading to the island.  The town is very small but has a very nice visitor’s center, lighthouse, and museum.

The original St. George Lighthouse was built in 1833, with reconstructions in 1848, 1852, and 2008.  The lighthouse was originally built on the western tip of the island to guide ships into the port of Apalachicola.  It was difficult to see from the eastern direction however, and was eventually dismantled.  Over the years, the lighthouse was again moved and the 1852 lighthouse was built 500 yards inland from the water’s edge. By 1990, the beachfront had eroded down to only a few hundred feet between the lighthouse and the water.  Several hurricanes in the early 1990’s and continued erosion finished the job and the lighthouse collapsed in 2005 despite community efforts to shore it up.  The latest reconstruction was completed in 2008 with a grant from the state and matching funds from the community and a lot of volunteer effort.  Many of the original materials salvaged from the collapsed lighthouse have been used in the latest reconstruction.

After a mocha at the local coffee bar, ice cream shop, and beach gear emporium, and enduring a lengthy discussion while waiting, between a German couple and the barista on why their cappuccinos didn’t have more “foam” on the top, we returned to the RV for dinner and an early to bed.

We will head for the Tampa Bay area tomorrow.  We should be there in the early afternoon in time for Saturday night festivities at the RV Park.  We may have to decide between bingo, line dancing lessons, or karaoke.  We’ll see.

Day 22 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 21

Since we had a relatively short way to go today, we slept in a little. After breakfast in the RV, we went to the grocery store in Destin for a few more things and checked out the beach in the park.  We decided not to take a walk because the skies were cloudy, it was windy, and just starting to rain.


We got on the road about 11:30 am and headed east along the coast.  The drive was mostly through a series of small beach towns with lots of red lights and local traffic.  The weather varied from cloudy to rain to sunshine.  The only city of consequence we went through along the coast was Panama City. It didn’t look too special in the section of town we drove through, but the highway east of town actually goes through Tyndall AFB a good looking facility (at least from the road) that would appear to be a nice duty assignment.


We finally turned off the highway and crossed a 4-mile causeway to St George Island, one of several barrier islands along this section of the Florida panhandle coast.  There is a small town (St. George) at the end of the causeway, lots of beach houses, and a few beach activity related businesses on the road to the State Park at the east end of the island about 5 miles from the causeway.  We arrived at the park about 4:00 pm local (we are now in the Eastern Time Zone), set-up the RV, and had dinner.


The park is nice, has 60 RV spots (water and electric only), and is very quiet.  It is also very popular as the Ranger said they are fully booked through the end of May. I guess we were lucky to get reservations when we called in December. The plan for tomorrow is some beach walking and maybe a short sightseeing trip around the island and anything else that might come up along the way.


If you already checked yesterday's blog, you might want to check it again.  We added information about our trip to McGuire's Pub for dinner and a few pictures from yesterday.


Day 21 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 20

We left Lafayette, LA in the fog about 8:00 am after filling up the RV with gas.  The local price is $3.43 per gallon today.  We never thought we would ever be considering that price to be a “bargain”.  There is something very wrong with this picture that is disturbing and needs to be fixed.

The fog pretty much lifted after we got beyond the bayous and through Baton Rouge, LA.  The skies remained cloudy and threatening however, and it finally started to rain around Mobile, AL and kept raining, not hard, until we got to Pensacola, FL.  We turned south from there then along the beach to Destin, FL, a resort town about 15 miles east of Fort Walton Beach in the Florida “Panhandle”.  The area has a lot of resort hotels, condominiums, and beach recreation related facilities.

 

The beaches are large with brilliant white sand and gentle waves.  Their recreation season here roughly runs from early-mid February to the end of October or into November.  Sort of a kick-off is Spring Break (usually corresponding with the Easter vacation) where thousands of college students from around the region descend on the area for beach time and other college-age related activities.  The beach and water recreation continues through the summer under lots of sunshine and warm (sometimes very hot) temperatures. The weather when we arrived around 3:30 pm was cool (high 50’s) and overcast; nobody was swimming or sunbathing on the beach.

We are staying at Henderson Beach State Park, just east of Destin. The park has 60 RV sites and numerous tent sites.  The RV sites all have electric and water hook-ups. Our site is a pull through with barrier vegetation on all sides, a picnic table and a fire pit, just a short walk to the beach. The park is one of Florida’s most popular state parks and is generally booked all year except for November thru February.  Reservations can be made 11 months in advance and usually all the sites are taken.

Our plans for the night are to eat out at McGuire’s Irish Pub, a popular local and tourist hangout.  We ate there before on our previous trip through town and it is worth a return visit.  It will then be early to bed for, hopefully, a good night’s sleep.

We have a short 2½ hour drive tomorrow to our next stop, St. Georges Island State Park, so we are going to sleep in and maybe take a walk on the beach before leaving. 

Pictures will be posted tomorrow, so check back if you can.

(Day 20 - Continued)

We did go to McGuire’s Irish Pub for dinner and had a great meal.  The place was packed and we had about a 15 minute wait to get a table.  This restaurant/bar drips with ambience and has lots of “Irish things” throughout.  There is also an attached gift shop with an extensive collection of wines for sale.  They additionally make their own beer which is very good.  They had live music – an Irish sounding singer playing Irish ditties on a guitar. 

Another feature of the pub is literally thousands of $1.00 bills with messages written on them pasted on the walls and ceiling.  A special section of the restaurant has framed pictures of military servicemen, mostly pilots, with a dollar bill and message in each frame along with the picture.  As the pub is very close to the two nearby Air Force bases – Eglin AFB and Hurlburt AFB, and not too far away from Pensacola NAS, a major U.S. Naval Aviation Base, it is frequently visited by military servicemen, many who appeared to be there last night.  There were also pictures of celebrities and sports stars who visited the pub and left autographed pictures and dollar bills with messages. 

The pub also serves their homemade bean soup for $0.18 a cup if you buy something else to go with it.  The story goes that when the soup was invented in the 1800’s, it was served to U.S. Congressmen in their cafeteria for $0.18.  I missed the connection on why the pub has continued the tradition and the same price, but the soup was excellent and it is a clever marketing gimmick.

Day 20 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 19

We got an early start this morning, since we wanted to get breakfast beignets at a local bakery in Layfayette (Poupart’s) where we had eaten last year.  After that, we wanted to get to the Cajun Festival site at Louisiana University at Lafayette to park the car by 9:30 am so that we could walk to the spot on the Mardi Gras parade route where we planned to watch the first parade of the day (three were scheduled).

Alas, when we got to Poupart’s, it was closed for Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday,” or, today), so we ate breakfast across the street at Starbucks.  Today is sort of a holiday here in Louisiana, with some businesses closed for the day and some schools closed for the week.  We did get to the festival site in time, and walked along the parade route for about a mile until we found a spot in the shade.  (The day had started out cool and overcast, but it turned warm and sunny late in the morning.)

The festival grounds are essentially in the parking lot of Cajun Field, the football stadium of The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (The Ragin’ Cajuns).  Many regulars have rented spots along the parade route as it comes into the festival grounds at the end of the parade.  Their RVs, and Trailers are parked there and BBQ and picnic areas are set-up under covered picnic tents.  Some of the set-ups are elaborate and include music and dancing. Chairs along the parade route barriers are also set-up to watch the parade as it goes by.  Other groups were set-up in parking lots and the streets along the route.  There was also a large private party festival site near the reviewing stand, apparently for the local dignitaries.

The parade, typical of most parades we have ever attended, was late in starting, but once it got going it was a lot of fun.  True to the descriptions we had read beforehand, the parade was family oriented and neighborhood-based.  The floats and costumes were less elaborate than those in the New Orleans celebration, and the marching bands were all from local high schools.  The people on the floats were throwing beads and trinkets, just like in New Orleans; we caught our share, but gave most of them away to children who stood near us, since we still have two large bags of beads left over from our Mardi Gras trip two years ago.  It was a happy crowd and everyone was having a good time.

Bringing up the rear of the parade was a flatbed truck covered in beads that people were throwing back on it.  We learned later that the local environmental groups were encouraging people to recycle the beads.

After the parade was over, we went back to the Cajun Festival grounds and ate lunch (brisket barbeque sandwiches) and listened to live Cajun music.  We also met Elsie the Cow from the Borden’s Milk Company, a local business in Lafayette, and one that we remember from our early days on the east coast. 

We decided to wait for the next two parades in a spot closer to the festival grounds and to the car.  There was lots of shade there which was very comfortable on a warm afternoon.  Many families were waiting there as well, picnicking on the grass.  However, when the second parade still hadn’t shown up by 4:00 pm due to several breakdowns along the way we were told, we decided to leave.  We came back to the RV and rested before dinner.

Dinner was an adventure, at Gator Cove, a restaurant recommended by someone at the RV park.  Pat found the address and put it into the GPS, but it was dark by the time we went out and the address turned out to be on the not-well-lit frontage road of the listed street and not the street itself.  After going up and down the road 3 times we finally found the place, set back from the frontage road, down by the bayou with a “Live Alligators” sign beside it.  It is a restaurant frequented by locals – we were definitely the only out of state people there.  The food was good – they actually do serve alligator as well as shrimp, crab, tilapia and crawfish.  (We passed on the alligator.)  Most of the locals were eating trays of boiled crawfish.  The serve them in 3 and 5 pound trays and a lot were being consumed. Napkins on the tables were rolls of paper towels and a wash station to wash your hands (either before or after eating) was along one of the walls.  We noticed some of the pro crawfish eaters wore surgical gloves while eating, I guess to keep their hands clean and not smelling like crawfish when done. Also, when they bring your beer to the table, they don’t ask if you want a glass.  The place is very casual and a popular place for the locals to eat, well off  the tourist circuit.

Tomorrow it’s on to Destin, Florida and the beach.

Day 19 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 18

We got another early start today at 7:30 am.  Since Ft Sam Houston is close to downtown San Antonio, we had to navigate the city freeway system to get out of town.  We made it without any problems despite the locals displaying no mercy on quick necessary lane changes.  We were helped, I suspect, by today being a holiday.


The trip to Lafayette was uneventful.  The weather was partly cloudy, with only a slight crosswind from the south.  Houston was another interesting urban driving experience with an RV, but again, we made it through town without incident.


We arrived at the Bayou Wilderness RV Resort in Lafayette, LA about 3:30 pm.  We stayed here before on our trip to the New Orleans Jazz Fest last year.  It is a nice park a little north east of town.  After we arrived, we did laundry and finished by 7:00 pm.


Dinner was at Prejean's, a nearby Cajun restaurant where we had dinner the last time we were here.  Once again, the food was excellent.  The restaurant also has live Cajun music 7 days a week.


Tomorrow, the plan is to watch several Mardi Gras parades and attend a Mardi Gras Festival in town.. It sounds like a busy day and we will see where it goes.


The only pictures we have today are from dinner at Prejean's.  Note the attempt at an iPhone video.

The Video

Spring Training Trip - Day 17

Just when you think you have seen any kind of weather the Southwest has to offer, you see something new.  We departed Fort Stockton, TX about 7:45 am under clear skies with the sun in our eyes.  About 50 miles east, the desert prairie gave way to the start of rolling hills and valleys and for our special driving enjoyment: fog!  The fog wasn’t zero-zero visibility but it was low-hanging and certainly thick enough to reduce driving speeds (at least for us).  It had a few breaks here and there and gradually lifted somewhat to just overcast skies.  The skies finally cleared about 100 miles west of San Antonio and we arrived at the Fort Sam Houston RV Park around 1:30 pm under sunny skies and 72 degrees.

Ft Sam Houston is one of the U.S. Army’s oldest installations and is now part of Joint Base San Antonio, which has consolidated the management of Air Force and Army facilities in the San Antonio area.   Fort Sam Houston was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1975. The post boasts the largest collection of historic structures -- more than 900 buildings, preserved in the different sections of the post and representing different eras of construction throughout its long history.

Fort Sam Houston dates from 1845 when the Post at San Antonio was established in the Alamo City. The Army established a garrison and regional headquarters in rented buildings and a Quartermaster supply depot in the Alamo. After the Civil War, the Army began to move out of the city onto land donated by the City of San Antonio. Beginning in 1876, post construction began to expand and continued into the 1930’s culminating with construction of the New Post facilities.  The original buildings and the New Post of the 1930’s constitute the largest collection of historic buildings in the Department of Defense and form the Fort Sam Houston National Historic Landmark.

Today, Ft. Sam Houston is home to the Brooke Army Medical Center.  Here is an extract from their web site that describes their history and what they presently do:

“Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio is part of the United States Army Medical Command. It is a University of Texas Health Science Center and USUHS teaching hospital and contains the Army Burn Center. BAMC has a history which dates back to 1879 when the first Post Hospital opened as a small medical dispensary located in a single story wooden building. During the early years the Post hospital was in temporary structures, and it was not until 1886 that the first permanent hospital was built. In 1907 an 84-bed Station hospital was constructed on the west side of the post.

In 1929, Brigadier General Roger Brooke assumed command of the Station Hospital, a position he held until 1933. Brooke is credited with instituting the first routine chest X-ray in military medicine. In July 1936, the cornerstone was laid for the construction of a replacement Station Hospital. By November 1937, the new 418-bed hospital was operational, having cost $3 million dollars.

 The new hospital was the first in a series of moves which changed Fort Sam Houston from an Infantry to a medical Post.

In 1941, BAMC prepared for an overwhelming flow of casualties from World War II battlefields by converting a 220-person enlisted barracks into additional patient wards. This facility provided care to wounded soldiers and would later become BAMC Headquarters. In 1942, the Station Hospital was renamed Brooke General Hospital in Brooke's honor. In 1944, BAMC converted a Cavalry Battalion barracks into a convalescent unit to accommodate the flow of casualties from the war. This building later became Beach Pavilion. Beach housed a substantial portion of BAMC assets to include patient wards and specialty clinics.

In 1946, Fort Sam Houston was chosen as the new site for the U.S. Army Medical Field Service School. The decision to centralize the Army's medical research and training at one location resulted in the re-naming of Brooke General Hospital to Brooke Army Medical Center. In September 1987, the official groundbreaking took place for the construction of a new hospital.

On July 18, 1995, ownership of the replacement hospital was given to the BAMC Commander by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the key turnover ceremony. On March 14, 1996, the new facility was officially dedicated and on April 13, BAMC opened for business with the transfer of inpatients from the "old" BAMC to the “new” BAMC.

  The hospital today is a 450-bed TJC-accredited facility, expandable to 653 beds in the event of a disaster. Services include general medical and surgical care, adult and pediatric primary care clinics, 24-hour Emergency department, specialty clinics, clinical services, wellness and prevention services, veterinary care, and environmental health services.

BAMC is a Level I trauma center, the only one in the MEDCOM, and is part of the Southern Regional Medical Command (SRMC).”

The RV Park is quite nice and a bargain at $17 per night for a pull-through site with full hook-ups.  

After arrival we rested a bit, had a quiet dinner in the RV and are planning to go to bed early to rest for our 400 mile trip to Lafayette, LA tomorrow.

Spring Training Trip - Day 16

We got an early start this morning for the longest travel day of our trip, a 550 mile drive from Tucson, AZ to Fort Stockton, TX.  We were on the road by 7:40 am  and headed east under clear skies and dry roads on I-10.  Being Saturday, I guess, traffic was fairly light - just us and the truckers, a few locals near the small towns across the desert, and some RVs, but not many.


You never know for sure what to expect on this stretch of highway.  In the past, we have encountered dust storms, high winds, and heavy rain - sometimes all at once.  Luckily, this trip we couldn't have asked for better conditions.  The temperature was pretty close to the low 60's all the way,the skies were clear skies and there was little if any wind.  It made 9 hours of driving almost tolerable.


We did hit a lot of traffic going through El Paso, TX (as usual) and stopped for lunch at a rest stop east of town.  Since the pictures are few today, I thought I would just add them into the blog.  (Clicking on the pictures will make them larger).

Lunch in the RV

View from the rest stop - looking toward Mexico

The scenery along the way had its moments, but we had seen it before (and documented in previous blogs).  We've included a few road shots on the way to Fort Stockton however, just so we remember how much space is out here and what the road looks like.  The speed limit most of the way through Texas on the portion of I-10 we were on is 80 mph.  Most of the trucks were cruising at 75 mph; we had the cruise control set on 70 mph and didn't have any problems.

We arrived at the Fort Stockton RV Park about 6:15 pm (we are now in the Central Time Zone).  The park is O.K. for an overnight stay and the people are nice.  We are also staying here in April on the way home and get a 20% discount for a return stay.

On the way into town we noticed wrought iron sculptures on the ridge lines.  They are western figures and accompany a sign saying Fort Stockton.  The picture we were able to take from the RV is not very descriptive, but the sculptures make a nice touch to the approach to town

Fort Stockton  has an interesting history.  Since early pre-historic times, the area around here (Comanche Springs) has had water and has been a major crossroads of trails in the area.  The springs used to flow 80 million gallons of water daily, and made this place a  way station along several well-traveled routes.

To protect travelers along these routes, the U.S. Army established Camp Stockton in 1858. The post was abandoned during the Civil War, but was reestablished in 1867.  By 1886, after the "Indian Menace"  was no longer a threat, the fort was once again abandoned.  The town of Fort Stockton however continued to grow and experienced several "booms" including railroad, farming, and ranching.  Oil was also discovered nearby in 1926, including the world's fourth  largest oil reserve.  A seven year drought in the 1950's and increased irrigation for farming dried up the springs as the water table dropped.

An editorial note: Some people are concerned about a planned above-ground oil pipeline running from Canada to  Houston, TX  potentially damaging the ground water in the Oglala Aquifer covering much of the mid-west.  A more serious threat to the aquifer receiving little attention is the continued lowering of the water table in the aquifer due to agricultural demands and increased growth and development in this naturally arid part of the country. Extraction of groundwater in the aquifer continues to exceed recharging and a water crisis in in the future is almost certain to occur.

It is on to San Antonio tomorrow with a much shorter drive.

Spring Training Trip - Day 15

After breakfast, we loaded our Tucson city maps and a small cooler into the Green Machine and set out for some local shopping and sightseeing.  It was cloudy, cool and a little rainy, but it got warmer and clearer as the day went on.  We went on a short tour of the resort, since I hadn’t seen any of the buildings or activity rooms yesterday when Pat did all of the running around after we got here.  There are 118 “Scheduled Activities” listed alphabetically in the resort brochure, from AA meetings to Zumba classes.  There are also 30 or 40 “Services and Facilities” entries in the brochure, such as garbage pickup, propane delivery, etc.  The entry that caught my eye was “Defibrillator Stations” (3 available in the resort.)  There is a Health Center, but no Hospital, Mortuary, Crematorium or Graveyard – I guess they leave a few things for the outside world to deal with.

We drove to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base a short distance away got gas for the Green Machine and did some shopping at the BX.  It is a huge facility with furniture, appliances and even a gun shop in the main sales area.  (I guess Tucson is part of the Wild West.)

After our travels on base, we drove to the downtown area in search of “Old Tucson,” which we thought was an old Spanish section with a Presidio, art galleries, gift shops and restaurants.  We found a great Mexican restaurant for lunch, “El Charro,” but no Spanish/Mexican old town nearby.  Upon reading some tourist pamphlets, we discovered that the “Old Town” is actually an old Wild West town with cowboys and Indians – sort of a theme park in the middle of Tucson that charges admission.  We decided not to do that and went to visit the local mission instead.  One interesting sidelight:  in our drive around downtown Tucson, we passed or were passed by two other light green VW Bugs like ours.  We usually see one or two of them on our longer trips, but have never seen two others in the same place at almost the same time.

Mission San Xavier del Bac was founded in 1692 by Father Eusebio Kino – construction on the current church was begun in 1783.  It was built to serve the local Indians, the Tohono O’odham tribe, on its reservation, 5 miles south of Tucson.  The church is the oldest Spanish Colonial building still standing in the U.S. that is still being used for its original purpose.  It has been extensively restored, inside and out and is in a remote desert setting that gives you the feeling of being there hundreds of years ago.

The inside of the church was decorated in the Baroque style, very elaborately done.  This was not one of the plain, more primitively decorated missions we are used to in California.  It was amazing.  The courtyards and gardens around the church were filled with desert plants and cactuses, some in flower because of the recent rain in this area. 

We drove to a local Safeway for some groceries and then back to the RV for the evening.  Tomorrow is a long ride to Ft. Stockton, TX so it’s early to bed tonight.

Day 15 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 14

We’re in Tucson.  We left the RV Park in San Diego about 8:30 am in the wake of another storm that passed through the San Diego area Wednesday night.  We hadn’t thought much about the route to Tucson from San Diego other than it is essentially a straight line on the map along I-8 to I-10.  We discovered however there are mountains east of San Diego almost all the way to Yuma, AZ.  We were trailing the storm as the morning progressed, and we started to notice there was snow on the mountains ahead of us and then alongside the highway.  Luckily, the temperature was high enough that the roads were only wet and not icy or snow-covered.  To enhance the driving experience we also had a fairly significant crosswind to keep us alert and focused on the road.  Of course, the truckers and locals didn’t have any problem with any of this and flew past at 65 mph or more.  When we finally hit the desert flatlands after a steep downgrade, we were able to relax a little and only have to worry about a slight quartering headwind the rest of the way.  The mountains from San Diego are only about 4000’ high but seemed much higher.  The rest of the trip was long and fairly routine with not much to look at except distant mountains, desert, and saguaro cactus as we passed through a portion of the Sonoran Desert where they grow.

We arrived at the Voyagers RV Resort just east of Tucson around 5:15 pm MST after about 8 hours of driving (415 miles).  We originally planned to stay at the Davis-Monthan AFB FAMCAMP in town but they didn’t have any spaces open.  You cannot make reservations at most USAF FAMCAMPS so you never know until you get close to the base if they will have any open sites.  The Tucson area is a popular destination for “Snowbirds” and February is right in the middle of the winter season down here, so we had the RV Park where we are staying as our back-up plan.

The Voyagers RV Resort is something to behold.  It is about a mile off of I-10, is gated and has maybe 400 sites that include permanent and seasonal residences and RV sites that are actually owned or rented by the year/season/month/week/day. The residences are park model RVs – one bedroom units that are roughly equivalent to a small single-wide modular unit. The resort has a 9-hole golf course, tennis courts, three pools (indoor and outdoor) a restaurant, full-service bar, market store, fitness rooms, and activity center.  The resort is primarily a self contained community that caters to retirees, snowbirds, and senior citizens. The people staying here are definitely up-scale with no pit bulls or blue tarps in sight. There are activities galore and more things then you would ever want to do, even if you wanted to do them.  They even give you name tags you are supposed to wear at all times when on the property.  We think the reason for doing so is that security can take you back to your site if you forget who you are and/or cannot remember where you are staying.


(Judy's note:  I feel better today- yea!  I want to talk about the female security officer at the entrance gate of the resort.  She was formidible and serious.  She said,  "Welcome to Voyager RV Resort.  Name please?  Yes, you are on The List.  You will drive ahead to the stop sign and wait there for the person in the golf cart to lead you to your site.  You will follow the golf cart to your site and park there.  The person in the golf cart willl tell you where to park your car.  You will sign this paper that absolves Voyager resort of any responsibility for any damage.  You will take this sign-in card to the office before 6:00 p.m.  Have a good time at Voyager."  As we followed obediently behind The Person in The Golf Cart, I said to Pat, "I dare you to go back to the entrance gate and tell her that you don' t like the site and want a new one."  He declined.  We love the site.  We are rebelling in a passive-aggressive way by not wearing our nametags.)

Judy is still fighting a stomach disorder (we now think it is probably a touch of intestinal flu).  She feels pretty good but doesn’t have much energy and little appetite.  I went down to the resort restaurant to see if I could get a take-out sandwich for dinner.  While waiting for my sandwich, I checked out the bar and that scene was something else. The restaurant was packed and the bar was jumping.  It was Karaoke Night Thursday with $3.00 Margaritas.  There wasn’t a person in there under 60 years old and people who appeared to be at least 70 were singing Karaoke songs like “Strangers in the Night” and “Spanish Eyes”.

After dinner in the RV, we both are going to bed early.  There is another small rain storm predicted to hit the Tucson area tonight and pass through by morning.  The plan for tomorrow, depending on how Judy feels, is to do a little sightseeing in the Tucson area and go to the Davis-Monthan BX for a few supplies before we head across Texas.
 

No pictures again today but we will make up for it tomorrow.

Spring Training Trip - Day 13

Our laid-back visit to San Diego continued today.  We started off doing the laundry this morning then had a leisurely breakfast at Dick & Susan’s RV.  Dennis and Julie were supposed to be there, but they had just found out that Dennis’s son David had unexpectedly died the day before.  Dennis and Julie immediately left for Anaheim where his son  had been living to get more information..

After breakfast, we went with Dick and Susan to do some sightseeing.  We first took a tour of the Admiral Baker Navy RV Park where we had stayed on our previous trip to San Diego.  We then went out to Coronado where we had lunch.  After a drive out along the Silver Strand towards Point Loma, we headed back to the RV park with a stop en-route at a park on the waterfront near the WW II USS Midway, the deactivated aircraft carrier that is now a historical museum open to tours.  A point of interest here is a large statue of a sailor kissing a nurse in a park beside the Midway.  The pose is based on a famous picture that appeared in Life Magazine shortly after the end of WWII.  The park is a perfect setting for the sculpture, but alas, it is being removed by its’ owner, refurbished, and  moved to another city.  The park also has an interesting display of statues arranged as a tribute to Bob Hope entertaining the troops.  The group of representative soldiers, sailors, and airmen are facing a statue of Bob Hope at a microphone while hidden speakers are playing comedy routines from his many tours oversees throughout his long career.

After returning to the RV park we had a late dinner at Dick & Susan’s RV.  Dennis & Julie had returned from Anaheim and joined us for dinner.  Preparations for the funeral are still pending.

Tomorrow marks the end of our casual travels down the coast.  We are now transitioning to a “transit mode” and will have longer travel days and fewer stops as we head for Florida.  It is Tucson, AZ tomorrow, then on to Texas.

No pictures today.  I forgot my camera and my iPhone was inadvertently set on video, none of which are worth posting.

Spring Training Trip - Day 12

It was another quiet day in San Diego.  Judy had an upset stomach and a gastric reaction, most likely from lunch at the Mexican restaurant yesterday.  Consequently, she pretty much didn’t feel like doing much of anything today and stayed in bed until early afternoon.  She didn’t sleep much last night so the extra rest helped a lot. 

Dick and Susan and Dennis and Julie went down to the harbor area this afternoon, did some shopping, and made reservations at a nice restaurant for dinner to celebrate Valentine’s Day.  Judy was feeling a lot better this afternoon, so we decided to meet them for dinner.  We had an excellent meal and afterwards had dessert back at Dick and Susan’s RV.  It was early to bed and hopefully we will be reenergized for tomorrow’s activities.

It rained fairly hard all night but cleared up by mid morning and was mostly sunny the rest of the day.  There are more showers forecast for tomorrow, but the temperature has remained in the low to mid 60’s despite the unsettled weather and rain showers we are experiencing here.

Day 12 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 11

Today was a fairly laid-back day as our vacations go.  We slept in and lounged around the RV until about 11:00 am when we took to the San Diego Trolley (light rail) into Old Town San Diego with Dick and Susan for lunch.

There is a trolley station right next to the RV Park and the line runs right into the Old Town section of San Diego.  It is about a 15 minute ride and costs $1.25 each way.  The trolley from here runs about every 15 minutes and interconnects with two other trolley lines and multiple bus routes from transfer stations along the way.  The system appears to be well-run and extensively used throughout the city.

 
We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Old Town that was very good (Old Town Mexican Restaurant and Cantina).  Dick and Susan ate there on Saturday and wanted to go back.  After walking around awhile, we made it back to the RV park before the expected rain came through this afternoon.  After getting a few grocery supplies, we went to Dick and Susan's RV for dinner again (bruchetta for an appetizer, rib eye steaks on the grill, pasta Alfredo, sauteed spinach, razzleberry pie and ice cream for dessert).

Day 11 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 10

Since we had a short drive today, we slept in again and left the RV park about 10:15 am.  We then decided to check out the other RV park on Camp Pendelton.  This area, called Del Mar Beach Resort, is near the main gate to the southern end of the base along I-5 and adjoining the city of Oceanside.

The beach resort is a beautiful modern resort with about 115 RV sites, many with full-hook-ups.  There are also 62 “luxury”, “deluxe”, and “standard” villas.  The villas are one-bedroom duplex cottages right on the beach.  All are equipped with full kitchens, dining and living rooms, and furnished patios with BBQ grills. We didn’t go in any of them, but they appear to be almost new and very attractive.

The RV spots are in three rows, facing the beach and set-back from the ocean a bit. There is not a lot of vegetation or trees around each site but the spaces seem to have plenty of room in between them.

The beach is very wide with lots of sand, no rocks, and a gentle slope into the ocean.  The beach is perhaps a mile long, with a jetty to the south and restricted beach access to the north.  The beach area to the north is restricted to active duty military only while performing official military duties.  In other words, it is an amphibious training area for the Marines.  There also protected dune areas for Western Snowy Plover and California Least Tern nesting areas in the restricted beach areas.  Like Vandenberg AFB, most of the 17 miles of Camp Pendelton coastline are restricted from public access for national security reasons.  The base coastal areas however, are carefully protected and preserved in essentially their natural state.  In fact, the Camp Pendelton coastline is the last natural coastline left in Southern California.  The base is also home to over a thousand species of plants, fish, and animals, some of which are either threatened or endangered.

We then drove to San Diego for our stay at the San Diego RV Resort.  The park is located on the north side of San Diego, not too far away from Qualcom Stadium, home of the San Diego Chargers NFL football team.  The park is in an urban setting just off of I-8.  The area of the park we are staying in is nice, but there is a lot of highway noise we will probably get used to in our 4-night stay here.

After checking in to the park and setting up the RV we met Dick, Susan, Dennis and Julie for lunch at a nearby Denny’s restaurant.  They are both staying in the same area of the park as we are but we do not have adjoining sites.  Susan and Dick are doing dinner for everyone tonight in their RV. (More to follow)

Day 10 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 9

The weather was great again today – a little cooler, but mostly sunny and not very windy.  After breakfast, we left Point Mugu and headed south along Highway 1 (the Pacific Coast Highway) to Santa Monica and then through LA to Camp Pendleton, a  U.S. Marine base on the coast between LA and San Diego, that has an RV park right on the beach.  Traffic through LA was hectic, but moved quickly with few delays.  (It was Saturday and we were avoiding rush hour.)  Pat only got “the finger” from one driver, a female who obviously did not want a big RV in her way.

We found Camp Pendleton easily with the GPS and, after working our way around a closed road, arrived at the campground, right on the beach as advertised.  From our site we can see waves breaking on the shore on 3 sides of the RV.  After lunch, we walked south on the beach, which has areas open to both swimming and surfing, down to San Onofre State Beach which directly adjoins the north end of Camp Pendleton.  There is a sign there on the boundary fence between the two beaches which states that “civilians” may pass through but have to stay below the high tide area. We walked as far as the San Onofre nuclear power plant (one of three still operating in California) which is just south of the state beach. The main part of the base is not here by the beach; it is across the highway up in the hills and has all of the regular base security you would expect from a working military installation. The coastal area of the base where the Marines practice military maneuvers is further south and access to the beach in those areas is restricted to the public.

We had a great walk on the beach.  It was fun watching the surfers – they really had to work at getting far enough out to catch a wave because the sand is strewn with many fairly large rocks.  We watched the sunset, ate dinner in the RV and are looking forward to San Diego tomorrow and meeting up with Susan & Dick and Dennis and Julie.

Day 9 Pictures

Spring Training Trip - Day 8

Another beautiful day with perfect weather.  After breakfast, we drove to Mission Buenaventura, the 21^st and last mission on the mission tour we started 2 years ago.  It is about 15 miles from Point Mugu Campground in downtown Ventura, easy to find with the GPS.  The mission is a working Catholic church and has been restored to its 1800’s appearance, with a beautiful courtyard, many statues and paintings in the church, and a small museum full of artifacts.  We were able to join a guided tour which had been set up ahead of time, so we learned a lot of information about the mission that we would normally not have heard.  We actually toured with about 30 4^th graders and some of their parents; California mission studies are taught in that school year to all students.   We are really glad we did the mission tour – it’s such a big piece of California history.

While we were walking back to the car, we noticed an olive oil store, All Olive, which looked interesting, so we went in and talked to the owner for a while.  There is another branch of the store in El Dorado Hills, not too far from where we live.  We bought some delicious balsamic vinegar and basil oil in bottles that can be refilled at a reduced rate.  The store was beautifully set up with lots of dips, oils and vinegars to taste and try out.

We then drove to the Ventura Harbor and had lunch at Andria’s Seafood Restaurant and Market – fried halibut and chips, clam chowder and a shrimp tostada – delicious!  We then walked around the shops in the harbor area, looking at all the beautiful boats moored there, meanwhile looking for chocolate chip cookies.  We found the cookies and got mochas also.

 

At the entrance of the harbor, we toured the Channel Islands National Park visitor’s center.  The 5 Channel Islands, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa and Santa Barbara lie just off the coast of Ventura County.  They are protected areas that have several species of birds, plants and animals that are found nowhere else, as well as huge nesting areas for migratory birds and an enormous rookery for seals and sea lions.  You can get boat or airplane trips out to the islands, and even camp there overnight, but we didn’t have time for that on this trip.  The visitor’s center had a tidepool with 3 or 4 huge sea stars and a spiny lobster, as well as other kinds of fish and smaller sea stars.  We also discovered there that there are two other Channel Islands nearby which are not open to the public, San Nicholas and San Clemente, both owned and used by the U.S. Navy.

On the way back to the RV, we stopped at the Navy Exchange (BX) for some ice and pizza for dinner, and watched an old movie on TV (Close Encounters of the Third Kind).  Actually, this was our second movie of the day – this morning before we left the RV we watched most of Giant, made in 1956 and James Dean’s last movie.

Day 8 Pictures