Arizona Trip - Day 24

We left The Lakes RV Park in Chowchilla around 9:00 am and had an uneventful 3 1/2 hour ride back home.  

After arriving in town, we filled-up the RV with propane at the Fair Grounds. had lunch at the new Humpty Dumpty and successfully parked the RV without incident.  After unloading everything we are now faced with putting it all away and getting back to normal, whatever that is.

It was a great trip.  We did a lot and had a lot of fun, but, as always, its good to be home.

Arizona Trip - Day 23

We left Northridge this morning and headed North with "moderate" traffic on "The 405".  We soon encountered the dreaded "Grapevine", the series of steep climbs and descents out of the LA Basin and into the San Joaquin Valley.  The road was filled with a lot of slow-moving trucks and fast moving cars weaving in and out of traffic.  We made it through it all O.K. and were glad we didn't try going that way in the snow and rain on the way down.

The rest of the trip to Chowchilla up Highway 99 for our overnight stop was uneventful and we arrived at The Lakes RV Park and Golf Resort about 3:00 pm.  The park is really nice and appears to be a destination resort with an attached golf course and a small lake in the middle. It looks like many of the RV spots are for sale and/or long-term rental.  For example, a lakeside RV site is advertised in the park brochure for $75,000.   No old hulk RVs and trailers, single-wides, or blue tarps in sight.  There is also a gated housing area adjoining the park that looks like it may be affiliated with the park and resort.  We are not sure how such an oasis like this ended up in Chowchilla, but it is a nice place to stay on the way home. Our guess is that most RVers come here for the golf. We drove about 250 miles today and have decided that  between 200- 300 miles a day is about max for us now.  

We have about a 3 1/2 hour drive home tomorrow and should arrive in the early afternoon.

Day 23 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 22

We traveled down "The 405" today to the Getty Center to see the Vermeer painting, "The Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" and also explore the museum again. 

It is normally a 30 minute trip from where we are staying, but we had a couple of things complicate the experience.  First of all, traffic was heavy and slow moving. We don't believe there is ever a break from "rush hour traffic" in the LA area - it is always heavy and generally slow moving.  We don't know how the locals can put-up with it every day, driving back-and-forth to work and getting around town to do other things.  There is public transit, but there are still a lot of one-person-per-car automobiles on the roads as well as a variety of trucks of different sizes.  On the positive note if you have more than one person in a car, the HOV (carpool) lanes  always seem to be less congested and underutilized.

The second  factor today was a lot of construction around the Getty Center on the highway, complicating exiting and entering the interchanges.  Consequently, we missed our exit on the first pass.  Our GPS quickly recovered however, and routed us through the ritzy neighborhood of Bel Air to the back gate of the Getty which unfortunately was locked.  So, we backtracked and approached the museum from the other direction on  the highway. This time, we got off at the right exit and quickly found our way to the museum parking lot.

Since the Getty sits on a hill overlooking the city, you park down below and ride a tram up to the museum.  It is about a five minute ride in the type of tram you might see in an airport, transporting passengers between terminals.  Admission to the museum is free, but there is a charge for parking.

The Getty Center is a magnificent complex of public and private buildings that house the J. Paul Getty Trust, which includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute, Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation.  The museum includes an extensive collection of paintings, decorative art objects, sculptures, and landscaped gardens.  The buildings are built of Travertine Marble imported from Italy.  The emphasis of the museum collections is primarily European, ranging from Antiquity to early 20th Century. 

The primary purpose of our visit was to see the famous Vermeer painting "The Woman in Blue Reading a Letter".  The picture is superb and we were able to get a close-up look at it as the crowds around the picture were not as large as we expected.  We were surprised about the size of the picture however, as we had thought it was much larger.  Nevertheless, it was a great experience to see such a beautiful and famous painting.  We also visited the galleries displaying the works of other 17th Century Dutch and Flemish artists. We had lunch at the museum cafe and then visited the galleries displaying paintings by 18th and 19th Century European artists, including Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, and Renoir.

We had seen about everything we wanted to see this trip by 3:00 pm and headed back up the highway to the RV Park.  We had take-out Indian food for dinner that was very good.  We hope to get on the road by 9:00 am tomorrow and get over the "Grapevine" and into the Valley by noon.

Day 22 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 21

Today we visited the Reagan Museum and Library in Simi Valley,  It is located about 30 minutes West of where we are staying in Northridge. The library and museum sits on top of a mountain peak with a spectacular view of the valley in all directions.  The displays are excellent and the buildings and surrounding grounds are well designed and maintained.

Regardless of whether you liked Reagan or not or if you don't believe in his Conservative philosophy of economic freedom, smaller government, fewer regulations, fewer taxes and a strong national defense, the museum and library is worth visiting.  It is an excellent documentation of a crucial period of American History during his two terms of office as the 40th President of the United States from 1981-1989.

After entering through the Main Entrance, you trace his life and events through a number of galleries displaying pictures, videos, quotes, and objects representing each period of his life.
Displays include a full size furnished replica of the White House Oval Office, the Berlin Wall, and actual footage of the assassination attempt on his life in 1981. A highlight of the tour is the Boeing 707 (Air Force One) used by President Reagan and seven other Presidents.  The plane was disassembled in 2001, brought to the site in pieces and reassembled while the building where it is now located was built around it. After restoration and completion of the building where it is displayed, It was opened to the public in 2005.

We had a a nice lunch at the museum cafe with a spectacular view of the surrounding area.  After lunch, we finished the tour and headed back to the RV at 2;00 pm.  After resting a bit, we went over to our friends' house about a mile from the RV Park to visit and have dinner.  Lorraine, Judy's first college roommate at Penn State is married to Bob Joyce, also a Penn State graduate and a retired engineer from Northrup.  We had a nice visit and a great dinner and were back in the RV by 8:30 pm.

We will visit the Getty Center Museum in Santa Monica tomorrow to see a Vermeer Painting, the Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, on loan from the Rijksmuseum in Holland.  We will then head for home on  Wednesday.

Day 21 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 20

We had a relatively short 3-hour drive today from the RV Park in Indio to the RV Park in Northridge.  There was no wind and the only excitement was maneuvering through the Sunday rush hour traffic in the Northern LA Basin into Northridge.

The park where we are staying is O.K. but nothing spectacular.  It is close to the places we are visiting in the next two days however, and there really isn't anything else near by or more convenient.

The plan tomorrow is to visit the Reagan Presidential Library, then have dinner with Bob and Lorraine Joyce who live in Northridge.  Lorraine and Judy were college roommates for their freshman year at Penn State in 1959-1960.  Tuesday, we visit the Getty Museum nearby in Santa Monica, then head home on Wednesday.

Day 20 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 19

We left Mesa Spirit RV Park about 9:15 am and headed West on I-10 towards California. After a somewhat windy drive into a quartering headwind, we arrived in Indio, CA (near Palm Springs) about 2:30 pm.  We are staying at a nice park (Shadow Hills RV Resort) but are not planning on any sightseeing in the area or participating in any RV Park activities.  Maybe a short walk around the park later, but we will have dinner in the RV and get to bed early.

We will be leaving early tomorrow morning for Northridge, CA (in the LA area) where we will stay for three nights.

Day 19 Pictures

Arizona Trip - Day 18

We visited the Mesa Market Place late this morning, walked around for awhile and bought a few things.

The Market Place is a vast outdoor market in four large (long) buildings.  There are over 1600 vendors on the 55 acre property and virtually of them have permanent stalls they leave set-up when the Market Place is not open on weekdays and maybe in the Summer.  The place is filled with cheap souvenirs, low-end Southwestern decorative things (e.g. metal wall hangings, pottery, Indian trinkets, Mexican lawn art, etc.) There were also lots of other things typically seen at large outdoor markets such as tools, clothing, food processors, artificial plants, health and beauty aids, etc.  Oh, and there were also a lot of old people moving slowly and getting in the way.  The place had many people shopping and looking around - most appeared to be in the  55+ age range with most much older.  Lunch was at the food court.  The food was mediocre, but cheap, a large glass of beer was only $3.00 (Miller Lite).  There was also live entertainment - a guy in a cowboy hat playing Lawrence Welk type music on an electric keyboard.  We almost made it through two of the four buildings before everything started to look alike and we decided we had seen enough. 

We came back to the RV and began the process of getting ready to leave in the morning.  The weather looks good for the trip to Indio, CA (near Palm Springs), an overnight stop.  We will then drive to Northridge, CA for three nights, a visit with friends and a visit to the Getty Museum in Santa Monica.  We will be home by mid-day Thursday.

Day 18 Pictures