Hanging Around in San Diego

On Thursday March 15, after a very pleasant stay at the El Centro Naval Air Facility, we headed west to Ramona California,just northeast of San Diego. After checking into the Western Horizon Resort at Ramona Canyon for a week, we picked up a rental car and proceeded to tour the area. We toured the local apple growing area of Ramona and Julian on Friday and were amazed to discover how rugged and rocky the area around San Diego is.


We headed into San Diego on Saturday where we toured the Mission Bay area, took a 2 hour sightseeing cruise on San Diego Bay, did a drive through of the Coranado area and then went for supper at the Red Sails Restaurant on Shelter island.


Sunday we toured and shopped in Tijuana Mexico. Judy and Lori kept the merchants busy bartering for jewelry and purses etc. while Moe & I carried the wallets and looked for places to eat and drink. After a busy several hours, we stopped for a late lunch where Lori got into the swing of things by dancing with our waiter and sampling the Tequila.


Sea World of San Diego was on our agenda for Monday. We spent a very full day at this attraction seeing all the shows and exhibits. Our favorite show by far was the Dolphin show with lots of action and entertainment. Gary's favorite exhibit was the Arctic Pavilion with its very exciting 5 minute simulated jet helicopter tour starting the experience. We all took the aerial Gondola over part of Mission Bay and then Gary got very wet when he took the River Rapids Ride (which everybody else was too timid to try).


The weather started to deteriorate on Tuesday and so we stayed around the RV site and did housekeeping tasks and cleanup prior to heading out for the Sun and heat at Desert Hot Springs on Thursday.

Our Trip to Desert Hot Springs was more exciting than we had hoped for as just west of desert Hot Springs, we were pulled over by a Police Officer and informed that one of our rear tires was flat. We limped into a gas station just off the highway, and after determining that the flat was caused by a loose valve attempted to fix it our selves. We were unsuccessful and so called AAA. Within 40 minutes, a truck had arrived and after reinflating the tire we found that it had been too badly damaged to be of any use. The AAA service man, Jeff, put on our spare and then led us to a local tire shop. Within 30 minutes we had bought a new tire, had it installed and were on our way again, our wallet lighter by about $400.00.

At 4:30 we checked into the Western Horizon Resorts Desert Pools RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs and rejoined Moe & Lori for a 4 day stay at this hot spring Spa. We have been enjoying the curative effects of the 3 hot spa pools and the comfortable swimming pool, have cycled in the local area and enjoyed the other amenities here. Tomorrow we intend to start the journey home with an expected arrival time in Coquitlam being late Saturday morning.

See all of you soon.

The Colorado River and Then EL Centro California.

The weather for the last week has been fabulous with temperatures in the mid 90's F and it is forecast to continue for at least the next week.

We left Casa Grande Saturday Morning and headed to the La Paz County Park on the Colorado River north of Parker AZ. We went to this park to meet up with Judy's Cousins Dee and Gwen and there husbands Gerry and Keith. We had met up with Dee & Gerry in Yuma 2 weeks before but we hadn't seen Gwen & Keith since we stayed with them in Saskatoon in 2003. It was great to get together with everybody and we had a great three days in a very attractive and well run park.

We all enjoyed a lot of food and drink and spent many hours chatting and catching up on what we have been up to.

Tuesday morning saw us packing up and heading to the US Naval Air Facility at El Centro CA. On route we stopped at Quartzsite to have another look around but most of the vendors have packed up for the season.

We arrived at NAF El Centro at about 4 pm and were given a nice site right on base. The sites are near all the recreation facilities, the clubs, Theatre, Commissary and Exchange. Each site is large with a concrete pad and full services including excellent WiFi Internet.

As a bonus we also got to see the final practice of the US Navy Precision Air Demonstration Team, The BLUE ANGELS. El Centro is the home base for this team. We had a ring side seat to a very impressive demonstration of flying as the BLUE ANGELS honed their skills during a 45 minute performance before heading to Tuscon.

Tomorrow we head west again, this time going to Ramona Canyon RV Resort near San Diego. This is our home resort with our membership in Western Horizon Resorts. During our week there, we plan to visit San Diego and its attractions including Sea World, The Zoo and the beaches of Mission Bay.

After Ramona Canyon we will finally start our journey north again heading to Santa Barbara, Monterrey and San Jose before heading for the border.

next up date will be from Ramona Canyon. TTFN

Gary & Judy

To Tuscon, Tombstone, SkyDiving and then on to Parker

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to.
Sky Diving

Pima Air Museum


Gunfighters in Tombstone

Gary Just Hanging around

I'l bet that the Skydiving part of the title caught your attention. Well we tried but when we went to the sky diving school, the US Army had it booked and we couldn't do it ( Phew- saved by the bell again). All we could do was take a picture of a Parachutist coming in for a landing.

On Tuesday, we headed off to Tombstone AZ ( you know the place where Marshal Earp and Doc Holiday had a gunfight with some other bad guys at the OK Corral) On route we stopped at the Pima Air Museuem in Tuscon. There are over 65 ares of airplanes on display here - even Judy was impressed.

After Tuscon, we conbtinued onto Tombstone and moteled it for the night. We had a very good supper in Tombstone except for Judy who got overheated and had to go back to the motel. She recovered tho and the next day we did the tourist stuff of watching a gunfight and a riding show and hitting all the souvenier shops.

We then had a very good mexican meal for a late lunch and headed home. Boy that RV looked good when we got home.

Thursday we went to the Gila Indian Center but were very disappointed in what was there - poor displays and lax service. After that we went to the Sky Diving center for another disappointment - no sky diving for us - we could only watch some realy good parachute work.

Friday we have returned our car, had our RV washed and waxed and then Judy made Magnificent Margaretas and we ordered in Pizza. Today ( Saturday) we headed to the La Paz County park near Parker AZ where we will visit Judy's cousins Dee and Gwen and then on Tuesday head to El Centro US Navy Air facility to camp for two nights. After that we will be in Ramona Canyon RV resort and that is probably when we will next have internet.

CASA GRANDE NEAR PHOENIX

Due to forecast colder weather, we changed our plans (yes again) and went directly to the Western Horizons Desert Shadows Resort at Casa Grande Arizona near Phoenix. Temperatures have been going down as low as 2C at night here and were forecast to be below freezing in the St. David area.

We left Pilot Knob about noon on Tuesday after overcoming a battery problem on our rig and a leveler problem on Moe & Lori's rig. Although the wind was gusting up to about 30 mph (50km/hr), fortunately it was directly behind us on the trip and hopefully gave us better gas mileage.

Casa Grande Resort has about 360 sites and is located about 40 miles south of Phoenix and 65 miles north of Tuscon.

We will be picking up our rental car today and will start exploring the area. So far the use of rental cars has worked out well. We have paid between $20 and $30 per day for each day we have had the cars (10 days so far). Since we are sharing the costs with Moe and Lori, this has proved to be a very economical way to have a touring vehical when compared to towing a car.

Before we left Pilot Knob, Judy's cousin Dee and her husband Gerry came out to the park for supper and a few(!!!) drinks. A good time was had by all. Dee also let us know that another of Judy's cousin's, Gwen and her Husband Keith, would be in the Parker are with Gerry & Dee on 11 March and so we are changing our plans and will be in the Parker area on the 11th.

It is really amazing how many people we are running into that we know from Canada. Last monday, Moe and Lori were in a line at the Border while returning from a day trip to Mexico. Lori had stepped away to make another purchase and when she came back and Moe called her name to get her attention, it attracted the attention of the people in front of them who turned out to be cousins of Lori's from Ontario. Small world.

The high temperatures have been in the high 60's and low 70's F but are forecast to be in the low 80's starting tomorrow and through to the end of next week. Much better than the snow back home.