Santa Paula, March 2011

I'm late in updating this blog, partly out of laziness and partly out of lack of time.  This will be a quickie, but I felt that I needed to get up to date on our most recent trip - at least before we take another one!  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share.  Sandy took quite a few, but I seem to have not kept them on my computer.  So, please use your imagination to see the beautiful peacocks as they stood on the hood and in the bed of our truck, pooping all over the place and squawking.

The first weekend in March found us at the Ventura Ranch KOA.  The name implies that it is in Ventura, CA, but it is actually north of Santa Paula on the road to Ojai.  It is nestled down on the east side of Santa Paula creek, opposite the highway in an absolutely beautiful setting.  This is an old, well established park that was recently turned into a KOA.  We were really looking for an alternative for a quick weekend getaway.  Our 'normal' place to go for a quickie is Buellton, but this place cuts 85 miles off of the drive.  Very nice for a short 2 day weekend.  I must mention though - something that is NOT evident when making online reservations - this KOA does NOT have cable television.  Now having lived in that part of the world at one time, I can tell you that you don't get ANY tv unless you have cable.  Although there are ports for cable at the sites, they are inactive.  After returning home, I emailed the staff at the park and asked if this was going to be fixed at some point.  They responded that it was not going to change, that installing cable or satellite would be too expensive.  Oh well.  We would still recommend this park, but make sure that you take plenty of DVDs with you!

The Santa Clara valley has changed a lot since I lived there in the mid to late '70's.  The demographic has changed from middle class working folks to what seems to be a majority of migrant farm workers.  The effect on the neighborhoods is unmistakable, an effect that is definitely NOT good.  Fortunately, the KOA is several miles north of town and seems to be unaffected by the deteriorating town.

Now before I go any further, I must give some of the circumstances of the previous few weeks.  On Thursday evening, February 17th, Sandy was suffering severe abdominal pains.  She is usually pretty stoic about pain, so when she started complaining about the pain, I knew it was time to take her to the emergency room.  To make a long story a bit shorter, she had an emergency appendectomy early Friday morning, the 18th.  That evening, my son and his fiance had their wedding rehearsal.  The following day, the 19th, they were married.  Sandy had to miss all of it because of this untimely illness.  On the other hand, is there ever a good time to have appendicitis?  :-)  So this weekend getaway was during Sandy's recovery.  We did our best to make it a very nice relaxing weekend.

On Saturday, we headed up to Ojai for a little antiquing.  Now if you've been following these blogs, you'll know that we are avid antiquers.  Yeah, that's probably not a real word - antiquers.  But at least I spelled it rite. :-)  We found a couple of places that were interesting, but let me tell you that the antique dealers in Ojai are REALLY, REALLY PROUD of their stuff.  So we settled for a nice lunch at a Mexican food place.  By the way, why is it so hard to find a Mexican food restaurant in Ojai?  Sheesh!

Then off to Fillmore, the town that I actually lived in back in the 70's.  It's still a sleepy little burg and a lot of fun to wander around in.  We spent quite a bit of time in the various shops along Central avenue, what used to be the main drag in town.  Some of the shops are historic, for instance the hardware store that has been open and run by the same family since 1919.  I used to know some of the Patterson clan, having done business with them way back when.  Fillmore also now has an historic train station and even offers rides on their old steam driven trains.  Although we did not avail ourselves of that particular service, it is something that we have put on our list of fun things to do.

Other than that, our weekend was pretty much standard faire.  Steaks on the barbecue for supper and a lot of relaxing around the fire.  Next, we're off to do some fishing in the eastern Sierra and then off to Pismo beach for a long weekend.  Stay tuned!!

Buellton, January 2011

Okay, so one of the reasons that we purchased a larger travel trailer is because we like to take Buck along with us. In case you have lazily decided not to read this blog from the beginning, Buck is a 2 year old Black Labrador Retriever. He weighs in at around 105 lbs. and is ALL puppy. His first camping trip was when he was about 4 months old and although he hasn't taken a lot of trips with us, he's taken enough for us to realize that he took up TOO MUCH ROOM in our old trailer. So, although we really wanted a rear lounge trailer to kick back in, Buck was at least a part of the motivating factor for us making the trade.

So, Buck went with us this weekend to Buellton. It was his first trip there and he had a ball!!! At Flying Flags RV park, they have a large fenced area where dogs are able to run around off leash. Although Buck did not make any lasting friendships, he did get a chance to run around with a few other dogs. Here's Buck with a couple of his temporary buddies.
Those two little mutts were mother and son. The son was named 'Buckie'. I don't recall the mother's name, but she was a feisty little so and so! She kept nipping at Buck. Personally, I think they had "little people syndrome". You know, the attitude that sawed off runts tend to have, the chip on the shoulder short people thing, a "Napoleon Complex". Buck got his revenge however. He ran right over the top of either muffy or fufu and sent them head over tea cup, spinning wildly across the field. The picture below shows Buck with one of the midgets along with Reggie the yellow lab. I think Reggie was gay, cuz he kept trying to . . . um . . . well, let's just say that Buck had to forcefully refuse his advances.

Although we did some running around this weekend, we really spent most of our time just relaxing. This picture shows our terrible housekeeping. At home, we're neat as a pin. But get us out on the road and all bets are off!

Here's another of our home away from home.

I told Sandy that everyone is going to think that she never leaves that couch. Seems like every picture I have of her recently is while she is relaxing on that couch. But trust me folks, she DOES move once in a while. After all, you can't reach the refrigerator from there . . . so she HAS to get up once in a while! Just kidding . . . Oh, and there is Buck doing his share of relaxing too!

Site #328 is on the south end of the RV park. I don't think I want to get stuck down there again. Too many 'party people' on that side of the tracks.

We had a campfire a couple of nights. The first night there was really cold! The rest of the weekend was pretty mild though, so sitting outside with the stars, a nice fire burning at our feet while we solve all of the world's problems is one of the finer things in life.

Here's a nice little shot of our little piece of real estate for the weekend.

And of course, just like at home, we proudly fly the American flag as a symbol, not only of our love for this country, but as our thankfulness to our God who has granted us the freedom to enjoy weekends like this. Viva Libertad!! NOBAMA!

I love to cook. The galley in the trailer is wonderful, but cooking things like bacon or fish inside is a real no-no with me. Too much stinky that lasty forevery. So, here is our outdoor kitchen setup. Before this trip, we purchased a weber bbq, you know - the old school one that takes charcoal. It was my idea to do it this way, but I am re-thinking the whole idea. It seems to me that our old gas grill was maybe tastier, at least for steaks. Hmmm . . .

So, that was our January trip to Buellton. See you next time!!