050328- Hemet

Well, thank god the rain was only one day in coming. Today is a nice, bright sunny day, the usually California BORING type.
We are anxious to get back to our movie marathon week. While we have already seen the best available, there are some that merit a look, especially since the daytime – senior citizen price is only $5.

BE COOL - is a sequel to GET SHORTY – with John Travolta and a cast of cameos. You have to be a fan of Travolta or it’s a waste of time.
I like him.

On Saturday we watched an animated movie called ROBOTS - with the voices of Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, and a few others that made it entertaining. I guess it could also be a kids film but had lots of adult content. I’m sure it will go to video quickly, but it was a cute movie.

With one more day left – there were not many good choices, so we closed our eyes and picked MAN OF THE HOUSE - starring Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas Ranger that has to baby-sit 5 cute college cheer leaders as witnesses of a murder. It’s a light comedy, some redeeming features, but if you tell anyone I recommended it I will deny it.

The night before we leave a campground, we do a few preliminary procedures to make the next days departure less time consuming and painful – and in this case, since the forecast was light rain – less wetness.

We dump our tanks, disconnect city water, put away the Batmobile and just leave our electric hook up overnight.

For once the weatherman was right and some rain did occur overnight and early but by the time we got rolling, it was history.

Driving on the highways and back roads of our great country is always exciting – sometimes scary, but in a good way. The only driving I dislike is the drive back to Los Angeles. There is just something about the roads and drivers that make it unpleasant and usually nerve racking.
It’s not the traffic or the physical conditions of the highway (which is better than a lot of places I’ve been), but the physiological feeling of ending another chapter in our book of travels and hoping it will not be our last because there is so many more places to go and things to see and people to meet along the way.

It’s Monday afternoon, we turn the corner of our block, find a large parking space at the corner and turn off the engine with deep regret.

Peter leaps thru the cabin door – he can be very reckless sometimes, sniffs the grass and anoints it. He is officially home.

I usually wait till I get home to use the bathroom.

Movies

Hemet1

050320 – Hemet, CA

050320 – Hemet, CA

Sunday
What should have been a leisurely and comfortable drive was not. Traveling thru the desert was a scary and tiresome drive. The beautiful blue sky and high fluffy clouds displayed a seemly nice day but The cross winds were strong and gusty, forcing frequent lane weaving and constant steering wheel wrestling. We took advantage of every rest area just to relax and calm down, but Peter used them for the more basic purposes. By the time we got thru the pass and arrived at our destination I could have used a drink, but I had the booze tucked away and didn’t have the strength to dig it out.
This park is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is across the street from a 12-screen movie theater, which gives me a chance to catch up on movies I missed in the past 4 months. Also across the street is a Wal-Mart, and down to street is a shopping mall. Add to that a fully paved park which is Batmobile and walker friendly and a dog run for Peter and we are all happy.

Monday
What a really beautiful day – sunny, warm and dry. Peter likes the dog yard. It’s fenced in with lots of good smells, and he gets to roam and sniff and do his business off leash. The Batmobile 2 is working fine and I get to really give him a good cardio workout.
We get a good breakfast at Denny’s and then off to the movies.
Million Dollar Baby is our first selection. What a great movie. Great story, great actors and great acting. Deserved all the awards it got.
It brought back memories of my dad, who was a prize fighter in his youth, before he married my mom. He used to tell me that in the Bronx, where he grew up, guys were always getting into street fights, so he figured he might as well get paid for fighting. In those days, he got about $50 a fight, but by the time his manager got his cut and expenses were deducted, he was lucky to get $25, but it was something. In those days, most of the professional boxers were either Jewish or Italian, and according to newspaper clippings I found in my mom’s scrapbook, he was one of the up and coming Jewish boxers – he could have be a contender. He had an impressive record of over 50 professional bouts with only 3 loses and more than 10 wins by KO. Mom made him quit when they married and he spent about 5 years as a welder at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the rest of his life working in the garment industry in Manhattan.
I remember how we used to watch boxing on TV every week as he would do a running commentary and critique. He also taught boxing at the local community centers and of course you know who was his designated sparing partner – yup –me.
He taught me how to hit a speed bag – and I got pretty good – and whenever my brother (4 years younger) and I would start fighting, he would usher us into the basement and put boxing gloves on us and we went at it. They were really big, soft gloves, so we got tired before we ever got hurt.
He worked out in that basement every day of his life, jumping rope, exercise bike and shadow boxing. He was always in great shape.
After the movie, we ran over to Wal-Mart and got a big disappointment. It was closed – for good. Moved to new location – ½ mile away. Put a real crimp in my plans but not fatal. The good news was that an Applebee’s opened on the corner, right near a Pizza Hut – so we knew we wouldn’t starve to death.
Besides, we have to finish off what we have in the fridge and freezer before we get home.

Tuesday
Movie today was the AVIATOR – wow – another great movie – I wonder who Scorcese has to sleep with in this town to get an Oscar. Now I’m thinking that it should have at least been a tie with Million Dollar Baby.

Wednesday
Movie for the day was a Bruce Willis action flick called HOSTAGE. It was predictable but good action and good acting. Not too gory and a decent plot.
The weather is turning and rain has been drizzling on and off since last night. Tomorrow sounds like more of the same.

Thursday
The weather got the best of us today – heavy rain – all day. I did not like the look on Peter’s face as he stared out the window at the storm.He was not a happy pup – he knew that his walks would be short and no outdoor playtime today. That means I have to see his “woe is me”, sorrowful look all day. I hope it’s dry tomorrow – I can’t take 2 days of him like that.

050319 – Ehrenberg, Arizona

050319 – Ehrenberg, Arizona

We are as close to California as we can get. Ehrenberg is off exit # 1 on the Arizona interstate 10, on the east bank of the Colorado River.
The river is sort of the dividing line between Arizona and California, the other bank being Blythe, California.

We did have plans to see some friends at Casa Grande but since we are not prone to make reservation to far in advance, we couldn’t get into the more popular parks. Remember my motto about making plans and God laughing. We stayed at a couple of what I call “OO” parks, meaning Only Overnight. One in Deming, New Mexico and one in Benson, Arizona. They are basically dusty and gravelly, with little to attract us except for their location in our path home.

We did get to stop at one of our favorites, Picacho Peak, between Tucson and Phoenix, the park that Peter had his bad experiences with cactus.
This time he was lucky and did not get stuck, but he does not like the gravel roads and occasionally gets a small stone in his paw and limps until I can dig it out. He’s very macho, a real tough guy, and really resists when I try to help him – trying to get it out himself first, licking and nuzzling his sore foot, but I usually have to resort to brute force to aid him.

Some Rvers have told us that the newer Wal-Mart’s have 12 foot high service bays and are able to handle motor homes for oil and lube service.
We tried them out and it was quite a good experience. They have a quick service center (like a Jiffy Lube), and we were only 3rd in line on a Sunday afternoon.

The did everything right, including high grade synthetic oil (Mobile 1) and 17 point lube, but they forgot to clean the windshield. However – instead of being charged as an RV like my usual mechanic and even Camping World does at about $90, the bill was only $42 – and it was done in an hour.
One more gold star for Wal-Mart.

The Colorado River Oasis RVP is part of our new plan so at a basic $6 a day it is quite a bargain. They have a good kitchen, which Peter will attest too as well.
They also have a fast food stand inside the park which makes great breakfast burritos and hamburgers. On March 17th, they had a traditional St. Patrick’s dinner – Corned beef and cabbage, and Peter made lots of friends who keep aside a piece of meat for him.

The inner roads are dirt with some gravel but the Batmobile 2 was able to maneuver adequately to give Peter his daily workout. Got to keep him healthy and strong so cardio exercise is important to him. I also want to tire him out so he sleeps well.

Originally, we planned on spending our last weekend at Dockweiler Beach – off Imperial Highway, by LAX, but I tried calling the park for weeks and got no answer. Plan B is to stay at our favorite park in Hemet – across from a Wal-Mart and a 12 screen movie theater so we can catch up on some of the films we have missed. I hope there are some good ones showing.

We should arrive home the afternoon of March 28th (Monday) so we can get a good parking spot across the street on Tuesday morning.

Poppy fields 

US Border Patrol Museum 

050310 – U.S.Border Patrol

We’re still in Texas, working our way out. El Paso had a few interesting places to visit but first we had to find our Park De Jour.
I keep forgetting not to rely on my GPS too heavily, and today was a good example. Having set the address for the park, we followed blindly along the route until it came to a dead end. We searched and searched and finally realized that the computer had pulled a fast one on us. Somehow it transposed an address from another city with a different zip code.

Going back to basics, we pulled out the “bible”, and looked up local parks and found one near our present location and called for a reservation.
It turned out to be a nice park; paved inner roads, and a good site. It was perfect for a road test of Batmobile 2, which performed very well under all conditions. It is more comfortable that Bmobile 1, about 2 inches longer, and has a stronger motor and bigger front wheel which makes it more stable and easier to steer. Peter seemed to like it too as he trotted alongside.

We decided on one site to visit and it was the U.S. Border Patrol Museum. Believe it or not, it is the only facility in the entire country that is dedicated to this branch of service.

As we entered the parking lot, we noticed that the fields between us and the nearby mountains was bright yellow with poppies. I did not find out the significance, but it was beautiful.

Inside the museum was a variety of vehicles that the USBP uses to patrol, including water jet skis, ATVs, helicopters, motorcycles, etc. There were no horses there but that is also one of their primary means of transportation.

Peter was most interested in the K-9 section, and where there was a Dogloo (domed dog house) with a bowl in front of it, he had to check to see if there was any food in it. He disappeared and then reappeared with an application and pencil in his jaws and asked me to fill out an application for him. I told him he was to old, since just taking care of me was keeping him busy. I found out that the USBP usually got their dogs from Europe, but in the past 2 years they had opened their own kennels and training center for their K-9 unit.

With a few souvenir T-shirts in the bag, we fired up the Beast and headed west.

nose art 

fockers 

cowboy 

050305- Midland, TX

Saturday, March 05, 2005 – Midland, TX

The story is that the town was named because it was midway between Dallas and El Paso. It is also well know for its famous family – the Bushes.

We found a great RV park (one of 2 in the town) called Midland RVP – duh! It was on our ½ price membership plan (Happy Camper)

In the Texas tour book it listed a few interesting places to visit so we stayed a few days and did some sightseeing.

The Museum of the Southwest was more of an art gallery, but some very fine and intriguing paintings. Next door to it was a small but apparently very professional and high tech planetarium – unfortunately it was only opened on weekends but the curator gave us a quick tour and it was very impressive.

I am partial to local air museums and Midland’s is supposed to be worth seeing and it was. It was much larger and better equipped than I expected – and that had nothing to do with the actual aircraft in the adjacent hanger. The Airpower museum is part of the CAF (stands for the Commemorative Air Force), which recently changed their name from the Confederate Air Force. The displays were extremely well done, entertaining, and contained many small video viewing areas where short video tapes enhance the museum experience.

The CAF’s mission is to find remains of old military aircraft and restore and rebuild them to flight status. They actually are one of the largest air forces in the world with for their combined # of operating military planes.

On display they exhibited a Russian made I-16 which is a 20 foot attack aircraft that was in service from the 1930’s to the 50’s. It is only one of six in existence and this one has been fully restored and rebuilt to fly. It looks funny for a military plan but apparently was the fasted warplane in its time and a superior dog fighter.

There is also another gallery where paintings that appeared on the noses of world war 2 planes are recovered and restored. When those planes were sold for scrape, someone decided to cut the artwork out of the planes and save them. There are about 40 on display. The crews felt that NOSE ART made their planes more alive and personal with these paintings on them – usually of pretty women in sexy poses and scantily dressed, but not always.

They are also in the process of restoring a Super Fortress - B-29 - Fifi –, apparently the only one of its kind left.

We spent most of the day here and headed for our favorite Midland Mexican restaurant. A couple of days ago we found Chalas Mexican Restaurant by accident, just cruising the streets coming back from a museum and fell in love with it. The food was great and the prices low. So we returned.

I had a 5 combo plate and Peter order a chicken enchilada. We both enjoyed our meals.

Till next time,

Boy Scout Museum 

050302-Dallas

Leaving Fort Worth, we backtracked east to Dallas. I had read about a Boy Scout Museum there. For those of you who did not know; I was a Boy Scout back in Brooklyn and achieved the rank of Eagle as well as an asst scoutmaster. It was a very important part of my life and this visit was very compelling.

As it turns out, the National headquarters of The Boy Scouts of America as well as the national museum were just recently built here in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas - about 3 years Ago.

The first portion of the building housed a gallery of about 40 Normal Rockwell paintings that he had done for and about the scouts. They were quite beautiful and heart rendering. It really brought me back to my childhood roots.

A large screened amphitheatre displayed a terrific 15 minute presentation of the birth and development of scouting and just prior to the lights dimming, a life sized, animated figure of Baden Powell welcomes everyone.

The rest of the museum was full of memorabilia, old uniforms, equipment, and up to date comparisons to show how scouting has progress to modern times.
Some areas were recreations of forest campsites.

The whole experience was very nostalgic and I was very glad I made to effort to seek it out. During the experience, I proclaimed Peter an honorary Boy Scout. I think he felt honored but refused to wear the kerchief.
We stayed at a Dallas park for the night with the skyline prominent in the background.

050301- Fort Worth-2

050301-Ft Worth

Ordinarily. I would have keep further south on our return trip and used interstate 10, but I wanted to pass thru Fort Worth Texas. Before I left on our first trip, I had purchased the Batmobile from a company in Fort Worth that advertised on Ebay. The owner was Marc Trout. During our trip, I had occasion to email him and speak with him on the phone and we developed a relationship. He told me that if I ever traveled near his hometown, we must get together.

We pulled into a park close by Marc’s home and he came out to pick us up for a tour of the city. We hit lots of interesting sites and areas and of course the most famous being the Stock Yard. This is tourist area that is in its historic garb and represents the days when cattle were brought in for sale and slaughter.
The remnants of two meat-processing plants are still present, as well as area of the original stockyards. Keeping with tradition, twice a day there is a cattle drive right thru the area (a herd of about 15). It is also the site of the biggest honky-tonk – Billy Bob’s – which is so large that they actually have live bull riding inside the building – not mechanical bulls – the real stuff on the hoof.

I have to tell you more about Marc. He was diagnosed with diabetes at age nine and as many of you know, childhood diabetes is serious and unpleasant for a young adult. He excelled at golf and won a college scholarship to Texas Christian University and also won many local club tournaments. His family was in the fireworks business and he continued the family business. His kidneys started to fail and went thru dialysis for a long time waiting for a kidney transplant, which he finally got. Unfortunately, thru a series of traumatic events, he underwent amputations of both lower legs. He has recently been fitted with lower leg and foot prostheses, but is not able to walk on them yet. He drives a van with a built in ramp. He transfers himself from the car seat to his electric wheelchair and rolls out on the ramp. A few years back, after his amputations, he was looking for a suitable means of mobility and in so doing, started his own Internet business selling handicap scooters and wheelchairs.

We spent some time at his home looking over his inventory and I decided to turn in Batmobile 1 for a new model. He gave me a good deal – and hopefully he will be able to sell my old one on Ebay for me.

On our last night together, we had a great Texas steak dinner at the 3H Steakhouse in the Stock Yards, and I think Peter will agree it was a great piece of meat.
The restaurant was classic Texan; with the bar area having saddles for barstools and a large buffalo head on the wall with its butt on the other side of the wall. It was too dark to get good pictures – sorry.