Winter 2006 - San Diego & FMCA Convention

We started the day with a walk around this beautiful park. While walking we found lots of great birds, a full timing couple from Canada/Florida/South Carolina and a better campsite right on the lake. The bird highlight was a Sora, a usually reclusive rail that was out feeding out in the open and was oblivious to our close approach and numerous camera clicks. The couple. Harry and Karin Thorn, live in a 40 foot Allegro Bus. We may go on a wine country tour with them later in the week. Our campsite is nice but far from the lake. We found one we could fit into right along the lake and it was available for the rest of our stay so we moved.

Next stop was the UPS Store to pick up the repaired processor for our satellite internet system. Hopefully we will be back on the air soon. After a quick lunch t a Chinese restaurant, we were off to the San Diego Zoo. This was an awesome place. Not only did they have a great diverse collection of animals; they also had wonderful, natural enclosures to show the animals in a natural setting. Lots of exotic birds, an Okapi trying to mate, koala bears and Pandas were the highlights of the zoo. Back to the coach we enjoyed an evening reviewing hundreds of pictures and savoring the experience of a fantastic day.

Since we are now right on the lake, the ducks came to visit. Obviously, many campers feed these ducks, so we had Mallards, Coot, Wood Ducks and an Eared Grebe hovering around the shore watching for a handout. After a quiet breakfast we walked over to the site where our new full-timing friends were staying. We had a nice visit and decided to go on a day trip together to the wine country north of San Diego tomorrow. In the afternoon we drove back into San Diego and took the two hour Old Town Trolley tour of the city. We learned a lot about this beautiful city and got off the trolley on Coronado Island to check out some shops and visit a magnificent hotel, the Coronado Del Mar. Built nearly 100 years ago, it is reminiscent of the Mount Washington Hotel but bigger and on a magnificent stretch of beach. We ate the last of our Baja scallops for dinner and enjoyed the solitude of this very quiet campground.

What a wonderful park we are staying in. In spite of lots of human activity, the lakes attract birds by the hundreds. During our morning run we saw four species of wading birds, five species of ducks, six species of passerines along with coots, grebes, raptors and pelicans.

Late morning we drove with Harry & Karin Thorn up to Temecula, the wine country north of San Diego. We had a delightful day. The scenery was beautiful, lunch and wine tasting at the Ponte Vineyard was delicious. The wines here were excellent though expensive. We then toured the old town of Temicula, now mostly shops, including one place that offered Olive Oil tasting! Harry & Karin were great fun to be with. We got along so well that in one shop a clerk said, “You are obviously traveling together, how long have you known each other?”. She was shocked when we said that we met yesterday. The Thorn’s have been full timing for four years in a 40 foot Allegro Bus after raising their family in Naples FL. It’s amazing how you can connect with a couple after a parking lot encounter when he asks, How do you like your CR-V toad? We may see them at the convention in Pomona and then they are headed to Alaska.

Happy Saint Patty’s day to everyone. After grocery shopping and fuelling both vehicles, it was 10:30 before we hit the road. We made a wrong turn and ended up driving about 20 miles further than the direct route over a steep, winding mountain pass. What a lucky break. The scenery was phenomenal with deep canyons and snow covered mountain peaks beyond. The snow was not limited to distant mountains though. The road crested the pass at about 4,500 feet and there was six inches of snow on the ground along the highway. Fortunately the road surface was dry. We got to Joshua Tree National Park mid afternoon and after a late lunch we went for a short hike. The sun was low in the sky, illuminating the mountains across the valley which was full of fascinating looking Joshua Trees. This place is really quite beautiful in an austere kind of way. The wind was still howling which ruled out a barbeque so we settled in for the evening to read the park brochures and plan for tomorrow.

What a glorious day! We toured Joshua Tree National Park, stopping at the Visitor Center, Arch Rock, Cottonwood Springs Oasis, the Cholla Cactus Garden, Split Rock, Skull Rock, Jumbled Rocks, Key View, Barker Dam and Hidden Valley. At almost all of these stops we hiked the nature trail, ranging from a quarter mile to a mile and a quarter. The cacti, yuccas and other desert adapted plants were fascinating and the rock formations were as bizarre as they were beautiful. When we got to Hidden Valley, the sun was low in the sky and the fractured rock walls came aglow with the rich red-orange of the sunset. Everywhere we turned was another picture postcard view. Yes, it was cold and windy but the sky was a deep blue, the clouds were billowing brilliant white and the rocks were every imaginable shade of red. We also spotted two species of squirrel and about a dozen common desert birds. We drove about 140 miles (it’s a big park), took hundreds of photos and enjoyed the park immensely. This was a perfect conclusion to the “natural” part of our trip before we start the “community” part of the trip (Motorhome convention and Habitat for Humanity Build).

We hiked for a couple of miles looking for birds and then photographed a great horned owl on a nest in a Joshua tree. After breakfast we packed up and drove to Pomona for the motorhome convention. As we drove west on I-10 we came to a valley with hundreds of wind power generators. When we’ve seen these in the past there were perhaps five or ten but this valley and the surrounding hillsides was full of them. We soon realized why they put them in this particular place. The wind blew so hard that the coach would not shift into high gear. It was like driving up a moderately steep hill! Coach parking at the convention was quick and efficient as usual. Unlike the grass and mud in Perry, GA, this place is all asphalt. Acres and acres of asphalt. Other than getting registration information, the program does not start until tomorrow so we found a Laundromat and emptied the hamper.

We attended a few seminars today and went to the new motorhome exhibits when they opened at 3 PM. We didn’t fall in love with any new coaches but there are three days left in the show!

We volunteered on the trams this morning, riding along with the driver and making sure people were seated before the tram started up. We each did a two hour shift. We also took advantage of the free wireless internet since our satellite system is still not working (don’t ask). Sandy attended the meeting of the Chai Chapter, the Jewish Motorhome group while Carl was still riding the tram. We both spent, and I do mean SPENT, the afternoon shopping for RV accessories and all sorts of stuff. After a quick supper, we went to the evening entertainment, a “so-so” collection of former Disneyland musicians, some outstanding, some not. When the show ended, we helped direct people to the correct trams to get back to their coaches.

Last night, Carl volunteered to ride the trams for the 6:00AM to 8:00AM shift today. The day was filled with more seminars and shopping. The evening entertainment was Debbie Reynolds. At age 74, she marched out on stage in a Bob Mackie gold sequined outfit, with the skirt split up the front almost to her waist. Her show was more entertaining than we thought it might be, including familiar old songs, clips from some of her early movies and a Barbara Streisand imitation that was remarkable, though not too complimentary. Sadly, we guessed that her blood alcohol level during the show was between 0.2 and 0.3!

Last day of the convention. We attended the Habitat for Humanity chapter meeting then a meeting about our upcoming HFH build here in Pomona. In the afternoon we went back to the coach display area to look at FRED, an Allegro motorhome built on a new Freightliner front engine diesel chassis. It was interesting but not quite right for us. While we were there, we walked back to the National RV display to look at their TropiCal line of smaller diesel coaches. There we found a possibility; a 34 foot coach with a layout similar to what we have now on a chassis that can carry 1,500 more pounds and get 50% better mileage. Maybe next year. Tonight’s entertainment was Bobby Vinton. He performed a high energy show with lots of nostalgia. We said our good-byes to the other tram volunteers and that brought the Pomona convention to a close.