Not much to talk about today. We did the laundry, and both tried to relax and recover from our ill’s. Dylan joined us for lunch, but had a dinner date, so we ate some leftovers and turned in early.
January 24, 2019 San Diego CA
Tag: United States
January 23, 2019 San Diego CA
Not a very interesting travel day. Both of us have been dealing with nagging medical issues so we decided to use today to go by a clinic and get them looked at. We both had our diagnoses confirmed and got some prescriptions to deal with the issues.
In the afternoon we went to downtown San Diego for dinner at Melvin’s. We had a great dinner of Thai Curry. This brewery is originally from Wyoming and was the house brewery for a Thai restaurant, which is an unusual way to found a brewery. Their beer is considered one of the best micro breweries in the country. We then finished the night by taking a walk around downtown San Diego.
January 22, 2019 San Diego CA
Today we shifted to San Diego to see our other son Dylan. The drive over was pretty uneventful.
Ton and I were talking about the difference in how we treat distances here versus Europe. We decided to take it easy driving on the trip. Taking it easy in the US are 300 to 400 mile drives each day. As an example the drive to San Diego today was 328 miles. Our easy drives here would be 500 to 600km drives in Europe which is much farther than we would ever consider driving there. Some of it is the nature of the country. The next closest town to Las Vegas would be San Bernardino which in itself is about 180 miles, so there would be no short drives. When we come home it is interesting how quickly we can switch to the American sense of distance.
We met Dylan for dinner and went to a nice brewery. We had an interesting conversation about the government shutdown, as the office he works is closed though he is getting paid because he is working thru the University of Montana.
January 21, 2019 Las Vegas NV
Today we spent the day with our son Alex. He wanted to have Korean food for lunch so we had our second Korean barbeque in three days. It was also good and Alex really enjoyed it.
After that we headed out for some shopping and then went to watch the local hockey team on TV as Alex has become a big fan. Who would have ever thought of Las Vegas as a hot bed of hockey. Unfortunately the home team lost.
Ton was looking for some Mexican food and had a place in mind. When we got there though the restaurant was closed. We just drove randomly down the road after that looking for a Mexican restaurant and found a place called Pepe’s. It turned out to be both the cheapest and possibly the best meal we had in Las Vegas. Ton really loved their salsa.
January 20, 2018 Las Vegas NV
This was the last day for all of our friends in Las Vegas as they all need to get back home to go to work. The guys and Ton wanted to watch the football games, while the girls were either sleeping in from their club adventure, or shopping.
Las Vegas has a replica of the Hofbrauhaus from Munich and we decided to watch the game there. We found ourselves in this cavernous beer hall with one other couple. It was kind of strange to have that much space to ourselves. Both Ton and Tim one of our friends had been to the original Hofbrauhaus in Munich and they thought it was a pretty good imitation. Our waitress had a slight accent so we asked if she was German, and it turns out she was from Heidelberg in Germany. Her and her husband are touring the US by RV for the past few years and have stopped here to raise a little money. We enjoyed comparing the experience of RVing here and Europe for a while until she had to get off to another table.
Following the games everyone decided we had been in the posh part of Las Vegas too long and decided to head down to Fremont street. The clientele are not as elegant, but Ron felt like he belonged there, and the drinks were significantly cheaper. Our friends decided it was time to take advantage of the lower cost of gambling there, so we took our leave and headed back to Scout for the night.
When we got back there was a Blood Red Wolf Moon which was nice. The weather was talking about high wind warnings, and while a couple of good gusts hit it did not seem to be as bad as they indicated.
January 19, 2019 Las Vegas NV
Today we spent with our friends, beginning with a walk down the strip for lunch at a Beer haus. After that the group splintered for a while with different people doing what they were most interested in in Las Vegas. Some went to gamble, some went shopping, and Ton and I relaxed in one of our friends posh rooms in the Cosmopolitan Hotel.
In the evening we headed out to dinner at a great Korean Barbeque near the strip. Everyone ate far too much beef and pork, but it was delicious. Following dinner we headed back to the Cosmopolitan and shared some drinks in another friends room. They had a fabulous view of the strip at night, and got to see a fireworks show, and the fountain show at the Bellagio from their balcony.
When the group decided to go clubbing again for the night, Ton and I headed home to Scout for a good nights sleep.
January 18, 2019 Las Vegas NV
Our route today was on one of Ron’s favorite stretches of roads. US-95 from Fallon to Las Vegas passes thru some of the most stark terrain in the US. There is a town about every 100 miles and the rest of the time you are surrounded by desert and mountains. Generally the traffic is light so you can enjoy the views.
We have traveled this route quite a bit as in addition to being the way we prefer to go to Las Vegas to visit our son, it also is a way to access Death Valley National Park.
It also passes by Area 54 which is an Air Force test and bombing range, where if you believe the movies the US government keeps the aliens we have captured!
In addition to visiting our son on this trip, a bunch of our friends from Portland are flying in for the weekend to celebrate some birthdays and to enjoy Las Vegas. Alex picked us up at the RV park and we decided to head to the strip for dinner. While Ron was parking our rental car, Ton and Alex ran into Goi one of our friends so she joined us for dinner.
Later we went out for a late dinner and some drinks at a nice but expensive Tapas bar. The rest of the group headed off for some clubbing while Ton and I used our advanced age and ailments to skip the clubs and head to bed.
January 17, 2019 Fallon NV
After getting up we both felt a little better so we decided to push on. We planned an easy day down to Fallon, and Ron optimistically commented that if we got to Fallon too early we could go on to the next town so we would have a shorter drive into Las Vegas the next day.
The weather was supposed to be rain with a chance of mixed rain and snow at the passes. They were mostly right, and the first 150 miles from Klamath to Alturas was just that. The next leg was about 80 miles from Alturas to Susanville California. As we climbed up to the pass the rain turned to mixed rain, and then turned to just snow. Before we new it we were on snow covered roads and in 4 wheel drive. After about 5 miles the lane we were driving in was suddenly clear of snow though the other lane had about 8 or 10 inches covering it. It turns out we were behind a snow plow. We lucked out and followed him for about 20 miles until he turned off. We covered the last 15 miles or so to Susanville in 4wd. While it was slow we made the trip without any real drama, though we did see one accident. Once we descended to Susanville we were back in the rain for the rest of the trip.
Because of the snow Ron’s optimistic hope of going past Fallon was dashed, and his back was pretty stiff from driving so we decided to spend one more night in a hotel.
January 16, 2019 Klamath Falls OR
We almost did not make this trip. Ton has been battling a rash that is making her very uncomfortable, she decided to push thru. Then the day before we were going to start, right after we completed loading Scout for the trip, Ron’s back went out. We decided to push down to Klamath Falls and see if we felt like continuing south. The drive was pretty easy though we did run into some unexpected snow coming over the cascade mountains.
To make it a little easier on both of us we decided to use some of our hotel points for the first night to allow for a little easier access to the bathroom and the bed. Somehow it feels like cheating on Scout.
August 22-23, 2018 Long Drive NV/OR
There is not much to write about these two days. We did our best imitation of long distance truckers covering about 970 miles in two days. We did our normal route from Vegas to Reno and saw a few of the vehicles heading towards Burning Man in northern Nevada.
The next day we covered the ground home mostly on the east side of the Sierra Nevada/Cascade mountains. The smoke from the multiple wildfires was very dense in places and reminded of our drive last year going to Alaska. At one point we passed within about a mile of a 38,000 acre wildfire in Northern California and could actually see some flames on the hillside as well as a couple of fire trucks attacking the fire.
This is the end of the trip that we dubbed “Urban Camping”. This time we used scout primarily as a substitute for a hotel room (except in Las Vegas). While we did not see our normal sites we did get to visit with our Son’s and some best friends, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
August 21, 2018 Las Vegas NV
Alex had to teach so we had a day to kill in Las Vegas. We are not gamblers so we decided to have an easy day taking in a movie and doing a little shopping in Costco and another Mexican Supermarket.
Later we met Alex for dinner at one of his favorite place in Las Vegas Nacho Daddies. As you can guess from the name they are famous for their Nachos. They have been featured on one of the restaurant shows on the Travel Channel. Alex and Ron had big plates of Nachos while Ton ordered soup and ceviche.
Afterwards we did our favorite thing in Las Vegas which is watch people. It is a great place for people watching, and our favorite place is the outside arcade in the old town. We enjoyed a nice walk and the people did not let us down providing great free entertainment.
August 20, 2018 Las Vegas NV
When we were doing the planning to see both of our sons we new that it would be hot in Las Vegas but our experience was that it cooled down at night to a point where it was comfortable. The night before we left Dylan looked up the weather for Las Vegas and said it was quite hot, the high was supposed to be 106 degrees.
Driving over we stopped at a rest area about 50 miles outside of Las Vegas. The thermometer on the dash said 111 degrees, and as we stepped out of the truck we were hit with a wind of about 20 miles per hour that felt like a blast furnace. As we pulled out of the rest area Ron asked Ton what she thought a room would cost in Vegas. Without hesitating Ton began the research. It turns out rooms were cheap, The Rio was offering a rate of $30 plus a $34 dollar resort fee. We both decided that was cheap enough to not bother stress testing the A/C unit on Scout as the overnight low was supposed to be 92 degrees. The deal got even better when we checked in as Ron asked if they had a military discount and that got us down to $15 plus the resort fees.
Alex had to work late as this is the first full week of school in Las Vegas so we decided to eat in the room. Ton whipped up some food in Scout and we carried it up to the room for dinner. We spent the evening talking about teaching and particularly teaching in Las Vegas which is infamous for having a low priority for schools. Alex earns every penny of his salary.
August 19, 2018 San Diego CA
Our final day with Dylan on this trip was the San Diego Zoo. Dylan is a member of the zoo so we were able to tag along for free using his membership. The San Diego Zoo is world famous and rightfully so. We spent 5 hours going from exhibit to exhibit. We hit all of the big animals and really enjoyed ourselves.
Our other priority for the day was to find a fan. Our roof fan has decided to stop working and probably needs a new rain sensor, as it seems convinced it is raining and will not open. After the zoo we went to Costco and Ikea and they were both out of fans as it has been unusually warm here. Finally we found a fan at Target.
Dinner was another great meal at a seafood market and restaurant. It is an old part of town, but the food was really outstanding and the line to get in never ended while we were there. San Diego has really been a good food experience on this trip from the unexpected Thai Hamburger to the great sea food. It was good to see Dylan and we really enjoyed ourselves here.
August 18, 2018 San Diego CA
Dylan swung by to pick us up about 930. After a breakfast of noodles prepared by Ton we headed off to our first stop of the day the Tijuana Slough Wildlife Refuge. It is one of the areas that the office Dylan works in manages. He took us on a nice walk through the slough and he explained some of the challenges of managing wildlife refuges in a metropolitan area of nearly 3 million people.
The next stop was some shopping at the Navy Exchange and Commissary in San Diego where we saw a food cart advertising Thai Hamburgers. Of course we had to go see what Thai Hamburgers were. Well they are not hamburgers at all. Dylan actually guessed that the “rolls” would be sticky rice and he was right. The meat is barbeque pork that Thai call Meu Ping, and it was delicious. The three of us split a “hamburger” and pronounced it a messy but delicious meal.
The final stop for the day was to join the Timbers Army San Diego group to watch the Timbers. They were going to meet in a pub downtown so we headed downtown but were quite early. We wandered around for a while and blundered into one of Ton’s other items on her list, Oscars Mexican seafood. We each had an excellent Fish Taco, and some ceviche.
The game was a huge disappointment as the Timbers looked listless, and were never in the game. We left a little early to head back for the night.
August 17, 2018 San Diego CA
Today we headed into San Diego to spend the weekend with our son Dylan who is working there for the Fish and Wildlife Service. We had a slow start as we wanted to wait for traffic to die down before taking off.
Ton saw a Mexican Grocery next to the hotel so while Ron went to get some fuel for Scout she had a good time shopping for good cheap vegetables and a Mexican pastry for breakfast. She was very impressed with the quality, variety and cost of the vegetables.
The drive into San Diego was thankfully uneventful and we arrived at the Navy RV park we will be staying at around 130pm. Dylan was able to get off work a little early so we knocked off two of Ton’s items from the agenda. The two breweries she wanted to visit in San Diego were fortunately only a couple of blocks apart so we were able to visit them both. The first was Alesmith and we were quite impressed with both the facility and the beer. The next stop was Mikkeller Brewery. Mikkeler is an interesting operation as they are from Copenhagen Denmark. They consider themselves gypsy brewers who work out of different breweries around the world. The brewery in San Diego is the first brewery they have had that is their own. The beer was interesting and the art in the brewery was very nice. When it came down to voting on the best beer Dylan and Ron picked Alesmith and Ton declared a tie.
We ended the day with a nice meal at the campsite.
August 16, 2018 Victorville CA
Today was a travel day. We wanted to avoid Los Angeles so we decided to head east and go around LA. So we headed east and across the central valley. We are always impressed when we drive across the huge central valley. We have a good time trying to identify all of the different crops and trees we pass by. Truthfully we spend most of the time going that is a tree but not sure what kind of tree unless there are big orange things hanging on them, but we have fun nevertheless.
Today we stopped at Blackwells Corner Store. It is famous as the last place James Dean was seen alive when he filled up his Porsche there on his way to a car race in Salinas. He was later found a few miles down a back road having wrecked his car and killed himself and his passenger. Ron commented that he never really got the obsession with James Dean, Ton said it was because I was never cool enough to get James Dean.
As we headed into Victorville we realized we were surrounded by pretty large thunderstorms. Ton checked the weather app and we learned that there were flash flood warnings for Victorville so it was a good time to park up for the night.
August 15, 2018 San Luis Obispo CA
Today we started the day visiting one of our favorite places in central California. Near San Simeon there are beaches that are covered in Elephant Seals. We have visited this site three times previously and always enjoyed ourselves. This time we again enjoyed ourselves though as advertised there were fewer seals than normal, though many of the full sized males were there and really impressive.
After visiting the seals again we had a nice burger at a general store that had been in the same family since 1916. It was an interesting set up as they had a burger place selling Hearst Ranch burgers, a high end wine tasting bar, and a post office all in one large room. We split a burger as it was quite large.
After heading over to Paso Robles to get some fuel we eventually headed back to our campsite and had a nice dinner.
August 14, 2018 San Luis Obispo CA
It was time to finally leave our friends Pae and Supachai. For our going away Pae prepared a great Thai breakfast of Cao dom. Ron really loved it. Thanks to our good friends Pae and Supachai for hosting us and showing us around the bay area.
Heading south we camped up in San Luis Obispo. We visited a really nice brewery called Central Coast. We enjoyed a couple of beers and were really pleasantly surprised when the bill came as we did not realize it was happy hour and the beers were $2 off. The last stop for the day was the Madonna Inn. It is a hotel that has been the place to be in San Luis Obispo for decades. Trip Advisor describes the decor as eccentric and Ton says they are right. Below are a couple of pictures that prove her point.
August 13, 2018 San Jose CA
Today was a nice easy day. We stayed around our friends neighborhood for the day. When Supachai came back from work we went out for a nice happy hour at a local bar to make up for the missed happy hour on Friday. The day was mostly chatting and enjoying our friends company.
August 12, 2018 San Francisco CA
Today we played tourists in San Francisco. We headed into the city early to beat the traffic and headed to the Embarcadero area. We lived in the “Bay Area” in the late 90’s so had done the San Francisco tours in the past with visitors. We were trying to convince our friends that they did not need to do this. Luckily they insisted as we really enjoyed ourselves.
We covered the Embarcadero area in detail, and hit a couple of the big tourist sites along the water front. It was a beautiful day so we had nice views of the bay. As we kept walking we visited the Ghiradelli chocolate factory for an ice cream sundae.
We ended the day at the palace of fine arts which Ton and I had never visited. It was built for the world exposition in 1913 it is quite impressive and fortunate to be still around. Originally it was built to only last for the exhibition, but people loved it so much they decided to keep it. Over time some of the love faded and the maintenance deteriorated, during World War II the army took over as it was located on military property, and used it as a motor vehicle maintenance area. After the war it had deteriorated to the point where they considered tearing it down, but fortunately did not.
All of our touristing around resulted in a new step record for our friend of 30,000 steps in one day, so we decided to reward ourselves with some Chinese food for dinner. It was a really nice day.