VISIT TO GUSTINS IN MOJAVE CA

 

After the Indio rally is over, we like to go 175 miles more to Mojave CA to visit my granddaughter Samantha Gustin, husband Chris,and their family. Samantha home schools their 15 year old son, Luke and 6 year old Ivy. When we arrived Tabitha had just celebrated her 5th birthday.

    

Ivy is enjoying a home made ice cream cone

Tabitha playing with her mother.

Both girls (Ivy left) with father Chris.

More playing with Samantha,Tabitha on left

 

Tabitha is showing me her new doll. While Ivy is older, Tabitha is taller.

We visited a facility near Rosamond which keeps rescue felines of  endangered species. This is a black mountain lion, commonly called a cougar. African lions are not endangered, so they have none. Their animals originate all over the world, many in Asia.

Tabitha, Ivy in glasses, Samantha and Luke.

Ivy, Jo and Tabitha

The area around Mojave is literally bristling with wind turbines. Just a few of them are shown here. Many have been added since we last were there two years ago.

Twenty miles north of Mojave, up a long hill, is the town of Tehachapi and Tehachapi Loop, billed as one of the seven railroad wonders of the world, Trains go around the loop (really a spiral) having an elevation change of about 75 feet and northbound trains leave the loop, shown below, through a tunnel under part of the tracks.  The trains are so long that the northbound locomotives are exiting the tunnel while some of the cars are still above it.

Here (both above and below)  the northbound Union Pacific  locomotives are exiting the tunnel while the cars they are pulling are still in the circle over the tunnel. This is a mainline route between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

FMCA RALLY INDIO AND GOLDEN SPIKE

 

It is time to catch up on my blogging again!

January 2014 was my 14th year to attend the Family Motor Coach Association regional rally in Indio CA. This year about 1125 motorhomes were parked for the rally in the spacious fairgrounds. The rally is the occasion of the Golden Spike chapter having its own rally within a rally.To park together we assemble  the day before we enter the fairgrounds at a nearby closed Sams Club and caravan to the fairgrounds

 An early activity of the chapter is to set up a table  at a Chapter Fair to seek more members for our group.Our rallies feature railroads, some old, some new, railroad museums, and depots. Jo and I led a rally in Colorado in September to ride three railroads in a week.

Here  at the table are Dottie and Bob Poole and, back to the camera, Conductor (President) Kurt Simon.

The club cooks tri tip roasts for one of the group’s evening meals. Here is the lineup of the grills.

 

The theme of this year’s rally was Dogpatch Days. The rally parade floats featured interpretations of what the mythical town of “Lil Abner and Daisy May” and its citizens may have looked like.

Our chapter had a great turnout for the group picture. I am in the back row with a white hat and Jo is in the front row.

Our group volunteers to distribute the ice cream for an ice cream social on Friday and Saturday. Here is the operations center of our activity – the ice cream truck. The guys carry boxes of ice cream bars or cones to tables at each end of a walkway to be distributed by the ladies to the eager eaters.

 

 

One of four distribution tables.

 

During four days of the rally trams consisting of a small farm type tractor pulling a trailer carry attendees around the grounds. Here the tram is going through the area displaying coaches for sale. Twenty five were sold at the rally!

Food vendors with colorful booths provided meals and snacks for attendees.

These motorhomes of members are parked along the long tree- lined street of the grounds.

ALGODONES MX AND ROADRUNNER HOLIDAY DINNER.

The last few years we have been making an annual trip to Algodones MX (near Yuma AZ)  to buy  reasonably priced Mexican medications. Both of us take omeprazol for acid reflux. A 4 month’s supply is only $4.00. Most  generic non-narcotic drugs also are available. Algodones has many dentists and optometrists catering to us Gringos, and even more souvenir stands. It is a day trip for us of about 400 miles. This November we took another couple in our Toyota Prius and got 50 mpg for the whole trip.

Lots or artisans have small shops in this alley converted to an outdoor mall.

It is interesting to watch painters paint patterns, pictures and designs on items  – clay  pots, mailboxes, and kerosene lanterns, among other things -   using spray paint.

 

ROADRUNNER HOLIDAY DINNER

Nineteen active and inactive Roadrunners met at the Arizona American Italian Club in north Phoenix for our traditional holiday dinner.

Maggie Zimmerman was brought by her neice, Mary Ann  Zimmerman, next is Cheryl See.

Nancy Audet, Kay and Dick Holmstad. Nancy brought her sister and brother in law Jude and Wayne Biklar.

 

Mary and Herb Fust

 

Jane and Tom Lull, brought from Prescott by their son in law Ken Simeral.

Here is a better shot of Maggie and Mary Ann  Not pictured are Tom and Elsie Holz, Dottie Engelman  and Celia Stober,  and Jo and Bill Strong.

 

I added the rope lights to this star made by Jerry Wedlake as our main outside Christmas decoration this year.

JEEPERS CREEPERS TRIP TO COKE OVENS

 

 On Dec. 16 the Jeepers Creepers  took a trip led by the Grouts to the Coke Ovens, east of Florence AZ near an old mining area . Our route was through Florence, east on the Florence Kelvin Highway, left on Cochran road and down a wash to go under a railroad bridge and to a beach on the Gila River. We forded the river and wound through tamarisk and other trees in the river bottom until reaching the 5 Coke Ovens.

There are two other ways to get there, both are longer and more challenging.

Mike Carter introduced us to the petroglyphs shown  below, the route and led on the more challenging parts of the trail.

Some of our group clambering up to the petroglyphs.

Jerry Grout and the larger of the rock drawings.

 

 

Smaller drawings

More drawings

We stopped here just after turning onto the Cochran road for airing down, etc.  The vehicles in order from the left were driven by Mike Carter, Jay Olson. Jeff Clyde,  Keith Stone, and Duane Steen. Not shown are those driven by Jerry Grout and Bill Strong.

 We turned off the Cochran road here to travel down a wash. A better road might be in the next left turn.

This bridge still in in use by the Union Pacific. Our route took us under it.

Keith Stone is guided up the cut in the bank by Mike Carter

 

Here  Jerry approaches the cut.  About here a plastic panel under his XL 7 fell off. It was recovered and the next day Jerry reinstalled it.

Three of the ovens and our lunch spread

 

 

 

This oven is shown from the higher road in back of the row.

PHOENIX SUNS GAME

On Nov 27 Jo and I attended a home game of the Phoenix Suns against the Portland Trail Blazers. Our firm had season tickets for many years. Now I buy tickets from a season ticket holder for three or four games a year. This was our first this year.

I recently got a used Canon 350 D digital single lens reflex camera with a 28 – 155 mm lens which I took to the game to combine interests – basketball pictures and watching a Suns game. While in college I relished taking publicity photos of Beloit College basketball games with then state of the art  equipment.

Below are  a few of the 22 shots I took at the game.  Our seats for Suns games are in row 8 behind the visiting team bench.

    Trailblazers warming up.

  I used the sports setting on the camera for these natural light pictures.The automatic exposure selected a sufficiently high shutter speed to do quite well at stopping action.   Above the cheerleaders are in their first half costume, with second half costume below.

Portland is about to catch a rebound.

 

   This shot went in! A lot of pushing goes on under the basket as players try to get a good position to catch a rebound.

   

More pushing. The Suns won 120 – 106.