Ben and Megan Travel the World

Point Magu and LA too

The RV camp at NAS Point Magu is right on the beach. We could hear the waves in the trailer – glorious! The area was partly flooded, but our site was dry enough. Our neighbor asked us how the Colorado does with our trailer. He was surprised and seemed a little sad to hear it does great. He has a trailer a little smaller than ours and had traded in his Colorado for a larger truck. It sounded like he missed his Colorado. I don’t blame him, we like it.

I love sunrises and sunsets at the beach, and this was a great location for them. I took Cody with me one morning. He enjoyed being out, but it was definitely on the long end for him. I could tell he was ready to head back, so I cut the shoot short. I ended up putting him in the truck and went back to the camera a few minutes longer. I think it hurts him to stand for too long.

We were here over the weekend, so we could see some sights in LA without me having to work. Saturday we met Jamie and her family at the La Brea tar pits. The LACMA (art museum) and the Museum of Motion Pictures are in the same park area. We could have spent the entire day here, but we also wanted to see Griffith Observatory. We walked by this sculpture on the way to the tar pits.

The tar pits were a good stop. It was great to see Jamie and the family. Even Jamie had never been to La Brea, so it was new for everyone! I didn’t actually know what the tar pits were. Apparently it is naturally occurring asphalt rises to the Earth’s surface to mix with water. The asphalt is more liquid in the summer but becomes a tar substance in the winter. This has happened for tens of thousands of years, and animals looking for water or crossing lands were trapped in these pits as the asphalt cooled in the winter. This is an active paleontological dig.

After hanging out with the French family, Ben and I walked around the museums and grabbed a bit to eat at one of the cafes. We headed to Griffith Park. I had thought we’d get there in the late afternoon, see some of the shows, enjoy the sunset view, and look through the telescope when they opened it for public viewing at 7pm. For the most part, we did that. However, I grossly underestimated the number of people that visit Griffith on a daily basis. Wow!!! It’s a pedestrian version of the 405 in rush hour (or 495 around DC). So many people. We had to park a mile away and walk up the hill to the observatory, you can Where’s-Waldo our car in the photo.

It was a constant line of cars the entire walk up. The observatory was like Disneyland or Disney World – you just followed lines of people around the exhibits and the exterior paths. So we enjoyed the scenery, looked around their exhibit halls, and headed back. We did get to see the sunset and the Hollywood sign.

I figured the line to see anything with the telescope was going to be long, and you probably get 30 seconds with it. It was still a nice day, and we enjoyed the walk. We hit Santa Monica Pier on our way home. It was a quick stop.

The next day we drove to a few landmarks for Ben. First, we went to the California Science Center. I’d been there with Jamie a few years ago, so I hung out with Cody while Ben went inside.

I felt bad for Cody because it would have been two long days in a row in the trailer. I can tell he gets bored just being in the trailer. So he and I walked around the museum, checking out the coliseum as we headed to the rose garden. It was closed unfortunately, so we just wandered along the walk and headed back. It was a long walk for him, and we took it slow. He was out the rest of the day.

Our next stop was to see the building they film as Lucifer’s club and loft in the TV show. I parked while Ben jumped out to walk around it. We got to see a little of Beverly Hills while driving there. That was enough for us (well, at least for me).

Our last stop was to see the beginning of Ben!! He was born in Panorama City, north of LA. We stopped at the hospital and walked around a bit. Now we’ve both seen each other’s places of birth. =)

It was a nice stop in LA for a few days. We travel north along the coast next.

March into Riverside

We headed into March Air Reserve base near San Bernardino and Riverside. It took us a while to find the main gate. It looks like the base has shrunk half its size – we guess as it downsized, land was sold to develop homes. We got to the base and found the RV park which we’d seen through 3 fences and 2 barriers (yes, we had to turn around twice). It didn’t help our confusion that services like commissary and the exchange were off base.

The base had nice character. The buildings reminded me of MCRD San Diego. We walked to the gym and around the base a few times. Because it’s a reserve base, there’s not much going on during the week. We didn’t stay over a weekend, but I bet it gets busier during the week.

It was a small RV park, looked mostly like people were there a while. We liked that laundry was free – they even had a washer dedicated to pet stuff! So we washed everything including Cody’s beds. It rained the first two days we were there, so I used that time to catch up on work. We did errands, hit the gym, walked Cody when the rain was light.

We finally had a nice day Thursday. We planned to head toward the San Bernardino mountains and find some hikes. There’s a scenic drive we found; however, it was all closed due to the weather. So instead, we headed to Riverside, CA. We headed to the Riverside Food Lab for lunch because it sounded interesting and got great reviews. It’s like NYC’s Chelsea Market or DC’s Union Market but on a smaller scale. We got pizza and had some good beer.

We then walked to the UC Riverside art museum and checked out a photography exhibit I was interested in. Two exhibits there were pretty cool. One was a collection of old cameras someone had lent to the museum. The other was one on fake photos called Fauxtography. It displayed several social media posts beside the real image and gave background on each. Both Ben and I found it very fascinating. The entire collection is online.

We walked through the other exhibits in the museum. The top floor housed a collection of old cameras borrowed from a local couple. It was impressive to see the how many cameras they had collected.

As we parked, we saw a sign advertising a Festival of Lights that began each evening at 5pm. We wandered around Riverside until then, and it was worth it. The lights were at a beautiful inn, and we were able to walk around inside and outside.

I’m sure this is a set they bring out each year, but it’s the largest gingerbread house I’ve ever seen! Appropriate since I was just at Marissa’s house in December making gingerbread houses. Ours was way cooler. =)

We stayed at March a few days before heading on to Point Magu, north of LA, for the weekend.

A Joshua Tree in the New Year

I never made it over to Joshua Tree National Park while I lived in San Diego, and it’s been on my bucket travel list for quite a while. I was very excited to finally get there. We stayed a few nights just outside the park on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in dispersed camping.

If you’re a tent camper, or don’t mind boondocking in your RV, you should look into BLM areas on your trips, especially out west. We stayed by the southern entrance to JT for free, and our closest neighbors were over 100′ away. We had a beautiful view and it was very quiet. Freecampsites.net has BLM areas listed along with other spots. It’s not the most user-friendly site, but it can be very useful.

We relaxed the first day we got there. The weather was gorgeous. We found the more popular portion of the park is the northern end, near 29 Palms. The drive is about an hour through the park. JT spans two deserts: Mojave to the north and Colorado to the south. It was fairly easy to see the difference between the two deserts with the landscape. I thought the Colorado had a lot more plant life, but the Joshua trees were in the Mojave desert portion of the park. Vegetation was present in the Mohave but more spread out. The photo below was at the Cholla Garden.

We ventured into the northern section of the park the second day we were there. This is where all the tourists are. We hiked skull rock, finally saw a Joshua tree!, and drove up to the Keys view area. Saying the park was packed in those spots is an understatement. There were so many people! I say we drove up to the keys view area because we couldn’t find a parking spot. We stopped at a vista point a little farther down to see the valley. It was many more people than I want to see in a vast desert landscape.

The third day we spent in the more remote area. We stopped at a mill site that had nothing left. Why it’s marked on Google maps is a mystery to me.

We hiked another area in the Colorado part of JT. We lost the trail very quickly–there were several cleared pathways that looked like they were from stormwater runoff. With no footprints to follow, one path merged into the others. We headed in the direction we thought the trail was, but we never found it again. We ended up turning around back to the car–the nice thing about hiking in a flat desert: you can see far. It wasn’t difficult to find our way back.

I look like I’m standing at attention there. I’m pretty sure my hands were cold; the wind was blowing pretty good.

I tried each morning to get a good sunrise photo, but I wasn’t willing to drive half an hour to get to the flatter area. It was pretty overcast where we were. So…Ben won the sunrise photo this go around by staying at the campsite.

This is the best I had below.

One more national park down, I can check Joshua Tree off the list.

Christmas in Phoenix

We headed back to Lara’s from White Tank a few days before Christmas. I continued to work through Friday, and Ben continued to work through the to-do list Lara had for us. =) Ben even baked cookies! (His to-do list, not Lara’s)

We got to use our bikes again – we took it to an urban trail about 15 minutes from Lara’s house. It runs along the Agua Fria river…it’s more like the LA river in downtown LA than the James or Thames. But it’s a very nice biking path.

The Cardinals had a game on Christmas Day, so Lara had to work. Ben went to watch the game. I stayed at Lara’s to relax with the pups. I went for a run, did one of these blog posts, walked the pups, and relaxed in front of the TV. It was a glorious day. Ben got to be a part of the flag/national anthem ceremony. He had to get there early for practice. He was near the stars, but they didn’t show it on the TV. I saw his photos, that was about it unfortunately. Lara’s office did a dessert pot luck, and they brought me a plate. Everything was delicious!

Ben and I love to see Christmas lights. We always go to a large drive-through display when we’re visiting Lara in December. They moved it to the stadium area, so it’s closer to Lara’s house now. We got food and drove through the safari themed light show. Some were a stretch to tie to the theme, but we didn’t care.

I found a website that had mapped a few house displays. Two were on the way home, including one Star Wars themed. One was just way over the top!

Ben and I got a round of golf in the week after Christmas. The course paired us with another couple. They were nice and luckily about our level of play. They play every time they visit their niece who lives in the neighborhood.

We got most of Lara’s list done before we headed to Joshua Tree. For Lara’s birthday, we got steaks from her favorite butcher and grilled out. Ben and I struggle with charcoal grills. Last time, we had it going too hot, and it took forever to get the coals ready for cooking. This time, we swung the other way, and the grill didn’t get warm enough. Lara’s steak was done perfectly for her. Mine was good after a minute or so in the microwave. =)

As always, we had a great time visiting Lara. I’m excited to see Joshua Tree and head up the California coast.

White Tank

We stayed at White Tank Mountain when we returned to Phoenix for a few days before Christmas. We’ve hiked in the park before, and we wanted to check out the camping. The campground is near the top of the main road, so there was little traffic and a great view of the city and the mountains. Sunrises were gorgeous, sunsets were muted since it fell behind the mountain.

I set up our campsite in honor of our recent “wellness resort” trip to the Dr. We relaxed at the campsite, biked and hiked. Cody had a vet appointment on one of those days, so Ben took him to Luke AFB while I worked that morning. I ran a trail along the campground that looped back to the road.

The second day we rode our bikes to the Waterfall trial. It’s a popular one, but we’ve never seen actual water falling–it’s always been dry. Still no water falling this time, but we did see water pooled at the bottom!

We biked around the park since biking is better on Ben’s back than walking. A huge stag galloped across the road ahead of us. He was running so fast it surprised both of us. The sequence of my thoughts: 1 – wow, he’s huge; 2 – he’s going really fast, we’re lucky he’s ahead of us; 3 – wait, what is making him run so fast? We did slow down to a crawl to see if anything else was coming. Nothing did, but we kept our eyes in survey mode the rest of the ride.

At the very end of the road, there’s a competitive bike course. It’s an area mountain bikers can go to time themselves and practice on technical trails. Ben ran there a few times before running the Javelin Jundred on the other side of Phoenix.

No-Dune Dune Buggy

We chose to ride dune buggies for our excursion outside the resort in Punta Cana. A bus took us about 30 minutes from the resort to a large operation built just for resort tourists like us. Seemed like they ran several groups in the morning and afternoon. We drove on side roads mainly, some paved, some 4×4 worthy. No dunes.

We wore masks because of the dust and fumes from the other buggies. We were caked in dust once we were finished. Ben and I took turns driving.

We had a good time, though driving in a line along a road gets old after a while. We stopped at a place where we were hustled through quick origin stories for chocolate, coffee and Mama Juana liquor. We got a small sample of each before being ushered into the store section of the stop. The park in Costa Rica had a much better show on coffee and chocolate. We sat here for about 30 minutes before moving on.

We heard at the resort that it’s muddy, and that you get very dirty on this trip. We wore clothes we didn’t mind messing up. We now know they mean you get dusty. The small mud experience was made with a hose. Makes sense there’s no mud if it hasn’t rained recently.

The second stop was at a beach. We had some excitement on the way there that livened up the trip. One buggy hit a pole with its tire. Luckily for them, and us so they didn’t block our way, they were able to bump their way around it. The driver just kept trying to go forward, and the movement pushed them to the side enough. I’m pretty sure the broken down buggy we passed a few minutes later was that one.

We had quite the slow build-up to the second moment of excitement–literally, two buggies ahead of us was going SOOOOO slow. We lost the main group. Ben and I were the last of our group, and the cleanup man had stopped to help that broken buggy. We had help from a local to make one turn; however, the slow buggy missed the next one. Lucky for us, the people in front of us saw the other group down the road and made the correct turn. Try as we did, there was no chance that wayward couple was going to hear us yelling at them to turn around. We’ve heard that couple now has a lovely home just outside Punta Cana.

Just kidding, of course they went back for them when we caught up to the group. They weren’t about to give away a free buggy.

The beach was a nice one. We were here for about 30 minutes as well. We didn’t get in the water, just enjoyed the view.

It was a good day, and we enjoyed spending time with our friends. We even got a sunset drive!

Wellness in the DR

Ben and I took a break from our RV travels to visit the Dominican Republic with our friends Laurie and Jordan. Lara was kind enough to watch Cody for us. Cody enjoyed having a dog door and the freedom it brings.

Here’s my typical shot from the plane. It became very flat near the coast and Punta Cana. We only did one day trip outside the resort. The trip was a few days long, and our intention for it was relaxing. Therefore, we didn’t see much of the area.

We stayed in Punta Cana at an all-inclusive adults-only resort. This is the first time either of us have been to an all-inclusive resort, and this one may be a gold standard for the rest. It was beautiful, right next to the beach and…quiet!

We spent a lot of our time in these cabanas, reading and enjoying the beach. We stuck our feet in the ocean but didn’t go farther than that. There were rip currents, and the water was cold. We opted for the pool instead.

It turned out to be a wellness resort. We saw many more people working out. The gym was usually busy, yoga classes every day, and even some water aerobics classes. We did both, the water aerobics class was my favorite. Our instructor called himself Tutti-Fruitti, and he was very entertaining. He stood outside the pool, leading us through the movements. He ended it with a fantastic dance routine that none of us followed, of course; we were too busy watching him. Makes sense that he’s a dancer and performs each evening.

I didn’t get up in time for true sunrises, but I caught it in the process a few times. It rose around the corner from our part of the beach, so I didn’t ever catch it coming up. Or setting, for that matter. We were always at dinner. =) I took some photos with my phone’s camera. It did ok. Again, I saw more people out and about than I expected. Lots of early risers walking along the beach.

The resort had several restaurants. We were able to eat in a different place each night. The food was excellent. It was an excellent trip, great to relax on a beach catch up with our friends for a few days.

Ben in New Mexico

I flew out of Albuquerque to go back home for the first of what I hope to be only monthly work trips. It also gives me a chance to check in on the house and visit friends. Ben drove from Albuquerque to Phoenix on his own. He visited a few air museums, which seems to keep in with this trip’s Air Force theme, and stayed in two Harvest Hosts. He checked out the museum at Kirtland AFB before heading on the road. Being in New Mexico, it makes sense that they tested nuclear bombs there.

They tested in White Sands, NM. We’re going to try to swing up there on our way back through. The Trinity site here is where the first atomic bomb was detonated.

Here we see another Air Force museum taking credit for Army Air during WWII. Here’s a B-29 Superfortress.

Being surrounded by so much Air Force on this trip has led to many “chair force” jokes between Ben and me. Definitely in good fun, and definitely not where anyone can hear and take offense. If you’d like to take a break to watch a really funny spirit spot from years ago, try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp6dwIplkWs (or search Air Force training at Navy). The creator had a few good videos; the best since Dave Harrington’s.

Ben’s first stop in Deming, NM took a while to find. The brewery is in an industrial area surrounded by dirt roads. He circled it a few times in the dark before finally seeing a road he could take. He said the Owner was interesting to talk with, and it was just him and Cody in there. Cody liked having a large inside place to wander around. He gets cabin fever in the trailer.

Ben was happy to find a Coast Guard plane in a museum in Tucson!

Ben made it safely to Lara’s. Friends of Lara’s was let us park in their driveway, so we appreciated not having to find a spot to store it. Diesel and Barkley took to Cody pretty well. Diesel here is showing Cody around the yard. =) That’s good, because Cody’s staying with them while we head to the Dominican Republic for a few days!

Route 66 to Albuquerque

The route between Oklahoma City and Albuquerque lacked the types of places at which we’ve been staying, and like: Harvest Hosts, state parks, military bases. There were a few RV parks, but I used freecampsites.net to find out that some rest areas allow RVs to park overnight. I’d used that site before to locate tent camping; it’s a helpful site.

Our first trial of this was to stay at the Welcome Center in Texas just outside Amarillo. I remember the town from my first cross-country trip to San Diego. We’d seen the billboards for the free 72oz steak if you could finish it. It’s still there, 20 years later!

The Welcome Center was really nice! There were several RV designated parking spots. We had a few other RVs as company overnight, and there was no rush to get going in the morning as it wasn’t busy. Nor did anyone come out and move us along. I was able to work some, so that was nice. Cody did not like the metal cutout cows they had around the property. He barked and kept his distance. =)

When driving along Route 66, you have to stop at the random Americana spots. Google has made these much easier to find nowadays. We stopped at the Slug Bug Ranch in Texas. These are just cars upended into the dirt. I have no idea what the backstory is, we just enjoyed the excuse to get out and stretch the legs.

The Cadillac Ranch is much more popular than the VWs. They sell spray cans for people to leave their marks. We opted to just observe.

So much paint!!

We had lunch at the Midpoint Cafe. It was good food; definitely the local hangout. It’s in Adrian, TX. I didn’t realize that Route 66 doesn’t span the full width of the country, like 50 does. It starts in Chicago.

Our final stop was the Route 66 Auto Museum in Santa Rosa, NM. Here was another flashback from that first trip along 66. Santa Rosa is where Mom, Dad, and I stopped the last night before getting to San Diego. It was my first time in New Mexico, and in desert landscape. I don’t remember if we saw this museum. It may have been closed when we got there. The museum is pretty small, but it had a decent collection of cars. Some were even for sale!

Ben and I picked cars. Not surprising, his was red, and mine was blue. I’m going to imagine mine is a convertible, not a hard top. Ben’s cost $92,000 while mine was a mere $24,500.

We had planned on staying in a rest area within an hour or so drive from Albuquerque, but that rest stop was not like the one in Texas. We pushed on to Kirtland AFB. Kirtland’s RV park is different than most other bases in that it’s first come, first serve. We couldn’t rely on a reservation, which is why we were looking into other options. Luckily, there were plenty of spots available. It was nice to have power and water after several nights on generator. I flew home for work the next morning.

Oklahoma City Memorial

We walked down to the Oklahoma City bombing Memorial from Anthem Brewery. It’s a nice memorial. Ben did the museum; I just walked around the grounds. There were several very large ornament decorations around one building. Luckily, they were tied down well, so they didn’t fall on us in the wind.

Ben was curious if he could move it. This also shows scale.

This is the building which houses the museum. The tree survived the bombing. It was in the parking lot for the building. It’s an American Elm and is called the Survivor Tree.

This area is where the building once stood, the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building

This plaque explains the memorial pretty well. The chairs are to the right in the photo above.

A photo from the museum.