Ventura Beach, California

We bypassed LA and started to go up the west coast with a two day stay in the Ventura Beach RV Resort on April 24 & 25. Ventura is a quaint little town, just north of Los Angels, with a fantastic beach and pier and a lot of surfers...we must be in California. Harbor Village is also a main attraction for Ventura, filled with shops, restaurants, bars and boats of all sizes. It's a great place to spend the day or evening.

Palm Springs, California

There is more then good golf in Palm Springs. We spent 3 days at the Palm Springs Oasis RV Resort with great views of the mountains from the resort. The first photo is what we saw from the hot tub...not a bad setting at all. What is really evident in Palm Springs is old money vs. new money. The city of Palm Springs is set in the past. For what ever reason, Mary Ann and I spent a day photographing homes of stars of the past like Elvis, Marilyn, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., Debbie Reynolds, even Ronald & Nancy Reagan. We also spent a day hiking Indian Canyon, an Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, until Mary Ann came across a rattle snake, which ended the hike in short order.

Just for fun

I wasn't going to put this on the internet, but there are some nice shots and we had a relaxing day at the Tucson Zoo yesterday.

Biosphere 2

We spent a day, an hour north of Tucson, at the world-renowned Biosphere 2 complex. It was created to better understand how natural environments generate conditions appropriate to life. What impressed me the most was the conceptual and engineering marvel of how it was constructed and the attention to details for the whole complex. I'm sure Erik would enjoy this...a lot of the information went over my head.

Tucson, Arizona

Stuck in Tucson for more RV repairs (got to love RVing) but we are making the best of it. Fantastic city and surroundings. Spent the day at the Desert Museum which was well worth the trip.

Watch your step

When photographing in the Arizona desert, walk with caution.

City of Rocks, New Mexico

We were off to Fort Willcox RV Park, a desert park, in Willcox, AZ when we decided to got off I-10 and go north on 180 to see the City of Rocks, New Mexico. The timing was wrong to stay the night, so we enjoyed the area for a while before heading to Silver City about a 1/2 hour away. Silver City is quit a nice place at an elevation of 7000 ft. with beautiful views.

From my office

It might be small, but this is the best office I have ever had. With the desert to my front, the sun rising in my right window and setting in my left, I couldn't ask for more, and the best part about this new office the view will change every week. We are in Anthony, north of El Paso  in an RV part next to Camping World, with our RV electric problem #2. State tune for the end of this story.

Heading West

After the LBJ Ranch, we ended up in Fredricksburg, Texas a short distance from the ranch. What an amazing town for dining, shops and art galleries. Being a German settlement in the 1850's, it has a strong German and Spanish architecture style to their quaint buildings and homes. From there we started to see the flavor of the west Texas landscape and how beautiful it is driving to a small town called Fort Stockton. We also were part of the strong spring 50 mile an hour cross winds that whip up in the afternoons in west Texas. It gets your attention when driving a 30 ft RV box drown I-10.

Canyon Lake & The LBJ Ranch

After spending 2 days at the Camping World in New Braunfels, Texas for RV care, we went up the road a bit to The Potters Creek Park on Canyon Lake. Great open sites right on the lake. We then spent the day, today, at President Johnson's ranch outside of Johnson City. I am glad we took the time. It was very interesting to see how LBJ lived and how small the working space was at The Texas White House when he was in office. We are not making good time getting out west, but these side trips are well worth it.