Settled Into Our New Place

We arrived at our current location on December 23rd.  However, we were in a temporary site because the place was full.  We had water and electric, but no sewer.  That meant the folks had to take "navy showers" and Mom couldn't do laundry.  Mom hates not having a sewer.  Yesterday, a man came by and pumped out our tanks because they were getting pretty full.   Mom didn't take any photos.  She said it was embarrassing seeing the contents of our tanks being driven around the campground.  BOL!

The employees here are very nice.  As soon as we arrived, they came out to help us get into our site.  I think it would have been difficult without their help, but they made it easy. Then, they took us to see the site we would be moving to when it became available.

The view from our temporary site.

 

Our site

Yes, it was a chilly day.

There is a lady walking without a DOG!  What is the point?

Ducks, lots of ducks!  There are three ponds.

This reminds us of Missouri. 

 

This place is hilly.  See the RVs at the top?

This place is really hilly.  We were at the bottom of the hill so anywhere we walked, we had to go up.  Mom was fine with that except at 5 a.m. and 9 p.m.  She likes easy walks at that time.  I love walking the hills.  It builds up my butt muscles.

Today, we moved to our "permanent site".  We were again helped to our site and again, they made it easy. They asked one our neighbors to move their truck so that we had more room to back in and then they directed us in.  We are now on top of a hill.  We are not at the highest point, but we don't have to climb a hill to walk now.  I am sure we will still do a few laps around the park though.  It is 1.25 miles around the park if we stay on the main road.

Here I am riding the slide.  The slide is coming in and I am just chilling.  Scout used to ride it like a surf board.

Wait, what was that?

Here I am at our new site.  We have a nice patio!

We are above some RVs now.

The view looking at the street.

I didn't tell you where we are, did I?  We are near San Diego.  It gets colder at night than we expected.  Our water lines froze the other night.  The scooter had ice on it this morning.  We are hoping that it is a little bit warmer up on this hill.  We get sun here. We didn't when we were at the bottom.

We are not close to town, so Mom will not be riding Buddy. We are able to get mail here and Mom is excited about that.  We haven't had regular mail service since November 2014 except for a quick stay at a park in September.  We are getting mail tomorrow!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Enjoying Walking All The Hills

Merry Christmas From Southern California

We arrived at our latest destination on Wednesday. We were dreading the drive because we had to face the Los Angeles traffic. It was stressful, but it wasn't terrible. When Dad was planning our drive, he noticed that there weren't any rest areas at all.  There were only two truck stops and they were next to each other.  The truck stops were different because you had to take a ticket to drive through the parking lot.  It is really for people who want to do more than get gas, but everyone had to do it.

Following are pictures from our last campground, Valencia Travel Village.

Nice views

This tree was in front of our site.

Mom took some photos of the views they had when leaving the Ronald Reagan Library.  Here there are:

The folks were on a very curvy road.

A smiley face!

Back to our campground for some Christmas photos:

View from our window.

The campground was decked out in lights.

I will show you our current campground next time.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Was Surprised That Santa Came While He Was Out For A Walk

Scratched That Off The Bucket List

As you may recall, the folks are visiting all the Presidential Libraries/Museums. There are 13.  Each time they visit one, they get their Passport To Presidential Libraries book stamped.

Yesterday, they visited one of the libraries that Mom has been very excited about seeing.  Which one?  The Ronald Reagan Library!

The stamp at the bottom left makes the visit official.

The folks have visited nine libraries and only have four left.  Once they visit all the libraries, they will receive a crystal paperweight.  Sure, it doesn't sound like much, but it is the adventure of it and the paperweight is just a bonus.  They still need to visit the following libraries: Clinton, Roosevelt, Kennedy and Ford.

Mom said the scenery around the library is beautiful. She can definitely see why the Reagan's chose it.  Construction began in 1988 and was dedicated in 1991.

Mom liked the touch of the elephant.

The Entrance.

 The cost to enter is $16 a person.  A short video is shown and it was somewhat disappointing.  Most of the videos at the other libraries tell you about the President's life, but this one was about America and how he improved it.

Another different thing at this one is that he did not show much at all of his childhood.  His first wife was not mentioned.  There were just a few photos of the children he had with Nancy and those were of them as adults.  It really focused on him and Nancy and not family.  That is different from the other libraries.  Obviously that is how he wanted it because he was alive when it was built.  He did not die until 2004.

Mom said that the library was classy.  The employees were very professional.  This library had a different feel to it.

Some of President Reagan's love notes to Nancy are on display.  He used to send her telegrams when he was away that were funny and full of love.  They definitely had a love story.

Campaign items.

Here is a teleprompter.  Mom had never seen one in action before.

The clothes that the Reagan's wore on inauguration day.

One of the many flags they were sent that were flown by Americans during the Iranian hostage crisis.

Mom was a classmate of the brother of one of the hostages, Rocky Sickmann.  They flew a flag at their home, too.

President Carter did his best to get the hostages home but they refused to negotiate with him.  The day that Reagan took office, the hostages were released.  President Reagan sent Carter to Germany to meet with them.  It was a nice gesture for him to do since Carter worked so hard to get them released. It may have also been a jab at the Iranians.

Here is a re-creation of the Oval Office:

There's the jelly beans.

Some of Nancy's dresses.

 Since it is Christmas time, they had a display of Christmas trees from around the world.

This is the Canadian tree.  Is this how you decorate Veil and Maddy?

 The one thing that makes this library really stand out is Air Force One. Yep, Air Force One is actually there and it can be toured.  It served seven U.S Presidents from 1973 to 2001, including Presidents Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush.

The Presidential china.

Presidential Reagan's office.

Mrs. Reagan's area.

 

Mom thinks this was Mrs. Reagan's office, but can't remember for sure.

Maybe it was this one.

Dad departing Air Force One

Motorcade car.

Marine One with Santa as a the pilot. No photos were allowed on that part of the tour.

Remember this from our Jelly Belly tour?

Here are some photos of the scenery around the library.

Replica of the Berlin Wall

Reagan and Gorbachev

 

Some of Reagan's saddles and belt buckles.

His hat.

There were also images from the Challenger disaster.  Mom didn't get photos of that.  There were many other things in the museum, but Mom didn't take pictures of everything. 

He announced in 1996 that he had Alzheimer's Disease and he died in 2004.  There is a memorial room.  There are four big screens that show scenes from his funeral.  Mom said it was very sad and several people were wiping their eyes.

The boots that were in his funeral procession. The bugle that was played.

The flag that was on his casket.

One final photo.

Piece of Berlin Wall in the garden.

More of the scenery.

South Lawn

Burial site.

More scenery from the front of the library.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Ready For More Adventures