Santa Cruz Boardwalk & Wharf

Monday was a busy day.  Dad had to take the Jeep to the hospital and he has to stay for an operation. Jeepy needs a new transmission.  He is supposed to be released on Tuesday, but we hope it is sooner.  We have a rental car until then.

The folks went exploring and found our new campground. We move there on Sunday.  I will have a new place to patrol.

On their way back home, they stopped off at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.  Mom had never heard of it and she didn't have her camera. She did have her phone, but the battery was running low. She was able to get a few pictures.

The Santa Cruz Boardwalk opened in 1907.  It is basically an amusement park on the beach.  The carousel has been there since 1911. The roller coaster opened in 1924.

The rides were not running while they were there.  Most of the shops and restaurants were closed, but there were a few that were open.  There were quite a few people exploring the boardwalk even though most things were closed.

Mom could hear the barking of seals and she thought it was coming from the wharf, so they got in the car and headed to the wharf.

They missed their turn, so they drove on to a parking area that had some great views.

There were signs telling people not to climb on the rocks and there was a memorial to someone who had died there, but I guess the people on the rocks didn't think the signs applied to them.

The folks drove back to wharf and sure enough they saw the seals.

Can you see the seals under the wharf?

Mom was scared she would drop her phone leaning over to get the photos.

This guy is marked with numbers for some reason.

There were several restaurants on the wharf, so the folks looked at all the menus and finally chose Firefish Grill.

This was their view.

 Mom ordered the Beef Pasta Saute' and said it was best pasta she has ever had. This is the description from the menu:  Tender top sirloin strips sauteed in garlic butter, capers and fettuccine finished in a cream sherry sauce.

Dad ordered crab cakes and prawns.  He said it was okay.  He just came from Baltimore though and ate their crab cakes, so I don't think it was fair to compare.

Mom enjoyed their last minute trip to the boardwalk. She said it was a lot of fun.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Goes Crazy When The Workers Come By In Their Golf Carts With Wagons Because It Reminds Him Of His Days On The Farm

Our California Campground

While our campground is really pretty and I love patrolling the entire campground several times a day, Mom is not in love with this place.  We are paying $65 a day and we have a 30 amp site.  We are making it fine, but Mom has to pay attention that she doesn't go over the 30 amp.  Luckily, it is cool here and if we run an air conditioner, it is just one.  It would be a real juggling act if we were running two and trying to fix dinner. Our electric would be going off and it would not be fun.  Also, making a phone call is quite a challenge as the cell service is terrible.  We usually have one bar.  Mom can text, but don't send her a photo because she will never get it downloaded.  BOL!  Also, the free Wi-Fi is supposed to only be used for checking email, but Mom cannot even get signed in for that.  We have a Verizon Mi-Fi and normally, we can get connected, but the signal is not strong.  There are 50 amp sites available Sunday - Thursday, but we would have to move on the weekends.  It is a pain to move, so we have just stayed put.

We have to leave here on Sunday because they are sold out on the next two weekends.  Mom asked to be put on a waiting list, but they said there are a hundred people ahead of us.  I guess they would rather give it to people who will spend two days with them instead of us who would stay 14 days.  It is their loss. Why would we want to stay here when we are not that happy?  1) We really hate to move and 2) Dad's drive to work is not that bad.  We found another place yesterday and if it works out, we will not be returning here as scheduled in two weeks. The cost is the same and we will have everything we want and it is in town.  It is not pretty like here, but Mom would rather have the modern conveniences than pretty.  It is even closer to Dad's work.  We are not sure how traffic will be, but he thinks he will be going the opposite way as the traffic.  We will see next Tuesday as he is off on Mondays.  It is a fairground and they said we have to leave for one night after 14 days, but the more Mom talked to them, they said if they were not booked up, we might be able to stay without leaving. 

Last Saturday, this place was crazy!  Kids were everywhere.  They had a parade with drums at 9 a.m.  It was loud.  Remember how bored we were at the park in Maryland?  This park is far from boring.  A motorized train comes by our site about six times a day loaded with families.  Apparently, one of the cars came unhooked on Saturday.  We heard about it in the office, but didn't see it.  We don't know if anyone was injured.  It is back to running now.

We enjoy sitting outside here as we have a site where we don't roll down the hill like the one in Maryland.

Okay, so are you ready for some photos?

Our site

Water feature.  Hummingbirds love the flowers.

That is the train that goes around the park.  It has tires, so it goes on the road.

There are two dog parks which are located next to each other.

Me and Dad at our site.

Huge tree. We don't know what kind.

Another view of the water feature.

Train station

One of the many cabins.  This kind does not have plumbing.

The beach area of the park.

Entering the beach area. The dog parks are in here.

More of the beach area.  The jumping pad is beyond the umbrellas.

The dog wash.  I almost got a bath here, but the water is not heated.  Mom says it is too cold for me.  ;-)

Airstreams can be rented here.

There are 10 Airstreams that are rented out. They were full over the weekend.

More cabins.

 This place is huge!  The guests are nice and people talk to me all the time.  One guy asked me if I had a lot of parking tickets because I had a boot on my foot. Dad said I should have told him that it wasn't parking tickets, but speeding tickets. BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Does Not Take Short Cuts When It Comes To Patrolling His Campground

A Quick Review Of Our Coast To Coast Trip - Part 2

Since a trip coast to coast involves a lot of driving, Dad decided to break it up by driving two days and then taking a day off and then two more days of driving, a day off and then the final two days of driving.  We drove about 500 miles a day.  We gained three hours passing through the time zones.  Our first two night stay was in Missouri visiting family. The second was in Albuquerque.

On Friday, the folks decided to take a trolley tour of Albuquerque.  The cost was $25 a person and they even allow dogs on their tours.  I didn't go however.  The tour was sold out and there would not have been room for me. 

My folks on the trolley.

The tour is 85 minutes and takes guest all around the town.  Mom's favorite parts were seeing old town Albuquerque and through the neighborhoods where movies and TV shows have been filmed.

Old Town.

Trees is painted.  Mom thinks it is of the Virgin Mary.  They planned to come back to Old Town but there was no parking available.

Many movies have been made here even though visitors think they are filmed elsewhere.  Wild Hogs is supposed to be set in Cincinnati, but the trolley takes guest past the house that Tim Allen lived in during the moving.  Mom's favorite part of the tour was a clip from Wild Hogs.  William H. Macy was riding a motorcycle through a bunch of trees. The clip was shown on a TV screen on the trolley as they were actually driving past the trees and ended where Macy crashed into the sign.  The post of the sign is still there.

Tim Allen's House in Wild Hogs

Fans of Breaking Bad can take a tour that is specific for fans of the show.  However, the tour the folks were on, took them past a few locations from the show.

Jesse's House on Breaking Bad.

Another attempt at Jesse's House.  It is for sale. The cost is $1.6 million.

 They also saw the spaceship house.  It has been on HGTV.

 

Type of house you expect to see in NM.  Notice the lack of grass.  It is very expensive to care for grass lawns. The guide said $800 a month.

This sign is supposed to look really neat at night.  The tail wags.

The "Beach".  It is now a fishing hole because the water was found to not be safe for swimming.  Doesn't seem like the fish would be safe to eat, but maybe things have changed.

 Mom took a lot of photos.  Many turned out worse than these and her memory is bad and she can't remember why she took them. BOL!

After the tour, they ate lunch at The Cube.  It was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  The food was good but $28 for lunch is high.  That was for both of them.

Mexican Burger with pico.  It got soggy.  The fries were good.

Beef brisket, Pork Loin, sweat potatoes, onions rings and toasted bread. Dad said the onion rings were the best he ever had.

Saturday morning, we hit the road again.

Let's Go!

 Here are a few of the things we saw driving through New Mexico and Arizona:

This weekend is the big balloon fest, but we still saw some as we were leaving.

This was a rest area in Arizona.

When we crossed into California, we had to go through an inspection station.  They stopped us and asked if we were towing.  Was that a trick question?  Yes, there was a Jeep attached to the motor home.  We were then asked if we had citrus.  Yes, we did.  Mom had to show it to the guy and luckily it was still in the package and showed it had been inspected.  I wonder if he would have believed us if we told him we bought it in Pennsylvania.  BOL!  He looked at it and handed it back to us.  We were free to go.

When we arrived at our campground in Needles, CA we were hit with the heat.  It was 106 fahrenheit, but since was a dry heat, it felt like 102.  It was hot!  We turned on our air conditioning and closed all the shades.  It didn't cool off until 5 a.m. and then it was in the 80's. 

The campground was all but empty.  I think there ended up being five campers and three of those were permanent residents.  I guess most people know not to camp in Needles, CA. 

If it had been cooler, we could have walked in the desert.  

The following photos are from our campground:

Our site.

This is where I hurt my foot.  It was not good.  Mom was very worried about me.  No pictures were taken from Needles, CA to our destination.  The roads were good as far as traffic, but it was a long day.  Dad said the last 100 miles were hard for him due to the roads.  We had a lot of curves and hills and it was just a two lane road for a good part of it. We finally arrived at our campground around 5:15 p.m.  We had left at 6:15 a.m.

We went to the vet due to my foot and then we got home after 10 p.m.  We are all glad that day is over. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Glad To Be Parked Again