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February 25th 2007

Published: March 13th 2007

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Lucky Charms

Great Park

If ever in San Diego this place is a must see!

2/25/07
I got up around 7:00 and headed for the waffles. The guy sleeping in the bunk below me got in at 5:30 in the morning, while the night before he had gotten in at 3:30. At least last night he didn’t smell like smoke like the prior night. After eating two waffles which was way too much I took my big gut out of there and jumped back in the truck. It felt good to be on the road again. I got to thinking more and more about my schedule and as I approached Phoenix I realized I am making the right decision by skipping Phoenix. There just isn’t time to get everything done and be in Seattle by March 10 as California is a big state with lots to do. Just south of Phoenix along the interstate there’s a big mountain kind of out in the middle of no where. There were some houses built at the base which seems to be pretty much the case everywhere these days except for the National Parks thank God. There was a campground there too, which looked like an interesting location and would allow for a great hike up the mountain, but

Imperial Sand Dunes

This is not waht I envision when I think of California, but this is the first cool thing I saw when entering the state.

there was no way I could afford the time to do so. I also saw a sign that said save the peak. Not sure what was going on with that, but evidently someone believes some future action might destroy the peak in some regard at least.

I made it to the phoenix turnoff in about an hour, which was sooner than I thought and kept on trucking. As I drove farther west I saw some great scenery and tried to take pictures, but the pics never do scenery like this justice. I even got out to take a couple photos and they did not turn out that great. A person needs to see this terrain first hand. I got gas one last time (no not from the lunch I ate) in Yuma, Arizona before crossing the border into the Sunshine state were I expected extremely high prices. This was a good move because the first place I stopped in California showed gas prices of $3.06. I was a little concerned that my time in California my seem like eternity. Oh well, I knew going into this trip that it was going to cost money and to fully enjoy I

ATV'S in the Sand Dunes

Lots of people were out there riding there ATV's.

needed not to worry about the money and I haven’t. The trip has exceed every expectation to this point.

I kept driving and was quickly approaching San Diego. I was concerned that I would get to close as I wanted to camp outside of the city that night. I pulled off the highway in one location to get gas at an Indian Reservation. Which also had a casino there. There are lots of Indian Reservation Casinos in California. I suspect the Indians are not taxed as heavily which allows for them to charge less for gas not sure. Or it might just be a marketing ploy to get people there to gamble. Still not sure. I stopped at a resort area about 40 miles east of San Diego called Pine Valley and talked to a guy about camping. He said the place I intended to go may not be open this time of year and that they were expecting snow. I actually thought the snow might be kind of fun, but didn’t like the idea of the campground not being open. He mentioned there was a Wal-Mart a little farther down the highway where I could stay. I decided

Wind Turbines

Up close look of Wind Turbines roughly 40 miles east of San Diego.

to go for it. As I drove down the road however I saw a campground sign near a town called Alpine and exited off of Highway 8 to check it out. I came to a visitor center, but just missed them as they closed at 4:30 and the current time was 4:45. I noticed across the street however a couple RV’s behind this tavern so I decide to go in to see what might develop. It was a Legion Hall and I ask them about campgrounds in the area. The bartender mentioned one up the road that is really nice, but the cost was over $20. That was a little steep I thought. Another lady that had had a few too many cocktails stumbled over to me and tried to explain the location of another camping location much cheaper. She was a little over the top. Another guy in the room left and went into another room. The manager of the bar came over to me and he seemed to be in a little bit of a grumpy mood. He asked if I wanted to park my truck behind there building. I told him that sounded great. He said just

Camping Spot

The folks at this Legion Hall let me spend the night in my truck behind this Legion Hall.

make a donation to the Legion. He didn’t give an amount, but said just whatever I thought was fair. I had not had a beer for awhile so I decided to have a couple there and had a hot dog and some chips for supper. None of the stuff I was consuming was all that great, but I enjoyed talking to the people. I added a lemon slice to the beer, which seemed to help the taste a lot. A lot of the Legion folks had went on a trip to a Casino on a chartered bus that day and someone had just called the bar to say they had mechanical problems and it was going to be much later before they got back. I had watched 60 minutes a show I enjoy a lot and haven’t seen in several months as a result of this trip. Man this trip is rough having to give up these favorite shows of mine .

I decided to head down to another bar called Casino Inn which allegedly had a younger crowd. It was a Sunday night so that place was pretty dead too. A lady and a couple did come in

Balboa Park

This is an awesome Park. The plants grown here are incredible.

and I shot some pool with the lady and the couple played a video game. The pool got old so we helped the couple play the video game for awhile. After a couple hours I decided to head back to the Legion. When I got there the bus had just arrived. I went in and had a beer while doing some people watching. It appeared they were having a pretty good time, but it was very apparent too that they had a long day of drinking as some of them appeared extremely tired. I decided around 11:00 it was time for me to turn in. I drove around the back of the building set things up for sleep and did just that. It misted rain off and on that night. Having the camper shell is great. I do not have to worry about drying out a tent or anything in the mornings. Essentially just organize things back into travel mode and head out. I like how I am doing things a lot. With the exception of a few cold nights the camping phase of the trip has been very positive.

2/26/06
I got up the next morning and headed

Balboa Park - Pic 2

Another fabulous Balboa Park garden.

into Alpine to do some laundry. I had to run all over town to get change and to get some soap. I must have left my soap at Shelly’s not sure, but it was nowhere to be found in my truck I knew that. At the laundry mat there was a bum and a young lady. I made a trip for doughnuts and got a few extra for these folks. When I got back the bum had left and the lady said she did not want any. I saw the bum and another guy with him so I ran the doughnuts out to them. They were appreciative. After the laundry I needed to find wifi to check on my sleeping arrangements. I found a library and sure enough they had wifi. I sat in my truck and used the wifi as the library was not yet open. I was glad to see the friend of a friend was able to host me. I emailed her to let her know I was a couple days earlier than originally planned and that I would call her later in the day as she had left a phone number. The folks at the Legion

Balboa Park - Pic 3

Wow! This thing looks like it should be swimming around in a coral reef somewhere. Beautiful!

the night before had stated I have to go to Balboa Park, Zoo and Seaworld. I headed directly into San Diego and went to Balboa Park. I couldn’t believe how cool the park was. The plants and flowers are unreal in this park. The park was originally built up I believe in the early 1900’s for a world exposition. Not exactly sure of the purpose of this event, but it was a world event and the buildings constructed for that event still stand and have lots of character. There are numerous fountains, gardens and lots of museums. Some of things I really enjoyed in the park are the dog park where you can let your dog run around off his leash with other dogs. I suspect the area is about 2 acres and is fenced in. I also really liked the garden across Park Boulevard that has a desert plant area. Phenomenal. I wish however they had name tags near the plants so I knew what the heck the plants were. I later asked a person about that and they said the reason they don’t is because in the past people had stole them but they are trying to figure

Balboa Park - Pic 4

The beautiful pics. are endless.

out a way to do it. I told her to electrically charge the signs so that when someone touched their keister is lit up like the fourth of July. She thought that was a great idea, but might not go to far if presented to her superiors. Also there is an area of the park that has little cottages with different country's names on them. During the exposition there were members of that country stay in that cottage. Very cool.

I decided to call Terri the lady I was staying with and she said she would meet me at the park at 5:00 as that is the time she jogs in that area. I decided to get on my bike and do some biking that afternoon. I was amazed by the planes that flew so low over the City and landing in the airport just north of the City proper. It was pretty cool. I biked down to the water and started talking to Jack and older retired gentleman. He is from Iowa and just Winters here. He said he bikes everyday. I decided to tag along with Jack and he took me under his wing and showed me

Balboa Park - Pic 5

Me blocking your view of a beautiful plant in Balboa Park. This is an amazing place. I loved it!

all over the place. We went the aircraft carrier, saw the new statue called “Unconditional Surrender”, which is 1800 lbs according to Jack and he said it was formerly in New York and Chicago before coming here. He also showed me a memorial to Bob Hope that was still under construction. I thought the memorial was really cool. It was a statue of some wounded shoulders who are being entertained by Bob Hope. The only statue that appeared to be missing was that of Bob Hope. Jack’s tour continued and he showed me Pac Bell Park, an outdoor shopping mall that had a clock that was originally from the exposition, which Jack referred to it as a masterpiece. Jack also told me that during the OJ Simpson trial they stated OJ had a Louis Viton bag and Jack walked into the Louis Viton store and stated he wanted to see one of those OJ bags. They showed him one and Jack said that S.O.B cost $3,500. Jack said the most expensive piece of luggage in there was like $30,000 and described to me what it looked like. Also on the tour was a classic car museum the Stecker (sp) hotel,

Downtown San Diego

This is a view of downtown San Diego from near the airport.

the Marriot Harbor, the Gas Lamp District, Seaport Village etc. etc. Jack seemed to not really care what people thought of him, but yet it appeared everyone was either intimidated or respected him not sure which one. Jack said a lot of the boats in Marriott Harbor are owned by men who never use them. He said some of these S.O.B. boats switch owners three times and never leave the slip. I estimate that he is in his late 60’s and he said he rides every day. I told Jack if he wanted to earn a little extra cash he should become a tour guide, but I told him he would probably need to curb the French a little as he used some words that are not looked favorably upon during tours to the general public. Jack was an engineer on the railroad before he retired. We had a lot of fun together and laughed a lot. Jack had about every possible gadget on his person and his bike. It was funny. He lives in the town called Mission Bay and gave me his phone number and said to call him if I have any problems. I thoroughly enjoyed my

Downtown San Diego

Another view of downtown San Diego.

time with Jack and I think he enjoyed me as well. I remember one time he said normally he wears shorts on his daily bike rides, but recently it had been cold. I told him in that regard I was glad it was cold as I really didn’t want to see him in shorts. He kind of chuckled and told me I do not have a say in what he wears and that he does not dress to my wishes. I laughed at that as we had only known each other for about 45 minutes, but we were comfortable enough with each other for that kind of dialogue.

I went back to Balboa Park to meet Terri. She has a Wikket (sp) dog named Enzo after the Ferrari car. We talked for awhile and she game me her address. I drove to her house while she ran back to her house with her dog. She had beaten me there and her house is beautiful. My quarters were downstairs in a studio area. She has a deck on top of her garage for hanging out. Very cool Terri loves to cook and decided to cook some pasta. It was fantastic.

Kelp Man

They have cool statues like this one along a walkway near downtown. I love this statue called "Kelp Man". Since I appreciate this piece of work does that make me cultured?

We called it a night. I was beat.

11/27/06
The next morning it was raining out so I decided to go back to Balboa Park and check out a museum or two and go to the IMAX shows. I had originally planned to do a lot of biking this day, but didn’t feel like doing it while being sopping wet. I made it to the park around 9:30 and things were just starting to open. I had read the day before the IMAX shows begin at 12:00 so I had some time to kill. I went to a free museum first I forget it’s name, but it’s the only free one in the park. The museum had various different paintings, but not a whole lot of them in my mind. I then went to the museum of Photography which I thought maybe I could learn something to improve my photos on this trip. The fee was around $5.00 but I really didn’t get a whole lot out of it. A lot of the stuff was pretty abstract. I went to the plant building and checked that out. They had lots of different plants. I spoke with the lady who

Unconditional Surrender

This statue is called "Unconditional Surrender". Pretty neat statue. This was new to the area and had not been there very long. I think it was previously in New York.

runs the place and she said they have a nursery where they grow the potted plants and bring them to this location for viewing. I razzed her a little about that as I went to the building thinking everything was grown there. I did acknowledge that this does allow people to see plants that they otherwise would not see. They had several orchids that I enjoyed viewing the different varieties. I took cover in this building for awhile to await subsidence of the rain.

Around 11:30 I headed for the IMAX building to eat at the Gallileo restaurant before the movies. I had a sandwich and some chips. The first movie having to do with hurricane Katrina began at 12:00 and the second movie having to do with the Great Barrier Reef began at 1:00. I was excited about seeing the Katrina movie because I was just in New Orleans and thought I might recognize some stuff and I did. The flood however did not affect the French Quarter however which is where I spent most of my time. They did emphasize the music of that area which is the thing I enjoyed the most about New Orleans outside

Bob Hope Memorial

This memorial is not yet completed but I took a pic anyway. There was no Bob Hope added yet. This is a great memorial. Bob Hope entertaining the troops. Aircraft carrier "Midway" in the background.

the Mardi Gras festivities of course. A lot of the movie was a commercial however about saving the New Orleans Wetlands, which I am an advocate of as wel,l but I didn’t expect the movie to be about that. It was entertaining and I did enjoy it and would recommend other people to see it if they get the chance. The second movie I enjoyed even more regarding the coral reefs. It to was somewhat of a commercial about global warming and deforestation and their affects on the corral reefs. That’s ok by me as a lot of the people that watch those movies are kids and hopefully they will understand that the environment is more important than earning lots of money and having lots of material items, which I believe is so engrained in America these days. End of soapbox. I believe the scenery was a little better and the show kept moving a little more than the Katrina movie. It held the viewers interest more in my opinion.

It was now about 2:30 so I decided to drive to Coronado Island. This place has a great view of the San Diego skyline and is predominantly made up

Petco Park

Home of the Padres!

by the military base. Around 3:00 when I arrived the traffic was extremely heavy as I suspect a lot of the military workers were just getting off work. I drove farther south on the Island and took a few photos. At Imperial Beach I walked out on their pier and took some shots. I started talking to a guy from Vancouver and the topic of Tijuana came up. I told him I had decided to skip it as I hear it is dangerous. He empathically said it is not dangerous. He said all you do is drive to the border and park on the US side paying $7.00 to park and then walk across. He said walk down Revolution Boulevard it is by the big arch. He said sure you do not want to be down there drunk at 11:00 pm but he said the danger is blown out of proportion. I really wanted to check it out even though I figured it would be a little depressing. I asked if you have to drive all the way back to Coronoda Bridge are is there a place to cross closer and he said you can just drive through Imperial Beach

Inside Petco Park

Just kidding. This is a little park just outside the stadium for kids to play. The City required that a Park remain in this location for the public so the Padres were forced to build this as a part of the agreement to build their Park.

and that will take you to the interstate which goes right to it. I decided to do it. I suspect I was only about 8 miles from the border as the crow flies from where I was standing.

In about 10 minutes I was approaching the border and looking for the place to park. I saw a place, but I had already passed it and all of the sudden I was at the border. I was a little unnerved by that and realized in a few minutes I would be driving in Mexico. I asked the border official where to park and he said take your first right. I was thinking wow that turned out to be easy and then I saw a sign that $2.00 parking and thought how cheap that was. I turned in and started thinking more and more about the situation how I have everything I need for this trip in my truck and how I would be leaving it in this parking lot which was very rough with people all over the place. I decided against parking there and realized I was just going to have to get back on the highway back to

Inside Petco Park

San Diego. I concluded this was going to be a short stay in Mexico. I drove around looking for a highway ramp that put me back on highway 5 to San Diego. I seen a sign a couple times, but couldn’t get on the correct ramp. The next thing I knew I was driving deeper into Tijuana. I thought about what to do if I have a accident. There were lots of old ratty vehicles driving all around in a seemingly lawless fashion. I decided if I have a accident I was going to just keep on driving. I heard too many stories about the corruption by the Mexican police officers etc. About 2 miles down the road I saw a familiar sign San Diego 5. I jumped on that road and started feeling a little more confident that I was going to be able to safely get out of Mexico and with my truck unscathed. But don’t count the chickens yet.

As I got to the entrance ramp onto the highway I saw that the traffic was really backed up. I saw several vendors selling stuff amongst the cars. It was kind of interesting that Mexico will pretty

My Tour Guide

Meet Jack. As I started biking around San Diego I met Jack. He's a retired railroad engineer from Iowa. We biked together and he gave me some great insight into the City.

much let anyone into their country, but to get in the US, there was traffic backed up for miles. We are truly lucky. What did I have to do with my nationality. Virtually nothing as I was simply born into it. I passed some Mexican police officers who were driving bikes. They were talking to some vendors. The police officers appeared very young. I felt safe though, not so much because of the Mexican police officers, but more because of the California license plates all around me. For some reason that made me feel safe.

I was planning to purchase some Khalua and Sky Vodka while in Mexico but it looks like that will not be happening. I really like the drink White Russian, but it’s probably best I do not buy anything as I will need to declare it at the border crossing. I approached a guy selling Tamales in the middle of the interstate (which is stop and go this time of day). I thought of the saying, “One hot Tamale” and decided to buy one. I ask how much and he said $1.25 and I said $1.00. It’s no fun if you do not negotiate a

See the Plane

It is amazing how low these planes fly over the City to get into San Diego Airport, which is essentially in the City.

little. He said ok. He opened one of the steel pots in front of him and pulled out a Tamale. He was kind of slow in getting it to me and the traffic ahead of me had moved. I suspected the car behind me would start honking, but they never did. I had purchased a beef Tamale. I called Terri and ask her if she thought they were safe to eat. She said to be leery of the chicken for some reason, but said the beef should be fine. I took her word for it and started eating the Tamale. I was finding very little meat in the Tamale and was a little concerned that this guy may have scammed me. As I ate more of the breading I finally got to some meat. I think they were a little stingy on the meat, but what are you going to do? It was ok but nothing great.

As I drove on I saw more and more people selling their goods. The road was lined with lots of shops selling lots of stuff like lawn ornaments, shirts, statues, NFL helmets and hats, jewelry etc. It was very intriguing. After and

David Hasselhof

Where's Pamela?

hour of being stuck in traffic I finally made it to the border crossing guy. He was very serious and ask me If I bought anything and I told him no as I didn’t want to confuse the issue by saying yes and that it is in my belly. He ask me if I cross the border often. I told him no and if I wouldn’t have missed that parking lot on the US side I would not have crossed today with my truck. I think it was pretty evident by then that I was not up to no good. He said ok you can go. As I drove away from the International Border I breathed a little better knowing that I was in the old USA again.

I made it to Terri’s around 5:30. She was still at spinning class. When she got back we went to a Mexican place in Old Town San Diego that she has been to frequently. Terri really knows food and I tried to encourage her to pursue that in the future as she loves to cook and is very good at it. I had a Carnita and Terri had some bean soup

Tijuana

Me accidentally entering Tijuana. I planned to go there, but not by truck. I missed the US parking spot where I planned to park and walk across the border.

and something else which I don’t remember. We both liked the food and enjoyed the Margarittas. We were going to have a slice of Key Lime pie, but they were all out. We got back to her place around 10ish and called it a night after saying good night to Enzo.

Additional photos below

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