The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum

What a great experience of recent history! The Museum was just upgraded and is totally modern.  It is definitely a "must see."  While there, we joined the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation because it gives us free admission to all other National Archives Presidential Libraries.  Seeing all of the Presidential Libraries is on our bucket list, and now we will get in to see them for free.

The Museum grounds are beautiful.  Then, inside, there was so much to see and hear.  We rented the headsets to follow the trail through the 24 different galleries, each specializing in certain historical artifacts.  Here is just some of what we saw.

The Museum is up on a hill that overlooks the foothills

Replica of the Rose Garden (but no roses at this time of the year)

The concrete monolith is actually part of what was the Berlin Wall

More of the Berlin Wall inside of the Museum

Bronze statue at the entrance of the Museum

Actual letter that Reagan wrote to tell the public that he had Alzheimers (We also could hear  a recording of him reading the letter with his own voice which was just added to the Museum.)

We toured through Air Force One

Saw a replica of the Oval Office as it was when Reagan occupied it

Saw his son, Ron Reagan, signing copies of his book for customers

Reagan's grave site

Flags in front of Museum

More of the grounds of the Museum

More of the view

And the back of the Museum

If you have a chance, don't miss the opportunity to visit the Museum.  You will not be disappointed.

Soledad Canyon in Acton, CA

Spent the week in this Resorts of Distinction park, another huge RV park, in Soledad Canyon.  This is the entry way into the park.

This is the driveway into the Soledad Canyon Park

Parked in the center of the foothills

And snow on the mountains on one side of the park

Within the park, a road has been washed out.  So to get from one side to another, you have to drive about a mile on the main road.

Jerry and Chanti in the washout - see how deep it is

Snow  on the mountains before the storm came through

We were planning on driving into the San Fernando Valley (about 35 minutes away from here) on Friday to spend Jerry's birthday (Feb. 25) with old friends, Bob and Nancy.  But, unfortunately, we had to cancel because of the storm that came through here on Friday and Saturday.

The storm is coming in

What the park looked like from our window on Saturday

After the storm, more snow on the mountains

Tomorrow (Monday), we plan on going to the Reagan Museum and spending the day there.  Am really looking forward to it.  Then, on Tuesday, we head back to Pismo Beach, but will stop by Bob and Nancy's place at lunch time on our way.  We were going to spend a couple of days at Ventura Beach, one of our favorite hang-outs, but the uncertainty of the timing of the storm changed that.  We expect to spend 6 or 7 weeks in Pismo Beach, so we will not be updating this blog that often.  For us, it is our time to get all of our doctor appointments in, our taxes done, and catch up on things in general.

Lytle Creek Mountain Lakes Park

Jerry got a taste of his wish.  He wants to spend a whole winter in the snow just to experience it.  It snowed last night here at Lytle Creek Mountain Lakes Park.  Took this video out of the driver's side window of the RV.



This morning, we took a few more pictures before leaving here today.

Chanti is a bit confused!

View of the park

RV and Tahoe in snow

Same picture as earlier in the week, but with snow

For you Minnesota and North Dakota relatives, Jerry removing snow from roof, too.

We will be leaving here in the next 30 minutes.  It should be a pretty view going to the next place, Solidad Canyon.

Lytle Creek, California

I'm updating the blog at the front end of our stay here in Lytle Creek for a couple of reasons.  First, it is a sunny day today, but tomorrow it is suppose to be cloudy, and then rain is scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday.  So, it is the best day to take some pictures of this place today.  Secondly, the internet is fast here, but usually slows down for us when it is raining.  So here goes.

We traveled only 70 miles yesterday to get to the Mountain Lakes Camping Ground here in Lytle Creek, California.  This is another Resorts of Distinction, but half the size of the last one we were in.  This one is in the San Bernardino mountains off of the I-15.  It is also up a mountain (3,200 feet) and is in a peaceful setting.  There are three very small lakes here but they look more like ponds.  In fact, for an $11 fishing license, we can fish for trout, which Jerry might do one day this week for our dinner (assuming he will catch the fish).

Parked at the Mountain Lakes park in Lytle Creek, California

It's a good thing that we are here in the off season, as this is definitely a "family" resort.  Lots of kids yesterday, but they and their parents are gone today.  Lots of things for kids to do here.

One of the "ponds" at the park.

Benches placed near the "ponds" for people to sit and meditate.

Part of the park setting.

We leave here on Sunday.  So, unless we feel we should update the blog before then, we probably won't write anything until we get to the next place.  

Silent Valley Resort near Banning and Idyllwild, California

Settled in at the Silent Valley Resort last Monday (Feb.1).  This place is located in the San Jacinto Mountains between Banning and Idyllwild.  We had to climb a mountain, going up to as much as 5,000 feet and then dropping down a bit to get here.  Silent Valley is a private resort, part of the Resorts of Distinction and Coast to Coast families.  There are 850 individual sites here on 460 acres, with 750 site having full hook-ups.

This is the view of Banning, CA as we are driving up the mountain to the RV Park.

The weather has been great - in the 60s mostly during the day, and 30s to 40s at night.  About the third night after we arrived, we were hit with winds of over 60 miles an hour that lasted two nights.  The RV rocked and rolled like crazy.  Luckily, the wind is hitting the RV from the side opposite the door.  So, all of our set up, that is, the carpet Jerry put down, the chairs, the grill and the night lamp were not blown away.  Then, last night, it happened again.  Each time this happens, we don't sleep hardly at all during the night because the sound of the wind hitting the RV is so very loud. The sound starts softly and then builds up to a loud bang, almost like a train that is coming at you. 

Last night, though, we weren't as lucky. The outside was trashed with the high winds.  Again, we didn't sleep most of the night. But, we are not complaining.  It's not like we have to get up and go to work.

This is what it looked like outside of our coach this morning.

And, we are due for more winds tonight.  But, Jerry put most of the items away today.

On Saturday, we invited the neighbors over for hors d'oeuvres (had to look up the spelling), and asked each to bring their own drinks.  Met very nice people, among them Betty and David who just downsized from a 42' Monaco to a 27' smaller coach after full-timing for 11 years, Ed who started full-timing three years ago and lost his wife of 40 years just a year and a half ago, a young couple from Orange County and a guy from Torrance.  

We meet the nicest people along the way.

Then, as the sun went down, the sky turned a beautiful orange, pink and purple.  Spectacular!

On Monday, we drove over to Idyllwild, a trip of about 12 miles up and down mountains, just to check out the place.  It reminded us of Cambria - lots of small unique stores, in the pines, no franchises that we could see.  The people were very nice, too.

Sculpture of bear, eagle, mountain lion and cubs in the middle of Idyllwild

We got a sandwich at the local deli and found the local coffee shop where we had our usuals and sat out on the patio eating our lunch.  While there, a we heard a familiar sound from the past - it was the sound of a typewriter.  Sure enough.  A young man, named Guy, was sitting at another table on the patio with his typewriter.  He said that he creates and types poems for customers who are interested in having one of his poems.  He was back-logged with requests and said he had a great weekend. He let Jerry take his picture.

Guy, the poet, with his typewriter!

Here are some other views of this beautiful area.

High in the mountain looking down over Silent Valley Resort

Snow on some of the mountains around here.

Parked at the Silent Valley Resort

It took forever to do this blog as our Verizon MiFi internet connection is extremely slow.  We are hoping that this isn't because Verizon now has added all these new customers with its iPhone which may have slowed down the internet.  Or, it is just because we are in a valley.  Either way, we are going to look into a wi-fi booster.  Anyone know of a good brand????

We leave here on Sunday.