Get Your Kicks on Route 66

Wednesday, 31 October.  We are celebrating this Halloween night in the oldest state capital in the United States: Santa Fe, New Mexico.  New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, was recently named as one of the top places to visit offering first-rate adobe architecture, numerous world-class art galleries, and first-class accommodations, dining and shopping. Supposedly the average visitor comes to Santa Fe three times in their lifetime - this is my second and we intend to take full advantage of not only Santa Fe, but also Taos, a 2-hr drive north.

We left Gallup this morning about 9:30am and enjoyed an uneventful drive east on I-40 toward Albuquerque where we picked up I-25 North to Santa Fe.  The scenery proved to be pretty much your southwest scrub trees, rocks, and sand -- typical desert scene -- until we got to Grants where we began to see large black lava fields on both sides of the interstate for several miles.  The twisted black rocks were quite a sight, let me tell you. Supposedly the lava beds were created from eruptions of several volcanoes up until about 800 years ago. Must have been quite an event.  Shortly after we left the lava fields we began to see beautiful red mesas a couple miles north of I-40.  This continued until we were about an hour from Albuquerque.  Certainly was a pleasant change from the drab desert landscape across much of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico.

Another feature of the drive east on I-40 today was the periodic opportunity to get off the interstate and travel on historic Route 66, deemed by some as "the most famous highway in the world."  Also known as the Will Rogers Highway, Route 66 was one of the original US Highways and became one of the most famous roads in America.  It originally ran from Chicago to LA covering a total of almost 2,500 miles.  For our younger blog readers out there, Route 66 was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song and the Route 66 TV show in the 1960's. We actually saw several billboards along the interstate advertising various business on "historic Route 66," including the jingle, "Get your kicks on Route 66."   It all brought back some fond memories of my youth.

We arrived arrived at our RV park in Santa Fe, the Trailer Ranch RV Park, around 1:30pm -- a short day, but much appreciated by the Winnebago's driver!  The staff here is very friendly and we spent probably 30 minutes with them getting the "tourist layout" for touring Santa Fe.  There is so much to do and see here that I'm sure our five days in this area will just fly by.  Looking forward to next few days.

One of the sights we hope to see -- the most photographed church in Santa Fe

Land of Enchantment means good (and HOT) Mexican food

Tuesday, 30 October.  With mixed feelings of saddness and happiness  (we had such a GREAT time here), we left Verde Valley and the Sedona area this morning around 9:00am, picked up I-17 North, and pointed the Winnebago toward Flagstaff where we planned to join I-40 East and head toward Albuquerque.  As we neared Flagstaff we found ourselves passing thru some beautiful forest landscape, part of the Coconino National Forest.  We also found ourselves climbing steadily as we continued on our track north. Once we reached the outskirts of Flagstaff, we discovered we had climbed from about 3,200-ft in elevation to 7,000-ft.  Quite a climb over the 60-mile journey to catch I-40.  Once on I-40 East, we left the forested area and quickly found ourselves once again in the desert, with scrub brush and little else.  Not much in the way of scenery on our way to Gallup.  We did, however, slowly but steadily dropped in elevation.  By the time we reached Gallup-- the Indian Capital of the Southwest -- at about 2:00pm on this short day, we had dropped several thousand feet in elevation.



Our overnight stop in Gallup was at the USA RV Park on historic Route 66.  This park sits on the far west side of Gallup and offers easy on/off access to/from I-40.  The park is typical of what I'd call an "Interstate RV park," offering good clean amenities with no frills.  We were given a large, pull-thru campsite and were set up in no time at all. 



Since we'd skipped lunch -- an apple on the road doesn't count -- we were hungry -- and hungry for some good Mexican food. We asked the RV staffer for a recommendation and received what I'd term "an insider" suggestion for "traditional Mexican food" at a place called Genaro's Cafe.  Now finding this little Mexican cafe would be nigh to impossible if we hadn't received directions from the RV park staffer.  It's off the main drag (Route 66) thru town, about three blocks into what appeared to be a residental area.  Genaro's looks like a small house (which it might have been at one time) and looked nothing like your typical restaurant.  But there were lots of cars in the parking lot around back, so we ventured inside.  Obviously, this was a place the locals frequent for good, down-to-earth, traditional Mexican food.  We were urged to sit where we pleased, had a waiter come promptly to our table, had drinks inside two minutes (no alcohol, unfortunately; I was looking forward to another frozen margarita...sigh), and our order taken in less than five minutes.  The food was as good as promised, but definitely on the HOT side (guess that's why the locals come here).  I'd forgotten how much difference there is between the green chili and red chili in Mexican food.  The red is SO much hotter!  All in all, Genaro's turned out to be a good bet for tonight's supper:  Great local-feel ambiance and great food.  Oh, and the sopapillas were outstanding.  My Mexican combination plate came with an oversized sopapilla, with honey, of course.  A nice touch to end the meal.

Riding the rails in Arizona...saying adios to Sedona

Monday, 29 October. Well, we’re down to our last night in the Verde Valley and getting ready to move on tomorrow morning, headed for Santa Fe with an overnight stopover in Gallup, New Mexico.  To say we’ve REALLY enjoyed our stay here in Verde Valley and the Sedona area would be a huge understatement -- this is beautiful country.  The Verde River is the lifeline of this entire area and runs for almost 200 miles through southwestern desert landscape and three national forests until it joins the Salt River and their waters enter the Gila River at Phoenix.  The Verde provides much of the green landscape for this area and when mixed in with the desert landscape provides an enchanting charm to the whole region. 

Verde River Canyon

For one last tourist venture, we opted to drive over to nearby Clarkdale, an old copper mining town where we could catch the VerdeCanyon Railroad (VCRR) Wilderness Train. This 4-hour excursion train rides thru the Verde River Canyon offers some spectacular, rather remarkable close-up vistas not only of the canyon and river, but also the beautiful red rock formations that abound throughout this area.  The train passes towering red rock butte cliffs, ancient Indian ruins, several trestles, and through a 700-ft manmade tunnel. All I can say is, “Wow!”  This was one great Sunday afternoon spent with nature in the luxury of a comfortable, cushy train.  We opted to upgrade to First Class and did not regret it.  In addition to much more comfortable seating, we were treated to free finger-food and a selection of some great margaritas. I tried their Prickly Pear version – made with prickly pear juice – and was not disappointed.  Quite delicious, to tell the truth. Lynette had the Verde Canyon margarita, a VCRR specialty, and said it was equally tasty. 

The VCRR also came equipped for us snap-happy photographers and offered several flatcars intermixed with passenger cars and were equipped with side rails and canopies – making for a very unique, very nice open-air, 360-degree viewing car.  I think I caught a couple of these viewing cars in some of the pics that will accompany this blog entry.  Needless-to-say, I went crazy with the photography.  Far too many pics, but every bend on the train ride offered another spectacular photo op.  I had to be careful since on numerous occasions the train came precariously close to the side of a red rock cliff.  I think I could have stretched my arm out and actually touched the cliff on several close encounters.  Like I said, one great train ride with wonderful scenery.  When I needed a lift, I simply went back to our First Class seating and sipped on my margarita or sought out the attendant and ordered another – which she promptly brought out to me on the viewing car.  Quite the service – kudos to the VCRR folks. 

So, without further ado, here is a tiny fraction of the dozens of photos I took over the 4-hour journey thru Verde Canyon.  Hope they do justice to this beautiful country.

The train rounding a bend in Verde Canyon

 A glimpse of one of the open-air viewing cars

On our way back to the station depot

Photo quiz for my grandson, Ben, and granddaughter, Rayne:  The train conductor said this red rock formation had one special rock they called "Turtle Rock."  Can you spot it? 

Lynette, enjoying the open-air viewing car

The four hours passed far too quickly and we were soon back at the historic train depot in Clarkdale.  On the drive back to our campground, we decided to check out the nearby mountain ghost town of Jerome.  It was quite a curving, twisty climb up AZ Hiway 89A to the old ghost  town that sits at 5,200-ft atop Cleopatra Hill.  It was too late in the afternoon to do much sightseeing or shopping, but Jerome appears it might offer an interesting afternoon on a future visit. Once a thriving copper mining town of 15,000 inhabitants, today Jerome has 444 permanent residents and a thriving artist colony, several B&B’s and unique shops, a spectacular-looking historic hotel, and numerous restaurants/bars, including one named Belgium Jennie’s Bordello (it's a pizza joint...go figure).  Like I said, we might come back to this interesting little town during a future visit to this wonderful country.  Viva Sedona!

Red Rocks, Snoopy, and fantastic photography

Saturday, 27 October.  Well, since my last blog entry we've spent a couple days in Sedona, soaking up the beautiful scenery and tasting the offerings of several Sedona restaurants.  Oh, and also relaxing, some light reading, and doing just nothing.  And that's always pretty nice - one of the real benefits of retirement.  But first, let's talk about Sedona and the mystical aura it casts across this region of America.  There is certainly no escaping the overwhelming awe one experiences during a visit to this almost magical area. The majestic red sandstone buttes stand in contrast to a vast blue sky that seems to go on forever.  Want proof?  Here's a photo I took at sunset the other day just after we'd enjoyed an excellent Mexican meal at the Oaxaca Restaurante in downtown Sedona. I'm pretty proud of this particular photo.  It not only captures the "Snoopy" red rock formation (left side of photo...use your imagination) but also the nearby forests of Coconino National Forest --- and as a bonus, the rising moon.  Quite a shot, eh?

Our first visit to Sedona was this past Tuesday.  We left our campground and drove out to I-17 and headed north toward Flagstaff.  I wanted to take AZ Hiway 179 off I-17 into Sedona since it's the most dramatic entrance into the town.  I also wanted to stop and sightsee at Montezuma Castle National Monument (MCNM) , which is just off I-17.  MCNM is really the story of the native Sinagua people who built and lived here for over 300 years; the first settlers to Verde Valley gave the dwelling the misnomer of "Montezuma," which stuck, but I don't think the Aztecs ever made it this far north.  The actual "castle" is a 20-room dwelling built into the cliffside (see photo below).  This is a well-maintained national park venue and well worth the 10-minute detour off the Interstate.

After leaving MCNM, we headed for Sedona, driving thru Red Rock Canyon State Park (RRC SP).  After traveling to Sedona from Cottonwood via AZ Hiway 89A, I would strongly recommend using the 179 and the RRC SP as the entry point into the Sedona area.  You'll be treated to some fantastic viewpoints along the drive, especially around the Village of Oak Creek that serves as a bedroom community for Sedona.  You'll see spectacular cliffs, red buttes, and canyons, all surrounded by the rugged beauty of Coconino National Forest.  Here's the very first view we had of the beautiful red rock formations as we approached Sedona. This one is called the "Bell" and the drive thru Oak Creek brings one up close and personal to this particular formation.  Although we didn't venture outdoors (my bad knee was really acting up), there are numereous trails one can take that will bring you right to the base of the Bell.

Another red rock formation near the Village of Oak Creek

We drove around the Village of Oak Creek to get as good a view as we could of the other red rock formations in the immediate area.  I took far too many photos, but kept coming around another bend in the road that offered a different perspective of a formation or even another rock out-cropping or butte. The rest of the drive into Sedona offered more photo ops and of course, I continued to take shot after shot.  Some came out pretty good, others not so good.  Here are some of the ones I like best.

Sooner than expected we finally got our "fill" of red rock formations (wonderful natural beauty or not) and were also feeling those hunger pangs in our stomachs.  So it was off to Sedona to check out some of the town's finer restaurants.  We ended up eating a late lunch/early dinner at the Wildflower Bread Company.  We each had a half sandwich with a bowl of soup, both of which were scrumptous.  We ate our meal on the outside patio that just happened to give us a front row seat to a panorama of red rock formations across a valley of evergreens from the Coconino forest.  What a view!  It's really hard to describe the beautiful scenery the Sedona area offers up at just about every turn in the road.  I'm running out of superlatives.

We did come back to visit Sedona again on Thursday, as I mentioned, and just by chance were treated to the town's red rock formations at sunset.  I opened this blog entry with one shot I took that afternoon, and will close with a couple more. One in downtown Sedona, the other on the way back to the campground.  We'll be leaving Verde Valley, Cottonwood, and Sedona all too soon, but we have thoroughly enjoyed our adventure here.  What a wonderfully fantastic natural beauty!

Here's a spectacular view (below) of the surrounding red rock formations, looking back north toward to Sedona, as we approached our campground at dusk.  What a great place to stay for a few days!





Verde Valley - Beautiful desert scenery

Tuesday, 23 October.  Left Palm Springs at 9:00am sharp, pulled out of the TT campground onto the service road along I-10 --- and promptly sideswiped a road sign as I inadvertently swung too far to the right on the service road.  The big side mirror on the passenger side of the Winnebago took most of the all-too-brief smash-up, but survived with only a nasty 3-inch smudge. When I checked later, there were also a couple minor scratches down the side of the motorhome as that diamond-shaped roadsign flexed its muscles on the RV until I swerved back to the centerlane.  It took only a mere glance away from the road on my part to do the damage, which although minor, will still need attending to down the road.  Sigh...the joys of full-time RV-ing.  On the plus side, there was nary a peep from my navigator.  Kudos to Lynette!

Other than the above incident, the drive east on I-10 was downright boring with desert, desert and more desert as far as the eye could see.  Straight as a arrow for the most part, with some long uphill grades.  But we made good time and arrived in the Phoenix area a little after 1:00pm.  The bypass around the west side of Phoneix made the drive easy as we scooted by Glendale and Surprise, and continued our trip north to TT Verde Valley campground via I-17 North.  We turned off I-17 at Camp Verde where we picked up AZ Hiway 260.  Ten miles later we were turning into the TT Verde Valley campground.  We've found a very nice campsite (meaning we have satellite TV reception) about 100-yds from the Verde River.  Believe we'll be quite comfortable here for the next week or so (see photo below).

 

 

Lynette - and her cute new hat she bought in Palm Springs -

during a short hike down to the Verde River.

 

We didn't do much on our first full day here in Verde Valley (24 October), but did drive into nearby Cottonwood where we stopped at The Vineyard Wine Bar in Old Town Cottonwood for dinner.  We ordered a specialty pizza that turned out to be one terrific pizza.  Thin crust, light, with only a smattering of tomato sauce.  We opted for toppings of Italian sausage, pepperoni, and diced meatball.  Very, very yummy.  We washed the whole thing down with a nice Central California Coast Fat Monk Riesling. Light, not too dry or sweet.  Seemed to go well with the pizza.  Restaurant, pizza and wine all turned out to be good choices for our first night in Verde Valley.  Before closing, here's a tidbit of history on this area.

When Spanish explorers first rode into this part of central Arizona in the 16th century, they were immediately struck by the tall, green (verde) grasses and mighty cottonwoods that flanked the banks of its small river. The conquistadors named the area Verde Valley, a testament to its contrast against the brown Sonoran desert. Today, Cottonwood, is the place to go if you’re looking for something different. Located in Yavapai County, between Prescott and Sedona, Cottonwood (population about 12,000) is surrounded by jagged mountains on the south, east and west, and to the north by mesas and buttes. Named for the beautiful cottonwood trees that grow along the Verde River, the town has grown from a small farming community to the Verde Valley's population center.

Plans for tomorrow involve the very spiritual area around Sedona, about 20 miles to the north, renowned for its stunning red buttes and monoliths, as well as its surrounding lush forests. In recent years Sedona has become a center for traditional and contemporary arts and offers a variety of galleries, boutiques and specialty shops. It is an upscale retirement and tourism community, because it is the jumping off place for touring the Red Rocks region. Fact tidbit: How the Red Rocks got their name. Over millions of years, layers of sandstone and limestone were left in this area by a receeding ocean. Iron oxide eventually covered the grains of sandstone and, in a natural process, rust formed. The stunningly beautiful red rocks of Sedona are the result of this process. Sedona is also home to a unique geology of rocks with quartz, iron and volcanic formed basalt that are typically found in sacred sites all over the world.  Both of us are really looking forward to our first visit to this very special -- and for centuries, most sacred -- place.

Red Rocks near Sedona





For our blog readers not familar with Sedona's reknown spirituality, this region is famous for its energy centers, or vortexes, where spiritual and psychic powers are enhanced.  Vortexes are not created by wind or water, but rather from spiraling spiritual energy.  Sedona'a vortexes are named because they are believed to be spiritual locations where the energy is right to facilitate prayer, mediation and healing (in a previous blog I mentioned the area around Mt Shasta in California as another well-known spiritual area). Vortex sites are believed to be locations having energy flow that exists on multiple dimensions. The energy of the vortexes interacts with a person’s inner self.  It is not easily explained --- obviously it must be experienced. 

 

One final word or maybe just some "food for thought:"  Some of you may be asking yourself, "What is a vortex?  Where do I find one? What am I supposed to feel?"   Based upon what I know, there is probably no single, right answer when it comes to exploring vortexes.

Today's modern world is dominated by the concepts of science and logic where, if we can measure, taste, see or quantify something, then it must be true. Science would have us believe there is nothing special going on at sacred places like Sedona or Mt Shasta because they can't measure anything quantifiable with their instruments.  But here's something to ponder: Many people have deep, profound spiritual experiences while in Sedona. Spiritual experiences that are personal and unique. Spiritual experiences that defy the limits of our minds.  I would judge that most of us have at one time or another experienced moments of peace, clarity or oneness at least once in our lives. Perhaps this is what "vortex" is about.  And it could happen just about anywhere, at just about anytime --- in nature, in church, or in your own backyard.



Palm Springs, rest & relaxation meet Jason Bourne

Friday, 19 October.  Left Vandenberg AFB around 9:00am and headed south down 101 toward Santa Barbara and the greater LA area.  Wonderful scenic drive down 101...beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.  Once we passed Santa Barbara and Ventura, we continued on 101, motoring thru Oxnard, Camarillo, and Thousand Oaks before picking up CA Hiway 134 that took us thru Glendale, Pasadena, and Arcadia...and picking up I-210 in the Northern LA metro area. We eventually turned south at Fontana, taking I-15  South to I-10 East and driving thru such great places as Rancho Cucamonga.  What a great name, eh?  I-10 East took us the rest of the way into the Palm Springs area, featuring the well-known towns of Rancho Mirage, Thousand Palms, Desert Palms, Bermuda Dunes, La Qunita, and Indian Wells - all of which we would end up visiting, shopping in, or driving thru as we took in the larger Palm Springs area. We arrived at the TT Palm Springs campground (which is actually in Palm Desert) around mid-afternoon. The campground here is very nice, quite large, with oversized campsites and full hook-ups (meaning water, 50-amp service and sewer hook-ups). The campground has hundres of palm trees that give the campground a very Southern California desert look.  Here's a couples photos of our campsite to give you a perspective.  We're definitely planning on coming back to this campground in the future.

 

 

 

We decided to use this stop as a "rest & relaxation" pause and did just that.  We did meet another couple who were also camped here, John & Jennifer, and made tentative plans to meet up at their home campground in College Station, Texas.  Which is right next to Bryan, home to many of our relatives on our Dad's side...meaning several Metzers.  This might work out just great.  We already have plans to meet up with a cousin over the weekend of 10/11 November - the more the merrier!

 

If you've never been to the Palm Springs area before, or heard about what's here, this part of CA is full of gated communities and golf courses galore.  Just one after another everywhere we turned.  I can certainly see what people winter down here - especially golferes.  We also managed to take in the latest Jason Bourne movie, The Bourne Legacy, that continues the Bourge sage, but without Jason (played by Matt Damon) this time; Jeremy Renner does the honors in this movie.  I don't want to give away too much about the movie - which is very action-packed and a thriller - but I predict the producers may have plans to team Jason/Matt with this latest chapter in the series.  If so, should be one great movie.

 

Our stay here at TT Palm Springs - even if it is actually located in Palm Desert - turned out to be a good one for rejuvenating our energy levels.  Now it's on to Verde Valley and the Sedona, AZ area.  A mere 5.5 hour drive across some of America's most inhospitable desert territory.  This will undoubtedly be a very boring drive!  See ya' down the road!

 

 



Photo of the Day

Can't leave Vandenberg without including the following photo we encountered at Wall Beach.  We laughed when we saw it, but we never did go swimming in the surf.  Water was too cold -- at least that's what we told ourselves!



Santa Inés Mission, Los Olivos wines, and Vandenberg beaches

Thursday, 18 October.  We’ve decided to move on to Palm Springs tomorrow morning, so for today we opted to go back to Solvang one more time and visit Old Mission Santa Inés, and then maybe do some wine tasting over in the charming little historic town of Los Olivos, just a few miles north of Solvang in the beautiful wine country of California’s Santa Ynez Valley.   The visit to Old Mission Santa Inés was well worth the trip back to Solvang.  Founded in September 1804, the Mission was one of the last established by the Franciscan Fathers as part of Spain’s efforts establish a presence in California and to protect their territory and holdings against Russia and England. The Franciscans established these missions to teach the native population (at Santa Inés it was the Chumash Indians) the Spanish culture, Christianity, and a trade (usually ranching, farming, weaving, leather-making for boots and saddles, and candle making. The first Seminary in California was built at Santa Inés in 1844, to train young men to become priests.  Our $5 admission fee allowed us to tour the entire mission, including the Sanctuary and the surrounding gardens.  We were also treated to a tour of the Mission Museum that houses a collection of vestments, artwork, documents, and artifacts used in-and-around the Mission throughout its history.  I have to say something about the collection of vestments.  Mission Santa Inés has the largest and most valuable collection of early California church vestments from the 15^th century to 1718; turns out it was the depository for vestments from earlier successful Missions in Baja California and Mexico. Many of the more than 500 silk vestments throughout the California Missions are in fact older than the Missions themselves. The vestments are made of materials such as beautiful oriental silks (the material often given to the church by Spanish noble women to be made into vestments) with floral designs, satins, and brocades. Some of the vestments have gold or silver flat threads woven into their designs.  I hope the photos I took at the Mission do justice to our visit.

Front entrance of Mission

Example of the vestments collection

View of the Mission's gardens

Lynette at garden's fountain

Mission's historic cemetery



After leaving Santa Inés and Solvang, we drove the few miles north to Los Olivos, passing through countryside full of numerous vineyards (Los Olivos Wineries).  We ended up tasting wines at several tasting rooms conveniently located in the center of this small town, Our purchases included a nice off-dry Riesling, a Chenin Blanc, a very nice Reserve Chardonnay, and an excellent bottle of port from Daniel Gehrs Wines (you would like this port, Jamie).  Oh, almost forgot; at one wine tasting room they also offered olive oil tasting and Lynette found a blood orange olive oil and a Balsamic blueberry vinegar.  Plan to mix the two and serve with bread as an appetizer.  All in all, a good visit to this charming little town in the Santa Ynez Valley.

By now we were pretty hungry and decided to head back to "Pea Soup Andersen's" in the little town of Buellton, just north of Santa Barbara. Andersen’s famous split pea soup is one of Lynette’s favorites --- and well worth the stop, let me tell you.   By the time we got back to our campsite at Vandenberg AFB it was almost dusk.  I wanted to see if I could get some sunset photos on one of VAFB’s beaches, so we headed back to Wall Beach, the first beach we visited when we arrived at VAFB.  Once again we found an almost deserted beach and pretty much had it to ourselves.  I think I got several good “sunset” photos (you be the judge) and we had a very leisurely walk along the beach just after sunset.  A wonderful ending to our time here at VAFB.  This will definitely become part of our “travel history” and campgrounds for a return trip.  Kudos to VAFB!    

Wall Beach and shoreline, looking north

Wall Beach sand dunes, looking south

Lynette walking/wading the surf on Wall Beach

Sun setting on Wall Beach, October 2012

Photo of the Day

Best Wenatchee fires photo --- I think I mentioned a few weeks ago something about the fires on the surrounding hills above Wenatchee, WA.  We were there for about three weeks, and the last week was nothing but smoke, smoke, and more smoke.  The fires were never a "serious" threat; mostly sagebrush and grass, and the extent of the fires made the decision to just let them burn (except to save homes, etc) was easy.  Guess the fires are still burning; waiting now for the first snows or a good rain.  Kudos to Lynette's mom, Glenna, for sending the following photo for the blog.  What a great picture!  Thanks, Glenna!



Velkommen til Solvang!

Monday, 15 October.  We took Sunday off and just relaxed after the five-hour drive south on 101 from Morgan Hill.  We did manage to get in a driving tour of the base and ended up way out on the west side of the base at one of the four beaches VAFB has to offer, Wall Beach.  Turned out to be a fairly deserted beach, and we took advantage and did some beach walking/beach-combing.  We hope to spend most of one full day later this week at the beach, again, just relaxing. Okay, maybe some surf wading and looking for shells.  But that’s it!

Today, Monday, we opted to head over Solvang and do some sightseeing at this picturesque little town with a Danish theme.  If you’ve never been to Solvang, make it a sure stop if ever in this part of CA.  Solvang (Danish for “sunny field”) is a beautiful little town nestled in the Santa Ynez Valley of CA.  Founded in 1911 by a small group of Danish teachers, Solvang today is home to many fine restaurants and dozens of lovely quaint little shops to explore.  There are Danish festivals, quiet tree-lined streets, horse drawn wagons, a Hans Christian Andersen Park, windmills, and oodles of Danish pastry and hand-made chocolate shops.  Anyone out there with a keen interest in Solvang, the link to the Elverhoj Museum provides a lot of the town's early history.

The drive into the Santa Ynez valley and surrounding hills took a little over 30 minutes and we passed field after field of what looked like sugar beets along the Santa Ynex River.  As we got closer to Solvang, vineyards suddenly became more frequent, and while we didn’t go in for any wine tasting today, we just might try another short journey up to Solvang – and to Los Olivos, just a few miles further north – and sample some of the wines in this part of CA.  We found a nice place for lunch, right on the main thoroughfare, the Solvang Brewing Company.  

Lynette opted for a sampler plate of sausages and a glass of CA Riesling, while I had their fish-and-chips, washed down with a pint of their Windmill Wheat Ale, a Belgian style beer accented with orange peels and other spices. Ice cold, it was particularly refreshing on this warm day.  After lunch we walked around Solvang’s quaint streets, strolling in one shop, then another, and another, and so on.  We ended our afternoon in this really cool town by purchasing a selection of fine chocolates and a couple Danish pastries for our breakfast tomorrow morning.

Air Force comes to our rescue!

Saturday, 13 October.  Reporting from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), near Lompoc, CA…not far from Santa Barbara.  Arrived here today after a short ride down 101 from Morgan Hill.  We had gotten so tired of the rain and mud at the TT campground near Morgan Hill that we decided to move up our departure date, and, as they used to say in the Wild West, “Get the hell out of Dodge.”  Our campsite at Morgan Hill had become quite a quagmire after that awful hail storm of last week; we even had to make a short hop from the motorhome to dry land just to get out of the RV.  Anyway, we decided to head to our next destination, the TT campground at Rancho Oso, in the hills above Santa Barbara.  However, we found two recent Internet posts that discussed the rough, and maybe slightly dangerous, road up to the campground – especially in a large rig and towing a vehicle.  That brought about an instant decision to look for somewhere else to park our rig for a few days.  In a campground search on the Internet Lynette found that VAFB had a Family Camp that offered camping sites for motorhomes; after checking out their website and the photos, it looked like a good option.  Turns out, it’s also very close (30 minutes) to Solvang, one of our sightseeing destinations, so we took off down 101 headed to our new campground.  BTW, VAFB is home to the 30^th Space Wing and 14^th Air Force, and is Air Force Space Command’s premier missile base.  It’s the only installation in the free world where operational ICBMs and polar-orbiting space satellites are launched.  For more info go to: http://www.vandenberg.af.mil/.

The Fam-Camp at VAFB  (photo above) is relatively small, but very nice.  Each site has 50-amp service and full hook-ups – something we haven’t been used to lately, and a welcome occurrence. We have plenty of shade and full satellite TV service.  All this for only $22 a night – what a bargain!