McFadden Family Adventures

Travel Adventures with Tom & Vonda

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  • A Couple of Lazy Days

    Yesterday we made the decision to remain in Los Angeles because the temperature at Joshua Tree was going to be around 107/108 degrees. Joshua Tree would have been hard to see, just from the truck. Speaking of the truck, I have a love/hate relationship with that thing. It certainly hauls us down the road but to park it is like putting a square peg in a round hole. We have more “discussions” (they really aren’t discussions, more like me telling Tom how he should park) about parking than anything else. Case in point, yesterday we went to the Sherman Oaks Galleria to see the new Jurassic Park (I liked it) and had to park in the parking garage. We had less than inches between the top of the truck and the beams of the parking garage. Here is a picture of my view. Look at the white concrete beam (a little blurry).

    Trust me when I say, we weren’t even going the 5 miles an hour. We made it, only terrorizing our antenna.

    This morning I decided to wash the sheets. I have not put them back on yet, so stay tuned. Tomorrow I may be in traction.

    The kitty’s are happy we have been home more. I think they have enjoyed not traveling for six days. Although being nose butted by Penny at 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning was not my finest hour, or hers.

    After my many walks to the laundry this morning, Tom felt sorry for me and came to carry the load back, we went to Wal-Mart. There are Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, of which we originally went to, that did not have what I wanted and there was of course another “discussion” about parking. We found a Supercenter a mile away and it has two floors! Just like the Target earlier this week, this one has a place where you can put the cart to go down or up too. I’m going to have to get a cart next time I see one of these.

    The news in Southern California is all about the ICE raids. There was a raid at a tomato farm in Camarillo this morning. I’m thinking we should all go buy tomatoes. Because the problem with deporting hard working people is that no one is going to step up and do that hard, hot work and tomatoes are going to rot on the vine. Sadly, children were crying because they could not reach their parents. I agree we have a broken immigration system, but this is not the way to fix it.

    It’s hot here friends, 97 today. We’re looking forward to much cooler San Diego. We are there for six days. After the Padres game on Saturday, we plan to do some sightseeing. I want to go to the zoo. If you have any thoughts on places to go, let me know.

    Our journey is done for today. It’s been a good one, just relaxing in the 5th wheel. I hope your journey today was a good one too.

  • Disney Day! Sorta.

    I started the day with laundry. What fun! But it has to be done. I chatted with a woman about the best machines and she pointed the good ones out. I told her not to use the dryer on the end, it didn’t dry. I considered washing the sheets but changing the sheets is too much exercise for me today, so I will do that in San Diego.

    This morning Tom finished working on the wiring. Wouldn’t you know it, everything works except there is a black wire with nowhere to go. I told him, “maybe it’s a ground.” He said no. I have no other opinions but like most things when they are put back together, there is an extra part! Not sure what’s going to happen with that, but I’ll let you know! Knowing us, it’s sure to be interesting.

    After this lovely discussion, we took off for Downtown Disney with a surprise stop along the way. After about a half hour we stopped in a front of a fire station. Tom says, “here it is.”

    The pictures aren’t great but this is the fire station from the 70’s show “Emergency.” We love that show and have recently finished watching all the episodes. It was fun to see it and look at the street where the fire truck always pulled out and drove down. It looks a lot different.

    Then it was on to Downtown Disney. We traveled I-5 and I-405. I will just say at least one lane, the second from the left to be exact on I-405 is just like a roller coaster. You know how a roller coaster sounds as you’re going up the long rail to where you will then be dropped very quickly, rising in your seat, the noise it makes? It’s there on the 405, trust me. Sounds exactly like Thunder Mountain Railroad. It also has the dip where you fly up in the air. I left my seat more than once. Thank goodness for seatbelts. Who needs Disney when you’ve got the 405 freeway in Los Angeles. Well after that excitement for the day we found the Simba Parking Lot with no trouble and parked in the boonies, 4G to be exact. I had looked for restaurant reservations last night on the way back from the game but didn’t commit because I wasn’t sure what time we would get there and if you miss your reservation, they charge you a fee. So, we stopped in at Seoul Sister, bowls for your soul. It was delicious and a new place I had not been to. Afterwards, I headed straight for the pin traders and picked up some 70 year pins. Then spotted a penny machine so had to get my 70 year pennies! We walked the length of the place and entered Wonderful World of Disney from the far side so I could walk back. After much discussion and decision making, I purchased a 70 year t-shirt and sweatshirt.

    We started our walk back and stopped at Starbucks, before going to the Sweets store. I wanted fun things but Tom was boring with chocolate candy. We headed on toward the parking lot and I had mentioned beignets, so we stopped in there for four originals. We sat down outside and had one. Tom liked them so much, he had two! Perhaps he’ll have the last one for breakfast tomorrow.

    The pictures where I’m sitting, the cement was very hot. Tom does not take quick pictures. At one point, I pleaded with him to take the picture. He said he did. My goodness, he’s still holding the phone up like he’s taking a picture. My behind is burning off and he’s lallygagging around! I was sad to be so close to Disneyland and not go, but I couldn’t see spending over $300 for a partial day at Disney. Sometimes I have to be reasonable. Not something that comes easily to me, but certainly needed in some instances. Besides, I’ve got a trip already planned for September.

    We capped the day off with dinner at El Pollo Loco, one of my favorite places. There used to be one in Vancouver, when we lived there, but they closed it.

    A conversation at the El Pollo Loco:

    (Repeated pounding in the background, I think they were cutting something)

    Vonda: I sure wish they’d stop that pounding.

    Tom: It’s part of the job.

    Vonda: Well that doesn’t mean I want to hear it.

    Tom: (shaking his head)

    Our journey today is finished. It was a good day. I hope your journey was good today too.

  • Angel Stadium

    We started off the day, well Tom started off the day repairing the wiring that connects the trailer to the truck. It had detached just as we were parking the trailer on Saturday. This means there are no lights or brakes.

    As Tom was working on it, which he has had to do once before, the owner/manager came by to see if we wanted to move to a shady spot. We decided to remain where we are since we are leaving on Wednesday, July 9. But he did say he would send Troy over to help with the wiring. Troy is the electrical guru of the campground. We are thankful for Troy being able to help us. While we were waiting on Troy, I noticed a man going back and forth through a set up path.

    He was being trained (we assume) to maneuver through tight spaces to park the trailers. I started to record but he stopped before I could get any good footage.

    We’ll be traveling to Joshua Tree on Wednesday where the temperature is expected to be 107 degrees. So, we headed to Camping World to get some reflective window shade. As soon as we returned, we realized it was time to head to Angel Stadium because it was going to take almost two hours with LA traffic. Speaking of LA traffic, this is the conversation Tom and I had on the way to the game.

    Tom: grumbling about LA traffic

    Vonda: Stop complaining,  you planned this trip. It’s all on you buttercup. That’s why I let you plan the trip, so I can complain.

    Tom: Well you’re doing a real fine job.

    Vonda: (bursting out laughing) what do you mean? What have I complained about today? 

    Tom: I like that caveat “today.”

    Angel Stadium is definitely a better stadium than Dodger Stadium. The entrance was more impressive as well. We had similar seats and in the shade. But we forgot how the temperature drops when the sun goes down and we were freezing by the 3rd inning. The ladies behind us were complaining about it too. We’ll remember for the future and bring a jacket/sweatshirt to night games. Here’s a few pics of the stadium.

    Tomorrow promises to be a good day with a visit to Downtown Disney and a surprise destination from Tom. Our journey has ended for today. I hope your journey today was a good one.

  • Dodgers

    Dodgers

    Today was our first ballpark, Dodger Stadium. Dodgers vs Astros

    It sometimes pays to have a big truck because we were able to park near the entrance instead of the back 40. We arrived around noon and found our seats. Sadly they were in full sun and after about 20 minutes, I couldn’t take it anymore. We ended up moving to the upper deck and sitting in the shade. Interestingly one of the crossing attendants told us to go to the shade if our seats were in the sun because they were only expecting around 32,000 people. I’m pretty sure everybody else had the same idea of moving to the shade because people were coming up from the sunny seats to sit near us.

    I will say that watching baseball isn’t as much fun if you don’t care who is going to win. Dodgers lost 5-1 by the way. Out of all of our ballpark visits, only two have our favorite team of the St. Louis Cardinals. One is in Arizona and the very next game in Colorado. We received rally towels today as the team giveaway. They are nice towels but I really don’t need another towel.

    There are fun little things at each stadium and we enjoyed seeing some of the those. I love baseball and I’m looking forward to seeing all the stadiums. Dodger Stadium was opened in 1962 and can seat 56,000 people. It’s the third oldest ballpark in the Majors. They have some excellent players to be sure. Shohei Ohtani ranks right up there with the best. One player Dodgers fans do not like is Jose Altuve from the Astros. Below is a video of the reaction every time he came to bat, every single time.

    All in all it was good day. I was sad to have missed the Class A parking in one of the sites this morning. We got stuck for a few minutes leaving the campground because of it. I’m sure it was a sight to behold as the spaces are small and there are cars parked in front of the other RV’s. Parking an RV is like watching a scary movie. You never what’s going to jump out at you or what or who is going to get in the way. And for those who like to park as straight as possible, like Tom, it’s forward, backward, forward, backward, etc.

    One ballpark down, 25 to go. Next up is Angel Stadium. I’m hoping for cooler weather.

    May your journey be a good one.

  • Hollywood California

    Hollywood California

    We took off from Patterson this morning heading further south to Hollywood RV site. We’re actually in Van Nuys, not Hollywood. It’s an interesting place. We thought the worker was going to tow our RV to the site and I was prepared to video the whole thing, but alas he told Tom to do it. We are in the back 40 and crammed in to what looked like the last available site. Most, if not all of the people here are full timers. The “police officer” greeted as we entered the campground.

    Today was another day of rough roads. Even rougher than yesterday. But I changed some things up in where I put items, and nothing was moved around today. The sightseeing was non-existent except for the miles and miles of farms and the signs about water. I saw this sign at the rest area we stopped at.

    It was very dry across the landscapes as we drove down I-5. I saw many places where it looked like water once was but is not anymore. Water is life. Not just for us but the animals and plants we depend on as part of life.

    Other than the farms, water signs and rough roads we did see a sign that said “Tom McCleod slept here.” I was curious who Tom was so I looked him up and here is what it said. I can’t say for sure if it is true as there were no sources sited but it’s an interesting tale.

    “Tom McLeod, spelled variously as McCleod or McLode, (pronounced McLode) was a well-known American expatriate hunter and trapper in central California from about 1830 until his unrecorded death or departure sometime after 1855. His activity was restricted mainly to the modern Kern County area.
    Historic records during this period are scarce, but it is known that Tom had an enduring relationship with the local Yokut Indians and actually adopted some of their traditions. He was idiosyncratic, and many acquaintances remarked on his wit and intelligence. One report has McLeod being fluent in both Latin and Greek, causing some to note the possibility that he was a seminary educated man, perhaps a dropout of some sort of religious order, or perhaps even a former catholic priest. If he was indeed a priest at one point, he abandoned celibacy when he came to California, because he fathered at least one child, Tom Junior, who became a gun-for-hire throughout the Southwest until his untimely death at the hands of a jealous woman.
    In 1850, in response to increased immigration to the area brought on by the gold rush in Northern California, McLeod declared a large tract of land spanning the Kern River as the American Kern Island Republic. It was remarkable in that shortly after this declaration, after a drunken brawl with some of his local Indian friends, he unilaterally overthrew the republic and set himself up as king. There was no difficulty in his accomplishing this as he is the only known member of the republican government. Tom McLeod therefore has several distinctions in California History. His republic predates the establishment of the California Bear Flag Republic. His revolution is the only instance known in which a man founded a republic and then single handedly overthrew his own government.
    Although the American Kern Island kingdom didn’t last much longer than its predecessor, it gave McLeod even more local fame. Tom reportedly would carve his name in tables and trees whenever he travelled away from his Kern River home. At some point it became a tradition to put up signs when these original markings were ruined, buildings torn down, trees uprooted, etc. Although the most commonly known sign is along the Interstate 5 freeway, there are actually several similar signs remaining, as well as a popular tavern near the site of Tom’s “palace” on the Kern River. Currently, the local electric utility has a small section of one of their facilities dedicated to the memory of Tom and of his son, Tom Junior.” author unknown

    I thought you might want to see a picture of the babies (our cats). They don’t much care for traveling in the truck but sure do like to sleep on our bed once the travel day is over. I know they are stressed and we are trying to take steps to minimize that, but it’s hard on them. Helen is the one staring at me, Penny is the other one on the bed, and their mother Samantha is in the cat tree.

    Our journey is over for today. Blessing to you, wherever your journey takes you.

  • Travel Day

    Travel Day

    Today was a travel day. I’m not fond of travel days. They are sometimes long, can be hot, and boring. We are in Patterson, California tonight. We traveled 260 miles today. It was not a particularly long day, and we had 0 issues along the route. I spent most of my day either reading “A Historical Tour of Walt Disney World” or watching the farms go by. There were miles upon miles of olives, corn, and what looked like peppers. I am amazed at the precision of the planting and how precisely the trees and corn were planted. It was quite mesmerizing.

    Today as we celebrate our Independence Day, I am reminded of the varied landscapes of this country. Beauty can be find in every landscape. It might be harder to find in some but there is beauty out there to be discovered.

    This campground was a change from our original location and it is fairly nice. It appears a lot of people store their RV’s here as there are more than a few with the slides in and no vehicles around. The sites are close together but Tom said it’s too hot to sit outside anyway.

    I did make the mistake of having Tom take out the barrier between the front and back seats. I thought the cats would like it better. Oh, they did! Penny and Samantha spent most of the day going back and forth trying to get in Tom’s lap or at his feet. Samantha finally gave up and decided my floorboard would just have to do. I’m the spare human in this family since Tom is the cat whisperer. We may have to put it back.

    Upon arrival I always start the auto level of the RV and get the slides out. There were rough roads today and when I checked on the fridge, I noticed the two drawer rolling cabinet had tipped. So, I got that mostly set back up before putting the slides out. When I was finished I found a broken piece of trim. It appears it caught on something and got yanked off. It’s not a big deal but will need to be fixed as I can see the outside.

    But as travel days go, this one was uneventful. Blessings to you and your journeys today.

  • National Parks

    I love National Parks, all National Parks. In the US we have 63 National Parks, including more than 400 designated national sites. I’ve been to many, not all, and I’ll probably never make it to all of them. But that’s a bucket list item for me. Today we had a day without traveling, so we could take advantage of visiting Lassen Volcanic National Park. I have wanted to go there since one of my friends posted about visiting there on Facebook. I can’t for the life of me remember who it was.

    Lassen did not disappoint. The beauty of Helen Lake, the smell of Sulfur Works, the chaos of Chaos Crags and Chaos Jumbles, the list goes on. We reached 8,511 feet, the highest point on the road. There were lots of places still with snow. We would have liked to have hiked to Bumpass Hell but the trail was closed due to many feet of snow. The good news was that at Sulfur Works the water was still present so we were able to see the bubbling of the hydrothermal activity.

    Scott Borchetta has been attributed as saying, “Every day is an adventure, and no two days are alike.” I hope your adventures bring you more joy than you can imagine.

    The Will to Survive
    The sky is amazing!
    Sulfur Works
    Glacial Erratic
    A boulder out of context
    Lake Helen
    Hikers headed up the trail through the snow
    Lassen Peak
    Gray and red dacite, black dacite, light dacite pumice, banded pumice
  • A whole bunch of lemons

    A whole bunch of lemons

    What’s the saying? “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” I’m not a big fan of lemons or lemonade for that matter. But the fun just keeps coming. Although, I’m not so sure it’s really all that fun.

    Tom is sitting here talking to me about our campsite for Saturday and the strange requirements. There are things like no potted plants, no coolers unless in good condition, etc. I asked him how long are we there. He said one night. My mind immediately went to the fact that we have Dodgers tickets Sunday afternoon. I briefly thought it was a night game, but no one ever plays a night game on Sunday. Well maybe they do, but not often. The gist is we wouldn’t make it to a day game by staying at the planned location. So, plans were examined, plans were canceled, plans were added. Plans, plans, plans.

    It felt like someone threw a whole bunch of lemons at me, already cut and filled with lemon juice, ready to sting every open wound I had. But, here we are, living our best lives on the road. Are we though? That remains to be seen, three days in. There hasn’t been a day yet without something going wrong. I know, I know, it’s only three days. But if we keep this up, we’ll never make it to the end. Well I’m going to go and make orange juice. Forget those lemons!

    I’m also going to start chanting “be flexible, be flexible” over and over.

    I’m just glad it wasn’t my mistake!!

  • July 1

    July 1

    My dad used to say that trouble finds me wherever I go. He may have been right. July 1, our first day of a new adventure. We’ve been experiencing interrupted sleep because of a 1000 Bike Motorcycle Rally at our previous RV Park. Thankfully they were gone by June 30 and we had a good night of rest, mostly. There was still the trains to deal with. We, like always, started later than planned. There was a lot to get put away and checks on just about everything had to be conducted.

    After all that, we put all three cats in the truck. I should tell you their names since I’ve no doubt you’ll be hearing a lot about them in the days to come. They are Samantha, a stray that Tom brought in, who also happened to be pregnant. Her daughters are Penny and Helen. So, cats are in and Tom is hooking up to the 5th wheel. Except he’s talking to me through the window and gets out. He leaves the window slightly down and I look over a few minutes later and there goes Samantha, escape artist extraordinaire. We spent the next ten minutes chasing her around the campsite and the adjoining site before finally catching her under the pine trees.

    Now, that everyone is where they are supposed to be, let’s move on down the road. 15 miles into our 376 mile journey we started getting alarms on the Tire Minder. This fancy little gadget monitors the tires on our truck and 5th wheel. They were slowly increasing in tire pressure. Tom called T&T Tire in Kelso and they wanted us to come by but we were already past them and so we carried on. The tire pressure increased on and off throughout the day, but no problems with tires. They are all brand new, so I would hope not.

    While traveling down I-5 near Wilsonville, Oregon a car passed us with the woman passenger making the motion of revving a motorcycle. Tom said, “She’s doing this (making that motion).” I said, “that’s a motorcycle.” He asked, “Should we stop?” I said, “yes, we should stop.” We pulled over and discovered the Vespa was half hanging off of the Versahaul. The strap had gotten loose. We got it back on the hauler and while doing so a woman stopped to see if we needed help. I thanked her but told her no, we had it under control. I’m thinking we didn’t actually have anything under control.

    We carried on down the highway and stopped for fuel in Eugene. I didn’t think to check the refrigerator but at the next rest area we stopped to take a look. It was not the best rest area and we had to park on the side of the road. I scraped my arm getting the stairs down but not too bad. I discovered the refrigerator was not working properly so got that fixed. But, Tom discovered the strap had broken on the Vespa. So, we definitely didn’t have it under control. He had another strap, made some changes to the way he put it on and off we went again.

    We stopped at one more rest area about an hour from our campground to check the Vespa and all was well. Hallelujah!!!

    We turned off I-5 to head to Blue Heron RV Resort. It is about 6 miles off the highway and the roads leave much to be desired. There were signs every few miles letting us know there was road construction. I didn’t see any construction, only deconstruction of the road. It was slow going as they were rough roads. We discovered upon arrival that the campground was built by a man with a Class A motorhome and so all the sites are straight in. Meaning, you have pull in, unhook and then back your vehicle out. There were very few Class A’s there. It is quirky but quite beautiful, as it sits along the Klamath River. The Camp Host was very friendly and eager to help.

    Day One is in the books and we survived. I can’t ask for much more than that today. Blessings to you on your journey today.

  • The Adventure Begins

    The Adventure Begins

    July 1st we begin our adventure of visiting 26 of the 30 MLB parks. There will be other stops along the way and I’m sure interesting adventures as we go. There’s some national parks on the agenda, Washington D.C., visiting family and knowing us trouble, good trouble. Visit this site often to see what we’re up to.