Graboids!

As so many of you know.

Wait. Let's be honest here. As just the couple of you readers know, when we went out west this year, we were going to be Graboid hunting. Let's face it. Sasquatch's don't live in the desert. So Graboids became our focus.

Many times out in Quartzsite we had seen Graboid sign. The far off distant dust cloud.

As much as we chased it around the desert, we would never get close enough for the ultimate proof.

We left Anaheim, California and heading northeast into the deserts of California. It doesn't take many miles of driving out of the city to reach unpopulated desert. Perfect habitat for Graboids. We found a spot in the desert at the foothills of the Sierra Mountains to set up a base camp.

Once camp was set up, we looked around at our surroundings and we could not believe how breathtaking it was. We had the Sierra's to our right and the Cottonwood Range to our left. The Graboids could move through the valley floor easily, trapped by the mountains.

Those that may not know, A Graboid is an underground monster that senses vibrations through the ground. When it senses prey it shoots out of the ground and eats you.

We went to town to explore the sightings when all of a sudden a Graboid shoots through the floor of the building we were in and almost got me.

Luckily for me I am like a Ninja. Super fast and cat like. I escaped to bring you this tail. The end.

Lone Pine, California. I have never heard of the place before but that is where we were at. A beautiful place at the foot of the Sierra's and very close to Death Valley. Steve C. and Earl had mentioned this place to us and said how nice it was. The Alabama Hills are here and this area was used in the filming of hundreds of movies, westerns and TV shows. Steve also said that they had a Graboid in the museum, hence our purpose.

Walking through the museum was amazing. The rich film history here. My hero's as a child growing up walked these hills, rode their horses around here and of course shot the bad guys. Hero's like Clint Eastwood, John Wayne and Burt Gummer. Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, Audie Murphy, Tom Mix and "Fatty" Arbuckle. If you were a cowboy star in the 30' to 70's, chances are you were in Lone Pine at one time or another.

Sadly the western movies kind of faded away. Lone Pine still sees some action from Science Fiction movies. Such as Star Trek and my favorite, Tremors. Jeep has filmed many commercials here because of the rugged landscape. Ironically the last two movies filmed here were westerns. Django and The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp.

In the movie Tremors, They filmed the pole vaulting scene in this area. It is in the Alabama Hills. The rocks in the foreground and the snow capped mountains in the background made for great scenery for many, many movies.

We had planned on staying in this area for a couple of days, but the weather was going to change on us once again. The winds were going to be fierce on our travel day, so we packed up early and hit the road vowing to come back again someday.

"Tango, I'm tired of the hot dusty desert. Take me someplace lush and green."

The Happiest Place on Earth

Feb. 3rd to Feb. 6th.

We said our goodbyes the day before so that we could leave Quartzsite, Arizona early Monday morning. The winds blew all night and they were going to be strong on our travel day. The weather people were correct.

There was a lot of dust in the air. We quickly headed to the dump station and dumped and filled, just in case we were not going to make it to our final destination. The wind was supposed to be strong nearly all day. I grabbed the wheel with two hands and just hung on for the ride. Luckily for me it wasn't that  bad. Sure, there was a lot of dust blowing around. It felt like being in a fog. We have seen it blow so hard that it became zero visibility as if you were in a blizzard.

That was the first fun part of our drive. The second fun part was going to be L.A. traffic. L. A. TRAFFIC! You say. Yes, we say, because that is where Disneyland is. My little sweetheart has never been there and I wanted to have her see it before she dies. The traffic didn't kill her so she lives for now. Actually the traffic wasn't that bad. Very tolerable. California has a law that says if you are pulling a trailer, your speed limit is 55. Not 70, like everyone else. So we just slowed down and got in the right lane and let everyone else just zoom around us. There were a couple of times I thought we were going to lose our front bumper as people would weave in and out, coming to within feet of our front end. I didn't panic. Lisa took it very well. She may be up for Houston or Atlanta in the near future. We will have to see.

We found our campground. Anaheim Harbor RV Park. We picked this one only for its location. It is .8 miles from the entrance to Disney. Easy walking distance. That is what all of the death marches in Quartzsite were building me up for. I know that now.

Our campsite is next to the very busy 6 lane Harbor Blvd. It sounds like a race track all day long. It is a good thing we are hardly in the RV all day.

We got in around noon. We ate lunch and then walked over to get our tickets in advance so that we wouldn't have to waste time on Tuesday, our first big day there. That taken care of we walked into Downtown Disney. That's where they have all kinds of stores and restaurants to enjoy. We got our first taste of Disney and then we walked back to the RV park. Anxious for the next day.

This trip was going to be nostalgic for me. I think the last time I was here was when I was a wee little lass of ten years old. This would be the first time for Lisa. As an added bonus in the nostalgic category, there was a Shakey's Pizza parlour right next door to the campground. We ate there for dinner and the pizza was just as good as I remember.

In fact it was so good we ate there again on our last night. As a kid we went to Shakey's for birthday's and such. Fargo had one until it changed hands and then the building eventually burned down. Sad face as I write that.

Our first full day we decided to go to California Adventures. It is a Disney park right next door to Disneyland. Neither one of us have been there. We were giddy as school kids so we got up early and headed over there.

Pixar Pier.

It was fun to see new attractions. It was a smaller park and we got around it twice. We saw everything we could. The Cars area was really neat. It was just like being in Radiator Springs.

The Cozy Cone Motel.

The Cars Ride.

The Cars land at dusk. They light up the neon.

It was the Chinese New Year which happened to be the year of the mouse. There was a small parade for this guy.

They have a launch coaster there called the Incredicoaster. That was our first ride. Boy was that a mistake. That ruined it for Lisa for the day to do any thrill rides again. We got off of that and I looked over and she was swallowing hard.Way to take one for the team.

We walked and walked, taking in all of the sights. The lines for the rides were not that bad either. Having been to Disney World in Orlando many times, we were used to wait times of 40-60 minutes. Here they were 20-30 minutes. We had a full day our first day so we trudged back to the RV park, exhausted but happy.

The next morning we got up and headed over to the Disneyland.

There were so many people just in line to get through the bag check and into the park. That took about 20 minutes. Then we got in line to get through the ticket turnstiles to get into the park. That took another 15 minutes. We finally made it in. Main Street was packed.

There are a lot of similarities between the parks and also many differences. The main thing is the size of the castle.

It is not as majestic as Disney Worlds.

We rode many familiar rides and some of the ones that Orlando doesn't have. We loved it. We were so happy to be able to do that.

The ride I remember the most from my childhood was the bobsleds at the Matterhorn. We were able to get on that early and it was fun. However I don't remember it being that bumpy and I thought the bobsleds went all the way to the top. Oh, well. It was still fun.

Something new here was the Star Wars area. It was huge and done very well. You almost feel like you are a Jedi fighting the Republic.

You can build your own lightsaber for the low, low price of 200 dollars. I was going to get one but Lisa advised against it. I guess she couldn't picture me running through our woods at night with my lightsaber in hand. But I can imagine it. Maybe next time.

One of the other rides I remember as a child was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. They still have the subs running but now it is a Nemo ride.

It was another long day of walking and walking.

Our second day at the Disneyland was more of the same. We walked around and rode some of the rides we wanted to ride again. We wanted to make sure we got stuff for the kids and grandkids. Halfway through the day we decided to call it quits.

It was really worth it for us to see it. We loved it. Now our next big worry was going to be getting out of the L.A. traffic.

"Glady's! Pack your Mickey Mouse ears up, we are hitting the road. I have heard of a Graboid sighting not far from here."

Pictures!

With our poor internet in Quartzsite, I couldn't post as many pictures as I wanted to in the blogs. So going through my phone and the camera I found some I just wanted to put in here of our two months in Q. None of these are in any particular order.

Christmas day fire. Jim, me, Barb, Earl, Cec, Jim, Steve and Dianne.

Looking out from the top of Guadalupe Mountain.

Mountains near Lazeruth Tank.

Petroglyphs near Dripping Springs.

Jim wanted his picture with a real live elk. Don't anyone tell him.

Guy, Barb and Steve. I think Barb is going "blah, blah, blah."

Sun over a ruin.

Looking up from the inside of the M, S, and T tower.

Ruins near Planet Ranch.

                                 

Outside of the M, S, and T tower.

Lisa, Steve M, Steve C, Guy, Sue and Deb in the distance.

Lisa on a pile of white stuff in the KOFA.

Barb, Jim, Me and Lisa waiting for our shrimp tacos in Los Algodones, Mexico.

Rock above Skull Rock.

Lisa bottom shelf shopping.

Lisa enjoying one of the few rides she went on.

Surprise visit from Steve and Joan.

Dianne, Vicki, Harry Baby, Jim, Barb, Steve and Lisa's legs having a beer and wine tasting.

Giant Tarantula in the desert.

Sunset in the desert.

Earl, Steve, Dianne and Lisa at Beer Bellies.

Steve M, Guy, Sue and Lisa under the big rock.

Desert Circle.

Another sunset.

Skull Rock.

Trail on a quad ride.

Panties at the Apache cabin.

Desert Mountains.

My sweety in awe of the desert.

This is us on a dusty quad ride.

At the North Star Mine in the KOFA.

Another beer and wine tasting.

Our dusty little Ranger after 2 months of trail riding.

Dust storm.

Another desert view.

As I went through all of the photos, there were so many more. I could have gone on and on but I just didn't want to bore you anymore.

Rumor has it that we have left Quartzsite. I can neither confirm nor deny that. It's called plausible deniability.