May 10_Happy Mother's Day to All

Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there.

For me it was a great day to go on a 4 mile hike. I went back to the Magnolia Trail Head. The trail head is less then 4 miles from our location, which makes it a good day hike area.

Slide Show of the Hiking Trail

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Get your own

Sit back and enjoy “Rafting Down the River Video”.

Safe Travels & Journeys

from DaGirls         "Della                     &                Tilly"

May 3rd - Ponderosa CG - Thousand Trails

Reflections

What a day, week or what? Being without internet makes you loose time, energy and space. We arrived we setup and we visited many places in and around the area. One place being Yosemite national park. We did the tourist thing travel around and checked out the sites. We visited the area near El Capitan where we capture some great shots of the wall face.
Among others places we visited O'Shaughnessy Dam.

O'Shaughnessy Dam is a 430-foot (131 m) high concrete arch-gravity dam in Tuolumne County, California, in the United States. It impounds the Tuolumne River at the lower end of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, about 160 miles (260 km) east of San Francisco.^[6] The dam and reservoir are the source for the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, which provides water for over 2 million people in San Francisco and other municipalities of the west Bay Area. The dam is named for engineer Michael O'Shaughnessy, who oversaw its construction.<sup>[7]

In case you would like additional information just click on the Press this Link.  This link will take you directly to http://en.wikipedia.org/.

Anyway, we spent some time checking out the dam and why the dam was created.

Additional Photos of the dam and surrounding area and drive.

LINK PRESS HERE

During our time in Yosemite national park we visited many a place including, I am sure everyone has heard, of El Capitan. A granite face wall scourging high into the sky. Where many would-be climbers are waiting to be discover and famous.</sup>

Once done visiting Yosemite, off we went in search of the famous Carlon falls. This is an easy to moderate hike of 1.6 miles 1 way. Susan and I capture a few wonderful shots of the trail and falls.

^{The last place we/I hike, was to a  dam located near the camp ground. This was an easy hike hike of 1.4 miles. Half of which was waking from our rig to the entrance and then back the same way, but on the opposite side of the river.}

May 3rd Leaving Day

^{We awoke early Sunday morning, with our expectation in leaving early. This way we would beat the traffic down CA Hwy 120, where there is 5 miles of switch-backs at a 6% decline. Once we started down, it was in 2nd gear, exhaust brake on and keeping the speed less then 25 MPH. All in all it was much easier then going up. Once I did it, and remember it made it all the easier. I manage to catch it all on our dash-cam.}

<sup>Once down and on CA Hwy 49, it was off to Lotus, CA. Ponderosa Campground outside of Lotus, CA. This was a drive of 80 miles. However it was a slow go on the highway.

Along the way we came into a town known for Mark Twain's – Calaveras Country Frog Jumping.</sup> 

Mark Twain Cabin (No. 138 California Historical Landmark)

Photo © Noehill.com

At the top of Jackass Hill, west of Tuttletown, sits a replica of the cabin where Mark Twain spent the winter of 1864-1865. He was a guest of the Gillis brothers, local miners, who lived in the cabin. The original cabin burned and the fireplace and chimney were built in the replica here.

During his stay at Jackass Hill, Twain and his friend Steve Gillis visited a saloon in Angels Camp and heard a story about a jumping frog. Twain returned to the cabin and wrote about “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” The book launched Twain’s publishing career. He and the jumping frog would later be recognized throughout the world. He also gathered material here for his book “Roughing it.” Twain would go on to write another 26 books, including “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” before he died in April 1910.

^{Folks, be aware of where you are traveling and the towns you are going thru. This is a neat little town. Down to the artwork on the street.}

^{Ok, I think I have got everyone caught up as to what we have been doing, where we were and what we have seen. Ok, I may have left out a few items, and maybe I will get caught up about those places a little later.}

Safe Travels & Journeys

from DaGirls         "Della                     &                Tilly"

Final day of the year

​Dec 27^th – Meeting New RV friends

​​Vista Del Mar

Vista Del Mar is a development that never took off. Their sign reads RV camp ground, but the first time we drove in we did not locate one. As we were driving by on Friday we noticed an RV parked off in the distance. So we stopped by, located the office and learned about the RV sites located in back. Cost is $25/day, we were told that the cost is lower for a week or longer. These are full hook up with 30/50amp service. Sites can handle even a 45 ft rig. The only downside is unless you have the Church's Mexican Camping book, you would not know about it. They provide on-site security along with hot tub (open) and a pool which is closed in the winter.. We have learned that their busy season is during the summer as many Mexican's travel to SF for the beach.

It was there we meet Pat and Rick who have been traveling for over since last Spring from Florida. Their travels have taken them to as far away as Alaska and now they are heading down to Cabo San Lucas. We wish them well along with "Safe Travels and Journeys from DaGirls".

Dec 28^th – Dinner in San Felipe

Rice & Beans

Sunday was a day of rest, as we spent the time walking Della and Tilly in the area. We will be winding  down our activities here, as this is our last few days in SF. We spent the time looking over what needs to be done and checking out route north. Later in the day we drove into SF to have a final dinner with Markus and Anita. We started with drinks at the TacoFactory and then walked down to the Rice & Beans restaurant for dinner. Lately I have been a little lax in photo collecting.

Dec 30^th – Final Beach Day

Kilometer 26

We are packing up DaGirls and heading for a last day at the beach. We will be meeting Terry and Karla at the Pemex station and follow them to KM 26 south of SF. We have been told this is a lovey beach and with today being the best day of the week, Highs in the 60's it should be a fun day in the sun.

Once we arrived at the turn off Terry made sure I ha​d​ reduce my tire pressure. This tim​e I ​had reduced it to 20 psi. Needless to say, the tire monitor was not happy, but it learned to deal with the lower pressure.

By the way, I am now using an old Magellan Hand Held GPS. This is allowing me to  download and upload to Google Earth

​
This is something I may add to the Blog. I hope I can also upload the KMZ file so everyone can download it. 

Once at the beach Karla and Susan went shelling while Della was trying to figure out which way to go. After a gentle discussion she came back to me.

We spent a few hours and then had lunch. Once we were done we drove down the beach. Once up to speed the jeep did pretty good, that is until I stopped. It wasn't much of a problem except for the high RPM's and moving very slowing. So with that we decided that lowering the pressure to 15 psi should help. With a gentle push from Terry and Karla off we went. Once we were off the beach and airing up my tires we discussed that going to 10psi would have been better and definitely made driving easier on the sand.. Let's face it, I had the biggest tires for the rims I had. I only needed to buy new rims to get a wider tire. _ NO WAY – At least not at this time.

Anyway the beach along with Terry and Karla made for a very enjoyable day which we will treasure.

One more item, did I mention our neighbors, Micky and Viva? We had no sooner gotten back and were getting kitchen cleaned up and feeding the girls, than there was a knock at the door. Viva came over and told us we were invited to their house for happy hour. She said we had left early before she could invite us.  Now being tired we told each other only 5 minutes. Well 1 and a half hour later we finally got home.

Dec 31^st – Preparations

Preparation Day

Carlos arrived today to wash/wax DaGirls Rv. They started around 9 am and finished up around 2ish.  During this time we met another Alfa couple, name of Terri and Jaz Millar from southern Cal. Within the last 2 years they have sold the business and placed their house up for sale. Like Noble's, they too own property here in EDR.

If you decide to come to San Felipe, knowing people like the Millar's, Noble's, Micky and Viva definitely will make coming here much more enjoyable, even if you do not live on the beach.

One last trip to see Markus and Anita at Kiki's. Where we were also introduce to Hans and Carol a German couple that Markus and Anita met last year in FL and who just arrived in San Felipe. They have spent the last 2 years in their Heavy Duty Off road Rv. Now this rig can definitely go-anywhere. Rigs like theirs are very common in Europe. Sorry no photos didn't get the camera ready in time.

So the plan is make DaGirls Rv ready to leave tomorrow morning and head north. That means clean-up and put away all items no longer needed. Install the luggage tray onto the Jeep and air up the tires. This will be the last blog for this year. So

Happy New Year, Safe Travels and Journeys from DaGirls and us

Another Beautiful Day

Another beautiful day here in Custer St Pk. We met Dean and Nica up at Sylvan Lake where we floated on the water in our kayaks. Not very big lake but a wonderful place to enjoy company of Alfa owners.

We had many things to discuss and enjoyed each other’s company. After the lake we had lunch up at the Lodge, where each couple split a salad and burger. We enjoyed the food and company.

 Dean always finds a way to relax:

And while Dean was relaxing, Susan and Nica were enjoying each other's company.

Afterwards Susan and I enjoyed another road trip, down and around Wind Cave NP, where we spied our favorite subject:

However, on Friday, we were back to work. A very rough day, we had 3 cabins to clean. After the cabins we went into Rapid to collect the final stuff for our flooring project. Photos to come later.

It also seems we missed out on the special events at Mt. Rushmore on the 3^rd. Swearing in of new citizens along with presidential enactors and special tributes to our military personnel. A day late and dollar short. 

Otherwise I will leave you with a video of our favorite subject: 

 Safe Travels and Journeys

From DaGirls, Susan, Della, Tilly and me.