April 6th to 9th - Hemet to Buellton

April 6th - Sun - Hemet
Spent some time this morning looking up RV parks on a possible route north. We are heading north a little too early again, especially if we hit higher elevations. Not only might we run into cooler weather but a lot of the attractions and even parks are not open this early in the year. We paid for a week of internet access when we arrived so just as we were ready to leave and get some breakfast, our internet connection was dropped.
Barry & Yvonne continued being excellent tour guides and transportation today. We went to Diamond Valley Lake which is a man-made lake specifically for the purpose of storing water for domestic use by Southern California cities. Water is pumped in from the Colorado River and then gravity fed to cities as needed. A natural bowl in the hills was dammed in low spots and excavated to deepen it and then filled with water. No body contact is allowed in the lake. You can boat, fish, canoe & kayak but do not touch the water.
In the process of excavating, many fossils were uncovered so paleontologists and archeologists worked long hours to fully uncover, catalog and transport the hundreds of fossils and artifacts that were exposed by huge, earth moving equipment. We went to a museum that contains these fossils and has a couple of films documenting prehistoric life in the area and the fossil recovery process during the building of the lake. It is all very impressive and interesting.
Barry made his “family famous” lasagna for us for dinner and Yvonne again offered the use of her washer & dryer which I gladly took her up on. Another lovely day & evening!

April 7th - Mon - Hemet/Riverside
Our turn to make dinner tonight so we got out early to purchase ingredients. No baby backs at Smart & Final so we switched the menu to pork tenderloin. I put together Kathy’s (sister-in-law) potatoes, prepped salad & meat, made breakfast, vacuumed, washed the kitchen floor and gave Terry a haircut before Barry & Yvonne picked us up at noon for yet another outing.
Today they took us to nearby Riverside where they had lived for 30 years. We went to the Old Mission Inn in downtown Riverside. It is an historic, huge inn that is beautiful. We were lucky and got into the chapel and rotunda which are not normally open. We even peeked into a room being cleaned as it is still used as a hotel. They drove us through many different housing areas, through a large park, past golf courses amd down lovely streets lined with palm trees. There were flowers blooming everywhere.
Barry & Yvonne dropped us off and went home to look after their dog Kirby. We had time for Terry to get diesel & propane and for me to get dinner under way before they came back. We then looked at Mexico pictures and watched “Dancing with the Stars”.
Terry has come down with a cold today and is sniffing like crazy. Wonder how many Contac D he can take so I can sleep??

April 8th - Tues - Hemet
I got out my new sewing machine this morning and finished shortening 3 tee shirts. I had also purchased material for “baby back rib napkins” so I cut out 6, hemmed 2 and quit when the thread snarled on the third.
Terry was not feeling too well but we had a golf date with Barry & Yvonne so I made a late breakfast, we checked email at the park library and we went golfing.
It was cool today. Mostly cloudy but it was the wind that made it feel cold. The golf course was nice and very reasonable - $14 per person including a cart for super twilight which is after 1:00 pm. Terry & I did not play well. At least Terry had an excuse with a runny nose and watering eyes. I blamed my showing on the cold! Yvonne did not play as she has a sore back and was hurting after our game on Friday. She figured she better not irritate it any more.
We all went to a Chinese restaurant for a buffet dinner before parting with hugs all around. We won’t see them for a quite a while if our current travel plans actually happen.

April 9th - Wed - Hemet to Buellton
Barry & Yvonne helped us with the best roads to take today and we got to Buellton (north of Santa Barbara) at about 1:30. There are miles and miles of orange groves on the way and hundreds of acres of yellow flowers on many hillsides. Beautiful!
Terry went to get an RV site and I joined him as he was recovering from the price. The site is $52 plus tax for a total of $57! It is the only RV park in the area and we are staying here so we can go to the “Danish” town of Solvang. The Trailer Life RV park book showed prices a couple of years ago at $28 to $40 so we were shocked with the price. Then we drove into our spot and were even more unimpressed. It is not large enough to park the truck entirely off the road. We have to park towards the back so our slide clears the utility box. The site is a “hill” so we can’t put down our rear stabilizers as we don’t have enough blocks or boards to reach the ground. We didn’t even try to use the front stabilizer since we had to drop the front end so much. Oh well, it is just one night.
We left for Solvang in a hurry as stores close early. I grabbed an address in Wanda (GPS) and we went about 12 miles instead of 3 to get there! Just not our day. We wandered around the town for a while and tried the trademark abelskivers which are round pancake/dumpling things served with raspberry jam and powdered sugar. Quite good.
Terry is still feeling kind of puny so he rested while I spent time on the computer & internet.