Tag Archives: California

Calico

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I used to get all the rally information from the Airforums and their calendar.  However things have changed a bit.  Many more rallies are being announced and coordinated on Facebook.  There are two primary groups that we follow, Southern California Airstreamers and Northern California Airstreamers.  This rally was announced there.

It turned out to be a small rally and a good one for us due to its’ proximity to home.  As an added benefit, our friends the Chen’s were able to make it also!  It had been a while since we could camp with them and this time they had no kids with them.  I am sure they missed kids but just a little…

We started out the trip with a present from our daughter:

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Appropriate for Roxie as she loves the mountains.  Me, I just pretty much love anywhere with the trailer.

We got there Thursday and were able to relax a bit.  There were a few of the other Airstreamers there and the Chen’s were coming in a bit later on Thursday also.  There were only about 12 Airstreams signed up for the rally and about 5-6 were there already.  We visited a bit with them (George got a selfie-stick):

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We all walked around the Calico Ghost Town on Friday.  One of the benefits of staying at this campground is admission to the Ghost Town is included.  Roxie and I had been there before but we were both very young, single digits young.  But some jokes never get old (Roxie fell for this one):

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Actually I fell for it also when I was young.

After the Calico walk we decided to go into Barstow to get some things and lunch.  We ended up at some hole-in-the-wall Salvadorean restaurant, Cafe Las Pupusas.  It was down in a residential area but very good.  We got some fuel, propane, hit up the Walmart and went to the Outlet malls there.  Later that evening we ended up eating at Peggy Sue’s Diner, fun and nostalgic.

Saturday was the day to go shooting.  We went out in some back roads to find a secluded spot.  There were numerous others shooting also but we did find a spot:

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I also have some videos of Roxie and I shooting:

That evening was the normal Airstream pot luck.  It was also a surprise baby shower for Cara and John.  It was always nice to see the other ‘Streamers.

Sunday was the getaway day for most but not us.  We were there until Monday.  The Chen’s were going to leave on Sunday but since they lived so close they stayed around for a bit and we visited the Calico Cemetery:

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Here is a shot of the Airstreams there:

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Then us and the Chen’s:

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On Monday, another rally was over and we headed home.  Here is a shot of Franco’s trailer with the Calico mountain at sunset:

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City of Burbank strikes out!

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In late August we were watching TV (we get the L.A. channels) and there was an advertisement about an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls showing at the California Science Center. Roxie mentioned she would love to see them. However there was only a few weeks left to see them. I got in gear at got some tickets and was able to obtain them for a showing only 4 days before they ended. Now to find a place to stay with the trailer in the L.A. area.

In the years that I have been following the Aluminarium blog they have mentioned a program through the City of Burbank called a Large Non-Commercial Vehicle Permit (LNCV) which ostensibly allows people to park RV’s, and other vehicles, on the city streets for 3 nights. We thought that would work well as we were just going down to see the scrolls.  I checked out Aluminarium’s posts to see where they stayed and had it all planned out.

I used Google StreetView to look at these areas and was concerned about a sign I saw.  It stated no parking during the day.  I wondered if that was OK if you had this permit.  I contacted the City of Burbank.  Through a flurry of emails and calls with city employees including the police department I found you cannot use this permit if you have any intention of disconnecting your tow vehicle.  That would not work for us on this trip.  I feel the guidelines that are put forth by the City of Burbank are unclear.  They even used to have a horse trailer on their PDF that discussed the LNCV.  Now they just have an image of a Class C motorhome.

Now what?  We had stayed in Van Nuys previously and it was pretty good.  Luckily I was talking to a fellow camper a few weeks earlier at Princess campground.  He mentioned a campground in San Dimas.  The East Shore RV Park.  It is part of the Frank G Bonelli regional park.  They had some spots available but since the next weekend was the start of the L.A. County fair we had to leave on Friday due to reservations.  That was fine with us.  We went down on Wed and stayed two nights.

The campground is very nice.  We got the loop that was on top of a hill and had a very good view of the lake and north of the park:

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Our site was pretty level side to side but front to back was difficult.  There are also some permanent to semi-permanent residents there that can make it seem a bit seedy.  Just stay away from those areas.

We were able to have dinner with our friends, the Chen’s, one night so that was an added benefit!

The Dead Sea Scroll exhibit was at the California Science Center in downtown L.A. which is 39 miles away from our campsite.  It took us 1 1/2 hours to drive that distance!  We were told that that was actually pretty good.  It definitely is not something we are used to.

Part of the tickets we purchased included an IMAX showing of a movie about Jerusalem.  It was a great movie made even more dramatic on a 7 story high screen.  After the movie we went to wait in line for our appointed time to see the exhibition.  There were many different period exhibits that were extremely ancient and they tied each one into the timeline of the artifacts.  Near the end of it all they have the scrolls, or portions of them.

In the center of the scroll snippets was an actual jar that was discovered.  Photography was not allowed, I suppose due to flash issues, but I got some secret shots.  My iPhone 6 plus sticks out of my pocket enough to expose the lens.  So how to actually take the picture?  My Apple Watch has a remote camera trigger capability where I can make the phone take pictures.  You will see the results here.

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One of the jars.  You can see the visitors looking down at the scroll pieces.  The pieces were very hard to see as they were not very lit or very big.  There were, however, enlarged versions, translations and interpretations next to them.

They also had a piece of the wailing wall on display:

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The pieces of paper on the top are prayers that visitor have placed there and will be taken to the wailing wall in Jerusalem.  Roxie really liked this part:

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Another benefit of the admission is that we could go in and see the Space Shuttle!

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That was something I didn’t expect to see.  However the exhibit that seemed to be the most popular was:

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Yes!  The space potty!

It was a quick trip down and back but well worth it to see the scrolls.