Exploring the San Diego Maritime Museum

Odometer  67774 mi
Sunday 11/3/2019

San Diego, CA


I like all things sea going, so it was natural for me to want to go to the San Diego Maritime Museum.

Before we could get started however, I accidentally tipped over a water bottle and spilled on the keyboard of the laptop.  I am usually very guarded about liquids around the electronics, but got careless and it happened.   A few days ago I had been researching how to remove the battery in this Acer laptop to do a hard reset.  Turns out to physically remove the battery you have to take out something like 17 tiny screws and unsnap the back with a spudger.  Yep, I had to look that one up- a spudger is a tool that looks like a chop stick with a chisel point, used to pry things apart without damage or electrical shorting.  That time I also found out that this laptop has a pin hole on the back that allows one to disconnect the battery momentarily by pushing a paperclip into the hole- so that's what I did.  This time it was a lot more urgent- I quickly dried the spill, and of course I was not prepared to be getting the battery out.  After propping the laptop in a configuration I thought best for water to flow if any got in, I started removing screws, made my own spudger, and popped the back off.  I was relieved to see that no visible water had gotten in to anywhere I could see.  I left the laptop open and air dried it for a day before reassembly and I think I've gotten very lucky- I hope so anyway.

While the laptop recuperated, Joan and I took off for the Maritime Museum.  By now it was late morning and we figured on catching a lunch on the go.  Joan had researched parking and the best parking would be the County parking garage adjacent to the museum.  The only bit of information we did not have, was that the garage is under the grassy Waterfront Park.  We were searching for a mid- rise parking structure and not finding one, we finally parked at a surface lot costing $20 for 4 hours.  Now for some country rubes like us, that caused us to pause for a while.  Finally we resigned ourselves to it and I set my iPhone timer for 4 hours and we strode off.  Our plan was to head straight down hill to the water front and then north or south , whichever took us to the museum.

Red Arrow shows where we found parking

Well... the streets don't go through past the RR tracks on California Street so not consulting our google maps (and look like rubes you know) we marched north to Grape St where we could get to the park and then south what seemed like four city blocks to get to the museum.

Tall Ships  foreground HMS Surprise, background Star of India

Wow, was this worth the trip!  This collection is awesome.  The Star of India is the oldest active merchant sailing ship in the world, built in 1863.  The HMS Surprise, under my feet, is a replica of an 18th century Royal Navy Frigate.

Soviet B-39 Attack Submarine

Moored directly behind the Surprise is a B-39 Soviet Navy attack submarine of the type and style used in the Cuban missile crisis.

This one's in bad shape, the outer hull is rusted through in several areas, and a protective coating of some kind has been applied to her

Joan checks out the B-39 Foxtrot class Soviet Sub

The Soviets had a different idea on watertight bulkheads than our submarine builders of the same era.  All most all their watertight hatches were round rather than oval.  Us old folks had a tough time getting through them (It wasn't graceful at all)

Soviet  B-39 watertight hatch

The USS Dolphin submarine of the same era as the B-39 was far more finished looking inside.  the layout far more roomy and functional.

USS Dolphin submarine and PFC 816 Swift Boat at San Diego Maritime Museum

Capt'n Jeff at the periscope

The Dolphin felt much more modern in every way. 

The Dolphin was launched from Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine in 1968, and immediately set a new depth record that we are told, still holds today!  She sent the first laser communication to an aircraft, sent and received the first underwater email.
The Dolphin was the last US non-nuclear submarine and had a long career of 38 years

Control Room USS Dolphin

The ferry boat that seems to be the center of everything here at the pier, is actually a floating museum.  Your admission gets you access to everything we've talked about here, and a lot more.  There are tours you can take of the harbor that launch from here on the Swift Boat a Pilot boat, or a Revenue Cutter, for an additional fee.

The Claim Jumper restaurant at the Wyndham Hotel

Happy explorers

 We were getting famished, so we opted to head across the street to the Claim Jumper restaurant at the nearby Wyndham Hotel.  We had a very pleasant lunch while watching the lively action of the waterfront.

By now we were closing in on the 4 hour time limit on our parking space, so we decided to head back to the car. 

This is where things started to unravel and we were exposed as the rubes that we are.  We headed back up the hill on Ash Street at the opposite end of the park where we had come down from the car.  We both had different ideas of where we'd left the car and spent an agonizing 20 minutes traipsing back and forth, before I got the idea of using satellite view of the area on the iPad to look for the distinctive shape of the car park we wanted to find.  We arrived back at the car with my phone vibrating "times up" on the 4 hour timer I'd set.  Whew!  We really aren't big city people.

 Your Traveling Friends

Jeff and Joan

Salton Sea to the Pacific Blue

Odometer  67,774


Thursday Oct 31
Salton Sea to the Pacific Ocean
San Diego

Our plan for today is to head south on CA Route 111 and catch Interstate 8 west to San Diego.  Regular blog readers will note that we normally eschew large cities, and the only thing that could possibly make us head into one- is a family event such as the wedding of our niece Savannah.

I had this misconception that the Rocky Mountains had petered out by the time they reached Mexico, and would be mere bumps.  Nothing could be more from the truth.  Interstate 8 climbs 4 summits on the way from El Centro to El Cajon.  The first summit we encountered took us from below sea level to 3241 ft at Mountain Springs, on to Tecate Pass at 4140 ft , Crestwood Pass at 4,109 ft , lastly to Laguna Pass at 4055 feet.  Many of these grades were at or near 6%  I guess this is why I like traveling- it straightens out the geography in my head.😏
We arrived at Mission Bay RV Resort at about 4:30 in the afternoon, Friday rush hour was in full ramp-up but luckily we were going the opposite of where everyone else wanted to go.

We are tucked in at Mission Bay RV Resort

We chose Mission Bay because it looked to be about the center of where the wedding activities are taking place.  The Resort is pretty much a paved lot with holes for mature shade trees and utilities for full hookup- pretty much perfect for what we want.

Mission Bay RV our neighbors

We are the big blue dot on the map to the left and the hook of land is called DeAnza Point.  We have good access to the interstate to go longer distances and Mission Bay Drive along the waterfront for going locally in to Pacific Beach to the north and to Ocean Beach to the south.



After settling in we set out for a walk to stretch the legs and stop the buzz in our heads.  We are fenced in here, but there are walk gates at strategic points in the perimeter where one can walk on the promenade around De Anza point and down into Mission Bay Park.  We headed out the gate to walk counter-clockwise around the point.  The gate opened onto a paved road which followed the edge of the beach.  A really nice paved promenade with tall palm trees and lush vegetation on either side.

DeAnza Mobile Home Park on Mission Bay San Diego

We suddenly became aware of the fact that none of the homes we were passing were occupied.  This mystified us and we became curious as to why people would abandon homes with such a great setting

moved out or demolished ?  site where manufactured home used to be

 We had a pleasant walk though this deserted neighborhood, but couldn't help wondering what had happened.  When we got back home, we did and internet search and found a very interesting story:

In 1939 and 1945 the State gave this point of land to the City of San Diego "for the use of all the citizens of the State".   In 1953 the City leased the land to a developer for a 680 unit "trailer park" giving the City 10% of the gross rent.  Every thing was great until 1980 when the State Land Commission reviewed the land deal to ensure that San Diego had upheld its end of the bargain.  They decided that the City had not.  San Diego was ordered to evict the residents and honor the original agreement.  Another State law that had been enacted in the meantime required cities who evict tenants of mobile homes to offer relocation assistance, which San Diego reportedly was reluctant to do.  One news report I read was of the opinion that the City intentionally hired a park manager with a bad reputation to make living conditions so untenable the residents would move out on their own.  Services were cut, rents hiked, laundry facilities removed, and tenants who complained were intimidated.  By October 2016 the City had lost at least two lawsuits with the tenants, but finally prevailed in moving out the last of the residents, ending this epic 36 year battle.  The news this year (2019) says that the City has awarded a contract to Campland by the Bay to expand the RV park into the areas formerly occupied by mobile homes, adding about 150 more sites.  Nothing is happening pending a review by the California Coastal Commission.

Joan, Savannah, Manny, Jeff

I have been asked by my niece Savannah to officiate at her wedding on a cliff above the ocean here in San Diego.  Family and friends will be flying in from Dallas today and we are looking forward to the inevitable family gatherings.  We spent the afternoon with them at their Air B&B home in Ocean Beach about 15 minutes from our RV Park. 

The next day at 5 PM we all met at Osprey Point and held the wedding ceremony as the sunset painted the sky and horizon a warm peachy color.  Manny and Savannah, stood with yours truly, as I led them through their vows in front of 30 or more of their family and close friends.  What an honor it was for me to be involved in this special way!

Savannah and Manny Chavez cut the cake at their reception in local restaurant

Here's wishing Savannah and Manny many wonderful wonderful, happy, years together!

Another surprise was meeting Joan's cousin Curtis and his beautiful wife Emerita.  Curtis is a pilot for an executive air charter company operating out of  Los Angles, CA.

Curtis and Emerita

Dessault 2000 Falcon

Falcon Cockpit

Curtis flies the Dassault 2000 Falcon business jet made in France- sounds like FUN!  We hope now that we have re-established contact that it won't be so long til we see the two of them again.


Your Traveling Friends

Jeff and Joan

Having Fun on our Way There

Odometer 67,599 miles
Salton Sea, California

We are heading to the Salton Sea- again!  Here is our route for the next several days.

We had a pleasant journey from Susanville to Hawthorne, Nevada.  We made our usual late start from Susanville, getting rolling at around 10:30, actually later than is customary even for us.  I really messed up in Reno though.  I missed the exit I wanted to take to get fuel on our way into Reno, and thought I'll have Joan keep an eye out for another station that looks promising.  We spotted the multi-color soccer ball sign that Kroger uses for their fuel stations and took the exit.  We immediately plunged into a massive road construction project that we couldn't have seen from the freeway.  No problem we got to the Smith's store and the fuel pumps.  The pumps were very busy and we only had two places we could get in for diesel- so I waited at the curb while Joan stood in line shooing away interlopers.  When we finally got into place and started fueling we found there was a problem with the pump, the flow was substantially restricted for some reason and it took 15 minutes to get about 13 gallons.  At this rate we'd be here another 45 minutes.  Grrr!  I hung up the nozzle and abandoned that plan.  On our way back to the freeway we got caught up in the construction big time.  It took us several miles to get back to an on-ramp.  Now I was steaming!  I only wanted to fuel up in Reno thinking it would be cheaper here than further out in the desert, but we had enough on board to make Hawthorne easily.  The route we chose to get to US 95 south was to take Nevada 341 to Alt 95 and head toward Yerington.  It's not shorter, just different, it probably cost us a few minutes, but we like to see different things when we can.  We sailed down US 95 and made Hawthorne by mid afternoon.
We got set-up in Whiskey Flats RV Resort for a couple of nights.

We decided to stay a couple nights here because Joan is excited about seeing the ghost town of Bodie, California which is about 30 miles west of here, while I was hoping to see the Hawthorne Ordinance Museum.  By the time we got the RV set-up it was 3:30 PM and I found out the museum closes at 4:00 PM.  I won't get there today I guess.

A trip to Bodie over the back roads was only about 30 miles from here and the TV weather forecast brought the news that tomorrow would be sunny and warm.  So we packed a lunch and headed out in the Tracker.

Glowing Aspens in the creek bottom

Back way into Bodie from Nevada side

We ate some dust- you should see the inside!

 Some  parts of the road had just been graded, so we were very lucky.  Even with grading we seldom were able to go more than 25 mph- lots of boulder sized rock, shallow ruts, and some heavy mud.  And did I mention DUST?  Soft, floury, fine, fluffy, floating, airborne, churning, choking, cloud-forming- dust!

The scenery was spectacular, with the Aspens resplendent in the sun and the majestic high canyon walls of Bodie Creek.  With out pushing it, it took about 2 hours to traverse the 30 some miles from Hawthorne to Bodie.

The trip was sure worth it!  The buildings and grounds are incredible.  The story is that one of the major landowners in the area hired caretakers to protect the buildings from being vandalized or looted during the 50s and early 60s, until California State Parks purchased the town in 1962.

 The Parks Department does do patch and repair work on the structures to stabilize the building roof walls and foundations preserved in a state of "arrested decay"

The Standard Mill in Bodie, California  as it was re-built in 1899 after a disastrous fire

 The Standard Stamp Mill shown above was the most successful or the 30 some mining companies in the area.  Renamed the Standard in 1877, they produced over 18 million in gold during 38 years of operations.

The Standard Mill was one of the first mines to have electricity delivered from a substantial ways away by using alternating current electricity.  In 1893 Standard had a hydroelectric plant 13 miles away and used poles and wire, much like we do today.  Before this most installations would have generators producing DC current and the generators would have been at the same site as the motor it drove.

Electricity  ran 20 stamps, 4 concentrators, 8 pans, 3 settlers, and 1 agitator.  A transformer at the mill provided 100-volt current to light the building’s interior and adjoining offices.  It would be 17 more years before the small town of Bodie had electricity to its shops and residences in 1910.

Picture taken through the window of a dry goods store

What a fun afternoon!  This is the real deal, and it was fun to envision life in these parts so many years ago.  More that 150 million dollars of gold has been extracted from this site over the years.  By 1915 most of the gold had played out and the Bodie to Hawthorne railroad was abandoned.  In 1942 the government stopped "non essential" gold mining in favor of copper for the war years.  Most of the remaining residents moved away. 

Our Return route from Bodie back to Hawthorne, NV

Joan and I decided to take the "long way around" on good roads back to Hawthorne, just to see something new.  30 miles off-highway becomes 80 miles by highway!

The route back to Hawthorne takes us up to the top of Conway summit on US Hwy 395 at an elevation of 8138 feet.  For us sea level dwellers, it gets hard to find any oxygen in the air up here.  As we drop off the summit down towards Mono Lake, we stop to take in the view and admire this endorheic lake, a lake with no outlet.  This beautiful lake was nearly drained by the thirsty citizens of LA.  In 1941 the Los Angeles Dept of Water bought up the water rights to the tributaries of the lake and diverted them 350 miles south.  Over the next 16 years the lake level dropped 45 feet before concerned citizens got a court order requiring LA to leave a little water in the streams to keep the lake level stable.  The name Mono is a shortening of the Yokut Indian name for the lake- "Monachi".

Tonight an arctic wind is predicted to plunge the mercury from a balmy 70 down to the 30s.

Sunday, we continued our journey south from Hawthorne to Tonopah (actually easterly) we had a stiff cross wind, but the bus handled it pretty well.  As we made the turn south at Tonopah we'd get a tailwind- yeah!  We both remembered a McDonalds with good parking at the far (south) end of Tonopah and decided that it would save time and dishes if we stopped there for a salad.  Well, we either remembered incorrectly or it was torn down, because there was no fast food at all where we remembered seeing it.  We drove on to a chain-up area (no snow!) and pulled over and heated up soup and made sandwiches for lunch- better for us anyway.

The wind had died down a lot, but what there was, was on our tail.  We have decided to stop in Pahrump for a couple of nights to let the wind settle down and to do some local exploring.  I have skinned up one of our safety cables on the tow bar and I'll see if I can find a replacement in town.  We find the Preferred RV Resort in Pahrump to be very nice and it accepts our Passport card for 1/2 price for two days!

Tuesday we are on the road again, this leg of the trip is to one of my favorite spots in the southwest- the Fountain of Youth RV Resort near Niland, CA in the hills above the Salton Sea.

There is very little of interest in the area here, but the resort itself is very intriguing.  I have blogged about this before [ Click to see that blog (opens in new page)]
In essence what I like about the RV site is that it is terraced up the side of the hill so each level gets a view,  there are several pools and hot spas, the people are friendly, it's super quiet, and the skies are alive with stars at night.

Call me a lobster!

Just right- about 104 degrees!

The warmest of the hot pools is called the Lobster Pot and when I want to warm up it takes some real heat!  Those cool 100 degree pools just won't do it- I want 104° ! 

Tuesday afternoon when we arrived the weather was picture perfect- sunny and warm, clear skies.  We took a long walk to un-cramp our legs and Joan made up a ravioli dinner, followed by a few episodes of Ice Pilots NWT on Amazon Prime TV.  Around 9 PM we heard this loud rustling sound outside and opened the curtains to see the wind howling around us.  We got ready for bed with the slide top awnings snapping and snarling in the wind, and the bus rocking under the force of many hard gusts of wind- coming one after the other.  We finally decided to pull in the slide outs, which rolls up the slide top awnings and streamlines the motorhome.  We slept fitfully as the wind rocked us on our jacks and screamed around the edges of the bus.  Friday morning there was only a zephyr of a breeze blowing and the sun was rising to a clear blue sky.  Some fellow RVrs had suffered damage to awnings and flags and loose items, but most of us came through with no damage at all.  Time to head for the spa!

Next time we head out to San Diego for our niece's wedding- stay tuned.

Your Traveling Friends


Jeff and Joan

All set up with a view of the Chocolate Mountains

Desert in Bloom

Odometer 646559
Trip  0

I always talk about the "green desert" down here.  Today I thought I should dedicate at least a part of the blog to showing you why I thing so.

Brittle Bush resplendent with yellow blooms, is tucked between lichen covered boulders

Ocotillo branches sport these brilliant red blossoms 

 Ocotillo (oak-a-tea-yo) is a strange plant.  Most tend to call it a cactus because of its spines, but it is not a true cactus.  The  Ocotillo can lie dormant for much of the year waiting for rainfall, and when the moisture is right it rewards you with a brilliant display of red-orange blossoms, and shortly thereafter the stalks grow tiny green leaves that cling to the main stem.

Ocotillo grows on the slopes above Shadow Ridge RV Park in Ajo, AZ

Joan composes a photo in a field of California Poppies near Hat Mountain

In the spring the poppies start to bloom, and we have found a few areas where there are so many of them, they form a field of yellow.

Large areas of poppies like this are somewhat rare though.   Most are mostly found singly or in small bunches.

They seem to be very hardy and will emerge from the rockiest areas.

An Organ Pipe cactus (left) and Teddy Bear Cholla (right)

 The Organ Pipe cactus is native to only a small part of the Sonoran Desert and the elevation and rainfall have to be just right to get it to grow

Cholla "balls" stick readily to any passing object

The Cholla (choy-ya) cactus, is much more hardy and grows just about everywhere.  Cholla puts out new growth that readily detaches from the main plant and hitch-hikes on any passing animal, or blows around on the ground with the wind.  The spines are very sharp and very fine annular rings on the spine make it very difficult to detach.  I simply used my boot to attempt to move the cholla ball off the path and it stuck well enough to my boot that I had to use my Multiplier to remove it.


The coloration and the sheer number of thorns give this plant a soft and "furry" look from a distance, but make no mistake they are vicious!  I have seen people try to shake a thorny ball loose from a shirt sleeve, only to have it  fly off and stick into the thigh or shin.  I have also seen them sticking to the legs and sides of burros in the wild.

Most hikers keep a plier tool handy because without one, you have to scrape the thorny ball off with a stick , and those can be hard to find in most cases.

Fairy Duster grows along the arroyo in Alamo Canyon

Desert Sand Verbena

Bougainvilla engulfs the fence in front of the Guest House B&B

My favorite of all plants here is not a native to the area, or even to the US.  Bougainvillia from South America is cultivated and grows throughout the town in big, bright, showy red blooms.