More American musings and an RV Trip

The Santa Monica Police Department said they received reports that a young man pepper sprayed four to six people at the Santa Monica Pier. The crowd, some holding Trump and U.S. flags, others holding orange posters that read "Trump & Pence Must Go" appeared to be involved in some sort of argument before a Trump supporter in a MAGA red hat sprayed at the panicked crowd. Many ran away screaming and coughing. One woman was vomiting nearby, the witness said. A crowd of what appeared to be anti-Trump protesters were seen chanting by the beach before moving to the pier and surrounding a small group of Trump supporters. People in the crowd were then seen pushing each other when a scuffle broke out.

It is becoming very heated here, even more so than before, with many Republicans saying that it will be a civil war if Trump is impeached….

Another local news item was how even now there is data on Pasadena Police racial profiling, where they are looking into data of stops. The comparison are 2 white versus 195 black Hispanic stops – really shocking in this day and age. They also showed that police now have camera on their jackets to stop this, but also showed a video of a police officer aggressively dealing with a Hispanic man when he was stopped for a traffic offence.

And of course, the main news in California has been about the horrendous fires which are being caused by the ferocious wind gusts and hot weather combo. The San Bernardino valley fire was described as out of control, but others like the Calabasas fire has been sorted thank goodness. Although most of the fires were at least 20 minutes drive away, we still had a thin film of dust on our outside furniture and could smell burning as well as seeing a grey sky. Many people were walking around in masks. In amongst all this fear, the local weather report also included a surfing report- where to find the best weather for waves.

At WW we had a good chat about eating colourful food involving fruit and veg, with lots of suggestions of what to do with pumpkins. Apparently, Calabasas means squash/pumpkin – I wonder if the self-proclaimed god of rock, Kanye West knows this. There is lots of media here about Kanye’s new album which has just been released called Jesus is King (he apparently is now a born-again Christian). Luckily, I have managed to avoid hearing it so far.

Good sayings this week – if only I could abide by them. ‘When the sun goes down, the fork goes down’ and ‘Bring the body and the mind will follow’. One of the WW ladies followed up her stress story by giving us an update on her move from a 300 square foot house to an apartment. She had lost her husband due to illness and had to move to a small condo to pay the medical bills.

Certainly, the local news talked about ‘pod living’ in LA, which is like train apartments. The case study they used was a lady who’d spent all her money on her cancer treatment and now was well, but had to sell her house to pay medical bills- bloody terrible isn’t it? WW has also changed its system by adding other colour food diets, meaning you can follow either Green, Blue or Purple. Blue was the original colour everyone was on, so after trying the Purple, Ive reverted back as along with many others, I’d rather stick to what I know. Many of the ladies in the meeting clearly didn’t like the change and were quite up in arms about it all – poor Char!

At Animal Services, Charla requested I went in on an extra day to help take certain dogs to see the on-site vet, who we had met as volunteers when she gave a really interesting talk on recognising pain in animals. It was a good experience as I got to take several dogs out of their kennels who I hadn’t met before. Charla was suitably pleased and so at last she gave me my Blue Level 2 Dog Walking pass – hoooorrrraaayyyy!! She also gave me Missy as a project dog. Apparently on Instagram, certain dogs are marked as orange or red, which means they may have to be moved on – this usually means to other shelters, but sometimes not. Missy is marked as an orange…. She is a very sweet dog, but does lunge aggressively at other dogs. I have to ask the supervisor before I can take her out, only as a caution. She is really sweet with humans. I now walk 5 or more dogs, 3 days a week, which is really satisfying and I am starting to notice a difference in many of their behaviours. One dog called Biscuit was adorable and I loved walking her, but happily she was adopted that week. I have now been shadowing Charla and Stephie G on the First Day Training classes and today we did a team teach, which was fun and they seem pretty pleased with what I’m doing – Stephie even gives me a hug each time. I realised how much I miss teaching. I take over from January which is exciting.

I’m having fun at Bitter Root Pottery making things for the Baby. Ive finished painting the Nursery Rhyme tiles and have glazed the Piggy Bank, although it’s tail was broken off on the way out of the kiln unfortunately. It’s all very lovely and civilised there - the lovey Geoff gives out Kailua iced coffee and Darla made a cheesecake and gave out sangria. How can I ever lose weight!!!🤣 The following week, I brought in a Rhubarb Gin, which they loved. I might try making shortbread.

I’ve had a strong word with myself and am determined to get slimmer before I go home for Christmas. I went to the gym with Mark for the first time in a while. I managed 15 minutes fast peddling on the bike and then 1/2 hour on the machines. I knew I’d overdone it that night as I could barely lift my arms and even had difficulty lifting a glass of water – pathetic!! At least I have reawakened my muscles. I have also gone back to Aqua which I am finding easier as time goes by. So all this does have results and Ive managed to lose 6lbs over the 3 weeks….Now I just have to keep it up!

I read an interesting article this week which unusually didnt moan about Millennials, but was blaming Baby Boomers for the state of the world.

How the baby boomers broke America.

‘The most likely outcome in 2020 is that voters will yet again ask a baby boomer to fix what the baby boom broke.’

So I looked up the definition of what each generation was.

· The Silent Generation: Born 1928-1945 (73-90 years old)

· Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964 (54-72 years old)

· Generation X: Born 1965-1980 (38-53 years old)

· Millennials: Born 1981-1996 (22-37 years old)

· Post-Millennials: Born 1997-Present (0-21 years old)

So, I’m just in the Generation X group and my kids are all Millennials. Baby Boomers are the Trumps of this world, but also Biden too – it’s time for a change.

The definition on line is...

1. Baby boomer characteristics include independence, responsibility and maturity. They are equipped to make up their own minds and determine what is most valuable or significant.

2. Baby boomers make smart decisions based on available resources.

3. Older target markets are best motivated by natural competition and work hard to achieve every success, including professional opportunities in the workplace.

4. Baby boomers are confident. They have responsibilities and abide by societal rules.

5. Mature audiences respond to respect for their authority. They appreciate being listened to and are willing to share their opinions and interests.

6. The baby boomer does not part with their money easily.

The last one is interesting, but let’s be honest, it all sounds like horoscopes doesn’t it. How can an entire generation have the same characteristics?

I have also been excited by the prospect of getting out on the open road in an RV and after a lot of persuasion Mark felt we should give it a go. So, with rose coloured glasses we picked up the beast. It was actually the smallest of the fleet, but certainly big enough so that whilst I had every intention to drive it, when it came to me taking over, I chickened out, so poor Mark had to do all the driving. The night before we set off, we packed up the van on the driveway and thought we’d let Lulu get a feel for being in it, after all, the joy of the van was that we could take Lulu with us. She hated it from the second she got in. She got down very low and practically crawled around. Unfortunately, it didn’t get much better when we set off even though she sat in between us at the front on her bed. She just didn’t like the noise and the movement - poor Lulu. 😕🐕

We drove down Les Vigenes Canyon Blvd which was somewhat hair raising in what is practically a lorry around hairpin bends looking down into the mountainous abyss. We drew breath again when we drove onto the PCH, Pacific Coast Highway and saw the glistening sea.

We drove through Malibu, Ventura and on up to Santa Barbara, trying to stop at Arroyo Burro Beach Park, but unfortunately realising that we had researched what were dog friendly beaches, but not where you could park RVs, which is ridiculous. We travelled into a Santa Barbara street that was famous for its wine tasting bars, but couldn’t park as most of the street signs and carparks said no RV parking. We found a beach with a carpark big enough for our RV at Goleta and we had a lovely stroll on the edge of the sea. Lulu was so pleased to get on solid ground and had a wonderful time leaping into the waves. We also made lunch in the RV which was fun, although even at that stage we were feeling a little cramped.

We arrived at the Four Flags RV Park, near Solvang, to see 50ft plus RVs everywhere. Ours looked tiny compared to some. There were also some beautiful silver airbus types too. Some looked like they’d been there for ages. Each space had a small area of gravel around it and you hooked up your waste, water and electricity to a unit next to each space. Mark hooked us up and we were feeling very proud of ourselves when the water pipe started spraying water everywhere. He managed to buy spanner and tape at the local shop, but it still dripped liked mad. Lulu went missing as we had our backs turned for 1 minute looking at the water. We got back in the van and realized she wasn’t in it- clearly not many places she could hide. She had decided to take herself off for a stroll while we had the door open 🐕😱she didn’t have her collar on at that point. She’s been wearing her collar ever since and the van door is never left open!

The campsite didn’t have the same ‘green’ feel as the ones we are used to in France. This was more like a glorified carpark, although there was a café at the entrance at least. Unfortunately, we also couldn’t get the hot water working so the glamour wore off pretty quickly. We ended up using the campsite showers. There were children everywhere and I wondered what they were like about taking kids out of school here. Most of the RVs were decorated for Halloween with lights and moving models. Some even had entrances where people had dressed up in costumes to welcome the multitudes of children trick or treating around the site – although I didn’t see any ‘tricking’. There was even a hay-ride in a truck around the campsite.

We travelled into Solvang which is a Danish styled town. It is a very quaint and almost kitsch styled small village that had been built in the style of the Danish people who had settled there. It was lovely to walk Lulu round the town and we took it in turns to go into the gift and tourist shops. Lulu was so popular and everyone wanted to pet her – she loved it.

Around lunch we visited a lovely wine tasting bar which allowed dogs, where we got chatting to another couple with their small Chihuahua, who said they were from Chatsworth way and they said they wanted to get away from the smoke of the fires. We had a good chat about the LA dog services.

After we found a shop filled with the most wonderful cuckoo clocks where we were very tempted but realised they started at around $200 up to $3000, we also discovered a huge hat shop which allowed dogs inside, run by a man from Manchester no less. We couldn’t resist and we added to our quite extensive hat collection.

We stayed another night at Four Flags and then set off the next day travelling up the coast through Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo and onto Morro Bay, past little 1900 houses and quaint little farms with shutters and barns; signs showing cows, deer and scarily - bears.

On the way we stopped at Pismo Beach which was truly spectacular. It had wide golden sands and beautiful blue shallow waters with long drawn out waves and little birds running in and out of the water looking for shellfish. Lulu loved it and we went for an hour walk along the shoreline. Each beach seemed to get better if that was possible with little towns with pretty shops. This beach was amazing as you were able to drive down onto the actual sand. We didn’t go too far due to the fear of getting stuck, but a lot of people had SUVs so had a blast tearing along the beach to the parking area. Pismo beach is where Rudolf Valentino filmed The Sheik, as the sand dunes are like the Sahara Desert apparently. We passed a Vineyard dentist and orthodontics 🤣

We attempted to cook a meal in the RV and realised that there was only one pan which worked on the weight activated cooker – after all it is just glorified camping which, at that point, we both remembered we hated.

We arrived in Morro Bay at dusk and after driving and getting a little lost, we found our RV Park called Morro Strand. Well….if we thought the other one was like a carpark, this one actually was a small carpark and to make matters worse, as we drove in there appeared to be a few people huddled around a kettle bin fire in the middle of the park, right where we were about to park. They waved in a friendly way and we waved back. We parked for all of 10 minutes, looked at each other and knew that we’d had enough. We drove out of there in a flash and headed for Morro beach, which was absolutely stunning!!!! We watched the sunset and then Mark booked a lovely little motel room that accepted dogs. We 3 slept soundly and comfortably in a Queen Bed. Lulu was pleased to have solid ground again.

The next day we set out for beautiful Lake Cachuma and after walking around the park we settled drinking beer at the bar by the lake with Lulu, watching a blue grass band singing Elvis and Johnny Cash. This is what we came for to see – the real America. Campers and countryside – it all felt a very American experience.

On our travels we listened to Bill Bryson’s audio book ‘Notes from a Big Country’, about his move back to the USA with his family. He had moved to the UK from the US when he was in his twenty’s and had become practically British. It’s funny how he mentioned all the things we find alien about America.

On our last full day, we went to Hearst Castle, which is a castle built by yet another American millionaire. There is a tourist entrance at the base of the mountain and we took the Hearst bus along with a bus full of many different nationalities. It was a spectacular view of the castle on the way up but my word we were very close to the edge!

Hearst Castle was built by the son of a mogul and was known as wasteful Willy. Willy built the castle three months after his mother and father died, which says a lot. Mum had taken him around Europe to see art and castles when he was 11 and he fell in love with the Gothic, Roman and Greek art. He collected artefacts from around the world and was very eclectic as each room had numerous styles and eras of pieces in it, from Indian temple ceilings, to Persian tiles and Italian chapel seating (much like Windsor chapel). He would buy a piece then get the architect to build around it sometimes replicating it in a similar material if there wasn’t enough to fill the area. The roman pool was amazing, but it was hard to see how you would feel homely there, although we were told that Hearst lived there for years with his mistress (his wife lived in New York).

The guides loved telling us about how Hearst loved having guests and how the couple were very generous, but he was still a 'man of the people' and insisted on having ketchup on the dinner table. The Hollywood set were common guests and he had regular visits from Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin amongst others. We were shown an enchanting home movie taken by Hearst himself showing them playing music and tennis on the courts.

One story was that a female guest told Hearst’s mistress that she didn’t have a coat, so to spare embarrassment, she bought everyone in the party a fur coat, I’m not sure that the woman wouldn’t have just preferred the money for all those fur coats instead.

As we travelled back, we stopped at San Simeon Bay which had a whole beach of elephant seals basking in the sun, using their flippers to dust sand on themselves, noisily chatting to their sleeping mates. There was a walkway above so Lulu wasn’t interested even though there was a very strong smell of fish. We also stopped at Cambria and visited the beautiful antique shops and went to Linn's famous Pie Shop to partake of their famous Olallieberry pie. Delicious!

Our last stop was Santa Barbara and we spent our last evening in a wonderful Italian restaurant eating wonderful fresh fish. The people next to us were lovely and one of them had had a T Bone steak and gave the bone to Lulu. She thought she’d gone to heaven.

We stayed that night in a Mobile 6 Inn. It was comfortable enough and certainly 100 times better than the RV, but we had a worry as we heard a long train sounding it’s horn for 5 minutes at 11pm. We looked at each other and thought of the Blues Brothers movie where Elwood and Jake are in Elwood’s flat and a train goes past. We prayed it wasn’t going to happen in the night, which it may have, but we slept the deepest sleep ever.

We came back through Encinal Canyon Road, due to the fires on Topanga Canyon Blvd. It was really rather scary in an RV going down a long winding and steep single track road.🚐😱

It was a great adventure, but boy, were we glad to be home!

Next week – Trump and the giant Impeach-ment (as Stephen Colbert likes to call it).