Adventures in L.A.

Hi all, Dianne here.  Our main purpose for coming to California this fall was to visit our daughter, Robyn, in Los Angeles for the holidays.  The Californian RV Resort in Acton will be our home base.  It's about an hour north of the city, in the foothills of the Antelope Valley.   Our campground is at 3600 feet.   It's COLD here!!   We watch the temperature gauge on the car each time we drive into town to see Robyn, and the difference is  always 10 to 15 degrees warmer at her place.


Roger is becoming an old pro at driving the Matrix in the infamous Los Angeles traffic, on "The 101,"  "The 5,"  "The 405," and "The 14."  When we leave town in the motor home, we'll use "The 210."  We're getting used to the vernacular around here.  At home, the roads are called "I-69" or "State Road 38," for instance.  Out here, every road is preceded by "The..."

We spent a very fun Thanksgiving with Robyn at the home of her friends, Scott and Kate, and their darling baby, Colin.   There were ten college friends (from Indiana), plus Roger and I.  Here is a photo of Robyn (on the right) with her friend, Rachel.

After a wonderful meal and great conversation they broke out the "Rock Band" XBox game.  What fun!  Robyn tried her hand on the keyboard while her friends were on the guitar, drums, and vocals.

They persuaded Roger to try a turn.   He gave it a go, but let's just say he should stick to his day job of retiree.   


This morning we decided to check out some other campgrounds in the area for future reference, and do a little sightseeing.  We drove to Malibu and checked out the Malibu Beach RV Resort, which is right on the Pacific Coast Highway, with ocean views (for a hefty price.)   We made reservations to spend Christmas week there before we leave for Texas.

Our next adventure was really fun for me.  I had mentioned to Robyn that I wondered where The Biggest Loser ranch was (one of my favorite TV shows).  She looked it up for me.  Roger and I decided to drive past to see if we could see it, since we were in that area this morning.  As it turns out, it is actually a historic ranch that is part of a public park facility.  We were able to drive in, park for $7, and walk the trails on the property.   We didn't expect any contestants to be on the ranch at this time, as the current season is almost over.   Below is a shot of the workout gym:

I noticed a contestant who had pulled an exercise bike to the front doorway of the gym and was working hard while enjoying the cool air and outside views.  I knew he wasn't from this current season.  I started to take a photo of the gym, but then we were approached by a security guard.  He explained that we were welcome to photograph the outside of the buildings, but were not to take photos of any of the contestants.  Since the contestant was visible in the open doorway of the gym photo I had taken, I erased it and used this one instead (not as good).  


We talked to the guard for a minute and he explained where we were allowed to walk.  When I told him I didn't realize contestants would be there at this time, he explained that these were the new contestants for the next series, which has already begun filming.

We hiked up a steep hill to the top and took a photo of the house from atop the hill.  We heard voices and, sure enough, there were two contestants sitting at the top of the hill after hiking up.  Now I can say I've exercised at the Biggest Loser Ranch!

The reason I like this show so much is that I love to see the contestants' transformations.  The show also keeps me motivated to try to stay active and fit.   Now I can't wait for the new season to start, so that I can watch the contestants we saw today and follow their progress. 

 When we hiked back down the hill and past the gym again, the contestant was gone and the front doors were open, showing some of the exercise equipment inside.

From there, we drove over to Robyn's apartment for a short visit, and took her out for some Thai food.   We talked about some of the things we'd like to do together during our month here.   We made reservations to take a Warner Brothers studio tour, and signed up for tickets for a couple of TV show tapings.  What fun!!  Let the adventures begin....

The whippet photo of the day shows the boys in their coats after a very cold walk down to the dog walk area of the campground.  They won't be spending much time outside here, that's for sure!   I think they're already dreaming of South Texas.

A Quiet Thanksgiving

Roger here....

Dianne worked five, eleven-hour days this week so we did not have much time to discuss what we would be doing for Thanksgiving. Luckily, Thursday was not a scheduled work day for Dianne; otherwise, she would have had to work.

Last year the temp agency we work for organized a dinner for its workampers - not this year. We checked to see if any local restaurants would be open - no. We heard that we could drive fifty miles and eat at one of the local casinos, but since neither one of us are gamblers, that did not have much appeal. The only two feasible choices were to eat a normal meal in the motor home, OR to fix Thanksgiving dinner in the motor home. The first option seemed a little dull, sooo.... having the rookie cook, me, cook the dinner sounded like fun. How difficult can it be to roast a turkey? Dianne thought it would be great fun watching me try.

I was able to find a crock pot turkey breast and dressing recipe in Dianne's computer files. On Tuesday, I drove her to work at 4:30 a.m. so I could have the car to go to the grocery to buy the turkey breast and the fixins. It was actually kind of fun - much better than stowing merchandise at Amazon. The local Coffeyville ladies thought it was a hoot as I examined several varieties of frozen turkey breasts.

During the next two days, I kept myself busy thawing out the turkey in the fridge - hard work. On Thanksgiving morning I doffed my chef's hat (a retirement gift from my friend, Chris Graves - long story).

Since Dianne did not have a chef's hat and was not allowed to cook, she got to wear the plastic netting from the turkey breast. We are so festive here in our motor home.

The fun began with Bloody Marys garnished with fresh celery stalks served in our finest souvenir plastic cups.

The cashier at the Coffeyville liquor store did not like my choice of Bloody Mary mix, sending me back to get a bottle of very spicy Zing Zang mix. I am glad she did - so good that we drank them before I had a chance to take a picture!

It took a while to mix up the ingredients for the crock pot, but since the turkey slow cooked for eight hours, most of the day was pretty quiet. Dianne spent time looking at maps and info to get ready for our much anticipated sojourn to the warm weather in southern Texas - can't wait.

Since Purdue and the Colts were not playing, I spent most of the day channel surfing and relaxing. (By the way, I was able to see my 6th ranked Purdue Boilermakers beat 9th ranked Tennessee in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands earlier in the week - quite a game!)

When it was time for dinner, the boys hovered around Dianne

for the inevitable handout that they knew she would give them. We enjoyed turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes with gravy, and pea salad. Dianne also had cranberry salad prepared by the skilled hands of local grocery personnel. Dessert was pecan pie, also from the grocery.

We received phone calls from both our daughters, Robyn and Amanda - wish they (and our granddaughter, Kaia) could have been with us. Robyn finished her performance stint on the NCL cruise ship in Hawaii and is back in Chicago. She will be moving to Los Angeles at the first of the year. Amanda is still doing well in Ft. Myers, Florida. We will be seeing her and Kaia in March. Otherwise, it was a pretty quiet day. Food, naps, TV, reading.

And what of the leftover turkey????? Turkey salad the next day.
(Dianne here: Both meals were DELICIOUS. All I can say is, WHATTA GUY!!!)