2010 Trip to California

2010 Trip to California

The Magic Mountain Tour

5/28/2010

With the camper and Jeep packed, we leave the house at 8:00 am. Later than we hoped, but on par for when we get on the road.
We stopped for gas at Blythe, next time we fill up 5 miles earlier in Arizona, the gas price was $3.09 a gallon in Blythe, a lot less in Arizona.
Lunch was around 1:30 at a rest stop near Indio. Chicken Salad sandwiches.
Left I-10 on Garey street in Pomona to get gas and start dinner in the portable oven. As we have camped a number of times at the KOA Fairplex, we know this area reasonably well.
After 5:00 the famed L.A. traffic kicked in, slowing us down. The Tom-Tom we bought for Christmas worked well at navigating us through the can of worms that is the L.A. metro freeway system. Along the way there was a four car fender bender right in front of us. Sue quickly maneuvered into the right lane to zip around it. We finally turned off the freeway on to Soledad Canyon Road in Santa Clarita. We drove the remote road for awhile and found the Acton KOA.
It is a large sprawling campground with some sections of grass, lots of big old trees. We set up camp and cook the rice to add to the beef tips and gravy cooked in the portable oven. It was later then we liked, but everything was set up. The new 3 burner stove was real good to work with. The Jacuzzi wasn't working and that was a bummer, we could have used it after that ten hour drive. The other thing was that we were mostly out of Verizon phone coverage, too bad for Sierra, she was out of constant contact with her friends. The train tracks were on the other side of the river, but camping in Flagstaff has made us fairly use to trains.

5/29/2010

Usual morning ritual. Walk the dog, clean up dog mess, eat a delicious breakfast, shower. Sue used the electric griddle to do most of the breakfast cooking. Eggs, Bacon, Potatoes with onion and mushrooms. Wonderful start.
Programmed the GPS navigator for Six Flags Magic Mountain and we were off. At the park located the Dog Kennel and made sure Ginger was taken care of, parked and rode the tram to the main gate.
Two hours later and Sue had an electric scooter and we were doing rides.
Sue elected to ride with Sierra on a "moderate" coaster, after which she was done with coasters. I already said I wasn't going on any of them. We all rode the Funicular up the hill, but for the most part it was finding rides, getting Sierra on them and waiting at the exit for her. We ate the required overpriced food, getting Papa Johns personal pizzas. We worked hard to remain hydrated. The best value was a good size bottle of water mostly frozen for $3.50. We used the ice to cool the water fountain water for the rest of the day. In the warm afternoon Sierra went on a few of the wetter rides. More like a cross between a roller coaster and a log plume ride. She got good and wet on a couple of them.
Sierra wanted to try the wooden Colossus roller coaster as the last ride of the day. Wikipedia says that when it opened on June 29, 1978, it was one of the tallest and fastest wooden roller coasters in the world, capable of going up to 62 miles per hour. So we walked all the way back to it. They had a problem with one of the trains, but it was fixed quickly enough for Sierra to ride on it. She really loved it, but designated it as "tame".
If you ever watched National Lampoon's Vacation you saw it, it was called the Screemy Meemy. It is also the coaster that the family rides in the opening sequence of the sitcom Step by Step.
As Sues scooter was VERY slow, I was to go get Ginger and have the Jeep ready for them. As I was leaving I had my hand stamped just in case I needed to go back in. I picked up Ginger but found out that the scooter had died near the Superman ride. It took almost an hour for the park to get a replacement out to her, and that one wasn't much better. Sue had to hold the throttle "just right" or it wouldn't go.
We finally left, but the time taken threw us off schedule. To go back to camp and fix dinner would set dinner at almost 8:00. We stopped at Walmart for ice that was a lot cheaper than the campgrounds. Filled up with gas at Sams Club, and ate dinner at Panda Express.
We were fairly exhausted after arriving at camp and went to sleep early.

5/30/2010

Waffles for breakfast! Then some camp clean up work and off to Santa Monica Pier.
Memorial Day Weekend Sunday, we expected a crowd. We were not disappointed, there was a long line of cars weaving through the area. We then remembered we didn't have any cash with us for parking. Using the Tom-Tom we located an ATM at a bank down the block from where we were stuck in traffic. I ran out and down to the bank, got the money and jumped into the Jeep as Sue drove by. Classic!
We parked in a valet lot next to the pier. It was fun walking down and around the pier. I wanted to see the Pacific Park Ferris wheel, the first one solar powered. The panels were on the roller coaster building next door to it. Sierra rode the roller coaster. We all enjoyed watching the ocean and the cool ocean breezes. We had lunch at Bubba Gump fishing company restaurant. John Wasurick started sending photos to Sues phone of the Bar-b-que they were having in Orlando. Sue sent back photos of the peel and eat garlic shrimp. We won that contest. Gloria was jealous! The Ceasar salad was great and the garlic peel and eat shrimp incredible. Not so good on the Clam Chowder and Bisque. Very mediocre. Sierra was so jaded, she didn't want to eat all her chowder. Considering the price, we ate it. Sierra road the carosual and we walked the boardwalk. We got back to the campsite and Sierra went swimming. The water was just too cold for us desert dwellers, I was in it for maybe seven minutes. Dinner was steak with sauteed onions and mushrooms. A green salad rounded it out. We did some preliminary packing to get ready for the trip back.

5/31/2010

In the night we heard a lot of roaring. As we checked out to leave I asked about that. Turns out there was a lion preserve one and a half miles away. It was an african lion.
We got on the road around 11:30 am. It was, as usual, a very long trip back. We ate at the Cracker Barrel in Buckeye. Once home, we unloaded the car and camper and finally got to bed around 10:00. It was fast, but a fun trip.