thriller | Temporary Sanity ...

Yup. We’re going on a field trip to this ghost town. You can see how excited Max is about that. He loves car rides, as you all know.

He’ll be more excited when he wakes up. Guess he wore himself out on that first walk this morning.

So far today I once again resurrected the bus’s furnace by resetting it. Doesn’t seem like I should have to do that every time, but I don’t mind as long as it keeps working. The inner temp was around 49 degrees when I got up at 0430 which I viewed as a good reason to go back to bed. Little Max weathers the cold temps nicely and I don’t know how. I guess it’s all that hair he hasn’t shared with us yet.

Just before lunch we loaded ourselves into the car and drove to Calico Ghost Town Regional Park so have a look around. It’s an interesting town that Walter Knott, Knott’s Berry Farm, purchased in the 1950’s and resurrected it. I know this is true because I saw a plaque up there, and I took a photo of it.

I actually took hundreds of photos but none of them will be any better than the ones you will see if you access the above link. I’ll add a few of my photos just for the fun of it.

We ate lunch in the Calico House Restaurant and the food was pretty good. Diane had a patty melt and I had a club sandwich. After that we let Max lead us around the main street where he made a bunch of new friends.

This photo op was built a little too close to the ground for us, but we gave it a college try.

There’s quite a bit of up and down elements to the ghost town so we took breaks often. Thankfully, there were lots of benches and chairs scattered around the town. From this one I took a hike to the top of the town where that teeny sign is in the distance.

Some of the stairs are visible behind Diane, but many of them are suggestions of stairs and could be very treacherous. Falling was a danger all the way up, and down, because there are no handrails to grab. Here’s what I saw.

From the top.

The structure where Diane rested was build of cement and bottles. Sadly, it wasn’t open for viewing, but I got a few photos of the interior through one of the windows.

After departing Calico, we stopped in Yermo where Diane found a Thrift Store. We looked around for a while, but Diane didn’t find anything she wanted which astounded me. It may be her first visit to a thrift store where she didn’t come home with something “new’.

An interesting thing about Yermo is that the base we’re on, Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, stretches to the east far enough that Yermo claims part of it as their own. Specifically, they claim to be home for the Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard. Here’s proof in a Yermo mural.

We called it a day and headed home from Yermo to the safety of our trusty bus. Max was happy to be headed home.

Looking at a map it appears that Route 66 (I-40) transits right through the middle of the base so I suspect Nebo can claim a bit of ownership, too. Regardless, all the people around here love their Marines.

So do we.

I woke up at 0600 again this morning. Technically, it was my bladder that woke up. It’s like that part of my body just loves to communicate with me sometimes 2 or 3 times a night. Then, I realize that it’s one part of my body that works pretty good so why am I complaining. I was pretty comfortable laying there in bed trying to make sense of the things ricocheting around in my head, but I could not ignore my bladder’s persistent reminder that it was time to pay attention. So, like every morning, I scratched Max’s back, he stretched in appreciation, rolled over and went back to sleep. He’s never in a hurry to get up.

While waiting for my first cup of coffee to brew I take my pills and eat a banana and stick my Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowl in the micro. My doctor doesn’t think they are good for me, but they are easy to cook, and I like them. Diane makes sure there’s always a stash of them in the freezer. She’s really good to me.

After breakfast I took Max for his morning walk. That’ usually takes about 45 minutes because he has to sniff all the bushes and trees along the way to see who’s been there. I’m sure he’s got the scent of a coyote often because they wander around in the back throughout the night. I’ve mentioned that before, I’m sure.

Diane was up when we got back so Max greeted to her then climbed into the driver’s seat, where his pillow lives, and went back to sleep. Even then he keeps an eye out for the neighbors so he can see when they get up. Laurie always brings him treats and he’s not about to miss one of those.

The D-M Thrift Shop was on the calendar today so that’s where we went. It’s only open on Tuesday & Wednesday. This table caught my eye and I would have loved to buy it and ship it home to Jasper. He’s our official Spider Man Grandson. He loves that guy. But shipping the table wouldn’t be practical. Still, I think he’d really like it.

I don’t remember where we went after the thrift store, so I’ll just got with “we went back home fore lunch.” Then we watched a couple of Hallmark Christmas movies until it was almost time for supper. We decided we’d go get hamburgers from Culver’s. It’s only a few minutes away and a place we’ve been wanting to try. We got takeout and it was very good. Max was a little bummed that we didn’t eat inside because his “Service Animal” vest showed up in the mail just before we left to get the food. With it, he could have gone inside with us.

This SUV was parked Culver’s lot next to the drive thru lane. Quite festive.

When we got home Diane dialed up another Hallmark movie to watch while we ate.

So you see a pattern here? Hallmark movies are fun. But, we’ve also been watching old episodes of NCIS and other shows we like. Most of the episodes are old enough that we don’t remember them so it’s all good.

Before retiring for the night Diane went through the mail and gave me a stack because they were bills. I’m the one who pays them. Yippee! Oh yes, Max’s vest! I’ll get a picture of him wearing it tomorrow. It’s a little tight, but quite snazzy.

To end the day I took Max out for his walk before bed. We never go far because I’m a little leary of the coyotes. Sometimes on the night walk we can hear them in the distance so we stay close to the lights. Most of the RVs in the park have lights laying under their rigs to keep pests away and I suspect it helps keep the coyotes away, too. I haven’t seen one, yet, so it must work.

That’s pretty much it for today.