Thursday, January 31, 2013

Cabrillo National Park

January 31, 2013

It was a perfect day for a scooter ride and a picnic. Destination...Cabrillo National Park. It is only a 50 mile loop  "avoiding major highways"  from the KOA. A nice ride down Harbor Drive passing the Navy Base, the airport, yacht clubs, sky scrapers, and parks.

Cabrillo is located at the southern tip of the Point Loma Peninsula in San Diego.It commemorates the landing of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo at San Diego Bay in September, 1542. This event marked the first time that a European expedition had set foot on what later became the West Coast of the United States.

The park offers a view of San Diego's harbor and skyline.
The Old Point Loma Lighthouse is the highest point in the park and has been a San Diego icon since 1855. It was closed in 1891 and a new one opened at a lower elevation because fog and low clouds often obscured the light.
The statue of Cabrillo looking out over the bay was authorized by Calvin Coolidge for the Portuguese Government in 1939, who then donated it to the United States. The limestone monument is 14 feet tall.
The western side of Point Loma...the Pacific Ocean.


Sunset Cliffs...a popular spot to view the ocean and sunset.

Blue Guitars and Tandy Leather

January 29,2013
This is The Blue Guitar. Chris (from Taylor Guitars ) had suggested this store for a great guitar buying experience. It is located at 5959 Mission Gorge Rd., San Diego. Chris was not wrong!
 
This is DeForest. He is the proprietor of The Blue Guitar. His selection is awesome and he set the stage to make the selection process so easy. Joe had asked about the GS Mini spruce and GS Mini Mahogany...he had both, he tuned both , set them both up on stands and then left for Joe to play and enjoy. We knew before we got there (from the internet) that his price was right so that was not even an issue.
A tough decision...spruce...
We left with the mahogany !

...or mahogany. 

They jammed...


Another stop on Tuesday was at Tandy Leather in La Mesa . One of Joe's hobbies is leather work.
They have a huge selection of tools and gadgets...so many things to look at.


Joe is deciding on leather for belts. They have a great selection and locations all over the U.S. We have also ordered on-line.


Joe made these saddle bags for the Harley last spring. He got the idea when we were in Cody, WY. He had checked the horse saddle bags to see if they would work...too big. So he designed them and cut out a pattern on paper...cut the leather and began stitching. All the stitching is done by hand, usually with 2 needles. The stitching over the seat is really pretty... a basket weave edge treatment that took longer to do than hand cutting and stitching the bags.
 Then he dyed them...he wanted black bags....I sortta liked the natural look.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Taylor Guitars




Taylor Guitars


January 28,2013
About 10 years ago, Joe bought a Taylor Guitar....a 410 ce.  So visiting the Taylor Guitar service center, visitor center, and factory tour in El Cajon, CA was at the top of the "Let's go here places." while in San Diego. 



Joe took his guitar to the service center to be checked out. No big concerns...new strings. Joe has always left his guitar in tune even though he has read not to...turns out he was right. We met Randy, who took care of Joe's guitar, and he agreed...always have tension on the strings.


After business was taken care of, we went to the Visitor Center. It's divided into 2 parts...gift shop and showroom. The gift shop was full of all the "gift shop" items you would expect to find...t shirts, hats and caps, mugs and glasses, books. The nice thing was that there were also guitars you could pick up and play. Joe was interested in a Baby Taylor since we have limited space and 4 pups in the MH, but really liked the GS Mini after playing it. While we were there, we met Chris. He is the Visitor Center Coordinator and a nice young man. We discussed guitars, comparing one to another, and  of course pups. He has a boxer great dane mix. Also he suggested the Hilltop Deli for lunch since we had an hour and it was walking distance.

The showroom displays all the Taylor Guitars made...


Joe is reading about the 400 series.
 












This was the view from the hilltop. Lunch was yummy...ham and swiss with honey mustard, lettuce and tomato on toasted sourdough bread with a side of pasta salad...way too much food. We should have shared!



Our tour guide
Hand drawn shapes...no knots or defects.











Bob Taylor and his team have brought many new innovations to the guitar manufacturing process. He has shared this technology with the guitar industry at large. We were totally surprised you are encouraged to take pictures and even videos of his entire manufacturing plant. This included the robotics developed specifically for guitar manufacturing by his team.





This robot applies the finish. In past years this took weeks to apply, dry,and sand over and over. Today it is all done in a matter of hours.







We had a great time. The tour is free Monday - Friday at 1:00 pm.

I don't pretend to know all about making these beautiful instruments. I do know that each one is a work of art and oh what a sound.

Thanks for stopping by our blog. Life is good! Enjoy today and "Y'all come back!"

Monday, January 28, 2013

San Diego Metro KOA

Yesterday we left Tucson and headed for our next adventure in San Diego. My first trip to SoCal. Getting here was quite an adventure in itself. We traveled on I-8 over the Santa Rosa mountains. It was rainy, very foggy and windy and there are no guard rails! Joe remained very calm with white knuckles and focused as I ooohed and aaahed and was pointing out all the sights. We even saw snow! So we arrived here in Chula Vista at the KOA and oh my.....what a pleasant surprise. We quickly moved  into site # 2102 on the back side of the park. Well, not before we drove the car into the flower bed on the corner where I was suppose to be watching. Our wheel stuck on the rock below and broke a solar light. Oopps!  You guessed it....our next order of business was to check out the doggie park.











Another pleasant surprise...
Wrecks catching the ball...
...and Jack coming back for more!
Fresh water is nice...
...and a pretty place for visiting.
We met Dakota...he likes to play ball too. Today we met Cooper and Bella.
This is Ramone. He is the Assistant Manager. He has worked here for 30 years. The KOA is in the third generation of a family owned park. We had a meet and greet with him bright and early this morning. This is a requirement for anyone staying a month or more. He was so nice, even when we "fessed up" about the solar light which we insisted on replacing. The park workers were all out and about working hard this morning.


This is Lisa. She owned her own landscaping business for 25 years and had actually done work here back in the 90s. When she retired, she was asked by the owners to live here and be the official gardener.  She has been planting and pruning for a few weeks. It is really pretty!


The back side of the MH...did you notice? The slide is OUT!

It is so nice to be here and settled in for awhile! Thank you to everyone who visits our blog. I love all my  BBs...Blogging Buddies. A warm welcome goes out to quite a few new members who have joined in to good-times-rollin.  It's quite a unique life we RVers have. What a blessing it is to know others and share all of our experiences! 
 
Thanks again for visiting...be safe, enjoy, and y'all come back real soon!