Out In The WIlds At Pine Valley

We went up to Pine Valley and found ourselves at the trailhead right about where that top smiley is.  Lots of trucks and such with motorcycles and three-wheelers, as Pine Valley Road is an off-road vehicle approved, uh, road.

We started off down the trail to the left, which is NOT off-road vehicle approved.  Although there were certainly tread tracks showing some had been there!  We were passed by two guys with three friendly dogs along the way.

Some sections of the first leg were VERY steep, like steep stairs, really.  Stairs with ruts and rocks!

At the end of the first leg, before we turned and headed east, I felt dizzy and sick.  I ate and drank a bit, and felt better.  But I felt very tired most of the way back, and stopped quite a several times to rest in the shade.

We found thirteen geocaches, didn't find one, and skipped three.

It was pretty fun (except for the dizzy & sick-felling parts!), and was a trail I have never been on before.

Thanks for reading!

The QM and Other Stuff

I was out geocaching the other day.  I missed FTF (First To Find) by one, I was STF (I made that up).

Yet another selfie, this time at the "tower" in San Carlos that has been there since I was a kid.

A magazine cover with a favorite story from a favorite author. From my "collection".

At the Queen Mary in Long beach.  Here we see some lifeboats on the starboard side.

Here we see them again, but now the passing boat is almost centered.

Yet another lifeboat.

This is the ship's radio room.  I talked to the volunteer who was manning the station for a while.  They have a ham radio station that is active.

Quite a few of these pieces of equipment I have no idea what they do. I was told that the packet station was running on a Windows 98 computer.

This looks like the main CW operating position.

This life boat is on the port side, and seems to have levers that the occupants have to operate to make the boat go. I surmise.

Looking back along the port side towards the stern, a long line of lifeboats.

Behind the Queen Mary there is a cruise boat at their own dock, soon to be taking on passengers.

Some rocks of the jetty that surrounds the Queen Mary. The jetty was built with rocks quarried on Catalina Island.

The bow of the Queen Mary and the bow of the Russian submarine B-427 next door.

Long Beach viewed through cabin porthole.

Long Beach viewed through cabin porthole at night!!

Selfie with Long Beach viewed through...ahhh, forget it!!!

I don't know why some of these thumbnails are the wrong size.  I DO know these pictures are somewhat out of order, due to me taking them with two devices, and the image numbers being out of sequence, thusly.


See, here, this picture should be back the jetty rocks one!

A panorama of the cabin I stayed in.

Here is the bathroom.  Nice!  It has an EXCELLENT flusher, and the room even has a fan.  How come my bathroom at home doesn't have a fan, eh?

Driving home on Sunday Morning I stopped at the View Point.  Seems a little foggy out there on the ocean.

I did some geocaches in Kearny Mesa on the way home. At one I found I had lost my pen.  I retraced my steps to the previous cache, and there it was!  Good thing I put that orange duct tape on it!

Oh, and here is some of the geo-SWAG I picked up at the geo-event on the Queen Mary.

Thanks for reading!!!

Mostly October, But Not Necessarily In Order

September 26th

What a bear on a train may look like. I made this for some article I saw on Fark about lost items found on British trains.  No one was interested.

September 27th

I finally got one of these stickers for my vehicle!  I am SO happy!!

September 24th

I posted this on FB in a pathetic response to some of the stuff I've seen on there.

I posted this on FB to amuse the folks.  No one was amused.

October 3rd

iPhone repair day. I have worked up the gumption to take the sucker apart.

I read a how-to article.

Here it is, all opened up.  With the proper tools it is MUCH easier than I imagined.

The battery was incredible hard to get out.  Apple uses these VERY sticky strips to make sure that battery ain't going no where, no how.  I finally got it out, then...

I had to get the sticky strips out.  Well, THAT, at least, was very easy.

The home button was not working, so I replaced the guts to that.  It didn't work afterwards, either.

That OptiVisor does not work as well as it used to.  Must be defective.

Ok, it's back together and it WORKS!  Yeah!!  Except for the home button, I found out later...

I took some photos to make sure the camera part still worked.

And that was that!  Did I save any money?  Nope!  But I learned a bit (Pay someone else to do it!) and acquired some useful tools.  More tweezers!

October 4th

What we have here, for dessert, is chocolate pave.

October 5th

Several pictures of the same piece of cake.

October 7th

Graham crackers with peanut butter (crunchy, of course!), it fulfills a certain need.

It coming on Halloween time, and I saw these scary tomatoes at the store!

September 30

Out of order, but what do you care, eh?  An edited StreetView image showing what the Pizza Palace on Fletcher Parkway may have looked like, back in the day.

September or October, who can remember these things?

Here are a couple of Wizard Of Oz related images that I came across on the 'net and found amusing.

Well, they WERE silver, in the books...

Thanks for reading!

I Got Gas Again

Seriously, you may not want to hear this, but I have had some serious cases of flatulence lately.

But I did fill up the tank this morning.

I spent $37.60 for 12.623 gallons with the odometer at 42,504 miles.

The trip-o-meter said 342.6 miles, and that would make the gas mileage 27.1 mpg, but believing that would cause me to doubt your sanity. So don't!!