TT RANCHO OSO, SANTA BARBARA, CA

September 30 – October 07 – One of our favorite Thousand Trails preserves is Rancho Oso. It’s a beautiful preserve located in the middle of the San Padres National Forest. No Pickleball players here either!! But, we always enjoyed the horses, deer, and other animals around the park. This year they must have been more than 100 horses, some belong to the park for trail rides by Thousand Trails members and the public, others are boarded by private owners. They were beautiful out in the pastures!

(I missed the wild Turkeys and Goats.)

We took a drive to view the beautiful scenery the Forest has to offer.

We really didn’t have to leave the park at all. This is the view from our dining room window!!

We love the town of Santa Barbara, only about 15 miles south. We drove in on Saturday to shop the Farmers Market. We thought we did well with out purchases. The main thing I wanted was Sour Dough Bread. Only one vendor was selling breads at $4 a loaf!!

Our GPS arrived at last!!! So we were safe again to drive around!! Our first trip was back into Santa Barbara to pick up mail. After that, we went to the Santa Ynez Valley and came upon these workers gathering Organic vegetables at an Organic farm.

On our way home we stopped at Andersen’s in the Bavarian town of Buellton to have their world famous Split Pea Soup. UUMMM!!

FLAG IS UP FARM, SANTA YNEZ, CA

October 04 – One of our favorite things to do is to go to the Flag Is Up Farm, owned by famous horse trainer, Monty Roberts. The farm is open to visitors – just drive in and make yourself at home.


So we made ourselves at home.

A young lady exercising her beautiful horse!

Ken tamed the frisky colt!!

It was a delightful afternoon!!

NIKI COMES TO VISIT US AT RANCHO OSO

October 03 – Ken’s granddaughter, Niki, lives Culver City, CA, about two hours south of Rancho Oso. She works for a movie studio, coordinating special effects. In fact, Niki is currently working on the soon-to-be-released Country Strong starring Tim McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow. Watch for Niki Hillier’s name in the Credits when you see the movie!!

Niki drove up to visit with us on Sunday. We showed her around the preserve, especially the horses.

After a late lunch, we decided to drive into Santa Barbara and take a Sun Set Cruise on the Double Dolphin, a 50-foot catamaran.

It was a beautiful day up in the mountains, but as we approached Santa Barbara, the fog rolled in and ultimately our Cruise was cancelled.

We were not ready to eat again so we took a scenic drive up to the Santa Barbara Mission that Niki had not seen.

I took a picture of this bell at the Mission because we had seen this type bell all along Hwy 101 as we headed south. I think the bells designated historic sites.

It was beginning to get late so we took Niki to her car, planning to get together again soon. It was great to see her!!

This was our drive back to Rancho Oso a little later.

TRAVELING IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

TT LAKE MINDEN, NICOLAUS, CA -

September 22 – 27 – After leaving Marti and Norm and Oregon, we decided to go inland, looking for the California sun!! We found plenty of sun at TT Lake Minden, Nicolaus, CA, northeast of Sacramento. But we found something else, too. Aphids!! Our car was parked under the maple trees that were full of aphids that were eating the leaves and depositing juices all over our car (Ken said it was urine – ugh!!). We felt like we were in a si-fi movie and covered with slime!! It was all over the car, the door handles, the ground, our shoes – everything!!

Usually we enjoy being at Lake Minden because we always run into some Pickleball players. This year there were no players; in fact, there were no nets on the courts and wild grass is beginning to take over. It was sad!!

So with no Pickleball, we spent most of our time looking for a new GPS. I had placed our Magellan Maestro 4040 on the RV dash and somehow it fell into the stair well and a part broke off. Magellan said they could not repair it and offered to replace it for $$ if I sent the broken one back; otherwise the cost would be 2 X $$!! We spent time looking at and trying other brands but ended up deciding the Magellan offer was as good as any; however it would be 10 days before we could get the new one.

We had to navigate without a GPS for 10 days!! Can’t believe we used to do that all that time.


TT MORGAN HILL, MORGAN HILL, CA –

September 27 – 30 – Our next stop was at TT Morgan Hill, just outside of Gilroy, the Garlic Capital of the World!! We spent most of our brief time there washing and cleaning the vehicles. It felt sooo good not to have that gook all over us!!

No Pickleball players at Morgan Hill either, but it was too hot to play anyway.

We did not do any touring on these stops. We had already done a lot of touring when we were here six years ago and decided we will probably be back again next year to do the touring bit.

KEN AND FAYE EWBANK PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT AT TT CHESAPEAKE BAY, VA

September 5 – Can you believe how thrilled we were to discover that the Labor Day weekend Pickleball Tournament at TT Chesapeake Bay was named for us this year – The Ken and Faye Ewbank Pickleball Tournament!!! Can you believe that!! We were unable to be there this year – we were out in La Conner, WA getting out butts beaten in the tournaments there!! Mike R. who ran the Chesapeake Bay tournament had asked us before we left if we would mind if they named the tournament after us, but we never believed it would actually happen. Thank you guys. That was such an honor!!

Here are the participants taken from the Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay Preserve Friends Facebook site.. We know most of the players, but there were several we have never met. Hope to do so sometime in the future.


Here some real live action from Son, Mike -- a "chip off the old block"!!

Here are the winners:

Tournament Champions - John and Paul. (Mike R. (left) presented the prizes.)

Runners Up Championship Bracket - Todd and Mike E.

Winners A Bracket - Fran and David.

Runners Up A Bracket - Jack and Diane.

Winners B Bracket - Jack and Bob.

Runners Up B Bracket - Debbie and Mike R.

Winners C Bracket - Cheryl and Frankie.

Runners Up C Bracket - Rob and Zach.

Congratulations to the Winners and to all of the participants!!

I sent our friend John a congratulatory e-mail on his winning the Championship. We received the following response. It made us laugh so we wanted to share it with you!! (Hope you don’t mind, John.).

Thanks!!! It was a great time and now I will have a very nice medal that says "Ken and Faye Ewbank Champion" on it for the rest of my life!! Mike Roberts and his wife did a great job and the tournament went very, very well.