kc5grw
Musket Mickey's Motoring Maniac #1
- Joined
- May 13, 2003
- Messages
- 1,220
Pics can be seen here: http://s375.photobucket.com/albums/oo200/kc5grw/
look in the Christmas 2008 album. There are between 2300 and 2400 total images.
Okay not really a trip report, but just a brief summary.
We departed Mesquite, TX on our way to Anaheim, CA on 12/20. Stopped first night in Van Horn KOA. Not a bad campground for being out in the middle of nowhere. Trip here really sucked the fuel though. I normally get about 9.5 pulling the fifth wheel, but ended up getting 8.5 to this point. The cold front that was headed for Dallas ripped through here Saturday night with lows into the 30s. Dang.
Second leg of the trip took us to the Blythe KOA just on the Colorado River just inside CA. Much better fuel consumption today, above 10s for this leg. Fuel(diesel) also got consistently cheaper as the trip progressed. Night quite as cold overnight as in Van Horn.
Last leg into Anaheim saw us cross back over the bridge into AZ to fuel up at the Ehrenberg FJ for 1.93. Can't beat that with a stick. Trip across the desert wasn't too bad but this thick clouds and drizzle once we got near Palm Springs and for the rest of the drive. Made it into the Anaheim RV Village about 2pm. This is the old Travelers World RV park. It is less than a mile walking to Disneyland and less that half mile as the crow flies. Could see the Matterhorn easily. You really got a sense for how close you were when the fireworks went off every night. It sound like they were being set off right next door. Dang, that first burst just about scared everybody out of their skin. The park itself, pretty much a parking lot, was actually better than the other "rv parks" in the area. It was quite cool for almost the entire week 12/22 - 12/29. With a warmup finally happening the day before we leave. The bathroom and shower facilities we clean, but heat was pretty much non-existent in the bathrooms and shower rooms. I would recommend the park if you want close proximity to the parks. I had originally planned on Canyon RV park which is about 15 miles away, but much less like a parking lot. I decided that the proximity to the park was more important.
Since we made it into Anaheim early enough in the afternoon Monday we decided to hit Disneyland for Magic Morning Tuesday 12/23. This actually worked out really well. We got to the park about 10 minutes before opening and there wasn't a huge crowd yet. Because we were able to get there that early we hit every major attraction, except Nemo, without a wait longer that about 10 minutes. Everything we missed we saved for another day. We took 12/24 off and I decided to go to Universal on 12/25. The weather for our US day was really sucky with drizzle on and off most of the day. This really kept the crowds down and help us breeze through most of the attractions without problems. 2 best attractions here were the Simpson's ride and Revenge of the Mummy. The Simpson's was great and Disney could take a few pointers from this ride. It is a very immersive simulator type ride with an IMAX type screen. Very realistic. The Mummy was a great indoor coaster, theming kinda sucked, but fun coaster along the lines of Rokin Roller Coaster and just a bit longer. We also took advanatage of the "All You Can Eat" deal that US has and it worked pretty good even for the short day on Christmas. 12/26 found us at California Adventure hitting Soaring first, grabbing fast passes to Tower then on to Toy Story. We made sure to see Aladdin and it was a really great show. If you're ever in CA, this is definitely a must see and I would pick it in lieu of anything else if time is a factor. 12/27 and 12/28 say us back at Disneyland and CA catching up on the attractions we missed the first time through.
All in all it was a really good trip albeit a little cool. My mother and myself were the only ones that had ever been to Disneyland before and much has changed. Everybody enjoyed the parks. My oldest DD, a Nightmare Before Christmas fanatic, loved the NBC mansion. Everybody enjoyed the Aladdin show. My oldest DD now is conflicted as to whether she wants to be in Beauty and the Beast at the World or Aladdin at DL.
Even though everybody enjoyed DL and CA, the new comment I've been hearing. Instead of "I miss Mickey" it is now "I miss Fort Wilderness". I have to agree that staying at Fort Wilderness really keeps you immersed in the magic and makes for a very memorable vacation. Even if the Fort is 2X the cost.
The trip home was a bit more leisurely. We left Anaheim about 10am on 12/29. First stop was Benson, AZ at the Benson KOA, gee notice a pattern here. Another desert campground with decent facilities but very close quarters. We stopped here because my wife's late husbands mom lives in Sierra Vista and we also wanted to visit Saguaro National Parlk and Tombstone. Another cold night here with temps dropping below freezing. Took awhile for the dang hose and faucet to thawThe visist to Saguaro is interesting with lots of pictures of cactus. We visited Tombstone, Boot Hill and Allen St. Boot Hill is a great piece of history. The thing that really surprised me here was that my oldest DD (15) was actually taking the time to view each grave and the comments in the guide. She seemed genuinely interested in the history here. Allen St is nice to walk through, but essentially a tourist trap.
We decided while in AZ that a stop in Carslbad would be fun. On 12/31 we headed toward Carlsbad. We took the route through Almagordo and Cloudcroft into Carlsbad. Cloudcroft had some recent snowfall and both DDs (13 and 15) being central Texas gals had really never seen that much snow. I found a wide spot in the road just past the summit and stopped to left them have some fun the the relatively fresh powder. We made it into the Carlsbad KOA which sits about half way between Artesia and Carlsbad. This is a pretty nice RV park I think it originally opened under different owners and names though. Maybe Seven Rivers or something similar. It is another desert campground, but lots of room between sites. Even though gravel the site was very level. In fact, now that I think about it, every campground we stopped at had nice level sites. The facilities in this campground were the best on the trip. In fact the women of the excursion (meaning everyone but me) commented that the bathrooms and showers were second only to the Fort. 1/1 found us in the caverns. I think I've been here probably 5 times in my life and they are always fascinating. Always finding new stuff. My DDs also enjoyed the caverns. I was actually a bit surprised that they didn't get bored that quickly. I guess they're at the right age to appreciate the beauty.
Last leg of the trip saw us arrive back home in Mesquite on 1/2, 13 days and 3400 miles after we left. It was a great trip, but as usual it's always great to be back home. One nice thing here is that because of the economy my employer was idled most factories over the holidays and I won't actually be back at work until 1/12.
Not sure when I'll get my pics up on photobucket. Between 3 cameras we have almost 2000 pics.
look in the Christmas 2008 album. There are between 2300 and 2400 total images.
Okay not really a trip report, but just a brief summary.
We departed Mesquite, TX on our way to Anaheim, CA on 12/20. Stopped first night in Van Horn KOA. Not a bad campground for being out in the middle of nowhere. Trip here really sucked the fuel though. I normally get about 9.5 pulling the fifth wheel, but ended up getting 8.5 to this point. The cold front that was headed for Dallas ripped through here Saturday night with lows into the 30s. Dang.
Second leg of the trip took us to the Blythe KOA just on the Colorado River just inside CA. Much better fuel consumption today, above 10s for this leg. Fuel(diesel) also got consistently cheaper as the trip progressed. Night quite as cold overnight as in Van Horn.
Last leg into Anaheim saw us cross back over the bridge into AZ to fuel up at the Ehrenberg FJ for 1.93. Can't beat that with a stick. Trip across the desert wasn't too bad but this thick clouds and drizzle once we got near Palm Springs and for the rest of the drive. Made it into the Anaheim RV Village about 2pm. This is the old Travelers World RV park. It is less than a mile walking to Disneyland and less that half mile as the crow flies. Could see the Matterhorn easily. You really got a sense for how close you were when the fireworks went off every night. It sound like they were being set off right next door. Dang, that first burst just about scared everybody out of their skin. The park itself, pretty much a parking lot, was actually better than the other "rv parks" in the area. It was quite cool for almost the entire week 12/22 - 12/29. With a warmup finally happening the day before we leave. The bathroom and shower facilities we clean, but heat was pretty much non-existent in the bathrooms and shower rooms. I would recommend the park if you want close proximity to the parks. I had originally planned on Canyon RV park which is about 15 miles away, but much less like a parking lot. I decided that the proximity to the park was more important.
Since we made it into Anaheim early enough in the afternoon Monday we decided to hit Disneyland for Magic Morning Tuesday 12/23. This actually worked out really well. We got to the park about 10 minutes before opening and there wasn't a huge crowd yet. Because we were able to get there that early we hit every major attraction, except Nemo, without a wait longer that about 10 minutes. Everything we missed we saved for another day. We took 12/24 off and I decided to go to Universal on 12/25. The weather for our US day was really sucky with drizzle on and off most of the day. This really kept the crowds down and help us breeze through most of the attractions without problems. 2 best attractions here were the Simpson's ride and Revenge of the Mummy. The Simpson's was great and Disney could take a few pointers from this ride. It is a very immersive simulator type ride with an IMAX type screen. Very realistic. The Mummy was a great indoor coaster, theming kinda sucked, but fun coaster along the lines of Rokin Roller Coaster and just a bit longer. We also took advanatage of the "All You Can Eat" deal that US has and it worked pretty good even for the short day on Christmas. 12/26 found us at California Adventure hitting Soaring first, grabbing fast passes to Tower then on to Toy Story. We made sure to see Aladdin and it was a really great show. If you're ever in CA, this is definitely a must see and I would pick it in lieu of anything else if time is a factor. 12/27 and 12/28 say us back at Disneyland and CA catching up on the attractions we missed the first time through.
All in all it was a really good trip albeit a little cool. My mother and myself were the only ones that had ever been to Disneyland before and much has changed. Everybody enjoyed the parks. My oldest DD, a Nightmare Before Christmas fanatic, loved the NBC mansion. Everybody enjoyed the Aladdin show. My oldest DD now is conflicted as to whether she wants to be in Beauty and the Beast at the World or Aladdin at DL.
Even though everybody enjoyed DL and CA, the new comment I've been hearing. Instead of "I miss Mickey" it is now "I miss Fort Wilderness". I have to agree that staying at Fort Wilderness really keeps you immersed in the magic and makes for a very memorable vacation. Even if the Fort is 2X the cost. The trip home was a bit more leisurely. We left Anaheim about 10am on 12/29. First stop was Benson, AZ at the Benson KOA, gee notice a pattern here. Another desert campground with decent facilities but very close quarters. We stopped here because my wife's late husbands mom lives in Sierra Vista and we also wanted to visit Saguaro National Parlk and Tombstone. Another cold night here with temps dropping below freezing. Took awhile for the dang hose and faucet to thaw
The visist to Saguaro is interesting with lots of pictures of cactus. We visited Tombstone, Boot Hill and Allen St. Boot Hill is a great piece of history. The thing that really surprised me here was that my oldest DD (15) was actually taking the time to view each grave and the comments in the guide. She seemed genuinely interested in the history here. Allen St is nice to walk through, but essentially a tourist trap. We decided while in AZ that a stop in Carslbad would be fun. On 12/31 we headed toward Carlsbad. We took the route through Almagordo and Cloudcroft into Carlsbad. Cloudcroft had some recent snowfall and both DDs (13 and 15) being central Texas gals had really never seen that much snow. I found a wide spot in the road just past the summit and stopped to left them have some fun the the relatively fresh powder. We made it into the Carlsbad KOA which sits about half way between Artesia and Carlsbad. This is a pretty nice RV park I think it originally opened under different owners and names though. Maybe Seven Rivers or something similar. It is another desert campground, but lots of room between sites. Even though gravel the site was very level. In fact, now that I think about it, every campground we stopped at had nice level sites. The facilities in this campground were the best on the trip. In fact the women of the excursion (meaning everyone but me) commented that the bathrooms and showers were second only to the Fort. 1/1 found us in the caverns. I think I've been here probably 5 times in my life and they are always fascinating. Always finding new stuff. My DDs also enjoyed the caverns. I was actually a bit surprised that they didn't get bored that quickly. I guess they're at the right age to appreciate the beauty.
Last leg of the trip saw us arrive back home in Mesquite on 1/2, 13 days and 3400 miles after we left. It was a great trip, but as usual it's always great to be back home. One nice thing here is that because of the economy my employer was idled most factories over the holidays and I won't actually be back at work until 1/12.
Not sure when I'll get my pics up on photobucket. Between 3 cameras we have almost 2000 pics.
