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Camperless Travel-Barstow (Apr 3) 2026
As we were driving to Barstow, we came across this solar farm with these huge mirrors facing up into the sky. Ed read about it and it is some kind of super conductor or something…he did tell me about it, but I didn’t really understand it. HA!
I was much more interested in a little town that we passed that had these awesome sculptures out in the middle of nowhere! It’s Nipton, California. A famous three-story tall metal and glass jellyfish sculpture named Bloom, created by artist Peter Hazel, was relocated from the Burning Man festival to the Mojave Desert town of Nipton, California. This was the closest we could get to the sculptures, I zoomed in as far as I could.
I couldn’t find anything about the other two sculptures we could see, but the town was not open. I found the following on Wikipedia: “In January 2023, Nipton was purchased by Spiegelworld, an American theater company, for $2.5 million. Spiegelworld has stated that Nipton will become their new base of operations and will become a place “where Spiegelworld artists and performers will retreat to dream, create and undertake unfettered artistic experimentation.” I was bummed, as it looks like a really interesting place!
We stayed at the Towneplace Suites in Barstow. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it is in the same parking lot as one of the original Del Taco! I went through the drive thru and they didn’t have anything I recognized from the chains, so I went to Panda Express instead. Arrrrghhh!
On Friday, we went to Edwards AFB and to Calico Ghost Town. Mama and I went to Calico years ago and we really enjoyed it. Now it is very commercialized. The shops and buildings are all full of tacky tourist crap shops. I was quite disappointed.
Once I realized about the Barstow Del Taco, I told Ed we had to go for lunch. It lived up to the hype! Co-founder Ed Hackbarth kept ownership of the Barstow stores when selling the rest of the company in 1976, meaning they operate outside the corporate and national franchise system. They use the original recipes and keep the traditional way of serving the items. I ordered the Red Burrito, The Barstow Taco, the Taco Burger and a Combo Cup, all of which are not available in the franchise locations. The amount of meat and freshly grated cheese in the taco was otherwolrdly! I had to take 1/2 of it all back to the hotel, as it was so much food! I am ruined off Taco Bell now, Del Taco is superior, but the Barstow Del Taco is heaven.
After lunch, we drove on to Fresno for our next stay…
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Camperless Travel-Flagstaff (Mar 30-Apr 3) 2026
We made a stop in Winslow, Arizona on our way to our hotel in Flagstaff.
We drove the ‘musical’ road section, it is interesting. You might be able to make out the tune. We did it a few times…and it just sounded like noise to me!
My darling son bought me this orchid and gave it to me in Wichita Falls. His youth is charming at times, as he obviously did not think about the fact that I have to travel with this huge thing! I do love it, but I am praying that it survives, not only me, but the constant travel. Ed is already trying to give it away because I keep yelling at him to be careful when he is putting things in the car around it! LOL
On Tuesday, we went to Williams, AZ and took the train to the Grand Canyon. There was a mishap with out tickets, we booked the bus tour, but they put us on the wrong train, so we missed that and lunch. I was extremely frustrated as it was cold and we had nowhere to go, so we just ended up wandering around the immediate area and had a very costly mediocre lunch. The train ride was good fun, so it wasn’t a wasted day, just a frustrating period during the day.
Ed and Scooby both were set up to be robbed, but I guess Scooby was too intimidating, as Ed got robbed, but Scooby kept his cash!
On Thursday we drove the scenic route to Sedona and onto Jerome. It is a pretty drive. Sedona was a madhouse of people everywhere, so we opted not to stop there.
We went on to Cottonwood and Jerome. There were Art-o-mat’s at each town, so that is what took us there. The shop in Cottonwood was a quirky record shop. In Jerome, it was at a bar. The town of Jerome was a trip! The road to it is switchbacks and the kind of road I love. The town is super cute. There is a skullatorium there. We ended up not going, as Ed didn’t seem too interested. I will make him go the next time we are in this area.
The drive was a great way to spend the day. I was honestly a bit surprised to see woodland type beauty in Arizona. This is certainly a part of Arizona I have never seen.
We probably would have stayed longer if we had realized how much there is to do in the area, but we are headed to Barstow next.
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Camperless Travel-Albuquerque (Mar 29) 2026
We are just making a stop in Albuquerque for a night. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. Nothing exciting happened and really nothing to write about. We will keep heading westward.
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Camperless Travel-Wichita Falls (March 28) 2026
We stopped in Wichita Falls for the night to visit with James.. We had a nice visit and of course, I forgot to take pictures. We had supper together and hung out at our hotel, the Marriot. The hotel was very nice. There was some big retirement party for a fire chief or something going on at the convention center that is attached to the hotel and good lawdy, the hair was high and the sparkles were sparkling! All the men were decked out in their dress boots and hats. It looked like something out of the old show Dallas! LOL!
The only photo I took was of this buffalo print in the lobby. Ed and I have an inside joke about buffalo, so we always notice them!
Tomorrow we skedattle outta Texas!
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Camperless Travel-Back to Dallas (Mar 26-28) 2026
Back to Texas for a couple days.
We stopped by Mama’s house and saw this bird on her street! I have never seen a bird like this in our area of Texas. I wonder if it escaped from somewhere, though I didn’t see a band on it. Weird.
We stayed at a Hilton Home2 Suites next to UTSW, which is where my surgery was. We really didn’t do anything other than that. It was a day surgery and we stayed one night after just to be sure everything was good to go.
Ed had been telling me about this place near UTSW called Cake Bar. They are the only place he could find that makes Hummingbird Cake, so he took me there so we could get Mama a cake and we got some slices for us to take on the road. They were delicious! Mama loved hers and we really enjoyed ours. If you are in the area, you definitely should try them out.
We are headed outta Dallas next!
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Camperless Travel-Hot Springs (Mar 16-26) 2026
We went to DeGray Lodge for 6 days. The room was SMALL and dated. I was unhappy, but got over it.
This photo shows the entire room, minus my bed and the bathroom, which was also very small.
We did enjoy the stay at DeGray. I wasn’t feeling too great so we mostly just hung out at the lodge. We walked the trails and just enjoyed the downtime. We did enjoy the onsite restaurant, they had some good dishes.
We managed to snag a cabin at Lake Catherine for the last few days of our trip. I was MUCH happier there! We did a few things in Hot Springs, but for the most part, just relaxed and enjoyed our time together. It is funny how being out of the camper is such a different dynamic for Ed and I. Of course, having Scooby all the time is also a way different dynamic. He IS a service dog, so we have that going for us and with the new dementia diagnosis, I am happy to have him close.
We spent a day at Garvan Woodland Gardens. It is such a nice place to wander and relax.
We took a shuttle tour of Hot Springs and spent the day wandering around town. We always enjoy Hot Springs.
Next we head back to Texas for a couple days.
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Camperless Travel-Dallas (Mar 7-16) 2026
We flew out of Santa Barbara on Saturday. Our flight was delayed due to weather in Dallas, but it worked out well for us, as I guess some folks changed flights and we ended up with an empty seat in our row. Scooby was happy to have his own seat space, instead of having to squeeze under the seat in front of me. There was a nasty bit of turbulence on the flight, so I was super glad to have Ed with me, as I don’t do well with turbulence!
We got to DFW and picked up our rental car, a Buick Encore, it is a nice SUV. We checked into the Drury Plaza Hotel at Cityline, my usual Dallas haunt.
While in Dallas, I had some medical things to take care of. We also took Scooby to the vet, as he has been having some urinary incontinence and has been a bit clingy/whiny which is unusual for him. I was certain he had a urinary tract infection from what I had read up on. Well, his urine test showed some crystals in his urine, but no infection and his bladder scan was normal. This is when the visit took an unexpected turn. The vet had us fill out a questionnaire and broke the news to us that Scooby is suffering from moderate dementia. I was completely shocked and emotional at this news! She put him on a special diet and prescribed him anxiety pills. She stated that similar to humans, dementia is not treatable, we can only treat the symptoms. She assured me that this will not reduce his lifespan, per se, but there is no way to know how quickly the dementia may progress, if at all.
We originally were scheduled to return to California on the 13th, however, the repair shop has indicated that the repairs are going to take 2 weeks longer than expected. I was able to get a surgery I needed scheduled for the 27th, so we decided to go ahead and cancel our flight. We decided that we would drive back to California after the surgery.
We stayed in Dallas until the 15th doing errands, medical appointments and some financial stuff. I spent lots of time with Mama and Ed spent time doing “Ed” things.
Then we decided to go to Hot Springs as a side trip prior to my surgery.
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Camperless Travel-Santa Barbara (March 6) 2026
Well, we dropped off the camper to be fixed. I am not too impressed with the guy that we spoke to about the repairs. He seemed a bit flighty and more of a shyster than an honest businessman. I dunno, Ed thinks I am being a bit harsh. We shall see.
Tonight we are staying in an adorable place in Santa Monica called the Lemon Tree Inn. I had to laugh, as there was no lemon decor or indication that there are lemon trees on the property, but it was a cute place all the same. Our room had a nice little balcony and the weather was perfect for having supper out there.
We are just down the road from the airport, so we will be leaving the truck parked at the airport and flying to Dallas in the morning.
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Vandenburg AFB FamCamp (March 5) 2026
The camper needs some repairs. We have had it scheduled and knew we would be dropping it off. It works out decently, as it is my scheduled time to go to Dallas, so Ed and Scooby are going to fly to Dallas with me while the camper is in the shop!
We stayed one night at Vandenberg, so we really didn’t experience much. We packed up the camper for the shop and we packed for Dallas. We will be dropping the camper off at the shop in the morning.
Off for some camperless travel!
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Seabreeze FamCamp (Feb 12-Mar 5) 2026
We have had this stay reserved for about a year. I was so excited when we booked this stop because it is literally two blocks from Aunt Jan’s house. I had no idea how hard it would be to pull in and see an area that I have visited many times before and feel that empty space in my heart. I wish we had come sooner.
Our welcoming committee were prompt to arrive as we were setting up. Umm…this was the reason they warned us to keep Scooby close! That is the walking trail that goes right by our site.
This FamCamp is a really nice place, despite the coyotes, who never actually bothered us, but boy were they around alot. We even saw a turf war between two packs one evening. They serenaded us often in the evenings, too.
Our site was a corner site, with our door facing no neighbors. My FAVORITE type of site! The hummingbirds came quite quickly, too, which is always a joy.
One day I was watching the birds and ground squirrels out my window and I noticed a heron who was almost like a statue. It moved occasionally in super slow motion. Then as I was watching trying to figure out if something was wrong with it, BOOM! It snapped up a ground squirrel out of it’s hole and flew away!!! I was shocked. I knew herons at fish, however, I didn’t realize herons ate squirrels ~yikes~ This video is only the stalking, no squirrels are harmed in this video.
I told Mama that this campground is a bit like living in a Discovery nature show!
While we were staying here, we frequented Disneyland. SHOCK! I will spare you all the photos from Disney and Universal, but here are a few.
The last time we will see the Mark Twain Island and Paddle Boat! It is strange to think that this will be completely gone the next time we visit!
A little treat from my favorite ride!
We did go to Universal to at least experience the new Super Nintendo World. It was fun!
We saw this cool old McDonald’s one day when we were out and about. There is a museum around here, too, we didn’t make it there this time.
When we went to Universal, I just HAD to try VooDoo Doughnut. They had so many awesome flavors to choose from. I ended up getting the VooDoo Doll Eclair, the maple bacon bar and banana cream pie. They were all delicious. It took me 6 days to eat them, because they were so rich! I was glad I tried them.
This was the view from our campsite. I don’t recall ever seeing the San Gabriel range with snow on it. I suppose I have usually traveled here in the summertime. I enjoyed seeing them snowcapped.
A couple of days while we were here, the soldiers were doing drills in the field across from us. It was interesting to watch.
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here at Seal Beach. We hope to be back again soon and to spend more time visiting the area. We have to admit, we overbooked Disneyland. We tend to forget that Disneyland, while we do love it, is much different from Disney World. We did have a great time, however, we realize that next time, we need less Disney and more free time for other things in the area. *Can you believe we can admit that!* We are sorry, Mickey!!
Where will our next adventure take us?
