Exploring Life anyway possible!!

You can get to San Clemente by train.

It's not fast but it gets you here. I have ridden it once in my pre-blog days. 😍

There is an unmanned train station right downtown.

The beach walk south from the train station to the pier is wonderful.

However since I was towing my 30ft trailer I didn't take the train, obviously.

Peerless Stroll:

Camping days usually start with a coffee while walking the pier. It just never gets old.

Today I met a new friend on the pier. This guy was not at all shy. I immediately christened him Jonathan.

As in Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull a fantastic light easy read, it's also a wonderful audio book narrated by Richard Harris and a movie which I haven't yet watched.

Driftwood:

I later walked the beach. It has been stormy lately and the beach is strewn with driftwood of all shapes and sizes.

Look at this piece.

I wondered where this had floated in from and imagined it coming down from Portland or Seattle after years and years at sea.

I thought about the loggers pulling a double handed huge saw blade through this timber when it was a tree to cut it down....... then I looked more closely and saw it was actually cut down using a modern chain saw.

But feel free to make up your own story about where it came from.

Bamboo and Bamboo Roots:

Now these next two pieces of flotsam fired my imagination for a bit longer:

I imagine this growing in someplace exotic like Japan and breaking away in a storm to head for California. Because eventually everyone longs for California.

This opened up another kettle of fish I had to research.

Where does bamboo grow?

Shiny Objects and Artistic Skill:

Further along I was distracted by a beautiful clam shell.

No significant thoughts on this other than it was / is pretty. And in it's day was probably tasty.

Artistic skill then entered my brain probably inspired by this local artist.

Who :
1. Sees a rock as a shark head,
2. Goes home gets paints, brushes and other painting paraphernalia
3. Lugs it all the way along the beach and then
4. Paints this for us all to admire ?

Thank you artist person I admire your diligence, effort and skill.

I wonder if the artist is the same person who each Christmas puts decorated Christmas Trees along this stretch of beach ?

Driftwood Architecture - an evolution of sorts.

Random bundles of drift wood began to turn into structures like this.

It's hard to see that as a structure but up close you got the idea.

Here the emerging skill is evident, cross beams could eventually lead to roofing.

A skill finely honed and tuned. The inhabitants, who I assumed were hobbits, had just stepped out when I took this shot.

This next one I am not buying as an act of nature.... but it's cool.

Looks vaguely like a Joshua Tree.

Visitors from up north - Obviously.

These two bikini clad young ladies were obviously not California natives as it was way to cold to be cladding skimpy swim wear and posing for social media photos.

I am guessing they were Minnesotans or maybe Canadians chasing their geese.

Sunless Pier:

The next day was rainy and cloudy, but still walked the pier. Uncommon here in SoCal usually. But I think the view is still spectacular.

Jonathan was there today as well but he didn't feel like being photographed.

I have been visiting this Pier for about 6 years now and I carry my camera each day. It wasn't till 2019 that I discovered these interesting views of the pier. I am not sure what that says about my spacial awareness but I am glad I found the views eventually.

Updates:

Another day by the pier, it was Saturday, I noticed this tiny wee girl in a wet suit carrying her surf board. I was so impressed I asked a by-stander was I seeing this properly. The bystander laughed and said yes she thought so.

A moment later the young ladies Dad arrived armed with a massive camera and lens.

That is him on the LHS of photo on pier looking down at the 3 wee surfers.

The young girl was his daughter and she is 8 years of age. She was surfing with her sister aged 9 and their cousin aged 11. The 8 year old chased fewer waves, caught more waves and was more athletic.

We recently visited the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino Ca.

While I am not an aerospace buff or even an airplane buff, Jim understandably is.

Jim's military service was spent in the Air Force during the Vietnam era. He served at March Field in California March Field and Yokota Air Base west of Tokyo, Japan. Yokota Air Base

I have more knowledge of prairie type plains than air planes, but I knew visiting an airplane museum with Jim would be fun and informative, sort of like a muppets show.

Jim drove, which was a real treat for me. I could look around and see things you just miss as a driver.

For example, right here good old Santa Clarita, while driving out on Newhall Ave, I saw a sign indicating the way to the Pioneer Oil Refinery. The sign is on Newhall Avenue past Hart Park and points the way down Pine Street, which runs parallel to the railroad tracks along their West side. I hope to explore this refinery with my camera in the early New Year.

There is a very good restaurant and brew pub in OTN (Old Town Newhall) named for the refinery. Newhall Refinery it's owned and operated by a lovely couple, Simon and Shannon.

City of Chino

We knew we had arrived in Chino by the agricultural aroma that greeted us on the outskirts of town. I enjoyed the smell of natural fertilizer, being an old country boy, but Jim maybe not so much him being a city slicker and all. Perhaps he's never smelled pig slurry spread over his growing vegetables before.

We had had a wee storm blow through around this time and the snow-capped San Gabriel mountains made for a nice picture.

All the information on how to get the the Air Museum is available on their well maintained website . https://planesoffame.org

The museum itself is very welcoming, with friendly staff, and you have freedom of movement throughout.

A few things gave me a wry smile:

The Restroom Sign

The Airplanes:

Here is where Jim will take over the writing:

Three 1930s ships. The yellow and blue Boeing P-26 on the left once flew out of March AFB, so that was a connection for me, although separated by 40 years.

Ah, wing wires and open cockpits. When airplanes had character.

A pursuit ship built by Seversky in the late 1930s. There was a Clark Gable/Spencer Tracy movie made in the era that featured one of these as a racer that Gable flew, the "Drake Bullet." Good movie, shows up on TCM once in a while

The museum has this Boeing B-17 parked outside; it is undergoing restoration. Another connection for me; my Uncle Phil flew B-17s on bombing missions over Germany.

That ball turret under the plane's belly was usually home to the smallest gunner on the crew; cramped quarters to say the least.

After World War II, many former fighters were heavily modified for the post-war air races, and many continue to fly and race to this day. This re-worked P-51 Mustang is capable of 530 miles per hour.

P-51 Mustang. The paint scheme suggests post-war duty in the Air National Guard.

Vought Corsair. Most of these saw action in the Pacific Theater of the war. Like most fighters operating off of aircraft carriers, it featured folding wings so more aircraft could fit into below-deck hangars.

531.64 mph.

Grumman OV-1 Mohawk. Intended mostly as an observations and reconnaissance aircraft, although it could also by used in ground attack duties.

Faircraft Ranger. Executive transport in the 1930s, the business jet of the era.

Curtiss P40. This one served with the Royal Canadian Air Force

Some German airplanes in the foreign aircraft hangar

U-142 is a Pilatus from Switzerland

Other interesting artifacts included:

The Real Original Enterprise (for Star Trek Fans)

Real or Movie Prop ? A small sign indicated in was used in the recent "Dunkirk" movie

On the door to the restoration workshop

Jim actually salivated at this view.

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, often called "the missile with a man in it." Big engine, tiny wings. This one is in West German marking (when there was still a West Germany.) The U.S. sold a lot of them to the Germans, who had problems with them leading to many crashes. They were hot and hard to handle.

Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, the first operational fighter for the U.S. Air Force, introduced in 1945.

Sherman Tank - I always thought they were bigger !

War damage? Or another movie prop? Hard to tell.

Russian motorcycle by the Ural company. Although looking vintage, these motorcycles are still in production

World War I Sopwith

Front end of a German "Natter" (Adder) aircraft. This was a desperation design by the Germans late in World War II; meant to be launched vertically against Allied bombers, once at altitude this cluster of rockets would then be fired . After that, the pilot was meant to bail out. A one-time-use aircraft; none actually flew in combat.

The Golden Age of Aircraft Racing:

Jim will explain why this particular section of museum was of special interest to him.

"For my Master's degree in Mass Communication, I conducted intensive research into the National Air Races of the 1930s. These was annual events that attracted millions of spectators over the decade. From my research I was able to write a documentary film script about the races and the aircraft, based on my research into newspaper and newsreel archives from the period."

This is and accurate flyable replica of the Miles and Atwood special, built in San Bernardino. First appeared in the 1933 races, and competed for several years. Unfortunately, at the 1937 races a wing-wire fitting failed, causing the wing to fold and the aircraft crashed, killed pilot Lee Miles.