El Rancho Grande

Spent three nights at the Thousand Trails Rancho Oso park in the Santa Ynez Mountains above Santa Barbara. It's a delightful little (really, not so little) 400-acre actual ranch/RV park where Hollywood cowboy actors like Tom Mix would hang out in the 1930s and 40s.

Thousand Trails touts its location as "nestled in the spectacular Santa Ynez Mountains." Unfortunately, a fire roared through these mountains two years ago and instead of a national forest, some of it is a national burn area. It will be years before the trees on the hillsides come back, if ever. But again, like all Thousand Trails, it's free to us, so.....

We've been receiving calls, emails, telegrams and smoke signals regarding that thing on the back of Paul's truck.

Yes, it's our new camper shell. A great addition as we can throw all kinds of crap in it. Like we don't have enough crap in it already. Remember, you just expand to fill the space that's available.

But it looks good and sleek with the trailer and especially in a setting like this, the Los Padres National Burn Area.

Thousand Trails has turned this classic historic ranch into something of a tourist attraction. You can stay in an RV or these cabins with the look of an old west main street.

You can stay in a covered wagon "tent" or sleep in the trash can.

Wealthy Santa Barbarans board their horses here and come up to ride through the national burn area. Thousand Trails members can ride for $40 an hour. Not being a horseback riding fan, I think I'd rather ride a Humvee filled with buffed jarheads outside the Green Zone in Baghdad. I do like the Marine Corps. Oooh-rah.

Yep, it's an old ranch, pardner.

This is Paul with his new punk hairdo. He looks like a rooster. Daisy has one to match but we couldn't get her to sit still for the shot.

Since we don't ride horses and Thousand Trails has no TV reception, they do have some pretty good movies to rent. We saw "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." Daisy loved it. And we like it, too. Cute film. Recommend it.

Also rented "Marley and Me" (this is the scene at the end). Can't really recommend this one because it's more about the two sorry main characters rather than the dog. But it did bring a tear to my eyes....

And here's Daisy eating my tear-stained Kleenex. Paul pulled it out of her butt later that evening.

Also rented "The Changeling" -- highly recommend it. "The Reader"--a pretty good movie. Paul like the nudity. And "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", a pathetic attempt to remake "Forrest Gump". A weird story that went on forever. Last, the latest "Indiana Jones" movie. Ay caramba, this has to be one of the worst movies ever.

Spent a day down in Santa Barbara. A beautiful coastal community.

Unfortunately, this was the week of Santa Barbara's annual fiesta that draws hundreds of millions of people up from LA. Daisy was freaked out by all the noise and bodies so I have her in a choke-hold to calm her down.

We found a restaurant called "The Fish House" that wasn't too crowded. Paul had fish and chips. I had soup and a small salad since I'm trying to lay off the carbs. I hate this diet.

Paul explaining the finer points of the camper shell to Daisy.

All sorts of wheeled contraptions are allowed on the Santa Barbara waterfront...

And so are pit bulls.

But martinis aren't so we're leaving.

California has too damn many people and we still have more than half the state to go before we hit Oregon. Makes me want to scream. Living in California is so...2005 (that's when we moved to Arizona).