Auckland
Can we get some more pics of Fiona . Maybe some high kick pics. Thanks mate
(Topic ID: 205059)
Lafayette, LA
Quoted from nicksfigures:Can we get some more pics of Fiona . Maybe some high kick pics. Thanks mate
Dirty dirty dirty old NicksFigures ....
rd
Arrived in San Diego last night. Weather had turned a bit and there was a gale blowing.
Staying in this retro 50s type resort called Bahia Resort. One of those places your whole family went to in the 70s. I got it for 1/2 price since it’s off season.
It’s a huge place. They have their own beach, pool, tennis courts, bungalows, they even have a seal pool with 2 seals swimming circuits. (Now there’s a throwback ..)
With the added bonus that the aerial view of the place looks like a big member!
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rd
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Quoted from cleland:My wife and I stayed at The Bahia in Mission beach a few summers ago, quite the swanky place
I wonder if it's still the same seal
Yep, it definitely would have been swanky back in the day. It’s showing it’s age a little, but still a cool place.
It was cheaper to stay there than any other place close to the city.
rd
Haven’t been there in quite a while, but man that place was a major party back in the day, down there in the bar. I’m talking 80s here.
This morning we drove over to Coranado Island.
This is where the famous Hotel Del Corando is, made famous in the 1959 movie Some Like it Hot. One of Fiona’s favourite movies.
This place is huge. Evidently the people that built it originally used to own the whole island. Today the US Navy has half of it as an air base.
Coranado is really nice. The bridge that leads there is super awesome, really high! (Fiona took the photo from the car ...).
Really nice beach. Lots of really nice houses and holiday apartments. Just like the Gold Coast in Aussie... but with way more history and way less tackiness lol 
rd
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Later on we went over to San Diego old town. This is a state park .. a lot of the buildings date back to 1820-1870.
The rain was teeming down at this stage, so a few of the things were closed. However we got a decent look around.
Lots of Mexican souvenirs... note the Mexican icon Mickey Mouse (lol) and also the jumbo size sombreros.
rd
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Quoted from lancestorm:Mudslides and deaths reported in CA from all the rain, be careful out there!
Jezzzzus! It sure has rained at times.
rd
Leduc, AB
Quoted from Darcy:Think it is, "It Never Rains in Southern California". Thanks Dave, for the 70's flash back.
I was going for the last stanza ...
It never rains in California, but girl, don't they warn ya?
It pours, man, it pours ...
rd
Tonight we went to the Harbor Town Pub for the San Diego League Meet.
Wow! Tough competition!
7 machines there, all new Sterns except No Fear and a Stellar Wars. All machines in nice order and playing very fast. IFPA 4 Strikes tournament.
I was going along very nicely until bang bang lost the last couple in a row. F**king Star Wars ... god bless it, but any game that goes Launch, drain, ball save, drain 3x in a row can go get *******!!
Got some good games on the other titles.
Good crew there. I ended up 4th and got $20. Woooh! Danni got 6th and got $0. Haha
Good venue, with good pub food, cheap prices too. Hit it up if you’re in town! League night every Tuesday from 7.
rd
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And a correction from Sunday at the OC League (for corrections sake...)
I won 4 of 6 games (not 5 of 7) ...
Must have been so excited I imagined there was 7 games. Haha
Just got the results through, I ended up 2nd in that, which was very pleasing.
rd
Quoted from mymalibu:Great post RD. Its what the hobby is all about , meeting like minded people , kinda like classic car stuff. Thanks for posting, made my night shifts go much better....keep up the good work.
Shoot! I always thought it was about how much stuff you could hot glue to your playfield and how bright you could make your LEDs ...
rd
Sydney
Quoted from rotordave:Shoot! I always thought it was about how much stuff you could hot glue to your playfield and how bright you could make your LEDs ...
rd
More specifically I thought it was about hot glue and Pinstadiums.
Disclaimer: paid advert
Quoted from rotordave:This morning we drove over to Coranado Island.
This is where the famous Hotel Del Corando is, made famous in the 1959 movie Some Like it Hot. One of Fiona’s favourite movies.
This place is huge. Evidently the people that built it originally used to own the whole island. Today the US Navy has half of it as an air base.
My wife and I stayed there recently for our wedding anniversary, looks pretty cool lit up at night in the fog.
Quoted from rotordave:We drove past the San Onefre Nuclear planet, which looks suspiciously like two giant Pinbot boobs.
We call it the Dolly Parton monument.
Quoted from Darcy:Those are also in the movie Airplane, as they drive by them, and cracking a joke.
Could that be "Naked Gun" instead?
Quoted from rotordave:This morning we drove over to Coranado Island.
This is where the famous Hotel Del Corando is, made famous in the 1959 movie Some Like it Hot. One of Fiona’s favourite movies.
Most of the movie The Stunt man with Peter O'toole was shot at the hotel.
Dave, glad you could make it to OC leaugue Sunday and school us on playing and kick our butts!
Quoted from Ericpinballfan:Dave, glad you could make it to OC leaugue Sunday and school us on playing and kick our butts!
Haha I wouldn’t go that far!
It was an enjoyable time, thanks to Bill and the OC league for having us.
rd
As we got further away from humanity, the weather cleared up nicely.
The green of Julian soon turned into barren rocks and sand as we entered the Anza Borrego State Desert Park Area.
rd
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Then we got to the point of today’s driving ... the Salton Sea.
What an amazing place.
Originally, it was part of the sea that covered a lot of California. Then over the following years, it’s been a fresh water lake, a dry bed, and now a salty sea.
It was pretty dried out back in 1905, when Californians tried to divert water out of the Colorado River to use for irrigation. Unfortunately they totally ballsed it up, and the resulting 2 year (!!) torrent of water flooded the area, creating the “sea”. Yep, it took them 2 years to block the river up.
It’s Californias largest lake (actually not a sea at all)
Originally, it was all fresh water (from the river) and they built resorts along the side of the sea in the 1950s. It was quite the place to go!
However, the underlying Salt bed (from when it actually was the sea) and overflow from agriculture has made it as salty as the sea, and polluted. All the tourism has disappeared. All the fish are dead or dying. Often 100s of dead fish wash up on the sand.
The place smells bad, reminiscent of a bad public toilet.
rd
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Nice of you to visit our "backyard"! Best time of year to do some hiking. SD is unusual in that if you time it right you can swim in the ocean, throw a snowball in the mountains, hike around cholla in the desert, and visit a foreign country all in one day... (stinky Salton Sea isn't in SD county)
These pictures are taken at a resort development called Desert Shores.
It’s quite a weird place to visit.
Firstly, it stinks ... but after a while, you get used to it.
The water level is way down on where it originally was .... I’d say around 2 meters down from where it was in the 50s.
They created waterways around the streets, all the houses have their own jetty to launch a boat into the lake. ALAS! The lake water is now so low, it doesn’t flow into the waterways any more. So maybe if you’re lucky, you can take your boat a couple of hundred yards up to your mates place. But no lake jaunts for you!
Lots of people still live there, some of the houses on the waterways are quite nice. Most still have their jettys out the back. However most lots are bare ... makes you wonder what happened to the houses that were there.
You can see what they had in mind, Desert Shores has a cool layout ...
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Unfortunately, Mother Nature (and mankind...) had other plans ....
rd
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Explorer.
First person I've ever known to actually visit the Salton Sea. Picture of Fiona is priceless. I'm having trouble imagining how you "Get used" to that smell. You mean to tell me people actually live there? With the smell?
Mono Lake east of Yosemite smells of sulfur and is quite interesting, but last time I checked nobody lived out there...
-mof
Developers spent millions in the 50s installing water, roads and infrastructure for “the Salton Rivera”
When the sections went on sale, they sold 32,000 of them! These days, only 3000 people live in the whole area.
Check out this stunning late 60s promo movie from the developers ... it sure sounds awesome. Imagine what the land would be worth now if the lake hadn’t gone bad. It’d be way more attractive than Palm Springs ... if only ...
rd
Quoted from MrArt2u:Did you make it out to Salvation Mountain and Slab City?
Yes Art! Yes we did!
Salvation Mountain is quite the place.
The story behind it is quite the story. To cut it short, one day in 1967, Leonard Knight was at his sisters house, who was very religious.. when he left her house, he started chanting the Sinners Prayer over and over and decided to dedicate his life to spreading the word of the lord!
First off, he decided to make a giant hot air balloon .. but after years of work it never flew.
Then he made his first Mountain, but after years of work it all fell down!
So he started on this Mountain.
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He died in 2014, but volunteers continue to keep the place going, which according to the guy we met today is a 365 day a year effort. It rained yesterday so he needed to repaint some sections today. The paint basically holds the whole thing together. It’s made of hay bales and adobe clay. Usually you can walk on it, but not today.
rd
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Quoted from swinks:it looks like it has windows, can you go inside of it?
Yes, he built the part on the right side as his house. But he never lived in it, preferring to live in his truck instead.
Generally visitors can go in there.
The guy was telling us, one day Kylie Jenner and her bunch of buddies came to the site and started carrying on. They went inside the dome and started drinking and of course instagramming everything. The guy told them to “get the f**k out” They of course were “don’t you know who we are?” so the guy said “I’ll get the locals to come beat your ass!” and off they went.
Literally 1 minute after he told us that story, some athlete looking dude and this wanna be kardashian girl show up and started talking really loudly and posing all over the place for Instagram photos. After every few shots, they’d gather around the phone to make sure the photos made them look super awesome so everyone would be very impressed.
When we were at the next destination, they showed up again, and the girl changed into a completely different outfit in the car, and they started off all over again.
What’s becoming of the world ...?
rd
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Quoted from MrArt2u:Me and the man behind the mountain. Leonard was a very kind and fascinating man. Also the best way to get rid of all my extra paint
Very cool Art!
He sure used a lot of paint!
rd
Salvation Mountain is located in an area called “Slab City”
It’s an abandoned army base. It was called Slab City after the slabs of concrete left behind.
Now Slab City is the home to people who live “off the grid”
There are around 150 permanent residents, but in winter the numbers can swell to over 1000. They live in camper vans, RVs, and a very few in larger mobile homes. There is no power or town water or sewage on site. Very basic living. In the summer the temps can be 120 degrees.
In the middle of Slab City is East Jesus.
East Jesus is a refuge for artists, you can go there to check out their wacky creations. The artists live on site out the back.
Most of the art was pretty cool, mostly made of junk. The wall of TVs was clever.
rd
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Quoted from L8vid:Nice of you to visit our "backyard"! Best time of year to do some hiking. SD is unusual in that if you time it right you can swim in the ocean, throw a snowball in the mountains, hike around cholla in the desert, and visit a foreign country all in one day... (stinky Salton Sea isn't in SD county)
Thanks Randy. Yep, San Diego is a cool place. We were last there about 17 years ago, spent a week there, went over to Tijuana, went to Sea World etc.
Nice part of the country.
rd
Quoted from rotordave:Literally 1 minute after he told us that story, some athlete looking dude and this wanna be kardashian girl show up and started talking really loudly and posing all over the place for Instagram photos. After every few shots, they’d gather around the phone to make sure the photos made them look super awesome so everyone would be very impressed.
When we were at the next destination, they showed up again, and the girl changed into a completely different outfit in the car, and they started off all over again.
What’s becoming of the world ...?
rd
Gee Dave, I hate to break it to you, but your sorta Pinside’s Kardashian. We’re all following you and clicking “like” (upvoting) your pics and adventures.
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