The park we're staying at is full of peacocks. They just walk around everywhere. (Let me apologize upfront for the peacock pictures. I had to take them through the windows so most of them are blurry.)
They really seemed to like our spot. Here's our picnic table.
This is right in front of the RV.
Right outside our door is the gate leading out to the main road. It didn't seem to matter what time of the day it was - there was always one or two sitting there.
I guess it turned out to be a good thing they were always around as that was our main activity for the week - watching the peacocks.
Sometimes it was a family activity and other times it was just Slugger.
In fact, I think that's all Slugger did all week - and he seemed totally happy with that.
The peacocks don't totally care for the rain either I found out. I looked out the kitchen window to find a whole group of them sitting under the trailer next to us.
On Tuesday, as the weather began turning wet and nasty, I (Mike) took some time to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in nearby Simi Valley. A couple of years ago I went to the Truman library in Missouri and found it very interesting, so I wanted to see how they compared.
The Reagan Library certainly has a nice facility and beautiful location on a mountaintop overlooking the Simi Valley and the surrounding hills.
The inside was very classy also, but a little thin in real content however. Just my luck, the current temporary display, which seemed to take up a third of the museum, was about seemingly ALL the dresses Nancy Reagan wore as First Lady. Good Grief, who cares.
After racing through that I finally got to the life of Ronald Reagan, starting with his school days in Dixon Illinois,
his radio career, his film career, his marriage to Nancy, and his long leadership of the Screen Actors Guild. This was pretty well done, especially about the movies he made, but it kind of glossed over his support of the 50's Red Scare in Hollywood and hardly mentioned his first wife Jane Wyman and his divorce.
This superficial and uncritical point of view continued throughout the sections about his years as Governor of California and President. Not unexpected, but disappointing compared to the depth and balance of the Truman Museum. There was no mention of his failed primary challenge of Ford in 1976, only an oblique reference to the Iran-Contra scandal, and curiously almost nothing at all about his second term as president. But there was a lot about his good spirits and joking after being shot, and constant claims that he was almost singlehandedly responsible for the falls of communism and the Berlin Wall.
But the museum did have one thing no other presidential library has, an actual Air Force One!
There was a big building, with a huge all glass wall looking out over the hills, that contained the Air Force One that was used from the 70's until about 2002.
It was fixed up inside as it was during the years the Reagan's used it and made an interesting exhibit. I forgot how skinny those old 707's sure were. The building was a bit dishevelled because it was full of boxes of TV lighting and equipment that will be used to put on a presidential candidate debate on Jan 30 (Republican I would presume).
After the plane, the tour went past the apparently required Oval Office replica,
some more stuff about Nancy Reagan and a few displays about their post-presidential years on the ranch and president's Alzheimers.
He is buried is a courtyard outside the main building.
Overall a worthwhile visit but it was stronger on admiration than information.
It has not been a fun week for me (Debbie). I only went outside one time and it wasn't pleasant - but not for the reason you're probably thinking.
It's been a long time since we've been near grass and I've really been wanting to practice a little agility with Boogie. So Mike braved the weather and set up the weaves poles for us. But in order to practice I had to wait for the rain to slowdown a bit and for the peacocks to leave. Trying to get those two things to happen at the same time just was not working. And I certainly didn't think we'd have much luck trying to have Boogie practice his weaves off leash with all these peacocks within just a few feet of us.
We waited until the rain slowed a bit and finally sent Mike and Slugger out to take a walk around to "encourage" the peacocks to move on. It kind of looked like this peacock wanted to learn to weave too.
We thought all the peacocks were gone so I took Boogie out and started walking near the weave poles waiting for Boogie to potty before taking him off leash to practice. Just about the time I was bending over to take his leash off, a peacock started racing toward us. Really!! No, he wasn't strolling by, he was charging straight at us!! Stop laughing - I heard enough of that from Mike! We took off running as fast as we could and raced into the RV. That was it. I wasn't going outside any more with all these killer peacocks surrounding us! This is the nasty guy that chased us.
And the noises these things make. It scared all of more than once. But they really are pretty. Sorry this is blurry but I still think you can see how pretty their head's are.
Due to the constant rain, we never saw any of them with their feathers all opened up. One time when the rain slowed down we did see this one open up a teeny tiny bit just for a moment.
We all got rather bored this week and did a lot of lying around. But even so, this can't possibly be comfy!
Finally Friday came and it was time to leave this wet place! Since I hadn't left the RV since we'd been here I hadn't seen our surroundings at all. As we were driving out I noticed there really was a pretty view.
I also noticed a bunch of peacocks sitting under someone's awning. If these people plan on having a picnic I think they need a few more place settings!
So we say good bye to all our peacock friends - who weren't all that interested in getting out of the way as we were driving out.
After driving for a couple hours we arrived at this weekend's agility site. The best thing about it - there wasn't any rain at the moment! Even Wazzu enjoyed the momentary sunbeam.
The spot we're parked in is really nice. The view out the front window is really pretty.
And out the side window we have just enough of a view of the agility field that we should be able to see when we need to get out there for our runs.
Sparkie is already telling us it's time for her turn!
Debbie
1/22-25/08
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