Menifee, CA

We arrived early into Menifee, CA into our Membership Park - Wilderness Lakes, TTN.  Due to Spring Break the park was very full but since we arrived early in the day, we were able to get a large site that again had 50 amp service and full hookups, with the water canal running right in front of our site.  While here we saw them dump about 1000 pounds of catfish into the canals and many Ducks/Geese were sitting on nests and just prior to us leaving, we were able to enjoy some of the little ones.

1000 pounds of fish being dumped into canal

These fragrant trees were throughout the park.
Still trying to figure out what they are?

We were only going to stay three weeks, but we enjoyed the area so much that we extended our stay to four weeks total.

We met our neighbors behind us within the first couple of days in the park and they invited us to a North Carolina fish boil - crab, shrimp, lobster, scallops, potatoes and corn, along with salad and breads.  What a feast.  There was about 24 of us attending and the picture below shows the leftovers.

Craig continues to improve the organization of his trailer, which includes me custom sewing various straps and covers.  On one of his various trips to Lowes, they had a couple of race cars on display.

We took two motorcycle rides, one to the small town of Idyllwild  and then another ride to Julian - a place known for their apple pies.  Both were small towns with lots of history and cute shops.  Next trip through here we would like to ride to Borrego Springs.

Idyllwild

We enjoyed old Town Temecula which has a lot of history.  We enjoyed the various shops and of course had to stop at one winery down town, Villa di Calabro - it was great to get the winemakers recommendations of wineries to try in the Temecula Wine Valley.

The area of Temecula is definitely known for their wineries, which are pretty extensive, with many having hotels, spas, restaurants, etc.  We took three different days and did wine tasting at 9 different wineries.  So many more to try next time as well as definitely some favorites to go back too.

First day:  Hart, Vindemia, and Avensole:

Hart

Vindemia - Outside Tasting Room

View from Vindemia Tasting Area

Avensole Tasting Room

Second Day:  South Coast, Ponte & Wien:

South Coast Winery

Entrance to tasting room

Ponte Winery

Wiens Winery

Third Day:  Doffo, Wilson Creek, & Falkner:

Motorcycle display at Doffo Winery

Wilson Creek

Faulkner Winery

We will definitely go back to Ponte, Wiens and Wilson Creek.  Those that we will try next trip are Larimar, Palumbo, and Oak Mountain.

The highlight of the trip was our Hot Air Balloon Ride from the Temecula Wine Valley.  We went with Grape Adventures - of course it was an early rise which we don't do very often anymore being retired.  We left the motorhome at 5:00 am to arrive and register by 6:00.  What an experience - neither of us like heights, but we totally enjoyed the 1:15 minute ride.    We were able to enjoy the inflate, ride and the deflate.  After the balloon was packed up, we went back to Europa Village and had a champagne toast to a successful flight and a continental breakfast.

We drove to Pomona one afternoon to the NHRA museum.  This was a dream of NHRA founder Wally Parks.  The museum opened April 1998.  The exhibit is housed in a 28,500 square foot building.  The mission is to celebrate the impact of motorsports on our culture.  They had hot rods, custom cars, funny cars, rails, motorcycles, etc.

Statue is Wally Parks

Tommy IVO - TV Tom's car
They were celebrating his 80th birthday and bringing
in special cars for the celebration.  

Craig sitting in John Force's Funny Car
Car is the green car on the right.

On Tuesday, April 22 we will start heading north, stopping in Bakersfield for a couple of nights and then onto Visalia, CA to visit the national parks.