))) ECHO ? ((( NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP WEEKS LATER. Wow, this mall has changed since we were last here about a year ago. It is now about 90% empty. Penny's and a small Dicks are still there. And the stores facing the parking lot without mall access are still there. At one point I had heard this was going to become an 'ethic mall.' With ethic events and stores. That may have been why the mall was so quiet the day we were there. A lot of minorities are staying home to av

Rare store vacancy. NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP ONE MONTH LATER. On the right is where, I am assuming, Forever 21 used to be. It's not a vacant store front, it is closed off with art. The only other large vacancy is the half of Sears that Best Buy is not using. But that is committed to and is being worked on. Other than that it is a full and busy mall. Busy ... we did one lap and my wife was done. Too crowded. Christmas in January. It's been below zero up here for days, ma

Smaller mall. NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP ONE MONTH LATER. When this mall was built, it had a Sears and a White Drug. So this never was a big mall. We can see this mall from our hotel and I've seen it many times from the other hotel's we have stayed at here in town. Now it looks like a former mall that is gradually selling off parts of the building to businesses who want the location but do not want to be part of the mall. Their doors only face the parking lot, not the mal

Open area at the mall NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP ONE MONTH LATER. It is the dead of winter, temps are below zero, snow on the ground. The mall is the only place to walk. There are two malls in this town, this one is further away from our hotel and looked more active online so we decided to do this one today. We were there during 'walking hours' before the stores open.Lots of people walking. Just lay your coats on a chair, on the floor, it's ND, no one will bother then. St

There are a few people here NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP ONE MONTH LATER. When the weather is too far below freezing we try to get out to a mall and walk. Some years we are better at it than others. Not so much this year. Part of what we notice when walking the malls is not just how full/vacant they are, but also the store fronts. This mall looked to be 80+% full, and and the store fronts are updated. Updated, as in the store front matches the current store. There are not j

Groomed path NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. We had spent the night in Truth or Consequences. My wife found this free park a few miles away. Paved parking lot, the trail along the river is a real trail. Not paved, but six foot wide with surface rock on it. Once we decided to turn around, there the trail was actually the old paved driveway. This area used to be a fish hatchery. There are still some buildings, good repair, and some fish ponds, being used by wi

No tall, tall trees. NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. Most National Parks are closed because of the shut down. Not this one, not here anyway. There is nothing to shut down. My wife had found two ways to get to this park. We drove to her first choice, until it led passed a gate down someones driveway. At the 2nd one we had to park on the end of the street (we did ask a neighbor there) Then we either had to climb through a pipe fence or walk around the fence on

As close as we got to Mexico. NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. One more walk before heading back to our hotel for the night. We got this close walking, to the MX border. You can't see it on this picture but the fence is there, before the hills and the building. The border fence here was built back in 1993, 30 plus years ago. Not sure why, but for most of our walk there is a ridge of dirt piled up that we were walking on. It was much firmer than trying to walk

Closed, enforced NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. We had been to the adjacent Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery a dozen times. And we'd been here to the Visitors Center a few times but never too walk. Not sure what those reasons were, I know one time it was raining, other times we might have just been short of time. But today we were going to walk it. We thought. Sign said otherwise. So back to the cemetery we went, parked and took pictures of graves I likely

Close up to the seals. NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. Our grandson had found this location on TikTok when we were out here a few months ago. We decided it was a good free place to stop and walk. Last time we saw a mother seal who had just given birth. We didn't see anything like that this time but we did see a lot more seals near the one shown above. Last time we had walked in that area, this time we stayed on the sidewalk above. This picture was taken befo

John Denver memorial NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. One of our more frequent stops in California. It's only a couple of hours from where I pick up the buses in Livermore. The first time we stopped here we did not know that the memorial was here. Then the rock was closer to the water but a major storm came through and either the storm moved it or someone decided it would be good to move it. The first time we saw it, it was like this. On later stops in the ol

Ocean view NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. This may be the only place we paid to walk on this whole two week vacation part of our trip. $9 for a one hour walk. First we stop at Dunes Beach.We didn't remember having to pay to park. So we drove to Venice Beach, it was still pay to park so we did. Very few car in any of the lots we saw. Weather was jacket weather but the view was why we stopped. We had found this place a couple of years ago when we were in the

Sandy shore NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. The picture above, inland was all dairy farm. Many family farms for 100+ years. When we were there, those farms were down to their last few months of cleanup before having to be gone from their farms. The government wanted their land for the park and had been fighting with them for years. They are expecting the main wildlife here will be Elk. The walk from the parking lot to the overlook was just over a half mile.

Town view from the park. NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. The park is called Sonoma Coast State Park, the area is called Bodega Head. It overlooks the town. We've stopped at this one before, sometime in the last year or two with family. Parking is a sand lot, it does have a two hole outhouse. Most of the trails here are single file dirt paths across the grass. Worn deep. The area where we park is about 250 feet above the water. The parking lot and most of the

Trail with tales. NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. 3rd walk of the day. This one is not an hour long. We've walked these trails before. They are across the street from the main park headquarters. Parking is also across the street. On street parking for tour buses. None here today but it gets crowded on these trails when a tour bus stops. The trails here are well marked and have info signs about the trees and the area as you walk the trail. What they do not ha

Big, downed, tree NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. The sign at the trailhead said it was the Rockefeller Loop Trail, of the Humboldt Redwood State Park. The story of this stop is more about the road than the walk. My wife had a place in mind on this road, but we never got to it. This road was paved but only wide enough to meet another car if one of them was stopped. It was also the main road to a few towns in the area. So also lots of trucks. After a few mile

Surfaced trail Most area's of this trail were either, paved, crushed rock or boardwalk. It was lever that most and usually six feet wide. The sign at the trailhead said it was the Newton B Drury and Ralph W Chaney Groves, of the Humboldt Redwood State Park. The walk was listed as 2-1/2 miles and a one hour walk. It took us a little more than that as we stopped to take pictures and stare at trees.

Just another lief. NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. (Quote from notes I took the day of the hike) "When we got out of our car, someone started talking to us right away. There was a woman who was lost and a couple who was trying to help her. They finally said they would go to where the lost woman says her husband was and let him know where she is. Her phone battery is dead (and we have no cell service) and she thinks she came from a direction that is not logic

Early morning walk. The parking lot is about a quarter mile away from the beach. There are no paved trails and even this wider trail had a rugged drop to the beach. Once on the beach, the walk was flat :) We spent some time there. Then we walked on the grass covered sand dunes which were not flat but had a good view. Because of the lay of the land there was almost 270 degree view of the ocean. Only 1-2 other cars there while we were there. The parking lot was paved for 100-15

single file trail NOTE: THIS IS BEING WRITTEN UP FOUR MONTHS LATER. We had dropped RV's in ID a few days ago. With no more RV work and no bus work we decided to just take a few days off. We had canceled our July vacation this year so really hadn't done a vacation this year. When we dropped we had to push it to get out of the mountains before it started snowing, we made it before it snowed but have spent the last few days with mostly rain. The one time we did try to walk we go