California, Buena Park Nov 26 - 29

For the next three days we will park the camper in Don and Karen driveway.  Don and Marty (Roger) went to High School in Redfield, South Dakota.  We had a very good time with them during our stay.  They were awesome hosts and took us to visit the Crystal Cathedral and to Knott's Berry Farm.  We also drank a fair bit of wine.

Buena Park, California

Don and Karen Schaffer along with Kay and the many bottles of wine we went through in three days.

 Don ad Karen took us to the Crystal Cathedral.  Shown is the Crean Tower, housed at the tip of this spectacular 236-foot mirrored spire is the 52-bell Arvella Schuller Carillon.

 The Crean Tower mirrored in the Crystal Cathedral Building.

 The palm tree of life.

 Self portrait of me and Kay in the mirrors of the building.

 There were several huge pipe organs inside of the Crystal Cathedral Building, the main sanctuary contains the fifth largest church organ in the world.  For more information on the Crystal Cathedral click on this link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_Grove_Community_Church

Don and Marty

Karen and Don

Don holding the door to the Mary Hood Prayer Chapel.  Each of the marble columns are of a different type of marble.

The entry to the Memorial Gardens, a peaceful and serene cemetery located on two acres of ground.  It is filled with thousands of burial and interment sites, and inspirational art.

The Tower of Bells

There were many beautiful sculptures on the grounds.  This is The Joy of Giving (1999, by Mehri Danewlpour Weil)  Below are several more examples of the artwork.

The Holy Family: Milestones and Miracles (1998 by J. Seward Johnson)

Joyful Jesus: I Found Him (2000, by De L'Esprie)

The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes (1998 by Dr. John M. Soderberg)

Don and Karen also took us to Knott's Berry Farm for an afternoon.  Here Don got into the act with the players at the Calico Saloon Show.  He was quite good.  Of course he has always been a ham.

This is the track for Montezooma's Revenge rides.  It goes from 0 to 55 mph in three seconds.  You ain't going to get Marty on that thing.

More of the same ride.


We took a ride on the Galloping Goose.  Galloping Goose is the popular name given to a series of seven railcars (officially designated as "motors" by the railroad) built in the 1930s by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad (RGS) and operated until the end of service on the line in the early 1950s.

The engineer was very knowledgeable about the history of the Galloping Goose.   I remember when I was a kid back in Redfield, one of the Galloping Goose ran through town.