Steven L Fletcher & Fran Crawford full time RVing Travelog: December 2001

We enjoyed our stay with Fran's #1 son and his family in Lancaster Ca. We arrived there the first of December and stayed through January 15 before we head on down the road. The Crawford RV park has full hookups including phone and cable TV so we were very comfortable there.

Except for freezing temps at night, in the mid 20s, the weather was great. Sunny and warm during the day with little or no wind. Can't be much better except the furnace runs a lot at night. No small thing since propane is expensive. It was $1.79 per gallon last week the next fill it was $2.09!

As I said, we enjoyed our stay with our So Cal family and except for trips to the grocery store or gift shopping we hardly left the property. December 23 was an exception though. Mark (#1 son) took us out to Edwards Air Force Base to see his office and the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed X-35 Joint Strike Fighter test planes. Mark is the Air Force Deputy Engineer assigned to the Boeing X-32 team.

One of these planes will become the strike fighter for the new millennium. The new fighter will be built in different versions for the US Navy, Marines & Air Force and British Royal Air Force & Royal Navy. It was interesting to see them in person and it's fun to know that Fran and I are among the few `civilians' to be so privileged.

We also visited the Flight Test Center Museum which has several airplanes on display outside including a B-52 and the actual F-4 Phantom that Mark worked on and flew in during his early years at the test center. Inside, the museum has lots of displays covering the history of of Edwards AFB and the Flight Test Center. One of the best displays is a wall of scale models of most of the aircraft tested at Edwards from the 1940s to the present. It was very interesting to see them all together and compare sizes.