This morning we departed San Diego. We were very sad to leave it behind. We had such a great time and could have explored for another week. Our destination today is the Riverside County Rancho Jurupa Park. I only picked it because I couldn’t get anything closer to Disneyland over the weekend. What a cool place. The park is beautifully maintained and has many affordable RV camping options. The park is located very close to historic downtown Riverside.
We got to the RV park pretty early due to the short drive and we immediately left the park for lunch and chose the Mission Inn downtown Riverside. Another great find! The Mission Inn is very historic and started taking in paying guests in 1880. Many presidents have stayed here including Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush. Many celebrities has stayed here as well. The architecture is really neat and my favorite feature is the “Famous Fliers Wall”. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia…
In 1932, Frank Miller opened the St. Francis Atrio. The “Famous Fliers’ Wall”, added by Miller’s son-in-law DeWitt Hutchings, was used to recognize notable aviators, including Amelia Earhart. On March 20, 1942, World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker was honored at the Inn, becoming the fifty-seventh flier added to the monument. Today, 151 fliers or groups of fliers are honored by having their signatures etched onto 10-inch-wide (250 mm) copper wings attached to the wall.
As a pilot you know I dig this. The walll includes dedications starting in 1932. Names include famous aviators you might know like Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindberg, Amelia Earhart, and Chuck Yeager. The dates on the wall are when they were honored not at a particular event.