Sprauls sponsor flight of WarBirds West

BY

It’s no surprise that the sponsors of the Canyon Lake Veterans Day Ceremony flyover are fans of flight – well, one of them at least. David and Barbara Spraul humbly acknowledge the gratitude of the community for their sponsorship of WarBirds West, a San Diego-based salute team that flew six passes of Beechcraft T-34 Mentor aircraft over Canyon Lake on November 11.

Dave is the one who loves airplanes. He learned to fly and received his own pilot’s license soon after graduating from high school. Barbara isn’t a fan of flying in small aircraft but has heartily endorsed Dave’s interest over the years, creating tasteful displays of memorabilia to honor his hobby.

And if she’s so inclined, she can sit with Dave in “first class” any time she pleases – that is, if she wants to venture into his man cave at the back of their three-car garage to join him in a set of double seats from the first class section of a 747 aircraft. Dave obtained the seats from an aircraft “boneyard” in the high desert.

On the wall of the man cave is a propellor a friend bought for Dave from a garage sale. An enlarged photograph of a small plane’s cockpit hangs above his desk, providing flights of fancy to distract him from work or TV.

For health reasons, Dave had to give up flying about four years ago. But he is thankful for the decade of flying he had before then with a coworker from a company he worked for in Temecula.

The man was a certified flight instructor and had his own Cessna 172 that he and Dave, or Dave himself, took up for day flights around Southern California.

One of Dave’s favorite flight paths took him from the Corona Airport, where the Cessna was kept, south to about where I-15 and Hwy 74 meet, then east over Canyon Lake and on to the French Valley airport where he would have lunch. Then it was on to Hemet and back to Corona. Dave says he flew to 21 different airports during those years, including Catalina Island and Big Bear.

Flying wasn’t Dave’s only hobby as a youth. Also in his man cave is a large display of surf posters and photographs from his surfing days in Palos Verdes in the mid 1960s. One faded photo shows him doing a headstand while surfing in Ensenada. Dave says he learned the trick from an old surfer at Bluff Cove in Palos Verdes. It was only recently that Dave sold the 10-ft. 6-in. longboard crafted for him by Roberts Surfboards back in the day.

After Dave and Barbara got married, they lived in Torrance and later moved to Ventura. They followed a motto, the actual words of which they no longer remember; but it was something to the effect of “work for a way of life, not for a living.” It’s what eventually led them to move to Canyon Lake in May 1989.

Before coming here, they were driving more than two hours most weekends to camp with friends and put their ski boat into Lake Buena Vista. While sitting in a deli one day in Ventura, they came across a Riverside County real estate magazine and noticed a full-page ad by Steve Sellers listing properties around a recreational lake called Canyon Lake.

They called Steve and got a tour, then a few more tours. In what they describe as a three-year process, they decided to sell their Ventura home and start looking for jobs in Riverside County. Dave was the first one to find a job working as an inventory manager at a large lumberyard that catered to tract home developers, located at I-215 and Hwy 74. He moved into a rental house on Santa Maria Dr. in Canyon Lake.

Barbara stayed at the Ventura house during the real estate slump and continued to work. After their Ventura house sold and she became manager of human resources at the same lumberyard where Dave worked, they bought a hillside home on Mariner Dr.

Though they took pay cuts with every move they made – from Torrance to Ventura and from Ventura to Canyon Lake – Dave and Barbara say they accomplished their ultimate goal of working for “a way of life.” They were amazed by all the amenities available to them in Canyon Lake.

The one they made full use of was the lake, boating and water skiing almost every weekend. They didn’t have to commute far to work, so they loved the fact that, when they got home after a hot day, they could simply “jump in the lake.”

The couple worked, played, saved money, invested in income property in Canyon Lake and eventually were able to retire – Dave in 2006 and Barbara in 2008. Then they really started to take in the full measure of all Canyon Lake had to offer: people and events.

Barbara joined the Woman’s Club to fulfill her goals of making friends and getting involved in philanthropy. She also joined the 9ers Golf Club, where she made good friends and got more comfortable with golfing. Now she’s a member of both golf clubs, Women’s Golf and 9ers, and loves being on the Golf Course where she indulges another hobby: photography.

She has taken a number of Golf Course pictures that became Photo of the Week in The Friday Flyer. Asked how she likes the new drought-tolerant landscaping, Barbara says, “Our Golf Course has never looked more beautiful.”

Although he used to golf, Dave now likes driving Barbara around the course. Together, he and Barbara also joined the Travel Club and have enjoyed many of the day trips and a few longer trips. They love being able to simply drive to the Lodge and hop on a bus to take the Travel Club trips. “It’s heaven living here,” Barbara says.

Of course, their “heaven” includes taking in the many community activities like Fiesta Day, the Car Show, Veterans Day, the Holiday Home Tour, the Parade of Lights and more. Last year Dave drove his pontoon boat for the Woman’s Club float in the Parade of Lights.

Barbara has made her share of contributions to clubs. She has served as publicity chair and filled in for other publicity chairs who were ill in the Woman’s Club. And she has served as corresponding secretary for the 9ers Golf Club and Women’s Golf Club.

In that role, she has taken pictures at tournaments and other gatherings and made photo books for the club presidents. For Women’s Golf, she made a photo book for Linda Kamashian in 2014 and for Donna Nunes in 2015. In 9ers, she made a book for Martha Golia in 2012, Terri Murphy in 2013 and Diana Castillo in 2014.

The stairwell to the Spraul’s garage is covered with framed copies of Barbara’s “Photos of the Week” in The Friday Flyer and other newspaper stories that are of historical interest. This story, no doubt, will make it to her wall of fame.

Dave and Barbara are the first to ask why The Friday Flyer would feature “ordinary people” like them. But it’s people like the Sprauls who make Canyon Lake a better place. They represent the many donors and volunteers who help sponsor or organize events like the Veterans Day Ceremony. Without “ordinary people” doing extraordinary things, Canyon Lake would be just like any other other neighborhood. Those who take the time to be involved know it’s far from that.