Category: Daily Life

Day 1 Southern States

We tried to drive away from camp this morning while still plugged in to their electricity. Fortunately Dave noticed before we did any damage. We really need to make a checklist and start using it.

We bought propane before leaving the Circle RV Resort. We may be south but we are still running our furnace every night  The park’s computers were down so they couldn’t process our credit card  Dave had to pay cash. Next stop is the Bank of WalMart.

We don’t use ATMs anymore. WalMart lets you get $100 cash back when you shop there and that’s been enough to keep us going between shopping trips. Pretty convenient.

Going east on I-8 I can see snow on a hill ahead of us. But there’s so much solar heat coming in our windows we are both in shirt sleeves.  

Someone else likes that solar heat, too. There’s a large bank of solar collectors on the side of the hill beside the road.

Remember Dave saying we aren’t going over any mountains today? Why are my ears popping?

We stopped at a viewpoint. That’s quite a valley for us to not be on a mountain.

There’s shattered glass on the pavement. Apparently a couple of drivers argued over whose turn it was to pull out next. I wonder if either think they won?

A little while later I saw a bumper laying on the side of the highway with the license plate still attached. Do you think it will be missed? Do you think someone else will claim it? If so, will the claimant report it or keep it for some nefarious purpose? OK, I read too many mysteries.

The windsocks on the bridge say we have a tailwind. Much better than a crosswind.

Sunrise Highway is on the west side of the hill. Shouldn’t it be on the east side?

We drove through a pass at 4055 feet. Not quite to snow level. Not really a pass, either, since that would mean we are in the mountains and we aren’t going into the mountains today; we are going through a valley between mountains, remember?

So, what’s this?

 

You know how groups of things have names: herd of cows, gaggle of geese, etc.? How about a tumble of rocks? There are piles and piles of rounded boulders alongside the road. It looks like some very large kid’s toys. Some of them look like they are stacked rather precariously. I wonder how many are named Balanced Rock?

When we see signs for “brake check area” and “runaway truck ramp ahead” we know we are coming to a big downgrade. This one is 6% for 7 miles. The truck speed limit is 35 miles an hour so it must have a lot of curves, too.

As we round those curves we are driving back and forth between Imperial County and San Diego County. I’m sure glad the counties are not responsible for maintaining this road. Can you imagine what a headache that could be?

I guess we are now out of those mountains we didn’t drive through since the elevation sign here says, “Sea Level”.

In El Centro, California, we stopped at a KFC to eat lunch and talk about future plans. I have a prescription to pick up at the WalMart here but then what? Our daughter called while we were still deciding and she and I talked long enough that we decided to not go anywhere except the local campground.

So we are now at Rio Bend RV Golf Resort in El Centro, Caifornia. We will be here two nights while we decide whether to go to an RV park in Yuma or Phoenix or Quartzsite (we have friends/family in all those places right now) or go boondocking on BLM land or what. One of the realities about moving all the time is that there are always many decisions to be made.

TTYL,

Linda

Turning the Corner

Those from up north need to be careful what they wish for.  Several people have mentioned missing having a white Christmas.  Yesterday it snowed in Malibu, California.  Malibu!

We spent the morning doing chores.  Dave installed the cable cover things he bought at Home Depot to cover the black cable runs up the wall behinds his side of the dinette.  And I did a bunch more research since we about to head in a new direction.  And I learned how to order prescription refills online to be picked up a a WalMart down the road.

Which is likely to be a problem in the future.  I have four prescriptions I take daily.  The WalMart website only listed one of them.  Fortunately it is the one I need now.  But I need them to figure out where the others are before I need to refill them as well.

Looking out my window here at San Elijo State Beach I see the camp host and rangers shoveling sand off the roads and parking pads.  The rain moved things around a bit.  I’m so glad we aren’t workcamping someplace where we are expected to shovel wet sand!

This park has recycling bins, which I approve of, and the money they get from that supports their Junior Ranger program, which I also approve of.  The more kids we get turned on to nature, the better off our earth will be.  I remember when our daughter was a Junior Ranger and she still cares more for the earth than most people her age.

We drove by a beach parking lot with an interesting problem.  The dunes that keep the ocean off the pavement are also keeping the rain on the pavement.  There are still plenty of parking spaces for the people who go to this beach on a December weekday, though.

The bus stop at the corner had a sign on it saying, “Bike Stop.”  Dave’s guess is that is where buses with bike racks stop so you can load your bike on board to move you further along your route.

So what do you think of “Dexter’s Deli: Health Food for Dogs and Cats”?  In my time as a pet owner that was known as Purina.

Part of the road was flooded.  We drove slowly though the water.  Some people never slowed at all. Apparently four-wheel drive makes you nuts.  It doesn’t waterproof your engines, people.

We stopped at REI in San Diego to buy some collapsible water jugs that have spigots so you can set them on your counter and use them instead of water from the fresh water tank. We also bought some other stuff while we were there. The checkout clerk asked me if I had used my 20% discount yet and she looked surprised when I said, “Yes.” She thanked me for being honest about it. What type of world have we become where honesty is a surprise.

We needed to turn onto Convoy Street. I kept calling it Caravan Street. That’s what a convoy is called in the RV world.

The leaves in San Diego are changing color. Looks like Minnesota in October. Does not look like Christmas. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I don’t want snow.

In El Cajon, California, we stopped at Denny’s being careful not to run over the brown bag with the bottle in it standing in their parking lot. The staff there was amazing. One host/server, one cook, and one bus/dishwasher serving everyone cheerfully while joking with one another. The food was perfectly prepared. I would go there again. 

The staff was friendly at the Circle RV Resort in El Cajon, too. We stopped early enough to do some more chores. Dave caulked our leaky window and plugged in my Segway to charge it while I exchanged books. Then we both did more computer stuff. Alway, always more computer stuff.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 13 Pacific Coast

A winter storm hit here at Faria County Beach in Ventura, California, last night. It rained all night. The waves this morning are brown with stirred up muck. High tide is less than an hour away. The waves may wash over the rocks then. Here’s some pictures from our dinette window last night before the storm and this morning so you can see the difference the storm made.

  

The window by my bed leaked. We didn’t know that until making up the bed this morning when we learned the sheet was wet.  We’ll need to caulk that window when it dries out.

We got our generator fixed this morning. It was a broken valve spring that was preventing compression–or something like that. It was covered under warranty so we didn’t have to pay that $111/hour shop labor charge for the two hours it took them to fix it. Whew!

I got my new California State Parks discount pass. It cost $3.50 which we will more than get back the first time we use it. Nice.

We decide we liked In N Out Burger enough to go there again today. We drove right to it.  We have now been in the Ventura/Oxnard area long enough to know our way around. It must be time to move on. So at 2:22 p.m. we headed out of town.

We drove as far south as Malibu where we returned to the Malibu Beach RV Park we stopped at when we finished our Route 66 journey. We knew we could do laundry there. And boy did the laundry need doing! It makes me nervous to run out of clean underwear. We did ask them to give us a site long enough for us to park without being up against the fence this time, though. Again we paid for a mountain view spot but I can see the ocean from my side of the dinette. They don’t seem to consider where your primary windows look when determining if the site is ocean view or mountain view; they just look at which way your windshield points. I like that.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 12 Pacific Coast

We spent the morning cleaning house. Dave washed the outside of the RV and I worked on inside things including cleaning out the junk drawer. It’s amazing how much junk a drawer can collect in just a few months.

Then we did a fill and dump so we can continue boondocking.

A ranger here at McGrath State Beach gave us a bunch of literature to read. We gave back most of it but one piece told me I was eligible to apply for a discount card worth 50% off California State Parks and Beaches. Just think how much money we could have saved already if we had that card. 

The directions she gave us to the Regional Office, which is closed until Monday, where I could apply took us past an In N Out Burger place. A friend from back home (Hi, George.) had recommended In N Out Burger to us so we decided we would try it. But this one was too small and too busy; we couldn’t get in. So we decided to go to Home Depot to get the things on our list there. (Yes, we remembered the other one.) When we got to the mall where Home Depot is, there was another In N Out Burger. So we went in. Good stuff. Thanks, George.

Then Dave walked across the parking lot to Home Depot and did that shopping. And then went to another part of the mall and got his hair cut. We like malls that let us park in one place and do lots of stuff. Especially at this time of year when mall parking is at a premium.We require a minimum of two spots and prefer four when we can take them without feeling greedy.

We saw a Union Pacific passenger train. When’s the last time you saw a passenger train that wasn’t painted for Amtrak or a tourist line? 

We tried to stay at Evergreen RV Park but the office was closed and the instructions for self-registering were missing the list of available sites and the fee envelopes. As we drove through on our way out we saw the park was full of mostly new RVs that mostly looked permanently parked. No empty spaces to be had anywhere.

So we drove to Faria Beach County Park where we had full hookups for $45. Ouch! It was nice to have electricity, though. We had gone seven days with no hookups except to fill with fresh water once. We did run the generator for an hour each evening to recharge the batteries. So, now we know that if we can solve our water supply problem, we can boondock for at least a week.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 8 Pacific Coast

Our battery was at 72% charge this morning. We are learning what we can and can’t do but—is not using the computers a good or bad thing? I’m way behind on posting my blogs. I wonder how many people even noticed?

Our neighbors turned on their generator about 8:30 a.m.–way before the 10 a.m. allowed time. We resisted the temptation to join them.

Another change we’ve made is only turning on the hot water heating when we are planning to use hot water rather than keeping it hot all the time. When Dave’s parents lived in Baltimore they did that. There was a switch at the top of their basement stairs. I like to take my showers in the morning. The idea of going downstairs to turn on the switch then waiting for the water to heat did not appeal to me. But here, the switch is on the way to the bathroom and by the time I brush my teeth, wash using water in the bucket, and turn on the water to rinse it is hot. So, I think I can do this. As long as I remember to turn on the switch on my way to the bathroom.

I put on a short sleeve shirt this morning. It’s been awhile since I did that. But we are headed south and we get so much sunshine through the windshield I think it will be OK. Besides, my favorite long sleeve shirts are all in the dirty clothes.

At overlooks where camping is not allowed they have signs with tents with the circle and slash indicating tents not allowed. Apparently, that’s no longer enough. Now they have added motorhome-circle-slash signs. Us Americans will do whatever we are not told not to do—and some of those things, too.

We crossed from Sonoma County to Marin County and immediately the road deteriorated. I wonder if that’s to discourage us tourist from going there?

We saw lots of some type of marine animal swimming north in the water between Highway 1 and Point Reyes. Since we could only see their noses and the v shape of the water, we don’t know if they were seals or sea lions or what. Just that they were large.

We followed some bikes for awhile. There was one tandem and two single bicycles. Going down hills they traveled faster than we do so we stayed back and watched until we came to a very long uphill. Then we passed them. In the next town we stopped for gas and they passed us. We never caught up to them again.

The gas station had a sign saying, “25 cents ain’t bad, to make your bladder gladder,” Under that it said there was a key available to current customers. The woman who came out while we were there looked glad.

We ate another roadside lunch today. Homemade sandwiches taste really good when you are hungry and there are no restaurants around.

There was a dip in the pavement so deep our hitch drug the ground. This was on the highway!

Going down a long grade there was a bicyclist catching up to us so we pulled over so he could pass. I wonder how many drivers do that? The signs say, “Share the Road,” and we’ve ridden bicycles enough ourselves to know some of the hazards of doing so. I sure wouldn’t want to ride in these hills!

We arrived in San Francisco about 2 p.m. and followed a Marin AirPorter bus most of the way through town. He helped us know when we should change lanes. It only took us a half hour to get through town. It helped that, after we’d lost the bus, when we needed to move right four lanes to go from Highway 101 back to Highway 1, people slowed down to let us move over. Nice drivers here.

In Pacifica, California, the weather was nice enough for us to open our windows!

We bought propane in Moss Bay, California. Running the generator to help recharge our batteries in the morning takes a fair amount of fuel.

We camped in site 22 at Francis Beach campground at Half Moon Bay State Beach. We paid $25 to boondock on the ocean here but our site was so good, I couldn’t see the bubble in the level because it was perfectly centered.

Our batteries were only 98% charged on arrival. Apparently, we didn’t find the right balance of generator-solar-alternator today. I don’t know how we are supposed to know how much solar-alternator we are going to get in a day, though. Oh, well, 98% will certainly get us through the night.

TTYL,

Linda