We’ve still got it

Yes we still have the ability to make it rain wherever we go. This is our last day at San Elijo State Beach and up until today, the weather has been fabulous. Well, it’s not so bad today either except it IS raining. At least we waited until the last day before we made it rain. I just feel sorry for all the nice folks that came down to spend New Years here and got rained on. Tomorrow we will be moving of back to Temecula for a few days until we head for the Southwestern FMCA rally. If you are heading for the rally, we will be your tram drivers. We volunteered to drive trams last year and are doing it again this year.

Below is another list of interesting characters we have come across as Camp Hosts.

See you next Year!

More interesting characters

Here is another list of interesting characters we have come across as Camp Hosts.

We had a woman that insisted on a hookup site to run her heater because she came from Florida and didn’t bring enough blankets to keep her warm at night.

There was the woman that insisted our sister park has hookups even though we say they don’t. She must know something we don’t know.

When reminding him of our generator hours, a guy said he had to run his generator all night because he has a medical device that needs power. He reserved a non-hookup site.

A woman told me she was running her generator in the early morning because she left her lights on all night and the battery was dead. She must know some exceptions to the rules that I don’t know.

A gentleman asked if I would let him run his generator at 6:00 am because his coach only has 1 battery and his heater ran the battery dead over night.

When asked why he hasn’t left his site after checkout time, this guy went down a list of personal problems that had nothing to do with leaving but would have made a great country western song.

The reason one guy wouldn’t put his dog on a leash is because he says his dog is a country dog.

One guy said after checking in, his wife won’t stay because they are from the country and his wife refuses to listen to the road noise all night. He wanted a refund.

There are the numerous people that say they couldn’t register last night because the office was closed when they pulled in, even though there are instructions for self-registration. A lot of them leave without paying the $20 registration. Since we have their license plate number the Rangers send them a $65 ticket.

One person was upset at us because he couldn’t register his vehicle until he paid the $600 fines for not paying the $65 ticket he got for not paying the $20 campground fee. They just can’t figure it out…

We get a few that claim they reserved one of the hookup sites, but their site doesn’t have hookups. Even after pointing out that their reservation conformation says non-hookup they insist they reserved a hookup site. Same thing with the oceanfront sites.

There were the young adults that pulled into a reserved site later one evening. When the person with the reservation showed up that evening the young adults made up their own rules that reservations are forfeited after 9:00 pm.

One guy insisted that they should have been warned about the train noise when they made reservations.

When told we were full, one woman asked, Are you sure you are full.

Some people try to hide an extra car in the back of their site because they don’t want to pay the extra vehicle fee.

Work Done

Our work is done here. We did our last shift yesterday morning. We will be hanging out until the first of the year and be available to assist campers.




Although the weather report keeps threatening rain, there is none in site. As you can see in these photos, the sun was shining bright. Our grandson came to spend a few nights with us. He just loved walking around the tide pools. He even helped a few sea creatures back into the water that got left behind with the tide.


The tide pools were teaming with life today, human life that is.

Santa Claus came

I don’t get it. Even though our fireplace has no chimney, somehow Santa Clause still got in to bring us all these presents.

Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas Everyone

Morning Sunrise

I have taken plenty of sunset photos but until now I have never caught a sunrise. The last couple of mornings have been spectacular with the sunrise breaking through the morning clouds and mist.

Lots happening

There has been a lot going on around here lately. I told you about all the wackos in the park, well we have had a few more since then. Also the other Camp Hosts had things come up where they have had to leave the park to take care off. This has left Susan and I pulling double (all day) shifts. It’s no big deal since you could hardly call this work. Our granddaughter had her 1st birthday and we headed on out to attend her party. Also the Camp Hosts at South Carlsbad State Beach (our sister park) had a host party that we attended. We had a great time meeting all the hosts from Carlsbad and swapping interesting stories. But the big event has been the storm surge along the coast. The northwest has been hit with a big storm that brought us humongous waves and higher than normal tides. We were afraid some of the lower campsites would get flooded out but they survived.

The beach we used to walk is gone, covered by high surf that is licking the already eroding cliffs.
The surfers were going crazy with the 15 to 20 foot waves. The rangers and Lifeguards had their hands full rescuing surfers from the raging ocean. There were over 100 rescues in one day. They were hanging out just past the surf on Jet Skis ready to rush in and pluck a surfer in trouble out of the water. They also had ambulances and a helicopter standing by just in case. Although there were many rescues there was no deaths until today. Unfortunately a surfer floated ashore unconscious and was unable to be resuscitated. They still do not know his identity. They only know he appears to be in his 30s. Many surfers went home with broken boards and some bumps and bruises. Traffic was also a mess. Everyone came down to either ride the waves or just observe the waves. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and stop-and-go. There was just no place for all of them to park. The local police were on foot going down the line of cars asking illegal parkers to move on. As soon as they chased one out another would pull in. Finally they started ticketing them and had to call for more ticket books. Tow trucks were also busy removing cars. The surf subsided a bit today but was still huge today. The problem today was the fog that came in. Surfers were going out not knowing what they were getting into. The lifeguards could not keep an eye out for them since visibility was very limited. Next week is supposed to be a repeat of yesterday and today.

These guys decided to pull out of this wave.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

This time of year brings out all the wackos, degenerates and misfits. The park is just about empty during the weekdays except for a collection of degenerates. There is an interesting collection of tents, campers and motorhomes.
There is the guy that asks for an ambulance because he thinks he is suffering from sleep deprivation.
There was the motley grew that looked like they just crawled out from under a bridge somewhere. They all took off one day, however they forgot the guy that was passed out in the bushes next to their site. I left that one for the Ranger to handle.
There is the POW that complains about everything even though he is getting his site for free. He figures since he doesn’t have to pay that he can come and go as he pleases, whenever he pleases.
There was the guy that took off in his truck the day he was supposed to check out, leaving his trailer and Harley behind. When he arrived at 11:30P the Ranger was there to meet him. Turns out his truck, trailer, and wife’s car had expired registrations and their driver’s licenses were expired. He was given an hour to leave.
There was the guy that claims he raises race horses and has lots of money even though he is sleeping in a 4’X4’ purple tent that looks like a little kids Barbie tent. He ended up missing for 2 nights even though all his stuff was still setup in the site. He came back and paid up then disappeared again for another 4 nights, then one night all his stuff disappeared.
There is the one that says he just bought a million dollar house, however he is staying in the park in his hundred dollar motorhome.
There are the ones that have a vivid imagination. One says he witnessed a rape in one of the showers. One wanted to file an assault with deadly weapon charge stating a man with a cane attacked him.
Then there are the leaches that think they can pull in when the office is closed and slip out before they open without paying. Little do they know that we get their plate numbers and send them a citation that costs A LOT more than the night’s fee.
There is the guy that chooses a non-hookup site, then plugged into the hookup site next to him. His excuse was he was charging a dead battery and didn’t want to disturb anyone with his generator. Yeah, he was also kicked back watching TV.
There was the woman that knocked on my door at 8:00pm looking for a warm place to sleep. When I sent her on her way, she was so wasted she couldn’t find her way out of my site. Called the ranger on that one.
There are also a number of oddballs that are quiet, keep to themselves and completely harmless.
So, how exciting is your job?

What's happening

Since we are presently right next to a major rail road track, the commuter train from LA and Oceanside to San Diego, we have become aware of the individual engineers by the way they blow the whistle. They all seem to have their own signature toot (or BLAST!) as they enter the crossroad near by. There is one however that recently stands out. This person has mastered “Jingle Bells” on the train’s whistle. Just cracks me up every time he passes by.

I made a major blunder. My computer was getting pretty slow lately so I decided to clear it out by formatting the Hard Drive and reinstalling just the programs I need. I thought by copying every file from my hard drive to my external drive, I wouldn’t have the problem of lost files or data. There were a few files that wouldn’t copy because they were “in use” at the time. Well, it turns out that all my Outlook data was in those files including all my contacts. Yes I lost all my contacts. If anyone reading this thinks they may have been in my contact list, I would appreciate it if you could email me with your info, Thanks.

It was looking like we weren’t going to be offered our Host jobs next year. They said they had already filled the months of November and December for next year. However, the other day we got a call letting us know they put us down for November and December of 2006 and asked us if we would do October and January also. We declined the extra months since we have Rallies we attend those months. Also, we have been here for a little over a month and I am ready itching to get back on the road again. 4 months would drive me crazy.

Waiting for that wave

Here in Southern California, the surfers are serious about their sport. Even when there are no waves. This morning was so nice. The air was still, the sea was calm, and there was not a cloud in the sky. The park is empty again. Things are real slow around here. We just drive around in our cart looking for something amiss but all is well.


Evenings are so nice. Everyone just lines up along the bluffs and watches the sun set. I just can’t get enough of the sunsets.

The mass Exodus

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. This place went from bursting at the seams full to about 20 sites occupied in 4 hours.
The Thanksgiving week was interesting. Tending to the hordes of kids and juvenal acting adults while entertaining guests of our own was a challenge, a challenge we concurred very well. For some dumb reason, maintenance decided this week would be a good week to bring in a number of dump truck loads of dirt. Well…every kid in the park with a bike saw it as a perfect motocross track. I played the part of “dirt police” all weekend trying my best to keep the kids from riding down the streets, across the handicap parking, over the dirt, up into the “closed for rehabilitation” area, then around the bathroom/showers, and back in line to go again, all with no helmets. Putting up barricades did nothing, they just ran them over. Talking to the parents did nothing, they didn’t want to deal with it. Noting it in the log book for the Rangers did nothing. And of course all the “No Skateboard” signs around the bathroom/showers ment nothing to the skateboarders. Even with all the policeing I did, I did get a thanks from some of the parents for being cool about the whole thing. They said the guy last year was on them about every little thing they did. I thanked them and told them, I just want everyone to have a good time.



Our grandson came to visit yesterday. Susan put her Host visor on him, we made him a junior ranger for the day, gave him a trash bag and put him to work. He had a ball picking up trash. We had to laugh as one person was heading for the beach with their dog and Landen yells out, “No dogs on the beach” and as one driver came zipping by he yells out, “Slow down”. This guy is only 4 years old and right on the ball.
Things are very quiet right now, Whew.

Cruisin

This little guy was cruising in style today. Today was a great day for cruising too. It was pushing 80 degrees and this evening is in the 70s. Is it really the middle of November?
I figured out that, if we were getting paid, we would be making about $11 an hour. Actually if you add up the time actually worked it would be double that. Not bad for a gig on the beach. Somebody Pinch me, I must be dreaming! To be honest though, I am already getting the itch to travel again.


Another killer sunset tonight. We are finally starting to get some cloud cover to make the sunsets look nice. Those surfers just don’t want to give up in fear that they might miss out on that last good wave. I noticed they all stop and enjoy the sunset also. I bet it looks totally awesome from their point of view.
This is going to be a busy week. Usually on Sundays this place clears out, but it actually filled up today and I suspect they are staying through Thanksgiving. We may just earn our keep this week.

Tide Pools

What a nice day. It got to about 80 degrees today. After our morning shift, we took a walk down to the beach. It was low tide and the tide pools were visible.

TPMS

I found time to install my TPMS (that’s Tire Pressure Monitor System) today. This thing is cool. It monitors the tire pressure in my motorhome and car tires. With a simple push of a button, I can check the pressure in all my tires without even going outside. The system will alert me, indicate which tire, and the air pressure if a tire pressure drops by 12.5% and REALLY alert me if it drops 25%. This is important because most blowouts begin with low tire pressure which heats the tire then BAM! It will also let me know if I have a flat on the toad (Saturn) while towing, which is nice because I would never know until the damage is done. I can even take the monitor with me in the car when we unhook by simply unplugging it from the motorhome and plugging it into the car. The system consists of a sensor for each tire and the monitor. It was a cinch to install and setup. I even inadvertently tested the system by not screwing a sensor on tight enough and the tire leaked down enough to alert me.


Things sure are slow around here. We are full on the weekends but during the week it is very quiet. Camp Hosting this time of year is a piece of cake. All I do is drive around in the golf cart and talk with the few campers that are here. Cool Gig!

Still no Sunset

The weather has just been to good to get a good sunset. We did have a little fog tonight that made the sunset look nice though. The surfers are enjoying this time of the evening too. One of my duties is to lock the gate to the park at sunset. I was told to wait until at least a hour after sunset because the surfers surf until the sun goes down and will have to walk all away around to get out if the gate is closed.

A few of the days photos

I caught a photo of this Blimp cruising the coast today. It must be owned by an old Hippy that owned a VW bus in the 60s.

This squirl couldn’t decide which trash can he wanted to raid first.

The recent storm, if that’s what you want to call it, has uprooted a lot of kelp and deposited it on our beach. What a mess.

I can’t believe I have been here at the beach for 2 weeks now and I still haven’t got any sunset shots.

What is it?

It sits on the top of the motorhome. It twirls around in the wind. And it sucks.
I just installed 2 “Xtreme Vents” in place of the traditional holding tank vent caps. These little devices point in the direction of the wind and, using a venturi effect, creates a vacuum in the vent tube which sucks the odors out. Even if it doesn’t work, they still look cool swinging around up there in the wind. They are, however, guarantied to work and are guarantied for life.

Check out my new link “Why I Love America”. This was emailed to me by a good friend and made me think how fortunate I am to have experienced a lot of these scenes.

No rain yet

The weather keeps calling for rain but we haven’t seen any yet. Good thing I guess since I took a good look at our site and realized that if we get a good rain, the back of our site will fill up like a swimming pool. I will have to see about digging some drainage canals. As you can see in these photos, the sea is looking a bit stormy. It does make for a pretty sky as seen from our site.

We are still enjoying the heck out of this Camp Host thing. The work is a piece of cake and being the social kind of guy I am, I am meeting a lot of people. It takes me about 1 hour to do my rounds which should only take about 15 minutes because I have to stop and talk with everyone. We already signed up to do this gig again next year.

Busy Busy

We have been rather busy lately. We have had quite a few visitors, some that we have known for many years and some that have met us thought our website and travels. Also our Grandson came to visit for a couple of days. He helped Nana bake cookies.

He just loved visiting Nana and Papa at the beach. He got to go in the water with some friends while Nana sat on the beach, occupying herself with Video Poker. Where was I? Well I took the work duty so Susan can spend time with our friends. I had plenty of time, however to man the camera for a few shots.

The weekend around here was busy but quiet. I was rather surprised being we were full for the weekend. Next weekend will be a Holliday weekend so we will see what that brings.

This morning I caught a squirrel trying to enjoy a little snack while this bird was trying to steal a free meal. The squirrel won out and got his snack.

Well the weather is taking a turn for the worst. We haven’t seen too much of the sun in the last couple of days and they are calling for rain tomorrow, however, after that it is supposed to clear up again and be nice.

Beach creatures

For the next couple of months, you will most likely see a lot of beach shots. Does anyone know what the first photo is? I believe it is a Sea Slug. There are some pretty cool tide pools along this beach so all kinds of strange things can come crawling out of the sea. This guy was about 8” long.

By the way, this is our job. We strolled the beach this afternoon to make sure everyone was observing the rules. I know, it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Life is rough

Well, today we moved into our winter home. We are in a Southern California State Park right on the beach as Camp Host for the rest of the year. The temperatures are in the high 70s during the days and in the high 50s at night so life is good right now. I am sure we will be getting some stormy weather as the next 2 months progress. But we are talking about Southern California storms so how bad can it get? The only down side, looks like I will have to be dragging my lazy body out of bed at 5:00a twice a week.

Class C on steroids

Thought you might get a kick out of this Class C on steroids.

The Grandson

This little guy is one of the main reasons we come back to Southern California. The other reason is, of course his sister.

Almost living in the Service Center

This morning, I had to get up at 7:00 in the middle of the night. I call it 7:00 in the middle of the night because I believe there is no such thing as 7:00 in the morning. There is 7 in the evening and 7 at night. Anyway we had a 8:00 appointment to get the brake recall done on the motorhome. This was supposed to be a 4 hour job. We waited all day for the call that our home was ready but it never came so at 4:00 we headed down to the service center to see what the deal was. The service writer informed me that they will have to set us up in the service center because it was not ready. I asked him why a 4 hour job has turned into a 8 hour job. I also asked him if he was going to pay for our reservation we had for tonight and tonight’s dinner. It just so happened as we were talking, the technician was done and taking it out for a test drive. So tonight we are back at the Pechanga RV Resort where we should be.

Back in Temecula

We arrived back in Temecula CA today. The Rexhall Rally was a blast. We can’t wait until the next one. We wanted to stay for the Good Sam Rally but we have an appointment at the Temecula RV Service Center for our brake recall. Tonight we are spending the night in the Pechanga Casino parking lot. The reason we are not in the RV park is because we need to be at the RV service center at 8:00a and figured for just an overnight we will hangout in the parking lot. Tomorrow after we get the motorhome back we will check into the RV park. We will hang out at Pechanga RV Resort until our Host jobs at San Elijo next week.

Back on the road

One of the reasons we went Fulltime is because we never wanted to leave (to go home). I thought by going Fulltime I would never again have to say I don’t want to leave but tonight was the last night of the Rexhall Rally and, I don’t want to leave. We had such a good time, as we always do, and have got to see our good friends we have made in the past and have meet so many more good friends. As with last year we have a new bunch of friends to stop and visit on our travels around the country. We got some good tips on places to visit next year and got invited to a couple more upcoming rallies, which I am sure we will take advantage of.

By attending the seminars, I have gained a little more knowledge about Rving and the Fulltime lifestyle and picked up a few more tips from our fellow Rexhallers. I even sat down with Mr. Rex, one on one at one of the dinners and had a short but good conversation and shared some tips with him. I am sure he gets this a lot though.

I got a chance to head on over to their service center and pick up some Rexhall specific items I needed for our coach. Now we are good to go for another year.

This rally was also good for the motorhome because staying the parking lot at the fairgrounds, we had no water or sewer hookups and limited amperage power so this gave me a chance to exercise the boondocking systems in our coach and make sure everything is still in working order. I am glad to report that everything works very well.

So tomorrow, it’s back on the road again.

Fun Rally

We are just having the best time here at the Rexhall Rally. Above is a picture of just some of the top notch entertainment that we have enjoyed here at the rally. I have taken in a lot of the seminars and have learned a thing or two, even though I thought I knew it all. One thing I learned was the AirCard offered by Verizon to access the internet has a larger coverage area than I though. I was using the Verizon High Speed network and was paying $79.99 a month for their unlimited usage plan. With the AirCard I can use their Broadband and where the Broadband is not available it used the same Verizon High Speed network I was using for only $59.99. That’s a $20 savings for faster internet. And I don’t have to tie up the cell phone anymore.

The Rexhall Rally

We did the big trip today. We traveled from the Lancaster Fairgrounds Campground into the Fairground for the Rexhall Rally. It took more time to bring in the slides and pull up the levelers than it did to make the drive. The turnout this year is really down because of the gas prices. Most all the rigs have California plates on them. The Rexhall Rallies are a lot of fun. The have RV accessories vendors (already spent $100), New Coach displays, Seminars, Breakfast, Social Hours, and Dinners. There is something going on all the time. We always make new friends every year. We have already been invited to other get togethers in the short time we have been here.

I got a chance to clean up the motorhome and car again so I am much happier now. I think we have driven in the rain maybe 3 times this year and it sure makes a big mess out of everything, especially the poor car being drug behind the motorhome. I did it with a bucket of water and a rag. Then I go over it with my bottle of spray detailer. You do what you have to.

Movin’ on to Lancaster CA

We arrived in Lancaster today about 11:00a. We are in Lancaster for a Raxhall Rally. Rexhall is the manufacturer of our motorhome and every year they sponsor a Homecoming Rally. It is always a whole lot of fun.

Last night was supposed to be a quiet night at the race track since most of the race crazies had gone home. However, the thunder showers were pretty noisy.

It rained all the way to Lancaster this morning and now my motorhome that I spent 3 weeks cleaning is all dirty again. The car is even worse. This campground will not let us wash it. At least I can run the car through a car wash in town. I will see if I can just give the motorhome a sponge bath later. We will be in the Lancaster County Fairground Campground for 2 nights then we move into the Fairgrounds for the rally on Wednesday, so my next trip will be about a ½ mile drive. For the next 2 days we will catch up on some laundry and shopping.

The rains came and so did the race

Well we woke to rain this morning. It was looking like the race was not going to happen. The California 100 was supposed to be the first race but the rains kept coming. Finally a break came and they started the Toyota 400 race. The ended up with enough time after the 400 to run the 100.


The rain kept a lot of fans from filling the stands.


The safety crew got in a quick nap before the race started.


We had a front row spot and the best place to catch the race was on the roof of the motorhome of course. Susan chose to watch the race through the windshield from inside because it was LOUD. She also had the luxury of having the TV on and got to see all the replays and close-ups of the wrecks.