What a blustery day

Early this morning we had a pretty good rainstorm come through. I heard about the rain coming but didn’t expect the wind. It has been blowing all day with no relief.

Take a look at the flag in this photo.

The waves are even coming in sideways due to the extreme wind. I think the wind is rubbing on the nerves of some of the campers here because we have had a rash of really strangest complaints. I am glad we don’t have to drive the motorhome in this wind. Today is the first time since we have been here that I haven’t seen someone on the water. There are usually surfers and when the surf is blown out the kite surfers come out. Today there is NO ONE. In spite of the rain and wind, the campground is full. People have come up with some pretty ingenious ways to keep their tents in place.

Merry Christmas Everyone

A few days off.

We are off until after Christmas. We have had the morning duty for 3 mornings in a row and are tired of getting up before the sunrise. It has been cold and yesterday we got rained on. I know, Wah! Wah! Wah! But when you are retired, it just goes against the grain.

I saw the coolest thing the other day. I saw a camper actually raking up his site before leaving. And another was sweeping his before leaving. The sites looked better after they left than they did before they came. Now if I could just get maintenance to do the same…

There is always something interesting to see around here.

These guys were just taking a leisurely cruise over the beach this afternoon. There were about 4 of them.

It’s gotten cold

It’s gotten pretty cold around here. Well, for southern California that is. The cold sure hasn’t dampened the camping spirit though. There are people in tents and tent trailers that are just having a ball. I vaguely remember those days, am glad they are in the past. Sure we have to go out in the cold to do our camp checks but at least we have the warm comfort of our motorhome to retreat to. It was 80 degrees this time last year.

Our schedule gives us the last 2 days of this year off. We were going to just hang out here before heading on however, we just got an invite to spend new years eve camping with some friends not to far from here. We may be heading out a couple of days early.

And I thought WE had courage

Becoming a fulltimer takes a lot of courage. To give up the security of knowing what to expect day by day can be disheartening. I however, have come to realize that our life style is not as frightening as it could be. Our time in the campgrounds have given us the opportunity to see many different lifestyles and one that really has come to light lately is the lifestyle of the homeless living in campgrounds. Weather it be by choice or due to unfortunate circumstances these folks are braver than us Fulltime RVers. I have talked with a number of these people and have found them to be, for the most part, real nice folks. I have come to realize that I’ve had more problems with regulator camping folks than I have with the homeless. Last night we had a very cold, windy, and rainy storm come through. As I walked through the campground this morning I talked with several of our homeless guests and found their spirits to be very high. Sure they talked about the cold, wind, and rain. But I did not hear one complaint amongst any of them. These people, no doubt, have a lot of trouble and turmoil in their lives but somehow, I admire them.

Batten down the hatches

We have another big storm coming in tonight. I have gone around and warned quite a few campers to secure everything because of wind and potential flooding of campsites. A lot of the reserved sites sit empty right now. I suspect most are staying home. We have the afternoon duty today and are off until Tuesday afternoon so we should miss having to be out in the worst of it. This should be fun. I will probably be out sitting under the awning enjoying the weather.


The Kite Surfers are certainty taking advantage of the situation though.

Quiet times

Well it’s been pretty darn quiet around here lately. So much so that I have just about made friends with everyone in the campground from the guy in the big Allegro Bus to the transients in the beat up truck and tents. To be honest I have spent more time talking with the guys in the tents than the bus. Maybe because they are always out and about whilst the others keep held up in their motorhomes. I think it might be a good thing to get aquatinted with these folks because they might be less likely to cause trouble. I got to hand it to these guys though, even the big storm that blew through here on Saturday night didn’t bother them much. Fortunately we were off duty during the storm so we didn’t have to be out in the cart in the rain. I hear we got another, even bigger, storm coming this Sunday. We faired well. Our site drains well. Can’t say much for some of the other sites though.

Some have tuned into big mud puddles. Good thing we are slow this time of the year.

The storms have brought big surf with them. There must have been over 200 surfers out Saturday morning. The surf was big and well formed. It has still been big since then but not as well formed. Fortunately no one has got hurt this year. Last year we had a death when the surf got big.

We finally got a chance to talk to the Camp Host Coordinator. We confirmed our assignment for next year. We signed up for 3 months next year, Oct-Dec. I hope this was not a mistake. Since I have a job to do, I haven’t been plagued with the travel bug as much as I do when we sit in one place for a while.

Another new feature

I have added a poll in the sidebar to the left. Here you can see what region of the country our visitors are from. Please take a minute to enter your region. If you are not sure what region you live in click on the word region in the question and view the map. You can also select the View option to just view the results without voting.

New feature

I just added another feature to the web site. I made it easier to see the Comments left by others. It’s called Peek A Boo Comments. Now, when you click on the comments link at the bottom of each post it will show all the comments right below the post. Clicking again will hide them. Also when comments are showed you will see the “Post a Comment” link where you can post your own comment. Your comment will not show until approved by me, however. Have fun with it.

Another busy weekend

We had another busy weekend. Susan and I had the morning shift this Saturday and were stunned when we headed out for the office. The park was PACKED! There was a youth group that came in down at our end of the campground and they just didn’t get the “Park in your assigned site” concept. I spent all morning trying to figure out who was supposed to be here and in what site they were supposed to be in. Fortunately that was the only problem they gave us. As quick as they came, they left this morning. Everyone else was also well behaved. There were also no reports of theft this weekend. I think the thieves stay away when there are a lot of people around.

The weather was absolutely fabulous this weekend. The winds shifted to off shore winds which mean they were preheated by the land rather than cooled by the ocean. The temps were in the high 70s.

Well, all is quiet now and should remain this way through out the week.

Wind

What do you do when the surf it too blow out… Breakout the kites and go Kite Surfing! The last couple of days the wind has been blowing pretty good down here. The surf has suffered because of it. There are a few diehard surfers out but they aren’t having much luck. Nothing slows these guys down though. It was fun just sitting and watching. It’s amazing how nothing slows down here in Southern California. Even the wind, rain, and cold haven’t slowed the troublemakers here. We have had a rash of thievery in the campground lately. They aren’t even going for anything of value. A $6 rug, a couple of folding chairs, ect. Enough to piss people off but not enough to make a big fuss about. Everyone has been real cool about it. I just hope it stays with the small stuff.

We got our new work schedule for December today. Crud, we got 3 mornings in a row! Well, we also have the last 2 days of the year off so we can relax before we head out of here on the first.

And the fun begins

It’s that time of year and strange things are happening around here. The other night I had a knock on the door at 8:00p. The woman at the door said while she was out someone came into her site and stole her firewood. The very next night Camp Host #2 (off duty) knocked on my door at 9:00p and says a woman came to his door and said 2 guys were snooping around her site. The next morning Camp Host #3 said a woman came to his door at 10:00p and said a homeless person was at the fence behind her site. Well you guessed it; all 3 cases were the same woman. This is just the beginning. I am sure there is more to come.
Although the weekends are still busy, there are probably only about 20 campers here during the week. Strange people do not like to be around a lot of people so this is the time of year they start to show up.

And now it’s raining

What a great Thanksgiving. We had friends and family down here at the campground for Thanksgiving. Some camped for the week and some just came to enjoy the feast, friends, and family.

I grilled a big ol’ turkey on the Webber while everyone else pitched in with various dishes.

I went a little hi-tech this time with my digital thermometers and timers and it turned out great.

The whole meal was a big success. The weather couldn’t be better. We had sunny days, cool evenings, and killer sunsets.

At sunset everyone pauses to enjoy, even the surfers.

Our end of the campground opened the beginning of the week and filled up fast. Susan and I had to work through the holiday but the campers were much more behaved than expected. We had our usual regulars that know every trick in the book to stay without paying but I was on top of them this year and kept them in line.

The last evening before everyone went home we all gathered to watch the movie RV. We sure enjoyed everyone’s company.

All is quiet now. Most have gone back to their homes and jobs and we are pretty much alone here again.

Today we woke to rain. It is good timing since it held out until after the holiday. I am glad to see some rain because it will give me an opportunity to wash everything down. We are off duty until Tuesday afternoon so we may dodge the rain. I see the other hosts drive by in the golf cart, which is open to the rain. If it were me, I would be driving our Saturn.

I like sunsets

I must have a million sunset photos but everyone is different. The weather was actually pretty good today.

And this sunset was really nice too. We were real busy today. They are starting to roll in for the Thanksgiving holiday. It should be interesting in the next couple of days.

What a nice day

Things you’ll only see in Southern California… I saw a Hummer with a surfboard on top today.

The weather for the last couple of days has been just great. Yesterday we had a fog bank come through about 3:00p and left about 3:15p but the rest of the day was nice. Today it was sunny all day. We are enjoying it while it lasts. I understand it is going to go down hill from here for a few days. Just in time for the Thanksgiving crowd.

Here are a couple of photos of the day.

Looking toward La Jolla with the morning haze

A shot from the back of our campsite

How dumb are these people

People that have something to hide should not draw attention to them selves.
A few days ago we had a brand new class A motorhome and brand new Mercedes that came in late without paying and after talking to them they couldn’t come up with the money. It seemed a little fishy to me that they had ½ million dollars worth of equipment and couldn’t come up with $35. I turned this one over to the Rangers and my hunch was right. These guys were drug dealers and preparing to do some dealing out of the campground.

Then just yesterday we had a woman that just drove past the kiosk with her window rolled up and on the cell phone. She failed to stop and check in so I set out after her. I followed her for a while as she drover around the campground while on the phone. I figured I would wait until she either left or landed in a campsite before I confronted her. At this point a Ranger came through and I informed him of the situation. They checked out the vehicle, it came back stolen, and she was in possession of a gun. They took the gun, she went to jail, and the car left on the back of a flatbed.

The calm before the storm

It has been real quiet down here at this end of the campground since they closed the south end on Nov 1 for maintenance. This will all end on Tuesday when they open our end of the campground. We will go from no one to full since it will be Thanksgiving weekend.
We seemed to have more issues with the camper last year then we are having this year. Most are being well behaved. We have found a few that come in after the Kiosk closes without paying but after informing them in the morning all have gone up and paid. Last year we had a number of non pays that have slipped out in the morning without paying. Maybe it’s the fact that we got their plate number and they got a BIG ticket in the mail that has curtailed this activity this year.

Not much going on

Boy, there just hasn’t been much to write about lately. We have just been doing our Campground Host duties and all has been fairly quiet. We both went for our physicals and are both in very good health. I think this lifestyle agrees with us. I do think a little more exercise wouldn’t hurt though. All I do is sit around and polish the motorhome and sit around again. The weather has been a little damper than it was last year, but I think last year was unusually dry. Not necessarily rain but just the usually morning beach weather. I do believe there are a lot more freight trains that come through all night then there were last year. Those freight train engineers love those horns. I think they figure if they have to be up all night than everyone should be too.

I have been doing some maintenance like changing water filters, fixing a few things and sending a few things in for repair. I took the Saturn in for an oil change and of course they tried to talk me into another couple hundred dollars worth of repairs that I feel are unnecessary. I told then “Just change the oil”.

Thanksgiving is coming and we are excited about having friends and family down here for the weekend. They have a couple of sites reserved and will be spending the weekend with us. I will be grilling a turkey in the Weber kettle again this year. That always turns out yummy.

Glad we aren’t in Seattle

Man, am I glad we are in Southern California. I was just reading about the weather in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle got hammered with over 10 inches of rain since the first of this month and now they suffered a big snowstorm. The Oregon coast got whipped by 100 MPH winds that uprooted hundreds of trees whose roots were rain soaked. We got a surprise rain the other night. The weather report called for sprinkles but we got a good rain. It was all gone by morning and the sun came out the next day. I like those kind of storms.

It is still pretty quiet here at the beach. I just jump in my golf cart and cruise the park talking to the campers. Everyone is just having a good time. The days have been nice, the sunsets have been awesome, and the people have been well behaved.

Slow times

It sure has been slow around here. We usually get a bunch of strange visitors this time of year here at San Elijo State Beach but it has been very quiet and peaceful. We did have an issue with what really looked to be a couple of drug dealers but was promptly taken care of as soon as I notified the Ranger. I suspect all will change as soon as Thanksgiving week arrives. It should get interesting.

We have been spending some quality time with our grand son while we have the chance. He sure likes to help us with our rounds. We made him up a Junior Ranger badge and Susan lets him where her Host Visor. He really thinks he’s hot stuff. Between baseball, bike riding, scooter riding, kite flying, and walks on the beach he is giving me a workout.