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.

Weather change

Wow, it went from absolutely beautiful to overcast and cool in about 15 minute today. Looks like we are in for some gloomy weather for a while. The weather report is even calling for a little rain. Hopefully it won’t last long.
It sure has been quiet down at our end of the campground since they have this half closed off for maintenance. Heck the whole campground has been well behaved. That will all change though when they open this section on Nov 20. Thanksgiving week is going to be busy as usual so we are enjoying the quiet while we have it. I am slowly whittling down my “To Do List” that I compiled for the last couple of months. I have been saving it all up to keep me busy while we sit for 2 months. Also we are getting our doctors appointments done since our long time family doctor is here in Southern California. We will be glad when that’s over.
Well tomorrow we will get up before the sun to do the morning shift. We are scheduled for 3 morning shifts in a row this time. We alternate Saturday morning shifts with the other Camp Hosts and this is our turn. I’m not really looking forward to that but it’s a small price to pay.
Last Saturday we had a whole day of guests come visit. What a fun day.

This is one of the major reasons we come back to Southern California each year. We have to get our Grandkid fix. This year I decided it was time to take the training wheels off my grandson’s bike. He took off like a natural. He really doesn’t have a place to ride at home so he never had a chance to learn to ride without training wheels until now. He just loved it and wanted to ride every chance he got.


Tide pools, surfing, and just walking the beach at sunset are some of the things that people enjoy along the Southern California beaches.


I can never get enough sunset pictures


It’s no wonder why this campground is always full. The skies look so awesome just after sunset.

The job has started

We started our duty here at the beach as Camp Hosts yesterday and this morning was our first morning. 6:00am! I haven’t seen 6:00am for quite a while now. We are in the same site as last year, however they closed our side of the campground. We are down here all by our self. We have this whole half of the campground all to our selves.

So last night while on patrol a woman came up to me, all irate, and said I have to do something about the yapping dog across from her. She wanted me to call 911. I said I don’t believe it is an emergency but she insisted. I told her if she thinks a barking dog is an emergency then she can call 911 herself. As I passed her this morning she wouldn’t even look my way. I think she is a little embarrassed.

This time of the year brings our all the crazies.

Cardiff By The Sea

We had a long drive today. It was actually only 165 miles but the traffic was outrageous. We were buzzing along until we got to the Cajon Summit. The traffic was backed up all the way to the I-15/I-215 split. That was 15 miles of 20 mph bumper to bumper traffic. Actually it was still backed up on I-15 but I peeled off onto the I-215 to avoid it all. Later when we hit the turnoff to Oceanside it was backed up again. Another 10 miles of 15 mph traffic. Even though we had no schedule, it still made for a long day. Well, we are now at Cardiff By The Sea where we will be for 2 months as Camp Hosts. Everyone was excited to see us back. We will spend a couple of days relearning the system then we are on our own again.

Back in Barstow

We arrived in Barstow just before noon today. This is good for Susan because the race started about 12:15. The first thing I did when we got here was to plug in the motorhome and setup the satellite dish. We will be here for 1 night then on to Cardiff By The Sea.

We really didn’t want to leave Havasu but we do have the commitment in San Diego. We are looking forward to hanging out on the beach for a while though, and there are always the Grandkids. So we will enjoy our stay.

Getting ready to travel

Well we are getting ready to travel today. We will be heading out in the morning tomorrow heading to California. We are going to Cardiff for our Camp Host jobs at San Elijo State Beach. Aahhh, 2 months on the beach. Life is good.

Them Shiners sure know how to have fun!

Today we checked out the London Bridge Days parade. This is something they have been doing since they brought the London Bridge over from England. Yes it is the actual London Bridge they sing about in the song “London Bridge is falling down”. That is why it is no longer in London. They had to replace it since it was sinking into the river. They put it up for auction and McCulloch well known for his chain saws won the bid and brought it to Lake Havasu City Arizona. They erected the bridge on a peninsula and dug a channel under it to create the island. At almost 200 years old, they say this is the oldest Antique ever sold.

The mouse is history

Last night the mouse lost. We were sitting out on the patio with some friends when we heard the trap go SNAP. I would post a picture but it isn’t a pretty sight. We got him just as he was coming in for the night via the sewer hose. I have reset the traps just in case he told some friends about the place.

Today is a pretty nice day so they are finishing up my patio. Unfortunately we won’t have much time to use it since we are back on the road this weekend. At least it will be done. When we come back we will do a little artificial turf and some plants to finish it off.

This is what it looked like before they started.

This is after the framing.

Another during the laying of concrete.

The finished product.

This will give us more room to spread out. When we come back in January we are going to install some artificial turf, a few plants, palms, an outdoor grill and possible some lighting.

Upgrades

They started the upgrades to our lot on Monday as planned. This morning they were supposed to pour the concrete however, this morning we woke to rain. They came by to tell me they would try again tomorrow morning. I was hoping to get it done and get things cleaned up. The weather changes so quickly around here. I guess I can wait another day.

We are still battling the mouse. We thought since none of the traps were tripped and we haven’t seen any more droppings that he was gone. Well last night we were awakened to the sound of munching in the cabinets. I had to bang on the cabinet a few times before he got the hint. This morning we pulled a few things apart and found more evidence that he has been with us all along. I decide to try bacon instead of the peanut butter in the traps this time. When I went to bait the traps, they were cleaned of peanut butter however they were not tripped. That sneaky little… I had Susan pick up more traps when she went to the store today so now we have 6 traps set, some with bacon and some with peanut butter. THIS MEANS WAR!!

Busy day

I guess there is no noise ordinance here in Havasu. This morning at around 2:00a they started work for the day on the new storage units across the street from the resort. Lots of pounding and tossing things around. Fortunately after being awaken, it didn’t take me long to fall back to sleep. The wind has been blowing all day and is suppose to do the same tomorrow. Monday should be better.


Susan and I got an early start to beat the heat today and headed on down to the Relics and Rods car show at the London Bridge Resort here in town. There were over 1000 beautiful classics none newer than the 50s.
I got my Architectural plans approved today for the work I want to do on the property. It took two submissions because they lost the first set and I had to redo them. Thank god for computers. They are going to start the concrete work on Monday and will have that phase done on Tuesday. The rest will be done in January when we come back.
I saw an ad for a nice outdoor grill that went on sale. Just had to have it so I headed on down to pick us up one. Oh sure it’s on sale but they don’t have any. They will have a bunch in January, which sounds good since that’s when we come back. Bet they will be double in price by then though. Just as well because I have no idea how I was going to get that sucker in the Saturn.

Got mice

Well I knew it would happen eventually. We got a mouse somewhere in the motorhome. Last night he left his calling card. He didn’t get into anything, just did a bit of rummaging around. Not sure how long he has been in here but this is the first time we have seen evidence of the little guy. He may have been with us for a while because we found drops in the bedroom and under the couch in the living room. Now, we like nature, but outside. I am afraid we will have to remove him dead or alive, most likely dead since I went out today and picked up a couple of good old fashion mouse traps. I guess I need to pick up some steel wool and mothballs. I will wrap the mothballs in the wool and stuff it into all the holes where the little critters can get in.

Today I contacted the cement contractor that is doing all the slabs in the resort to see about doing an extension of our slab. I was going to setup a date in January to get the work done since we are only going to be here 1 more week. To my surprise they wanted to get started on Monday and will finish up Tuesday. I OKed the work and am now just waiting for the Owners Association to OK the work. They say it should be Oked tomorrow.

Wind and no water

There was lots of wind today. It seems to be coming from the coast. I understand they are having some lousy weather right now on the coast. Anyway, the wind has not let up all day. The lake looks like an ocean with all the whitecaps. There is no one on the water at all. The wind is supposed to let up later tonight and it should be calm tomorrow.

We woke to no water today. I am not sure what is going on but they gave an estimate of when the water will be back on and they keep extended it out. It really doesn’t affect us though since I always carry about 30 gallons in our fresh water tank. We simply switched on our water pump. It was funny watching one guy fishing water out of the pool this morning with 5 gallon water bottles. I assume he is in one of the park models and needs it for flushing.

Well the weekend is coming so the population in the resort should pick up. We are going to head on down to the Hot Rod show this weekend and gawk over the nice rides. We have been seeing some running around town all week, Really Nice.

Back to normal

Today was beautiful. The skies cleared and the temperatures were in the 80s. Everything was clean and fresh after the rain. I spent the day drying things out including my Boom Box Stereo that I left out in the rain yesterday. It took a while in the sun before it started working again. I will let it dry one more day just to be sure before putting it back into fulltime use. This coming week and weekend is the big Relics and Rods car show. There are a few cars showing up already. It should be fun. I will be bringing my camera.

Another day of Thunder

We are having another day of thunderstorms here today. I thought it was done since this morning looked pretty good. Last night my weather alert radio went off about midnight with a tornado watch. That’s right, tornado. I guess the conditions were right even though none developed. I think today’s storm is the same one as yesterday since it seems to be going in the opposite direction as yesterdays. This time it picked up some hale with it. There doesn’t seem to be as much wind (yet), which is a good thing. I hope the wind doesn’t develop because I didn’t get a chance to tie down the patio furniture or bring in the awnings this time. I may be getting real wet later. Of course our satellite is blocked by the water in the clouds again and today is NASCAR so Susan is not a happy camper. Hopefully it will come back on before the race starts.

No it’s not a tornado

This is a photo of part of the storm that just blew through here. We could see it coming so I tied down all the patio furniture. There were two pretty good storms with LOTS of lightning so far and I am sure there will be more. I tried to get a photo of the lightning, which is very hard to do. Also I didn’t really want to stand out there trying to get it. I had to go out between storms and tie down the Satellite dish a little better because the wind almost took it over even though I have it tied down to my tow bar. We loose the signal when the sky gets REAL black. Of course this is all happening during Susan’s NASCAR race.

Rain

Wow, it went from Clear, Sunny, and calm winds to Cloudy, Rainy, and windy just overnight. It did lower the temperature a bit though so that’s a good thing. It is still in the 90 out here and in the high 60s in the evening. I am getting a chance to clean things up, fix a few things and just sit and relax. I have been neglecting a few things that need fixing because I knew we would have plenty of time for that in the next couple of months.

Back in Havasu

We are back at Lake Havasu. We arrived this afternoon about 1:00p after another 3 hour drive. The drive wasn’t bad however, just long. Again the truckers entertained us with their chatter.

We even got to travel a portion of the original Route 66 today.

There are a lot more coaches here than when we left in July. It could have something to do with the fact that today it was in the 80s and in July it was in the 120s. I uncovered our patio furniture, which hopped off the cement pad onto the gravel during one of the monsoons. The furniture survived OK except we lost one pillow. It’s probably floating down the river somewhere. Tomorrow will be cleanup day. I already washed the car this evening but I need to give the motorhome a good washing and clean the dust out of the patio furniture. We have neighbors now and their motorhome is partially blocking our view that we enjoyed last summer. At least it provided shade on our lot so that’s a good thing.

Calico Ghost Town

We are now in a KOA just outside of Calico Ghost Town in Yermo California. We won’t be going into the Ghost town this time though. We were there earlier this year. This is one of the nicer KOAs I have stayed at. It was another one of those long days (2.5 hour drive) but not a bad drive at all. We were entertained by the truckers on the CB the whole way. I sure like the way this motorhome goes. We climbed over the Tehachapi’s today with no strain on the motorhome what so ever. We passed by anything that was going slower than 55, of course they passed us again on the down grades going probably 75. I just kept it between 55 and 60. We will be here one night then it’s over to Lake Havasu. Susan is anxious to get there and just sit for a couple of weeks. I know I will get antsy.

SAL Rally

We left San Antonio Lake today and are now in Bakersfield heading for Lake Havasu City Arizona. We just had the best time at the lake. There were about 20 rigs at the rally this weekend. Most went home Sunday but a few of us stayed until today.

We had lots of good food, good conversation, and just good fun. Some brought their boats and pulled anyone that wanted to attempt to ski.

The wildlife here was glad to see us as the deer and rabbits showed up every night at happy hour and hung around until after dinner. After we all turned in for the night, the raccoons came out to clean up. We even had a tarantula take a cruise through camp one evening. The weather couldn’t be better.

We had cool mornings, sunny warm days and evenings were perfect campfire weather.

San Antonio Lake

We are now at San Antonio Lake which is in the hills just west of Paso Robles. It sure was nice here today but they are calling for a chance of thunderstorms tonight and rain tomorrow. We shall see. The drive here was just great. Coming up here we saw a tarantula crossing the road, Squirrels, Chipmunks, birds, deer, and cows. Here at the lake, the deer just come up to you looking for a handout. They are not too shy. It is soooo quiet up here that my ears are hurting. After staying at the Elks lodges that are mostly right in town and right next to the freeway, this is nice. We are actually here 2 days earley but were so close and couldn’t wait. Some of the Rally goers will be coming in tomorrow and the rest on Friday. This will be a fun weekend.

Nice day

What a nice day. Yesterday we had overcast skies all day and even a little bit of rain. I was getting concerned about the weather this weekend since we are heading for a rally that will be primarily outdoors. But today however, the skies were blue and clear all day and the sun shined bright. We took a run into Paso Robles to do some grocery shopping at the nearest Wal-Mart. After shopping we took a tour around Atascadero to see what’s here and scope out a good Laundromat for tomorrow.

Since we had a little rain I decided to check the condition of the motorhomes wiper blades. They are shot! What’s worst is I can’t seem to find 26” refills. I can find the whole blade assembly but I only need the refills and of course I have to do some modifications to the assembly to make it fit. I think I will go ahead and pick up the assembly because this will give me a chance to get some longer ones. I have always thought mine were a bit short.

Atascadero Sunset

Who says you have to be at the beach to get a killer sunset. Looks like they are predicting a 20% chance of rain later this week. I hope it is nice for the rally.

On the move again

Today we traveled on down the road again since the weekend is booked at Morro Dunes. We are now in Atascadero just 30 minutes from Morro Bay. Last time I traveled from Morro Bay I was undecided if I wanted to take Hwy 41 or Hwy 46. I took Hwy 46 after talking to a few people that said they always go Hwy 46 and never have gone Hwy 41. It is a good road and has one good climb but not too bad. This time I decided, what the heck, and took Hwy 41. Mostly because it is a more direct route from where I was to where I wanted to go. I think this is a much better choice. The climb is less than Hwy 46. It is a bit curvier but nothing at all bad. It was a nice drive. I decided we will stay here in Atascadero for a few days then go directly up to San Antonio Lake. We will most likely get to the lake before any of the other rally goers show up.

Booked for the weekend

We are not happy that we have to leave this place. I have checked numerous times and they are booked up for the weekend and have no cancellations. Morro Dunes is a really nice campground. The place is cleaned everyday, sites are swept every time someone pulls out and everyone is very friendly. At $29 a night it is a real bargain. We will be heading on over the hill to Atascadero only 30 minutes away where we will be for at least the weekend, NASCAR you know.

Attack of the Giant Seagull

We are still waiting to hear if we can stay here thought the weekend. I sure hope so because we sure like it here. The weather has been mixed. We had a day of overcast, which never really burned off, and a day of morning clouds with afternoon sun. Today was mostly sunny. It has gotten a bit cooler though but we are not ready to leave the coast yet. This evening we headed for the Embarcadero for some fish and chowder. Susan had the halibut and I had the fish sandwich and a cup of clam chowder. We sat over looking the bay and kept an eye on this giant seagull while enjoying our meal. Actually it was a normal size seagull but at this angle he looks huge, but you knew that. Tomorrow I will be heading for the office to bug them again about staying. There are a couple of other campgrounds in the area but if we need to move to another campground we will just head on down the road. Toward the end of October, after the rally, we are heading for Lake Havasu. I have been checking the weather there and it is still in the 100s. Hope it cool down before we get there.

On the coast

Well we made our way out to the coast to Morro Bay today, but not until after the NASCAR race was over. We sort of overstayed our welcome at the elks lodge since they like you to pull out by 12:00. We pulled out at 2:00. Since there were other sites open and no one was waiting to get parked I wasn’t worried and no one seemed to care.

We are in an actual campground for a few days. This campground is real nice. It is clean and our site is very roomy.


We are right across the street from the beach and as I sit under my awning I am looking directly at the famous Morro Rock.

The weather was fantastic today. It was in the high 70s with a slight breeze and the skies were clear. I hope it stays this way all week.

Party in the streets

What a cool night. Tonight we went to the Thursday night street fair and farmers market here in San Luis Obispo. There was a ton of people. Every college student in town must have been there. It was like being invited to one big giant college party. What we didn’t know was this must have been initiation night for the Cal Poly fraternitys. The streets were filled with college students. Some of them were in groups dresses in togas, Mexican ponchos, guys in dresses, and other oddities.

This guy was on his own with his big foam cowboy hat, tie died shirt, and boom box dancing in the streets. He paused long enough for me to snap a photo. It would have been better if the girl hadn’t step between us.

One "must see" in San Luis Obispo is Bubble Gum Alley.

This alley is right in the middle of downtown and the walls are covered in gum. Apparently it is a big hit judging by the crowd in there. I’m wonder how long it took to get to this point.

We ate at Mo’s BBQ tonight. Mo decided he wanted to open the best BBQ place in town so he and a friend set out on a 3500 mile journey to scout out the best BBQ joints and learn from the experts. His walls are covered with best of awards he has earned along with photos of the BBQ joints he visited. While on this journey they picked up an antique chair from each stop for his restaurant. Every chair in the place is different. Pretty good eats but I still like Susan’s.

And all this entertainment for only a $.75 parking fee. What a cool night!

I can’t drive any slower

We moved again. We are now up the coast a bit in San Luis Obispo. No, we are not camped in a cemetery. We are actually at the Elks Lodge, which is surrounded by a large cemetery. Since it was only about 15 miles up the road we took all the back roads. The max speed limit was only 45 mph and still we were here in 30 minutes. We plan to be here for 4 nights. Actually on Saturday we are heading back to Pismo for a day trip in the car. There is a NASCAR store that was closed while we were there and it will open Saturday. Susan has been looking for a NASCAR store for quite a while now and when she finds one it is closed. Another reason we are heading back is because I wanted to get a bowl of clam chowder from Splash. Splash is a small restaurant that has won “best clam chowder” for years. They finally asked then not to enter anymore.
There is plenty to do here in San Luis Obispo also. Tomorrow we are going into town for their street fair.

A day in Pismo Beach

I woke this morning to Raccoon prints on the hood of the car. We thought at first it was a cat but they were very large. The Camp Host said there are raccoons that come through the park at night. Not sure what they wanted on our car.

We took a walk out on the Pismo Pier today. Nice views. As we were leaving the pier, a lady came walking up and just about every pigeons on the pier flocked to here.


Apparently everyday she comes to the pier to feed the pigeons. The old guy that was with here said she calls then her chickens and feeds them everyday.

Tomorrow we will be moving again. There is a group coming in that will occupy all the sites here. This means tomorrow will be a busy morning because everyone here will be leaving and there is only one dump station.

Another long day

Well we took the long 30 minute journey to Oceano/Pismo today. Susan doesn’t understand my reasoning for traveling less than ½ hour a day. It makes perfect sense to me. I get to see different scenery, experience different climates, meet new people, and only have to drive 30 minutes every couple of days. Life is good!

Speed Limit on the beach

Today we took a walk out on one of the few “Drive on” beaches in California. We have never seen so many sand dollars in one place. They were all over the place. People were gathering them like they were real dollars. They had bags full, which I think is wrong. These are living creatures and should be left alone. I walked up to one lady who had a bag full and said, “those are still alive you know.” Her reply was, “Yeah, some of them are.” Apparently some people don’t care. I took some too,

Sand Dollars on the beach
in pictures only. I let them lye as they were.

We will be here for only 2 nights although we wanted to stay longer. They have a big group coming in that will take up the whole RV area so we will be moving on another 20 minutes down the road.

The weather is surprisingly nice for being near the central coast of California. It is usually cooler and foggy around here.

When I looked at the flag to the left to see the forecast it said, “Smoke”. Never seen that one before. There are some fires going on in Southern California that are affecting the air. We woke this morning to the sun shinning through smoky skies.

Another easy drive

Today was another easy drive. We are 45 minutes up the road from our last destination. You think I am crazy? Well I met 2 others here that came from where we are going next only 30 minutes away, and are heading to where we came from only 45 minutes away. We have an excuse for traveling so slow. We still have 3 weeks to travel 120 miles. It was a good thing that we got here early. We got the last hookup site and after I backed into the site another motorhome came pulling in. We got here so early that we actually had to park for a while until someone pulled out. The early bird gets the worm, or in this case, the site with hookups. We actually woke a little earlier than expected this morning since the trash truck decided to come by at 7:00a and empty the dumpsters near us. Why can’t they hit the shopping centers and industrial areas first?

We get free movie channels this weekend on our Direct TV Satellite. This makes Susan happy. Between NASCAR and movies she will be happy all weekend. I, on the other hand, am happy as long as I have my Internet.

Today’s weather was nice. The evenings and mornings are getting to be fireplace weather though. We ran the fireplace for the last couple of mornings to take the chill off. I like cool nights.

California Rocks

We met a couple while here in Buellton that live in the park and have a small business they call California Rocks. They paint rocks! They are very talented and could make a very good living at what they do but they chose to live a modest life. They refuse to go big with their talent and only charge $10 to $40 for each piece. They say they only make enough to pay for food. They say they have been living in the park for about 2 years. When I mentioned I couldn’t stay put that long they said they wanted to move on several times but the park wouldn’t let them. You see, they have also painted all the signs in the park with the same whimsical style and have done murals in the office and clubhouse too. Nice job. If anyone is interested I have their phone number. I’m sure you could send them a photo of your favorite car or RV and they will paint you one.

Tomorrow we will be heading up the road again. We actually wanted to stay longer but don’t want to pay the weekend rates. I asked if they would convert us to their weekly rate if we stayed and they said no. So instead of making a few more bucks on us they get nothing. What kind of business is that?

Did I say R&R

Yeah right! Today I spent the day cleaning, washing, wiping, and polishing. I got to admit, the motorhome and car look pretty good now. If only it would last. Hopefully I can relax the rest of the week. I dodged a bullet last night. Our Convection oven mad a weird noise then would not heat up to over 150. You can’t cook much at 150 degrees. I did a little troubleshooting and found the convection fan was not working. I was able to reach up in there with a shish kabob skewer and nudge it free. I didn’t even have to turn a screw or remove anything. Seems if the fan isn’t working, the heating element gets real hot and a sensor shuts it down. I’m sure glad someone thought to add the sensor and save me a lot of money replacing burned out elements. It’s been in the low 80s today and tomorrow is supposed to be the same. After that it will cool down a bit, but not much.

A little R&R

We took a long journey today. We are 20 minutes down the road from our last stop. It was a nice casual, no freeway drive. Along the way we even spotted a field full of deer. We decided to forgo the Elks Lodges for a while and spend a few nights at Flying Flags Campground. Susan needed to do some laundry and we know from experience that they have sites right across from their laundry. This makes it a little more enjoyable to get the laundry done (as enjoyable as it can be). We cringed at paying $40 a night so we planned to stay only 2 nights. We lucked out and got a pretty good site so I went to the office and paid for 3 more nights. 5 days of cleaning and R and R.

We had to leave

We had to move on today. All the sites are called for at the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge until Monday. We have moved on down the road to Lompoc. It was a fairly easy 1 hour drive. When in this area we usually stay at the Flying Flags Campground in Buellton, however we decided that they were too pricey for the cramped sites that they have so we are down the road in Lompoc. We did decide to head on over to Flying Flags for Sunday through Tuesday though. It’s laundry time and we always get a site right across from the laundry at Flying Flags. Beats sitting in a Laundromat. Also while at Flying Flags we will have breakfast at our favorite place in Solvang. When we got here it looked as though it had rained. Everything was wet. I think it was just the morning fog. It defiantly is much cooler here which is nice.

It's much cooler here

Well, we headed for the beach today. We checked out a couple of campgrounds along the Ventura coast and found two right on the beach with hookups. One didn’t have any available but we were there early and possible someone just hadn’t pulled out yet. The other had 2 or 3 available. After staying at the Elks Lodges for $10 to $15 a night, I just couldn’t bring myself to pay the $40 a night they wanted. We left and headed for the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge. Last time we tried staying at the SB Elks it was full. This time..we got the last site and only for 1 night. We thought maybe we will stay at the Elks tonight and head back to the beach tomorrow. After thinking a while, we should have grabbed one of the beach sites because tomorrow is Friday and they will go fast. We may be able to stay here at the Elks because someone hasn’t showed up yet and they said if they don’t show we can stay longer. We are only about a mile from the beach so the weather here is cool. After all, that’s what we were looking for.

It’s hot here too

We are now in Simi Valley and it’s 100 degrees. It was supposed to only take 1 hour to get here but it took almost 2 due to traffic. I kept looking at the traffic report online, waiting for it to clear before we hit the road but it never did so we packed up and got in line on the freeway with the rest of them. This was at 10:30a on a Tuesday. Don’t these people work? Well we are here and will stay put for 2 days, got to kill some time ya know, and then we will head for the coast. It should be much cooler there. I am hopping to find a spot on the beach where we can stay put for a while.

While here we may visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. It’s just 20 minutes down the road from here.

Whew!

We are done with the race. It was over 100 degrees everyday. It was just too hot to do anything. We wanted to spend more time in the midway and visit the pits but we ended up sitting inside the motorhome with the generator running and the air on.

Start of race at sunset

Roof top view

At least the races were at night and it cooled very comfortably every evening so we could view the race from the roof of the motorhome. We had to get up early every morning to get in and didn’t get out any earlier than midnight everyday. We didn’t take our motorhome into the infield since our daughter had hers there. We setup at the local Elks Lodge and drove the car in everyday. This worked out well since we had electricity and could run the air all night at the lodge. Also the parties don’t end until the wee hours of the morning at the track so we got a good nights sleep at the lodge. We were going to get back on the road today but decided to rest a day and leave tomorrow. The race was great though. Susan’s driver didn’t do so good. He lost his points lead in the standings but not by much. One good win and he will gain it back.

Race Anticipation

Well we took a ride over to the Fontana Elks Lodge to see if we wanted to move. It is about 10 minutes to the track from there as opposed to 25 from here. We decided to stay put since we don’t want any custom paint jobs (graffiti) done on the motorhome while we are at the racetrack. Elks Lodges are not always in the best part of town. We feel pretty safe here since this is a pretty active lodge and there is always something going on here. We still have a couple of days before the race so we will be getting a few household things done until then.

We still haven’t come up with anything to do between the race and the rally. I checked with some of the campgrounds along the coast and they are still full even after Labor Day until the first of October. We can always do the Elks Lodges but since we’ve got about 5 weeks to kill I would like to stay put on the beach somewhere for at least a week at a time.
If anyone has any suggestions (or a nice beach house with an RV spot :) Leave a comment or Email us.

Back in the heat

We left Havasu because it was over 100 degrees. Now we are in Ontario where it says 104 on my thermometer. We don’t know yet if we are going to stay here or move to the Fontana elks or perhaps the Riverside Elks. It’s going to be HOT no matter where we go. As you know if you have read some past posts we are here for the NASCAR race at the California Speedway in Fontana. It is not for a couple of days but we wanted to get a jump on the other fans since the Elks are First come First Served (another good thing about being a fulltimer). Besides we have a few things such as laundry and a little shopping to do. When the race days come we are not going to have time for anything else.

We have a rally to go to in the first weekend of October. What we are going to do between the race and then, I have no idea. We’ve got a week to come up with something. I am thinking it will be something along the coast. Hopefully it will cool off by October because we are planning to head back to Havasu after the rally until our Camp Host jobs.

Traveling on a weekend…Bad idea

Last night we stayed at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge. What a nice lodge. This place was neat, clean, and huge. There was tons of parking around the lodge but only 12 RV sites. Three of those were non hookup sites. We got there at around 11:00 and there were only 2 non hookup sites left. We backed into one and the guy next door came out of his rig and offered to let us T off his water hookup and plug into the 20 amp receptacle of his power box. That’s all we need. We were set. They had a BIG dance last night and you could hear the DJs music thumping half the night. I did manage to get a good night sleep though.

Today we were heading for the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge. When we got there it was full. No chance until Monday. Back on the road again, we headed for the Ventura Elks. As we were approaching the turnoff some lady was driving so badly ahead of me that I missed my turnoff trying to keep an eye on her. So it was on to Oxnard.

We got here at the Oxnard Elks and got lucky, there was 1 hookup site left. As I was checking in they told me that they are having a big party tonight and it might be a bit noisy. Well it won’t be the first time. This works out OK because tomorrow we will just head on into Fontana and be there a day earlier.

No more creak

Today was a fixit day. I am pretty sure I fixed the creak in the motorhome wall. Turns out it wasn’t a broken weld. It was the expandable foam insulation they spray in the walls. It came loose and was rubbing on one of the steel superstructures inside the wall, kind of like one of those Styrofoam ice chests, and you know how annoying that can be. We will see tomorrow when we get back on the road if that was really it.

This park, San Lorenzo County Park, is pretty nice, except for the smell from the onion fields next door. It is under trees, lots of green grass, and there is an Agricultural & Rural Life Museum right in the park. The museum features LOTS of antique tractors and farm equipment, a restores 1887 School House, 1898 home, 1898 train depot, and more. The park also features a playground, modem station, laundry, Koi pond, large picnic area, clubhouse, and more.

King City

After a stop over in Gilroy to do some shopping at the Super Wal-Mart we made it to King City. This was 4 hours after our departure from Santa Clara. Only 2 hours of the 4 was driving so it wasn’t bad. While Susan was in shopping I was tearing into the side of the motorhome trying to find the creak I mentioned in the last post. I found it and of course, it has to be very difficult to fix. Looks like a weld broke in the sidewall next to the dashboard. To fix it properly the dash will have to come out (and how many more problems will that create). I will fix the creak, however the broken weld will have to remain broken. It isn’t going to cause any problems so I am not going to worry about it.

We are set up in a nice County Park here in King City. We will be here for 2 nights and while here I will see about de-creaking the motorhome. My nose tells me that there are onions planted in the fields next to the park.

Sometimes you just have a bad day

Actually it’s not all that bad. We made it through San Francisco with no problems. Cost me $10 to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. There is only a toll going into San Francisco but no toll going out. They say they figure they already got your money while you were there so they don’t charge you to go out.

The problems came as we approached out destination. Suddenly the motorhome developed a creak. Man I hate squeaks, creaks, and rattles. Haven’t been able to locate it yet so I will have to put up with it for a while. Upon pulling into the Santa Clara Elks lodge, I ran over a guy’s Sewer Solution hose as he was pumping out his tanks. I thought it was an ordinary green garden hose, flattened it pretty good. He was rather upset until I offered to pay for it, then his anger turned toward his wife who was supposed to make sure no one ran over his hose. I guess I defused that situation by being a nice guy and didn’t have to pay the guy, although it really wasn’t my fault. Good thing too because they aint cheap. While backing into the spot, I got my front license plate shagged in the bushes and ripped it right off the front of the motorhome. That was an easy fix. Then while hooking up the water, the cheapo plastic latch that holds the storage door open broke. A trip to Wal-Mart will fix that. Next came the sucker truck to pump out the grease trap from the sausage factory across the street. What a stink that made. Fortunately it only lasted about 20 minutes. Well we are going to head out to dinner tonight so hopefully we will have a good time and all will be well. Tomorrow it’s back on the road and we will be staying in a real campground (County Park) so that should be good.

On the plus side however, I set my satellite dish on the tripod and went inside to get the settings and it was already downloading the information from the satellite. No adjustments necessary. Sometimes I just get lucky. Also, I am back in Broadband country so my Internet is fast again.

From Redwoods to Grapes

Today we are back in Petaluma. We left the California Redwood Country and are now back in Wine Country. We were going to stay here 2 days and do some more Wine Country exploring, however we decided to stay an extra night in Ukiah last night so we are staying only one night here to make up for it. Right after we left Wine Country the last time, a good friend emailed me with some fun things to do. We were going to do then on the way back through this time but since we are only here for 1 night I guess we will save it for another time.

Tomorrow is the drive through San Francisco. If it’s anything like the drive through San Francisco on the way up, it’s a piece of cake. I was expecting a lot worse. We will hit The City between 10:00a and 11:00a so the traffic should not be a problem. I guess it doesn’t matter what time you pass through Santa Rosa the traffic is terrible. We were lucky to do 15 mph at times. I thought it was one of those freak things when we went through last time but it was the same this time.

I guess all the work I did yesterday cleaning up the motorhome paid off because someone asked me today if it was new. I like that.

Another Bonus

Today we were treated to a car show here at the Elks Lodge. What more can you ask for, a nice place to stay and a car show right out your front window all for $12 a night. I’m likening this Elks thing.

Well, while here I got a chance to get a few things done since there is not much going on in Ukiah. I got the oil changed in the motorhome and gave it a good cleaning from the roof all the way down. And it really needed it.

Tomorrow morning we will be heading on down the road again. We were going to head out today, however the Nascar race started early today so we had to stay put so Susan could get here fix.

I sure can’t wait until I get back in Broadband territory. Up here in the redwoods there is no Broadband so my Internet has been real slow. I guess I am just spoiled.

Heading South

We are back in Leggett for the night. We are stuffed in the trees into a campground that only accepts a max vehicle length of 30 feet. Of course we are 36 foot so it is a bit of a squeeze. How did we get past the max vehicle length? Well it pays to know someone. Not only that but we are the only ones in the park that have water and electricity hookups.

We will only be here one night then we will continue our trek south.

Nice place

Eureka and its neighboring towns are a blast from the past. While here we visited Ferndale, an old Victorian town. All the residents of Ferndale take pride in their town and do a good gob of keeping their Victorian houses in good shape. You can see many painters touching up these beauties.

Arcata is just north of Eureka and is home of the Humboldt State University. Being this is a small college town there is a young presents here. There are a lot of casual eating places and book stores. In the town square you will fine a variety of characters. Reminds me of my old Hippy days.

Eureka also has its share of Victorian homes. We did the Old Town walking tour and the driving tour. A lot of the homes are restored, however there are a lot that are in various stages of disrepair. Susan said it would be fun to buy one of them and restore it into a Bad and Breakfast. That’s too much work for me right now.

Tomorrow we will be heading back south. I really liked my stay here. We will be pretty much retracing our steps, however we will be trying some new places to stay along the way. That should make it interesting again.

A step back in time

Today was as if we woke up 100 years ago. We started the day by heading for Ferndale today. This is a Victorian Village that dates back over 100 years. It has survived 2 disasters, one a series of earthquakes that lasted for days and the other a flood when the Eel River overflowed. The town had been restored to what it was over 100 years ago. When you enter the stores you will find items from the past that are still for sale such as toys, rock candy, and lye soap. The inside of the stores look as they did 100 years ago including the old creaky wood floors. The storeowners still live upstairs as they did many years ago. We took our time walking around town checking out the Victorian homes, buildings, and churches. We had no worries wandering about since the crime stats in this town are very near none.

The other thing we did today was go to the Samoa Cookhouse here in Eureka. This is the last cookhouse used by the lumberjacks’ years ago. They seat you at a long table with others and serve you what they are cooking for the day. It is served family style in bowls and platters and is all you care to eat. The meal is one set price and includes soup, salad, bread, 2 meats, potato, vegetable, beverage and desert. The food was so good that we plan to go back for lunch before we leave here.

We woke this morning to a cool overcast drizzly morning. Something we haven’t seen for a while. We even fired up the fireplace. It burned off by noon and was nice the rest of the day. I guess it’s expected since we are only about a mile from the Humboldt Bay right on the northern California coast.

Eureka California

We are in Eureka, California. Our last stop in Garberville we had no cell phone. Here in Eureka we have full cell, however my Internet connection is unbearable slow. There may be no updates this week.

We went from the 80s in Garberville to the 60s here in Eureka. When we pulled up I looked a little out of place when I jumped out of the motorhome with shorts and flip flops when everyone was in jackets. One of the ladies said, “I want to go where you came from.”

We will be going into the old Victorian town of Ferndale one day and check out Old Town Eureka another. We may get into Arcata also. I will update if possible.

Great Britain Visitors

Last night I watched as another Rexhall motorhome pulled into the site next to us. I couldn’t help but notice the woman that was guiding the gentleman in has a British accent. Curious, I looked at the license plate. This motorhome had GB plates on it. I couldn’t resist so when they got settled in I went over and inquired. Sure enough they are from Great Britain. They had the motorhome shipped over in December to spend a year touring the USA. Since Rexhall also makes our motorhome I was interested in the differences. They run on 240 volts in GB as opposed to 120 volts in the USA so their dealer had added a converter to step down their 240 volts to run all the 120 volt appliances and such in the motorhome. He said this made it easy to run in the USA because he simply had to bypass the converter in the USA. Also they had the engine modified to run on either gasoline or propane since propane is ½ the cost of gasoline in GB. It is a simple matter to switch back and forth so they can run on what ever is cheap and available. He also had to get a special license to drive a large vehicle in GB. He said his motorhome is suppose to be different than the ones sold in the USA because they do not allow vehicles over 100 inches wide, although he suspects Rexhall simply stated it was 100 inches when in fact it is 102 as they are in the USA. I asked him about the left hand drive whereas they drive on the left hand side of the road in GB. He says you get used to it, however his wife has more trouble with that then he because she is on the traffic side and not in control. She calls it the suicide seat.

Today we spent the day in the Avenue of the Giants. This is a 31 mile drive through an old section of US-101 that runs right through the redwood forest. Very nice drive. I am glad we did this in the car and not the motorhome because it is narrow and the giant redwoods are right on the roads edge. You can actually see scars in some of them where they have been hit. We did all the touristy things like drive through a tree, walk inside a couple of trees that, even though they are still alive and doing well, their trunk is hollowed out by fire and you can walk inside. We saw a tree that is over 300 feet tall. Although it is not the widest tree in the forest it is really really tall. It’s hard to get a perspective because you can’t see the whole length through the branches even though the first branch doesn’t start until the 190 foot mark. We did all the tourist things on the northward drive then turned around and did it all again, except on the way back we just took our time and enjoyed the drive. On the way back we stopped in Garberville where we actually had Verizon cell service and Susan made all her daily phone calls. It’s like in the old days when you had to go look for a pay phone.

Sorry, Can’t upload photos again.

Sometimes you just can win

We decided since we didn’t have satellite TV and Sewer hookups that we would head up the road to Benbow RV Resort. It was only a 30 minute drive. 3 miles of it was through Richardson’s Grove, which is not advised for large vehicles. Man was that tight, but the only way to get here. The redwood trees are RIGHT on the edge of the road. I just had to pay attention to where I was on the road, especially when other RVs and trucks where coming the other way. Well we got here in one piece and got setup in our site with not much problems. I got the satellite TV setup and all hooked up to sewer and all. The problem is when Susan tried to make a call on our cell phone. The cell reception here is little to nun. My Internet connection is very marginal also. We may be moving again soon.

Sorry no Sat TV

We moved again today…Well actually we moved 4 sites down to the Camp Host site where we can get some hookups. The only problem is the trees are so thick around here that we cannot get Satellite TV. Believe me I tried for close to an hour. Being the Nascar Freak that Susan is she was pretty bummed so we decided to move on down the road to another campground for the weekend. Actually it was my decision also because we will be closer to the Avenue of the Giants and won’t have to drive so far to get there. It is so thick with trees that when Susan got out of bed at 8:00 this morning I thought she was getting up in the wee hours of the morning because it was still dark. The trees sure make nice shade though. I didn’t realize it was 80 degrees until I hiked down to the river and got out from under the trees.

What does this look like to you? It’s poison oak and it’s everywhere. I don’t feel comfortable walking around here. As a kid I was immune to poison oak since I romped the canyons with my cousin who got it but I didn’t, but I am not taking any chances.

California Redwoods

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We are now in Leggett California. Over the weekend they had a Reggae festival here. Most have gone but there are still a few left. I think they are just to stoned to find their way out of here. We are stuffed into a nice State Park in the redwoods. I say stuffed because it is limited to a max 30 foot length and we are 36. I had Susan spotting me with the 2 way radio as I slid into a spot for the night. Tomorrow we will me moving to a Host Camper site where we will have a little more room and electricity and water. We are real close to the Giant Drive through Redwood Tree and the Avenue of the Giants so we will be checking those out, in the car of course. We are visiting our good friend Melissa who was one of the Park Aids when we hosted at San Elijo and now is a Park Here. It sure is nice to see her again.

Last night in Ukiah

We did absolutely nothing while here in Ukiah but had a good time. We did do some grocerie shopping but that was about it.

If you are a Traveling Elk and are in the area, stop by the Ukiah Elks Lodge, stay a while and say hi to Jim, the RV Host and his dog Ms. Dazy.

Jim is a Really Nice guy. Tonight he cooked up a few steaks, Susan and I provided the salad and potato and we grabbed a picnic table in their park and had a nice dinner.

Tomorrow we are back on the road again. We will be heading north and should start seeing some redwoods soon.

Joining the Elks

I tell you what, joining the Elks is one of the best things us Fulltimers can do. We just parked ‘er at the Ukiah Elks Lodge in Ukiah California and what a nice place. Just water and 30 amps electricity with dump station but $36 for 3 nights as opposed to $50 for 1 night is very nice. Not much going on this weekend so we will just relax and watch NASCAR all weekend.

Earthquake

WOW! Just went through a pretty good earthquake. I thought the motorhome was falling off its levelers. We are in earthquake country just about 40 miles north of San Francisco. Not sure where it’s center was.

Problem adding photos

I have tried to add photos to the last couple of posts, however the site seems to be having problems with this. Hopefully they will get it fixed soon.

Wine Country

Today we took the car through Wine Country. We headed over to Napa and from there up to Calistoga. There sure a lot of wineries out there. So many to choose from. Susan and I don’t drink, so wine tasting was out of the question. We just wanted to enjoy the grounds and peruse the gift shops. Too expensive for our budget.

In Calistoga we stopped by the Old Faithful Geyser. Oh yes, there is an Old Faithful Geyser in Calistoga. It is 1 of the 3 in the world that is predictable. Now we can say we have seen 2 of the 3 since last year we visited the one in Yellowstone. This one is not in a national park like Yellowstone. It is on private property and they charge $8 per person to see it. After paying your fee and passing through the door, it’s like stepping out someone’s back door into their back yard, nothing fancy. The geyser was pretty impressive though.

There were also a couple of pens with goats and llamas to view and feed. Some of the goats are Tennessee Fainting Goats. These goats “faint” when frightened. Actually they have a rare malfunction that causes their mussels to freeze up when frightened and sometimes they fall over. The sheepherders used to use them in the flocks. When a wolf or coyote would chase the flock, the goat would “faint” and the predator would take it and leave the rest of the flock alone. These goats almost became extinct, go figure.