The Specific Ocean...

I was reading an article recently about the "dumbing down" of today's youth... and one of the "Huh?" moments was the title's reference to what some think is that water off the west coast.  ;-)

The plan for today: pick up the rental car, drive north a ways, have some lunch.  Not much in the way of details.  Joan had reserved the car for a noon pickup, so we could have a lounging kinda morning around the motorhome.  That means I get some guitar time in...

Yes, that is before cleaning up for the day.  Little Izzy gets brushed while I'm playing - it is part of "the routine."  Then, she decided the guitar case (gig bag) is a good place to hang out...

After getting ready for the day, we doubled up on a scoot for the short ride to Enterprise Car Rental.  We were early, had the paperwork already done on-line, so they told us it would be a bit before the compact car we rented would be ready.  "No problem - we aren't on a schedule."

After 20 minutes or so, the assistant manager came to where we were sitting and said, "If you're OK with a Nissan Frontier, I can get you out of here right now - same price."

"Works for me."  So, we are driving a brand new small pickup for the next week.  It's white - matches the motorhome nicely.  Well, it could use some black, gray, and silver stripes, but Enterprise probably wouldn't like that.

With no specific plan (not to be confused with a particular nearby ocean), we headed north... just out for a scenic drive.  We stopped for lunch, then drove north by the water.  Like much of California along the coast, the people who have homes on the coastal side of the road get an ocean view - blocking everyone else.  We drove through Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, and Pacific Beach... then found a street with a beautiful ocean view, finally...

When we decided to head back south, we stopped for some ice cream, then got on I-5... 40 miles on the coastal roads covered about the same area as 19 miles on the Interstate.  There was a nice view of the skyline of San Diego... but, we pretty much missed getting a photo of that...

I think we are somewhere around the airport...

Back to the coach for some patio time with Izzy.  There is a pet-park here in the resort, across the street and 4 sites up from us.  I walked up there without Izzy to see if it might be cat-friendly.  You have to walk across a sandy area to get to a small grassy area.  There are silhouettes of dogs and their owners painted on the walls around this area... not a single image of a cat!  Seems a bit discriminatory... I'll just go back home and play fetch and toss a frisbee with Izzy.  ;-)

I forgot to mention this: we are not alone...

On the drive over yesterday, we saw something unusual.  Kinda looked like this...

No, I didn't get a photo - this is a stock image.  Really, though - we saw two of them.

As we were going down a hill, there was an exit.  Looking towards that exit, we saw a truck with two of these on it.  The truck was stopped.  Two Hispanic guys were standing outside the truck, talking with a couple of CBP agents (Customs and Border Protection - aka Border Patrol).

I guess they were checking for... (here it comes)... illegal aliens.  ;-)

We serve fun at Shakey's...

... also: pizza.  A blast from the past.

Shakey's is a pizza restaurant.  There used to be one in our home town - in fact, it was a regular for us when we were dating.  Yes, back in "the olden days."  There was also a Shakey's in the first few cities we lived in after we were married.  Stephanie says she doesn't remember much from her chldhood, but I'd bet she remembers the mojo potatoes from Shakey's!  ;-)

Yeah, we had lunch today at Shakey's.  It was as good as I remembered.

Seems that there are locations all around the San Diego area.  We haven't been in one since the last time we were here.

The local weather weasels were calling today: "Beautiful sunshine, but chilly!  High today will only be 60º."  It is supposed to be warmer the rest of our time here, but it really was a pretty day today.  We did lunch out with the scoots, then some bopping around.

Back to the RV park, we put the scoots away and walked around the area.  The RV park is very nice, located right next to a marina.  Here's a look around...

Nice grassy common areas.  The walkway above leads to the marina.  There is a security gate between the park and the marina - don't forget the code to put in the gate.

Out into the marina area...

There is a nice walkway around two sides of the marina.  Back into the RV park, and a walkway between the sites down the middle of the park...

The park is not new, but it is very nicely kept up.  40+ foot coaches are edge to edge in many of the sites; we fit very comfortably.  The sites are all paved, nice paved roads throughout...

We sat out on our patio area after the walk, giving Izzy a chance to get used to her new surroundings.  We are definitely closer to our neighbors on all sides, so she isn't real sure about this place, yet.

We plan to do more cruising around, and will get a rental car for a week or so.  Tomorrow.

On the move...

Yeah, we are, but it is the first of the month - so are a lot of other RVers.  Funny that it is a lot of retired people out there this time of year, but we still put ourselves on schedules: like when we made reservations: "We'd like to come in February 1st..."  It really wouldn't have mattered what day, but we did make those reservations quite a while ago.

In the previous post, I mentioned the crappy weather - it was blowing in the mid-20s when we left the Phoenix area.  The forecast along our route showed that wind was going to be a factor the whole way... in fact, it would be getting worse from time to time.  It was.

We stopped a few miles from the RV park to pick up a couple breakfast sandwiches.  Joan ran in to get them, while squeezed in a nearby parking lot to wait.  We used to joke about the windex at the top of our mast when we were sailing - it pointed to the direction the wind was coming from.  We called it "the destination finder" because the wind always seemed to be coming from where we want to go.  Today was one of those days.  I took this photo of the flag whipping in the wind...

Yep, that is the direction we are heading.  Looking ahead, you can see the dirt blowing in the air...

And the clouds to the east...

No, it is not that early in the morning - just the remnants of the storm that moved in last night.

It has been several years since we have been this direction.  There isn't a lot to look at between the west side of Phoenix and Yuma... mostly scrub-brush, occasionally a bit of agriculture or some mountains...

As I mentioned, there were plenty of RVs on the road...

Around Gila Bend, we picked up I-8.  This next photo is out of focus (bad grab shot) - see if you can figure out what it is...

Rows of scrub-brush.  Mother Nature is too random, so someone must of made the effort to plant these.

Getting closer to Yuma, you see more agriculture...

We stopped for a short break in Yuma - fueled up at Sam's Club.  Yes, this motorhome fits in their gas station, but we did hang out a bit.  We are pretty efficient - we filled up our motorhome faster than the person in front of us topped off her Toyota Echo... may have had something to do with the fact that we didn't wash the windows before getting the fuel going.  Across the street is an In & Out Burger - it only made sense to grab a burger for an early lunch and keep rolling.

Through the mountains...

Into the Imperial Dunes area...

Most of the time we've been through this area, there have been scads of people in RVs, playing with motorcycles and 4-wheelers in the sand dunes... not today.  The fact that the wind was gusting around 40mph in this area probably has something to do with the lack of people.  "Sand snakes" blowing across the highway...

I am hoping it didn't "sand blast" the pretty paint off the Aspect.  Past the dunes and into more mountains...

Then, the first of many of these...

I'm guessing they were producing plenty of electricity today.

After passing El Centro, we started our climb into the mountains east of San Diego.  An electronic sign warned us of "winter driving conditions ahead."  The temp was in the upper 50s at El Centro - figuring the standard drop in temp for each 1,000 feet of altitude... yeah, we should be OK...

Is that snow on the mountainside?  We did quite a few miles above 4,000'... some up and down... sunshine and...

Yeah, there was some snow on the sides of the roads, but nothing on the roads.

No, there were strong winds the whole way!  The V-10 in the motorhome did a fine job; no doubt, the fuel mileage suffered.  But, the road manners of the motorhome were surprisingly good, considering we had mostly headwinds, with some cross and quartering winds just for the fun of it.

Passing those mountains, we began our 6% descent to the San Diego area.  Joan (and the GPSes) did a fine job of navigating through the traffic, then south to the I-5 exit for our home for the next two weeks.

This RV park is certainly more upscale than where we were in Goodyear - should be, since it is almost 3 times the price.  But, the sites are all paved, with picnic tables, wifi, cable, and nice landscaping separating each site...

Yeah, this place welcomes us with our cargo trailer!  Putting the trailer towards the street gives us a private patio area.  Definitely a resort park, it is located alongside a nice marina - makes for some pleasant strolling along the bay.  Well, maybe when the wind dies down and the temp warms up.

For now, we are settling in.

Blowing like stink...

Of course it is - today is a travel day.  It rained last night; I'm guessing it was blowing horizontal by the sounds of it.  In the middle of all that, someone was up way earlier than we were... making a lot of noise (the sounds of breaking camp).

We have unhooked all untilities except electric; had the slides pulled in.  Yes, it makes for a narrow coach, but less surface area presented to the wind; some protection for the awnings over the slides.

So, when we are ready this morning, all we have to do is pull up the jacks, unhook power, hook up the trailer, and we are ready to roll.  Weather along the route doesn't look "easy" (mostly strong wind), but we need to be off this site today... so we are moving.  We will hunker down along the way, if necessary.

See ya on the road.