Visit to La-La Land

After our Slab City adventures, it was time to get back up to I-10 to make our way to L.A.  The pass near Palm Springs (with all the wind turbines), was really blowing-- it felt like 50 mph winds!  Fortunately, they were mostly headwinds and I could keep the RV on the road.   I was also thankful for my GPS that navigated me through a spaghetti maze of highways to get to Long Beach.  I’m not sure how visitors ever navigated the LA freeway system prior to GPS days!

In any other area of the country, spending $55 a night for an RV site would seem rather steep.  But for L.A., the Golden Shore RV Resort was actually a really good deal.  For the same price as a night at a California State Park (yes, isn’t that nuts?!!), I got a full hookup site with cable TV and Wi-Fi, a nice pool and hot tub, and a view of the harbor.  They also had a super cheap laundry facility that was only a short walk from my site.

The park was located in downtown Long Beach, but tucked away in the corner where the harbor met the canal.  It was still close to the downtown restaurants and attractions, but also secluded and fairly quiet at night.  It was a bit strange, though, to look out my RV window to see skyscrapers! 

But the pre-dawn morning skies were incredible! (such as the lead photo above).

After getting the RV situated, I walked down the street to rent a car to get around town, and then took Millie for her “interview” at the doggie day care place she would go the next day while I was at business meetings with a client.  Usually, these doggie interviews are pretty routine—they copy her vaccination records, take a look at her to verify that she is indeed a yellow lab and not some vicious pit bull and tell me she’s “in”.  At least, that’s how it’s always been at the 20 or so doggie daycares Millie has visited around the country.  But at this one, after the handler took Millie back to meet the other dogs, he came back to tell me he wasn’t sure and asked if I could leave her for an hour or two so he could see how she did with the other dogs a bit longer.  Not like I had a choice!  So, I ran some more errands around town and wondered what I’d do with her if she flunked out of day care!!!   Well, fortunately, it didn’t come to that….Millie finally passed the test and was allowed to come back the next day.  Whew, what a relief!

After our meetings, my boss took me and my other work colleagues to a Lakers-Cavs game at the Staples Center.  Had we gone a year before, it would have been a pretty hot game between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.  But, as LeBron has now departed from Cleveland, the game was a snoozfest with the Lakers beating the poor Cavs by 50 points.  The Staples Center was sure nice though, and it was a fun evening with my coworkers.

My last day’s meetings ended early, so I took Millie to the beach for a quick swim in the Pacific.  Long Beach has a nice off-leash dog beach that had an interesting view of big freighter ships hanging out waiting their turn to dock at Long Beach’s massive shipyard.


After her swim, Millie decided to sunbathe in the parking lot while I caught up on email.

After a quick stop to Trader Joe’s to stock up the fridge, I headed to Wahoo’s for a delicious fish taco dinner.  Then, it was back on the road to get down to our next campground in Oceanside.  We stopped for one last view of the ocean near Camp Pendleton before driving to our campground a few miles inland.