Relaxing few days & visiting a dear old friend

We got a great site on a hillside at Guajome Regional Park, a lovely large park in northern San Diego county in Oceanside.  It was strange to see a few fall colors still on the the trees in January, but then again, probably stranger to see any fall colors here!

It was a quiet, peaceful place to work for a few days, enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, and hear the birds chirping (no doubt, fellow snowbirds like me!).

My main reason for staying in the area was to meet up with my best friend from high school, Sheri, who now lives out here and teaches junior high English.  She took me out to a fabulous Mexican restaurant and we spent hours catching each other up on the 10 years since we’d seen each other last.  It was great seeing my old friend again!

At the end of the week, I left Oceanside to head east over the mountains to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.  It was a lovely drive comparing west coast orange groves to the ones I’d seen earlier in the winter in Florida


Within a few minutes of leaving the lush green hills of San Diego county, we came to the other side of the mountain range and a spectacular view of the Borrego desert valley.

The descent into the valley was slow going though—only 10 mph down some very tight switchbacks!

I stopped at the Visitor’s Center to get some boondocking recommendations, and the expert volunteers guided me to a terrific spot south of town up on a gravel embankment.  Even though it was Friday night, there was only 1 other camper in the area so we virtually had the place to ourselves to enjoy wonderful sunset skies.

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.

Detour to Slab City

As I left Joshua Tree, I headed south to I-10 and an enormous wind farm that is set up in the narrow mountain pass near Palm Springs where Pacific winds push through all the smog from LA.


I could have turned west and directly to LA, but decided at the last minute to take a detour south to the Salton Sea and to visit the infamous Slab City.

The drive to Niland, CA was uneventful.  Not much on or around the Salton Sea (due to pollution levels I believe), and the only reason it seems one would come to the little town of Niland anymore would be to visit Slab City.

The “Slabs” are the concrete foundation remnants of an old Marine Corp base (Camp Dunlap).  The lore goes that some marines stayed on after clearing the base and the location was perfect for retired RV’ing snowbirds looking for a warm, dry, free place to park for the winter.  But it was also the perfect place for Hippie-type free spirits to escape the California coast for a sort of a “year-round Burning Man” experience. 
  

The Slabs gained additional fame when a man named Leonard Knight arrived in the mid-1980’s to start creating Salvation Mountain.  The website has a fascinating history of the man and his “mountain”.  Both the Slabs and Salvation Mountain were prominently featured in the 2007 film “Into the Wild.”

 

Slab City itself has no electricity, water, sewer, or garbage disposal.  Residents are very heavy into recycling, solar power, and living sustainably.  It certainly isn’t a traditional RV or mobile home park, and initially seems a bit unsafe, but there are some unique signs of “community” that seem to bind this unlikely group of people together none-the-less:

The “Range” is the community band shell where talented musician residents perform each weekend.

Residents use this slab to recycle and exchange old clothes.

And what town would be complete without it’s own church?

There are some traditional RVs and mainstream snowbirders here, but this is more a place about unique expression.  So many residents adorn older trailers and cars with whatever unusual décor they can find to “make it their own”

Slab City is indeed a “wild” place.  Not sure I’d want to stay there for an extended time, but it’s certainly an interesting place to visit and worth a short trip!

Weekend at Joshua Tree

I left Lake Havasu to head west to California with the goal of camping at Joshua Tree National Park for the weekend.  Most campsites there don’t take reservations, so I was sure that arriving late on a Friday night, I might not get a very good camp site.  But, surprisingly, as I got to White Tank campground, most of the other sites had been occupied by tent campers, leaving the large and gorgeous site # 1 open for my RV!  The skies were clear and the stars were amazing, as were the “jumbo rocks” that surrounded the site, so I pulled out my tripod and big camera for this night shot!

With one exception, the campgrounds at the national park are limited to RVs under 25’ and to tent campers.  Guess this guy I saw parked at Wal-Mart with his 40+ foot 5th wheel and golf cart being towed by a heavy duty truck cab was not gonna fit into Joshua Tree! (seriously, do people think they just can’t survive in a smaller, more manageable rig?)



The next day was sunny and perfect for exploring the park’s native joshua trees, cholla cactus garden, and jumbo rock formations and petroglyphs:

An absolutely fabulous place to spend the weekend!  Love my View!

Week at Lake Havasu

Our first week of snowbirding got off to a good start.  We had cool but sunny days and a nice view of the lake from our RV site.  I had to work all week, so we spent most of each day in the motorhome, but around 4pm every day, it was warm enough to take Millie for a walk down to the lake.  The water was chilly, but that didn’t stop Millie from diving right in!

Once Millie had worn herself out, I’d head to the RV Park’s hot tub (much warmer than the lake!)--

I’d return to the motorhome to enjoy a nice dinner that had been simmering in the crock pot all day.  One night it was mushroom and barley soup (yum!) and another night I veered off my vegetarian diet momentarily to enjoy some slow cooker BBQ pork chops.

But the main reason I had come to Lake Havasu was to see the London Bridge.  So, one night I packed my camera and tripod on the back of my bike and rode about 2 miles to the bridge.  I thought it might be best just after sunset, and it didn’t let me down!  The bridge still had a few holiday wreaths and was simply magical to photograph! 


Looking at this little gondola next to the bridge, it was hard to believe we were out in Arizona rather than in Europe.  But I’m sure this scene looks a lot different during a busy Saturday or Sunday with hoards of boaters and jetskis whirling around.

Thankfully, we left town on Friday evening just as the hoards were starting to arrive!