Category: Fun

Helen and I don’t consider RV travel a vacation. We view it as living our lives in a variety of locations. Some of those locations are amazing, but we have all the chores that are part of our everyday routine. There’s laundry, cleaning, cooking, trash disposal, and I could go on–you get my drift

In many of those delightful locations, we visit local attractions, treat ourselves to a nice meal at a local restaurant, or shop for fresh seafood and vegetables at local markets. Our most recent campground is in Seal Beach, CA, and we made the short drive to Long Beach, CA, for the Sunday Farmer’s Market at the Marina. The vegetable displays included fresh vegetables of every variety, which were impossible to pass up. We did pass on fresh eggs–they were too pricey for our food budget. (Click on the images to view)

After two weeks of camping at Seal Beach, we moved down the coast to San Onofre Recreational Beach, one of two oceanfront campgrounds on Marine Base Camp Pendelton. We camped at San Onofre for several days last summer and vowed to return. San Onofre is a beautiful campground, and the campsites are on the beach. The picture below illustrates how close we were to the waterfront. Our red truck is in the upper portion of the image.

Helen and I decided to make this stop as much of a vacation as possible. We ventured out rarely and let everything in front of us serve as our entertainment. It was a good call, but we had to endure two days of heavy rain before our vacation began.

Once the skies cleared, a company of Marines moved in for a heavy dose of exercise on the sandy beach. They began with sit-ups with arms interlocked, then started doing push-ups in a chain of men with legs extended over the shoulders of the Marines behind. They also ran sprints carrying another Marine on their backs. I was exhausted just watching the drill.

Another element of our daily entertainment included dozens of surfers riding the waves. They arrived before sunrise and remained long after the sun went down. Most of them were very skilled and fun to watch as they scooted through water tunnels to the shoreline.

We spent our days walking, reading, cooking some great seafood, and generally taking it easy until about 5:30 every afternoon when the real entertainment began. Our trailer sat on our campsite in a manner that afforded an unobstructed view of the sunset, and those sunsets were stunning. I attached a 70-200 mm zoom lens to my camera and captured the dazzling spectacle almost every evening. I have shared some of the more dramatic ones below.

By now, I’m confident I have lulled everyone to sleep with our semi-lazy lifestyle, but that captures much of our stay here—and we loved it. We did take one side trip to San Juan Capistrano, which I’ll share in the next post. For now, I’m off to my nap.

We’re Easin’ Along and loving it!

We landed at Seabreeze RV Resort, a Navy campground in Seal Beach, CA. After a strong push across the country, it was fabulous to land in one campground and remain there for sixteen nights. Equally fantastic was the chance to be around our son and his family, who live 20 miles north of the campground.

Before arriving at Seal Beach, we experienced issues with our bedroom slide extending and retracting. The slide finally gave out at our stop at Fort Irwin, CA, and we could not get it to retract. Seal Beach was 200 miles away, and I would drive with the slide extended, but Helen had a better idea. Our route would take us through Barstow, CA, and she successfully located an RV Mobile repair technician (Fred) who would meet us in the Barstow Home Depot parking lot to investigate the problem. Fred reworked the wiring on the slide motor and had us on the road to Seal Beach in an hour and a half.

In the early days at Seal Beach, we used some time for repair and maintenance. One of our pantry shelves had fallen and needed some reworking. The trim around our front window had separated from the wall, and I reattached that. The heating element in our water burned out. I bought the last one available at Camping World and replaced it (thanks to a YouTube video).

A few days after arriving, we visited Justin’s neighborhood, where our granddaughter, Abby, and her friends stood for pictures after dressing up for the Winter Formal hosted by her High School. The young ladies were gorgeous, and the young men were strikingly handsome. The students gathered in a local park while their parents (and grandparents) took picture after picture.

Our Grandson, Carter, played in a two-day volleyball tournament conveniently held in Seal Beach. Helen and I felt fortunate to have the opportunity to watch the action. Carter’s team won more games than they lost, and Carter played very well. 

Helen and I don’t go out for meals very often, but when we’re in Southern California, I insist we visit Hennessey’s Irish Pub in Hermosa Beach. Carter and I each had the Dubliner Gourmet Burger.

I also insist I have my annual picture of Abby and me seated together, which we did this time. Abby doesn’t appear to be relishing the moment, but she probably had a lot on her mind. Her high school cheerleading team was on their way to Orlando for the National High School Cheerleading competition as the defending National Champions. This year, the team competed hard and took home the Bronze Medal. Third in the nation is still an outstanding accomplishment.

Southern California’s weather has been unusually wet and cold, and we spent much of the first week indoors. I can’t complain much about the rain because it is badly needed here, and thankfully, a lot of it fell in the Pacific Palisades area, where most of the wildfire damage occurred earlier in January.

Finally, the sun broke through, and we drove to Seal Beach’s historic downtown area to walk past the shops and onto the pier. The day was gorgeous, and the surfers were out in droves—most were excellent, and all were wearing wet suits. I have no idea what the water temperature was that day, but I’m confident it was very cold.

The Seal Beach Pier is nearly a half-mile long, with a large viewing area at the end. Many ships rested in the water, awaiting their turn to dock at the Port of Long Beach. One ship, moored way offshore, stood between me and Catalina Island. The words of the song by the Four Preps ran through my head:

“Twenty-six miles across the Sea, Santa Catalina is waiting for me…”

The song became an earworm and stuck with me all afternoon. If you want to make it your earworm, too, here’s a link to the lyrics:

https://genius.com/The-four-preps-26-miles-santa-catalina-lyrics

Enjoy your day…we’re Easin’ Along.  

Helen and I planned an RV trip to Southern California, arriving in time to celebrate our oldest son’s 50th birthday. We made all the reservations in advance and scheduled a departure date of January 10. If all went well, we would arrive in Seal Beach, California, in two and a half weeks.

The closer we got to January 10, the more ominous the weather reports became, and Knoxville was square in the path of a snowstorm that would blanket the South. Helen and I scurried about, and the January 10 departure suddenly became January 9. We beat the snowstorm by 24 hours. A neighbor and dear friend sent us a picture of our home dressed in white stuff.

Our original route was Interstate 40 West, but Memphis had seven inches of snow, so that was no longer an option. We took the Southern route to Montgomery, AL, Gulfport, MS, Lake Charles, LA, and beyond. Except for Gulfport, most of the stops were one-nighters, which were hard on this old body, but we managed to stay ahead of the snow. Once we reached Las Cruces, NM, we were out of trouble and could slow the pace.

We arrived in Cottonwood, AZ, and Dead Horse Ranch State Park with three-day reservations. The weather was cool, but the skies were bright and sunny. Cottonwood is about 12 miles southwest of the charming town of Sedona, AZ, and Red Rock State Park. Helen and I were game for hiking and took off for Red Rock to get the kinks out of our legs.

The elevation for Sedona, AZ, is about 4000 feet above sea level, and, with the wind chill, the “feels like” temperature was probably in the low 40s for our hike, but we pressed ahead. In the distance, we could see The House of Apache Fire, a home built for Helen and Jack Frye in the late 1940s. Helen was an artist, and Jack, an aviator, was President of TWA at the time.

We hiked along a winding hillside trail for over a mile and reached the home. From here, we had a 360-degree view of sentinels of red rock mountains and a commanding view of Oak Creek below. The home is closed to tourists, but information, including interior pictures, is posted on a significant marker next to a locked gate at the front.

After spending some time at the home and enjoying the view of the magnificent red mountains, we hiked back to the visitor center and then drove into Sedona for some sightseeing. We left Dead Horse Ranch grateful for the break.

Our next stop, which also lasted three days, was Lake Havasu, AZ, at Lake Havasu State Park. Understandably, Southern Arizona is a hot spot for snowbirds from northern climes seeking refuge from cold weather. We secured the last reservation available for the days we were there. Moreover, we had to spend one night in one campsite, then move to another for the following two nights. The second site was a little tight for our rig, but I landed on the pavement after some patient maneuvering. I bowed for about two minutes when I climbed out of the truck.

Helen and I drove into Lake Havasu City on our second day to do “touristy” things. We walked along the waterfront and peeked into a few shops, but nothing caught our eye for purchase. There were few people out and about on this delightful day.

Lake Havasu City is known for the London Bridge, which spans a portion of the lake downtown. After it failed, the London Bridge was torn down and replaced in the 1960s. Robert McCulloch, the developer of Lake Havasu City, bought the original bridge in 1968 and had it shipped to Lake Havasu with each stone marked for reassembly. McCulloch paid the city of London $2.5 million for the bridge and spent another $7 million on the reassembly. The London Bridge is the second largest draw for tourists in Arizona after the Grand Canyon.

We spent our last day gazing at beautiful Lake Havasu and the evening sunsets at the campground. Having traveled much of our country, I firmly believe Arizona has the best sunsets.

Six days in Arizona helped immensely to re-energize us for the trip’s final leg. We experienced some issues with our trailer but resolved most of them. I’ll provide details later. Helen and I arrived in Seal Beach, CA, on January 25 to celebrate Justin’s birthday on the 27th. Cheryl, Justin’s Mother-In-Law, had a splendid celebration planned for the occasion, and all of Wendy’s family joined the party. We had a grand time.

We will be in Seal Beach for two weeks, then head down the coast. We plan to return home in late March, but we have not yet mapped that portion of our journey. Please stay with us; we love having you along for the ride.

We’re Easin’ Along.