March 2009
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The beach |
March 2009 |
06/03/09 |
     
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Weekly Journal - Traveling in California, hanging out at the beachMarch - the end of it, ok looks like the 27th - Back at Huntington Beach This writing is for pure humor and I expect a response if you are reading it. I would say it has taken a month at the beach to get into drinking tequila and working on my top 100 list. Started with trying to make my top 5 list and decided its got to be the top 100 list first, of course its LL making her top music list. This week at the beach is much more of an attitude adjustment, it takes a while (when you have had a few years of trauma drama I acknowledge now) working into the people vibe where ever you are at. Its an interesting people judgment lesson, whether to judge or not. The reason this is brought up is its has been a much more interactive people week vs self absorption, oh and more drinking. We have been moving spots here all week at Bolsa Chica as our reservations or lack of, have made it a hop scotch of spots everyday. We had a very enjoyable neighbor experience of some early 60 year olds that were LL's speed, we have a new neighbor today that will make you smile hearing the story I am sure. He also is 60+, life time surfer. Lived with his mother until her recent death and has spent his entire blond life surfing and now has an RV to come to the beach and stay. He is still blond - not sixty blond, bottle blond, and tan and I am sure in the same shape he felt in at 20 something, but not so much in reality. You have to give it up to someone who has not been pressured to live main stream, but then again maybe main stream to him was one great surf day after another, and making sure the blond and tan stays is his main stream. It is one of the best days because its really starting to get humorous and the drinking tequila enhances the humor, so hit the tequila and email us. Another great item this week for LL's love of music, Jason's friend Darin brought her an Eric Clapton, Australian tour, artist signed original poster for her music poster collection. Its incredible, more shots all around. Except for Ricky, LL just observed he has been drinking larger tequila shots then her and needs some supervision perhaps, to keep us in the campground, its 4:48pm on Friday and too late to move on. Expecting an email from you after reading this. Hope its 78 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze where you are at, that should get some sort of response from the northerners. March 21, 2009 - Its spring, tg! We are currently at Lake Elsinore City Recreation Resort. We checked out of Bolsa Chica on Thursday per the end of our reservation and decided not to hang out on the waiting list as this next week is very booked and no reservation. We had an adventurous ride south checking out other campgrounds, finding them all booked or we did not fit. LL being the great map reader, took us on a toll road that cost $18 for 20 miles, it was a short cut through the Laguna Hills, Ricky was wondering why there were no trucks on this road until we got to pay the toll for having 3 axles. We made our way back to San Juan Capistrano and onto hwy 74, about 15 miles in there is a warning sign advising trucks over 30 ft not advised, but too late to turn around. We won't discuss the disaster until it becomes funny. The drive took us through Cleveland National Forest climbing above 2000 ft, then dropping into Lake Elsinore on the other side. Lake Elsinore seems to be a place in Southern California that was missed during growth times, old houses still line the lake and new houses are up on the hills. Close to the center of town there is a few developments that were started too late into the money dry up with large signs saying "Make Any Offer" like a car sale. There will be a large golf course and large housing complex that is in progress but not currently worked on. There are NJRA boat races here this weekend. We are staying in the campground with boat and motorcycle racers, which is conducive to our drinking habit. We don't know how long we will stay here, still looking for openings close to Long Beach for Jason to stay with us. We are about 60 miles away but that is quite the drive here, 10 miles is quite the drive in Southern California.
March 17, 2009 HAPPY ST PATTY's DAY!!!!!!!! Great week at Huntington Beach. The only thing scheduled daily is to watch the Sunsets. We had some challenges this week but easier to get over them here at the beach. We have been experiencing some Camp Nazi's otherwise known as Camp Hosts. Decided not to post too much negative stuff on this website but may create a Camp Nazi award for those Camp Hosts that need another job to protect the innocent. Bolsa Chica has two Camp Hosts and these guys work very hard, they patrol the campground endlessly, yelling at people threatening tickets and pounding on your RV when you don't do what they say fast enough. Of course this created a "Ranger" visit, after the guys explained the harassment to a disabled person the Ranger asked to give the park another chance and the following day the Hosts became very helpful and the harassment to us subsided. Unfortunately its probably a short term behavior change so beware upon coming here, you should bring extra alcohol for those times. One of the hosts must get paid mileage because he drives up and down the camping lot for at least three hours a day. Enough of the warning. We also had a front jack break, requiring a jack removal to be able to drive down the road, the jack was stuck in the down position. We will have a new RV page added later this week that will have RV details. Ricky spent several hours on the phone with the Lippert Jack manufacturer and at the end of the day had made arrangements to drive to Rialto east of LA 60 miles from Bolsa Chica. The camp hosts being friendly and host-like assisted us with additional blocks and allowing us to stay, as our reservations were expired and we had planned on going south to Doheny State Beach, south of Laguna Beach. Friday morning we left early and had a beautiful drive east thru the foothills with the sun rising. Once again I have to mention the California roads are in terrible condition and hope the state gets some money soon to fix them. Lippert manufacturing was great and gave us the new jack and gears for $50. On the drive back we went a different way and stopped at Camping World to pick up a vent cover that had broken on our trip thru Northern California. LL is pretty frustrated with the Tom Tom and still prefers Google Maps on the cell phone. The Tom Tom has a few more chances before being put on Craigslist but its pretty much destine for Craigslist. Ricky was able to remove and replace the jack requiring a sawzaw and finding a welding place in Long Beach. We were road ready Saturday morning and left the park as we did not have a reservation. We decided against going to Doheny on Saturday for one night as we had reservations here at Bolsa Chica on Sunday. We decided to go to Huntington by the Sea RV Resort down the street. At first glance it did not seem impressive for the costs but staying there was wonderful. The resort had a pool, spa, laundry facility and rec room. Staying off of Pacific Coast Highway we got a good night sleep without the road noise and it was not as hectic as the beach. LL was able to wash the rugs which after the last month was in much need and started some cleanup that was difficult staying in the sand. Saturday night LL and Ricky enjoyed the spa which was immaculate and helped LL's back after all the California road driving. The pool was a little too cool at 80 degrees, but like the spa was immaculate. Ricky asked the manager about a place to wash the RV in the area, so we could get it washed before returning to the state park. The manager allowed Ricky to wash it there at the RV site which all RV resorts state it not allowed so it was a huge favor! So it was a great facility and we enjoyed the customer service attitude that we had not experienced at the state park. We returned to Bolsa Chica on Sunday and the hosts were again trying to present better behavior than previously. A great group of people were in the park, and we met our new camp neighbors Ed and Vicki. LL and Vicki met Monday morning and Vicki announced it was her birthday, LL said its my birthday too! It was great to share birthdays. LL spent the day first going to Camping World to get the right vent cover since we had guessed wrong when we had stopped by on our way back from Rialto previously, then preceding to the beach. Many wonderful friends called thru out the day to give birthday wishes and it was great to catch up. Ed, Vicki, LL and Ricky carried chairs, kites and properly disguised drinks to the beach but Ed and Vicki had guests arrive upon setting up on the beach. LL and Ricky had excellent wind for flying kites. LL had not flown really for 15 years so a little rusty. Figuring no life or property damage with the kite was a good flying session. The wind made the beach a little chilly so we moved back to the camp and Darin showed up for a visit. Ed and Vicki's company left and brought over some dinner and 1/2 of Vicki's birthday cake for LL. We had a wonderful time by the campfire well into the night with shooting stars. Ed and Vicki live in Orange, CA and are avid campers. They camp at least once a month year round. We are hoping to hook up for other camping adventures. Ed works research and development in the aero space industry fyi for our Boeing friends. Ed and Ricky were a little hung over this morning. Ricky was in repair mode today, replacing the vent cover, fixing the patio chairs, etc. LL caught up on internet stuff, working on the next lag of the trip and getting prescriptions refilled for the first time on the road. It appears prescriptions can be sent directly to us for no charge and with mail order doing a 90 day supply is much cheaper for LL. So all is good. Tomorrow is suppose to be 80 degrees and Jason will be returning from Vegas. We will be leaving Bolsa Chica this Friday and will be south for the next 10 days, returning on the 29th. Mike, Linda and John might be in the area next week which will be great. Also we just learned our comic friend will be performing here in Long Beach on April 22nd so we will try to hook up with him if possible. We are planning to start towards the Grand Canyon next month. March 10, 2009 Hanging out here at Bolsa Chica State Beach for the last week. Eli left for Texas yesterday, Monday from LAX. Day didn't start well organized Eli missed his flight due to 4 of us not being able to figure out how to get him to the airport on time. He caught the next flight out so we hung around the airport area for a few hours to see if he was going to get out. LL and Ricky then spent the afternoon with Ricky's moms best friend and drove around the neighborhood he grew up in Westminster. Cool area of bungalow style houses. Charlotte & Mike took us out to dinner at a great Mexican restaurant. Eli was able to get his hands on a surf board on Saturday and attempted surfing on Sunday, small waves and a small board made it more of good exercise then a great surfing. We have had a great time here at the beach and Jason's friends have made it especially nice with local stuff. There have been dolphins and LL saw two finned swimmers go by Eli out surfing that did not move like dolphins or whales. Eli did not see them. The pelicans have been flying over head until the last day which the temperature is a bit colder around 60 degrees so maybe they all went south. The birds here at Bolsa Chica are awesome. LL is not a bird person but loves the Sandpipers. We have seen many herons, pelicans, stork like birds...obviously need to read up on bird identification. The wetland on the other side of PCH is filled with birds. Hundreds of birds fly over the campsite every day. Rick & Eli have gotten in some kite flying. Striker loves being here and have not seen him this happy in a very long time it seems. He likes to hang out and watch the people go by and would like to get a pigeon, he thinks they taste like chicken. Pigeons were not on the list of birds as they seem to be more of a parking lot creature then a native species. Today Rick & LL had a few errands to run and went to check out more beach campgrounds heading south. We drove thru Newport Beach and on the Balboa peninsula there. LL forgot the camera but pictures would be difficult to describe it. Tennis appears to be the main way of life there. We continued down to Cottage Cove State Beach. A beautiful beach with paved walking trails in a native growth area. Bird heaven which is therefore Striker heaven. We continued on thru Laguna Beach, streets filled with local tourists. The city is a paradise for those who like to visit all the art shops and eat and drink your way down the street. The local parks on the beach had volleyball players and more people enjoying the beach then up North at this time of year. The canyons that go back from the beach into foothills are beautiful. It appeared that this is the place where many of the top 5% wealthy live. The mansions are countless. Its diffidently a high population of white people. Living on the west coast LL has not seen such a high population of white people to the point where it was noticeable. We continued south to Dana Point to check out Doheny State Beach. We hope to stay there next month. The water is clearer there, sand a little whiter and the campsites are more native compared to Bolsa Chica.
March 4, 2009 We pulled into the Huntington Beach Campground yesterday about 3:30pm. Left Aunt Judy's in Madera early, made our way back to I5, and drove with the trucks to LA. Originally we had planned to cut over to the coast at Pismo Beach then make our way down, but changed our minds staying over a day at Aunt Judy's farm. It was a great rest and gave us the opportunity to go watch DONKEY BASKETBALL at the local high school. It was well worth going. If you have never seen Donkey Basketball it goes like this, there are 5 donkeys on both sides of the court, the players cannot pass or shoot the ball if they are not on the donkey, loose balls the players have to get while holding on to the Donkey. Our favorite donkey planted his feet put his head down and was not going to move. It was a fundraiser and great entertainment. (still working on the photos)
Driving into LA with size of rig was definitely a ride. California is out of money and the roads are really rough. The road was worth it to get to these sunsets at Bolsa Chica State Beach, Huntington Beach, CA USA
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