from Grover Beach, CA

What a great stay we had with the Anglin family!

Only Mollie knew Julia, her good friend from camp, before yesterday at 6pm.

However Lucy totally hit it off with Isabella (12) & Isabella’s friend Haley and I really connected with Doris and Rory on many topics.

 

While Mollie and Julie have been great friends for years they hadn’t seen each other in almost two years.

And Lucy & I hadn’t met the rest of the family other than a brief introduction at camp pick up once.

However very quickly it felt like we were all old friends connecting again!

What a great way to spend an evening (actually a long night after I heard what time all the kids went the sleep) and short next day

 

We headed out finally about 3p today. It was hard to drag my girls away from their friends! I gave them as much time together as possible knowing we wanted to get to SF to visit Uncle Jay and Aunt Louise and then turn back east again. The goal is to be home before 7/23. Mollie has to work that day and Lucy and I are committed to volunteer for at the Lake Placid Ironman race. We’re hoping for a strong tailwind as we journey east!

 

The roads in CA are mostly in poor shape. They are rough and often patched or concrete that causes the constant thump, thump at the joints. And they groove the concrete parallel to the travel direction for some reason. I’ve seen it done in NY in short sections too. But here it is done for miles. If the grooves were straight that would be one thing but the grooves often zig-zag back and forth! They create just enough we-wha in the steering wheel of a 1988 RV that it takes extra work to keep a straight line in the traffic. While it’s little more than a distraction who needs it for hours?? And I thought NY roads were bad!

 

And the drivers in CA are rude and careless! When the CA driver wants to change lanes, they change lanes. This seems most prevalent on the omnipresent “freeway”, One driver slammed into my lane yesterday so close that Mollie and I both thought they were going to clip us. And there is no courtesy from CA drivers at all. It is very hard to get into a different lane when needed, the others drivers just ignore my signal and keep plowing ahead as if no one else exists. And god forbid that I made an improper lane change…today I attempted to make a lane change on the main street of Santa Barbara in slow traffic and didn’t see the other driver barreling down on my right side: he laid on the horn longer than a NYC cabbie! Slam and go. That’s the way to do it in CA!

 

And the motor cycles! I understand it’s legal for motor cycles to drive between the cars and trucks on the freeways?? And they sure do at top speeds. It is very exciting (in a negative way) to have a rice burner, crotch rocket come flying by ones window at 10-20 mph faster than the rest of the traffic! They are at least smart enough to require helmets in CA.

 

The route from the greater LA area toward SF has so far been quite hilly. The scenery has been pleasant but the risk seems greater. Some of the grades are quite surprising on the highways. They are steep going up and as steep or more going down. I guess in the east the road builders would have cut deeper into the hills and filled the gullies more. Out here is seems that the roads go with the terrain more, regardless of the risks.

 

We stopped in Santa Barbara after Mollie got word that there was a Free People store there that was worth visiting. (any FP store is worth visiting to Mollie!) After an hour of shopping the girls were hungry and we had over 1.5 hrs to go before we got to the campground. We decided to eat at a local pizza joint found just a block away from where we parked (found via Google Places on my every present Android phone).

 

Buying gas in CA is different too. And I’m not talking about the high prices (although this is the only state we’ve seen higher prices than NY!) and the gas prices vary widely here. We saw something like $4.18 at one station and then a block away another station was well under $4?? And in many cases there isn’t credit card swipe equipment on the pumps but at a central terminal that everybody uses. Today we spotted a station that had a competitive price and pulled in and worked our way up to a pump (it takes some maneuvering in some of these tiny stations to get lined up and not block traffic) only to find out that the station took only debit cards and cash. It would be more truthful or at least feel like less of a bait job to put that on the big sign with the low price. I drove off in disgust after my debit card wouldn’t swipe in their central kiosk.

 

As we journeyed north past Santa Barbara Mollie pointed out that there was less visibility. There was what I think was fog or some other form of moisture in the air that we hadn’t seen in weeks. Was it clouds? Too low but it was different. We must be leaving the sunny, baked, parched southwest. There was enough moisture in the air to make it dark sooner than normal and obliterate the sun set for the most part.  

 

It is cooler here and that is likely a part of the change in the climate/moisture. It was about 55 degrees when we arrived at the campground. Mollie was happy to be able to wear the jeans that she packed for the first time and a black t-shirt that she bought in NOLA that seemed too hot to wear prior.

 

We finally docked in our after 9p all tired and ready to unwind.

 

After our close call in finding a camp site the night before last (the full story will come out someday) I made an advanced reservation well before we stopped in Santa Barbara. When we arrived it took 15 minutes to get to our site while we waited for another camper to squeeze their travel trailer into their site. They had to unhook their truck in order for traffic to pass. That’s the sign of a tight campground. When I made the reservation on the phone they were really specific about our RV dimensions & now I know why. The sites are really small & close together. Any extra length or width than what I signed up for would be on the neighbors side or actually into their RV. Not a tree in sight from our postage stamp and the rate is higher than the average too. A bit noisy from close neighbors & road right behind the fence too.

 

We have connected with some great people in CA so far and expect to have a great time in SF. But we haven’t connected yet with any perfect strangers in CA like we did in every other state. Have we not slowed down enough to “connect” with the locals? Do the locals not slow down enough? Not sure yet.

 

I guess I haven’t been positively impressed with CA so far. I must admit the state inspector taking away our food was a REALLY BAD way to say “welcome” to CA so that set a bad tone right from the start. I probably won’t ever forget or forgive that act. I think I am trying to pass an even judgment otherwise and our stay isn’t over yet. We’ll see how the next few days play our before I pass final judgment on California.

 

Due to time pressures we’ve almost totally abandoned our effort to stay off the highways. We have a need to make to make better time than the secondary roads will allow. In many places in CO and AZ and even coming into CA there weren’t many other options besides the highway anyway. We’ll have to see how we progress as we head home. Tomorrow I plan to use some of Route 1 along the Pacific coast as opposed to I-5 or even route 101 that we used today. Hopefully we get to swim in the pacific tomorrow. And get to SF to have dinner with U Jay and A Louise.

 

I have found that the RV engine runs more smoothly with a Lucas Oil injector treatment occasionally. Todd from Baton Rouge Bus suggested it every 5^th fill up and Lee from Kwik Kar in Lake Charles, LA suggested it regularly too. I immediately started using it as suggested. It wasn’t until I didn’t use it for 6 or 7 fill ups that I noticed the engine was running a bit rough. I added the Lucas Oil to the next tank and noticed a difference for sure. We are keeping better track of the number of fill ups between treatments now!

 

It was suggested that we change the oil every 3000 miles too. And get the gom-out treatment done. So I may be looking for a Kwik Kar or the like in SF. Our GPS hasn’t been working well for a few days too so I may seek out a Verizon store in SF too and get the Android looked at. We use the phone for so much I want to be sure it’s in top shape. And when the GPS navigation says “searching for GPS signal” for 5 minutes at a time it becomes a bit more difficult to navigate. We go on manual mode as needed with the atlas but the local roads aren’t always shown on the national atlas.

 

Lastly we improvise. Somewhere in between the campground and the Mesa Verde National Park the end cap to our bumper fell off exposing our dump hose to potentially falling out. And we need that sewer hose! So I had a line that we use for to hang the hammock when we stop long enough to use it (not lately!) and lashed over the end of the bumper to keep the hose in place.  But the hammock line is 10-12’ feet long and I had to use all the footage to keep it from dragging. This was too time consuming to tie and untie for each dump session. So when I bought a 6 pack of bungee cords in the Grand Canyon store to keep the plastic bag over the bathroom ceiling vent I saw a use for the extra cords. Using two cords hooked to each ear of the sewer hose and stretched to anchor points toward the center of the bumper keeps the hose in place and more easily accessed. Not pretty but it works.

 

Jay