Coasting South to San Diego

We "coasted" south down the highway, "The 5" as they call it in California, maybe because you need at least 5 drinks after you spend time on it!  Our first stop was to get some fuel and this can be a tedious chore, especially when you are on a Los Angeles city street and you are towing a car. I have pictures to prove it can be done!

Will we fit?

Yes we did!

We arrived in Mission Bay San Diego 45 minutes ahead of our scheduled 2 pm check in. I always read reviews of the places we plan to stay so I know what to expect and one reviewer indicated, don't arrive even one minute before check in because you will be scolded by the check in staff..so, we waited in a State Park parking lot on the bay and I made some sandwiches as we watched the minutes tick by. There was a view of the Bay so we didn't mind the wait!

A beautiful day in Mission Bay, San Diego

We checked in right at 2pm and made our way to the site, the reviewer wasn't to far off the mark because the ladies at the check-in were brusque to say the least, not sure why that is, maybe it's a qualification of the job. We often encounter these type of winning personalities on the road, but that's a subject for another day.
I've concluded after more than 7 months on the road, my favorite part of the journey is when we are settling in to a new site for a few days, maybe it's the anticipation of enjoying new adventures and meeting new people, I love soaking in the local culture. My initial observations of this area had me excited!

Let's start with the RV park, it was basically a huge paved parking lot next to the Bay, some foliage, nice trees between the sites, old, you an always tell the age of the park by the restroom/shower facilities. We don't need to avail ourselves of these amenities because we have 2 spiffy bathrooms and our shower is just like home, but some folks aren't as lucky and need to utilize them.

Nice trees in the parking lot!

park between the lines, or else!

 I made an exception in Las Vegas at the park because the showers were big and luxurious, like going to a spa and they were right next to us. Speaking of Las Vegas for a minute, this next story, (even though I'm getting off track for a bit) was the "material" bloggers like myself dream of! When we were in LV, Jay would run over to Dunkin Donuts near us to get bags of coffee by the pound, he loves his Dunkin donuts coffee and I think he also enjoys an occasional donut, not that he admits to that! OK, back to San Diego, the second day Jay said we need coffee and we have to find a Dunkin Donuts! The western US is Starbucks territory, one literally on every corner! Of course Jay has an app. for that on his phone, so, he said, let's go! We headed down the highway a few miles and the official Dunkin donuts GPS on his phone led the way.... off the highway, make a left and you have arrived... only one problem, we are pulling into a secured Naval hospital facility and now we are at the check point. Jay says to the 20ish armed soldier, "you're not gonna believe why we are here!" the solider wanted his license and said he wasn't even sure if there was a Dunkin Donuts on the base, no matter, we aren't going to see it! The very serious soldier held his license, stopped the traffic and we made a big U-turn off the base, he wouldn't relinquish the captain's license until we were pointed out, just in case we tried to make a break for it into the base for a coffee break!  Thanks have a nice day, we're outta here! We laughed all the way back to the coach, I bought coffee at the grocery store and we survived!
Jay has a step sister JoAnne who lives in San Diego and we met her for lunch, she actually lives on a 40 foot cabin cruiser in the harbor and collects antique VW buses! We had lunch at a terrific Mexican restaurant and they hadn't seen each other for 20 years, that's a lot of catching up to do! So much catching up we had a $42.50 parking ticket on our car after lunch, two hour parking MEANS two hours! Ok?! Well worth it, we invited her and her friend Joe over to our home on wheels for dinner and we all had a great time!

Jay and JoAnne

We enjoyed many of the sights in San Diego, the beach and Old Town and ate a lot of fish Tacos in the process

A very old cemetery

amazing fish tacos!

! 

a beautiful Sunday in Old Town

 

We enjoyed the views of the bay at Mission Bay RV park but were mystified as to why with such a beautiful location was tired and not updated, we noticed many abandoned mobile homes and even quite a few empty homes right on the water. The mystery was solved when we found out the property was now owned by the City of San Diego and will soon be cleared and sold to a developer to build waterfront resort/condos. The home owners were paid huge sums of money to move...too bad, another great RV park will soon be history. All in all, the locals we encountered were friendly and laid back, every area of California has a completely different culture and San Diego was no different, beautiful beaches and lots of surfers!

We enjoyed our time in San Diego and we departed for the Arizona desert town of Yuma which is about 170 miles due east along the border of Mexico.

310 to Yuma!

We also crossed a huge mountain range on Interstate 8 East, I held my breath and the Captain maneuvered the coach flawlessly all the way to Yuma. These mountains are so steep that they also have runaway ramps in case your brakes fail.  I was anxious to arrive in Yuma because it was my birthday and I wanted to have a nice birthday dinner...that proved to be a dining challenge in this small town of traveling snowbirds. We ended up at a roadside diner feasting on fried chicken and had Red Velvet cake from the grocery store! Not quite what I had in mind but it was fun!

Our new home for two weeks is a family owned RV park full of Canadian snowbirds so I better brush up on my French, I'm told they have some jamming Happy Hours!

will it be Shangri-La?