Just Like Riding A Bike

So here we are back in North San Diego County.
It's all coming back to us.
We know the place well.
The Garmin is no longer needed.

We got a really nice spot in the Oceanside RV Park, right on Hill Street in South Oceanside.  We paid a month's rent, unhitched the dinghy, and set up camp for the duration.  No A/C needed here.  Pooh's windows are finally opened, and the salty Pacific air blows in.  

Prime Southern California real estate - a corner lot

The next morning was Frank's flight to Montana for a week's visit with his college buddy, Jim.  As we were cruising down I-5 in the Geo Tracker at 4:30 am the next morning to get Frank to his 6:15 flight to Helena, we tried to remember why he had picked that early flight.  But soon enough, he was on the plane, up in the air, and Linda was alone for the week.

Fog rolling back out to sea in Carlsbad

Linda took the coast road for most of the way back to the campground.  The morning was foggy and the beach views were just awesome.  You can't find fault with the Pacific coastline early in the morning.  The surfers are out in force and the fog rolls back out to the ocean.  Truly breathtaking.

Even the Encina Power Plant looked ethereal at 6:00 am

She had to make a stop at the sweet treat landmark in Cardiff for a bear claw and coffee. 

The confections inside these doors are worth every calorie

Linda decided to spend her first full day alone playing with yarn and her knitting.  What fun.

It was good to have a calm, pleasant day.  It will be busy for us soon enough.

First Day in Cali

Yep, we're back in Cali.
First clue:  gas prices are $.50/gallon higher than in Arizona

Sadly, in just a few days, this will look like a real bargain!

Second clue:  the idea that solar and wind power will somehow save us.  Does no one factor in voltage loss in getting that power to the user?  And, just how will solar power will lift a plane off the runway?   Or move a freight train?  Does anyone really think this stuff through?

 

The landscape along I-10 through the Palm Springs area is a testament to the liberal idiocy that is California.

Sadly, there are similar windmill farms in west Texas.
I fear for the good people of Texas.


Third clue:  traffic.   We are back in the land of serious freeway driving.   And now that we are here with out-of-state plates, we are just target practice for crazy lane changers and wild entrance ramp merges.  We tighten our seat belts.

Our first stop is to see Frank's brother Phil and his significant other, Theresa, who live in Riverside.  We had a great visit with them, and then we headed down I-15 toward the San Diego area. 

The shadows were lengthening, and we were tired from a long day that had begun way back 50 miles west of Phoenix.  So, we decided to stop for the night in Lake Elsinore rather than pulling into Oceanside after dark.

The real Chambliss California 2012 Adventure will begin in earnest tomorrow.

We can turn off the Garmin now.

Into the Golden State

We spent our last night on the road about 50 miles west of Phoenix.  Lovely campground, and as you can see from the picture, we had our choice of spaces,.

The snowbirds have not arrived yet

There is always something interesting to see in the desert.  This guy had a terrific bike that he must have build himself.  He flew up an exit ramp just as I turned to take a better picture, but you can get the idea of his ride.

Another interesting place just north Tucson is the Pinal Air Park, which is a graveyard for big airplanes. You can see a bit of the place from the freeway, but it's worth googling to see aerial pics and get more info.

hundreds of old planes in the distance

We finally made it to the Golden State.  

to New Mexico

It takes a long time to drive across Texas.  From the eastern border with Louisiana, to the western border with New Mexico, the distance is 880 miles. Traveling west, once you pass San Antonio, there are few campgrounds.  But there are traffic accidents.  We waiting in this traffic line for about 30
minutes just west of San Antonio.

There was no fence between the freeway and the frontage road to the right . . . many people simply drove over the grass to the frontage road to avoid the wait. 

we're past the wreck site; the frontage road drivers have their own traffic problems now

Texas has made the long drive across its state very hospitable by providing numerous rest areas, most of them equipped with large parking areas for big rigs like ours, and . . . ta da . . . free wifi!  We stayed the first night out of Houston in the rest area at mile marker 394, along with many truckers and several other RVs.  We stopped relatively early because there was a huge thunderstorm headed in from the west, and we didn't want to drive in it. 

darkening skies ahead

The next day we drove to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  We still love the incredible beauty of the western landscape.  It's interesting to see the landscape change in increments once you get past San Antonio.  First you notice there are no more big trees.  Then, you see that the bushes get smaller and smaller, until you reach the actual desert area.   The desert plants are completely different from anything else.  The whole drive is quite beautiful, in our opinion.

One of the surprising things we notice on every drive through here is the exploding growth of the El Paso area.  It is so much more than a can of Old El Paso Red Chile Sauce.

What used to be a sleepy, dried up border town is now a big city, with big freeways to prove it. 

Remarkable.

Texas

We had an uneventful trip from northern Florida to Houston, where our daughter lives.   We have driven along the Gulf Coast many times, but we never tire of seeing this part of the country.  From the Blue Angel friezes on the freeway overpasses in Pensacola, to the 30-mile long bridge over the bayous of western Lousiana, the ride is always interesting.

She really is smiling . . .

Once in Houston, we managed to pack an amazing amount of activity into less than 48 hours, most of it centered around a frenzy of capitalism:   we bought a DVD player and a Kindle from Chanda;   we paid her to give us decent haircuts; we contributed to the local economy by dining out and patronizing the local WalMart and a motorhome parts store.

Texas is full of Whataburgers . . . Florida, not so much

We were reluctant to tell Matt we had Panda in Houston

It short, it was a terrific visit.  Too soon, it was time to pack up and continue the journey west.  We pulled onto the Sam Houston Expressway headed for its intersection with I-10.  The $5.25 toll we paid for about 3 miles of travel was well worth it as the transition from the Sam Houston to the I-10 takes one over the highest flyover on the new mega-interchange of these two freeway.

Wow ... what a view.  We have driven under that interchange several times, but never on it.  Simply amazing.

Sam Houston freeway interchange with I-10

Nothing in California compares.  Of course, they worry about earthquakes out there, and the construction is different.   Once back down on the ground . . . back on I-10 . . . we began the trek across the Texas Hill Country to El Paso.

Fuse

 So we were tooling down the Santa Monica freeway, admiring the absolutely gorgeous sunset (above), when it occurred to us that we should think about a place to stop for the night.  Our first day out had been exciting, but we're not getting any younger.  We've got to pace ourselves because just getting to California is going to take several days.  No sense getting burned out on the first day. 

We pulled into an RV park in northern Florida, ready to rest up for an early start the next morning.  We pulled just as the office was closing.  The registration clerk assured us that although the park does not have cable TV, their wifi is working properly; she added that we can drive right into the park and choose from several sites she pointed to on the brochure.

As we drove through the park and looked for a suitable (read: level) site, we sense something may not be right . . . as in, we are the ONLY campers there that night.  The clerk did not exaggerate about choosing our own site.  We could have any of them!  We picked one, leveled up the rig, hooked up the water and power, and settled in to watch TV on the internet.  Only one problem, there was no wifi.

Frank pondering our predicament

We called the office, and the night manager (really?) answered the phone, but said, unfortunately because it was after hours, they couldn't get anyone out to look at the wifi problem until the morning.  Had we been lied to?  There was no use arguing, so we decided to move to another park just two exits down the freeway.  

After we disconnected water and power, we went to retract the hydraulic levelers and nothing happened!  The levelers would not go back up.  There we were . . . stuck in an empty campground with 6 wheels, and 4 hydraulic levelers all touching the ground.  We stayed locked inside the rig, and made sure our bad-guy protection systems were functioning properly.

It was a miserable evening . . . alone in the campground, unable to move the rig, no TV and no internet.  I will leave the reader to imagine the wailing and groaning and general frustration on the inside of Pooh.  But, we did get to sleep early, and we were able to ascertain some potential repair sources using Linda's smart phone connection.

While we waited to call for help the next morning, Frank decided to poke around the electrical system, and discovered a secondary fuse box wired under the dashboard labeled "HWH Leveling System."  Could this be the source of the problem?  Well, yes it was.  He opened the box, discovered one fuse was popped out.  He replaced the fuse, and voila!  The system worked, the levelers retracted, and we were on our way again, before the campground office even opened for business that morning.

Whew ... we've had some excitement already, and we're not even 300 miles from home.  We hope things settle down for a while.

Next stop:  Houston, and a short visit with Chanda.