WHY DO I LOVE FULL TIME TRAVEL?

Each morning, I wake up before John.  I take the fur kids out for their morning walk and return to our coach for my cuppa tea.

Looking out our front window, I marvel at whatever sight might be there that day and I say to myself, "I absolutely L O V E  this life.

The freedom to see new sights and make new friends is remarkable.  These friends might not be with us for a long time, but we will see them down the road...maybe.  But whatever, they will always be friends.  

Being able to go to bed and have a view of the sky from the bedroom window is magnificent. Bright, brilliant stars and the moon in it's various stages.  Then to awake to either quiet, the sounds of the surf or bird's singing it's greetings to the new day.

Peace, peace.  Wonderful peace.  Sweet peace.  God has blessed us with this time of our life and we are both so thankful.

Where but fulltiming can we  experience geography and history lessons 365 days a year?  

We experience first hand fault lines where earthquakes have occurred and will happen again.  We even experience our first earthquake.     

Wild fires followed by mud and rock slides scour the sides of the mountains. 


In the southwest, rivers carve deep canyons.  





There are mines to explore.  The list goes on and on.  





Two years ago we parked next to a forgotten, sleeping volcano in Amboy, California on Route 66.  It was quite an experience to approach the volcano and walk over the hardened lava with the ripples and ridges showing it's path across the desert floor.  People view the crater and think it is a curious site.  Curious?  I don't think so...It is history.  OUR history.
When will the Amboy volcano awake, rumble and spew its molten ash around? When will Mount St. Helen's, Yosemite awake?



Petroglyphs  are a history lesson in pictures drawn on rocks hundreds of years ago.  But, what story are they telling?  Do we rely on what other's translations?  Do we use our own imagination?  


What would the giant redwoods tell us about the history of their lifetime?  The flat lands of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska?  How about the New England States?  

What about the Gulf States?  What would they tell us?  Would they describe the heartbreak of the thousands of lives extinguished during the Civil War battles?  The lives lost in the hurricanes?  What would these states say?  

The difference in the mountains is striking.  In the east, they are covered with trees, shrubs, etc. 





In the southwest the 
mountains are exposed 
sharing the beauty of the 
formations, fault lines and 
changing colors.  





The sounds of full time travel are amazing.  We hear the rumble of vehicles that share the highways and byways with us.  

The roar of the Pacific as it pounds the shore.  

As the water returns to the ocean.  we hear the tick, tick,tick of the pebbles being rolled over and over back to the ocean.

At the next location, it is quiet...we hear nothing!  Silence...total silence. 

These are only a few of the reasons we enjoy our new life of full time motorhome travel.  You just might want to give it a try if you have not yet had the experience.  

SOUTH CARLBSAD STATE BEACH

After leaving Sycuan Casino in El Cajon we continued westward with the final destination being D.D.#2's location. 


But first, we made another stop.   South Carlsbad State Beach, right on the Pacific Ocean.  The thundering surf greeted us with pounding waves, foam, sea birds, enthusiastic surfer dudes and plenty of rocks for John to treasure.  

We settled into our spot right on the Pacific.  Site 204 was perfect for our forty feet of motorhome and fourteen feet of trailer that carries our Miata.  

As soon as the slides were out and a few things put in their places, we were down the stairs from the high bluff and onto the beach.  

John was searching for his rocks and I was on the hunt for sea glass.  

There was only one problem.  The ocean greeted us with huge waves and surf that would chase us out of it's reach.  Twice, the surf won the race. 

Both of us had on our hiking shoes, on the beach - need I say more?   My hiking shoes are waterproof as long as the water does not go over the top of the shoe.  

Yep, you guessed it!  I was soon walking in sand and water that had taken residence in my shoes.  (It was freezing cold for just a short while.) 

I cannot imagine that the wet suits could keep these surfers warm.  But, I have never had one on, so how would I know.  They just looked cold.  They would sit out there for what felt like hours waiting for the perfect swell that would give them the thrill ride of the day.  

Perseverance provided a good ride for these surfers.  

What surprised us was the ages of these surfer dudes!  Some are as old as us.  And of course, we are older than dirt!  

So......does that make them older than mud?

As I was walking the beach in my less than successful hunt for sea glass, I did spy one shore bird that I am unable to identify.







 Help!   Name that
      Bird!!!!

 From the shore-side of the beach, I  moved to the cliff side.  Nestled into the rock cliffs, there would be little caves.  This one had rocks washed into the opening.  




And I found many of these little creatures scampering among the rocks and larger boulders.  

The issue with these guys is that they are burrowing in the soil parts of the cliffs and breaking down the stability of the cliffs.  

Hopefully, the powers that be will be able to find a way to relocate these guys.  

It would be a shame to see these cliffs washed into the Pacific.  

Being the artist I am, I found great beauty 'painted' in the sand.  A wave would come thundering onto the shore bringing sea weed, moving pebbles and rocks.  Then the ocean would return to its self and start anew.   

It would leave patterns that looked as if the Pacific used big heavy brushes on the seaweed and fine bristled brushes to fan out the grey shades, giving me ideas for paintings. 

A strange occurrence happened as I was walking Oliver and Olivia.  Suddenly I was attacked!  A bird whizzed by my head.  It came back again flying right over my shoulder screaming at me.  

All I could think of was a Blue Jay.  It was not a Jay, but a Mocking Bird.  I have never been before been attacked by our Mocking Birds at home, or what was home.  

The campgrounds were full of color from various plants.  The first, I do not know the name, but this plant also lines the highway leading to the State Beach.  


The second is the Bottle Brush plant.  Phil Dahl has a much better photo on his blog.  Of course, Phil called it a Toilet Brush plant.  

Our last night at South Carlsbad State Beach was a beautiful evening.  I played with the sunset photos for a change of pace. 

The previous night, we did not have a sunset.  Actually there was one, it was hidden by thick clouds. So this was a treat.  I took about ten photos.  



Thank goodness, I did not choose to post all ten sunsets.  

After dumping and taking on water, we left South Carlsbad State Beach and continued our trek to Jojo's.  

At first, it was just cloudy.  The clouds grew heavier as we worked our way north to a higher elevation. 

Then, there was mist.  

But, when we arrived at the top of the mountain, the sun was shining!  The pavement was dry!  No clouds, no mist!  

We drove further down the highway, then another then to I-5, then I-15 and on to 215.  Always changing lanes kept John on his toes and my eyes and ears tuned to our not always correct Garman GPS. 

Finally we arrived!  We are parked in a church parking lot for a while.  Saturday, we begin the process of installing the skimmer and waterfall in Jojo's pond, so get out your shovels and come join us!
  



THE END!



May you be blessed with the richness of God's everlasting love.  

Santa Barbara Sunshine to Sierra Mountain Winds

We left Leo Carrillo State Beach with a lot of sadness.  We had to tell Jojo good bye for almost 2 weeks.  Even though she would be working all week, just to have known that we were near would have made me feel better.  It was way too long since we had last been with her.  Somehow, I was able to let my tears go on the beach in order to not ruin our goodbye hugs.

We moved north on both the 1 and the 101 toward Santa Barbara.  This route is absolutely breathtaking.  What am I saying????  Ninety nine percent of what we have been seeing has been breathtaking.  I marvel at God's handiwork.

As we traveled north, the Pacific was so beautiful.  Every turn in the road brought new excitement.  How could the next scene be more outstanding than the other I don't know.  Not only did we see water scenes, but we saw miles and miles of fields fill with strawberries, blueberries, avocados and vegetables. 

Santa Barbara was larger than I remembered it.  We walked the beaches and took State street out to the pier where we had a wonderful lunch of shrimp, calamari, oysters, scallops, a wonderful slaw with pineapple and onion rings.  We ate outside and watched the fishing boats return with their day's catch.  Sail boats completed the peaceful scene.  A very nice day.  

We stayed at the Sunrise RV Park.    It was expensive!  $55.00 /  night but we had to hook up to electricity to recharge batteries in order to get the generator started so we could boondock during our trip to Death Valley.

Talley Winery was on our itinerary.  They had a lovely setting.  Rows and rows of vines in precise order blanketed the hillsides. After leaving Talley Vineyards, we visited the J Lohr vineyards.  Oh my!  I thought that Talley had a vast vineyard but J Lohr went on forever and as far as the eye could reach. 

Bakersfield was our next destination.  We were to boondock at the Camping World.  We had some supplies to pick up and wanted to have the oil changed.  They were unable to do the oil change which was okay since were were actually not at 3,000 yet.  They were, though able to help us with a lack of knowledge about generators.  This motor home is providing us with a HUGE learning curve.

 Our greeting to Bakersfield was oil wells.  A question I ask is why, when we have oil wells there, in Alaska, in the Gulf, just to mention a few places, are our gas prices determined by the price of oil in Lybia?  A gas station right next to an oil field and refinery was selling gas for $3.86!  Go figure.  We have read that gas in Death Valley will be over $4.00 a gallon. 

Wal Mart and Fresh & Easy were next on our list for shipping.  We replenished some of our supplies and headed for the Sequoia National Park.  The entrance to the park on  highway 178 is another experience.  The rapids are beautiful as they plummet down the mountain.  We are now in the Sierra Mountains.  What a difference in terrain.  The mountains went from lush green to brown.  This is considered the high desert.  We were planning to spend a few days in the Sequoia N.P., but a winter storm was predicted with high winds.  They said that 25 mph winds would gust to 50 mph.  The more we drove, the more the winds began to plummet us.  

We find that we have planned to much to do and see.  Anyone surprised?  We need to learn to plan our trips better so that we don't feel that we have to run from place to place.  After our "conference" this morning, we have decided to spend today and tonight here and then go to Death Valley National Park.  We are taking Las Vegas out of our itinerary.  Not only will it provide us with more time in Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Forrest, but it cuts down on a full tank of gas at the cost of over $200. 

Happy trails, to you......until we meet again....(sound familiar?)