Due
to a few unexpected minor bumps in the road, our trip has been a little
waylaid. But we hope to be in Mexico by the end of next week.
 |
| Saying goodbye and feeling grateful for Frank! |
We
packed up our lawn chairs, small barbeque and unplugged our electricity from
our friend Frank’s house on Thursday, October 13th. We needed to leave Frank’s because of
the rain that was on the way and we did not want to get our RV stuck in the
mud! So we traveled a few miles down the road to my brother Chris’s house in
Carmichael and parked in front of his house for the night.
We
had a nice, brief visit with him and my niece, Mikaela. We walked over to Mesa
Mercado in the Milagro Center and enjoyed a really delicious Mexican dinner!
The next day, we left my
brother’s and headed towards La Selva Beach.
It took us longer than expected due to a
broken throttle linkage, which completely stopped the RV right in the middle of
the slow lane on Highway 152 going over the Pacheco Pass. It
was probably the worst spot to break down! Cars and big rigs were climbing up
the hill and apparently not noticing us until the last minute, nearly hitting
us! Some, blasting their horns as
well. But what could we do? All of
a sudden Rick started to remove his shoe lace from his tennis shoe, then he
hobbled back to the back of the coach where the diesel engine is (underneath
our bed). He then instructed me to steer the RV as he pulled the throttle with
his shoestring by hand. I had to then yell to him (since he was way at
the the other end with the engine roaring in his ear) to pull harder
for acceleration or to release when it was time to brake. We finally
made it to a turnout about 3/4's of a mile up the road. I was a nervous wreck
the entire time, afraid we would get hit.
 |
| Looking out at the tow truck through the front and the broken throttle linkage on the dash. |
With
the help of the Highway Patrol, AAA and a tow truck driver out of Los Banos, we
got the situation under control and were able to make it to La Selva Beach ten
hours later.
While
in La Selva Beach we stayed with our friends Byron and Marybeth Shugart. They
have a very nice home close to the beach.
These are friends that Rick has known since he was a kid spending
summers in La Selva Beach with his family.
We
had a great visit with them! It was especially nice to arrive after a
stressful day to just sit down to a delicious Beef Stew dinner that Marybeth
had made along with Homemade Apple Pie ala mode for dessert! To top off the night we played
Farkle (my new favorite dice game) for hours! I think I liked the game so much
because I started out with beginners luck.
The
next morning, October 15th, Marybeth and Byron drove us into
Capitola where we had breakfast at the Wharf House. It was fun to walk around
the wharf and the town of Capitola afterwards. Last year around this time we were anchored
off Capitola making our way down the coast to Mexico.
 |
| Capitola Waterfront |
 |
| Rick staring out at the ocean at La Selva Beach wishing we were out there in it! |
 |
| The Venetian in Capitola |
 |
| Downtown Capitola |
 |
| The Capitola Wharf |
Before
we left La Selva, we all took a walk to the Bluff’s to see the ocean and then through
the neighborhood visiting, Rick Shugart and some friends of Marybeth
& Byron’s.
Around
noontime we said goodbye to our friends and headed towards Morro Bay.
We made the 2 ½ hour drive to Morro Bay without
any problems. We boon docked right on the edge of Morro Bay Beach facing the
water with Morro Rock to our left. We stayed there for two nights. The
views were breathtaking and sleeping to the sound of the waves crashing on the
sand was music to our ears.
 |
| View from our RV |
 |
| Harley checking out the big surf! |
 |
| Breakwater just in front of Morro Rock. Beautiful stormy day! |
We
didn’t do too much there except for taking a long walk through town to the end
of the harbor and back, then taking some brief little walks on the beach. It rained on and off
while we were there otherwise we would have done much more exploring. Morro Bay was another place we anchored
for about a week last year. We love Morro Bay!
Bright
and early around 4 a.m. on October 17th, we heard a knock on the door.
We weren’t sure if it was a part of our dreams or real life. Sure enough, it
was real. There was a Sheriff at the door telling us we were not allowed to
park where we were and then asking us to leave. She was nice about it and said we
could just leave sometime during the day. This is not the norm! Usually you get
a loud rap on the door in the middle of the night and are demanded to vacate ASAP
or else!
There
were no signs posted saying that you cannot park overnight anywhere along the
beach but I guess it is a City ordinance.
We felt fortunate to get in the two nights that we did, so we could not
complain!
 |
Later
that same day we headed to Santa Monica where Danielle lives and works. We met
her close to her office at Oracle since parking an RV in their underground
parking garage would have been impossible. We drove around for about an hour looking for a place to park. We even attempted parking in a Sears parking lot,
but there was a $50.00 fee to park in the lot! We’d never heard of such a
thing! So we wound up parking in a nice residential area close to the Santa
Monica Pier. Danielle arrived shortly after we parked and drove us in her car
to Trastevere, a restaurant where we sat outside under a heat lamp along the
Promenade having a nice visit and a very good meal! The visit was cut short
only because we wanted to get out of the LA area before the next morning to
beat the traffic. And we were pretty sure there was no place to stay overnight in
Santa Monica in our RV. So, we drove as far as Palm Desert where Rick was
feeling pretty tired from driving all day, so we parked at a Wal-Mart parking
lot around 11:00p.m. We stayed the night and left early the next morning.
 |
| Desert Life |
On
Tuesday, October 18, we arrived in Indio and pulled into the Indian Hills RV
Resort where we stayed for 5 days and did absolutely nothing. It was way too
hot outside and we were close to nothing except for a Costco and a run-down strip
mall. The most I got out was when I walked Harley to the dog park inside the
park several times a day. But then we were back inside the RV enjoying the
coolness of the air-conditioning.
We
mainly stayed as long as we did in Indio because we were waiting for our Mail in
Ballots to arrive, which my daughter Lauren was mailing to us.
As
soon as our ballots arrived, we left the RV Park and kept heading south.
 |
| Entering Arizona |
We
went through Phoenix and stopped at a West Marine to pick up some boat parts
for some friends currently docked in San Carlos. We also picked up some bottom paint
for our boat.
We
didn’t spend too much time in Phoenix. We could not find an RV park that wasn’t
either booked or in a questionable neighborhood. So we kept driving south.
 |
| Driving to Tucson - Sunset on the Road |
We
drove to Tucson and arrived at the Lazy Days KOA RV Resort by 7p.m. It’s incredibly nice for an RV park! Our
site has it’s own little grass lawn, surrounded by manicured shrubs and a Grapefruit tree,
a tile patio with a wrought-iron table and chairs. The park has a huge,
well-maintained dog-park, a fish pond with fountains, waterfalls & putting
greens along the edge. There is a restaurant, a laundry room, gift shop, two large pools with spas
and a building for fitness. There could be more I’m leaving out, because it is
quite large and I haven’t walked the entire park.
We
will stay here until we leave to drive across the border in Nogales then we plan
to drive straight through to San Carlos where our boat is.
Why
are we staying here and not getting to Mexico ASAP, you might ask. Well, did I mention we are in the middle
of purchasing a home/property in South Dakota? Yes, we are! So….we are just
waiting for escrow to close and to handle all that we need to document wise before we leave
the States.
Once
we get to Mexico we will spend 6 months cruising the Sea of Cortez and the
coast of Mexico. As soon as our 6 months are up we will speed home to
Sacramento, get all of our belongings and drive to South Dakota to put our new
home together.
We
plan to keep cruising during the winter months and to spend summers in South
Dakota. Eventually one day, we
will live in South Dakota full time. But, what about the winters? (Which seems to be the most popular question we have been asked).
Our
answer: We
“will look at it at the time”.
Check
back in a couple of weeks. We hope to send good news from San Carlos.
