Out of town, out of state, but not out of the country…yet!

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 13^th.  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 15^th, 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 17^th, 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.