FL to CA: The Return Trip / Trip Summary

Almost forgot to wrap up our last "trip"--which turned out to be less of a camping trip and more of an intense driving trip punctuated by using the RV as a hotel room.

The return trip started at 9AM on Monday morning; we were pulled into our parking spot at home Saturday noon. We could've made it home late Friday night, but it's way better to arrive home in the daylight (you should see the tricky turn-around procedure that involves steep driveways and dodging trees). So, it's clear that 5.5 days is what it takes (us) to go from home to St. Augustine. At least we tried a few new roads and campgrounds on the way home.

But, boy oh boy, was it hot. Driving all day really was the only option. It's not like we wanted to stop at 3PM, find a state park, and go for a hike when it feels like 104.

Monday: St. Augustine to Tuscaloosa, AL
On our new-to-us route north on 231 (very nice drive), we managed to visit a roadside farm stand for "Sweet Dreams" peaches, some nice plums, and some gargantuan tomatoes.

Saw the horrible tornado damage and the clean-up efforts. Got some very tasty 'que, and camped at a very nice state park--Lake Lurleen. Mid-week travel after a holiday week = empty campgrounds. Or maybe it was the heat. Who knows? We shared the place with the birds.

The heron flew off rather quickly, as I tried to shoot pictures, but the ducks came a-swimmin' and demanded food. They like campers.

Tuesday: Tuscaloosa to Aux Arc, Arkansas
Excellent driving day through beautiful Mississippi. We whimpered as we bypassed some of our favorite places--the Natchez Trace, Lorman, and Hot Springs, Arkansas--but we FINALLY found a good place for Delta hot tamales, which we first heard about on Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt show, but have since learned are quite interesting. There's even a Tamale Trail. Man, oh man, was this a great lunch (that morphed into a great dinner, too).

The Tamale Sampler:

Tamale Pie (with deep-fried corn on the cob, for heaven's sake):

This restaurant had outside-only seating. Suffice to say, it really DID feel like 108, so we ran the generator to power the AC and ate inside the RV.

Decided not to try to squeeze in Hot Springs visit, but instead forged ahead to the Aux Arc COE campground on the Ozark river, after a wonderful, winding drive down off of I-40 through the wineries. Very cute area, and I'll be darned, but the wine was good! Favorite meal: leftover 'que from 'Bama, leftover tamale pie from Mississippi, Alabama tomatoes, and Arkansas chardonnay.

Sunrise. I got to take pictures, while Lisa dumped the tanks. I prefer my job.

Wednesday: Arkansas to Tucumari, NM
All I-40, all the time. We saw the very nice-looking casino in Oklahoma that Linda S. recommended--another time, perhaps. It was only mid-afternoon when we passed it, way too early to stop, but the RV spots along the river with the shade trees did look nice. We were reminded again that next time we're through OK, we need to slow down and visit some of the many well-advertised sights. The state does a very good job with interstate signage that makes one want to exit and explore....

Stopped for lunch in Texas at a Roadfood (Jane and Michael Stern) recommended place outside of Oklahoma City in Clinton. Strike 2 on the Sterns for Texas BBQ. This place has a great vibe, but the meat was, well, just weird. Sort of an "ABC" quality, if you'll recall what that means from childhood days (e.g., ABC gum, remember?). And Michael Stern gave it his highest rating: "Legendary. Worth a drive from anywhere." Au contraire, Michael....

We were pushing to make it to Tucumcari because, well, if you don't stop in Amarillo, then you sort of HAVE to make it to Tucumcari. And, boy did we HAVE to. Ran into a severe weather cell (it is monsoon season) with 60 mph gusts. Thank goodness we missed the hail. But it was definitely creepy:

We visited our new friends at Cactus RV and had THE best breakfast by walking just up the road to Kix on 66. One of the best green-chile omelets ever!

Thursday: Tucumcari to Williams, AZ

Another all-day I-40 run. My big brother (a former Arizona resident and master tour guide) gave us the idea to push for Bullhead City and a great city park right on the Colorado River. We could've had a dip and a little casino entertainment. But we were soooo tired on this 4th day of pushing that we had to get off the road at about 5:30-6PM in Williams. I, for one, was just vibrating. It's high season in Williams (gateway to the Grand Canyon), but of course, all we wanted to do was stop driving. A pricey stop at a pretty marginal park (Canyon Motel & RV Park), but it was worth it for the cool mountain air and the lack of road noise and motion.... No pictures.

Friday: Williams to Bakersfield, CA then Home on Saturday

We detoured through Bullhead City to see what we missed (that city park looked like fun!) back to our favorite pit stop, A Country RV Park, which is almost exactly 4 hours from home. Staying here allows us to  dump, regroup, and make it home early enough the next day to clean out the coach. And on this particular instance, it also allowed us to join a group to see the Harry Potter movie ;-)

Trip Summary

Total miles: 4,562

Number of days: 25

Average mpg: 12.95 (heavy foot and heavy winds--our worst average yet! But we did have one day of tailwind and got 18.2 for that tank!)

Average camping fee: $29.43 (boy, the need for AC requires a commercial park, and the lack of guard dog has us staying at NICE parks!)

Number of states: 10 but no new ones :-(

Number of public parks: 4 (2 state parks, 1 COE, 1 national seashore)

Favorite New Parks: The Bluebonnet RV Park in Terrell, TX, is a new good find outside of DFW area. Gotta go back to the Redneck Riviera in Florida and stay at Grayton Beach. (Now I know why there's a View/Navion rally there every year.) And our little Cactus RV in Tucumcari--very cute and great price. And gotta go back to try the Davis Camp in Bullhead City....

RV Maintenance: Had Camping World in St. Augustine replace the #*$& Fantastic Fan with a Maxx-Air fan with a remote control. Yes, the Fantastic Fan has a lifetime warranty, but when it keeps breaking, it stops being worth it. Three strikes and you're out! Had to add 1.5 quarts of oil, which is par for our course. Only one other issue--on our last day in St. Augustine, the engine didn't want to turn over. We suspect humidity, but will have the Sprinter tech check the codes to uncover the mystery. Engine seemed to heal itself well.

Roadfood: This was our real treat--roadfood for lunch (or breakfast) every day we were on the road. I usually love to cook, but the heat and the driving delirium did not help. We had our green chile fix, our Texas (and Alabama) BBQ fix, Gulf seafood, and Delta hot tamales. Happiness.

Photo Overview: CA to FL June 2011

Because this trip hasn't really been an "RV trip," I've not been very motivated to post. But, because I'm committed to at least keeping an online journal of our travels (God forbid for when I get the clearly hereditary dementia in our family!), here's a quick overview of our trip so far. I've managed to keep up with RVParkReviews.com (see sidebar), too.

Day 1: Carmel Valley to new park in Kingman. No photos, but the new park wasn't worth the extra $10 per night. But, our old favorite Kingman place prints out emails that are blatant lies and puts them on the counter where you check in. I really don't like spending money on places that are anti-fact, hate-mongering, nut jobs. Seriously. I really can't stand spending my money in places like that.

Day 2: Kingman, AZ to Holbrook (of course) and on to Tucumcari.

We've stopped at this restaurant 4 or 5 times now. Sad to say, it wasn't that good this time, but we did appreciate the famous "doodle" behind the counter.

 

Stayed at a really cool, inexpensive, neon RV park on old Route 66. This was a site we saw on our night walk.

 Day 3: Through north Texas (with callouses caused by gripping the steering wheel!). Man, the weather stunk.

Day 4: To Mississippi and some semblance of "real" RV travel because we stayed in a national park

Day 5: To the Panhandle

We fit right in, once we backed in and hung our back end over the parking strip. (Right, Linda?)

 

Day 6-19: St. Augustine

The Fourth of July parade in my parents' "retirement community." It was a hoot.

 

My parents' most excellent neighbors were one of the many classic cars in the parade:

 

A darling grandchild of somebody's:

 

There was a golf cart decorating contest, naturally:

 

A smooth-coated collie from the south of Scotland:

 

Lisa checking out the EMTs, for once in a calm manner....
 (We've met these guys at least 5 times under less fun circumstances.)

 

Day 20: Who knew that there was only about a 25-mile difference between the I-10 and I-40 routes home? We are hoping to hit a few new spots on the way home, even though we'll be in a bit of a hurry....

Testing from Texas

On this, our third long driving day, we are (well, I am) finding that there's just not time nor inclination to get out and set up the laptop in order to blog. I find myself posting funny tidbits to Facebook because I can use my iPhone easily from the passenger's seat. I just had a V8 moment: "there must be an app for mobile blogging!" Of course there is....


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Interstate 20 Frontage Rd,Terrell,United States

Hiatus Ends!

We will be hitting the road shortly for a summer family tour. So glad a friend of ours will be minding our house--it pays to have a fog-free location when others are socked in all summer....

We've sanitized the water lines and HWH; cleaned the skylights and solar panels; scrubbed, dusted, and vacuumed everything (including the A/C filter and ducts); tightened screws; filled the tires; and held the mail. All annual maintenance done earlier this year. What are we missing?
All that we see left to do is stock 'er up and, somewhere along the road, find a truck wash, propane refill, and do an oil check. Poor gal sat the longest she's ever sat :-( But we'll go put 7-8k on her and she'll be back to being happy.

Tentative easterly route (pending weather and smoke from wildfires): I-40 to our favorite spot, Hot Springs, AR, then cutting south to Mobile and over to St. Augustine and Julie's parents. Gotta make miles to arrive in 6 days (to accompany Dad on a surgical procedure), but perhaps we can squeeze in a dip in the hot springs....

Returning a more northerly route to allow us to visit Lisa's parents, Julie's 4-month-old great-great niece, and perhaps our Colorado friends (westward via I-70 to US 50 to I-80 and home). Can we squeeze in a corner of Nebraska so that we can fill in a "hole" on Rocksie's US map? To be determined.

It's all dependent on the weather and timing. Just discovered a great web site to monitor the pervasive smoke from so many wildfires in AZ, NM, TX, GA (thanks to Linda Sand for reminding me to check this!): US Air Quality: The Smog Blog. We hope the tornadoes are done for the season, and let's not have any hurricanes, shall we?

Even though we're shaking our heads at the folly of traveling during "record-breaking heat" and "oppressive air quality," we're still eager to hit the road. Off we go soon!

On Hiatus

Our poor RV, Rocksie Candu, sits outside our house, covered in spring pollen, waiting for us to hit the road. But I'm afraid we've been sidelined for a while and will continue to be for the foreseeable future....

You see, I was visiting my parents in Florida in March (I flew because I thought it would just be a quick trip!) and my dad fell and broke his hip during my visit. Because my mom has Alzheimer's, I needed to take care of her AND do the hospital duty. That was quite a juggling act until the cavalry (Lisa, and then later my brother and his wife) arrived and we could do more "divide and conquer" care. All I can say is this: Never, ever go to a hospital by yourself. Seriously. All of us need someone with us to advocate, double check, write down questions, and prevent really dumb mistakes....

So, it's now June and I'm making my third trip back to FL. Dad is still in rehab for his hip (after 3 hospital trips), and Mom is sort of getting used to having 24/7 caregivers staying with her. Sort of. She hasn't locked anyone out this week, at least.  We are hoping that we're getting all of Dad's complications sorted out so he can continue his rehab and get back into the house with Mom, but no one knows yet if that will be possible. He is 88, after all, but remarkably resilient and committed to doing his exercises.

We are hoping that when the next move is clear, we can perhaps drive the RV to Florida to help them move or get the house set up for walkers/wheelchairs/live-in caregiver. Or, if that's not possible, to at least squeeze in some mid-week California trips. There are some national parks in CA we haven't visited yet: Lassen, Kings Canyon/Sequoia in particular.

However, we are sad to report that we still don't have a canine traveling companion yet, either. We brought home the puppy we'd been following his whole little life and discovered he had a serious cardiac deficiency that would cause him to have a short life. We decided that we had enough cardiologists in our lives right now, so we returned him to the breeder to live out his life, before we got any more attached to him. Boy, was he ever a cutie. Here he is, at 10 weeks of age, checking out his reflection in the piano, as we gave him the house tour.

So, now we await another litter, which will probably be for the best. We had actually wanted a pup from this second litter initially (the parents were very "experienced" and known) and it will probably work out for the best anyway, given the Florida care giving situation.... Everything does, doesn't it?

Trip Summary: Winter 2011

Total miles: 1,450

Number of days: 11

Average mpg: 15.07

Average camping fee: $35.57 (darn California budget crisis for raising the camping fees!). Our highest average ever.

Number of states: 2 (Arizona for 1 night; not keen on spending money there....)


Number of public parks: 6 (only 1 commercial night)

Weight loss: 6 pounds for JC, 4 pounds for LC (since this was a "camp and cleanse" trip!)

Miles hiked: About 20

Spectacular CA Drives: Highway 1, of course (we all know that), but also CA 33.

Favorite CA State Park: Toss up between Anza Borrego and Morro Bay (for different reasons).

Most surprising: Smell of the Salton Sea (along with the profusion of fish carcasses), or was it the very odd "city" of Felicity, CA?

RV Maintenance: Nothing to speak of, except getting our dinette seatbelt recall handled on Day 1 of the trip. She's running great, as well she should after (a) 6 new tires, (b) transmission fluid change/oil change/fuel filter change/brake fluid change, and (c) all kinds of house maintenance (seals, appliance tune ups, and a wash-and-wax that had people complimenting Rocksie on her good looks).

Roadfood: None. See weight loss above.

Morro Bay State Park

We spent a lovely weekend at Morro Bay, a 10 out of 10 state park if ever there was one. Pricey ($50 for hookups), but if ever a park deserved it, this one does. Every hookup site was screened with mature vegetation, the sites themselves were level and pristinely maintained with very nice BBQ and separate fire pit and stone picnic table (none of those ratty wooden ones!). We don't tow, so we were thrilled to find that we could walk to just all of the amazing amenities: in-park golf course (!), a very nice natural history museum, two restaurants (one is just a stone's throw from the campground), the harbor and kayak rentals, hiking trails. Now, downtown is about 1.5 miles each way; totally doable, but we didn't try it, as we ended up finding a couple of geocaches.

Restaurant across the street from campground

Museum within easy walk from CG

State park golf course--with a view!

Smooth-as-glass bay with kayakers and stand-up paddlers

Sunset at the harbor across the street from CG

We had a blast meeting the folks who were camping (no hookups, of course) in this vehicle.

Now, THAT'S a rig

They gave us a complete tour and we were envious for about a day. We really liked how self-contained the rig was--almost 100 gals of fresh water, the cartridge-style black water disposal system (means never having to find a dump!), all appliances were either diesel (furnace, hot water) or solar/electric (fridge); the only propane appliance was the stove, as they say that diesel tends to be problematic in that application. Very nicely finished inside with high-end wood and appliances. 600 amp hours of solar. Good clearance, and an almost indestructible shell.

The downsides were that drivers must follow truck regulations and speeds, the thing gets less than 8 mpg, driver fatigue sets in pretty quickly, the interior (while nicely designed) is pretty cramped for 2 adults and a dog, and you really gotta be in good shape to climb in and outta there ;-) I didn't have the nerve to ask about price, but each one is made to order by a fellow in Wyoming. If he likes you. But very interesting to contemplate....

On Sunday, we did a 3-mile hike up Black Hill and then left right around noon--kinda like we did at Malibu Creek. Used up all of our paid-for reservation! At that point, we decided that it was time to be home. We had made it 10 days without much grocery shopping (just milk, fresh veg) and without a laundromat, glory be, but it was time for both. And we had such a wonderful time in this neck of the woods (and we had one more CG to try out--Kirk Creek, which is spectacular boondocking right on a cliff above the ocean) that we figure we'll be back maybe next month for a few days. Why not enjoy one's own backyard?

We had a blast driving up Highway 1 all the way home. Can't believe we've never taken Rocksie to/through Big Sur--our backyard--but she did great.

The best stop was just north of San Simeon. (We opted to spend time on nature, not on another tour of Hearst Castle.) We spent a good hour watching the amazing mating rituals of the elephant seals. Here's how it works. (I just posted all these to Facebook under the heading "Just in Time for Valentine's Day." Now, I'm duplicating my Facebook and blog posts--no!!! I had been so careful to distinguish between the two. Oh well. Just this once, she says....)

Males battling for females

Alpha male putting moves on a female

Male trying not to drown her, but, still accomplishing the goal

Surf scene reminiscent of "From Here to Eternity"

Bragging

Cuddling after....

 Lest you think this was a "private moment" for our seal couple, this is the view down just one portion of the beach. The view the other way was quite similar.

The females give birth starting in November, nurse the single pups for one month (pups gain 10 pounds a day), breed again right away (Feb-March), and then swim off to Alaska to feed, leaving the pup to learn to swim and survive on its own. They return again in the summer to molt, then they're off again till it's time to give birth in November. What a calendar!

We are now home, but what a lovely little trip we had in our summer-during-wintertime. Will do a trip summary soon....

Suicide Is Painless (M*A*S*H Theme--don't worry!)

We arrived at Malibu Creek State Park just at sunset on Thursday, after having negotiated the Pacific Coast Highway (the PCH, as they say down in LA-LA land) its entire length from south to this point. Gorgeous sunshine was giving way rapidly to chilly evening, but we got our expensive ($35) boondocking site after taking the chatty Cathy camp host's recommended site. (It was supposed to be one of the more "level" ones. Hmm.)

The coyotes started singing very early and in stereo, which accompanied our domino game. Turned in early so that we could get up and hit the trail on Friday for a 5-mile round trip hike to see what Lisa has just been wanting to see for years now: the site where M*A*S*H was filmed.

This hike was much easier than the Palm Canyon hike in Anza Borrego, in terms of path (most of it was a fire road) and elevation gain (only 175 feet), but it was much longer and we had to hustle to get out and back and then showered before check-out time. (The ranger at this park was quite persnickety about the rules.) A few iPhone photos show that we accomplished our goal:

Lisa up on the helipad

We departed the park at 11:55 AM, just under the wire and pretty tuckered out, and proceeded back down the canyon to the PCH again and headed north through Malibu (couldn't figure out where Jennifer Aniston's house was) up to Oxnard and Ventura, where we stopped at the Channel Islands National Park building. We read the exhibits and picked up the literature and plan on returning down here another time. Maybe we can get our friend who lives part-time aboard his boat in Newport Beach to take us to the Channel Islands sometime (hint, hint)....
Then back on the familiar 101 route to get to our weekend destination, Morro Bay State Park, a mere 120-ish miles from home, but right smack on the harbor. Great park--it's one of two in the state system with its own golf course. There are two restaurants and kayak rentals--may have to check that out tomorrow. We could use an upper-body workout rather than a long hike. I've got the ice pack on now, while Lisa is using the hot pad (!).

We'll decide Sunday whether we go home, take a different tour of Hearst Castle, and/or stay out one more night at Kirk Creek (the place where we were going to go last January, but had to cancel due to stormy weather). So many things to decide!

Winter Wonderland in So Cal/Yuma (Expanded)

As I belatedly start the blog for our current journey (on day 6, for heaven's sake!), the Midwest and eastern part of the country is getting pummeled by ice, snow, and generally horrific blizzard conditions.

Thursday: We drove two hours south to Paso Robles for the Winnebago seat belt recall repair, which took much longer than the promised 20 minutes. We had the opportunity to tour some of the RVs for sale--5th wheels, Class As, Class Bs, and travel trailers of all sorts, including Airstreams. That was fun. For about a half an hour. We still love our Navion best.

Then we (counterintuitively) drove a bit north on country roads to go to a Monterey County park we've never stayed at--Lake San Antonio. Beautiful winding, country roads through vineyards and ranches, but the poor campground had seen better days. We stayed at south shore for $40 and not much in the way of amenities except for a clear sunset

and some of the outstanding outdoor art of our local boy, John Cerney:

On Friday we set off south in the morning, clearly not in any hurry, because we took quite an out-of-the-way route, just to shake things up a bit. We tend not to explore California very much (probably because of the overcrowded, overpriced, and always reserved state parks), but we were bound and determined to do so on this trip. We took the very familiar 101 south to
just after Nipomo and then headed east on 166, a new road for us, and one shown as a dotted "scenic" route on our map. It was a very nice drive, rather typical inland California scenery--oak and chaparral studded rolling hills. Not terribly remarkable. But then we turned south on 33. Wowee. What a fun road to drive and what gorgeous scenery. We didn't take any photos as there weren't too many pullouts, but put this road on your list. Up to 5000+ feet elevation and down again, with every curve and twist making us gasp.

The road ended at Ojai, where we were planning (well, hoping) to walk in to a site at Lake Casitas--a spot we'd read about that we wanted to try. Two-night minimum was required, and it was a Friday night. There would be no chance of getting a spot at a beachfront state park late in the day, so we took the Lake Casitas fellow's recommendation and went to a nearby county park. Ugh. I gave it a 4 out of 10 on RV Park Reviews....

So, our trip thus far had taken us only a few hours from home with only mixed results on the fun-camping scale. Maybe the next day would be better?

Saturday dawned sunny (again) and Lisa got behind the wheel for this whole day, as it involved negotiating LA traffic. We made it through LA and then East LA (I kept having to do my poor Cheech and Chong impersonation) and finally out of the smog. Slowly city faded and desert began.

We made it to our Salton Sea destination to find, not surprisingly, that the hookups at the state recreation area were already full. Of course! It's high season and a Saturday. But we found a really nice spot down the road 1.5 miles at Mecca Beach, where there was boondocking (but also restrooms and solar-powered showers). We checked out the primitive beach sites down the road, but opted for the place with bathrooms, as we didn't have enough fresh water to get us through two days of boondocking. Boy, did we ever like THIS place. Just gorgeous and a nice 1.5-mile trail through the desert to walk between Mecca and the Headquarters area. I took a ton of photos, but here are a few of my favorites. (You have to imagine the smell, though.)

 

Our campsite:

Sandpiper at sunset:

Some of the thousands of pelicans wintering here:

The Chocolate Mountains at sunset, with the very frequent freight train entering the picture. (Seriously, ever hour or so, a 3-4 engine train of 130 cars went by. You can't be bothered by train noise along this lake....)

And here's the smelly part:

You'd think, perhaps, with train noise and an unrelenting odor that this place would be the pits, but it wasn't. Far from it. The millions of birds, the vast expanse of sparkling water, the snow-covered peaks made it magical, really. Something to experience. For more info: Salton Sea.

On Monday, We then made our way all the way south to just a few miles north of the Mexico border to I-8 and headed east to Yuma to see my dear ole Uncle Joe--an 85-year-old Illinois snowbird who is a lot of fun to be around. We spent the afternoon touring the area with him, he treated us to dinner (our first meal out of the trip!) at the Cracker Barrel, and then he came over to "our house" for some tea and chatting into the late evening. We stayed at the retirement community and were tickled by how friendly everyone was. (Much friendlier than our other jaunt into this world in Mesa last spring.) Here we are outside of Uncle Joe's trailer home this morning:

 

 After our nice visit, we headed back to California on Tuesday, past 2 border patrol and one agricultural inspection station. On the way, we stopped at Felicity, California, the center of the world, at the recommendation of Uncle Joe. It's right off I-8 in CA, about 10 miles from the AZ border. What a place. What a vision this fellow has. This Roadside America article sums it up best. 

I have a hunch that our tour guide may actually have been Felicia, the "town's" namesake. That's her below, explaining how this sundial works and checking her watch. (That's a 3D interpretation of Michelangelo's arm of God. The sundial is perfectly accurate at noon on December 25 each year.)

Because the proprietor is French, here's a section of the actual Tour Eiffel, with Rocksie posing in front.

Here's the pyramid that covers the "actual" center of the world bronze marker that you put your foot upon and make a wish....

Here's the non-denominational church on the newly made hill. (Dedicated 2008)

49 steps lead up to it; haven't figured out the significance of "49" yet, but I'm sure it means something....

Some sample engraved panels. The first in the history of the universe, of course:

The last one:

 View from the church toward the pyramid, with the "history in granite" in between.

Entrance to the gift shop:

We reached Tuesday's destination, eerily, almost exactly at 2PM, the time I was shooting for (but not in any planned way--who could account for the 3 inspection stops and the bizarrely fascinating Felicity stop?) and exactly the state park campground's check in time. We got the last hookup site (natch) and then proceeded to walk the mile and half trip to the Visitor's Center, reading natural history signs along the way. Every time we said that we'd like to see an animal, it showed up. Seriously. It was strange. At the end of the walk, we realized that we'd forgotten we'd like to see the rare bighorn sheep. Tomorrow--we'll see 'em tomorrow! I'll post pix altogether then....

Good night! Tonight's serenade is not a freight train (Salton Sea) or Harrier jets (Yuma's Marine Corps air base), but rather lots and lots of coyotes.

On Wednesday we awoke to this sunrise and view of Venus (iPhone photo through bedroom window).

After letting the chilly desert air warm up a bit, we set off on what was billed as a 2-hour hike up Palm Canyon. Well, it took us almost 3 hours! Thank goodness we had our walking sticks.

Apparently, a flash flood some time ago had messed up the trails and there was a fair amount of scrambling over rocks to be done. And, we had to eat an apple and some nuts at the top of the trail, taking in the beautiful palm oasis that was the trail's destination.

View up toward the oasis at the top of canyon

The towering palms at the oasis

After that 3-hour, 3+ mile hike, we felt just fine about sitting still the rest of the afternoon and reading/writing.

We departed the next day, Thursday, bright and early, as we had quite a big drive ahead of us. The first section I drove--over two sets of mountains. Very winding road, but gorgeous. We didn't stop in a very cute Gold Rush era mountain town (Julian), which is apparently famous for its apple orchards. Every window advertised pie, but since one of the purposes of this trip was to do a detox/cleanse and start off the new year with some weight loss, we figured it best to keep driving....

Lisa took over the reins at San Clemente, for the trek through LA on the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1). We avoided the freeways entirely and enjoyed seeing the famous towns and beaches of Newport, Huntington, et al. But, boy howdy, did it take time to get through all that and up to our destination: Malibu Creek State Park. See next post....