Poppies! Poppies! Poppies!

Pechenga Casino RV Resort in Temecula, CA has a reputation for being one of the best in California. Being ever curious about where the upper crust stay, we've been looking forward to our stay. Once we get there, we find that it's a nice enough park, but nothing extraordinary. (FYI, I like the Jackson Rancheria and Pala Casino resorts much better.)

This winter and spring in California has been an exceptionally rainy and snowy one. One of the results of this are the "super" blooms of desert flowers. So here we are in the Southern California desert, and we haven't gone to see the Anza-Borrego super bloom or the poppy super bloom at Lake Arrowhead...but to be perfectly honest, the reported crowds are enough to deter me, at least. However, Tom's making the effort to cheer me up. He finds the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in Lancaster that's on our way back north. Maybe it's not so impacted by tourist...

We could see the bloom about 7 miles away...

we were excited and thought we had outsmarted the crowds until the traffic slowed to a crawl about 5 miles away! The road into the reserve was soooo narrow. We're in the Beast, and cars are parked on both sides of the road making the road barely passable for us. We're really hoping the Reserve has bus/RV parking, so we can find somewhere to park or turn around if we need to. As we get there, we see the traffic control people are flagging cars away from the entrance..but hallelujah, they have bus/RV parking and flag us on into the parking lot! (This also has it's challenges as people have parked in a way that makes it difficult for the RV to make the turn. Thank goodness Tom is such a pro!)

The visit was well worth it, but would we do it again? Not with these crowds, and definitely, not in an RV.

San Diego

We've made it to San Diego. Each time we've been here we've stayed in a different place. This visit, our home base will be the San Diego Metro KOA in Chula Vista. It's a little farther away from Matthew's place, but we're still searching for the perfect campgrounds for our visits here. Not having planned ahead, we opt for a KOA since it's a known commodity.

Now my experiences with KOAs are that they are a good basic stopover type of place. Nothing fancy but usually safe and clean. There have only been a few KOAs that have exceeded that expectation. This one in Chula Vista is one of them. I was very surprised how green, spacious and well-kept it was.

Matthew stopped by not long after we arrived, and there was the usual greeting from Tank. (Tank loves his brothers, and if he could have been in Matthew's lap, he would have been!)

Unfortunately, most of our time in San Diego was during the work week, so our time with Matthew was limited. He did invite us over for dinner one night and made a wonderful meal for us.


















During our stay, we went on a "Wendy" adventure. While looking at Google Maps, Wendy had discovered a "Japanese" store, Kyoto Gifts & Food, not far from the KOA. Of course she wanted to go and check it out, so ignoring the darkening skies and rising breeze, we set out on the half mile walk to the store.

Wendy purchased her treasures, and we headed back to the campground. It was just starting to rain was she left the store, but by the time we reached the edge of the shopping center, it was POURING!!! As we watched (under cover) for half an hour, sheets of water cascaded out of the sky, and thunder and lightening accentuated the storm. The accumulated water was rushing down the hill and pooling in the street... 

But it did pass, and we splashed through the puddles in a hurry to get back to the RV before the storm started up again!

One additional tale of woe for Wendy as documented below. Her attention was diverted while she was taking Tank out for his nightly walk. He took that opportunity to charge a mystery object in the dark. (We'd heard a skunk had been seen in the area). Maybe he was trying to protect her--although based on past experience, this is probably not the case... Keeping in mind that Tank weighs 110 lbs...hoping those fingers are just sprained and not dislocated or broken...

Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort & Marina - Newport Beach, CA

We've enjoyed our trip down the coast, but now it's time to head inland. We're headed to San Diego to see our son Matthew. To keep the drive manageable, we make a stop at Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort & Marina in Newport Beach.

The resort is across Hwy 1 from Balboa Island, so we take a bike ride over to see the area. The streets are very narrow with cars bumper to bumper. Not very conducive to riding a bike, so we opt out and head back to the RV park and walk to the Back Bay Bistro for drinks and appetizers.

The restaurant has a great view of the bay, and we end the stay on a very relaxing note.

Rincon Parkway, another spot on the side of the road...

Our next stop is another spot on the side of the road, literally. Rincon Parkway Campground is located on the coast in Ventura County, between Carpinteria and Ventura. It is essentially dry camping in large parking spaces on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway. This used to be a first come, first serve campground, which was difficult to get into. To our surprise, it's changed to a reservation system, and we were lucky enough to land one. The hard part was figuring out if we'd reserved a space large enough for our rig and the car!

We fit (but barely)!!! When our neighbors arrive, I'm not sure we will be able to get out!

This stretch of the PHC is actually not as busy as you would expect because Hwy 101 runs parallel to it. There was less traffic here than at Avila Beach. For the first couple of days, there was no one around us, and the location was spectacular!  Not much to do around here except to stroll on the beach or relax outside with our wine and watch the waves! I don't know that you can get much closer than this.
 

Jalama Beach, CA

The California beach trip continues with a stop at Jalama Beach County Park. About 20 miles southwest of Lompoc, it's a ways off the beaten path.

Although we don't have a beach view from our campsite, it's just a short walk to the beach for Tank to have his day in the surf. It's also a short walk to the beach grill for burgers. 😋

Campsites on the roadside are an adventure...

Next stop, the Port of San Luis Campground in Avila Beach, CA. The majority of the sites at this campground are along the side of the road (Avila Beach Drive), which runs along the coast from the town of Avila Beach to the port.

This is a first come, first serve (i.e., no reservations) campground. This is where being retired has its perks, like getting to the campground early enough to get a site. When we get there, there is hardly anyone around (but this is short-lived). We're happy to find a site big enough for the RV with a great view.

Ahhh, a road along the shore with no cross streets...peaceful (not!). Unfortunately, our neighbor just across the road is Diablo Canyon, the only operating nuclear power plant in California. The plant operates 24/7 and the shift changes every 8 hours. This causes an unexpectedly high volume of traffic driving past us for each shift change! 

The Port of San Luis also creates traffic passing our site. On Saturday night, we heard a loud "Wham!" and thought someone had hit our car! It was dark and drizzling, so difficult to see. Across the road, it looked like a head on collision with a chain reaction of 4 cars rear ending one of the cars in the accident. Tom noted that it was odd that there were no people getting out of the cars... 

After calling 911, I find out from Tom that there was only one driver. She was a restaurant worker headed home from her shift at the Port. She had been texting...so you can probably guess the rest of the story. She wasn't paying attention and drifted across the road and hit a parked car head on with enough momentum to back it into the 4 cars parked behind it! No one was hurt, but they had to get several tow trucks to tow ALL the cars.