Wistful Wanderers

We are hunkered down in our hotel, The Dakotah Lodge, in Sioux Falls.  The temperature today was 38 degrees and it’s falling fast.  It’s been raining hard most of the day and we expect to see snow!  Everyone told us it was warm and sunny here until yesterday.  We grabbed some groceries for dinner so we don’t have to venture out again tonight. 

 We are now residents of South Dakota! We did this for lots of reasons beneficial to full-timing:  lower sales tax, mail services that cater to full-timing needs, mail in voting ballots, residency requirement of one night in a hotel, etc. 

 So today we got our address, checked in with our new AAA office,  and spoke to 2 agents about insurance for our RV. Tomorrow we get our drivers’ licenses, maybe a library card, and set up a bank account.

We also have time to do fun things this week.  In spite of the weather, we went to see the actual Sioux Falls.  The whole park around the Falls is beautiful and is all decorated for the Winter Wonderland celebration that starts next week.  We ate a great lunch at the Overlook Cafe in Falls Park.  Great soup and sandwiches with the perfect view of the Falls. 

 We’ve got some local adventure planned for the next few days.  We want to become familiar with southeastern South Dakota on this trip.  We’ll hit the big sights next time we’re here – most likely in the RV.

Living full time in the pop-up, lounging on beaches, wandering through forests has ended for the time being.  We are in Portland with lots of family around us.  We stayed in Cornelius a few nights with our daughter Julie and son-in-law Jake and organized our “stuff”.  Then we moved into our temporary home in Hillsboro at our nephew Josh’s home.  Spending time with him and his wife Jenn and their 8 week old Trekker has been a joy.  We have also gotten involved in church life at  Orenco Presbyterian Church.  Our niece Rachel is a pastor there; Jake is the Worship Leader and Youth Director and Julie is the Children’s Ministry Director.   Doug and I are participating in Alpha, which is an adult  session of reflection and discussion.  To add more family into this mix – Doug’s sister Bev is the leader of our group and her husband Barry is part of that group.  Yes, everywhere we turn in the church we see family faces.  It is a warm and friendly church and we’ve been happy seeing our family in their roles there.

We have visited with Doug’s dad Creighton a few times and Doug enjoys watching football with him.  We went to Tillamook to eat cheese and see how cheese is made and also visited the Blue Heron nearby for more taste testing.  We are getting ready for Julie and Jake’s baby shower this Sunday so we mostly have been going shopping for food and decorations.  Yesterday, Jake’s mom Jodi came into town for the shower.  We are disappointed that Amy is sick with the flu and can’t come in tonight to be part of the festivities.  We’re hoping she gets here for the holidays.

After the shower we head out (by plane) to South Dakota – to establish our residency there.  It’s all part of our journey – the beaches are behind us for a while.  We’ll enjoy this immersion into family life here in the Portland area.  A week-long trip around Sioux Falls, South Dakota will give us some insight into our new state.  And all the while, we  eagerly plan for our future RV living.

Today we finally crossed the border into Oregon.  Before that, however, we saw endless orchards of what we thought were citrus and olive trees along I-5 in California. Then we entered the mountainous region of Northern California where we saw the majestic snow capped peak of Mt Shasta. After entering Oregon, we traveled along the Rogue River Valley taking note of places we want to visit when we return.

Around 4 we decided to camp among the pine trees at Sunny Valley RV Park.  The campground is rustic and run by an older couple who are living their dream of owning a campground.  There is an old covered bridge near here that we walked to.   

There was a lot of fog in the morning and it was 40 degrees cold!

 We have about 4 more hours of driving before we reach Portland. That will conclude the first leg of our full timing adventure. We look forward to spending time with our ever growing family in the Portland area over the next few months.

Monday morning early we left Pomona and headed out, fully expecting a long day of driving, putting some miles behind us and getting closer to Portland.

There were no rest stops on the highway so we stopped at Carpinteria State Beach to eat our picnic lunch… And fell in love with it.  Instead of an hour’s rest and lunch, we took a campsite for the night.  We only got about 100 more miles closer to Portland that day.  Such is the nomads’ life!  The beach was the prettiest we’ve seen yet and according to local lore the safest beach in the world.   Unlike our other beach stays, this one was a very short walk from our campsite over a small dune and there was the beach.  The sand looked pristine – white and very fine- and the waves were gentle with very little seaweed.

We did find out that there were tar blobs – couldn’t see them until they adhered to our feet, but otherwise it was beautiful.  We took a long walk around the town of Carpenteria and found out that this is the place where Lima beans were grown, processed and introduced to this country.  We also were pleased to see that the community pool welcomed campers.  Just a sweet, friendly little beach town.

On Tuesday we resolved to steer away from the temptation of finding yet another lovely beach so we headed inland.  The scenery of rolling hills and farmland of the Central Coast was serene and a nice change.

We drove over 400 miles and stopped at Sac Wes RV Park.  The cool night breeze without a hint of dampness was very welcome, as well as the really great bathrooms.

After  a morning eating a lazy breakfast and laundry duty, we ventured into Old Town Sacramento.  We walked on old western boardwalks among the many shops and restaurants.  We saw the Delta King river steamboat, and, of course, bought candy – salt water taffy and root beer candy sticks.  The buildings’ architecture from the 1800’s contrasts with the gleaming skyscrapers of Downtown Sacramento.  It was a fun afternoon that gave us a taste of the flood and fire history of the old west town.

This was a good break in our long travel days.  We’ll have a nice dinner at our campsite and then relax in preparation of two more days on the road.

Our stay at Oceanside, CA was at Paradise RV Resort.  The sites were tight but the walk to the beach was short.   We went to the Thursday night street fair where we ate great food, listened to an oldies band and then walked out onto the pier for a spectacular sunset. 

We took a break from sand-sitting to spend a day in San Diego.  We wandered through Balboa Park during the morning, taking in the buildings and gardens, the Spanish Village artists and just getting a feel for what is offered.  We’ll go back there when we have days to enjoy the museums and galleries.

The afternoon found us in Old Town.  It was very hot – Tucson hot! – but we managed to walk through the whole district.  The shops and sights were fun but we mosly enjoyed Old Town Mexican Cafe, especially the tortillas, which were made in front of us.  One thing about our new minimal lifestyle – shopping is a very different kind of experience – we need nothing except food and drinks but it’s still fun to look around.

From Oceanside we traveled a few miles to South Carlsbad Beach and spent a few more days enjoying our ocean-watching.  These campsites were bigger and right on the edge of the cliff which meant about 100 steps down to the beach (and up again!).  We got our exercise here for sure by adding morning walks through the campground and long walks on the beach.  We weren’t too happy with the bathrooms and showers but watching the sunsets and surfing compensated.

We got to the Pomona KOA on Thursday afternoon and quickly set up our little pop-up between giant rigs.  Great bathrooms and showers this time but our main focus at this point was the California RV Show.  Our site was a short walk to the Fairplex entrance.  We couldn’t wait so we went Thursday afternoon and immediately met our salesperson, Craig from Miami, who worked with us on Friday and again on Saturday when we made the big decision.  We purchased a 2016 Tiffin Allegro Red diesel-pusher motorhome, model 33AA.  

 Last night we has a special treat – one of the best parts of this kind of adventure – we met up with old friends, Bill and Leslie, and enjoyed a great Italian meal as we shared their recent trip to Italy and celebrated our RV purchase.  So good to spend the evening catching up with them.

Now that the decision is made, we are thrilled and can’t wait to take delivery of our new home in January! Tomorrow we leave Pomona and head in the direction of Portland.  Not sure if more beaches are in our future or maybe a scenic inland route.  We luckily missed the big mudslide at Elizabeth Lake in I-5.  Life continues peacefully and pleasantly – living full time in our pop-up is still fun and not knowing where the road will take us tomorrow is wonderful.

We are just at the end of our three night stay at San Clemente.  We can see the ocean from our campsite although it is about a 10 minute walk to the beach since we are up on a bluff.

 The path down to the beach is steep but there is a gorgeous view of the ocean.  Once there, you can see Catalina Island off in the distance.  To the right you can see Long Beach.  The beach itself is clean and not crowded at all as you can see.   We have been beach bums the last few days although we did manage to get our laundry done Monday where, by the way, at the laundromat we finally had access to WIFI again.  It’s not easy getting used to using your mobile data 100%!

We had a pretty good rain on Monday night, but good news Jake and Julie, no leaks in our 20 year old pop up.

We love the sunsets here. It sets behind Catalina Island.

Today we head south to our Oceanside for four nights.  We spent a week there in a beachside cottage a few years ago and just loved it.

It’s party time in what was our quiet campground.  Last night the festivities started early in the day and before we knew what was happening there were 4 and 5 tents on most of the sites adjoining us.  The largest group kept their music on until after 1 am and the loud talking from all the other sites went on until 4:30 am.  The party continued all day today and we’re anticipating another long night.  Right now there is a raucous piñata beating going on a few feet from our picnic table.  We must look anti-social as we quietly read, eat and walk around.  I guess we’re just missing out on all the fun!  But this is what usually happens on weekends.  Now that we are retired we often forget what it was like to look forward to those 2 days off every week!

Today we did a short hike and ate lunch at Inaja Memorial Park.  Then we explored Wynola, another tiny town.  Not much of a town but we did find some nice produce at a farmer’s roadside stand.  It was great to have potatoes, tomatoes and fruit along with our veggie burgers for dinner tonight.  We are trying to get in a walk after every meal and since we’re not in any hurry to do anything we have managed many walks so far.  Tonight we wandered through this beautiful campground for the last night.  The sun setting through the tall trees is just beautiful.  The mountains around here are covered with boulders at the top which reflect the sun and almost look snow-covered.

This is one of the most peaceful campgrounds we’ve stayed in – Paso Picacho Campground.  Surrounded by huge trees – oak, pine, cypress – all we hear is the light rustle of leaves high above us.  Until this morning we were alone in this loop which is delightful and daunting at the same time.  Our first night was warm enough to sleep with just a sheet but last night the chill we expected arrived.  But at 10 am it’s already warming up with a bright blue sky shining through trees.

Yesterday we meandered through the charming town of Julian.  We spent the day exploring the shops and enjoyed a cup of soup and amazing sweet potato fries at Soup and Such.  In spite of the recommendation of the post mistress to try the savory apple pie at the Julian Pie Company, we did the unthinkable and opted for ice cream sodas at the old fashion soda fountain of The Miner’s Diner.  Since Julian is famous for its apple pies and since there are a multitude of pie shops, it really was hard to walk away without a taste. But we had our own home-made mini apple pies when we got back to the campsite.

Today the plan (although it is a very loose plan) is to drive over to Lake Cuyamaca, sit in our chairs and read, eat a picnic lunch and walk around the lake. We will probably spend 2 more nights here because we like it so much.

Here’s a short video of one of the many woodpeckers making that tap tap tap sound all over the campground.  There are many species of birds here especially blue jays.  Maybe we will take up bird watching as a hobby!

A few years ago I met my daughters Becky and Paola near here for a camping trip.  It’s been fun sharing with Doug all those things we did together on that trip.

We have spent the last few nights at Catalina State Park a few miles from our last home.  We watched an incredible lunar eclipse as the moon rose over the Catalina mountains, said goodbye to family, and did some last minute errands.  Today we are relaxing a bit although it is hot without air conditioning in our pop up camper.  Tomorrow we get on the road heading towards Julian, CA.

A quick update since things are moving fast.  We have sold our house and we will be turning over the keys on Monday, Sept. 28.  We will be moving temporarily to a local state park with our popup camper for a few days and then heading west to California for a several week vacation.  Then we will head north to Portland and the start of our new adventure.  We are super excited!