First of all... a change of plans. The preceding couple of posts have promised that a review of my motorhome is coming, and it is. But it's a big undertaking and I'm getting further and further behind on posts about where I've been and who I've seen. So, while I continue to work on the review, I'm going to plunge ahead with travelogue posts and let the review come when it's ready. This is a short post about my return to San Diego after my trip north as far as Banff.
My first stop in San Diego county was not in the city of San Diego, but near Julian in the mountains about an hour east of the city. Our family has been camping with a group of friends in William Heise County Park at the end of October for many, many years, and I didn't want to miss that. It was one of the reasons that I limited my trip north to just one month. Well, it was great to see old friends, some of whom I only see once a year on these camp outs, but the camping trip itself was a bust. We all agreed this was the coldest, rainiest weekend we'd ever had together. I'd always tent camped at these weekends before, but I'd certainly picked the right year to upgrade.
There were just a few brief periods that it wasn't raining. One allowed us an excursion into Julian on Saturday afternoon, mainly for buying all sorts of treats such as dried fruit, apple cider, and old-time types of candy. We also stopped off to have a piece of apple pie, which the town is famous for, and I bought an extra pie, cut it into slices, and stored them away in my RV freezer for later enjoyment. The rain also relented long enough for us to have our traditional pot-luck dinner Saturday night. My contribution was skewers with chicken, mushroom, and three kinds of sliced peppers - the most complex thing I cooked in my RV up till then or since.
In spite of the weather, we had a good time. Most of the time we hung out inside one of the larger RVs, occasionally visiting groups gathered in other RVs. My daughter Amanda and her husband Ben came up for the day on Saturday, and it was the first time I'd seen them in a month. I got to show off my new RV and travel photos to all my friends.
Driving from Julian to San Diego, it became very real to me how much my life had changed. My house was completely rented out, to Amanda and Ben and three tenants in other rooms. Thanks to a draconian new law San Diego had passed, it wasn't even legal for me to park my RV along the curb in front of my house overnight. I needed a place to stay in my own hometown. Luckily, even on short notice, I was able to get into the Santee Lakes RV park. The woman at the counter gave me a few spots to choose from and told me to check them out before I chose. When I saw one, I knew I'd be very happy there for the entire week. Right on one of the lakes in a secluded corner of the park. This was the view out the front of my van:
The ducks would come up to visit occasionally:
The rest of the week went by in a blur, but I got to see quite a bit of my family, most of my friends, and have a steak cook out at my house to thank the tenants for their business. It was a wonderful week, but a telling moment came as I drove east out of town on Monday morning. Though I'd miss all the people I was once more leaving behind, I found I was actually happy to be on the road again. The itinerant disposition has a hold on me and who knows when it will let go.
My goal, two days down the road, was to visit a friend in Show Low, Arizona that I hadn't seen in nearly 30 years. That's the subject of my next post.
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