A LATE UPDATE - FINALLY!

Well I have to apologize to you (we have much been too busy).

Up to a couple of days ago we didn't have full time Internet capability. That's a whole other story. Now we finally have a mobile router so anywhere we have cell phone capability we also have wifi!

Saturday October 20, 2012.
Well... we left Cochrane just in time sort of? (2 pm).
I jokingly said then that "we have to at least make Canmore" as we were so late leaving. 
It was our first snowfall (make that a Blizzard!) and we didn't even make it to Canmore!
We did make it a hour down the road though! 
All the way to the Scott Lake Hill west of Cochrane out by Morley! 

Spending the night in Morley Ab. The first Blizzard of the year came the day we left!

After taking a rest there and catching our breath we continued on to a safe spot for the night. On the way at one point I wondered what that black thing (in the blizzard) was as it was going across our path from right to left? As it turned out it was just another vehicle sliding off the road in front of us into the Median. I'm just glad he got out of the way in time. 

Due to our weight there was no way of stopping it was a sheet of ice!
Our Rig weighs in at 17,000 lbs dry and unloaded, add a 3700 lb Honda CRV (that we tow) and all the luggage - we are heavy!

The wind was howling, snow blowing and talk about ice! The defrosters couldn't keep the windshield clear!

That night we stayed in Morley on the "First Nations Reserve" at their Casino. We parked in the parking lot and we were so thankful for the furnace in that blowing cold snow! 
We had dinner in the Casino and went to bed early.

The next day we got up and hit the road. We made it all the way to Chilliwack BC where Wendy & Tim Woods live and were waiting for us. We stayed at their place a couple of days and we were ready to take flight. 

Wendy & Tim were buying a trailer near Los Angeles so they followed us down the west coast in their beautifully restored 71 GMC pickup truck.

Tim's Beauty - 1971 GMC Restored with lots of goodies including a 383 cid Stroker Motor!

Our first night after leaving Chilliwack was down in the Medford area of Oregon. 
Our second day was a long one and we made it to San Jose California just SW of San Francisco. 
We thank Wal-Mart for sponsoring our stays! We made sure it was worth their while too!


The third and 4th nights were a wonderful high-lite. Staying next to the beach down at Avila on the California coast (next to Pismo Beach). We loved this area after last years visit so had to come back! We had the best location up high over looking the Pacific Ocean and enjoying the Beach, Palm Trees and such beautiful sunsets. Perhaps next year we will stay more than a couple of nights!

The view from our Patio over Avila Beach California

I love this view through the front window of our rig. The Pacific Coast of California!

Ocean side nights in Huntington Beach! This sure beats our first night in Morley!

Our 5th & 6th nights were in Huntington Beach just south of Los Angeles. 
We love that spot too. We camped in the same place as last year next to the beach & ocean. Fred (a close friend that lives in H.B.) was able to join us both nights!




Wendy and Tim picked up their new Trailer while we were here in the LA area as we'll.


On the 7th night we didn't get too far. Tim's pickup truck decided she didn't like the hot So-Cal weather so we didn't get very far down the road. We stayed at another Wal-mart in Moreno Valley in (Riverside Ca.). 
Tim did some fixes (Put in a new aluminum radiator) and we were off!


The next day we got over to Morongo (First Nations Reserve) and camped in their Casino parking lot along with several other RVs. We got up the next morning ready to hit the road and guess what! Another issue with the poor truck? We were getting a little worried this time but Tim got her fixed. A Rocker arm had broke! He happened to have a spare one!

Now this truck is "Un-Stoppable!" Parked here along with Wendy & Tim's new  Tango trailer!

I have to hand it to Tim he's a great Mechanic (As well as a Master Body Man too).
We were hoping that's the last fix needed? Good news - Since then she has been "bullet proof!"


We hit the Freeway passing through Palm Springs and stopping at Palm Desert where we parked in another Casino parking area with about a dozen other RV's.

Camped in the desert at Quartzite Az.

The following night we roughed it 
Boon-docking on open desert land near Quartzite Az. (Free camping!).

No one around just us and the Scorpions, Rattlers, Coyotes and Stick Bugs!
Always worth the adventure and its free!







Sunday November 4th 2012, Phoenix!
To make a long story short we hit the SW corner of Phoenix (the city of Goodyear) and stayed there Sunday evening (Nov 4th) at where else? Wal-Mart!

Prior to settling for the night we stopped at a "truck stop."
Out comes the Visa card and we filled up the gas tank (Thats always scary!) while emptying the stinky tanks so that we had enough room to spend a week in the RV area at the NASCAR races. (Phoenix International Raceway or better known as PIR).
Unfortunately Barb forgot that she had set her wallet on the front bumper of the motor home!

Monday November 5th, 2012
Off to the Races!
It wasn't until Monday morning when Barb realized that her wallet was missing! 
She checked at the truck stop from yesterday and no one had turned it in. You can imagine the panic and phone calls to notify the banks and Visa etc.
The employee at the Truck Stop said it wasn't likely to turn up again - Not in this area!

Monday morning we joined up with 2 other couples who have Class A Motor homes. They are from the Yukon. We met them all last year and they became great friends. 

Arriving at Phoenix International Raceway Campground

So our caravan of 4 Rigs made our way over to the race track where we were to spend the next week "Dry Camping."
(Dry camping is when you camp with no hook ups for water, electricity or even cable TV! ).

Camping at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) is a blast!
LINK: http://www.nascar.com/races/tracks/pir/





We got in early and got a great spot near where we were last year. We even got to circle the wagons! We boxed in a great patio area inside the 4 rigs which we parked in a square.


There's no hook ups here so we have to rough it with several thousand other RVers and tents. Sort of reminds me of a modern day Woodstock!
6000 RV's and 24,000 people live in the camping area during race week.

We camped here in the in the desert so Scorpions and Rattlers are always a chance encounter but we still didn't get to see any! The Coyotes make the odd cry out to the moon at night but the rest Is like living in a city of RV's. It really is a lot of fun and one has to see it all to believe it! 

They even have a temporary grocery store (huge), Porta-Potties everywhere, A Camping store and portable showers - all temporary, clean and well kept!


The skies are deep blue and the morning sunrise is some thing I just love down here. The sunsets at night are some of the best anywhere!

Camping at Phoenix Races - Fun both day and night!

The weather at the track was in the mid 90's F and the ground temps were hitting 114 F!

On Tuesday we got a phone call! Someone found Barb's wallet!
All was still there except a small amount of cash! We were so thankful!!!
The funny thing is that on the same day Barb found her I-Pod which had been missing for a year too. Weird!

GOUT "101"
About 3-4 days before this I started feeling a weird pain in my right foot?
It progressively got worse and worse over the days. As it ended up it got so bad I couldn't put any weight on it nor could I walk anywhere! 
It was so painful! We think we narrowed it down to a case of Gout? 

Nothing that heavy hits of codeine couldn't handle though!

Thursday I woke up and it seemed a lot better so we prayed that it was going to leave so that I could make it over to the race track for all the practices, qualifying and races (4 days of events). Well guess what our prayers were answered!

If you have ever had Gout you know what I mean by intense pain. 
If you haven't had gout you don't want to know trust me!


RACES AT PHOENIX
As most of you can imagine this is my favorite part (Jim's not Barb's) of coming down here. We camped there a week and spent 4 days right at the track. A week of camping for $60.00!
We plan on coming back again at the beginning of March 2013 for the next NASCAR Race. More news to come on this later.

Sherry & Rick's Monaco

Circle the Wagons!

Sunset at Zoom Town!

Monday November 12, 2012
On the Monday Morning after the races ended we started to pack up. There is no rush leaving as there is about 5,999 other RVs that want to get out of here too! 

Once we got out we headed to our trusty RV Spot in Apache Junction. This is just on the east side of Mesa which is on the east side of Phoenix. 

Same place as last year cuddled up near the Superstition Mountains. The Wood's are here with us as well as Ruth & Don from the Yukon. Our other friends Sherry & Rick have a house in Mesa so they just park their Rig (photo above) and stay at their house (They are from the Yukon too).

As of November 19th we have been in Apache about a week. Most of the time spent here is relaxing, visiting, polishing cars, fixing stuff or out shopping. Soon I'll get enough nerve to wash and clean the outside of the motor home!

Drag Racing and... well... even more Stock Car Racing.
On Friday night we went with Rick and Ron to FireBird Raceway and went Drag Racing. They have two Drag Race cars. What a blast!

Last week we found out there is a dirt track (Stock Cars) about 7 miles away as luck would have it they were to race Saturday night. 

Sunday was... yes you guessed it the final NASCAR race on TV. That was our weekend! 
We had to get our last fill as NASCAR is over now until February.

So there... you have it. We lead boring lives really... unless you like car racing hahaha.

This week we plan on doing more Reno's to the motor-home. Barb just installed new bathroom taps! They look great. We also put in a new Shower Head so its just like living at home now!

Another thing on our agenda is the "Wing Nite" at "Filly's."
One of our favorite places to go for a relaxing feed of huge tasty wings, its becoming a weekly event since last year!

Most mornings are spent on the patio with coffee. I have been getting up between 6 and 7am most days so its nice, quiet and a slow way to wake up to such beautiful days. I take Romeo for a walk and sometimes even take my bike for a spin.

November 21, 2012.
Today we went out and bought a new "Laytex" foam bed. Most mornings I wake up with a sore back and neck so we made the plunge. I can not wait until it is ready, its being made right now.

Barb has gone on one organized hike and expects to go each and every Friday. I'll join her if my back gets to normal.

Other days are spent touring around, shopping and some of the gang go to Auctions & Garage Sales. Its amazing what they come back with!

I brought my Mountain Bike down this year so got her all tuned up and have started to ride again. Its no Harley but its fun and exercise is something I have been lacking.

COYOTES
The other night I was relaxing in the warm dark evening on my patio. I could hear some rustling in a garbage can somewhere off in the distance. Within a minute or so I was visited by a single Coyote. They are smaller here and I'm not sure he was even aware of my presence. He wasn't any more than 15 feet away! Amazing!

GUNS, GUNS & MORE GUNS!
As you may know carrying guns here is entrenched in the American Constitution. I have seen people before down here wearing side arms like a police officer would back in Canada. Today when we bought our mattress we were dealing with the owner of the company. A nice man and very honest. As we were looking at the display models in the showroom he laid down on a bed on his tummy. It was at that time I noticed he was wearing a small pistol inside of the back of his pants. No matter how many times I see normal everyday people wearing guns I'm still not used to it! It makes one wonder how many are packing that you don't even know about? Lesson of the day: Drive nicely!

ROMEO
Our pet dog Romeo hasn't been fairing too well this trip. He has had problems with an infection on his tail which we hope is finally healed. Add to that... one day he fell of the bed and hurt either his hips or lower back (or both). We took him to a Doctor and they felt that he had arthritis (we already knew) and likely pulled muscles and or ligaments. Thankfully nothing was broken! He has had some bad days and some good one's too but he's definitely slowing down a lot. Some days he can't even walk at our speed. This saddens us so he is being spoiled as best we can to keep him comfortable and happy.

BACK HOME MID DECEMBER to MID JANUARY!
We have been missing our family, our 3 great Children, their spouses and our Grandson.
Its hard to believe we will be making the Trek back home in just a few weeks. We hope to leave here about Dec 10th as its 3 long days to drive home and may be worse depending on weather. We are excited as we have another Grand-Baby coming due Dec. 14th!
So we will get to share in that and Christmas with family too!

MAP
Here's a map so you can see where we are staying: (scroll to the left to see Phoenix).  
LINK: http://www.arizona-mapsite.com/us_az_apache_junction_go.html


NEW BLOG POSTINGS
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We hope life is warmer up there this week for you! Stay warm and stay safe!

Jim & Barb
E: JGMessner@Gmail.com

Loving Life in the Desert!

Getting Ready for the NEXT Adventure!

Greetings everyone!

We are back!
This is your warning signal that we are about to Bound the Borders again.
We are just in the last couple of days of preparation before we leave for the 2012/2013 trip.

Similar to the last trip we will eventually stay in Arizona for most of the winter.
We will be leaving Cochrane on Saturday morning October 20th/12.
This time we are heading to the west coast (Chilliwack) to hook up with our friends Wendy & Tim.

Great News!
Wendy & Tim have put a deposit on a RV down in the Los Angeles area!
We gave them a taste of "Snow Birding" last winter when they stayed with us and now they are hooked too!
So we will travel down in a little caravan to go get their RV and then head east over to Phoenix.

Our other friends from Whitehorse; Ruth & Don along with Sherry & Rick will be leaving the west coast shortly on their trek down to Phoenix too. The bunch of us are going to meet and stay at the Race Track in Phoenix along with Jim's childhood friend Fred & his Son Ryan!

We have to be in Phoenix by Monday November 5th to get in the line up to camp at the Phoenix International Raceway (PIR). We will spend a week there for the NASCAR races and then head over to Apache Junction (Just east of Phoenix and next to Mesa all part of the Greater Phoenix area) Nov 12th where we will be staying at the Golden Sun RV Resort.

We are excited about one big change this year! Barb wont have to drive the car down to the Desert all by herself! We invested in a new Honda CRV and a Towing System so we can hook the car up to the back of the motor home and tow it. So finally we can travel together on those long days all in the motor home, the way it should be!

We will try to do a better job of posting on this Blog a little more regular this year.

If you have any questions you can reach us through this Blog or by Email at JGMessner @ Gmail.com

DONT FORGET!If you want to follow the Blog and get the new updates as we post them you can Join Us.
On the right hand side of the page there is a join us button. Just sign up there and you will be in regular contact with us - if you want to. You can also un-subscribe at anytime if we are too boring!

So, you wont hear from us for about a wekk or so, but will start posting as soon as we leave BC and head down the west coast of the USA.

Stay warm & safe!

Update to March 2, 2012

Feb. 12, 2012 Sunday Update

Well I haven’t done an update for sometime so I'll try to keep this brief. In fact I haven’t done an update since we went home for Christmas!

We came back south on January 15^th after having a great holiday and Christmas with our family in Calgary. The Calgary weather was great until the last two days when a “Deep Freeze” arrived brining us back to the reality of those Alberta winters!
The roads were passable and we took 3 days to get back to Apache Junction AZ where our Motorhome was left in storage. We were so glad to get back to warm weather!!

We stayed at a resort called Golden Sun in Apache Junction and we noticed it was getting a lot harder to find a place. We also noted that prices on a few things around Phoenix had gone up for the Snow Birding crowd who all seemed to be here now!

Our new friends Ruth, Don & Bev were booked in there for the winter so it was a good choice to stay at Golden Sun.

A couple of days after getting back our good friends; Wendy & Tim Woods (ex Cochranites) from Chilliwack BC came down to stay with us for about 3 weeks. This was good for Romeo too as he now had his girlfriend (Sassy) to play with! Someone recently said if I come back I want to be an “RV dog” and no kidding they do have the life! 

Those 3 weeks seem to have flown by way too fast.

We did lots of visiting with new friends including Sherry and Rick who like Ruth, Don & Bev were from Whitehorse Yukon.

Three of us guys had the same interest in Drag Racing and Rick had recently bought a second drag race car when we went to Barrett Jackson’s famous car auction in Scottsdale (a 55 Chevrolet dressed up as an Arizona Highway Patrol Car).

Now that auction is something to see in real life! There were thousands and thousands of people there and millions of dollars trading hands on exotic, race and custom cars.

When Rick was bidding the auction for the 55 Chevy he invited me to come on to the stage with him. Then after a few tense minutes and just as planned we won the auction! Lots of people clapping and handshaking going on after that! In fact the funny thing was I got two emails from back home from friends wondering what I was going to do with that car I just bought!

Well it wasn’t me buying the car but I could understand why they thought that. This auction is shown live on TV for 3 days straight across North America and I guess we were shown on the TV winning the bid and shaking everyone’s hand.

One weekend we the boys all went over to Surprise AZ to the Drag Strip taking Ricks 67 Dodge Coronet 440 race car. This was a purpose built race car that runs the low 11 seconds in a ¼ mile. We had a blast! The Racers were really friendly too.

A couple of other times we took the 55 Chevy out over to Firebird Raceway in Chandler. Wow two race tracks in town (Phoenix area)!

I was in my happy place! The Chevy was capable of running in the high 9 second range but with a new car we needed to slowly shake it down and get used to it making sure everything was working right and safe. To make a long story shorter for the Ladies reading this we had a ball with this car too. It’s a very serious race car and certainly grabs a lot of attention with its Highway Patrol paint job, Police lights and horsepower!

So there was a lot to do for me (Jim) during this stay and I loved it! It made me want to go back racing and the technology has improved so much that it was a very attractive idea!

Apache Junction (our current home at this time) is a great place to visit. It’s outside the big city (just barely - east of Mesa & Phoenix) and has that small town feeling to it. Add to that it sits right at the foot of the Superstition Mountains. With this location there’s a lot to see and do. Everything from shopping in Scottsdale, Pro Baseball Training Camps (we will go next year) in Phoenix and seeing all sorts of things in the valley.

From L to R - Debbie & Mike, Tim, Barb & Wendy

We got a great visit in with friends who used to live in Cochrane!
Debbie & Mike now live down in the Phoenix area and Wendy & Tim came down from their new place in Chilliwack BC.

But like all things it too must pass and we were packing up to head out on our next leg of our winter trip.

Now as you may know; we bought this motorhome in a hurry (October 2011) as fall was quickly coming and going so we didn’t have time to rig up a “Toad” (a vehicle towed behind a motorhome). So rather than wait out another cold winter in Alberta we decided to drive both the car and the motorhome down south. Actually this didn’t cost us very much extra in fuel but it makes for lonely trips when you’re all alone in each vehicle.

Quartzite AZ. Feb. 4^th, 2012

Wendy & Tim decided they would drive their car and ours as we moved over (west) to Quartzite which was our next stop. This way Barb and I could be together driving the Motorhome. No Barb hasn’t driven the Motorhome yet I do all of that… but one day she will; I'm sure.

We had a great trip over to Quartzite which is just a couple of hours west of Phoenix on the California Border. Normally it would be a small town (in the middle of the desert) but at this time of year there are literally thousands and thousands of RV’s who come here.

This is their high season and its well known for Flea Markets and Off-Road exploring with ATV’s and Jeeps etc. We stayed out in the desert “Boon Docking” with no hookups just living off the land.

Living off the land & "Boondocking" in the desert outside of Quartzite Az.

Now if you are like us the first few times I came down this way I found the desert to be somewhat ugly & boring after about 10 minutes of driving down the freeway. But after you’ve been down here awhile it becomes much more interesting and somewhat beautiful.

The Mountain vistas in the background, the Saguaro Cactus (and others) and the fauna all start coming to life! Especially this time of year there are even places with green ground cover and flowers starting to bloom. So the desert isn’t as dead as it looks.

Desert Views from our Patio.

Arizona averages about 8000 Scorpion bites per year and I don’t know how many snake bites but that’s another thing to watch for. Although not so beautiful!
I saw my

first Road

Runner the other day (Remember that TV show). We also heard the Coyotes howling the night away right out behind where we were camped.

It’s so relaxing and peaceful. We set our Patio Mat, chairs and tables out and it’s awesome!
It can get a little hot and one has to watch the sun exposure (Jim!).

For miles and miles you can see RVs camped out here in the wilderness and many of them have trailers full of toys such as Dune Buggies, Jeeps and ATV’s. They have a blast out here as there are literally thousands of miles of trails to explore.

Oh and by the way its all free, even the camping so it’s good for the budget too!

These areas are called “BLM Land” (Federal Bureau of Land Management) and they have them in Arizona and California. They likely have this in other states too but you will have to research it. First; you need to register with the Camp Host and then you just find a nice level spot that makes your heart feel good. If you can’t find the Camp Host you just do your best.

You are limited to 2 weeks and then you either have to move to another BLM at lease 25 miles away or move over to “Long Term” BLM and that’s a maximum of $180.00 for 6 months of camping. Pretty hard to beat from a budget perspective but I'm not sure that its something we like to do all winter because it can get lonely and a little primitive after a while. If you have an RV down here you have to see this and try it out!

In Quartzite itself there are a bunch of RV Dealers all flying Canadian flags, they want our business. If one looks around there’s the odd private deal too for RV’s and that’s where I would shop, especially if it’s registered in Canada already. Although if the deal is right I would by an American one just confirm that it’s importable to Canada before buying you will likely save money.

Everything is for sale in town. Flea Markets go for blocks and blocks with everything from Antiques, used Junk to brand new Zebra’s (just joking on the Zebras!). But if you like this sort of thing like I do watch and know your prices, there are some deals to be found. Tip: Don’t buy the first item that you see and are looking for as there’s likely a cheaper one down the way. There are lots of Sellers with duplicates and the prices vary.

 After a couple of nights here in Quartzite and 3 fun filled weeks Wendy, Tim & Sassy had to head back to Canada so we stayed in the desert another couple of days. The final straw was when I was sitting out on my patio one morning enjoying the hot sun and views and the army showed up.

No not the US Army it was the Army of Ants! They were marching east from west and right across my “desert” patio! I don’t know where they came from but when I could see that I wasn’t going to win the war I decided that a motorhome full of these guys wasn’t my cup of tea. We could have simply moved the rig but we decided it was time to head south to Yuma anyhow. You see that’s part of our problem; we have the “travel bug!”

If we were to come south for the winter and stay in one place it would be a lot cheaper for rent and fuel but we are youngsters and travel is still in our blood. One day that will change and we will park for the whole trip but not until after next year for sure.

So after the army of ants marched in we happily and quickly packed up inside of about 10 minutes - Away we went down the dusty trail again!

Yuma AZ.  Feb 9, 2012.



Now if you have ever seen the movie “3:10 to Yuma” its nothing like that!

But there are remnants of the old west and places to see all from the famous Wild West. We decided not to do the sight seeing thing in Yuma this time around.

We are actually staying in “Winterhaven, California” which is just across the Colorado River from Yuma AZ. The resort is called “River’s Edge.”

One of the things about Resort/Park Camping that we really like is the people one meets.

For example; The couple behind us are from Lethbridge. This isn’t that uncommon. Down here in Yuma there seems to be more Canadians per Capita than anywhere else we have been. Likely because Yuma is only about 85,000 people. The population triples in the winter and likely a good 30% of them are Canadian. Every time we stop at a red light it seems at least half the cars there with us have Alberta or BC plates.

The fella behind us and I have some mutual friends from our old Careers. He was a Justice of the Peace down in southern Alberta. Another couple are from the RCAF (retired) and served at the same base for a while as Barb’s Dad (Comox). Another fella I met is an ex RCMP member from Sask. That’s just a few of them. Each day and at every place we have stayed there are groups that meet all over the place for the pre-dinner "Happy Hour" which is a good way to meet people too.

It’s interesting to meet so many people and some I'm sure will remain friends and we will even see again on these travels over the years.

Since being in Yuma we have kept a pretty low profile. Groceries and car races are about all we have done. Last weekend (10^th & 11^th) was the IMCA Winter Nationals at the Dirt Raceway here; so we went both nights. Talk about a small world there was a guy racing all the way from High River, Alberta (Dan Lee). I know the name but couldn’t put a face to him. He didn’t do so well but it was good to see a Canadian out there! There were quite a few Canadians in the stands and they all stood and cheered when he was mentioned or introduced. Barb even had a good time!

It finally happened! We needed repairs in Yuma, ones that I couldn’t fix so we called in the mobile RV repair man. After all was said and done the rig (water heater) was fixed quickly and a lot cheaper than I thought. In fact it seems a lot of things are cheaper down here in Yuma, certainly cheaper than Phoenix.

The other night I was awoken in my sleep. The Motorhome was rocking back and forth. I just assumed it was Barb moving around. Later the next night we were watching the news and learned that it was an Earthquake not far away. I finally got this one off my “Bucket List.” I wanted to feel an Earth Quake (with no one getting hurt). Now I want to be totally awake for the next one and experience it in mid day! It was a very cool feeling (gentle rocking) but when I was awoken like that I didn’t realize what it was until later.

 



Coming up; we will leave here next Sunday for Santee Lakes California on the way to San Diego. We will stay there a week and eventually up the west coast.

Eventually we will head even farther up the coast over the next month in hopes of warm weather as we will be spending the month of April in Victoria just up from the Empress Hotel on Inner Harbor (ocean front).

But before we do that we will do a quick blast to Calgary (by plane or in the car in early March) for our Grandson’s (Asher) first Birthday! We don’t want to miss that!!!  We will only be in Calgary a couple of days then back to the Motorhome.

Feel free to Email us with your news or any questions as we check our email every couple of days. Hoping all is well with you all! Jim & Barb…

Romeo & his girlfriend (Sassy) who came for a visit from Chilliwack BC - Just Hanging Out!



California Update



We’ve been pretty busy to get around to updating this.

The last update was when we arrived in Santee Lakes which is just on the edge of San Diego.

Beautiful Santee Lakes near San Diego

It’s only about 20 mins to downtown San Diego and out to the beaches. We had a great time there and would recommend this campground. It feels like you’re a million miles from the big city in this County owned resort. It has several lakes and I presume they were man made from a dam. The resort was well kept and has fishing and cabins for rent, 3 of which were floating on the water!

We were camped beside a nice little creek with full hookups but no Wi-Fi again. We’ve found a solution for Wi-Fi for next year in hopes it will give us mobile Wi-Fi service most anywhere we go via Verizon.

We spent a few days out looking at the beach, downtown and such. San Diego is a beautiful city and we highly recommend it to go on your Bucket List if looking for a southern California getaway.

We were happy that we got to go spend an evening with our friends in Corona (Kathy & Steve) who invited us up for a BBQ one evening. We had a great time and enjoyed their company so much.

One thing we have noticed in California is that there is hardly anyone here from Canada? This is really different because everywhere we looked in Arizona there was at least one Alberta plate.

Huntington Beach

Fred (life time friends) & Jim at our Camground on Huntington Beach where Fred now lives.

After a week down in Santee we headed up and over to the coast at Huntington Beach. We’ve been here a few times before but never in an RV. We stopped here to see our friends Janet & Fred and had a great time with a couple of BBQs and nights out. We even got to watch the Daytona 500 race on TV. Again we had a blast and enjoyed the area too including a trip down to Newport Beach which is another great place to visit while down here.

Barb & Romeo checking out the Beach & Boardwalk at NewPort Beach Ca.

The Pier at Newport Beach

Beach Camping at Huntington

Everything from Surf Shops to Eateries all along the beach in Newport

PISMO BEACH

We left Huntington last Weds morning (Feb 29) and headed up through Los Angeles to Pismo Beach.

Pismo Beach at Sunset - This is Camping!



Now if you haven’t ever driven through LA you are in for a treat! Its just one big freeway (actually several) with millions of people on the roads day or night. Its one thing to drive it in a car but doing it in a big Class A Motorhome is quite another. We have done this before by car and I often wondered what it would be like in a RV? No I know, Now I'm seasoned!

I won’t bore you with all the details and near incidents with the crazies but suffice it to say it was interesting.

Once we got a ways north we headed back over towards the coast going through places like Santa Maria and Santa Barbara. A beautiful drive through the green countryside and back to the beach towns and cities.

Time for a nap outside of beautiful Santa Barbara heading to Pismo Beach.

We love this area and it is much quieter! Once you arrive into Pismo (which we had seen before also) you realize it was well worth the 6 hour drive!

We found a campground without reservations ahead of time. Barb is an expert at seeking out great locations and places to stay. I'm sure some days that she will wear out that I-Pad she got for Christmas! Man does it ever pay off!

The resort here is called “Pismo Coast Village.”



Another place I would highly recommend. It’s likely (Jim’s opinion) the nicest place we have found yet. Its right on the ocean and talk about a well kept resort. It’s open to people of all ages and on the weekend we can see that it’s a very popular place and the RVs are non-stop coming in (likely the local people).

PCV has everything we would want from views, to clean nice heavy sea air, a pool, store and much more for the family. We will spend five nights here leaving again on Monday morning and heading north up the I-5 Freeway again.

We will have some fairly heavy travelling in front of us on our next few days as we need to be in Chilliwack BC on Thursday March 8^th for a quick trip & flight into Calgary (from Abbotsford) on Friday, March 9^th.

No we aren’t coming home; we are leaving the car and Motorhome in Chilliwack and doing a quick trip (4 days) into Calgary for our Grandson’s First Birthday Party!

We couldn’t miss that!

Like I mentioned before we then fly back to BC and will head over to Victoria for the month of April staying on the ocean at Inner Harbor.

That’s all for now. I'll be adding some more pictures as I get time. 

I hope I haven’t bored you...

Don’t forget we love emails from friends and family so feel free to drop us a line just understand it may take a day or two for a reply. We also have Skype at Jim.Messner - Stay warm and stay safe!

Chilling on the Patio at Pismo Beach (PCV Campground) Ca.

The Pismo scenery is non stop in every direction!



UPDATE on Tombstone

I just found an article on the famous "Shoot Out at the OK Corral. Go to the Tombstone page and see/click on the link.

MOVIES About Tombstone.

• Gunfight at the OK Corral (1956), 

• Tombstone (1993) and 

• Wyatt Earp (1994.)