Playa Ventura (day 2)

We actually slept in this morning…didn’t get up until almost 7:30am. It’s funny, you would think the noise from the waves crashing in would bother you trying to sleep, but I think it actually helps me sleep. I was out like a light last night.

We took Whiskey for a walk down the beach, and then Ruth and I went for a bike ride. The road we are on has been paved since we were here two years ago, and it’s nice and flat for a bike ride, and there’s very little traffic. There’s a small naval base near the end of the paved section. It seems odd, but they don’t have any boats. We think they are actually marines, and that most of their job here is protecting the turtles. There are a few empty lots for sale along this stretch of beach and it would sure be a nice spot to build a little shack to live in.

We spent most of the afternoon sitting reading and overlooking the ocean. I spend a lot of time just looking, with binoculars ready, trying to spot any sea life. Today was a pretty good day for that, we saw six dolphins very close to shore, and also spotted three or four large whales playing way out in the distance. With the binoculars, we could see them come right out of the water a couple of times, it was really something…I wish they were a little closer.

The other excitement of the day was when a little Ranger pickup truck belonging to one of the group of young people camping here, got stuck in the sand in our parking lot. That was actually the problem, he had tried to park outside of what I would have called the parking area. The more they tried to get it out, the more they spun the tires and dug themselves deeper.

One of the girls spoke a little English and came over asking if I could pull them out with the motorhome. I wasn’t about to do that, but I said I could try and help if she would translate my instructions a little bit. With many years experience driving in the snow, and helping drivers stuck in the snow, this wasn’t much different. I got some of the 2x6 boards I use for leveling Sherman, and got them set up. Even then, I couldn’t get the people helping to do what I was trying to tell them to do. Meanwhile, two of the guys had driven down to the Naval base to see if a truck would come and pull them out, so we were a bit short handed and weren’t able to get the truck moving.

Sure enough, a truck with six or seven big military guys with rifles in hand and wearing bulletproof vests showed up. These big guys only needed about two minutes, and we had the truck pushed up out of the sand!

Watched another hour of Lonesome Dove this evening. It was a four hour miniseries, so it will take a few nights to finish it.

Happy Birthday to my sister Alison! Sorry we weren’t near a telephone or internet for you, so the wishes will end up being belated…but we did think of you!