Starting a two week holiday.

Yesterday was our last day with Helen and Tony. Two weeks sure goes by quickly when you're having fun.

We had to leave to take them to LAX airport at 3:00pm, so we decided to just hang around the campground in the morning. Went for a short walk on one of the trails.

Here's what $3,000,000 can buy you...

We decided to take a drive on the coast, with no real plans other than to stop where we felt like it along the way, and try and avoid traffic. We are only about 20 miles from the coast, so we left at about 10:00am, with plans to get back home around 4:00pm.

We started off at Dana Point, where I had found free parking near the big marina there. We had fun looking at all of the boats and seeing how the rich people live!

Beverly Hills. Movie stars, and fancy cars...

It's about 60 miles (100 kms) from where we are camped at O'Neill Regional Park to get to downtown Los Angeles. We could have got a closer spot in an "RV Park", but this place offers some green space and large sites with no close neighbours. And, it's only $20 USD ($26 CAD) per night.

We figured this would be close enough to go into downtown LA and explore, and commute back here for two days. But we learned yesterday that Los Angeles traffic makes that somewhat difficult to do.

Moving north towards Los Angeles

Yesterday was a travel day for us as we moved from Lakeside (San Diego) area to Los Angeles area. I say "area", because we're still about an hour's drive from downtown.

But before we left Lakeside, we had to go out for on last breakfast with the group. Man, I think we have eaten out more this year than all our other years put together!

Travel in Turkey – the Land of Beautiful Structures

Turkey is one of the most crowded and beautiful tourist destinations in the world. Turkey’s location is of great geostrategic importance as it is situated at the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Although Istanbul is considered to be the capital of Turkey, Ankara was declared as the capital of Turkey in 1923 after the war of independence.

A wonderful morning with Tioga George

It had rained a lot Saturday night and into Sunday morning, and the forecast was a mixed bag. But, we had some indoor activities planned in case of more rain in the San Diego area, so that was okay.

First up on the agenda was a visit with another blogger! We had made arrangements to meet with Tioga George. First, at his apartment to see his garden, and then for breakfast.

Rollercoaster fun!

What a fun day we had yesterday. Our friends Stan, Colleen, John, and Janice in one car, and me, Ruth, Tony, and Helen in the other and we took off to explore San Diego area. Not much California sunshine, but at least we didn't get rained on. Still, the temperature was nice.

First stop was Mission Beach.

Visiting with some of our Mexico RV Caravan group!

Another travel day for us yesterday as we made our way from Borrego Springs to Lakeside, which is a suburb of San Diego.  Only a distance of about 72 miles (115 kms), so we had time for a hike first!

We drove to the trailhead for the Palm Canyon hike and paid the $8 USD ($10.50 CAD) day use fee. A little pricey, but at least there were four of us.

Borrego Springs is kind of an odd place

Odd, but worth a visit. Apparently they say that Borrego Springs was slotted in to become the next Palm Springs, but it's never realy taken off the same way.

We had decided to stay at Peg Leg Smith Monument another night just so that we could explore the town and area.

March Expenses

A bit of an expensive month but nothing that was entirely unexpected, so that was the bright side. A big chunk of it was fuel costs to get from the centre of Mexico up to the U.S. border, but we also had some dental bills.

And, I bought a couple of things on Amazon. Otherwise, it was a pretty standard month. We spent a total of $2,150 CAD ($1,650 USD). The following amounts are in Canadian dollars, so for USD equivalent you can subtract about 25%.

Not according to plan, but still a good day.

Well, yesterday didn't quite go as planned, but it was still a good day. Nice to be able to show Helen and Tony that things don't always go the way you'd like them to with our lifestyle, but you just roll with it and tomorrow is another day.

We decided that we had seen everything we wanted to in the general area near Jumbo Rocks Campground in Joshua Tree National Park and that we would head for the southern campground called Cottonwood.

Another great day in Joshua Tree National Park

Written Wednesday morning, April 6th.

Around 8:30am yesterday morning, I saw a park ranger walk by with some paperwork in his hand. I went out and flagged him down to ask about their "campground full" signs.

He says "I've only found three vacant this morning."

And I replied "Yeah, but yesterday when we arrived just before noon the sign said campground full, yet we found  at least a dozen empty sites".

Campground full? Not really...

Written Tuesday morning, April 5th.

We were headed up to Joshua Tree National Park yesterday morning, and we wanted to get a fairly early start to be able to snag one of the first come, first serve camping sites at Jumbo Rocks Campground. So at 8:00am, Ruth took Helen and Tony back to Walmart for a few last minute items in case we ended up staying up there for three nights.

Meanwhile, I got Sherman all packed up and ready to go.

Overlooking Palm Springs

We set off at 9:00am yesterday morning to do part of the hike up the mountain in behind the RV park. Almost too late, because things warm up quite quickly here in the desert and they were calling for a high of 92F (33C).

But, we had our Tilley hats with us, and lots of water.

Surprise visitors!

We didn't have much planned for yesterday, but we needed to stock up on a few things. So we hopped in the Beetle and drove 4 miles (6.5 kms) to the nearest Walmart. It's always interesting to check out prices and produce in a different country, so Helen and Tony (visiting us from England) enjoyed that part of the outing.

Nice to see my favorite Mexican beer at a great price in Walmart. 24 bottles of Pacifico for $21.97 USD ($28.60 CAD). Might have to go pick up another box before we leave here since Tony likes it as well.