by Phyllis McCrossin
I trust everyone had a safe and socially distanced Thanksgiving. Ours was a very quiet and small affair.
It’s been a busy five days, starting on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
The campground where we were staying, Sweetwater Summit County Park, had a 14-day limit. We had reached our 14 days and it was time to move on. Problem was, many, many, (many) people camp over the holiday weekends in California. It’s something one does not think about when coming from Michigan.
Most people back home have winterized their RVs, tried their best to rodent-proof them, and tucked them away for the winter. Not so much the case here. People like to spend the long holiday weekend camping. Finding a campground with openings in close proximity (and close is a relative term) to our daughter proved to be quite the task.
We were also looking for a campground that would take us long-term. The age of our trailer has kept us out of many campgrounds. It’s something to consider when looking for an RV, but I like the price tag and financing that came with ours (i.e., cash, no payments).
We eventually found a campground that 1) had a vacancy and, 2) did not seem concerned with the age of our trailer. It’s not that close to our daughter, but it’s doable. There was one hitch. A long-term opening was not available until Sunday and in order to camp for the four days prior to the site becoming available we had to move the trailer twice.
The new campground, Jake Jennings Campground, is part of the Helix Water District. The lake is a reservoir that was created in 1964 to provide water for the local residents of Lakeside. The campground has 97 sites (some of which are precariously perched on a bluff overlooking the lake – tent sites they say, but I’ve seen some intrepid RVers parked in them. I swear they have to place them with a crane). Anyway, King, who can be very gregarious and friendly when it suits him, talked the long-term camp site maven into getting us into two pull-though sites.
The first site was more or less vertical. I could sit in my reading nook by bracing my feet against the wall. We had that site from Wednesday through Friday and parked the truck vertically behind the trailer – just in case. The second site was fairly normal (we stayed there Friday and Saturday), and our third and final site, (until the end of February) is just across the “street” from the second site. It’s fairly spacious and Cindy has some low bushes she likes to lie underneath and sleep. She is aging and tends to sleep – a lot.
We have stayed at Lake Jennings Campground a couple of times in previous years, never for a long-term stay though. This time around I will be following the example set by other campers and decorating the outside of the trailer for Christmas. I’ve never done that before. Inside I have two strings of garland, a few battery-operated poinsettia-shaped tea lights, a battery operated ceramic tree – and we will call it good. One obviously can over do decorating 184 square feet.
So it appears we are settling in. On Friday, following our first move, we enjoyed a family tradition of getting our daughter’s Christmas tree. This is our third year of joining in on her tradition. The boys had seen some spray-painted trees from the road and although they did not seem too keen on getting one, they did want to check them out. Grandma made the appropriate “ohhh” and “How pretty” noises.
There also was a small petting zoo (farm animals) at the tree farm. We checked out the ducks, geese, pot bellied pigs, sheep, rabbits and chickens. I listened in as a mother explained to her toddler how eggs came from chickens. I also noted there were not that many hens in the flock but I kept that info to myself.
On Saturday we drove to San Diego and took a catamaran tour of the San Diego Bay. The boys have been asking to go whale watching. Our daughter figured in they could handle the bay tour they could probably handle the Whale Watching tour.
Three years ago she and I took a whale watching tour late in the season. Although we never saw any whales (it was the first time all season the charter had not spotted any whales) there were a lot of dolphins that followed the boat. We assume, on the off chance of the same thing happening again, the boys will be just as happy seeing the dolphins – so at some point this winter/spring we will do some whale watching.
Things are starting to fall into place and we are getting into a routine. We are slowly making repairs on the trailer brakes and working on figuring out what is going on with the truck. Lights are still blinking and bells are still ringing but we will get there. In the meantime I’ll turn down my hearing aids and look the other way.
