canada | Temporary Sanity ...

We vacated Quartzsite early this morning and headed west to California. Our next stop was the Marine Corp Air Station at Twenty-nine Palms. When we pulled out of our RV park, a left turn would take us to Parker on Highway 95 and a right turn would take us to I-10. Diane’s GPS had her turn left, and mine had me turn right so we got separated in the first 2 minutes of today’s trip. Diane thought I was going to follow her, but the RV GPS is a trucker’s Garmin that computes routes based on the size of our RV. That’s why I turned right. It was a risky move on my part and caused considerable anguish for a while.

We both stopped within a few minutes and started calling each other to find out what to do. We eventually reconnected before getting free of Quartzsite and got headed the same direction.

The road was long and mostly straight all the way to Highway 177 where we turned right and headed north to Highway 62. Had we both turned left from the Quartzsite RV Park, and driven to Parker, we would have turned left on Highway 62 and arrived at the corner of Highway 177 and Highway 62 fifteen minutes sooner.

Highway 177 was very straight also, and I could see how the road slowly climbed on the other side of the valley. It was about a 20-mile stretch, straight as an arrow. If the wind hadn’t been blowing so hard, I probably could have taken a short nap or two.

Once on Highway 62 Diane took the lead and got us to Twenty-nine Palms at 1311 (1:11 pm) and drove on base about 1331. The park is adjacent to some of the base housing and is pretty nice. We’re in space 72 next to the only dog area which is handy. Max was more than ecstatic to have grass to run on for the first time since September. His little toes have got calluses from walking on rocks and asphalt all that time. Poor little guy probably couldn’t tell how soft the grass really is because of his crusty feet.

Each parking space has a small Tuff Shed and a carport. So, we have a place to park the car our of the sun and we can empty the car and all the basement cubbies into the shed just for fun. I could also install a rack to hang clothes and use the shed as a closet.

Our supper was from Wendy’s which is on the base. Back in the Bone Yard they had Burger King. After the Wendy’s meal we learned that it has BK beaten for flavor.

I don’t know if I mentioned that Diane lost one of her favorite earrings on Luke AFB. We searched everywhere for it but it just wasn’t there. So, guess what! She found it here in California. Isn’t that amazing? She was pretty happy, as was I.

Getting the bus into its assigned parking space involved a lot of bouncing around because of the curbs we had to cross. This caused a great deal of commotion with everything that wasn’t tied down inside the coach. It was just nature’s way of shaking things up to get everything on the same level, and filling spaces that needed filling. It was very annoying but nothing broke, which is amazing. It was a very noisy process. Amongst the tosseled items were many containers of various spices that escaped from one of the overhead cupboards. Two of the small ones saved themselves from the terrifying fall by hanging on to the shelf and allowing the cupboard door to hold them in place until they could be rescued. Boy, were they lucky.

I took a few photos of the trip but none of them were interesting. Just a bunch of cars, trucks, and lots of desert. So, I looked back a couple of days and found this one of Diane sewing up Max’s favorite toy, a long green worm. She’s done this a few times. He finally wound up destroying the first one and I was happy to find an exact replacement which he adopted right away. It’s his favorite, as you can tell as he waits patiently for Diane to finish so he can commence destruction once again.

This day is done.

This Cabrillo National Monument is located on Point Loma, one of the most iconic pieces of real estate for anyone who served in the Navy and sailed in or out of San Diego. Point Loma is the last land we saw when leaving port, and the first we saw when returning home. It’s an emotional thing. Some cruises when we returned, we’d get here too soon and would have to stand off Point Loma until daylight. Coming home had to be in the light of day. Sitting a mile offshore all night, sometimes, was tough knowing liberty was right there in front of us.

That’s the monument and behind it, in the distance, is Coronado which is located at the north end of the Silver Strand that begins at Imperial Beach.

This shows a little more of the Silver Strand. That spear sticking up is, I think, a yucca plant. I lined it up as best I could to point at the location of the RV park where we are currently living. If you can blow up the photo a little, you’ll actually see some multi-storied buildings.

Just north of the city of Coronado is, oddly enough, North Island Naval Air Station. It’s a large base and pretty handy for keeping track of aircraft for the aircraft carriers that tie up there on the bay side of the island. We’ve seen as many as 4 carriers tied up there. Today there are only 2 of them. I don’t know if they have changed home ports, or if they are working somewhere in the mid-east. While we were at the monument, 4 or 6 fighter jets took off from the airfield giving us a little more taste of the sound of freedom. Diane loves the jets. She swoons sometimes.

Max liked them, too …

A more somber aspect of Point Loma is the National Cemetery. It covers many, many acres of this prime real estate and the residents are heroes.

After leaving Point Loma Diane drove us to the Ocean Beach Dog Park where we spent a shaky few minutes watching Max run free amidst many strange dogs, totally ignoring us, wondering if he’s decided to just take off and not return. He wouldn’t come to me because I had the leash, but he finally found Diane and went to her. Good for him. Because of his good choice to stick with us I took him on an extra-long walk once we returned ‘home’.

Now, going back to Max’s dog fight, one of my injuries turned into an interesting profile of a swan. Or a long-necked duck. Either way, it’s an interesting shape for a scab, don’t you think.

For supper today we had pot roast that has been stewing in the crock pot pretty much all day. Diane assembled it before we left on our rare trip into the more populated areas of the San Diego area, and it kept cooking until 5 pm when she deemed it was done. Since I didn’t cook it, I thought it was way better than what I could have turned out. Delicious.

Diane has been waiting patiently for some of the ships across the harbor to be pulled away from their piers so they could hurry out to sea and today her vigilance paid off. Though watching them depart from Point Loma is better, it wasn’t until we were crossing the Bay Bridge that I spied the first ship out beyond the jetties. Better than nothing. Then, when we got ‘home’ she watch a couple of orange tugs launch 3 more ships and send then on their way, one every hour. Made her day.

Now I will quit. “Dancing With The Stars” is on. See you tomorrow.