Travel Recap #13: California Dreamin’ - Part 1

 

"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind." 

~ C.S. Lewis ~

After boondocking in the Sawtooth Campground for several days, we splurged a bit and chose Launch Pointe RV Resort in Lake Elsinore as our base for the next few days to explore more of what LA and the surrounding areas have to offer. The resort was amazing, with amenities like a splash pad and playground for the kids, a boat ramp on the lake, a pool (and hot tub, which we got to utilize!), and a neat area with vintage airstreams to camp in. We were shocked that it was only $50/night and mostly empty.. I guess it was the off-season? I didn’t think SoCal had an off season, but we were happy to be some of the only campers there! The kids did make friends with a young girl Freya (whom Justin taught to ride her bike without training wheels!) and her brother Xander, although we didn’t stick around the campground much with so much else to see and so little time! 

Our first full day there, we drove up over the hills and down to the Pacific Coast Highway, starting around Laguna Beach and heading up the coast through Newport Beach, stopping at Huntington Beach for some sand play and to enjoy the ocean breeze! Although we thought we would conquer the entire LA coastline that day, there was just no way. So, we soaked up the beach for a longer time before taking the long drive back to Lake Elsinore. 

We let the kids play with their new friends the next day, then got up early for another excursion into La-La-Land. This time, we took the route up through Corona and Chino Hills to Pasadena, by Universal Studios and down into Hollywood. We of course took pics of the Hollywood sign and walked a bit of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is along a rather unremarkable street in kind of a dank area, but, city life! We passed through well-kept Beverly Hills on our way to Santa Monica, then finally let the kids out and spent some more time splashing in the surf and viewing the famous Pier. Unfortunately, we didn’t heed the warning about LA traffic, and spent the next 4 hours wasting life at a crawl back to the RV. It was pure torture. 

In an effort to redeem ourselves and escape the crazy buzz of an overpopulated city, we drove north into the the desert and camped out in a wide open dirt area off of a long dusty road in the middle of pretty much nowhere north of Boron. There were a few other campers with ORV’s clear at the other end of the area when we arrived, but most left the next day and it was a quiet Saturday evening. 

We woke up Sunday morning to the kids shouting “we’re surrounded!!” Sure enough, we peeked out the windows to find that cars, vans, and trucks of all sizes had moved in early and quickly filled the entire area. Hollywood had followed us to the desert!! 

After a few conversations with security, seeing a large camera attached to an extended mechanical arm on the top of a pickup truck, and noting several colors and versions of the new Toyota Tacoma trucks heading to and from the dirt road further into the desert to a dry lake bed 30 or so minutes away, we figured out that we were parked in the staging area of the filming of the Toyota truck commercial that was later to appear during the Super Bowl lineup!! We can’t make this stuff up, people. This life is SO FULL of neat surprises!!

Our original plan had been to continue north into Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, but alas, freezing temperatures and snow had already blown in by mid-November, so we were forced to raincheck it and turn back from whence we came. 

Stick around to see where we went next on our adventures through Cali...