Travel Recap #14: California Dreamin' - Part 2

 

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

~ St. Augustine ~

Our route southward from the desert took us back down through San Bernardino toward Palm Springs. We overnighted at a Casino in Indio, witnessed an incredible sunset over the mountains with palm trees in the foreground, finished up our customary in-town chores, then continued the next day to the dispersed camping area south of Joshua Tree National Park. What a cool place to hang out for awhile!! 

We found a spot with plenty of space and enjoyed several days of bike-riding and low-key homeschooling. The kids had fun collecting whole dead bushes for campfire fodder, and Taren went to work hand-carving a long and elaborate track for everyone to ride on throughout the wide campsite. It turned out great!!

The day we ventured in to Joshua Tree, we drove up through the South Entrance past a bunch of Ocotillo and to our first quick hike around the Cholla Cactus Garden. It was crazy to see thousands of teddy bear cholla cactus plants so close together; funny little yellowish and brown spiky plants that the kids were all-too tempted to poke at. We then ventured up past Arch Rock and over to walk around Skull Rock, which did eerily resemble a large face at the side of the road. A little further down was the start of the Discovery Trail (or Skull Rock Nature Trail) that was really really fun. It had varied terrain, sandy paths and massive rocks to climb on, different kinds of cactus and other desert plants to find, neat twists and turns and not many other people around. Although we didn’t make it up to the Oasis of Mara in Twentynine Palms, we really enjoyed ourselves - especially since we also spotted a tarantula crossing the road on the drive back to the RV!

I think it was the next day that Ellia also hilariously spotted another tarantula walking through our campsite. She was trotting happily along with her bucket and shovel when she stopped dead in her tracks, did a double-take at the ground in front of her, and pivoted and ran wildly back toward the RV. I was surprised at how close the kids got to it as they watched the little guy scamper onward into the bushes. It’s also surprising how not creeped out we were - there’s just something different about encountering an animal or critter in his own element that seems too natural to be freaked out. If I found him inside the RV, then yes, it would be a different story entirely. But encountering a large, hairy, wandering arachnid just doesn’t give me the willies like I expected it to. Weird!

We loved riding our bikes up and down the rocky and sandy trails surrounding our campsite, and even brought the kite out for some enjoyment. But a few days in, we experienced a sudden and dramatic change in the weather when a fierce windstorm blew over the mountains and absolutely pummeled us for two days straight. It was frightening to have 50-60mph gusty winds, sounding light a freight train, rocking our camper night and day. We at first were faced totally perpendicular to it, so we were getting slammed broad-side and it really did seem like we would topple over. We re-connected the truck and closed some slides for more stability, but ended up turning the whole thing so at least we’d decrease the surface area that was getting blasted. We made it through unscathed, but I don’t wish to relive that one!!

We returned to the LA suburbs after that to have some more time to visit with friends, and ended up making a whole new family of friends at the park campground we over-nighted at. We played at the multiple playgrounds, watched them catch a couple catfish in the lake, made s’mores by the campfire and played games late into the night. The next day was Thanksgiving, and since plans didn’t work out to spend it with our friends, we parked the rig at a Walmart and dined at a sports bar restaurant. It was so abnormal and kind of sad to miss out on the traditional big meal with extended family, but we were thankful to at least be together. We’ll have to plan out our next holiday season travel a little better, since this year was kind of a letdown (until Christmas, that is!)

San Diego was next in our sights and a great first place to spend the day was on Fiesta Island. We parked the rig right on the beach and took a long family bike ride around to a large playground near Mission Bay Resort. We then drove down nearly to the border to a neat little primitive campground at Tijuana River Valley. It had a cool, natural-style play area for the kids to play on with a climbing wall, see-saw, and stacks of wood forming different walkways and bridges throughout. We loved it! The next day we spent time on the shore at Imperial Beach and walked out onto the long pier, then took a sunset drive out to Coronado Island to watch the sun set over the ocean before taking the Coronado Bridge with a fantastic view of the city on our way back to the campground. It was dark when we got back and we noticed a few ants here and there in the RV, and once the lights came on we found that our floor and lower walls were totally crawling with ants!! YIKES!! Needless to say, I made a mad dash to town for extermination supplies while Justin did his best to clear the place out and go through our pantry. Not the best welcome home we’ve ever received, but nothing devastating either, thankfully!

We of course paid a visit to the border wall with Tijuana before leaving the area (it was pretty weird to see how clustered and dirty-looking the buildings on the other side were compared to the U.S. side… I’ve been to Mexico a number of times, but the difference was quite stark with it being so close like that), then we spent another day back at Fiesta for yet another long family bike ride, this time past Sea World out to Mission Beach. We played at another big playground and traveled along the pretty beachfront boardwalk, making a big loop back around to where we started. We never once had to pay for parking and didn’t feel crowded out at any of the beaches we visited there. San Diego for the win!! 

Our last night in California was spent in a Casino parking lot in Campo. The next day we would cross over into Arizona for yet another new adventure!!