Notches in your belt

Tuesday, December 31
At this time of year folks tend to sit back and reflect on the year past and look ahead to the next. As 2019 draws to a close we may also be thinking back on the previous decade. As I sat this morning enjoying the sunshine and doing a bit of 'navel gazing' I realized the belt I was wearing has seen a lot of personal history. (sorry for the belly shot!!)

The belt I'm wearing is 30 years old. I bought it on vacation in Missoula, Montana. Yes, it's worn out but like most folks it's hard to part with a comfortable part of your wardrobe, like an old hat, sweater, or shoes. You wear them until they fall off you, and you don't care what other people think!

My belt has lived through a lot with me. You can tell by the wear marks on the belt holes that it has seen variances in my girth over that time. I'm proud to say it is cinched up as tight as it will go so it either stretched or my waist line shrank. Let's go with the latter shall we!

So my belt has lived with me for three decades. A lot has happened over those years. Family gatherings, two kids married, three Grandchildren born, and yes, loved ones lost. We've been together through sad times, bad times, good times and mostly healthy times. I've hung a nail bag on it when I built my garage fifteen or so years ago, and this past summer when I built the deck at the lake. I've hung knives from it when camping and fishing. It has outlived numerous pairs of jeans that it helped hold up.

My belt has traveled with me for a lot of miles and seen a lot of sights. Cheryl and I (and my belt) have traveled a lot in the past two and a half years since I stopped doing the 'work' thing. We've seen the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. We've seen well over half of the US States and nine Canadian provinces. Prior to retirement we've stayed in hotels and motels, tents and various camping rigs. We've hiked and biked and yes, my belt and I even swam together......by accident.

You can tell by the well used notches that we've enjoyed some great meals together and lived through some hungry days as well.

2019 was a very good year, and looking back on the decade I don't think we'd have done anything different. Selling the house, buying the fifth wheel and hitting the road was a life-long dream that came true for us. Cheryl and I have met so many nice folks from all over the continent and from all walks of life. Certainly we know more people now since full time RV'ing than we did in the previous 30 years of living in a city. We hope to keep doing what we're doing for many years to come. Maybe in 2030 I'll do another decade in review from our trailer parked in a nice warm spot. I might even have the same belt!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to ALL!  We wish you health and happiness in 2020.
From Cheryl, Dave....and yes, my belt!

.....and that was Our View From Here!

Ramona and Julian (Not Romeo and Juliette)

Sunday, December 29
Travel day today. We reluctantly packed up and left Pilot Knob RV Park. We certainly enjoyed our two week visit there and we'll certainly be back. Very good staff, well maintained park, decent facilities, friendly people (and of course our wonderful friends were there!!). It checks all the boxes.....except for the Interstate and train noise, but at least one learned to ignore it. :-)

So with hugs and handshakes we headed down Interstate 8 west deeper into California. Every mile west is new territory for Opti-Creeker. We went on a mini-vacation two years ago when we drove the truck to San Diego from Yuma. This is the furthest west the trailer has been.

Boondockers near Ogilby Road. There were hundreds of rigs out in the desert.

BLM camping at Imperial Sand Dunes.

Huge dunes for the quaders.

Another boondocking area. So many rigs. I hope they weren't dumping their tanks in the desert.

Lots of veggies grown in this area.

I love these decorated overpasses. This on is in El Centro.

Notice the Sea Level sign on the left side of the storage tank? We are below sea level here.....but not for long.

West of El Centro we begin to get into rolling hills. We have to cross those mountains ahead.

Monster generators near the road. A very windy area, but fairly calm today.

The rocks through this area are amazing. None are smaller than a car and most are bigger than buses.

Precariously balanced. 

Top of the hill. We started below sea level in El Centro.

The remnants of the snow storm that closed this section of Interstate on December 26.

The long descent all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Water reservoir just north of I-8. It's pretty low. They could use more rain, just not the deluges they seem to get around here that cause flooding.

Very green around here. You can tell you are getting Pacific Ocean influenced weather here.

The hill across from us at Dos Picos  County Park. You would think there would be good TV and radio reception. Nope!

When I reserved our site at Dos Picos I hed gone online and checked the pictures of the park. I even phoned and asked if our 37 foot fifth wheel would fit. No problem they said. Obviously someone that had not tried to maneuver a rig this size into one of their spots. The first site was not going to work. No way to back it between the big trees on either side and not get the truck hung up on the ashphalt curbing they have everywhere. So buddy in the office gave me a couple of other suggestions. We managed to squeeze into site 39....barely. (Hint: I would not recommend anything larger than 30 feet long and less than 10 feet high. Nice park if you can fit.)

We are squeezed in here. Not a great park for bigger rigs.

This is one of those times I'm glad we don't have a 40 footer. 37 barely fits.

That site straight ahead was where we were originally assigned. We would have to back under the tree arches. Out of the picture is the asphalt curb that ran along the edge of the road.

Those branches are well under 13 feet. 

Those asphalt  curbs are everywhere. Sure narrows up an already narrow road.

Nice views from the upper campground.

Monday, December 30
We drove into the town of Ramona just before lunch and then kept on going down (or was it up) Hwy 67 toward the tourist town of Julian about 22 miles up the road. We thought we would have lunch there....until we saw the crowds! It was only a dozen degrees above freezing, snow on the ground, and people lined up half a block just to get into a restaurant. On a Monday! Are these people crazy? I can't imagine what it must be like on a beautiful summer weekend. Nope! Not for us. So we drove back down about seven miles to Santa Ysabel. We had to stop at the Julian Pie Company (located in Santa Ysabel not Julian.....just to confuse you), then popped over to Delaney's Bakery for a sandwich.

Tree lined Main street

Nice downtown area. A busy little town. About 22,000 people live in the city limits.

Lots of wineries along the road (tasting on Friday, Saturday and Sunday only. Sorry Cheryl.)
This winery had some nice metal horse sculptures.

Lots of traffic on a winding road.

Very twisty. Fun to drive.

Crazy busy in Julian

Nowhere to park. Windy and cold. See the snow on the roofs?

Hard to see with the parked cars but there is a half block lineup just to get into Mom's Restaurant.

I guess this guy was ready for anything. He had chains on the rear wheels of  his all wheel drive Equinox.

The snow line was about 4000 feet.

Julian Pie Company in Santa Ysabel

Pie baking equipment. Keeping it clean.

Done baking for the day.

Lots of pie for sale. 

More pie awaiting packaging

A bit pricey. We didn't buy a pie but we did buy a small apple loaf.

Good spot for lunch.

Part bakery, part deli and part gift shop.

My TBA (tomato, bacon and avocado) Mmmm.

Cheryl's Baja sandwich (turkey, onion, jalapeno's, tomato, etc.)

We drove back into Ramona. The roads are in excellent shape and so fun to drive. Even in a one ton diesel. Folks are sure in a hurry here in California. I wanted to drive slower but the long line of cars behind us told us to speed up or get the hell out of the way. We did both.

We stopped at Albertson's for a few groceries (welcome to California prices!), and stopped for fuel. Actually I was surprised at the pricing. $3.89/gallon for diesel. About a buck more than Yuma.


.....and that was Our View From Here!