Happy New Year! January 2nd finds us again on Mission Bay, near San Diego. It was an interesting journey, getting here.
We bade our farewells in Menlo Park December 29th, and headed south on US 101, hoping to swing over to California 1, the coastal route, and to enjoy the scenery (also the sprawl) all the way to San Diego. Just past Gilroy, however, we learned that route 1 was closed indefinitely...slips and slides...so we backtracked a bit, crossed Pacheco Pass and then drove down I-5, through the Valley of Fruits and Nuts, to the intersection with route #58 and a night at a large truck stop there. All was well, if cold and rainy, and we were happy to be on the road again. The next day, heading south with only 100 miles' travel before us, things went very south: I-5 was "closed indefinitely" due to snow and ice on Caradhras, I mean Tejon Pass. "So, if the mountain defeats you, Gandalf, where then will you go?" we asked ourselves. The nice highway patrol person suggested we detour on route #58, east of Bakersfield. Apparently he told some other people to do this too, since there was much traffic, grid-lock, and red zone on Google Maps the next six hours it took us to get to our motel in Van Nuys. Fortunately, there was no Balrog of Morgoth along the way.
"Motel in Van Nuys?" you ask. Yes. The rain and snow and ice and traffic were only the beginning of a long, not very good day. Although I had had some significant professional interaction with the Getty way back in 1992, we'd never been to the museum, and thought this trip might be the right opportunity. We'd reserved two nights at a motel in Van Nuys, planning to Uber over to the museum on December 31st, to see it on what was presumably one of its least busy days, and then carry on southward. Despite years of museum experience worldwide and two years' experience in dealing with COVID and its implications, we had failed to do a late check on whether the Getty's admission policies had changed in view of Omicron. Apparently they had, and they were sold out for the day in question as well as the next week. A disappointment, but very likely we'll be back through, sometime. Anyhow, Vicki was able to cancel the second night at the motel, and the next morning our trip south continued.
Our first priority on leaving Van Nuys was to get some diesel for the camper. We'd arrived in a rainstorm with the fuel gauge already showing "reserve." Our first several tries suggested only bio-diesel was available. According to Mercedes-Benz, more than 5% bio-diesel is verboten for Sprinters. So we resolved to drive across Los Angeles County on reserve, hoping it would carry us 60 or 75 miles to a truck stop or such where regular old normal diesel #2 might be available. By the time we got into Orange County, my nerves were frazzled, and we stopped and bought four gallons of "renewable diesel." (Movies have been made about people who run out of gas in east LA (Grand Canyon)). Those four gallons smelled like French fry oil but, we have since read, are okay for our rig in an emergency. They got us to our next stop, the Alise Creek rest area, overlooking the Pacific, just north of Oceanside. There we spent a surprisingly quiet New Year's eve, along with a handful of other campers. As students of this blog know, we are not big party types.
Next day, we proceeded on to Oceanside harbor and the large RV parking area there, right on the beach, getting excellent mileage out of the French fry oil. We spent a pleasant day and night there, enjoying the warmer, sunnier, drier weather, looking at all the surfers, the vintage and other cars on parade, and other campers. A very southern California crowd, all the stereotypes and other things in abundance. Today, Sunday, we had a nice outside lunch with Vicki's brother Bob and his wife Beth before heading on the few remaining miles to Mission Bay. Detouring, of course, to fill up with some good old diesel #2.
We plan to lay low at Campland on the Bay, on Mission Bay, where we stayed two months last year, resting for a few weeks, monitoring Omicron and related matters (our Paris boosters are feeling a bit dated), and deciding what to do and where to go next. Stay tuned.
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| Departure, December 29th, 2021 |
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| "And if the mountain defeats you, where then will you go, Gandalf?" |
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| Still whizzing during the winter storm, unlike in Texas |
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| Cactus vs. tree, Van Nuys |
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| Across the channel at Oceanside Harbor, a chorus of harbor seals barked all through the night |
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| New Year's Day sunset |
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| Vicki, Beth, and Bob |
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