OK, so we’re officially on our way to see the kids. The only problem is that from the time we left Indian Hills to the time our plane leaves from LAX we had about a week to kill. A week. We could have stayed at Indian Hills for a couple more days, but we had an early Monday morning appointment to have the alignment checked on the house.
(And just as an aside here, do you know how they check the alignment on a 40 ft. motorhome?
They drive it over a pit, with the front tires on little itty-bity planks. Well, they might not have been quite so itty-bity since they did, after all, support the house, but there wasn’t much wiggle room, believe you me. And they forgot to tell me to get out of the rig before they started driving onto these little half bridges. Good thing the driver couldn’t see me, cause I was quite the nervous Nellie, let me tell you! And then, when I did go to leave, I realized the steps went to – uh, nowhere! I did eventually climb out, and in the end the news was good – there were no big alignment problems. Before we knew it, they had backed Lizzie safely off the little planks, and we were back on the road. However, we still had 6 days to kill before we were to head to our slightly late Christmas with the kids and grandkids.)
Since the wheel alignment was over early in the day, we thought we might take in one last San Diego sight – the Birch Aquarium (part of the University of California, San Diego campus.) It wasn’t anything huge like the Baltimore Aquarium, but it was very interesting and well done. I did have a little bit of trouble with the whole CO2 increase that they were somehow able to chart from 32 million years ago, but all in all it was a good stop. And if you thought my zoo pictures were pitiful – try taking pictures of moving fish through glass.


They did have a great seahorse exhibit which included some of these guys –


How cool are they?
The rest of the day we spent in the local Costco parking lot. For excitement we moved to a Walmart parking lot for the overnight. The rest of the week did not look too promising to me. Ah, but things were about to change!
We set off, driving up The 15 (as they say out here in California) –

We remembered an Escapee’s campground outside of Tamecula that we had visited last year when we were in the area. (Escapees is a national group of RVers – probably the largest in the country – that has many campground/resorts across the country. Most of the spots here are long-term residents who have bought into the resort, but there are usually a couple of spots available for us transient types.) Since we are members of Escapees, the camping charge is quite reasonable and we decided to give it a shot. We got their last available spot – and we LOVE it!
It was a little out of the way –

But look at the view we are blessed with –

We walked around today – it was cool, but bright and sunny, and were very impressed with this resort.

A little chilly for a dip, but the thought of hanging out in those deck chairs certainly was appealing!
Looking up from the clubhouse, here’s a view of just a couple of the almost 300 spots.

And here is our little spot –

Sweet.
Along with the pool there were also tennis courts, shuffleboard courts, pickle ball courts (I’m just reporting here), hot tubs and spas. The clubhouse was a meeting place for all kinds of activities – games every night, ice cream socials a couple times a week, lots of group dinners, a small library, a jigsaw puzzle in progress, and a fresh pot of coffee going all the time. But I confess, that THIS is the room that really caught my eye –

SOoooooo much better than a Walmart parking lot!

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