Richard's Travels: San Diego Area

12-2-13

I left Peg Leg Smith with motorhome and car at 6:00 AM and went to the library and Kendall’s Café. There I did some computer work and at 7:30 AM Ron arrived and we had breakfast at Kendall’s.

With him having some of his children and grandchildren here for Thanksgiving we did have no time for getting together. This was our time to catch up with what happened the last six months.

My next stop was Dudley’s bakery in Santa Ysabel. They are closed Monday to Wednesday, but open Monday morning for a few hours to sell Sunday’s items for half price. I was lucky and was able to buy six bear claws. Normally they sell out on Sunday. I also bought a Date, Nut, Raisin Bread. I ate one bear claw and put the rest in the freezer. Last time I ate them all in two days.

When I arrived in Poway I had a difficult time finding the Elks Lodge. The lodge is located on the main street and I drove by and did not see it. I had to ask people. There is a small building in front of the lodge and it is misleading.

After setting up the motorhome, paying the donation and taking a nap I went to Walmart. This was not a good idea. The Poway Walmart is a regular one, but soon it will be a Super Walmart. The construction site takes away a lot of parking spaces and the traffic in the parking lot was really bad. With the after Thanksgiving sale going on a lot of people were hunting for bargains. Inside the store it was as bad as outside.

After I stored the items I bought I walked over to the Grocery Discount Store and bought more stuff.

I get only two music stations on the antenna television. The beautiful music is accompanied by magnificent pictures of the San Diego area and the other station has pictures of flowers. Since this does not distract me from reading, I read all my travel reports from the last six months and found some spelling mistakes. As soon as I get on the Internet I will correct them on my blog. I hate it when I get the books made and find mistakes.

12-3-13

In the morning I made a large bowl of broccoli salad for the potluck Shanty Shaker Camping Club Christmas Party. The Shanty Shakers are the Southern California chapter of the Escapees. The party was at a private home of one member family. Happy Hour started at 12:00 Noon. When I came to the house I knew that this was no ordinary Poway property. The front driveway was bigger than the lot of most homes and gardens.

I gave my dish to the lady of the house and continued to the back patio. There was a giant backyard with a big swimming pool. Out of view, on the side is another fenced off lot where the roofed parking space is for two motorhomes. There is also a large shed for mowers and tools.

In the garden are all kind of palm trees, giant bird of paradise, and an assortment of tropical plants.

Near the swimming pool is a BBQ kitchen with refrigerator.

It looked like it would rain any minute but we did not have to worry. There were many patio covers which would have kept us dry.

Happy hour lasted until 2:00 PM. People were hanging around and eating snacks and drinking beer or wine.

At 2:00 PM we lined up for food. There was turkey, ham, sausages, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, all kind of vegetables, and many desserts.

Doug had a difficult time to choose a dessert.

While we ate the sky was dark but it did not rain.

There was plenty of food left over.

John and Jeanne, the hosts, did a fantastic job. About sixty people had showed up. When the group started singing carols I snuck out. When I arrived at the next intersection I remembered that I had brought a bowl with broccoli salad. I turned around and went back to the party. After some more carols I disappeared again, this time with all my belongings.

A widow and I were the only single people at the party and I had to answer questions about where my better half was. I had not seen the group for over a year.

12-4-13

I left the Elks Lodge at 7:00 AM. Since there was no traffic light near the lodge I had to turn east on Poway Road and at Community I turned North. At the next intersection I turned west, and at the next intersection south. I thought I would get back on Poway Road and then head west. Instead I came to a cul- de- sac. I could not turn around and had to unhook the car and move it to the side and turn the motorhome around. After I attached the car again I was able to get out of the neighborhood.

I arrived early at my dentist’s office and took my computer out and did some writing. The office is located at The Island at Carlsbad, a small shopping center. There is plenty of room to park the motorhome. The shopping center has WIFI and I was able to go on the Internet.

I had my teeth cleaned and some bonding done to cover the exposed root of a tooth. Tomorrow I have to see a specialist to check on the tooth which gave me a problem while I was at Yellowstone National Park.

I arrived at the Oceanside Elks Lodge at 1:30 PM. After a nap I did two loads of laundry. They charge only one dollar per washer and one dollar for drying. The lodge also has big shower stalls, which means I do not have to take a one gallon shower in the motorhome while I am here.

12-5-13

I saw the tooth specialist and she poked around the teeth in the area I had a problem. She was able to give me pain on one tooth, but not the tooth I had a problem with. The X rays show nothing. I have to wait until the tooth ache appears again.

In the evening I went to the Encinitas Elks Lodge for Dinner. There was only Hans and Pam from the group I used to sit with in the past. The rest of the people are on a cruise.

12-8-13

I picked up three boxes from Doreen’s house. I went through them and was able to eliminate some of the items in the boxes and have only two now. Saturday I had breakfast with Jim Mousel and lunch with Chappy. On the way home I stopped at the Bowers house and visited with them for a while. In the evening I went through the instruction manuals for the motorhome. The giant folder had manuals for all the appliances Coachmen uses in their motorhomes. I took out the manuals pertaining to my motorhome and the rest went into the round file.

Sunday I did some shopping and went to the Oceanside Pier. A choir was singing Christmas carols on the pier. It was rather cool and there were not many surfers in the water.