Oceanside, CA July 1, 2012

July 1, 2012

Oceanside, CA.

I brought home the coach on Thursday after getting it washed at the Bus Depot. A bus pulled in ahead of me so it took several hours to get the job done. Now the coach looks great and they didn’t charge me $70 like last time. I tipped the washer $35, obviously cheap at twice the price, and the temp outside was was over 100°.

Since Gerri is still in a wheelchair and can’t put weight on either foot, I had to do all the loading myself. It took all day Friday and Saturday. I don’t move very fast and rest a lot.

One of the last things I did was to check the tire inflation, fortunately only a couple of tires needed air and I got it done before my tank went empty. I can’t believe the 10 lb. bottle of CO2 was empty. I just filled it in July when we were in West Virginia and hadn’t used it very much.

After putting in a few more items we left the house at about 10:50 AM. There was a pretty stiff wind quartering from the right front or front until we went down off the high desert from Cajon Pass. After that it was more relaxing to drive and a lot quieter. With the wind and traffic I got boxed in on the grade from Primm to Mt. Pass and only got my speed back up to 35 mph headed for the pass.

Traffic was intermittently heavy and a lot of time I wasn’t able to maintain the 55 mph speed limit.

Our route was I-15 to CA-241 in the Riverside area, then to CA-133 over to I-5 south. Then on to Oceanside. Ca-241 and 133 are toll roads which we have used to make the drive a little shorter and a whole lot less congested. It had been several years since we came this way and we were shocked at the price increase. $23 buys more than enough diesel, even in California, to make the slightly longer route more attractive in the future.

We got to the Paradise By The Sea Resort at about 5:30 and got set up. We drove about 310 miles.

At about 7 we met Todd and Curtis and their families at Norte’s in Carlsbad. They are both staying at the Carlsbad Inn.

After a great meal we lounged around the green at the Carlsbad Inn for awhile before heading back to the RV Park.

Gerri did very well getting into the coach and getting around inside after we were parked. There is very little room for her wheelchair, but is using her knee walker by sitting on it and riding around in the m/h. We also found that the chair barely fits into the Jeep. The slide on the transfer board is much steeper into the Jeep than in the Lincoln. A hard pull up to get in and a quick thrill ride back down into the wheelchair.