We had a very uneventful trip up to Mexicali but unlike our previous
border crossing, this one was just a bit more involved. At one point
the customs person asked me why I was looking at her weird through her
questions and I said we’d never been questioned like this before; that
the last time through we were basically waved through. She was very
unhappy with that information and told me we should be getting thorough
examinations. Oh well. We had the most thorough revision at the
military checkpoint where MX5 and MX3 meet, so I should have been
expecting it. I don’t think we’ll go through Mexicali again; the
traffic is quite bad and again, it took us about an hour to cross. We
spent the night across the street from our usual spot at Lowe’s because I
thought the kids would enjoy playing on the grass; we spent the evening
at Target, however. I got all the kids nighttime clothes as a Solstice
present; they all could use some (I just hope I got the right size)
badly, except for Ellen, who is drowning in hand-me-downs. They all
have blown knees as the kids frequently use the nighttime clothes as
daytime clothes. Anyway, Target had a pretty good deal; 2 pairs of all
cotton clothes for $12.50. I’ve never had good luck with thriftstore
nighttime clothes so I hope they fit. I’ve decided not to wrap stuff
and make Solstice low-key this year; they just don’t seem to get into it
like I would. I’m greeting the sun this morning; not with 108 sun
salutations, but by updating the blog. So, welcome sun, it seems like
it has been a long time of darkness leading to the solstice; so much
more than past years. I’m looking forward to longer days of light.
We thought we got up early yesterday morning but we didn’t leave the
parking lot until 10am. It was to be a day of many delays. Ellen had
an especially hard morning and between the many stops to either get her
stuff or get out of the car to avoid her kicking feet, we were making 30
miles/hour. We had surprised the kids with a trip to “Golden Corral”
(a buffet style restaurant) the night before, and between the variety
and quantity of food, I think everyone was suffering from a food
hangover. My metabolism being much slower, I started getting hit
yesterday afternoon. We got really used to the simple food we ate in
Baja and I think we blew our collective digestive system’s minds. So it
was a long trip yesterday, even though we only did 150 miles.
At one point we saw some gigantic (but accurate) dinosaurs from the
freeway and to the kids amazement, I pulled off and we stopped for quite
a while for the kids to play, Jamie to rest and me to figure out where
we’d head. I’ve found that it is not working well to simply drive until
the adults want to stop. We need to have a place that the kids will
enjoy playing in and have room to roam. We were really low on water, so
I picked a county park and when the kids were ready, we headed out.
This county park is 4.5 miles north of I10 before the first turn so I
thought it would be nice and quiet. On the way to finding the park we
passed a long series of playing fields topped by a playground. I
remarked to Jamie that it looked like a good place to boondock; the kids
would have ample play area, there were restrooms (and water) and being
this far from the freeway it would probably be quiet. As smoke and
steam errupted from his ears (he really is against boondocking) I
dropped the subject.
We got lost, of course, with no signs to guide us, we should have
realized that was an omen. I drove down a street and found a vacant lot
to turn around in and remarked that the vacant lot looked like a good
place to boondock (I really should keep such thoughts to myself) and
with the directions of “well, the road dead-ends, but if you just drive
around, you should be able to find it” we found the park. It is closed
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. BUT, two streets before the park we
did find a sign.
The sun is rising under a cloud cover. Grey and blue and purple are
the clouds overhead; as the reach towards the horizon they turn maroon
then red-orange and then orange.
So, I backed up the street, found a place to make a three-point
backwards turn and headed to the aforementioned sports field. Jamie
gave his ok to stop there and contemplate boondocking. The kids LOVED
the green grass, though, Ellen, waking, cried and moaned until her tummy
was full of good chicken soup. Now the purple clouds are getting
maroon highlights. I drove off to the fire station (as it turned out)
to find water and someone has a wireless router allowing us Internet
access without setting up the tripod. The morning joggers and walkers
started Very Early This Morning and traffic is now dying DOWN at 6:38am.
This must be an LA bedroom community. We’re just north of Beaumont.
The road we’re camped beside is a State Route (I’m thinking a “country
road” in Texas) and while we found those to be very quiet and (orange is
turning to yellow and the deep colors of the sunrise are mellowing),
this road has been full of traffic since before the sun even thought of
rising. It looks like it should be such a quiet and peaceful area…
Today we head for Boron and once the family wakes, I’ll get the camera and post the dinosaur pictures from yesterday.
As we approached the beginning of the Grapevine, the haze disappeared
and the mountains rose above us; the only split in the mountain range
holding the road crossing to the LA basin. It was an easy drive
although I did 35-40mph on the ascent and 40-45 on the descent (speed
limit on the descent was 40 or 45 depending). Only saw 3 cars pulled
off the road being attended to. Unfortunately, I had completely
forgotten about an incredibly dangerous roadside area as we approached
Castaic. The kids saw Magic Mountain and much ado ensued. The boys
then remembered a visit we’d made to Disneyland when I was pregnant with
Sissy and the end of the story was pretty much written by then. I had
planned on spending the afternoon at a park in Irvine and then boon-docking at the park or at a Walmart, but changed in midstream to
find an RV park. We’re in the Silverado Canyon (or some other canyon
east of Irvine and Tustin) WAY into the canyon. I spent about 2 hours
trying to find the bird (satellite for internet) but too many trees and
steep canyon walls nixed that idea. After spending all that time and
energy Jamie found free wireless from someone here in the park. You’d
think I’d learn; this is not the first, not the second and probably not
the third time this has happened.
So tomorrow we try for Disney; I’m looking all over for discount
tickets or some way to get cheaper tickets, but it just doesn’t look
possible. The wind is simply amazing and I hope we stay at the top of
this ridge tonight and don’t end up at the bottom of this canyon; it
feels strong enough to push the trailer right off the edge. It sure
didn’t look like smog remained in the basin today; could be recent rain
or this incredible wind.
