Stormy Weather

January 22-28, 2013

Tuesday:  Went to town for groceries and internet.  The only noteworthy thing from today happened on our way to town.   We rounded a bend on the curvy hilly road and ahead of us there was a cop car with lights on and the cop standing in his open doorway.   There was another vehicle just beyond him, pulled off into a rare turnout.  That guy was out of his car and talking into a device.   Not sure what was going on, Missy started to drive around.  Then the cop signaled that we needed to stay put.    After waiting for 10 minutes or so, we were pretty confused about what was going on.  There was no urgency.  Was there a crash further along and this was the best spot to stop oncoming cars?   Finally, a car came around the bend…and then turned around right at the cop.   5 seconds later, a camera car followed it!    It was completely rigged up with boom cameras on retractable arms.   Pretty neat!   They got turned around, and headed down out a view.   A minute later and we were cleared to go.    We passed a huge movie set parking area a few miles down the road.    It’s a good choice for filming a driving shot: great scenery and action packed curves.

Wednesday:  Windy and rainy today.   The surf was still too high for kayaking.   Mostly we hunkered indoors.

Thursday: Ditto.  We got to watch some guys unload a jetski using a special beach-wheeled trailer.  It was a mighty struggle for just the 3 guys to get it into the ocean.   Then, to our dismay, they took off down beach and out of sight.   We think they were doing some jetski-in wave surfing.

Friday:  Today we woke up to a lot of mist/fog and minimal visibility.   Smatterings of rain, which seemed to stop around lunch.   We thought the waves seemed smaller, so we geared up for yakking.    Since there was no sun for warming us up, we went with drysuits.  When we got into the ocean, we realized that the water was behaving much differently than we’d seen in the last few weeks.   Whereas before all the waves came in regular straight lines, varying only in size and where they broke (depending on the tide), now the waves were a crazy mishmash, going in all directions and creating chaos.   At first we thought we could stay kind of close to shore and mess around.  But the ocean created what I called piggyback waves.   Where you’d go to catch one wave, and then all of a sudden another stronger wave came up and joined it.   It was intimidating.   So we took a break and decided to wait to see if the surf would gentle in time.

While waiting, we walked into the surf (in our drysuits) and enjoyed the powerful pull of the water as the waves went in and out.   I only went up to waist deep, but my crazy sister went all in.   She loves herself some crazy ocean waves for swimming in.    It was kind of a funny sight, seeing her swimming in her drysuit.   It was cold water, but she didn’t seem to mind.    I probably might have joined her, but my hands were quite painful.  I had forgotten that I’d had the gaskets replaced and didn’t think to stretch them out.   My hands were turning purple.   So I sat out.    The ocean never did settle down, so once again we got kind of skunked.

Saturday:  Holy Moley!    We thought we’d had some wind before.  We were naïve.   Today we learned what real wind is like.   This was the first time we’d had strong, continuous gusts coming from the ocean.    It blew everything away that wasn’t fully tied down.   It gave you windchill burns on your exposed skin, even though the sun was shining and the temps read to be in the 60s.    Neither of us was motivated to try kayaking with that wind.    There were no surfers, which we’ve learned is a sign that the waves aren’t good.   Instead, the activity of the day was kite surfing!    I guess all the kiters saw the wind forecast, and the showed up in droves.   It was really fun to watch them.   Almost all of the kiters were just using there kites to help them surf the waves.   I thought it was kind of odd that they used regular surf boards.    But they were really good, and somehow got the boards to stay on their feet when jumping waves.   And they had no trouble going in any direction they wanted, at top speeds.  After an hour or so, one guy finally went out using a wakeboard-type thing.  It was rectangular, not curved.  But it had boots, so his feet were attached to the board.   This guy was amazing!   He went so fast, and made acrobatic cuts and somersaults and flips.    He was my favorite to watch.    Seeing all the colorful kites on the backdrop of the green/blue water was worth having to bundle up in winter gear.   (Made me think: perhaps some of my friends back home were kiting as well…but on ice?)

Sunday:  Same hurricane force winds today.   But, for fun, the direction changed.  Instead of hitting the rear of our rig, today the winds came from the side.   The rv rocked and bounced all day long.   And since our windows aren’t exactly storm-proof, we suffered annoying whistle sounds all day.    It was brutal.   The kite surfers were back today, but watching them was no longer enough to make enduring the winds worth it.   The only fun thing we did today was conduct an experiment with a seagull.   The question posed was: how would a seagull eat a raw egg?  In one gulp, or would he break it.   Turns out: he breaks it.  Which makes placing the egg on the picnic table a poor choice.  L    And the poor guy had no lips or tongue to eat with.   It was like watching someone try to eat a raw egg with a pair of tweezers.   Our night ended with some excitement.  We were visited by some noisy raccoons.   They were rooting around in the pickup bed, and Cassie was PISSED!   Since the truck is parked right next to the rig, she could see the raccoons and she barked her fool head off.   It was fun to tease her by lowering the blinds forcing her to have to nudge them back up to continue her verbal assault. 

Monday:  Same as Sunday.    We’re not cut out for these winds.   We’re beginning to think it was a Christmas Miracle when we first got here and the temps were high and the winds were low.    We’re looking forward to moving on tomorrow to somewhere quiet and calm.     Today’s seagull experiment involved oranges.    Turns out, seagulls don’t like oranges. 

Pictures from Jalama Beach

Shadow Family.   Guess who's who

Our Home.  Hoo-boy: these sites are close and tight!

The "upper row"

Stunning Sunsets every night

Cassie is the same size as our RV!

It's not easy finding shade at the beach for the fur-wearing members of our family

Missy watching the ocean from her custom built viewing platform

Nervous and excited!  First Ocean Surfing

View of our campsite from the water.   Next time we might snag one of those premium ocean front spots

Curling waves

Jalama Beach Campground

January 15-21, 2013

Tuesday- We cleaned the rig and got packed up and on the road by 11:30.   For the most part it was an easy drive to our new home.   The campground is run by the county, and it’s a 20 minute, 12 mile super windy drive to the coast.    This campground is simply amazing.  It’s the only development on the coast, so the beauty of the bay is unmarred by manmade structures.    This is a first-come, first-served campground, which is surprising because it would be such a long wasted drive to make it out here only to find the campground full.   I wonder why they don’t have this on an online reservation system.  It works out well for us, though.  :-)

So there’re about 115 campsites, 25 or so with 30 amp hookups.   There’re about 10 premium sites right on the ocean.    People can watch the bobbing seals right from their camp.   However, we chose a site on the highest of the 3 levels.   Mostly it was for the hookup, but also, we like being able to see the activity in the whole campground.

Getting here was difficult… there’s a steep section that segues meanly into a sharp turn.    Ugh.    We had to take off the scootie and ramp before we could park, so Missy was behind me on the scooter.   For some reason, she shouted out “stop” just as I was gunning it up the steepest part.   When I braked, the whole rig and truck started skidding downhill.   Scary.   But, I threw it into 4 low and we made it up fine.  Turns out that was the easy part.

Hoo-boy, these sites are narrow and close together.   It’s a dead end, so you don’t have much hope for error.  We never do well parking in spots that call for precision.    We pulled past our first choice and tried to back up into it.  No good.  Poor Missy, I’m just hopeless at being able to help her back up.   Good thing all the sites on either side were empty.   We drove through all of them.    The best we could manage was being 3 feet off the side of the narrow parking pad.  With no room in front to straighten out exactly on the pad…we gave up on that site.   Missy turned the other way, and backed into another spot.   Again….it took a long time.   Blech.   We juuuuuuuuuuuust fit with our slideout.   In fact, someone else had already conveniently slanted the concrete pole (which protects the utility box), and our slide just poked into it.     I’m assuming we’ll get neighbors for the long MLK weekend.   That will make this site uncomfortably crowded.    However…man are the views worth it.   I can’t believe we get an oceanview site!   We can watch the waves, seals, and surfers from our rig.   Totally worth the hassle!

Wednesday- so we were worried about what the weather would be like here.    Overnight there were hurricane strength winds, and they continued into the morning.   We bundled up for a walk on the beach in hats and mittens.    However, the winds died down and the day turned lovely.   It was sunny and 70s.   Hurray!    On our walk, we saw spray puffs in the distance.   We know those are the migrating grey whales.   Too bad you can’t see them.   However, we can see the pods of porpoises that go back and forth in the bay!   You can just get glimpses of the dorsal fins, but it’s still exciting every time.   And the sea lions are also common sights in the water.    So glad we found this campground!

Thursday: Today was the day…we agreed that we’d get in our kayaks no matter what.   We took a beach walk with the dogs in the morning.   We didn’t see anyone surfing today.   We did see some day-use people park and head south out of view with their surfboards.   I had read someone’s blog review of the surfing here, and they said a popular wave was about a quarter mile south.   But, since it’s around a curve, we can’t see.   Because we had the old man with us, we couldn’t walk down and see.

After lunch, we got suited up and drove down to the beach.   We were nervous, and our wish to see other kayakers to see how ocean surfing is done went unfulfilled.  In fact, there weren’t any other people in the ocean.    From our campsite up on high, we thought the waves looked kind of small.   But when we got down to the water, they looked much bigger.    I helped Missy launch first.    Turns out that getting launched in the ocean is a lot harder than on a river.    There must be some technique for doing it that we just aren’t aware of.   The trouble is that you have to start on the beach and then try to judge how far out to walk your kayak before you’ve gone too far and will be swamped by the waves.   But if you start too high on the beach, you are stuck and can’t paddle.    It was most frustrating.   We both spent a fair bit of time hopping back out of our yaks to dump water and then try again.    Finally, we gave up on doing it solo and just took turns helping each other out.   That worked fine, because we needed to wake our dead legs after 15 minutes or so anyway

So our first time out, we were stiff.    Why do we have to keep relearning that lesson?    Luckily these waves were spaced generously enough that it was an easy roll up…time to wipe the salt water from your face and keep at it.    My first attempt at climbing a breaking wave to get over it was disastrous because I had my mouth open.   I must have swallowed a gallon of sea water that was shot into my mouth with crushing force.    I learned that lesson right quick.   From then on, I made sure my mouth was clamped shut.     Right as we were steeling ourselves for surfing, a couple of porpoises came right by!   Close enough that I would have gotten Missy and the porpoise in the same picture, if the darn thing hadn’t of gone under.    Swimming with porpoises!    This is the life…

We messed around a bit behind the breaking waves…too nervous to try to catch one.    However, unlike on a river where the decision to leave calm water and enter a wave is entirely yours, here the ocean has the final say.   It just randomly broke the wave out behind us.   It was most scary.   Staring down this massive wall of water that’s hurling towards you and knowing you have no choice but to try to catch it, or be trashed.    So….we caught them!    We were shocked at how easy it was!    (Later days and more ocean experience would show that we had the luck of getting baby waves for our first ocean surfing).    We’d ride the waves to shore, a short 10 second ride, and then turn around and paddle back for more.    I have to say, I was really proud of us for getting out there and figuring out (sort of) how to surf.    (If I’m being honest…if the ocean hadn’t of forced the issue, we might not have worked up the courage to try a surf.)   We stayed out there for 2.5 hours before the sun started setting and the temp dropping.   That’s the other thing: we had amazing weather!   Sunny skies and 70s!   We just had drytops and neoprene shorts.   No drysuits needed!    Not what I would have guessed for winter surfing.   We’re soooooooo lucky.

Friday:  We spent the morning watching the waves and enjoying watching the campground fill up.   There were some amusing snafoos with the crowding and small roads and spots.    After lunch, we suited up for kayaking again.    Today’s ocean was a little more challenging.    There wasn’t as much powerful foamy whitewater to push you to shore.   This time, we had to make an effort to paddle to catch the waves and then keep paddling to stay on them.    But once we figured out the trick, we had some great surfs.    Missy really looked like a pro on some of hers.     Sadly, we don’t have any video from day 2 because we didn’t have anything to clean the camera lens with.    Turns out that sea water leaves spots when it dries.    On one of my turns, a sea lion popped up close by.   It seemed very curious about me.    It’s a good thing we’d already had our wildlife encounter, or I would have been really nervous.    I tried kayaking a little closer, but he just swam away.

Another fantastic hot sunny day.   Another great surfing session.    When we got back to our rig, we discovered that our row had filled in completely.   We lost our ocean view out of one window.    It’s crazy how close these spots are.   If we had an awning, we wouldn’t be able to use it anyway.   Hopefully most people will leave after the weekend and we’ll get some more space again.

Saturday:  This morning the surf was a lot stronger.   The giant waves were curling and crashing into the ocean with thunderous noise.    The campground filled almost entirely, with 75% of them being surfers.    As we watched practically every surfer head south for the famous break, we decided to hike down there and spend the morning watching them.    We loaded up chairs and water and took off with Cassie in tow.    It’s about a 20 minute walk to the action.

(We’re getting ready to head to town, so I have to speed this up.   It’s unusual to have so much awesomeness to report on).

-The waves at the surfing point were awe inspiring.   15 footers (we did ask a surfer for that figure).   Giant crashing sets of monster wave after monster wave.  The surfers were amazing athletes who apparently had specialized knowledge on how to read the ocean.   It was inspiring to watch them.   However, it was scary too.   We saw lots of trashings, and many people coming back with broken boards or no boards.

-The face of the wave (or trough?  I feel stupid for not knowing the parts of a wave) was crystal clear and steely smooth.   So mesmerizing to watch.   But, also a great magnifying effect.    2 or 3 times, we got to watch pods of porpoises come through, and they would fly through the water in the glassy trough right underneath the surfers bobbing on the surface!  It was perhaps the most incredible sight I’ve ever seen.    I’d seriously pay money to watch that again and again.

-The surfers’ dogs: adorable!    Waiting on shore for their guy to come back.   One golden retriever literally went into the surf 10-15 feet to greet each returning surfer to see if it was his guy.   So cute!

-The huge surf didn’t die down through the weekend.  In fact, it was so loud through the night that it kept me up.   Sounded like jets taking off in our backyard every 15 seconds.     So on Sunday, we sat out trying kayaking again.  Too scary.

-Monday, we thought the waves looked smaller.    Wrong were we.    We have a new saying:  if there are no sea lions about, it’s not kayakable.   But it was hard to be at the beach with hot and sunny weather and not be trying to surf.

-I got to go first.  It took us 30 minutes to get me launched.  I got swamped several times, and one time swept embarrassingly off my feet.   Missy finally had a great idea to use her kayak as a launching point.   So I finally got out, fought the breakers and paddled into the deep.    And then I was scared shitless watching the pounding surf slam into the ocean.    I eventually decided on a game plan: I would try riding a biggun, and right before it collapsed and tried to crush me I would turn and fall off the backside (like the surfers do).   But before I could ease up to the break point, the ocean swelled dramatically behind me.    I thought I could catch it, but at the last second it seemingly doubled in size and speed, and swept my kayak up the face and toppled me ass-over-head.    I was thoroughly ragdolled in the wave, and after 5 seconds or so, I rolled.   It was really hard to roll, and it was really hard to steer to deal with the next wave.   I didn’t even realize it right away…my skirt had imploded.   I was full of water.    I had a mini-panic.  I knew I was going to have to pull because there was still 30 seconds or so of the rough surf set left.    I know no one would be able to assist me.   Missy couldn’t even get launched on her own, not that she could do anything for me if she could.    So, I pulled on the next launch and ducked the onslaught.   I was scared…but then I touched the ground!   I’d forgotten how shallow it was!   So between poundings, I could stand and point my swamped yak towards shore.   The ocean, after meanly pulling my skirt, was nice enough to help me push my kayak back.  

So that was it.   We didn’t try again.   Need a better/tighter skirt rand to combat roll.   Will wait for the surf to lower again.  I really wish we had someone to teach us, because it feels like if we just knew where to go or how to read the water then we’d have awesome results.   Hopefully we’ll get a chance at the baby waves again before we have to leave.

-We’re headed to town now, where I’ll get a chance to post this.  Then we’re coming back for another week at Jalama Beach!

Harbor Happenings

January 12-14, 2013

Saturday- While I was writing the last blog entry, Missy took Cassie for a walk on the beach.    She put on her rubber boots so she could walk in the water.  After I finished the post, I leashed the Budster and went to the beach to see if I could find them.   But, they were nowhere to be seen.    So we sat and watched the surfers and other people for a bit.   After 30 minutes or so, Missy came back and said that the harbor was lovely right now.   It was in the lee of the wind, so it was just a gorgeous sunny spot.   We decided to bring the dogs home, have lunch, and then head back to the harbor.

Wow!  What an idyllic day!   We put on our kayak shoes so we could walk on the water’s edge all the way over to the rock.    Then we just soaked it all in.  Tons of ducks, a few playful otters, neat diving pelicans.    On the far side of the rock there are some peregrine falcons nesting.   There were several people set up with telescopes for viewing, so we knew where to look.    You could hear their distinctive shrieks, and then suddenly there they were!   Those suckers fly like bullet trains.   One time I was lucky enough to have the binocs trained on their nest, so I was able to follow one for almost a minute as it was darting about, seemingly just enjoying the wind currents.    So neat.

Sunday- This was supposed to be our moving day.   But…since CA is still in the throes of unprecedented cold/windy weather…we decided to stay another couple of days.    After our usual morning beach walk with the dogs, we headed out to do some shopping.   As an aside…it sucks not having a dog who likes to play fetch.   I’ve been jealous every day of people enjoying their dogs on the beach.   These dogs are adorable…running and playing and being silly.  

Monday- Today’s windchill seemed especially cruel.   It’s tough to have blue skies, full sun, and sandy beaches and not be able to go outside without winter coats and hats.   Brrrr.  

After lunch, I went on a solo bike ride back to the harbor.   I bundled up, needing my face mask and gloves to help with the cold from the wind.    It was another stunning scenery day at the harbor.   I frickin forgot to bring the binocs, so I could only imagine from afar how adorable a mother and baby otter were being in the middle of the bay.   I got 10 feet from a HUGE great blue heron.  And I saw a snowy-white egret catch a fish right in front of me.    We had some old bread, so I had a blast feeding the seagulls.   Missy won’t let me feed them around her because she’s scared of a swarm of indiscriminate pooping.    She doesn’t know what she’s missing.    

After an hour or so of harbor watching, I got back on my bike to see if I could get closer to the sea lions I could hear in the distance.   I rode over to the same spot where Missy and I kayaked with the ones begging at the boat.  There was no boat there this time, but there were still a lot of hopeful sea lions milling about.    I took my bike down to a dock on the water level and just sat in the sparkling sun and enjoyed watching them.   Every now and then, I’d get surprised by a sea lion popping up right in front of me.    Since they can swim so far underwater, it’s hard to track their movements.    So it’s neato to be delighted by a surprise pop-up.   I’m going to miss my harbor visits and all my harbor friends.

We leave tomorrow for Lompoc, 2 hours south.   We’re headed to Jamala Beach, a county run campground on the ocean.    From what I can tell, there will be no reception there.  We’ll have to drive 20 minutes inland to get reception.   So, we’ll be out of touch for several days at a time.     I’m very excited about this new spot.   People do kayak surfing here, so we’re probably going to give that a try.    We’ve been watching some youtube videos on how to catch a wave on the ocean, so I’m sure we’re going to be pros.   J   Actually, I’m not sure if the surf will be high enough, but I think even just bobbing around in the waves will be fun.   And finally there’s good weather coming up!   Yay!   Should be sunny and 70s!   

Videos

Please enjoy!   A small quiz may be administered in the future, so be sure to memorize all details in all videos!

 

 

Pictures!

Playful Otter

Just because it's the beach does NOT mean it's not cold

Mama and baby elephant seals

Lots o elephant seals.  This picture shows 25% of the population on the beach here.

Exhilaration!

Missy suited up

Morro Dunes RV Park

January 8-11, 2013

Tuesday:   Today was super-duper awesome!    We tried to get an early start for paddling in the bay, but since we foolishly didn’t get our gear organized the night before, we got a late start.    We put on at around 10:15.   This means we were stuck paddling against the ocean currents both ways.    However, the beauty of the day and the marine wildlife encounters more than made up for it!  

Right off the bat we encountered some curious sea otters.    Since we saw the otters scatter from the SUP paddlers before, I assumed they would do the same for us.   But, it turns out they were curious about our boats and popped up, (way up!) to get a good look at us.    They are so cute and cuddly looking…

After our paddle with the otters, we headed deeper into the bay to search out the sea lions.   We could hear some barking in the distance.    After battling the tide currents (4 mph!), we made it to a spot where a fishing boat was tied up.   The workers were getting gear ready for a fishing trip.    In the water, there were 3 sea lions begging for fish.   It was very amusing to watch them bark and beg, going back and forth to each side of the ship.   The 2 workers would have to stop talking when the big guy let out long barking howls…it was sooooo loud!    One of the sea lions came over really close to our kayaks.   He seemed HUGE in the water.  I admit I was a little nervous…I didn’t know if he would try to bite me or swamp me.   But he just seemed to be checking us out as food source.    It was surreal to be paddling with sea lions.   Once in a lifetime.   (like drowning…)    After watching the begging for a bit, we paddled hard up current to be able to float back down past a large colony of sea lions who had taken over a boat tie-up dock in the middle of the bay.    Missy docked on shore in order to get some stable video of me paddling by the platform.   These guys were just enjoying a nap in the sun, so not so much with the amusing antics.    But still awesome to paddle around.

We headed back to our launch point.    At this point, the tides were changing.   Boo-hiss.   So instead of being able to ride the 4mph current we’d been fighting, we got to fight the current all the way.    The water was already down 10 feet at our launch point.    I actually was able to ground my kayak on the water’s edge, wait a few minutes, and the water receded just enough that I got out without getting my feet wet.   For some reason I found this to be pretty neat.

Wednesday:   We started off the day with a walk on the beach with the dogs.   While this RV park isn’t much to speak of (being basically a parking lot), its proximity to the beach can’t be beat.   Just a short walk over the dunes and you’re there!    After beach time, we got on our bikes and headed back over to Morro Bay to watch the wildlife and the surfers.     We watched a neat example of seagull bullying…1 or 2 seagulls would watch the diving birds from shore.   When a diving bird popped up with a catch, the gulls would fly out to the water and harass the poor bird.   The bird would dive immediately, but the gulls would just wait and bully them at the next pop up.     It was impressive how long the diving bird could stay down.    Finally, the diving bird would swim far enough away from the gulls underwater to be able to pop up and quickly eat its snack.    

Thursday:  On today’s agenda: scout some locations for our next move.    Since we were going to be driving for at least 4 hours, we decided not to take the dogs.  So we walked them on the beach for a long time in the morning and then headed out.    First we drove to a county park that’s an hour and a half away.    I couldn’t tell from the internet how big the spaces were.    It was a very pretty drive in the rolling foothills and wine country.    The park was pretty big, with lots of spots.   But the interior roads were narrow, and the parking pads were lined with boulders.    So we couldn’t count on overhanging out the back.    There were a couple of spots that would do, though, so we could keep this park in mind.     I’d read reviews about how there were friendly deer.   Understatement:  there were HUNDREDS of friendly deer.   They were overrunning the campground.     I like watching deer, but that many so close would only torture Buddy and Cassie.

Leaving the park, we worked our way out to the coast.    This involved having to drive through a military base (which we at first bypassed, not believing that the GPS was leading us the right way).   And we had to cross a creek on a green plastic bridge*. That was SCARY.    (*Ummm, it was steel. And the sign said 60 ton limit. But it was funny how scared Tina was to cross. Everyone knows her fear of steel grates. Tee hee. -–Missy)  Then we headed through the mountains to the ocean.   I’ve never seen such a squiggly line on Karen before.    It took us about an hour to go 10 miles.    But, the scenery was pretty, so no complaints.   We checked out a couple of National Forest Campgrounds on the way.   One was closed, and the other was tent only.   Bummer.    Once we got to the ocean, there was Kirk Campground.    It was right on the ocean, but there were only 1 or 2 spots we might fit in, and they were taken.    There was no extra parking for vehicles, so if you don’t fully fit, you can’t camp there.

After leaving Kirk, we went a few miles south to Plaskett Creek.   This is the one we thought we’d be able to make no problem.   But, the spots were narrow and boulder lined.   And they seemed short.    Sigh.    Looks like we have to go back to the drawing board for finding our next spot.

The drive down the coast was spectacular!    CA has done itself a huge favor in not allowing any development on this stretch.    The pounding waves, the gorgeous aqua water, the rugged coastline…what a treasure.    So even though we struck out on campgrounds, the drive was worth it.   We pulled off a couple of times to enjoy the sights.    One pull-off happened to be an elephant seal breeding beach!    We didn’t know it when we pulled off.   Hundreds of elephant seals as far as the eye could see!    More than half had babies…soooooo cute!    I don’t like the males, though.   I think they are quite ugly.   But it was neat to be able to watch them for a while.   They aren’t very graceful in moving around on sand.

Friday:   Today was cold and windy.   Brrrrrr.     We spent some time on the beach in the morning.  We lugged our chairs and blankets and scouted the best spot in the dunes to get a little wind break.    For a while, we were the only ones on the beach.    I think we managed a couple of hours before the wind shifted direction and there was no lee anymore.    Lovely morning.

In the afternoon, I picked up a fax at the office and went out on a bike ride.    Missy stayed behind, being scared of the wind.    It was quite cold.   Very cold.    But it was a sunny, clear day.     So I enjoyed watching the seabirds and otters in the bay.

Morro Bay, CA

We finally made it to the ocean.    Today was our first full day at Morro Dunes RV park.   For some reason, we got up very early (6am).    Since it was freezing and extremely windy, we thought it made sense to spend the morning checking out a nearby Forest Service Campground.    That was a bust.   No way we'd fit there.    Darn.

After getting home, Missy and I decided to ride our bikes over to check out the eponymous Morro Bay.    I got excited last night after reading online that kayaking the bay might be something we could do.   It was possibly the best bike ride ever in existence.    In the bay we saw: GBHs, playful otters (including babies!), a seal, diving pelicans, and marmots.    We watched a couple of SUPers paddle out, getting within feet of the playful otters!   I can't wait to try that kayaking!    Then the SUPers tried surfing the waves.   If the weather was warmer, and if we knew how to ocean surf...

Following are some pictures from our awesome day:

White Egret

Waves crashing

Couldn't resist snapping a picture of this woman's ridiculous shoes.   I pretended I was taking a picture of the bay behind her.  (Reminded me of MMG taking that picture of beehive lady in Buena Vista)

Love this sign!

Watching the surfers

Harbor Seal.   Too see it, you'll have to peer beneath the water.

Biking to Morro Rock

Not the best picture of sea otters, but at least it proves we saw them!

See the otters in the top of the picture?   So neat to have such a close marine wildlife experience!

Three AAAs*

December 30, 2012-January 5, 2013

We were able to convince the park ranger to let us stay a few days beyond the 10 day limit.    Yay!   So our next departure date is tomorrow, Sunday, Jan 6^th.    In the meantime, we continued to enjoy this pretty park in mostly solitude.   The weather has been colder than we’d have liked.   Since we don’t have hook-ups, that means we’ve been using the furnace quite a bit.    But for such a fantastic set-up nature-wise, we’ll take the trade-off.    And, of course, this spot is made for Cassie.   She LOVES chasing the gophers from hole to hole, stopping to dig when the fancy strikes.    I’m not sure, but we might have to keep this spot in mind for a return visit.    The only rule is that you can have 10 days continuous maximum.   (Unlike the national forests, which give a 14 day limit and then you have to move so many miles away for 30 days before you can return).  So we can come back whenever so long as we stay away at least a night.

The last couple of days have been anxiety ridden, which is par for the course when we’re looking for our next spot.    I’ve spent hours researching places on California’s Central Coast.   The trouble I have is that with the public campgrounds, I can’t get a good account on which campgrounds we’ll fit into.   Usually you can count on some good advice from forums, but this research project has resulted in skimpy details.    It’s just hard to make a decision without having a scouting trip.    So…finally we decided on a plan.    Back when we were at the Orange Grove, we found a private campground we liked in Morro Bay.   It’s pricy compared to boondocking and national forest campgrounds, but not so pricey compared to other campgrounds on the ocean.    We tried to get a week there, but they were booked through the first weeks of Jan.    So we nixed it.   But, today I thought we could call up and get the next weeks availability…and until then we can leave Kern River Campground and go to another Kern County Campground about 45 minutes from here.    We’d then come back to KRC and wait until that opening at Morro Bay.    Phew!    It felt so good to finally have a decision.    But when I called Morro Dunes Campground, they had an opening for Sunday (tomorrow).     I was thrown off a bit since I wasn’t expecting that, but we quickly agreed.    It’s going to suck packing up and moving tomorrow because it’s the one rainy day in 10 days, but c’est la vie.      Our plan is to get some good scouting in for possible sites.   Morro Dunes is nicely placed in the middle of the coast, so we should have an easy time finding the next spot.   It will be nice to make the next decision from first-hand knowledge and not from the internet.

Abrupt Topic Change Warning!!!!!  

There’s something I wanted to get an opinion on before, but forgot to blog about when we were so rudely uprooted from our Clearing Campsite by the Sheriff.   Missy and I got into quite a serious fight over this issue, and we need some outside input to know who is right.   I’ll use pseudonyms to maintain impartiality.

Person A: A well-reasoned, smart, and common sense kind of gal.

Person B: A bitch.

The fight involved whether or not to move the generator into the fitty garage when we were taking a trip to town.   Person A believed strongly that it should be moved.   We had just been warned by the Sheriff that there are a lot of generator thefts in the area, and that thieves would have no problem using bolt-cutters on our lock.   Person A figured that with a known criminal history for the area, it just made sense to take 2 minutes and move the genny into the garage and out of site.

Person B, on the other hand, thought that it was just as easy for a thief to use the bolt cutters on the garage lock.   She also was channeling the fru-fru writings of a fellow full time RVer (whose blog we read), who himself felt it was better to live with hope for the best in humanity than alter behavior to accommodate the possibility of being a theft victim.

So, please weigh in with your opinion in the comments.    I know you’re probably dying to know who’s person A, and B, but I’ll have to reveal that in a later post.

*Tina: Missy, you come up with a title for once.   It’s not fair I always have to do everything.  Titles are hard to come up with.

 Missy: Three AAAs

At the time, she was trying to see what the clip-on light required for batteries.   But since that was technically her answer to my query, that’s what I went with.  :-)