It’s been a little while since I’ve posted, and I was trying to post a bit more frequently, but there’s just been too much going on! I’m caravanning with a group of RVers and we’re busy doing stuff, all the time!
One day at Anza I decided to walk to the nearby dry lakebed. Once I got there, (which took a while), I thought it’d be nice to walk to the far side of it. Turned out to be quite a hike because by the time I got back my electronic devices told me it was a little over 8 miles round trip! The distances here are quite deceptive.
Before leaving Anza Borrego, Brian and I decided to see how far up the local mountain trail we could go. There’s a trail set up that goes up a ridgeline for a full 5,000 feet of elevation change over 23 miles. Obviously we weren’t going to scale the whole thing (that would take several days), but we still got a good workout in!
After leaving Anza, the “Kelly Vortex” headed towards to Santa Monica as our first overnight stop on the way to a secret filming location for something Kelly is in that I can’t write about here, otherwise they’ll fine me $50,000! The show will be out in the fall sometime, and I’ll probably be visible as an extra somewhere.
Oh, the “Kelly Vortex”? Yeah, that’s the name we’ve given ourselves as we all seem to fall into the circle of influence around Kelly. She’s quite the character!
Anyways, we ended up stopping overnight at the Santa Monica Civic Center parking lot as it was one of the extremely few options available anywhere in that area for RVs. All the signage in the lot says that we can stay up to 72 hours before being towed, and since we’re only staying overnight, it seems perfect!
I got there first and picked out a spot. Not knowing quite when everyone else was going to arrive, I had dinner and just as I was finishing, I saw Kelly’s rig pull up to my left and then Marshall’s rig to my right. I’m surrounded by CampAddict! 🙂 It was great fun and I loved being surrounded by friends. Marshall’s doing his best to photo-bomb my shot here.
Since we had an evening to kill, the group went out for a while, hitting the touristy-pier in Santa Monica. Just about everything was closed by the time we got there, but it was still fun! (Pictured above, left to right: Joni, Marshall, Kelly, Becky, Me.)
At 5am, we got the knock… apparently it’s perfectly legal to park your vehicle overnight at the civic center, you just can’t leave humans in your vehicle overnight. Utter silliness. I didn’t bother answering my door (it was 5am!), but Marshall spoke with the authorities, whomever they were. They didn’t make us move, but I certainly won’t be staying there again. But then again, I have no desire to ever be in Santa Monica, so that works out!
The next day we arrived at the filming location (undisclosed) where we needed to do a “campfire” scene. It’s all fake, even the fire, but it’s made for TV. It was thoroughly amusing watching the TV-crew set up the entire set, particularly the camp fire. They had a 25-gallon (100+ pounds worth) of propane for the fire that evening, which would have run the fire for days, and they were all concerned about running out. Us RVers were trying not to laugh out loud. Overall the crew was very professional and friendly, so they were a pleasure to work with.
Leaving the undisclosed location, we head up to Oak Flat Campground, just far enough from Los Angeles to be out of the major hustle and bustle. This campground seems almost abandoned, but it’s been working well for us the past couple days. We’ll hang around here until Monday, then it’s off to the next spot.
It’s pretty hilly around here, so of course we have to find a trail that goes up or down somewhere, and we do. Becky, Joni, and I managed to find a switch-back kind of trail that goes up to somewhere, and it’s even more exciting with the 36° air temp and enough wind to make it feel like 26°! Just a week or so ago I was in the desert and the high temperature was 90°. Trying to stay “with the weather” just isn’t really realistic if you want to venture around and see things.
I’m really enjoying my time with this group. Everyone in it is very relaxed and calm, yet we all have a good time too. There’s no drama, no catastrophes, no serious issues, just good times.
I think it was yesterday here at Oak Flat Campgrounds we watched another group go through some kind of drama. There was a schoolie (looks like it hadn’t had any kind of conversion yet) with 4 people and 2 dogs that were having a rough time of something. They were moping around the campground in the morning, sometimes talking, other times yelling at each other, and the idea of kindness didn’t seem to be in their repertoire. They did eventually continue on their way but it was a bit of a scene for a while. All of us in my current group seem to be blessed to not have whatever kinds of issues they were dealing with.
Joni and I went hiking today because the weather was so much nicer than yesterday. Yesterday we attempted this hike, but it was 36° (or so) with a stiff wind, which made things unpleasant. Today it was closer to 60, almost no wind, and nice sunlight.
There’s a lake nestled in the mountains in the distance that was nifty to see from up high. The trail was only about 1.5 miles long but it was uphill the whole time! Coming down went much more quickly.
Sometime in early April I’m going to have to go back to Tyler, TX to get my taxes done and resume work on the trailer. I very much want to have the trailer up and operational as the truck camper is not a full-timing rig, it’s slowly falling apart and has other failings. I’m not looking forward to leaving the group, but it’ll eventually happen. Until then, I’m thoroughly enjoying everyone’s company!
..We spent the night in the station driveway, This place is freaking disgusting”. (review of ‘Oak Flat Campgrounds’. Ha. I thought that was funny, yrmv. Nice pics as always, keep em coming.