We finally left the San Diego area today after malingering for way longer than we initially intended. When we arrived in San Diego back in October ’18, we knew we would be staying until around the 1st of March. We failed on that scheduling.
We were considering staying until the 25th of April but through neglect and poor anticipation on my part we were timed out in our current digs at Pio Pico because 15 days ago I stupidly only scheduled us in the park through today. I foolishly was not aware that Easter or the second Sunday in Septuigisma (?) was this weekend and parks typically fill up. When I tried to extend my stay for six more days, park management merely grinned and said “No chance!”
So yesterday Peggy and I started storing loose items and picking up all our chairs, lights, bird feeders, ladders, outdoor rugs and other sundry items and prepared for departure. Today we were up early and we finished our preparations and sodded off. We headed north through usual miserable Southern California traffic up into Riverside County where we pulled off at another Thousand Trails facility called Wilderness Lakes. Wilderness Lakes is remarkable in that there is absolutely no wilderness and the only bodies of water around are some long, serpentine ditches filled with green water that are periodically stocked with channel catfish for those tempted to fish for the ugly creatures.
The campsite does have good Wifi and TV reception and the spaces are ample. There are lots of birds which is nice because there is almost nothing else to see around here. Idyllwild is about 75 minutes and 6000 feet up from here but we can’t see it.
When we arrived, we headed right through the gate, found one of the few available RV spaces and pulled in. The trailer brakes acted a bit funny when we pulled into our space but I have smacked the brake controller before and maybe all we need is to re-adjust it. If not, we will be calling a mechanic Monday to come to the park to exorcise the demons from our braking system.
It is strange that the controller would go out. This is the second controller we have had. We had the brakes done on the trailer and the truck in San Diego. While we were in San Diego we also had the trailer springs replaced, the truck serviced including new ball joints and batteries. The Ford dealer was probably happy I stopped in because I left behind $1800. The trailer guys also got about $1300 so I figured we were good to go. We have done a bunch of repair on the trailer during our stay at Pio Pico because our 2018 trip was pretty tough on the trailer due to two tread separations the whirled the tread sections around in a frenzied and particularly destructive fashion.
We think our initial, pretty destinations will be up around Sequoia National Park. From there we intend to go a bit further up the road to Yosemite National Park. After that, it is probably going to be mundane through California’s Central Valley’s farms and massive orchards until we approach Northern California where there are gorgeous conifer forests and spectacular fires each autumn.