Oceano, California

We messed up! We were scheduled to leave here today, but we thought we had until tomorrow to leave. No problem. We just paid for an extra night here and called ahead to our next destination to tell them we would be a day late.

Tomorrow, we have lots to do. We first have to run errands in San Luis Obispo before we can get on the road. We will probably get out of here by 1 p.m. Hope the internet works at the next place because we will be away from civilization -- high in the Santa Barbara Mountains. We have 4G speeds here. That's why I've been updating the blog so often.

OK - one more picture. I took this one this morning while on my walk with Chanti. Again, it is taken with the panorama view on my cell phone, but this time, looking back over the RV park from the dunes.

Pacific Dunes Ranch RV Resort

We will definitely come back to this place. Most of the RVs in the picture left the park today. They were only here for the long Thanksgiving weekend. We find that most parks fill up over holidays, and then empty out when the holiday weekends are over. 

Have a great week everyone!

Oceano, California

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Just have to post a couple of pictures of Chanti enjoying the dunes. She turned 12 years old on Wednesday (age 64 in human life) but has not lost her energy. She loves the dunes.

Sitting on top of a cliff wondering whether she 

should come to us when we are calling her.

She decides to go for it!

What a leap!

And, now, just one more picture of the dunes taken with my new cell phone camera in panorama. Love my new cell phone. It is an Android HTC Rezound,

Have a safe weekend, everyone!

Oceano, California

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO THE WORLD!

We've been enjoying our stay here at the Pacific Dunes Ranch RV Resort. For the most part, we both spent a bit of time working on our books. Today, we ran over to Paso Robles to get our RV Christmas tree out of storage, pick up our mail in Cambria, stop at the fish market in Morro Bay and run some errands in San Luis Obispo. I brought my camera along and here are a few pictures I took today.

Highway 46 between Cambria and Paso Robles 

is one of the prettiest 26 mile-drives anyone can make. 

(Look up the hill to see the highway.)

Then, from the 2,000 foot elevation, we stopped to capture

the ocean in the background.

The greenery is spectacular.

In Morro Bay, we saw this seal frolicking in the ocean

while the kayakers watched.

At Morro Bay -- looking to the left --

-- looking straight forward to the famous Morro Rock --

-- looking to the right -- 

-- and, looking down to see this seal.

Yes, the Central Coast of California is a beautiful place.

Oceano, California

Been here in Oceano for one week. Two more weeks to go. We have never stayed at the Pacific Dunes Ranch RV Resort before. It is peaceful and quiet.

The day we arrived, I thought I'd take Chanti for a walk and check out how far we were from the beach as there is a wide sand dune to cross before we get to the beach. I left the motorhome at 4:45 p.m. and headed towards the beach. I had no idea how far we would have to walk because the sand dunes are misleading. There are 30 to 40 feet drops scattered throughout. It is almost like a maze. You walk on the upper ledge of one cliff (while continuing to head towards the beach) only to come to a dead end of a severe drop. Then, you have to back track and try another route.

Needless to say, we never actually reached the beach, though we could see it from a distance. Instead, it started to get dark with day light savings time gone and I knew that I had to get back. Now my problem was that I couldn't see where the severe drops were until they would be right in front of me. Why didn't I just follow our footsteps back to where I started? you may ask. What do you do when you lose track of the footsteps, too? To top it off, I forgot my cell phone. So, I just headed slowly towards the city lights. I was sure that I would soon meet up with Jerry with his flashlight wondering what had happened. But, that was dreaming.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally made it back to the motorhome. It was dark outside by the time I got back. When I walked into the RV, there was Jerry sitting at his computer. "Why," I asked, "didn't you come looking for me?" He looked up and didn't even realize that it was dark outside. After I recovered from my fearful walk, I had to tell someone. So I sent an email to my new friend, Yoko, in Japan.

Taken the night of my scary adventure -- before it got real dark outside.

Pat and Bill came to join us for dinner on Wednesday evening and brought our mail. We won't see them until mid-February as they are off to South Africa to be with their daughter when she has her baby.

The weather for the first part of the week was beautiful in the mid-sixties during the day. Then on Friday we had the rain that later made its way to LA.

On Saturday, Jerry, Chanti and I decided to cross the sand dunes and get to the ocean. This time we started out at 11 a.m. (Jerry had already been there two other times this week while he was on his long runs.) We figured out that we have to cross the sand dunes for 3/4 of a mile before we actually reach the ocean. The weather was overcast, so it made the trip more pleasant. Jerry took his video camera along and I took my camera. Here are the pictures I took on Saturday.

The sand dunes

No, this is not Siberia.

See the RV park in the distance.

You don't want to unexpectedly fall into these crevices

The portion of the dunes closest to the beach is fenced off for ATVs. 

Sean, you would love this!

We actually made it to the ocean and walked on the beach.

Jerry and Chanti

Now that you have seen a few of my pictures, here is short VIDEO of us running and walking around the dunes on Saturday, including Chanti who loved running of her high energy.

Sunset over the dunes.

We like this park and area, even though we are a bit too far from the beach to hear the waves at night. Until next time, have a great week everyone.

Paso Robles, California

Just noticed that I haven't updated this blog for two weeks. Sorry, guys. But, we really have been busy. We spent the first week getting our house ready to be rented out. Even though we were parked next to the house, we only went into the house to do what we had to do, and then retired back to the RV at night. Every morning, we had a list of 10-15 items to accomplish for that day, from taking more "stuff" to the dump, to the hazardous waste facility, to the goodwill and to storage. We thought that we had really "downsized" when we put the house on the market 18 months ago, but we didn't realize that we still had soooo much to do. We left some furniture items in the house that the new renters said they could use, but basically, the house is now pretty much empty of our "stuff" and the new renters have moved in. We have a new address, too, for receiving our mail.

Then, for the second week, we traveled 26 miles east of Cambria over the hill to Paso Robles for our second week of "work." We are staying at the Paso Robles Wine Country RV Resort.

This RV park is literally in the middle of the Paso Robles wine country.

See wine vineyard in the foreground and the RV park in the background.

Hawk on the fence of the vineyard.

We spent this second week "downsizing" the RV. Downsizing the RV??? Yes, in the last 5 years, we have accumulated more "stuff" in the RV. Funny how life has a way making "stuff" stick to us. This time, we have cleaned out every cabinet, outside bay, cupboard and drawer of the RV of anything we haven't used in the last two years. Now that we finished that job, I think we are ready to relax and continue this life style that we love. 

During the first part of the week, the temperatures were in the 80's. We were able to take time in the evening to enjoy this park's fantastic jacuzzi.

Jacuzzi at the Paso Robles Wine Country RV Resort

We leave here tomorrow and head to Oceano for three weeks. We are hanging around the Central Coast of California until the middle of December because we both have another dentist appointment at that time.