California Dreaming

But first we traveled through Maricopa and Yuma, Arizona.

Our Maricopa County campground was situated 20 minutes from dairy farms in one direction, and 20 minutes from Doug's sister's home in the other.

It was a very animal-centric stay. In addition to the many, many grazing cows at the dairy lots, there was a horse ranch across the road, rabbits and roadrunners in the brush, and the campground owners kept goats and emus. (We didn't see animals in the desert, however, even lizards; although it was fairly warm in the daytime, it was still cold at night, and reportedly the desert animals were still hibernating.)

One of the massive dairy farms in Maricopa County, AZ. (All photos by author)

Goats at the Wild West Ranch & RV Resort.

A member of the flock of emus at the Wild West Ranch & RV Resort.

The BLM (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) lands bordering two sides of the campground were great for hiking with Hershey. They were made more interesting by the many piled rock designs previous hikers had made:

We spent only an overnight in Yuma. While we had known it was a popular wintering site for RVers, we were amazed at the number of RV parks. And after having spent weeks surrounded by arid landscapes studded with cacti, we also were surprised at the number of canals in the area - irrigating the city and the surrounding farms and ranches from the Colorado River, which we also hadn't realized bordered the northern edge of Yuma.

Crossing the Colorado River into California, we drove past fields of solar panels and windmills:

The next three weeks were spent visiting friends and family in Southern California. We were fortunate to be able to stay at two RV parks on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton: Lake O'Neill and Del Mar Beach. The abundance of water was a welcome change!

Lake O'Neill Campground

Ground squirrels on land, and American coots on the lake, drove Hershey to distraction. The ground squirrels, like prairie dogs and meerkats, took turns standing sentinel in or just outside a burrow hole, and piped shrill warnings when they saw Hershey. The American coots splashed noisily from the lakeshore reeds to the clear water when Hershey walked by.

Visiting La Jolla with Doug's cousin's son Jimmy, we saw raucous sea lions...

...and a beach full of nursing seal pups.

The Del Mar Beach campground was right on the sand. The idyllic feel was sometimes interrupted by Marine Expeditionary Force amphibious tracked vehicles rumbling down the RV park road!

The vehicles and Marines are moving back to an open beach area from the sheltered training marina. Doug mused about whether RV's could be made amphibious...

We also had some good times with friends: a lovely 20-mile bike ride with our friend Carole (both of us); surfing with our friend Roger (Doug only); lunching with our friend Patti (and her husband David) from Doug's high school and Doug's and Alison's college.

Doug and Carole along the coast at San Onofre State Beach.

Dramatic ravines cut through the sandstone cliffs to the beach.

Doug and Roger head into the surf. Unfortunately, the waves weren't very good that day.

The picturesque Oceanside Marina.

Having made it to the West Coast, we are turning to head north. Our next blog post will cover our time in Santa Barbara, California and Watsonville, California (just inland from Monterey Bay).