1/15 - 1/16/05 Skirting the Beast

Saturday January 15th is another clear warm day at Pismo. I take time to cook one of my weekend special breakfasts - buttermilk blueberry pancakes, still using berries I picked & froze last summer on the McKenzie. Then I pack up the satellite dish, fill the fresh water tank, make a stop to dump all the waste tanks and head south.

For most of the way the drive is a pleasure, first through the rolling hills between Santa Maria & Santa Barbara, radiant in their early spring emerald green carpet. Then along the coast, with the sparkling blue Pacific stretching to the channel islands and beyond. The recent storm left its mark in the brown runoff-tainted waters closer to shore and the many mud slips in the steep coastal hillsides. Then we hit a 40 minute delay getting through the La Conchita area, caused by everyone slowing to gawk. Since that's the modus, I snap a couple of pix as I go by.

Then it's down through Ventura and up into the Thousand Oaks area where I park for the night across the street from an old friend, Bob Crolene's house. Before dinner Bob & I share a bottle of champaigne & get a little loopy. Later Timmy & I sleep in the Gypsy, only slightly off level, after an evening of catching up on many years of developments with Bob. We have quite a bit in common still; he is seriousily considering the nomadic life in the relativly near future.

Sunday we breakfast, then I finish the sanitizing and rinsing of my new freshwater hauling barrel, we say our goodbyes & head off in the direction of the beast (Los Angeles). Oops, as I reach the end of the street, there's a fairly deep dip to allow water runoff & I hear a screaching noise. Later I discover that my rear stabilizer jacks hit bottom & get twisted into uselessness. So much to learn!

I skirt across the northern fringe of the beast, through the San Fernando Valley, then Pasadena & what seems like a never ending series of LA suburbs. Traffic is steady, but never really a problem. It is late Sunday morning, probably as good as traffic gets in daylight hours in this world. I wonder again how anyone, much less 10 million people, can live here. But with the San Gabriel Mountains wearing a snowy blanket on my left, there is some redeaming esthetic value.

We finally reach San Bernardino, where I had planned to stop at Camping World. I buy replacement stabilizer jacks while I'm there. Good timing on that score at least. I call home while walking Timmy; they are enduring freezing rain in Eugene & I am basking in the warm sun.

Then it's east into the desert; we're headed for Joshua Tree National Park where camping is cheap & I think it might be a good place to try off-grid living again. Driving through Yucca Valley there is a lot of evidence of flash floods & the attendant, when I fill up on propane, tells me they've had 22" of rain, 5 times normal! But the park is open & the forecast is good, so here we go.

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