Away for three weeks & sun finally!

We left home pulling our 16-foot white Casita trailer, dubbed Baby Beluga, on February 9.  Here it is March 1 and we've had sun and warm - in the 60s - temperatures for two days now.  Finally!  NO, we did not bring the wind, rain, and cold with us.  We left it behind - we thought.  Instead, it followed us!

Our second through fourth nights we spent with Duffy's sister, Debbie, in her newly purchased home, a small two bedroom older home just perfect for her.  So good to spend some time together.  The fifth night we spent with Debbie's daughter, Kristen, down the road along Hwy 99 just north of Merced, CA.  Again, wonderful to spend some time with her, even if it was only an evening visit over dinner.

The next two nights we stayed first at the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, CA (our grandchildren remember this one because it's where they got sick last August as we traveled south together), and second in Desert Hot Springs, CA near Palm Springs.  Very windy here in the desert - the storms we would meet in San Diego during the next week were on their way.  And, I guess it's windy more often than not, because there are lots of electricity-generating windmills near the Palm Springs area.

We accepted the invitation to stay with Pam's brother, Skip, in El Cajon, a bedroom community to San Diego, where we enjoyed a respite from trailer camping for 1-1/2 weeks before camping out in Santee, another neighboring community.  We've had a great time with Skip and Susan (Skip's wife) and seeing old friends from our school days, plus we attended a family wedding reception soon after arriving that afforded us the opportunity to see many relatives on Pam's side.

We've gone birding at the lagoons near the Pacific Ocean near Oceanside and Encinitis, at Lake Hodges near Rancho Bernardo, and today at the Tijuana River Esturarine Research Center located north of the border in or near Imperial Beach.  Always hoping for sightings of birds new to us for our "life list,"  we've added several this trip to our delight.  Friend Mike from high school joined us on today's three-mile <> walk.  Should any of you readers be concerned that we were too close to Tijuana, Mexico, you may be relieved to learn that we were walking along a marsh adjacent to the Naval Air Training Station with five to six helicopters circling overhead.

Two days ago on Sunday, we moved our trailer from Skip & Susan's driveway to Santee Lakes at Padre Dam in Santee, where we are at this posting, while S/S's house is being fumigated for termites - a real and constant problem down here in the southwest.  This is one of our favorite places to camp because of all the birds and waterfowl.  Funny how we look so hard to find Wood Ducks at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge near our home in Olympia, when all we need do is come here to Santee Lakes in the winter to find them nearly tame near our camp spot.

This evening we had dinner with another friend from our school days here.  Tina used to live in North Bend, WA for close to 20 years +/- before moving back to San Diego about ten years ago.  It's always a joy to get together with both Mike and Tina when we come back for a visit.  And, twice now we've eaten out at favorite Por Favor Mexican Restaurant in El Cajon with old school friend, Jim, and his wife Gail, and with Tom and Cathy (she was one of my bride's maids 40-some years ago).  We sure enjoy these reunions.

Another reunion I enjoy is with my Aunt Bonnie, my mother's sister who lives in El Cajon.  Last Tuesday, we shared a girl's day out, with lunch and a movie matinee, just Bonnie, Susan and me.  We had a great time.

Two funny - maybe even ha-ha - things happened in the past few days.  On Sunday, Feb. 27, the day we left Skip and Susan's for the campground, I was heating a gluten-free muffin in their relatively new microwave.  Naturally, their microwave works differently than ours.  I'm convinced no two are alike.  I set it for what I thought was 30-seconds, when in fact I must have hit the Express 3 button, which sets the microwave for 3-minutes.  I turned away to wash a few dishes.  Susan came in from the garage and shouted, "What's going on?!"  I turned to see smoke billowing out of the microwave.  I don't know what was in that muffin that caused so much smoke, but it gave me pause.  Of course, the house smelled of smoke while a cloud hovered near the ceiling.  While I felt terrible about it, I couldn't help laughing.  It seemed fitting to me somehow that the house would be fumigated the next day.  It sure needed it when I got through with the muffin in the microwave (that could be a title for a new children's book!).  I hope the smell is gone when S/S get home tomorrow.  Oh, and the muffin?  When I could get close to the plate it was on, I turned it upside down, and nothing happened.  The muffin was fused to the plate.  No worries.  A little water and dish detergent loosened it right up.  And the microwave still works fine.

The second "funny" thing that happened was the discovery that our trailer door lock was broken.  We became aware of it just before leaving for the campground.  Duffy rigged a piece of nylon clothesline rope tied to an upright table support inside the trailer to the outside door handle so we could drive the few miles to the campground.  Yesterday morning he removed the lock to take it to an RV store for a replacement, leaving no door handle for securing the "rope lock."  Instead?  A small twig tied to the rope, pushed through the opening where the lock had been, then turned horizontally to prevent the twig from slipping through the hole.  Not secure in any sense.  Just a way to keep the door closed.  Replacement found, door handle replaced.  Once again we have a locking door.  We rewarded Duffy's ingenuity with a quick trip to the San Diego Zoo to see among other things the koalas, the new Elephant Odyssey habitat, and wild birds flitting through the trees.  Yes, we took our binoculars to the zoo!  True tourists!  Granddaughter, Ahna, sent her Brunca (that's Rader grandchild-speak for Grandma) away with Ahna's small stuffed orange bear named Henry.  Like a "flat Stanley," Henry appears in a photo with the koalas.  Henry rode around in Pam's pocket at the zoo.  You could say he had a pocket's eye view!

Oh, and last evening I, Pam, won at a newly-learned card game called Threes.  I have to document my win, because it is so rare.  The guys are out for revenge.

Following posts should be shorter.  This, as the first, added fairly late in the trip, is correspondingly lengthy.  I (Pam) am new to blogging, and don't spend a lot of time on the laptop, at least not here in San Diego where we have so much family and many old friends to see.  I'll try keeping in touch on a more regular basis now, as long as I can find a WiFi connections.