Solo life on 30 amps - Living full time in an RV: April 3rd through April 10th, 2022

Destination number: 93/173/31

Remi and I returned to the great state of California this week and for the first couple of weeks, we are in San Diego California. The name of the unincorporated town we are actually in is a town called Jamul. Though we are supposedly in a town, the only thing of it that I have seen is the Pio Pico RV Park run by Thousand Trails. I've traveled from one end of Otay Lakes road all the way to the other, and no sign of the Ace hardware and supposedly a few other merchants that this town is supposed to have, but there must be a side road that leads to those gems. :-)

The RV park is smack dab in the middle of a Canyon and Cell service for AT&T is horrible to say the least, and Verizon is even worse. If I have a work call to get on, I've had to drive 5 miles to get to a lake at the end of the canyon that has a clear shot to the cell tower. Even talking to other RV'ers with those special cellular antennas that has what looks like a can to hold golf balls on the end of it find they are not able to get any service, so I don't feel bad. Other than the lack of cell service, it is a nice little park here. Like most of the Thousand trails parks, this one is undergoing some extensive renovation, specifically in getting an electrical upgrade for this park. There is Park WIFI so I am able to telework from the motorhome, but it does drop out once in a while, and if your paid weekly subscription runs out, you have no option to either reformat your hard drive, go out and do a registry hack on the computer at the very least, or call the vendors technical support to resolve the issue. I must admit, regardless of the approach, it is pretty involved and poorly designed if you ask me. But, the view of the lake almost makes the commute worth while!

There is a nice two and half mile hiking trail that runs from one end of the property to the other, but I've been warned more than twice that there are rattle snakes that have been spotted, so I've now opted to stay in the open areas and keep my eyes on the ground.

The work week was productive and the temperatures have ranged from the 40's at night to the high 90's during some of the days, so all in all the week has been a good one, but the weekends adventures is what I truly look forward too! And the adventures this weekend did not disappoint. We started out early Saturday morning headed towards the Cabrillo National monument. I didn't know this, but you actually have to go onto the San Diego Naval base in order to get to the Cabrillo National Monument. Remi and I got there about 30 minutes before the monument opened, so we spent some time visiting Fort Rosecrans, which is a National Cemetery here in the San Diego area. Predominantly, these hollowed grounds are filled with the remains of service members laid to rest here. However, there are a very small number of plots which are allocated so that spouses of those military members laid to rest here can also be interred here.

The Cabrillo national monument grounds are a great place to visit... not only is the monument here, with it's expansive views of the San Diego bay. The visitors center done by the national parks system is very well done, as they all are. Our national parks system is truly something to be proud of and once again, I was able to put my Annual National Park Pass to good use!

Additionally here at this national park is the Point Loma Light house. Many might argue that if you've seen one light house, you have seen them all, but one must keep in mind that each one is designed for it's specific location and this one is no different. Due to the lack of city water back in the day, they built a catch basin to collect rain water. The water that was caught by the catch basin drains into a cistern below ground. Then a water pump can be used to pump the water up into a bucket to be used by the occupants. The light house exhibit in and of itself can easily stand alone, and it is great to have two stops like this right next to one another.

Right behind the light house, there is a communications installation that was built in the 1910's and later used for communicating weather information to incoming ships as well as working to identify if those incoming ships were "Friend" or "Foe"

Additionally on these grounds are some tidepools that are down at the beach below the light house. Unfortunately, because of safety issues, they do not let you take your dog down to the tidepools. The reason this is a safety issue is because due to the slope of the rocks that you have to travel down to get to the tidepools, you could very easily lose your footing and fall to the jagged rocks below. That would make for a very bad day. :-(

After we finished exploring the Cabrillo National Monument, we traveled to La Jolla to check out the cove and beach up there. California is truly fortunate to have so much beautiful coast line. Remi and I went to La Jolla and explored the cove which was full of tourists and out on the flat rocks in the cove, lots and lots of sea lions! I'm not entirely sure that Remi really ever saw a Sea Lion. Usually if she ever sees any wildlife, she takes off after it, most of the time she is just interested in checking out the ice plant.

After we finished exploring the La Jolla Cove and the subsequent beach area further south, we then went to Sunset Cliffs Natural park. This was another very beautiful coastal area here in San Diego. It is amazing to see how over the millennia, how the ocean has slowly carved this coast line.

On Sunday, I ventured out by myself to check out the San Diego Maritime Museum. In all the times I've been to San Diego, I always see the signs for this place, but have never taken the time to check it out, but I'm sure glad I made the time on this trip. There is a old Ferry from the late 1800's called the Berkeley which was the first successful propeller driven Ferry on the west coast. It houses the nautical museum with lots of artifacts and scale models of ships of all purposes, and vintages. In the video link at the end of this entry where I have video for the week, you will also see some sections of the engine room.

Then there is the USS Dolphin. A military research submarine used by the Navy to test different submarine components and design approaches to see how deep a submarine could potentially dive. This diesel electric sub holds the record for the deepest dive ever recorded to this date. It carried 3 officers, 18 crew and 4 scientists on any given mission.

Next was the Star of India, a tall sailing ship here in the San Diego bay. It was so interesting to walk around the different compartments of this ship and see how those who use to travel the "High Seas" lived back in the 1700's and 1800's. There were staterooms, a sick bay, and of course a galley and even a captains quarters.

As with all of my previous stops, this one here in San Diego has been just as memorable as the ones before it. I still have another week here in San Diego and am truly looking forward to spending time with my niece Mia as we explore the USS Midway. So check in next week for that installment.

Here is the video from last weeks adventures.