Christmas and New Years in SoCal

We left the Carson Valley mid December and headed to the San Diego area. The trip was going well until we stopped at Tehachapi, CA for the night and we had trouble with the generator. It didn’t want to run for very long and then it would stall. Since we have over 1400 watts of solar on the roof, it was not an immediate problem. However, our plans in January included a week with the Xscapers at Lake Havasu and then on to Quartsite. We might need our generator sometime during January especially if the weather turned cloudy. So we called our favorite RV repair shop “Redlands Truck and RV” and had a chat with Keith. Soon we were on our way to Redlands, and we were given the VIP service as they give to all their customers.

We had to leave our generator in the hands of the staff here because Mark was leaving soon on a long-range fishing trip out of San Diego and we didn’t have time to wait for the diagnosis or the repair. We will go back and pick it up before we continue to Lake Havasu. Since we are at the shop anyway, we had Keith and his crew install Koni shocks. We had them on the last coach we had and they really add a bit of cushion between the road and the rest of the coach. One amenity at Redlands RV is something you usually don’t find at an RV Repair facility. When space allows, they offer a Full hookup RV park for their customers only. It’s never good news when you need work on your coach, but if you are able to stay in it at night while the work is being performed, it really makes the experience much better. Keith and Karen have provided their customers with the gated RV space called The Grove. They call it the Grove, I think because it is situated near many orange groves and on this particular property, there are many orange trees with abundant fruit during the season.

They have complimentary WIFI, in addition to a sitting area equipped with comfortable chairs, a microwave oven, and a wash and dryer. What other RV repair service has offered this to their customers? When space is available, this area is for Redlands RV customers with immediate service reservations.

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We are now at the Chula Vista Elks Lodge for a few weeks. This is a perfect place to stay to visit this area of Southern California. It has full hookups a nice lodge and a park area with patios and bocce ball courts. The spaces are very tight so be prepared to “Squeeze In” One great feature at this park is the Baja style outdoor lounge area just for the RV campers. It has all you need if you’d like to BBQ, watch movies or TV outside your coach, as well as sit by the campfire in the “Palapa” style Happy Hour area.

From Chula Vista, in 30 minutes you can be at Mission Bay, at the Airport, or at Hotel del Coronado. It’s a great location.

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Take the Old Town Trolly, and in less than 3 hours you can see most of San Diego and hear about the history and trivia that makes this tour so worthwhile. The Gaslamp Quarter, Balboa Park, The Midway Aircraft Carrier, Seaport Village, Little Italy, and Hotel del Coronado.

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We had a great lunch at Miguel’s in Old Town. I would recommend this eatery for its yummy fresh salsa and the best swordfish tacos I have ever had.

The long range fishing trip on the boat called the SHOGUN was a success. Over 30 fishermen and 7 crew members spent 6 days on the Pacific Ocean near Guadalupe Island. Everyone caught all the Tuna they wanted. Mark ended up with over 100 pounds of Yellowtail after it was cleaned and processed.

Mark looks a bit dazed after riding on the boat all night and most of the day to get to the Guadalupe Island area where they wanted to fish. It was already dark when he landed this one on his second cast.  He also said the ocean was Very rough!

He hooked one more Tuna but handed it off to a fellow fisherman who had not caught any fish yet.

Here’s two bags of the frozen tuna. One bag is 18 inches tall by 15 inches.

We had the tuna processed by “Fisherman’s Processing” in San Diego. They do a very nice job of packing and freezing the fish. We have used their service for the past two years.

Our friends Betty and Duane were in Redondo Beach for the Holidays, so they came down to San Diego for a week to hang out with us. We always have a great time together. We did a little shopping, enjoyed good food and Happy Hours in the San Diego sunshine.

Today we four go our separate ways. Betty and Duane will head to Arizona, and we will go back to Redlands to pick up our generator that was getting serviced. Starting on Saturday, we will meet up in Lake Havasu with the Xscapers for the Annual Bash for one week of fun and games. We are expecting about 400 or more for the Bash. Stay tuned for photos and stories of that event.