On the road again: California to Texas

Before we left San Diego, we got our chores done, then dedicated a full day to having fun. It started with a trip to the KOA hot tub and heated outdoor pool. And we were the only ones in both of them, despite the fact that it was around 10 a.m. Traveling in the off-season rocks.

Surprisingly, the hot tub was actually hot and the main pool felt comfortable and not cold at all! Yet another reason to love California...

 

We also had to pay one last visit to the Pacific with a walk along Mission Beach.

And what trip to San Diego would be complete without getting fish tacos on the beach?

From there we took a short drive to Harbor Island for happy hour at a nice restaurant we've been to once before on a previous trip to Southern California in 2008: C-Level/ Island Prime.

The restaurant is called C-Level during the day and through happy hour, and reverts to Island Prime's dinner menu afterwards. We'd looked it up beforehand and when we saw that happy hour appetizers and drinks were only $5 the decision was made!




Plus, with waterfront views just being there is incredibly relaxing. We sat in the semi-outdoor heated patio and watched daylight begin to fade and transform the buildings of downtown San Diego into a virtual Crayola box of color.

After three nights at the KOA near San Diego, we packed up and got back on the road, this time heading east. Fortunately, sleeping in the van means when it's time to go, there isn't much to actually pack. We take showers, put clothes away in backpacks (we each keep 2-3 days worth of clothes in each of our small day-packs), put the cooler back in the van, and go! It's a pretty nice way to start the day.

And so we waved a long, sad tearful goodbye beautiful California and the West Coast, at least until spring.

Then, we Scotty began an epic driving marathon on Interstate 8, and later, 10, that took us through Tucson, Arizona, and the southernmost part of New Mexico (Deming and Las Cruces),  and into Texas via El Paso.

During the drive, our only considerable stop was at the Tucson REI to buy a Bio-Lite CampStove and grill. This thing is so cool and we'd both been eying it for years. I'll have to write about it once we use it.

So why did we bypass so much of the country, including Arizona and New Mexico, two of my favorite states? Blame it on the winter storms whole regions have been pelted with for the past week, with well-below average temperatures in many places.

Our original plan was to spend a few days in Joshua Tree National Park (I even had two nights reserved for us at this awesome campground) drive up to Flagstaff/ Sedona area and see the Grand Canyon, then north into Utah to do some mountain biking in Moab (something Scotty had been looking forward to) and stay near Arches National Park.

Because of re-routing south, we also missed the Four Corners area and Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The last time and only time I was there I'd gone to visit a friend just before I moved to Alaska in 2006, and I sort of fell in love with the place. Perhaps in spring we'll be back on our return trip to Alaska to see what we missed.

After we crossed the state line into Texas, the lights of El Paso and neighboring Juarez, Mexico stretched out like a giant glittering blanket.



A few hours later as we crossed the Davis Mountains at 6,000+ feet above sea level, the highway turned to ice. I woke from "napping" in the back to find Scotty inching the mini-van along behind the few semi-trucks that kept going; most were pulled over on the shoulder and we saw plenty of fender benders and a few overturned trucks that had run off the road. At that point, we both felt very glad to have just purchased new tires for the van back in Oregon.

Because even the most dedicated long-haul driver such as my man needs sleep, he finally parked us at a rest area next to this old (fort?) building close to Fort Stockton. In the morning, I saw that we had also parked next to what looked a big litter box for humans behind it...

That day we made it Austin- more to come!