Thurs, Aug 23, 2007
My Internet buddy had recommended waking up at 4:30 to beat the traffic into San Diego, but I slept in until 5:30, broke camp and was off by 5:40. I found that I could get a single breakfast burrito at McDonald's for only $1. The place was actually closed, but they'd forgotten to lock the door, so they let me have my breakfast.
Traffic on Hi-5 was actually not that bad, but I turned off to check out the surf on the way.
This was the point in the trip where the car and I started to wear out. The A/C in the car broke, but luckily it broke so that it was always on -- that won't need fixing til I get back home. On my side, my shoulder was sore, my ankle was sore, my feet had lots of cuts. I'd see places to surf, but it just seemed too cold and too far to walk, so I kept driving. For example, the waves looked pretty good at Cardiff-by-the Sea. But Al-by-the-highway would have had to walk down a big set of stairs to become Al-in-the-Sea.
Another driving problem was buzzing. The soft rack that I have is great, and it's been well-behaved so far. But on this day it started buzzing. That is, the wind makes some strap vibrate against the roof -- loudly. When it happens it's as loud as a trombone in your ear.
Usually, when this happens I just stop and twist some straps, and it stops. This time I just couldn't locate the source of the problem. I made more than 20 stops (not making this up) trying to fix it. That is, find someplace to stop, twist strap or tie towel around some part of the rack, then start again. It wouldn't happen until 50 MPH, so there was no way to test without driving. Finally a combination of ripped up towel, moving the board, and putting some part of the rack upside down did the trick.
This was a day on which I had no camping reservations, so I also checked out campgrounds.
Here's the line that formed at 6:30 AM for finding out whether there were any sites at St. Elijo state park. Even though the site was fully reserved, these people were waiting until8 AM to see if there was anything available. I decided not to wait.
So I continued on, and soon arrived at the goal of this entire trip: Mission Beach. It was the goal because this was the beach at which I first surfed. I spent a summer in San Diego in 1970 visiting my sister, and surfed at this beach using my brother-in-law's board.
The sun came out, the water was warm and clear, I got some good rides so all the aches and pains were forgotten. I surfed until I was exhausted, and then got a Subway sandwich and ate it on the beach.
After lunch: Butterfingers Cream Pie. I recommend a trip to McDonalds (or was it Burger King) to get one of these. Fortunately, they neglected to include this dessert on the chart showing fat and calories.
I also took a quick trip past my Sister's old house, so, for her benefit, this is what it looks like now:
Next, it was time to find a campsite. I knew that Sweetwater Regional Campground had a few spaces, but I was too cheap to pay the $5 reservation fee, and drove directly there.
Now mapquest is great when you can print out the map, but I don't have a printer with me. Without going into details, it took a long time to find it, but they had a number of sites available!
This actually turned out to be the nicest campground on the trip. It was on the edge of a steep hill and shady with a wonderful breeze. Since one's not allowed to tie things to trees, it took a bit of figuring to get my hammock installed.
Here's the view from my site.
The campground was exceptionally quiet and peaceful. Unfortunately, that will change soon since they are building a new freeway right next to it.
I spent some time talking to another lone camper who I will call "Crazy Steve." Crazy Steve was sitting in the cab of his truck which had no fewer than three six packs of Coors on the dashboard. He asked if I wanted an ear of corn and I said "Sure." When it was done boiling, he said "This is how we fix our corn in South Carolina." He opened a brand new tub of margarine, and submerged the half ear of corn into it. He then twisted it around until most of the margarine had melted. It actually didn't taste that different from corn on the cob that only had a little butter on it.
Steve had a TV plugged into the campsite hookup and sitting on the picnic table bench. But it was so light out that you couldn't really see the picture.
Crazy Steve was apparently smart, but something was a little off. He had been an architect, and had designed 143 banks around the state of California. He's been getting $1,000/month disability checks from Farmer's Insurance for 20 years for arthritis. Although he does indeed have arthritis, he says that the checks continue because Farmers has so much money and they don't bother to check.
He stays at campgrounds exclusively, and does house painting during the day.
Back at my campsite, I read in the sleeping bag in my hammock (it had actually gotten pretty cool) into the night. I've had good luck with books this trip, finding some that I've really enjoyed. So far I've read:
How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie). This book, originally published in 1936, isn't quite what you'd expect. Highly recommended.
Cold Paradise, Stuart Woods. Pure entertainment reading, but totally engrossing. You an always count on a satisfying ending with this author.
L.A. Dead, Stuart Woods. Fun to read this book, since a number of things happened in Malibu and other places I've been on this trip.
Gone Baby Gone, Dennis Lehane. Leahane is the author who wrote Mystic River. I just started this one last night, and it's great so far.
One other note about this campsite, to qualify the "peaceful" comment. It is right under the final approach pattern for San Diego airport. I dreamt about airplanes all night long (not making that up) bu slept well.
So ends Day 13.
Here's my campsite:
It may look desolate to you, but when you've been driving around for hours trying to find an available campsite, it looks like a dream spot.
