While most of the time at Slab City was depressing for me to say the least. There were some highlights that helped me keep my sanity. I received a couple calls about possible temporary positions in SoCal-one in Oceanside and one in Hollywood- that were very interesting! I’m excited to have an opportunity at either place! I should know more this next week. My hope is to work full time February, March, and April, maybe May. The fact that we are already so far south we saw border patrol everywhere is a huge plus! The fewer miles we have to drive to get to a job, the better profit margin to take off for 3 months! While I would love to see Bees, this is financially a better option than looking up north. I can make due with video chatting.
We were also able to set a date with our new friends Ted and Lori to do some lobster hooping in Dana Point! We met Ted and Lori through the Fresh n Salty fishing group when we were in Timber Cove, CA, clear back at the beginning of our full time RV journey in November.
Ted and Lori are from Anaheim. He told Lori they were going a “couple hours out of town” to fish for ling cod the weekend they came to Timber Cove! It’s over 8 hours to drive! LOL! I found Lori quite delightful and while I didn’t get to spend much time with Ted-he was out in the kayak-I knew we had met friends!
Mike has always wanted to hoop lobsters but I guess this is something you do at night. Definitely not something you want to do alone in your kayak for the first time. I had reached out to Lori and fortunately Ted had some weekday availability. Doheny State Beach campground is right on the ocean at Dana Point and pretty easy to get weekday reservations in the winter, but weekends were not looking good.
We were able to get four weekdays booked and Ted was available our first 2 days there! This meant we needed to be at Doheny on the 21st, but it was only the 16th when we were leaving Slab City. We could stay there up to 14 days but I was crazed so we had to leave lol!
Mike knew he’d rather take a more scenic route than I10 so we opted to stay on 78. At least initially. We had been at Slab City for 3 days and Quartzsite for 6 days before that. Tanks were getting pretty full so I needed to plan at least a dump but I was really wanting hook ups. I also wanted cheap! We hadn’t paid anything for camping so far in January and my goal was to really conserve and keep costs low.
Borrego Palm Canyon Campground is located in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. While it was about 15 miles off of highway 78, it was the most reasonable campground in the area and had full hook-ups. We could dump, fill, shower like fools, do laundry in our own machines, and vacuum.
It really was a beautiful drive over to the campground from Slab City. We were pretty far south and had to go through a border patrol checkpoint. There were huge expanses of sand-what you think of when you think “desert”. There were also fields full of greens and broccoli and cauliflower. I could smell the cauliflower!
There was an area just a few miles outside of the campground with all of these animal monuments erected. They took us by surprise and I was only able to snap a couple of pictures. There must have been around 50 or more. Dinosaurs, elephants, horses. It was such a fun surprise. The journey IS the reward. If only we could all remember that all the time!
I hadn’t made a reservation at Borrego Palm Canyon Campground. I had gotten all the way to the reservation window then took a break to make dinner. By the time I got back to it, the time window had closed. I knew there were at least 8 sites open and we were traveling on a Thursday so I felt pretty confident we would get a site.
The ranger manning the booth was awesome. She highlighted all the open sites and let us drive through to pick whichever one we wanted. All of the sites in the full hook up area are pull through and have 20, 30, and 50 -amp service-for $35.00/night. In California, this is a GREAT price! We saved the online reservation fee since we were drive up guests as well! Woohoo!
The park is really busy on the weekends. We didn’t get to explore too much since it was just a one night stop over but it was absolutely stunning! Gorgeous palm trees, a beautiful flat area butted up against this huge mountain. It was so clean! My oasis in the desert! My heart felt so light, especially after all the emotions of Slab City!
We did meet one gentleman who had a male German shorthair pointer as well. He and his partner were traveling slowly to Yuma and said they come to this park all the time when making that journey from Grass Valley, CA. We did ask what the draw was for people to come here besides just a stop over-what do people do? It apparently has some really great hiking trails. In addition, it’s quiet, beautiful, and low cost. There were quite a few snowbirds camped here. He also said, “you can stay for 14 days at this rate, in this peace.”
We were able to get our laundry caught up using our little machines, dump our tanks, and take ridiculously long, hot, glutenous showers. I swept, vacuumed, and mopped. The dogs got a nice long walk in as well the morning we left. It was the most beautiful little park! They had showers and regular flush toilets as well as the cutest little vault toilets farther out in the dry camping areas.
Dogs are only allowed on the paved areas, so don’t plan to go on the big hikes with your fur baby if you choose to visit there.
Louie, Kiya, and I walked all through the campground the next morning. They were so happy to get a good walk in with momma and I was feeling so much better. It was a beautiful morning in a beautiful place. I had soaked up some vitamin D and was ready to move on.
As I walked through the campground, I could hear Mike talking from a couple rows away. It sounded as if he was having a nice conversation with a neighbor maybe. Imagine my surprise when we got around to our campsite and found him inside on his computer with the window open.
He was video chatting with an old Iowa friend-and practically yelling! He was SOOO loud! I was in a great mood and said, “hey, you’re really loud!” Mike has significant hearing loss he refuses to admit or address and has always been very loud anyway. He got all pissy because I commented on it which created quite a little tiff between us. I call that hallway sex-we pass each other in the hallway and say “F you!” (I tell this story because he often sounds like a damn saint in my blogs and I need to make sure you all know he can still be a major ass lol!)
We finished packing up camp in silence after our little battle. Our next stop was Casino Pauma in Pauma Valley, California. This had caused a bit of a “discussion” as well. When I found this stop, I was on an app and thought I was still looking at places on highway 78, turns out this was going to take us on another highway, S22, 79, and 76. It was actually a more direct route, but crossing the mountains is not something you should take lightly in an RV. As I said, we had a “discussion” about this the night we got to Borrego Palms. After looking at the map and watching some videos of the roadway, it looked like it was going to be fine to drive.
The drive, while fairly silent, was really pretty. We drove around Lake Henshaw and the meadows were all so green from the rainy season. I spent part of the time enjoying the scenery and part of the time figuring out how to make Mike’s death look like an accident. It really was a pretty easy mountain drive with very few steep grades. There were a few tight turns but nothing like driving to Timber Cove up PCH 1. We arrived at Casino Pauma in a little over an hour.
It is absolutely gorgeous here. There is an area to the right as you come that is clearly marked for RV’s. It took a couple tries to get Reva level in this dirt lot but we did finally find a spot and got perfectly level and didn’t have to unhook Yeep-plenty of room to open up slides and relax. There is an orange grove surrounding the casino. I had never walked through an orange grove before. It smelled so good! The hillsides surrounding the casino were full of beautiful avocado trees and everything was so green. We were both feeling better. I think the desert had taken a bit out of each of us at this point.
I had found the casino on campendium.com and knew we’d have to get a player’s card and register, then we could camp up to 72 hours in their lot. I had also seen they had some pretty good perks for new player club members.
Boy, did they have perks! We both received $10 in free slot or table play AND a free buffet dinner any night of the week. We arrived on a Friday, which happened to be lobster night! I’m pretty sure we both felt like we’d won the lottery. We had only eaten out once-at a Carl’s Jr-since Christmas eve. I’m not sure Carl’s Jr. counts as eating out, but it was our only unhealthy splurge.
We got registered and got our camping permit and checked out the casino. It’s not very large, but very clean and the staff are very nice. Unlike some other casinos we’d been to, the smoke odor was nil. We walked back to the RV hand in hand and grinning like little kids. I’d found a gem to stop over at and the ick from the last few days washed off both of us.
The dogs were happy too. They could run a bit in the orchard and we walked on leash several times during our stay. The weather was perfect. 74 degrees and sunny. Soaked in that much needed vitamin D and the scent of oranges. Finally got sage brush out of my nostrils!
Since I’ve been intermittent fasting and doing WW-down several pounds this week already-we hung out, caught up on reading and writing and went to the buffet around 5:30. There was no line. It was a cute little restaurant with an orange tree as the centerpiece and the food was AMAZING!
In addition to lobster tails, they had wonderful prime rib at the carving station. The carver was not holding back. She gave us a good 10-12-ounce slice along with a cup of au jus. Their side dishes were everything lobster-felt like a Forest Gump movie with lobster instead of shrimp lol!
Lobster potatoes, lobster bisque, lobster mac n cheese, manicotti stuffed with lobster, pasta with mushrooms and lobster. It was so good. They also served clams, fried calamari, and mussels that were very good. We definitely filled our bellies!
Over the course of the two days we stayed I donated $20 back to the casino and Mike was somewhere around $40. Well worth free boondocking for 2 nights and a delicious dinner.
We had originally thought we would stay here 3 nights and head straight to Dana Point on Monday but we realized Mike needed several things to prepare for his lobster expedition with Ted Monday afternoon-duplicate license (his was mailed to Chico), lobster stamp, kayak light, etc.
While beautiful, Casino Pauma is up in the middle of nowhere without local access to the stores he would need to get his supplies. So, I got online and found Guajome County Park in Oceanside, not far from the beach-looks like 8 miles. It has partial hook ups-water and electric at your site with dump station on the property-for $35/night. For this area, that price is UNREAL! We are spending $47/night to dry camp on Dana Point. I know parking areas that cost this much. So, tomorrow we will drive 23 miles down the mountain to Guajome Park for one night to prep for Dana Point and lobster hooping. See ya there!
