Monday, May 17th we woke up to gray skies and a light drizzle. Since the previous weekend had been so hectic we decided we needed a leisure day, so we just stayed around the coach. We also needed to be home in the afternoon because someone was coming to deliver Jackie’s new CPAP and oxygen equipment. About 2:00 p.m. a guy from a San Diego based medical supply company arrived and spent about 90 minutes explaining how the CPAP machine worked and how to set it up properly. He also fitted Jackie with the right mask. The CPAP machine is very small, however, the oxygen concentrator is the size of a medium suitcase. Fortunately, it is not very heavy. We were able to find a good spot for the equipment in the back, near the bed, and we got everything set up and ready. About 10:30 p.m. we got Jackie hooked up to the equipment and began the first night.
It did not go so well. Jackie was up most of the night trying to get comfortable and used to sleeping with the mask on. I was up most of the night, partly because Jackie was awake and restless, and partly because I was listening to the equipment and also listening for the sound of air leaking out of her mask. Needless to say, it was a long, rough night. The guy who delivered the stuff said it could take days, or even weeks, to get completely comfortable with the equipment, so we expected some rough times. Hopefully, it will get better sooner than later for Jackie. Tuesday we were pretty beat from the long restless night, and it was still cold and gray, so we decided to take another leisure day with no outside activities.
Wednesday we took a drive into Beaumont, back East about 15 miles, to do some shopping for the weekend. Jackie is having a “cousin’s reunion” this weekend. Her brother, Dennis, from San Diego, her cousin Judy (who also goes by “Pia”) from Pismo Beach, her cousin Cherie from San Fernando, her cousin Sue from Big Bear, and Sue’s daughter Stephanie are all coming for a get-together on Saturday. Pia and Dennis are coming Friday afternoon and plan on staying in our coach for the weekend. Thursday we did laundry and spent the day cleaning for the weekend. The last couple of nights have still been rough for Jackie with her new machine. She sleeps a little more, but still awakens a lot. She has trouble sleeping on her side with the mask and can’t sleep on her stomach at all. This causes her to wake up off and on all night long. Hopefully it will get better with time.
Friday, May 21st Jackie got started early on her food for the cousin’s day on Saturday. She made a big batch of my favorite Halibut Chowder (yum!) and a big batch of wasabi cole slaw. About 2:30 p.m. we got a call from Pia that she had arrived in Yucaipa and had decided to get a motel room rather than sleep at our coach tonight. Jackie also got a call from Dennis, her brother, that he probably would not be up until Saturday morning. We had thought we would have two house guests tonight and it turns out we probably wouldn’t have any. Oh well, the cat will be happy. About 5:30 or so Pia came over to the coach and the three of us had a nice chat. We usually get to see her at least once a year when we pass through the Pismo Beach area where she lives, and we had seen her last Spring. About 7:30 or so we decided we needed to eat so we drove into Yucaipa to a place called The Fat Greek. We had seen a billboard on I-10 for the place on Wednesday when we went out shopping and drove by the restaurant. It is right on Yucaipa Boulevard and only a couple of miles from the regional park where we are parked. Neither of us remember the restaurant being there last year when we were here. The restaurant appears to have been a burger joint in a previous life, but they have a huge menu. They have a lot of traditional Greek items, plus regular American fare and even some Mexican food. Both Pia and Jackie had the special, which was lamb chops. I am not a big lamb fan, but they had pastrami on the menu, so I had a pastrami sandwich. Jackie and Pia said the lamb was good and the Greek salad that came with it excellent. I thought the pastrami was among the best I have eaten. It is right up there with Boy’s in Cathedral City, which I have written about before. We will definitely be coming back to The Fat Greek in Yucaipa at some time in the future and would recommend it to anyone who happens to find themselves in Yucaipa, California and likes Greek food. After dinner Pia went back to her motel since she was tired from the six hour drive from the Central Coast. We headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.
Saturday, May 22nd, Cousin Reunion Day at Yucaipa. Pia came over to the coach from her motel about 10:00 a.m. and shortly after Jackie’s other two cousins, Sue and Cherie , along with Sue’s daughter Stephanie, arrived from Big Bear. We had hoped that the weather would be nice so everyone could sit outside, however, Mother Nature didn’t cooperate and it was cold and windy. Nonetheless, there was plenty of room inside and the women had a great time talking, reminiscing, sharing, and looking at photos. Jackie’s brother Dennis didn’t arrive until early afternoon, but he quickly joined in the sharing and talking. He had a lot of Jackie and Dennis’s mother’s old photos and soon they were all looking at those.
I kind of made myself scarce most of the day in the back of the coach because they were doing a lot of talking about people and occurrences that I had no way of
relating too. They were also doing some pretty powerful sharing and I didn’t want to interfere with that either. Although I am technically family, the only one’s I knew at all well were Dennis and
Pia, and I don’t really know a lot about their lives either. Jackie didn’t mind my staying apart and I thought it better for what they were trying to accomplish - a reconnecting of cousins who had been separated and out of contact too long. I was doing quite a bit of photo copying and scanning - I was the resident technician. I did come out for lunch, which was Jackie’s chowder and some fruit and salads that the other cousins brought. I wouldn’t miss the chowder! The visiting went on for the rest of the day and I won’t share any of the details, but I think everyone knew that there was something very powerful happening. The three women cousins had been pretty close when they were young and had drifted apart over the years. I know that they were all very happy to have this opportunity to become one with each other once again. Late in the afternoon we grilled some
burgers (veggie for some) and had a very nice dinner. The ladies from Big Bear left around 7:30 p.m. to drive back home, which was only about an hour, and Pia went back to her motel. Dennis was going to stay with us so the three of us spent another several hours talking before finally going to bed. Sunday morning Dennis stayed and visited until early afternoon before leaving. After Dennis left Jackie and I did some cleanup and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We had thought we might want to do some caching, but Sunday began cold and rainy, so we decided to just stay in.Monday, May 24th we woke to nice weather and went out to do some caching in the afternoon. We were able to find ten caches in a couple of hours in the Yucaipa area. On Tuesday we went out again after lunch and logged fifteen finds along with one DNF. Although we hadn’t been out caching for several days, we made it up on these two afternoons! After caching on Tuesday we headed back to the coach and did some preliminary preparations for our departure on Wednesday morning.
Wednesday, May 26th we packed up and headed out of Yucaipa towards Fullerton, California, in Orange County. We only had about a 60 mile trip, so it only took a couple of hours, even with workday traffic. Our plan is to stay at the Fullerton Elks Lodge for three days so we can make a visit to Disneyland. Both of us love Disneyland and felt the need to let our “inner children” out to play. Although we know a number of people from the Fullerton Elks through their RV club, we have never been to the lodge. They built a brand new lodge a couple of years ago and are
supposed to have six RV sites. We arrived at the lodge about 1:00 p.m. and were the only RV in the lot. The lodge is a very nice building on the top of a bluff looking South down Harbor Boulevard and downtown Fullerton. The RV spot we picked was right on the edge of the bluff and had the same view towards the rear of the coach. After we got settled in we drove around downtown Fullerton and did little sightseeing. We also found one geocache in the downtown area. Later in the afternoon we went into the lodge for a cocktail and met some of our friends. We had told Dick and Mary Moore, who are members of the Fullerton Lodge, that we were coming just to try and make sure that we had a spot when we got here. Turns out to not be a problem, but better safe than sorry. Dick was the Exalted Ruler of the Lodge last year so we thought he might be able to save us spot if necessary. We met Dick and Mary for cocktails and had a very nice visit. We met Dick and Mary through our contacts in the past with the Fullerton RV club. We got to know the Fullerton members through our good friends Dave and Marianne Conner, who had been members of the Fullerton Lodge before they moved to the Indio area and demitted to the Indio Lodge. We have been on several campouts with the Fullerton group in past years.Thursday, May 27th we got up early and headed to Disneyland. The park is only about five miles straight down Harbor Boulevard from the Fullerton Elks. We got into Disneyland about 10:00 a.m. and spent the entire day there, not leaving until nearly 9:00 p.m. Jackie was wearing her pedometer and when we got back to the car in the
evening it showed we had walked 10 miles! We did have a great day at Disneyland. Although it seemed crowded, we never had to wait more than 20 minutes or so for any ride. We went on all the “big kid” rides, walked all over, and had loads of fun. We also did some geocaching while we in the park. Although there are no traditional caches in the park (being private property) there were several virtual caches, which are caches that don’t have a physical container or log. You have to go to the cache location and then take some step to “prove” that you were there. Usually its either a photo or some questions which can only be answered by observation of the cache site. This information is then emailed to the person who posted the cache and he or she confirms your “find”. One cache was a small brass monument that marks the exact geographical center of Disneyland park. Another cache required us to attend one of the shows in the Golden Horseshoe Saloon and submit a photo of the show. The third cache was the most interesting and was the first of its kind we have ever done. Although it was only one cache, we had to go to thirteen different locations inside of the park and find something, usually a sign or plaque of some kind. The
clue would tell us to note one particular letter or number from the sign. At the end we had thirteen letters and numbers which turned out to be a password for an encrypted file. We got all the clues correct and were able to unlock the file which turned out to be a certificate of completion for the cache. Kind of a neat cache. It showed us areas of Disneyland and points of interest that we had no knowledge of, despite having been to the place dozens of times in the last 50 years. By the time we got home it was nearly 10:00 p.m. and we were bushed, but we had fun.Friday we went out for lunch and then did some caching in the Fullerton area and were able to find ten caches in just a couple of hours. After caching we headed back to the coach and changed clothes for dinner in the lodge. The Fullerton Lodge has a full Friday night dinner menu and we had made arrangements to meet Dick and Mary for dinner. We had a couple of drinks first and then ordered dinner. Jackie had a very nice steak and I some really good liver and onions. Dick was nice enough to pick up the check for the dinner. They also had a little jazz combo playing for dinner music and dancing. After dinner the four of us went back to our coach for a nightcap and some conversation. We had a really nice visit and ended up talking until after 11:00 p.m. We really enjoyed our visit to the Fullerton Lodge and it was our first new lodge pin for the banner in several months.
Saturday morning we departed the Fullerton Lodge about 10:00 and headed West towards Santa Barbara. The trip was only about 120 miles but it was right through the heart of Los Angeles and then along the coast Northwest of L.A. Since it was the Saturday of the three day Memorial Day weekend, the traffic was very heavy, especially once we got to the coast. But I had anticipated the traffic, so I just relaxed and rolled with the flow. It took three and a half hours to go the 120 miles but we had a reserved spot at the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge waiting for us. We got in about 1:30 and settled in for a four day stay. Sunday, May 30th we spent the day taking care of some needed chores. We did our laundry and some grocery shopping in Goleta, California, which is the next town West of Santa Barbara and where the Elks Lodge is actually located.
Monday, May 31st - Memorial Day. We woke up to light fog, but by the time we headed out after lunch it had burned off and the day was wonderful. About 70 degrees with a cool breeze off the ocean. We went out to do some caching and managed to add eleven finds in a couple of hours. We then headed back to the coach and noticed that the Lodge appeared to be open, so we went in and visited the bar for an early cocktail. There were only a few people in the lodge, being the holiday and all, but we had a nice chat with the bartender and a couple of the local members. After our drink we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.
Tuesday, June 1st we left before lunch and headed back East to visit the Ventura and Oxnard Elks Lodges. We had never been to either lodge and we needed some new pins for our banner. Ventura was about 30 miles East of Santa Barbara and Oxnard another 10 miles beyond that. We also did some caching along the way. We hit the Ventura Lodge at lunch time and had a very nice lunch and a couple of cocktails. We also got our lodge pin. The Ventura Lodge is in a business park and the building appears to have been an old office block at one time. They moved from their old downtown building about five years ago. There were not too many people in the bar, although they were having some kind of a luncheon in the back room for local business people. After the Ventura Lodge we headed over to the Oxnard Lodge. Their lodge building is in old town Oxnard and is a very large, spacious old style Elks building. The building was built in 1949 and has a huge dedicated lodge room and a huge bar area. It also has one of the largest ballrooms I have seen in an Elks. There weren’t too many people in the lodge, but the bartender was one of the officers and he gave us a tour and a history of the lodge. He has been a member for almost 30 years. We had a cocktail, got our lodge pin and then headed out to do some caching. We did a couple of caches in Oxnard, Ventura and then back in Santa Barbara. Even with most of our time spent traveling and in the lodges, we still got ten finds for the afternoon.
When we got back to the Santa Barbara Lodge we found that several of our Indio friends had arrived and were set up in the RV lot. We are all headed to Santa Maria and the Elks Rodeo over the next couple of days and most are using Santa Barbara as a stopover point. We went into the lodge with our group about 5:30 or so and had cocktails and then dinner. The dinner was very good and we stayed until about 8:00 when we headed back to the coach for the evening.
Wednesday, June 2nd we left the Santa Barbara Elks for the 65 mile drive to Santa Maria. Although the rodeo we will be attending is an Elks function, it is not at the Elks Lodge. It is at the Elks Rodeo grounds which is on the South end of Santa Maria. We got into the rodeo grounds about 12:30 after a couple stops for fuel and
propane. They park people in their lodge groups, so we had to find the Indio Lodge parking area. Once we got settled in we headed into Santa Maria for some lunch and last minute shopping. We will be here at the rodeo for four days before moving on. This is total dry camping, no water, power or sewer, so we will be “roughing it’ for the rest of the week. Only two other couples from the Indio Lodge were here today, the rest will be in sometime on Thursday.Thursday, June 3rd we woke up to a beautiful Central Coast day. Two other folks arrived for the Indio group in the morning, Chuck and Barbara and Larry and Cec. Chuck and Barbara are actually members of the Palm Springs Elks, but they decided to camp with the Indio group. Larry and Cec are fairly new members of the Indio group. Larry is a retired firefighter from Los Angeles County and also a former Marine. Semper Fi! The rest of the group were due later in the afternoon. After lunch we headed out to do some caching in the Santa Maria area. We managed to locate ten in a couple of hours, then did some shopping for the potluck dinner to be held tonight in the events tent at the rally. Jackie decided to do her wasabi coleslaw. When we got back to the rodeo grounds we found that all but one of the remainder of the Indio group had arrived and parked. We quickly found out that many of the group were planning to go to a local steak house, Jocko’s, for dinner rather than go to the potluck. We immediately said we were in because Jackie and I had just had a discussion that we wanted to be sure to go to Jocko’s sometime during our stay in the Central Coast area. We had been taken there last year by Jackie’s aunt Donna and her boyfriend and found it was one of the best steak houses we have ever eaten at. Jackie had already made her coleslaw, but we will probably be able to eat it ourselves over the next week.
The last people from our group to arrive were Bill and Lynette and they came in around 4:00 p.m. or so. They were having problems with their tow car when they pulled in, the battery was dead. The problem with that is that the car had to be running to be taken out of neutral and disconnected from the motorhome. When Bill got his portable jump start battery out of the coach, the battery in it was dead so we had to bring up another vehicle to jump start the car. Bill finally got the car disconnected and then drove up the road to find a place to turn the coach around so he could back into the last spot in the Indio Lodge’s camping area. I didn’t see it happen, but when he found a place to turn around he clipped another parked coach and tore off part of his main awning and completely removed the bedroom window awning. He also ripped a big hole in the fiberglass on the side of his coach. I am not sure what he did to the other guy’s coach, but he did say there was some damage. I know there is at least several thousand dollar’s worth of damage to Bill’s coach. Yikes! Needless to say, Lynette was not happy and didn’t come to our little cocktail hour. Most of the group did get together for cocktails and chat. We had a chance to catch up with several folks that we hadn’t seen in quite some time.
After cocktails fourteen of us headed off to Jocko’s Steakhouse for dinner. Our reservation was for 7:00 p.m., but they didn’t get us in until closer to 8:00. Even on a Thursday night the place was packed. We had a couple more drinks and just
chatted. When we finally got seated we found the food and service were just as good as we remember from last year. I had a New York steak that had to be three inches thick and 20 oz’s at least. Jackie had lamb chops and got three of the biggest lamb chops I have ever seen. For the first time in a VERY long time, I had leftover steak to take home for lunch. The best part is the bill was $50 for both meals! Huge portions, great taste and inexpensive! I would highly recommend Jocko’s Steakhouse in Nipomo, California to anyone that finds themselves in the Santa Maria or Pismo Beach area. Outstanding food and service, but be sure to make a reservation. After dinner we headed back to the coach and vegged for the remainder of the evening.Friday, June 4th - the fifth anniversary of our moving into our coach. We closed the sale of our house and took delivery of the new coach and have never looked back. People ask us if we still love the fulltime lifestyle after five years and we say ABSOLUTELY! Meanwhile, back in Santa Maria we went out after lunch to do a little bit of caching. We wanted to get at least four caches so we would reach the 1,500 cache finds milestone. And we did! We found seven caches in a couple of hours. After caching we went to the Santa Maria Elks Lodge for a quick visit. The last time we were in the Santa Maria Lodge was back before we were fulltimers and way before we were collecting lodge pins, so we knew we had to go for a drink and a lodge pin. The Santa Maria Lodge is very large and very nice. They also have a great RV lot. Shortly after we got to the lodge we were joined by Red and Barbara, another couple from Indio attending the rodeo. We had one drink, got our lodge pin and then headed back to the coach.
At 5:30 we headed up to the events tent, a couple hundred yards from our coach, for dinner and the night’s entertainment. Dinner was wonderful - BBQ’d chicken, salad, beans and potato salad. The chicken was cooked over an open wood fire and was very tasty. After dinner there was a DJ that played some dance music. There was a rodeo event down at the arena that started at 7:00 p.m. so a lot of the people left, but
we stayed to talk to folks and listen to the music. Around 8:00 p.m. the DJ started some karaoke and we ended up staying until almost 11:00 p.m. singing and having a great time. The DJ got the various lodges in attendance to sing group songs and we ended up spending a lot of time with the Santa Barbara Lodge contingent who had a lot of people stay behind. Jackie and I and Lynette were the only ones from Indio who stayed past 7:30 for the entertainment. Some of the Indio people went to the rodeo event, but most just went back to their coaches. Party poopers!Saturday, June 5th we skipped the rodeo parade which was held in downtown Santa Maria. The parade was supposed to start at 9:00 a.m. and several people had told us the night before that it really didn’t amount to too much. At noon we went up to the event tent for a hamburger lunch which was included as part of our camping package. After lunch we went for a little drive around the area. The day was a little hotter than it had been and without any electric we couldn’t run the air in the coach without running the generator. So just to get out of the warm coach we got in the car and drove down towards Lompoc and Vandenberg Air Force Base. Bill and Lynette came along with us just to have something to do as well. After a couple hours we went back to the rodeo grounds and relaxed until dinner. Dinner was also part of the package and was BBQ beef. Like the chicken on Friday, the dinner was great. After dinner they had some entertainment and then the drawings for various raffles. Although we bought tickets, we didn’t win anything. About 7:30 we headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.
Sunday morning most of our group was leaving the Elks Rodeo grounds near Santa Maria and venturing a few miles up the road to the Oceano Elks Lodge. One couple was staying at the rodeo grounds for one additional night, and another two were headed elsewhere, but six of us went to the Oceano Elks RV park. We got in and got parked by noon. We have stayed at the Oceano Lodge a number of times and always had a good time. It is only about a block from the beach, so there was a nice cool ocean breeze. About 4:30 we went into the lodge for a cocktail and some karaoke, which they do every Sunday. I did a couple songs and then about 7:00 seven of us went to a nearby Mexican restaurant, Juan’s Old Cantina, for dinner. They have excellent food at Juan’s and I highly recommend it. It is on the corner of State Route 1 and Pier avenue in Oceano. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed.
Tomorrow we are leaving Oceano and taking a long 12 mile drive to Avila Beach, California and one of our membership RV parks. We will be in Avila Beach for a week. With that, this seems to be a great time to finish this episode. Until the next time, stay safe and be happy!
