9/27/15 San Diego with Jack

Jack and Mom at Sweetwater Campground

As we pull into San Diego's Sweetwater Summit Campground, perched on a rolling hillside with a lovely valley view, our Camp Host neighbor says "glad you are here, wasn't sure you were going to make it for dinner".  Along with several Park Rangers and fellow Camp Hosts, we are invited to a freshly caught fish cookout including sticky rice, yummy fresh tuna jerky and Fireball Whisky to close the evening. Happy to have Jack join us, the gang of mostly Navy/Marine vets enjoyed listening to his plans and thanked him for his service.  We are SO very proud of him.

Ford 350 Crew Cab Long Bed

Truck issues finally force us to buy a new one and the process took 4 LONG DAYS! Day 1 is paperwork.  Day 2 is driving 220 miles round-trip to Riverside to get a new hitch base, get it installed, then drive 350 miles round-trip to Yuma, Arizona to take delivery of said truck (the dealer's recommendation to avoid California sales tax since we are not residents).   Our old truck practically died pulling into the Lowe's parking lot where we met with a Yuma notary who verifies we took possession outside California. We swap trucks with the Ford Dealer's driver, put on our old Montana license plates, drive back to San Diego in our new unregistered truck (no dealer plates or have to pay $4,000 sales tax), and are luckily waived through the California Border Patrol check point.  Day 3 is spent correcting the new truck title that had the old truck's odometer reading on it.  Day 4 is getting it accessorized including running boards so Deb doesn't need a ladder to get in.  Love the bigger, stronger, longer truck but hard to park!

We learn the hard way why many RVs have circled their rigs with all sorts of chemicals to keep ants out.  We get ants and do what is recommended on the internet, put liquid borax traps (Walmart) around the room.  Do you believe everything you read on the internet???  Well a few hundred tiny ants turn into THOUSANDS and they are climbing the walls everywhere.  The borax worked in that they were all gone the next day but how about next time putting the traps outside near the RV and not draw them in???

Seems like we have been in stressful situations for months and so it continues. Chili just had a  8.3 earthquake generating a tsunami warning up the southern California coast and a thunderstorm in Utah led to flash floods in Zion National Park (our next stop) killing 17 hikers.  We are fried, and having already seen soooo many beautiful places in this country, we skip the planned trip to Utah's Zion, Bryce, and Monument National Parks and settle down here for 8 more days and then go direct to the Grand Canyon.  We have gotten to the point where we are not appreciating these magnificent sites so will save Utah for another trip.

USS Midway Museum

Jack takes us on a tour of the surface fleet and we go aboard the aircraft carrier Midway.  This was the first ship Grandpa French served on as a Seaman Recruit in 1950! We  have a fantastic walk around Cabrillo National Park and visit to Mission San Diego.  Mid-week we catch a Padres game with Jack, and spend time hanging around Hotel Del Coronado with

Hotel Del Coronado

Virginia friends John and Vicki who are here vacationing.  Next weekend, with Jack we hike around Torrey Pines and boogie board, watch ECU beat VA Tech at Jack's Coronado apartment, and experience the blood moon eclipse overlooking the ocean on the deck of the Hotel Del with John and Vicki.  So hard to leave after visiting with either one of our kids.

Jack's Coronado Apartment View