1/14/16 Happy New Year 2016 Salem, Oregon and San Diego

Break In Snow Storm On Drive To Sisters, Oregon

Jack joins us as we dig a rental car out of the deep freeze in Pullman and drive to Salem, Oregon to visit John's cousin Meghan for a week over New Year's. He flies back to Pearl Harbor the next day while we get to visit their Three Sister's ranch land in beautiful Central Oregon and have a wonderful family Christmas/New Year's celebration with their Mom, kids and grand kids.

After our flight is cancelled due to plane issues, we eventually land back in San Diego in the middle of a powerful El Nino thunder storm which had caused us to divert around San Diego as the airport was shut down due to a rare tornado warning at the time we were supposed to be landing. Things are looking up as we Uber our way through torrential rains and flooding to arrive at the truck/RV storage just as they are closing.  We think we are home free as there is a break in the rain while we prepare the RV for towing....but oh no, it is not to be. The RV batteries are dead (had been having issues) and we can't retract the levelers which means it can't be moved.  Using the truck, we jump the RV generator to charge the batteries to no avail. It's now pitch black, cold, drizzling and oh yeah, we are starving.  Finally we jump direct to the batteries, get just enough juice to retract the levelers and an hour later we are off to Sweetwater Summit Campground. Once there we have enough juice to level and open the bedroom slide, but not enough for lights. And oh yeah, the furnace isn't working either! Thank goodness for canned soup which we heat on the gas stove. It is raining so hard it sounds like rocks pounding on our tin roof making it hard to talk to each other never mind try to sleep. And, it is cold. ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

Rainbow Over Sweetwater Lake San Diego

Next morning we replace the RV batteries and eventually figure out there are fuses inside the thermostat and the converter that had blown (thunderstorms??) which once replaced had everything running smoothly again.  The sun comes out along with a rainbow, it warms back up and yes, we are having fun.  Deb says she has already had enough "adventure" on this trip to last a lifetime and asks the universe to tone it down to simply "interesting".  

So why are we driving remote back roads along the Mexican boarder to visit the stone monument placed on the beach in 1851 marking the extreme southwest corner of the United States???  The drive was a little disconcerting but once we got there the armed Boarder Guards patrolling the mile and a half walk through desolate marshes and beach was most comforting.....

Extreme Southwest Corner of U.S. at Tijuana

Hiking around Sweetwater Park, touring Old Town San Diego and New Town (Gas lamp district) and the USS Midway again took up the rest of our time.   While on the Midway we paid special attention to the areas of the ship where Deb's dad worked in 1950-51.  He held one of the worst jobs on the ship - a fireman in the boiler where temperatures averaged 130 degrees.  In the campground we see bunnies, a beautiful coyote and many birds including a roadrunner.  John doesn't win the unprecedented $1.5 Billion Power Ball (thank goodness) so he won't be funding mass education after buying an Irish Castle.

Sunset Over Our RV Sweetwater Summit Park