day: 88 ownings mills to wilmington

we are "home" and it feels weird.  we are staying at kristen's parents for 2 weeks, then flying out to steamboat, colorado to go snowboarding with my parents.  we have 2 weeks scheduled, but it may end up being a month or so.

we will be around, driving as little as possible.  we want to catch up with everyone before we are off to colorado.

instead of paying to store the camper.  i think we are going to sell it on consignment at alexander's rv dealership in smyrna.  they will store it for free, detail it and then advertise.  if anyone wants to buy a road tested, quality pop-up now is the time.... hit us up before i take it to the dealership.

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day: 87 nashville to ownings mills

after a nice visit with my sister's family and the camper made right we headed out to ownings mills to visit with my best friends tim and jenne and our god daughters charlette and alex.  we had a gorgeous fish tacos with home made tortillas prepared gracefully by chef tim.  the next day we had a baby dance party

 

   

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day 85: memphis to nashville

from memphis to nashville for a 2 day visit with my sister marchell and my brother-n-law greg and his son hogan.  it was a pleasure to enjoy the company of family.  i love you o'brien family!

also while in nashville i got the electrical wiring fixed on the camper.  the rv place that caused the problem payed the bill, but they were not happy because they feel the repair was grossly over charged.  now that they have a bad taste in their mouths if may be difficult to have them reimburse me for my dead car battery.

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day 84: el reno to memphis

driving without camper lights during daylight hours only we made our way 8 hours to memphis and had to get a hotel room.  we planned on driving the 3 remaining hours to nashville and i arranged for camper electrical repair in nashville and then on to my sister's house for a visit.

well that did not work as planned... we awoke in memphis to a completely dead car battery.  the short in the camper electrical system destroyed the trailblazers battery!  i removed the car battery and we carried the it 1.5 miles to the nearest k-mart.  at the k-mart we "commandeered" a shopping cart and then we proceeded push the battery in the cart another 1/2 mile to a sears auto center.  at the sears we had the battery tested and confirmed it was dead.  we purchased a new battery and then pushed the shopping cart 2 miles back to the hotel.  people stayed out of our way, we looked and smelled like new bums.  i installed the battery and we were on our way to nashville, missing our service appointment of course.  what a freakin' day!   

watch out for mumbling, stinking homeless man!

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day 83: albuqueque to el reno

today's target was fort smith arkansas, but we had to make an emergency stop in... where the hell are we?  el reno oklahoma.  this morning along the way we had a sway bar installed on the camper, it makes it pull so much better, but the installer drilled threw the camper frame and sacrificed the electrical wiring, leaving us with no camper lights.  we did not realize until it got dark and we were 500 miles from where we had the work done.

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day 82: flagstaff to albuqueque

driving across arizona and new mexico the landscape is beautiful.  there is so many mountains and different colored rocks.  since the country is getting battered with harsh cold weather we decided not to drive 10+ hours a day.  we are keeping our travel to about 8 hours daily.   let's see how this treats us.

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day 81: pacific beach to flagstaff

so the california love affair has come to an end.  today we have packed the camper up tight and we are headed east on route 66 and staying in cheap hotels along the way.  first stop flagstaff arizona.

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surfing in many forms

today in mission beach we had a day chock full of surfing in many forms...

am session, long clean waist high peelers

lunch at the wave house, watching people rip or bust their ass on brutus maximus was entertaining

followed by an afternoon stand up paddle session in mission bay

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surfing mission beach

so we decided to stay in san diego a couple more days, the weather is perfect and the surfing is great.  we just ton't want to leave.

here are some shots of me surfing mission beach

 

 

and in ocean beach there is a place called dog beach where there is surfing and you can let your dogs run free and play.... this place is stellar!

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day 76: oceanside to pacific beach

we have decided the three places that we are considering for relocation are: wilmington north carolina, charleston south carolina and san diego.  with that being said we are focusing a bit more time and energy in seeing san diego thoroughly.

we tried to camp in northern san diego at san elijo state beach, but the reservation process and rules for the state beaches are jacked up.  we were not able to find reasonable accommodations so we back to a place we have previously visited in pacific beach called campland on the bay.

i got in two good sessions at tourmaline surf beach before the pacific went flat. 

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day 74: morro bay to oceanside

our plan is to see as much of california as humanly possible.  in order to do that we are making stops in places we missed on the way up.  northern san diego county is now on our radar and we camped for a couple days in oceanside.

oceanside is a chilled out surf town with a fun beach area.  i got a couple good sessions in at the beach break, waist to chest and long california lines.

while in eceanside we had a great dinner.  teriyaki chicken boston lettuce wraps with sprouts and cuccumbers.  

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Cashmere's log - Day 74

Happy new year! It was happy as we stayed somewhere with a big rock and I could run free on the big beach and we even went for walks in the dunes at night. I am glad I got to run and play because now we are in yet another "rv park" which is short for "rv parking lot." It is all cement with big signs on the very few small patches of grass that say "no dogs!." But of course there is a "dog walk" which stands for "small barbed-wire fenced in area with mulch pit next to the train tracks and rv storage area that was too small to use for another campsite." As if I will stoop so low as to go there. No... I held it about 18 hours until mom and dad took me near the beach and we found the only patch of grass without the no dogs sign on it. I am not allowed on the beach here at all! And people actually sneered as they walked past me... humph... I usually make people smile?!? Even the ducks in the so-called "creek" behind our site are laughing at me. But I am not the one living in a cement drainage ditch fooling myself that is is a creek. So there!

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surfing cayucos

morro rock right outside my front door was indeed breaking while we stayed here, but the break was disorganized and closey-outy.

just down highway 1 a couple miles was cayucos and i got a good session in at the pier.  the locals were nice, i slid right into the lineup at the peak and scored some long lines.  it was fairly clean and throwing chest high bombs.

thank you hedwig for the cayucos recommendation!

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