Ordinary life

Soledad Canyon RV Resort Thousand Trails
March 3 - March 17, 2017

The view behind us was glorious!

This park is HUGE and actually has pretty nice spots in a picturesque area.  You can definitely get side by side RV park style spots but there were several to choose from where you didn't feel quite so close.

We chose a spot up on the hill overlooking the "mountains" where we got better Verizon cell service and 4G.  When our new monthly data allotment started on the 8th, we switched to unlimited on our Verizon plan.  It was hard to do because it was another $35-40 more a month but we're really tired of running out data at the end of the month and we really depend on it!  We don't seem to have wifi as much as we thought we would (boondocking in the desert kind of does that to you!).

Got to sit out several nights with the campfire.  Note RV's in
the view in front of us!  THAT's the more typical "RV Park"!

This was a rare 2 week stay which felt like ordinary life.  Laundry, TV binge watching (at times!), church, shopping, more tax research (we got 1099DIV and 1099R and 1099S for the first time - another set of learning curves!),  Amazon ordering (magic creeper , OBDII reader, batteries for the TMPS tire monitors, fumoto oil valve).  We'll have to tell you how we like these products after we try them out!  As an aside on Amazon ordering - with one of our packages, they said it was undeliverable (we sent it General Delivery Acton with the zip code) but they handed it off to the post office who delivered it to the Acton post office that same day.  With another, they said it was undeliverableand we tried to add the street address to Amazon and it said it wasn't valid.  So we called UPS.  They finally got it to us days later.  Not sure what the lesson is here but we'll be more leery about sending things to General Delivery although from everything we've read, this should not have been a problem.  We'll try to add the street and see if Amazon will take it.  I've read that there is only one post office in each city that handles General Delivery and that's how it's supposed to be addressed (General Delivery, City, Zip).

We attended Valencia UMC two Sundays in a row.  The first was at their 9:00 "Classic" service and the 2nd was their 10:30 Praise service.  It was wonderful to feel somewhat "like home" attending a United Methodist Church.  The music was wonderful with choir, handbells, and excellent praise band.  The sermons and worship services were excellent and meaningful.

Coming back on the trail at Vasquez Rocks

We did visit a few places around the area.  We especially enjoyed Vasquez Rocks - we even went twice because we went on a Monday and the interpretive center was closed so we came back later to go through that.  We also "got outta town" during this hot spell (mid 80's) and headed up to the mountains at Wrightwood to get our ideal 70 degrees.  It was a great drive, short hike (eventually had to stop because there was too much snow and couldn't see the trail!).  Otherwise we just enjoyed reading, campfires, hikes, bike rides, and walks.  Tried a few farmers markets but they were pretty small.

Most of our pics of Vasquez Rocks
were pretty lame.  It was very striking!

Highlights:  Seeing former co-workers of Ellen's, meeting new folks at the campground (something we don't do when we're boondocking since there aren't usually a lot of folks around!).

Lowlights:  Pretty upset about the scratches all along the passenger side from the attack bush at Sawtooth Canyon as we were leaving.  They are like 10 giant  finger-nail scratches the whole length of the passenger side from the bottom up to about halfway.  Polishing with two different products did make them less noticeable but did not remove them.  We also added  a new huge gnarly scratch (through the paint this time) on one of the bay doors (opened the door and it bumped into the propane tank which was set nearby).  Luckily its closer to the bottom of the door on a down slope  (not in the middle!) so not readily noticeable!

Things we're wondering:  Will we stop feeling heartsick over the scratches, will we figure out how to get rid of them or will we re-paint or will we learn to accept them?!

Things we've decided:  We think we've learned all we can at this point on these batteries and we believe that they are indeed "ruined" (lost capacity) so we've decided to purchase the Costco 6 volt batteries to continue our boondocking testing and experience before we buy more expensive batteries.   We'll do this toward the end of the month when we'll be back into boondocking country.

We eventually gave up on the trail near Wrightwood.  It was a
great temp but we couldn't find the trail with all the snow
still on the ground!