Carlsbad and San Diego

We left Sedona very early on Boxing Day morning after a quick farewell to the understandably sleepy Washingtons next door. 

We headed south skirting around the west side of Phoenix and settled in for the long drive to LA. On the way we had our last crossing of the Colorado River and glimpsed the southern end of Joshua Tree National Park which was the first National Park we visited.

We also got our first sighting of the iconic Saguaro Cactus that you see in the all the western movies. The journey was long and Rob did a great job driving. 

We got to LA late in the day with a bit of time to start cleaning up the RV in preparation for the people who were coming to view it the next day. We had spent quite a lot of time over the previous week cleaning so mostly we just had to get all our junk out of the way. An easy task as we just put it all into Octavio's garage. Remember Octavio? He was our charming Air BnB host at the beginning of the year when we arrived in LA. We had arranged to stay with him again and enjoy eating his delicious food.

The next day we had a number of people organised to come and look at the RV. We decided Rob would do the selling and Symi and Fiona would stay out the way. The first family were keen to buy at $1000 below the asking price. We were relieved to know someone was prepared to pay this price but felt we needed to let the other people who were already on the way a chance to look at the RV. The first people were not prepared to offer any more and finally left with an offer of $1500 below the asking price at the end of the day. Hurried conversations between Fiona and Rob resulted in the decision to risk it and wait. Had we done the right thing?

The next man arrived but was not in a position to buy on the day and wanted to come back the next day with his Dad. Then another couple arrived who had traveled up from just north of San Diego and had arranged to bring a mechanic with them. The mechanic spent a long time under the RV and then advised the couple to offer the asking price, which they did. One RV sold for the asking price in a morning. What a relief! Even better they did not want it until the next weekend so we could head out for a few more days in Marvey. The buyers suggested we might like to try the beach at Carlsbad north of San Diego so we made a booking and headed off the next day.

The Carlsbad campsite was right on the ocean. We had a site one row back from the front. The first day we were there was one of the coldest they had ever had with locals commenting they were seeing snow on the mountains for the first time in many years. Needless to say it was pretty chilly especially down on the beach.

After a day or so it warmed up and we spent time walking and playing Frisbee on the beach. It was never that warm for swimming though and we once again realised what great beaches we have in Perth and Western Australia.

Carlsbad was just north of San Diego and we were right next to the train line. So we thought "Lets get the train to San Diego". Well there's an out there idea. We asked multiple members of the park staff where we could walk and catch the train. It was a bit like asking where the bus stop for the moon was. Finally we looked it up on google maps, found a station and decided to try and walk. Not an easy task as there did not seem to be a road that went through from the beach side and it was too far to walk around over the nearest bridge. After some trial and error we found our way - once you knew the way to go it was about a 10' walk!

Autumn Still happening.

San Diego was really interesting. We visited the State Park - Old Town San Diego and heard all about the history of the area. It was fascinating to hear that one lady who lived in the same house all her life had three nationalities without moving - Spanish, Mexican and USA. We spent a couple of hours on a great tour and then had a look around the old shops before walking to the Mission Hills area where after a bit of searching we had a great lunch. Fortified with food we then headed off again to walk to Balboa Park which was full of great buildings with a very Spanish feel.

Our legs were extremely tired by then and the rain that had been threatening was beginning to fall. We decided it was time to find a bus back to the center of town and then hop a train back to Carlsbad. As on the way the train ride was a scenic one with the track hugging the coast for much of the way.


Back in Carlsbad the next day it was time for New Year celebrations.Nature came to the party with a very nice sunset. The site in front of us was conveniently empty so we sat and enjoyed watching the sunset on a highly enjoyable 2014 - a year of travel and adventure for the Wandering Wallers.

New Years Day was spent hanging around the beach. We went for a ride north along the coast and found a nice place to drink a coffee in the sun. Rob promptly stuck up a conversion with a local who after 15 minutes invited us around to dinner. He even picked us up so we didn't have to drive the RV. When we jumped in his car we commented how fast it felt after so long in the sluggish RV. It was a great evening and our thoughts were well and truly turning to the pack up to get home.

The handover of Marvie

Three days before we flew out we drove the 90 minutes back to Octavio's house in Anaheim. We worked out in Australian dollars (the AUD had fallen significantly late in the year) that we had lost $100 on the RV over the year, something that we would have thought was a dream at the beginning of the year.

Watching the sun go down and about to spend the last night in Marvey