Ventura state of mind....

Ventura is always a great place to escape the dog days of summer......at this writing (4:10pm) it's 103 in Ontario, and it is 65 in Ventura. The sea breezes and sunshine are good for my state of mind. Our group, composed of family, in-laws, and friends, includes 6 RV's (4 Class A DP's, 1 Class C, and 1 Toy hauler trailer). All four of my grand kids are here.

My oldest granson, Christopher, named after his father, is celebrating his 10th birthday today, so we had a big party and a pinata.....but I get ahead of myself.

I left home about 9:30am yesterday (Friday) to cruise north where Elaine would meet me later in the day....she had a few sales calls in the Long Beach area, and would head directly here when she was done.

I got so busy loading the final items into the storage bays that I forgot to eat breakfast.....this oversight became apparent as I was entering Fillmore, CA from the east.....just about the time I was wondering why I had hunger paings I spied a Carls' Jr. on the left, and quickly pulled over to stop. I snagged a chicken salad to eat in Ventura (I was only 15 minutes from the RV park).

When I was inside getting my salad my son and his high school friend passed by in their rigs.....OK, so I won't be the first one to the park.....haha!

Pulled in right behind Chris and Keith around 12:30pm, checked in at the office, and headed to Space #74 which is on the back row.....as far from HWY 101 as possible. The one negative about Ventura RV Park is its proximity to HWY 101, which is essentially a north/south divided highway in this area. Since this is a popular area, the traffic is continuous, and even on the back row I can hear the dull roar of cars whizing by on their way north and south.....I just pretend it's the ocean, which is just on the other side of the highway.

Elaine got in about 3pm, and by that time I had everything set up. On her way in she stopped at Vons and picked up a couple of filets to BBQ for dinner, and a nice bottle of Pinot Noir.

We sat outside by the fire with the kids and their kids until about 9pm, and then it was time for the old fogies to hit the sack.....lol!

Woke up this morning to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, poured a cup and sat down to watch ESPN's Game Day with my son who had his outdoor LCD TV setup.....life is good!

After breakfast Elaine and I got on our bikes to ride north around 7.5 miles to Seacliff along the ocean. This is an area where you can park your RV right next to the Pacific Ocean. It's called Rincon Parkway.....Ventura County has marked off around 150 spots end to end for self contained RV's only. All the sites are on a first come, first serve basis, so during the summer it is almost impossible to beat the locals to the spots, unless you come up on the previous Monday to save, and pay for a spot for the whole week. During the winter we can come up on a Thursday afternoon and snag a a spot just 50 feet from the breaking waves.

On our way back south I spotted a rare classic Newell parked in the day use area south of Rincon. It looked to be a pre-80's Newell with Nevada plates, and was in pretty good shape. Unfortunately the owners were not around at the time, so we missed an opportunity to meet our fellow Newell owners, but I did take some pictures.

***We drove back by that Newell the next day and found the owners "home"....this is actually a 1980 Newell, 37' in length. We introduced ourselves and were treated to a tour of the inside. These folks are from Las Vegas. They day camp along the ocean during the day, and park at the local Wallmart at night. ***

When we returned it was time for Christopher's birthday bash, and now we are getting ready for another meal....looks like BBQ'd hamburgers tonight! Watched part of the UCLA game vs. Kansas....they were only down 2 with a minute to go, but missed the 2 point conversion.

Oh well, another day in paradise........enjoy the pictures!

1980 Newell

In GREAT shape!

Looking south ^

and

north >

The preparations.....

The birthday Boy....