Frosty no more.....

Thursday morning was frosty, freezing cold.......I thought we were at low enough an elevation that things wouldn't freeze overnight, but our water hose did just that.  We wanted to get an early start to ensure that we would arrive at Rincon Parkway (just a few miles north of Ventura) to snag a 'first come, first served' site right next to the ocean.  If this were December it would not be an issue, but in early November the weather is still so pleasant that the sites begin to fill up Wednesday, and by Thursday afternoon they are about 96% taken, so early arrival Thursday would, hopefully, secure us a site that would accommodate our gear.

Anyway, I get ahead of myself....before we can even think about beach living I have to get the hose thawed out so I can dump our tanks, and flush the black tank.....we want to arrive at our dry camp spot with empty waste tanks.  So, how to do that?  The only time I use a hair dryer is for some purpose other than its intended purpose......TLE has a hair dryer, so I borrowed it and began to heat the hose, and the hose bib so I could get water to flow once again.  It took about 10 minutes and I was ready to go.  

Once the tanks were dumped, and the sewer and water hoses were stowed away, we were ready to rock and roll......and it was only 0835!  Our goal was to time our arrival in the Santa Clarita Valley after rush hour, and we were successful......while traffic was heavier than I like, it was not of the 'rush' variety, and we made good time.  By 1000 hours we had exited I-5 (We had left US 395 Wednesday for HWY 14, which took us to I-5 Thursday) and were on HWY 126 headed through Fillmore and Santa Paula to Ventura......just 56 miles to go!

Having been on US 395 since October 28th it was kind of weird to find ourselves traversing 5 different highways over the last two days, and our last highway for the day would be US 101, where we exited would exit just a few miles north of Ventura at the Seacliff exit for Rincon Parkway.....it was just before 1100 hours.....perfect!  As we merged from 126 to US 101 we could begin to smell the salt in the air, and feel the warm breeze coming in my driver side window.

We were last here on December 20th of 2014 (you can read about that here) for about 3 days after our Amazon gig.  This is one of our favorite places to which we have been returning for close to 10 years now.....our favorite time to come to Rincon Parkway is November, December and January as the weather is very moderate, and it is easy to snag a 'first come, first served' site on a Thursday, or a Friday.  There are 127 marked sites (each 50' long) on this stretch of 'Old Highway 1', now called Rincon Parkway.  The County of Ventura owns and operates these dry camp sites.  It is one of just a few places along the California coast where you can park your RV and camp just 30-50 feet from the surf.  From April 1st to October 31st you are limited to a 5 day stay within each calendar month, but from November 1st to March 31st you can stay for up to 14 days.  The cost per night is $28.....that may be a little pricey for some, for considering the proximity to the ocean it is pretty inexpensive for California.

The view from our site

Last year, since we had the trailer with us, and only 40 of the 127 sites were being used, we just took two spaces and paid for them.  We were only here 3 days that time so the ranger didn't say anything until we were leaving.  Even though we were not denying anyone a site, he said we couldn't do what we did, but if we used one of the first 14 sites, which were about twice as wide, we could probably get everything in one of those sites with everything in between the lines.  I checked Google Earth and saw that many people parked diagonally in those sites with very large 5th wheels, so I was pretty confident we could make it work, and we did as you can see below.....

  Right next to the sea wall and the surf, and we are angled just perfectly facing east for our solar panels!

Everything fits.....the car is just out of view between the trailer and the coach

Of course, no stay at Rincon Parkway is complete without a campfire, and for that we needed wood, so once we were set up we headed into Ventura old town area to get lunch, and do some small shopping....mainly for wood.  No visit to Ventura is complete for us without at least one visit to one of our favorite micro breweries.....ABC....Anacapa Brewing Company for some of their famous 'Sweet Potato Fries', and some brews.....this day we both chose their Porter, which was perfect.  For our entrees we both had their Fish Tacos.....'OMG'....that's all I can say is "OMG'!  In all we had 6 Fish Tacos between us....TLE ate one of hers, and I ate two of mine (they are quite large), so we had three to take home for dinner.

From ABC we headed over to Von's to do our small shopping.....I picked up 4 bundles of walnut, and TLE picked up a few necessities.....we were back home by 1430 sitting outside enjoying the afternoon breezes and views.......around 1630 I started a fire, and we sat together watching the sun touch the ocean one more time.......

 

Anacapa Island in the distance....part of the 'Channel Islands' chain, and the namesake for ABC

The afterglow lasted until almost 1800.....

So, our first of 7-10 days here on Rincon Parkway is in the books......we were in bed by 2300 after watching Bones, Blacklist, and Elementary......my bedroom window was open to let in the sound of the ever present surf as I drifted off to sleep knowing there would be no frost Friday morning........life is, indeed, good!

Thanks for stopping by!