"Wind it down!"

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7:11 am - Wednesday - October 25th - Bryce Canyon - 25º F, humidity 65%, wind 7 mph out of the west......forecast is for sunny skies and a high of 65º F on this getaway day....yup, time to move further south!

After three days of hiking in and out of the amazing Bryce Canyon our legs were telling us it was time for an off day, and time to "wind it down" as my friend Roscoe would often say this summer.  There was a part of me that wanted to hike one more day, but that part did not include my tired legs.  Instead I spent time cleaning the trailer....I hadn't vacuumed it for about a month, and the folded up artificial turf needed to be turned around to make it easier to insert the VW.  On top of that I discovered my Cannondale Bad Boy had another rear flat tire.....why, why, why is it always the rear tire?  So, after TLE and I pulled the turf out of the trailer I set up the bike stand to fix the flat.  Fortunately I had bought a few new tubes while we were still in South Lake Tahoe.  At any rate, I fixed the flat, put away the bike stand once again, and then TLE and I turned the turf around, and pulled it back into the now clean trailer.

Once that was done we decided to make a quick run over to see Mossy Cave.  It was only about 5 miles away, and we were in the parking 10 minutes later.  According to the sign at the beginning of the trail it is .4 miles to Mossy Cave, and it was pretty close.....our round trip total distance was .9 miles according to my Strava program........just enough to loosen up our legs a tad.......

The sedimentary layer next to the water is sooo pink I had to take a picture

.......it took us about 12 minutes to reach the cave.....I've no doubt this cave is more fascinating in the spring time, but on this day in late October it was a little disappointing.....not much moss, and very little water dripping from the ceiling....

......we took our obligatory pictures and then walked back to see the the waterfall that was mentioned on the sign at the fork in the trail.....

.....the main waterfall was almost dry, which, again is not surprising as it is so late in the year.....I'm sure it is more impressive during the spring and early summer months......

You can just barely see the trickle of water going over the waterfall

.......Mossy Cave is considered to be part of Bryce Canyon National Park, and so it is also not surprising that more 'hoodoos' can be found at this location........

....we were back home by 1 pm, at which time I decided to wash the VW.....it has been at least 6 weeks since I have done that, and she was looking pretty sad.  I filled one of our Rubbermaid wash tubs with water and with the help of a large sponge and a couple of micro fiber towels got her looking her best again.....I finished the job by vacuuming out the interior, then it was time to put away our Sea-B-Que, and top off the fresh water supply in preparation for 8 days of living off the grid!  Time to light the fires and move south!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Rincon Parkway, Ventura, CA

One of our favorite fall/winter long weekend destinations is Rincon Parkway located just a few miles north of Ventura, CA (HWY 101 at Seacliff exit). Rincon Parkway is a 6 mile stretch of the old Pacific Coast Highway that now provides access to several beach colonies, 3 Ventura County parks, and Emma Wood State Beach. Rincon Parkway is one of the County parks. The county has desginated approximately 125 RV only sites marked end to end. Each site is approximately 50' long. Only self contained RV's may park here. No tent, or car camping allowed. All sites are on a "first come, first served" basis. We do not even attempt to stay there from Memorial Day until Labor Day as the sites are continually taken, and the only way to get a site is to arrive Sunday afternoon as the weekenders are leaving. During the fall/winter time you can arrive on Thursday, or even Friday and usually get a spot.

We decided to head for Rincon this past Thursday, October 9th, and spend 4 days enjoying the soothing sound of breaking waves, gentle breezes, spell binding views. We left home around 10am, and arrived, non-stop, at site #41 on Rincon Parkway around 12:30pm. There were no less than 2 dozen sites open, so we had our pick. After setting up we both settled down to do some work. This was the view I enjoyed as I worked on my computer the rest of the afternoon. In the following picture you can get a sense of how the sites stretch north, end to end, along the ocean. This section is almost 1 mile long. It is the only place on Rincon Parkway where ovenight parking is allowed. All other areas allow parking from 7am to 10pm. If you are caught parking overnight the fine is around $170. The daily rate for the designated RV parking where we stayed is $25 per day. A day is 24 hours from your time of arrival. So, for example, we arrived at around 12:30pm, so our 24 hours was up at 12:30pm the next day.

Later that afternoon after it became "apparent" to me that the Dodgers would lose game 2 to the Cardinals, Elaine and I left on a walk south along the beach to Faria Park and back. On the way back I got an instant message from my oldest son simply stating "Can you believe it?!" I messaged back "Believe what?".....he then messaged back that the Dodgers had "come from behind" to win the game by scoring 3 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th inning. What a great start to the weekend. The Dodgers would go on to win game 3 in St. Louis and sweep the Cardinals, which NO ONE expected, least of all me. Upon our return to the coach I got out the Sea-B-Que barbeque and started to warm up to cook 4 filets from Costco. After dinner we built a fire and enjoyed the setting sun, and then watched as stars began to appear.

Friday dawned very overcast, and did not clear up all day. We worked for a while, and took a walk, then worked some more, and then took another long walk. This was basically a repeat of Thursday ending with another enjoyable evening camp fire.

On Saturday we decided to take a bicycle ride around Ventura. Elaine mapped out an ambitious route taking us down the coast about 13 miles, then looped inland to Old Town Ventura where we stopped for lunch at Anacapa Brewing Company, a local brewpub with great local beer, and a scrumptuous menu. We split a personal pizza, and share sweet potato fries with a sweet/sour dip. We each had a pint of their draft dark beer...don't remember the name right now. On our ride back to Rincon we stopped at the Von's supermarket and picked up some groceries. We arrived back at our coach around 3pm. We decided to forego our last evening fire, and save the wood for the morning, which proved to be a great choice!

On Sunday we awoke to an even thicker marine layer, but the temperature remained steady at around 65 degrees by mid morning. We decided to use the last of our wood for a fire, and sat outside reading by the fire for a couple of hours. Around 1pm we packed up our chairs, and awning mats and headed back to Ontario. What a great, relaxing weekend!

HEADING FOR VENTURA TOMORROW....

Getting ready to head for Ventura tomorrow morning. We hope to get a spot on Rincon Parkway, or in one of the County run RV parks on either end of the Parkway (Faria, or Hobson). No telling what we will find....it's still early Fall, and sometimes you have to arrive there on Wednesday to get a spot, especially on a holiday weekend (Columbus Day is next Monday). We have never tried to snag a spot on Rincon Parkway this early in the Fall, so this will be a new adventure. If we have to, we will spend the days and early evenings parked along the parkway in the "day use" areas, and then retreat to somewhere in town where there are large parking lots. We will scope the possiblities on the way into town for our night camps.