Our Crazy Journey to San Diego – We Couldn’t Make This Up!

It was time to continue our rapid journey south through California after a short stay in Palm Springs and a quick trip through Joshua Tree National Park (check out those blog links, if you missed them!). We were traveling from Palm Springs to the San Diego area to catch up with a couple of friends that live there, and to check off one of Luther’s 2025 travel wish list items–an aircraft carrier!

Our route took us back towards L.A. to head east and, luckily, that was uneventful this time! But, in true Barnes family fashion–we still had some adventures! Our travels into the land of the Navy SEALS reminds me of their quote “the only easy day was yesterday” and, boy, is it true in RV life, too, sometimes!

A couple hours into our journey, it was time for a pit stop. We don’t normally scope these out ahead of time, unless we need to stop for fuel enroute, we just find something along the way–especially on days that are all interstate travel since there is always something. Our luck finally ran out, though!

Neither the Garmin or our Rest Area app showed any open rest areas along our route. So, we tried looking for truck stops or large gas stations–no luck there, either, and we weren’t chancing it with any gas station–been there, done that and it’s no fun! As a last resort, I decided to check our Harvest Hosts app thinking that if we could camp there, we could stop there! I found a winery a few miles up and called to ensure a quick visit would be okay and it was!

We arrived at Belle Marie Winery and parked up the hill, as instructed. It wasn’t a huge lot and a moving truck was there, but BJ said we’d figure that out after. We popped into the shop and thanked Amanda for letting us stop in. We browsed their snacks and grabbed some soda, pretzels and chips to accompany our picnic lunch, and BJ found a wine he liked for later. We took our goodies and sat outside, enjoying the fresh air and letting Luna stretch out in the sun for a bit, before loading up to head out.

After some evaluating, conversations and an unexpected delivery truck joining the parking lot party, we finally maneuvered our way out of there (BJ will have more on THAT adventure in the YouTube video!) and got back on the road.

Our only route took us on a toll road and when we exited to pay, the machine would NOT take our money! We grabbed a slip so we could get it paid online (if you don’t pay within 4 days, it’s a $40 penalty in California!) and headed on to our campground to get set up since we had plans to meet friends that night (I’d also been texting and searching on our trip to coordinate that bit of our day, too). This great little Thousand Trails campground is called Pio Pico and is in Jamul, just outside of San Diego. It’s nestled in a valley on the other side of the hill from a parachute school, so we spent a lot of time watching jumpers that weekend.

After setting up, we headed out to grab dinner at Cali BBQ with one friend (great local place, reasonable prices–not many GF options for me, though). After a quick visit and catching up, she headed off to get ready for her flight and we headed off for dessert at Cold Stone Creamery with another friend that was leaving for a trip, too! (Now you see why we had to speed down California so quickly!). Our visits were short, but it was great catching up and getting hugs!

Back at the campground, we had things to get done! Finally we had some time to get caught up on school work and the blogs (including this one). We also needed to find a groomer for Luna now that we were in warm weather and the couple of local shops I called hadn’t called back.

We snagged her an appointment at Petco nearby, a choice we will not repeat since they did a terrible job (uneven cut, she doesn’t even look like a shih-poo)! We ended up getting a refund and told we couldn’t use them for grooming again–fine by us. At least she is cooler for our southern travels.

I also had a filling fall out and, after several calls, my dentist said I could use an over-the-counter kit to fill it until I got home. My second dental issue of the trip, if you’re keeping count!

We got the toll paid over the phone, which was way more complicated than it should have been. While getting stuff done around the camper, we also had our door handle break again, so he had to repair that, and the broken chair we’ve been dealing with finally became too much and BJ had to figure out a solution for it (who thought cardboard as the seat of a chair was a good idea, IKEA?!).

We enjoyed several walks, as the temps and air quality allowed me, and BJ enjoyed running the hills. Luna and I even saw a coyote in the campground on one of our bedtime walks!

We did some research on the USS Midway Museum, the aircraft carrier we planned to visit, and found out that Veterans can go for FREE the entire month of November, so we rearranged our plans to save money! Someone else we had talked to told us that the Top Gun Bar (Kansas City BBQ) was also in town (the one from the movie where Goose plays the piano!) and it is near the Midway, so we have our weekend plans. More on those in the next blog!

While there are many other places we’d love to see on our visit here, our timeline is getting short and we have a month to get 2,500 miles back to Florida, and several other stops along the way. And this girl is ready to be done with all the elevation and climate changes that, along with fast travel, have made life challenging this month. And did I mention we have no set travel plans, only a general direction after this stop?! Yep, that’s on our list to do, as well!

We’ll see you in future blogs to share about the ship and the restaurant, and our next travel plans!

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