Happy coincidence

Sometimes I'm amazed at how things happen when you want them to. I often find that when I'm scanning Craigslist for something I just decided I need, the item just pop's right up. I often continue to search for the same item after I've bought one in case something better is out there but nothing else will be advertised. I can hear the doubters mumbling "Yeah, but it's a one off event". I don't think so, it happens to me a lot.

OK so what? Well this weekend we have left the house in the painter's hands and we're camping at Thousand Trails Pio Pico in Jamul CA. It's only 25 miles from home so it's not a big adventure! It's very popular with Snowbirds.

Barbara and I have decided that depending on when the house sells we want our first big Full Time adventure to be a trip to Vancouver BC. We were up there for a couple of days on our motorcycle 2 years ago and loved it. A month or so exploring the area and going up to Banff etc. would be just great, depending on the time of year. We will have to drop in to South Dakota along the way to set up domicile there first but it'll only take an extra a couple more weeks (maybe)...

And in steps the hand of coincidence.

Pio Pico was completely full this weekend. It's Presidents Day weekend, the schools are off and the snowbirds are here in force. That and temperatures in the 80's in February brought out everyone. 

Pio Pico is split into North and South on opposite sides of Otay Lakes Road. South has all the facilities, 2 pools, kids and adult rec facilities and most of all Full Hookups. South fills up first. You can't reserve a site, it's first come first served. I got there Thursday at 11am and the South side was already full. That means you have to go into the North side where there are only partial hookups. Water and electrical, no sewer. There are 2 dump stations there and a "Honey Wagon" comes around when you want to dump your tanks.

They have a system they call "Cross Over" which works pretty well usually. When you get to the Ranger station they tell you "South is full North Side only" then they ask you "Do you want to go on the cross over list?". If you say yes they write your name on a clip board in the order people ask to be on it. I was number 4. You go find a spot on the North side and set up for the night. 

Next morning at 8.30am you go back to the ranger station on foot, car, bike. Just don't bring the rig. They have a white board with the numbers of the sites who are leaving that day or left already. The ones that are vacant right away are circled in red. Anyone on the list can then go look at the various sites and decide which ones they'd like or dislike. Then everyone goes back to the Ranger station and at 9am the ranger reads out the names one at a time starting with the first one on the clipboard. 

That person gets first choice then on down the list until all the sites are spoken for. Each person then gets a "Cross Over" paper and goes to the site they selected and sticks it on the utility pedestal. It has the person's name and their departure date. Nobody else can pull into that spot once the present occupier leaves no later than 12 noon. If you picked a spot that is currently open then you can get your rig and move in. Otherwise you come back after 12 noon. If there are more people than open spots then the last ones on the list are out of luck, which is why you leave the rig there until you get a spot otherwise your old spot may have been taken before you get back to it!

The system works well.

So where does the coincidence come in?
The crowd was milling around waiting for the "Sewer Sweepstakes" and I was standing next to a guy chatting. I noticed his Canadian accent. And he's from Vancouver BC! We got on great and we took our wives out for Valentines Day dinner at one of our favorite local hangouts Brody's Bar. We exchanged addresses etc. and we'll try and hookup when we get to Vancouver!
Then we went over to the pool/hot tub and talking with some people there they were from BC too!
Maybe it's not a stunning example of the laws of relativity,  but I like to think it's special.
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