Pre-cruise San Diego

Our friend Mike Trimble dropped by (With a bottle of Tequila!) and we were catching up on the news with him and having dinner at the lodge too! Many plans were made for the rest of our stay so we could catch up with our many San Diego friends and neighbors.

Heritage Park San Diego

Having lived in San Diego for 10 years it wasn't quite such a rude awakening when we hit all the traffic! It does seem worse now than we remember and some of the drivers are still as aggressive/stupid as before, but the weather makes up for all that.

Our first stop was the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista where they have 27 full hook up spots and lots of space for dry camping. As we arrived a lady started talking to Barbara and we suddenly found ourselves with the Lady Elks enjoying our first Thanksgiving dinner of the season. And it was delicious.

We had to take a nap just as soon as we had the rig set up.

Our old favorite watering hole the “Aero Club” is still the same. Mike and Dean caught us up on the old office scene and news of my former colleagues, both good and bad. Barbara the ever friendly bar tender did her usual excellent job of serving and harassing us at the same time!

The old Aero Club crowd

A trip to the San Diego Elks Lodge secured our places for Thanksgiving dinner on the 23^rd and we picked up their lunch menus for the rest of our stay too. They have great lunches there.

Back at Chula Vista we found the parking lot full of kids bicycles, literally a hundred of them. These were being given FREE to local kids as part of a police/community program. Very impressive and so much fun to watch the kids all laughing and riding their bikes all over the place!

The bike lineup

Kids everywhere riding their new bikes in the dark!

Our super friends Ken and Gloria welcomed us with open arms yet again and fed us while we caught up with the shipyard news from Richie, Chris, Tammy, Dana and Faye. We filled them in on our adventures. It felt so good to be there again.

We moved over to the Thousand Trails park in Jamul. This park doesn't change much and we have stayed here many times during our prep before going full time. We played the “Sewer Shuffle” a few times before we got the “Perfect” site with full hookups, telephone and TV signal, which are rarities in this big park. (https://banbrv.blogspot.com/2017/11/thousand-trails-good-and-bad.html)

Morning in Pio Pico

We began serious preparations for the upcoming cruise, haircuts, sorting out clothes, selecting side trips in the islands etc. I got my suit (Yes I still have one!) pressed.

We also sorted out storage of the rig at this park and the car at Ken's. We'll Uber from Ken's to the ship on the day.

To top up our “Dressy” wardrobes we shopped at charity stores where many new and almost new items can be bought. We don't have any use for dressy stuff normally so after we've done the cruise we'll donate it back to the store. That way we won't have to store stuff we'll never use again.

The best things in life are great neighbors and when we lived here we had exceptional ones. Ruby, Jason, Molly and Gus have moved to a new house not far from where we lived and invited our “across the street neighbors” Mike, Cathy and Sienna plus us 2 over for dinner. We all just fit together and their new dog Todd was absorbed into the group too. It's such fun to watch the kids growing although we probably notice the changes more with being away a year or so between visits.

Cathy gets to know Todd!

Our friends John and Debbie reported that their “Toad” had died and they were without wheels in the San Diego area.(http://banbrv.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-little-flat-green-thing-in-road.html)  

John and Debbie

The “Shanty Shakers” the San Diego Chapter of the Escapees RV club where having their monthly breakfast that weekend so we arranged to pick them up and take them. Our other friends Marty and Peggy, Wayne and Lynn and lots and lots of our old and new Shanty Shaker friends were waiting to once again welcome us with open arms, and suddenly it felt like we'd never been away.

Groups like this are priceless, everyone just welcomes each other without reservations and if it's been a week or 2 years since you met them they smile and give you a hug. To think that there are people without this kind of friendship is humbling. We even won a couple of prizes in the raffle.

The Shanty Shakers getting breakfast.

Some things have changed, our favorite sports are baseball and Formula 1 car racing. There has been a Formula 1 fan club that met to watch the TV broadcast races in Henry's Pub in the Gaslamp District downtown since before we left. 

The Gaslamp District San Diego

We decided to drop by for the final race of the year. I tried to call before the event but nobody answered the phone. We rode the trolley into the city and walked to Henry's but found that they don't do it any more. Instead we had a big breakfast at “The Field” an Irish pub nearby.

Caught in the act of posting her breakfast on Facebook!

Things are rolling along and it will soon be time to board for Hawaii!