#63 – Coveys Great Adventure – Dec 2019 – Simi, Perris and Hemet CA; AZ and Mexico

December 2019 – Simi, Perris and Hemet CA; AZ and Mexico

Visiting California is such a mixed experience for us. For months we look forward to seeing the people that we miss all year, but, oh ….dear, it’s Southern California! The route down the I15 / I215 from Vegas to Aguanga in November wasn’t a lot of fun but it skirts the real cauldron of the SoCal freeway system. What I used to relish as a challenge is now just a royal PITA.

Balloons at dawn over Meadowbrook

It’s worth it, though to see everyone. Pulling into Tapo Canyon Park in Simi for the seventh time is now like pulling into our driveway. We’ve reserve the same space for the fifth time, so I swear I can see our old tire tracks. We even had to trim the same tree limbs. New camp hosts are a decided improvement over last year’s somewhat over-bearing couple, but aside from that everything was unchanged. I think we put over 1,000 miles on the car in a week visiting everyone. It seemed like we were out every day and every night. It was great to see everyone.

From Simi’s whirlwind we headed back south to Meadowbrook RV Park in Perris for our annual holiday visit with Christine and Ed Woznicki. Meadowbrook also looked very familiar on our fourth visit. It’s really a 55+ retirement community that has a few transient spaces to help balance the budget. Dogs are welcome, and there are a couple of areas where they can be off-leash, too.

Ripley's Christmas finery

Last year we caught a really good deal for Xmas week at Golden Village RV Resort in Hemet, where we spend the holiday with the west coast branch of the Wiklund clan, Kayeanne's family. When we checked out we were offered the same deal for this year if we made the reservation that day, which we did. Golden Village is the fanciest place we stay each year, sporting three pools, a dozen pickleball courts and over 1,000 RV sites right in downtown Hemet. Our good luck may have run out; they wouldn’t make the same deal for next year, so we have to watch for their special offers.

Paul, Katie and Brenda Wiklund

Christmas in Hemet is a dining extravaganza. Paul and Brenda outdid themselves as usual, and dinner at Chris’s is always over-the-top. Katy has certainly grown up since last year, and Ed finally found a job he likes and that pays well. Liesa decided that she would spend the holiday with Cory’s family near Salt Lake. We support her decision, but still missed her, lots. She must be grown up now, that’s her first Xmas away from “home”.

On the 27^th we pulled up the anchor and got underway to Puerto Peñasco, aka Rocky Point (RP), Mexico, on the shores of the Sea of Cortez. We stopped for a night in Yuma and again at Organ Pipe National Monument before crossing into Mexico at Lukeville, Arizona on the 29^th.

Lukeville border point

Despite reassurances from everyone we talked to and most websites we researched, we were still apprehensive because of recent violence in other regions of the country. The actual crossing was a nonevent. A Mexican border patrol agent came into the coach, opened a couple of drawers and generally looked around before waving us through.

Miles of beach

Frankly, the first few miles through downtown Sonoyta were the most stressful part of the trip. At every stop light or stop sign several “entrepreneurs” swarmed the coach pushing unwanted services or tourist junk. Some even erected their own stop signs. I was glad to get the windshield washed, once, but the repeated washing attempts became irritating. The remaining 60 miles down Highway 8 into Rocky Point were uneventful, even boring.

Luckily our cell plan includes coverage in Mexico and Canada, so Google Maps brought us right to Playa Bonita RV Resort. A few minutes later we pulled into space 51 with a panoramic view of the beach and the  Sea of Cortez through the windshield. As you would expect, the dogs knew there was a beach before we parked and could hardly wait for us to get set up.

Seats out to be reupholstered
makes living room seem huge

Aside from the exotic locale, we are here to get some work done on the coach and the car, and to check out a coach painting company to give Ripley a complete makeover. More on all of that and on RP next time.

We’ll be here for two weeks, then on to Benson after a short detour back to Yuma to complete some dental work that I started last year.

Books I enjoyed this month include: Braided Creek, A Conversation in Poetry, by Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser, and The Fourth Morningside Papers by Peter Gzowski

Wines that stood out included: El Castillo Syrah (Spain) 2017, and Adixion Petite Syrah Paso Robles 2017

More soon,

Bob