We hadn’t been on the road with our fifth wheel for awhile and were happy to be out curing a serious case of “itchy-hitch.” (As in we are itching to get on the road.) As we hooked the Escalade up to the truck I had a flash of foreboding but brushed it aside.
Our trip down the coast was uneventful. Found a spot at one of our favorites along the coast, Rincon Beach in Ventura County and had a nice evening enjoying the ocean and a glass of wine with my sister.
The next day got a WHOLE lot more interesting. Our name wasn’t on the list when we pulled up to the guard shack at Coronado Naval Station to check in for Fleet Week Coronado Speed Festival. 
When the young Shore Patrol sailor at the gate directed us toward a small-ish parking lot to wait for clearance GET told her he didn’t think our long rig would make it. “Oh, it’s ok for you to drive over the curb.” she told him. So, following orders we started to pull into the parking lot only to hear sirens and bells and alarms go off! At least four security vehicles arrived within seconds and a huge steel gate rose from the ground effectively closing the Base down!
The back of our fifth wheel had “brushed” against the concrete barrier at the guard shack! No damage to the concrete barrier but our home was definitely dinged up! No matter, the Shore Patrol security personnel took both of our driver’s licenses, our insurance, registration, asked where we each were born and asked GET if he had ever been in the military. (yes sir-he proudly served six years in the USAF.) We were surprised that they didn’t request Dulee’s adoption papers! They didn’t throw us in the Brig and we were finally cleared to enter the Base.
GET thought that this was just a little repair job until we got the estimate from the RV repair shop: $3,000! Thank goodness for insurance!
After the incident we got settled in our fifth wheel’s designated spot on the Base runway.
View from my window (because of my hip replacement I wasn’t able to be a Course Marshal for the event): a racetrack, a cruise ship and a Navy helicopter. Pretty cool, I thought.
GET doesn’t often do Course Marshaling. Here he is in his whites setting up at Turn 7 on the racetrack.
More from my window: Vintage muscle cars (my favorite) gridded up to race. WAY back I owned a ‘65 Mustang similar to #222.
I liked the design of this helmet.
After good, bad, and ugly at Coronado Fleet Week we continued on to a new location for us: Jalama Beach. A bit more “ugly” at Jalama Beach where we were assigned a site which we could not get our rig into. . .of course the sun set to darkness as we were trying to figure out where to park. . .and, of course the Ranger Station had closed for the night so we winged it and parked in a less-than-desirable vacant spot for the night. Next day it was all worked out with the Ranger and we were set for the next few days in a site with a perfect view of the Pacific. Pretty close to paradise!
Jalama Beach Store advertises “world famous Jalama burgers.” One of our friends noted that GET is checking out other good buns in this photo!!! Nah, couldn’t be, but it sure appears that way!
The burgers were GREAT just as they said.
Fabulous Pacific Ocean sunsets.
Working our way up the coast, our next stop was Morro Bay. Our home with a view of Morro Rock which is part of a chain of nine extinct volcano peaks called the Nine Sisters. Morro Bay has been one of our favorite destinations for years. I always visit The Garden Gallery store and add to my succulents collection.
Found these cute earrings at Poppy. 
This guy was obviously on the lookout for fish waste and most likely trash too! We didn’t give him a chance to get near our Dungeness crabs.
We ended this adventure at Camping World where we had this HD satellite dish installed on our home.
My initial sense of foreboding really hit me just as we were finishing at Camping World and I learned that my sister is terminally ill. Much too hard right to write about now…maybe never.
Life really does have the “good, the bad and the ugly” doesn’t it?
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