(Yes, these are Yoda’s favorites too. )

1. Rincon Parkway – Ventura, CA

This is a spot right on the Pacific ocean next to the 101 freeway right up the road from our home. It is first-come, first-serve only and it has no hookups of any kind. Being along the frontage road of the freeway, there can be some car traffic as well as an occasional train or two. But, you are not going to get closer to the beach than this. With nice weather year round, there is no slow season here. The price is reasonable (for California standards) at under $30 a night and it is self-serve only with payment boxes throughout.

Click here to see more of Rincon Parkway.

2. Thornhill Broome State Beach – Port Hueneme, CA

This is another dry-camp only spot along the Pacific ocean. Unlike Rincon Parkway, there are more facilities here which can accommodate tent campers as well. It is located just north of Malibu and south of Oxnard along Highway 1 in a stretch of the Pacific Coast nicknamed ‘the California Riviera’. It is more protected from the highway noise and reservations are allowed although your site is only assigned when you show up. It is a managed campground with rangers at the gate so expect to pay a bit more than Rincon Parkway.

Click here to see more of Thornhill Broome State Beach.

3. Malibu Creek State Park – Calabasas, CA

Even though Malibu is in the name of this park, don’t expect celebrities and ocean views at this park. This park is in a great spot in the mountains north of Malibu. There is no electricity but there are water faucets shared by several camp sites. They only allow RVs with a maximum overall length of 24 feet. Being a 25-footer, not counting the hitch and bumper, we conveniently did not disclose our actual size during check in and took our chances with the site they gave us. Make sure you are ready to do some careful maneuvering to get into your assigned spot if you are oversized but it is worth the risk. There is great hiking and sightseeing around the park for a place right in the outskirts of Los Angeles. At the end of one trail is the famous site where the TV show M*A*SH was filmed and there are still a few deterioting film props left for a photo op.

Click here to see more of Malibu Creek State Park.

4. San Onofre State Beach – San Clemente, CA

This is another beach side campground with no hookups. Are you seeing a trend here? Some of the best spots in California come with sacrifices. San Onofre State Beach is a series of bluff-side asphalt campsites along the frontage road of the Interstate 5 freeway. It is right on the border of Orange and San Diego county. Although it borders the ocean, it is on top of the bluffs so beach access is not as great as Rincon Parkway or Thornhill Broome. There are some of the best surf spots right along this stretch of coast so if that is your thing, or you want to give it a shot, this would fit the bill perfectly. The road that takes you to the campground has no through access so anyone driving down here is either staying here or visiting someone. That makes traffic lighter than either of the 2 previous beach front campgrounds and much safer for little ones to play and roam.

Click here to see more of San Onofre State Beach.

5. Lake Cahuilla County Park – La Quinta, CA

Aside from camping near the beach, one of our favorite places to go in California is the desert. Too hot to visit in the summer, Lake Cahuilla is a great spot to visit in any of the other 3 seasons. The lake is a man-made reservoir used as a local water source so swimming is a no-go. However fishing and row boating is good to go if that is your thing. There is a boat rental facility but it does not operate year round. Being near the Palm Springs / Palm Desert area, there are lots of other activities like golfing, shopping and sightseeing in the area. This is our go-to spot when visiting the Coachella Valley. Equipped with electricity and water in all of their sites, it is very easy to get comfortable. A handful of them even provide sewer hookups if you are willing to pay a few bucks more a night. County parks are often diamonds in the rough as they are typically cheaper than state parks and can offer more to the visitor.

Click here to see more of Lake Cahuilla County Park.

6. Palm Canyon at Anza Borrego State Park – Borrego Springs, CA

Another great place to visit in the desert is going to take you pretty far out of civilization and into the heart of the desert. Anza Borrego State Park. It is in the Colorado Desert of Southern California and is the largest state park in California and second largest state park in the entire country. Named after the big horn sheeps that inhabits the region, it is a great geological preservation of the Colorado Desert that once was underwater as the Colorado river drained into the Sea of Cortez. With the state park visitor center within a mile walk down a desert path, there is lots of hiking and exploring to do here. Bring a nice, comfortable pair of walking shoes and don’t come here during the summer as it is closed due to the dangerous heat. Every site has full hookups and has newly paved asphalt that is mostly level. Some major renovations were done around 2006 so all of the bathrooms and showers are clean and nice. We have only been here once but we can’t wait to go back.

Click here to see more of Anza Borrego State Park.

You might noticed that we prefer State and County Parks more than commercial campgrounds. That is not to say that we don’t enjoy the occasional stay at a KOA as they are very kid friendly with nice facilities. 4 of the 6 campgrounds mentioned here also do not provide any hookups so a full freshwater tank, generators or solar power would be necessary if you are planning on staying more than a couple of nights comfortably. After all, traveling is less about staying in the RV watching their cable TV and more about getting the most out of where you are. At least that is what keeps us going back out there time after time.

over and out,
dan

It was actually quite nice because the Orleans has a dedicated over-sized vehicle parking lot with plenty of space with no one there to bother you. We paid them a visit in the morning for a little breakfast, another buffet of course, before heading out for a legitimate campground.

At the north end of town, I did some research and found a brand spanking new county park with full hook up RV sites for a mere $20 a night. The caveat is that this park also doubles as a recreational shooting range.

Don’t be scared Mila. Those people with guns are not the buffet police looking for that little one who didn’t finish their mac and cheese last night, they are just here to blow off some steam.

In all seriousness, this is actually quite a little gem. The facility is so large, we are at the end of the shotgun range about a good 1/4 mile away from any other human being. There are almost 100 sites here and probably only 3 campers in the whole place.

We had initially thought about camping at the KOA on the strip but having walked through there a couple of years ago, we were not too impressed with the parking lot like environment and its steep prices. Now that we are more seasoned travelers, we are a little more adventurous with trying new places out.

Over the last several days, we have been trying to link up with our old friends Angela and Jimmy. They are also doing a tour of the southwest in their camper and driving through much of the same roads. Unfortunately we have not been able to link up. Finally here in Vegas, we managed to meet up for one night at the campground and headed out for a nice Japanese Tepanyaki dinner in north Las Vegas.

Don’t be scare little one, it’s not a real volcano.

over and out,
dan

The next morning, things looked a bit grim. There was a lot of moisture on the ground and plenty of cloud coverage. It looked as though rain was eminent and the weather report forecasted that it will last several days. Since we have already paid for 4 nights, we decided to just play it by ear. Going home during the day and sleeping here at night was always our plan. If it rains on us it just means the afternoon beach days are out of the question.

That’s right Mila, that is the Pacific ocean your sister was complaining about being too close last night. Wah, wah.

Sure enough the rain starting to come down. Not really fiercely at first so we came home to wait it out just to see how things shake out. With rain coming down and puddles along the street starting to form, it wasn’t long until the rain boots and coats came out and the big girls headed out.

Sorry Mila, you are still too little to go out there in the rain. Wait until at least you know how to jump, it will be much more fun for you.

Here is Marlene demonstrating the proper method of stomping on a rain puddle.

Not to be out done by her mom, Ava gave it her all here with this double stomp.

The rain persisted the entire time we had the Mish at Rincon Parkway. Although we decided to spend our nights there each night, we did not get to spend any more time at the beach this time around. As we have not used her in a few months since our Lake Casitas trip before we took her for her much needed tune up at C&G Trailers, we needed to get her out and make sure everything is working property before our upcoming trip to Anza Borrego State Park. Stay tuned for a series of posts of our visit there during New Years week.

For now, we have a Princess Tea Party to attend for Ava’s friend Grace’s 5th birthday.

over and now,
dan

We decided that on this warm Wednesday morning, we are going to bring the Mish there while it is still early in the week so we can claim a spot for ourselves. That is the only way you can guarantee yourself a spot at this place during the summer months. Being that it is winter time, we could have waited but we didn’t want to leave it to chance.

Driving north on the 101, your best bet with a large trailer is to actually drive past the stretch of frontage road and exit at Seacliff. This way you are facing the right direction when you get to your spot and also you can take a look over the southbound traffic and get an idea of how crowded it is.

Being as beautiful of a December day as it was, no one was there. Probably less than 5 campers occupy the more than 100 spaces along the beach. We didn’t complain as the sun was shining and we had our pick of the litter. Since the spaces are 40 feet in length and we measure at a few feet over that while hitched, I picked a spot with a pay station and dumpster in front of me. That gives me some wiggle room to hitch and unhitch without having to worry about getting pinned in if the place gets crowded.

To one side, we are just a few rock hops away from the beach and the Pacific.

To the other side, we have a small 2-lane frontage road with the railroad tracks just on top of the berm. It is the route for the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner that takes passengers up and down the California coastline and they do come a few times a day. I think there even might be a train that comes late in the evening. We didn’t care though, we were proud owners of this beach front property for the next 4 days!

We couldn’t believe how nice of a day it was and we immediately made the best of it. Our friend Michelle brought her kids Grace and Cole to the beach for the afternoon and had a ball.

Being so close to our house, our plan was not to stay here the entire time. In fact, we planned on working as usual and taking the kids to school each morning while spending the nights in the Mish.

I guess you can look at it as us owning a ‘beach house’. Except it was not a house and we only have it for 4 days.

This stretch of beach is also known as the American Riviera. Its mild weather and beautiful coastline with easy access from a major city makes it a very popular destination for tourists. Today however we were not having to share the beach with hardly anyone.

Right down the south end of the beach is actually a county campground called Faria Beach. I didn’t even bother to check it for vacancy as its limited size makes getting a spot there nearly impossible. There are a few full hookup sites and some partial hookup sites along with the rest of dry camping spots perches right at a point of the coast. It is definitely quieter and more kid friendly without the train tracks and frontage road right next to you. We might just have to try our luck next time in getting a spot there for a few nights.

Can you tell Mila is happy about our winter beach excursion?

That smile was stuck on her face all day. If it doesn’t come off soon, we might have to call a doctor.

By the end of the day the weather started to look a little grim. That’ll wipe that smirk off of her face in the morning.

over and out,
dan

The Tennessee landscape continues to impress us with its lush forests and scenic mountains as we crossed back across the border in the morning in search of a campground.

What we found was a place just a few minutes from us called Raccoon Mountain Caverns and Campground. It is fairly secluded and when we checked in here, there were plenty of spots available at very reasonable prices for full hookup sites.

One of the interesting things about Raccoon Mountain is that it seems to be operated completely by teenagers. At least when we got there. A high school aged girl was at the office doing the check-ins while several other high school aged boys were running around the grounds doing various maintenance type work. Although it seemed out of the ordinary, they were an efficient bunch that kept the place well manicured and maintained.

Since it’s our first day here, we didn’t have any real plans on what kind of sights we were going to see. After getting settled in, we decided to just take the 10 minute drive into town to see what it has to offer.

Driving from Raccoon Mountain took us around the Tennessee river and into downtown Chattanooga. Right next to the visitor’s center was the Chattanooga Aquarium.

We didn’t want to spend a whole day wandering around looking at fish so we opted to do some exploring nearby instead. The aquarium has built a bunch of outdoor water features that surround the building so Ava got right into frolicking.

Heading down a grassy hill from the aquarium lays the Tennessee river that wraps around the city of Chattanooga much like the Mississippi river does with New Orleans.

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law that forced many native Americans to relocate from their land into government sanctioned reservations. Many of them were escorted right through Chattanooga against their will and more than a few lost their lives along the way. It was a dark time in America and much of the water displays here in Chattanooga are built to memorialize the suffering they endured in what is now called the Trail of Tears.

These steps that come down from the street level into the Tennessee river are accompanied with tradition native American symbols that represent many aspects of their heritage.

They might be meaningful to lots of native American descendants, but to Ava, they are pretty pictures next to this awesome waterfall on the stairs!

With Nashville under water just recently and it being our next stop on the trip, maybe we are getting a glimpse of what our visit might be like.

Another destination we wanted to see was a hotel called the Chattanooga Choo-Choo.

It was formerly a major train depot in Chattanooga but is now a hotel named after the 1940s song of the same name, inspired by the terminal station that was once a bustling travel center.

Inside the lobby of the hotel, it retained the same turn-of-the-century architectural grandeur with its high vaulted ceilings and decorative details.

Since it was the middle of the week, hardly anyone was here. The bar next to the lobby was pretty much deserted but it sure would make a great place to have a cocktail while waiting for your train to pull in.

In the yard there are many restored trains that still rest on some of the old train tracks that once carried passengers and cargo across the country. Some of them for pure decorative purposes but others are put to use for restaurants and even rooms that visitors can stay for the night.

These trains sit on the tracks at the former station just as they did many years ago.

Our friend Carrie from California has always told us an interesting story about this place long before we knew we were going to be visiting here. Although not known to be a haunted location, Carrie once traveled to Chattanooga alone and found herself at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel on a rainy night needing a place to stay.

She had wanted to get a train car room and the only available one was one of the end units much like this one here. Having checked into her caboose late at night she found the room a bit disheveled but thought nothing of it as she settled in. With the television on to keep her company, she suddenly noticed that the volume was rising all by itself without any intervention of the remote or the control on the set. Realizing that it was nothing she was doing, she spent the rest of the night hiding under the bed sheets while talking to her sister on the phone to keep her company.

Doesn’t this empty train yard look much spookier now that you have heard Carrie’s story? Now picture it pitch dark with the oh so common thunderstorms in the south. It’s giving me the heebie jeebies. Let’s get out of here.

We got back to Raccoon Cavern and decided to do some more walking around of the campground.

This is a buildings up at the cave entrance that also doubles as a gift shop.

Just behind it is this cool little abandoned gondola that use to shuttle people up for the view from the top of the mountains. Now it just sits in a pile of dirty overalls and spelunking helmets

Well, that’s all we got today. Tomorrow we will be doing some real sightseeing in the Chattanooga area. See ya!

over and out,
dan