Yuma to San Diego

Leaving Yuma along I-8 west, the first thing you run across is a large recreational area dominated by HUGE sand dunes. Miles of unspoiled windswept sand dunes open to recreational vehicles. From there, it is a short trek across some very flat ground (mostly agricultural) leading to a stretch of some of the most inhospitable terrain you can imagine. Boulder fields, rock and boulder covered mountains for miles on end. There is some very steep terrain involved, but nothing serious. I would be careful in the heat of summer with some of the climbs. The exhaust brake and downshifting weren't quite adequate on some of the downhills, the occasional application of the brakes kept everything comfortable though.

We had a heck of a time settling on a campground in San Diego, but finally chose one and arrived without any mishaps, until we got into the office. We handed over our Discover card and were promptly sent into a panic when we were told it was denied. We paid with a Visa card and as soon as we were set up, checked our Discover account, all appeared to be fine online. We called Discover and were informed that everything was OK. We used the card later and it worked perfectly. Panic for nothing. Two nights in, the water-police knocked on our door at 10:00 pm to inform us that they had shut off our water due to a drip at the hook-up. Ok, there was a drip about every 20 seconds or so, but upon hooking up, I noticed the drip, tried several different fittings, moved our regulator and finally diagnosed the problem to be the campgrounds anti-flowback valve attached to the fitting. The water police didn't care and we ended up with 50 feet of hose stretched over to an unoccupied site with a good fitting, finally satisfying everyone. The next morning, I started looking at other peoples hook-ups, 75% were leaking... Oh well. This gets better, trust me.

We decided to extend our stay here as the park is maybe 15% full and in a great location with reasonable prices for San Diego, and luckily we were switched to a site without a leaking fitting! We once again tried to pay with Discover and were not shocked when they said it was denied, however we were sent into another panic when they said our Visa was denied also. At our insistance, they tried again and all was fine. I think the office workers are secretly filming the panic on peoples faces when they try to check in. We were still panicking while the couple next to us was being informed that there was no record of their reservation...

San Diego really is a beautiful city! More later.