Day 12

Our check out time at our lovely resort is 12:00, so we decide that we are going to breakdown, pack up and go out for breakfast. The boys love IHOP, which Bennie called the Intentional House of Pancakes before he could read well, so we decide to find an IHOP in order to get them some chocolate chip pancakes. This is the first breakfast we have eaten outside of the RV on our trip! IHOP has wireless, so Ben does some pic uploads and as the boys devour chocolate chip pancakes we discuss our plans for California, specifically the LA area, which is 275 miles away straight through the Mojave Desert and Death Valley. The heat is bearable in Vegas, but I know it is going to get hot as we climb out of Vegas and into the desert.

Nevada, near the border of California, is brown and cacti-filled and hot, hot, hot. We are all very excited about crossing over into California for many reasons; however, somehow we miss the California Welcome Sign because it is probably lost among last chance casino signs right along the border. We hope to get a picture of it another time. As we enter the Mojave desert, we are immediatly struck by the penetrating sun and heat. I tell the kids where we are, but they are not overly impressed at all, but both of them have taken their t-shirts off because it is so hot in the car, and we are climbing some mountains and Ben cannot stress the engine with air conditioning.

Up ahead we see a California Inspection Station that we ar required to stop at. We pull in, and the state inspector tells us that since we are from Pennsylvania, we had to be checked for Gypsy Moths. He asks us if we know what they are.

“Sure,” we say.

He crawls underneath our vehicles to check for the webbing that they live in, and he also enters our RV to inspect our fridge for produce and plants. This just takes a few minutes. I remember reading about this somewhere…could it have been in The Grapes of Wrath. Either way, is this California or the Czech Border in 1975?

We pull away and head toward the Cajon Pass, which we have been warned about. The crosswinds are very strong and the traffic is bad. We are looking forward to Hollywood, LA, Long Beach, the Queen Mary, Michelle, Palm Springs, and the Pacific.

Nothing, my friends, nothing, prepares you for the LA Freeway system. Nothing. Not driving in Manhatten. Not driving down the West Palm Freeway on your way to Fort Lauderdale. Not even the aggressive, cockiness of Bostonians in Mass. NOTHING. Eventually we enter a 7 lane (14 combined) freeway and as we whip and weave our way through and others do the same, we put our lives in the hands of Californians! And Ben, of course. He is tense and stressed and irritated and a little bit frightened (don’t tell him I said so). The traffic is fierce and unforgiving, and one slip up and we will crash into someone who is too close or cutting in front of us. Driving a 30 foot trailer on the freeway is not Ben’s idea of a vacation, so I work hard at keeping the kids quiet and calm. Good luck to me, huh?

Finally, after dozens of potential accidents, we arrive to our destination:
Golden Shore RV Resort in Long Beach. Guess what?

THEY HAVE NO OPENINGS!

“Why didn’t you call ahead?” you are all asking.

I know, I know, people. See, I always call ahead. Each campground says, “We have openings…come on in.”

The one time I don’t call ahead? See what happens.

Ben is super agitated and tired, and he was finally feeling relief from the drive as we pulled into Golden Shore RV. No luck.

The nice man at the campground gives me phone numbers for other places to stay and highly recommends Orange RV Park in Orange/Anaheim, CA but it is a half hour away and guess what we will have to take? Yes. If you just said “the freeway,” you are correct. Ben is really still stressed, but he has a drink and something to eat, and heads once more onto the freeway. The GPS gets us lost a few times, Ben is really angry, and the three of us are just quiet and hopeful. I cheer him up by suggesting we go to see the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked only a mile away in Long Beach. The Queen Mary is important to Ben and one of the reasons he decided to come all the way to California on this trip. We honeymooned aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, we celebrated our 10th anniversary aboard the Queen Mary 2, and now he will see the original Queen Mary. It is 7:00 at night, so the huge parking lot of the Queen is basically deserted, and we park and Ben literally scurries to the great vessel. Her smoke stacks are so familiar to me as well as her famous Cunard colors. Ben and the boys run ahead, and I organize and gather things from in the truck and RV and take a phone call. When I decide to walk to where the three of them are taking pictures, I run into a huge guy urinating in the parking lot. AWKWARD! Incidentally, he never stopped; he simply turned away. We were right in a very public parking lot! And in the presence of a Queen, too!

We finally arrive to the campground and when I go into the office to register us, I still feel like I am moving in the truck. That sensation has happened to me a few times. It is the same feeling you have when you finally disembark from a cruise ship except that in that case you rock for a few days. I feel like I am perpetually moving forward! I think my body must also look like a car seat.

When I find our camper, Ben is in a discussion with a man who work at the resort and boy oh boy can he talk! I thought I could talk! We are so tired and hungry, and he is talking our faces off. He tries to talk me out of visiting LA the next day due to the driving and the freeway, and after what I just experienced, I am buying his story. According to the RV guy, if we get stuck in LA after 1:30 in the afternoon, we are looking at a 3-4 hour commute due to traffic even though LA is only an hour away. I am discouraged, and Ben can see this so he does some research and decides we will take the California Amtrak into LA, and connect to the subway via Union Station. I agree and feel happy that I will see Hollywood. I make cheeseburgers and everyone calls it a night.

Tomorrow, LA!