We left Quartzsite on April 1 and were glad to say goodbye to windy, dusty Arizona. The day turned out to be beautiful, and the storm we were worried about never materialized. It all went to the south of us, and we hardly had any wind to blow us around. We felt a little shaky about driving in Los Angeles with a 40 foot motorhome and car behind. Not to worry, because we timed it just right, and we sailed through the freeways to our destination. Gary commented that the traffic (at that time!) was not as bad as Austin traffic. The mountains you see in these pictures are in Southern California, and they had fresh snowfall from the recent storm. There's a ski resort up there somewhere.
Seal Beach Naval Weapons Facility is located right on the beach, and Navy ships dock right on the facility. We saw a huge one yesterday when we left. Why no pictures of the base, you ask? Well, there's a prohibition against taking pictures on base unless you have special permission. We tried to get permission to just take a picture of our campsite, but conveniently the person we asked couldn't find anyone to authorize us to take a picture.
Well, that's not the worst. We have carried a shotgun since we started full-timing, and also Gary has a couple of other guns. We were told, when we checked in, that if we had weapons, we should notify security and register them. OK, no problem, right? WRONG. After kicking it around, we decided that the right, honest thing to do would be to take our weapons to security to get them registered and stored in the vault. BIG MISTAKE. They had a hemorrhage, s**t hissy and told Gary he had to leave the facility immediately, and that we should never have been allowed onto this facility with weapons. Gary told them what the people at the rv check-in office had said, and that nobody at the front gate mentioned weapons. They claim there is a sign by the front gate that says no weapons are allowed on base. We've yet to see the sign, but we're going to look again.
We had no idea where we were going to go, and I was starting to pack things up, when I remembered that I have a friend here whom I've known for years. We were planning on visiting her anyway. I called her and asked her if we could store our guns at her house, and she said yes, that would be OK.
Well, back to my story. They ESCORTED Gary, in our car, off base, across the 4 lane highway, to a parking lot across from the gate. He had to leave our car there and walk back over. They didn't even offer him a ride back on base. We got ready and walked out to the car, then went shopping for several hours until my friend got home, and then we visited with her and left the "weapons" there.
Now I have no quarrel with them not allowing weapons on post, remembering the awful thing that happened at Ft. Hood. However, they could be up front with their policy. Plus, you can't tell me that all these old retirees around here in their RV's are not carrying weapons. We were just stupid enough to be honest. Well, that won't happen again. We'll be very careful next time.
This is the land of palm trees and exotic plants. There's so many beautiful sights to see. Last night, we drove over to Manhattan Beach to visit with my son, Matt, and his wife Alexis. Their house is about 250 yards up a hill from the beach, and you can see the Pacific from their front windows. It was so beautiful to see the waves coming in. The beach picture is taken from their front drive. I didn't see the electric line running almost parallel to the ocean when I took the picture. Do you notice how the ocean seems to look like a hill out there? It's really noticeable when you view it in person.
We walked about 9 short blocks to a restaurant called Mama D's, Italian, of course, where I completely blew my weight watchers points. Despite my indulgence, I had still lost a pound this morning. Of course, I really didn't eat much of anything else yesterday.
We're really looking forward to next weekend, when we'll go spend a day or two with Matt and Alexis and enjoy the beach and the ocean some more.
I'll write more later with more pictures, and hopefully we won't be in the brig or kicked out of this place!
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