Road trip within a road trip

We arrived at Monte Cristo campground in the Angeles National Forest around 5:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10. It was by far the most nerve-wracking drive to date. Around 18 miles of uphill hairpin turns (and I am terrified of heights) at dusk in the rain. We pulled off at every turn-out to let the faster commuters pass us but still received a one-finger salute a fair number of times (or perhaps that is the way people of California demonstrate their age or IQ to out-of-staters).  I am not a big fan of Californians at the moment...

Hairpin turns through the mountains
were a test of our endurance... for each other
and commuters on the road.

 I will never again call a FIP (Fantastic Illinois Person) a FIP again. Don't call me a Troll (someone who lives south of the Mackinac Bridge) or a Fudgie (someone who visits Mackinac Island and visits the Fudge shops) ever. Name-calling is so cruel. So is extending a middle finger.

After our trip here I kept insisting we needed to go back to Michigan and I have to say for a minute I think King agreed with me. But in the morning we got up, finished setting up our campsite and drove in to Palmdale. I think it is about 20 miles from the campground, although it is an hour drive with the roads. Even MapQuest agrees with us on that one. The road signs (Angeles National Forest Highway) suggests snow chains for all vehicles, but it is 56 degrees at the moment and there is no snow in the forecast. We did see small (as in tiny) patches of snow on some hillsides.

On Sunday afternoon we watched as a parade of cars drove through the campground. A lot families pitched tents and we watched campfires from our campsite during the early part of the evening. Monday morning by 7 a.m. when we got up they were gone. They must have left fairly early in the morning. I will note that many of the cars driving through Sunday did jut that ... drove through and left. Some stopped and chatted for a few minutes. I will let you draw your own conclusion.

We hiked a little during the week and spent a lot of time reading. When campers would leave King would scour their campsites and pick up un-used wood from fire-pits so we had campfires often. We would drive in to Palmdale almost ever day to use the internet and look for campsites in other areas. We actually woke up Wednesday (Feb. 15) with the intention of leaving but decided to make a day-trip to Hermosa Beach instead. Our second oldest son lived there for a few years so it was something King really wanted to do. I am not a fan of driving in traffic but King does not seem to mind -- although we snipe at each other often about which lane he should be in. Drama on the home-front with our granddaughter, her father and step-mother (via phone conversations) kept the trip home even more

Hermosa Beach

interesting.

At any rate, it was a pleasant day at the beach -- a long-sleeves and jeans type of day. We got back to the

campground early in the afternoon and decided it was time to move on. Sooo this morning (Feb. 17) we hooked up the trailer and drove to Beaumont, Calif., and are staying at a small county park. We are the only campers here. It is a lovely park, although the information I had for it was rather dated and apparently reservations were supposed to be made online. No internet service is available here so I guess we will pay retroactively after we leave ... unless the campground host boots us out before then. We got into the campground by paying via an automated machine. King had to stand and flag down traffic trying to break a $20 as it took "exact change only." I believe the $10 we paid was simply an entrance fee. Guess I will figure it all out when I get online again.

As we were parking the trailer a nice gentleman came and talked to us four about 45 minutes. "Bob" -- a retired U.S. Marine -- is a volunteer at the park. When he learned we were from Michigan he asked us what was going on in Dearborn. Guess I have some news to catch up on when we get back to civilization ... or maybe I won't even try. I hate to bury my head in the sand but ....