My next stop was supposed to be San Francisco but I wasn’t particularly thrilled about the idea of arriving in a large city on a Sunday so I took some time for a little R&R at a KOA campground instead. I needed a good rest and some uninterrupted sleep anyway. Waking up when the Jeep reached boiling point every morning was not really the best way to sleep. Besides I was trying to camp since Yosemite but they were full and the Big Sur grounds were just too bizarre and expensive to figure out.
The KOA campground in Santinella was expensive too, $27 a night, but they had water, electricity, full bathroom and showers, a 24 hour Laundromat, as well as some extras including a game room, wi-fi, a public porch, a communal grill, and a pool. I was due for doing some laundry and getting a shower, the rest seemed great too.
Arriving we found the park full of RVs but very very quiet. The most activity I saw were the hundreds of ground squirrels dashing for cover when I drove in. Apparently this was squirrel metropolis. The people who were around all seemed to be old and owned little yappy lap dogs. Still, since I was the only tent I found a fairly secluded spot near the Laundromat and next to a horse pasture. Pitching the tent was easy this time as I was not battling explosive bursts of wind and rain like I had on previous occasions.
I wasn’t about to let the pool go to waste. No one seemed to be using it which was odd, it’s not like it was filled with baby barracuda like that awesome little beach in Key West… No barracuda, more toes spared, it was a win win. I spent the whole day splashing to and fro and realizing just how out of shape I really was. There was no one else here. The woman working there said sometimes children would use the pool on weekends but that was the majority of the activity it saw. I didn’t end up doing our laundry or getting a shower… and I slept in until noon, so I had to renew for another day anyway… it was a pleasant place. I had a firepit and some Wal-Mart wood and cooked turkey dogs, potatoes and onions, and macaroni and cheese on it. My neighbors found me ever so cute for using the fire for macaroni and cheese but trust me, at this point Mac and Cheese was a feast for kings!!
I swam for another long stint, getting even more sunburned than the day before despite being covered in sun block. It must have been expired or something as we both got burned, of course I got much worse so. Everywhere the bathing suit wasn’t covering got lobster-red. And people wonder why I am against bikinis… in any event some good old Aloe Vera and we were back to that whole laundry and shower thing. The shower was the first hot shower I’d taken in a public place. I was intensely grateful.
If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!
