Week 373 - Southern California Beaches - 10-06-2013

Tour 2013-2014, Southern California Beaches

We're off and running! We have finally left the Atascadero area and are on a slow mosey to Phoenix. Our cousins Bobby and Barbara have offered to let us join them for week in Hawaii in October. Couldn't resist sharing a two-bedroom unit in Princeville, Kauai. We are moving slow to allow for the temperature to drop a little before getting into Arizona.

During our last 7 1/2 years of traveling we have continued to support our clients with our accounting and inventory control software. During the economic downturn in 2008 we first created our subscription RV travel website http://bigrigbible.com/. This gave us the expertise to create websites for other companies. We are now specializing in creating websites for businesses where we can park the Mothership on their property and work daily with the client.

This allows us to create new designs in just a few days. See MattsonExpress Portfolio Before we left San Luis County we created a new website for a private investigator.
1) Mandy always willing to help poses for a possible logo for the private investigator. 2) Leaving town we cruised down Cuesta Grade on the way to friends and family in Santa Maria and Nipomo.

Sadly, before we reached Santa Maria to stay with our lifelong friend Paul, our refrigerator gave out. While staying with cousin Judy in Nipomo a mobile RV tech came to inspect the frig. It was a goner! The cooling unit was fried. After days of research the best solution was a new $4,500.00 unit, ouch! We had planned to replace our wearing-out 8 year old electric bicycles. Well, maybe next year.

The old and new refrigerator units came through a window they removed. It might have gone through the door but the clearance is so tight, they did not want to take a chance on harming the door, dash or chairs.

The old unit was the Norcold 1200LRIMSS. These are the stainless steels doors and hinges off that unit. We kept them as during our research on Ebay, we saw one seller asking $600.00 for just the two larger doors. And theirs were not stainless but the cheaper "panel doors" that require applying wood panels to the outside. We have placed these doors and hinges on Ebay this week. If they do not sell, we need to find them a home or toss them away. Note to RVer's. If you have a Norcold 1200 refrigerator and need new doors or would like stainless, drop us an email and we can ship these to you for the cost of shipping. With the inclusion of the hinges you can replace "panel doors" with these.

Meanwhile back to the tour. Heading along Highway 1 just north of Ventura is Rincon Parkway. There are 128 45-foot RV spaces along the beach. At high tide you are just 25 feet down the rocks to the water. Leave your windows open at night and the "white noise" of the Pacific Ocean will lull you to sleep.

The photos you can get here are marvelous.

Ellen is so happy to be here calling "I love you Mandy ". 2) "I love you too Mom".

When we first left home in August 2006, our family and friends were excited for us and many were envious and would liked to come along. In the second year they began asking when we would stop traveling. By the third year they we perturbed and by year four some were saying "Stop it and get home NOW!".

How can you ask us to come home when this is the view from Pete's office. Nice try.

And Mandy could not be happier than running down the mile-long beach and playing in the ocean.

On Pete's 61st birthday he spent it alone in Bend, Oregon as Ellen went to Paso Robles on the train. But as you can see Ellen is here to celebrate this monumental moment with Pete. Yawn!

We had to pick this from dozens of fabulous photos from Rincon.

1) Leaving Rincon we headed to Anaheim Resort RV Park. We wanted to visit an RV store in Buena Park that specializes in replacing carpet with hard surface floors. Our carpet is wearing down. But, they were not available at this time. 2) Visiting Paradise by the Sea park in Oceanside brought us close to Solana Beach where we were able to test ride new Prodeco Mariner 7 electric bikes. When we recover from the refrigerator monetary hit, these are the bikes we intend to buy. They are lighter and faster than our current China-made bikes. They have 8 gears and dual disc brakes and the are made in Florida (yes, as in USA). Not cheap at $1,299 but if you use them in place of your car, they will pay for themselves in little time.

Ellen relaxes at Paradise by the Sea RV Resort.

Sorry, we need to duck out now and hit the road. See you next week.

Love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from Oct 2013