Thursday, July 6, 2017

Point Mugu, California

March 25, 26, 27 and 28, 2017

We weren’t looking forward to driving near Los Angeles.  But our next destination was on the Pacific coast near Oxnard.  And you can’t get there from Cherry Valley much any other way.  So on a Saturday morning we took off for a military RV park at Point Mugu Naval Air Station.

It wasn’t that bad. Yes, traffic sometimes crawled for what seemed like no reason. But we had few problems until we were just a mile or two from Point Mugu -- and what happened had nothing to do with vehicles or road signs.  Doggie Arlo -- whose much more vocal than Maddie if he wants out of his kennel -- started making noise.  Then more noise.  And more.  But there was no where to pull over.  Just after we could smell the reason Arlo wanted out of his kennel, Jim found a spot where Arlo made a quick exit and continue getting rid of what was upsetting his stomach. Obviously we still had a dog with GI problems. 

The RV park was just yards from sand. When I checked in, I was told we should not disturb the sea lion sleeping on the beach.  I said of course, thinking the sea lion was probably on a rock near the shore which is where we usually see them.  But it was literally sleeping in the sand in the middle of the beach in an area roped off with what looked like crime scene tape.  I thought the lion was there for the long haul and told myself to get a photo the next day.  But by then the big guy and any indication of a crime were gone.

We stayed at Point Mugu for four nights and it was a great place to walk along the ocean. At the recommendation of Kat, Paul’s SO, we also wanted to go to Santa Barbara.  But with wind gusts up to 60 mph, and kayaks on top of the car making us kite-like, we explored closer to “home.” We took a trip to Ventura and its famous wooden pier (first built in 1872 for $45,000 and rebuilt several times after being sliced by a ship, plus fire and storm damaged).  We hit the Ventura brew pubs. We bought the biggest and sweetest roadside-stand strawberries I’ve ever eaten.  We drove south to Malibu where we saw film crews in action. And then we walked the beaches some more.
Traffic -- complete with limos -- came to a near standstill several place on "the 210" north of Los Angeles. And this is Saturday morning traffic.
I took very few photos this trip, but this one features Jim's IPA at the  Made West Brewery in Ventura.  We also sampled at Ventura's Surf Brewing.
Jim and dogs somewhere near Point Mugu.  A lot of nearby beaches only allowed dogs during morning or evening hours when local would be walking them before and after work. But the military base beach was good with dogs at any time as long as they were leashed.


2 comments:

  1. Bev, I got behind on your blog again but this time it was not my fault. My server was hacked by “People for Honoring Animals on Road Trips (P.H.A.R.T.), and every time I tried to click on your blog I was taken to the Pets with Ongoing Orifice Problems (P.O.O.P.) solutions page. As I have since learned, P.H.A.R.T. is the major advocacy group encouraging travel with pets. They did not want me, or any of your blog readers, to be aware of what you were experiencing while on the road with Arlo and Maddie. They simply thought it was bad copy for their cause. This is just one more example of “The Man” trying to beat us down, this time it’s Big Dog, the bastards.

    At any rate with the aid of the Apple Help Line I have patched around those guys and am up and running on your blog again. I admire that you are catching up on past travels. When I get behind on my travel writing/documentation, I just stop writing about anything. The only way to start again is to skip everything that I did not write about and start with what I am doing right then. Of course this has left whole swaths of my life that I don’t remember anything about. The upside is I can visit those places again like it was the first time.

    Sorry to hear that your Mom was injured, the fact that you are writing about it in July makes me believe all is going well. Sandy’s Mother is doing well also, still staying a senior assisted leaving place here in Lancaster, and Sandy stops to visit with her almost every night.

    Glad to know that you are back above sea level; don’t know if I could have passed up either the Salton Sea or Slab City; even without you doing another post, I know that there is not (or was not) safe bottle of IPA on the west coast.

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    1. I laughed. Thanks. My sister-in-law asked if I was blogging again and I said yes, but it's mostly about dog GI problems. Fortunately for us at our next stop (which I have yet to blog about) we saw a vet, got some meds, and traveling became so much easier.

      Mom is doing pretty good for 96 and is walking with the aid of a walker. On July 10 I flew back to SLC and then Jim and I drove back to Ohio in the motor home. So now I have even more blog writing to do.

      Glad Sandy's Mom is in Lancaster. That sound like a good arrangement for all.

      Loved your trip tales about your grand daughters. Sounded like so much fun. My grand daughter will be here during the Lorain County Fair, so we'll get in a lot of cow/goat/rabbit visitation.

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