Thursday, June 26, 2008

Ortega Pass and Elsinore

Notice how I managed to ignore the blog police for over a week?  I am proud of myself.  I refrained from posting when I had nothing new to say.  Not that I really have much to say this time, but I figured I better post something or people would begin to wonder if we had gotten lost.

Actually, I have been enjoying Derek's and Daryl's blog postings of their adventures.  It is always fun to read first hand accounts of travels to new places.

Our summer has settled into a routine here in San Onofre.  There is not really much to tell that we have not already shared.  We do camp checks, work the kiosk a little when paid employees call in sick, pick up trash on the trails, and help campers whenever we can.  The weather here is about as good as it gets for summer time.  We had a couple days last week when it got up to the mid 80's, but most of the time the highs are in the mid to upper 70's with some fog that burns off by mid morning.

Tuesday we rode the scooter up to the other San Onofre State Beach campground.  It is about 5 miles north of us, on the south edge of San Clemente and inland about a mile.  There is a trail from the campground that goes to the beach, and we took it for the first time.  The round trip was about four miles and very pleasant.  Much of the trail is along San Mateo Creek which is a protected area with quite a bit of wildlife.

Today we rode the scooter to Elsinore to do some pre-cruise shopping at the outlet mall there.  We got some really good deals on shirts, pants,  and shorts for me and a fancy dress, tops, and shoes for Dianna.  Sometimes we don't find any good deals at outlet malls.  Often the prices are about the same as what you would spend at Wal-Mart.  Not this time.

Elsinore is about 50 miles from us.  We rode north to San Juan Capistrano and took Highway 74  over Ortega Pass and across the coastal mountains.  The road is twisty and it's a pretty good climb both ways.  The scooter took it in stride, of course.  I filled up when we got back to San Clemente and we got 61.3 MPG on the last tank.  My average fuel economy since purchasing the scooter is 57.3  We tend to get much lower mileage during cold weather but it is always between 59 and 62 during the summer.  We are now just a couple hundred miles short of 20,000 miles.  That is a lot of miles on a scooter!

Dianna is going to visit her parents again this weekend, and Don and Betty plan to stop by here Sunday on their way back from their visit with Mark, Heather and the boys who are staying just a few miles south of us.  Daryl stopped by one day a couple weeks ago when he was out for his visit with Devon.  It's always nice to have company.  If Donna would come visit then I would have something else to blog about.

9 comments:

  1. What am I, chopped liver? I'm not important enough to "blog" about. I'd love to be in a place where it isn't 110º or higher every day! Just kidding, of course. I'm going to be stuck right here, going to coumadin clinics, and making Dr. visits, to try to keep my "out of warranty" heart pumping. It has well over 20,000 miles on it; that's lots more than your scooter has!

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  2. Glenda and I just might be out that way in a couple of weeks. (Check your email.) Dang, wish we could get 60 mpg on our road trips! We gave it a lot of thought before deciding to so. With the current gas prices, a road trip to California is definitely a splurge!

    Glad to hear from you. I was beginning to wonder what had become of you!

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  3. I only get about 40 mpg on my bike. That's still a lot better then any of my cars, and I can't go 150 mph in my cars.

    We are looking forward to everything this weekend including seeing you on Sunday!


    PS. I don't really drive 150 on my bike.

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  4. It seems like there's a gap in your vehicles; you either take a "little" scooter or a huge, gigantic diesel truck.

    I wonder if you could get a "Smart Car" on the back of your truck. In Oslo yesterday there was a street with all the cars parked parallel, except one Smart Car that was parked perpendicular to the street; they're that short -- only a little longer than an Isetta.

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  5. For you Arizonans you need to know the price of gas in CA is now around $4.50/Gal in the cheapest places. Closer to $4.70 in others.

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  6. We can vouch for gas prices! We paid $4.69 over there! It was nice to get to Yuma where it was $4.13!

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  7. Is diesel staying about the same price as gasoline? I remember that when we got our first diesel truck, it was about 25¢ a gallon, and immediately it raised. We bought just at the wrong time. No one can blame this price jump on me! Sometimes, it's nice not owning a vehicle any longer.

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  8. Diesel has been more than gas for a couple years now. Of course, it makes no sense since it costs less to refine than gas, but that's the way it is. Diesel here in California is over $5 a gallon which is about .50 more than gas. Fortunately I filled up in Yuma before we left Arizona so we will have enough to get almost back to Texas when we leave here.

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  9. Richard,
    I hope you and everyone else are doing fine. I hope you're not in the line of fires out in California. It's terrible.

    Anyway, everyone here at Perot is doing fine. Same old stuff. Keith, Steve, Benny, Randy W., Randy F. and Gordon all said hi and to stay out of trouble.

    Take care and let me know when you'll be in town so we can take you out to lunch sometime.

    Also, I'm sorry to hear about your Mom and wish her well as well as your other family members.

    -jim

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