Today we spent most of our time prepping for travel. It rained heavy during the night and continued for most of today. Did a little laundry and put everything away.
Monday the 8th
Well the rains pretty much stopped after 36 hours and the sun was out as Punky announced it was time to get up. We had a leisurely breakfast, disconnected our water and power and pulled out of our site, parking a little way up the street. Tina pulled the tow dolly off the pad and over to the rig. Once we hooked it up and drove the car onto it we secured the car to the dolly and drove out of Sunbeam Lake RV Resort towards I-8.
Once on the freeway we faced very stiff headwinds which kept our speed down to between 45 and 55 for the first 20 miles. Once past Ocotillo we started up the foothills into the In-Ko-Pah Mountains. Soon we passed the 1,000 ft elevation marker and headed up the steep grade to In-Ko-Pah Park at 3,100 feet. It was a slow grind as we crawled along at 25 to 35 keeping the engine RPM between 1,500 and 1,800 revs (optimum operating range). This kept the engine temperature right where it was supposed to be.
Passing the park we entered a series of mountain valleys which topped out at 4,100 feet elevation. As we started into Pine Valley we drove into the clouds where a heavy mist kept the windshield wipers going. Before long we were in heavy rain and fog with visibility down to 25 yards. Not a comfortable feeling when you can't see anything in front of you as we had slowed to 45 mph and were being passed by everybody returning from a weekend in the desert. And the big eighteen wheelers headed for I-5. A bit nerve wracking as we were going up and down through the valleys in limited visibility.
The rain continued to come down until we started our descent into Alpine. By the time we reached El Cajon the sun was out and we started smiling as we headed for the coast. Just west of El Cajon we turned off I-8 onto Hwy 125 South towards Chula Vista. Suddenly we were back in city traffic. WOW!! What a change from driving across the desert! It was actually worse than driving through the mountains. But we finally reached our destination, Chula Vista RV Resort and Marina on the southern end of San Diego Bay (http://www.chulavistrv.com/).
After checking in we pulled up to our site, moved the car off the dolly, disconnected the dolly and tucked it away at the back of the site and backed into our new home for the next 35 days. Once we were set up we took a bike ride around the community, out to the marina and located a small cafe for breakfast and a nice restaurant for dinner when Marni and Emma come down.Distance for thisleg, 105 miles. Total for the trip so far, 6,381 miles.
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