McGrath State Beach Jan-Apr 2011

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Onward to McGrath State Beach, Oxnard CA

This is the beginning blog for our three month stay at McGrath State Beach in Oxnard CA. Last year we were camp ground hosts at San Eliso State Beach in Cardiff By The Sea, about 30 miles north of San Diego. We had been scheduled to be hosts this year at San Eliso State Beach, but the ranger in charge decide to put another volunteer in charge of host scheduling. We were supposed to be hosts in January and February of 2011. In October we discovered that the new host coordinator had canceled us for 2011. I guess he had friends that wanted our time. Oh Well!

I then got back on the internet and got contacts for all of the state beaches in southern California. I was contacted by Kevin Enns from McGrath State Beach in Oxnard. He is a part time state park employee. McGrath State Beach is 55 mile north of our granddaughters in North Hollywood. It is an easy one hour trip verses a terrible 2 to 4 hour drive from San Elijo State beach, which requires us to drive through downtown LA which is always a disaster..

McGrath State Beach is on a coastal plain and is very flat. http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=3550&mode=sequential&flags=0

http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=607

We had planned to return from our son Greg’s home in Chewelah WA on December 29, load the motor hone on 12/30 and depart 12/31. I have included a photo of my grandson Patrick and his pet lama Oreo. Unfortunately Jan had a medical test that was changed from 21/21 to 12/30. The doctor could see her on 1/4/11. Her tests were good!. We could not have left on 12/31 because of a blizzard that turned the streets to ice. See the following video:

. This crash area was about 2 miles from our house and I almost took that road at that time .

We left today, January 5, 2011. The weather all the way to LA through Flagstaff was scheduled sun and warmer. We got about 50 miles south of Colorado Springs (COS) and my motor home started surging and bucking. I pulled off the road and call a friend Harry Volkmann who owns a car repair facility in COS. He referred me to a friend who owns a transmission repair shop in Pueblo. Restarting the motor home, corrected the problem for the moment. We then drove back to Pueblo about 10 miles and left the motor home and drove home. It needs at least the Power Control Module, a $500 to $1000 computer. After that we will see what other problems it has.

So here we sit in Paneras Restaurant in Colorado Springs accessing their free internet and having lunch. Maybe tomorrow or Friday we will continue our trip.

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Photos

McGrath State Beach
The camp ground is the green area above and to the right side of the beach.

Comments

[Mike and Sue Carver]

Good news
Thank goodness you were so close to COS when you had mechanical trouble! Hope they have you back on the road soon. We are really "itching" to get out of the deep freeze over here!

[Carlotta]

weather
Has it occurred to you that you are not supposed to possibly be on the road at this time. Stranger things have happened. Hope you do get to start out soon and it will not be too expensive!