We’ve been busy the past
couple of weeks, but not as busy as the young Marines we see every day training
here at Camp Pendleton. We see them go past in their diesel-powered amphibious
vehicles and head up the beach.
We met our friends Rob and
Janet, who live nearby in Oceanside, for lunch at Cold Beers &
Cheeseburgers in Carlsbad a week ago last Friday. It’s an Arizona-based sports
bar and grill chain with 12 locations near Phoenix and two locations in
California. I enjoyed a “Jucy Lucy”, a cheddar jack stuffed patty, with a
melted core of cheese!
Last Thursday evening,
Julie and I enjoyed another trip to the Wild Note Café and Belly Up Tavern in
Solano Beach, about 25-miles south of here. We went to see Big Head Todd and
the Monsters, who were on their Winter Tour 2020.
Big Head Todd and the
Monsters is a Colorado band that formed 30 years ago and hail from Boulder,
Colorado. This is at least the fourth time we’ve seen the band play: twice at
Red Rocks and now twice at Belly Up Tavern. They did sing some of my favorite
songs: “Bittersweet”; “Broken Hearted Savior”; “Circle”; “Please Don’t Tell Her”;
and “It’s Alright”. The highlight of the show was Hazel Miller who joined the
tour for two-weeks and I especially enjoy her powerful voice on “It’s
Alright”.
The Belly Up Tavern is a
smaller venue with a 600-person capacity while the open air Red Rocks
amphitheater west of Denver holds 9,525 fans.
We had a nice beach
campfire on Saturday night with Rob and Janet. Rob and I worked for different
companies but did the same kind of work in Colorado Springs back in the mid- to
late-2000s. They moved to Austin, Texas for five years, when Rob retired and
they moved here to Oceanside.
My Aunt Clara (my mother’s
youngest sister) and Uncle Earl, who live in Vista, had us over for dinner a
couple of weeks ago. We hadn’t seen them since our last visit here in November
2016 and we enjoyed catching up with them.
We invited them to our “home”
on the beach last Sunday afternoon. It was a little too cool to sit outside,
but we enjoyed dinner and had a nice visit inside our motorhome.
We plan to watch the Super
Bowl on Sunday and cheer on the Kansas City Chiefs (only because they’re
filling in for the Denver Broncos from the AFC)
Steve & Julie
Cornelius
We left Tucson on
Thursday, January 2nd, and headed to Yuma, Arizona for a 3-night
stay. We lined up a mobile RV service while in Yuma to thoroughly wash and wax
our motorhome that Saturday. The crew did a much-needed oxidation removal on
our motorhome roof.
On Sunday, we left the RV
park at 7AM and went to the nearby truck stop to fill up with diesel fuel.
While the poor truckers were paying $3.35/gallon, the truck stop had a RV lane
where it was $2.95 and with my 8-cent Good Sam discount, I only paid
$2.87/gallon. We wanted to fill up our thirsty motorhome before we crossed into
California where fuel prices are much, much higher.
We arrived at Marine Corp
Base Camp Pendleton and the Del Mar RV park around 11AM and got set up. Julie’s
sister Cindy and brother-in-law Terry joined us an hour later for a 6-night
stay. We hadn’t seen them since last March in south Texas. They both retired in
April and are also full-time RVers. They’ve been traveling around the Pacific
Northwest this past summer and fall.
Our campsites are both on
the beach in the front row. We’ve had some awesome sunsets and enjoy campfires
almost every night.
On Wednesday we enjoyed
breakfast at Beach Break Café in Oceanside on Historic Highway 101. It was
really yummy.
We took Cindy and Terry
down to Solano Beach on Friday night for dinner at the Wild Note Café and a
concert next door at Belly Up Tavern.
After dinner we lined up to go into Belly
Up Tavern and grab some seats when the doors opened for the concert. The main
entrance for Belly Up Tavern is at the front of the venue, but dinner patrons
can enter from the side door.
We saw two bands: the Clay
Colton Band from San Diego and then Tusk, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band from New
Jersey. We really enjoyed both bands and the entire evening.
We said goodbye to Cindy
and Terry who left this morning for Arizona. We’re at Camp Pendleton for
another three weeks, just enjoying the beach and the awesome sunsets.
Steve & Julie
Cornelius
