October 2015 – Greg & Amelia's Airstream Adventures

Somewhere over the rainbow, far far away.

There’s nothing like the sweet smell of an evening rain shower in the desert. It’s even nicer when you are sitting outside under the awning of your Airstream with your wife, the sun setting in the west and a fantastic lightning show in the dark eastern sky. All the while sipping on a nice cold Sculpin IPA. Not too bad of a way to spend a Thursday evening in San Diego County.

Spiffy new sign.

Agua Caliente County Park is a remote and not really well known campground. It does have a fanatical base of people that have been coming often for years. Folks like R, that come out to soak in any of the three pools fed by a mineral rich natural spring, albeit chlorinated. There’s an indoor adults only therapeutic pool heated to 102 degrees. An outside therapeutic pool naturally 98 degrees, and an outside smaller pool. This place gets so hot in the summer, they just close down from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

It’s also one of the few remaining places in San Diego County without cell reception. In a world where everyone is always connected, it’s like going back in time. When’s the last time you’ve gone three days without your smart phone? It’s quite a cleansing experience. I rely on mine for work, so it is constantly attached to me. And since it is attached to me, it’s really easy to fall into the twitter, instagram, strava, Facebook, snapchat, check the weather, check the stock market, google, get the score, uber, ask it for directions, and text trap. In a way, the smart phones are turning us into stupid people with computers in our hands. They ought to just drop the phone moniker, rarely do people even call each other anymore.

The campground was less than half full and we lucked out with a wide array of delightful weather. Rain, lightning, dry lightning, nice breezes, puffy clouds, never too hot nor cold. We even saw a group of six Desert Peninsular Big Horn Sheep, aka Borregos, on the ridgeline above the campground. A ram, with the biggest horns we’ve ever seen, the ewe, and four of their offspring.

The last sunrise was the best. As I was walking by a lady with her nice camera all set up on a tripod, I commented, “wow”, referring to the sunrise. She said, “Greg.” “Terri!” Sure enough it was the lady that bought Fins A Mexican Eatery 10 years ago….