Friday, it’s time for a new venue. PJ’s sister is putting on a holiday gathering in Laguna beach so we have booked three nights at Doheney State Park up in Dana Point. Took a long walk in the morning sun relishing in the quiet of the week day lack of crowds. We packed up our itinerant Gypsy camp and prepared for the transition. PJ drove ahead in the car to see about switching to a site on the beach side of the campground while I emptied holding tanks and refreshed the water supply. After that, I drove over to WestMart and gassed up and filled the propane tank. Nice getting it all taken care of in one shot.

Packing Up the house

Wilson was getting a little grungy from all of his sitting around in dusty camp sites and getting ash dropped on him in Guajome, so he was overdue for a bath. I knew there was a self serve wash over on State Street, so I squeezed through the tight traffic in the village and barely fit the RV around the vacuum stations in the front to get it into the large vehicle bay on the end. The dirt flowed off and a shinier version of Wilson emerged from the grime. I had to push the extend your wash button a few times to keep the water flowing enough to finish the task. Clean and perky, we merged onto the 5 and had an uneventful drive up to Orange County. Things were a bit tight getting off onto the coast highway, but I managed to slide over to the left turn pocket and make my way into the campground.

Getting a bath

Welcome to Doheney

No luck on getting a beachfront spot, so PJ was all set up in our little space over by the entry road. Doheney has camp sites right on the sand. It is a beautiful spot but totally urban. The campsites are tiny and be prepared to get to know your neighbors. The condos on the other side of the coast highway look right down into your camp sites and we are inches away from the railroad tracks. Everyone here is madly in love with their generators and they drone on all day and into the night when the rules force them to shut down at 8:00. The sun was shining and the winds were light making for perfect conditions for surfing. The only thing missing was waves. I grabbed the Walden and paddled out to chase after some mini-peelers on the sand bar out front. Water was nice and I had fun though the hip was complaining and it was slow going getting to my feet. It was good to get wet and be out at such a picturesque place.

Wave to the Commuters!

As the sun was going down, we grabbed our chairs and walked the few steps to the sand and sat on the beach and watched a gorgeous sunset drop behind the jetty at the Dana Point Harbor. Lots of families, fires and kids running all around the beach. There is a holiday atmosphere and the summer like weather doesn’t hurt. But the warmth quickly evaporated when the sun disappeared and the chill sent us back to camp to light up a roaring fire.

We roasted hot dogs on our telescoping campfire forks and basked in the charming glow of the puttering generators. PJ had frozen faux hot dogs, but they thawed and roasted nicely once on the spit. The fireside thing was only enjoyable for so long with the noise and the closeness of people. We grabbed the dogs and took off on an exploratory expedition into the night down towards Capo Beach. The dogs were into it and we sniffed our way along the sandy roadside down to the overpass that crosses to the fancy resort on the other side of PCH. Unfortunately for the businesses on the other side, the city had closed the crossing for retrofitting so their beach access was cut off. The air was brisk and the walk was invigorating. There were still quite a few day use visitors bar-b-queuing and hanging out at the beach to the south. We returned home and relaxed inside.

Eight o’clock came and things were amazingly quiet for the rest of the night. The only thing waking us up was Cali. She’s an insomniac like me. She loves to beat her tail on the wall to drum you out of a sound sleep. Maybe she needs to go to the bathroom or maybe she just wants a pet, who knows.