I promised to continue my San Diego County adventure and I will but when my kids visit, it is great news so I’ll share that with you first. Janet and Bill, my WA kids, arrived late Sunday afternoon for a two-day visit. They had stopped for a very quick return to the Grand Canyon on the way down. They had both been there before but not with each other.
They were as impressed with Arizona’s big hole in the ground the second time around as the first as are most people. If you haven’t been there or visited the many other varied National Parks that we have in the United States, you are missing the point of travel.
The visit with my kids was only two days and three evenings long but we packed a lot of love and hugs into them and this morning they left very early for San Felipe, Mexico. This is their third venture into Mexico and they seem to love this little Mexican town and being on the Sea of Cortez beach for a few days. I confess that is one place I never visited in all of my months and travel miles into Old and Baja Mexico. Maybe one of these days!
But 
back to San Vincente Resort near Ramona, CA, and Janice Baldridge, the Marketing Coordinator. Although I was almost two hours late, she embraced me as an interested visitor and showed me to my second level lodge room overlooking a very green, very busy golf course. A huge bottle of icy water picked me up, a little lipstick refreshed my face, and I was on my way again.
Janice’s enthusiasm for her work and the resort was catching. She introduced me to everybody and showed me all the amenities. I won’t tell you about everything here because it will all be in a column or article within the next couple of months…so stay tuned in! That was what Janice was, tuned in and that made our visit enjoyable. She was even kind enough to listen to my best full-time RVing stories and who knows; maybe I enticed her into trying it one day.
I nixed golfing on their eye-catching golf course, or horseback riding. The closest I’ve ever come to any kind of golfing except miniature golf, was watching Tiger on Sunday afternoons. I was enthralled with him since seeing him as a little guy being interviewed on TV with his dad, but then he tumbled from his pedestal. (Good reason for not putting them on pedestals in the first place.)
With no horseback riding for 20 years, I decided I didn’t need to fall and break something precious on the first day of my tour…and you may have already read about my colorful history with horseback riding. It isn’t pretty. Therefore, I just took pictures. I could see riders on the horse trails 
in the rocky country above the resort. Maybe next time. Many people who live at San Vincente, have their own horses for training, trail riding or competitions. Although the green golf courses are the first thing that take your eye, San Vincente is a family home and condominium community with swimming pools, tennis courts, horses, and activities.
We spent the early evening in a golf cart following the many paved and unpaved trails for golfing or walking, running into a flock of wild turkeys, bunnies, ducks and coots around the lake.
Even after a yummy happy hour of snacks on the deck and later dinner in the lounge of the Oaks Grille Restaurant, Janice still sent me back to my room with a huge, delicious piece of chocolate cake and of course, I ate it. It was so rich with thick moist chocolate, how could I not. Slobber, slobber!
By then I was collapsing with fatigue. I enjoyed my private balcony overlooking the golf course, wrote up the day’s notes, read for a while, watched TV and finally settled into deep sleep, until the phone rang about 12:45 a.m. The front office called to see if maybe I had left my lights on. She wanted to know what I was driving and I had no idea except it was a silver car and the car with lights on was silver. Since it sounded so much like something I would do, I didn’t even argue. I groggily d
ressed and trudged down two flights of stairs. It wasn’t my car!!! The night watchman was very apologetic but I had to laugh because for once, I hadn’t done something stupid.
However, across from my space the next morning, a young lady was dealing with a dead battery and a fellow driving a huge tow truck. Lesson learned – take the time to go out and get your license plate for registration if you don’t know it.
After a hearty breakfast at the resort, I said my goodbyes to Janice and drove to the Wildlife Research Institute, but I’ll tell you about that next week. Life is good! God Bless until then.
Minshall’s RVing Alaska and Canada ($19.95) and RVing Adventures with the Silver Gypsy ($16.95) are available thru Amazon.
At 45, Widow Minshall began 20 years of solo full-time RVing throughout Alaska, Mexico, and Canada. Sharlene canoed the Yukon, mushed sled dogs, worked a dude ranch, visited Hudson Bay polar bears, and lived six months on a Mexican beach. She lectured at Life on Wheels, published six RV-related books and wrote a novel, “Winter in the Wilderness.”
Leave a Reply