On the way back north to the border, I was in no hurry to leave Mexico.  We stopped at the beach in Tijuana for lunch, which was lovely.  After dropping off Gloria in San Diego, it was already 5 p.m. but I decided to keep driving toward Las Vegas, and stop when I got too tired to continue.  As it turned out I just kept going and arrived at Grey’s house about midnight.  We had a very nice visit for almost two weeks, then I went to the condo in Las Vegas for my last week before returning home to spend the holidays alone.

Grey always loved Halloween, so it was fun to see him decorate the house and enjoy himself so much!

Grey and Lorin seem to have a good life together, and they both love Indian Springs.  It is a quiet little town near Grey’s job, where everybody knows each other and friends always can lend a helping hand.  Of course, Grey fixes cars for other folks almost every day.  Since everyone owes him a favor, he can also get assistance when he needs it.  He has lots of friends, and seems pretty content.  Of course as a Mom I wish he’d quit smoking and drinking so much beer, but mostly I’m glad he’s happy.

With Grey’s encouragement I spent my last week in Las Vegas looking for a motor home.  I had decided to buy a Lazy Daze, the best built Class C, small enough for me to handle as a solo woman traveler.  Of course even after I found one in Claremont, California, buying it was complicated and several times I was ready to give up.  But finally I bought it, a 1997 26.5 foot Mid-bath with only 33,000 miles on the engine and 34 hours on the generator.  It came with new batteries, hydraulic levelers, and was in very good condition.  But the seller delivered it at the same time my plane was leaving for Alaska, so Grey drove it back to his house for storage but I never even got to drive it!  Two months later I flew down with my dog Cheyenne to begin our big new adventure, and that will be the next story…
 

Flash to the Past –

Mom Kristin with the three kids in Hawaii 1984 – Peter (12), Dara (14), Kristin( 37), and Grey (16)
Besides driving and camping trips, this was our first real vacation ever, and it took me two years to pay for it!

In spring 1975, Grey was seven years old and Mom was separated at last, escaped and soon to be divorced!

Gloria went with me for the drive down the Pacific Coast to Baja, and this photo was taken after we made it back to the coast in California.  The plan was to stick as close as possible to the coastline, stop overnight at San Simeon and again in San Diego to stay with a relative of hers, then down to Rosarita where I had a condo for two weeks.  Then I would drop Gloria off in San Diego to take the train home while I continued on north of Las Vegas to my son Grey’s.  Since I am finally writing this months later, I will summarize a lot.  In the future, I’ll keep up this blog more faithfully and hopefully it will be more timely and immediate.

One thing I love about traveling with Gloria is that she also takes pictures.  And sometimes I am in them!  Usually when I travel alone I am behind the camera and don’t often get in the photo.

Our drive went fine, for the most part.  Gloria gradually learned to read the maps so I wouldn’t have to stop all the time to see where we should go next, and we both enjoyed the seashore.  The castle at San Simeon was closed so we couldn’t tour it.  Too bad, because I know she would have enjoyed it as I had years earlier.

But when we got to the massive traffic around Los Angeles I began to question my smart idea of sticking to the coastline.  Then in Redondo Beach, I was sitting at a traffic light behind another car and just as I pulled forward when the traffic began moving, we felt a crunch as a young woman in a red Jeep sideswiped the right side of my car from the rear door to the taillight.  She smashed in the door and then scraped right through the previous dents from when my son-in-law backed into my car and never fixed it.  It took several months, but finally her insurance company State Farm called the car totaled and paid me about two-thirds of what they said the resale value would be.  I kept the car, Grey pounded out a few dents, and since it still drives fine it can continue to go on many future adventures.

In a small town festival, we found a man who hand-cut names onto wooden keyrings, and it was lovely.  We both had keyrings made as a memento of our trip.  It was amazing that he could sit and do that every day!

Of course I have hundreds more photos from this trip, but they will have to go in an online album.  I’ll add the link later.  We especially enjoyed the elephant seals with all their bickering and romances.