Day 21 - Marines For Two Minutes
Trip Start
May 19, 2008
1
23
161
Trip End
Nov 08, 2008
San Onofre,
California,
United States
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Start mileage: 48550
After a couple of stops for food shopping and supplies, we finally headed west on Interstate 8 towards the coast. We drove through San Diego's Mission Bay and stopped for lunch on a cliff-top at the southern end of La Jolla and watched the surfers below. Although it was gloriously sunny when we left El Cajon, at the coast it was quite overcast and a bit chilly. After lunch we drove into La Jolla Bay to check out the seals on the beach. A fantastic sight but quite smelly!
Back on the road we passed Torrey Pines Golf Course, host to the US Open
Our Home For The Last Two and a Half Weeks
. An hour or so up the road we decided we needed to get onto the Interstate and inadvertently found our way onto Camp Pendleton, home of the US Marines. Realising that we were approaching the security checkpoint and unable to turn around, we had no choice but to ask the young Marine at the gate if we could drive in to turn around as we had gone the wrong way! After giving us a puzzled look, he told us where to turn around and as we drove away he called after us "nice bus!" Unfortunately we don't have photos as we didn't want to get arrested or shot! A little further up the correct road we pulled into San Onofre State Beach Park. We had spotted it on the way down from LA a couple of weeks ago and thought it was just an off-road area for overnight RV/camper parking. WRONG! The State Beach Parks are controlled by some US government department, are subject to untold numbers of rules and regulations, and this particular one charges you $25 for the privilege of parking on a bit of Tarmac for the night. And they don't allow alcoholic beverages inside the park! Too bad. We've had a tough few days and our beers are nicely chilled. Cheers!
Distance travelled: 79 miles
Days on road: 1
States visited: 1
