April | 2020 | The World as We See It

After Palm Springs we headed to our winter resting grounds, Santee, CA. Santee is adjacent to San Diego, a place I’ve been to once for work, and home to some of Patti’s relatives. It turned out to be a great place to land for a couple of months in order to ride out the winter and catch our breath. Lots to do, beautiful beaches (cliffs!), a vibrant downtown, and plenty of recreational activities. I liked it there so much that I’d consider moving to the area but only if you get rid of the state income tax. So there’s that.

I’ll just post a few random photos of the area over the next post or two. It was an interesting winter. Followed by an interesting spring. And probably an interesting summer, just not in the way we hoped.

Our social isolation spot. Quite comfy, all things considered.

Notes on the elephant in the room: As full-time RVers, we have some interesting challenges in this collective mess we are all going through. It became obvious to us early on that our carefully laid spring travel plans weren’t going to happen. We found ourselves in a very nice RV park outside Bakersfield in early March and, seeing the writing on the wall, decided that we’d ride it out here. Bakersfield is large enough that obtaining supplies shouldn’t be a problem and Kern County (besides being the #1 oil producing county in the country!) is small enough that crowds/maintaining social isolation isn’t an issue. Our site is level, nestled in an orange grove (really nestled … our RV has blossoming trees within inches of the coach on three sides), and has crazy good cell signal. So good that both Patti and I can stream our respective shows simultaneously. Since March 10 or so we have only left for groceries, prescriptions, and visits to the vet. Don’t ask. Bottom line: we are as safe as can be. We consider ourselves to be very fortunate.

So until at least June, we are here: walking the park and through the adjacent orange groves and vineyards with the occasional oil well dotting the fields, watching videos, reading lots of books, keeping healthy and (mostly) sane, and worrying about our friends and family. Much like the rest of the planet.

Stay safe.