Sunday Jan 1, 2023 - Tijuana to Campo CA

 

It rained hard last night but we pretty much slept through it. The power was off sometime last night and they had a leak in the living room ceiling (not so big). We were ready to get back to the van and Jake had some work to catch up on, so we drove into Tijuana Centro and got a good tour of the city. Mid-morning on Sunday, Jan 1 on a cloudy rainy day is the perfect formula for empty streets.

It took a while but we found Blue Luna which was open for breakfast with some great old time jazzy music playing (Purple Rain blues edition?). Then off to the pedestrian immigration port. We had planned to try our Global Entry passes, which we have as temporary letters saying we are good to go (the actual cards hadn’t yet arrived before we left), but there was no line at the regular entry line so we were through customs in a few minutes. We walked back to the van (it was still there, whew..) and back on the 805.

Only 4 exits later we turned off of the not too busy highway and on to a beautiful 2 laner heading east along the border. So California seems to have crazy busy roads and then when you find one of these side roads, there is nobody around; no houses, no development, no nothing. I have run into this before on motorcycle trips in California so maybe it has to do with how the state handles zoning or something. Stuff all the people together and leave big open natural places to enjoy?

Google took us on a solitary back road past some nice lakes and mountains and then we reached Rt 94 which took us loop-the-loop over mountains east. Campo is where we are staying, at our very first Harvest Host, which is Campo Creek Vineyard. But first we overshot and went into the town of Campo to get a few groceries at the Campo Green Store, run by Steve. It rained off and on all day and Steve says this has been a really rainy year.

We pulled into Campo Creek Vineyard and met Paul, who lives in Oceanside CA, but grew up here. He said we were 1 of 3 others camping here. He likes the Harvest Host program since it brings in a little business and gives his 85 year old dad some company. Sounds like Paul comes on the weekends and his dad runs the shop on weekdays. We enjoyed a wine tasting and bought a bottle of their Rose Merlot.

The vineyard is on a side hill with the border wall visible tonight from our front window. By this time it was raining steadily, so we parked in a cozy pulloff, napped and read until dark and then made dinner, watched a couple of Three Pines episodes, and then bed.

Day 22 - odo = 3594