The Adventures of Fric and Frac: Adventure 184: Ocean Mesa RV Resort/Santa Barbara

A third Airstream sits across the street.

Due to some Enronish like book keeping, which allowed the Wily Cager to include her off site wins during the week, we were playing this morning for all of the Morro Marbles. Fortunately, justice prevailed and I walked away with the marbles (Actually, five sand dollars and a sea shell). After a normal morning, we hooked up, pumped out, checked out, and slid neatly into the freeway traffic. Thankfully, we were granted traveling mercies, which meant we traveled in light traffic on good road with no incidents to report. We were parked and settled at the Ocean Mesa RV Resort by about 12:30 P.M. We have a nice view of the ocean from our site, but today the sky was packed in under some low gray clouds. They muted the normal vastness of the ocean and all but eliminated the incredible blueness. Nevertheless, it was still near seventy as we sat at a bench table on El Capitan State Beach enjoying our lunch. For entertainment, we watched a pod of wet suited surfers play in the waves. After lunch, it was time for laundry (It's not all fun and games on the road). There are some details to attend to-you know-"Life is a full time effort". Just next door is a couple from Victoria B.C. (David and Hilka) who have a ten year old twenty-two foot Airstream. We noticed that one of their wheels was off on the their trailer, and I was taking pictures of it. Hilka, a vivacious and gregarious woman literally jumped from her trailer and pulled me into conversation. My shy self was no match for her. It turns out that the wheels on their trailer had begun to shred. Large chunks of hard rubber was missing from the tires and the steel cords could be seen. They didn't notice until they were parked. Luckily, the tires didn't completely shed while they traveled (Talk about traveling mercies!). They are staying here for a month, and they have arranged to buy new tires to replace their shredded treads. David, who hadn't changed the tires because the tread appeared good, has since done some research which suggests that trailer tires should be changed every four years or after high mileage. The problem is not the tread, but the hardening of the rubber. After we jibber jabbered about that stuff for a while, Hilka fixed us a cup of tea and we chatted like magpies for an hour or so. This is the first time, Judy and I have interacted with fellow campers in such a detailed way-it must be the Airstream connection. We immediately liked David and Hilka. Sadly, we're here for just one night. We drove into Santa Barbara for dinner (Excellent Mexican at the Agave Cafe). The Santa Barbara area is home to nearly one hundred thousand souls. The downtown is busy, full of Spanish flavor, and under a normal California sun, would be very pretty. It was less so under the gray drizzle of light rain. When we return to this area, we plan to explore the city in more detail. We will pray for traveling mercies again tomorrow as we take the Fric and Frac show through Los Angeles to Laguna Beach to get our freak flag flying. But that is then and this is now, and for now, Life is good, especially today.