By Dale Edwards

Nov. 1, 2009

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The consensus was that we will go there again next year. Yes, we had a great time with the eleven rigs that showed up at the Pinezanita Campground near Julian for our October campout. Well, all except Mike Black who will remember next time to bring a flashlight with him when he walks on a very curvey up and down road in the pitch dark of night. He set out from the club-room after dinner to get the campfire started, and it was so dark that he could not see that tree straight ahead where the road curved. He walked right into it face first. I won’t go into how much blood and mess was involved but he did survive without permanent injuries.

The weather for all three days was great, and most of us enjoyed wandering among the shops on Julian’s main street before sitting down for a half a sandwich lunch and a piece of apple pie with cinnamon ice cream on top. But just after lunch the tour busses really began dumping out the tourists and the town got kind of crowded. So about 16 of us drove over to a small narrow gauge railroad – mining camp attraction that some retiree school teacher has built where we had an exclusive Nomad ride and history lesson and lots of fun.

As usual, our meals during the campout were great. For the first night, wagon masters Bob and Donna Lash made a couple of pots of beef stew with rolls and salad that everyone enjoyed immensely. Thanks for all your work, Donna and Bob. Dinner the second night was our famous potluck, and the food was plentiful and delicious as usual. Both nights we had a roaring campfire after dinner, and the fixings for Smores were available but no one had any room left for more food.

Fireside stories were interspersed with discussions about which road was the best route to get there from civilization. Most of us drove there via highway 79 out of Temecula as recommended by the campground, but it was miles of windy two lane back-road. I guess highway 78 out of Oceanside or I-15 that some took would have been at least shorter. But neither of those routes were as filled with sharp 15 mph curves as from the campground down to Interstate 8 that some of us took on Bert Ekstrom’s recommendation when we left on our way to a Monaco motor home rally in Tucson.

But if the campground was closer to civilization it would not be as quaint and enjoyable. One of the Nomad objectives is to get out and experience life and have fun. And you could do that with us too if you would just pull that old unused rig out of storage and come join us. If you want to take it at a slower pace, come visit us at one of our monthly social dinner meetings at the Coco’s in Huntington Beach on the second Tuesday of each month. Just call President Mel Hetzel at (562) 598-9234 to get more information. If Mel is busy packing up his Presidential Library to pass on to the next lucky guy, give a call to our Vice President Bob Lash at (949) 498-5013 to make dinner-meeting reservations and meet the club members.