All good things must come to an end. In the two weeks as residents of Mission Valley’s Admiral Baker RV park we biked 300 miles, summited three mountains, toured 10 museums, invaded three beach towns and earned our San Diego bike warrior wings. Ready to move we spent Sunday and Monday checking out.
First we checked out of Lowes with a power drill and compass saw. The dimmer switches are illuminating, but to finish the job there was the square peg in a round hole issue. No problem for Mr. Handy.
Checking out also means chores. While we keep up with Betty’s activities of daily living, we give her a good pine sol scrub on moving eve. Vacuum, sweep, polish, wash, dry, fold, put away. Once that’s all done we focus on food. With no Navy Exchange around, we made four lists – Von’s, Farmer’s Outlet, Walmart and Costco – checking out of Von’s with a 50 pound dry-goods pantry run last night, strapping the lacinato kale to the Topeak bag and booking it home in the dark. Lacinato was the only produce purchased as it is very hard to find and when it’s available, we load up.
Admiral Baker said we had to check out by 11am so we got up early this morning, put in a last load of laundry and biked to the Farmer’s Outlet with the produce list. If we lived in Mission Valley this would be the only place we would shop for produce. Fresh from the farm with amazing prices. Look what $19.90 bought today
Knowing we were going from full hook up to electric and water only, Sheri pre-washed everything and made a loaf of teff bread while Eric tended to the Betty button-up for take off. When there is no sewer hookup we are strict water conservationists as water going down the drain hits the holding tank and when it gets full we have to pack up and drive to the dump station. Our goal is to dump once in our 2 week stay, so we devised a plan that will reveal itself in future posts.
Our new home is Silver Strand State Park on Coronado Island. They have a strict “don’t show up early” policy so we had 3 hours to kill, 2 stores to shop and 2 bases to reconnoiter.
Checking out at Walmart is the water run. 8 gallons of drinking, 40 bottles for the bikes, 1 gallon of distilled for the C-Pap, 8 bottles of seltzer. We also get thai red curry paste, pad thai noodles, dried figs and cherries there cause it’s half the price of Von’s and the savings pays for the water. Cheap or savvy shopping?
Last retail check out was Costco – Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon and Pacific Cod, mushrooms, heirloom tomatoes and 2 bags of salad – staples we can’t live without. If we could buy every brand we liked at one store, we would do that. But since we can’t, we stick to our four store formula.
Driving onto Coronado, we checked out the Navy SEAL training base and the Naval Air Station. While the SEAL base was closer, it had zero amenities and was strictly for tough dudes doing tough things. North Island Air Station had a fabulous fitness center which will also double as our shower facility (did we tell you there’s no bathhouse here?) as well as a commissary and exchange.
Thanks for checking in today – now check out our new view!
