24 April 2010
After leaving Indio we headed over to Los Angeles to check out a manufacturer of RV furniture. I found them online over a year ago and kept them in mind to “someday check them out”. Their website looks really good and their prices…pretty darn good. Now let us see just what is what. We’ve kicked around the idea of either reupholstering or replacing the couch, but with their prices it almost makes sense to look at replacing everything. Just before noon after pulling into their parking lot and meeting one of the owners, we were given the “grand tour”… Rick and his partner started this business about 15 years ago and is doing quite well. There biggest part of their business is home theater seating and then it breaks down to the RV and boat furniture end. They ship all over the world from this one manufacturing plant and all of their business is done out of a catalog, although they will do custom manufacturing as well. I will admit I went with a negative mind set but came away quite the opposite…very impressive.
Now it was time to get the hell out of Los Angeles before the traffic comes to life and we’re caught right in the middle of it…we’re off to the coast, where I had no idea, just drive until we have to stop for the night. Well we got as far as Lompoc and immediately headed off to find the local Wal-mart for a night of dry camping. A surprise awaited us as we pulled in and found out that they don’t allow over-night camping in their parking lot like most others… Well as it happened, we looked across the street and noticed that there was a large group of trucks and 5th wheel trailers parked together…the carnival was just arriving. With our little motor home in-between 2 of their big rigs we got away with a free nights lodging. Early the next morning we headed off for our next stop along the California coast…Montaña de Oro State Park. We’ve heard how the state parks fill up in California so we weren’t too sure we’d get a spot. As luck would have it, we found we’re still traveling in the early part of the season and their campgrounds aren’t full yet, but that will be changing soon.
After leaving Indio we headed over to Los Angeles to check out a manufacturer of RV furniture. I found them online over a year ago and kept them in mind to “someday check them out”. Their website looks really good and their prices…pretty darn good. Now let us see just what is what. We’ve kicked around the idea of either reupholstering or replacing the couch, but with their prices it almost makes sense to look at replacing everything. Just before noon after pulling into their parking lot and meeting one of the owners, we were given the “grand tour”… Rick and his partner started this business about 15 years ago and is doing quite well. There biggest part of their business is home theater seating and then it breaks down to the RV and boat furniture end. They ship all over the world from this one manufacturing plant and all of their business is done out of a catalog, although they will do custom manufacturing as well. I will admit I went with a negative mind set but came away quite the opposite…very impressive.
Now it was time to get the hell out of Los Angeles before the traffic comes to life and we’re caught right in the middle of it…we’re off to the coast, where I had no idea, just drive until we have to stop for the night. Well we got as far as Lompoc and immediately headed off to find the local Wal-mart for a night of dry camping. A surprise awaited us as we pulled in and found out that they don’t allow over-night camping in their parking lot like most others… Well as it happened, we looked across the street and noticed that there was a large group of trucks and 5th wheel trailers parked together…the carnival was just arriving. With our little motor home in-between 2 of their big rigs we got away with a free nights lodging. Early the next morning we headed off for our next stop along the California coast…Montaña de Oro State Park. We’ve heard how the state parks fill up in California so we weren’t too sure we’d get a spot. As luck would have it, we found we’re still traveling in the early part of the season and their campgrounds aren’t full yet, but that will be changing soon.
We had a lot of young families camping around us, and they brought all their “little ones” with them…what a good time for all of us. For Louise and me, it gave us a chance to take a couple of nice long hikes along the beach.
On one of the hikes we almost stepped on a rattlesnake !!! The trail was wide enough for us to have seen it in plenty of time, but our attention was caught by a little lizard scampering away from us. Fortunately it just wanted to get out of our way more than set up and fight. It was so close that I could almost count its rattles. We knew that there were these critters all around us but that was a little “all too close”. Other than the short lived scare, we had some wonderful sights and adventures along the beach. From the white shale
to the unusual rock formations with pass-thruogh waterways...
Life continues to be wonderful.