hon, could you grab the camera? this seems blogworthy.

The first overnighter in the van was last night.

Oh, I was so proud of myself.
* I found a place within an hour and a half of home, so that we could focus less of traveling, and more on learning how to operate the various components.
* I found an RV park that was willing to take us for only 1 night (there are so many that have a 2 night stay requirement on the weekends!).
* I found a place that still had available space on a 3-day/holiday weekend.
* And I found a place with a great view.

Pretty plush, eh?

We had just pulled in and spent about 30 minutes hooking up this cord and that hose, etc. Only one mishap, too! I hooked up the water and didn't understand that I was filling the holding tanks rather than hooking up the city water direct to the plumbing. So the tanks overfilled. Oy. But we caught it pretty quick and fixed it.

Anyhow, we had just gotten all settled in, and had just decided to pull out some folding chairs so we could set them out on the back there, and enjoy the view.

What's wrong with this picture, though?

why are there all these firemen outside our door??

and is that a rescue helicopter those people staring at? and what is that news guy filming?

hmmmm, and that DOES seem like a pretty abrupt drop off, now that you mention it...

Well, you see folks...we were parked right on the edge of a 90 foot cliff. Just as we were pulling into our spot, a section of the cliff had become a landslide, and it buried a girl up to her neck.

filched from the local news

Some wonderful guy started digging her out with his bare hands, and meanwhile the fire department was arriving on scene to complete the rescue and cordon off the area.

And there is me, all the while trying to figure out how to properly operate a hose.

Focused.
I am at least that.

It was then determined by the fire department, that our vehicle (and I think about 23 others), needed to be evacuated.

I didn't get to see the slide itself until just now as I was looking for a link to it to add to the post here. It's proximity to the van is pretty impressive, to be honest with you. This video has some nice shots of the slide (click on "2 of 2" to see the video). And then lookie here at this video--you can even see my van in this one! That's my shiny silver little rig there, right at the end of the clip.

I was surprised that the rv park had another space to move us to, given the busyness of the weekend. I was thinking we were probably either heading home, or maybe being brave and trolling for add odd roadside place to kick it for the night.

The second space was nothing at all like the first one, though. It was just a row inland, but it had that concrete jungle feel to it. We were crammed in next to some other folks quite tightly. The neighbor on our immediate right had about 6 or so children that sounded as if they'd all been just pumped full of koolaid and pixie sticks. Oh, and the family had decided to set up a portable firepit right outside our bedroom window, and sit around chuckling all night. Lovely.

What to do?
Cut out and make way for the local dive bar.

And when I say local, I mean loooocal. We don't go out to bars much, but when we do, this is just the type of dive we look for. I now have a half dozen new friends in Pacifica, and I'll know just where to find them should I ever go back LOL.

I spent most of the day with a hangover. Please please remind me that I can't mix alcohols. Gah.


Well, since I'm always trying to look for the brightside:
1) hey, because we had to relocate we got extra practice hooking up!
2) TheMostImportantGuy got to learn how to drive the van today because I was too busy holding a barf bag.