5. Santa Paula con’t.

TJ & I didn’t sleep much at all that night, & when morning came I had a paralyzing feeling of, “OH MY GOD, WHAT DID WE DO?” TJ & I both had that headachy, sleep-deprived, emotionally-exhausted, hungover feeling. Thoughts of what we’d left swirled – stability, waking up in our sunny bedroom, making coffee in our bright kitchen…

Our first *productive* thought was: find another campsite ASAP. 

Our original plan had been to stay in Santa Paula through the weekend & get our bearings, but the spot we were in was booked, & checkout was 11. We made plans to move to our next spot in Morro Bay early, when the KOA campground manager let us know we could stay in our campsite in Santa Paula through the weekend! We were relieved – our friends who’d planned to visit & say some last goodbyes could still come! And we could take a couple days to get our heads on straight after a very stressful two weeks. 

Over the next couple days, we got a little more sleep & ate some actual meals. That foggy-brained-hangover slowly went away. And friends visited us! The visits were special and bittersweet. Together we made fires, ate smores, bounced on the gigantic bouncy pad, watched the roaming peacocks, explored the rushing river, & tried to get our new home organized. 

TJ was happily surprised that everything worked. I mean, in theory everything should work. But the fact that the slides worked, the toilet flushed, the refrigerator was running – it was great.

Sunday morning came, & it was time to check out. It was rainy. We remembered the narrow 1-lane roads coming in, & we were nervous about crossing paths with another RV. And, we’d also need to stop at the dump station on the way out to dump our black tank (i.e. “Hey, Clark! Shitter’s full!”). -Another first-

Let me reiterate all of the things we didn’t want to encounter in our first days on the road:

Drive 6 hours on our very first journey: check (in the dark – double-check)

Arrive at our very first campsite in the dark after hours, down a windy, narrow road: check

Back-in to a camping spot: check

Set up in the dark: check

Tear-down in the rain: check

Dump the black tank at a dump station: check

But we did it! And we hit the road again for our next spot on the beach in Morro Bay – unknowingly heading right into the eye of another atmospheric river about to hit land.