FROM GRAND CANYON TO LONG BEACH

We arrived in Long Beach on Thursday late afternoon after a long haul across the desert from Needles, California.  We had been expecting to stay in the Grand Canyon area for another day and night but the trailer park in Tusayan where we were camping, left us a note that we would have to move the rig to a different site because they had assigned our spot to someone coming in on Wednesday.  This was interesting only because the campground has about 100 sites, of which only 20 were filled.  So rather than argue the point, we decided to leave a day earlier.  
We had enjoyed our stay very much and on the last couple of days had taken the shuttle out to either end of the paved roads and had gotten another 500 photos of the canyon in the morning, evening, and in various weathers.  On our last night we had dinner at El Tovar during a tremendous thunder and lightning storm with copious amounts of drenching cold rain.  While we were there, we saw a lightning bolt strike the lightning rod of the hotel.  That is the closest we have ever been to lightning and I can say that if I never see it again, it will be OK.  Everyone who had been sitting out on the deck, immediately scrambled to get inside.  However, by the time we left, most of the weather had ambled away and I was able to get a photo of this elk fawn on our way out of the park.
We left early on Wednesday morning for Desert View RV Resort in Needles, CA and arrived around noon.  It was a beautiful park with lots of trees, plenty of room in the sites which were hedged on either side with Ficus trees.  We just kicked back and had a barbeque for dinner and then walked a few feet to the pool which we had all to ourselves for the evening.  

In the morning we were ready to leave early but the front legs of the 5th wheel would not raise due to a burned out fuse, so Allan headed off to town to get a replacement.  We were on our way finally about 8:45 a.m. and stopped in Barstow for refreshments and to walk the dogs.  We hit the traffic of Los Angeles about 2:00 p.m. and were in stop and go traffic for the remainder of the trip.  My phone gps map said that we had 26 miles to go and the time estimate was an hour and a half.  But we got to The Golden Shore RV Resort without incident and were able to back into our space easily enough  (see above).

 Although the front view is pretty plain, behind our rig is a green space which gives lots of room between our rig and those behind us.  Last night we took a walk outside our park and just behind us, outside the fence is a wetlands that the city of Long Beach established in 1997.   The land that you see in the distance is San Pedro and if you look closely, you can see someone's rv behind the rv park fence.  We are literally backed up to the harbor.  The people that you see in the wetlands are using nets to pick up floating plants and debris.  The restoration is on going.

 The wetlands were on our right as we walked out of the park and to our left was a park along the harbor which included a bike path that went under the San Pedro bridge, so we were able to walk all the way over to an area called Shoreline Village which is where all the shops and restaurants are located along the boat harbor.  We actually walked behind the Aquarium of the Pacific and to our right was the Queen Mary (photo at the top of the page.)  Today (Friday) we are doing some housekeeping, laundry, and a trip to TJ's/Sprouts.  After being in the National Park for a week, some of which was without electricity we needed to get the inside of the rv cleaned up.  We also tried to do without extra provisions while in the nat'l park because the prices were so high.  So today will be a catch up day.  Tomorrow the sightseeing can begin!