After hiking all day in the heat of Zion, we were tired and sweaty. We wanted to relax and take hot showers, so we stopped at a Motel 6 in St. George, Utah. We should have woken up earlier and driven when it was a little cooler, but it was about 10am by the time we hit the road. It was HOT! The air conditioner in the camper still wasn’t working at this point, and we were driving through the desert to Riverside, CA in 100 degree temperatures. Definitely not a high point of our trip!

We arrived at my second cousin Jane’s house in Riverside late in the afternoon. It was still hot, but she left a few cold beers for us in the fridge for us while we were waiting for her and her sons, Ethan and Noah, to get home from sports practices. That night we all walked into town for Sushi and had a great time catching up.

I don’t know if we were just burnt out at this point of our trip or what, but for some reason we didn’t pull out the camera much in California. Maybe we felt like we were home – except this time with a very active social life seeing different friends every night for over a week!

We left Riverside on Friday September 11th and drove to Nate’s old co-worker and friend Vince’s house in Alpine, CA, about 45 minutes east of San Diego. It was an intense drive in the camper up the long winding dirt road that led to their house, but the next two days were worth it. We spent a lot of time hanging out in “Vince’s Worst Damn Garage in Town” with his wife, Elerie, while Sully played with their daughters Tristine and Audrey. Vince and Nate crawled under the camper and found that the clutch for the A/C compressor was slipping and wouldn’t cool the camper.

On our way out of Alpine, we stopped for lunch at the Alpine Brewery with Jim and Ellen, Nate’s co-workers and electronic mechanic mentors. From Alpine we headed to Shelter Island in San Diego to visit our friends Mike and Molly on their new boat. It was great to be back on a boat and we got to listen to the ZZTop concert happening next door at Humphrey’s.

Later that week, Mike and Nate swapped out the A/C compressor after Mike got off work and they continued until 2:00 am when the compressor was replaced and checked for leaks. The next day the camper was blowing cold air again! Thanks for the help making our drive cool again Mike!

Nate had a blast getting veterans out on the water sailing small boats during the National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic.

After visiting lots of friends in San Diego for a week and a half, we left Tuesday September 22nd and drove north to Lompoc, CA where my Aunt Annemarie lives with her husband, Mitch, and daughters, Tampa and Anäis. We went swimming, fed a bunch of animals at a farmstead, and saw the cows at the Scolari family ranch.