Days 20 through 22 - Malibu, California

 (June 13 - 15)

It's a rough life here at "Surf Outpost"

Turns out that this is the very park where Roger lived in a tent with his former wife, Jane and Shane & Bejan, when they were little (they are in their mid-forties now) when they moved to California from Texas.

There are literally no campgrounds in LA (at least none that take transients like us.) So oh well, we'll just have to put up with Malibu.

AND our family and friends seem to have no problem meeting us at the beach. (We have parking for guests)

We are high above the ocean (and road) but still will fall asleep to the sound of the waves of the Pacific. So nice.

Wanda came by and I took pictures of her flying her kite. She apparently keeps one in her car in case there is wind? Over 5 decades knowing her and she still surprises me.

This was also the day of the "No Kings" protest, so Wanda went with Adrienne, Roger, Adrienne, Mary Francis, Wanda and I went to Van Nuys and Laurel Canyon in Studio City, where there were thousands of peaceful protesters. Goldie went to the heart of LA.

Everyone stayed on the sidewalk and the mood was upbeat and we had fun chanting, "This is what democracy looks like!"

Ted said that's Cher's house on the hill

That evening, we followed the path from the "Outpost" to the ocean and to a restaurant known for great seafood. Roger and I met our niece Adrienne and her husband, Goldie, and their daughter, Mary Francis, and good friend of the Gruben family, Ted, along with my friend, Wanda. Adrienne and fam live in North Hollywood. Goldie said that the so-called "violence" in LA was isolated to one small hotspot and it wasn't even protesters. But of course the news said LA was "out of control." We were all there and this was not our experience. Also, the protest was over and cleared out by 5pm and the "violence" happened after that.

We were leary of staying at this place, because the Pacific Coast Highway was closed because of the recent fires in the Palisades that burned all the way to the sea. But it opened less than a week before we checked in. It would have meant that we would drive for nearly 2 hours to get to Adrienne's normally less than a half hour from the park.

Here are some photos of the fire damage. Was very sobering to say the least. Multimillion-dollar homes reduced to charred posts and burned out cars. Some had zeros painted on them to show there were no bodies found within. Seeing it in person is shocking and so very sad.

This car was in the garage, which is no more

This was a huge house not all that long ago reduced to ruins

The burned out cars bring home the fact that ere were humans here once

The rubber burned right off the rims, It was frickin' hot

Melted and twisted house frames couldn't survive the firestorm

You can see the zero to the far left on the car, meaning no bodies found
There was once a huge building here

Barely even a frame left of this house
There was as much ash as beach sand in this part of the PCH

You can see why it took a while to open the highway. All this devastation was hard to look at. I took. more pictures. I was in disbelief and just kept shooting. We drove through this area a few times and I never got used to it.

Wanda had to head home, so we hugeed goodbye until next time. 

So to cheer up, we went to Venice Beach. And it did cheer us up. How could it not. I hadn't been in at least 30 years and it hasn't changed one bit.

For some reason, this interface is deleting the photos when I try to caption them, so the above will have to speak for themselves.

Wow, what a crazy couple of days. LA is something else, that's for sure. I do not miss living here, but love to visit.

Love Roger's hats, this is a good one-->

Malibu was our last family/friend visit.

Sad to say goodbye. but tomorrow morning, we are off to Needles and making our way East to Virginia. 

Since we were able to charge at the park, there was no data for charging stops most of our time in California.