Moss Landing (5)

Hooray!! The Stay at Home order has finally been lifted! This is not to say any state in the country has this COVID thing licked, by any means, but it does mean campgrounds are open with restrictions in place, so yeah, we’re gonna head out and it doesn’t matter where. The state park reservation system didn’t seem to have updated to allow for reservations quite yet, so I just started going through our favorite private places. Boom! The KOA at Moss Landing had space, so this was really the first “normal” weekend we’ve had with Lola. Like not in someone’s driveway or in our garage.

As long as things don’t shut down again, we are hoping to keep all our weekend reservations going forward. And that’s a really good thing for towing nerves. Given it had been about a month since the last outing, I was uneasy again just getting back into it. All was going well on the trafficky drive south until the car right next to us had a very near miss. It was like exactly the same situation as Dory’s crash: off ramp backup, someone going too fast to stop in time. The difference was that I was in the lane to the left, and a little behind. So we watched the car slam on the brakes, like squealing, smoking rubber. Then they swerved right in front of us at the last second to avoid slamming into the stopped car. They did a full swing all the way through our lane and then spun back to the right. They were damn lucky that lane had cleared enough by then or it would have been a really bad collision. So here’s me, just slowing, not braking hard cause I didn’t want the person behind me to do a rear end repeat, and I put on the hazards. I watched it all unfold in front of us and we were never in danger of actually being hit. But Damn, Universe. Could you maybe not do that??! Both of us started quasi hyperventilating after we’d passed it by, and my hand started immediately trembling. Like full PTSD there. I mean, all was ok and we just carried on our merry way, but I wasn’t at ease until we came to a full backed in stop in our site. #margaritatime

Overall, it was just a normal weekend out, but boy oh boy did it feel great. There were a lot of empty sites in the KOA and everyone was masking and distanced, so it felt fully safe. Richard did a bike ride, I got in a paddle on the Elkhorn Slough and cooked a Blue Apron on Saturday. It just feels extra specially wonderful following so much anticipation and prep.

And speaking of anticipation. WOW!! We got a big, beautiful, made me choke up, surprise on Friday. Dory2 is complete, y’all!!! And not only that, but our wonderful sales rep, my new Canadian boyfriend (this might be news to him), Francois, got the build team to pose for a picture, complete with a little Dory stuffy right in the middle. How cool is that, seriously?! It is taking a lot of self control to not start driving east. But, two things: 1) the borders are still closed and me crazily trying to explain why my attempt to enter the country really counts as ‘essential’ might get me arrested, and 2) I remind myself that it is winter in Quebec and I definitely do not want to drive in that. So, patience it is, until we can get her shipped to Durango, CO, hopefully this summer. I’m SUPER glad we have Lola in the meantime.

Here I was, telling myself I would maintain a safe, emotional detachment from Dory2. Well, there goes that idea. I’m looking at her picture waving “Hi baby!! Mama will see you real soon!” Oh well, looks like the new puppy will be well loved too.

Total miles: 106.3, 17.6 mpg, 2 hours 36 min. KOA – full hookups. All communal facilities closed for COVID. Safe checkin with no indoors/contact. Management recommends locking bikes or keeping them inside vehicles. We’re happy Bruce2 fits a bike so easily.