Wrights Beach (12)

I mean. Come on. This is just the best thing in the whole wide world. I could happily camp at Wrights Beach every weekend, I think. It’s our twelfth time, and that is only because it’s so damn hard to reserve. It would be more otherwise. An airstream pulled into the site next to us and noted that our site was better than theirs (it was). We all laughed and they followed with, “But this does not suck,” as they strolled out to the beach from their door. Life simply does not get better than this.

We had to launch Dory from Randy’s this week. She went in for a physical and he is super slammed with work. He got her ready for us for the weekend, but wants to keep digging deeper into the electrical issues we had over the summer, so we have to drop her again on Sunday. Friday we were discombobulated leaving the house without a trailer, but I’d say we did pretty well in terms of not forgetting anything. We normally pack Dory in the garage on Thursday night. There really isn’t much besides food to pack though, because she comes fully stocked with everything we need. We had to put all of the refrigerator items in shopping bags and put them away when we got to her, but I suppose that’s how everyone does camping when your rig stays in a storage facility. It wasn’t too bad really, and we still arrived at the site by six thirty, even with a bit of a wait due to a huge construction project on 1.

All of the transferring of things and remote packing actually got me thinking about Lola the backup Alto. She’s always there for us in case of emergencies, but how much would it actually take to get her stocked with the bare essentials? We spent a lot of time this weekend pondering how we could make Lola more ready-at-a-moment’s-notice without being crazy (…more crazy) about it. Like obviously, we wouldn’t store any kind of food in there, nor would we want entire duplicate sets of clothing, but there are lots of things that make camping comfortable that could easily be stowed and ready for departure, which would therefore mean we would not have to pack or think about them. Like dishes, or paper towels, that kind of thing. So that gave my organizational brain something to pick at all weekend long. That sort of task is basically the exact thing my prefrontal cortex enjoys the most. And once I get started down an organizational rabbit hole, it is nearly impossible to interrupt the process, unless you shut me down with wine.

Happily, I am able to make lists in my head and hike at the same time. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday and we went out on the Kortum Trail to Shell Beach and back. That is a spectacular trail, hugging the coastal cliffs the whole way. Shell Beach is a big drop down, so you know you’re going to face a lot of wooden steps to get back up. We enjoyed a bit of lunch down on the beach, which had all but disappeared with the high tide. Then, we turned around and walked back. It was a little under five miles for the out and back, which added an extra allowance of calories for the day. I knew in advance that I would want to spend those on our “place,” La Bodeguita. I had a couple of grilled chicken tacos with rice and beans and it was heaven. On Friday I cooked up a Blue Apron lettuce cup dinner, which was also lovely. I learned that if I serve all of the components of a lettuce cup in separate containers, rather than try to assemble all of the ingredients into a catastrophe of prefilled cups myself, it goes way better. I had removed all lettuce cup recipes from our recipe collection, but now they are cleared to return.

Someone has done a ton of maintenance work in the campground. All of the trees and bushes have gotten cut way back. Some of the sites that used to have a vegetation screen between them, do not anymore. They have repaved all of the campground roads and resurfaced the campsites themselves. Most of them were covered in at least a half inch of sand, with some appearing to be made of sand. Now there is a solid surface for all of them. They also improved the water runoff channels. We’ve been here when there are actual small rivers running through the sites out to the ocean. They seem to be in the middle of improving the sewer system at the bathroom as well, and we had hoped that maybe that meant they were going to put in a dump. Not so sure about that. But the day use parking area sure looks better without the all of the deep ruts and bumps. All in all, it’s looking really nice. If only they would fix the major damage to the entrance road over the culvert where the pavement is falling down into the ditch. But that might mean closing the campground again, so probably it’s fine the way it is.

We hated packing up and leaving on Sunday. But I am consoled by the fact that we have a few more upcoming reservations, so it will be ok. Staring at the cresting waves, listening to the steady crash, gazing at the setting sun, all from Dory’s front porch, or through the big glorious windows, this is the best. And this is also exactly why we have a backup Alto. I mean, what if Dory could not have gone out and we had premium site reservations?? That is not a scenario either of us is willing to accept. And don’t even suggest we could tent it. I mean. Come ON.

Total miles (from Randy’s): 80.5, 15.5 mpg, 2 hours 30 min. Site 3, premium. No hookups. Water spigot near site. Service if you go out on the beach or walk up the the staging area up top. No service from site. No dump. Bodega Dunes dump closed again. Dumped at Bodega RV for $20. Worth it. Tons of major construction on 1 between Bodega Dunes and Wrights Beach.