Exploring Southern California: January 2022 Adventures and Highlights

I have always loved January.

When our kids were small and December was a blur of school performances, holiday parties, teacher gifts and family gatherings, January used to feel like a reset. We called the day after Christmas “pajama day” and used it to relax, play with new toys and take naps. These days the holiday season is more manageable, but I still appreciate January for two reasons:

1. It kicks off a new year of travel.
2. It lets us escape winter.

As a Colorado native I used to embrace winter, but now that we can head south, escaping it is a pleasure. While a Colorado snowstorm brought sub-zero temperatures back home this week, I wrote this from sunny San Diego—and I wasn’t mad about it.

RV Life Perk: Escaping Winter in SoCal

Desert Hot Springs, CA

We first visited Desert Hot Springs in July 2015 on our first long motorcycle trip from Colorado to Southern California and up the coast to San Francisco. A couple who run a hot springs spa just outside Palm Springs—Jeff and Judy Bowman—invited us to stay and we fell in love with the area. We’ve returned many times since.

These days we travel with our whole house instead of just light motorcycle gear. We left Colorado on January 7th with snow and ice underfoot (riding a motorcycle through icy roads and loading it into an RV ramp is not recommended). Fortunately, Desert Hot Springs was sunny and warm.

Highlights from our two weeks in Desert Hot Springs

• Harvest Hosts shoutout. Harvest Hosts connects RVers with wineries, farms, breweries and other businesses that welcome overnight parking. On our way to California we stayed at Starr Brothers Brewing in Albuquerque—great food, beer and plenty of space to park.
• Cooking with Judy. Judy is an amazing cook and taught me how to make fresh pasta. While we were there we developed a ravioli recipe I plan to share later this year, enjoyed loaves of her sourdough and made a fantastic batch of cioppino together.
• Dirt bike riding with Jeff. Jeff rides dual sport bikes and took Steve out on a long desert ride. Steve and the bike took a tumble in the sand but he came away with only minor soreness.
• Dinner at Copley’s. We had a lovely night out with friends at Copley’s on Palm Canyon, set in Cary Grant’s former guesthouse with a beautiful patio and excellent food.
• Recipes developed during the trip: Crispy Corn Tortilla Quesadillas, Ravioli Stuffed with Mushrooms and Swiss Chard, a Cream of Broccoli Soup with Vegan Cheese Sauce (coming soon), Chocolate Brownie Loaf Cake, and extra thick gooey Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies.

San Diego, CA

We love San Diego. Last year two weeks here felt too short, so this year we booked six. We’re staying at the San Diego KOA, which we like for several reasons:

• Close to downtown and beaches. We’re about ten minutes from downtown San Diego, Coronado Beach and Sunset Cliffs, so we can ride the motorcycle to a beach at sunset even on workdays.
• Well maintained KOA. The park is clean, well staffed and accommodating.
• Vacation energy. We enjoy parks where everyone feels like they’re on vacation—there’s a fun, relaxed atmosphere.
• Quiet weekdays, lively weekends. Weekdays are calm and great for work; weekends bring activity, campfires and friendly crowds.

Recently we rode to Ocean Beach to watch surfers and eat sushi. In a few weeks we’ll ride up the coast toward San Francisco and take the Catalina ferry from Newport Beach for a quick getaway. Our daughters will visit at the end of February, which we can’t wait for.

RV Life: 3 Storage Solutions that Help Us Get the Most Out of Our Tiny Kitchen

I wrote a piece for Rootless Living Magazine about cooking and baking in a tiny kitchen. Preparing that article helped me gather a handful of practical strategies for maximizing space—tricks many RVers use and share online.

Maximizing space is what RV life is all about. Here are five ways we make the most of our small kitchen:

1. Use the space under cabinets

We didn’t want to give up mugs or wine glasses, so we hung mugs from hooks beneath upper cabinets and installed a custom wine rack my brother built. It holds eight bottles and six glasses in felt-lined compartments that protect them while traveling. We’ve broken a few wine glasses since living in the RV, but none while on the road.

2. Flat spice rack on a cabinet door

When we moved in we kept spices in a basket on the floor. My brother built a flat spice rack mounted on the outside of a cabinet next to the oven so spices are easy to find and within reach.

3. Magnetized knife strip

A magnetic knife strip above the stove frees counter space and gives quick access to the knife we need without a bulky knife block.

4. Couch and ottoman with storage

We replaced the standard RV couch with a Home Reserve sofa and ottoman that include storage under the cushions. The sofa stores sparkling water, mixers, vacuum attachments, baking dishes and small appliances. Our ottoman holds baking supplies—it’s surprising how much fits and how handy it is.

5. Convenient flatware storage for entertaining

We entertain more than expected and don’t have room for large sets of dishes. For groups larger than six we use paper plates, but we dislike disposable plastic flatware. So we keep flatware for 36 in a wicker container on the countertop. It saves drawer space, makes it easy for guests to self-serve and is simple to move outside when we eat alfresco.

The Tools of Our Lives: What a Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Me Into

by Steve Blackwell

One indispensable—and slightly gross—tool for dry camping is a macerator. For those who boondock, a macerator lets you pump waste out through a garden hose into a portable tank so you don’t have to move the whole RV to a dump station.

Our rig has five waste tanks—three larger tanks up front for the main bathroom and kitchen, and two smaller tanks in the back for a tiny second bathroom. On sewer hook-up sites we connect directly, but when dry camping the macerator is invaluable. It grinds waste so it can be pumped into a 40-gallon portable tank we keep in our truck bed. Then we drive the truck to the dump station instead of maneuvering our 43-foot fifth wheel.

The macerator also helped when we hosted a large Thanksgiving crowd and found a massive clog in one of our lines. After several failed attempts to clear it, the macerator sucked the clog right out.

We did have an early sewer mishap when we were brand new to RV life: the first night in our RV we discovered valves left open and a missing cap, which resulted in waste spilling onto the ground. It was messy and humbling and required a hardware-store run for a bucket and gloves. Hopefully that was our only major sewer horror, but RV life teaches you to expect the unexpected.

What We’re Reading and Listening To

Books

I read three books in January that I recommend:

• The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last Chance Journey Across America
• Crying in H Mart: A Memoir
• 100 Years of Lenni and Margo

The Ride of Her Life follows Annie Wilkins’ 1954 journey riding a horse from Maine to California and blends personal story with historical detail. Crying in H Mart explores Michelle Zauner’s relationship with her Korean-born mother and stirred my interest in Korean food. I’m still reading 100 Years of Lenni and Margo and am already invested in the characters’ lives and relationships.

Audiobooks and Podcasts

Steve has been listening to Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, a technically detailed sci-fi novel about the moon’s sudden destruction and humanity’s response. If you enjoy technical accuracy and engineering-driven plots, it’s a good fit.

I recently finished 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, which resonated with me about choosing how to spend limited time on what matters most. That led me to the podcast “We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle.” An episode with Kate Bowler titled “What to Do With Our Short, Precious Lives” influenced my thinking: we can’t do everything, but some things are possible. Choosing which “some things” to pursue makes the limited time we have meaningful.

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