Dad finished the camper in the middle of the summer. It was awesome! There was a bed above the cab of the truck. A second bed rested on this during the day, and at night it slid out to rest on brackets, filling the whole top of the camper with two double beds. Below that dad had built couch seats against both walls. During the day a table sat between the seats. At night the table was lowered, turning the couches into another double bed. Mom had made vinyl seat cushions for the couches and the beds, and they were amazingly soft and comfortable. Six of us could sleep comfortably on the beds, but since there were eight in our family one of the boys usually slept on the seat in the cab, and Sharon was so little she had room to snuggle next to mom and dad on their bed or sleep on the floor between the refrigerator, sink and stove. Our camper was crowded, but cozy.
The first of August we took off on a two week trip to test the camper out. Dad had planned for us to leave early on Monday morning, but it was late afternoon before everyone was ready and the camper packed. We were going to go to California, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, and the first leg of our journey was to San Diego. It was after dark before we got to the State Park in San Diego where we were going to spend the first night. That was disappointing because we were all so excited to see the ocean.
Dad pulled into our camping spot about 10:00. He and mom made out the beds while we kids used the park restroom and changed into our pj's, then we spent our first night in the camper. Linda and I slept on the bed above the cab. We were in a space that was only about two feet high, and it was kind of claustrophobic, but I chose to sleep next to the long window in front, plus there were small windows on each side, and that helped. Dad had put metal bars in front of the windows to keep us from smashing through the glass in case of an accident, but he showed us how to pull the bars out if we needed to.
Next morning we woke up early and excited. As soon as I was dressed I opened the back door of the camper and hurried out to see the ocean, but it wasn't there. The state park we were camped in was actually on top of a bluff, and the only way to get down to the beach was by climbing down a long flight of metal stairs that meandered along the face of the cliff. I found the stairs but was too scared to go by myself, so I ran back to the camper and talked Linda into coming with me.
It was still early in the morning. There was a mist, almost fog, hugging the beach, and it was cool and salty. How exciting for dessert rats like us! We carefully climbed down the stairs and found the beach, which was wet from the outgoing tide. It was beautiful!
We didn't stay in San Diego too long that morning. The plan was to drive on up the coast to Los Angeles that day, stopping at a beach along the way when it was warmer so we could go swimming. Mom made breakfast while we explored the state park, then we ate and packed up. While mom and dad finished storing the lawn chairs and other equipment Linda and I walked over to a little convenience store to buy postcards. They also sold candy and chips, and I discovered they had a brand new kind of snack I had seen advertised on television. Fun-yuns! I bought a small package to share with Linda, and we ate them as we walked back to the camper. I'll never forget how exotic I felt, walking through a California mist, eating a brand new kind of snack, and hearing the ocean crashing against the shore far below us. It was so cool!
We were off, driving up the coast by 8:00 that morning. By 9:00 the sun was shining warm and dad began looking for a good place for us to go swimming. At each public beach he would tell us to look out the windows as he drove through the parking lot to see if this was a good place. Each time we watched excitedly, but told him it wasn't a good beach, so dad drove out and on down the highway. After about an hour of that dad finally got frustrated and asked what was wrong with each of the beaches we had already passed. He was pretty cross when we explained that we were looking for a beach without any people. Dad drove in and parked at the next beach without even asking for our opinion.
We spent the rest of the morning swimming and playing at that beach, eating sandy sandwiches and chips at lunch on a blanket mom spread out on the sand. Keith went body surfing, but the rest of us mostly just jumped over waves and splashed around, not venturing too far out into the surf. Sharon and Julie were too little to really get in the ocean much, the waves pushed them down and tumbled them around and it wasn't much fun, but they enjoyed digging and letting Phillip cover them with sand. We had a good afternoon, and it was hard to get us to leave, but we finally packed up our blanket and cool chest, washed off and changed in the public bathroom, then climbed back into the camper to drive on up to Los Angeles, where we would spend the night at Aunt Eloise's house.
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